Teacher Reflection

Well, my friends, we've made it to the end of another school year. This will be my last blog post for awhile as I head off to enjoy my last summer vacation as a non-mother! I'll see you back here in late August/early September as we prepare to begin the 2014-2015 school year (my 15th year working in education!) and I'll begin my weekly blogs again (that is, until my maternity leave starts!).

As I'm sure many of you have, I've been using some time lately to reflect on how my year went and what my goals and hopes are for next year. I've even begun thinking about what my SMART goals might entail. I'm already getting excited about my plans, which include developing and implementing a more formal coaching model for our school district, which I believe will help me ensure my coaching is as effective as it can be, benefiting teachers and students alike. After two years of coaching, I feel ready and energized to tackle this goal!

If you're having trouble reflecting and thinking about goals for next year, I suggest turning to the Teaching Rubric that's part of our new education evaluation system here in Massachusetts. This rubric is designed to aid in your reflection on your practices and in your goal-setting. But it can feel a bit cumbersome and verbose, can't it? To better navigate it, try considering these questions as you skim through the indicators (I'm going to focus on Standards I & II here, since they're so instructional in nature and that's my thing, y'all!):

Standard I:

• How rigorous are the tasks you engage students in? Are students working within their zone of proximal development (ZPD)? What assessment practices do you use that help you to determine where each student's ZPD is?
• How often do students learn through differentiated experiences in your class, whether they be differentiated by interest, learning style, or readiness?
• How comfortable do you feel with your lesson planning formats and structures? Do you consistently include challenging, measurable objectives (and do these objectives end up being "lived objectives" during the lesson)? Activators? Summarizers? Opportunities for assessing student understanding? Opportunities for all students to practice and to receive feedback? Is pacing ever an issue? Are there built-in opportunities for students to receive support should they need it, or to be challenged with extensions should that be their need?
• How often do you use formative assessment data (this could be informal or formal) to inform your instruction for the next day(s)? Are you able to do this on a regular basis (weekly or even, ideally, daily)?
• What types of assessments do students experience in your class? Is it a wide range?

Standard II:

• Are students provided exemplars and rubrics that help them understand assessment criteria and expectations? Do you model as often as possible? Do you use a "gradual release of responsibility" (I Do, We Do, You Do) so that students are scaffolded towards success?
• How engaged are your students during lessons? Is time on task an issue? Are all students given chances to practice (not just those who raise their hands)?
• How often do you tier your instruction in order to meet the needs and readiness levels of all your students? Do you feel comfortable planning tiered instruction based on formative assessment data?
• Do your students clearly understand your expectations of them? Could they describe them to someone else? Are your expectations so communicated and enforced (through rituals, routines, and appropriate responses) that students eventually "own" them as well?

The above questions don't cover everything Standards I & II delve into. But I think they are a great starting place for examining our instructional practices and determining where we'd like to improve. As you do so, please consider working with me as your instructional coach. The coaching model I'll be developing and implementing next year will help me to even better guide the teachers I work with towards the efficient, effective meeting of their goals.

In the meantime, have wonderful summers, educators! See you for 2014-2015!

A Mile in Their Shoes

Hello readers!
I just stumbled across a decently cool video that really got me thinking. The video is from Burr and Burton Academy, a high school in Vermont, and it documents the reflections of several staff members who took on the life of a student at their school for one day. Walking a mile in their students' shoes was primarily conducted as part of an ongoing study by the staff on the effectiveness of their school day schedule, but I think this kind of social experiment offers endless possibilities for what we as educators can learn about the experience of school.

