Which resources to invest in?

I don't know about y'all, but I already have a HUGE list of resources for my classroom that I want to invest in. I started this list freshman year, but in my new placement I have recently been adding a lot of ideas/materials to the list. Now that we're graduating and our own classrooms aren't so far away (eek!), I am starting to really wonder which things are most important to invest in from the get go--books for my classroom library, posters/displays, flashcards, center games, guided reading materials, and SO much more.

I know that my resources and materials will grow over time, but I definitely don't want to feel like I don't have enough supporting materials for my future students and that yearly classroom budgets for supplies are pretty limited. I am definitely going to ask for gift cards to parent-teacher stores for future gifts!

But beyond that, have your teachers given you any tips for materials/resources? Here are a few from my current field mentor:

- the company Really Good Stuff actually has really good stuff!
- subscribe to Scholastic as a teacher now--you don't have to prove that you are one, and you will be tax-exempt and get free shipping and special deals on books
- ask teachers if they have the templates for any of their home-made materials still saved on their computer and have them send those to you! (she's already come up with a few materials in her classroom that we are going to copy for me before I leave)

"Old School" Teachers

My field mentor is in her 25th year working in MNPS. She’s taught in grades 1, 2 and 3 during her time as a teacher. Because she is older and has been teaching for a very long time, obviously she has seen many changes in the way things are done and the theories about instruction and learning. However, many of her learning activities and much of her style of teaching is pretty “old school.” For example, she does weekly "mad minute" tests in math for times tables, etc. I have also noticed that many of her resources are quite antiquated--many of them were published in the 80s and some aren't even in print anymore.  

Also, she uses candy as a reward for correct answers and good behavior all  the time! I've never seen anything like that before. One time I see this a lot is in her RTI group. she has the students go through sight words or phrases on notecards. When a student gets one right, he/she gets to keep it. Then, at the end of the stack of notecards, they each count their cards and get that many m&ms. Also, students who get all of their daily math or language work correct, she gives them a bigger piece of candy from her "treat jar." She uses the "treat jar" occasionally for good behavior too. Similarly, she has a time out desk that she uses for students who have had to "clip down" a certain number of times in a day. 

Don't get me wrong--my field mentor is great! She's an incredibly effective teacher and has flawless command over her classroom. It's interesting to see though, because I feel like everything I am seeing academically/instructionally is so different than the modern approaches that we have learned at Peabody. I'm interested to see how the students react to my different style once I start teaching more lessons.  

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Starting the second placements!

One day into my second placement, and I could already tell it was going to be a completely different experience than my first placement. The school culture is very different, especially because the school is way larger than my other school was. I'm excited to get to know another school! I've met a bunch of the other teachers so far, and I'm nervous I'm not going to remember enough names since there's so many of them! That wasn't as much of an issue at Lockeland, since the whole staff is about 20 people. It's fun having a lot of teachers who are excited to meet the student teachers and help us get to know the school. 

It's also super different being in a first grade class after being in a departmentalized fourth grade class. Spending the whole day with the same group is an awesome opportunity to get to know the students, especially since they're so young and all over the place! I also found it funny how direct the classroom is at this age, both on the part of the students and the teacher. When one girl was bothering a table mate, my mentor teacher simply said, "Are you being polite?" And the girl said "No!" And that solved the problem instantly. It's a completely different management  style than an older grade, and I'm slowly but surely getting used to all of it. They also respond really well to music, so there is a lot of music in my classroom, especially during transitions. There was music in my first classroom, but not during transitions and it played a different role in the lessons. I'm excited to see some of the other big differences between first and fourth grade!

Has anyone else noticed any huge changes? Does anyone have any advice as I start teaching in first grade? I hope you all are enjoying your placements as much as I am! :)

Deaf Education Students

                My 2^nd grade classroom at Eakin has 3 deaf students. 2 of the students are present throughout the entire day, while one only comes in during morning meeting and to transition into lunch and related arts. This student came to Eakin with no language whatsoever, so needs extra attention and instruction. However, the two other students are completely integrated into my second grade classroom. There is one interpreter that is present throughout the morning, and another in the afternoon. Although they receive this one-on-one special attention and support, the students are involved in the whole class. 
                 My mentor teacher is absolutely amazing and has a background in American Sign Language, allowing her to sign the majority of her instruction while she teaches. Additionally, she has taught the entire class important words and phrases in American Sign Language. I am extremely impressed and in awe of this. All of the students sign the pledge of allegiance and school pledge. As the students go over the important aspects of the calendar each morning, the students repeat and sign the date, date of the week, month and year. Also, during word study, the students work on signing the words with finger spelling. I am extremely excited and happy to be able to experience this. I feel that this is such a beneficial situation for both the deaf students and the rest of the class. The deaf students are welcomed and feel comfortable, as the rest of the class uses their language throughout he day. The rest of the class is exposed to a new language and culture, and also is able to receive a physical and tactile representation of words and concepts. 
               Luckily, I took American Sign Language briefly for a year in High school. I know how to sign the alphabet and some important phrases. However, I am determined to learn more phrases and words in order to communicate with the students and to include certain words during my lessons so I can differentiate properly for them. 

Hickman Here I Come!

I am so sad to be moving on from my first placement into my second--I love my kids!  I love my mentor teacher!  I love teaching full-time!  Alas, I know that all of that is preaching to the choir.

