Note to My Past Self

Online Reflection #6

An important note to my past self:

Entering our last year of the teaching program is perhaps one of the most exhilarating yet terrifying things, we have encountered. As I have now survived it and am currently working on our last assignment to obtain our BA I have some advice to help you through.

Surviving the KPTP, PLT, and Praxis

Undoubtedly, we were scared about these assessments most. These assessments can not only make or break your ability to obtain a teaching license, but they can weigh heavily on a student teachers’ wallet. It’s critical that you prepare well in advance for all assessments.

For the KPTP, start it in core 3. This proved beneficial because I was not rushed in the end and I feel I was able to give it the full attention it needed. I’m not going to lie, it is a hefty portfolio and you will question everything you put in it, but if you are consistent with your work you will survive it. Make sure you proofread. It’s a lot to review so chunk it up. I learned this the hard way. There are certain things I would like to correct, but what’s done is done so make sure you give yourself enough time in the end to review it… several times. Thoroughly.  

Prior to taking the PLT and the Praxis I was most worried about the Praxis but trust yourself because after taking it, I felt the most difficult was the PLT. Ultimately, they both ended up not being as bad as I had envisioned. However, in my mind, I rate the PLT a bit more difficult because it wasn’t as clear cut as the English content test. Regardless, if you continue to read all the readings and participate in class then reflect, you will be fine. Oh, and study of course, but this piece of advice should go without saying. Using the study books specifically intended for each test worked well. Have faith in yourself and the knowledge you have gained throughout the teaching program. It is set-up well for us to succeed.

Finally, brace yourself! It is going to feel like the KPTP and PLT results take foreeever. Unfortunately, I don’t have advice for that so, just brace yourself.

Survival Guidance

The easy tips for surviving core 3 and 4 would be to smile often, be organized, ask questions, be early – not on time, be prepared, be flexible, and reflect often. The simple fact of that is, that would not be enough advice and I feel we should know so much more.

To begin with, research your placement school. It was beneficial to walk in day one knowing the awesome things your school is doing as well as their demographics, and mission statement.

Show initiative. This includes communicating with your administration. Contact them, in person or via email, and ask to be observed. After the observation, seek out their feedback and by all means, follow-up once again with a thank you note. I’ve learned that thank you notes are an excellent way to show your appreciation. Also, send them to other teachers you collaborate with, borrow from, and observe as well.

A go-to bag was also beneficial. This bag contains ibuprofen, deodorant, gum, snacks, water, lotion, a cardigan and anything else you think you might need like additional pens and pencils.

Keep those special notes students write or draw for you. These are special gifts that mean a lot to them, but they will never have any idea how very much they mean to us. Hang on to these not only because they are special mementos, but also because these mementos can be the thing that pushes through on rough days. Rough days happen, and it’s nice to be reminded of our why by pulling these out.

And finally, talk with your MT before Christmas break about the unit you will be planning and teaching in core 4. This way you can plan your unit over Christmas break and enter core 4 prepared and still leave yourself time to work on and complete your KPTP. Also, when you’re planning that unit don’t forget to account for library days. I totally missed that, and it threw off my timeline. Ultimately, the timeline part is minute though, because things like field trips, testing days, fire drills, and so much more throws off the timeline. This is why being flexible was also listed above.

Self-Care

This is listed last for advice, but please don’t think it’s not that important. Taking care of you is super important and a lesson learned earlier on as stated in a previous blog. Take as many Sunday’s off as you can. Yes, we work and do homework on the weekends, but taking those Sundays for yourself and family is beneficial beyond measure. Step away from the hustle and bustle just breathe.

Lean on your support group. Building friendships throughout the teaching program has been an added bonus to our education. What started out as a group of 5 people – The Peeps – and still remains intact today, has been built on to include our content core members which now totals 15 awesome people. Continue your monthly lunches with The Peeps. I will never be able to express to them how thankful I am, but I’m grateful beyond measure for their friendship.

I couldn't have said it better than these lyrics from Vitamin C's, "Friends Forever"

Most importantly trust in yourself and don’t be so hard on yourself. Nobody is perfect, you are still learning and growing, as we will continue to do… forever. Stay focused, have fun, build relationships, and treasure every moment. It will be over before you know it.

Sincerely,

Future you

What do we Expect from our Expectations?

Online Reflection #5

Recently a student said to me, “Mrs. Michaud, your class is like an honor’s class!”

I wasn’t exactly sure right away if they meant that in a good or bad way. So, I asked a follow-up question, “what do you mean by that?”

“It’s hard sometimes and we move quickly,” they said.

