Summer Goal: Improve my Knowledge and Practice of Differentiation

Materials

Learner Profile Resources

IB Learner Profile Guide

Advance Organizers

RAFT Assignments

Sample KUD's

See My Reading Journal for Responses to these texts

Quotes

"Plan to be better tomorrow than today, but don't ever plan to be finished."

~Carol Ann Tomlinson

Advice for the First Year

I have completed my first solo year and, in my opinion, it was a spectacular success!  I still love my job, I didn't estrange my husband (lol), I feel enthusiastic about next year, and to top it all off, most important of all, my kids showed some impressive improvement!  I still have so much to learn and so much growing to do, but I feel I am headed in the right direction.  So, here are some things I noticed that I need to work on, or was very successful at, that make a first year smooth and effective.

Certainty 
(Not to be confused with knowing everything all the time)

Certainty is a quality of all effective teachers.  It often develops with experience, but some people have natural certainty or have already developed certainty in their lives.  Certainty is akin to authority, but without the power connotation.  It is the simple ability to convey your expectations in a way that makes it clear that there is no other option but to comply.  It is speaking in a calm, even tone, standing tall and proud, and commanding attention, even when there are 30 fifth graders looking back at you and you are shaking in your boots.  When I say commanding attention I don't mean like a drill sergeant, commanding attention can come in many forms, depending on your personality.  Maybe you have that soft, kindergarten, "I'm going to pull you in with my sheer delightful, quiet enthusiasm."  Or maybe you are hilarious and pull the kids in with your charisma.  Or maybe you have that special cool, quirky quality that draws people in because you're just so interesting...  Whatever it is, harness it and portray absolute certainty that your students will listen, comply, and learn.

Certainty comes with preparedness, passion, and understanding.  You must be prepared before you ever step in front of your classroom.  Understand your subject matter and curriculum, set up and practice routines, and have organized lesson plans arranged.  As a first year teacher, occasionally preparedness won't happen.  It is ok to apologize and wing it as best you can, but DO NOT MAKE A HABIT OF IT!  Students will get frustrated and will begin to act out.  They will see you as powerless and unreliable. 

Your passion for the subject, process, content, students, learning, etc. also needs to be evident most of the time.  Finally, you need to be understanding with yourself and students.  Part of certainty is not always knowing you are right, but knowing you are knowledgeable, prepared, and caring and are doing the best for these students that you can.  You need to be understanding of yourself when things don't go as planned, when you change your mind, or when you say something stupid.  It happens.  Deal with it, and move on.  You also need to be understanding with students.  Students act the way they do for a reason.  Do not confuse leniency with understanding, though.  Students need to be held to consistent high expectations. 

Preparedness

This is something I excelled at in some areas and really need to work on in other areas.  You should always be at least a week ahead in planning curriculum, but be flexible enough to adjust as real life happens.  The beautiful thing about being planned a week ahead is that it generally turns out to be about two weeks because you plan so much!  I utilized the summer before my first year to plan, plan, plan.  I basically worked full time during the summer, but I was so excited that it was fun.  Really, though, I started planning for my first year when I stepped into my first education class in college.  I saved, sorted, organized, and categorized every piece of material that I received from a class or a classmate. It has really come in handy!

Beyond having your curriculum prepared, you should also have your activities, projects, parties, and field trips planned as far ahead as you can.  This is something I really struggled with.  I was always so focused on making sure my lessons were going to go off without a hitch that I would put off the actual preparation until the night before.  If you are planned ahead, have the materials ready, and encourage volunteers to help in your classroom, you will save yourself a lot of late nights.  I often let that glorious bulletin board slip by because I wasn't prepared enough to delegate the task.

Behavior Rubric

I've now used this rubric for two years and I'd swear by it.  I use it once a month.  I have the students self-assess their behavior in one color, then I also assess their behavior in another color.  I have them take it home and have their parents sign it.  Sometimes on the back I have the students write an area they would like to improve in and a goal for that area.

