I wrote previously about some ego-bruising I suffered while my co-teacher was absent and a substitute teacher was in for him. Mr. B and I had pre-planned that I would just run the lesson and the sub would back me up, as needed. The students had questions and comments about my position being as a sub or secondary teacher which I tried to address.
This week, Mr. B and I each had to be out one day. Thursday I went on a field trip & although sub coverage could have been provided, we declined it, so he ran the show solo. Friday, he had a conference and we again didn't request a sub, so I taught the class on my own.
This went SO much better than the last time! Actually, it went so well, there's really nothing to say. We learned about knights & peasants in feudal society. They did a little reading comprehension "test prep" passage and all was well. Happy day.
Showing posts with label Reflection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reflection. Show all posts
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Reflective Teaching Challenge: Day 27
Day 27: What role do weekends and holidays play in your teaching?
I was just talking with a teacher friend about her summer plans to visit Vancouver, BC for the Women's World Cup. She seemed a teensy bit embarrassed that, in the middle of September, in the first month of the school year, she's making plans for next summer.
I say, go for it!
I think breaks are necessary for engaged teaching! I think travel is so needed to recharge our minds, spirits and the informational well from which we draw daily in our profession. Teachers are molding citizens of the world and we must be part of that world. Time to pause, reflect and plan only increases our excitement and preparedness for instruction.
So, for me, weekends and holidays are sometimes great for getting a huge unit of planning done all at once, a major classroom redecoration, or serious mid- or end of quarter grading catch up. But more often than not, weekends and holidays are opportunities for me to connect with friends and family, read, travel and recharge. The week (or school year) ahead will be upon us soon enough. A few moments or hours of relaxation are always needed for this special educator.
I was just talking with a teacher friend about her summer plans to visit Vancouver, BC for the Women's World Cup. She seemed a teensy bit embarrassed that, in the middle of September, in the first month of the school year, she's making plans for next summer.
I say, go for it!
I think breaks are necessary for engaged teaching! I think travel is so needed to recharge our minds, spirits and the informational well from which we draw daily in our profession. Teachers are molding citizens of the world and we must be part of that world. Time to pause, reflect and plan only increases our excitement and preparedness for instruction.
So, for me, weekends and holidays are sometimes great for getting a huge unit of planning done all at once, a major classroom redecoration, or serious mid- or end of quarter grading catch up. But more often than not, weekends and holidays are opportunities for me to connect with friends and family, read, travel and recharge. The week (or school year) ahead will be upon us soon enough. A few moments or hours of relaxation are always needed for this special educator.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Reflective Teaching Blog Challenge: Day 21
I haven't been blogging every day. I hit a little bump in the road (I'm tired of my baseball pitching analogy) that came in the form of a major schedule and philosophical change at my school. I'm still reflecting and adjusting with that. But, I'm also moving forward, as all of us must do.
Talking with students about travel helps them realize there is a much bigger world out there than what they already know. While many of my students' families don't travel much now, I hope that my adventures help them know that travel is an attainable hobby when they get older. These conversations also help make some of the places or cultures they study seem more real and relevant.
As some 4th graders were half-heartedly reading about different types of homes in an inclusion classroom last year, I noticed a photo almost identical to one I'd taken of cliff dwellings the year before in Mesa Verde National Park. "Oh!! I've been there!" was a super easy hook to get kids more connected to the text. I described climbing down a ladder to see the ruins and watching as park archaeologists continued to excavate and study sites in the park. They kids were immediately engaged, asking questions and realized the photo and passage represented REAL people and places. Places they might one day get to know first hand.
TeachThought initiated a 30-day blogging challenge this month to get teachers writing and sharing. Besides linking back to their page, I don't really get how to connect with them blog-wise. So, for now, I will be content to draw inspiration from them.
Day 21: Do you have any other hobbies / interests that you bring into your classroom teaching? Explain.
First and foremost, I have to state that I think educators are some of the most fascinating people around. When I have started working at new schools I have always felt confident that I would meet people I like because, geez, teachers are just the best, aren't we?! So, this prompt almost sounds silly to me because: OF COURSE teachers have other hobbies and interests. We're interesting people! We do interesting things! We have interests!!
