Job Search

This past weekend I went to a career fair back home in Wisconsin. I thought it was good practice talking to districts and recruiters, but other than that it wasn’t super productive since most districts were not focusing on hiring elementary teachers this early, and they wanted to spend most of their time talking to secondary teachers or special education teachers. However, while I was at the job fair I noticed there were not a lot of very young teachers (just out of college or 1-2 years of experience) compared to teachers that had a lot more experience. I know that school districts hire teachers with a wide variety of experience every year, but it made me more self-conscious/nervous about finding a job for next year.

I know that I will put a lot of effort and caring into teaching my students, but I also know that as a first year teacher that I’m going to make a lot of mistakes. While all teachers go through that at some point, I’m having a hard time working on selling myself as the best candidate for a teaching job, when I don’t think that I’m necessarily the best candidate for that job. I don’t believe that I’m going to be a bad teacher, but I also know that there is a lot I don’t know and that I have a lot of areas that need improvement, which will come with experience.

Is anyone else a little anxious about finding a teaching job, when we are competing with candidates who have more experience that we do? How do you reassure yourself that this is something that every teacher goes through at some point?

Parents

Last week one of the students (Bob) that comes into our class during reading poked another student (Joe) with his pencil. Joe was fine and never complained to the teacher about this situation, even though many of the students still frequently tattle on others. However, Monday morning my mentor teacher had received an email from the parent saying that the other student assaulted Joe, and that Bob’s behavior could be considered violent bullying. She explained how she thought it was unacceptable “heathen” behavior, and that she would like the teacher to make sure that Bob would stay at least 3-6 feet away from her child for the rest of the year.

            I know that there are parents who have reactions like this, and this is a reality of being a teacher. My mentor teacher responded to the parent in a professional manner, talked to both of the students individually, and made sure that the administration was informed of the incident/parent response so that they were aware of the situation. I know that in my first teaching job, this would have made me feel very uncomfortable. I know that parents are going to question the way I handle my classroom, but I am still wondering how to prepare myself for those situations.

Substitues

Because of the snow days, students had to be present in school instead of intercession. My teacher already had a trip planned so was out for the three days. Although there was a substitute in the room, I was in charge of all aspects of the day including teaching, transitioning and management. Before my teacher left, we sat down and went over everything that I were to do/ teach for the next three days. She told me that she found it to be truly silly that a “substitute,” was more qualified than myself to be alone in a classroom. Although I am not yet certified, I have more of a relationship with the students than any substitute could have. I also am well aware of all aspects of the day and have already taught most of the lessons. This is also especially frustrating to me because the substitute assigned to my classroom did absolutely nothing to help me during the three days. Although I had it all under control, it would have been nice to have her help me with “crown control” at certain parts when the students started to misbehave. Because of this, I am really interested in the whole process of becoming a substitute and what is required. I think that substitutes should be held to higher standards so that the class is able to function properly without the head teacher. 

TCAP...

My main reason for writing this post is because I am curious how other teachers handle TCAP practice and addressing the TCAP in general… I think that my field mentors at both placements have handled it fine, but I would like to hear about other approaches because I don’t particularly feel like I would feel comfortable addressing standardized testing exactly as I have seen.
This week, my third graders completed and reviewed a full TCAP practice test. On Monday and Wednesday mornings for two hours, they Parts 1 and 2, respectively, of the ELA and Math portions. Then, for about an hour and a half on Tuesday and Thursday mornings the students reviewed the entire tests. My mentor teacher gathered the data ahead of time so that she knew which questions gave the most students problems, but still all of the questions were reviewed. In addition to this full practice test, she has the students complete spiral review daily math and language exercises every morning when they arrive in the classroom. Also, for all of their textbooks, she always has them complete the TCAP practice questions if they are available—usually one every few pages.
In terms of how she discusses the test with students, she is more brash than I would be with elementary students, especially in 3rd grade when this is their first year taking the test. For example, in one instance this week she used it to talk about their ability to move forward into 4th grade next year. She told them that attendance, grades and their TCAP scores would affect whether or not they could continue in fourth grade next year. In the same vein, at another point she had the students raise their hand if they were hoping to go to a Magnet school at some point. After that, she said, “Well, you’ll need to do really well on the TCAP then!” That certainly got their attention and I think that it will be a motivating comment for a few of the students. However, for the whole class, I didn’t feel quite as comfortable with that statement.
I understand that these tests are high-stakes for both teachers and students, I really do. Also, I understand that I probably won’t be as idealistic about approaches to standardized testing once they affect me and my classroom more directly. At the same time, have any of you seen teachers who approach the test with students in a more meaningful and authentic way? I would love to have more ideas to pull from before I’m figuring out how to approach it on my own!

