back on track
Shame on me. I've neglected my blog for nearly 9 weeks...
Getting use to our new ELA curriculum has been a whirlwind of crazy emotions for me. Attempting to keep everyone's head above water and encouraging my colleagues to keep their chins up & their noses to the grindstone has been both exhilarating & exhausting.
So far, I love Wit & Wisdom. Once I got into the groove & it began to feel familiar, I was able to relax & teach in the same way that I always have. I honestly love the engagement that my little ones have shown. To tell the truth, Wit & Wisdom lessons are the one time in the whole entire day when my kids' engagement is at its peak! But truthfully, Wit & Wisdom has become, in my classroom, like the Queen Mother, and all other subjects bow down to her. All of the other subjects, in my opinion, have been getting my luke-warm... my seconds... my leftover energy. I've had a difficult time juggling the time demands that Wit & Wisdom places on my days. Most days, it seems as if I've had to rob Peter to ask Paul if I can pay him with an IOU. And at the end of the day... I. am. spent.
Also having a student teacher has been a new endeavor for me. She's been fantastic so far & last week, she officially began her student teaching internship. Last week she took over the first hour of the day, and this week she'll be teaching Math as well. I'm being kinda selfish & I'm holding on tight to Wit & Wisdom, just for my own sanity. She and I will probably team teach Wit & Wisdom, as I can easily loosen my grip on the Deep Dives, allowing her to teach at least that part.
I also have some intense little people who require a humongous amount of my energy to help them manage themselves.
Speaking of managing... I have had one heckuva time juggling all of the pieces & parts to Wit & Wisdom. It reminds me of going on a trip to a place I've never been to before... not knowing exactly what I'll need WHEN... or how long I'll need to keep certain things around. This week I'll wrap up Module 1 and next week I'll try my hand at Module 2.
It's scary... because I've never been there before. I'm mostly a creature of habit. I like the familiar... and the never-been-there-before lessons that lie ahead are just a bit overwhelming to think about. I'm also trying to be a positive peer-mentor to my teaching partners. They both are just a bit behind me and going first, I'm able to make mistakes that I can advise them not to make. Oh, and it's also my evaluation year this year, so I'm ultra-sensitive to not-being-able-to-predict what lies ahead like I'm normally able to do. It's that sense of uncertainty, that vulnerability that both haunts me & ignites my passion for teaching.
I appreciate that our district is taking a gentle approach with us, as we forge forward in our first year implementation. I notice some amazing little minds at work each day as we dive into the rich texts that come with the program. I'm simply in awe at the beautifully woven-together texts that have accompanied one another in Module 1. How different characters in each book mirror the thoughts & emotions of other characters s in the sister texts. I remember just about a year ago in December when I stepped my foot into the ring & volunteered to be on the new ELA curriculum adoption team.
When I think of all the tears, and emotions that went into the decision at the district level, and how I wholeheartedly strove to be a voice for the teachers... and how that didn't play out as they all hoped it would. I still believe that God answered my prayers. But others still aren't convinced. But then there was last Monday when our Content Area Specialist unannouncedly (<< yep, I made that word up!) walked in to observe my Wit & Wisdom lesson. And she stayed for a long, long time. And she jotted down notes in her computer the whooooole time it seemed. And I was of course very conscious of the fact that she was observing me do, something that I'd never done before, and attempting to make the very best out of whatever random things came out of the little mouths of my precious little first graders. And y'know what... they. were. BRiLLiANT!! Their little thinking caps were on snug & they were like little professors, sauntering up to the board & taking a pointer to show where the text evidence was that supported their responses. One little guy even said, "Can I go to the text & show you how I know that?"
At our PLC this past week, I approached my CAS 7 asked her if there might be a chance that she would be sending me any feedback from her visit to my classroom. She smiled and said, "Yep, you bet I will be. And although I'd love to tell you in person, I really want to organize my thoughts and send those to you in an email-- and I wanna cc Laurie as well so she can read my thoughts on what I saw."
And I smile... 'cause I know what she saw, and it' wasn't me... it was my kids! And they were glowing with excitement during their Wit & Wisdom lesson, and they didn't even realize that she was there watching them shine!
But just this past Friday, I heard that there was a revolt of sorts in another elementary building in our district during their PD day. And it wasn't pretty... & that makes me sad. Complaining about things doesn't accomplish a thing.
