I finally got to see my new classroom yesterday! While it was an exciting moment, it also has me up and awake at 5:30am trying to figure out how I’m going to organize things. Oh yeah, I’m also quite nervous for that first day, which is rapidly approaching. This old commercial from the 1980′s (when I was a kid) reminds me of how I feel (i.e. like a kid dressed up in adult clothes pretending to be a professional). I know this feeling will pass, but right now I simply wish it was September 10th and the school year had already started….

So what brought me to blogging at 5:30am? I’m trying to find old posts from my cohort about cool stuff to do on my first days as a new chemistry teacher… I know some of us wrote about the first few days, so once I post this I’m going to search through and try to find some good ones. I have to say that last year when I started observations on the first day of school (and continued student teaching for the next seven months), I took for granted that I walked into a SET-UP classroom. Yesterday I walked into a mess of a room that I now have to (or have the privilege of) organize for myself. It’s going to be a bit of a challenge… but it’s SO exciting, too!

So why am I posting? Well, here is a list:

1. I want to make blogging a habit so that when I start teaching I’ll have a place to reflect other than my husband whom I think gets sick of hearing me talk (understandably).

2. I’d also like to remind everyone in my cohort who still checks out the blogs that you have to initiate your TEACH applications after talking with our certification czar. It’s not exactly intuitive (the NYS website) so plan for a good half hour to get it finished up. Oh yeah, and plan to fork over $50.00 per certification!

That’s really it for now. Hopefully I’ll get better at making blogging a habit as the school year starts:-)

So I have challenged myself to continue to post to this blog as part of the Warner purpose is to continue to be a reflective practitioner. That said, I am not currently teaching so for now anyone who reads this is going to get my random thoughts.

The title of this blog speaks to an internal struggle I have been having recently. I was offered and accepted a chemistry (and physics!)  teaching position at Eastridge High School. Though I am super excited about this opportunity, I can’t help but think about the  two downsides to my accepting this position. First, I joined Warner because I really believed in social justice. My goal was (and still is) to teach science in an urban district. Second, Eastridge doesn’t count for Noyce as it’s free/reduced lunch rate is 48.5%, a bit shy of the required 50% (which is great for everything except my qualification for this tuition waver). Needless to say, I am happy with my decision and can’t wait to get in the classroom. So if you’re wondering what my internal struggle is…. you’ll have to ask me in person. This late at night it seems potentially risky to post about it.

So if you’re still reading this blog, please do me a giant favor and click on this link: edutheory2practice. It will direct you to a wiki that I created for a critical literacy project that I am working on with several other GRS teachers. Simply put, we’re trying to create a web-based space for first-year teachers (and others) to convene and share ideas and resources with the goal of continuing to teach in a socially and culturally relevant manner. Check it out for more details! Comments would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Last thing for right now: I’m training to run another marathon. As such, I suddenly have a lot of time to listen to talk radio podcasts. For those of you that don’t know, I’m a pretty far-leaning lefty. In fact, as a side note, Rochester now receives a signal from Buffalo for a liberal talk radio station (AM1520). Anyways, I came across two interesting pieces while listening:

1. Rachel Maddow recently hosted a guy named Baba Brinkman. He’s created a rap guide to evolution (he’s done other work as well). Anyways, I was really into what he was saying (it’s funny) and thinking about how I could incorporate this into class when the he rapped “creationism is… dead wrong”. I thought to myself.. oops, can’t bring that into class. Now, after reading some work by Hilary Jenks (2010), I am thinking it would be a great piece to deconstruct in class alongside… perhaps that creationist museum Calzi visited and blogged about not that too far back. Just food for thought.

2. Another interesting piece to think about was posted recently on one of my favorite websites about another one of Arizona’s newly crafted pieces of legislation. What do you think about teachers with accents?

Today I finally finished my Innovative Unit Analysis paper! That analysis, combined with my personal experiences today (to be elaborated upon in a moment), have caused me to reflect upon my assessment strategies as a soon-to-be teacher with a soon-to-find awesome job.

