The Wind Beneath Our Wings

Day 7 Blogging Challenge

Who was or is your most inspirational colleague, and why?

Jamie & Meg-
This is very hard question for us to answer as we have worked with many wonderful people during our careers.  So we don't want to sound hokey, but we are going to pick each other.   We are each other's sounding board, motivator, co-author/presenter/teacher, and confidant.  We have always been impressed with each other's work ethic, and we keep each other energized and excited about education and teaching.

Visiting the Alamo after presenting
at the International Reading Association's
annual conference.

Almost eight years ago, the two of us began a journey together to put together a presentation to present at the Illinois Reading Council's annual conference (IRC) in Springfield, IL, based on a research topic we were both exploring for our respective master's degree programs.  Little did we know that it would turn into not just one conference presentation, but several other local, state, national, and international conferences.  We would also take on co-authoring our book Literacy Lessons for a Digital World based on the presentation we had put together.  To top it off, we also co-teach a graduate level class together at Judson University in Elgin, IL, on digital literacy for their Masters of Education in Literacy Program.  Simply put, we can't imagine having a better working partner.  To quote Bette Midler, we truly feel the other is the "Wind Beneath My Wings."  We seriously cannot imagine accomplishing all that we have without each other!

What's in a Mentor?

Day 6:
Explain: What does a good mentor "do"?

Meg-
Today's prompt is so appropriate for me since I have a student teacher this year.  Similarly, I have just embarked upon a two year journey to obtain my Master of Education in Educational Administration and Leadership from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's school of Educational Leadership and Organizational Policy, so I will certainly be thinking and reading a lot about this topic. To avoid writing an entire philosophy on educational leadership, I will stick with the basics.  A good mentor certainly models best practices.  The mentor communicates thoughts that lead to decision making and welcomes questions that may arise from the mentee throughout the process.  A good mentor constantly engages in probing conversations to make the mentee think and ponder for him/herself, similarly to how a good teacher questions students to make the students think rather than simply handing over all the answers.

Reflection is the key.

Most importantly, a good mentor models reflection.  Whether this is a mentor teacher or a mentor in another field, being a reflective practitioner is what makes someone rise above the rest.  A mentor knows this and models this process so others can learn this as well.
Jamie-In my 21 years of teaching, I have taken on the role as mentor many times--officially and unofficially. I seem to possess the personality that makes me a person to whom many feel comfortable talking to and seeking advice from, which can make it very hard for me to get my own work done at school. So, I practice patience very often.  I don't really mind!  I had so many wonderful mentors when I started my teaching career. I feel it is my duty to now offer my wisdom to others.

With that said,  I think what Meg said in her response to the prompt above about being a model is a key factor.  To be a good mentor, you must lead by example.  When I think back to the teachers who were my mentors, I think I also appreciated someone who took the time to be a good listener as well.   A good mentor should listen and guide the mentee in the right direction, but also allow for their mentee to make mistakes.  After all, mistakes are the basis for true learning. Finally, I think a good mentor is a confidante and friend.   A person who helps you to see the humor in mistakes and someone who grows along with you--right?

Our Classrooms: A Work in Progress

Blogging Challenge Day 5:

Post a pic of your classroom, and describe what you see--and what you don't see that you'd like to.

Mrs. Diamond's classroom

 Jamie-
I see a classroom in the early stages of development. It is after all the beginning of the school year--right? There isn't a ton hanging on the walls, but there is a reason for this.  I am not one of those teachers who builds the classroom for my students.  I like to build my classroom with my students.  For example, the yellow square on my backboard is my word wall  that a student in my class helped me build.  The faint sketch of two stick people are examples of me and my co-teacher writing with our students during a brainstorming sessions to generate a list of things of interest to us.  In the second picture you can see my classroom door is filled with "Tweets" my students created about their reading over Labor Day weekend.  I also see books, and places for my students to get comfy and read.  Now for what I don't see!  I don't see a room that is set-up for easy collaboration amongst my students.  I also don't see a room that is user-friendly for technology.  By this I mean, I'd like to have charging stations for my students to easily charge their Netbooks.  One last thing I don't see is a place for me to keep things in storage.  I hate that there is a huge pile of boxes back in the corner of my room cluttering up my classroom library.  I'd like to find a way to organize this and get that stuff out of sight.  And, true confessions time...my desk area is always kind of a mess--organized chaos.
Meg-

