My Journey through Teaching

Moving In

2011-08-04T21:47:00.000-05:00

The day I've anxiously awaiting and dreading at the same time...Move in! We are moving into our brand new building and there is no shortage of work to be done. Of course, there is always a big fat wrench that throws itself into the mix. We do not yet have our occupancy permit so we can only have a handful of teachers in the building at a time. So with all of her creativity, the principal devised a plan to get each grade level ONE day in our rooms unitl we get the permit. We have institute days on the 18th and 19th and school starts on the 22nd. So....we need to get in there!! Not to mention that I am doing home visits with my students and their families so that eats up another portion of my time (well worth it, though!).

So, to maximize my time in the room tomorrow, I plan to focus on simply unpacking all of the boxes stacked in the middle of my room. I am one who tends to get overwhelmed very easily as I try to take on a million and one different tasks at the same time, which never get completed to the level of perfection I desperately desire! I'm not sure if I'll get all of them unpacked, but I will be grinding every minute until the secretaries and custodians tell me it's time to hit the road!

Home Visits

2011-07-28T18:54:00.000-05:00

Although I am still milking summer vacation for all it is worth, I am super pumped about the start of the school year!! I never in a million years thought I would be teaching kindergarten, but I am so happy that the opportunity presented itself to me. Before the start of the school year, I am planning to do Home Visits for my 23 kiddos and their families. I think that it will be a powerful way to start the year-meeting families on their 'turf' and fostering a connection with them before the year even start. I also believe it will establish a little comfort with my kinder friends to know their teacher before the Big Day. This is something that no one in my building has done before and my other kindergarten team members are not on board but I have 120% support from my principal, so it looks like it is a go. Our school literacy coach has agreed to go with me on the visits...YAY!!!

I would love for you to share any experiences/tips you have in regards to Home Visits!

Nurtured Heart-Discipline Plan

2011-07-28T09:42:00.000-05:00

I ended my last post with thoughts and questions about The Nurtured Heart Approach:

The question I will ponder and post on next is: If my focus is on building up greatness in each child, and refusing to feed into negativity in my classroom, is there really need for a conventional behavior management system with the standard laundry list of warnings and consequences, or is that totally counter-productive to the approach??

After attending the 3 day Nurtured Heart workshop, I understand that my wonderings were somewhat founded. It is not possible to have a behavior management system that uses warnings and reminders, because it sends the message to students that the rules are not always the rules. Children know what is expected, so why waste your time with warnings when you can quickly consequence the behavior with a quick timeout (no longer than 60 seconds) and welcome the child back, eagerly looking for success to highlight with that same student when they return.

With teaching kindergarten this year, I do feel like those little kiddos do need a little extrinsic motivation so I have tweaked my discipline plan:

Level 1: Reset (quick, clean time out)
Level 2: Buddy Room (students who refuse to reset or have substantial resets during the morning, afternoon will be sent to a Buddy Room. In this room, the teacher will give no energy to this student. They will be in this room for no more than 15 minutes.
Level 3: Loss of recess (this is not a time for lectures/discussions about why the student has lost recess-they already know so there is no reason to pour negative attention into the situation)
Level 4: Referral to A.P/Principal (this is a level for severe actions like fighting, bullying, theft, etc.)

Rewards/Incentive Systems:
Our school is a PBIS school and we use "Gotcha" tickets when we see students making positive choices. In my room, I will use these "Gotchas" as a credit system to honor students showing their greatness. When students are showing leadership, being a good friend, persevering through a tough task, participating, being thoughtful, they can earn a Gotcha. Every two weeks or so, we will have a "Gotcha Store" where students can purchase things like: eating lunch with the teacher, sitting with a friend, note/phone call home, special messenger for the day, etc.

The tenets of The Nurtured Heart Approach are: Highlighting the positives and the greatness of each student, avoiding the leaking of negativity, and being strict and consistent (the rules are the rules every day for everyone). This approach is not to manage behavior, but rather to turn right-side up the culture in the classroom in to one that highlights and promotes the greatness that we all possess. I cannot wait to see the impact of this approach in my classroom this year!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Nurtured Heart Approach

2011-06-19T09:03:00.000-05:00

I was up into the wee hours of the morning (2:30am) reading what I feel has totally shifted my philosophy on 'behavior management'- Notching Up The Nurtured Heart Approach: The New Inner Wealth Initiative for Educators by Howard Glasser. Our district offers workshops on the Nutured Heart Approach. I used the approach in my classroom this past year, but now realize that I barely scratched the surface! This approach is one that seeks not to change or improve behavior, but rather to meet each student's needs by building up their inner strength to deal with the various situations that impact their life. This is not an approach just for the difficult child, but it is instead a whole-child, whole-class approach.

Glasser says in his book that this approach "is about giving child an unshakeable sense of self-worth with which they can navigate the complex territory of modern life. They will learn to use their intensity to propel success rather than to break rules and create chaos.

Based on the book, there are three 'Stands' that teachers should take in their approach with children in order to build up their 'greatness'

1. Stand 1: Refuse to energize negativity (ABSOLUTELY NO!!)
2. Stand 2: Relentlessly energize success (ABSOLUTELY YES!!)
3. Stand 3: Clearly but un-energetically enforce limits

My mind is so filled with emotion and ideas about how to truly 'notch up' my approach to energizing success through clearly enforcing limits without giving any energy to broken rules or poor choices. I will be posting over the next few days about kinks I plan to work out hopefully leading to a transformation in my use of this approach.

The question I will ponder and post on next is: If my focus is on building up greatness in each child, and refusing to feed into negativity in my classroom, is there really need for a conventional behavior management system with the standard laundry list of warnings and consequences, or is that totally counter-productive to the approach??

Have a wonderful Sunday and happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!!

The Daily Five-Revisited

2011-06-12T23:20:00.000-05:00

In our school district, we are all required to work on a Professional Learning Plan each year, to foster our own growth as educators. My focus for this past year and the upcoming year is on creating a culture of literacy and learning in my classroom. I have been using the Daily Five framework in my classroom to create an environment in which students enjoy reading, are engaged in reading and acquire developmentally appropriate literacy skills they need to be readers and writers.

I spent today rereading the Daily Five and taking notes again on what I read. After having 1 year under my belt of implementing the Daily Five, I think I was able to see the framework through a different set of lenses. Below are the quotes that stood out to me this second tiem around. I fill these quotes really speak towards my focus for professional growth this upcoming school year.

 Creating culture of literacy and learning
o “The typical teacher has children doing a lot of “stuff”. How is what I’m having children do creating readers and writers?” – Regie Routman

o “It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants, the question is: What are we busy about?” – Henry David Throeau

o Quotes by The Sisters from The Daily Five
o “But did those things just keep our kids busy, or were they engaged in literacy tasks that will make a difference in their literate lives?”

o “We spent too much time managing their behavior, planning activities, and putting out fires instead of teaching.”

o “We were frustrated with our inability to engage students in independent meaningful reading practice”

o “The Daily Five is a student-driven management structure designed to fully engage students in reading and writing”

o “The Daily Five is a structure that envelops all of the components of comprehensive literacy and provides us with a plan to manage each piece in a user friendly way.”

o PURPOSE + CHOICE = MOTIVATION

o “If we are instructing so much that students don’t get a chance to read, or if we are counting working in a workbook as reading time, then we’re not giving them enough time to become better readers and writers”

o “We realized they had anchored their behavior to our reactions. We had unwittingly taught them to rely on our reinforcement to keep them on task.

Achievement Conundrum

2011-06-07T21:38:00.000-05:00

Today I attended the first part of a Data Analysis workshop I signed up to attend. A team of teachers and our AP are attending this workshop with a focus on analyzing this year's premliminary results from our state standardized test in order to guide strategic future steps for our building. Our school is a low SES school with a history of high teacher turnover-which has proved to be an underlying cause of our students' consistent underperformance in reading. As with any school, there are always mitigating factors, but what we are charged to do is to collaboratively with strategic focus provide our students with instruction that appreciates all of these mitigating factors, meets students where they are, accerlates all students (especially those below grade level), and provides each student with an enriching educational experience that prepares them for excellence throughout life.

So, I'm pretty sure there are thousands of schools all over the nation facing this same conundrum. The question that still lingers for me is what does it take to really propel students? What is the magic potion? Why is it that even with the most brilliant minds working together, this is still a conversation? I know that students are diverse and thus have diverse needs, but I have to wonder if we spend so much time running around in circles that we are totally missing it??

These are my musings, but I am curious to hear your thoughts. Why is students achievement still the 'million dollar question'? What mitigating factors has your school overcome to achieve student success?

~Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!~

Time to Adjust

2011-06-05T22:01:00.000-05:00

So I have officially been on summer vacation since Friday (after packing up my room all day Thursday preparing for our move to our new school). I must say that as anxious as I was for vacation, the last three days have been quite awkward for me, not having to prepare any lesson plans, grade any papers, etc. I spent Saturday out and about and thought repeated throughout the day "I need to buckle down this evening and get some work done". It will def take some time to make the much needed mental shift!

At the top of my To-Do list is de-clutter and organizing my apartment....at task with which I have been very successful over the last few days!! I'm not sure how many of you out there have a similar experience, but during the school year, I feel like things just pile up on me. I get so many papers, magazines, trinkets for the classroom, etc and I don't seem to ever have enough time to put them in a proper place. Well, as I de-clutter my apartment, I am finding a greater since of peace within myself. As cliche as it may sound, I truly do feel more relaxed. I have one room down and about 3 more to go.

As tough as it has been these last 3 days to adjust to not being tied to school, I am dedicated to spending this summer learning how to sit back, relax and enjoy every moment before me.

End of Year Crunch Time

2011-05-29T10:10:00.000-05:00

Well we are T-1 day and 1 hour from the end of the school year. I am so ready to wrap up this year, but the reality of saying good-bye to my kiddos and half of our building staff (the bilingual program is moving to another school) is starting to set in. Unfortuntately the whirlwind of all of the end-of-the year tasks is consuming my life right now. We are moving into our brand new school in August, so we are packing EVERYTHING in our rooms for the big move. In addition to packing up everything except for the walls, I have been inventorying books and supplies like crazy, since half of my materials will be moving with the bilingual program. I had no clue about all of this craziness at the end of the year, not to mention report cards, cum files, etc. I am taking things step by step and trying to breathe along the way.

How are you managing your end of the year responsibilities?

April Hustle and Bustle

2011-04-16T09:54:00.000-05:00

Today is my 100th post!!! I definitely don't post as much as I would like but it feels good to meet this milestone in blogging!!!

One of the reasons why I just cannot seem to find time to post is that my school is in a huge transition period that requires TONS of time outside of school. We will be a STEM school next year and we are doing curriculum writing to integate our current district curriculum with our STEM focus. This past week, we found out that we were getting $2,000 per classroom to buy books for our classroom library. This was FANTSTIC news, but we then found out that the order lists were due at the end of the week. We absolutely scrambled and fumbled around all week to get this completed. It is exctiting to know that I will actually have a well-stocked library b/c I have maybe 5 books in my own collectiont that are appropriate for kindergarten!!

I will be spending all day today getting my plans ready for next week. Tomorrow I will be spending 2 hours (and I promise you not a single minute later!!) planning curriculum with my kindergarten team. I was not happy to spend my Sunday afternoon at school, but I do see the value/need. Monday, our entire school staff will be planning curriculum together from 3:30-8:00!! Then we have a literacy night at the public library on Tuesday. OMG....this month has so much packed into it!!! They are all events/meetings that absolutely need to take place, but jeez it's tough with everything happening so close together!

I hope you all have a restful weekend!!

Round of Applause

2011-03-28T17:45:00.000-05:00

I left school today receiving a round of applause from my colleagues. Almost all teachers I know carry some version of a tote bag to and from school with their work inside. I did this during student teaching but soon realized that my bags didn't last long and my shoulders soon wore tired and strained. Enter the incredible rolling cart I received from my mother as one of my graduation presents!! This thing has saved me from the neck and shoulder pain I had all too often last year. It also gives me the space to carry an insanely large amount of work home.

I roll my beloved cart home from school everyday with way more work than I will ever get done. I do this mostly because I feel better knowing that I lugged it all home than I would if I didn't bring it but then realized that I needed it. Needless to say, my cart has become my accessory at school.

During Spring Break, I made a promise to myself that I would work harder to set better boundaries between work and home. In order to do that, I know that I must use my time more efficiently at school. That is exactly what I did today! At the end of the day, I gathered a small folder of papers to grade and a couple of things on my to-do list.

As I was walking out, I said bye to the group of teachers and my principal chatting in the hallway. Then, my principal says "OMG, where is your tag-along??!!" Immediately after her comment, the hallway burst in to applause and whistles. I smiled and felt so proud of my small yet pivotal feat. I know there will be days in which I need my to bring my beloved cart, but it most certainly won't be everyday!!

Stats

2011-03-24T22:16:00.000-05:00

For the first time, I decided to take a look at my blog statistics. I was elated to see how many pageviews I have had over time and recently. Sometimes I get down on myself for making the time to post more. I also get down when I make a post but I don't get any comments. So, to see that people (all over the world, might I add!!) are stopping by my blog really makes me feel great!! I am going to try to do better at posting more frequently, but thanks to all of those out there who offer your vocal and/or silent support of me and my journey through teaching!

Loving Spring Break

2011-03-24T14:09:00.006-05:00

I am enjoying the last few days left of my Spring Break. For the first time (even including college life) I took a trip during Spring Break. While in college I worked during every single Spring Break (and all of the other breaks for that matter)!! It was incredible to be able to get away and just live. I went with some friends to Memphis for a nice long weekend. We spent time on Beale Street (actually a lot of time), visited the National Civil Rights Museum, had a mini-shopping spree at the mall, and enjoyed some good ol' barbeque and other down-home comfort foods! I definitely wanted to bring some work down with me because I couldn't think of how I would spend so much time without looking at anything from school. But let me tell you, I was sooooo glad I didin't!!! I wasn't Ms. Eagertoteach....I was just a woman enjoying herself on a much needed break! I have truly been loving Spring Break!!

Now, however, I feel the need to transition myself back into the swing of things. I did not submit my lesson plans before break so I need to get prepared for the upcoming week. I have my to-do list all made up...now the task is getting to it.

Is the transition back after Spring Break tough for you? What do you do to ease yourself back into the swing of things??

Looking Ahead...Kinder Awaits!!

2011-03-05T20:12:00.004-06:00

It is official....I will be teaching kindergarten next school year!!! The school at which I am currently teaching is going to be a magnet school next year. As a bilingual teacher, I would be transferred next year to another shcool in the district that will be housing the bilingual program. Since my bilingual certificate if provisional, in 5 more years I would have to go back to school and take 15 hours for my standard certificate. I have loved every minute in bilingual education, but it is not my passion and not where I see myself teaching years down the road.

This opportunity to transition out of bilingual presented itself, but with a caviot...teaching kindergarten! I had sworn for years that I would probably teach just about any grade other than kinder. I was faced with what felt like a true dilemma. However, knowing that I wanted to leave bilingual, I interviewed for the position and was offered the job. On a side note: the interview was one of the most awkward experiences ever...the entire interview team was made up of my colleagues. All of the examples I gave about how I collaborate and other questions regarding instructional practices either directly or indirectly involved every single person on the team!!! I was more nervous about this interview than the one for my current position...I just felt like they would critique me more.

To make a long story a little shorter,I really had to do a lot of thinking on this offer, but I accepted and I am more excited than ever!! I have already made plans for spending tons of time this summer gearing up for the little kiddos I will have next year. I still have some jitters about the entire mental shift that I will have to make in regards to instruction in kinder but I am really looking forward to what lies ahead for next year. My first step to getting to that point is making it through this year!!!

**I would love for you to share your experiences teaching kindergarten and/or any must-have resources/books. I have many blogger friends who are kinder teachers so I will definitely be stalking your blogs for more tips, activities, etc!

Let it snow....and sleet, blow, and freeze!!

2011-02-01T22:16:00.005-06:00

I enjoyed my SNOW DAY today and gearing up for SNOW DAY #2 tomorrow!! Conditions are HORRIBLE in central Illinois so I'm very happy just about the entire region has decided to put safety first.

This makes 4 snow days so far this winter...I know we'll be spending some extra time in school in June. Oh well, at least it'll be about 70 degrees warmer by then!

Press ock!!!!!

2011-01-30T15:24:00.003-06:00

I have been dying to share this incredibly cute/funny story with all of you! Our district uses the Everyday Math curriculum. For those of you not familiar with EDM, the curriculum incorporates tons of Math games to support student learning. I have a SMARTboard in my room so I make sure that whenever I am introducing an new online game, I use the SMARTboard so that all students can watch and participate instead of working with two students at a time to teach it to them on the computer.

So, the class was divided into two groups. We were playing basketball addition and students had to add up the three numbers appearing on the dice and enter in the sum and press 'ok'. So my kiddos were getting acquainted with touching the numbers and hitting 'ok' many of them would enter the number and wait awkwardly for about 3 seconds before the audience will tell him/her what to press next. One of my students with a severe visual impairment was up at the board and could not find the button to push after entering in the number. After a few seconds everyone else was yelling what sounded like "press ock, press ock". Baffled, I looked at my TA trying to see if he knew what they were talking about. Then I looked back at the board and realized my students were looking at 'ok' and sounding it out...which is why what they said sounded like 'ock'!!!!

I smiled form ear to ear and even chuckled outloud. I then explained to the class that what it actually says is 'ok' but they were not buying it. It also did not help my case much that it was not written like 'okay' or 'o.k.', as I feel it should have been.

When I told this to my non-teacher friends, they did not really see what the big deal was. However, seeing as though my bilingual students are going into their first 4 weeks ever of reading instruction in English, I am sooooo PROUD to see my kiddos applying the appropriate letter sounds to what they are reading!!!

If we had known....

2011-01-15T10:44:00.004-06:00

This has been a dilemma with my kiddos for quite a while, but I cannot seem to figure out how to change it. The problem is that my kids get math homework every night and they are to read for at least 2 minutes and fill out their reading log. About 98% of my students do their Math homework every night, but each morning, I have maybe 4 out 15 kids turn in their Reading log. 14 out 15 of my students are a year below grade level in Reading, so I really push for students to read at home. We have had many a conversation about the fact that reading at home is not optional, just the same as Math homework. I have contacted parents, conferenced with the repeat offenders, but nothing seems to do the trick. I know that the students who do not turn in their Reading Log are generally not reading at home.

This week, I decided to use an incentive to entice the other kiddos to do their Reading homework. On Friday, I looked over my homework check-in list and the students who turned in their homework (both Math and Reading) all week got 2 "No Homework" passes to be used any time within the third quarter. I had only ONE student who was eligible to receive the prize. Might I add that the students were outraged b/c "If we knew we would get a homework pass, we would have done our homeowrk"!! The nerve!!!

Are there any other ideas that you have used with your students to motivate them to do their homework??

