My "Non-Negotiables" In Teaching

Question 1/Week 1 (blog entry for ETL this week): Consider your summer learning and summer planning for this upcoming school year, write a list of 5-10 “non-negotiables” of ideas/concepts/practice that you learned that you will NEVER sacrifice in your classroom – they are THAT important! Why have you chosen these?

As the new school year quickly approaches I have an obligation to reflect upon the “non-negotiables” of my teaching. My “non-negotiables” are a list of my beliefs where I will dedicate my time and attention during each school day.

Responsive Classroom~ This summer I did some research on Responsive Classroom. I think that gathering my students in a central area for a Morning Meeting is essential to creating a positive classroom community. It brings all members of the classroom closer together as a classroom family where we are able to share about the activities of the day. Furthermore, by incorporating all of the components of the Responsive Classroom, I am building in time for Community Building.

Community Building~ This “non-negotiable” is a biggie! I took a class this summer that was based on building classroom community. I enjoyed this immensely as it reminded me of some of my own principles of teaching. I’ve always been a strong believer of creating a community of learners amongst the students of my classroom, but have always started the year out good, but by the end of the year my effort to build classroom community seems to always dwindle. I am going to be very purposeful and intentional this year in creating a community of learners, this is high on my priority list.

Differentiated Instruction~ My research this summer focused on differentiated instruction, specifically during Center Time. I have always believed that children learn in different ways and in different modalities, however, it can sometimes be difficult to meet the countless needs in a classroom. This year I am going to continue to differentiate my instruction as to meet the various needs of my students. I plan to differentiate most of my instruction during Center Time so I can meet with small groups to further meet individual student needs.

Center Time~ This is a time of our day that I think is vitally important. With increasing time spent on assessing and preparing students to take mandated tests, I think that center time often gets overlooked. Center time is a remarkable opportunity for children to collaborate, learn from one another, become independent learners, make choices to guide their learning, learn responsibility and to take control of their learning. Furthermore, Center Time offers children opportunities of active engagement, communication with others and hands-on learning. While the rest of my class in participating in Center Time, it allows me to meet with small groups so I can further differentiate student learning while meeting state and grade-level standards.

Essential Questions/Backwards Design~ This is somewhat of a new approach to planning for me. During the last couple of weeks I have been working hard on creating units based on Backwards Design. I have been busy creating essential questions that encompass the “big ideas” that I want my students to walk away from a unit with. I am still in the process of tweaking them to make them more kid-friendly for my students and this will be a practice that I will continue to focus on during my teaching career.

Play Time~ This is a topic that seems to be controversial lately in education. I have learned that it is extremely important to include various forms of play in school. It gives children the opportunity to learn and be themselves. Play helps children simulate real-life experiences in a child centered way while providing a line of communication with peers. Friendships form when children communicate with each other. Integrating play helps children make connections with one another.

Question 2/Week 2 (blog entry for ETL week 2): How have you planned to overtly “teach” with these “non-negotiables” in mind? What impact will these “non-negotiables” have on you as a teacher? …on your students? …on their learning? …on your classroom? …on our school and/or colleagues? Explain.

I plan to be very explicit in planning my lessons with my “non-negotiables” in mind. I will be intentional in building in the time into our daily schedule to practice my “non-negotiables” and will pay attention to how it is affecting my students.

Myself~ For me, I think that by pursuing these “non-negotiables” I will become a more confident and empowered teacher. In addition, I will be providing my students with the tools that they need to become lifelong learners by not disregarding my plan to incorporate my “non-negotiables”.

Students~ For my students, I think that they will learn to appreciate being a part of our classroom community and will enjoy coming to school each day. I think that one of the most important jobs that a Kindergarten teacher has is to instill a love of learning in students, after all, this is just the beginning of their education and if I can help them like school, they will become more successful.

Colleagues~ I think that I could become a leader amongst my colleagues. Currently, most teachers in my grade-level do not place a high emphasis on “choice time” or “play” in their classroom; this could change if they see the impact that it will have on relationships in our classroom. Also, almost my whole team has been trained in RC, so I think that they will be very helpful in answering any questions that I may have while implementing the approach into my classroom.