But for the sake of the challenge, I'll mention one hobby that I at least like to talk about all the time in the classroom. Travel. I love to hike, camp, drive, eat, drink and generally explore all around. I have made a number of great trips over the last couple years (thank you, summers off!!) and in my last classroom I would return in the fall with a new poster of an incredible location I'd visited. I don't have my own classroom this year but I have a poster of Landscape Arch by my desk (in someone else's classroom!) to commemorate this year's trip.
 |
| Landscape Arch, Arches National Park, Utah |
As some 4th graders were half-heartedly reading about different types of homes in an inclusion classroom last year, I noticed a photo almost identical to one I'd taken of cliff dwellings the year before in Mesa Verde National Park. "Oh!! I've been there!" was a super easy hook to get kids more connected to the text. I described climbing down a ladder to see the ruins and watching as park archaeologists continued to excavate and study sites in the park. They kids were immediately engaged, asking questions and realized the photo and passage represented REAL people and places. Places they might one day get to know first hand.
Many of my conversations about places I've visited end with kids saying either, "I want to go there some day!" Or "I want to go to ___________________ (some totally random place I've never been nor heard of)!" To both, I say, "Awesome! You should go!"
Monday, September 15, 2014
Reflective Blogging Challenge
While I was cultivating the idea of starting a blog, this Reflective Teaching: A 30 Day Blogging Challenge for Teachers came through my Pinterest feed. (Actually, I have a group of educators who all pin to the same "Teachery" board together and a friend pinned this. I highly recommend following your friends and having a shared board. Seeing what others are interested in at that moment or passing along ideas can be so inspiring!)
I was, in fact, inspired. Since I want to get into a regular habit of writing, reflecting and blogging, and since I didn't think I could actually write about co-teaching each day, I plan to use their suggestions as posts occasionally, too. Here goes.
Day 1: Write your goals for the school year. Be as specific or abstract as you'd like to be!
Well, I did just meet with one of my grade level teams and our goal is: "Between September and February, students will improve their ability to state a claim and support it by citing text-based evidence as measured by district Common Assessments and other teacher measures. Blah blah blah." OK, for some of us this makes some sense but for non-educators that probably sounds pretty boring and bizarre. Luckily, I have some other goals.
Reflection. This blog is part of that. My plan is to write more, think back and look for patterns. Also, I will need to use this reflection as a basis for discussion, clarification and adjustment with my co-teachers.
Integration. I wrote this a few weeks ago thinking about integrating myself into my new school home. I signed up for a committee and am trying my best to reach out & connect to my coworkers. This year, integration is easier than typical as I'm not only part of the Special Ed team, but also 2 different grade level teams. Of course, being a co-teacher means I'm also facilitating the greater integration of Special Ed students into the Gen Ed setting!
Questioning & Discussion. I'm working on upping my game as far as group discussion and student questions go. My attempts to move out of fact-based questions have sometimes stopped short right around, "And what do you think about that?" My goal would be moving toward more analysis, connection between topics and capitalizing on student curiosity, letting them develop questions .
I'll let you know how I do with my goals through the year! What are your goals for this year?
Saturday, September 13, 2014
And Then School Actually Started
In the beginning, I was only reading about co-teaching.
Then I was hoping about co-teaching.
Then I met with my co-teachers; they had varying levels of knowledge of co-teaching. One of my co-teachers was totally excited, had been to the same district training with my principal and volunteered to be a co-teacher. My other co-teacher had been hired for her position a week or so before school started and a few days later she was 'informed' that she would be co-teaching. Oh, and this is her first year as a permanent teacher.
Whoa ~ I don't envy her and totally understand that she had a much more limited frame of reference when I met with her and brought the 5 Key Questions and started blabbing about different models of co-teaching. But both teachers seemed enthusiastic and ready to give it a try. Me, too.
But by now, I've actually CO-TAUGHT for a couple weeks. It's been mixed, honestly. There have been days in both classes when my partner teachers and I pre-planned great lessons, divided the instructional time, supported each other and had a lot of fun. (Oh, and probably the kids learned a bit, too.) There have been more than a couple days, though, when pre-planning didn't really happen, that the Gen Ed teacher led the whole show and I've been a little stuck in the back feeling like a visitor.
The positives have been, as a new-to-the-school teacher, I've been able to meet & work with a lot of students 1:1 in the classroom whether they have Special Ed needs or not. I'm building relationships! I'm getting to know my co-teachers and on most occasions, when we have the chance to debrief and reset for the next day or week, we've been seeing eye to eye, which is a wonderful surprise! As a co-teacher, I'm learning to put my ego to the side a bit and collaborate so much more than I'm used to!
More details about the ups and downs to come. For now, here's a pic of me cracking up as students (respectfully cropped out) are trying to hide from the Assistant Principal's camera.
Then I was hoping about co-teaching.
Then I met with my co-teachers; they had varying levels of knowledge of co-teaching. One of my co-teachers was totally excited, had been to the same district training with my principal and volunteered to be a co-teacher. My other co-teacher had been hired for her position a week or so before school started and a few days later she was 'informed' that she would be co-teaching. Oh, and this is her first year as a permanent teacher.
