Reality 101: CEC's blog for new teachers

Reality Check with Allisence: Still New to Teaching

Remember Allisence? She wrote for Reality 101 in 2011–12. Allisence was just starting a second career and in her first year of teaching last time she blogged. Reality 101 is circling back with her for a Reality Check to get her perspective and sage advice for new teachers.

Last year, I was a first-year teacher trying to figure out how to navigate the system and balance student schedules that made my room feel like a three-ring circus. I was perplexed by how to teach such a wide range of students, but even though I have a year of experience under my belt, everything seems that much more complicated!

Thank You!

CEC thanks Allisence, Jessica, Richard, and Theresa for a wonderful year of blogging! We have loved getting to know you, your schools, and your students through your posts. Thank you for sharing with us this past year; you will be missed here at Reality 101!

For those Reality 101 readers that have loved reading about our bloggers, don't worry, they won't be gone completely. Here's how you can follow them:

Allisence: on Twitter @allisence or on her blog, http://allisence.wordpress.com/.

Richard: on Twitter @ExceptionallyED or on his blog, http://exceptionallyed.wordpress.com/.

Theresa: on Twitter @MsTheresaQ or on her blog, http://mstheresaq.blogspot.com/. 

 

Allisence: The End of the Beginning

And just like that, summer is full swing. It’s amazing to think about how far each of my students have come, but even more so how much they have taught me. I could not have asked for a better group of kids. Not only were they hard working and, for the most part, in love with school, they rose to every challenge put in front of them.

So reflecting back, here are five things I learned over and over again. I certainly plan on taking them with me as I continue down this ever-surprising special education path because as Winston Churchill once said, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Allisence: Budget Woes From a Classroom Teacher’s Point of View

Long ago, after George Washington cut down that cherry tree, he donned his powdered white wig, and became the President of the United States. Then in 1792, he approved a total federal spending budget of $5.1 million. All inflation talk aside, $5.1 million is practically a coin in the penny jar these days. In fact, it’s barely enough to cover our school district budget let alone the entire country’s.

I’ve avoided talking about money as much as possible this school year for a couple of reasons. 1. At the end of last year, my district closed one of our six schools to balance the budget. It was a painful experience not only for those at that school, but it also involved major growing pains for my school because our two schools merged. 2. Even though my school district does have a Budget Committee, the Committee didn’t start meeting until the last two weeks of school because we’ve been waiting for the state budget. And 3. I hate talking about budgets and pots and pools — none of it makes much sense to me anyway.

Allisence: Not Saying Goodbye

One of my students has a social/emotional behavior goal that focuses on salutations and valedictions — responding to hellos and goodbyes in an age-appropriate manner. Consequently, we make it a big deal in the classroom for everyone to remember to say hello or goodbye when they enter or leave a room respectively. The funny thing is the one day I really could not bring myself to practice what I preach as my students were walking out the door was on the very last day of school.

The room was already pretty much boxed up thanks to the help of my students, IEP progress reports were sealed in manila envelopes in each of their backpacks, and I was holding on to the small possibility that summer homework would be returned come August though I’m guessing the chances of that are slim. Everything was all set and done.

Allisence: Field Trip Fun – Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Did you know that helicopters have two rotors — one main rotor and one tail rotor? And did you know that helicopters can seat anywhere between two and 60 people? Well, these seemingly random facts are now things my students can rattle off at a moment’s notice thanks to our most recent life experience trip, otherwise known as a field trip.

As the self-declared Queen of Field Trips, the school secretary and I brainstormed all kinds of adventures my class could go on for our big end-of-the-year field trip finale. We tossed around the Children’s Museum, the Science Center, a light rail trip to the public library, and a few impossible ones too like Disneyland. In the end, we decided to take advantage of the fact that my husband is in the military and has connections at the local army aviation National Guard base.

Allisence: Testing Breaks the Classroom “Norm”

Having been back in the classroom a good two weeks now since returning from Denver, you’d think my students and I would have adjusted back to our normal schedule already, but what is normal, really?

