Reflections from Room 133
Teacher Blogging Challenge
29-My inspiration
My oldest daughter, S, is someone who inspires me to be a better human being each day. She has grown into this amazing young woman who is always kind, flexible, patient, and gracious. She has embraced the qualities I dreamed she would have. She reminds me each day to be kind. She does not gossip or speak negatively of people. She always gives everyone a chance and looks for the good in others. She is the opposite of many older family members she has encountered in her life. S is striving to be someone who will help make others’ lives better. At 19, she has more maturity and grace than many 46-year olds in my world. S inspires me to be kind, to suspend judgment and pause before speaking.
S is the only one that can calm her younger sister who is in a perfectionist panic or self-defeating struggle. S struggled with perfectionism as a young child, but has learned to decide when something is worth the spending of frustration. Now she passes that wisdom to her younger protege. She takes her older sister-mentor responsibility seriously.
S spent 50 hours a week working in a factory during this past summer-driving a forklift, crushing barrels, in order to earn more than working at a fast food restaurant. On top of that she self-studied for the PCAT test, which she rocked, and took an online Economics class. S reminds me to be driven to your goals and dedicate yourself to excellence.
S can “let it go” when her grandma is ranting and raving. S can be flexible and understanding when people are disappointing or not what they seem. I admire how she can roll with changes in her life plan-different roommates, her boyfriend moving seven hours away, steep college costs, crashing the car on icy roads; she still finds a positive spin. She must have learned that from her dad!
Each time I witness her grace and patience, I see my model of what I need to do. S has a beautiful soul who wants to help others while being so modest about her intellect and talents. She does not need praise or attention; she is satisfied with herself. I need to find that!
“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about”- Angela Schwindt
28-Hindsight
Then came Act 10 in Wisconsin and a massive shift in power in the district. This power shift threw away all collaborative relationships, allowed the school board to value $ for other things, and gave the director job to another person with no process for application or interview. It took the superintendent five days after announcing the decision to even attempt to speak to me about why I was not even considered, and he never answered my questions about what I needed to do, to grow or what changed.
I was angry, hurt, mad, embarrassed, and thrown off the highway of my life plan. When the home budget is tight, I beat myself up that I did not get my plan of earning an admin-level salary. I kept rethinking "What did I not do?" "What did I do wrong?" I felt that I had crashed.
Time does help heal and reveal.
But now I am grateful, grateful I am not a part of this top-down, anti-collaborative leadership. I am grateful I did not have to choose to leave if I had worked for this board and leader who turned out to be 180 degrees opposite of what he first showed us to be. I can see a better future because I have joy each day with students and staff.
I am grateful to be with students, not difficult adults with different priorities.
I am grateful for my amazing team who appreciates my efforts and knowledge.
I am grateful that teaching revitalized me and saved my soul.
27-One perfect day
My homework and housework is done so all I need to do is enjoy.
The family plus my dear friend from Alaska could visit to watch the game while eating Nacho cheese dip and other tasty, but bad for you foods and drinks.
We cheer and celebrate as our Packers crush the opponent.
I will take a walk after the game in the crisp fall air with the leaves changing and the breeze blowing and my BoDeans playlist running through my headphones.
We would have a night of homemade pizzas where everyone helps to construct his or her own personal pizza.
Then we watch A few Netflix episodes of How I Met Your Mother or Criminal Minds after pizza.
And later, I have an hour set aside to read a non-educational book.
26-3 small pleasures
2-My teaching colleague plays awesome music when we work together. He is a music connoisseur and find the right music for our mood and task, while teaching me about music history.
3-When I get home, my 11 year old asks, "How was your day, mom?" After taking care of students and colleagues all day, it warms my heart with that moment when she is taking care of me.
25-Let it Go
I need to let go of taking things personally in political and district dynamics, and just find a way to tell our story of students, success, and growth!
I need to let go of the anger I have at our change in district dynamics and focus on the children and appreciate my team. I need to worry less that when I do speak at inservice and it is tattled and twisted back to district office, that I know I was helping colleagues for the benefit of children.