Check out the video here, and then I'll share with you my own take-aways:

• I thought it was a great touch to have the students-for-a-day actually do the assigned homework for all the classes they'd be attending. The teachers in the video don't discuss this in depth, but I think it would be fascinating to really experience what this is like: how difficult is it, how much time does it take, how do you balance it with other after-school activities and responsibilities, etc.
• The teachers mostly seemed to agree that, as the school day went on, it became more and more difficult for them to remain focused. I think this is something we all inherently understand, but perhaps actually experiencing it the way a student does would illuminate it even further . . . maybe it would help us think of what would work well for a student towards the latter half of the school day.
• Something I found really interesting was that one of the teachers said he had had a great day and had found himself fascinated by all the subjects. But some of the other teachers admitted to not connecting well with some of the subjects, which made those classes feel very long to them. I think this is pretty reflective of what our students experience. Sure, there are some kids who love every subject. But there are many others who, for many reasons, don't. How do we engage those students?
• A huge take-away for me as a former ELA high school teacher was the reflection shared by several of the teachers that it was an intense experience bouncing from one subject to the next. One of the teachers said it was difficult because he was processing "what I had done in science class and just a few minutes later -- Boom! -- you're into this totally different, new, intense" subject area. Another teacher commented that "there was no unwinding . . . it was stay wound and go from this to that." My work over the past year and a half in a K-12 position has helped me to learn a lot from elementary teachers about this sort of thing. Because they teach numerous subject areas, I've observed lots of elementary teachers who really get the need to transition from one "intense" area to the next. I know that when I taught high school, it was sometimes easy for me to forget that my students had already had 3 or 4 classes before they walked into mine and that their brains weren't necessarily already primed for ELA like mine was (because ELA was the only subject area I had to focus on).

I don't have all the answers to some of the questions I began to pose in these take-aways. But I do think this social experiment is a very valid one that the staff at any grade level could really learn from. The key is to really try and do something with what people learn from the experience. Are there some new instructional moves teachers can make with the student perspective in mind? Is there a need to try something different? What's working? What's not?


And finally, readers, Happy Holidays! My blogging will resume with the new year, so I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a lovely and well-deserved break. Enjoy!

A Thankful Educator

What's the week of Thanksgiving if not an opportunity to think about what we're thankful for? As educators, there's lots that can bring stress to our lives: a new educator evaluation system that feels overwhelming at times, standardized tests, frustrations about how to best teach each student. It's important to make ourselves stop, breathe, shake off the things we can't control, and focus on what can be so wonderful about this field.

Here are some things I am thankful for as an educator:

• The curiosity and drive of first graders, striving passionately to become the best readers and writers they can be
• The wonderful blend of serious and goofy that is a 7th grade classroom
• The inquisitiveness of high school chemistry students, bravely asking questions, determined to master the subject's demands
• The teachers I coach, who are dedicated to learning, growing, and reflecting
• The opportunity to continue learning through professional development, through my interactions with colleagues, through my own research
• The moment I am privileged to witness -- when a lightbulb goes off above a learner's head, when everything suddenly clicks
• The gift of working in a profession that allows me time off during holidays to spend with my family and friends, relaxing and recharging
• The beauty of knowing I work in a field that has a tremendous impact on people's lives

Happy Thanksgiving, readers! Enjoy the break, and take some time to reflect on what you're thankful for as an educator.
See you in December!

TEACH!

 Last Friday night, CBS aired a special documentary called TEACH, following the classrooms of four teachers through some triumphs and through some struggles. There has been some controversy surrounding the film (it was made by some of the same people involved with Waiting for Superman, which has its own controversy surrounding it; some felt there should have been more of a variety of content areas and teacher ages represented in the film; some felt it was an advertisement for Khan Academy; etc.), but I won’t be delving into those areas. In fact, as a disclaimer to this post, I’ll let you know right now: I loved it. I thought it was a genuine depiction of the realities of teaching – the pressures we face, the obstacles we have to strive to overcome, however insurmountable. And this post details what I loved most about the piece: teacher reflection and growth.

[SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t seen TEACH yet and you’re planning on it, you may want to postpone reading this post! TEACH just became available on iTunes, I believe, so you can check it out there.]

The four teachers depicted in the documentary were real teachers. And real teachers make mistakes. (Yes, let’s admit it. We do make mistakes from time to time.) And these teachers made mistakes. But the great, inspiring take-away was that these four teachers, often with the help of a mentor, reflected on their practices and on their mistakes, grew from the experience, changed some things around, and ended up with some great results for their students.

