30-Day Blogging Challenge: Day 9

Day 9:
Write about one of my biggest accomplishments in my teaching that no one knows about (or may not care.)


As a librarian, I work with all of the kids. One day I had a message on my phone from a parent. She was calling to tell me that she caught her son reading with a library book a flashlight under the blankets when he was supposed to be asleep. This may not sound like any big deal, because kids who loved to read often do this, but she was thrilled. Her son had never never finished a book, didn't like to check books out, and resisted reading. He was in 5th grade, an underachiever with behavior issues. I had to do a really hard sell to get him to even take the book, Owls in the family, by Farley Mowat. This kid was an outdoor boy, who loved to be outside, and was in many ways ill-suited to sitting for hours in a classroom. This book is about a boy who became a naturalist, and the story is about how Mowat rescued two orphaned owlets after a bad storm This caught his imagination, and he finished the book in a couple of days (and nights). His mom was so excited, and I kept the message on my phone until we changed systems, and it went away forever. He never knew that his mom called me, but he did tell me that he finished the book. It was a sweet moment that I've always remembered.

30-Day Blogging Challenge: Day 8

Day Eight: What is in your desk drawer?

The answer to this question depends on which desk I am looking at; the wooden library table where I have my computer, phone, and miscellaneous and random stuff, or the other desk behind me that I don't use that much any more. I'll start with the wooden library table.

This desk has two drawers. The drawer on the right is where I keep pens of all sorts, bundled with rubber bands, a screwdriver set, a pair of needle nose pliers, and sticky notes. I also have the code for the staff room written on the bottom of the drawer. You never know when the code just eludes at the worst possible moment, like a weekend when not a soul is on campus. The left-hand side drawer is a paperwork drawer; the current Association contract, with original signatures, some older drafts of the current contract, school handbooks, faculty, high school, discipline, etc., and the WEA Membership Guide, from 2012-2013. Inside that guide, I have a printed copy of the newest issue, since they are not sending out paper copies anymore, apparently preferring for the locals to use their own paper. Finally, the Association copies of the enrollment forms filled out my new members are in the guide for safekeeping, or at least so I can put my hands on them if I need to. I also have copies of the codes issued to staff for the now-defunct media ordering system through the ESD. Since we no longer have media to order from the ESD, these codes are used for secured print jobs on the copy machine, but I guess I need to ask what happens with new staff, because new Client Codes are no longer being issued. Four rulers are also in this drawer, along with a few highlighters in various colors. Those should probably be moved - I have a box of them in the library. These are relics from a Step Up to Writing program we briefly used about eight years ago, another drive-by program gone by the wayside.

In the desk I don't use much, the most important drawer is the top-right drawer. I keep my tea in that one, along with a box of Emergen C drink mix, and random stickers, a couple of band aids, because it is inevitable that someone will have a scrape or papercut or hangnail, something that requires a band aid. It always used to amaze me that kids would just assume I would have one for them, and I usually do. I apply the band aid for them, and give their injured digit a little pat to heal up faster. In the left-hand drawer, the drawer-that-doesn't-look-like-a-drawer, there is very random stuff, bits and pieces of things that I haven't tossed. There are also at least two correction tape dispensers in the worst condition possible - once those things mess up, I always have hope that I can fix them, but of course they languish in the drawer, staring at me. How is it I can ruin them so quickly? I have at least one with the loop of clear tape coming out of the dispenser, a testimony to the fact that I really have no idea how to work with these things! I don't really like to look in this drawer, because it's a mess, and I walk away from it every single time.

The biggest thing I can infer from this collection of stuff is that I am a pack rat of the century. Why don't I just clean the drawers out and dump the garbage? I have no clue. I can also infer that I love colored pens - I've been buying a set of new ones every year for the last five or six years, and while I will eventually toss the busted ones, I love the colors. Why traumatize a kid with red ink when I can use green, or orange, or purple! I even have a set of sweet highlighters, in their own plastic case, and I enjoy using them. I've even let kids use them, and they love it! My paperwork drawer is business - and I need to have contract language handy, so I keep it right there. It's amazing how often I have to refer to it, and send specific language on occasion to clarify our responsibilities. My tea drawer is important to me; people know I keep tea, and they often come looking, usually the head of maintenance and the vice-principal. I never mind sharing. As for that messy drawer, that's the historical drawer, because it was my original desk, until I acquired the library table. Yes, I'm a pack rat. If I retire at the end of the year, as I anticipate I will, I'll clean both desks out so my replacement can start fresh, the way I did. For now, though, they are messy and filled with my stuff - marking my territory in a pack rat-ish sort of way.