Whoa ~ I don't envy her and totally understand that she had a much more limited frame of reference when I met with her and brought the 5 Key Questions and started blabbing about different models of co-teaching. But both teachers seemed enthusiastic and ready to give it a try. Me, too.
But by now, I've actually CO-TAUGHT for a couple weeks. It's been mixed, honestly. There have been days in both classes when my partner teachers and I pre-planned great lessons, divided the instructional time, supported each other and had a lot of fun. (Oh, and probably the kids learned a bit, too.) There have been more than a couple days, though, when pre-planning didn't really happen, that the Gen Ed teacher led the whole show and I've been a little stuck in the back feeling like a visitor.
The positives have been, as a new-to-the-school teacher, I've been able to meet & work with a lot of students 1:1 in the classroom whether they have Special Ed needs or not. I'm building relationships! I'm getting to know my co-teachers and on most occasions, when we have the chance to debrief and reset for the next day or week, we've been seeing eye to eye, which is a wonderful surprise! As a co-teacher, I'm learning to put my ego to the side a bit and collaborate so much more than I'm used to!
More details about the ups and downs to come. For now, here's a pic of me cracking up as students (respectfully cropped out) are trying to hide from the Assistant Principal's camera.
 |
| Laughing at kids builds relationships! |
Thursday, September 11, 2014
My Hopes
I have a lot of hopes for the incredible potential of co-teaching!
After reading up a bit on co-teaching, my mind started whirring as I thought about how cool it could be to teach a whole, HUGE class of middle schoolers. (I'm used to 6 - 12 kids at a time!) I started looking forward to all the ideas I could copy and steal from first hand exposure with other teachers. I was excited to share planning and brainstorming time with another educator! I was happy to imagine 2 adults role-modelling sharing, negotiation, collaboration and (probably very real) problem solving right in front of all those kids.
After reading up a bit on co-teaching, my mind started whirring as I thought about how cool it could be to teach a whole, HUGE class of middle schoolers. (I'm used to 6 - 12 kids at a time!) I started looking forward to all the ideas I could copy and steal from first hand exposure with other teachers. I was excited to share planning and brainstorming time with another educator! I was happy to imagine 2 adults role-modelling sharing, negotiation, collaboration and (probably very real) problem solving right in front of all those kids.
Possibly the thing that most excites me about co-teaching is the awesome opportunity it could provide for students. First, students with Special Ed services sometimes miss out on a certain level of complexity when they are not included in General Education classes. What we consider pull-out services or Resource Room settings are sometimes so singularly focused on skill acquisition in the mechanics and application of reading, writing and math topics that students can miss out on the complex and sometimes beautiful chaos of higher level discussion and creation that can happen in the larger classroom. So, the chance for a kid who is used to being in a 'special' room for reading to use the same materials and contribute to the same discussions as all her peers could be an awesome opportunity for growth!
Second, over the years, General Ed students have seen a disappearance of some of their peers. Co-teaching could change that. I know how educators (myself included) see this: Kids in Special Education need special services to best gain the skills they lack. Yes, I agree with this and have been trained and believe that a kid will not dramatically increase his reading ability, for example, if he's not explicitly taught reading. And for students in Special Ed and their families, they understand the same reasoning and are often excited for the chance to catch up. Bu-uut, what about the other kids? The kids who used to have class with a certain someone and now they don't. Maybe the kids noticed the student was slower in math, or couldn't keep up with the homework, or was so rowdy he frustrated all the teachers. And maybe they know that there's the other class where he goes for help now.
But what other messages are kids receiving? Are they learning that if you can't go with the flow you're out? Are they learning that the slowest person will one day be gone? Are they learning something about what's normal? About what's acceptable? About who is normal? About who is acceptable? And are they missing out on contributions and insights that only someone who needs to ask the same question a couple times to hear the answer in a couple different ways might offer. I don't know. And I'm afraid we don't know a lot about the impacts of removing kids from classes. But I am wholly HOPEFUL that an inclusive setting, with support for those kids who need it (in Special Ed or otherwise) could be incredible for all students involved.
Second, over the years, General Ed students have seen a disappearance of some of their peers. Co-teaching could change that. I know how educators (myself included) see this: Kids in Special Education need special services to best gain the skills they lack. Yes, I agree with this and have been trained and believe that a kid will not dramatically increase his reading ability, for example, if he's not explicitly taught reading. And for students in Special Ed and their families, they understand the same reasoning and are often excited for the chance to catch up. Bu-uut, what about the other kids? The kids who used to have class with a certain someone and now they don't. Maybe the kids noticed the student was slower in math, or couldn't keep up with the homework, or was so rowdy he frustrated all the teachers. And maybe they know that there's the other class where he goes for help now.