Keeping the Class Student-Centered

One of the teachers in the film was a high school AP history teacher. Much loved by his students, who seemingly clamored to enroll in his class, he learned the hard way (during a class that was being observed by his graduate school education professor, no less!) that his class was too teacher-centered. Numerous times throughout the lesson (which was largely lecture-based) he asked the class some variation of the question, “Does everyone get this?” Each time, he was met by crickets. And each time, he proceeded along with the content of his lesson, presumably taking his students’ silence for a “Yes, we get this.” It’s easy to fall into this trap, especially when we feel we have to keep moving on with our lesson. But we should never take a class’ silence for understanding (nor should we take one student’s “Yes” as the answer for “Does everyone get this?”). In working with his graduate school professor, this teacher realized his lessons needed to be more student-centered in order to get them more involved and to aid in checking for understanding. Soon, he was having his students work in groups to brainstorm, problem solve, and create. A plethora of voices filled the air of his classroom, and you could see the learning taking place.

The 360 Degree Classroom

A secondary math teacher shown in the film struggled with a range of student abilities present in her class. Even more so, she struggled with not being able to easily watch her students in action, to observe them doing math in the moment. Working with the assistant principal, she took on the challenge of trying out a 360 degree classroom. Whiteboards were installed across all four of the walls of the classroom. Students were handed a marker and an eraser as they entered the room. And, (presumably after a whole class mini-lesson) students left their desks behind as they each found a place at one of the four wall-length white boards. The teacher left the front of the room behind, and stood directly in the middle of the room, where she could pivot and turn, watching her students work through a math problem. This helped her identify to whom she needed to go first with support, and who was progressing along independently. Once again, the learning was visible and the students engaged.

Tapping Into High-Interest

A third teacher portrayed in the film was an elementary teacher struggling with reading instruction. Some of his students were grade levels behind where they needed to be. It was even harder to motivate some of these students not only due to their low reading skills, but because these difficulties had made them dislike reading so much. During a post-observation conference with his principal, she simply asked him, “When you were a kid, what would make you want to read?” In the next segment of the film, we hear this teacher asking his students what their hobbies are, what their lives are like, what they want to be when they grow up. And we then see him scouring through books in the library, later bringing a stack of books into the classroom. Standing amongst his students, holding up book after book and quickly describing it (“Who has trouble with their friends? Who wants to be a chef when they grow up?”), he is pelted with excited shrieks and raised hands. Everyone was thrilled to begin reading these high-interest books. It was certainly one huge step in the right direction.

The Flipped Classroom

The fourth teacher shown in TEACH was a math teacher (if memory serves, middle school or upper elementary) from Idaho, which is piloting the use of Khan Academy in some of its classrooms statewide. Khan Academy is a tool for flipping your classroom – instead of conducting the lesson in front of all your students, students access the material from the (free!) Khan Academy resources online. The class time is now freed up for small group work, intervention groups, etc. But it may not be as easy as it seems, as this teacher at first experienced. By the end of her first month with the program, she was ready to give up. She missed her place at the front of the room, she wasn’t sure what her role was now, and students were not improving their math skills. I wish she had had someone in her building or district who could have coached her through this (as we see in the above stories). But, luckily, she did reach out to a Khan Academy mentor, who helped her to look at her student data from the program the night before the next class, so she could see in advance who was struggling and she could plan to meet with certain groups of students to intervene. Her relief to understand the benefits of the program better was evident, and her class began to soar. Some students were even accessing Khan Academy when it wasn’t assigned, just to do some extra work on their own!

The amount of honest reflection, the help from a mentor, the willingness to try something new, the ability to grow as a professional: these are the qualities that most impressed me about the teachers in TEACH and the qualities that most impress me about all good teachers. I’m thrilled to be working as an instructional coach because it gives me the opportunity to help teachers do the hard work of the reflective practitioner.

It's Time to Reflect (Part 2)

Last week I wrote about the importance of reflection, especially at the end of the school year. So, this week I’ll be practicing what I preach and using this blog post as an opportunity to reflect a bit myself.