Wish Granted

2010-12-12T21:51:00.003-06:00

SNOW DAY!!!!! Some of my fellow teachers have expressed how unhappy they are about this but I am elated!! I NEED this day and I would take an extra day in June over a day in December any day!!!!

What are your opinions about snow days??!!

Positive Behavior Facilitation

2010-11-20T18:15:00.006-06:00

I've been gone for way too long!! I honestly have not had the energy to post anything. So many amazing, insane, unbelievable things have happened since my last post. Of course, when I actually sit down to write, all of those events escape my memory!!

A while back, I posted that I was talking a course to be certified in Positive Behavior Facilitation (PBF). This 6-week course was absolutely life changing-for my life both in the classroom and outside of it. The focus of PBF is that we cannot not make anyone change their behaviors, nor can we change it for them. PBF suggests that if we focus on becoming more self-aware about our own beliefs, triggers, and ways of dealing with conflict, we will model and encourage the positive behavior and choices we so desperately want to see in our students.

By looking inward and reflecting on my beliefs, thoughts, and feelings when I interact with others, I was able to realize the contributions I make to situations of conflict. It is so easy to say "Bobby really made me mad!" or "Susie,you are so disrespectful" in the heat of conflict. However, with self-awareness comes the realization that no one can make you mad, but instead something they did triggered something on the inside and made you react that way. PBF would suggest also that in the case of 'Susie', using 'You-messages' (instead of 'I-statements')backs the students against a wall and makes her defensive and more unwilling to resolve the conflict.

The PBF training was incredibly rich and has changed the nature of many of my interactions with my students, especially with my more challenging personalities. By thinking more about what I am bringing to the situation (feelings, beliefs, baggage, etc.) I am better able to set the tone for the interaction rather than reacting to the tone set by the student.

Here is one of the pieces of 'brain food' from PBF that I believe resonates profoundly in my classroom:

-We cannot expect more of our students than we expect of ourselves. We must act the way we expect our students to behave. If we want to work effectively with difficult students, we must be willing to change ourselves. Although we rarely appreciate our most difficult students because of the time they take and the frustration they cause, their presence can lead to growth if we learn from the obstacles they throw in our way.
**Allen Mendler and Richard Curwin (1999)**

Great Reminder

2010-10-09T11:29:00.005-05:00

I made it, I made it through to Fall Break!!!!!!! I have seriously been looking forward to this weekend since Labor Day weekend! I have to say that yesterday was probably one of the best days I’ve had in my class. My students were so engaged in learning all day that I almost wondered if someone hijacked my class and gave me a new set of kids!!

Honestly, I think much of their engagement in learning yesterday was due to my attitude and demeanor. Yesterday I was full of energy and excitement about the learning taking place. In writing, I have noticed that my students are writing about the same two topics all of the time: birthdays and going to the park. I asked the class if they had any more events in their lives that they could write about. They talked with a partner about the possible topics and I went around and listened to them. I was so excited to hear so many great moments from their lives that they could write about. When we came back whole class, I shared some of the stories I heard. I was so full of excitement and really wanted my students to see that they have so many great stories to write about, they just have to dig a little deeper to find them. I believe my enthusiasm for writing was incredibly contagious because they entire class, even some of my more reluctant writers got started right away on their stories. What’s most important is that they stayed focused on writing for the majority of the writing block…INCREDIBLE!!!!! It is absolutely amazing how the teacher’s attitude/enthusiasm/beliefs about learning can impact learning.

I noticed the same effect during our Math lesson on Place Value. I was teaching that in the number 83, the ‘8’ isn’t really ‘8’, but rather it is 80 because it represents 8 tens. Since this was the first lesson, I assumed that most of my students would not understand this point and would need more practice before getting it. Boy was I WRONG!! They got it and after a few more examples, could even explain WHY/HOW they knew that the ‘8’ did not represent ‘8’. I clearly showed my utter delight in their ability to think so deeply about the problem. Again, this enthusiasm was totally infectious and when students went back to their desks to practice independently, they were engaged and motivated to work through more examples, even ones that were more difficult.

We all have our difficult days, days when we don’t know how we will make it to the final bell at the end of the day. However, when we have those great days, the ones where incredible learning takes place and students are motivated and in-tune with each other and you, bask in all of its glory. These are the days that remind us of how much we love teaching!!

*On another note, I will be starting PBF (Positive Behavior Facilitator) training this coming week and the first class is on Saturday from 8-3:30!!! There will be a total of 2 Saturday classes and 4-5 classes during the week from 4-8. I'm really bummed because the first class is on the day of my niece's birthday party (turning 6). I will have to make it up to her. I will be posting on the training and it's usefulness in the classroom.

I wish you all a weekend full of rest and enjoyment!!

The Real Deal

2010-09-04T14:33:00.003-05:00

So, after my first 12 days of teaching, there are several adjectives to describe how I am feeling: exhausted, stressed, fulfilled, exhausted. I don't care what anyone says, even the most challenging student teaching experience cannot prepare you for what it is like to be teaching your own class!!!!

Let's see, I have 3 students will Special needs, on of which is quite severe. I have a Teacher's Aid in my room and it wasn't until last Friday that I realized I needed to communicate with him what I wanted him to do with the students on his load because we just got a Special Ed. Teacher a couple of days ago.

Administration expects for all components of curriculum to be fully implemented, but I am still teaching routines and procedures that take up a RIDICULOUS but NECESSARY amount of instructional time each day. This whole procdures/routine thing is new for me because I saw very little of that during student teaching.

I have learned so much in the last couple of weeks and am so completely and totally overwhelmed with the zillion and one things that are constantly running through my head!! One thing I have been struggling with is how much time I spending doing 'school stuff' every day. I'm at school over an 1 hour before I need to and I leave about 3 hours after I'm allowed to, only to go home and do more work until about 9:30 when I get ready for bed.

I feel like as a brand new teacher, it makes sense that I would be spending a little more time at school because I'm playing catch-up (in regards to materials, time management) to other more experienced teachers. Also, over the last couple of weeks, I have had family and friends comment about how much time I'm spending at school and working on school stuff. During this FABULOUS 3 day weekend, I have been doing a great job.....haven't touched any school stuff since I left school at 5:30 yesterday!!! I have spent time with family and really enjoyed myself. I want to find more of a balance but I'm really not sure how.

No matter how much time I spend prepping for work, I know I will never be as prepared as I would like to be. However, the perfectionist in me still continues to strive for the impossible.

Question: How do you set boundaries and limits for the amount of time you devote to school??

T-2 Days!!

2010-08-17T18:12:00.014-05:00

School starts in 2 days and I am a ball of nerves and excitement!! We had a Convocation today, where all of the certified district staff (and many non-certified) gathered for a "Pep Rally" of sorts. I cannot even count how many of my former teachers I have run into over the last couple of weeks. I am still making adjustments to not calling them by their last name, but it is definitely going to take some time to address them as COLLEAGUES...wow!!

My classroom is complete!!!!! In my mind, it is never complete, but it is ready to go for my kiddos on Thursday.

Student Work Display Board: "Steps Toward Success"

Word Wall

Small Group Teaching/Teacher Work Space

Computer Station/SMART Board

Organizers for Guided Reading Groups

Span of the Room

I am laughing to myself now as I look at the class schedule my principal requested from us. The funny part is that she only asked for one, but I made THREE different versions of the schedule, which each one containing more specific details than the last one!! I am so detail oriented that my version must be very explicit in what I would like to be doing every minute of everyday. Even though I know it will almost never turn out that way, at least I have an idea of where we would be in a perfect world.

Today, we gathered as a school to discuss our Personal Learning Plans (PLPs). PLPs are a part of a district initiative to push teacher to set their own PD plan and to collaborate with others who have the same goals to make it more effective and ultimately result in increased levels of student achievement. I have teamed up with my other 2nd grade teachers and the 1st grade team to provide students with authentic literacy experiences to increase student reading achievement by using The Daily Five framework. After our group collab meeting on Sept.10, I will post more details about it. I am excited because I have the book, but have not been able to read it. It sounds like an incredible framework for use during the literacy block and I cannot wait to get the ball rolling with it!

I hope your preparation and/or initial days of teaching are going well!!

Finishing Touches

2010-08-13T21:39:00.002-05:00

New Teacher Week is over!! I met my mentor for this year and she just so happens to be one of the other second grade teachers in my school...who knew??! My initial impression of her when we met earlier this week was not one that screamed 'mentor' but after meeting with her today, I'm more optimistic about what our relationship will be like as the year progresses. She is going into her 15th year of teaching and is incredibly knowledgeable about so many facets of teaching. I am excited to be able to collaborate with someone so rich in classroom experience.

I have finished with all major parts of setting up the classroom- pics to come when I put on the finishing touches!! This weekend, I will be working on the following:

- Writing out plans for the first 1 1/2 days of school (community building, etc.)
- Completing my classroom procedures/routines/management plans
- Finishing my classroom newsletter
- Sleeping in at least one day this weekend!!!!

I'm gonna spend the rest of the night adding upcoming meetings, and PD to my calendar. Can you believe I already have two days for which I need to request a sub???! Didn't think I would be making sub plans so soon!

It's A Comin'

2010-08-09T20:44:00.004-05:00

I have been working hard in my room lately. I am such a perfectionist so I have found that this whole classroom set-up thing is taking way longer than I would like. I finished two out of 3 bulletin boards today, relocated my classroom library, laminated my labels for my literacy work stations, and set up my Word Wall.

The morning was full of craziness because my AP came into my room and asked if I would like to sit in on some interviews for a Special Ed position. I asked her if she was sure she wanted me and she said she really wanted to have various perspectives on these candidates and the majority of teachers were still on vacation. I felt honored and incredibly nervous all at the same time!!! The interviews were very interesting and resulted in no real front-runners for the position. I absolutely respect all of the administrators of the world who have to make such pressing hiring decisions...yikes!! Well, throughout the 3 interviews, my AP, was complaining of stomach pains. She is pregnant and due at the end of the month (our principal had a baby a couple of months ago and will be returning next week from maternity leave). You could tell she knew something was up but she wouldn't let her mind think it was possible because in her words she "could have a baby yet because there is way too much stuff left to do"! Well, after the interviews, her husband took her to the hospital just to make sure everything was okay and what do you know....HER WATER BROKE when the reached the hospital. So, as of this very second, we have no AP and no Principal in the building!! I'm sure this will prompt an early return for our Principal but what a crazy set of events!!

My mind is fumbling around because I feel like there is way too much to focus my mind on!! I am working on some administrative tasks, classroom procedures/routines. Tomorrow, I'll be planning my literacy block for the next month with the literacy coach and working more in the room. It would be FANTASTIC to be able to be FINISHED with my room by the end of the week!!! Fingers crossed!!

New Teacher Week starts Wednesday!!!!!

Classroom Photos- In the Midst of it All

2010-08-02T22:45:00.011-05:00

I am sooooo incredibly tired tonight. I had a great day full of a workshop about Google Apps and an afternoon spent in my classroom. I was able to start attacking the million and one boxes the former teacher left behind. My room is starting to look like a CLASSROOM!!! I'm too sleepy to comment on each picture, but I'm going to upload the ones I took of my classroom- halfway through the clean-up process. I plan to add captions to them tomorrow. Just a note: all of the shelves in the room were TOTALLY stacked with boxes. It may not look like it, but I really am making progress! I'm headed off to bed to gear up for an ELL Workshop all day, and hopefulling dropping by the school after.

All the stuff on top of the shelves is yet to be filtered through

SMART Board and Small Group Teaching Area

Materials Storage and More Boxes!!

Back of the room- I moved the 'teacher's desk' to the awkward corner but it was taking up optimal instructional space where the kidney table is now

The books and shelves will be the classroom library- after filtering through the tons of books that are all in the WRONG bins!!

**As you can see, I decided to comment on the pictures anyway! Hopefully I will have the energy to post about the workshop tomorrow!

Reality Sinking In

2010-07-30T14:29:00.003-05:00

Well folks, it's official - I have the keys to my room and the building! I spent 3 hours this morning in my room. I wish I could say I whipped the room into shape during that time but we ALL know that is far from the truth!!! I walked in and it looked so much cleaner and orderly than what it was like when I first saw it. The first thing that caught my attention was how much stuff there was! Boxes, books, files, boxes, and more boxes! I was convinced that most of it probably wasn't mine because many of the boxes had other names/rm #'s on them. Well, I asked the office manager and she said that only one of the boxes belonged to someone else....in other words, all that stuff is mine!

This is both great and not so great at the same time. I have no clue where to even start with going through the tons of boxes, organizing books, creating space for work stations, small group teaching, and of course the list goes on! So after talking to our fabulous Office Manager for about 15 mins and standing in pure awe at the task that was in front of me for another 15 mins, I decided to start 'small'. I went straight for the teacher's desk and file cabinet. There were so many handwriting and math practice packets, I almost couldn't stand it (poor trees!). I didn't want to throw them away because as a newbie, I have NO CLUE what I will end up using or not using. So I filed them away in color-coded file folders (purple-handwriting and manilla- math packets). I organzied the supplies in the teacher's desk. I also organized the storage drawers that housed wall charts (content specific), construction paper, and Language Arts/Math binder resources the previous teacher left behind.

With these minor tasks complete, I have no clue where to go from here!! I took my hero Debbie Diller's advice and drew a map of my classroom in order to plan for instructional space, however I feel like I need to get all the stuff in my room organized and put away before I even think about moving furniture!!

I think I'm going to first- NAP! Then I think I will finish up my planning for the first week of writing. After that, I really have no idea what to tackle next. Time is winding down and I want to be as efficient as possible with my time. Considering what I've done so far- What would your next plan of action be??

Changing Names

2010-07-29T22:52:00.003-05:00

Okay, every time I look at my blog title, I have the urge to change it. As I am done with student teaching, I feel like it is slightly misinformative as to what I will talk about on this blog. Does anyone know how I can change the title of my blog with out changing my URL- I really don't want to throw off my followers?? Thanks!!

Gearing Up

2010-07-28T11:53:00.001-05:00

It has been a whirlwind of a week! Taking all of the suggestions I received from my last post, I decided to start full-force with planning. I have planned out the first week of Math and am starting on the first week of Writing. Last night, I wrote several pieces for my Writer’s Folder for Workshop. I will be using the pieces as the foundation of my minilessons for the first week. I also did the overall plan for unit 1 so now I will start working on my daily lesson plans for writing during the first week. I am really hesitant about planning more than 1 week in advance because I have no clue who my students are, let alone where they are academically. All teachers must submit lesson plans the Thursday before the week they are to be taught, so right now I am feeling pretty good.

I also got news that I will be meeting with my principal next Friday as a part of New Teacher Week. Hopefully then, or sometime soon after, I will learn who my students are so I can mail out an introductory letter to them and their families!
Best News of the Day: I get to pick up the keys to my classroom on Friday morning!!! I plan to stick around for a few hours and navigate my way through the tons of stuff in the room. For some reason, I feel like some of it belongs to other teachers, so I’m gonna try and determine to whom it really belongs.

Plan of Attack for the Next Week (in no particular order):
• Plan out first week of Writing
• Aug 4- Plan Literacy Block with Literacy Coach
• Get more info about science/social studies curriculum and plan to teach (I would almost think we didn’t teach science/s.s. because since May, I have only heard these subjects referenced maybe twice- compared to 1,000,202 references to Math and Literacy)
• Complete Classroom Newsletter
• Finish and Mail Intro Letter to Parents
• Create Plan/Activities for First Day of School
• ORGANIZE/DECORATE CLASSROOM
Our first day of school is a half day. What does your very first day of school look like?

Bundle of Emotion

2010-07-20T23:02:00.003-05:00

I have been feeling a little overwhelmed and stressed lately. I just moved into my new apartment and have been busy unpacking and organizing. With school starting in 4 weeks, I am starting to feel the pressure of getting ready for this school year. I have so much stuff on my To-Do list but I have no clue where to begin. I have been working on my Classroom Management Plan and thinking through various routines and procedures. I am currently working on setting up my class newsletter and intro letter to my students' families. I have also spent quite a bit of time reviewing curriculum, but now I feel like I need to just start planning. I would love to meet with my grade level teachers but I do not know who they are (long story) and my principal and vice-principal are on maternity leave. Needless to say, I am a big bundle of emotions right now!!! Advice....suggestions on how to effectively navigate these next few weeks?

Progress

2010-06-29T15:36:00.003-05:00

In my last post I talked about an issue I was having with a girl I work with to coordinate a tutoring program. Well, after a drama-filled day yesterday and today, the "heads in charge" had a meeting to put everything out there. This particular girl, to whom I will refer as K, brought up the fact that everyone hates her, she doesn't know why, and she's tired of trying to make everyone happy so she's giving up. WHAT???!!! My first thought was that she needed to look in the mirror because the major problem wasn't everyone else it was her. We began to have what felt like an "intervention" for K. It at first felt a little dramatic, but it actually turned out to be very productive.

I learned a lot about K, from how many people don't get along with her to how she doesn't like to open up to others. All of this, along with other factors have landed her in the middle of a toxic mess. I then shared my perspective on self-reflection and how if everyone is perceiving you in a negative way (even people who just met you a week ago, like I did), you need to do some self-reflecting about what you're doing and how to modify it so that others are more receptive to you. I think she received what I was saying, but I know I learned a great lesson too. I had pretty much written her off as the girl with the bad attitude who was all about herself. I am going to trust that what I saw in her during our meeting was sincere. First impressions are key, but I think everyone deserves a second chance to redeem themselves.

Whether this is with colleagues or students, no one should be labeled or outcast because of what they've done in the past. K and I now have a fresh start and I hope that nothing but great things come from it. We all have needed a 're-do' at some point in our lives and I am glad I was able to provide an opportunity for someone else to have one this time around!

Teacher Camp

2010-06-24T16:16:00.004-05:00

Right now, I am away at "teacher camp" as I call it. It is a summer internship that is a component of one of the teacher scholarships I received during undergrad. This is my last summer requirement and it is a little awkward since the majority of the 4 weeks is geared toward preparing us for student teaching and the interview process....double check for me! It is my personal goal to humble myself as much as possible and take away as much as I can.

On pretty cool thing about the program is that we will be tutoring middle school students in the inner city in reading/writing/math. I, along with 7 others, volunteered to spear-head the tutoring program. In other words, we are planning the structure and format for the 4 week tutoring program. We will then meet with the other 50 interns and present our proposal for how the program will run. I was a little hesitant after volunteering for this role because I was turned off by some of the "larger-than-life" personalities we have in our planning committee. I totally respect and appreciate the experience and knowledge that other colleagues bring to the table, but I absolutely detest when others feel that their perspective is superior to that of others in the group. There is one girl in particular who seems to feel like she should be calling all of the shots and we should all be following her lead. Collaboration is essential in teaching and I just get annoyed when people don't seem to have received the same memo.

