Reality 101: CEC's blog for new teachers

John: Teacher, Job Coach, and Barista?

What a couple of weeks it has been! Inservice week is over, and I am finished with the first week of school. I haven’t said much about the classes I teach so let me tell you what I do.

My school has a four block schedule. I teach for three of them. Because I also coach soccer, I have my planning period during fourth period so that I can prepare for practice during that time. Right now I don’t have any coaching responsibilities during my planning period, but stay tuned during the spring semester to hear how juggling coaching, teaching, and spring IEP season is going.

Danielle: You Catch More Flies with Honey…

How do you advocate effectively for your students without making enemies?

I knew going into this school year that I was in for a challenge. My school has never had a full time K-12 Gifted and Talented Coordinator. As a result, the needs of gifted students have never really been the top priority. Now that I’m here, there is someone who listens to every word in every meeting with the thought, “How will that affect a student who is gifted?” The answers aren’t always easy to hear, especially with a state audit coming down on a whole bunch of metro-area districts in the fall… including ours!

Kaylie: The Best Laid Plans Sometimes Fail...

Describing myself as a planner is a strong understatement. There should probably be a diagnosis for the extent to which I meticulously outline as many areas of my life as possible. It all boils down to a desire for control and to be “hyper-responsible” (a term I once read in article that fits me perfectly). My life, however, has recently shifted into high-gear and left me without enough hours in the day to plan my every waking moment, but what frustrates me to no end is that I feel I now have more things that NEED to be planned than ever!

At school, I’m planning weekly lessons, IEPs and their associated meetings, and a presentation at an upcoming conference. I also have taken on a night job teaching an introductory special education course at a local college, which begins this week. Outside of work there’s Sunday school lessons, activities for the youth group, and, last but not least, a wedding. Wow, I really need to transition to the next paragraph before I have a nervous breakdown!

John: Bullying Prevention-Are We Doing Enough?

During the week of inservice, I was very thankful for my principal’s sensitivity to our time and for not filling the week with frivolous meetings. We did have one important training meeting, however. All faculty at my school underwent training for a new program called the Olweus Bully Prevention Program.

The training was very eye-opening regarding the frequency and types of bullying that high school students experience. The program included a survey given to all students at my school last spring. To see the responses from actual students made the national statistics become very real. Because of my profession and passion, one of the statistics that stood out to me was that students with disabilities are at a greater risk of being a victim of bullying. As a teacher one of the most painful statistics to read was that only 26.7 percent of girls and 34.2 percent of boys thought that teachers “often” or “almost always” try to stop bullying.*

John: The Other Teaching Responsibilities

I have just completed the week of inservice at my school. I appreciated all of the uninterrupted time in my classroom to prepare my room and my materials for the upcoming year. I am excited about implementing many of the new ideas I have for my classes.

One new idea that my wife gave me is using desktops as dry erase boards. Who knew you could use dry erase markers on desktops and wipe them off easily with wet wipes? Call me easily amused, but I thought this little known secret was one of the coolest teacher tricks I had heard in a long time. I thought it must be too good to be true so I went to Google to see if the internet had any wisdom regarding dry erase markers and desktops. Come to find out, lots of people out there have successfully used dry erase markers on desktops. Still a little nervous about ruining my room’s desks, I drew a tiny dot on a desktop, and to my surprise, the dot wiped off easily! I now have all kinds of ideas for using dry erase markers in my class this year. I think students will love this idea because of the novelty it presents.

Jerry: First Day of School Excitement

While you are reading this today (Aug. 21), I am enjoying my first day of classes with my new students. My day began around 7:45 a.m. when they started exiting their buses and happily making their way into the school building for breakfast. Attendance has now been checked, the Pledge recited, and they have arrived in my classroom. We are learning about our daily routine and making preparations for our engaged learning. Before I move forward, however, I need to back up just a bit and tell you how I got to Aug. 21, 2012.

Last week was a fun week. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I was hired in to my current position with about 12 weeks remaining in the 2011-12 school year. Thus I really did not have to prepare a classroom for my students’ arrival; it was more like the students prepared for me. This year is different.

Danielle: I Want to Have My Cake, and Eat it, too.

It is so strange to be back at school for inservice week. On the surface, it would seem as though not much has changed. With little exception, the same faces are sitting in roughly the same places in the auditorium. We go through the same, "Welcome back, don't stand on desks, success is our only option, no personal e-mails, open door policy, blah blah" speeches. We sign in on the same sheets, have our pictures taken by the same photography studio, and spend what precious spare time we have setting up our rooms in the same hallways. This is my sixth inservice week at the same school. It shouldn't feel so awkward. It's just that this year is so... not the same.

Charmelle: CCSS and Special Education?

It may seem strange that I am about to embark on the start of a new school year and I’m  already having thoughts about the end of the year testing. While it may seem that I am jumping a bit ahead of myself in the planning game, these thoughts were actually ignited from a workshop that I attended this week.

I was recently selected along with other educators throughout the District of Columbia to participate in a standard setting workshop for the city’s comprehensive end-of-the-year assessment for second grade because it has recently been added as a new testing grade.