24-Dreams for the future
2-Education will be personalized. Applying both projects, inquiry and technology, it won't be a spray and pray approach to hope that some students "get" a lesson- each student will be able to progress, get support and shine. This will look so much more like workshops with flexible scheduling and many many consultants from the world outside of school who can offer insight and support. School won't be a thing we do, but a community endeavor.
3-Education will be valued. The K-12 public education system will be valued for building future car mechanics, chiropractors and chefs who are ready to be citizens for the future.
23-Attitude of Gratitude progress
Our attitude of gratitude plan. In order to avoid that “oh no, the bell”, I plan to set a timer during each block to go off during the work time. When the timer goes off, we will stop to give a thank you, send a quick email, jot a note, or have a gratitude list time. If we all do it together in each class, we can sow the seeds of gratitude in our learning community.
Right now we are approaching proficiency with our expressions of gratitude. We have had some excellent sharing, and some work of service by writing thank you notes. But, it has not been as consistent or sincere as I think it can be. We will continue to grow. I have noticed a few more students expressing kind comments of appreciation during our book talks, so attitude of gratitude is spreading slowly.
There has been a lot of frustration at school during these two weeks. Student needs, communication discrepancies, and struggles with following a new pacing guide have clouded my gratitude. I did send five thank you notes most of the days. I tried to communicate with those who don't always get thanks: our media specialist, a parent, quiet students, and a colleague. I stretched myself to be gracious to a district leader who I do not really respect nor appreciate. I know I can always do more to model appreciation and gratitude, so I will continue to push us all to proficiency plus.
22-Family Traditions
Beyond the song, the family values birthday gatherings. My husband has true joy when his parents, six brothers and sisters, and their extended family gather together. Coming from a very small family, this big experience was overwhelming 22 years ago, but now it is an essential part of our family fabric.
November is the busiest birthday month of the big family: Dave, Josh, Brianna, Anita, Brent, my daughter Anna, and Grandpa! And this month we also added a new great niece named Serena. So the family grows and is blessed by the birthday traditions.
21-Fair Isn't Always Equal
When an entire team at my school, including my dear former principal, joined in to read the book together, we made excellent growth in responding to students and breaking those old traditions of zero, late work penalties that did not reflect the learning, and differentiation. This book is an "owners manual" for assessment. My copy is always near my desk to revisit when I need clarification.
Rick's videos were an essential foundation as our district started our Standards-Based Grading Team as a collaborative 6-12 effort.
Thank you Rick Wormeli for your honest, real, and powerful approach to student learning and assesment.
20-Life Lesson
This is what you want, to belong
So they like you. Do you like you?
When you're all alone, by yourself
Do you like you? Do you like you?
You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing
You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to bend until you break
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing
-from Try performed by Cobie Calliat
I heard this song today. It articulates what I hope for my children, especially my daughters. I spent most of my life trying to bend to fit, to make sure people approved of me, liked me, or included me so much so that I lost my identity and my self-pride. I never want my children to feel like that. I want them to be ok with who they are when they are alone, that they are ok alone, and that they are perfect just the way they are.
I hope that by having different interests than my husband and even other moms- interests in reading, technology, and music, and above all my driving passion for education that I model being ok with myself.
It’s a struggle for me because I have never felt good enough, namely for my mother. I have spent my life “unhearing” my comments like her wish she had a daughter like the neighbor girl instead of me, and that I must have been too ugly and stupid for that college boyfriend to stick around. There was a lot of mental anguish/abuse that I had to learn to overcome.
That mental struggle was vivid insecurity in high school where I did not pursue my interests, but became the tofu for my friends. I took on their interests and flavors, I mixed myself in, putting myself below them and tried so hard to fit in. I wasted so much time worrying about if I fit, that I didn't even know who I was.
It was meeting so many different kinds of people in college and finding people and places where I could enjoy my interests and just be myself that I learned I did not always have to change for others to accept me or like me.
I still struggle with fitting in and accepting myself. We live in a small community that likes to remind “outsiders’ that we don’t share history and relationships as those who have lived here all their lives.
