Because what could be more timely...
Obviously as student teachers about to write our TPAs, these snow days couldn't have come at a more perfect time. I have been so happy to get a few more hours of sleep, do some extra research for my TPA, and write my context for learning while watching Singin' in the Rain instead of in Peabody Library with a grande latte from Starbucks at 1AM. But as convenient as the snow days are for us, I can't help but think about the loss of learning our students and how frustrating this would be for our teachers. Can you imagine being one of the teachers Cassie talked about in her last post whose job relies on student scores and then have your students be gone for a whole week? I don't know about y'all, but I sometimes feel like my kiddos forget what I teach after two days, more or less after a whole week off.
Additionally, less so at Hickman, but at the school I was at last semester, I know there were kids who only ate when they came to school. They got food sent home with them on the weekends, but it makes me so sad to think about their cold and hungry selves at home on these snow days. What do we do with that as teachers, knowing that we can't do anything? I know we can only work our hardest and best to make the time our kids spend in our classroom the best it can be, but sometimes it just doesn't feel like enough.
What's your strategy for staying positive on these snowy days when you're worrying about your kids? What would your plan be for refocusing your kids when you get back? What are you doing with your time off to make sure you spend it wisely?
Sally, I agree that these snow days couldn’t have come at a better time for student teachers writing the TPA. Students and teachers look forward to the occasional snow day, but an entire week of snow days is crazy to think about. We are switching placements, so we don’t have to worry about reorganizing any of our lessons to see what is essential to spend time on, and what can be cut due to the new time constraints.
ReplyDeleteMy students were supposed to complete one half of a two-week novel study this week. While the students aren’t learning a lot of new skills, this was their big quarter project where they were applying the use of skills in context and creating a multimedia project that would cover new communication standards. If I was their classroom teacher, I don’t know how I would reschedule these plans in order to make sure I was still covering all of the content, but I do know that I would be reorganizing my long term plans to make up for this lost time.
One other strategy I saw another teacher use was to plan time for a snow day every 2-3 weeks during this quarter. She took one day out of her schedule every few weeks in case they had a snow day. She was prepared with extension activities if they didn’t have any of the snow days, but this method allowed her to readjust her plans less when they had a snow day. (Although it doesn’t really help when you have an entire week off of school.)
I agree that these unique situations are incredibly stressful for teachers. While I am happy to have time to work on my TPA, I know that my mentor teacher is stressed about missing a week of instruction, especially at such a critical time when the TCAP is approaching. I know that she has days built in for snow days and that she is good at prioritizing what needs to get done and what lessons are less important, but it is still stressful and it often means less depth in content when the students lose days to explore the concepts. I also know my teacher works off a year map that she creates and submits at the beginning of the school year, so she works hard to stay as true to her year map as she can. With incidents like this, it is hard to get back on track and reach the benchmarks she has set for herself for the year.
ReplyDeleteIt's also definitely an issue that students who need special attention can regress when they do no work for a week and don't have the kind of individualized attention they need to push forward. I think we would definitely need to spend a day reviewing and refocusing when we return before we can back into content.
Sally- I didn't even think of the students who get their meals from school and may not have the resources to stay safe and comfortable in these conditions. I know many businesses are still open, and if students are off from school for a week, their parents may struggle to find somewhere to take care of their children while they are at work. There are so many issues to deal without outside of academic concerns that give teachers unique challenges. I don't know how we could handle that! Do we have the power to address these issues?
To be completely honest, I am finding it pretty hard to keep myself on task and motivated to do work. Why get out of my warm and comfy bed to sit down in Towers lounge on my computer for six or seven straight hours? But in reality, I am dragging myself downstairs with a warm cup of coffee and a good spotify playlist to try to create a pleasant environment to work in. I think that the edTPA and the work that still needs to be done on it is providing me insight on what it would be like to be an adult. When we are employed full time and have these days off, we need to take advantage of them and catch up with planning, grading, analyzing data, or even maintaining our health!
ReplyDeleteJust like Melissa said, it never really crossed my mind that the students who rely on schools for food would suffer. If the Vanderbilt community has completely shut down and is offering little to no option for food, I can only imagine what the actual Nashville community is like. All over yikyak and twitter, students were complaining that their favorite restaurants weren't open/delivering or that they couldn't get an uber ride. While I was so caught up in the world, I didn't even think about the children and their families. Thinking about it now, in hindsight, I feel horrible. Although the schools are close, I wonder if there is a way to create a program that reaches out to these families? Or even provides them with a place, relatively close by, that could provide them with aid?
Nikki, I'm with ya--it's so hard to be an adult and not just take snow days as holidays! (Also, really weird to be on campus so much... like, I got lunch from Rand today for the first time in months...)
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a relief to have the extra time to work on edTPA stuff, but the snow days actually also interfered with mine! I was supposed to teach my last edTPA lesson and give the summative assessment for it on Friday, but I got sick and stayed home that day. I figured I would just postpone Friday's lesson to Tuesday; obviously not ideal to have a long weekend in between, but not the end of the world. And then Tuesday was canceled... And then the rest of the week was canceled. Sooo... I awkwardly haven't finished my edTPA unit. My options at this point are: 1. Use data from the CFA test that my mentor teacher gave on the day I was gone, which tests what I taught but also other aspects from the bigger unit, or 2. Give my own assessment on Monday...10 days after the students were originally supposed to take it, and 11 days after the previous lesson. At that point, it's almost not even worth assessing, because how can I possibly expect them to remember what they were learning well enough to perform on an assessment? So unfortunately I'm getting my own taste of snow days interfering with my teaching schedule.
I also didn't even think about the kids who depend on school for food until I read Sally's post. It's so easy to get caught up in how the snow days affect OUR lives and forget about the bigger issues that other people are facing. I hope all of our students are warm and fed, but fortunately (hopefully?) they'll be back to school and normalcy on Monday.
Just saw this article and wanted to share! The kids have not been forgotten :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/davidson/2015/02/19/winter-storm-exposes-food-security-gap-students/23694477/
I hadn't even thought about the students who needed food until I read your post, Sally. I had been worried about flooding and run-down housing, though. Bad weather affects absolutely everyone. Even though I joke about how bad Nashville is at dealing with uncertainties like this blizzard--I have often laughed about how Vanderbilt closed school for a day because students couldn't travel through the blizzard I drove through alone--it is not something to joke about. This week helped remind me that there are so many things we have to be thankful for and so many people that we need to help if we can.
ReplyDeleteOn Monday morning, I woke up to read the news about a thirty-car pile-up on the highway. Luckily, no one died in that accident. But other people did during this week-long isolating storm. It got me thinking about how much more I hope to do and how much I should have been helping. Reading the article you posted, Ilana, made me think about how I could have gone to help out at a food distribution center or could go tomorrow.
I want to encourage all of us to say a grateful prayer (or blessing or happiness or whatever floats your boat) for how much we have and then go out and help someone out over the weekend or during spring break. :)