Here’s a glimpse at our week right after the conference:

Monday: “Today you will take the Science/writing portion of the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) …”

Tuesday: “Today you will take Reading, Part 1 and Math, Part 1 of the AIMS…”

Wednesday: “Today is a half day so please rest your brain and don’t think about testing even though you’ve been testing the past two days and will test the next two days.”

Thursday: “Today you will take Reading, Part 2 and Math, Part 2 of the AIMS…”

Friday: “Today you will take Reading, Part 3 and Math, Part 3 of the AIMS…”

Allisence: Bloggers and Students Engage at CEC 2012 Convention

Sunday night, I was so nervous that I couldn’t sleep. Even though it’s the point in the week where I usually sit there and wonder if I should still be a teacher, this past Sunday night was especially nerve-wracking. Not only was I experiencing my “normal” school day jitters, I still had to write lots of sub plans, and I was about to leave my room for three days.

Getting no sleep, trudging through those sub plans, and learning to accept that whatever happens while I’m gone is just the way it’s going to be has all been worth it now that I’m in Denver at the CEC 2012 Convention & Expo.

Allisence: School Day Jitters

Do you ever get so nervous that all you want to do is run? Maybe it’s before a big performance or right before making a speech in front of a large audience. Either way, those are situations where a little anxiety is expected, right? But how about going to work every day? Do you get nervous or scared about going to work everyday? Because I am always nervous about going to school.

It’s been seven months since the first day of school and every Sunday night, I still wonder if I can get up the next morning and make it to school so much so that sometimes, I think I should just quit. I honestly don’t know why I feel this way. My principal has told me that I’m pretty decent for a first year teacher, I know my students like me, and I really do love my job, but every Sunday night and especially the Sunday after a long break, all I want to do is run away and hide.

Allisence: Learning to Teach Rule Breakers

In 1795, John Newbery published a children’s book called Goody Two-Shoes that tells the story of a poor, but virtuous orphan girl named Margery Meanwell, who went through life with only one shoe. One day, she met a rich man who gave her a pair of shoes — two shoes. The fable teaches us that being virtuous pays off.

The modern-day term “goody two-shoes” was popularized by this story. Growing up, I was pretty much a goody two-shoes. I did everything I could to avoid troublemakers at all costs. While I knew that there were kids in my school who got suspended, even expelled, I was never friends with them. And with that, I’ve never had to deal with the idea of suspensions until now.

Allisence: Schedules and Schedules and Schedules—Oh My!

I started with three and things were easy. Two weeks into the school year, I got another and things were still going well. Two months ago, I got another one for half a day, which was something I could handle. Two weeks ago, I got another and all of a sudden everything was thrown for a loop. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m talking about students.

I’m certainly not complaining about the size of my class. I’m pretty sure I have the smallest class in my entire district and I dare say one of the smallest classes ever, but considering the students that are currently on my caseload, things are definitely not easy.

Allisence: 'Tis the Season for Testing

Deck the desks with tears and weeping,
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.
'Tis the season to be testing,
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.

Don we now our blank stare faces,
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.
Troll this song my mind it chases,
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.

What is that you ask? Those are the lyrics floating through my head all the days long as my students and I endure second trimester benchmark testing. And it really must be testing season if more than one of us are blogging about it.

Allisence: How Deep Are Your Roots?

In the early 1990s, Brian Andreas, an American artist began collecting stories. He innovatively used the Internet of that time and collected thousands of stories from around the world. These stories eventually grew into colorful, hand-lettered prints—the foundation for StoryPeople.

One of Andreas’ prints is called Deep Roots. The story says this: When I die, she said, I’m coming back as a tree with deep roots and I’ll wave my leaves at the children every morning on their way to school and whisper tree songs at night in their dreams. Trees with deep roots know about the things children need.

Allisence: An Update on Felipe

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.

Allisence: Almost a “Real” Teacher

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.

Allisence: What’s Up with Felipe?

