Blog Post 1: Strategies that Work Ch.1-4 and "Finessing and Hybridizing" article

Throughout the year I am most concerned about finding my identity as a professional and combining my knowledge and beliefs into an effective teaching practice. I know this will be something that takes time and practice to get to a point where I feel it is truly accomplished, but I see this year as being the stepping stone. In order to develop my professional identity I plan on working closely with my MT to observe how she handles various situations, specifically uncomfortable ones. In the Finessing and Hybridizing article the authors mention “dilemma managers” who have to not only establish their beliefs and deal with the struggles in the classroom that are constantly changing. This was interesting to me because as teachers we do wear many different hats and I am wondering how I will be able to manage all of them appropriately.

 In order to build strong student-teacher relationships I plan to actively listen to the children’s feedback when I ask them questions not only pertaining to the classroom, but their lives outside of the classroom as well. I live near the community and spend time shopping or attending events in the town to gain a better understanding of what their daily lives are like. So far I have noticed many similarities between my childhood and their current lives. I have also given the students surveys that allow me to gather information about what they feel their “math smarts” are. Each child’s parent has returned a letter that provides information about the strengths and weaknesses of the child from their eyes and things that motivate and discourage them. I have read through all of them and looked at their previous records to try to understand them as quickly as I can in order to start building trust and cooperation within the room.

Constructing a relevant curriculum using the materials that are already in practice in the school has been done by observing the best practices for learning by the staff. However, I plan on varying the set curriculum based on my experiences with the children in order to meet their needs.

In order to assess students in meaningful and productive ways I will conference with my MT about what her opinions are considering she has a wealth of knowledge that will allow me to see a different perspective. As a novice I plan to lean heavily on their expertise and experiment with the various options they give me in order to decide what I feel the best assessment strategies are.

I feel confident in being able to ask for assistance and using resources to generate strong lesson plans. In terms of language arts instruction I noticed from the chapters in Strategies that Work that I need to be thoughtful when selecting books in order to demonstrate to the children how to pick a story that they can make text-to-self connections with. If I can provide these connections the children will have an example of how to make them on their own. Comprehension and stamina are higher when the child is invested in the story. Since these are areas I know my classroom is focused on I will try to do the same. Harvey and Goudvis state, “It’s not enough for the students to simply understand the strategy. They must know when, why, and how to use it” (pg. 27). I think this is a very valid point and the strategies are there to help the needs of the students. In order to progress as a reader they must employ various strategies such as inferring, visualizing, synthesizing, summarizing, and questioning to name a few, but if they do not know when the appropriate time is then knowing what the strategies are will not help them. I plan to attempt to solve this issue by practicing with the students using examples of various times when the reading strategies could be used.

For learning this year I will be able to understand the needs of many students and hopefully learn how to adapt my teaching to meet their needs because I have a few students with various impairments that we have made special accommodations for already in the room. For example, one child has Cerebral Palsy and he has a Paraprofessional, a walker, crutches, and a wheelchair so we will be ready no matter what the scenario. He is also allowed extra time on tests and is except from the minute tests in Rocket Math. Another child has a visual impairment that requires us to have shields over the lights to dim them so they do not hurt his vision. He is given larger print text and a seat in the front of the room as well.

In terms of “finessing” and/or “hybridizing” I think the use of Susie Calkins’ “Writer’s Workshop” model that is being used this year allows for teachers to blend many different approaches by using a model that is open-ended. I mean by this that the children are given topics, but they way they decide to express their thoughts about them can be determined by their writing styles. Since they are young and may not have a set style they like best we are here to provide them with opportunities to explore many of them. I strongly agree with the statement in the article that mentions combining the strongest practices of each into one new way of teaching. This is something that most likely sounds easier than it is to do in practice, but I look forward to trying. Our Writing Workshops are similar to the ones that Celina used in her writing instruction because it allows students to focus their efforts on pieces that they are passionate about and increase their motivation and hopefully comprehension.