I feel that during my time spent at Firestone I learned invaluable lessons about the realities of teaching language arts in a high school. I saw good and bad teaching practices; I saw how students responded to their teacher’s actions; most importantly I saw how much of an impact the teacher has on the class. I saw how each classroom is like a blank slate, and it is the teacher who makes the difference not the students, after going to Firestone I promised that I would always hold myself accountable for how my classes turned out (unlike some of the teachers I saw, who constantly complained about their students and blamed the students for not learning). I’m not going to lie; I saw absolutely no multi-modality in Firestone, except for movies being shown in classes, and the fact that parents could check their child’s progress online. I think the best way that one could use multi-modality to prepare students for a test is to use an online service like vista, which allows for students in class to login into a site and discuss with other classmates, digitally turn in assignments, and take tests. But what I am suggesting is that on a class site like I described there be practice tests that are representative of how questions will be presented. This would allow for students to practice at home, and all students want to get good grades on test, but not all students want to study, so if you told the student they had a chance to take a practice test I believe they would be much more motivated to take the practice test than to prepare for the test the traditional way. Making practice tests that students can take over the internet at any time would be an effective way of using multi-modality to help students effectively prepare for a test.
I say that I learned invaluable lessons at Firestone because what I experienced will definitely have a huge influence on how I teach once I get in front of a class. I was able to connect with my student very well because I had the time to listen to him and understand his situation. When I get a class I will make sure each of my students knows that I know them well, and that I have his or her best interest in mind. I saw how I had to walk a line between coach and peer, although I shared experiences with him in conversational manner, like one would with a peer, I believe that this allowed for him to see that I knew what it was like to be a teenage boy. But I also got tough with him when he didn’t want to do work and showed him that I would make sure he was giving his best effort, I think this made me coach like figure to him, and after reflecting on that for a while, I decided that’s how I want my students to see me, like a life coach. I feel that I did a good job of teaching my student test taking skills like using the test question to figure out the correct answer using context clues. Lastly, I saw that modeling my own thought process for answering an OGT test question was helpful for my student when he went to answer a question. I know that not all of these tutoring skills will translate to being in charge of a class, where one has to evenly disperse their attention and efforts, but the experience of being responsible for a student’s academic success is an endeavor that I would love to take on again.
On one hand it is important that the state governments can prove that their schools are producing capable students, but this creates issues in the schools. Principles and super intendents get recognized as ‘exceptional’ when their schools have a high percentage of students passing the OGT regularly, so since the boss of the building gets a pay increase and recognition when students pass the OGT, they have their teachers focus on OGT. The problem lies in that not all OGT test prep allows for a well flowing class that goes over many different aspects of literature and writing. Teacher must teach novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, and students learn good lessons that are society values, however, all the time spent doing To Kill a Mockingbird, won’t aid the student when they are taking the reading portion of the OGT. I do believe that teaching writing for a class directly helps students while taking the OGT, so while a language arts teacher is teaching composition for an essay on To Kill a Mockingbird they are preparing that student for the writing portion of the OGT. In my opinion, after a teacher has had a student for a whole year they should have taught that student everything they need to know for the OGT, whether or not that student retains everything isn’t completely dependent on the work of the teacher, it’s a two way street.
The biggest issues I observed at Firestone was that some of the teachers were completely worn out and it lead to them leading repetitive classes where the students were completely disengaged. One of the language arts teachers I observed did the same thing every day for three weeks while she ‘taught’ The Crucible (a play that none of the students related to, the class seemed like a waste of time to everybody involved). She had the students read the play in class, and that was all; no discussions, no talk about the deeper meaning and issues and how they could relate to the students lives, no writing activities to help them prepare for the OGT, no group work, nothing. All the while I’m thinking she is probably getting paid more than a good new teacher because she has been around for so long, and how there are so many young college graduates in Ohio that are eager to get into the classrooms and go above and beyond at a chance to teach, but Firestone keeps the terrible teacher around because of tenure and teacher’s unions. I think that the Ohio department of education could help students study for the OGT in a multi-modal manner if they were to have on their website a place where students could take practice tests and see least years test and from taking these practice tests the student will begin to see what the people at the OGT are looking for and how they ask questions. They might already y have something lie this at their website, but nevertheless, this is the best way I can think of to use multi-modality to help students have ready access to test preparation for standardized test.
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