Mrs. Knapik's classroom

Welcome to my sixth grade math classroom! What I see when I walk in the room is an inviting space full of color and math-related resources. From the place value poster above the dry-erase board to the math Word Wall, I want my students to be immersed in math when they enter my room. I also see a space that values literacy. Despite the fact that this is a math classroom, I have a class library and reading area where my "Hot Reads" is displayed, and our Word Wall highlights math vocabulary. I also see a variety of resources to help students be more self-sufficient learners, like the class calendar with daily homework assignments, a supply station for students who may have forgotten something (no more wasting time to get a pencil from a locker!), and the objectives posted on the dry erase board. Collaboration is also valued in my classroom since, for the first time, I have ditched the separate desks and am trying out tables. What is still missing from my classroom is an abundance of displayed student work. While I do have some student-created vocabulary posters posted on the Word Wall, you can see the red bulletin board is still empty (and as much as I would like to claim credit, the student maps hanging from the ceiling are from the Social Studies teacher who shares my room). The student work will come as we look to wrap up our first unit in a few weeks, so stay tuned...

Teachers, what are your favorite features of your own classroom?  Anything your classroom is still missing?

Love the Most

Blogging Challenge Day 4

What do you love the most about teaching?

Jamie-The single best thing about teaching is absolutely having the privilege of working with middle school students each and every day.  I love to grow readers and writers in my classroom.  There is no better feeling in the world then making a student believe in themselves.  Every year I tell my students how I was once a reluctant reader and how I found reading to be very difficult.  Then I explain that each year is a fresh start, and if they allow me, I can help them to discover the path to being a reader (and writer, too).  I am a big fan of Nancy Atwell and use many of her teaching strategies from The Reading Zone.  Early in the school year, I tell students that they can read any book of their choice for independent reading--no worry about Lexile level.  Students should read voraciously books of their choosing.  I allow students to re-read favorites from past years.  Also, I tell students they can skip pages or chapters if their not into the book.  We discuss how to abandon books, and how to choose the "right" books.  My students and I talk about books like most people talk about television shows and movies.  We write book reviews, produce book trailers, and record podcasts about what we are reading.  At the end of the year, I love the satisfaction of seeing their faces when they self-evaluate their reading by totaling up the number of books and pages read.  Smiles all around! I know I don't change the minds of all, but I do know they leave my class having enjoyed reading at least a little bit more...at least that is what my students have told me over the years in their exit letters to me. 

Meg- Like Jamie, what I love about teaching is the enthusiasm, quirks, and antics of my middle school students.  Not a day goes by in my classroom that I don't laugh with at least one (and usually many more) students, and I generally have hilarious anecdotes to share with my husband every night.  I still remember clearly the student in my first year of teaching who asked to go to the bathroom, and when I looked up at him I saw he had drawn cat whiskers on himself in Sharpie marker.  This year one of my most enjoyable students may be the one who, upon going through role call on the first day of school, requested I call him "the doctor" in a very thick British accent (and no, he wasn't actually British).  I often think I should write my own version of Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul as an anthology of all my favorite middle school student encounters.  While we know teaching critical thinking and problem solving skills are important, the relationships we form with our students are of equal importance to their confidence and social-emotional health.  The kids are the ones who help me remember this each and every day.

Teacher Evaluation Goal

Day 3 Blogging Challenge:

Discuss one "observation" area that you would like to improve on for your teacher evaluation.

Jamie-
One goal I have this year, connected to our district's teacher evaluation rubric,
is found under the Professional Responsibilities Domain. I would like to work on increasing the amount of communication I have with parents. I believe I do a good job of posting grades on our web-based grading system, I keep up with my website, and email parents when students are struggling academically or emotionally.  However, I want to get better at sending home positive email/notes to parents when their child is doing well. I used to do this when I taught 6th grade, and I got away from it when I moved up a grade to teach 7th grade English.
I think it is important to celebrate the positives.

Also, I would like to be more consistent about sending home "homework alerts" via email before a big assignment/assessment might be due.  I know that parents have busy schedules, and they might appreciate a quick email alert instead of having to check my website. Hmm...maybe I could even use Twitter?