Regardless, I am simultaneously excited to start my new placement at Hickman.  Dr. Henrie has told me wonderful things about my new mentor teacher which make me so excited to meet him.  First of all, he is a male kindergarten teacher--that is something you don't see every day!  Also, he is apparently unconventional in his teaching methods and even brings his guitar to school.  That is perfect for me, given that I spent much of my previous placement singing "eyes on me" to my students.

Additionally, I sent my mentor teacher my introductory letter and he responded with greater engagement than I had ever anticipated.  He not only read my resume but also referenced how my skills could be beneficial in his classroom.  He assuaged my fears about never having taught Kindergarten before AND he gave me exact directions to his classroom, including where to park and who to speak to in the school office.  His attention to detail has me incredibly excited for this upcoming placement--I think I am going to learn so much.

That being said, I was wondering if any of you who were at Hickman during this first placement had any insights or suggestions before I go there at the end of this week?  Is there anything you can tell me about what I should anticipate?  I know that none of you were in Kindergarten at Hickman, but I already consider you experts on the school. :)

Unavoidable Religion

Something I have been noticing over the course of the semester is that my class was surprisingly Christian-oriented for such a diverse group of students.  One of the main things that brought this to my attention was how nearly every morning message discussion we had circled back to Jesus and God.  From the first day I took over morning meeting, I tried to use that time as an outlet for students to express themselves kindly and learn respect for one another.  They rarely have time to talk during school and I wanted them to be able to open up to me and their classmates without fear of shushing or punishment.

The first day that God was brought up during morning meeting was easy to avoid because only one student had mentioned it.  I simply went on to the next student who was telling me about his weekend.  However, over time, the discussions became more and more detailed until the day when my students were discussing whether or not Jesus died for our sins.  My mentor teacher never stepped in to break up the conversation, which made me feel like maybe I was overreacting.

That being said, I had always heard that teachers are not supposed to advocate their beliefs to their students because it might appear to be preaching or giving undue influence.  I did not want to be caught in that situation even though I am proudly Christian.  I agreed with what many of my students said and wanted to correct things that they had misunderstood from the Bible.  Instead, I found myself consistently saying: "some people believe that..."  After the discussion about Jesus dying for our sins, one of my students came up to me in the hallway and asked if I was a Christian and believed in God.  I told him yes because I didn't want to lie and then told him that I didn't want to talk about it in depth because I didn't want anyone to feel that their personal beliefs were unwelcome in our classroom.

After that, the topic didn't come up again, but I started wondering what I would do in this situation in my future classroom.  Legally, what are my obligations as a public schoolteacher?  How can I share my life with my students without sharing information about what I believe?  How can I try not to influence my students' beliefs when sharing my own?  Oftentimes students model their thoughts and opinions after their teachers and I never want to be told by angry parents that I am indoctrinating their kids.  So, I am continuing to puzzle over this.  Have any of you encountered religion-based issues thus far in your placements?  If so, what have you done to deal with them?

To grade or not to grade

Hello, everyone!  This past week I spent almost the entirety of one of my snow days grading student work.  Granted, I had not realized how much of it had piled up, but still; it took me around five hours!  All of that time I spent assessing had me thinking about how much my teacher wants grades for little-taught subjects like science and social studies.  Two easy quiz grades often make up my students' entire semester grade for science.  The time I spent grading also had me thinking about how Metro encourages their teachers to grade and I wanted to pose some questions that were persisting in my mind.

First of all, part of the reason it took me so long to grade my students' work was that I was assessing them using a rubric that had several components to it.  I spent a great deal of time reading through their work, analyzing how much they actually understood about fractions, and trying to fit their responses into my rubric's scale.  At times, I felt that I was being overly punitive because some of the students who worked hard received a low score.  At first glance, anyone would think that their work was better than that of their peers.  But, based on the rubric I created, they scored poorly because they  had omitted important features.  I know that we have read many articles about the benefits of performance assessments, but do you have any ideas for how we could shorten grading time required?  Additionally, do you have any suggestions for how to remove the nitpicking tendency of rubrics without creating an overly-subjective grading system?

In the same vein, I have been frustrated throughout my placement by the scaling breakdown my teacher (and all of Metro) uses.  It seems perfectly fair when you first examine the breakdown:
F - 0%-59%
D - 60%-69%
C - 70%-79%
B - 80%-89%
A - 90% +

However, when the students are given short quizzes with ten or fewer questions, it soon becomes impossible to give fair grades with this percentage-letter correlation.  I gave a few quizzes with 5-8 questions on them because I did not want to take too much of my students time.  However, if a student missed one question on a five-question quiz, they are automatically reduced to a B.  If they miss two, they are downgraded to a D.  D and lower is failing.  So if they make two mistakes, they've failed.  How is that justified or fair?  And how can I justify giving my students longer and more emotionally taxing tests just so that they have a better chance of grading higher?

My last question about grading is based on something that my teacher told me.  She said that the special education teacher forbade them from giving failing grades to their students with learning disabilities.  However, if the students do not have much of a differentiated IEP (e.g. one of my students just requires extra time and things read aloud to her) and they are failing because of their learning disability, how do you justify that in your grading?  I already have a hard enough time giving ten-year-olds a failing grade, but how can you radically alter your grading parameters for special needs students without feeling like you are downgrading your other students?  I know that we need to provide equitable education, but I am a loss to see how that relates directly to grading and students' input of effort.