One year done!

So, the last time I wrote I was at the beginning of my first year teaching high school social studies.  I won't lie.  It was a really challenging year.  Only by the time we made it to Christmas Break did I begin feeling like I fit.

Not only did I have to prepare preps for 5 courses, plus an independent class for a student who's schedule didn't merge with the rest of her class, but I also had to prepare for the Praxis II test for secondary level social studies.  I spent the whole summer preparing for that test, then failed it on the first try.  By 4 points.  I didn't focus enough on the economics portion of the test.  Needless-to-say, when I retook it a month later, I passed it by 4 points.  It was wonderful to put that test behind me.

My adjustment was also a combination of thinking like a social studies teacher, getting used to high school students, and getting to know the kids and making connections to who their parents are, where they live, and so forth.  

Some teachers might not think it's necessary to know who parents are and where kids live.  But in my small community, with a combined population (between 3 small communities) of about 2,000, I could be living right next door to a student's family member and not even realize it. 

To give you an idea, to my left, 2 houses down is where one student lives, I see the back yard of brothers who I teach, seven houses to my left are the grandparents of two other brothers who I teach.  I pass the homes of 4 students within the 2 miles ride to school each day.  And even though my husband works out of town, he has worked with 3 of my students' parent or stepparent.   Not only is my community small, but so is the valley we live in.

As this year has been a challenge, it has also been rewarding.  I learned a lot about history, geography, teenagers, and teaching in a small community.  By February Break, I realized that I was finally thinking like a social studies teacher. 

The best thing about this year, however, was during the last few weeks of school.  I was standing in the teacher's room when it occurred to me that I was going to be back here next year.  This was the first time in several years that I was able to say that.  It felt good.

So now, my focus this summer is on reviewing what I covered this year, and reorganizing, restructuring, and coming up with new ideas.  Field trip possibilities, and who could come in to speak with my students.  Below are some of the veterans who either came to speak to or Skyped with my students.  

The last week of school, I asked a couple of the National Guard (they've been working on our Field of Dreams for the past few summers) if they could show my students how to fold the American flag, and what the folds represent.

It may not have been a perfect school year, but it was a great beginning.

How to teacher history...

Although I've seen myself faced with challenges as a teacher and rise above it, I'm now teaching a subject that's somewhat new to me, at least in this concentrated form.   

I've minored in history when I was in college, and I've always been interested in history, but one of the issues I'm facing is how to approach social studies.

I spent most of my summer break preparing for the school year.  I went through the textbooks and materials and planned how I would teach social studies.  The week before school began I still didn't feel satisfied with how I was going to go about it all.  I really didn't like the idea of following the book, and Surprise! Surprise! history isn't interesting to all students.

And, to add to the pressure, I also learned that I have a few history buffs in my classes, so now I was worried about meeting their expectations.  I won't lie.  This created more pressure on me than any that I felt from my administrators.

Okay, mine was more of pushing a delete key.

So, that week before school started, I ended up tossing out my plans for the year.  I know.  Crazy!  I found an approach I liked instead that I hadn't heard about before, teaching history backwards.  It immediately made perfect sense!


The first thing I did, after the preliminary first days of school stuff, I had the students create a list of 3-5 issues that concerned them.  The issues could be anything at all.  I had them do this on sticky notes then they placed them on chart paper when they were done.  We then discussed them and created a list from their concerns that we will work from.

Not my real students

The topics consisted of current events in the US and world (It didn't matter which class this was in, they all did this step), and we then categorized the topics as foreign and domestic politics, popculture, economy, and so forth. I then had students do an online survey (google forms or Surveymonkey) about which topics they were interested in researching.  They were then placed into groups based on interest and they researched their topic until where the textbook left off (2007-2008).  

Now here's the reflection piece.  The group work went well, although some of the groups were way too big.  I knew how to deal with the slackers, and the projects came out really well, but when I look back on this activity, there are definite changes I want to make for next year.  

I should have had them focus more on the issues and researched how the issues got to that point.  For example, the battles going on between Israel and Palestine.  I could have had students who chose this topic focus on what got these two countries to this point.  This would have brought them quite a ways back in history.  If it was in a US history class, then they could have had to find why it matters to Americans.  In geography class, I could have had them look into how the political boundaries changed in time, and why this area of land is fought over so much.

What are my plans for the future?  Well, I've been on harvest break (potato harvest in our area) and we're back to school next week.  I've spent a good part of our break reflecting and trying to find a way to continue from here.

My plans for next week are basically to review what we were covering before break, and give a summative assessment.  Then my next step is to go in the direction I described above.  Have students discuss what has been going on in the US and the world while we were out.  This will get those out of the loop up to speed, and those in the know the opportunity to enlighten their peers.  Then they'll get the opportunity to research what's going on more deeply in small groups, if not in pairs.  Definitely no more than 3 in a group.

If any of you out there have any suggestions or feedback, I'd be happy to read it.  Don't forget to follow my page.

These words ring true!

My quote for my blog at the top is "The art of reinvention...life is a word in progress" is truer now more than ever.  It's basically the story of my life.  I've reinvented myself so many times, be it in my personal or professional life, that I seem to always be reinventing myself in a new role.

The last time I wrote in my blog I was a 4th grade teacher, teaching elementary level for the second year after having taught middle school language arts for 6 years.  Well, I'm working on reinventing myself once again, as a high school social studies teacher.

