As the days keep getting shorter and colder, and the snow starts piling up, I know that can only mean one thing…it’s time for my least favorite season. I know you must be thinking winter, and while, yes, that is my least favorite season, it is not what I’m describing here. I’m talking about testing season. In the span of two weeks that we have been back from winter vacation, I have had to take three days out of my schedule to administer standardized tests. The sad thing is, that those three days are just the beginning. There are at least another two days coming up in the next couple of weeks.
Working as an EBD teacher in my first year is hard! I struggle daily with deciding what battles to fight and which not to fight. I am constantly asking myself if I am protecting the student from their disability or if I am enabling them. I recently chose not to address a student's actions, and because I didn't, the child took that inch and ran a mile with it, resulting in her fighting with another student. I was told that every negative or inappropriate student behavior in EBD has to be addressed and dealt with. I disagree.
In retrospect I should have addressed the first issue so that it didn't end with my student fighting another. I also realize that I am new at this and I will make mistakes along the way. This bad decision has made me excessively aware of each and every thing my students do as I work through all the potential outcomes of an action before I provide a response. I honestly detest it.
Remember cute and adorable Felipe? Remember how he used to be so willing to do whatever I asked him to do? Remember how before winter break his behavior did a 180? Ah, Felipe, yes, I remember.
I finally did get a chance to sit down with mom and dad right before break. They agreed that something seemed to be off — they saw the same change in behavior at home. Felipe was having an especially hard time getting ready in the morning, which of course affected the rest of his school day. As a mini-team, we decided to simply give Felipe a break, slow things down a little bit, and see what happened after the New Year.
The Monday after break, Felipe walked into school the happiest little clam I had ever met. He was so excited to be back! Dad told me that during vacation, Felipe woke up every morning asking if he could go to school again and if vacation was finally over. While I was surprised Felipe craved being at school so much, I could understand his desire for the structured school day and the learning opportunities school offers him.
This past weekend, I attended the California League of Schools (CLS) Technology & RTI Conference. The opening speaker was Will Richardson. His inspiring message challenged all teachers to become students again. He referenced a rather fabulous quote by Alvin Toffler: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, relearn.”
Richardson opened with two stories, the first about his daughter’s history exam questions on the middle ages and the second, about a young man who had created a name for himself as a cinematographer. The latter was essentially self-taught, having learned all he needed to know about video editing through online communities. These people represent two kinds of learners - those learning what they are told to learn and those learning what they love to learn.
This year my school has decided to use mini-lessons as a way to increase our student’s comprehension. As a school we have been doing professional readings, watching video clips (both of good mini-lessons and not-so-good mini-lessons), developing and modeling them as well. I really got a feel for all of the components that must be in a mini-lesson: Connection, Teaching Point, Active Engagement, and Link. Because I am on my school’s Instructional Leadership Team, I was one of the first to begin piloting mini-lessons in my classroom. When it came time to actually try out my mini-lesson I was excited. I thought that my students would really enjoy it and I couldn’t wait to hear their discussions during the active engagement component.
I planned and planned and was finally ready for my math mini-lesson. I called my students over to the carpet, and the wonderful smooth transition that I envisioned in my mind was so different from what I was witnessing. I should have known at this point that this wasn’t going to be good, but I kept going.
Communication is the foundation for many things. I have learned in my first six months of teaching that it often takes precedence over most other “must haves.” Communication is pivotal in reaching students, maximizing the impact of a strategy, and getting along with coworkers. Communication also happens to be one of the largest areas of frustration for a new teacher like me.
I came into a system with established systems and unspoken rules that I wasn’t told about in my orientation to the school. The only way to really figure it out has been trial and error. The error part got to be tough for a while, but after the break I seem to be doing much better about asking the right people the right questions and abiding by the many non-spoken rules.
I have to admit. These past few days, I've been a little bitter – a little bitter towards my college alma mater and a little bitter towards my state Department of Education. It's a little silly because they technically didn't do anything wrong and haven't technically wronged me, but, man, I am a little bitter.
Let me explain. The past year and a half, I've been in the process of making a major career change. I used to be a graphic designer. I worked for a major newspaper in the Valley of the Sun and everything was dandy. Well, then I decided to become a teacher for a number of different reasons, but the point is I enrolled in an accelerated (18-month) alternative dual certification program.
Just because I’m still on winter break doesn’t mean I’m not planning things for the upcoming weeks. I find it ironic that some of my favorite days at school are the days when there are no students, though I use this time to organize my room and prepare it for their return. Being a fairly new teacher, I’m also still learning about what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to classroom organization.
For example, you know what doesn’t work in my classroom? My current pencil system. To all of you veteran teachers out there, feel free to have a good laugh at me right now because I’m on the losing side of the battle between me… and my classroom pencils. It’s like this: from August to December, several students would daily break their pencils and walk to the pencil sharpener, at which point the situation dramatically worsened because if more than one person was in line, they would talk, and if they waited in their seats, they would only be paying attention to when they could get up to use the sharpener. Lest we think the problem ended when the bell rang, the number of students who left my classroom with my pencil diminished the number of pencils for use the next day.
I have been talking with my students a lot about holiday traditions. We began talking about traditions in November when it was Thanksgiving time. Our conversations have continued into December focusing on all of the holiday celebrations my students have coming up. My students really love hearing about my family’s holiday traditions. I've shared that every year on Christmas Eve my parents would let my brother and I open one present, and that present would always be a board game. We would always play the board game as we spend time together as a family on Christmas Eve.
This year I had the opportunity to share one of my favorite traditions with my students. My dad generously purchased chocolate advent calendars for all of my students. I passed them out on Dec. 1 and my students were so excited to eat their first piece of chocolate that was made in Germany! Every day my students rush into my classroom and excitedly ask "Can we eat our chocolate now Ms. Q?" and then they ask, "What number do we get to eat today?” About half way through the calendar, I concluded that giving a bunch of fourth graders chocolate first thing in the morning, might not have been the smartest decision I've ever made. But I can put up with their hyper behavior just to see the happy looks on their faces.
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