It's time I blogged

So I've been meaning to get to this post since...oh about September. To say I'm "actively" engaged in my first year of teaching would be an understatement. Things are busy. Very busy. I'm not going to lie, at times I feel just plain overwhelmed and seriously question if I'm cut out for this job of teaching. There were days (most of them in September) where I needed to cry it out, just like the Ferber babies, for no apparent reason. Then there were other days, admittedly less of them, where I thought, 'hey, I got this, no problem!'

With all of these ups and downs going on, I've missed out on some excellent blogging opportunity. So I need to start now. I'm going to begin with a very summarized list of what's worked and what hasn't. (I realize that there is an argument here for focusing on the positives, but, frankly, this is for me to be able to remember everything!)

Working:
-songs with actions for teaching...well, almost anything.
-pre-assessments -so helpful and often they know more than I thought.
-reading strategies -I semi-use Daily 5 and direct teach these in whole group and on an individual basis with modeling. They model them for each other as well. I love how it brings learning to read to their consciousness.
-planning via Intelligence Online (IO) -I love this resource and consider it my saving grace
-tweaking other amazing teachers' unit plans for myself -I still do my own unit plans, but for every one I do, I borrow someone else's
-5 why's -learned this from a great teacher and it really helps with getting deeper into an issue without leading students
-reading picture books the whole way through without stopping to teach something -I reread it to them later if I want a lesson out of it but the first time is always for enjoyment of the story
-bringing people in from OUTSIDE -yes! We are not in a prison and people from the outside world can actually come and talk with your students and teach them something! They LOVE it and it leaves us with so many take-off points for continued learning
-dancing -we dance, everyday, and they love it. And, guess what, they prefer to do their own dance moves rather than follow the teacher. Strange creatures, those children. I use the dance "lessons" to promote creativity and bonding in our classroom community.



Not working:
-paper -I type faster than I write and it is so frustrating when that piece of paper you need got left somewhere else! I use dropbox and evernote so I can access important documents (including assessments) from anywhere.
-calendar -yes, it is the beloved calendar that we have all come to accept as mandatory. I don't know if it's more boring for them or me. True, my students may want to see when things are going to happen (a field trip, pizza day, birthdays, etc), but I don't think that justifies spending 15 minutes per day of boredom, especially when (GASP!) it's not even in grade one curriculum! I stop at the "Days of the Week" song (see first point in "working" above)
-home reading -if I get my own classroom next year I will use symbols (eg. Stars, birds, elephants, etc.) rather than letters to categorize reading levels. I am wondering, too, about the possibility of scrapping the leveled readers and letting students take home books they're actually interested in and enjoy reading -what a concept-. Perhaps parents might actually enjoy them too and read more with their kids! (okay, I'm patronizing the system now)
-daily 5 book exchange -I allow this weekly and they take 10 books. They can keep ones they want and switch ones they are done with. The problem is that it's too chaotic (books everywhere) and it takes up my teaching time. I have yet to find a way to do this more successfully. Suggestions gladly welcomed!
-homework -I tried this and hated it. Once a week students were taking home a duo tang with a word family and coming up with as many words as they could. For some reason I felt I had to do this because I see it almost everywhere, but I cannot see the value so I stopped it. None of the parents have complained :)


Well, that's what I have for right now. I'm going to repost things as I think of them. The bottom line here is that, when I actually get a moment to reflect, I LOVE this job. Yes, it's busy. Yes, I'm exhausted. Yes, I'm engaged!

Blogging Together

I'm blogging with my grade one students today! We can blog about anything we want to; it has to be something interesting because we know that a lot of other people read our blogs.

I read my cousin's blog this morning. She's 20 weeks pregnant with her first baby and she uploaded a photo of her growing belly. I think this is very exciting!

New and Exciting Times

It seems I'm beginning to take part in some classic "newbie" behaviour:

1. It's not even mid-July and I've already emailed my principal with a list of annoying but necessary questions
2. I've created and added all of my students to a class wiki and blog (can I just say that kidblogs is awesome)
3. I've ordered my preferred phonics literacy system and eagerly await its arrival
4. I spend my "free time" reading early literacy and mathematics books
5. I've renewed my membership to Intelligence Online/Galileo Network and began seeking out inquiry projects

And, I'm not going to lie, this list is just going to keep growing. It's all so exciting though!
These are some of the resources I'm finding really helpful right now:

• An inspiring tech-integrating K teacher: http://kindergartenlife.wordpress.com/
• Kidblogs
• Wikispaces
• A place to begin my digital filing: Dropbox 
• A Wiki with tips on how to blog with your students: http://langwitches.wikispaces.com/Blogging+with+your+Students

In writing this, however, I am beginning to remind myself about teacher self care and how that can impact teaching. I need to consciously make sure that I enjoy normal summer things before the hectic school year begins. It's exciting to feel this passionate about work though. I feel like the child in Vivian Paley's A Child's Work, which focuses on the importance of learning through play. I'm experiencing the adult version, learning through engagement.

How long till I'm an expert teacher?

I'm just making my way through Outliers for the first time (something tells me I'll be reading it again one day) and pondering Gladwell's implications for a newbie teacher. Gladwell talks about how everyone needs at least 10,000 hours of challenging, diligent practice to be an expert. If I generously include my student teaching hours and my work hours so far after graduation, I'm at a whopping 925 hours of teaching time.

Yikes. Could this be a deterrent for a potential employer? Perhaps. But what are the benefits of hiring a fresh-out-the-gates teacher? What do we have to offer students, families, and schools? What kinds of experiences do we have with educational technology and theory that characterize our pedagogy?

Just 9,075 hours to go!


Image source.



When are you a Teacher?