My major take-way from my unit analysis section: Assessing student understanding IS HARD! Yes, I have learned how to align multiple formative/summative formal/informal assessments, meaningful and often authentic to boot, with the NYS standards. And yes, I have learned how to use the data gleaned from such assessments to make modifications and adjustments to my teaching strategies. I’ve even had students assess themselves for bigger, cooperative group projects!

So I’m awesome, right? No….. not even close.

Why? Well, in analyzing my student work, I realize just how difficult it is to really ascertain whether or not students LEARNED and UNDERSTAND something from a written or illustrative or oral assessment. Did they “learn it” long enough to write it down? Did they really “get it” or were they able to just make sense of it for a short period of time? How do I really measure student learning/understanding?

My personal experiences today: This morning I took my boys to visit my mother at work. All my kids were early talkers (as defined by current medical parameters), which they no doubt get from me because I rarely stop talking. So while at my mom’s office (Bristol mountain!), a bunch of her coworkers came out to see the boys, too. And my mom, typically, gushed about how awesome (smart) they all are and then started to prompt my kids to talk. My kids talk all the time. They never stop. And they refused to say a word. In short, they refused to put on a show for all these ladies going ga-ga over them. No words whatsoever. No songs, no counting, no ABC’s.

What’s my point? Well, my kids know how to talk, sing, and count. They can even count in French, Spanish, and German (sometimes they get confused). But in refusing to do so it made me think… most assessments of student learning/understanding our on OUR (teacher) schedule. This is obviously a necessity of life… but at the same time, students have to know/understand what we demand when we demand it. They have to know what we are asking of them, in other words be able to interpret our questions and respond in ways we are looking for specifically. As a side note, this is kinda like interviewing for teaching jobs, right? We know certain places are looking for us to say certain buzz words (which bothers me enormously).

Does this matter? I think it does. Do I think we should ask students when/how we should assess them? No (at least not most of the time). But I do think it’s important to ensure that students know why we are assessing them and how we are going to assess them. I also think it’s important to provide them with the chance to show what they know in multiple ways. Finally, why not allow them the chance to correct/make changes to their work (see Megan’s Blog). Each of these ideas (and there are more out there) will help make assessments LESS of a “performance on demand”:-)

This has been a crazy week for me. As such, this is more of an information-laden post rather than a reflective post.

1. Here is a link to an article I just finished in TIME magazine. It is really very interesting. If you have time, read it and let me know what you think:-)

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1978589,00.html

2. Here is a list of schools in this area that do NOT participate in the Monroe Boces #1/2 website:

(Please note this list is swayed towards high-needs rural schools in my area…)

Honeoye Falls Lima

Bloomfield

Livonia

Letchworth (Yes, this is really far away. However, my husband taught there for two years before getting a job 10 miles from our home. He LOVED it!)

Honeoye

Hillside

**Remember, if you want to actually apply for a job you have to do the following:

A. Search each school’s listing!

B. Put your app’n ID number in the little box on the left. Then you’ll get an email confirmation. If you’re like me, you’ll add the job, date, and notes into a nice little table that you’ve created for yourself to keep track of all this stuff….

3. Here is a list of notes I took during my interview opportunity with Jay Costanza. Since I am lucky enough to have him as my mentor, I also was able to use that quote (I previously posted)… and explain it. I scored a “come teach a lesson for us” from my interview!

A. Have a plan for LITERACY in SCIENCE!

*Pre-reading – Vocabulary (have kids act out the words), make predictions (using vocabulary)

*During reading – REFLECT! SLOW DOWN!

*Post-reading – REFLECT! (have students put concepts in their own words)

Notes re:literacy from RCSD interview:

-Reading for understanding is key! Getting content teachers to believe that they have to teach reading as well as their content area is a difficult thing for admin to do!

-Don’t just have a WORD WALL! This means nothing to the students…

-NO word searches! Again, this means nothing to the students…

B. Talk about relationships!

-Parent survey to gain information from them about their kids (Remember, parents ARE the EXPERT on their own children)

-More than just phone calls! Get parents into the classroom for assessing students or participating in activities.

PS – I noted how much all of my GRS cohort immediately exited an interview at TRD and shared all their tips/hints/surprising questions with the rest of us waiting our moment. Later in the day, I was sitting with some LOTE teachers that weren’t willing to share anything (as they were competing for the same job). I just thought it was interesting…  As a group, we are more into helping each other out rather than competing. That and we have a confidence we’ll all get jobs:-)

… your students are capable of using thinking to learn content instead of content to learn how to think?

