Last week our school had a visit from WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) as part of our accreditation process. For high schools and colleges this process is very important because it gives the diplomas our school issues merit. WASC looks at every aspect of the school and then gives feedback to the school about what they need to work on to be more effective than they are. One of the aspects about WASC I like best is the honest criticism and feedback they give us. Two components for our areas for follow-up that struck a big chord in me were: checking for understanding and differentiation of instruction. I started reflecting on my practice and wondered: Do I do these enough? Are my ways of doing these activities effective?
I started to think about how important reflection is in both the teaching and learning process. Most students aren't aware of their learning in a meta-cognitive capacity until they reflect on the process. As a teacher, I am the same way. I believe my pedagogy is strong and effective but until I receive student work and reflect on their success or lack thereof, I'm essentially playing a guessing game. My pedagogy might be good but it might not have been good enough for the students I was teaching in that class period. In high school we have "preps" or classes we prepare for teaching each day. That means that if I have a 9CP and a 9 Honors class, then I have two preps because the work to prepare for both classes would be different due to the rigor of each course. I maintain, and most of my colleagues would as well, that even if we taught 5 periods of the same level English class that each class has it's own strengths and areas for growth. That being said, I had to take a step back and think: is the differentiation I think I'm doing, actually being done? Is it effective? How do I get more students involved in class discussions? How can I increase the rigor of a course without alienating the students with learning challenges? My intention here is not to answer these questions, yet. I need to think about which of these issues I can confront in the most effective and authentic way. Some of these questions have simple solutions others require more time to consider the solutions. Finally, I leave you with one of my favorite songs and a really important component to effective reflection. We must look at ourselves and what we are doing first, then "make the change."
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To Survive your first year teaching high school. This semester I have been fortunate to have a student-teacher. He's been doing a great job but as all newcomers to this field feels like he has a lot to learn, which is definitely true. Nobody in education knows everything and we all still have much to learn. That being said, nothing, including student teaching, truly prepares you for the moment when the bell rings on the first day of school and you have 38+ students staring at you, eyes glazed over from having to get up before noon for the first time in two months, and everything you do that day sets the tone for the next 180 days! No pressure! Ha! My student-teacher and colleagues have asked me for advice over the years and I decided, why not share some of what I know. (By the way, I totally took the idea for this format from an activity Kelly Gallagher writes about in his book Write Like This. These ideas are in no particular order of importance and I kept it to five because the first year of teaching is overwhelming enough. That being said, here we go:
1. Make a Friend. It's difficult to under or over value the importance of creating a friendship with someone on the campus you work with. It doesn't matter if they're working with the same subject area or grade level (though it would be very helpful if they were). You need to find a like-minded person you can get along with, to hang out at school, eat lunch, gripe with, etc. You need to have someone to talk with in this job or you run the risk of feeling like you're the only one whose students do something wrong or don’t understand. It isn't true but only someone else's feedback will confirm this for you. Isolation is a real challenge in this field of work. 2. Make a Schedule. This one is really important. My first year teaching I was in my classroom until 8 o'clock at night, every night, then I'd go home and eat and be back in my room by 7 o'clock the next morning. I always felt behind no matter what. My sister is a teacher and she told me I had to set a time when I leave every day, no matter what. This was the best tip she could have shared with me because I was definitely feeling the first-year blues at that point. The time you set to leave is up to you but honestly, when that time comes, pack up your gear and leave! You cannot be effective if you're tired and cranky. Our students deserve for us to be at our best, that is true, but your personal health and mental well-being are critical parts of that equation. This habit will become even more important when you have children. Part of the schedule you need to create for yourself must include giving yourself time to create assignments and gather or create the materials for the assignment. If you're lucky enough to have digital capabilities, it still takes time to get the documents set properly to allow students their own document to work with. Alice Keeler has great Google doc tips that are easy to follow. Always build in at least a two-day buffer for your unit in case you have reteaching to do or an emergency comes up. 3. Figure out your "hills to die on" but be adaptable. Know what your expectations are for students from day one and make those expectations clear to the students and the consequences of failing to meet those expectations clear as well. If you don't care about students having their cell phones on their desks at any given time, then be prepared for the students to have them out. If you decide it's becoming a problem, set the expectation that you want them away. Be prepared for push back (you're changing the rules in the middle of the game) but stay firm. You're the king/queen of your domain and the best leaders are the ones who are reasonable, firm, and fair. Also, if you don't want the students to have their phone out, you should probably put yours away too. The best teaching is done with modeling. Every activity requires an expectation and a consequence of not meeting the expectation. You set the tone for the class on day one. If what you're doing isn't working then it is necessary for you to adjust your expectations or how your express your expectations to your students. 4. Just Say No/Get Involved.. You are new and don't have tenure and you're afraid that saying no will somehow destroy your chances of keeping your job. This is something that after nine years of teaching I'm still working on too. The critical aspect of agreeing to a task outside your classroom duties is that it must be something you're passionate about and willing to give your time to as well. All campuses are different and have different responsibilities. I would just recommend that if you don't want to be the Girl's Volleyball coach, don't agree to be the coach. The time to get involved will come in the future, so if you're not ready for it now, don't agree to it. On the other hand, it's important to get involved. I know I just told you to say no to more responsibilities, but if you're working with children it's because you like them, right? So, getting involved with activities during school hours, and if your school has sports or other extracurricular activities, attend the events. Attending the event is not the same as being responsible for putting on the event. Going to the football game on Friday night might not sound like the best Friday night ever, but your students will LOVE you for it. Even if you don't like sports just showing up is a big deal. Sometimes our students' parents are so busy with their own stuff they don't have time to attend these events and your attendance is so crucial for building relationships in the classroom. Students have to know you care about them. 5. Know your audience. It is crucial for your classroom environment that you get to know your students as best you can. Have students complete surveys, questionnaires, and work samples during the first week of class. Students tend to be more honest in writing than they are to our faces and having them write about themselves allows you the opportunity to truly get to know who they are as people along with the challenges they face as learners. A good rule of thumb when thinking about activities for students to do is: Would you want to do that if you were asked to? If the answer is no, then maybe find something else to do. If the answer is no, but it’s necessary for the next step of what I want them to do, give students some choice as to how the task gets completed. One of my most repeated phrases in class is, “I don’t care how it gets done, as long as it gets done.” This is all I have so far but I'm planning on coming back into this post and revising it. Easing back into the work.It's the first day back from spring break and the students are unsurprisingly exhausted. One expects them to be this way when we return from an extended break of any kind because they have, no doubt, spent their time off sleeping in until noon or later. The challenge this presents to us as teachers is what to plan that day when returning from a break. I like to keep my lesson plans for the day back light and breezy. In my 9th grade class we played around with figurative language using the photograph of the day on http://nationalgeographic.com. See below. My students have been working on Poet Research Project and we've worked on analyzing poetry but we have done little production. My students have an original poem assignment due in a few weeks so I thought this would be a good time to practice figurative language. Students were to use figurative language: imagery, metaphor, simile, personification, etc. to describe the image you see here. I let students work with the photograph for about ten minutes. Then students turned to a neighbor and shared what they came up with. One of my students wrote a very literal description of the photograph. I seized the opportunity to ask students how to add details to create the figurative language the task was calling for and they offered some ideas for creating what I had asked for and they did rather well.
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AuthorMy name is Sarah Todd and I teach freshmen and junior English in Southern California. Archives
August 2018
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