My heart sank for a moment as now I interpreted their statement as a bad thing. The last thing I want is for my students to dread my class. I apologized to the student if they felt like I was rushing them and asked if there was any way I could help them or if they needed me to slow down.

To my surprise, they responded, “no, I like it!”

Through a bit more conversation I learned that they liked the challenge and were enjoying the pace and flow of the class. I will admit in those first moments of our conversation I was worried it meant that not only had I assessed them incorrectly but that my students were not enjoying Language Arts. Thankfully, I ended up relieved because not only through my daily assessments did I feel that my students were successful with the content and that they were progressing well, but it also meant that I was creating an environment that is conducive to learning and fosters their love of reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

This conversation got me thinking and created a domino effect of events. After asking myself, do our students rise to our expectations, I recollected a reading in core 1 of our teaching program by Harry and Rosemary Wong, The First Days of School How to be an Effective Teacher. I had to reread the chapter, and this rejuvenated me a bit. Wong and Wong point out, “students tend to learn as little or as much as their teachers expect” (p 42), which is exactly what I am now seeing my students express to me, just not in those words. In turn, I looked up some blogs online and found one titled, Students Will Rise to the Level of Expectations, by Justin Bechtold that suggests watching the movie Stand and Deliver. I have not watched this movie yet so I can not vouch whether it is good or not, but I can say that his post provides a short clip of the film showing a meeting with admin and teachers discussing and reviewing the recommendations for accreditation as it appears they may be about to lose theirs. Through this small clip when a teacher points out students will rise to our expectations, I can say I will be watching it soon.

The point of this is not to toot my own horn, rather it is to point out that sometimes we get in this funk wondering if what we are doing is working and I think that’s totally normal. Reflection on these things are what keeps us on our toes and striving to better teachers. Especially at this point in the semester when things feel as if they are picking up all around us. I know our KPTP is due in almost a month, most of us are studying for our Praxis and PLT tests that are coming up, a lot of us are preparing for our assessments and wrapping up our KPTP units in addition to our own lives outside of school and school. My point here is to hang in there my fellow classmates and educators, or Edutators, if we stick with our group chat name. Ha! Know that you are making a difference and loved by many students, even some you think you’re not reaching. Just keep on keeping on and continue maintaining those positive and high expectations of your students. We’ve got this!

Ps. 77 days until graduation! 

Language Acquisition

Online Reflection #4

One of the aspects of student teaching I find to be of great value is when we are placed with mentor teachers that teach more than our content area. I have fellow English education colleagues that are placed with teachers that also teach theater, interventions, and I’m sure many more. In my case, my MT also teaches ESOL. These unique experiences allow us to explore other options and witness classroom dynamics in a different environment.  

We were recently assigned a reading in our methods class giving us an overview of language acquisition, which was beneficial for me as it revived some knowledge on ELL students I previously understood from another class but was much more pertinent now that I am currently working with ELL students. I witness on a daily basis, misunderstandings like that of the example used in our assigned reading where “fall events” in English translated to “fall down events” in Spanish. So, using instructional strategies like read alouds, visuals, modeling, gestures, graphic organizers, and think-pair-share are important for the success of our students. This got me thinking, while these are working and are beneficial tools to help us along the way, what about those students that verbally express their thoughts and ideas, but struggle with putting those thoughts in written form? For example, I have a student that speaks five languages and expresses themselves fairly well orally, but when the time comes to put those thoughts on paper, they struggle. For now, I have used sentence starters, and have taught them how to restate the question in their answer. This works for the most part, but when we begin working on the body of our paper, they get stuck again with no idea how to proceed. I have considered whether this student struggles with simply writing in English, but that does not seem to be the case as they spell decently and do well with sentence starters. It appears that while they can connect ideas orally, they just don’t see a way to put that on paper.

In search of answers, I found an article by Jennifer Gonzalez on Cult of Pedagogy titled, A Strength-Based Approach to Teaching English Language Learners. Reading her six tips made me think that this student perhaps needs a confidence boost. It’s a joy to talk with this student. They teach me new things every day, but perhaps I’m not pointing out their strengths enough. Working with what I know about this student I can deduce they want to do well in school and work hard to reach that goal. They critically think and connect to the content, but I think maybe they are focused on doing so well that they struggle with putting those thoughts on paper because they are trying to do it the way they think I want it.

So, this coming week, we will be discussing voice and word choice. While my students are writing, I will be conducting mini-conferences with each of them. My plan for this is to assess each student and make sure they understand their first language is an incredible asset, I will uncover their strengths, and highlight what they do well.