One of the things I want to be sure to include in this blog is a collection of the great things kids say in class.
I worked in a first grade class yesterday. As I was passing out papers, a little girl said, "Mrs. M, you smell good."
I smiled back at her and thanked her for her compliment.
She added, "You smell like my mom's pet store."
I stopped in my tracks. I had taken a shower that morning, and while it was pretty warm, I was pretty sure that I wasn't stinky. But then she continued.
"My mom uses an air freshener that only lasts for a day, but it smells good when we first take it out."
Oh.
I smiled and moved on, relieved that I didn't smell like a fish tank or the gerbil cage.
You never know what they are going to say.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
What do I do when...?
So I was just on the phone with a friend who is teaching overseas and we talked about some issues she was having. Thought I'd post my ideas here and see if anyone has any thoughts or additions to what I came up with.
Problem 1: A kid copies your tone of voice, like "Oh, nice job!" and continues to do so.
Issue: Respect
Solution: Have a general conversation with the class about respect for the teacher. Include a specific example of not copying others. If the behavior continues, tell the student specifically how their behavior is disrespectful, and tell them that if their behavior continues, that you will have a specific consequence (like calling home, being sent to the principal, etc.). Be sure to follow through.
Problem 2: Kids go off-topic in class, either by talking about topics in the most basic of ways when you are looking for more depth, or literally not on topic.
Issue: Time wasting
Solution: Start one day and quietly tally how many times the class is off topic in a day. If that day is not particularly off topic, good, but wait until a day when you get a good count. Once you have a heavy count, on the following day write "OFF TOPIC" on your board, and write down the tally total from the previous day. Have a conversation about what being off topic means, how it affects everyone (distracts from learning), and what the plan is. Over a period of a couple weeks, work on getting that off topic tally total down steadily. Write down the totals from the previous day. Once it has fallen, maybe reward the class with an open reading and discussion time, or just an open social time (giving them a chance to be off topic when it is appropriate). Create a sign that you can point to that says "Off Topic", and post it wherever you can easily point to it during class conversations. When someone goes off topic, you should be able to interrupt them, point to the sign, and ask for apporopriate comments. Students who truly believe they have an on topic comment will usually try to reason with you and explain how their comment is on topic. Repeat if necessary.
Problem 3: A student is purposefully misbehaving to get attention. Once he/she gets that attention, the behavior stops.
Issue: Negative attention getting
Solution: Your goal is to have the student behave positively to get attention. So start out by giving the student positive attention when they are behaving properly. (Hey, I like your backpack, great words in your story, I liked how you organized your desk, good work in reading, etc.) Slather on the compliments. When the student misbehaves, quietly correct the misbehavior and tell them you won't ask again, and walk away. Make that contact as brief as possible. As soon as they correct their behavior, thank them for making a good decision. Keep at it, as often it can take awhile. "Catch them being good". Hopefully you can ease back on the compliments as the behavior turns more positive, but do not completely lay off. You can also introduce a time period of compliments... where students in the class compliment one another for things they noticed others doing. Kids in classes know what other kids have issues with, and sometimes the peer compliment can be more powerful than your own.
Hope this helps!
Problem 1: A kid copies your tone of voice, like "Oh, nice job!" and continues to do so.
Issue: Respect
Solution: Have a general conversation with the class about respect for the teacher. Include a specific example of not copying others. If the behavior continues, tell the student specifically how their behavior is disrespectful, and tell them that if their behavior continues, that you will have a specific consequence (like calling home, being sent to the principal, etc.). Be sure to follow through.
Problem 2: Kids go off-topic in class, either by talking about topics in the most basic of ways when you are looking for more depth, or literally not on topic.
Issue: Time wasting
Solution: Start one day and quietly tally how many times the class is off topic in a day. If that day is not particularly off topic, good, but wait until a day when you get a good count. Once you have a heavy count, on the following day write "OFF TOPIC" on your board, and write down the tally total from the previous day. Have a conversation about what being off topic means, how it affects everyone (distracts from learning), and what the plan is. Over a period of a couple weeks, work on getting that off topic tally total down steadily. Write down the totals from the previous day. Once it has fallen, maybe reward the class with an open reading and discussion time, or just an open social time (giving them a chance to be off topic when it is appropriate). Create a sign that you can point to that says "Off Topic", and post it wherever you can easily point to it during class conversations. When someone goes off topic, you should be able to interrupt them, point to the sign, and ask for apporopriate comments. Students who truly believe they have an on topic comment will usually try to reason with you and explain how their comment is on topic. Repeat if necessary.
Problem 3: A student is purposefully misbehaving to get attention. Once he/she gets that attention, the behavior stops.
Issue: Negative attention getting
Solution: Your goal is to have the student behave positively to get attention. So start out by giving the student positive attention when they are behaving properly. (Hey, I like your backpack, great words in your story, I liked how you organized your desk, good work in reading, etc.) Slather on the compliments. When the student misbehaves, quietly correct the misbehavior and tell them you won't ask again, and walk away. Make that contact as brief as possible. As soon as they correct their behavior, thank them for making a good decision. Keep at it, as often it can take awhile. "Catch them being good". Hopefully you can ease back on the compliments as the behavior turns more positive, but do not completely lay off. You can also introduce a time period of compliments... where students in the class compliment one another for things they noticed others doing. Kids in classes know what other kids have issues with, and sometimes the peer compliment can be more powerful than your own.
Hope this helps!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Advice for New Subs
Having been a sub for the past two years (is it really my third year of subbing now?!) I feel that I can offer a few pieces of advice.
1. Be prepared for early (or not so early) morning phone calls. School office staffers will call you at 7:30 am to be at school in 20 minutes. Consider nighttime showers, have outfits set out (or set in your mind), and keep your supplies by the door. Think layering when getting dressed, unless you know how the school is heated or if it is air conditioned.
2. Figure out where all the schools in the district(s) you are working in, are located. Take a day and drive around the district and note where they are, or print out maps/directions. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to get ready on the fly and then realizing you have no idea where the school is. Be sure you take the school number to let them know you are on the way if you run late, too.
3. September is typically a slow month. Consider volunteering your time in schools you'd like to work in. Staffers and teachers will remember you. Leave your name and card with the office staff, in the staff lunchroom, on bulletin boards in the staff prep areas...
4. I keep a bag near my door with standard supplies I have needed. Some things I take with me every day: mechanical pencils, lead and erasers, a purple and a green ballpoint pen, chalk pens, dry erase pens in bright colors, a timer, a highlighter, and a wet erase pen. I also have a small stash of favorite books I like to share with kids (usually grade 3 and under). You will have your own favorite authors, but here is a list of titles or authors I rely on:
Leo Lionni (K-2) Great to give ideas for community and art projects.
Chris Van Allsburg (2-4) The Sweetest Fig and The Garden of Abdul Gasazi are both wonderful with unpredictable endings that can give you an opportunity for discussion.
The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau by Jon Agee has another unpredictable ending. (2-4)
Imagine a Night, a Day, and a Place by Robert Gonsalves and Sarah Thompson. 3 books with fabulous, interesting artwork that will intrigue the most reluctant of listeners. (2-4)
If by Sarah Perry (1-3) Another creative book with wonderful art to provoke interest.
For short stories, I rely on the "Weenies" series by David Lubar (3-5)
Note that most teachers have books available for read aloud, but it good to have one on hand just in case. During holidays, it is also nice to have appropriate books, like Martin's Big Words for MLK, and so on. You will find your own favorites. Consider spending some time in the children's section of your local library to figure out what you would like to share.
5. Have a list (mentally or physically) of activities to eat up time. Higher/Lower (guess the number in your mind), Heads Up, Seven Up (for classes that have been well behaved), Around the World math facts (great in older classes), or other activities you have come across.
6. Lunches: I usually make larger batches of pasta salads, casseroles, etc. that can easily be put in a plastic container and microwaved. I also have a stash of canned fruit, tuna, and chicken for quick prep in the mornings. Don't expect that you will have enough time to run out for a lunch.