Do you TEACH that way?

This week I meant with my mentor group. We discussed the ultimate lesson and more specifically, what an observer (e.g. administrator) would be looking to see you, the teacher, implement! While this was a great experience, I really got hung up on one thing… THE BRIDGE! (I put an ! because the bridge, for those of you that might not know, is the beginning of the lesson… since I’m hung up there, I’m in trouble).

Here’s my issue. A bridge, by definition, should accomplish these things:

1. Connect yesterday’s lesson with the current lesson in a meaningful way

2. Ensure the students “got it” from the previous lesson and thus are prepared to “get it” during this lesson (i.e. they are ready for the next step)

3. Be useful to the students for the current lesson

Let me be very clear. The majority of my “bridges” are like that one in Alaska… they go nowhere. I would say mine were typically a review of understandings (hopefully) gained in the previous lesson followed by a verbal introduction (usually a discussion) to the current lesson. Also, I always collected them so the students would actually DO THEM:-) Meaning that while the students technically use their gained understandings from the previous lesson, they do not necessarily see the value in the warm-up for anything other than participation points and regents review.

Why so dull? Well, this is mainly because I was asked to use regents questions as a bell work activity and the students would’ve flipped out, understandably, if I APK’d ‘em using regents questions. Also, to be honest, I never really thought about “bridges”. I know lots of you out there are currently cringing, especially in light of all our discussions about BIG PICTURE LEARNING. I did make those connections, but usually through discussions (led by me for the most part) with students at the beginning and end of class. In other words, I failed to believe my students could not only learn but be in control of their own learning….

What’s my point? I need to create a COMPLETE lesson where my students “use thinking to learn content instead of content to learn how to think” from the moment they walk in the door. This quote is from my mentor and I only wished I heard it sooner, because I really believe I’ve wasted a lot of time (like 10m/lesson) on bellwork that doesn’t really require thinking!

So what are my plans to do this? To be honest, I don’t know. I have gotten pretty good at creating a great lesson centered on a “hook”. My hooks are good, too… I’m lucky enough to have married a teacher that loves to help me think of cool hooks/essential questions. But I have never used the hook to create a good bridge. For now, here is what I am thinking:

1. Journals – Having students answer one or two open-ended questions in their journals might really help to bridge. This also includes an added benefit of having less papers to hand back.

2. Think-Pair-Share- Students answer questions, share with neighbor, then groups share out. This will allow for a quicker check for understanding of entire class through consensus.

3. Nap time is over… gotta go:-) Please, send me suggestions.

Usually I spend a significant amount of time creating a blog post. This is in part because because you (my cohort) are all required to read it, but mostly because I enjoy writing and I see the value in reflective blogging.

That said, I am very stressed with a large pile of work to be done plus a big dinner to cook tomorrow. I’m actually thinking of grilling now instead of going traditional (ham) due to this awesome weather we’ve been having. Now my husband is skipping around (seriously) thinking about getting to spend the entire dinner “grilling”. So instead I am going to publish a work-in-progress resource post that I started over February break but never got around to finishing.

Resources I keep coming across:

1. Serendip – Hands-on lessons for middle/high school biology.

2. American Field Guide – PBS site for teaching middle/high school biology and earth science.

3. Smithsonian – Life science lesson plans

4. National Science Resource Center – Yeah, check this one out. Lots of cool interactive stuff. Also “inquiry” lessons…

5. PRISM – Partnership in Research in Science and Math

At 5:16am last Saturday, I was jerked out of a cozy sleep by my newly-turned three year old’s stinky breath in my face as he whispered “Mom, can we do my project now?” Like any good mom, I dragged myself out of bed at that unforgiving hour, turned on coffee, and started helping my son paint wooden pieces to build a rocket, all the while berating myself for mentioning the project to him the night before.  (Hint: Kids (of all ages) remember everything. YEARS later they’ll recognize the street you walked on ONCE where they lost their Ritz cracker (the only piece of food in your bag) in a giant puddle that you wouldn’t let them stomp through on the way TO (not from) the library for story time).