Kaylie: Establishing Strong Communication with Thy Fathers and Mothers

Typing this post is testimony that I survived the first week of school. I’ll give a brief Sports Center rundown of the highlights:

• Thrilled that my returning students quickly settled back into the classroom routine.
• Met seven amazing, full-of-personality sixth graders.
• Was informed that I will likely receive another student in the upcoming weeks along with an individual assistant for that student.
• Discovered I have an IEP to write for a student I’ve known for approximately four days.
• Had one of my students accidently activate the fire alarm in the cafeteria during lunchtime. 

Needless to say, I did not set my alarm clock on Saturday! Oh, and on a personal note, I got engaged this weekend! I’ve definitely been blessed with an exciting week!

Danielle: Summer Reading--It’s Not Just for Kids!

Knowing that I was starting a whole new position when I left school at the end of May, I had all these grand designs that I would do lots of planning and develop lots of ideas during summer break.  Reality set in a week later when I returned to start teaching summer school. I was teaching six different courses in a day—three at a time in the morning and three at a time in the afternoon. The resulting chaos isn’t relevant to this discussion, except (of course) for the honing of my differentiation skills (three courses in the same room will do that!), and the severe lack of planning for my new job as the K–12 gifted and talented coordinator my school. Sigh.

John: A Student’s Outlook on Going Back to School

I went to Wal-Mart recently and saw something that always makes me excited: school supplies. Fresh pencils, crisp notebooks, and brightly-colored folders always make me excited for a new school year. Students and parents eagerly scour the aisles with lists of school supplies required for each grade level. Kleenex® for all those snotty noses, disinfectant wipes for other messes, and of course, an apple for the teacher is all part of the back-to-school routine.

The beginning of the year can be the most exciting time of the school year for some students—and teachers. Sure, summer is ending, but the beginning of a new school year also means a fresh start. You have perfect grades in every class, you may have a new teacher (or new set of students), and you may even be moving up to middle school or high school! While the back-to-school time can be very exciting for students, it isn’t always exciting for some of them.

Jerry: Fear and Trepidation in Ohio

My first summer vacation is nearly finished, which means there are a lot of thoughts, emotions, and ideas fighting for space inside my head as the new school year approaches its commencement date.

I was hired as a moderate/intensive intervention specialist with about 12 weeks left in the 2011–12 school year to work with two students: a young man who has an autism spectrum disorder and a young Amish girl whose diagnosis is still a bit of a mystery. By the time the school year ended, I had picked up two more students: a female high school sophomore and a male kindergartener. I really had no time then to think about how I felt. I had a job. It was time to get busy.

Charmelle: Learning to Collaborate

As my summer vacation comes to a close, I anticipate returning to my classroom and my students for the upcoming school year. I have not just spent this time resting and relaxing, but reflecting. During my vacation, I examined some of the successes and challenges I faced through my first year as a special education teacher.

In my current position, I work as a resource teacher and support students with IEPs in the general education classrooms through co-teaching. The biggest challenge was collaboration with my colleagues in the general education classrooms. Of course, we could communicate with each other, but working together at times was difficult. It was hard for them to fully understand the benefit and purpose of my presence in the classroom, and I was often faced with the feeling that I was invading their territory or being viewed as an assistant, floating around the room to help out. Not, only was I the new teacher on the block, but now I wanted to be in their space and I was expected to teach with them.

Kaylie: New Year, New Faces, New Toys, New Ideas...

In less than two weeks, summer will be over and a new school year will be firing up. Everywhere I go it seems like people are asking me, “Are you ready to go back?” I’ve been answering them pretty adamantly with an “Absolutely!”

Don’t get me wrong, I love my summer break and try to live it up to the fullest during my time off. These past two months have been jam-packed: a trip to Arkansas to meet my boyfriend’s family, where I did some amazing hiking; early morning runs (followed by naps sometimes lasting until noon); a trip to church camp; pool time; an epic adventure to Idaho, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons; an attempt to increase my domesticity by cooking a new recipe every week; the Batman movie marathon, which ended in me becoming an avid fan; a building project for my parents; Vacation Bible School at church (which involved me dressed as a panda); and, of course, the occasional days of in-service and professional development.

I need to go back to school to recuperate! My students are not the only ones who thrive on routine and I am definitely ready to settle back into mine.

Meet CEC's New Bloggers for the 2012–13 School Year!

Charmelle, Danielle, Kaylie, Jerry, and John are special and gifted educators, and they're excited to share the ins and outs, the ups and downs of the coming school year.

Charmelle is an elementary special education teacher who is busy balancing work, graduate school, and family life with a 2-year-old.

Danielle was a high school mathematics teacher, but has now spent the summer excitedly preparing for her new role as a K–12 gifted and talented coordinator.

Jerry takes on special education as a second career—and he’s ready to tackle his first full year of teaching.

John, following in his mom’s footsteps, decided to become a teacher. After switching his major to special education, he’s never looked back.

Kaylie has found her calling as a middle school special education teacher and couldn’t be happier.

Stay tuned for another dynamic and inspiring year at Reality 101! They kick off their blogging next week--don't miss a post!