A Question of How

It's Wednesday of my first week of student teaching, and I'm seeing something that will become an issue for me in the future. Both classes that I am in and observing are not structured in a way that is conducive to a typical Teacher Work Sample. In one class the students are coming and going as they need to throughout the day. They come to class and they do their work without much external structuring or prompts. The other class I'm observing is a transition classroom where the stuents are out of the academic lessons phase and into the life lessons phase; this is where they learn to be independent and self-sufficient.

Therefore, the issues becomes a quesiton of how to create a Teacher Work Sample with pre-, during, and post-assessments within these untraditional settings. Do I interrupt their set of processes and force them into a learning model that they've either moved past, or that does not work well for them? How do I pick a subject when all the students are doing individualized programs that are customized to each of them? It's not a question of IF I'll be able to do this successfully. It's a question of HOW I'm gonna be able to pull this off.

Technology At Its Best?

[Written 8 March 2010]

I woke up this morning with an annoying technological hiccup. For some strange reason, my district email was no longer being "pushed" to my iPhone. I knew this was bad so I went to my desktop to try and log in to my work email through the website. Since this did not work, my assumption, or rather my hope, was that my password needed to be reset, but I just reset it recently. When I finally got into a classroom and tried to login on a district computer, I was told that my account had been disabled. When I called the tech department, they told me that the high school deleted me from their system. Hurray for efficiency! So my first day is already screwy, and I have to wait for a work order to tell the tech department to fix this problem. This was all before 8 o'clock this morning.

[Update]
As of 12:30pm, I was able to log into the district system, I was not able to access my email since I was deleted at 6:30 this morning. At around 1pm I was able to access my email, however, ALL of my pld info was GONE! So, now, once again, I have to wait for the tech department to fix it. I am never without a backup to my backup. It turns out that EVERYTHING is gone and unrecoverable. My emails, my calendar, everything. I have a backup calendar that I can repopulate it through my google calendar, but it is a headache, and my emails are all gone as well. This is not a good thing. usually, it is the exchange server that acts as a backup, but it deleted all my info, and I've had to scramble a bit to recover it all myself. This is why I am NEVER without a backup to my backup plan.

Hurry Up and Wait!!

Waiting is a horrible trick that the inventor of time does to us all. It is Thursday morning and tomorrow is my last day as a Special Education Paraeducator. On Monday I start my student teaching internship, and in June I will be graduated with my MA ED in Special Education. It has been a long four years, but it has gone by quickly; from finishing my undergrad degree at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA to doing this two-year Master's program through the University of Phoenix. It has been a long road, but this last week has felt like it has dragged to a halt. If you believe that Hell is your own personal torment for eternity, then mine would be to have to sit and wait... and wait... and wait...

Am I excited to start my student teaching internship? No. For the first couple days and weeks, I am not doing much more than watching, observing, and waiting for my chance to jump into the fold. I am ready to get into it, and get things moving. This is my personality. One of my favorite things growing up was playing football, but I hated the start of the season. We didn't use pads, we didn't hit each other, there were no plays to learn or strategies discussed. All we did was run, and run, and talk about logistics. I'm ready to get things crackin' on the first days!

However, I know that things do not work this way. I read in my text that teachers who do course work on the first days of class have a harder time maintaining classroom management than teachers who take the first days to go over classroom rules, policies, etc... I understand this notion, and the class runs smoother, when the expectations are clear and understood; when behavior is not a distracting factor, then learning can occur. However, waiting is still my own personal Hell. It is painful, but necessary. So on Monday, I start my 12 weeks of student teaching, but it is still a process, and I will still have to wait. Time is a great equalizer; we are ALL subject to it.

Letter From State Superintendent Randy Dorn

On February 23rd, partnership4learning.org posted a newsletter with a letter written by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn. In this letter he says things like, "We know Washington is starting behind many other states, but we are up to the task the Obama Administration has set before us and believe that, with the political will and several critical reforms, our state could lead the nation with an education system that prepares all its students for the challenges of tomorrow." What he is referring to is the $4.35 billion Race to the Top grant presented by the Obama Administration.

Now, I am not going to take the time in this post to express my political agenda, or look at this politically. I am from the school of thought that politics hinder the education process. I think we need to empower the teachers, and give them a clear ending point, and help them get there. Supt. Dorn does state a few elements that the grant/legislation will need in order to have success. The one I want to point out here is:

A significant portion of the teacher and principal evaluation system must include multiple measures of student academic growth. If we are serious about closing the achievement gap, we need to make sure teachers and principals are first, supported to address the diverse learning needs in our schools and classrooms, and then, evaluated and held accountable for the academic growth of every student.

He goes on to explain a plan that offers support to teachers whose students to not reach the state standards as opposed to reducing their funding. He offers up a safety net that can benefit tenured and starting teachers alike. If you do not meet the standard you are given support, and if you do not succeed three years after that with the added support and training, then you are just not cut out to be a teacher. Clear and concise. I knew there was a reason I voted for this guy. Let's give teachers MORE training when they struggle, not LESS funding. Dorn says, "We need to make sure we are giving all teachers and principals the opportunity to grow and providing those who do not, an expedient way out of our schools." Amen.

Here's the link to the letter, and be sure to check out http://www.partnership4learning.org/

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

The light at the end of my tunnel is my Master's Degree.  I've been moving towards this finish for a little over four years solid.  My hope is that I'm ready for the end of this chapter of my life.  However, I trust that the light at the end of this tunnel is not a train that will level me.  I have had three friends who have finished their teacher certification only to not be teaching within three years after wards.  I don't want to go off into a tantrum about teacher pay, but I think a bit of a discussion on the process is necessary. 

I feel like I could jump into a classroom and I'd be able to survive.  Student teaching should be a sink-or-swim system with a mentor teacher in the same department.  That may sound harsh, but a do-or-die scenario with a paycheck doesn't bring this same ominous hype of needing to succeed and survive after spending three months unpaid in someone else's room.  You have their classroom management and not your own.  You have their organization, and not your own.  Then, after three months of being unpaid and coddled, you are thrown into the lion's den and expected to accomplish your caseload, classroom management, organization, etc... on your own. 

I FEEL ready... I just HOPE that I am.