There are many moments during my day that I wish I could share with people. There are those "EUREKA!" moments, the "Did that seriously just happen?" moments, the "People should know these things really do occur" moments, and everything in between. Instead of continuing this inner dialogue, I decided it was time to share those moments with... whoever wants to listen.
To give you a little context of my stories, I'll tell you about my past two years (read:first two years) in the classroom. I was hired at my school in August 2009 and had minimal teaching experience. I was a part of an alternate certification program that placed me at my school. When I talked to the principal at the time, he told me I would be teaching within the MR cluster. "Cluster? Do you mean Classroom?" "No, I mean cluster. There are other teachers who are in your cluster. You'll be working with them. They are with you all day." This still did not clarify what I was doing, but he didn't seem to be interested in me understanding my job. "Alright, so what content will I be teaching in the cluster?" "Basic things. Like math, reading, and writing." Hmmmm... still didn't quite understand my job... "So are these students performing at a high school level? Or will I be teaching elementary content?" "Oh these kids can't read. You'll probably need to teach them how to count. You'll figure it out. Just make sure no one gets hurt."
So I started my school year with the charge of "make sure no one gets hurt." I was also strongly encouraged to teach high school content through my alternate certification program. With this in mind, I was prepared to keep kids safe while teaching 9-12th grade English, Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II, and basic remediation skills on August 24, 2009.
Within 2 weeks, I realized my kids didn't need to learn high school level standards because it was more important to teach them how to read. In addition, I determined that teaching them high school level math wasn't the best use of time when they struggled with basic addition. To top it off, it was brought to my attention that my students don't receive high school diplomas because of the program they were in. (I also learned that a cluster was a group of classes that all had students with the same classification of disabilities. It was me and 2 other classes, only 1 of which had a teacher at the time.) After learning all of these things, I adjusted our curriculum a bit. I focused primarily on elementary level academics in order to meet them where they were at.
Later that year, my class was combined with the class that didn't have a teacher. With new students came a new teacher. We co-taught through the rest of the year, constantly remodeling our program. We had a variety of staff move through our classroom, but the number of kids remained the same: 24.
With the start of a new school year in August 2010, we made a few changes to the ID (legally changed from MR) cluster program. We added in another teacher who taught transition, and split up the academic subjects amongst the other 3 teachers. I took on mathematics, another teacher took on English, and the last taught Science and Social Studies. Our students rotated classes, just like other high school students. This was not well received at first, but they ultimately liked being treated like "regular" high schoolers. Halfway through the year we switched things up and adjusted the schedule to shorten their morning periods, condense academics to the morning, and then teach Life Skills in the afternoon. They were also able to add in an elective period. This model seems to have worked out the best as we are keeping it for more than 1 semester.
Going into the new school year we are seeing some changes though. Our transition teacher will only be working with our kids during the life skills period, and will be with other students in the mornings. We're also looking to implement a behavior system that is consistent across all classrooms - something that is crucial for a functional school program. Special Olympics is starting back up this year, as well. This will be a great release for our kids. Lots of exciting things are happening to our group of students who are some of the most neglected kids in the district.
Over the past two years I have been working with my team to change the expectation from "no one gets hurt" to "everyone is engaged in their learning." We have had some students make 4+ years of reading growth and an average of 4+ years of math growth. While this has happened with other classes in the building, these students learn at half the rate (at least) as other students in the school. Now when an administrator walks in my classroom, they expect to see me leading an engaging lesson and EVERY student learning. They push me to work harder and be a better educator. While their expectations for me are still different than their expectations for other teachers, at least they don't see me as merely a babysitter. I mean, they still expect me to "make sure no one gets hurt."
To give you a little context of my stories, I'll tell you about my past two years (read:first two years) in the classroom. I was hired at my school in August 2009 and had minimal teaching experience. I was a part of an alternate certification program that placed me at my school. When I talked to the principal at the time, he told me I would be teaching within the MR cluster. "Cluster? Do you mean Classroom?" "No, I mean cluster. There are other teachers who are in your cluster. You'll be working with them. They are with you all day." This still did not clarify what I was doing, but he didn't seem to be interested in me understanding my job. "Alright, so what content will I be teaching in the cluster?" "Basic things. Like math, reading, and writing." Hmmmm... still didn't quite understand my job... "So are these students performing at a high school level? Or will I be teaching elementary content?" "Oh these kids can't read. You'll probably need to teach them how to count. You'll figure it out. Just make sure no one gets hurt."
So I started my school year with the charge of "make sure no one gets hurt." I was also strongly encouraged to teach high school content through my alternate certification program. With this in mind, I was prepared to keep kids safe while teaching 9-12th grade English, Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II, and basic remediation skills on August 24, 2009.
Within 2 weeks, I realized my kids didn't need to learn high school level standards because it was more important to teach them how to read. In addition, I determined that teaching them high school level math wasn't the best use of time when they struggled with basic addition. To top it off, it was brought to my attention that my students don't receive high school diplomas because of the program they were in. (I also learned that a cluster was a group of classes that all had students with the same classification of disabilities. It was me and 2 other classes, only 1 of which had a teacher at the time.) After learning all of these things, I adjusted our curriculum a bit. I focused primarily on elementary level academics in order to meet them where they were at.
Later that year, my class was combined with the class that didn't have a teacher. With new students came a new teacher. We co-taught through the rest of the year, constantly remodeling our program. We had a variety of staff move through our classroom, but the number of kids remained the same: 24.
With the start of a new school year in August 2010, we made a few changes to the ID (legally changed from MR) cluster program. We added in another teacher who taught transition, and split up the academic subjects amongst the other 3 teachers. I took on mathematics, another teacher took on English, and the last taught Science and Social Studies. Our students rotated classes, just like other high school students. This was not well received at first, but they ultimately liked being treated like "regular" high schoolers. Halfway through the year we switched things up and adjusted the schedule to shorten their morning periods, condense academics to the morning, and then teach Life Skills in the afternoon. They were also able to add in an elective period. This model seems to have worked out the best as we are keeping it for more than 1 semester.
Going into the new school year we are seeing some changes though. Our transition teacher will only be working with our kids during the life skills period, and will be with other students in the mornings. We're also looking to implement a behavior system that is consistent across all classrooms - something that is crucial for a functional school program. Special Olympics is starting back up this year, as well. This will be a great release for our kids. Lots of exciting things are happening to our group of students who are some of the most neglected kids in the district.
Over the past two years I have been working with my team to change the expectation from "no one gets hurt" to "everyone is engaged in their learning." We have had some students make 4+ years of reading growth and an average of 4+ years of math growth. While this has happened with other classes in the building, these students learn at half the rate (at least) as other students in the school. Now when an administrator walks in my classroom, they expect to see me leading an engaging lesson and EVERY student learning. They push me to work harder and be a better educator. While their expectations for me are still different than their expectations for other teachers, at least they don't see me as merely a babysitter. I mean, they still expect me to "make sure no one gets hurt."
You are an inspiration! Keep up the great work and thank you for taking the time to share your experiences (and learning) with all of us. Anyone who writes well knows that it takes time and effort to do so.
ReplyDeleteGreat job! We are planning to go to NAIMUN again this year so I will see you during the school year.
ReplyDeleteAll the best!
Regards,
Phil