So, in keeping with my philosophy of self-reflecting after a long venting session, I have learned a great lesson in the importance of respecting all work styles, even when I may not feel like mine is being respected. Arguing never did anything to solve an issue and I'm sure it won't start now!! We have a meeting of the minds this evening, so I am praying that as educators we can stay civilized, open for collaboration, and respectful. The main goal is to tutor students in their areas of need and we most certainly cannot achieve that if all of those responsible for the program are bickering the whole time about how things should be.

Lastly, during one of our seminars today, our presenter left us with a great quote:
"Complaining is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do, but doesn't get you anywhere". I love this quote because when we as teachers complain about what is not working or who is not doing what, we spend are time doing something, but not getting anywhere. I will continue to strive to use my time trying to actually get somewhere rather than complaining about it....I challenge you to try it too!!

Writing and Planning

2010-06-10T23:55:00.001-05:00

I recently took my Spanish Language Proficiency test and to be honest, I’m trying not to think about it too much. I have a bad habit of worrying myself to death about little things and big things alike and I am trying to make a change for the better. I do, however, think I did fairly well...I get the results back on July 2 so I will provide the fantastic update that is to come!

I’ve been trying to take it easy this week because I have all week training on our Every Day Math curriculum. I am really excited because I know very little about it and I cannot wait to learn more about implementing it in my classroom. Since my posts have been so scarce lately, I am trying to set myself a goal of posting the highlights about it at the end of next week.

This week, I have been reading up on our district’s writing curriculum. There is a teacher’s book in the series called “The Nuts and Bolts of Teaching Writing”. It has given me a lot of insight into what Writer’s Workshop really looks like. One of the things that the district in which I student taught lacked was a Writing curriculum. In 5th grade, we were able to squeeze in about 90 mins of writing in each week…on a good week!! With this curriculum, we have 45-60 mins each day of writing!! I think this is so awesome and truly necessary to developing great writers. I am excited about all I am learning.

In preparing for the upcoming school year, I would like to know what suggestions you all have about using your summer to think/plan/organize for next year. What are priorities for you in the summer, in preparation for the upcoming year? Thanks for sharing!

Getting Back In the Groove

2010-05-19T22:12:00.000-05:00

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!

GRADUATION

2010-05-07T18:45:00.002-05:00

I have been doing quite a bit of running around today....getting ready for my GRADUATION tomorrow!! It feels so good and I am so excited to end this chapter of my life and move on to the next. This time last year, I was really upset that all of my friends were graduating 'on time' and I wasn't. Everything happens for a reason and at least I can say that it took me five years because I am a double major and I studied abroad for a summer!!!!! I look forward to spending time with my family and friends this weekend. Congrats to all of those who are graduating this month!!!

Reflection on Student Teaching

2010-05-01T22:09:00.000-05:00

This last week has been bittersweet. Even though I will still see most of my students over the next few weeks (after school program, field trips, etc.), it was tough to say ‘goodbye’. They threw me a going away party and they all went around and said what they enjoyed about having me as their teacher. I was almost moved to tears when one student said that I was tough on them, but it was because I knew they could be great!! In spite of the incredible challenges I have faced this year with my placement, I would not trade it for the world. The bonds I have formed with the staff and children in my school will never be forgotten. This experience has helped me to formulate my ideas and opinions on what is important as an educator. These are just some of the lessons I have learned.

 Collaborate with other Building Staff- two heads are better than 1!
 Discipline with Dignity- when students are respected, they will respect you (most times!)
 Be Humble- don’t act like you know it all. When students see you at your vulnerable points, they learn that everyone has them and they can be overcome.
 Don’t take it Personally- many of the disrespectful behaviors students may exhibit don’t have anything to do with you personally. It is often that they lack strategies needed to deal with their feelings in a more constructive way. When you don’t take things personally, you are more able to attack the problem, rather than the child.
 Laugh- there are many stressful times throughout the day, so in order to remain sane, you have to laugh. Do your best to make light of trying situations.
 Take Time for Yourself- This is something that I still struggle with personally, but I understand how critical it is to have a life outside of the classroom. The more burnt-out you are, the more that weariness will transfer to the students. Refresh yourself so that you can be refreshing to your students.
 Always Look for the Positive- Being a ‘Debbie Downer’ becomes a burden not only to those who have to listen to the constant negativity, but also ‘Debbie’ herself. The perspective you take on the things that transpire in your life/career determine the resulting path those events take. We want our students to be positive and always look for the best in themselves and situations- we should expect the same from ourselves.

It is my goal to live by these lessons that I have found so important to my growth as an educator. I have tried this entire year to practice taking my own advice. If I expect something of others, I should be willing to do the same thing. I know there are many more lessons to be learned on my journey as an educator and I am ready to face them with humility, laughter, and a positive perspective.

Making Time for Interventions

2010-04-25T16:36:00.001-05:00

My last day being the lead teacher was Friday. My CT was absent all day and I was only present for the morning so it was a whirlwind of an am!! I taught the Math lesson in the morning so that the substitute teacher would not have to worry about it. The lesson was on Stem-and-Leaf plots and I actually think it went pretty well. I spent a lot of time going over the concept and doing quite a few whole class examples. Most students seemed to understand the concept, but one thing that I think about frequently is when I can pull the students who don’t get it and work in small groups with them to help them understand the concept.

I know that my Math curriculum will look different next year, but it is so important to find to provide for interventions wherever possible. I feel like failing to do so simply allows for those students to fall through the cracks. If it is my goal to make sure all students succeed to their highest levels, I must create opportunities consistently through the day to help those students who may be struggling. In my current classroom, I have pulled struggling students when others are working on independent practice problems. This worked fairly well, but it was difficult to provide assistance to students working independently when they needed it. The battle still wages in my mind on how to help all students within a very tight window of time that is the school day.

How do you provide interventions during your Math block? What other suggestions do you have on helping struggling learners during the school day?

I Realize....

2010-04-21T21:18:00.000-05:00

Today was the second to last research day before our State Fair Showcase tomorrow evening. Students have been researching information about a state they randomly selected. They have been researching information about this state’s government, economy, early inhabitants, statehood, political features, and physical features. This has been a very long and tedious process because many of my students struggled to find information in books and on the internet that was not “right there in their face”. This is a skill that takes time develop, but you can only get it if you actually read the information in order to find the facts. Since there are still some students conducting research, while others are done creating their poster boards and began working on a second state, this was a very chaotic time. I felt like I needed to be in 18 different places at once!

My CT helped out quite a bit today and I cannot imagine what it would be like to do all of this by myself. I have been giving a lot of thought to what things will look and feel like when I am in the classroom by myself. I know that things will be more stressful because I will not have an extra set of hands, but because of this, I will need to be incredibly organized in order for things to flow the way in which I want it to.

After I pass my certification test :) I plan to spend my time looking at pictures I have taken of primary classrooms, books, and other resources that will help me establish a system in my classroom that is most conducive to learning.

Welcome Back

2010-04-20T19:26:00.000-05:00

It felt so weird being back at school today, especially since I feel like I’ve been away for so long (2 days in the last week). I got to school early, like I usually do, so I had some time to get things ready and get back into the swing of things. This is my last week being the lead teacher and I feel such a sense of relief. Next week, it will be so nice to just work with my small groups, grade a little throughout the day and help out during lessons when needed. I have given some thought to coming back some days after I graduate, but I’m not sure. I definitely plan to come back for the trip to the zoo and their 5th grade Promotion. I, however, have a nightmarish vision of coming back to help out and being worked like an animal while I am here and being more stressed out than ever. Then again, I could be using that time to review for my Language Proficiency Test and just enjoying some R&R. I figure I really need to soak up this time I have being behind the scenes while I can!

I have some really great observations set up for the week of May 3. I will be observing 3 outstanding teachers at my school in 3rd grade, Primary Cross-Cat. and 2nd grade. I am thrilled to be able to observe the second grade room because of my new position as a 2nd grade bilingual teacher. This particular teacher has great command of literacy work stations and that has been a passion of mine all year! I plan to take lots of notes and help out whenever I can.

It's Official!

2010-04-19T17:30:00.000-05:00

Today, I officially accepted the 2nd grade bilingual teaching position!!! It took much thought and reflection but I am at peace with the decision I have made. I visited some of the bilingual classrooms (kindergarten, 3rd, and 4th) and had the pleasure of sitting in on a Reading Recovery session conducted totally in Spanish. The district places a strong focus on bilingual literacy and students are taught to read first in Spanish. It was incredible to see everything that I have learned and implemented myself about reading instruction (Running Record, reading prompts, Writer’s Workshop)! I am excited about teaching in both languages and fostering bi-literacy in my students.

In the second grade classroom, I will teach in English for 30% of the day (focusing on English Language Development) and Spanish for 70% of the day (Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Social Studies). This percentage breakdown may be altered to include a slightly higher percentage of English Language Development. My principal told me that because of my Reading endorsement, she thinks I would be a great fit at second grade, a grade at which data shows the bilingual students become stagnant in their English Reading scores. I am encouraged and eager to work toward this challenge.

The school staff was very friendly, but it always feels a little awkward stepping into a space that is not yet yours. I know how I felt before I became acclimated at the school at which I am student teaching, but now I feel such a strong connection to the incredible people I have been able to work with this year. I cannot wait to truly become a part of the staff.

I am truly blessed to have a full-time teaching position for next year. :)

Here's the Run Down

2010-04-16T22:42:00.000-05:00

I was a nervous wreck all day, waiting for a phone call from the school with which I had an interview yesterday. Just thinking about the fact that I had an real, live interview just yesterday boggles my mind! Well, I was busy all afternoon helping the new interns get acclimated to the district, but I was dying to check my phone. I went down to the room and checked it around 2:30 and of course, there was no phone call. I was a little disappointed and began wondering if they were going to stand me up. Then, my CT told me that even though they had not called me, they actually called her to check my references!! For whatever reason, I guess I did not think they would actually do that. Every other job I have applied for just kind of takes your word that you are good…I guess this is real life!

Anyway, I went back to be with the other student teachers and at the end of the day, I checked my phone and I had 1 missed call from the school and a voicemail….oh boy. This was it. I was so excited and so were the other teachers in my building. They asked me to put the message on speaker and I did. We were all huddled together in the middle of the hall way, waiting to hear a decision and of course, the principal asked me to call her back. She dished no information over the phone. When we heard this, there was a collective sigh of disappointment because we all wanted to know right then! I love those ladies….they are an awesome group of teachers who have supported me throughout all of this!

Okay, so I called back and left a message. She was in a meeting. An hour went by and I decided to call back. She said that she and the interview committee were very impressed and she would like to offer me a position as a……..2nd GRADE BILINGUAL TEACHER! So, in this very instant, I felt totally elated that I was offered a job, but then the reality set in that I would really have to make a decision about whether or not I want to wait for a position in the district in which I am student teaching or take this opportunity.

I met with the principal at the middle school here in town that I have been in communication with and she talked to me about the two possible vacancies for next year (6th grade writing/reading and 8th grade Spanish OR 6th grade self-contained classroom teaching history, science, math with struggling students who do not qualify for special education services). She made me feel more comfortable about possibly working with the 8th grade staff that I had such a different experience with, but I am not a big fan of teaching middle school Math and Science either. I think the biggest factor with this situation is that she cannot guarantee me that I will absolutely have one of those positions next year. I know she would do all she could to make it happen, but there is no guarantee. In this job climate, 1 in the hand is worth two in the bush.

I will tell the principal of the elementary school my decision on Monday, after I go for a visit to the bilingual classrooms and talk with the director of curriculum and instruction for the district (per the request of the director and the principal). I will be doing a lot of thinking and reflecting that I will make the best choice for me. I just feel so blessed to be able to say I have an offer on the table!!

First Job Interview

2010-04-15T19:04:00.003-05:00

Today I had my very first interview for a position as a Spanish teacher. This was a position that I was called about an interview a couple of weeks ago and soon after they called back to tell me the position was no longer available. Well, it is available again and I had my interview this morning. I was nervous but definitely not as much as I was with the anticipation of the interview a couple of weeks ago. I arrived about 20 minutes early, as my interview was at 9am. School starts at 9am so the principal was very busy. I did not get called back for the interview until 9:20. The anticipation almost killed me as I watched 3 other teachers enter her office with note pads and pens. Then it hit me, they would be participating in the interview questioning too!! YIKES!! I silently hyperventilated, then composed myself.

I greeted each person at the table and then they introduced themselves. Interviewing me were the principal, office manager, bilingual teacher, and a 5th grade teacher. They began to ask questions about me personally and why I was interested in the position, my experience student teaching. Not so bad, right?! Then, the bilingual teacher told me that she was going to ask me some questions in Spanish….OH BOY!! I knew that this was a definite possibility, but now I knew I had to put my language skills to the test. I haven’t taken a Spanish course since Spring Semester 2009 and haven’t had a serious conversation in Spanish since then (except when I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant about a month ago!).

Well, the first question she asked was one submitted by another bilingual teacher. It was incredibly long and very confusing, but I did not want it to seem like I didn’t understand it, it just was poorly written. After the interviewer read it a couple of times, she too agreed that it was poorly written and came up with her own interpretation of the question for me to answer. This helped quite a bit. I know I probably did not speak as well as I would have liked, but the interviewer told me at the end that my Spanish was beautiful so I guess that counts for something, right?!

Okay, to make a long story shorter, they are considering me for two positions. One is as a Spanish teacher (what I originally applied for) and the other is as a 2nd grade bilingual teacher (did not apply for). The Spanish teacher position did not entice me at all after the explained it. The Spanish teacher pushes in to all of the classes every other day. She has no room, but rather a desk in the library. All I could think about was having a cart that I roll around the school with all of my things in it because of the seemingly nomadic nature of the position. After I heard the description of that position, I was excited to hear what they had to say next. The principal said based on my credentials, she believed I would be a great candidate for the position. The principal asked what I thought about this proposition and I said it sounded exciting, but I was a little nervous about how prepared I would be for the position. I am a Spanish major, but have taken no course work in ESL nor Bilingual education. I am absolutely open to the position and if offered, would do whatever it took to be fully competent and qualified to teach in that position.

After the interview, she asked if I could come back in an hour to meet with the director of bilingual education for the district. OF COURSE! I returned and she talked with me in Spanish and then switched to English (complimenting on my Spanish too!). She then told me that I would need to apply for type 29 certification- Transitional Bilingual Certification and take the State Content Test- all of which would have to be done and successfully completed by the end of the summer.

I never considered bilingual education because I was not highly qualified to teach it. Now that this opportunity has possibly presented itself, I am curious and very interested in investigating this option.

There was another person coming in for the interview after me and the principal said she would let me know tomorrow about her decision. I felt like the interview went well, but I won’t know for sure until tomorrow.

I am still considering a possible opening with a the middle school I student taught at for 6 weeks, but I am struggling to know in my heart what would be the best fit for me.

What advice do you have for how to know what and where I should be teaching. I want to make sure I make the right decision, but I have no clue what that may be.

Evaluating my Evaluation

2010-04-12T18:00:00.003-05:00

Today I debriefed a Guided Reading lesson I taught about 1 month ago with my building principal. I wasn’t too nervous because my principal is very laid back and does not make situations tense at all. I thought she would tell me all of the things she noticed during my lesson, but she did not. Instead, she pulled the trick that I have become all too accustomed to- “How did you think your lesson went?” When this question was first posed to me by my student teaching coordinator, I must admit that I was a little irritated. I did not want to hear about what I thought, I wanted to know what she thought! I have learned that they do this to help you self evaluate and also to gain more insight into why you taught the lesson they way you do to make more informed evaluations.

There were two important things she noted. One was the fact that both me and my CT taught our Guiding Reading Groups in totally different ways (1 more teacher centered and the other more student centered). I personally believe this difference in style can be attributed to the fact that I was working with my stronger readers, while she was working with the group with the more profound reading challenges, who may have needed more direct scaffolding. She also asked me, in a perfect world, what my G.R. lesson would look like. I talked about the literacy work stations, management board and spending the majority of my time with students who needed the greatest level of intervention, and having more fluid groupings. It was nice being able to talk about some of these things and gain more confidence and comfort with articulating aspects of Best Practices. Whenever I have a job interview, I will know exactly what to say…I just need follow through!

Making the Most of It

2010-04-09T20:32:00.003-05:00

Although this was a very busy week for me, I took out a chunk of time last night to write my formal lesson plan for my writing lesson for today. I have not had much feedback on how effectively I teach writing and I wanted my CT to evaluate me on this subject. I gave my CT the formal lesson plan and a camera because I wanted her to capture some of the lesson in pictures (to include in my portfolio, of course!). She took some pictures but did not really take many notes on my lesson. When I asked her about it, she said that she totally for got to take notes on my lesson and that she would do it right then (3 hours after my lesson was taught). I was a little frustrated because I know that she was getting her sub plans for Monday together during my lesson. The comments that she did end up writing were very generic and her simply affirming my success with the things that I said I wanted her to pay attention to. How can you give me feedback if you are not even watching the lesson?

So, I’m going to do my own self-evluation:
I taught a lesson on Persuasive Writing. We read Hey, Little Ant earlier and the week and came up with reasons why the kid should squish the ant and reasons why he should not squish the ant. Today, I wanted students to write a paragraph for one reason why the kid should not squish the ant, using ample secondary support. We reviewed the story an the reasons we came up with for both sides. Then I had students determine which two ideas they felt were most important about why the kid should not squish the ant. I told them that they would choose one of those reasons and write a paragraph, but first I wanted to model it for them.

Prior to the lesson, I chose one reason to support why the kid should squish the ant and wrote a paragraph modeling the incorporation of a topic sentence and support. We read it aloud and students helped me identify the examples for support I included. Next, I had students select partners. One partner would “talk long” about reason #1 (which was selected earlier in the lesson) for two minutes. After two minutes the other partner B would talk about reason #2 for two minutes. While each partner was talking, they were to discuss support about why that reason justified not squishing the ant. After they discussed with a partner, we shared out some of the examples they used for each reason. Then I sent students back to their desks to write 1 paragraph about one of the reasons, reminding them of the topic sentence and supports that needed to be included. After 15 minutes, students shared out their writing whole class and we gave Thumbs Up to that person when they were able to identify the required components within their paragraph.

Self-Evaluation:
*I think that allowing students to choose their partners made their conversations have more substance because they wanted to talk to the person they chose to work with. I have learned that if I want students to focus on a certain skill when working in partners, they are more likely to engage in the skill if they are able to choose their partner (of course with the expectation that all talk and behaviors are centered on the focus of the lesson)
*Creating a paragraph to model the focus of the lesson helped students to understand what I expected of them when they wrote their paragraphs. It also helped me to think about what aspects students may struggle with because I went through the entire process myself.
*I gave each partner a letter (A or B) so that they would know which reason they needed to talk about with their partner. If I were to do this lesson again, I would have had the paper letters prepared ahead of time because it took about 3 minutes of my time to find the paper and marker to do it during the lesson.
*I feel that by incorporating the conversational piece in the lesson and modeling the paragraph for students made them feel more confident and prepared to go back and write their own paragraphs. I was so pleased to see all of my students engaged in writing when they went back to their desks.
*Overall, I think the lesson went well. I prepared quite a bit for it and I think that preparation resulted in my students being able to apply the skills and focus of the lesson in their own writing.