But joining the local charter school governance council and volunteering in the community help me model to my children that we all can find areas to belong and be ourselves with our interests and passions.
When I step back and look at my children, I see how they are so much more confident in themselves than I was at their ages. I hope that my work to overcome my insecurity from the mental abuse of my childhood and to emphasize and appreciate who they are as unique and wonderful human beings has helped them learn to be satisfied with themselves.
19-Grateful for..
Thank you. Thank you for your kindness, patience, and calm. Thank you for being on the end of the phone when my mother-in-law is scared or concerned. Thank you for always smiling and caring when you talk with my father-in-law who is slowly winding his journey on this earth.
Sometimes we hear "I could never teach middle school" when we say what we do. Yet, when I see how these nurses offer smiles and patience while making my father-in-law comfortable in light of so many medical and aging issues, I say "I am in awe; how can you do that?".
Thank you to the caregivers of those who need daily support as they face the journey. I am so grateful that you help my father-in-law to have peace each day.
If I can inspire a student to use his or her gifts of gentleness, kindness and service to become a CNA, LPN, RN, or chaplain, I will be humbled by what he or she will do for our world.
Sincerely,
A grateful family member
I have the sweetest team!
17-2013 to 2014.. growth in the SLO
One thing that is different from a year ago that I am grateful for
is that our team has a deeper understanding and confidence about our SLO-Student Learning Outcome.
Even though all the pieces [mylearningplan.com, PPG, PGP, PLC] can be confusing and frustrating at times, we are confident in how we are building collaborative communicators who can think critcally. We use our proficiency guide rubrics to assess students, then make instructional adjustments and build in time for student self-reflection.
We all feel more confident in this learning outcome as it is for their futures. This is not one "test" point in a moment of time. Our data can show us trends for specific students and we can celebrate growth!
Many days as I am coaching students to grow in the 3c's, we talk about the entry level jobs they can have in two years.
Students will need to communicate.
- "Hello, welcome to Jimmy John's. How may I help you?" Communicate to ensure you are heard, use eye contact to be welcoming.
Students will need to collaborate.
- The entire process at Jimmy John's, or any fast-food restaurant, is collaborative. One person takes the order, passes it on with communication, so that the sandwich is correct.
Students will need to think critically:
- A huge catering order has come into the restaurant with many special requests. How will we organize and or problem solve to get the order out.
When we connect their assessments on our rubric to this future reality, students are more invested. That is why I am grateful my team has embraced the Student Learning Outcome of collaboration. I am grateful that we all collaborate to help each other. I am grateful that our SLO is more student-centered than test-centered.
We are helping our students for their future successes in the world outside of our building.
We already see growth!
15 +16-Technology plus Twitter inspires me
The power of Google forms for collecting data, and curating student work plus the ability of sharing documents and working collaboratively even outside the school day thanks to GAFE has helped my team and me be more responsive, reflective, real-time teachers.
The use of Google Forms and Docs has definitely brought our team together. It is so much easier to keep us all on the same road of communication because the documents are shared and easy to access.
What article did we reference in our last meeting? Click the link in the notes. What does the proficiency scale for speaking and listening emphasize for proficiency? Find it in the shared folder!
The use of a Google form to collect data for our SLO helps put the mass of data into a Google sheet that we can use to take real action for students. On Thursday our team is adding a learning session about Doctopus and Goobric so that we can continue to assess, curate and archive student work and data.
One of my colleagues is going to teach another about the use of forms. We are continually learning in our GAFE world. This makes us recognize what our students face when they are learning and exploring.
Twitter! The power of knowing that other teachers are facing the same challenges. The wisdom we can gain from sharing experiences. The awe I feel when I see the amazing dedication and investment from the professional educators humbles me yet inspires me. I appreciate the validation when I read a blog, a tweet, or a post and can think, "Yes, we do that too!" is helpful when times are challenging.
It is quite the experience to share ideas across the globe -from Chicago to New Zealand. My Twitter PLN teaches me, inspires me, informs me and reminds me why teaching is such a special profession.