This was my first year as an instructional coach. As the only instructional coach in my district (and as the first ever instructional coach in the district), I relied heavily on my own reflective practices to help me learn and set goals for myself. Every day, I wrote down my thoughts and my experiences. Some days I wrote very little, and some days I wrote volumes. I’ve just looked through the entire document, which has added up to about 80 typed pages. It was funny and interesting to see the range of my emotions displayed in these pages: excited, optimistic, nervous, self-doubting, curious, triumphant, confused, proud, bold, timid.

Here are some of my take-aways:

·      Working with teachers who want to improve their practice in some way is a lot like what I used to do in my “former life” as an ELA teacher – working with students who are striving to improve some aspect of their reading or writing. The key is: one step at a time. Sometimes it’s easy to get really into goal-setting – I’d work with a teacher this year and we’d build off of each other’s excitement, brainstorming all sorts of goals and new things to try. Eventually, I learned to step back from this sort of manic goal-setting, and require both myself and the teacher I was working with to zoom in on one particular goal, to narrow our focus so that we were being realistic and so that we could establish an action plan that would not overwhelm. We know as teachers that we’re not going to give our students 12 aspects of their writing to improve upon by their next paper; we’re going to give them 1 or 2 areas to focus on. We need to give ourselves the same permission, the same freedom to slowly focus on one area of our teaching, to delve in and really get into in-depth reflection and growth.

·      Thanks to all my reading up on instructional coaching last summer (especially all of Jim Knight’s work), I was fully anticipating my role as instructional coach to be a reciprocal one, where I learned from those I was coaching in addition to them learning from me. But even though I saw it coming, I didn’t realize the extent to which this would happen. I learned TONS from being in elementary classrooms, especially since this job has provided me with my first extended exposure to the world of K-5. I became fascinated with the workshop structure, reading all I could about it and becoming convinced that this structure doesn’t need to go away as students age – I can see it working for students of all ages, and for their teachers. I learned volumes from being in secondary classrooms, where I watched teachers struggling with some of the same instructional challenges I myself used to struggle with. I had so many “aha” moments while watching high school teachers teach, thinking, “Oh! I used to do that, too.” But this time, as a neutral, objective observer, I could begin to pinpoint specific instructional moves the teacher could make, tweaks here and there that would help him or her accomplish that day’s objective with students. (I often found myself wanting to go back in time after these “ahas” to correct some of my past lessons!)

·      I learned that kids can and will rise to the occasion when we present them with challenging, thought-provoking tasks that stretch them as learners. Kindergartners do, fifth graders do, eighth graders do, sophomores and seniors in high school do. 

·      I learned how to be a second set of eyes for a teacher in her classroom, and I learned how to later discuss what I had seen. I learned how to model for teachers with their own students, and I learned how to co-teach. 

·      I learned that almost none of this job called teaching comes easy, to any of us. No matter how long we’ve been in the classroom, or what grade we teach, or how many students we have, we are all still learning how best to teach. I don’t think there’s a magical year where it just all clicks and comes together, where it all just flows easily. I actually don’t think that’s really supposed to happen (as much as we dream of it during our first few years in the classroom). This is an important job for so many reasons, and it’s challenging and sometimes difficult because it’s so important. But I also learned that we are learners, that teachers want to learn, want to grow, want to stretch themselves.

·      I learned that I have quite a bunch of goals for myself for next year:

o   I’d like to continue to build trusting relationships with the five staffs in my district, and to find new ways to establish and reinforce this trust.

o   I’d like to delve deeply into differentiated instruction, and hope that some teachers will establish coaching relationships with me in order to do so.

o   I’d like to learn all I can about the new SMART goals educators in my state will be implementing as part of their own evaluation system next year so that I can work with teachers on developing these goals and reflecting on them throughout the year as they try new instructional strategies in their classrooms to achieve them.

o   I’d like to work with teachers on some of the “little” instructional strategies that we sometimes take for granted but that can be so important and effective, like: how we ask questions during our lessons; how we check for understanding during our lessons and formatively assess (both formally and informally); how we use pre-assessment data to guide our planning…

o   I’d like to continue to learn all I can about the art and science of teaching and learning, both through research and through my work with the teachers and students of my district.