~In these last few weeks of my student teaching experience, I am doing my best to turn every negative situation in to a positive. I want to end this year, walking away with as much growth and preparedness to teach and this is a great way for me to ensure this happens~

Teeter Totter

2010-04-08T19:30:00.001-05:00

Today was an emotional roller coaster for me. I called the school this morning to confirm my interview for the K-5 Spanish teacher position that was supposed to be on April 9. About an hour later, they called me back and left a message saying that the position for which I was going to interview was no longer available because instead of offering Spanish as a foreign language, they decided to offer….yep, Mandarin Chinese! They apologized for the inconvenience. I spent so much time over the last 24 hours stressing and worrying about what if they offered me the job and then I had to decide whether or not I wanted to take that position or wait for one in which I was more interested. I feel such a connection to the district in which I am student teaching, but the whole waiting game is what is driving me crazy! I prayed about the situation but still felt like I could control the situation. Today I learned that there is no point in stressing about things that have yet to come to fruition. My faith shows me that God will put me exactly where he wants me to be and when he wants me to be there. I have learned a very valuable lesson in trusting that all things will work out the way they are supposed to. I still don’t know where I will find employment but I am going to be open to the options that present themselves and be confident that I will be lead in the direction I am supposed to go.

Hodge Podge

2010-04-07T18:54:00.000-05:00

I had a talk with my CT during our CAL today about what I wanted to focus on during these last few weeks of student teaching. We reflected on the growth that I have made and the fact that I want to spend time tweaking and improving some of my teaching strategies. One of the issues that I brought up is the trouble that I seem to have with following through with authentic assignments that I give my students. For example, I wanted my students to complete their Black History biographies and be able to publish them so they could be displayed in the hallway on a bulletin board. The students completed them and they were graded, but it has been very difficult to get all students to publish their work. Now that it is time to move on to persuasive writing, I find it very unlikely that students will be able to have their work displayed. I also talked to my CT about how I wanted her to give me more informal feedback regarding my teaching.

Surprisingly, she agreed that she should focus more on paying attention to my lessons and that she would do a better job of that. So, needless to say, I was a little disappointed to see her texting on her phone throughout the entire afternoon! Oh well. I will have to continue being my own self-critic. I can only try so much, but I am honestly just appreciative of the fact that I was able to sit down with her and talk some of these things out. One a totally different note….I got a call to come in for an interview for an Elementary Spanish teacher position!!!!!!!!!!!!! They called my permanent home and left a message, hoping that I can make an interview at 1pm on Friday….yes, this Friday. It is such short notice, but really, what am I going to do…say no??!!! I think not! Wish me luck!

Debbie Diller Delight

2010-03-20T14:38:00.001-05:00

I enjoyed my first day at the Illinois Reading Council Conference. I planned out my day the night before, but I had no clue how intense and exciting the day would be. I attended four different workshops: one on teaching reading as a new teacher (pretty dull; all presenters did was read from the PowerPoint) and one on Guided Reading (which was actually pretty practical). The highlight of my day was the afternoon because it was a DEBBIE DILLER afternoon! I attended another workshop during her first morning session, but I made sure to go to the first one after lunch. The workshop was Spaces and Places, based on her most recent book about organizing the classroom for effective learning. My student teaching program provided me with an opportunity to set up the classroom at the beginning of the year, so it was nice to have some working knowledge of classroom arrangements.

One of the most interesting pieces of advice that I plan to use in my classroom is the importance of setting up specific places in the room in a specific order: whole group, small group, classroom library, writing station, word wall and other stations, classroom math corner, and portable work stations (in that order). The absolutely last things she said teachers should organize are student and teacher desks. Diller believes that desks are not the optimal learning space for students and should be used primarily for independent practice work, not for whole-class, small group teaching experiences. She also said that the “teacher desk” is a magnet for “visual noise” (clutter). The teacher desk should not take the prime position in the classroom.

I always thought it was best to get the students’ desks situated first. However, after hearing Diller speak, I am thinking more about my use of desks and the message that sends to my students about learning. My students do spend the majority of their time at their desks, restricted from natural, fluid interactions with their peers. When I have my own classroom, I want to create an environment of collaborative learning and one that values the knowledge and experiences of each student. I would love to see in my classroom the whole-group learning space on the carpet, where students can be closer, feel more connected and more engaged in the learning experience. This does not happen in the classroom that I am in now, but Debbie Diller has given me a vision and a plan to put it into action.

Improved Relationships

2010-03-12T19:32:00.001-06:00

Lately, I have been struggling with some of the same disruptive behaviors as I have been since the beginning of the school year. One thing that has changed for the better is the dramatic decrease in blatantly disrespectful attitudes. This is coming particularly from two students: Sarah and Patrick. Until the last 3 or 4 weeks, I had nothing but confrontation with these two students. If I said anything that they did not want to hear, I would be on the receiving end of total defiance and disrespect.

As of late, however, things have changed between us. They are by no means angels, but I think the way in which we interact has changed. I have been working more on using ‘choice words’ and not engaging in arguments with students about their disruptive behavior. I have also done more to get to know them as kids outside of the classroom. I attended Patrick's basketball games and practiced with Sarah after school studying for the Spelling Bee. These two students now handle my redirections of their behavior more maturely and respectfully. They both give me hugs throughout the day and greet me every morning. We all have our ‘slip ups’ occasionally, but for the most part, I think we are on the upswing! I hope it only gets better from here!

It is my goal to continue to work towards breakthroughs with a couple other challenging students. I understand most teachers probably won’t have ‘breakthroughs’ with all of their students, but I feel like it is my responsibility to put forth my best effort to make it happen for each and every student.

Letting Go

2010-03-11T20:00:00.001-06:00

After being observed for my read-aloud lesson on Diary of a Wimpy Kid today, I am inspired to implement some of the suggestions I received today about releasing control and responsibility for learning to my students. I have talked with my students numerous times about how important it is for them to take responsibility for their own learning. It is up to them to learn what information I am teaching them. I understand that when I teach, I do most of the talking and work. I think a part of me doesn’t trust my students to learn what I want them to learn without me giving it to them. In internalizing some of the comments from my evaluation today, I am thinking more about how to shift the role of ‘teacher’ on to my students.

Relinquishing a little bit of my control of teaching my students has the power to incredibly enhance the confidence and learning experiences for not only the children who become the ‘teacher’ but also for those receiving the information they provide. In order to make this happen, I need to think about what it is that I want students to learn and how they can learn it without me giving it to them. It will take much thought, effort and training for the students but the end result is one will ultimately benefit my students.

Do you have any tips about how I can build more autonomy in my students? How can I deal with not hearing my voice so much?!!? Thanks!

Positive Energy

2010-03-10T17:57:00.000-06:00

My CT was out today, so we had a guest teacher in the room all day. The first 15 minutes of the day went incredibly well. After that is was all downhill from there. Their behaviors were not anything out of the ordinary. There were chatty students, disrespectful students, and everything in between. The guest teacher in the room is someone who has been in our class several times this year. She knows the students and the students enjoy having her in the room. It was great to have another teacher in the room who was totally engaged in helping the students and being another set of hands for me. When my students worked in small groups on a review packet for their Math test, she moved around from group to group as I did to check in with students and help them understand the concepts. It was one of a few times that I felt like I had support, even though she is still in school to become a teacher too!

At the end of the day, after we were both stressed out about how rowdy the kids were, she told me something that is still resonating within me. She said that as challenging as my kids are, she has lived through worse. WOW! I knew that someone out there somewhere has a bunch of kids more challenging than mine, but it was very encouraging to hear her say that. It really made me take stock of the beautiful minds and charisma of my students that makes me smile every day when I walk through the doors of my school. I appreciate my students and I know that I am a better person and teacher because they are in my lives.

Lunch Time Drama

2010-03-08T20:39:00.000-06:00

There was an “episode” today involving me, my CT and my class. There was no confrontation or anything like that, just simple repetition of what is the norm. The difference this time that abut 5 other teachers were able to see what I experience day in and day out. So, today during lunch, I finished eating early and decided to go back to the classroom. I was planning some interventions for Math dealing with elapsed time. I talked to my CT and told her I wanted both of us to pull a group right after lunch as a review of the concept. My CT was still in the lounge when I left. Well, the bell rang signaling the end of the lunch hour. I naturally assumed that my CT would pick up the kids, seeing as though I was working in the classroom and she was in the lounge which is literally about 50 ft from where the students line up outside. So, I continued working in the classroom, getting things ready for the Math intervention. Our students always take a restroom break right after lunch. So 10 mins after the bell rang and no one showed up at the door, I assumed it was just taking a little longer. Well, about 1 minute later, the office called down to my room to inform me that my students were still waiting to be picked up from the playground.

SERIOUSLY??!!! I was livid!! Yes, I could have walked down to get the kids, but I am so frustrated with always having to be the one to drop what I am doing, while she always gets to enjoy extra leisure time. The positive of this whole situation is that the principal, secretary, and parent educator were privy to what happened today and were actually quite upset that it took place. I hate that my students had to stand and wait for their teachers to show up, but I felt like I needed to take a stand. The crazy part of it all is that my CT did not even bat an eyelash at the situation; it was just business as usual. I will take this situation and chalk it up to another lesson learned.

Job Fair

2010-03-02T19:08:00.002-06:00

Today was the huge Mid America Job Fair at my University. My student teaching coordinator made a huge deal about this Job Fair and even brought in the assistant HR director to one of our seminars to give us some tips on how to stand out. I had big plans to spend yesterday preparing for the big day but those were foiled because I was sick! The bug came out of nowhere but I felt absolutely miserable all day. Fast forward to today....I feel better than I did yesterday, but still not 100%. Either way, I had to pep myself up for the Job Fair. I met with 5 districts and one of them was the district in which I'm student teaching now. I felt fairly well about 2 of the 5 districts, and totally uncertain about the other ones. It was difficult to read their body language.

After spending half a day at the Fair, I am still left feeling up-in-the-air about my job prospects. I know it's still early and I also know that most districts don't know what they can offer yet in lieu of the economic hardships they face. I plan on emailing some of the HR directors I met with today to thank them for the opportunity to meet and learn more about what their district has to offer new teachers. My reasoning is by putting my name out there again, they may be less likely to forget about me. I don't know if my logic is sound, but that is what I'm thinking right now. Do you have any tips on how to go about pursuing a position with a district outside of simply submitting my application? As always, all suggestions are welcome!!!

Math Woes

2010-02-26T23:18:00.000-06:00

On Wednesday, I gave my students a test of Math Topic 12- Area and Perimeter. Throughout the entire Topic, I did all I could to make sure that my students understood the material. I had them take notes in their Math Journals, we completed the first couple of problems on their homework together so they would understand exactly what to do, and I also had small group interventions with the students that did not seem to understand the concepts. I also created a study guide before the test and we spent one entire Math lesson working in groups to review for the test. With all of this said, I just knew that my students would do better on this test than they had on any other. I could not have been more wrong. I had one student get a 2 and everyone else earned a 1. I was almost in tears after grading these tests.

Well, I came to school today and showed the tests to my CT. We looked at the test questions, how many students missed each question, and what type of question was missed. We wondered, and have wondered, if the problem with our students’ performance on Math tests results from not understanding the questions. Many of our students struggle with reading comprehension, so it would make sense that they would possibly struggle to understand the questions on the test. So today, we gave the same test again, only this time, I read each test question aloud. The hope was that students would better understand the questions if they were read aloud and thus they would be able to show what they really understand about the topic.

I still have about 5 more tests to grade, but right now, the vast majority is scoring the exact same as they did on the previous test. I am at odds with what else I can do. If students do not do their homework and do not focus on the content presented during the lesson, how can they show an understanding of the information? I do not know what else I can do outside of providing interventions and working diligently to engage students in the lesson each day. Any suggestions?? All are welcome!

Board Meeting Wash Out

2010-02-25T21:08:00.000-06:00

I attended my first school board meeting tonight. It was decided that a community forum was needed in order to address the expected budget cuts for the next school year. I know that Springfield is one of many districts affected by the budget crisis in the country and particularly the state of Illinois. I feel I have a vested interest in what happens with the budget in this district because of my desire to stay in district for my first year of teaching.

I expected to go to this meeting and listen to the explanation of the real issue from the mouths of the people making it. This did come to fruition. The members of the superintendent cabinet spoke about the fact that our expenditures exceed our expected revenue for next year. After hearing the issue, I expected that the audience would be allowed questions which would be answered by the superintendent. Only have of this expectation came to be. There was a Q & A session, during which very relevant and pressing questions were posed; almost all of which went unanswered by the superintendent. I have never seen someone dance around such a tough issue like 56 instructional leaders, reading teachers, and other instructional professions positions being cut. I left the meeting feeling more uncertain about the state of the district than I did when I came in. If our own superintendent was unwilling to provide us with substantive responses to our concerns, can we really expect him to take our concerns into consideration when making proposals for what next year will look like? Tonight was a lesson learned in how political our field can really be.

Photo....What???

2010-02-23T21:10:00.000-06:00

In the Science lesson I taught on 2/19/10, the focus of the lesson was on the process of photosynthesis. I anticipated this being difficult topic because of the terminology (carbon dioxide, oxygen, photosynthesis). I also thought it would be a difficult topic because it was not concrete/tangible. It is very difficult for students to “feel” or “see” the photosynthetic process. In alignment with my plans, I gave students a passage to read about photosynthesis with a partner. We came back whole group to discuss it. After asking questions to guide their comprehension, I observed that some students were not “getting it”. They were able to respond to the questions I asked in a very rote manner, but they lacked a connection to the entire process.

Then, in a split second, it hit me. I knew I needed to find a way to make photosynthesis come alive and that is exactly what I did! I stood up and started acting as if I was a tree. I wiggled my legs, acting like they were roots, pulling up water from the ground and used my arms to pull in carbon dioxide from the air. Then, I had one of the students come up behind me and act like they were giving off oxygen. Next, I had someone come up and poor water on the tree (me). Then, I had students come up in serve as the sugar and sunlight. I made the photosynthetic process come alive! The kids loved it and can tell me not only the components of photosynthesis, but also which student had that role in the reenactment!! The kids truly enjoyed being an active participant in their learning experiences. I think their physical involvement helped them make stronger connections within the concept of photosynthesis.

Second Round of Conferences

2010-02-15T21:30:00.001-06:00

Parent Teacher Conferences were today. It was a long day, but I think it was made even longer because out of 8 scheduled conferences, only two showed up. One of those was a home visit that was an incredible experience, and I don’t mean that in a good way! Well, my CT, Parent Educator, Special Ed. Resource Teacher and I went to the home of one of my students. It started out crazy because as soon as I walked through the door, my student’s grandmother said with a very snippy tone “Who are you?”. I immediately felt on edge and it made me question for a split second who I really was and why I was there! After I got over that shock, I got a strong whiff of the marijuana that was filtrating the house. Grandma was spraying Febreeze, trying to mask the odor, but it was clear to all of us visiting the home what it really was.

I don’t think the marijuana would have bothered me so much if she was there by herself, but there were 6 little kids under her care at home, all being exposed to this illegal drug. What adults do on their own time is their business, but when kids are affected, the game changes. The student who lives here is consistently off task, does not turn in homework, and is a distraction to others. I think it is important to hold students accountable for their conduct in the classroom, but thinking about what they deal with at home definitely sheds light on what may be contributing to their behavior.

Goal: I will think more holistically about how my students behave and perform in class. There is no excuse for their behavior, but there may certainly be factors outside of the classroom that explain their behavior. Understanding these explanations may help me to better meet their needs in the classroom by creating an atmosphere that counteracts the negative forces they may face at home.

A Hectic Day Indeed

2010-02-05T20:03:00.001-06:00

Wow, what a day this has been. In my meeting with my coordinator, I talked with her about how things were starting to look up a little bit with me and my CT. I felt like we were making strides to increase the time we spend planning and the amount of support and guidance she gives me in my journey through student teaching. No sooner than I had this talk with my coordinator did things go completely down hill. First off, her husband and daughter showed up 30 minutes before the end of the day, completely disrupting the class, of course. She was totally disengaged from what was going on in the classroom because she was totally immersed in conversation with her family.

At the end of the day, one of my students punched another student in the back. As this was the second time I talked to this students about keeping her hands to herself (not to mention the fact that the principal spent the entire lunch recess talking to all fifth graders about respecting each other), I immediately wrote her up for a level 2, which requires intervention by the principal. While all of the commotion was going on, my CT did absolutely nothing to intervene. So I walked the rest of the class down to go home, came back to get the girl who hit another student, and took her straight to the principal. All the while, my CT did not intervene once to see what was going on. I was all alone in this process and it was my first time every doing it.

I needed her support and she wasn’t there. She left soon after I got back to the room (not sitting down with me like we had planned to discuss my writing unit or my science plans like we had discussed). Then she tells me “Don’t stay here all night”. Easy for her to say and she doesn’t even stay the time she is required to be here! Some of the teachers talk about how I am always the first to arrive and the last to leave each day, but what other alternative do I have? If I don’t come early and stay late, things won’t get done. I cannot count on her to support me and pick up the slack as I transition into “the teacher” in the room. I know this was a huge venting session for me but it feels good to release it all. One of my goals for next week was to find something outside of school to engage in to release stress. After today, I need to find something!

Homework

2010-02-04T19:09:00.000-06:00

One task that seems simple but has proved to be a great challenge for me is checking in/grading homework. In fifth grade, the students get so much homework each night that it is very difficult to check it all in, grade it and get it back. I see homework as a way to practice the concepts learned in class. So, there is not point in students spending time doing the practice incorrectly and not having an opportunity to go over it and adjust any misconceptions they may have had. My CT collects homework by calling individual students over to check it off. I prefer to collect everyone’s homework at the same time and check them in. I feel like my method allows me to look at the homework with a finer eye. The problem is that when I collect the homework, I have very little time to look over it, grade it, and get it back to students. My CT’s method allows her to get it all checked in, but she does not check over the work a meticulously as I would like to. I have to find a way to get homework checked in and give feedback to students so they know how to do the concept.

Goal: My goal is to check in homework using my CT’s method, but rather than looking over every single detail of the homework, I will glance through them to get a general understanding of commonly missed questions, pass back the homework the next day and go over those misunderstandings whole-class as a quick review of the material. I also will try to adjust my lessons so that I give students 3-4 minutes at the end of the lesson to get started on homework. This will also give me time to look over some of the homework that was turned in that day and make notes about what to review the next day.