Question 3/Week 3 (blog entry for ETL week 3): What questions do you still have? What are you anticipating as roadblocks? How will you mediate these roadblocks? What successes do you anticipate? Why?

This year I am going back to teaching All-Day/Everyday Kindergarten and am excited to have the luxury of time on my side. I am thrilled to get to know my students really well and not to have to manage two classess of Kindergarteners. As of right now, I don’t feel like I have a lot of roadblocks, however it all depends on the make-up of my class. There could potentially be some behavior problems that will offset my plans a bit, but that just might take a little extra time and effort to work through those! I anticipate an exceptional year ahead with a lot of fun and learning...just so, so, so excited!!!

Best Practices In Teaching

I just got done reading chapter 8 from Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde's Best Practice book entitled Seven Structures of Best Practice Teaching. There were many areas where my highlighter got a workout because I was highlighting every other sentence. Below are some of the ideas that I thought were noteworthy:

· Predictable schedules so students can prepare for what is coming up.

· Students working together in small groups, pairs, etc.

· Kids teaching each other.

· Student sharing & discussing.

· Positive classroom community.

· Group problem-solving.

· Whole group discussions to share learning from an activity, hold accountability, process through problems, etc.

· Talk about learning before, during and after.

· Evoke prior knowledge so students have an easier time making meaningful connections.

· Writers are readers and readers are writers. “If they can write it; they can read it!”

· Make students more responsible for their own learning by holding them accountable for their reading and writing.

· Quote: “Effective teachers are recognizing that writing and drawing are rightful bookends to reading, too neglected tools that help students actively process their encounter with ideas to deepen their engagement with the curriculum.” (p. 16)

· Students choose their own reading (books) and writing topics.

· Students collaborate with peers.

· Choice is an ABSOLLUTE MUST.

· Kids are constantly “doing” and “talking about” their work.

· Mini-conferences are important to help give kids the one-on-one attention/conversation/feedback that they need. (Teachers don’t even need to give feedback, they ask questions to guide students’ thinking about their own work.)

· Quote: “Building a productive workshop depends on initial climate-setting and group-building activities.” (p. 20)

· Quote: “Students reflect on their own work, review their own progress, identify their own problems, set their own goals, and make plans and promises to themselves about steps they are going to take.” (p. 20)

· By holding reading/writing workshops, students become active, responsible, self-motivating, and self-evaluating learners.

· Teachers do less talking and slowly hand over the control and responsibility to their students.

· Teachers need to be real and authentic when conferencing with their students.

· Teachers are encouraged to develop broad, interdisciplinary, thematic units based on student concerns.

· Let kids choose what & how they want to learn.

· Teachers should include activities that connect with students’multiple intelligences and cognitive styles.

· Encourage and stress goal setting and self-assessment.

· For assessments, use qualitative research (observation, interviews, questionnaires, artifacts, etc.)

· Student portfolios provide learning evidence.

· Quote: “Overlap assessments with instruction, instead of always relying on evaluations that occur separately, after the works is done (and when it is too late for students to improve their product or learn from the assessment!) (p. 28)

· The most valuable assessment activities are formative.

· Teachers identify a few “Big Ideas” and build units around those concepts. (Backwards Design)

· Teachers realize that not all students need the same lesson.

· Provide kid-centered time for practice and exploration.

· Learning is more effective when teachers present in shorter periods of time on topic of “Big Importance”

· Mini-lessons are helpful for teachers when differentiating their instruction.

· Teachers demonstrate how to...don’t just talk about it!

This article reminded me of many components of Reader’s Workshop by Debbie Miller and Writer’s Workshop from Lucy Calkins.

Intentionally Paying Attention

     I always enjoy reading chapters from Houston & Sokolow’s Spiritual Dimensions of Leadership.  One of our assignments this week was to read Chapter 2 titled Attention.  As I began reading this chapter it became clear how closely attention and intention fit together like a hand in a glove.  The definition of attention, according to Houston & Sokolow; “Attention is a way of focusing energy—your energy: mental, physical and emotional—as well as the mental, physical and emotional energy of others.”  To focus attention all one has to do is think about it, talk about it, and write about it—in other words pay attention to it!  This chapter was a great one!  I often find myself wasting my energy on things that don’t matter and then I easily lose my focus on what is important.  I also often find myself focusing my attention on what others want me to focus on.  I all too often get caught up in the moment and forget to enjoy it.  How ironic that this chapter is titled “Attention”... I’m glad that the authors have brought this topic to my attention!