This choice was made for a couple of reasons:  job security and location.  For the past 2 years I've been traveling for 20-30 minutes to get to work in the morning.  Now, I'll be almost 5 minutes away from home.  Also, I worked in a district with several satellite elementary schools that have been considered for the chopping block for a few years now, but had been kept open each time.  Well, it's a matter of time before these schools close, especially the one I was in last.  'Last one hired, the first one fired,' as they say.

Well, with my change in schools comes a change in many things.  I'm now teaching high school students, grades 9-12, and social studies.  Although I did teach social studies for the past 2 years, teaching US and world history and geography, as well as students and law and the history of film and media, has created quite a learning curve for me.  

I'm up to the challenge, but that doesn't mean I don't have any questions or concerns.  This is where this blog will come in.  It's part brainstorming and reflection.  A place to share some of my ideas, and reflect on how they worked in class.  A place to celebrate my successes and rethink my failures.



I'm hoping that through this blog I can fine tune some of my lessons through reflection (getting some PD in, too), and probably get some helpful feedback.

Donor's Choose Project

Back in June, I created a Donor's Choose project requesting funding for trade books that help students understand math better.  So far there's just over a month left for the project and there is no funding yet.

I'm sharing this hoping that anyone out there might be willing to make a donation or if you can't, would be able to share this post so others who could might be able to help.  Here's a sample of what the donation request looks like, and here's the link to take you to my donation page.

Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!!

Theresa

#TEACH

I just finished watching TEACH on CBS tonight, and I have a mixture of emotions.  I felt proud to be one teacher in that profession.  I felt honored to have the profession I love celebrated this way.  I felt concern that there are people who don't feel the same way about teaching who would say, "Whoop-de-do!  My job is important too," and "Now teachers will walk around thinking they're something so special." I also felt grief watching the teachers and students on the show say their goodbyes at the end of the school year.  Although I look forward to a break and warmer weather, I don't look forward to parting ways with my students.

I also felt worried that perhaps I'm not a great, or even good teacher because I didn't seem as outwardly stressed about the test scores as the teachers profiled on the show had.  Or am I?  Perhaps I don't show emotion or wring my hands while they're taking tests or as I'm getting the first glance of their scores, but that doesn't mean my mind isn't going at full throttle.  That doesn't mean that I don't seek advice from other teachers, no matter whether or not they have more years in the classroom than I do, on how to deal with a child's struggles, whether academically or behaviorally.  That doesn't mean I'm not scouring the Internet looking for ideas to get their attention, to motivate them, to engage them, and keep them that way.

I've been teaching, as a classroom teacher, an ESL teacher, and a Resource Room educational technician, and as a substitute, for 11 years, this year being my 8th year in my own classroom.  During much of that time I've been a student as well.  Even now as I'm finished my Master's Degree, I feel I'm still a student, learning a new math and spelling program, for example.  But I'm also learning about different classroom strategies that will help make a difference in my student's learning.  Searching for ways to turn my classroom around to be a more student-lead environment, and for ways to reach all of my students, and the whole student.

I guess after having watching the 2-hour special (which I've also recorded in case there was something I wanted to get a closer look at), it's helped me to reflect on my own teaching, how I think about teaching, my past attempts at making my teaching better, and especially how to reach individuals rather than a group.  This leads me to ask...

1- What more can I do?

2- What am I doing right?

3- What am I doing wrong?

4- Am I forgetting anyone?

5- Do I make all of my students feel valued?

6- Do I make an effort to make sure ALL students are reached, and to take their individuality into consideration?

Perhaps I'm being too hard on myself, or not.  Perhaps I'm just trying to sort everything out, or perhaps it's just a Friday night that was so filled with emotions for me, and a wonderful program that made me think.

Update...

This afternoon I went with my youngest to pick up our new class pets.  A former colleague of mine gave me two Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.  It's been a couple of years since I last handled any, so I was a little skittish and intimidated when I saw some of the bigger ones, and see them all huddled together.

We drove the nearly 35 minute drive to bring them to my new classroom, and their new home.

The roaches need plenty of hiding places so they feel safe.

I put wheat germ on the bottom of the tank, the drift wood and half coconut shell came with the tank, and added the egg carton.  They have a petri dish for water, and a piece of banana to eat.  One of my kiddos also brought some fish food, because we read that they do eat that, and I plan to bring in some cat food, too, because apparently, they eat that too.

I took the girls (they're both female) out of the bucket they were in and this little one didn't take long to find a place to hide.  Yes, she is the smaller one.

The older, and bigger, one did more exploring....

She really seems to like the driftwood....

I'm really looking forward to seeing my students' faces Tuesday morning!

*Note - last 3 photos were done with the Skitch app for the iPad.*

Survived Week 1

When I came home Friday afternoon, I was so exhausted from the week that I fought to take a nap.  It was such a busy week, so much got planned and accomplished.  I got to know my new students pretty well.  I now know which ones will be helpful and which ones will be a challenge.  If I were to compare my crew from last year and this year, and I'd have to say there is a similar dynamic going on.

In spite of that, we've accomplished quite a lot.  We've already started talking about our state, locating key places and also talking about the role of the 3 branches of our government.  They've started a research project on our state, such as what our state flag, motto, bird, tree, flower, and so on are.  This Thursday we'll be doing Mystery Skype.  We have our first "meeting" with a 2nd grade class two states away, then we'll be doing the same with others who are waiting for things to be arranged.  I just wanted to have 1 under our belt to get an idea what to expect from this point on.

This afternoon I'll be bring to class our new "pets", if you will.  I know not everyone will feel this way, but my students are excited about getting Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches,  and I am too.  My colleagues are slightly grossed out, and I know some of the parents feel that way as well.  I know that we have to make sure they don't get out, and I have prepared all of the precautions, I think......