30-Day Blogging Challenge: Playing Catch-Up With Days 4, 5, 6, and 7

Last week, the first week of school, caught up to me, and although I had the very best of intentions of blogging every single day like the challenge is supposed to work, I didn't. Here is is Day 7, and I'm catching up.

Day Four: What do you love most about teaching?
I love matching people up with the right book. There is nothing better than knowing that a kid is going to go out of the library with a book they just can't wait to get into. It doesn't matter to me if it's Clifford the Big Red Dog or Dora the Explorer in the hands of a primary student, an elementary student who has been waiting for the latest Guinness Book of Records or Wimpy Kid title, a middle school girl who has been waiting for the newest in the Pretty Little Liars series, a high school kid (rare these days) who needs a biography to read for a class assignment, or a staff member who needs books to supplement and complement a unit on Ancient Egypt - I'm happy to see that they all get what they want, whatever the reason. I'm excited when new books arrive, and even more excited when the students see them, too. Purchasing material is a fun, although somewhat long, drawn-out affair, because I spend a few month compiling an order through my favorite vendor, who while I can't put the newest paperback titles into a classroom library as quickly as a teacher can, I know that I am purchasing books that will engage readers across our K-12 campus.

Day Five: Post a picture of your classroom

My classroom is a library. I'm a teacher-librarian, and my classes are taught in the library, and students are served in the library when I'm not teaching a high school class. What you are seeing is about half of the library. You are looking at the picture book are, and the tables which serve as student desks. What is out of the picture are the fiction shelves. It's a fairly large room. The door you see leads outside; I call it the Servant's Entrance, a little joke that isn't always appreciated.

What I would like to see would be the classroom that is adjacent to the library, labeled 'library classroom' on the blueprint. It could be used as a classroom space/computer lab for the purposes of teaching my classes, so the library isn't unavailable to everyone, library classes, so it is a more formal instructional space, and as a meeting room so the furniture doesn't get moved around all over the place. Currently that room is used for the middle school language arts/social studies classroom. While my current neighbor is the best I've had in the last three, it would be nice to have a room that clearly says "this is an classroom", and a library that is used for the purpose of being a resource to all grade levels, all of the time.

Day Six: What does a good mentor do?
Good mentors are guides. They support the person or people they are mentoring, they work with the person when necessary, and they develop a collegial and professional relationship. They are more than just a colleague; they are there to help out when there are questions, support when there are problems, and celebrate successes. Answering questions, providing information that might just help a lesson or a student - mentors are there for you.

Day Seven: Who was your most inspirational colleague, and why?
My most inspirational colleague is our current fourth grade teacher, and she has been my guide to technology. *S* has been using technology forever; I was in denial, and she was probably on some freenet site! We have somehow became the tech team at school, and she knows way more than I do! I learned about Facebook and Plurk from her, both social sites which have expanded both my personal and professional networks. I learned about Moodle from her, and it's the platform I use in my classes. My library website is on Weebly - *S* introduced me that, too. I would not have applied for, and received, a grant the state was funding several years ago about integrating technology in the classroom, if she hadn't led the way. *S* was cohort 1, and I was in cohort 3. We have gone to technology conferences together, and also presented together. Her ideas for using technology are innovative, and give students tons of experience, as well as wonderful skills, and I think she is is probably the best resource about all-things-tech that we have at school. Because of *S*, I have been exposed (in a good way!) to ideas and techniques that have improved my instruction so much, and I can say in all honestly that my friendship with her has changed my relationship with technology forever. So, if you are reading this, *S*, thank you, and it's ok with me that Pinterest is not your cup of tea.

Reflective Teaching: A 30-Day Blogging Challenge Day Three

Day Three: Discuss One "Observation" Area That You Would Like to Improve on For Your Teacher Evaluation

Evaluation. It used to be fairly easy; the administrator would make an appointment (maybe) to discuss what I would be teaching, and what I would like to have him see. I would sometimes be asked what class I would prefer. At the appointed day and time, he would come in, sit at the back of the library with a pad and pen, and take notes while I taught a lesson or worked with students. At the end of the thirty minutes, he would leave, and in a few days, if I was lucky and he wasn't swamped, I would get called into his office to read the notes, have a brief discussion, and sign a couple of copies, one for me, and one for him. A few times I got to do formative evaluation, which consisted of me having a goal I would like to accomplish during the school year, and that was that. No observation at all, and often, out of sight, out of mind ruled the day. I don't know if I ever completed the goals I set once the school year got rolling and it was on to the daily business of education.

Those days are gone. Now we have TPEP, Marzano, and eVal. Focused and comprehensive cohorts, driven by reform, the state and the contract. I'm on focused, which means I only have to write one student-growth goal instead of three, which is what the teachers on comprehensive have to do. Last year I wrote a student growth goal I didn't accomplish, and it was only during my final evaluation that I realized how badly I had chosen a goal, and how poorly it was executed. Total fail, and in the end, the targeted students didn't benefit at all from my vision, which to be honest, wasn't much of a vision at all. I will admit that I haven't bought in to the whole "new" evaluation system, but I have to do it, so this year I'll make a better stab at it.