Meg-
As I mentioned in our first post of the 30 day teacher challenge, one of my goals is to put structures in place to help my sixth graders become more self-sufficient. This also means I need to help students become better at self-monitoring their progress. I have grown leaps and bounds in the realm of using formative assessment over the course of my teaching career as a means for informing my instruction and interventions. However, when I recently read chapter one from the book Advancing Formative Assessment by Susan M. Brookhart and Connie M. Moss I was immediately struck with a realization that I don't put as much emphasis on creating a partnership with my students in these formative assessments. One of the goals on our observation rubric refers to helping our students be self-directed learners. By creating a partnership mentality with my students throughout all formative assessments, they will become more aware of their progress and hopefully more motivated to continue to improve.

New EdTech Goodies

Day two in the 30 day teacher blogging challenge:

Write about one piece of technology that you would like to try this year, and why. You might also write about what you’re hoping to see out of this edtech integration.

Meg - My sixth grade students are piloting iPads this year, yippee!  This truly is exciting, but as much as I consider myself pretty edtech savvy, I really do not have a lot of experiences with iPad apps for education because, well, my students have never had iPads to use before.  I hope to learn about a plethora of iPad apps that I can have my students use to share their learning with me, their peers, and the world.  I have already created a new YouTube channel for my class with the hopes that we will have a bunch of helpful math videos to upload and share with the world.

Jamie - As I start the year, I would like to try using QR codes.  My English students currently create book reviews and/or book advertisements by making podcasts, book trailers, and print ads, so I was thinking it would be fun to use QR codes in conjunction with my classroom library. When students are perusing my library looking for their next book to read, they would be able to use the QR codes to listen, view, and/or read other students' recommendations.  I love that QR codes provide me with an authentic audience for my students and help me to build a community of readers. Can't wait to give this a try!

Challenge Accepted: the 30 Day Teacher Blogging Challenge

 

 

Taking the Challenge! Meg and I have decided to take the 30 Day Blogging Challenge posted by Te@chThought.com.  The challenge asks teachers to blog during the 30 days of September with the goal of becoming a more reflective teacher.  Each day a prompt is given to guide you in the blogging process.  It can’t get any easier than that, right?  So,  see the link below and join us in this great opportunity to become better at our craft--teaching!.

http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/reflective-teaching-30-day-blogging-challenge-teachers/#comments

Day 1 of the challenge:

Write your goals for the school year. Be as specific or abstract as you’d like to be!

Jamie-As I start my 21st year in the classroom, I continue to struggle with implementing the readers and writers workshop philosophy into my middle school English classroom.  Trying to fit time to teach mini-lessons, for students to write, and me to conference all in a 45 minute class period can be very difficult.   It is also very hard to maintain conferences over 5 class periods with over a 100 students. So, this is definitely something I am working on improving.  Secondly, I want to work on being more consistent in maintaining my word wall.  I always start off strong, and then by mid-year I taper off. One last goal would be to also work on maintaining my “Bell Ringers”.  I love to have something for students to complete as they enter my classroom.  However, once again, I start the year off strong with fun and interesting prompts, and then it somehow dwindles.  If I could improve on these three things, it would be quite an accomplishments.  Here’s to another year of trying!

Meg-I have transitioned back to teaching sixth grade this year, and in just the two short years of teaching eighth grade it was easy for me to forget how many differences there are between these two ages of students! In light of this, one of my goals is to provide structures for my sixth grade students that will promote self-sufficiency. In order to do that, I am attempting to use my class website a bit differently this year than I have in the past. The sixth graders are piloting iPads, and I want them to use these iPads to help them self-start at the beginning of class. As a part of our daily routine, I am having the students first go to my class website on their iPad where they will find the supplies needed for class, the essential questions for the day, directions for stations (if we are doing stations that day in class), as well as the homework assignment for the night. Hopefully this will be a helpful resource that will support students in being more self sufficient. Another goal of mine, similar to Jamie's, is maintaining consistency with using a math workshop approach in my classroom. Although it may not be something I use every day, I do want to use this model on a regular basis to provide a good balance of instruction, remediation, and independent work time that is more tailored to the needs of each student.