1. How did today differ from how I expected it to be?
2. What are the high points of the day?
3. What are the low points of the day?
4. What is one experience that caused me to grow today?
5. What am I excited about for tomorrow?
1. Bear with me, all my days are starting to run together so I forget what my expectations were for today. This week has been all about being flexible, because we haven't had a schedule all week. Last week they gave us a schedule for the whole week on Monday, so I could look at the next day and gauge my expectations. This week, no such luxury, so I've just been flying by the seat of my khaki pants. I don't really mind (even though I'm a West, and Wests are supposed to live for plans). So I guess I expected today to be a continuation of growth and breakthroughs and strengthening relationships and that's what today was.
2. High point at lunch, when a fair sized group of us were talking about weather (we were really getting deep, here, guys) and there were some of us from the north, and some who grew up in Texas or the South. It was hilarious to commiserate about running away from snow, or my very favorite weather forecast: Thunder Snow. One of my school team members shared at the final circle that she loved the conversation because she grew up in San Antonio and had never seen real amounts of snow before. She said it reminded her that some of us came a pretty long way to give a year of service to San Antonio schools. Pretty cool.
High point was meeting someone that I'll be working with this year at my school. She is the Communities in School director, which is a program that links social and community services to the local schools. She was with us today to give a presentation on mandatory reporting, or corps members' duties to report abuse or suspected abuse of students to higher authorities. It doesn't sound like a big, fun session, but going over different scenarios and what we would do was HUGE in preparing us for some of the situations that we'll end up in this year in our roles as near-peer tutors.
Another high point was talking about how to asset map our schools. Basically, that just means talking about all the good aspects of our school and how we can use that to our advantage as a corps. We started by describing a school we were familiar with to others at our table. I chose West Lafayette Jr./Sr. High School because that was the last school that I was in during my student teaching last semester. Talking about the school and the dynamics of it made me really miss my students! Most of them are starting college this week. Weird. They are old enough to be City Year corps members and are older than some of my fellow corps members. Weirder.
3. A low point was my general sleepiness today. I was dragging during our first session and participated a little less than usual throughout the day. Maybe no one else noticed, but I could tell that I wasn't completely on my game. Hopefully going to bed at 10 will help, because that is where I'm headed directly after posting this, no regrets.
Also, I am really missing Pat this week. He is doing a fantastic job in his second year as a Teach for America corps member in the Delta region. He teaches 7th grade Social Studies in Lexington, Mississippi, about 10 hours from here. Last year, the distance thing wasn't so hard because he had experienced Purdue and knew all my usual routines and familiar friends. This year, I'm experiencing and learning so much in an unfamiliar place and making so many friends without him! PLUS, he is getting recognized for being an excellent teacher and classroom manager and helping mentor first year corps members, and I wish I could be there with him to celebrate those victories. I know that this year will be worth the time apart, I'm just feeling it especially much right now. By the way, he has a Donors Choose page set up to help him provide the best learning environment for his students. I can't stress enough how LITTLE resources are available to these children and how much it helps them to have a supportive teacher like Pat, even just for one period a day. So let's support him! Click here to visit his page.
4. We had a session on how to effectively observe a classroom today, and we focused on low-inference observations. That means factual, quantifiable observations rather than value judgments or opinions about the class. As an educator who has observed and been observed several times, this is NOT what usually happens during an observation. It is SO easy, especially if one has educational experience, to pass judgement on how the teacher conducts the classroom. We infer so many things about why and how teachers are doing instead of focusing just on the what. One interesting this about the session was the fact that these low-inference measures (i.e. how long the teacher waits between questions, how often a concept is reviewed or repeated, how often one student is called on, etc) have a stronger correlation with success measures (i.e. test scores) than high-inference measures (i.e. how interesting the class is, how much the students seem to like the teacher).
Which is interesting, because I feel like educators and students always think that there has to be the intangible awesomeness vibe in a classroom for the teacher to be effective, but really, if they employ effective teaching methods most of the time (which is extremely hard to do, by the way), it doesn't matter if students think the class is a snooze, they will still learn. Now, I think to serve the whole child and to teach social skills as well as information, there need to be some intangibles. Also, I would never want to be described as a boring or disengaging teacher. EVER. But it's nice to know that there's more to teaching than entertaining, because I was beginning to wonder.
Just to go with that, I am excited to observe teachers. I think observation is one of the most underused tools in education. We won't be giving feedback to our teachers as CY corps members, but other members of the learning community can and should. It helps so much to get feedback from someone who just steps into your classroom. I feel that teachers can get easily offended when it's suggested that someone is coming to observe them or give them feedback, and I think that's just horse hockey. I'm not going to get better shut in a room with a bunch of teenagers. It's not some giant secret how I teach students, I'm not a woman behind the curtain. It's a learned method, and it can always be improved. And the easiest way to improve is to be observed.
5. I am excited for tomorrow because we get to do a lot of self-care. If you remember, self-care is exactly what it sounds like, and involves a lot of meditation, stretching, yoga, and reflection. It's been suggested that we have TWO HOURS to do that tomorrow. Sounds like a plan.