Meet Felipe. Felipe is one of the most adorable little kids you’ll ever meet. He has perfect curls and long, long eyelashes. Teachers and administrators he meets out in the general education world fall for his charm all the time. They come up to me and say, “Aww, Felipe is just so cute!” Sometimes, I’ll even find myself battling to be the disciplinarian when he plays around, doesn’t finish his work, and has to stay in during recess to do it.

With a little bit of encouragement, Felipe is usually very compliant and willing to work. Recently, however, I’ve noticed a complete change in his behavior. Felipe needs constant redirection for every task.  He’s less willing to work with the classroom aides. He shortcuts in line and is not willing to share, and there are times when he has simply been rude toward both adults and other students.

Allisence: Life in the Classroom Fishbowl

My students love Connect-the-Dot puzzles, mainly because they think it’s fun and because they love numbers about a billion times more than letters. In keeping with that theme, I’ve decided to share with you 10 dots that get you from my windowless classroom to what’s become a fishbowl reality.

Dot 1: My classroom is approximately 12’x25’ complete with 2 windows: 1 skinny tall one on the door and 1 next to the door that has cage-wiring inside it so is pretty useless as an actual window.

Dot 2: My windowless classroom sits in the Osborn School District and my school district loves to partner with Arizona State University (ASU) in hopes of bettering our teaching and student learning.

Dot 3: As part of our partnership with ASU, we started participating in something called TAP. TAP stands for Teacher Advancement Program and is used as a way to measure teacher-added value, among other things

Allisence: Talkin' the Talk and Walkin’ the Walk

ap•pre•ci•a•tion [uh-pree-shee-ey-shuh’n] noun 1. gratitude; thankful recognition

One of the things I really appreciate is that my school is an International Baccalaureate Candidate School, and one of the things I appreciate most about the IB Primary Years Programme is the IB Attitudes. We want our students to be global citizens who exhibit  respect, independence, confidence, tolerance, enthusiasm, curiosity, creativity, cooperation, empathy, commitment, integrity, and appreciation.

As a school, we're focusing on appreciation this November — I'm guessing because it goes along well with Thanksgiving. As I was trying to prepare an initial lesson on what appreciation is and how we go about exhibiting that attitude on a regular basis, I was struck by how little appreciation I really show.

I can honestly say that I am extremely appreciative of my students, my aides, my fellow co-workers, and the simple fact that I have a job, but I'm also extremely positive that I'm appreciative of all these things only on the inside. I'm pretty sure nobody, except those of you reading this right now, has any idea how appreciative I really am, which is really sad.

Allisence: Queen of Crazy Field Trips

I am the Queen of Crazy Field Trips. Every time I hand the school secretary a field trip permission form, she laughs and asks where we’re going this time. The joke is that we’re headed for Disneyland come May; she’s already volunteered to chaperone.

Let me assure you we are not headed for Disneyland—ever. Even still, I don’t plan on relinquishing my title any time soon.

This all started when I brought my fifth grader to the 99-cent store across the street from school. He had money goals, so it made sense. Then we headed (as an entire class) to PetSmart, as we had been studying animal vocabulary and PetSmart is a billion times cheaper than the Phoenix Zoo. In fact, all my crazy field trips are free.

Allisence: Siloed

First of all, I’m not so proud to share that I have not started running, nor have I made much progress in finding any balance in my life. But I did walk outside and buy myself a new pair of earrings. Baby steps, I tell you, baby steps.

Anyway, did you know that 1873, a man named Henry Hatch of McHenry County, Ill., invented the very first silo? He built it out of wood and stored grains inside of it. He was probably a very forward-thinking man.

I saw my very first silo when I moved to Michigan for college. After being told farmers kept grain inside of them to feed their animals, I could not figure out how they filled those things up. I mean, if you put the grains in through a little window, all the grain already in there would just spill out! Little did I know that silos require some fancy engineering . . . on the inside.

My grad program is built on the idea of co-teaching. In the past year and a half it’s been drilled into my head that silos are bad news and that no teacher should operate in silo fashion. Everyone knows this, but when you’ve been trained to operate as a co-planner, co-teacher, and co-assessor, being the sole teacher-of-record in a self-contained class where I have no team whatsoever is quite hard.

