Since graduation, I have been in a blogging slump. I have still been reading others’ blogs but have been struggling to make my own posts. I am in the process of packing up my life and transitioning back home for the summer (just the summer!!). I will be hunting for apartments when I am all settled in two weeks. I recently had a meeting with my building principal for next year to discuss Professional Development this summer. During the first week in June I have one half day of Math PD and another half day of Reading PD. The Math series is Everyday Math, which was not used in the district in which I student taught. I am anxious to learn more about the curriculum and start thinking about how I will teach it to my kiddos!! This district does use pacing guides and it is my understanding that the expectation is that you stick to it with little deviation from it. I don’t feel totally uncomfortable with this since it is my first year and I probably won’t have the time I would like to devote to “out of the box” teaching, but hopefully more experience will bring more opportunities for broadening my horizons.
There was something that my principal brought to my attention that I am not exactly sure how I feel about it. She wants me to consider a possible change to my position- working part-time in the 2nd grade classroom and spending the other half of the day being trained for Reading Recovery. I don’t feel comfortable with this because I don’t like the idea of being a part-time teacher, nor do I want to go back into the world of observations, homework, and tests just yet. She said that it will be my decision but she wants me to keep it in the back of my mind. I am pretty confident my mind is made up already, but I would love to hear some different perspectives from my bloggy friends out there!! Thanks!
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I think your intuition in feeling uncomfortable about that is right...in this economy, I would not want to take a part time position...not after being offered full time! Ever since my first year of teaching, I have been participating in one program after another while teaching full time, so there is definitely time for training in addition to a full time schedule if need be. Also, it seems really odd to me that training would take a whole year?? Stick with the full time job (but I would also appear "interested" in the prospect of this training even if you're not just to be a team player). Maybe you can discuss some other training options...
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't want to take a part-time either. Go with your gut on this one!
ReplyDeleteWe use Everyday Math and while some of the algorithms are a bit weird if you aren't used to them, I really do like the program. You can get a lot of information about the program online too (just google it). It's helpful to be able to really look at some of your curriculum scope over the summer, especially for math, so you at least have an idea of where your kiddos will be starting out.
First, I love EDM...I've been using it since 2002. I used it as-is for the first few years and then was able to step out of the comfort zone and add to it. The kids gravitate towards the games and algorithms which really do make learning easier and more fun!
ReplyDeleteAs for the part-time, go for the full-time in the classroom...you'll miss your kiddos every minute that you're away. It'll be hard to come back the next day and not know exactly what they were feeling and thinking during the afternoon prior. Been there. Done that. Was happy to return to the classroom!
Enjoy! :-)