If you are reading this, you are probably wondering how this fits with education. Well, this week I presented my students with an anti-smoking project. I only briefly mentioned the project at the end of class the previous day. The very next day I had students at the door BEFORE THE BELL RANG asking “Can we start the project yet?”!!! It’s amusing to me how similar my students in school are to my kids…

My main point = students ARE kids! Why is this important to know? It will help you to…

1. Build relationships! My experiences have shown that students will back you up (e.g. do boring things with little complaint QUIETLY) once they know you care about them. NOTE: This caring must not be superficial (see #2)…

2. Understand that kids have six senses! If you don’t really care about your students, they will know it even if you have an America’s Next Top Model worthy smile. You have to believe it. You have to greet them at the door with an enthusiasm that says “I AM EXCITED TO SEE YOU TODAY”! On a similar note, students know baloney work when they see it. They know when you are lying and/or not being straight. Be forthright. Now, if you have to be untruthful for the benefit of the students then take George Costanza’s advice: “It’s not a lie if you believe it”.

3. NOT take it personally! One thing that I have learned as a parent is that kids will say many things to get you to react. While it’s hard to hear students say “this is stupid” when you’ve spent ten hours putting “this” together, it’s really important to put their comments in perspective. What about “this” is frustrating the student? What can you (the teacher) do to help? Sometimes it’s as simple as a one-to-one explanation. Other times you have to just let it go. For those times when students directly insult you, you gotta go with a big smile the very next day (or the same day later when you are cruising through the cafeteria – see below).

4. GO TO EVENTS! Would you skip your child’s track meet? I’m not saying go to every single event, but do something/go somewhere once in awhile. Even if it’s a trip through the cafeteria to wish one student a happy birthday… DO IT:-)

PS – I know this post is like telling a bunch of scientists that controls are essential to an assay, but I do feel that relating to students is THAT important.

PPS – This reads like an advice post… it’s more for me to refer back to at the beginning of September

This week my Noyce cohorts and I met with our mentor to watch a video of a current teacher implementing inquiry in mathematics. This video was a precursor event to watching our own teaching videos.

For me, this experience was fantastic. I really wish I’d seen this video at the beginning of September. It was incredibly valuable to see the theory applied in practice. Even better was getting to discuss each little move made by the teachers. Of all the discussions that I have participated in at Warner, this was by far the most insightful experience in terms of seeing theory play out successfully in practice. This discussion was especially helpful for me given the readings we had in our class this past Monday, as they left me feeling doubtful about my ability to be a great teacher (especially right now).

Here are some things that I learned:

1. Build a GREAT Bridge: I’ve been assigning bellwork that is based mainly on the previous day’s lesson without thinking about how that bellwork is going to CONNECT to the current day’s lesson. It’s so important to make sure the connection is there; just talking about it with the students isn’t the same thing as having them work through it to see it for themselves. I’ve been really good at saying (or asking) why or how the two lessons are connected, but I have not at all scaffolded the connection for my students so that they are able to make it themselves.

2. Writing: Giving students time to write out what they are thinking (uncover the information for themselves) is paramount. What’s more important is that the student’s know WHY they are being asked to write! This isn’t something I’ve stressed much in my placement and I think it’s an important point.

3. Everyone likes to feel smart: Though I realized this a long time ago, I’d forgotten how important it is AND how much you (the teacher) have to ensure all students in the room feel this way. Today in my placement I had TWO different students (that NEVER talk in class) answer questions! I was jumping all over the room, and other students caught on to my excitement. It was a great moment.

4. Keep it small: This wasn’t something we discussed, but I think I realized something important. Given the breadth of the standards, I’ve often found myself trying to build instruction around one (or more) little key ideas. Each one of those key ideas is HUGE! For example, we have been teaching the digestive and excretory systems as part of our innovative unit. One of the similarities between the two is the presence of capillaries for absorption (or reabsorption) of nutrients. Instead of starting small (e.g. a lesson on capillary structure), I rushed right into this connection. Big mistake that will not be repeated. As a result, I’ve been forcing this connection down their throats rather than leading them to make that connection on their own!