A New Approach

2010-01-29T23:50:00.000-06:00

I am ending this week feeling like I am standing on unleveled ground with a subject that I actually felt very comfortable teaching. Reading has been such a pleasure to teach because it is my favorite subject and it lends itself to using great instructional methods. It took a while to get used using the basal and learning the structure of the teacher guide and the flow of the week, but now that I’ve got it down, it is a source of comfort because I know what I need to do each day because it is prescribed for me. I have, of course, incorporated my own activities that add diversity to the learning experience and give students opportunities to creatively apply the strategies and skills they have learned. Nonetheless, I have felt secure in using the basal because I know what I need to teach and many suggestions on how to teach it.

Now that the pendulum has started swinging back to a more holistic approach to reading instruction other than the currently prescribed curriculum, I am a little nervous about how I can effectively stray from the basal while still teaching the content and priority standards required by the district. I am excited that I can be a part of this new wave because it will give me more depth to reading instruction abilities. I know that I have what it takes to successfully give my students meaningful experiences with authentic literature and with ‘Just Right’ books. I think that I will begin to feel less stressed about it all by thinking more deliberately about how to change the face of the literacy block in my classroom.

I Shall Return

2010-01-20T21:59:00.002-06:00

Wow...this has been the craziest week and a half of my life!!!! I have been super busy since I am planning for completely taking over my second subject. I started with Reading and now I'm on to Math! I have to have all of my lesson submitted the Friday before the week I'm going to teach them. I don't think I realized how busy this would make my life during the week! I plan on posting this weekend about the lows and highs of the week. I hope everyone is having an incredible week...the weekend is almost here!

Fighting Words

2010-01-13T19:38:00.002-06:00

I witnessed my first fight in my classroom today. It was by no means the first one of the year, but it was the first one for which I was actually present. It was a skirmish (using one of our vocab words this week!) between two students that have had an altercation before. After talking to parents and working with the pair to resolve their issues, we didn’t see any real problems. We put them in the same group when we rearranged desks and we didn’t have any problems to begin with. Recently they had been going at it a little and we decided to move them. We wanted them to try to work it out, but given their history it wasn’t worth it. Today at lunch, there was an issue with one of the boys throwing crayons at the other one. I intervened and told both parties to stop throwing things and if they didn’t have anything nice to say, they shouldn’t say anything at all. This seemed to do the trick, but boy was I wrong!! We were lining up for recess and I purposely called groups to line up in a way that would not put those two students together. Somehow, unknown to me, they were standing right next to each other in line. I turned around, saw them, and attempted to tell them to separate, but before I could, D. turned and shoved P. with full force-even knocking another student in his path to the ground. I was so flustered in that instance and had no clue what to do. I immediately moved D. out of the room and called for the principal who happened to be standing in the hallway at the time. I then asked P. if he was okay and sent him to my CT. We had to send the other girl who was collateral damage to the nurse for a bruised nose. I’ve always wondered what I would do if a fight broke out in the classroom….now I know.

Shooting Stars

2010-01-09T19:40:00.004-06:00

On Friday, I requested an announcement be made wishing our basketball team good look at their game. I felt so bad, because the secretary add libbed "good luck boys" at the end of the announcement....we have 1 girl on the team. I made sure to clarify this statement in my class with "good luck boys and girl".

This morning I went out to support some of my students playing in their first basketball game. I told them that I was coming, but I don't think many of them believed me. So, I showed up, all decked out in the school colors and ready to lose my voice cheering them on! I had never seen a kid basketball game before, so it took a while for me to get used to the double dribbles and traveling that happened with just about each pass! By the second half, the team got into a rhythm and put down some nice shots. So who won.......WE DID!! GO STARS!! It was really great to see kids shine on the court, who do not shine as much in the classroom. Everyone is good at something...it's amazing when they actually have a chance to show it. The looks on their faces at the end of the game were priceless! I'm glad I got to see those faces instead of ones of disappointment. I would say about 85% of the team is comprised of pouters, whiners, and sore losers. I hope they keep on winning...but I hope if they do lose a game, it can be a teachable moment about how to lose graciously. The game next Saturday is at 8:30am...I may just be there in spirit because my flesh will probably be snoozing!

Desk Arrangement Disaster

2010-01-08T19:40:00.004-06:00

Attempting to try something new, we put our students in groups of 4 to give them an opportunity to work more collaboratively with assignments and to motivate some students who have had some behavioral and academic challenges by grouping them with some students who are positive role models in both areas. This was such a challenge because we had more people who needed role models than we had role models to group them with. We have quite a few students who cannot be paired with almost half the class because they are easily distracted by those students. I have come to the conclusion today that our current arrangements WILL NOT WORK!!! There were two of four groups that were off task just about all day. It was only when their groups were broken up and dispersed throughout the room that we saw even a hint of change in behavior. I really don't know if I want go from groups to maybe pairs or just try a new set of 4-person groups...gotta figure something out for Monday!

On the Bright Side

2010-01-07T19:51:00.002-06:00

So, no snow day today....BUT.....we only had 9 students come to class today!! I know it is going to be torture getting the other half of the class caught up on what they missed today but I absolutely LOVED the smaller class (not that my class of 18 students isn't small to begin with). I was able to do things with this group that fail miserably when the rest of the class is there....games to enrich content, allowing students to complete independent work on the carpet (which usually becomes a disaster when more than one student in on the carpet!) With me and my CT there, we were able to provide more one on one attention, which was great during our math lesson on mixed numbers and improper fractions. Even though the students who actually showed up today are the more 'rambuncious' of the group, they were amazingly well-behaved!! I even wrote two POSITIVE notes home for two students who are often the most difficult to deal with. Even though I did not get my snow day, they day didn't turn out to be too bad!

Learning as I Go

2010-01-06T16:43:00.006-06:00

My 2 weeks of winter break were nice and relaxing. I was able to get quite a few books read and of course, I purchased some more! I am currently reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and it is a great book! Break technically isn't over for me until this Friday because my student teaching program does winter break based on the university schedule, not the school district schedule. I, however, decided to come back this past Monday. I just felt like it would be better for me to come back when my students did. Them seeing me here all day, everyday from the start helps them to see me not as "the assistant", but more as a "real teacher". It's funny though because they asked me today if I would be there tomorrow because last semester I was not in the classroom because I had to attend my methods classes.

I have assumed all morning routines and have been planning and implementing lessons for reading. In addition, I have been planning work station activities for the students to complete during Guided Reading. Our theme is Voices of the Revolution, and our anthology selection has been about Paul Revere. One of the work station activities was called "Old Words, New Words", in which students search the selection for 'old' words that the author uses that are not used much today (ex: porringer). Then they were to look up a definition for the word or use context clues to define it. Finally they were to write a 'new word' or a synonym to the old world that we use today (ex: bowl). The second activity was writing a narrative from the perspective of Paul Revere's horse (how he felt during the ride, what his/her personality is like.

I wanted to do the same two activities for the whole class because I felt like it would allow students to work together and get help from each other because there was a strong likelihood they were working on the same activity. Unfortunately, it did not go as planned. It wasn't a total disaster but there were quite a few students who were not very productive during this time. After observing which students were working, I noticed that most of my students who struggle with reading were the ones who were off task/disruptive. I think the task of the "Old Words, New Words" was a bit too challenging. Even with my assistance, it still wasn't clicking. Lesson Learned: I have to work harder to differentiate these activities. It would be great if they all could do the same one, but that is not realistic. I am well aware of differentiation, but for whatever reason, it never occurred to me to differentiate work station activities. Well, those who know better, do better!

I have cut my hours down at the after school program from 3 to 2 days/week. I must say, it felt pretty great to be home before 6:30pm!! I left school at 4 after getting some things ready for tomorrow...hopefully I'll take advantage of this and get to bed a little earlier! We are supposed to get about 4-7 inches of snow, high winds and cold temps...snow day??!!!??!

Holly Jolly Holiday Program

2009-12-18T22:28:00.005-06:00

A few days ago, I went to my school's Holiday Program. I remember singing in my own school's Holiday Program in 5th grade. I was extremely excited to see my kids performing and enjoying themselves. Since I was technically on my Winter Break, I was not delegated to supervise any students or direct any parents to the gym...I was able to just sit down and enjoy the show. I say this like I didn't go down to my room at all to help out with organizing, getting props ready and making sure everyone got down to the gym at the appropriate time....just couldn't help myself!! I think the two highlights of the entire program were the Alvin and the Chipmunks performance. There are three brothers who are in 2, 3, and 4th grade who played the roles of Alvin and his brothers. They were absolutely hilarious...you could tell they really put a lot of work into perfecting their parts! They were great!!

The second highlight was during the 5th grade performance. They were signing the Jingle Bell Rock song and towards the end, 3 of my students grabbed toy guitars from underneath the risers and started rocking out...seriously!! One was doing the classic move when you get on your knees and bend backwards. Another one was doing scissor kicks in the air!! It was incredible!!

I was not around for all of the planning, rehearsals, and other preparations that went into making it a success, but I absolutely enjoyed the program...it was a treat to see my students having fun putting on a great show!

Change- Hopefully for the Better

2009-12-16T00:09:00.003-06:00

I have been reflecting a lot on what I want the classroom environment to be like in the Spring when I student teach. Luckily, the nature of my program is such that we have a vested 'ownership', so to speak, of the classroom. My CT has told me that when I take over in January, I will be calling the shots. We differ in some of our philosophies about instruction, discipline, etc. There are some things that do not work for me in the room. Below are some of my thoughts on one of the behavior management techniques that my CT uses that do not mesh with my own philosophy: An explanation of how it works and how I want to use it differently when I am teaching.

What I See:
 Number System: When a student misbehaves, they are usually given one verbal warning. Any other misbehavior after that initial warning, students are given a number. The numbers range from 1-4.
o 1 = Not showing respect for themselves, others or property.
o 2 = Not following directions, which includes being off task and talking.
o 3 = Disruptive- out of seat, loud noises, bothering other students, etc.
o 4 = Not prepared for class, missing homework, books, notices to be returned, etc.

 There is no set amount of numbers that students get before a steeper consequence is implemented.
 At the beginning of the year, we would send out a behavior report every Friday informing parents on how their child behaved throughout the week. Explanations of what each “number” meant were included with the report and it had to be signed by a guardian and brought back on Monday.
 By about October, we were not sending out behavior reports any more
 The idea of getting a number really has no impact on student behavior. One of the consequences of getting multiple numbers throughout the day is making a phone call home for students to inform parents about their misbehaviors. This is done in front of the whole class during instructional time.
 I have had trouble with this system because my CT does not have a standard set of numbers that a student must get before a phone call is made. I also do not like that phone calls are made during instruction time and in front of the entire class. It embarrasses the student and kills time that could be spent teaching. I don’t feel like this method does anything to correct and resolve poor student behavior…it simply dishes out a what the teacher feels is a punishment, but what the students just chalk up to another part of the day.

What I Want to See:

Since this is not my own classroom, I understand that I can not just say “out with the old and in with the new”. I have given a lot of thought to how I can reconcile her inefficient system with my desire to correct behavior, not to punish, and to maintain student dignity and respect. Since students are already used to the number system, I would like to maintain it. I would like to establish a limit to the number of numbers that I will issue out before further contact is made with parents/guardians or administrators. This is how I see the number system in play: A student incessantly talks when lining up and walking in the hallway to specials, lunch and the restroom. The first time the student does not follow the expectation of no talking in the hallway, I will tell them that they have a number 2 because they did not follow the expectation of no talking. I will tell them that I know they can do better and expect them not to talk in the hallway. If this behavior continues, I will tell them that they have another number. I will also talk with this student about what unacceptable behaviors I have seen and ask them what we can do together to make sure that it does not happen again. For example, does she need to stand somewhere else in the line so she isn’t tempted to talk, if I give her a silent signal when she is talking, will that help her to check her behavior? After we have this discussion and agree to whatever steps we have talked about, hopefully the behaviors will be changed for the better. If after this second step, the student is still not following directions, they will receive a third number and either a phone call will be made by me sometime throughout the day to their guardians or a note will go home with the student explaining their behavior throughout the day, to be signed by guardians and brought back the next day.

This is not set in stone, so to speak. I don’t know if it should be after the third or 4th number that I call/write home. If I refuse to use instructional time to call parents and I along with my school administration are against sending students out of the classroom unless safety is in question, what will happen with the students who continue to misbehave after their 3rd number? Will I continue to use down time to conference with these students, only to spend even more time after school calling home or writing behavior reports? These are some of the kinks that I haven’t worked out yet but I’ve still got a little time to figure it out before I meet with my CT. I’m trying to flesh my thoughts out as much as possible so she understands my rationale for amending the current system.

No Laptop = Accomplishment

2009-12-15T19:21:00.000-06:00

Wow, it has been a crazy few days for me!! On Thursday night, my computer ‘caught’ a virus and died on me! I had never had a virus on my computer before so I started freaking out, which is a typical reaction for me when facing an unfamiliar crisis. So, I took it in to a computer shop to get repaired on Friday and I got it back today. That makes a whole 4 days with no computer….and let me just say it was the longest 4 days of my life!!!! The first couple of days were the roughest because I seriously did not know what to do with myself without my laptop. I am ALWAYS on my computer when I’m home. If I’m doing homework, watching TV, talking on the phone, eating….I’m always on it! I soon realized how much time I wasted on sites like Facebook, YouTube, and incessantly checking my emails when I know that I probably don’t have any!!! I decided to take the incredible amount of free time that I always wish I had and do some things that I have been wanting to do.

Early this semester, I blogged about filing away my lesson plans, handouts, and other teaching resources acquired from my classes. This summer, I organized the papers I had into a system that works for me. So, this weekend, I decided to file away all of the lessons, reflections, and other resources into my expandable file folder. It took about 3-4 hours to get everything organized and put away, but it is all done!!!

I also took time this weekend to read 2 new books that I bought. They are not any of the ones I mentioned in one of my recent posts….I got a B&N gift card for my bday and of course I had to spend it. I didn’t feel so bad this time because I actually read them!! The two books are Literacy Work Stations: Making Centers Work by Debbie Diller and Discipline with Dignity by Richard L. Curwin, Allen N. Mendler and Brian D. Mendler. I bought these books because I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do differently in the classroom when I take over and the major themes are discipline and work stations. I have an incredibly challenging class of students and I feel like the classroom management system is very ineffective in managing behaviors. I haven’t exactly figured out how to talk to my CT about amending the system. I don’t want to abolish hers (even though I won’t use it in my own classroom), but I want to tweak it and make it fit with my own style and philosophy. Any suggestions on how to have this discussion with my CT??

In regards to work stations, we use them during Guided Reading, but they are pretty pointless. My CT has the students either work on a reading assignment that she was not able to cram in during reading or work on a math review/introduction for the lesson in the afternoon so she won’t have to do it in the afternoon. This is great when our students need the occasional additional intervention for a specific topic, but not every day. Diller’s book, to me, is geared more towards the primary grades, but I can absolutely adapt it to fit my 5th grade classroom. In the paraphrased words of Debbie Diller, a literacy work station is an area in the classroom where students “use instructional materials to explore and expand their literacy”. I feel like in my classroom, it is used as a glorified study hall. One of my goals for next semester is to incorporate literacy work stations into our Guided Reading block and give my students an opportunity to work independently on meaningful work to practice what has been modeled by the teacher during instruction time. How are you using literacy work stations in your classroom??

I plan on writing more explicitly about the new things I want to implement in the way of discipline....stay tuned!

It's My Birthday!!!

2009-12-08T18:31:00.003-06:00

So.....today is my birthday!!!!!! Woo hoo!! Many people usually get all excited about there birthday celebrations, but seeing as though for the last 5 years, my birthday has always been during finals week, I'm usually never doing much celebrating on the actual day. I figured with me being at school, class, and work all day until 6pm, it would be more of the same but I could not have been further from the truth!!

Today, my CT sent me on an errand to make a billion copies. I was a little irritated that she wanted me to do this during the middle of the reading block, but I didn't make a big huff about it. When I got back, I was greeted by a "Happy Birthday" from the entire fifth grade. The other class came in when I left to go make copies and they put the finishing touches on their birthday cards they had been working on since yesterday...yes this means they had been keeping this secret from me for an entire day and a half!!! I was almost moved to tears when every single student got up to give me a hug and their card! My CT and the other student teacher both gave me small gifts. This was a day I will never forget! The students and staff were so sweet...I really felt special today!

I think the thing that really put me over the edge was that one of the students who gives me the most attitude every day in the after school program was unbelievable affectionate, kind, and respectful today. I cannot even count the number of hugs I received from her today!! I made sure to thank her for each and every hug she gave and told her how much it made my day!!!! Just when you start to wonder if there is any hope left, a breakthrough happens right before your eyes!! I absolutely love teaching and the impact you can have on a student that you don't even think is listening to you...man I love teaching!!

It Feels Good!!

2009-12-02T22:10:00.002-06:00

Today is my last day in 8th grade. This experience started off rocky, but has evolved into a learning opportunity and a chance for me to grow personally and professionally. I went in this morning to talk with the principal and thank her for allowing me in her building to gain experience with the Middle School level for the last 6 weeks. I really feel that even though there were bouts of tension with the CT's, things have turned around and I have been able to grow from it.

Anywho, the principal told me that she has been impressed with my performance and would love to have me in her building next year!! She said she has heard nothing but great things about me in the classroom. She told me that she would prefer to have me at her school next year, but at the very least, in district. "We need you around" were her exact words. Imagine my jaw hitting the ground, because that is just about what happened!!

WOO HOO!! I could barely contain myself! It feels awesome to know that even when the situation seems rough, people are still out there watching and taking note of the good work you are doing. My talk with the principal has opened my eyes to how important it is to stay positive and optimistic because you never know what the outcome of that mental shift may be. I definitely plan on staying in communication with my CT and the principal at this school. I don't think I see myself working in that school, but I know the experiences I have had there will lend themselves to many more opportunities in the future.

Yes, it's True: I'm a Bibliophile

2009-11-29T19:51:00.003-06:00

I had a wonderful break at home with my family. I didn't do any homework...I don't really have a lot of it, but I'm so used to working all the way through break that not doing anything made me feel like a slacker! I don't think I've mentioned this before, but perhaps my favorite place of all time is Borders. I love to read, but I think even more so than that, I love to buy/collect books. Yep, I'm an addict. I buy more books than I know what to do with! I get a rush with every book I pick up and and carry to the counter. My pocketbook may not feel this same rush, but whose asking my pocketbook anyway? So, the 3 books I bought this weekend bring the grand total of books I need to read to about 7. They are as follows:

- Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Letters to a Young Teacher by Jonathan Kozol
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
- Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage by Paulo Freire
- Young Gifted and Black by Theresa Perry, Claude Steele, and Asa Hilliard III
- Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

The problem that persists is that I am eager to read these books, but whenever I have a free second, I am more inclined to pick up the remote control and channel surf than devour these books that I have been dying to read. Odd, I know, but it always happens that way. Hopefully during Christmas break, I'll be able to turn over a new leaf!