I've been thinking a lot about this question recently. I just graduated from a teaching program and am now a certified Alberta teacher. But am I really a Teacher?


In recent encounters with new people, I've been asked the commonplace question, "what do you do?". I've found myself struggling with a particular answer. You see, I have a degree that says I'm a teacher but, in reality, I have not a classroom of my own or an actual teaching position. So I reply with "I'm in education". And then, the lets-get-to-the-bottom-of-this question, "oh, are you a teacher". "Well yes" I reply, "but I'm not working as a teacher right now. I'm working with special needs students in schools..." And round we go.

A kind of teacher. (image source)



So all this made me wonder, at what point can I justify calling myself a teacher?

Shouldn't the status of Teacher be reserved for those actually engaging in it on a daily basis? Those spectacular people designing activities for student learning, dealing with parents, going to meetings, thinking about the learning needs of each and every student in the class, and taking on the curriculum? I certainly engage in junior versions of many of these things now, but certainly not to the full extent of a classroom teacher. I cannot help but feel I would be devaluing what they do everyday by calling myself a teacher.



A revered teacher. (image source)





But what about the innate nature of a teacher? Surely many would argue that Ghandi was a great teacher, even though he didn't teach in schools or hold a teaching certificate. After all, are there not some people out there that are teaching that really shouldn't be? They usually know who they are, and have often ended up there for various reasons. Teaching is not for everybody. Degree or no degree, some people are just Teachers and others are not. In this sense, I am a Teacher. I should be loud and proud about replying to the question of what I do. I teach! It's hard not to feel like you're misleading someone though. God forbid they continue to question about what grade you teach...



A teacher in the making? (image source)



But then again, did I not strive for this over my 6 years of university education (and increasingly ridiculous tutition fees, I might add)? After all of that, have I not yet earned the right to call myself a Teacher? I had a dream and I fulfilled that dream! Well...I got the credentials I needed to be able to fulfill that dream. Hmmm.

Ultimately, I feel this push and pull over my changing identity. It's that sort of in limbo feeling that you can't wait to shake. A degree isn't everything, and rightly so.

Thoughts?

A Transparent Classroom for me

I recently read a blog post at Seth's Blog that made me think back to Amy Park's transparent classroom. A transparent classroom relates the idea that what happens in the classroom is accessible information for parents, other teachers, and administrators. More than just leaving the door open, the transparent classroom reaches out to the community and families to involve them in the important task of learning. As a new teacher, I know I will make many mistakes in the course of my career. There will always be things that I could have done better and ways to improve. How could having my classroom transparent help me grow professionally? How can a transparent classroom ultimately enhance student learning?

As a new teacher, I am both excited and scared about getting feedback and advice from colleagues. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helpful, constructive feedback. In fact, I have often made the case that there is not enough open feedback loops in the professional teaching community. The reason why I'm afraid is because I know that the way I think about teaching and learning is very different from the way it's currently practised in the many classrooms. This whole shift in education is easy to approach in theory but difficult to translate into practice when you often see around you dusty IWBs, punishments and rewards, squashing of ideas (a.k.a. shushing), and worksheet after worksheet after...that's right, worksheet. What are other, experienced, teachers going to think about my smile-and-nod approach to their worksheet sharing meetings? Will I be subliminally coerced into using them? Is it undermining the value of a collaborative network to reject things that the rest of your team use and believe in? How receptive will my colleagues then be of my ideas? (My mind is now racing about creating a "worksheet center" in the classroom that's completely optional for students. I wonder how many of them would go there and how long it would sustain their interest. If you can contextualize them, can worksheets build student understanding?)

This book outlines future classrooms that have auditory, but not visual, barriers making a physically transparent classroom.

On the other hand, one of the major benefits of the transparent classroom is parental involvement. I love parents, even helicopter ones. This is probably related to the fact that I am one...a parent, not a helicopter, but fundamentally because parents are always advocates for what they think is best for their children. I even came across an article discussing how children of helicopter parents are more engaged. After all, they tend to know their children best and to not use their expertise and involve them in their childrens' learning is shameful. They have a right to be involved. By having a transparent classroom that involves parents I benefit from learning more about their children and students benefit, at the very least, from knowing that the school is a community place where they, and their families, belong. Of course, those helicopter types will make sure I'm engaging their children in quality, engaged learning.

Are students just as bothered by them as teachers? (image source)

I really enjoyed the perspective in this article about moving toward a transparent classroom. The full transparency of one of my last courses at university was a simple step toward full engagement by the students, a strong connection with the professor, and the sharing and collaboration of amazing work and ideas. Simply knowing that I could tweet my prof was empowering and broke down barriers so that I could ask questions and share ideas that I never would have shared otherwise. You can see what we did each week and access all of the students' blogs here.

Ultimately, student learning is of the utmost importance and something that leads to better teaching and more engagement is worth investing in. While I have to admit that splashing my pedagogical ideas and choices up in the air for everyone to see is slightly, okay very, intimidating, I know it will make me a better teacher.

Inclusive Technology use in ECE

The link below leads to a webpage that displays my literature review of technology use in ECE. This topic divided itself into 3 categories: fostering creativity, gender inclusion, gaming to learn, and teaching for diverse learners.

Some of the key questions discussed are:
How can teachers know which technologies are worthwhile quality for fostering the development of creativity?
How can girls become more engaged with technology?
How can technology that appeals to boys be used in the classroom?
What is the role of technology in the Early Childhood classroom?
How can digital gaming be used in education generally, and ECE specifically?
How does the Universal Design for Learning support learners with technology?

Additionally, some practical resources are cited.

Feedback is welcome and encouraged!

www.inclusivetechnologyece.weebly.com