It really has been a while since I have posted (even when my last post stated as much as it did). I have now been teaching special education for a full semester at a wonderful school and I must say...
It is much different than I would have thought it would have been, in both good and bad ways.
In no way is this post meant to be a rant or in anyway portray that I do not love my job. There is nothing more rewarding than teaching, but the paperwork and politics are far beyond what I could have imagined. Now looking back at my half decade of experience as a para-educator, the educational systems have changed far beyond what I would have imagined for such a short amount of time. The legalities of my daily paperwork and the documents I maintain can be beyond stressful, especially when you have high level administrators working the regulations as they see fit (mind you it is within the laws, but more restricting to the educators). Out of my 8 hour day, I teach through direct service 1.5 hours a day, cover para lunches and breaks for 2.5 hours a day and the rest of the day (minus my 30 minute lunch when I am able to) I am doing paperwork of some sort, attending or facilitating meetings.
The downfall I am trying to point out here is the lack of time I get to teach directly. I find the paperwork to be a pleasant challenge (as crazy as that sounds), but I miss teaching. Although this post may sound negative, I do not mean for it to. I love my job, I love the people I work with, I love the kids I work with, and love my direct administration. What I do mean to point out is the limitations and pressures put on educators to follow laws that do not always mean the best for children. While I spend much of my time assuring that I am within the law, it takes time away from my students and away from going above and beyond on a consistent level for my students and create lessons and activities that will create that sense of wonder I often saw in their eyes.
Showing posts with label CCSS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CCSS. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Saturday, June 27, 2015
I'm back!
And with good news!
So, as the semester wrapped up for me, really great things happened to me. I was hired as the long term sub in the classroom that I was student teaching in (six weeks of running and coordinating a classroom by myself was amazing) AND I was hired as the new special educator. Although the grade was something that I would have never seen myself approach before, I think it will be a great experience and I will be part of a fantastic team.
Since my last post, I have also graduated, walked, gotten my finalized transcript sent to the Agency of Education and am in the works to finalizing my license and having it mailed to me. It is an expensive and time consuming process, but what can I say? I HAVE A JOB!
So, as the semester wrapped up for me, really great things happened to me. I was hired as the long term sub in the classroom that I was student teaching in (six weeks of running and coordinating a classroom by myself was amazing) AND I was hired as the new special educator. Although the grade was something that I would have never seen myself approach before, I think it will be a great experience and I will be part of a fantastic team.
Since my last post, I have also graduated, walked, gotten my finalized transcript sent to the Agency of Education and am in the works to finalizing my license and having it mailed to me. It is an expensive and time consuming process, but what can I say? I HAVE A JOB!
Monday, February 2, 2015
I have found a way to use a classroom Mascot with 5th Graders
My college supervisor aassigned that I plan and teach a ELA lesson. Language Arts is not my strong area and I dread having to plan lessons in this subject. Looking back at my previous posts, it came to me to use my classroom mascot to help motivate students to right. I thought to help students make a connection to the mascot, named Wage, they could create the backstory for him. While aligning this with the Common Core State Standards, I found that Narrative Writing was one of the components often looked over.
My next thought: how can I guide these students to write a detailed narrative without given them too much guiding information. My goal was for students to use their own thoughts and imaginations to write their own background stories for Wage, but in a guided way. How was I going to do this?
Storu Cubes! If you have not heard of these, they are a set of 9 dice with 54 different pictures on them. When the dice are rolled they can be used in various ways, but I thought I would have students choose 6 out of the 9 images to use for their narratives. The choices are selected by the students rather than guided by me, which gives them a level of freedom, but guided academic choice. OF COURSE I would model what I was looking for first, and give students the instruction they need to complete the task, but I think giving the students the CHARACTER and PARTIAL INFORMATION would challenge the students enough to be engaged in the activity, enough choice that they feel free to write their own style, AND enough choice that they can draw on their own strengths.
I would be willing to make the lesson plan public, just ask in the comments.
I will write an update post after I teach the lesson on Wednesday (which I will be teaching twice).
My next thought: how can I guide these students to write a detailed narrative without given them too much guiding information. My goal was for students to use their own thoughts and imaginations to write their own background stories for Wage, but in a guided way. How was I going to do this?
Storu Cubes! If you have not heard of these, they are a set of 9 dice with 54 different pictures on them. When the dice are rolled they can be used in various ways, but I thought I would have students choose 6 out of the 9 images to use for their narratives. The choices are selected by the students rather than guided by me, which gives them a level of freedom, but guided academic choice. OF COURSE I would model what I was looking for first, and give students the instruction they need to complete the task, but I think giving the students the CHARACTER and PARTIAL INFORMATION would challenge the students enough to be engaged in the activity, enough choice that they feel free to write their own style, AND enough choice that they can draw on their own strengths.
I would be willing to make the lesson plan public, just ask in the comments.
I will write an update post after I teach the lesson on Wednesday (which I will be teaching twice).
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