My goal for this year will be Goal 8: Exhibiting collaborative and collegial practices focused on improving instructional practice and student learning. This will be a goal that the high school teachers will all be doing, working together to implement common measures to monitor growth and achievement. I'm not entirely certain how this is going to look in practice. The high school teachers will be working together to frame this goal for our individual classrooms. For me, I would like to track various instructional practices and try a variety of strategies to engage students and keep them learning and improving. I suppose student growth, in my two social studies classes, would look like improved grades, better rates on on-time submissions, and classroom based assessments that are approached with a spirit of intellectual curiosity and discovery. I don't expect to be rated as Distinguished on the 4-tiered system, which oddly enough looks a whole lot like the 4-tiered system students have been rated on, but after 30+ years in education, I think I'm a little better than Basic. As my superintendent likes to day, we live in Proficient, and visit Distinguished.

Evaluation has been something that didn't seem very important in the past - we had quite a bit of contract language around evaluation in the past, and it really always had come down to Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory. Nobody walked on water, and it was the rare teacher who needed to go on a Plan of Improvement. I told a former boss that unless he could tell me something that would improve my practice, it didn't matter to me at all if I was observed. I teach in a library - it's not exactly a room where I can shut the door and just teach. I work in a fishbowl! With reform leading the way, I have an opportunity to really focus on student growth, and not just a walk-through with a notepad.

Teach Thought 30-Day Blog Challenge for Teachers: Day Two

Day Two: Write about one piece of technology you would like to try this year and why.

One piece of technology I would like to try this year is the podcast. It seems a little old-school, but it's something I've never done before. One of the teachers had purchased a bunch of MP3 players a while ago, and she got rid of them this year. That seemed rather wasteful to me, and I started thinking about how they could be used. I have a couple of high school students who are not very good readers; one of them is at about a fourth grade reading level. As I looked at the textbook I have, which is geared more for upper middle school students than high school, I worried about how successful "Jane" was going to be if I left her to her own devices, even with a lower reading level. I think there are a couple of other kids who would also benefit from listening to the content as well as reading. Although I need to do a little research about how to create podcasts, it doesn't look too daunting, and I think that this would be something that I can accomplish.

What I would like to see out of integrating this technology into my classroom, as I think about this one particular student, is an improved attitude. I've know this kid since she was an elementary student, and the older she gets, the less she accomplishes. She can get a bit 'snarly', and has been known to have an leave-me-along attitude - her refusal skills are strong! Unfortunately, she often refuses to do assigned work. I am hoping that if the text is available in an audio format, and she can take notes on the content, she will be able to participate in class discussions, and be able to be assessed on her knowledge using any notes she's taken. I would like to be able to break her habit or cycle of refusing to participate in class.

I am lucky to have four iPads in my classroom for students to use, and I would like to be able to use iTunes as the vehicle for the podcasts. I'm willing to play around with this to help my students be successful.

Image is labeled for reuse

TeachThought 30-Day Blog Challenge for Teachers: Day One

I subscribe to a lot of things online - my inbox is filled with things from people I don't know in person. I will admit I don't read them all closely, giving them a quick glance before sending them off to delete-ville. One did catch my eye, though, and in thinking that this is probably my final year before retirement, I went back to it several times. It was a blogging challenge, and it seemed simple enough - blog every day for the 30 days of September about teaching, reflecting and improving my practice. I could do that, I thought; I already have a blog I haven't touched in two years, and I like writing, so I figured I'd give it a try. Here goes....

Day One: Write Your Goals for the School Year

It seems as though every year my schedule changes. I am a teacher-librarian, and so my library schedule changes, mostly because of my teaching schedule. The classes I teach are the variables. This year it's U. S. History, which I've never taught before, and Psychology, which I taught two years ago. These are both high school classes, because somewhere along the way this elementary trained, middle school teacher morphed into a high school teacher. I'm still not quite sure how that happened! My goals aren't particularly complicated, but divided into several components: library, instruction, and relationships.

Library
My library goals are pretty simple. Create a schedule in which one week is check-out only, and the alternate week is a lesson of some sort. Examples of a lesson might be a library scavenger hunt, book talks, genre lessons and book examples, digital safety and citizenship, using the online catalog and finding materials on the shelves, dictionary lessons, etc. Suggestions are always welcome! In addition, on the backroom side, submitting at least three book orders this year, and catching up on cataloging, or at least taking a long hard look at materials that have stacked up in the workroom. I may even consider hosting a book fair, but I'll wait to commit to that to see how the year starts.