And pointing out the worst, doesn't exactly bring out the best in anything. I'm so thankful that I've had time to soak in the idea of making this the best possible solo flight year of Wit & Wisdom that I possibly can. And although I can't change anybody's mind, I sure can keep my thoughts on straight & strive to teach it each day in the best way I know how.
I just keep thinking to myself, this isn't about teachers... it's about KiDS! When I read teachers' comments on our Wit & Wisdom site that complain that their kids are "bored." Whutt??? And I just shake my head and think... HOW can you let that HAPPEN????
One thing's for darn sure... if the kids are bored... their teacher must be boring, right? I sure as heck am not a boring teacher. And besides that, I could never allow a "program" to dull my passion for teaching. But tbh, this is hard. The time spent preparing is often-times spent in the half-hour before my head bobs as I fall asleep sitting up in bed, annotating for tomorrow's lesson. Last week was better, but on average, I'd not been going to sleep until 12:30am and getting up at 5:00am. And not-a-lotta-sleep adds up & then I crash, big-time! And to add to that, I've been battling a terrible head & chest cold for like, forEVER... so I've been kinda out of sorts with so little sleep.
And even if I don't know what I'm doing on any given day... I stop & remind myself that I'm a former thespian *I'm great at improve! ;)
And I'm trying, every step of the way to remember these two words...
balance. & grace. Self-care is not something that I've ever been good at, but in this season of my teaching career, year 15 to be exact, I just have to find a way to carve some time out for myself each day.
Not staying at school until 7:00pm was my first hurdle to leap over. Also not going in and spending hours & hours at school on the weekends was my next big step. Both of which I've done quite well at, if I do say so myself.
Some days it's just coming home from school and sitting in the quietness of my messy living room, and wondering when on earth this place is gonna clean itself! :)
Some days it's just stepping outside and letting the warmth of the sunshine land on my face. Today it was smelling the scent of wet leaves that had been prematurely plummeted to the ground by the extremely cold temperatures and early October snowstorm that graced our little town last week. Tonight it's just sitting down to reflect on all that's been occurring over the past 9 weeks. And realizing that I am stronger than I've ever been before, *and more vulnerable than I'd prefer! ;)
For today, I just wanted to stop & remind myself of these things...
Getting use to our new ELA curriculum has been a whirlwind of crazy emotions for me. Attempting to keep everyone's head above water and encouraging my colleagues to keep their chins up & their noses to the grindstone has been both exhilarating & exhausting.
So far, I love Wit & Wisdom. Once I got into the groove & it began to feel familiar, I was able to relax & teach in the same way that I always have. I honestly love the engagement that my little ones have shown. To tell the truth, Wit & Wisdom lessons are the one time in the whole entire day when my kids' engagement is at its peak! But truthfully, Wit & Wisdom has become, in my classroom, like the Queen Mother, and all other subjects bow down to her. All of the other subjects, in my opinion, have been getting my luke-warm... my seconds... my leftover energy. I've had a difficult time juggling the time demands that Wit & Wisdom places on my days. Most days, it seems as if I've had to rob Peter to ask Paul if I can pay him with an IOU. And at the end of the day... I. am. spent.
Also having a student teacher has been a new endeavor for me. She's been fantastic so far & last week, she officially began her student teaching internship. Last week she took over the first hour of the day, and this week she'll be teaching Math as well. I'm being kinda selfish & I'm holding on tight to Wit & Wisdom, just for my own sanity. She and I will probably team teach Wit & Wisdom, as I can easily loosen my grip on the Deep Dives, allowing her to teach at least that part.
I also have some intense little people who require a humongous amount of my energy to help them manage themselves.
Speaking of managing... I have had one heckuva time juggling all of the pieces & parts to Wit & Wisdom. It reminds me of going on a trip to a place I've never been to before... not knowing exactly what I'll need WHEN... or how long I'll need to keep certain things around. This week I'll wrap up Module 1 and next week I'll try my hand at Module 2.
It's scary... because I've never been there before. I'm mostly a creature of habit. I like the familiar... and the never-been-there-before lessons that lie ahead are just a bit overwhelming to think about. I'm also trying to be a positive peer-mentor to my teaching partners. They both are just a bit behind me and going first, I'm able to make mistakes that I can advise them not to make. Oh, and it's also my evaluation year this year, so I'm ultra-sensitive to not-being-able-to-predict what lies ahead like I'm normally able to do. It's that sense of uncertainty, that vulnerability that both haunts me & ignites my passion for teaching.