7. When you get to the school, and after you have checked in with the front office, find the bathroom! This may seem like a silly piece of advice, but trust me, you will want to know where it is during the 15 minute recess.
8. Once I get in the classroom, I find the notes that have (hopefully) been left for me by the teacher. Sometimes the teacher will e-mail notes to a team teacher, sometimes you have to decipher their plan book. Find all the curriculum supplies, check to make sure you have copies, and make sure the correct schedule for the day is posted. (Kids will have NO problem telling you what the schedule is if it is wrong!) I also write my name on the board, near the date. For younger classes, I shorten it to Mrs. M. Be sure you also know the evacuation procedure and have an updated class list. Fire drills always come on days you sub - I think it must be in the bylaws or something. Don't have any plans at all? DON'T PANIC! Check with team teachers, and with older classes, you can ask them what they have been doing in each subject as it comes along during the day. (I have had to do this. Really.) Obviously, you will have students who try and tell you that they have chat time and eat candy all day, or have recess every few minutes, but use your common sense. This is where quiet reading can come in handy, and writing prompts as well. (What did you do last weekend? for younger classes, and more provoking prompts for older classes like pro/con of technology or How they would be impacted if they won a million dollars, something along those lines.)
9. Have several ideas on how to get attention. I hate hand claps personally, so I have a variety of other methods: a bell, Quietly saying if you can hear me, put your hand on your shoulder, knee, etc until the class is following you, 1-2-3, Eyes on me! (they say back to you, 1 -2 Eyes on you!), raising hand up in a V-sign, I also do a countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.... and mouths should be closed. Some kids will follow along, thank them and then repeat so that all the class follows instructions. Some classes have their own methods, and kids will be happy to share them with you. Just ask at the start of the day. Another great line (thanks to a friend of mine) for that kid not following directions is, "What would you be doing right now if you were following directions?" It gets them back on task. Don't overuse it.
10. Be prepared to be surprised. Kids want to tell you how to do everything, and depending on your confidence level, you can try and follow it, or you can tell kids that you will do it your way for the day. With younger classes particularly, it is important to let them know that you are the sub, so you might do things a little differently, but that the teacher left you instructions, and that it will all be okay. Kids will say a lot of interesting things during the day, so be sure you keep that smile on your face. You can also remind students that you will be leaving the teacher a note telling them how the class behaved for you. Younger classes especially are surprised to learn this. Schedules can change, so be prepared to get kids lined up for an assembly you did not know about. Again, evacuation drills always happen on your sub day, so know what to do. (This is a mistake I have made too many times! Nothing is worse than standing with your jaw dropped, asking a first grader where they go for a fire drill, while the alarm is blaring.)
11. Have fun! You will discover lesson plans you adore, curriculum that other districts use, classroom decor ideas, and methods of management to add to your repertoire. Be thankful for the oppotunity to work and get your name out. Districts, when hiring, will first turn to people they know and trust, and who have worked in the district. Even after a couple of years of subbing, I am learning new things.
Last year, I earned the nickname "super sub", a title reserved for the top sub at that particular school. She was already working on a long term assignment when I was called in for what ended up being a long term assignment. Did I work really hard? Yep. Was it worth it when I heard other teachers refer to me as "super sub"? Oh YES! When parents told teachers and staffers how much they liked me? Oh YES!
Yes, this job is stressful, but it has a lot of benefits as well. So hang in there, wish for the phone to ring (even at 5:30 am!), and be ready to wow your students.
Have a great year!
1. Be prepared for early (or not so early) morning phone calls. School office staffers will call you at 7:30 am to be at school in 20 minutes. Consider nighttime showers, have outfits set out (or set in your mind), and keep your supplies by the door. Think layering when getting dressed, unless you know how the school is heated or if it is air conditioned.
2. Figure out where all the schools in the district(s) you are working in, are located. Take a day and drive around the district and note where they are, or print out maps/directions. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to get ready on the fly and then realizing you have no idea where the school is. Be sure you take the school number to let them know you are on the way if you run late, too.
3. September is typically a slow month. Consider volunteering your time in schools you'd like to work in. Staffers and teachers will remember you. Leave your name and card with the office staff, in the staff lunchroom, on bulletin boards in the staff prep areas...
4. I keep a bag near my door with standard supplies I have needed. Some things I take with me every day: mechanical pencils, lead and erasers, a purple and a green ballpoint pen, chalk pens, dry erase pens in bright colors, a timer, a highlighter, and a wet erase pen. I also have a small stash of favorite books I like to share with kids (usually grade 3 and under). You will have your own favorite authors, but here is a list of titles or authors I rely on:
Leo Lionni (K-2) Great to give ideas for community and art projects.
Chris Van Allsburg (2-4) The Sweetest Fig and The Garden of Abdul Gasazi are both wonderful with unpredictable endings that can give you an opportunity for discussion.
The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau by Jon Agee has another unpredictable ending. (2-4)
Imagine a Night, a Day, and a Place by Robert Gonsalves and Sarah Thompson. 3 books with fabulous, interesting artwork that will intrigue the most reluctant of listeners. (2-4)
If by Sarah Perry (1-3) Another creative book with wonderful art to provoke interest.
For short stories, I rely on the "Weenies" series by David Lubar (3-5)
Note that most teachers have books available for read aloud, but it good to have one on hand just in case. During holidays, it is also nice to have appropriate books, like Martin's Big Words for MLK, and so on. You will find your own favorites. Consider spending some time in the children's section of your local library to figure out what you would like to share.
5. Have a list (mentally or physically) of activities to eat up time. Higher/Lower (guess the number in your mind), Heads Up, Seven Up (for classes that have been well behaved), Around the World math facts (great in older classes), or other activities you have come across.
6. Lunches: I usually make larger batches of pasta salads, casseroles, etc. that can easily be put in a plastic container and microwaved. I also have a stash of canned fruit, tuna, and chicken for quick prep in the mornings. Don't expect that you will have enough time to run out for a lunch.
7. When you get to the school, and after you have checked in with the front office, find the bathroom! This may seem like a silly piece of advice, but trust me, you will want to know where it is during the 15 minute recess.
8. Once I get in the classroom, I find the notes that have (hopefully) been left for me by the teacher. Sometimes the teacher will e-mail notes to a team teacher, sometimes you have to decipher their plan book. Find all the curriculum supplies, check to make sure you have copies, and make sure the correct schedule for the day is posted. (Kids will have NO problem telling you what the schedule is if it is wrong!) I also write my name on the board, near the date. For younger classes, I shorten it to Mrs. M. Be sure you also know the evacuation procedure and have an updated class list. Fire drills always come on days you sub - I think it must be in the bylaws or something. Don't have any plans at all? DON'T PANIC! Check with team teachers, and with older classes, you can ask them what they have been doing in each subject as it comes along during the day. (I have had to do this. Really.) Obviously, you will have students who try and tell you that they have chat time and eat candy all day, or have recess every few minutes, but use your common sense. This is where quiet reading can come in handy, and writing prompts as well. (What did you do last weekend? for younger classes, and more provoking prompts for older classes like pro/con of technology or How they would be impacted if they won a million dollars, something along those lines.)
9. Have several ideas on how to get attention. I hate hand claps personally, so I have a variety of other methods: a bell, Quietly saying if you can hear me, put your hand on your shoulder, knee, etc until the class is following you, 1-2-3, Eyes on me! (they say back to you, 1 -2 Eyes on you!), raising hand up in a V-sign, I also do a countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.... and mouths should be closed. Some kids will follow along, thank them and then repeat so that all the class follows instructions. Some classes have their own methods, and kids will be happy to share them with you. Just ask at the start of the day. Another great line (thanks to a friend of mine) for that kid not following directions is, "What would you be doing right now if you were following directions?" It gets them back on task. Don't overuse it.