Allisence: No Hope for Balance

Despite previous bouts of self-doubt and concern, I feel like my aides and I are finally starting to gel. Weekly AIMSweb progress monitoring has given me solid data that my students are making progress in both reading and math; my district’s special services director just informed me I’m getting a SMARTBoard this week; and somehow I’m still alive after a month of juggling writing lesson plans, doing paperwork, being a part of committees, and finishing up grad school.

Yeah, I’d say things are going pretty awesome right now. I know you’re thinking I just cursed myself as soon as I typed those words. I think so, too. But aside from that, I will share with you my biggest worry. My absolute biggest worry at the moment is that there’s no hope for balance in my life.

Allisence: Inspiration from a Haboob

If you live in Phoenix — the city of 100-degree temps even after midnight — San Diego sounds like a dream. It’s by the ocean, it’s within driving distance, it experiences perfect weather all year round, and it’s not the desert.

My lucky, lucky parents happen to live in San Diego, so a friend and I road-tripped on over to the City of Perfect Weather for the Labor Day weekend. While we were there, we went to the beach, saw wild dolphins jumping around in the ocean, and ate both seafood and home-cooked Chinese food. It was pretty much a perfect long weekend and a great escape from the desert heat.

On our 5.5-hour drive back to Phoenix, we were hit by a haboob. What’s a haboob, you ask? Well, a haboob is a type of intense dust storm commonly observed in arid regions around the world like the Middle East and, of course, central and southern Arizona. While I’ve experienced haboobs and dust storms before, this one hit me especially hard: 1) physically because I was driving at the time and 2) mentally because it reminded me that while I’m able to escape from the desert on a whim, none of my students have that option.

Allisence: Managing for Dummies

In 1991, Dan Gookin might have been the most ingenious dummy on Earth. Ingenious because he authored the first in a series of more than 1,600 books (take that, J.K. Rowling!). And a dummy because he dared to call pretty much everyone who can read the English language . . . a dummy.

And yet he got away with it. Why? Because his book, DOS for Dummies, explained to “the rest of us” what DOS is. I, for one, have not read this book, so I am still unable to call myself an enlightened DOS dummy. However, there is one For Dummies book that I could really use right about now: Managing for Dummies.

Pretty much every single class I’ve taken thus far in my masters and certification program has talked about how to collaborate with paraprofessionals, how to incorporate them in instruction, and how to create a classroom culture that embraces the strengths of all its members. I heard the same things so many times that it became quite ingrained, but none of it really hit me until I started teaching this year.

Allisence: 5 Things Making a Comeback

I love the way Converse All Stars look, but I’m not such a fan of how much they cost, so I bought some look-alikes. During a recent visit home, my dad took one look at my shoes and commented that Converses were “in” when he was young because they were affordable—and now everyone’s paying $60 for what should be cheap shoes.

This got me thinking about all the things that are making a comeback. Supposedly the current economy is causing everyone to subconsciously reminisce about happier times. I don’t know about that, but I do know many things besides ’70s clothing seem to be enjoying a comeback.

So here’s my list of top five things making a comeback this school year.

Chalkboards. While the rest of the nation seems to be moving toward SMART Boards, I’ve been blessed with a chalkboard. You know, those dusty green wall-hangers kids with sensory issues don’t like? That being said, my school is at capacity this year, so we’re using classrooms that haven’t been used for years. Guess I’ll have to limit the black clothing. . . .

Allisence: Designing My Dream Classroom

There’s a story that during the Vietnam War, a certain prisoner survived the torture of being in a cell all alone for years by planning, in incredible detail, a dream house that he would build once he returned home. In his head, he knew exactly how many nails, how many 2x4s, and how many tiles he would need. When he got home, he built that house and, in terms of the materials he had estimated in his head, was only off by one plank of wood.

This summer, I’ve been pretending to have a smidgen of the ability that prisoner of war had and designed my dream classroom. I’ve planned out, in incredible detail, all the cute little students, where each table and desk will be, and the collaborative general educators I’m going to be working with next year.