Readers, it’s been a pleasure sharing my thoughts with you via this forum throughout the past school year. Summer vacation is now almost upon us, and I’ll most likely be suspending my blogging until the end of August or so. I hope you’ll pick back up with me then, and we’ll continue to explore and think about education together.

Have a lovely summer!

It's Time to Reflect (Part 1)

     As we rapidly approach summer break, I find myself reflecting on the past school year more and more each day. This is definitely not a new practice for me; during my twelve years in the classroom I always found the end of the year a valuable time for "big picture" reflection. "Big picture" reflection is slightly different than the types of reflection we should be doing throughout the school year. Those daily reflections tend to zero in on what went right and what went wrong on that particular day, whereas an end-of-the-year reflection tends to focus on the goals we had set for ourselves at the start of the year -- did we meet them? Why or why not? Did these goals change as the year progressed? How come? Do we have new goals for next year? 

     I came across a blog this morning by Heather Skipworth Craven of "Inspiring Teachers" in which she articulates exactly how I feel about end-of-year reflecting, along with some guiding questions to help you get started. I encourage you to read her blog post here. 

     I especially like that Craven points out the value of reflecting with another teacher -- it can be so helpful to share our thoughts, questions, struggles, and triumphs with a trusted colleague (perhaps an instructional coach?). Craven also insists on the need for teachers to purposely set aside time specifically for reflection. I couldn't agree more! We all know how busy a teacher's day is, and how easy it is to get swept up in grading, lesson planning, meeting with a student for extra help (all very important tasks, to be sure!). That's why it's key to schedule in reflection time for ourselves. I like to type up my thoughts on a daily reflection log saved on my desktop. Some days I type for quite awhile, and I find it really helps me to put some things into perspective, to come up with action plans to solve problems, to vent, to breathe. Other days, I type my reflection into the log in a total of 5 minutes because that's all I have that day. Don't let reflection overwhelm you or stress you out, but don't sweep it under the carpet, either. Try to get into a daily or at least weekly habit of sitting with your thoughts, whether you put them on paper or discuss them with a colleague, or think through them during your afternoon jog.

     And, certainly, take advantage of this time of year to reflect on the big picture.

Aha Moments

     Thank you, Oprah, for coining the term "aha moment." Otherwise I wouldn't have quite the right phrasing to describe this week's post. Yes, readers, this post is dedicated to sharing three "aha moments" I have had this week while conferencing and collaborating with some of the teachers I work with as an instructional coach. Sometimes when I observe a class, or have a discussion with a teacher about issues he or she is experiencing, an idea will just occur to me -- a new way of looking at something, a fresh perspective, an aha moment. (Side note -- this is why I think that, as educators, we need to watch each other teach more often and we need to have more and more open discussions with one another about issues in our classrooms, because often it is through these experiences that new ideas will come to us!)
     Here we go . . .

Aha Moment #1

     Lately I've worked as instructional coach with several teachers who are having difficulty getting their class's attention -- a problem all of us have experienced, for sure. We've talked about using quiet signals and about which quiet signal will work the best. The answer is that no one quiet signal is "the best." Truly this is the case since, if there were said magical signal, we'd all be using it. Here comes the "aha" -- it doesn't fully matter which quiet signal you use (whether it's clapping a pattern, ringing a chime, a call and response, etc., etc.). What matters is . . . drum roll, please . . . specifying your expectations for students. What should they do, specifically, when this quiet signal occurs?? I'd venture to say most of us (including myself before this particular aha moment) simply assume that of course our students know what we want from them at this quiet signal moment. But have we been explicit enough? Have we said, while practicing the quiet signal, "Students, when you hear this chime (or insert alternative quiet signal here), your eyes should be on me, and you should be absolutely silent. This means you are ready and are waiting to see what the next set of directions or what the next transition will be"? Have we posted these expectations in our classrooms? I think students need for us to be this explicit. Why leave it to chance that they just inherently know what the heck we're talking about?