2. What are the high points of the day?
3. What are the low points of the day?
4. What is one experience that caused me to grow today?
5. What am I excited about for tomorrow?
1. Bear with me, all my days are starting to run together so I forget what my expectations were for today. This week has been all about being flexible, because we haven't had a schedule all week. Last week they gave us a schedule for the whole week on Monday, so I could look at the next day and gauge my expectations. This week, no such luxury, so I've just been flying by the seat of my khaki pants. I don't really mind (even though I'm a West, and Wests are supposed to live for plans). So I guess I expected today to be a continuation of growth and breakthroughs and strengthening relationships and that's what today was.
2. High point at lunch, when a fair sized group of us were talking about weather (we were really getting deep, here, guys) and there were some of us from the north, and some who grew up in Texas or the South. It was hilarious to commiserate about running away from snow, or my very favorite weather forecast: Thunder Snow. One of my school team members shared at the final circle that she loved the conversation because she grew up in San Antonio and had never seen real amounts of snow before. She said it reminded her that some of us came a pretty long way to give a year of service to San Antonio schools. Pretty cool.
High point was meeting someone that I'll be working with this year at my school. She is the Communities in School director, which is a program that links social and community services to the local schools. She was with us today to give a presentation on mandatory reporting, or corps members' duties to report abuse or suspected abuse of students to higher authorities. It doesn't sound like a big, fun session, but going over different scenarios and what we would do was HUGE in preparing us for some of the situations that we'll end up in this year in our roles as near-peer tutors.
Another high point was talking about how to asset map our schools. Basically, that just means talking about all the good aspects of our school and how we can use that to our advantage as a corps. We started by describing a school we were familiar with to others at our table. I chose West Lafayette Jr./Sr. High School because that was the last school that I was in during my student teaching last semester. Talking about the school and the dynamics of it made me really miss my students! Most of them are starting college this week. Weird. They are old enough to be City Year corps members and are older than some of my fellow corps members. Weirder.
3. A low point was my general sleepiness today. I was dragging during our first session and participated a little less than usual throughout the day. Maybe no one else noticed, but I could tell that I wasn't completely on my game. Hopefully going to bed at 10 will help, because that is where I'm headed directly after posting this, no regrets.
Also, I am really missing Pat this week. He is doing a fantastic job in his second year as a Teach for America corps member in the Delta region. He teaches 7th grade Social Studies in Lexington, Mississippi, about 10 hours from here. Last year, the distance thing wasn't so hard because he had experienced Purdue and knew all my usual routines and familiar friends. This year, I'm experiencing and learning so much in an unfamiliar place and making so many friends without him! PLUS, he is getting recognized for being an excellent teacher and classroom manager and helping mentor first year corps members, and I wish I could be there with him to celebrate those victories. I know that this year will be worth the time apart, I'm just feeling it especially much right now. By the way, he has a Donors Choose page set up to help him provide the best learning environment for his students. I can't stress enough how LITTLE resources are available to these children and how much it helps them to have a supportive teacher like Pat, even just for one period a day. So let's support him! Click here to visit his page.
4. We had a session on how to effectively observe a classroom today, and we focused on low-inference observations. That means factual, quantifiable observations rather than value judgments or opinions about the class. As an educator who has observed and been observed several times, this is NOT what usually happens during an observation. It is SO easy, especially if one has educational experience, to pass judgement on how the teacher conducts the classroom. We infer so many things about why and how teachers are doing instead of focusing just on the what. One interesting this about the session was the fact that these low-inference measures (i.e. how long the teacher waits between questions, how often a concept is reviewed or repeated, how often one student is called on, etc) have a stronger correlation with success measures (i.e. test scores) than high-inference measures (i.e. how interesting the class is, how much the students seem to like the teacher).
Which is interesting, because I feel like educators and students always think that there has to be the intangible awesomeness vibe in a classroom for the teacher to be effective, but really, if they employ effective teaching methods most of the time (which is extremely hard to do, by the way), it doesn't matter if students think the class is a snooze, they will still learn. Now, I think to serve the whole child and to teach social skills as well as information, there need to be some intangibles. Also, I would never want to be described as a boring or disengaging teacher. EVER. But it's nice to know that there's more to teaching than entertaining, because I was beginning to wonder.
Just to go with that, I am excited to observe teachers. I think observation is one of the most underused tools in education. We won't be giving feedback to our teachers as CY corps members, but other members of the learning community can and should. It helps so much to get feedback from someone who just steps into your classroom. I feel that teachers can get easily offended when it's suggested that someone is coming to observe them or give them feedback, and I think that's just horse hockey. I'm not going to get better shut in a room with a bunch of teenagers. It's not some giant secret how I teach students, I'm not a woman behind the curtain. It's a learned method, and it can always be improved. And the easiest way to improve is to be observed.
5. I am excited for tomorrow because we get to do a lot of self-care. If you remember, self-care is exactly what it sounds like, and involves a lot of meditation, stretching, yoga, and reflection. It's been suggested that we have TWO HOURS to do that tomorrow. Sounds like a plan.
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