Watch What You Say

2009-11-24T21:12:00.001-06:00

So here’s a funny story…today was hat day/crazy hair day at the middle school. Most of the boys wore hats and the girls wore crazy hair. It took incredible control for me not to ask each person who passed me with a hat on to take it off…guess it’s the teacher in me! Anyway, my Language Arts noticed one of the girls in our 1st hour class looking sad. She asked her if everything was alright and told her to smile because the week was almost over. My CT then took a glance at her hair and said, way to show your school spirit for Crazy Hair Day! I’m not even gonna lie, it did look pretty darn crazy! After getting a stone cold look from the girl, my CT asked “You did your hair like that for Crazy Hair Day, right?” The now furious student replied “No, I did NOT do my hair like this for Crazy Hair Day” and stormed off. Lesson learned: never make a comment about a student’s hair if you do not know for sure the reason it was styled that way!!!

Wrong again!

2009-11-23T20:18:00.000-06:00

My CT in my Spanish class was out all last week, and consequently was unable to complete my Field Experience Evaluation. I talked to her today while the students were taking their Spanish test and asked if she could fill it out at whatever time was most convenient for her. She decided to fill it out during class and discussed it with me when she finished. She checked high marks for all areas except: “Written communication is free of grammatical errors” and “Displays positive interpersonal skills with staff”. WHOA!!!! WAIT A MINUTE!! These are among the many thoughts that flew around in my head in a span of 15 seconds. I had a look of wonderment on my face so she decided to explain her rationale.

The lower mark for written errors was because I do supposedly do not use standard script when I write on the board. By this, she is referring to the fact that I write my lower case “a” like it is printed here on the computer rather than how it was taught in kindergarten. Now keep in mind, in all of the in-service and orientations I have been to this year, no one has ever mentioned to me that writing in script was mandatory, but maybe I dazed off during that talk. My 5th grade CT, who would be more entitled to make this critique than this lady, never talked to me about this and I wrote on the board every day! I guess my frustration stems from my belief that how I write my a’s in 8th grade is of very little overall importance. To me, they should and do know that there are at least 2 ways of making this letter and both should be able to be recognized. I would say my CT made this critique because she didn’t have anything else to comment on, but boy was I wrong!

The second critique she made was of my interpersonal skills with other staff. I asked her to clarify what she meant by this because I was totally flabbergasted!! She told me there was one instance. At the beginning of the year, there was a team planning meeting. The interns expected we would discuss the goals and mission of the team and what the expected of us. Instead, we were welcomed with about 120 manila folders and 120x4 progress reports which we first had to alphabetize, then stuff in their appropriate folder- all while the CT’s explained to us that this is what teaching is. Mind you, I have already spent an entire quarter teaching, meeting with parents, conferencing, grading, filling, organizing, decorating, etc. My CT refused to let me get involved with the students (which is the heart and soul of teaching), but instead put me in teacher boot camp with filing and alphabetizing for conferences that I would not even be attending!!! Any who, the system of alphabetizing that my Spanish CT wanted me to use was incredibly complex. Call me slow, but I just didn’t get how she wanted me to do it. So I simply and what I thought was respectfully said “I don’t really understand how to do it this way, so I’ll just use my own system”. All of the papers got alphabetized and filed without a hitch. I thought education was distancing itself from the “there’s only one way to figure this out” mentality…guess I was wrong again! This CT never made any reference to me about my tone or disrespect any day during the 3 weeks since this meeting, but clearly she was bothered by whatever did or did not exist in my comment. I think it was very unprofessional for her not to address this issue to me when it happened, but then turn around and write it on probably the only evaluation I will have from her during this experience. I’m trying to focus on the positive comments she made (my great enthusiasm, preparedness, and eagerness to teach), but I just find my self sweating the small stuff.

Tomorrow is my last day before break!! I teach Language Arts all day tomorrow so I’m pretty excited about that! I am leaving the stress of my evaluation ordeal write here on this post…I feel a huge weight lifted off already!

Broken Heart

2009-11-18T22:19:00.003-06:00

Today was a rough day at the after school program. When I arrive at the school, I go around and shake hands, hug, high five every single 4th and 5th grader. I believe that the power of the "touch" is incredible. I know that many of my students do not get this at home so I make sure that I do this every time I see them. Well, it seemed like things were going to go well today, but that soon changed. No sooner than we made it to the room to begin the study hour did one student start in with the problems. This students has been talked about frequently in my blog- one of the boys who gave me a very, very difficult time at the beginning of the year, saying he did not want to be in my class and he hated coming to school because he wanted to be with the other teacher...remember now? Well, this kid has occupied a special place in my heart...he is as sweet as pie and acts out in incredible ways because he is starving for attention. His home life is horrid and whether negative or positive, he'll take what he can get.

Well, he is actually in the other 5th grade room for homework hour but today he kept getting up and coming into my room. The rule is that you stay in your room unless you have permission to leave, which he clearly broke. While in my room, he was bothering another student. When he was asked to stop, he refused. He then replied to the student he was bothering "Shut up or I'll stab you in the eye with a pencil". I think it is pretty obvious that this kind of talk is not okay. Threats are not tolerated by any means in our school so I had to write him up. I felt bad afterward because this was his second write up, which means he is suspended for a day from the program.

I say I felt bad because I feel like he is always punished for things beyond his control- his home life. He cannot deal with the fact that he is one of 9 kids all living in the same home with a mom who has other priorities that often bump her children down on the list. He battles for attention at home and he comes to school and feels like he has to do the same thing. I know he had to be dealt the consequence that came with making a threat, but my heart aches for him because I know he is crying for help. I just don't know what I can do to help and make a difference. I do all I can to encourage his positive behavior, build confidence in his academic abilities and what he has to offer the world as a beautiful person. Since I cannot go in and wave my magic wand in his home and make things better, what other options do I have?

Update on 8th Grade

2009-11-18T21:53:00.002-06:00

Things in 8th grade have been progressively getting better. My CT actually speaks to me now in words other than 'hello' and 'goodbye'!! She takes initiative to explain to my why she does things in the classroom in a particular way. I was able to teach in the Language Arts class all day last Tuesday. It was a lesson on immigration and it went very well. The students responded positively to me and even knew my name!!! It was great for the students to actually see me in front of the classroom, rather than just hanging out at the table in the back of the classroom. I did a spur of the moment activity with the class in which they all shared 1 sentimental item they would bring with them if they emigrated to another country. The students LOVED it and I got to learn quite a bit about them in the process....including the fact that one of the 8th grade girls has a baby!!! She said that she would bring her son with her to the new country...it was a very awkward moment....I guess it was a good thing she wanted to bring her child??!!?? Anyway, this experience was fantastic! I was a little nervous at first, but it all felt natural after a while. Unfortunately, that was probably my only and final day of teaching in Language Arts...the students are doing a novel unit and they spend ALL of their class time reading because she does not assign reading for homework. Take a second and think about how awful it is to sit through 4 hours of either the teacher or the audio recording of the book, each and every day that I am in the classroom.....SNORE!!!

I have been teaching often in Spanish. My CT and I have been alternating days; she teaches the first lesson to class A and I teach the same lesson to class B. She has been gone all week for jury duty (from which I thought teachers were exempt) so I have been teaching all week!!! Clearly, this has pleased the substitute teachers to no end!! I try to speak as much Spanish as possible, as immersion is the only true way to learn and understand a foreign language. Contrary to what my CT in this class thinks, the students catch on quickly. I think they feel a huge sense of accomplishment when they can figure out what I'm saying without me translating for them....LOVE IT!

Word on the street is that both my Spanish and L.A. CT's have expressed to my coordinator how great of a job I am doing in the classroom and how impressed they are with my ability to deliver instruction and connect with the students....YAY ME!!! Even though they don't show it all the time...it's good to know they're thinking it!

I only have 6 more days left in 8th grade (even though those 6 days stretch all the way until the week after thanksgiving). Even though most days I am not involved in any of the instruction in the classroom, I sit in the back and take notes on what I observe, would or wouldn't use in my own classroom. As miserable as I was the first few weeks, I decided that I would still try to take away as much as possible from this experience. As tough as this placement has been, I am still totally open to teaching in a middle school so I have to be proactive in learning as much as possible while I'm there!!

Behaviors Gone Wild!

2009-11-11T09:57:00.003-06:00

I know, I know....second post within 30 mins...it's just that a lot has happened over the last two weeks!! I was talking to my CT at my 5th grade school a couple of days ago. She works at the after school program too, so we get to chat and catch up on things. She told me that at the 5th grade "Data Day" meeting, she learned that the scores, particularly reading, of our students had plummeted since the beginning of the year. Students who had been our highest achievers had dropped from 144 wpm to 100 wpm. From what she told me, the tone of the meeting was one that pointed the finger at her and her instructional strategies. It was more like a "what the heck are you doing in there?" kind of attitude. They just couldn't understand why this would be happening. My CT discussed with the group that there is nothing different that she is doing now, compared to what she did during the 1st quarter. The thing that is different now is the out-of control behaviors in our classroom. The other teachers suggested other behavior management strategies for my CT to implement, but she has tried all of them.

I guess I am torn on this situation. I do not agree with the "dependence" for lack of a better word, that my CT has on worksheets and teacher-directed instruction. What I do know is that the incredible amount of behavior problems that we have in our classroom impeed and cooperative learning, "out of the box" experiences that we try to implement. Right now, they cannot handle it. I'm sure you're wondering, okay, how bad can the behaviors be? Well, the group of teachers that work on class lists decided to put the most challenging students in 5th grade in our classroom...why? Because they felt like my CT could handle it. Well, sure, she could handle them, but when you put all 12 of them (literally!!) in a classroom together...it is almost impossible to manage. During this second quarter, behaviors have started to escalate. Even with having conferences with each student, discussing behaviors with their parents, writing them up, suspending them, offering incentives or rewards for good behavior, and more, we still have the same problems. My kids are GREAT kids and they bring me so much joy! I look forward to seeing them everyday, not matter how off-the-wall their behaviors may be. Learning is being affected by their poor conduct, but what do you do? The other 5th grade class does not deal with these issues because they do not have the behavior problems that we do...by the way, this 5th grade teacher was on the committee that worked on the Class List!!!

I guess I just want to know if any of you out there have lived through a situation like this? I am not in the 5th grade class right now, but I am getting nervous because when I come back in January, I can only imagine what I will be walking in to.
I want to know what strategies other educators have used to get control of behavior problems so that true learning can actually take place.

Teaching Outside of the Box

2009-11-11T09:36:00.004-06:00

Wow...it's been a while!! I have been SWAMPED with lesson plans and papers for my methods courses. For the last 2 weeks I have been working on an Integrated Unit for my Capstone class....I decided to do it on the Mexican Revolution. It has been a ton of work and I am hoping to be done with 90% of it after today. This assignment has been very hard for me...everything I have learned about education has been about connecting all of the content areas. In many of my classes, we have discussed the problem for students that arises when they only learn math during the math period, science during the science period, and so on.

I am absolutely in agreement that the content areas should be integrated whenever possible, so students can see that the subject matter does not exist in isolation. However, perhaps the most difficult part of all of this is that I have seen little to not content integration in my experience thus far. How can this even happen, when you have pacing charts telling you what and when to teach, you have literacy and math blocks that must be totally uninterrupted minutes of math and literacy instruction? I feel like the reality presented to me throughout my schooling is NOT the reality that I am living now! Doing this Integrated Unit has been very tough for me because I have been thinking "inside the box" for most of this semester...it's been hard to come out. However, as I am planning these lessons, I see how AWESOME it will be when I actually teach it next semester!! The learning activities that I have planned (re-enactments, biome dioramas, Mexican Hat Dance Performance, Cooperative Learning Activities) will totally draw my students into the learning experience!!

When I take over my 5th grade classroom next semester, I want to have an "outside of the box" frame of mind. The amount of worksheets that my kids get every week is SICKENING! I understand that there is a time and place for them...but that time is not every day for every subject!! It will be difficult and require a lot of time to plan, but providing my students with rich learning experiences and a variation in learning activities will only enhance what they learn in my classroom!!

We Don't Know Everything

2009-11-01T19:57:00.003-06:00

So, this past Thursday and Friday I went back to my 5th grade class for Parent/Teacher Conferences. After all of the intensity that built up from stories from other teachers and student teachers, I very relieved to to find that none of the horror stories came to fruition. I enjoyed meeting the parents of the kids that I spent so much time with. Most of the parents that came in were totally concerned about how their students were doing in our class. They were eager to find out what they could do at home to help their student academically and/or behaviorally. Of course, the parents of the 2-3 students that we absolutely needed to meet with face to face did not show up. We even tried to contact them for a phone conference, but still no luck. I guess we'll keep trying with them.

Throughout my student teaching experience so far, I have been amazed at how much can be going on with a student and you never know until they or someone else tells you. An example of this is a student named "Cory" in my class. He is a sweet, hard working kid that is the lowest performing student in reading and math in my class. My CT and I have been mystified as to why he does not receive any special education services....he is that far behind. We still don't know why he was never recommended for testing, but during conferences we found out from his mom that a very devastating event happened in his family 3 years ago....his father was brutally murdered. This would put Cory in 2nd grade. From what his mom says, he never really grieved...just held it all inside. My heart aches thinking about how hard it must be for him every day knowing that his father was taken away from him. His 3rd and 4th grade years were spent moving from school to school. In spite of all of the chaos he's had in his life these last few years, he is focused, respectful, and determined to do his best. If we could give A's for work ethic, this kid would have a report card full of them!!! Even with all of the things going on in his life, he never showed it. Every day I see him I make sure to give him an extra hug and an extra word of encouragement....his strength pushes me to give my best- always!

8th Grade Horror

2009-10-27T18:57:00.002-05:00

So....I've started my second placement in an 8th grade Language Arts and Spanish class. All I can say is OMG!! The last two days has absolutely been the most dreadful experience ever!! There are about 6 interns from my program at this middle school and all of the CT's except for one treat us like the scum beneath their toes. All we do is push papers all day and work on our work from the methods course we're taking. The CT's do not interact with us at all and it is almost like we are a burden to them or something. Not to mention, I have had almost ZERO interactions with the students because all I do is sit in the back of the classroom! Thank goodness I get to leave that heck hole and go back to my 5th graders a few days a week for the after school program!! Since I consider myself to be an optimistic realist, I know that these teachers really don't want us around, but I am HOPING that by some miraculous event, things will get better. Oh, did I mention that the Spanish teacher knows exactly NOTHING about the Spanish language??!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHH!!! Okay, I know that not everyone who teaches a foreign language has majored in it like I have, but geez, to say you only took 3 courses in college 10 years ago is really sad. To top it off, she gets all flustered when she says something in Spanish when I'm in the room so she refuses to let me say anything in Spanish...I think it's because she doesn't want to look bad. That is definitely not my style and I would never make anyone feel like that. These teachers see no place for us in their classrooms and let me tell you, I'm not feeling much like being there either!!! Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Math Lesson = SUCCESS!!!

2009-10-25T11:02:00.003-05:00

Friday October 23 was my last day in 5th grade for another 6 weeks. I will be moving to a middle school to teach 8th grade L.A. and Spanish for 6 weeks...excited and nervous all at the same time!! I will still see most of my 5th graders each week at the after-school program but I will definitely miss being with them during the day!

Well, my CT has been under-the-weather for a couple of weeks now and at lunch to go to a much needed doctor’s appointment. Since I had planned to stay for the whole day anyway, I just told her that I would teach math that afternoon. As much as I wanted to do it, I was terribly nervous on the inside. Math has been the subject that I feel the least comfortable with teaching. I always feel like I need to prep more for math than any of the other subjects and even after much preparation, I still do not feel prepared to teach it so I usually just walk around and help students while my CT teaches. Anyhow, the topic of the day was problem solving, an area of difficulty for many of the students. Since I knew I was nervous and the kids did not want to touch a word problem with a 10 foot pole, I pumped myself up, had a ton of energy and made the students active participants in the lesson. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many of them engaged in the lesson at once. I think for a split second, they actually enjoyed problem solving with word problems!!

This experience taught me two very important lessons: one about myself and one about my students. In regards to myself, I learned that preparation is the key to confidence. Before my CT left, I looked over the math lesson in the teacher guide, reflected on the problems and solved them on my own. I thought about the points of the problems that would not make sense to the students and how I would make it clear to them. Taking this time to become familiar with the topic helped me when I was in front of the class because I knew what I was talking about. I knew where I wanted the students to be at the end of the lesson which made actually getting them there a whole lot easier!

In regards to my students, I learned that they model the energy and enthusiasm that the teacher has for the lesson. When I told the class that we were going to work on word problems, I cannot even count the number of sighs and moans I heard!! However, when I started talking about the problem with incredible energy and excitement, the students sat up and paid attention to me. Initially, it was probably because they were trying to figure out if I was half-crazy or not, but eventually I think it was because they were involved in the task of solving the problem. Another thing is that students need to be validated, especially when dealing with a topic that is often challenging for them. Students would volunteer to share an answer and if it happened to be incorrect, I would praise them for trying and working hard on it. I would ask them to go back and see if they could figure out where they went wrong in the problem. When the students heard my praise, even if they had the wrong answer, they still felt like they had something to offer. I think this increased their levels of confidence ten fold and also helped them to be more critical of their solutions and the steps they took to find the answer.

I want to go forth in teaching with the same enthusiasm and confidence that I had today. Everyday may not feel as great as Friday did, the students may not behave as well as they did on Friday, but the students deserve to get my best every day. It is all worth it to see students who normally do not share their thinking at all, feeling comfortable and confident to do exactly the opposite. Energy is truly contagious; when the learning experience comes alive, everyone is able to reap the benefits. This day taught me the incredible influence that I have on my students. At the end of the day, one of my students asked me if I like math because I seemed so excited when we did the problems together. Even though math is by far my least favorite subject, if I can convince my students that I love it, I am absolutely doing my job!!!

Sticks and Stones

2009-10-13T20:28:00.000-05:00

Something happened today that was one of the most hilarious yet saddening events of my life!! In the afterschool program, the other student teacher and I had devised a plan for splitting up the rather large group of students. I think I spoke to this in a previous post, but for whatever reason, the students never want to be in my room. I honestly think it is because of my no-nonsense approach to classroom management. If you are doing what you should be doing, we will have the best time, but if you are not it won’t be that way at all. If you can’t show me that you can handle the responsibility that comes with being a 5th grader, than you cannot enjoy the things that responsible and respectful 5th graders enjoy.

Back to the story…so we came up with a plan so that the students that were with me one week would rotate to Miss S’s room and her students would then rotate to my room. We put them on a 1 week rotation so we wouldn’t have to worry about students asking us everyday if they could be in her room; everyone would get there chance.