Behavior Rubric by Ronee Treadwell

The First Year

Let me tell you, they aren't lying when they say your first year of teaching is an exhausting whirlwind.  But, on the bright side it doesn't have to be as bad as they say!  I've made it thus far without having one moment that I wanted to quit the teaching profession, move to Africa, or jump off a bridge!  From what I've heard my first year has been pretty smooth sailing so far.  Here are the things that I've heavily relied on:

• Resources from college and student teaching, (yeah, I actually use that stuff!).  I was a HUGE pack-rat during college, volunteering, and student teaching.  I took anything and everything people offered me, asked for copies of things that I liked, and wrote lists of things I would like to buy.
• Resources I scrounged out of what I like to call the "dungeon" at my school (aka the old shower room with piles of stuff that the teachers don't want anymore).  Warning:  Make sure you check with people before you make off with anything!  Teachers are very protective of their collections.
• My AMAZING grade-level partner.  She was recently moved to 4th grade after teaching 1st and 2nd for a long time, so the year is new to her, too.  BUT we plan everything together.  We share our good ideas, edit out our bad ideas, take turns planning units, etc.  It really has saved my life.  Oh, and she's been teaching and at the school for a long time, so she helps me remember the things a firsty might forget (meetings, calling parents about student of the month, etc., etc.).
• Utilizing the summer.  Be careful of burn-out, but I spend pretty much my entire summer planning my curriculum.  Many new teachers are hired on the spot and don't have this convenience, but I took full advantage.  I gathered up all the teacher and student books, brought them home, and poured over the school and my own resources and the standards to create a thorough curriculum.
• Create an organization system for EVERYTHING.  You are going to have so many calls, papers, meetings, planners, notebooks, tests, assignments, e-mails, appointments, forms... that it is critical to be organized.  I have a parent communication binder, a curriculum binder, folders in my e-mail, a file for graded work, work to grade, work that the students need to finish or start, a shelf for all my supplies for each day of the week, a hanging file pocket-chart for the day's activities, etc.  My students and I would be swimming in paperwork if it weren't for these things.
• Start the year out positive, firm, and know your stuff.  Of course things are going to come up that are unexpected, but the students are expecting to learn the ways of your classroom on the first day, and it's your job to have every detail planned out.  I probably spend the most time this summer planning out routines and behavior systems.  From going to the bathroom to sharing ideas in class to lunch count to homework, you need to have every detail mapped out.  Trust me though, there are going to be some things that you find just aren't working, and you need to make a little tweek.

First Day!

The big day is tomorrow.  I can't believe how fast the summer flew by!  The first day is like anything else, I had so many grandiose plans, and many of them came to fruition, but many of the details didn't.  It's time to let these little things go, take a sigh of relief and know that tomorrow is going to be fabulous.  I'm so excited!

This is what I wrote in my journal this morning:

I can feel myself click-clicking up the track, my descent just visible beyond the edge of my cart.  My heart rate is increasing, my mind is a blur.  This ride is surely going to have it's ups and downs, but I have my trusted colleagues at my side...  We round the top of the track and here we go!

I've Been a Busy Girl

After putting transmission fluid in my car--oh yes I'm that BA--I've completed my set of classroom labels.  Let me know if you have any requests for others :)


Classroom Labels Part 2

Cute Classroom Labels

Part 1: Library, Social Studies, Science, Art

Classroom Labels

Student Planner

Weekly Student Planner

New Classroom Poem

New Classroom

“New” is a relative term, of course.

For it’s walls all but whisper the stories of thousands of children.

Surrounding me, they watch with wise silence as I bustle about,

Sticking them with pins, and staples and covering them with brilliant shades of paper.

They practically sigh as I hang my welcome sign.

But it is my new classroom and I love it so.

It could be that it is simply that it belongs to me that makes it so irresistibly delightful,

But, no.  It is something else…

Some ancient glow that is hidden deep within the heart of this classroom.

A love for children so deep that only a building built for that purpose can know.

And it seems to accept me.

Welcomes me into this new world,

And takes me under it’s wing like a mentor. 

That woody pungent smell is beginning to smell like home.

At first sight I saw the potential in this dusty, forsaken, aged room.

Like a premonition I saw it sparkling clean, bustling with children,

Purposeful and happy once again.

Now, as the day draws nearer I draw comfort from this space,

This home I have built for people I don’t yet know.

I can feel my new classroom glowing with pride and,

like me, waiting with anxious pleasure.

~Ronee Treadwell 

14 Days and Counting... :O

There are exactly two weeks until I meet my first (real) class.  I have never felt so excited/exalted/anxious/terrified.  I feel prepared but that pessimistic part of me that is always doubtful is nagging in the back of my mind.  Luckily, I drown it out with all the work there is to be done, large and small.  On that note, I found some great resources and blogs I would like to share:

Application Secrets

I have finally landed that ideal full-time permanent teaching job!  I feel so blessed to have been teaching every year since I graduated.  It really is incredible.  I recently had a friend ask me how I manage to keep getting teaching jobs in this tough market.  So, here are all my secrets!