I appreciate that our district is taking a gentle approach with us, as we forge forward in our first year implementation. I notice some amazing little minds at work each day as we dive into the rich texts that come with the program. I'm simply in awe at the beautifully woven-together texts that have accompanied one another in Module 1. How different characters in each book mirror the thoughts & emotions of other characters s in the sister texts. I remember just about a year ago in December when I stepped my foot into the ring & volunteered to be on the new ELA curriculum adoption team.
When I think of all the tears, and emotions that went into the decision at the district level, and how I wholeheartedly strove to be a voice for the teachers... and how that didn't play out as they all hoped it would. I still believe that God answered my prayers. But others still aren't convinced. But then there was last Monday when our Content Area Specialist unannouncedly (<< yep, I made that word up!) walked in to observe my Wit & Wisdom lesson. And she stayed for a long, long time. And she jotted down notes in her computer the whooooole time it seemed. And I was of course very conscious of the fact that she was observing me do, something that I'd never done before, and attempting to make the very best out of whatever random things came out of the little mouths of my precious little first graders. And y'know what... they. were. BRiLLiANT!! Their little thinking caps were on snug & they were like little professors, sauntering up to the board & taking a pointer to show where the text evidence was that supported their responses. One little guy even said, "Can I go to the text & show you how I know that?"
At our PLC this past week, I approached my CAS 7 asked her if there might be a chance that she would be sending me any feedback from her visit to my classroom. She smiled and said, "Yep, you bet I will be. And although I'd love to tell you in person, I really want to organize my thoughts and send those to you in an email-- and I wanna cc Laurie as well so she can read my thoughts on what I saw."
And I smile... 'cause I know what she saw, and it' wasn't me... it was my kids! And they were glowing with excitement during their Wit & Wisdom lesson, and they didn't even realize that she was there watching them shine!
But just this past Friday, I heard that there was a revolt of sorts in another elementary building in our district during their PD day. And it wasn't pretty... & that makes me sad. Complaining about things doesn't accomplish a thing.
And pointing out the worst, doesn't exactly bring out the best in anything. I'm so thankful that I've had time to soak in the idea of making this the best possible solo flight year of Wit & Wisdom that I possibly can. And although I can't change anybody's mind, I sure can keep my thoughts on straight & strive to teach it each day in the best way I know how.
I just keep thinking to myself, this isn't about teachers... it's about KiDS! When I read teachers' comments on our Wit & Wisdom site that complain that their kids are "bored." Whutt??? And I just shake my head and think... HOW can you let that HAPPEN????
One thing's for darn sure... if the kids are bored... their teacher must be boring, right? I sure as heck am not a boring teacher. And besides that, I could never allow a "program" to dull my passion for teaching. But tbh, this is hard. The time spent preparing is often-times spent in the half-hour before my head bobs as I fall asleep sitting up in bed, annotating for tomorrow's lesson. Last week was better, but on average, I'd not been going to sleep until 12:30am and getting up at 5:00am. And not-a-lotta-sleep adds up & then I crash, big-time! And to add to that, I've been battling a terrible head & chest cold for like, forEVER... so I've been kinda out of sorts with so little sleep.
And even if I don't know what I'm doing on any given day... I stop & remind myself that I'm a former thespian *I'm great at improve! ;)
And I'm trying, every step of the way to remember these two words...
balance. & grace. Self-care is not something that I've ever been good at, but in this season of my teaching career, year 15 to be exact, I just have to find a way to carve some time out for myself each day.
Not staying at school until 7:00pm was my first hurdle to leap over. Also not going in and spending hours & hours at school on the weekends was my next big step. Both of which I've done quite well at, if I do say so myself.
Some days it's just coming home from school and sitting in the quietness of my messy living room, and wondering when on earth this place is gonna clean itself! :)
Some days it's just stepping outside and letting the warmth of the sunshine land on my face. Today it was smelling the scent of wet leaves that had been prematurely plummeted to the ground by the extremely cold temperatures and early October snowstorm that graced our little town last week. Tonight it's just sitting down to reflect on all that's been occurring over the past 9 weeks. And realizing that I am stronger than I've ever been before, *and more vulnerable than I'd prefer! ;)
For today, I just wanted to stop & remind myself of these things...
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