10. Be prepared to be surprised. Kids want to tell you how to do everything, and depending on your confidence level, you can try and follow it, or you can tell kids that you will do it your way for the day. With younger classes particularly, it is important to let them know that you are the sub, so you might do things a little differently, but that the teacher left you instructions, and that it will all be okay. Kids will say a lot of interesting things during the day, so be sure you keep that smile on your face. You can also remind students that you will be leaving the teacher a note telling them how the class behaved for you. Younger classes especially are surprised to learn this. Schedules can change, so be prepared to get kids lined up for an assembly you did not know about. Again, evacuation drills always happen on your sub day, so know what to do. (This is a mistake I have made too many times! Nothing is worse than standing with your jaw dropped, asking a first grader where they go for a fire drill, while the alarm is blaring.)
11. Have fun! You will discover lesson plans you adore, curriculum that other districts use, classroom decor ideas, and methods of management to add to your repertoire. Be thankful for the oppotunity to work and get your name out. Districts, when hiring, will first turn to people they know and trust, and who have worked in the district. Even after a couple of years of subbing, I am learning new things.
Last year, I earned the nickname "super sub", a title reserved for the top sub at that particular school. She was already working on a long term assignment when I was called in for what ended up being a long term assignment. Did I work really hard? Yep. Was it worth it when I heard other teachers refer to me as "super sub"? Oh YES! When parents told teachers and staffers how much they liked me? Oh YES!
Yes, this job is stressful, but it has a lot of benefits as well. So hang in there, wish for the phone to ring (even at 5:30 am!), and be ready to wow your students.
Have a great year!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wow!
So I just had to post that I just received the nicest e-mail from a principal at a school I applied to. I did not get the job, but the e-mail explained that they look at people within the district first (makes sense), and that even though they had a ton of fully qualified people apply, they went with someone from within the district.
Somehow, that is an easier let down than the usual silence.
The school year hasn't started yet... still some hope!
Somehow, that is an easier let down than the usual silence.
The school year hasn't started yet... still some hope!
Friday, August 20, 2010
First Day of School Lesson Plan
First Day of School Lesson Plans
Times are approximate.
May need to add specials, adjust for recess/lunch times
Needed:
Envelopes for storing extra supplies, labeled with student names
Precut construction paper circles 5" diameter, 1 per student, extras available
New Student Bingo, 1 sheet per student
Notepad to take notes on Classroom Rules
Class Job setup
Student list with bus numbers, etc. Clipboard
Stand by the door, greeting students and parents.
As students arrive in class, have them put their back packs on their desks. (Note this on the board as well.) Jackets can go on the backs of chairs for the time being.
8:00 - 8:10 Take attendance. Ask students for their nicknames and note this for future reference. Introduce yourself to them. Hand out (or have on desks) envelopes labeled with student names for extra supplies.
8:10 - 8:45(?) Begin organizing supplies. Have students keep 4 pencils, plus scissors, 1 glue stick, 1 pencil sharpener, markers/crayons/colored pencils, (to go in a pencil box) and all paper products. Extras should go into their envelopes. (Write this on the board.) When this is accomplished, collect (or have parent) the envelopes and show students where they will be available in the student center. Next, show students where their backpacks and jackets will go. Call students up in groups to stow these away. (Have a parent) collect tissue boxes and store in a box or in a cabinet.
8:45 - 9:00 Once all students have stored their backpacks, hand out the circles and explain that these circles will be their name tags for where their backpacks go. Have them decorate them appropriately, making sure their name is clearly written. While students are completing this task, collect loose leaf paper or copy paper and store. Collect tissue if not already completed. Spirals should stay on the corner of students desks.
9:00 - 9:30 Collect circle tags for lamination (have a parent laminate if possible). Hand out New Student Bingo. Students will need a pencil. Explain the rules (students will walk around, introduce themselves and see if they can find a person the matches one of the spots on the sheet. Once someone has a bingo line, see if they want to go for a second line or blackout. Once this has been achieved, we will return to our seats and introduce someone from your sheet. Go around the room. See if one square was never covered, etc. )
9:30 - 9:50 Classroom Tour and attention getting. Have students stay in their seats while you touch on the areas of the classroom. Show students where the Student Center is, the Library, Schedule, what each wall is for, bathrooms, water fountains. Also explain basic expectations about each area (putting things away, treating things with respect). Do students have questions? Comments? Also discuss how we get each other's attention (bell, chimes, etc. and hands up, fingers crossed, etc.)
9:50 - 10:10 Recess. Remind students the rules about going to and from recess (walking feet, noise level, listen for whistle, what door to exit and enter through, etc.) Have student line up to go to recess.
10:10 - 10:30 Snack and Read Aloud. Have students return to their seats after recess (write this on the board). Excuse students a group at a time to get their snacks. Give students a few minutes for talk time and settling in. Introduce the read aloud book. Read aloud and have students eat, take bathroom breaks, get water, etc.
10:30 - 11:15 Rules. Talk about important school rules and expectations. Review recess rules and how students returned from recess. What kinds of improvements need to made? What compliments can we give? Have students select one of their spirals as their Personal Journal. Once they have chosen one, have them open it up to the first page and have them write down the classroom rules they feel are the most important. There should be a minimum of three, maximum of 6. (Write on the board) There is likely to be lots of repetition. While they are doing this, go around the room with labels and label each Journal. Give students about 7 minutes to complete this task. Once completed, have students leave their pencils at their desks, bring their Journals to the carpet area, and discuss the rules. Write down rules proposed. Make sure each student gets to share, even if it is to repeat what may have already been said. Add in any rules that may have been overlooked. Tell students you will make a list of the rules and post them. This is also a good time to discuss carpet rules, lining up rules, and practice. This may take longer than time allowed.
11:15 - 11:50 Name Game. Have students return their Journals to their desks and return to the carpet, standing in a circle. Have each student come up with a movement associated with their name. The next person has to copy it and add their own. The teacher comes last.
11:50 - 12:35 Lunch. Have students line up for lunch. Select students to take lunch wagon. Remind students to take lunch cards (if necessary). Practice lining up, walking quietly in line. Remind them where to meet after recess.
12:35 - 1:00 Student Writing. Have students get their personal Journals and open to the second page. Take about 10 minutes and let them write "What a ____ Grader Looks Like". (Write this on the board. ) Ask students to share if they want to. Have students turn them into the turn in basket.
1:00 - 1:30 Jobs. What jobs are necessary is the classroom? Brainstorm and write on board. Select students for jobs. Post at Student Center. Have students get lunch wagon.
1:30-2:00 List out walkers, bus riders, daycare, etc. students. Talk about how to leave the classroom. What days are Chairs up days? Practice lining up.
2:00 - 2:10 Clean up, excuse students to go home.
After school:
Review Personal Journal Entries, return to students
Laminate name circles and post to cabinets
Type up, print and post classroom rules
Review bus/going home information
Post Classroom Jobs
Make notes for tomorrow, review events of the day, review plans for tomorrow
Label other spirals Math, Writing Journal, leave on desks.
First Day of School Lesson Plan
At the request/advice of a coworker, I am posting my First Day of School Lesson Plan. Thoughts are appreciated.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Creating Lesson Plans
So I just created my First Day of School Lesson Plan, based upon the schedule of the 4/5 blend where I usually substitute.
I had a blast doing it. Obviously, when I get to use it (when I get hired - note the positive outlook) I will have to adjust it for the actual schedule, and include specials and stuff. It is amazing the time you have to allow when you haven't set up the expectations for behavior in a classroom yet. And when you don't know the kids (or how many of them there will be).
It was good practice to remember balancing the activities (how long have they been sitting at their desks, at the carpet, have they had a chance to talk independently...) and ensure that by the end of the day, they have a general sense of the classroom, their classmates, and you, the teacher. And do you know which ones get on which bus, which ones walk, and which ones do something different.
I also had to remember to put in notes about the parents that might just be hanging around that first day. (Hey, can you collect all the tissue boxes and put them in this cabinet for me? Thanks so much...) I think I managed to hit all the vital things, but setting expectations will have to be on the second day. I made sure rules were reviewed of course, and included time for discussion and meeting each other. Academics, no, I am afraid not. That has to wait a day. I did get some writing in though... does that count? :)
Anyway, it was good practice. Think I will continue with this for the entire first week of school. Worst case scenario, I will have to use it, and wouldn't that be nice?
