The ability to have a student teacher has led me to reflect on my teaching pedagogy, my relationships with my students, where I see successes in my career and most importantly where I want to grow. This is my first experience that I've had being a mentor to a student teacher and I am truly enjoying it. Having an extra body in the classroom to shoot ideas off of, team teaching, to nod your head at each other, to chime in when I have a connection/idea (but don't feel like I'm stepping on toes), to want to come to work in the morning and the renewed excitement of loving what I do. This experience has also given me time to reflect on things that I want to do better.
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All week I've been debating how I would approach International Women's Day, with my class. At first I thought that I would read them a book about an inspiring women. But then last night on Facebook I saw a video from Rebel Girls on The Ugly Truth of Children's Books www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1Jbd4-fPOE&app=desktop I'm sure a lot of you have seen this video before. A short summary is that this video shows a mom and her daughter doing an experiment at a bookstore. Removing all books that had zero female characters, female characters that don't speak, and books about princesses. While watching the video, I read the headings out loud to my students and paused for clarification and to read the statistics that were captioned at the bottom of the screen. There were a lot of sighs and shocking sounds coming from my kids. After the video I asked them, how the video made them feel? One of my male students' hands shot up right away, he stated in disbelief that it made him feel "weird." Other students remarked, "not fair to girls," "rude that people think girls cannot do the same things as boys," "sad," "strange because there are more girls then boys in the world." The conversation & discussions that followed were passioned and valuable. Many students added onto other students points, questions were raised. Even thought I didn't get to read the book I intended to follow the video with nor did my students have a chance to write about their thoughts, questions or ideas. We had a powerful day! So proud to do what I do on a daily basis! What did you do today for International Women's Day? Join me on this 31 day journey for the month of March with twowritingteachers.org and their 10th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge. #sol17 Today we had a guest speaker from our board, an Audiologist talk to my students about hearing, hearing impairment and the ear. It's funny how one forgets how important it can be to have experts in the classroom. My active class who tend to not spend too much time on the carpet engaged, were throughly mesmerized for 45 minutes. Likewise, my student teacher and I were engrossed, taking multiple pages of notes.
It was incredible to see the deep background knowledge many of my students had through asking questions & sharing stories. Similarly, many students who don't participate regularly did so insightfully, I could barely keep up writing anecdotal notes. Some of the questions that they raised were:
The respect and professionalism my students had for our guest speaker moved me. They gently, passed the microphone around to each other when asking her questions. Bringing an expert into the classroom brought much more depth to the topic then I ever would have. One of my goals as an educator is to have more real world connections to my classroom through experts, place based learning, connections to the community and greater community. What are ways that you get experts into your classroom? How do you link your school with the community? Join me on this 31 day journey for the month of March with twowritingteachers.org and their 10th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge. #sol17
Reading Rut
I want to read. I try to read, but I can't. No books seem to grab my interest. I ask everyone I know for recommendations. I'm forcing myself to read but failing. Having a discussion the other week about literacy and what it looks like in our lives, a colleague of mine mentioned that his children said that he doesn't read. On the outside it may look like that to his children. His wife had to explain that although Daddy may not have a lot of traditional mediums around such as books, that he reads all day long for his job, and also reads at home in different capacities such as online, newspapers, sports apps, etc. In actuality his is a voracious reader. This conversation helped me realize, that I may be doing more reading then I thought I was: online articles, Facebook, Twitter, reading aloud to my students on a daily basis, emails, texts... However, I still feel that I am reading for life, not necessarily for pleasure. Don't get me wrong I find deep delight in my life and career and what I consume to deepen my knowledge. But that is not enough. When I was in University I was assigned a ton of reading, that I felt guilty whenever I did try to read for enjoyment. Similarly, when I started teaching I did not seem to have the time to read since I was consumed with lesson planning. Recognizing that my reading life is passing me by, I wonder, did University and my career as an educator change my reading habits? Have they killed the reading out of me? I hope not. I believe that I need to make space in my life and set aside time to read what I want. Technology and the act of changing my reading habits has elicited a difficulty to stop and be mindful. To shut out the chaos of life and get lost in another world. In class during independent reading, I