     There was a quote from this chapter that I found myself relating to concerning this past year: “If you attend to the wrong things or you are distracted in your attention and really don’t have a sense of focus or sense of purpose, you lose your purpose for being.”  It was like having one of those dark clouds lingering over me where ever I went just waiting to drench me in the insignificant things in life.  At one point I felt so negative, pessimistic and unconstructive that I was easily able to recognize that I wasn’t being the best teacher that I could be.  Maybe it was because I was so overwhelmed with everything going on around me (and even a lot of negativity from others) that I lost my focus.  I had a touch of IADD (intermittent attention deficit disorder) because I was distracted and didn’t have a sense of focus.  I am excited that I get a “do-over” for next year.

     By nature, I would describe myself as pretty positive & energetic.  However, this last year has been difficult--one that I’d like to think that I’ve learned a lot about myself.  I pride myself in immersing myself in positive environments around positive people.  I’m excited to begin a new year with a fresh, upbeat attitude where I can focus my attention on the here and now as well as the future.  I’m excited to be grounded and drive my life where I want it to go.  If I have an intention, I need to pay attention to what I need to do to make my intention happen.  I’m excited to submerge myself in my intentions for the rest of this summer to make sure that I am focused and paying attention for how I want this next year to go (and even the years to come!)

AGAPE...A Look Into The Future

Adaptation plays a significant role in a constructivist classroom.  After much reflection, I have come to better understand how some of the key words (imagination, creativity, constructivist, authentic, discovery, inquiry, problem-based) of adaptation play into the teacher that I am striving to become.  See this post and this post to learn more of how adaptation will show up in the routines and strategies I use in my practice.

Growth & Change

One of my assignments this week is to reflect upon my growth as a teacher in the areas of instruction, discipline, environment, & assessment (IDEA.)  Following are my thoughts on how I have grown and changed as an educator over the past year since beginning my learning through St. Mary's University Master's Program.

Instruction- This past year has been one of the most challenging years that I’ve had as a teacher.  Thankfully, I have had a lot of people cheering me on throughout it all.  I am also grateful that I have been learning so much about myself as a teacher.  I am much more intentional at how and why I am teaching the concepts/ideas that I am teaching.  I have also been more academically and socially aware of what my students need and want.  I have learned ways to make my classroom and my instruction align more to a constructivist classroom. 

Discipline/Content- Throughout this last year I have learned new ways to instruct.  I have learned how to create units of study with essential outcomes and have enjoyed designing lessons using the backwards design philosophy.  I have found that this is fairly easy and highly effective.  I would like to take future units of study and start with the standards and create essential outcomes.

Environment- I have always loved thinking about how I want my classroom environment to look & feel.  I love making things look nice and have enjoyed creating a welcoming environment that is cozy, fun and unique.  I also believe that it is not just my room; it belongs to all of us who spend many hours at a time within the four walls.  One area where I have grown and changed with regards to environment is student ownership and relationships.  For student ownership, I have had my students help in making classroom rules with my guidance and have decorated the walls with their work.  On the subject of relationships, I have learned the importance of building relationships and how communication can directly be related to how well our classroom climate functions.  I have been more open and focused on group work and group interaction through positive community building activities.  I have also learned that it is okay for students to play w/o being bombarded with academics...especially in kindergarten.  I have always encouraged learning through discovery.

Assessment- For assessment, I think this is the area that I have grown most.  I have always thought of assessment as summative.  What my students are able to do at the end of a unit of study is how I assessed how much they have learned (and even how good I taught something!)  What I have come to realize this past year is that assessment is on-going and is just as important, if not more important if assessment is formative.  I have come to see that formative assessment is much more helpful for me as a teacher if I assess at a more informal way throughout a unit of study.  Formative assessment has helped me to differentiate learning in my classroom and design lessons according to what my students need at any given time.  I’ve learned through formative assessment that my students learn so much more and their learning is more authentic and student centered.  I’ve learned that different types of assessment have different uses.