Aha Moment #2

     This aha is sort of tied to a memory of mine. Lately, I've also been working with several teachers on using summarizers at the end of a lesson. Mainly, we've discussed avoiding falling into a rut with these summarizers. Tickets To Leave are great, but do students start becoming numb to them when they see them too often? My aha moment answers a resounding "yes." And I'll tell you why. While discussing repetitive summarizers with one of these concerned teachers, I was visited by the Ghost of In-Service Workshops Past. In a former district of mine, we teachers would be given a 3-2-1 exit slip at the end of each in-service. Reflecting on the workshop, we were to write 3 things that had interested us, 2 things we still had questions about, and 1 thing we could immediately start using in our classrooms. The first few times this type of exit slip was used, we all dutifully and thoughtfully filled out the 3-2-1 reflection. However, this went on for years. And years. By the time we had been filling out 3-2-1s at the end of each and every in-service workshop for four or five years, no one was being all that reflective or thoughtful about it anymore. Honestly? It was boring. It was old. We were tired of it. I can't help but think that students who are presented with the same summarizer day after day start to feel the same way. Aha! Variety is the spice of life!

And Finally . . . 

Aha Moment #3

     Lately, several teachers have lamented to me about students who repeatedly call out during a class discussion or during a question and answer session. This has frustrated all of us from time to time. And we know as teachers that this is not a good behavior to encourage in the classroom. It's unfair if only certain students' voices are heard, especially since these students are being heard due to behavior that can be interpreted as rude or inconsiderate of others. This is not the lesson we want to teach our students about how to be heard in life. But, what to do, what to do? And then it hit me! Get into the habit of asking questions by asking students to raise their hands. For example, instead of phrasing your question as "What is the main character struggling with in this paragraph?," phrase it as "Raise your hand if you can tell us what the main character is struggling with." Seem too simple of a solution to be true? Ah, my friends, but I've seen it work! With the latter phrasing, students are following the main direction being given to them, which is to raise their hands if they know the answer. With the former phrasing, no such direction is inherent. Another point for explicitness!

     I realize, having just written all of the above, how vital a tool reflective writing is. If I did not have this blog, this outlet for sharing my thoughts of the week, would I remember and retain these aha moments? Or would these realizations (simple and "common-sense-y" as they may be) slip my mind eventually, causing me to consistently struggle with the same issues? Reflective practitioning works, readers! Jot down those ahas!

     No more posts from me until I resume work during the first week of January. Happy Holidays, readers, and to my fellow educators out there -- have a lovely vacation!

When the Teacher Sneezes

     I've been reading a book by Todd Whitaker lately entitled What Great Teachers Do Differently: 14 Things That Matter Most. It's an easy little read that (unfortunately at times) doesn't delve into too many specifics, but does offer a nice educational philosophy. Whitaker has conducted several studies on great teaching, theorizing to his readers that there are certain things that great teachers consistently do as part of their practices that set them apart from their colleagues. I thought I'd share some of these with you this week:

• Great teachers set -- and stick to -- expectations. Whitaker explains that establishing expectations is vastly different from establishing rules. He claims that "great teachers don't focus on 'What am I going to do if students misbehave?' They expect good behavior -- and generally that's what they get" (2004, p.18). (Remember I warned you about the lack of specifics?? Whitaker doesn't go into much detail about how great teachers expect good behavior -- about what that looks like and sounds like, etc. But his philosophy is a nice starting point for us all to start thinking about what that might look like for us.)
• Great teachers have a bag of classroom management tricks, like using eye contact or proximity. Great teachers know that a teacher never wins an argument with a student: "As soon as it starts, we have lost. If their peers are watching, they cannot afford to give in" (p. 26). And great teachers recognize that yelling doesn't work. (I learned this last lesson the hard way when I first started teaching. During my very first year, I yelled full volume at a very talkative class. It resulted in pin-drop silence . . . for about five minutes. I had lost my cool, my control. My students had won. They had been able to do that to me. I never yelled at a class again because I knew it didn't work.)
• Great teachers know that they want all students on their side. Whitaker offers this scenario: It's the first day of school. There are 25 students in a class and 24 of them are on their best first-day-of-school behavior. But #25 is not. As Whitaker insists, and I agree, right now the remaining 24 students are on the teacher's side. They want the teacher to take steps so that #25 will stop misbehaving. However, because #25 is one of them, they want the teacher to deal with #25 in a professional and respectful way. If the teacher does so, he's got the class on his side. If he does not, other students will begin to shift their allegiance to #25, and now the teacher has several #25s on his hands. Whoops. Whitaker claims that great teachers demonstrate respect for their students.
• Great teachers have high expectations of their students, but even higher expectations of themselves, says Whitaker. As a former high school ELA teacher, my expectations of my students and of myself were tested each time I assigned a major essay. I knew that if I expected my students to be able to complete this essay within a certain time frame, that I also had to be able to assess the essays within a certain time frame in order to provide feedback to my students. My expectations for my students kept my own expectations for myself in check.
• And, finally, when the teacher sneezes, the whole class gets a cold. As Whitaker says, "Our impact is significant; our focus becomes the student's focus" (p. 56). We as teachers set the tone for our classes each day. The teacher is the variable in her classroom. Whose behavior can she control? Her own. Whitaker recognizes that how teachers respond (to misbehavior, to a majority of a class failing a quiz, etc.) is the variable. "Good teachers consistently strive to improve, and they focus on something they can control -- their own performance" (p. 38).

     Now, I fear at times Whitaker might get a little "preachy" or a little simplistic -- and I've already remonstrated the poor man for his lack of specificity (give us some examples -- jeesh!) -- but all in all I enjoyed his common sense approach to what great teachers are doing in their classrooms every day that sets them apart as "great." I like that the above (though abridged) list is full of attainable mindsets and ways of thinking about teacher ownership over what occurs in a classroom. I hope this list sparks some thought and reflection -- I know it did for me!

John Dewey Throw-Back

     Hi readers. Just a quick post this week -- sorry (I'm a bit under the weather and not at my blogging-best!).
     Remember all that John Dewey you had to read as a undergrad education major? Well I stumbled upon some wise words from the father of progressive education just the other day on -- of all places! -- Facebook. I think I first saw the quote on Edutopia, a Facebook page that I "like" due to some interesting education blogs they sometimes post. Imagine my delight as I came across the following quote while scrolling through recent status updates:

"We do not learn from experience; we learn from reflecting on experience."

~John Dewey

     Teachers, surely we can relate. We can have those wonderfully magic days in our classrooms where every objective is met smoothly by smiling students, every minute is well-paced. But, is it really just that 50 minute experience, the in-the-moment of teaching that lesson, that we learn from? Or does our learning truly come when we take the time to be reflective practitioners, when we sit down after teaching that lesson and reflect upon just what made it all work so well, and how can we replicate this magic in the future? The same can be said for those wonderfully horrid lessons -- if we take the time to reflect, these can also be excellent learning opportunities.

     But this doesn't stop with the teachers. Students should also learn from reflecting on experience. Of course, the first step has to be (as I wrote about in my previous post) making sure that the students are the ones doing the work and having the learning experiences in your classroom. But, as Mr. Dewey reminds us, the next step is equally -- if not more -- important. We must provide our students with opportunities to reflect on their learning experiences. Students must also engage in metacognitive practices, and, in order to do so effectively, must be taught how to be self-reflective about their work in the classroom.

     There's lots of ways to help students engage in thinking about their own thinking and about their own learning. Interested, and teach in my district? Then give me a shout and we can work together on building more opportunities for students to reflect!

Giving Thanks

      I typically post on Fridays. It’s the end of the week, and I love taking the opportunity to reflect on everything I’ve read and researched about instruction and assessment and everything I’ve seen in classrooms over the course of the week. It’s a nice chance to synthesize the ideas that have been flooding my brain all week, as well as to stop and remind myself of the big picture.

     Well, today is Tuesday, but it’s fake Friday for all of us who are fortunate enough to have the rest of the week off to celebrate Thanksgiving. So, I thought I’d post not about everything I’ve learned and thought about this week (it’s been a two-day work week, people!) and instead share with you some things I am grateful for.