Yeah, it sure would.
Cheers to all the teachers out there!
I had a blast doing it. Obviously, when I get to use it (when I get hired - note the positive outlook) I will have to adjust it for the actual schedule, and include specials and stuff. It is amazing the time you have to allow when you haven't set up the expectations for behavior in a classroom yet. And when you don't know the kids (or how many of them there will be).
It was good practice to remember balancing the activities (how long have they been sitting at their desks, at the carpet, have they had a chance to talk independently...) and ensure that by the end of the day, they have a general sense of the classroom, their classmates, and you, the teacher. And do you know which ones get on which bus, which ones walk, and which ones do something different.
I also had to remember to put in notes about the parents that might just be hanging around that first day. (Hey, can you collect all the tissue boxes and put them in this cabinet for me? Thanks so much...) I think I managed to hit all the vital things, but setting expectations will have to be on the second day. I made sure rules were reviewed of course, and included time for discussion and meeting each other. Academics, no, I am afraid not. That has to wait a day. I did get some writing in though... does that count? :)
Anyway, it was good practice. Think I will continue with this for the entire first week of school. Worst case scenario, I will have to use it, and wouldn't that be nice?
Yeah, it sure would.
Cheers to all the teachers out there!
Friday, August 6, 2010
A Positive Posting
It has occurred to me that perhaps I sound very negative and bitter about teaching.
Truly, I am not. Frustrated, sure, but so are most teachers. The teaching profession is under so much pressure these days, it's hard to keep from feeling frustration.
Truth is, I really just crave having my own classroom.
August is a tough time for me. I know teachers are getting their plans ready, starting to think about organizing the classroom, creating their new community, getting their class lists... so yeah, I'm jealous. Those are all the things I wish I was doing.
The cool thing about subbing is that you get to see all kinds of classroom setups, designs, and organizations styles. You get to meet all kinds of students, you get to teach all sorts of curriculums, all grades, different schools, and meet tons of teachers and adminstrators.
I worked in one classroom that was so visually overstimulating to me that I could only imagine what the autistic kid in the classroom thought about it. Maybe that was why he spent his day reading a book in the corner. From that experience, I learned that not every blank space on the wall needed to be filled with a sign, a poster, or a reminder.
I worked in a another classroom that had an organizational challenge. Because I subsitute, I don't feel like it is my job to organize someone else's room. I am the visitor, even though I have been invited. But I learned that having a more organized classroom is what I really need to keep myself focused and not distracted.
It has also been great to work in the same classroom year after year, because you see how the teacher alters the same lesson from year to year. Sometimes it is because the students in one class could handle one method of teaching, and the second year's class was better able to work with a different method. Sometimes the lesson is changed because it doesn't nail down concepts, or the teacher wants to alter it to include or keep out certain things. But I get to see how the lessons and classes change. It's great to see teachers alaways striving to improve their teaching, and striving to meet their student's needs. This is the best part of teaching.
I mostly love having relationships with the students. I had the opportunity to watch the first class I ever taught (my student teaching year was in 3rd grade) grow up and move into fourth and then fifth grade. It was so tough to see them "graduate" from fifth grade. But what a treasured memory I will have about them. I am glad to have had that chance to watch them as they grew and learned and changed. Were they perfect students? No, of course not. And yet they were, in the sense that they were all different, they had different thoughts and learning patterns, different needs and desires. I got to appreciate their humor, their dramas, their fears and hopes.
I look back and think about how this was exactly what teaching is about. The academics are almost secondary to that relationship. I am not saying they aren't important! I think that you can't start teaching because there is an underlying trust that needs to be developed before the students will allow you to truly teach them. As a teacher, those first few weeks are so critical to evaluate and come to an understanding about each student as a person, as well as being a learner. You have to let them get to know you as well as get to know them.
One of the best times I had was with a small reading group, where three kids shared their reading and than answered a specific question they had chosen. One of the kids (who has been in my student teaching class the year before) talked about how he related to the book because he also picked on his sister. All three kids got interested in this topic and either admitted that they picked on their younger sibling or were the younger sibling picked on. I got to learn more about these three kids than I had in weeks of my long term teaching. You never know when that chance to bond is going to come, but you have to always be open to it.
Another kid who was really tough and had a lot of anger finally opened up to me (again in a reading group) because the book he was reading was so interesting to him. I ended up getting a copy to read as well, and I was able to bridge a gap through sharing that book with him.
If I had gotten a full time teaching position, I never would have had those memories or those lessons that are so important to teaching.
So while subbing is not my first choice, I still get to learn. And that is the good news.
Truly, I am not. Frustrated, sure, but so are most teachers. The teaching profession is under so much pressure these days, it's hard to keep from feeling frustration.
Truth is, I really just crave having my own classroom.
August is a tough time for me. I know teachers are getting their plans ready, starting to think about organizing the classroom, creating their new community, getting their class lists... so yeah, I'm jealous. Those are all the things I wish I was doing.
The cool thing about subbing is that you get to see all kinds of classroom setups, designs, and organizations styles. You get to meet all kinds of students, you get to teach all sorts of curriculums, all grades, different schools, and meet tons of teachers and adminstrators.
I worked in one classroom that was so visually overstimulating to me that I could only imagine what the autistic kid in the classroom thought about it. Maybe that was why he spent his day reading a book in the corner. From that experience, I learned that not every blank space on the wall needed to be filled with a sign, a poster, or a reminder.
I worked in a another classroom that had an organizational challenge. Because I subsitute, I don't feel like it is my job to organize someone else's room. I am the visitor, even though I have been invited. But I learned that having a more organized classroom is what I really need to keep myself focused and not distracted.
It has also been great to work in the same classroom year after year, because you see how the teacher alters the same lesson from year to year. Sometimes it is because the students in one class could handle one method of teaching, and the second year's class was better able to work with a different method. Sometimes the lesson is changed because it doesn't nail down concepts, or the teacher wants to alter it to include or keep out certain things. But I get to see how the lessons and classes change. It's great to see teachers alaways striving to improve their teaching, and striving to meet their student's needs. This is the best part of teaching.
I mostly love having relationships with the students. I had the opportunity to watch the first class I ever taught (my student teaching year was in 3rd grade) grow up and move into fourth and then fifth grade. It was so tough to see them "graduate" from fifth grade. But what a treasured memory I will have about them. I am glad to have had that chance to watch them as they grew and learned and changed. Were they perfect students? No, of course not. And yet they were, in the sense that they were all different, they had different thoughts and learning patterns, different needs and desires. I got to appreciate their humor, their dramas, their fears and hopes.
I look back and think about how this was exactly what teaching is about. The academics are almost secondary to that relationship. I am not saying they aren't important! I think that you can't start teaching because there is an underlying trust that needs to be developed before the students will allow you to truly teach them. As a teacher, those first few weeks are so critical to evaluate and come to an understanding about each student as a person, as well as being a learner. You have to let them get to know you as well as get to know them.
One of the best times I had was with a small reading group, where three kids shared their reading and than answered a specific question they had chosen. One of the kids (who has been in my student teaching class the year before) talked about how he related to the book because he also picked on his sister. All three kids got interested in this topic and either admitted that they picked on their younger sibling or were the younger sibling picked on. I got to learn more about these three kids than I had in weeks of my long term teaching. You never know when that chance to bond is going to come, but you have to always be open to it.
Another kid who was really tough and had a lot of anger finally opened up to me (again in a reading group) because the book he was reading was so interesting to him. I ended up getting a copy to read as well, and I was able to bridge a gap through sharing that book with him.
If I had gotten a full time teaching position, I never would have had those memories or those lessons that are so important to teaching.
So while subbing is not my first choice, I still get to learn. And that is the good news.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
OK, Here is what I want in a classroom...
I had a fun breakfast with some teacher girlfriends today, and of course, the topics surrounding the teaching profession came up.
One of the biggest issues is about pay for student achievement, and standardized testing being the measure of student achievement.
So I decided that if a bunch of bureaucrats who haven't set foot anywhere near a classroom since they left elementary school are going to to make decisions about what standards I have to teach to, then I can make a list of what I want in a classroom.