Well today was the day that our classes were supposed to rotate. Before we left to go down to the classrooms, the coordinator of the program came to us with a “revised” class list that he created. He wanted to split certain students up and also to put an end to the ingenious rotation plan we created. As soon as he said that, Miss. S and I knew that this was going to get real ugly!!! So we had my CT, who also works in the program, announce the changes. We didn’t want to have anything to do with it! She is a tell-it-like-it-is kind of lady, so she wasn’t to concerned about their reactions. She called one group of students, the ones that would be in my classroom to line up at the door. Then she struck the knock-out blow….she told them they would all be in MY classroom!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! You would’ve thought they found out they were being shipped to the moon! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such long faces before in my life!! So while the students in my room were in deep mourning, the students in Miss. S’s room were having the celebration of their lives. They were bragging to my kids like they just swept the opposing team in the NCAA Championships!! INCREDIBLE!!! This was hilarious, but I’m not gonna lie, I felt kind of sad too! The reaction that these kids had to being in my classroom; the huffing, puffing, and stomping down the hallway along with comments like “I don’t want to be in your room”, “Man, I’m not coming back to this program if I have to be with her!!” in addition to a few tears, really made me feel bad. I have never said a mean or cruel word to these students, so to hear these comments dished to me, I was hurt.

I have high expectations for my students…end of story. I wish they didn’t dread being in my room, but it is what it is. They know that when they come into my room, though, that I am totally committed to making sure they understand the content, become more responsible and are socially and emotionally well. If this happens to exclude them liking me, oh well. It has really taken me 7 weeks to utter those words and actually mean it. I still get sad when I hear the discontent some feel, but at the end of the day, I know that I my goal is to give them what they need. Their words may hurt sometimes, but as long as they don’t start throwing sticks and stones at me, I’ll be good!

I'll Be There

2009-10-07T00:15:00.001-05:00

During the afterschool program, the students spend the first hour working on homework. Since there are so many 5th graders, we divide them up so that each room has half of the 5th graders. This particular day, the students in my room were working on publishing a writing piece so I was pretty busy setting up the computers while at the same time helping other students with their math homework. Kate, a student working in the other room, came over and asked me if she could read her fluency piece to me. In a sort of flustered state, I told her that she could read with me once I finished setting up the computers. So, she was just standing around in my room, and I encouraged her to go to her room and work on something else. I told her that when I finished, I would go over and get her. Time passed by and I completely forgot to go over and get her. Since she was not in my room, I couldn’t use her face as a reminder to go and assist her.

This was a very difficult situation because I know that Kate really wanted to read to me. She has been encountering a lot of problems with peers talking about the way she dresses and acts. I have made it a point to be there for her and encourage her to be comfortable with who she is and what she wears. Because of this, I think she has connected with me in a way that she hasn’t with other teachers. When I saw her at the end of the day (before even realizing that I had forgotten to read with her) she looked at me and had a very sad look of disappointment. It did not register with me why she looked so sad, but looking back, I know it was because I let her down. This situation was very upsetting to me. The next day, I approached her and sincerely apologized for forgetting about her. I explained to her that I was not trying to blow her off. I told her that on Monday, if she wanted to read with me, I would make sure that it happened. She gave me a hug and said it was okay and she wasn’t mad. She had an enormous smile on her face and happily walked back to her class.

I can see how some would think this situation was insignificant. It wasn’t like I flat out lied to Kate or forgot about her because I was surfing the internet or chatting with the other student teachers. Even though the reason why I forgot about her may be “valid”, the disappointment that Kate felt was also valid. I believe that Kate’s desire to read with me went beyond her wanting to get done with it so she wouldn’t have homework. I think it was her reaching out to me and in this case, I let her down. I’m not being harsh on myself; I just want to set a standard for meeting the needs of students beyond instruction. Furthermore, even when I do get sidetracked (which will more than likely happen again), I understand that I cannot be above apologizing and protecting the feelings of my students.

Takin' Over!!

2009-10-05T19:36:00.003-05:00

I know it's been a while since my last post, but I have been SWAMPED!! I'm not writing much because I have to do this stupid project for my methods course and on top of that, looking over lesson plans because my CT is sick and will be out tomorrow!! YIKES!! This will be my first take-over and I'm scared stiff!! I have a lot of issues with behavior in my class and that's when my CT is still in the same room!! I am doing my best to be optimistic and positive about tomorrow but I must admit I've got butterflies! Now, I need to get find the strength to focus on my methods work so I can finish it and make sure I'm ready for tomorrow!! Wish me luck!!

Finders Keepers

2009-09-25T01:19:00.001-05:00

I feel like many of my posts are focused on the challenges of teaching…so I’m going to add a touch of comic relief!

This actually happened to me a couple of weeks ago, but it is so hilarious that it warrants being posted for the world to read. In our guided reading, our class was reading a story called “The Pumpkin Box”. The character in the book liked to dig for things and one day he dug and found a time capsule. My students were to think about a time when they found something (relating their personal experiences back to the text). One student said they remember when they found a toy that they had lost. Another student remembered when she found her mom’s keys. And then there was “Daniel”!! Daniel explains a time when he found….wait for it….a BILLION dollar bill!!! So, of course, my CT and I thought did not really focus too much on this because clearly he didn’t find a BILLION dollar bill. But that was his story and he was most certainly sticking to it!!

Daniel said that he found the BILLION dollar bill outside somewhere (he forgot where) and he gave it to his principal. By the time he got to this point in the story, the entire class was in an uproar- “You’re telling a fib because there’s no such thing as a BILLION dollar bill!!!”, “You must mean a MILLION dollar bill!” My CT and I tried to get him to fess up about the validity of his story, but he was about as adamant as someone who was telling the truth!! If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve believed him!!!

So when things in the classroom get tough, think about how much easier your life would be if you were the one who received a BILLION dollar gift from a student!!! I don’ know about you, but I’ve got my fingers crossed!! Who needs the Lottery when you can have a BILLION dollar bill!!

Stop Picking on Me!!!

2009-09-25T01:01:00.002-05:00

There are two students (one boy- “Luke”and one girl- “Melissa”) in my class that are perhaps the most stubborn and rebellious students I have ever worked with. They are frequently engaging in behavior that does not coincide with the expectations in the classroom or school. With the majority of students in my class, when they are being disrespectful or disruptive, I address it and they correct the behavior. With these two students, every situation becomes an argument or a challenge. They never accept responsibility for their actions and have, on numerous occasions accused me of “picking on them”. They defy the warnings that I give them and consciously choose not to replace the poor behaviors in an attempt to challenge my authority (my hypothesis). Once I “make them mad” it is a lost cause for the rest of the day

Melissa and Luke have had a profound impact on the classroom dynamic and my teaching. When they refuse to work, they make it seem like it in our class you can do whatever you want, and when you want to do it. Luckily, the other students haven’t modeled this behavior yet. It isn’t fair to the other students that they have to work, even if they don’t want to, but Melissa and Luke can work when they feel like it. When working in small groups, these two students frequently refuse to cooperate. One two separate occasions I have gotten so fed up with their poor attitudes that I have sent them back to their desks. I was spending so much time getting them back on task that I was neglecting the students who were taking care of business. So, what purpose did that serve? Melissa and Luke just went back to their desks and doodled, distracted others, or whatever else they felt like doing.

They have also made me question whether or not I am targeting them throughout the day. I also feel weary of enforcing consequences for their misbehaving because of the drama that ensues each time I ask them to correct their conduct. I hesitate to say that I am afraid of them because I am not. I guess I just feel like they are going to be defiant no matter what, so why even bother I know this is not the mentality I should have, but I do not know what else to do. . I sometimes feel like I am arguing with my little sibling or cousin, but I still end up “losing” in the end. I talked to my CT about it and she said that in no way am I targeting Melissa and Luke. Oddly enough, she does not encounter the same attitude that I get with these students. As I discussed with the two students myself, if every time I look up you are doing something you should not be done, I cannot be picking on you. You need to correct you behaviors so that I am not always seeing you misbehaving. I also make it a point to praise these students when I see appropriate behavior. I tell them that I love how quietly they walked in the hallway or how patiently they waited for me to come around to assist them. Even with encouraging positive behaviors, I still have not made any headway with decreasing the amount of attitude I get throughout the day on most days.

The disrespect that these students show me almost on a daily basis is not acceptable. As frustrated as I get with them, every interaction I have with them, I am conscious that I am not holding grudge or being mean. Every time we cross paths, I want it to be a new start. Unfortunately, these two students won’t let that happen….at least not yet! For next week, I want to have a one-on-one talk with the students. I would make sure, though, that it did not seem like I was targeting these students. I want to highlight positive behaviors that I know they have shown in the past. During this meeting, I will also talk about negative behaviors I have seen as well. I would present students with behaviors they’ve exhibited and ask them to think about why they may have gotten a number and what they could have done differently. My ultimate goal is for the students to walk away knowing that I am not picking on them, but that they are responsible for their behaviors and must face the consequences of them. Maybe we could right up an agreement that says what the students will agree to and what I will agree to. In this agreement, I would also clarify what will happen if students do not hold their end of the deal. This is just one idea, but whatever I choose, if it does not work out, the next step will be having a nice sit-down or conversation with their guardians because their negative attitudes and behaviors cannot continue.

I could also take this situation and create an opportunity to confer with each student briefly to discuss great things I’ve seen them do and maybe some things they can commit to working on. After these conferences, I would maybe have the class right down some things that they think I could work on and turn them in to me. I want them to know that I am not perfect and even teachers have things we need to work on. The ultimate goal is for students to understand that anyone can improve their behavior or attitude at any time, but only they have the power to do it.

What a Waste!!!!

2009-09-21T22:18:00.001-05:00

First, I would like to thank everyone who has commented on my posts! Your insight is welcomed and I have learned so much from what you all have said to me. I am growing and becoming a better teacher with each passing day and you are helping to make that even more profound……THANKS!!

Well, now for our regularly scheduled program….the realities of teaching!! Okay, so today was a pretty good day, the usual challenging students were still at it, but it was overall a good day. There was, however, something that happened today that made me wonder about its effectiveness. Let me explain. A student from a 4th grade class was misbehaving in his classroom. The class as a whole was out of control because there was a substitute for the day. This student, who I’ll call “Joe”, was totally acting out. Early that morning, my teacher extended an option to the sub that she could send any unruly students to our classroom. Guess who came to our room after lunch….yep, it was Joe! The sub entered our classroom and asked (a.k.a. insisted) that Joe spend some time in our room because he was not behaving. The student came into our room and my CT told him to sit in a chair in the front corner of the class.

The student spent about 20 minutes just looking at the walls and I asked my CT if she wanted me to work with him on his assignments or discuss his behavior and what he could do differently next time. My CT told me no because he needed to sit and think about what he did. She felt that if he sat there long enough doing nothing, he would not act in such a poor manner again because he wouldn’t want to sit and do nothing. Joe ended up spending 1.5 hours sitting, not engaged in any learning, conflict resolution, or behavior modification.

Basically, I think this was a complete waste of time!! All it did was make the student even more upset and his time just sitting around did not do anything to discuss and modify his conduct. Joe was also a cross cat. Student (reason why he left our room after 1.5 hrs) and is probably at an even greater loss by not being in class to learn the material.

I don’t think this situation was handled well at all! Students need to be called out on their behavior, but they also need to talk about the consequences, and what they can do differently the next time. If these types of discussions do not take place, I do not feel like students are held accountable for their behaviors or given tools to improve. I feel like even when a student misbehaves, they still need to be valued. Today, Joe was not treated with respect today. I feel bad for him, but I know if presented with the situation when I am teaching, I will do things differently.

Survival of the Fittest Teacher

2009-09-15T21:32:00.002-05:00

I will officially consider today the most challenging day of my student teaching experience!!! I was so flabbergasted by the behavior of my students that I am STILL at a loss for words! Where do I even begin???????

I started to write about all of the things that went wrong today but I am not going to do that. I have vowed to try to be as constructive as possible and I want that to continue. Please know, however, that I have done my fair share of venting today, so I am not keeping everything bottled up, only to explode soon after! So no, my students did not follow directions today, nor did they respect each other, do their homework, or walk quietly in the hallway. But, at the end of the day, I love them to the moon and still want only the best for them. So, objectively looking at the chaos that was my day today, I feel like I did contribute to some of the madness. I believe that even though students are responsible for the behavior, teachers can contribute to problems in the classroom by having a short fuse, not implementing immediate consequences to poor behaviors, antagonizing students who need to be left alone because you want them to cooperate on your clock, and the list most certainly goes on. Below are the things that I want to work on to maintain more control of the classroom, respect student space and needs, and maximize the time spent learning:

- Don’t argue with students…..poor behaviors=negative consequences…end of story. I feel like I spent way too much time today arguing with students about whether or not they were actually doing what I “accused” them of doing. Assuming students understand expectations and resulting consequences, there is no need to debate whether or not it was fair or why they are in trouble and “Billy” isn’t.
- Praise those students who are taking care of business. Today, especially, I know these students were overlooked because so much time was spent dealing with the students who behaved poorly. I do not want to help create an atmosphere that inadvertently puts value and attention on inappropriate behaviors that are in no way deserving of it.
- One thing that I want to CONTINUE doing is discussing the day’s behavior with students. When there has been an issue with behavior, I always try to talk to the students about what I observed and ask them to tell me what contributed to their unacceptable behavior today. I focus on positive behaviors that I have seen in the past and want to see every day instead of the negatives ones. Most students are usually receptive to this and seem to appreciate that I want to understand why their behavior changed instead of just judging them as “being bad”. There are a couple of strong-willed students who refuse to talk to me and/or get very defensive during this time , so I have learned to wait until they cool down and are ready for a constructive dialogue.

At the end of the day, I can say I survived the most challenging day yet!! I am glad this day is over with and am ready to get back in there and start fresh. New day = new start. I can’t lie though, I am so happy that I have my methods courses ALL DAY tomorrow (never thought I’d say that). A break from the kiddos gets no complaints from me! I will see them for a few hours at the after-school program, but that will be a breeze!! Oh wow, and Friday is a school improvement day so no kiddos then either….I might just miss them by the time Monday gets here!!

Tattle, Tattle, Tattle-Tellers

2009-09-12T22:55:00.001-05:00

Frequently each day, I have students come up to me and tell me that someone cussed at them, some hit them, someone stole their mechanical pencil, or something to those effects. Some appear to be serious while others seem to be simply trying to get attention. Either way, in most situations, I did not see what happened.

This type of “tattling” is becoming more and more prevalent. It usually happens like this: “Lisa” gets in trouble by me for throwing a pencil eraser across the room. As I am reprimanding her, she tells me that “Mike” threw something at her too. Sometimes, it isn’t even spurred by a specific event. For example, “Tony” may come up to me as we are in the process of lining up for Specials and say, “Mark” hit me. These situations seem minor and more like he said, she said, but they have been causing a little frustration for me because I do not know what I should be taking seriously. How do I decide what is worth reacting to and what is better left ignored? What I fear is that I may choose to ignore something that is actually a valid concern and a student suffers because of it. Furthermore, if I choose not to ignore something, how should I respond/what should I say to that student? Do I even have the right to call them out if I didn’t even see them do anything? Overall, I have been casting most complaints to the side as “tattles” and honestly, I believe they are. I just wish I could refine my discretion as to what is serious and what is not.

I am certain that I will encounter more pressing issues in my career as a teacher. However, this is a situation that if left unresolved can really disrupt the classroom dynamic. I want my students to know that if there is a problem they can come to me and I will demand that they are treated with respect. On the other hand, my students need to understand that we do not have time to tattle. I also want to help them see that the more they come to me about insignificant things, I naturally grow less likely to believe them when there is truly something serious going on. I believe that part of my responsibility as a teacher is to help students learn to self-assess the situations in which they find themselves and determine if it is really worth bringing to my attention. Most times, students are capable of handling the situation without the intervention of a teacher. For example, if someone is bothering “Tony”, he can kindly ask that person to stop tapping their shoulder/stop humming, etc. I am aware that if I am having trouble knowing how and when to respond to these situations, my students almost certainly are too. I am committing myself to making sure that both I and my class have the tools needed to make the best decisions in these situations.

Sick of Complaints...So I'm Complaining!!

2009-09-10T21:26:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I need a place to vent and I couldn’t think of a better place! It has nothing to do with my school, CT, or students. The issue is with my cohorts in my year-long student teaching program. I feel like this is the whiniest group of girls I have ever worked with!!!! They complain about everything from the new math curriculum (which I think is quite wonderful!), our methods course work, our methods textbooks, having class in the morning, having class in the afternoon, reflections, reflections, having classrooms in which some students do not speak English at all, and the list most certainly goes on. I guess my frustrations stems from the belief that as student teachers, we are professionals. I understand that sometimes you just want to get things off of your chest, but when every meeting turns into a total bash about some aspect of our experience, it starts to get a little old.

One of the most annoying points of complaint comes from one girl who is so upset that she got a new student from a French-speaking country in Africa and speaks no English. First off, she refers to him as the “African kid”!!! I’m sorry, but that just sticks out to me as totally offensive…how about using his name or saying the new student?? Just a thought. Anyways, she talks about how frustrating it is that he doesn’t understand anything, doesn’t know how to walk up the stairs or in a line for that matter. I wonder if she has ever stopped to think that maybe his life experiences in his home country did not lend themselves to walking up stairs or walking in quiet lines not touching the walls or talking. Just a thought. I just feel that as educators, we have to be tolerant and understanding of experiences that differ from our own. It doesn’t make us stupid or incapable of learning, it simply means we have a different wealth of experiences to bring to the table. I did speak up a little, but sometimes you just can’t win. Ignorance is bliss for far too many. I do pray that they get it together for the sake of the children; they cannot afford to be exposed to such narrow-minded views.

Based on these last few weeks, I know it will be a long year. Hopefully the constant complaining and inability to accept the diversity of learners is not contagious. To make sure I don’t catch this virus, I am committed to reflecting on my own beliefs, comments, and practices and making sure they exhibit the compassion and desire to make change that dwells in my heart. Maybe my peers will be infected with those instead!! Hopefully that turns out to be more than just a thought!

Real Life Behavior Management

2009-09-06T15:00:00.001-05:00

While working on math with a small group during our intervention block, I had 2 out of 4 students that quickly became complete uncooperative. “Jeremy” was fine at the beginning. He was finished answering the problems early. He tried helping one of the other students but grew frustrated because they were not “getting it” quickly enough. “Jeremy” then started distracting other students by talking to them, he was drawing all over his worksheet, not responding when I would call on him, and simply not cooperating when his cooperation was needed. “Phillip” soon followed “Jeremy’s” lead. Out of nowhere, Phillip starts giving me attitude when I call on him. He completely ignored me when I would ask him a question. Eventually, I got fed up with their antics and demanded that both of them return back to their desks since they obviously did not want to cooperate. They both stomped off, snatching papers and pouting all the way back to their seats.

