Learning to Teach

Yesterday marked the first day of school on my 10th year of teaching. As yesterday went on, I reflected on lessons that I have learned through my decade career so far. 1.  Get excited - Every new school year is like a blank slate with unlimited possibilities. Each year has students who are nervous and excited for school. Show them that having a passion for education is cool. 2.  Surround yourself with positive people - We all know that the teaching profession can feel like a grueling and unappreciated profession at times, which is why we need to stay positive. You red to have a group of peers that will help keep you positive and focus on your goals. 3.  Start small - I can tend to get caught up in the excitement of trying new things and I make a big wish list of things I want to accomplish. Then my wish list gets to be overwhelming and I don't know where to start. In these last 10 years I have learned to pick one or two things to put into practice. That way it is m...

  I had my first parent-teacher conferences with using SBG. Before these conferences I was so nervous. I know that people tend to have a hard time with change. I also know that this way of grading is not what they are used to seeing. I was prepared to explain all night that a 4 was not equivalent to an A or that if their student was not getting all 4's then they are not doing well in class. I think I thought of every possible argument that might come up during these conversations with parents. We had 3 hours of conferences that night and it set records in attendance by parents. It was great to see everyone and to my surprise the parents were not all hung up over the new grading system. They just wanted to know how their students was doing. I had two that wanted me to explain the new grading system and they asked me if I believed in it. I was too happy to share my support for SBG and I think I helped a few parents understand why. Overall it wasn't a them vs. me battle, but...

Step #1: Creating the Standards  - I spent a couple days this past summer with the two other social studies teachers in my school to create our standards and begin work on the rubrics for these standards. My school has really tried to align our standards with the Common Core Standards, but those standards for social studies has not come out. We tried to think of the skills that we would like to see in our geography and U.S. history classes. Hardest Part: trying to think about skills instead of content that we wanted kids to know Advice: read Fair isn't Always Equal  and research what other schools use for their standards Step #2: Creating the Rubrics  - This was my first mistake... the school year started and the rubrics where not finalized. My department went through so many drafts and we were so hung up on trying to make the wording perfect. I swear we could have revised these rubrics for years, but as most of you teachers probably already know you just need to ...

Another school year is upon us and this year I am determined to get back into the swing of blogging. I have a lot to talk about. This year is the first year that I am using Standards Based Grading in my social studies classes. I am very excited about this because I fully support the idea of Standards Based Grading and I think it will be beneficial to my students. When I give out a B or a C+ it is not always transparent as to what that grade actually means what the student understands. With SBG it will be more clear what the student is proficient in and what they still need help with to master. I am on board with the philosophy, but now I have to actually use it. At the end of the last school year, my social studies department created standards for two courses (World Geography and US History). It was tough to come up with the "right" ones or the ones we thought were "right" at the time. Now I am working on creating a rubric for these standards. This is the tough ...

Lately, I am analyzing how I teach my social studies classes and what I can do to make it better... actually I am ALWAYS doing that but this time it is on a much bigger scale. I am looking into how to make my classes to be more personalized for each student. Why does everyone have to learn the same exact thing for the same exact length of time? What if the idea of units were not based on certain weeks, but more on the time it takes each individual to understand the learning targets? There are many questions that go along with these ideas... what does that look like, how is that managed, how do you know students are learning, what motivates the students? I believe this is what teachers do... we constantly look for ways to improve lessons, our curriculum, and our teaching strategies to help students' learn.

It has taken me a long time to write this post. In the beginning I was very excited to start blogging and share my experience with other educators. Unexpectedly and noticeably, the blog started to become something else. The focus started to be about view counts and comments. I started to feel like I wasn't this great teacher that I thought I was and I was scared to write about my ups and downs. What would people think if they knew that I found changes and improvements to the units I was teaching?  Would anyone want to read what I was saying if all I had were questions instead of knowing all of the answers? This anxiety got the best of me for a very long time. This is why I stopped blogging. I was scared to show myself, except I started to realize that I got into blogging to show myself... all of it. I am not the most amazing teacher (...yet), but I am a teacher that is constantly learning and evolving. I am a teacher that wants to be honest with my p...

I know I have been on hiatus from my blog for the past few months and I apologize for that. I always forget how starting the school year is so time consuming (no matter how many times you have done it in the past). Lately I have been thinking about what makes a good teacher. In Wisconsin I hear a lot teacher backlash and I found myself more and more sad about this take on teachers. I have heard things like "teaching USED to be a profession and now it is just lazy people who want to get paid more for doing less" or "teachers are sleeping through their classes and don't care about my child... tax dollars should not go toward education". I highly disagree with both of these statements, but I can see how easy it is to judge someone or something that you don't know that much about. I teach my 7th graders about stereotyping and how they can't judge a whole group on the actions of a certain few... I wish some adults could learn about this too. Back to my questi...