1. Limit of 15 students.
2. Students cannot need to learn in different ways.
3. Students all must start the year at the same learning spot, that is, that they all know everything from the previous level.
4. They are perfect students who never talk out of turn, are always organized, and listen to my directions the first time. They ask questions that are germane to the topic, and take inquiry and learning seriously at all times.
5. These students should come from well adjusted, happy, supportive, two parent homes (I was a single parent, don't get angry) with a parent who is able to work through the homework with the student on a daily basis.
6. Each student should have a parent able to volunteer in the classroom once a week.
7. Students will never be tardy, never be absent, never fall to sickness, never have doctor's appointments or have trauma in their lives.
8. These students must speak my language (English), and cannot have IEP's, learning disabilities, or any other special needs.
9. Students need to have involved parents who respect the teacher and education process. It would be best if the parents value education.
10. I should have all the financial backing I need.
11. Students should have unlimited resources to access any tools they might need.
12. Students should be fed well balanced meals, and be provided healthy snacks.
I can't think of anything else, but I am sure that someone else could think of more things to add to this list.
Does this sound ridiculous? Well, so is expecting one person to teach 30+ students with a variety of learning abilities, issues ranging from hunger to not being challenged enough, and have those students all be able to take a standardized test and pass it the first time.
Just my thoughts.
One of the biggest issues is about pay for student achievement, and standardized testing being the measure of student achievement.
So I decided that if a bunch of bureaucrats who haven't set foot anywhere near a classroom since they left elementary school are going to to make decisions about what standards I have to teach to, then I can make a list of what I want in a classroom.
1. Limit of 15 students.
2. Students cannot need to learn in different ways.
3. Students all must start the year at the same learning spot, that is, that they all know everything from the previous level.
4. They are perfect students who never talk out of turn, are always organized, and listen to my directions the first time. They ask questions that are germane to the topic, and take inquiry and learning seriously at all times.
5. These students should come from well adjusted, happy, supportive, two parent homes (I was a single parent, don't get angry) with a parent who is able to work through the homework with the student on a daily basis.
6. Each student should have a parent able to volunteer in the classroom once a week.
7. Students will never be tardy, never be absent, never fall to sickness, never have doctor's appointments or have trauma in their lives.
8. These students must speak my language (English), and cannot have IEP's, learning disabilities, or any other special needs.
9. Students need to have involved parents who respect the teacher and education process. It would be best if the parents value education.
10. I should have all the financial backing I need.
11. Students should have unlimited resources to access any tools they might need.
12. Students should be fed well balanced meals, and be provided healthy snacks.
I can't think of anything else, but I am sure that someone else could think of more things to add to this list.
Does this sound ridiculous? Well, so is expecting one person to teach 30+ students with a variety of learning abilities, issues ranging from hunger to not being challenged enough, and have those students all be able to take a standardized test and pass it the first time.
Just my thoughts.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Florida Teacher’s Essay Becomes Rallying Cry for Respect
Copied from:
http://neatoday.org/2010/04/21/florida-teacher-issues-rallying-cry-for-respect-for-educators/Florida Teacher’s Essay Becomes Rallying Cry for Respect
April 21, 2010 by Amy Buffenbarger
By Cynthia McCabe
When people were attacking her and her fellow dedicated public school teachers, Florida fourth-grade teacher Jamee Miller got mad. And then she got to typing.
The result? An essay called “I Am a Teacher” which caught fire in recent weeks on Facebook and blogs as supporters of teachers attacked by budget-slashing lawmakers and critics trying to score political points took it to heart and then took it online. (Full essay text appears at bottom.)
Shawna Christenson, a teacher in West Palm Beach, Fla., wrote on Facebook after posting it to her own profile last week: “Some folks need to be reminded that we do so much more than leave and enter when the bell rings when they think achievement is the only way to measure us.”
Miller, a National Education Association and Florida Education Association member who has been teaching for seven years, wrote the essay a year ago largely for herself and then put it away. But when the controversial Senate Bill 6 was recently careening through the GOP-controlled legislature, she dusted it off and posted it on Facebook. Education experts said SB6, which Gov. Charlie Crist ultimately vetoed last week to support teachers, would have made Florida one of the most teacher-hostile states in the country. Even though it was vetoed, similar anti-teacher efforts are cropping up in other states from like-minded opponents.
“I was just getting so enraged because there was such ignorance from the people attacking teachers,” says Miller. “Especially these misconceptions about what it is we can actually control as educators.”
Her essay, which in recent weeks was referenced on the Florida House floor, reprinted by several Florida newspapers and went viral online, has taken on a life of its own, Miller says. ”What I’m saying isn’t unique. It’s just that the heart of that message resonates with everyone in our world.”
That’s because in the past year they’ve been slammed by a troubling development: political opportunists attacking public education professionals.
“I feel more than ever I have to be on the defensive to prove I’m not a bad teacher,” she says. “It’s really unfortunate. Even five years ago it was assumed a teacher was great until a teacher wasn’t doing their job.”
And when critics broadly paint today’s teachers as ineffective, there’s no better way to show how wrong they are than pointing to Miller’s own resume. She was Seminole County Teacher of the Year in 2008. Each year she spends $1,000 of her own money on classroom supplies and her students. Last year, she and her husband donated $30,000 to create a fellowship at the University of Florida that helps elementary education majors working toward a master’s degree in education technology.
One of the more noxious provisions of SB6 that upset Miller and her colleagues was a mandate that standardized testing be the primary basis for teachers’ employment, certification and salary. In Florida, students are subjected to a high-stakes test called the FCAT. The law would have further reduced children to a test score and ignored that their lives and their achievements are more complex and nuanced than that.
“To have all that I pour into my students every year come down to just one test is so frustrating,” Miller says. “I have zero problems with accountability. But come into my classroom. I’m eager to show you the realities.”
For instance, this past year, Miller’s realities included having a student who missed 30 days of school, a student whose parents were arrested right before the standardized test day, and a third student who vomitted on her test booklet and was unable to retake it.
What teachers who contact her with their heartfelt thanks want to convey is that they’re just as concerned about the state of public education as anyone else.
“We all want education to be fixed, we just want to be in on that problem solving,” Miller says.
Full text of Jamee Miller’s “I Am a Teacher” essay:
I am a teacher in Florida.
I rise before dawn each day and find myself nestled in my classroom hours before the morning commute is in full swing in downtown Orlando. I scour the web along with countless other resources to create meaningful learning experiences for my 24 students each day. I reflect on the successes of lessons taught and re-work ideas until I feel confident that they will meet the needs of my diverse learners. I have finished my third cup of coffee in my classroom before the business world has stirred. My contracted hours begin at 7:30 and end at 3:00. As the sun sets around me and people are beginning to enjoy their dinner, I lock my classroom door, having worked 4 hours unpaid.
I am a teacher in Florida.
I greet the smiling faces of my students and am reminded anew of their challenges, struggles, successes, failures, quirks, and needs. I review their 504s, their IEPs, their PMPs, their histories trying to reach them from every angle possible. They come in hungry—I feed them. They come in angry—I counsel them. They come in defeated—I encourage them. And this is all before the bell rings.
I am a teacher in Florida.
I am told that every student in my realm must score on or above grade level on the FCAT each year. Never mind their learning discrepancies, their unstable home lives, their prior learning experiences. In the spring, they are all assessed with one measure and if they don’t fit, I have failed. Students walk through my doors reading at a second grade level and by year’s end can independently read and comprehend early 4th grade texts, but this is no matter. One of my students has already missed 30 school days this year, but that is overlooked. If they don’t perform well on this ONE test in early March, their learning gains are irrelevant. They didn’t learn enough. They didn’t grow enough. I failed them. In the three months that remain in the school year after this test, I am expected to begin teaching 5th grade curriculum to my 4th grade students so that they are prepared for next year’s test.
I am a teacher in Florida.