was reading with a student when another student started laughing. A few minutes later, he was laughing again. The joy that had come out of his laugh engulfed the entire classroom and struck a chord with me. I had to tell the class that what they were hearing was one of the most beautiful feelings in the world. To have a book take you to a place that makes you laugh out loud is unique. It immediately, reminded me of the first time I laughed out loud to a book. I remember it vividly, I was on the bus, reading Wonderland Avenue by Danny Sugarman and I started laughing uncontrollably that I didn't even notice at first the people looking at me or even where I was. I hadn't done that before or at least not in public and that joyful feeling still resonates with me today. That is what is missing in my reading world. I am tempted to actually read Harry Potter (yes I know, who hasn't read Harry Potter, let alone an educator) after hearing my students complete enjoyment and how he has devoured the series in less than 6 months, not bad for a grade 3er. But for now, just like so many things in life that we allow to slide. I am going to start small and set aside manageable increments of time to read with the hope that I'll find that book that I don't want to put down. Wish me luck. The Arts
Art is a vital part of my life. I am drawn to many forms: museums, galleries, street art, paintings, theatre, opera, music, books & many others that I haven't listed. I'm not exactly sure how art became so important to me. Art was not necessarily at the forefront of my childhood. However, I was enrolled in dance, my dad is an artist, yet I wasn't truly artistic. I am an art lover. As as an adult I realize that art is essential to my survival as a human being. Art makes me happy. It allows me to explore ideas in ways that I couldn't imagine. Art gives me the permission to be curious & challenges me. At times it feels home to me. At other times it is a journey, an escape into the unknown. Art moves me. My musing on a new habit in my life: The Laundry Mat
Inconvenient some may say Takes too much time But I say it is an exercise in mindfulness Time away from the distractions of home A community within a community Quiet, laps of water humming around Time to read, write, grade Time away from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, emails Maybe I'll keep this weekly pocket of solitude and not fix my washing machine. Thankful
I am thankful for the students, who inspire me, challenge me, make me laugh and brighten my day. I am thankful for my past colleagues, who send me emails of things I may find useful and better yet have chats over beverages. I am thankful for my student teacher, who asks me reflective questions that push my thinking forward. I am thankful for the new relationships I've made in a new school, for the openness and connection to create engaging environments. I am thankful to have found kindred spirits who challenge and expose me to intriguing concepts and ideas. I am thankful for my friends who put up with my constant queries and tales of my teaching life. I am thankful that I have found a career that keeps me on my toes and allows me to shine. I am thankful for my lover who gives me the space to delve into what I need to do, whatever that may be. I am thankful. My Brain as a Teacher. . .My students need to finish their fairy tales. I need more coffee. I haven't seen so and so for two days. Am I doing enough? My house is a disaster. I'm buzzing, my feet hurt. Oh, I need to plan that social studies project. Am I preparing my students for the future that I know nothing about. What can I do to help so and so become successful? Am I doing too much? Why can't I sleep.... That was a glimpse into a part of my daily mind as a teacher. At my school our School Development Plan (SDP) is about writing. I am also a part of a Literacy Cohort in my school board that is exploring the concept of literacy across the disciplines and as a whole. There is a lot of talk about literacy (or whatever the flavour may be; Makerspace, STEAM, Loose Parts, Outdoor ED, Inquiry, Student Engagement, The New Math...) yet at times we seem to be doing everything yet nothing at the same time. Is this possible? I'm taking this writing challenge to give me the opportunity to live an authentic writing life. To give myself the time to reflect, muse, vent, plan, and create. Often we are so busy with the everyday mundane tasks that we don't give space to things that will make us better teachers, colleagues, friends, human beings. I'm hoping to make the impossible a bit more possible. I'm hoping that in my muddled mind I can find some clarity. Clarity in my practice as a teacher, as a learner, and as a passionate lover of life. Join me on this 31 day journey for the month of March with twowritingteachers.org/ and their 10th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge. #sol17 I've always wanted to have a way to document my ideas, thoughts and reflections as a teacher. Finally, I've been motivated to do so with the Slice of Life month long reflective writing challenge from Two Writing Teachers in March. I am taking the time to gather my jumbled ideas into one coherent post per day. As a teacher of writing across the disciplines I hope that this daily reflection will remind me what it is to be a writer as well as allow me to experiment with my own writing in order to find my own voice and better yet be an asset to my students writing lives. Wish me luck
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AuthorI am a grade 3/4 teacher in Calgary, AB, Canada. This is a space for my reflections as an educator. ArchivesCategories |