Do you still feel like a new teacher even though you have been teaching for years? This past year was the first time that I didn't feel like a new teacher, but it took until January to feel that way. I just finished my fifth year teaching. Does that mean that I was technically a new teacher for a year and I just felt like it was my first year each year after? Is the label 'New Teacher' a mindset or a time limit? When each year feels like the first year, it isn't necessarily a bad thing. I hope to never lose the nervous feeling before the first day of school, keep getting excited every time a student understands something new, and sustain the energy to keep up with my middle school students. Do new teachers have more energy? More enthusiasm ? I think they seem like they have more, but it may be because somewhere along the way teachers lose some of these qualities. Maybe they are overworked, underpaid, or stressed out. Educators need to realize the qualities that new teac...

This year was my fifth year of teaching and I have changed more in this year than any other year. This was the first time that I didn't feel like a newbie. During this past school year I've learned... that my opinions do matter and I need to share them I understand more than people think I do about education despite how young I may look leadership skills can be developed, you just have to work hard google apps are so helpful in education hard work does pay off, it may just not be the payoff that you thought it would be your passion is something to take care of so it doesn't fade

Last year at this time, I was sad because I realized that there were some kids in my class that I didn't really know. They sat quietly, turned things in on time, and never complained. I realized that some kids are easy to connect with because they work on it just as much as I do, while others shy away from it. Aren't these students the ones I should be working harder to connect with? This year I made connecting with my students a much higher priority. We only have two and a half days left in school and I am sad again. This year is different though -- I am sad because they are leaving. My wonderful students are heading to high school and I don't want to let them go. I worked very hard this year to make connections with all of my students. I had them write me letters to introduce themselves (no parameters), I take evaluations and feedback on my lessons from them (because who else could tell me if the lesson was effective), and I presented opportunities for them to share the...

I had a great #edchat on how we can change the negative perception on education. @ unklar and @ MisterEason started talking about how to determine the definition of a "good" teacher, which got me thinking... What makes a good teacher? I am sure there are many more attributes, but these are the top three that I thought of. A good teacher is someone who makes connections with students, administrators and community members. Building relationships is very important in education. So many times teachers don't value the connections they have with their own students. These connections do not always come easily and teachers need to work on them constantly throughout the year. The connections teachers make with each other and with administrators is also important. Good teachers become leaders and help those around them for the benefit of the students. In today's world, it is more important than ever to build connections between your school and the community. I have seen f...

Talking about grading can lead to heated debate. I have been in many of these conversations and I know that people have their own opinions. If you have been reading my blog, you would know that I am going toward Standards Based Grading. Here are my current thoughts on grading. 'Tis the season of grading! As the year wraps up, grades are what determines who gets to partake in end of the year activities. This made me reflect on grades and the whole practice of grading. Don't get me wrong, I think grades are okay when they really mean something - when they help a student really understand where they are and how they can grow. So here is my question: Who really fails when you give out an F? I have some students who are not failing, but they are doing worse then I think they are capable of. Some people might think that the student is just lazy, but not me. I read a book awhile back called The Myth of Laziness by Mel Levine, and it made me look at the idea of lazines...

In the last few weeks I have noticed that there have been many educators walking the halls of my school waiting for their interview. This scene makes me remember what I was like five years ago when I was in their shoes. It inspired me to write this letter. Dear Me Five Years Ago, I know you are feeling excited to finally be done with college and be out into the "real world". I also remember you feeling scared out of your mind about the "real world". I know you were ready to start your back-up plan, but I'm sure dental school would not have been that much fun anyway. Remember it is not about the paycheck. Be sure to use all of that passion you have for teaching everyday. Your passion is what gets you a job and what has been keeping you excited to go to work. Don't take your passion for granted. Don't be so worried about how you seem to your co-workers. Trust your gut and always do what you know is right for kids. Don't feel like you have t...

Remember those t-shirts from the 90's with all the cliche phrases? I work in a 1:1 Laptop middle school. Some teachers might be hesitant about learning how to use this tool to enhance learning... I am NOT one of them. My U.S. History students watched part of the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War and were challenged to make their own documentary on what they thought was the most important event in the Civil War. The students were able to work in groups and could use any form of technology that they wanted to. I couldn't believe the different types of products that they made. I had a student do a whole documentary on one power point slide. I didn't even know that you could have pictures move from side to side and add different text on each picture all within one slide. I also had students use Vimeo, PhotoStory, and Movie Maker. In these projects, some students did interviews, battle reenactments, and even a satire with Charlie Sheen vs. Chuck Norris. I was very pleased...

