It is so easy to get wrapped up in the job. The marking, searching for resources, photocopying, adjustments, preparations and the list goes on. I realized that I have become so wrapped up in my work that I forgot to take time to have fun. Wanting to do my best and show others my potential I began to feel guilty about taking time out for myself. I realized this week that by not allowing myself time to decompress, enjoy my hobbies and my family than my work and my ability to show others my potential suffered, as I do not have the energy to put into my kids and my teaching. I am learning that it is okay to put my work aside and this does not make me a bad teacher.
Today, I had the opportunity to witness and lead some parent teacher interviews. Going into the day I wasn’t sure what to expect. Two weeks prior, I had attended a wonderful ATA workshop on Dealing with Difficult Parents, which equipped me with strategies to deal with situations that become hostile due to numerous different reasons.
Although, I was told repetitively that rarely are parents unreasonable to deal with I was weary of interviews as I started the day. All I could think all the what ifs that could occur and how I should respond but the only thing I could think was do not panic. The first interview came and went which was positive and there was no difficulties. The interview was a time of celebration. The time was spent celebrating the student’s accomplishments and putting strategies into place to develop weaker areas. After this interview, I was thinking that maybe this is unusual and I settled in for the next one. The same thing happened in the next interview, a celebration of the students learning and a time of reflecting on the learning that is occurring in the classroom. The third, fourth, fifth and six interviews each taking their own shape but the same tone remained – a celebration of the student and their learning. I realized that my fears were unjustified. Parent-teacher interviews are a great opportunity to celebrate with my student’s parents, about their child’s success and the learning that is occurring within our classroom walls. Today I asked my students to think about what the word friendship means and what words they would use to define the word. As they came up with words I imputted them into Wordle. I was shocked by the different words that they used to descibe friendship. It was so encouraging to see that they understood the meaning of friendship but also were able to beyond the typical responses. My students taught me and opened my eyes to see what friendship means on a deeper level.
I want to take a moment to thank the people who have come along side me to support me while my Mentor teacher has been away. I have learned so much about teaching, assessment and report cards.
This last week, I have learned so much about teaching and my students but the biggest lesson that I learned was assessment. There are good assessments and there are bad assessments. In preparation for report cards I have been marking, evaluating and reviewing my assessments of my students. I have realized that assessing students work is not an easy task. Neither is building a rubric. I started off with several good rubrics (or what I thought was good rubrics) only to find out that they were dismal fails. I needed to go back to the drawing board. My criteria did not match my object. This led to several re-dos, rough drafts and edits of my rubrics as I fine tuned my assessments to evaluate my students according to the appropriate learning objects and assignment requirements. Rubrics are not easy to create and often require re-writes but they are crucial to understand where a student is the learning process which fosters goals, growth and greater understanding of ones ability to learn. |
Archives
June 2015
Shari Cossette
“What a teacher writes on the blackboard of life can never be erased.” ~Author Unknown Categories |