The IEP Process

Yesterday, I was included on an S team meeting for one of my students. This student is gifted but was diagnosed with dyslexia. Many different people were present in the meeting such as the parents, the gen ed teacher, the special education teacher, the RTI teacher, the school psychologist, metro legal and a couple more. It was extremely interesting and frustrating to be able to observe the meeting. Because of the RTI system in place, it is essentially impossible for my student to be granted an IEP. She would need to be moved down to tier 3 and be considered failing at that level in order to be offered an IEP. However, my student is gifted in some areas and does not belong in tier 3. But, she still does need services such as the Wilson reading program in order to help her dyslexia. My classroom teacher explains that she is frustrated and sad for the student because she does not know how to help her. I understand that the school is unable to offer the student an IEP because of legal issues, but there must be some other way to allow her to have access to the services that she needs. The RTI process is supposed to identify students with specific disabilities and learning needs. However, we already know that this student has a serious problem and needs support. Because I am not a Special Education student, I feel that I have very little knowledge or background within this area of the IEP process. This situation especially, makes me want to learn more so that I can be knowledgable and updated in the future in my own classroom. 

Setting Up Classroom Procedures

I have never before seen such a structured classroom when it comes to class rules and procedures. Very early on in my placement, I commented to my field mentor that I was extremely impressed with the students’ behavior and consistency as well as them always seeming to know exactly what she expected for each of her activities, academic and otherwise. She told me that if she could only give me one piece of advice she would encourage me that investing 10-15 minutes every day of the first month will pay off big time throughout the rest of the year. She said that even though it seems like A LOT of time then it is worth the investment in that it leads to[‘ far more structured and efficient learning time during the remainder of the year.

Additionally, she gave the students tangible incentives for learning the procedures and rules of
her classroom. She treated each of the procedures like a standard that the students had to “master.” Each of these had to be mastered by the class in order for them to move on to the next step, or another procedure. She even had a visual – a poster that she displayed in her class called “Our Class Journey to the Peach.” About a month into the school year, a third grade field trip was scheduled to go see a play version of James and the Giant Peach. So, she had a picture of her classroom and then “steps” to get to the play, a picture of the book cover. The students got to fill in one of the “steps” every time that they demonstrated mastery of one of  her class procedures.

She has laminated procedure posters/anchor charts for the following (titled as written below):
- Centers Procedures
- Before You Turn in Your Work
- Procedures for Checking Papers
- Procedures with Other Adults (P.E., Music, Library, Field Trips, Dismissal, Lunch, Computer)
- Hall Procedures
- Restroom Procedures
- Morning Procedures
- Breakfast Procedures
- Café Coordinator Responsibilities (*this is one of the classroom jobs, but there were procedures for each of the other classroom jobs as well)
- Cafeteria Procedures
- Communicator Procedures (*the communicator is the folder that goes home with them every day for their parents to check)
- Teaching Time Procedures
- Working Time Procedures
- Titling Assignments

I personally am overwhelmed by the effort and organization that went into her development of this system, but I can also say that it works!! Her classroom is always in ship-shape order and the students are very rarely confused with what they should be doing, even when she hasn’t given them any directions. I know that this is a system that took her many years to perfect, but I am certainly going to try to establish something similar in my own classroom in the future because I can tell that it goes a long way!

Has anyone else seen an effective way of setting up classroom procedures and rules?

Another Classroom Set-up

Another placement, another classroom layout. During the first week of placement I again thought about how I might arrange the classroom. My teacher's layout is really good--space for students to walk, space for groups, space for independent work, space for whole group. But, I enjoyed imagining a whole new layout.

Here is the general classroom layout. I paid special attention to make multiple spaces to work which I could clearly see from the guided reading table. This would make centers better for classroom management. I also wanted a place where we were together as a class--this is shown both in the large carpet and in the arrangement of the main desks and teacher's desk.