I am expected to create a culture of students who will go on to become the leaders of our world. When they exit my classroom, they should be fully equipped to compete academically on a global scale. They must be exposed to different worldviews and diverse perspectives, and yet, most of my students have never left Sanford, Florida. Field trips are now frivolous. I must provide new learning opportunities for them without leaving the four walls of our classroom. So I plan. I generate new ways to expose them to life beyond their neighborhoods through online exploration and digital field trips. I stay up past The Tonight Show to put together a unit that will allow them to experience St. Augustine without getting on a bus. I spend weekends taking pictures and creating a virtual world for them to experience, since the State has determined it is no longer worthwhile for them to explore reality. Yes. My students must be prepared to work within diverse communities, and yet they are not afforded the right to ever experience life beyond their own town.
I am a teacher in Florida.
I accepted a lower salary with the promise of a small increase for every year taught. I watched my friends with less education than me sign on for six figure jobs while I embraced my $28k starting salary. I was assured as I signed my contract that although it was meager to start, my salary would consistently grow each year. That promise has been broken. I’m still working with a meager salary, and the steps that were contracted to me when I accepted a lower salary are now deemed “unnecessary.”
I am a teacher in Florida.
I spent $2500 in my first year alone to outfit an empty room so that it would promote creative thinking and a desire to learn and explore. I now average between $1000-2000 that I pay personally to supplement the learning experiences that take place in my classroom. I print at home on my personal printer and have burned through 12 ink cartridges this school year alone. I purchase the school supplies my students do not have. I buy authentic literature so my students can be exposed to authors and worlds beyond their textbooks. I am required to teach Social Studies and Writing without any curriculum/materials provided, so I purchase them myself. I am required to conduct Science lab without Science materials, so I buy those, too. The budgeting process has determined that copies of classroom materials are too costly, so I resort to paying for my copies at Staples, refusing to compromise my students’ education because high-ranking officials are making inappropriate cuts. It is February, and my entire class is out of glue sticks. Since I have already spent the $74 allotted to me for warehouse supplies, if I don’t buy more, we will not have glue for the remainder of the year. The projects I dream up are limited by the incomprehensible lack of financial support. I am expected to inspire my students to become lifelong learners, and yet we don’t have the resources needed to nurture their natural sense of wonder if I don’t purchase them myself. My meager earning is now pathetic after the expenses that come with teaching effectively.
I am a teacher in Florida.
The government has scolded me for failing to prepare my students to compete in this
technologically driven world. Students in Japan are much more equipped to think progressively with regards to technology. Each day, I turn on the two computers afforded me and pray for a miracle. I apply for grants to gain new access to technology and compete with thousands of other teachers who are hoping for the same opportunity. I battle for the right to use the computer lab and feel fortunate if my students get to see it once a week. Why don’t they know how to use technology? The system’s budget refuses to include adequate technology in classrooms; instead, we are continually told that dry erase boards and overhead projectors are more than enough.
I am a teacher in Florida.
I am expected to differentiate my instruction to meet the needs of my 24 learners. Their IQs span 65 points, and I must account for every shade of gray. I must challenge those above grade level, and I must remediate those below. I am but one person within the classroom, but I must meet the needs of every learner. I generate alternate assessments to accommodate for these differences. My higher math students receive challenge work, and my lower math students receive one-on-one instruction. I create most of these resources myself, after-hours and on weekends. I print these resources so that every child in my room has access to the same knowledge, delivered at their specific level. Yesterday, the school printer that I share with another teacher ran out of ink. Now I must either purchase a new ink cartridge for $120, or I cannot print anything from my computer for the remainder of the year. What choice am I left with?
I am a teacher in Florida.
I went to school at one of the best universities in the country and completed undergraduate and graduate programs in Education. I am a master of my craft. I know what effective teaching entails, and I know how to manage the curriculum and needs of the diverse learners in my full inclusion classroom. I graduated at the top of my class and entered my first year of teaching confident and equipped to teach effectively. Sadly, I am now being micro-managed, with my instruction dictated to me. I am expected to mold “out-of-the-box” thinkers while I am forced to stay within the lines of the instructional plans mandated by policy-makers. I am told what I am to teach and when, regardless of the makeup of my students, by decision-makers far away from my classroom or even my school. The message comes in loud and clear that a group of people in business suits can more effectively determine how to provide exemplary instruction than I can. My expertise is waved away, disregarded, and overlooked. I am treated like a day-laborer, required to follow the steps mapped out for me, rather than blaze a trail that I deem more appropriate and effective for my students—students these decision-makers have never met.
I am a teacher in Florida.
I am overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated by most. I spend my weekends, my vacations, and my summers preparing for school, and I constantly work to improve my teaching to meet the needs of my students. I am being required to do more and more, and I’m being compensated less and less.
I am a teacher in Florida, not for the pay or the hardships, the disregard or the disrespect; I am a teacher in Florida because I am given the chance to change lives for the good, to educate and elevate the minds and hearts of my students, and to show them that success comes in all shapes and sizes, both in the classroom and in the community.
I am a teacher in Florida today, but as I watch many of my incredible, devoted coworkers being forced out of the profession as a matter of survival, I wonder: How long will I be able to remain a teacher in Florida?
------
Dear Jamee,
You are not just a teacher in Florida, you are a teacher in the United States. And the question is becoming, how long will any of us be able to remain in the United States?
I am a teacher in Oregon.
I haven't yet been able to find a permanent position, but as a sub, I have been: a copier, a grader, a pencil sharpener, a wall designer, a test giver, a manager, an overnight field trip chaparone (for which I was not paid extra), an organizer, a cleaner, a lesson preparer, a secretary, a shoulder for others, a researcher, a librarian, and a recess monitor. Oh, did I mention teacher? Oh wait, I just listed all of the things a teacher does in a day, and see how few things fall under academics?
Substitutes have to be ready to receive phone calls day or night - a missed phone call is a missed paycheck. From calls in the middle of the night to phone calls at 5:30 am, in which one has to awaken from a dead sleep and punch in correct access numbers into a phone which one's bleary eyes can barely make out in the dark dawn hours, and navigate through automated listings.
Substitutes also get calls that simply ask, "How fast can you be here?" and you answer as quickly as possible (while scanning your closet for something to wear), knowing you will have break speed laws to arrive in time.
Substitutes have to be mind readers when crypic lesson plans have been left (when lucky), when discipline expectations are hard to find, and when curriculum has been shelved someplace special. Flexibility also comes into play for the times when teachers have forgotten to include specials, testing, or assemblies into their plans for you.
I have taught in blackouts, through pneumonia and strep, amidst vomit, drama, and fights. I have paid for classroom party items and research books from my own pocket because I knew it needed to be done. I have stayed late, come in early, printed out lessons (heck, I've created lessons) at night, created samples of work based on assignments, and developed ways to reach kids I struggle with. I have taken work to grade to sports events, stopping to perodically cheer on my daughter.
I think about and practice lessons on the drive to school, and judge myself on the way home. I develop relationships with parents and teachers and support staff and students. I spend my own money taking classes to further my own education, and find alternate curriculum to support what is mandated in schools. I attend meetings for students, grade levels, and staff.
And as a substitute, you do it all with a smile.
I do this because I want to be a teacher, because I want to be in schools, and because no matter what kind of a day I have had, I thrive on the challenge. Because that classroom, those students, needed me on that day, and I know I came through.
In two years I have made a difference. I know because I hear from instructional assistants, secretaries, parents and other teachers that they have heard compliments about me. Parents have asked me why I've not been hired. Support staffers thank me for my work, and are understanding when I leave them to deal with a task. Teachers have told me they want me on their team. I have earned respect.
But I still don't have a classroom of my own.
http://neatoday.org/2010/04/21/florida-teacher-issues-rallying-cry-for-respect-for-educators/Florida Teacher’s Essay Becomes Rallying Cry for Respect
April 21, 2010 by Amy Buffenbarger
By Cynthia McCabe
When people were attacking her and her fellow dedicated public school teachers, Florida fourth-grade teacher Jamee Miller got mad. And then she got to typing.
