In One Ear...

One unintended consequence of my fledgling career in teaching is the adoption of some phrases that used to drive me crazy as a kid. The thing is, once you've grown up and tried your hand at communicating with children on a regular basis, these sayings start to make a bit more sense.

Although almost every measure I have shows my kids are making progress, the day to day instruction can still be maddening. With a few exceptions asking my kids to recall and use vocabulary and explain concepts from prior lessons is almost always fruitless. Sometimes even asking them to draw on vocabulary from that same lesson yields nothing but frustration. Often conversations are just a mess of vocabulary with no signs of understanding.

Even since realizing how much vocabulary support my students need as English Language Learners, sometimes the frustration is too much for me to handle. Against my deeper understanding, I berate the kids for not listening carefully enough. "You aren't paying attention. You need to listen. It's like what I say goes in one ear and out the other. You can't just mix and match vocabulary!" As if the kids are intentionally misusing words to drive me crazy.

In spite of my efforts to mix up instructional approaches, the vocabulary and concepts just don't seem to stick. Hands on and inquiry based lessons don't seem to be working. While I think I must be missing some piece from my teaching, I also feel justified in my frustration that some of the kids really aren't paying attention.

I suppose it could be bit of both problems. Either way, I need to find a new way forward, because I can see all but the highest performing students struggling to grasp the material. Now that I feel I've mastered the classroom management I'm determined to bring my instruction to the same level. Unfortunately time is running short to make a difference with this group of students.

Reflections on PTC

Another long marathon day, also known as Parent Teacher Conferences is behind me. While growing more confident as a teacher makes me more confident about talking with parents, I suspect the experience will never be easy. Part of the pressure stems from the fact that many of these conversations are the first prolonged interactions I'm having with parents since October. It's not exactly easy distilling four months of learning into a 5-10 minute conversation. Still, overall I think I've gotten the hang of opening with a positive, giving a realistic assessment of the student's performance and listing a few suggestions for help at home.

That said, there are a few questions I still don't know how to answer for parents or myself. For example:

• Why isn't The Silent Treatment talking (at all) after six months in my class? What can her mom, who speaks no English, do to help?
• How blunt is too blunt? Where do I draw the line between honesty and brutal honesty?
• What do I do if I feel a parent is blatantly lying (e.g. she never behaves this way at home)?
• How can I get my parents involved more frequently in the classroom? Is the language barrier an obstacle we can overcome together?

I'll mull these questions over some more. And see if I can come up with any answers. Hopefully I do, and soon. Your advice is always welcome in the comments.

Test Prep Season

So...let me apologize first for the lack of updates. I'm in the middle of the soul-crushing experience known as test prep season. I'm doing my best to keep my lessons meaningful and authentic, but as most testing grade teachers know, it's not always my choice. That's where "test prep blitz" comes in.

Once a day, one of my school's AIS (Academic Intervention Services) providers comes into my classroom to work with a small group of students while I work with the rest of the class on a specific strategy. In some ways the strategies are useful, as they're strategies that good readers use whenever reading. However, because the lessons are straight from the ELA test prep books provided, there is no differentiation, so the effectiveness is limited to the kids who are reading at grade level (or at least close). That would include, oh about, six of my students.

Midway through my third year I get it. I promise. I understand the stakes of these tests and I understand the necessary evil of helping kids understand the format and idiosyncrasies of the test. But I don't know if I'll ever understand why we forgo best practices in the run up to the tests. I imagine using the 45 minutes allotted for test prep blitz to do back to back guided reading lessons would be a lot more worthwhile.

In 45 minutes with the help of my AIS provider we could teach all my students in small groups. I don't know for sure what sort of results it would yield on the tests, but I feel confident it would help make my kids better readers faster. Of course getting my D readers (early 1st grade level) to an E or an F by April won't cut it, so instead I'm supposed to stick to the one-size-fits all machinery of test prep. At least it will be over in just 22 school days.

The Endless To-Do List

Well, I finally got out from under the pile of snow we got, but I seem to be trapped under a pile of work. I have data to analyze from two simulations, report cards due Wednesday and the usual grading and planning to do. I'm having a hard time imagining if I'll ever get on top of all this work - this year, or ever as a teacher. There seems to be an endless supply of paper work and no matter how much or little diligence I show, there's always another item on the to-do list. I'm sure I could eventually get through all this work, but I'm experimenting with having a life this year.

All this is my attempt to excuse my recent silence. I promise to get back to writing shortly. In the mean time, you can read an interview posted on the blog Finding Education. Hopefully I can check in tomorrow with a more legit blog post.