As you may notice, I somewhat blatantly ignored the good advice about classroom pets. However, consider this plan a 9 years down the road ideal classroom layout. The carpets themselves would be too expensive to have, much less multiple class pets. 

I thought it might be nice to have hedgehog pillows in the library, such as one of these.

And maybe a hedgehog stuffed animal to go with that theme.

And then above the long bookshelf of the library I could hang a picture of a forest. And on the extra whiteboard space on the wall with the smartboard I could ask one of my friends to do dry erase marker art of treehouses. 

So that was my fun thoughts from the first couple weeks of placement. Again, I'd love to hear about your classroom dreams and visions--whether specific to the classroom you're currently in or some thoughts for the potential future. 

Behavior Systems

I feel like every classroom behavior system I've seen has serious pros and cons.

In my first placement, my FM used Class Dojo, which I actually loved. For anyone who doesn't know about Dojo, it's a website and iPhone app through which you can give and take points from students. the fact that there is an app is really handy because you don't have to be in the classroom to have them clip up/clip down or anything like that. It also keeps track of WHAT they're getting and losing points for (you have to select "no homework" "helping others" "talking out of turn" "perseverance" or whatever; the teacher can choose which options they want). Dojo keeps track of the percentage of students' points that are positive and negative (our class needed 70% positive each week to participate in "Fun Friday"), and it keeps track of how many positive vs. negative points the teacher is giving (so the teacher can notice like, "Wow, I've taken lots of points today, maybe I should look for more positive behavior."). Also, you could select more than one student or even the full class if you wanted to give/take points from several students for the same thing. One of the best things about Dojo, in my opinion, is that parents can make accounts through the website, so they can easily see how their child is doing behaviorally. Overall, I thought Class Dojo worked really well for that class.

However, although the app feature is really handy, I really didn't like using my phone in front of students. I also didn't like that the students had to ask me to see their percentages every time they wanted to know how they were doing (rather than just looking at a behavior chart on the wall or something). And, although I think it's awesome that parents can make accounts, many of the students didn't have computers at home, which seriously limited the number of parents who could make accounts. Even if they had computers, that didn't mean the parents would necessarily choose to create accounts. This feature would probably be more effective at a school that already had lots of parent involvement.

My new placement, which is in kindergarten, uses the traditional clip up/clip down system. I know everyone's familiar with this one so to quickly summarize my opinions...

• Pros: easy for students to see how they're doing; students clip themselves up and down (I think this is important, rather than the teacher doing it)
• Cons: not portable (there is a clipboard that goes to lunch and specials with them, but my FM doesn't make students clip down in the classroom if they get clipped down somewhere else); I feel bad when students have to clip down in front of everyone else :(; the students take home a calendar that says what color they were on at the end of each day, but that doesn't show parents why they were on that color 

I'm sure there are more pros and cons that I'm not thinking of, but that's my short list!

What are the most effective behavior systems y'all have seen in your placements? (practicums too!) How do your FMs reward/motivate good behavior? How do they handle discipline? Do you know what kind of system you want to use in your own classroom?

Positivity

            I’m so excited to be at my new placement, especially after our first observation day on Friday! My last placement was going through a hard time with teacher changes, standards transitions, and more students than usual, so a lot of the teachers were stressed and overwhelmed. This led to more negative thoughts than normal for those teachers. While I never felt overwhelmed by any negativity at that placement, I’m so excited to see how positive everyone is at my new placement. My teacher was very welcoming, as was the rest of the second grade team. She introduced me to a lot of people at the school, and the administration and staff were also very welcoming. All of the teachers plan together and are interested in each other as people, not just as colleagues.

            I’m also excited to be in an elementary school. Over the last few months, I found out that I liked middle school a lot more than I thought I would, and I would even consider teaching in a middle school if that were where there was a job available. However, after spending some time in elementary school, I realize how much I love working with younger children, especially in a self-contained classroom. Teachers are able to create deeper relationships with their students because they spend all day together. The level of trust is a lot higher in these classrooms. I realize that these teachers have been working all year on creating a welcoming and safe environment for the students to get to this level, but I can’t wait to learn about how they created that environment. I’m just really excited to work with younger students in such a positive environment.