Instruction
I have always approached instruction from a technology point-of-view. Several years ago I was the recipient of an Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) grant, and my high school classes have always used Moodle as the learning management system. I approach high school teaching from my master's degree model of virtual instruction, and my goals for my high school students have always been understanding the core concepts of the topic, being able to use 21st Century skills, and Digital Citizenship concepts. I want my students to go to the college having experienced a class knowing that they can work in an online environment. One of the things I've noticed is that students are not trained, for lack of a better word, in being able to work independently, and so one of my focuses will be to improve their ability to do this. I'm lucky this year in that I actually have textbooks for both classes, and while I will use these as the foundation material, I will add supplemental material to the Moodle page. One of my challenges will be to find material in U. S. History to supplement and complement the adopted curriculum. In addition, I would like to work more with Socratic Seminars, and other forms of class discussions.

Relationships
I admit it - I tend to judge others. I'm also speak Sarcasm fluently, so sometimes things don't always come out as they should. Over time, I've ended up in leadership roles at school. I'm the Association president, and the treasurer of the Joyce Community Education Foundation, aka Ed Foundation. I'm on the leadership team. I've always been involved behind the scenes. One of my weakest areas is in parent communication. I have been at my school since the 1977-1978 school year, and often parents are former students. I'm a known entity in the school and the community. The superintendent referred to me as "an institution" during Freshman Orientation (and I promptly revealed my second language of Sarcasm.) I am not fantastic about getting in touch with parents. I need to contact parents about the positive first, and build relationships with the people who care the most about the kids I work with. With staff, I need to keep in touch with them so the time I share with their students is productive and what they need for their teaching. Remembering that I am support staff for them is critical, but somehow there has to be a nice way to communicate that an emergency on their part isn't always my emergency. Think laminator...

This is probably my last year at my school. As much as I've enjoyed my career, with a husband set to retire in mid-October, I don't want to be left out of that fun! I don't think I'm done with education, but I may be done at the local level. Having said that, I'm going to take a wait-and-see approach, look at my 180 days as a series of opportunities to improve the lives of kids and prep them for their futures. I like the idea of starting off the year from a place of reflection, and that's why I'm taking up this challenge.

Rethinking...

What a couple of weeks it's been. My husband, W, points out that every year I have anxiety about what is going on, that I question what the heck I'm doing, and that things work out. I know that I'm exhausted every September, but this year is not feeling the same.

We have been plagued with technology problems. The school was rewired in August, ready for the fiber optics that are just across the road. I asked our tech folks to move the computers I have in the library to another location, and when that happened, nothing worked! To say that I was shocked was an understatement! It was a relative quick fix when our once-a-week tech guy arrived. Yes, that's right; our tech support is once a week, and the work list he had was huge! There are classrooms that still don't have computer access, and for teachers who use technology the way we breath air, that is very frustrating. Then, no wireless. The room where the hub or router or whatever it is is located got too hot, and melted the wires. Good-by, wireless, and so long three iPads, three Netbooks, and one MacBook. Six devices and one teacher station unavailable unless connected. The part - and tech support - is supposed to arrive on Monday.

My psychology class. It has a totally different feel to it. It's the kind of feeling that causes things like rashes, bumps, and things that require ointments and salves. I was spoiled. I'll be upfront and honest about that. This year, I have the usual mix of sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I also have three kids with IEPs, three boys with eligibility issues, two exchange students with varying degrees of English proficiency, and me, the teacher who is aging rapidly. Kids in tears over being homesick, being frustrated, having anxiety and anger issues - it makes issues such as gum, hats, and I-need-to-listen-to-music-so-I-can-concentrate seem pale in comparison. My usual approach is not working. The quality of written work is all over the place. One girl is a beautiful writer, analytic, articulate. One boy, who is one of the eligibility guys, is brief to the point of writing something akin to a list. Without bullets. Capital letters? Who needs those? Why write a paragraph when it can be done in three very long sentences? Why submit the assignment via the Journal feature of Moodle when it can be emailed to the teacher? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Oh, you poor Mrs. F. I know - get over it, right? I know that's what you're thinking, because honestly, if this wasn't my own post, that's exactly what I would be thinking! This is the stuff we face Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, Decade-ly (is that even a word?!). I got it. I've been spoiled, or lucky, or something. So now I get to quit whining, go back to the drawing board, figure out how to work with these kids so the content gets through, the communication and collaboration takes place, and we all learn a little something about Psychology and still earn a Social Studies credit that actually means something.

My response to this week was to go to bed early, and get up feeling refreshed. In class, it was to pull over the kick stool and stand on it so I could be taller than the tallest kid as we discussed why I don't want him listening to his music, and yes, we were both smiling. I can make this work!