I give thanks for:

·      My new job as an instructional coach. This position has reinvigorated my passion for education by allowing me to stretch my muscles and try out a new way to be an educator. Having the chance to work with teachers from grade K all the way to grade 12, in science classes, in art classes, in ELA and in history has been challenging, exciting, interesting, and definitely NOT boring!

·      All the teachers in my new district who have volunteered to work with me so far. In my first two and a half months in this position, I have worked with 36 teachers (many of whom I continue to work with). These teachers give up their free time during prep periods, before and after school to meet with me, all because of their dedication to their craft. It’s inspiring and motivating, to say the least.

·      My soon-to-husband (the big day, 2/2/13, feels right around the corner!). He ceaselessly believes in me, and is the best partner this girl could ever ask for.

·      Friendships. I have a few friends who have known me for so long, I cannot even picture my life without them. Being known so well by someone (or in my case, a few someones) is priceless.

·      Family. I don’t think mine always understand everything I do or believe in – in many ways, we can be polar opposites of each other. But I am blessed to have a nuclear family that, regardless of differences, offers me unconditional love. Especially thankful for my little nephew, who just turned one! He has taught me that I actually CAN get along with a baby – who knew?!?

·      This blog. I’ve never blogged about anything before, so starting a blog was a new challenge for me. I’ve grown to really appreciate the opportunity to sit back and quietly reflect on where my thoughts stand, where my questions lie, where my ideas are coming from. I am thankful to any readers who view my posts, and hopeful that they are learning from and reflecting on what I share.

·      And finally, today I am quite thankful that I was invited to a second grade Thanksgiving feast. Readers, I have never experienced something quite as cute. These are students I have been working with for a while now, and it was sweet to have them welcome me into their celebration. Every now and then with this new job, I really miss being a classroom teacher. Days like today make me still feel that I am part of classroom life, of students’ lives. It was a special gift.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Got a Bad Back? It Might Make You a Better Teacher.

     I read a blog this week that, in my opinion, really hits the nail on the head. Educators, you need to read this:

What My Bad Back Taught Me About Teaching

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Seriously. Click on the above link to the blog first, and read it. You'll need to register (which is free and super easy and quick!), which the site prompts you to do. Then we can discuss.

Thanks for doing that! Wasn't it a good post?

     What I love about Colucci's post is twofold: 1) I love that he finds himself reflecting on his life in terms of a metaphor for teaching, and 2) I love that he does something with this reflection, namely -- changes some of his practices to reflect his new understandings.

     As educators, sometimes we can forget what it may be like to be a student in our classrooms. When Colucci found himself in the position of needing help, he was able to introspectively realize what that experience is like for him. More so, he was able to think about whether or not he was providing an optimal environment and optimal strategies for his students to be able to learn and to be able to seek help.

     I've had some Colucci-like reflective experiences in my day. The more obvious ones are when I've taken a class or attended a workshop and found myself in the position of student once more. I took a course several years ago during which the instructor stepped way back and we the students were left to struggle with some pretty complicated tasks together. But as a group, we collaborated and eventually discovered some pretty insightful solutions to the problems with which we were grappling. I realized I had learned much more through this experience than I would have had my instructor simply delivered the information to us via a lecture. And I was forced to think: do I provide enough experiences like this for my students? So, I began to, more and more. Luckily, I had a great model to follow.

     But what's so great about Colucci's post is that these metacognitive opportunities need not only present themselves in a classroom. When was the last time you needed help, and what was that experience like for you? When was the last time you were really close to mastering something, and you experienced a final push in the right direction that helped you to do so? What did that push consist of? When was the last time you were in an environment that was getting in the way of your concentration or your learning or your thinking or your emotions? How can you avoid such an environment in your classroom?

     Be present. Take note when life is going to teach you a lesson about yourself as an educator. Put yourself in your students' shoes as often as possible (even -- especially -- the sweaty, grungy-looking shoes). Share your reflections with others.

     Thanks, Anthony Colucci!

Oh. And now that you've registered for free for Education Week, you can read all kinds of interesting education blogs about all kinds of interesting education-related topics.

But don't stop reading this one, please!  :)