But what other messages are kids receiving? Are they learning that if you can't go with the flow you're out? Are they learning that the slowest person will one day be gone? Are they learning something about what's normal? About what's acceptable? About who is normal? About who is acceptable? And are they missing out on contributions and insights that only someone who needs to ask the same question a couple times to hear the answer in a couple different ways might offer. I don't know. And I'm afraid we don't know a lot about the impacts of removing kids from classes. But I am wholly HOPEFUL that an inclusive setting, with support for those kids who need it (in Special Ed or otherwise) could be incredible for all students involved.
Monday, September 8, 2014
Oh, hello.
Welcome to my reflections on teaching!
I've created this blog with a few intentions in mind:
I'm in my 5th year of teaching and have sporadically used reflective journal-writing to assess my practice, diagnose problems and celebrate (usually mini) triumphs. With this blog, I'd like to write reflectively MORE FREQUENTLY. Perhaps everyday?
Additionally, I'd like to make better use of my reflection. Sometimes journal-writing is just blabbing out my thoughts. This in itself can be incredibly helpful for me to work through emotions, see a situation from a different perspective and let some things go. That is great. What I'd like to do with this blog, is develop some of those "blabbings" into more coherent thoughts that might encapsulate my feelings or philosophy on a certain topic or a refined impression of an experience that hopefully produces a response or connection from others. In addition to making my thoughts more readable for others, my hope is that through spending more time with my thoughts, I will be better able to use my reflective writing to actually STEER MY PRACTICE based on experience.
This year I am CO-TEACHING for the first time! Co-teaching means 2 teachers (typically a General Education teacher and a Special Education) in one classroom sharing the planning and instruction responsibilities for the class. This can be done in a variety of ways and this year I am co-teaching 2 different grade levels with 2 different teachers. I did a bit of reading and research this summer trying to get ready for this new endeavor and thought the opportunity to read a teacher's thoughts on co-teaching from the beginning of their experience could be so informative. So, another goal for this blog is to track my experience with co-teaching from that first conversation with my principal, to meeting and planning with my co-teachers, the ups and downs, (the occasional boredom for me at the side of the class...) and the successes of a good two-teacher flow in a classroom.
Lastly, I have a number of amazing educators in my life and the saddest part about that is that we don't get to sit down and discuss education nearly enough! I hope that this blog with at minimum, be a place for others to know me as an educator better and, ideally, a place where a community of us will be free to share our ideas, explore our philosophy and ultimately improve the work we do with children!
I look forward to hearing from fellow educators!!
I've created this blog with a few intentions in mind:
I'm in my 5th year of teaching and have sporadically used reflective journal-writing to assess my practice, diagnose problems and celebrate (usually mini) triumphs. With this blog, I'd like to write reflectively MORE FREQUENTLY. Perhaps everyday?
 |
| Journal-writing-on-the-bus-selfie. |
Additionally, I'd like to make better use of my reflection. Sometimes journal-writing is just blabbing out my thoughts. This in itself can be incredibly helpful for me to work through emotions, see a situation from a different perspective and let some things go. That is great. What I'd like to do with this blog, is develop some of those "blabbings" into more coherent thoughts that might encapsulate my feelings or philosophy on a certain topic or a refined impression of an experience that hopefully produces a response or connection from others. In addition to making my thoughts more readable for others, my hope is that through spending more time with my thoughts, I will be better able to use my reflective writing to actually STEER MY PRACTICE based on experience.
This year I am CO-TEACHING for the first time! Co-teaching means 2 teachers (typically a General Education teacher and a Special Education) in one classroom sharing the planning and instruction responsibilities for the class. This can be done in a variety of ways and this year I am co-teaching 2 different grade levels with 2 different teachers. I did a bit of reading and research this summer trying to get ready for this new endeavor and thought the opportunity to read a teacher's thoughts on co-teaching from the beginning of their experience could be so informative. So, another goal for this blog is to track my experience with co-teaching from that first conversation with my principal, to meeting and planning with my co-teachers, the ups and downs, (the occasional boredom for me at the side of the class...) and the successes of a good two-teacher flow in a classroom.
Lastly, I have a number of amazing educators in my life and the saddest part about that is that we don't get to sit down and discuss education nearly enough! I hope that this blog with at minimum, be a place for others to know me as an educator better and, ideally, a place where a community of us will be free to share our ideas, explore our philosophy and ultimately improve the work we do with children!
I look forward to hearing from fellow educators!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)