In summary, I urge everyone reading this post to press for getting to see theory applied in practice AND having an explicit discussion while you watch. Ask your mentors! This video watching experience gave me hope that I will be able to truly apply what I believe in (in terms of teaching to learn). Part of the problem, in my opinion, with reading about the theory is one thing. Knowing HOW to implement it is another completely different and WAY more difficult thing to figure out!

P.S. On another (very similar) note, my co-student teacher had an observation towards the end of this week. One of the discussion points was the power of changing pronouns (e.g. “we are going to do xyz” instead of “you are going to do xyz”) in the classroom. This point was discussed later at my mentor meeting, when the teacher we were watching on video continued to discuss “our theory” (meaning all students in the classroom) instead of “your theory” or “the theory”. I’m curious if anyone has any thoughts or experience really thinking about the language you are using in your placement? Have you noticed any CTs that are really good at this use of language?

Disclaimer: This post was a draft that I held back on posting for a long time because it didn’t seem complete. However, when writing my portfolio I realized that this post would qualify a section lacking evidence (i.e. NSTA Standard 8c). So I am posting it now, post-placement, because it’s relevant (and interesting).

Over the course of my placements, I have tried to incorporate student assessments of their own work. Mostly this has been assessments of bigger projects (i.e. ones with rubrics) where the students comment on how well they worked, how much effort they put into their group’s project, and the grade they think they ought to receive. On occasion I have asked students to set goals (in writing) and then analyze if they’ve reached them by the end of the project. This has worked fairly well, particularly in my first placement where I even had some students comment (in my evaluations) that they liked how I considered their views when grading them.

That said, I see some issues with my practice:

1. I’m only using this student self-analysis for projects. It certainly could (and should?) be used for examinations, homework, etc.

2. I only take what the students state into account for one portion of the grade.

3. I’m not sure how reflective my students are being about their own work, which is likely to be my fault. I’m not sure if my directions are poor (please reflect on how well you think you’ve done… etc) OR if we need to discuss expectations for this part of the rubric OR if they just don’t care so much about it/don’t see the value in it. Obviously a solution to this would be to TALK with them about it, but… I’m hesitant because I’m new to this whole idea of asking students to reflect on their own work.

I’m wondering if anyone else has had students evaluate their own work and if so, how do you do this??? I think it’s important, particularly for building a sense of community AND for getting students to value their efforts and endeavors. But I’m not so sure that I’m doing a good job with this…. :-/

This week I had the opportunity to sit in on a CSE meeting for a particular student of mine (it was the annual review). This is a long story that I will blog about when I have spare time…. but it’s not the purpose of this post. Instead, I would like to discuss my inability to be honest.

Yup, I said it. I have a really hard time being honest in particular situations. As a perfect example, I was asked my opinion of the student during this meeting. Let me preface by saying that this meeting was full of tension due to a battle over services and the correct placement (inclusion vs. 12-1-1) for this student. Those present included: the student, both parents, two special education teachers, a school psychologist, and the chair of special education services. I was asked to voice an opinion as to the student’s progress in science….

This was very difficult for me. I felt that the situation put me under a lot of pressure (as I was not expected to be asked to comment). I pretty much just agreed with the Special Education teacher (my CT & the professional!) but prefaced my comments with how awesome this student is (which in this case is true). I held back on my thoughts about his (laziness)… because really, I’ve only known him for four weeks, I am not qualified to say things like this, I do not know about his anxiety/stress levels, etc. I just wanted to reach out and hug this student.

Getting back to the point of this post. As I said in the past, I have always had trouble being honest if I think what I have to say might strike the person as offensive and/or hurtful. Even in grading I find it difficult to always be honest with all students all the time.

I believe this is a big obstacle for me to tackle on my pathway to becoming a successful teacher – it’s detrimental to the student when my honest viewpoint is withheld. Why? For one thing, it’s unethical to be dishonest with parents and/or guardians. For another thing, it’s NOT helpful to be nice. No one wins in that situation – I feel guilty and there is no room/opportunity for improvement.

So to make this post relevant to class and the warner way… how will I improve?

1. I have no idea.

2. I am really tired this week.

3. Please.

4. Send suggestions.