Honestly, I attribute most of my success to my flexibility in location.  I applied to any and all jobs in Oregon because, luckily, my husband and I were willing and able to move anywhere.  Flexibility didn't carry me through applications and interviews, though, so here is my advice regarding the application process:

Applications

• Be flexible. Maybe you have to commute for a year, or move outside your ideal area, but if you want to teach that may be what you have to do.
• Be professional.  Use nice paper (I use linen resume paper for my whole application packet), print and staple cleanly, have accurate spelling and grammar, write clearly and neatly, etc.
• Make an impact in as few words as possible.  I print the following on a sheet of nice linen paper (white or cream) and scrapbook glue it on the front of my nice linen application folder (blue or black).  I print the word cloud that follows on nice linen paper and scrapbook glue it on the back.  For applications that have an online element I include another piece that says "supplementary materials to online application."  I also include a list of highlights or "summary of qualifications" on my resume before I go into detail (below).

• • Highly proficient in technology integration, instruction, and application including building websites, SMART Board use, instructional websites, blogs, and more. (Example websites)
• • Experience teaching 60 third grade students with a team of two co-teachers.
• • Over 1,200 hours volunteer experience in eleven schools in six cities with students from grades kindergarten through college including a grade-blended classroom, as well as additional experience working with children and adults in bicycle motocross.
• • Trained in instruction for diverse learners including Talented and Gifted students, students with Learning Disabilities, students who are Deaf or hard of hearing, and English Language Learners.
• • Trained in the use and/or administration of DIBELS, running records, GLAD, SIOP, and many reading and writing programs such as Lucy Calkins, Phonics for Reading, Read Naturally, etc.
• • Skilled at visual and performing arts, trained in visual and performing arts instruction and integration.
• • Trained in differentiation, project-based learning, the Storyline method, and open-ended questions.
• • Some American Sign Language and French.
• • First Aid/CPR certified.
• Stand out.  I go over and above and try to stand out in every way possible, I begin with the cover and word cloud.  I also include copies of a narrative writing sample and educational philosophy statement that demonstrate my writing ability.  If you write songs include sheet music, if you're an artist include a picture of an original work, etc.  When I really want to go over and above I include an edited DVD of myself teaching.
• Demonstrate your organizational skills.  I'm not sure that this makes a difference but I always put the items in my folder in the order they are requested on the job posting.
• Make everything you've done sound amazing.  Under book store job duties, instead of "cashier:" Assisted people of various ages from all over the world in the finding and purchasing of textbooks and other supplies. 

Interviews

• Prepare, prepare, prepare.  Have your mom, your significant other, co-workers, etc. drill you with interview questions.  After any interview write down the questions they asked and take notes about the good and bad of your answers to prepare for the next interview.  I go over interview questions in my head as I drive to the interview (especially the ones that come up most often: Tell me about yourself, describe your behavior management system, how will you develop your classroom climate, and how can parents and volunteers be utilized in the classroom?)
• Leave early enough to give yourself extra time to drive around the city in which you are applying.  Find good things about the city for that inevitable question about why you want to teach in that area.  This also is helpful in the dreadful case that there is an accident, construction, etc. etc.
• Dress appropriately. Duh.
• Come overly prepared.  See Application Portfolio.  You may not always use the items in your portfolio, but preparing the portfolio helps to organize your thoughts and is proof of your dedication and organizational skills.  Also, I use my portfolio as a last minute cram session before the interview.
• Relax.  These are normal people just looking for the right person to come along.  Laugh, joke, smile, and be yourself.  It sounds hard but I just try to think about the different zany/mellow/creative/kind/caring teachers and principals I've worked with before and imagine these to be the same.  It's more about the connection than all of the pedagogical strategies you can regurgitate.

So, there it is.  This is all the "secrets" I can think of for getting a teaching job as a beginning teacher.  Hope you find something useful :)

The Beginning

"It is how you begin that is the most important."

~ Plato

Attention First Year Teachers!

I have recently finished The First-Year Teacher's Survival Guide by Julia G. Thompson and I feel indebted to this book.  From rubrics to delivering effective instruction to mistakes to avoid, this book covers it all.  Sure, some things were a bit redundant from my teacher education program, but out of the 420ish pages I found most of the information relevant and helpful.  Check it out.