14-5 things that have transformed me as a teacher
1. The power of MODELING. The lesson always feels stronger when I have written the piece, done the project myself, and walked through with the "think-aloud". I know my students appreciate the credibility that yes, I struggled and worked through what I am asking of them. I learned this early in my career and have held to it as a standard.
2. Differentiation- I was fortunate to have an amazing mentor who helped me really understand and apply differentiation for all students. I embraced differentiating for interest, product, process and affect. She encouraged me so much and helped me grow so that I would be able to meet student needs. I cannot even imagine planning now without thinking about differentiation options.
3. Trauma-sensitive- A colleague of mine has taught us all about being trauma sensitive. His lessons about how students may act out or behave, to have a trauma-sensitive lens when addressing behavior and expectations has helped me focus on the child first, then employ different strategies or timelines to help in light of the trauma.
4-Continually learning/practicing Spanish. I value that I can functionally communicate in Spanish as a way to relate with students and parents. When I use Spanish at parent-teacher conferences, the smiles and nods from families show the appreciation that we are trying to really meet the needs of their students.
5-Think time and reading strategies. One of the greatest days in my career was meeting and working with Ellin Keene. Her modeling of think time, of deep questioning, and her work to make strategies and thinking accessible in Mosaic of Thought and To Understand helped me transform to teaching readers, not being a teacher of reading.
To Understand by Ellin Keene
Spanish
Differentiation
13-Time for self...
On Saturday I would love to just go shopping, but since my husband's company has decided that days off are not an option right now, I will do chores, and all that "home stuff".
Am I grateful that he has a job that supports us well, yes! Am I glad that my daughter wants to achieve in school. YES! But time seems so crunched now to take a break.
So, the action step is to ensure that I can kick back and enjoy Sunday's Packer game- no chores, no multi-tasking, no guilt.
Goals for the next month to take time for self:
- meet a friend who is coming back to the area for a visit
- go shopping by myself
- stick more to the "workout schedule"
- bake more
- start to work on my son's graduation party slide show- it will take a while to sort photos!
12-I am grateful for:
- my three amazing children
- my husband who has wisdom, drive, and patience- "Whatever you do, be a good one".
- my students who teach me everyday.
- my favorite Green Bay Packers!
- the opportunities my children have to grow up in a small community.
- my colleagues who are the best team in the district!
- books to help me grow as an educator.
- Dove Dark chocolate promises.
- Jimmy John's sandwiches.
11-The Most Important Lesson
On June 3, 2015 I want to say, to write
Yes, I want all students to be proficient [in the power standards] to:
- read at grade level
- cite evidence
- determine the central theme/key ideas
- write coherently for the task
- use accurate and precise conventions
- speak articulately
- collaborate
- think critically
- participate
But beyond the school walls, I want every student to be gracious, grateful, and goal-oriented. I hope that by succeeding with learning and stretching themselves, Language Arts, these life lessons will transfer.
Above photo courtesy of https://sparkylaurie.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/life__the.jpg
Click to read the archive.
1-What are the best aspects of being a teacher?
2. Energy-When students are learning, there is an energy and buzz that is hard to replicate in any other domain.
3. Exciting-Teaching is great for a person who likes routine-based chaos! Every class each day is so different within the framework of the day.
4. Learning-What a responsibility, yet a privilege to help someone learn something new or bring out a talent for a child.
5. Connecting-This is a profession that strives to learn and connect with each other.Look at PLNs on Twitter, EdCamps, and blogging challenges.
6. Creating-The joy from envisioning a lesson, creating the structure and instruction, to admiring, or reflecting on the progress. Within the parameters, we still can use our creativity.
7. Empowering- It's your classroom. You determine the climate, culture, activity, and feeling.
8. Collaborating-A profession where you can openly share joy, sorrow, frustration, and progress with dedicated colleagues and star students.
9. Honorable- What do you do each day? Help to build the future.
10. Service- Teaching is a profession that serves others-students, parents, colleagues, community and society. It is crucial to remember that in light of the political challenges and attitudes in the media today.