The result? An essay called “I Am a Teacher” which caught fire in recent weeks on Facebook and blogs as supporters of teachers attacked by budget-slashing lawmakers and critics trying to score political points took it to heart and then took it online. (Full essay text appears at bottom.)
Shawna Christenson, a teacher in West Palm Beach, Fla., wrote on Facebook after posting it to her own profile last week: “Some folks need to be reminded that we do so much more than leave and enter when the bell rings when they think achievement is the only way to measure us.”
Miller, a National Education Association and Florida Education Association member who has been teaching for seven years, wrote the essay a year ago largely for herself and then put it away. But when the controversial Senate Bill 6 was recently careening through the GOP-controlled legislature, she dusted it off and posted it on Facebook. Education experts said SB6, which Gov. Charlie Crist ultimately vetoed last week to support teachers, would have made Florida one of the most teacher-hostile states in the country. Even though it was vetoed, similar anti-teacher efforts are cropping up in other states from like-minded opponents.
“I was just getting so enraged because there was such ignorance from the people attacking teachers,” says Miller. “Especially these misconceptions about what it is we can actually control as educators.”
Her essay, which in recent weeks was referenced on the Florida House floor, reprinted by several Florida newspapers and went viral online, has taken on a life of its own, Miller says. ”What I’m saying isn’t unique. It’s just that the heart of that message resonates with everyone in our world.”
That’s because in the past year they’ve been slammed by a troubling development: political opportunists attacking public education professionals.
“I feel more than ever I have to be on the defensive to prove I’m not a bad teacher,” she says. “It’s really unfortunate. Even five years ago it was assumed a teacher was great until a teacher wasn’t doing their job.”
And when critics broadly paint today’s teachers as ineffective, there’s no better way to show how wrong they are than pointing to Miller’s own resume. She was Seminole County Teacher of the Year in 2008. Each year she spends $1,000 of her own money on classroom supplies and her students. Last year, she and her husband donated $30,000 to create a fellowship at the University of Florida that helps elementary education majors working toward a master’s degree in education technology.
One of the more noxious provisions of SB6 that upset Miller and her colleagues was a mandate that standardized testing be the primary basis for teachers’ employment, certification and salary. In Florida, students are subjected to a high-stakes test called the FCAT. The law would have further reduced children to a test score and ignored that their lives and their achievements are more complex and nuanced than that.
“To have all that I pour into my students every year come down to just one test is so frustrating,” Miller says. “I have zero problems with accountability. But come into my classroom. I’m eager to show you the realities.”
For instance, this past year, Miller’s realities included having a student who missed 30 days of school, a student whose parents were arrested right before the standardized test day, and a third student who vomitted on her test booklet and was unable to retake it.
What teachers who contact her with their heartfelt thanks want to convey is that they’re just as concerned about the state of public education as anyone else.
“We all want education to be fixed, we just want to be in on that problem solving,” Miller says.
Full text of Jamee Miller’s “I Am a Teacher” essay:
I am a teacher in Florida.
I rise before dawn each day and find myself nestled in my classroom hours before the morning commute is in full swing in downtown Orlando. I scour the web along with countless other resources to create meaningful learning experiences for my 24 students each day. I reflect on the successes of lessons taught and re-work ideas until I feel confident that they will meet the needs of my diverse learners. I have finished my third cup of coffee in my classroom before the business world has stirred. My contracted hours begin at 7:30 and end at 3:00. As the sun sets around me and people are beginning to enjoy their dinner, I lock my classroom door, having worked 4 hours unpaid.
I am a teacher in Florida.
I greet the smiling faces of my students and am reminded anew of their challenges, struggles, successes, failures, quirks, and needs. I review their 504s, their IEPs, their PMPs, their histories trying to reach them from every angle possible. They come in hungry—I feed them. They come in angry—I counsel them. They come in defeated—I encourage them. And this is all before the bell rings.
I am a teacher in Florida.
I am told that every student in my realm must score on or above grade level on the FCAT each year. Never mind their learning discrepancies, their unstable home lives, their prior learning experiences. In the spring, they are all assessed with one measure and if they don’t fit, I have failed. Students walk through my doors reading at a second grade level and by year’s end can independently read and comprehend early 4th grade texts, but this is no matter. One of my students has already missed 30 school days this year, but that is overlooked. If they don’t perform well on this ONE test in early March, their learning gains are irrelevant. They didn’t learn enough. They didn’t grow enough. I failed them. In the three months that remain in the school year after this test, I am expected to begin teaching 5th grade curriculum to my 4th grade students so that they are prepared for next year’s test.
I am a teacher in Florida.
I am expected to create a culture of students who will go on to become the leaders of our world. When they exit my classroom, they should be fully equipped to compete academically on a global scale. They must be exposed to different worldviews and diverse perspectives, and yet, most of my students have never left Sanford, Florida. Field trips are now frivolous. I must provide new learning opportunities for them without leaving the four walls of our classroom. So I plan. I generate new ways to expose them to life beyond their neighborhoods through online exploration and digital field trips. I stay up past The Tonight Show to put together a unit that will allow them to experience St. Augustine without getting on a bus. I spend weekends taking pictures and creating a virtual world for them to experience, since the State has determined it is no longer worthwhile for them to explore reality. Yes. My students must be prepared to work within diverse communities, and yet they are not afforded the right to ever experience life beyond their own town.
I am a teacher in Florida.
I accepted a lower salary with the promise of a small increase for every year taught. I watched my friends with less education than me sign on for six figure jobs while I embraced my $28k starting salary. I was assured as I signed my contract that although it was meager to start, my salary would consistently grow each year. That promise has been broken. I’m still working with a meager salary, and the steps that were contracted to me when I accepted a lower salary are now deemed “unnecessary.”
I am a teacher in Florida.
I spent $2500 in my first year alone to outfit an empty room so that it would promote creative thinking and a desire to learn and explore. I now average between $1000-2000 that I pay personally to supplement the learning experiences that take place in my classroom. I print at home on my personal printer and have burned through 12 ink cartridges this school year alone. I purchase the school supplies my students do not have. I buy authentic literature so my students can be exposed to authors and worlds beyond their textbooks. I am required to teach Social Studies and Writing without any curriculum/materials provided, so I purchase them myself. I am required to conduct Science lab without Science materials, so I buy those, too. The budgeting process has determined that copies of classroom materials are too costly, so I resort to paying for my copies at Staples, refusing to compromise my students’ education because high-ranking officials are making inappropriate cuts. It is February, and my entire class is out of glue sticks. Since I have already spent the $74 allotted to me for warehouse supplies, if I don’t buy more, we will not have glue for the remainder of the year. The projects I dream up are limited by the incomprehensible lack of financial support. I am expected to inspire my students to become lifelong learners, and yet we don’t have the resources needed to nurture their natural sense of wonder if I don’t purchase them myself. My meager earning is now pathetic after the expenses that come with teaching effectively.
I am a teacher in Florida.
The government has scolded me for failing to prepare my students to compete in this
technologically driven world. Students in Japan are much more equipped to think progressively with regards to technology. Each day, I turn on the two computers afforded me and pray for a miracle. I apply for grants to gain new access to technology and compete with thousands of other teachers who are hoping for the same opportunity. I battle for the right to use the computer lab and feel fortunate if my students get to see it once a week. Why don’t they know how to use technology? The system’s budget refuses to include adequate technology in classrooms; instead, we are continually told that dry erase boards and overhead projectors are more than enough.
I am a teacher in Florida.
I am expected to differentiate my instruction to meet the needs of my 24 learners. Their IQs span 65 points, and I must account for every shade of gray. I must challenge those above grade level, and I must remediate those below. I am but one person within the classroom, but I must meet the needs of every learner. I generate alternate assessments to accommodate for these differences. My higher math students receive challenge work, and my lower math students receive one-on-one instruction. I create most of these resources myself, after-hours and on weekends. I print these resources so that every child in my room has access to the same knowledge, delivered at their specific level. Yesterday, the school printer that I share with another teacher ran out of ink. Now I must either purchase a new ink cartridge for $120, or I cannot print anything from my computer for the remainder of the year. What choice am I left with?
I am a teacher in Florida.