AGAPE

AGAPE is an acronym for association, generative, adaptive, presence and engagement.   This was actually the first time that I had ever heard of this acronym and it’s taking a lot of self-reflection to see what this Lasallian concept means to me and my teaching practices.  The AGAPE Reflection is provided to me as an assessment processes to help me strengthen my inner life purpose of knowing: 1.) why I teach, 2.) who I am, 3.) who I want to become as teacher, and 4.) why teaching is the most important, humbling, and honorable profession in the world.  Each semester we are asked to identify 1-2 letters of the acronym to reflect on as it pertains to our teaching.  Here are my thoughts:

March 2013

Association- I think that I bring this into my practice on a few levels.  I consider myself a cheerleader with encouraging collaboration and healthy communication in relationships.  Learning from one another is extremely important and beneficial for everyone involved- students and teachers. 
1.  One way that I bring this into my practice is on a professional level with my colleagues.  I try to share and collaborate and work as a team as much as possible.  There are a couple of factors that interfere with the process however.  One way that it interferes is the location of all of the K rooms.  We are scattered throughout the building and we don’t consistently see each other so we can easily communicate & share.  The second interference is that I am the only K teacher who teaches ½ day so I am very secluded in many ways.  Fortunately, next year we will be in a new school and all of the K classrooms are all in one area so this will help with communication and collaboration.      
2.  Another way that I bring this into my practice is with my students.  I want to teach my students that they are responsible for their learning.  I encourage them to share their knowledge and teach their peers when needed.  I promote cooperative learning and collaboration amongst my students by partnering them up so they can learn from one another.    

          Some of the association features that are present in the routines and strategies I use in my practice as a teacher are collaboration, cooperation, sharing and interdependence.  One thing that I could do a better job at is using kid-friendly language to encourage the students coach each other’s learning, particularly during Literacy Work Station Time.  Sure, they have partners and can learn from one another, but I’m not sure that all of the kids know why they have the specific partner that I paired them up with.  I need to do some more explaining of my routines and practices to my students so they have a better understanding of “why” they are with the person they are with.

Generativity- I think generativity is actually one of my strongest attributes.  I take the first month of every school year just to get to know my students not only personally, but also academically.  The environment that I create is extremely caring and loving.  Our classroom is welcoming and warm.  This allows the children to feel comfortable enough to open up and become risk-takers.  I teach them respectful behavior by being respectful myself-especially when choosing my words and tone of voice.  I truly appreciate and celebrate each and every one of my students because they are all unique in their own way and have a lot to add to our classroom community.   I have never been trained in Responsive Classroom, but as I have learned more about it, I think that my teaching patterns fit it very well.  I place a high value on teamwork & community building, where everyone is a part of our room. 

          Some of the generativity features that are present in the routines and strategies I use in my practice as a teacher are celebrating each student, inviting atmosphere, appreciative of others and mutual caring.  I talk with the children more than I talk to the children.  If problems arise, we talk through them and I try to do more listening than talking.  I try to teach the children respectful behavior by modeling respectful behavior and use the motto: “treat others the way you want to be treated.”    

June 2013

Adaptation- I think this area is my weakest area of them all.  The kindergarten level is so fact-based.  It is very basic learning.  However, I think that innovation, imagination, creativity, critical thinking and all of the other definitions that accompany adaptation are all still very important.  I believe that learning is best retained when it is authentic and through discovery.  I have a difficult time opening up student learning so it is student led.  I know the standards and end of year expectations and I tend to teach for the goal, not allowing the children enough opportunity to make personal life connections.   

          On the other end of the spectrum, as a learner, I have since realized that I am in the midst of “adaptation” as I travel through this program to attain my Masters Degree.  Since starting this journey last fall I have grown so much and learned what it means to adapt my way of teaching and learning.  My thoughts and actions have transformed and changed along the way.  I have experienced growth and expanded my thinking and learning through creating a unit by following the Backwards Design philosophy, by learning about the various forms of assessment, by reading about and implementing new instructional strategies and by reading and researching for my Action Research.  Through all of this I have adapted my teaching into more of a constructivist teacher.