This was a very difficult situation for me. I ended up spending more time trying to get them to focus on the material than I did making sure that the math concepts for clear with everyone. Because I wanted to make sure that everyone benefited from the small group work, I think I put up with their behavior for longer than I should have. This impacted the students because the other two students who were working diligently lost valuable time with me. Also, Jeremy and Phillip got the attention they were looking for, but in the process sent me to a level of frustration that I had not experienced so far in the two weeks of school. I was mad at myself that I neglected the other two students but also irritated that I was not able to successfully get Jeremy and Phillip back on track.

I have now been exposed to the reality that students do not always want to work when and how I want them to work. Looking back, I think that Jeremy was off task because he was bored with the pace of the small group. He is one that takes a little while to understand a concept but when he gets it, he gets it. When seeing that he understood what he was doing, I should have had something else lined up to keep him occupied and challenged. I think he was subconsciously trying to tell me he needed something else, but I misread what he was doing. I later talked with him about his behavior and explained to him that if he is frustrated, upset, or even bored, he needs to let me know because otherwise I think he is just misbehaving. He was very receptive to my suggestions and I think going forward, both him and I will be more aware. Phillip on the other hand, would not even make eye contact with me afterward. I know he is very stubborn and holds grudges for about as long as he can. I just understand now that he is a follower and will behave as others are if he sees it gets them attention. Perhaps the most important thing I have discovered is that there must be zero tolerance for misbehaving because the learning experience for others is compromised. I can stop thinking about what more could have been accomplished in the group if I didn’t spend half of the time trying to get the other two on track. Student learning is my first priority and I will set the expectation that unruly behavior is not going to be tolerated. I also want students to know that it is their responsibility to communicate with me how they are feeling because I cannot read minds. I think that by establishing those expectations, I will hopefully be able to ensure that learning is taking up the majority of the time in the classroom.

Mistaken Identity

2009-08-28T19:46:00.000-05:00

There has been one reoccurring situation that bothered me at first, but now I’m just trying to let it go!! It’s not an issue with the students, but rather almost all of the staff and parents. So what am I talking about?? The following statements should make it a little clearer:

- Excuse me, you need to be in line! (Gentle push to help me get into line)
- We do not talk in the hallways, young lady!
- Oh my goodness, you mean you’re not one of the students?!

In a nutshell, everyone seems to mistake me for one of the students. Now I thought my professional dress and my “teacher demeanor” would help me stand out a little more but obviously I was mistaken. I know I’m only 5’2’’, 115 pounds, but gee wiz, people, clearly a student would not be walking through the hallways with a clip board and high heels!!!! At first it bothered me, but now I just try to take it as a compliment to my apparently youthful appearance!

I will NOT be played for a fool!!!

2009-08-28T18:52:00.001-05:00

Today, my eyes were opened to the true knack for manipulation that just about all of my beloved 5th graders have. I didn’t see it before but it is quite clear to me now. Whenever my students want to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, get something from a back pack, etc., they will almost always ask me and not my CT. Why is this so, you might ask?? Well it is absolutely because they know she will say no and I probably won’t!! I can’t count how many times I was asked those very questions this week and the naivety of the new young teacher in training feel for it every time!! I would think, “Oh, it has been hot, maybe she will pay attention more if she gets a drink” or “I would rather he go to the bathroom in the bathroom and not in here”. Both of those rationalizations are valid but very unlikely to happen (at least with my kids!).

So, the culminating point of these schemes was at the end of the day when I gave a student permission to get a drink of water (quickly, of course!). Well, my CT didn’t hear me tell him he could go and when she saw him in the hallway she gave him a hard time. His response was that I told him he could go and that if he wasn’t supposed to she needs to talk to me because I told him he could. My CT snapped back at him that she didn’t care what I had told him because he knows better. Drinks are only done during breaks and no other time and he was wrong for having the nerve to ask me when he knows the expectations.

I felt bad at first because I had, indeed, told him he could go but that feeling soon dissipated!! He knew exactly what he was doing, as did all of the other students who played that game with me!! It’s a lot like what kids do at home….you know, asking Mom if they can play on the computer even though they know Dad told them no because they lost that privilege for a week!! My 5th graders scored points in the game for this week, but I can guarantee you I will NOT be played for a fool next week!!!

First Week

2009-08-27T20:23:00.001-05:00

Even though there is still one more day left in the week, I think it is safe to say that I survived the first week of school (hopefully I won’t regret saying that later!)!!! I am more tired than I ever thought I could be…but other than that I have basically loved every minute of it. I honestly don’t know how people who traditionally student teach in the spring make it without seeing the beginning of the year. There is so much crucial information about the students that is gained during the first few weeks and I feel so blessed to be able to experience it all… I am so grateful for this year-long student teaching experience!

Oh, where do I even begin????! Well, we have 18 students in our class and were “given” the most “difficult” students in 5th grade. My CT is known as the classroom management guru so they felt that if anyone can whip them into shape, it is her. This scared me at first, but I now understand how great of an opportunity it will be to work with students who will help me work out the kinks in my own behavior management strategies.

So, here are some of the experiences I have had during this first week:

- Beginning of the Year Staff Meetings
- Grade Level Planning Meetings
- Lunch in the Teachers’ Lounge
- Before School Meetings with Parents
- Learning how to meet the needs of a student with Autism
- Fire Drills
- GRADING, GRADING, GRADING
- Assessing Oral Reading Fluency
- Small Group Instruction
- Doing After-Lunch Read Alouds
- Repeating my directions 1,000 times over
- Getting students caught up when they come in 1 hr. late for two days straight (important factoid: the student lives directly across the street from the school)

Today, we had a problem with a class bully talking about other students, in particular one girl who is overweight. Well, word got back to my CT and she has absolutely ZERO tolerance for bullying. She confronted the bully and let him know that his behavior was unacceptable. She then asked him if his mom was home. Now, at this point I’m thinking that she was going to make a phone call home. But ooooooohhhhhh no……she said “Okay, let’s go!”. The “let’s go is referring to going across the street (literally) to his house to talk to his mom face to face. I don’t know who was more surprised: me or the student!!!! Well, we both walked him to his house and my CT explained the problems we’ve had with him. She gave him “the look” so we knew everything was out of our hands from that point. After I got over my shock, I realized how great of a move that was! Going to his home showed him that what happens at school doesn’t stay at school and that there is no approval of such hurtful behavior. Even though I see the power in what my CT did, I don’t know if I would’ve had the guts to do that!!! That’s okay though, I’m only 4 days into this whole “real teaching” thing but I’m definitely learning the ropes!

The beginning of it all!!

2009-08-19T21:32:00.006-05:00

I know it's been a while but I have been moving and getting things together for the incredible year ahead of me!! On 8/18 I came into the classroom to set up at 9am and I ran into my CT in the parking lot. I helped her carry some materials into the classroom. We ended up not being able to come in on 8/17 because she had to go out of town for a funeral. I didn't think a day would make a difference but boy was I wrong. The 5th grade class next door has an intern too and their class looked AMAZING!!!! They worked all day on the 17th and got a bunch done. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to come in then too but oh well, there wasn't anything I could have done about it.

The theme with both 5th grade classes is Hollywood. Both CT's came up with it and really went all out with decorations. most of the stuff they said they got from party stores and teacher supply stores. Since we didn't have anything prepared, we brainstormed some ideas for our bulletin boards:
Presenting Coming Attractions: Welcome bulletin board outside of classroom
Hollywords: Word Wall
Lights, Cameras, Read: Reading Corner/Focus Wall
Wall of Fame: Student Work

I'm jumping all over here but I just want to list some of the useful tips I've learned so far!

- Use fabric to cover cork boards instead of paper b/c it's more durable and reusable
- Use borders to cover up gaps in butcher paper/fabric along the edges of the board
- START EARLY!!!!
- Even if custodians say they cleaned the desks, that doesn't mean they did!
- Keep an eye on your belongings b/c some teachers think that when your stuff is not physically in your room, 1st come, 1st serve rules apply!!

This post only scratches the surface of what I have experienced after only 3 days into it all!! More posts to come!!!

New Blog Background

2009-07-27T15:33:00.007-05:00

So, I have officially spent the last 2 hours changing the background of this blog. I have seen so many cool blog backgrounds and I have always wondered how people got them because I could never find them under the "Layout" settings on my Dashboard. I now realize that that is because many people go to other sources to get those backgrounds. I went to The Cutest Blog and the Block website. After trying about 10 different backgrounds and even more font color schemes, I think I have settled on a good one. I am quite fond of the blues and pastel colors. I like it, but I want to make sure it is not to overwhelming or boring for viewers/readers. If you like it or think I should make yet another change, please feel free to comment. Thanks!

Update on Contacting CT

2009-07-27T13:16:00.004-05:00

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice about calling my CT. I didn't call her today because she actually responded to my email!!! Basically, she doesn't know when we can start working in OUR (I love that she referred to it like that!) classroom yet. She is talking to the principal about it and as soon as she gets a date, she will let me know. She also made it clear that I should not hesitate to call her about anything, which of course made me feel relieved!! I offered to meet up for coffee or lunch some time before we start setting up the classroom as a way to get to know each other a little better. Hopefully she'll be okay with that. I will definitely post any other updates!

Random Thoughts about Student Teaching

2009-07-26T22:09:00.004-05:00

I have been writing down my thoughts about student teaching, my role in the classroom, and general thoughts about teaching. My CT encouraged me to do this and it has been a great process for reflecting on my expectations for this experience. I plan on looking back at these ideas at the end of the school year to see what has changed or stayed the same.

* Where do I want to be in the room?
- I do not really sit much when I’m in the classroom. I feel more comfortable and relaxed if I can move around the room. I would love to have a desk area at which I can organize my materials/planner/papers. This desk area does not have to be big at all; just large enough for me to keep my things organized and possible sit down and grade papers if I need to. I would like for my desk to be located in the back of the classroom so that I can see all of the students and not take up room in the front of the class. As long as I can have a good view of the class, that is fine. Like I said, I don’t think I’ll be sitting much anyway!

* What do I see as my role in the classroom?
- I would like to have a very involved role in classroom instruction, management, design, etc. I absolutely respect that this is your classroom first, but I would love for you to think of me as a colleague. I understand that I have an immense amount of knowledge to gain, but I also have much to contribute as well.

- Any grading, lesson planning, parent contacts, teaching that I can be a part of…bring it on!! I know that during the first few weeks, I want to learn as much as I can about how to run a classroom, but I definitely do not want to spend the entire first semester just sitting in a chair taking notes.

- I want the students to know that I hold just as much authority as the CT does in the classroom.

- I want to be able to model some of my CT’s teaching attributes while developing my own teaching style too (even though I know the last part will take quite a while).

- I want my CT to trust that I will give my all with every task that is presented to me

- I want to learn how to balance between being friendly and being friends with students. This is one of my biggest fears….being too nice to the students and them not respecting the authority I have as a teacher.

* What are some beliefs/ideas I have about teaching?
- Children are not out to get us…many times when they act out, there are much larger issues at work than the fact that I didn’t let them listen to their IPOD in class!

- Teaching encompasses much more than content; as stressful as the job may be, I believe that I will be much more than a teacher. To some, I will be a mom, counselor, social worker, etc. This is a task to which I am fully committed.

- Each day should be a blank slate (as difficult as this will probably be in real life). Leave the baggage of the previous day/period behind. Children are entitled to a second, third, fourth, and fifth chance because they are worth it. There will be a time when they get older when no one will give them a second chance. I figure they should take all they can get now!

- Clear communication of expectation is key. Problems result when students don’t know what/when they need to do something. There should be no guesswork involved in what takes place during the school day.

- Parents are very important in the educational experience of the child. Parents should be visible and encouraged to participate in the classroom in whatever ways they can. Even parents who were high school drop outs have valuable knowledge that they can share with their children and the other kids in the classroom.

- Students should not be punished or disciplined. I believe instead that there are behavioral expectations and there are positive and negative consequences that come along with maintaining those expectations or choosing not to.

- Rewards are okay every now and again, but I am a firm believer in intrinsic motivation. The true challenge for teachers is not how many pizza party’s students get for turning in their homework but how engaged and interested students are in our lessons. If they are not….we can forget about them turning in that homework!

To Call or Not to Call

2009-07-26T20:06:00.000-05:00

As I inch closer to the start of student teaching, I feel like I need to contact my CT and find out when she plans on getting back into the classroom. I am sure that it will probably be within the next few weeks or so, so I really want to make sure I am available. The thing that I have been going back and forth about is whether or not to call her. I sent her an email but I remember her telling me that she does not check her email often during the summer. So, she did give me her phone number and told me to call her about anything, but I guess I’m questioning whether she really meant that. It’s not that I don’t think she was sincere, I’m just apprehensive about calling her on “her own time” and her possibly being too busy to talk to little ol’ me. The anxiety I feel is definitely not unique to this experience- I get nervous when I’m calling my own grandma to ask a question!! I guess I just want to know whether or not it is okay to actually call her about meeting up before school starts, working in the classroom, etc. I just don’t want to step on her toes before we even get into the classroom!!

Friendly but not Friends

2009-07-17T13:03:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I was browsing the internet for blogs about student teaching. As I inch closer and closer to this anticipated moment, I am trying to soak up all of the tips and inspiration I can get!! One of the common threads throughout the tips for student teachers was the importance of being friendly, but not friends with the students. I absolutely understand this piece of advice because if students think you are their friend and not their teacher, the only result will be TROUBLE!! I had never really given the difference between these two relationships much thought before. In fact, the more I thought about this advice, the more trouble I had between determining what makes them distinct. I feel like deep down, I WANT the approval of my students. I want them to like me and I want to like them too. But I think that what this should translate to is wanting the respect and admiration of my students and me giving them the same back. They may not like me, but as long as I am treating them with respect and helping them to succeed as students and as individuals, it really doesn’t matter. So to help myself have a little more clarity on this issue, I compared and contrasted the characteristics of a friend and someone who is friendly.

Friends…
- Talk on the phone together
- Go to movies, out to eat, shopping
- Confide in each other
- Know you inside and out
- Argue
- Gossip
- Travel together
- Trust each other
- Earn the title of being a “friend”

Friendly is…
- Greeting people when you see them
- Helping someone when they need assistance
- Doing kind deeds
- Respecting others for who they are
- Smiling
- Saying nice things to others
- Openness to communication
- Approachability
- Even-Temperedness
- Patience

Although there are some traits that overlap, I think the distinguishing qualities are quite apparent. I can absolutely be friendly with my students without becoming friends. I know if I my best friend was not doing her homework and I said, “Now, friend, what should you be working on now”, I would probably get an eye roll and an “I don’t feel like doing it now. It’ll get done when it gets done”! I know that there is not a whole lot that I could say back to my friend about this situation, but this type of response would be totally unacceptable coming from my students. This whole “friendly but not friends” approach is all coming together now, but I know that it will be even more of a challenge to actually put it into action!

Idle Time = Losing My Mind

2009-07-08T13:24:00.010-05:00

Well, it has been quite a while since my last post and frankly, it's because I just haven't had much to blog about. I am sort of at an eventless period right now (which I'm sure I will be begging for here in a couple of months!!). I have packed up everything that I am not using right now in preparation for the big move. In packing up my room, I have found that I have a serious problem with buying books. Out of the 6 small-medium sized boxes I have, about 4 of them are full of books. I have textbooks, picture books, leisure reading books. Although I have read many of them, there are certainly a number that I have not gotten to yet! That's okay, though, because as long as I have them I will be inclined to read them (who's to say whether that will be tomorrow or 5 years from now!).

Aside from the packing, there isn't much going on. I've been trying to "take it easy", which is quite the daunting task for someone who is always on the go! I am trying to make the most of it, but as "nerdy" as it may be, I am itching to back into the grind of school, lesson plans, and kids. All of this idle time is driving me crazy!! Half of the time I just want to take naps all day to make the day go by faster. Although the "laid back" approach to life is needed every now and again, I know that a 3 month break is about all I can stand!!

As it gets closer to me moving and beginning my student teaching experience, I will aboslutely be blogging more often. With my first day of work in the classroom beginning on August 19th (orientation!!), I am only weeks away to starting what could quite possibly be the most hectic time of my life so far...let the good times begin!!!!!

Is Standardized Testing Creating Criminals?

2009-06-19T13:47:00.002-05:00

As I perused the CNN website to soak up the big headlines around the world, I came across an article on the WSB-TV (based in Georgia) website. The title of the article was- “Principal, Assistant Principal Arrested in Cheating Investigation”. The title alone intrigued me, so I read more. In a nutshell, the principal and assistant principal allegedly altered students’ answers on a state mandated test. The school was audited by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievements in Georgia because of an unusually large number of eraser marks on the tests. The higher scores achieved by allegedly altering the tests helped keep the school from failing to meet the state standards.

After picking my jaw up from the ground, I began to wonder if this is to what it has all come. Are educators and administrators under so much pressure to meet standards that scores must be altered? What lesson does this teach our students about integrity and honesty? I am not the biggest fan of standardized tests but I hold much value in the integrity that all educators in the field should have. If you have a problem with the test, work on fixing it rather than scheming to get around it! How does one motivate students to do well when their own principals go behind closed doors and change their answers? What I would really like to know is who you think is at fault here. Is it the administrators for forging scores, the students for not doing well on the test, the education system forcing accountability, etc? Is the accountability movement breeding criminals!?!?

You'll Sleep When You're Dead!

2009-06-18T23:11:00.002-05:00

Call me a nerd (and trust me, many people have!), but I have been trying to do everything I can to get ready for student teaching. This 3 month period before school starts in August is beginning to feel like an eternity!! I know I should be cherishing every second of mindless free time that I have, but urge to “get ready” is about all that is keeping me from busting! I have been organizing the teaching materials I have accumulated over the last 4 years, been catching up on my readings and blogs that deal with education…as you can see I’m trying to make sure all of my bases are covered!!

Well, the most recent addition to my self-established “student teaching readiness program” is my conversion to “Early Rising”. By early rising, I mean starting the day before noon! I was never one to actually sleep that late but I most certainly wouldn’t be up before 10am! Nonetheless, I know that as a teacher, this will more than likely be a thing of the past. So, I have now committed myself to getting up by 6:30 am every morning. Although I am only 2 days into it, I have found that there is actually quite a bit that can be accomplished because I am adding a few extra hours to my day: working out, praying, reading, and NOT RUSHING TO GET READY IN THE MORNING!! I’m not even going to lie- it has not been easy, but I really think that getting up earlier will help me to be an even more productive person and make the most of every second of life. One of the best gifts I can give my students is to be healthy, happy, and full of life- I think this early rising thing my be exactly what I need to round of my holistic approach to student teacher readiness.

I end this post with a quote that I have heard many times before- “Don’t waste time sleeping; you’ll sleep when you’re dead!”

- I never really believed this quote to be true…in fact, I’m not sure if I even believe it now! Hopefully, writing it here will move it a little deeper into my spirit. Well, I think I’m going to go to sleep now….6:30am is going to come quickly!