I went to school at one of the best universities in the country and completed undergraduate and graduate programs in Education. I am a master of my craft. I know what effective teaching entails, and I know how to manage the curriculum and needs of the diverse learners in my full inclusion classroom. I graduated at the top of my class and entered my first year of teaching confident and equipped to teach effectively. Sadly, I am now being micro-managed, with my instruction dictated to me. I am expected to mold “out-of-the-box” thinkers while I am forced to stay within the lines of the instructional plans mandated by policy-makers. I am told what I am to teach and when, regardless of the makeup of my students, by decision-makers far away from my classroom or even my school. The message comes in loud and clear that a group of people in business suits can more effectively determine how to provide exemplary instruction than I can. My expertise is waved away, disregarded, and overlooked. I am treated like a day-laborer, required to follow the steps mapped out for me, rather than blaze a trail that I deem more appropriate and effective for my students—students these decision-makers have never met.
I am a teacher in Florida.
I am overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated by most. I spend my weekends, my vacations, and my summers preparing for school, and I constantly work to improve my teaching to meet the needs of my students. I am being required to do more and more, and I’m being compensated less and less.
I am a teacher in Florida, not for the pay or the hardships, the disregard or the disrespect; I am a teacher in Florida because I am given the chance to change lives for the good, to educate and elevate the minds and hearts of my students, and to show them that success comes in all shapes and sizes, both in the classroom and in the community.
I am a teacher in Florida today, but as I watch many of my incredible, devoted coworkers being forced out of the profession as a matter of survival, I wonder: How long will I be able to remain a teacher in Florida?
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Dear Jamee,
You are not just a teacher in Florida, you are a teacher in the United States. And the question is becoming, how long will any of us be able to remain in the United States?
I am a teacher in Oregon.
I haven't yet been able to find a permanent position, but as a sub, I have been: a copier, a grader, a pencil sharpener, a wall designer, a test giver, a manager, an overnight field trip chaparone (for which I was not paid extra), an organizer, a cleaner, a lesson preparer, a secretary, a shoulder for others, a researcher, a librarian, and a recess monitor. Oh, did I mention teacher? Oh wait, I just listed all of the things a teacher does in a day, and see how few things fall under academics?
Substitutes have to be ready to receive phone calls day or night - a missed phone call is a missed paycheck. From calls in the middle of the night to phone calls at 5:30 am, in which one has to awaken from a dead sleep and punch in correct access numbers into a phone which one's bleary eyes can barely make out in the dark dawn hours, and navigate through automated listings.
Substitutes also get calls that simply ask, "How fast can you be here?" and you answer as quickly as possible (while scanning your closet for something to wear), knowing you will have break speed laws to arrive in time.
Substitutes have to be mind readers when crypic lesson plans have been left (when lucky), when discipline expectations are hard to find, and when curriculum has been shelved someplace special. Flexibility also comes into play for the times when teachers have forgotten to include specials, testing, or assemblies into their plans for you.
I have taught in blackouts, through pneumonia and strep, amidst vomit, drama, and fights. I have paid for classroom party items and research books from my own pocket because I knew it needed to be done. I have stayed late, come in early, printed out lessons (heck, I've created lessons) at night, created samples of work based on assignments, and developed ways to reach kids I struggle with. I have taken work to grade to sports events, stopping to perodically cheer on my daughter.
I think about and practice lessons on the drive to school, and judge myself on the way home. I develop relationships with parents and teachers and support staff and students. I spend my own money taking classes to further my own education, and find alternate curriculum to support what is mandated in schools. I attend meetings for students, grade levels, and staff.
And as a substitute, you do it all with a smile.
I do this because I want to be a teacher, because I want to be in schools, and because no matter what kind of a day I have had, I thrive on the challenge. Because that classroom, those students, needed me on that day, and I know I came through.
In two years I have made a difference. I know because I hear from instructional assistants, secretaries, parents and other teachers that they have heard compliments about me. Parents have asked me why I've not been hired. Support staffers thank me for my work, and are understanding when I leave them to deal with a task. Teachers have told me they want me on their team. I have earned respect.
But I still don't have a classroom of my own.
Friends leaving the country for work
So as I continue to look for work here, I have friends who have been hired (hooray!). That is the good news. The bad (?) news is that they have to go out of the country to find work. One very close friend is headed back to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam for what I jokingly call her "second tour of duty". Another friend with whom I attended grad school is headed to Central America.
So yes, I could continue to whine about how unfair it is that we have all spent $40K on our Master's degrees and have little to show for it except for bills, but one of the positives about this is that these friends will have developed a "cultural competence" that is one of the standard questions on most teacher applications. And I, by extension, get to share in those experiences as they share their experiences with me.
Another positive for me is that I am able to take classes during the year that will go towards maintaining my license. I just signed up for a new class, so I am excited to start working on that. (via CE Credits Online)
So just trying to keep a positive outlook as friends fly out of the country and I find out that 1,000 people have applied to the same positions I have. (That is another posting.)
So yes, I could continue to whine about how unfair it is that we have all spent $40K on our Master's degrees and have little to show for it except for bills, but one of the positives about this is that these friends will have developed a "cultural competence" that is one of the standard questions on most teacher applications. And I, by extension, get to share in those experiences as they share their experiences with me.
Another positive for me is that I am able to take classes during the year that will go towards maintaining my license. I just signed up for a new class, so I am excited to start working on that. (via CE Credits Online)
So just trying to keep a positive outlook as friends fly out of the country and I find out that 1,000 people have applied to the same positions I have. (That is another posting.)
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
First Post - July
Starting a blog in July about teaching seems pretty silly. I'm not working in schools right now, although I check into the edzapp website once a week or when friends give me a heads up.
Once I start working in the fall, I'll post more teaching related adventures, observations, and thoughts.
Why start a blog? I have been subbing for 2 years now. I work pretty regularly for one school, but am registered in three districts where I can get those oh-so-fun 5:30 am phone calls. I have been collecting "stuff" for my classroom, and have amassed about 3,oo0 books, several pieces of furniture, and boxes of lesson plans. I thought it would be good to get used to the tech-piece of teaching that is becoming an increasing part of teaching these days. Plus, my good friend said I had to... (no, I would NOT jump off a bridge if she said I should...)
Am I ready to work? Dear Lord, yes! The corner of our garage where I have all my "stuff" seems to be getting smaller (in part because of a teacher who just retired and gave me free reign to take whatever I wanted... and I did. Lucky? Yes... and no. This was a teacher I respected a lot and she will be missed. And because of budget cutbacks, they couldn't hire anyone to fill her position, but switched people around and will put 33+ kids in the classrooms this fall. (I will stay off of my soap box for now.)
So for now, hello, thanks for stopping by... let me know what you want to see here, what interests you, what doesn't... just try to avoid being rude. No name calling PLEASE!!! I am an elementary school teacher, so let's keep it PG.
Once I start working in the fall, I'll post more teaching related adventures, observations, and thoughts.
Why start a blog? I have been subbing for 2 years now. I work pretty regularly for one school, but am registered in three districts where I can get those oh-so-fun 5:30 am phone calls. I have been collecting "stuff" for my classroom, and have amassed about 3,oo0 books, several pieces of furniture, and boxes of lesson plans. I thought it would be good to get used to the tech-piece of teaching that is becoming an increasing part of teaching these days. Plus, my good friend said I had to... (no, I would NOT jump off a bridge if she said I should...)
Am I ready to work? Dear Lord, yes! The corner of our garage where I have all my "stuff" seems to be getting smaller (in part because of a teacher who just retired and gave me free reign to take whatever I wanted... and I did. Lucky? Yes... and no. This was a teacher I respected a lot and she will be missed. And because of budget cutbacks, they couldn't hire anyone to fill her position, but switched people around and will put 33+ kids in the classrooms this fall. (I will stay off of my soap box for now.)
So for now, hello, thanks for stopping by... let me know what you want to see here, what interests you, what doesn't... just try to avoid being rude. No name calling PLEASE!!! I am an elementary school teacher, so let's keep it PG.
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