November 2013

Presence- This is an area where I feel 50/50.  I am a very empathetic, spirit-filled, love-centered person.  I try my hardest to create a safe and inviting environment for interpersonal risk-taking.  I am a responsive listener and I scaffold in problem-solving situations.  However, I feel like I could do a better job with critical self-reflection.  Sometimes I am controlling (I like things done in a certain way...) in the classroom and can sometimes be object focused and not person centered.  That is when I need to step back and remind myself that my students are only 5 or 6 years old and what they produce will not always be perfect.  
To me, presence means being 100% attentive and in-tune to what is going on.  I want to seize all of the moments for opportunity, yet enjoy the little things/accomplishments in my classroom. I think presence means truly being in and enjoying "in the moment"...a sense of togetherness.  The Lasallian concept of presence in my practice looks like engagement and full acceptance of all students.  These features are present in my classroom routines and teaching strategies.  For example: I place a high emphasis on classroom community and celebrating everyone's differences and recognizing similarities.  I focus a lot of time and energy on our classroom climate where everyone is accepted, loved and valued.  We are a family and we must learn to work together for common goals while encouraging each other to do their best.    

Stay Tuned for my future thoughts on:
Engagement

Backwards Design Unit

May 22^nd, 2013

Because school is getting out so early for us and the topic that I choose for my Backwards Design (BD) unit I knew that I had to have all of my ducks in a row right away.  For my BD unit I decided to focus on Living & Non-Living Things because it was the only major independent unit of study that I had yet to teach this year.  Another reason I choose this unit is because it seems like every year when I teach living & non-living it is very unintentional and rushed.  This year I had plenty of time to plan and implement it.  I planned for this unit to take 3 weeks to complete.  I began teaching the week of April 22 and wrapped it up on May 10^th (just in time for Mother’s Day).  How’s that for intentional?  So, here are the answers to how my unit went:

A)  How did planning with the standards at the forefront of the unit impact your teaching?                                                                                                                                     I I think that by planning with the standards at the forefront of the unit greatly impacted my teaching.  I didn’t use just fun stuff in my instruction to make things look cute; I used necessary tools and had specific learner outcomes in mind so I could instruct with intention. I had a very focused direction that I went when teaching Living & Non-Living Things.  I had a “Big Idea” that was driving my lesson planning.

B)  How did you utilize the enduring understandings and essential questions while you were teaching the unit? What was their impact?  

The Essential Questions guided my discussions with my students.  They also helped to guide our attention so we could stay on task.  The questions that I asked were deeper thinking and promoted authentic thoughts and ideas.  The Enduring Understandings helped to keep my lessons organized and more intentional.  I appreciated that I had a clear understanding of what I was teaching and why I was teaching it.

C)  What was the impact of creating the assessments prior to teaching the lesson? How did it alter your perspective and your teaching? How did it affect the overall learning of the students?

I loved knowing that the assessments that I used would be directly related with the learner outcomes and the kids knew what they were expected to know after this unit.  I liked that the assessments that I put into place were hands-on and that I was able to use multiples ways to assess my students’ knowledge (i.e. technology, work samples, observations and activities.  After completing the UbD Stage 2 assignment it was nice to see that most of my assessment would be formative and that I could easily adapt the lesson if my student didn’t completely understand the “Big Ideas”.

D)  Compare your teaching of this content using BD planning to times when you have taught it without planning “with the end in mind.” What did you notice? How was it different for you and/or your students?

Teaching using the BD philosophy really put things into perspective for me.  I tend to teach concepts based on what will hold the students’ attention and what will get noticed or what looks cute.  I realized that if I have a “Big Idea” at the forefront I can still do those things that are fun, but I need to make sure that the students are learning the content based on the “Big Idea”.  I would love to teach using the BD philosophy because I want my students to walk away with a deeper understanding that they can connect with.  Overall, using the BD philosophy felt very intentional and deliberate.