Yesterday I was able to attend my first unconference at EdCamp Chicago. Here is what I took away from that experience. I have to begin by telling you about my Twitter history. I have been using twitter on a consistent basis for about three months now. I had my twitter account made two years ago, but I didn't really understand how to use it effectively for my professional development. It wasn't until I took a PLN grad class (taught by @pughamy) and I learned about hashtags and twitter chats. These tools came at just the right time. I work in a pretty progressive school district, but I have been operating in my own little bubble this year (I gave up my prep and team time to take on a PBL facilitator role along with teaching my traditional social studies classes). I was starting to feel my passion dimming; stuck under pressure from standardized testing, starting this PBL environment, and parents trying to understand taking away grades. Participating in these chats and growing my...

This is my 5th year of teaching and I am finally starting to not feel like a "newbie". I have grown more in this past year than any other and a lot of that growth has stemmed from my 30 Day Blog Challenge. It really helped me reflect and re-focus what I am passionate about, while reaching out to others for feedback and support. This post is going to be all about the comment I received on my Day 26 post on professional development. On Day 26 of my 30 Day Blog Challenge I talked about how I use twitter to develop my PLN and how many ideas I get from my PLN. Then I had @davidwees leave me a comment that read: "One question I have is, how do you share your professional learning with your local in-school network?" I am very at ease with students, but I have a weakness for being in front of peers. I know I have great ideas and I have a passion for learning and teaching, but I am afraid of getting negative reactions to trying to help my local in-school network with t...

Today I thought of something that I would like to share in case there are other educators who feel the same way I do. How I Describe My Passion They whisper that I will burn-out if I continue at the pace I am going. They say that they have seen this all happen before. They look at me with those sad eyes when they realize how tired I am. I say that I am driven. I showcase my love for learning and students everyday. I sprint through the marathon because I know that I only have a short time with these students and they deverve the best from me. I know I get tired and sometimes I let it show. I know I get to the point where I question if it is all worth it. I know I will make mistakes along the way. I know I will get my energy back. I know I will see my students grow and realize that it is all worth it. I know I will learn from each mistake, brush myself off, and keep doing what I am doing.

Tonight's #edchat topic inspired me to write this post. Thanks to everyone who participated in this great conversation. I came away with so much. I am in my 5th year of teaching and if I have learned anything, I have learned that parents are teachers' best allies. I firmly believe that teachers should develop and nurture the relationships they have with every student. I now see how developing and nurturing relationships with parents is just as important. I teach middle school and all I hear is how my students go home and their parents ask, "What did you do in school?" and they reply with "Nothing." This is the message that goes home to parents... we do "nothing" in school. This message can cause tension between parents and teachers. I care about all of my students and all I want is to see them succeed. I need to make sure parents get that message. To do this, I send an email home within the first few weeks of school to introduce myself and s...

For the last 30 days, I have been answering one reflection question each day and I have learned so much about myself as an educator. Whether you are a veteran blogger or brand new to blogging, I invite you to take this challenge. Video tape or write your answers to each of the reflection questions and share it with your PLN. Here are the questions that I came up with. Are you ready to take the challenge? 30-Day Blog Challenge Day 1:  How did you decide to become a teacher? Day 2:  What do you believe is your greatest strength as a teacher? Day 3:  In which area do you think you can improve the most? Day 4:  What were you most worried about as you approached your first day as a teacher? Day 5:  How do you keep your classroom organized? Day 6:  What have you observed of other teachers that might work in your own classroom? Day 7:  How can you best promote responsibility in your students? Day 8:  How do you connect with your...

I created my 30 Day Blog Challenge to get me back in the swing of blogging. I can't believe how fast those 30 days have gone. I have re-connected with my passion for teaching and I have become more confident. I decided to use videos because I thought of this as my introduction to readers and I wanted to be as transparent as possible. I wanted readers to see how I answered these questions. I would even say that I have shared more on my blog than I have to my co-workers. That is a fact that I am looking to change. I realize that I can be a positive voice for education in my own community. I know that I have said this before, but I will say it again: I wish all of the educators could be as pumped about professional development as the ones in my professional learning network. Thank you for viewing my posts and I hope you feel like you know me a bit better. I will continue to post about education and I will continue to have some videos for you to watch....