Great booklet for first year teachers: The First Days: Survival Skills for the First Year Teacher

Yearning

I know you know the feeling...  I have never wanted anything more than having my own class.  As my current temporary position soon ends I've begun the applying process again...  I just hope I can find the right place for me.  My goal: turn my longing into the most persuasive interview ever witnessed.  It's a long road ahead, and previously well trodden.  It's like that stretch of I-5 I know so well.  It's familiar and yet not a place I want to be...  I simply pray for the chance to have my own space to make a difference.

HUMOROUS BIO!? WHAA?

I am in the process of applying for a job that required a "humorous, creative, informative bio."  First I hastily left my computer, instantly overwhelmed with the thought and underwhelmed with the number of ideas I had.  Too cliche...boring...childish.  Turns out, I'm not funny.  But, I still managed to scrape up an ok humorous bio (or so I think).

You know that adult woman you see buried in the children’s section at the bookstore laughing out loud as she reads and keeps sorting and resorting books into the “to buy” and “save for later” piles?  That’s me, nice to meet you.  What you don’t know about me:

I had a thirty-minute conversation with a student about the history of videogame consoles this week.

I once read an entire professional development book in a day, when my husband asked what class it was for I was confused.

I think talking to oneself is a very efficient strategy for many things.

I’m an ounce of clever a pound of quirky (which I find comes in handy when working with children).

My motto: Will sacrifice sleep for success.

I truly know everything (according to my husband) but, of course, modestly disagree.

I watch kid movies and call it research.

Rumor has it on the day of my birth the world did not change, though I like to think otherwise.

I race bicycle motocross.  (No, that one’s serious).

I collect post-its, bins, totes, and any other item that could be confused with an organizer.

I enjoy astonishing those with limited perspectives.

If list making were an Olympic Sport I would for sure be at least a bronze medalist (see, modest again).

I take serious joy from working with over 60 kids every day.

I got the interview for this job, but had already accepted another!

Recreate

This pseudo-first year has been the most difficult year of my life despite the support of my two co-teachers.  Between screaming parents, unbelievable behavior, and students with baffling academic challenges, this year has been more than enough to make a lot of newbies quit.  And how do you go home, let it all go, and return the next day with a purpose and a smile on your face, knowing it's a new day and your best chance to make a difference?

A professor and brilliant educator once said "the most important thing you can do as an educator is to recreate."  He used this as a sort of double entendre: utilizing both meanings re-create (to create again) and recreate as in recreation (a activity done for enjoyment).  Things are always more eloquently stated by their original founder, but here is my interpretation.  Your passion for teaching is like a fire.  Right now it is fed by youthful enthusiasm, injustice, love of children, creativity, desire to change the world... etc. etc.  Some day along the line there will come a day when you tire, children treat you with disrespect despite your efforts, you work in a school where your creativity is stifled because of a emphasis on closing the gap, or whatever the case may be.  Your fire will dim, and it is your job to know how to rekindle that fire.  Recreate.  Recreate the passion and feed the fire: find others like you and join a discourse community, go camping, read a book in the sunshine, walk on the treadmill, drink a margarita with your girls, whatever it is that makes you happy and rekindles your fire.  The work will always be there, and no matter how proactive you are, it will never be done (if you are a true educator), so take a moment to take care of yourself.

Let me use another metaphor.  On an airplane the stewardess that gives the safety spiel always says this (or some form of this): "Mothers, put your oxygen mask on first.  Your child cannot take care of him or herself in the event that something happens to you, so take care of yourself first and then you can be assured of your child's safety."  The same is true in education.  We can work ourselves to the very bone staying up all night and working weekends, keep ourselves propped up with caffeine, and become estranged from our family and friends but this pace can't keep up forever, and you and your students will suffer.  So take the time to recreate.  Our students need passionate, rested, enthusiastic educators in their classrooms.  This advice has kept me alive and enthusiastic this year.

Thank you Dr. Ronald Beghetto

Keep at it, your time will come!

After submitting well over 150 applications in cities all over from tiny to huge, low income to high, desirable and undesirable, I finally landed my first teaching job.  And while it is not the traditional first year teaching position, I am excited about the possibilities.  (In case you are wondering, I will be team teaching a third grade class that has 56 students).  For next year's application process, as interview questions go for behavior management, it can't get much better than describing a behavior plan for 56 students.

Words of Wisdom

“However, on better days, days when I had designed lessons that channeled rather than suppressed their fitful energy, or when I found some way to coax them to share their real stories—I  glimpsed the classroom life that was meant to be.”

P 22 Bill Bigelow The New Teacher Book