At the start of the year, or even really, before the year began, the questions that framed my self study were fairly general. I have been thinking about how over the past few years, my students have accomplished less in the course of a year. I wondered about my teaching, my approach, my materials, and I wondered about my students learning. Are students coming in with the same ability to learn and are they learning in the same ways as they have in the past? Do I need to do more because they are coming in with less? Do I need to change what I do because they need something different and how people are learning has started to shift in ways that I do not yet fully understand? Continue reading Attempting Change Where Change Was Most Needed
Category Archives: Self-Study
Putting Language to My Experience
I began this self-study with the hope of putting language to my experience building this team for the school. Partly, it was important to document the history of the program, to show how it quickly grew, and to take the time to plan for the future. The rewards I reaped from doing this inventory were what I expected: I’m proud of having performed this magic trick of creating something from nothing. It’s constant, sometimes gruelling, and largely private work. So it felt good to write it all down and acknowledge how much has happened in a relatively short span of time. Continue reading Putting Language to My Experience
Continuing the Foundation Work
We have completed our second season as a team, and my second as the head coach. I was able to better predict the schedule and I kept parents and administrators in the loop in my weekly emails. There was a much better showing at the end of the year’s NYS qualifier. In our first year, all but one of our athletes lost both of their matches and went home empty-handed. This year we had almost all of our athletes in the medal rounds, which was a remarkable improvement. Continue reading Continuing the Foundation Work
Allow for the Transformation
When I went into this self study, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do: I would carve out time for myself to write more during the year, attend to and nurture the writer in me that seemed on a distant but parallel path to my teacher-self. Running on what seemed like two parallel lines, these two selves rarely seemed to touch. In the end, while I didn’t actually end up writing, I discovered more points of convergence between teacher Jane and writer Jane than I had thought possible. Continue reading Allow for the Transformation
The Teacher As Learner
I started my self-study journey with the goal to engage in my own personal scientific inquiry. I wanted to give myself the same structure and timeframe that my 8th grade students had for working on their own scientific investigations so I could experience the process as they did. By putting myself into the position of the learner from day one, I was able to gain valuable insights into what the process was like for my students allowing me to better support them in their learning. Continue reading The Teacher As Learner
On the Value of “Theatre Visits”
I did well in following through with getting to the theatre and finding inspiration and a revived sense of my passion. I am still planning on attending more theatre as I believe it really has made a positive impact in my journey this year. Continue reading On the Value of “Theatre Visits”
Driving with Headlights
The writer E. L Doctorow famously said, “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” As a writer who studied under E.L Doctorow in graduate school, those word meant a lot to me. At their heart, they are about uncertainty, finding your way by seeing only part of the road ahead. They connect with my own writing process since I often uncover and unearth understandings of my characters and plot along the way. These words also promise an inviting possibility — that on my journey through the world, I can continuously discover my path. Continue reading Driving with Headlights
Sparking Scientific Curiosity
FINDING MY FOCUS
What has been one of my peak experiences as a teacher? I am lucky that there are many instances in my career that make me feel engaged and motivated, that spark my desire to expand my knowledge base, but there is one that especially stands out in my mind. Continue reading Sparking Scientific Curiosity
What’s affecting how children learn?
Three years ago my first graders failed to make it through the entire sequence of first grade skills by June. At the time, I assumed that it was a one off–a particular group of children who needed more time than the school year offered us. The following year, I experienced the same thing and then again the year after that. With a trend of three years, it began to become clear that something else was going on. Continue reading What’s affecting how children learn?
Team Building
I started teaching in graduate school. That’s according to my resume. In truth, I started teaching way before that. My introduction to professional teaching happened at the J Robinson Intensive Wrestling Camp when I was just 18 years old. There are no real words to describe this camp – it’s something that has to be experienced. I can use the words tough, grinding, pain, growth, doubt, fear…but those are ultimately just black marks on the screen. This camp, which I first experienced as a camper, was easily one of the most challenging things that I volunteered for in my life. Continue reading Team Building
Self Portraits of an English Teacher
I’m thinking a lot these days about a recurring project my son did in kindergarten. Every month, they drew a new self-portrait. With a small hand mirror and colored pencils in front of him, my son paused, observed, and drew what he saw. The drawings became more detailed over time, capturing things like skin tone, expression, clothing, and when looked at together they tell a kind of narrative: who my son was at a particular moment and who he was becoming, over time. Continue reading Self Portraits of an English Teacher
My “Dramatic” LREI Journey to My Progressive Practice
MY “BACKSTORY”:
I began teaching at LREI in September 2007. In the second week, I launched straight into holding auditions for my first HS musical which was Little Shop of Horrors – the show opened in the first week of November and within a month I was putting on the MS play, Treasure Island with a cast size over 50! At the time I was asked to be in charge of all set and costumes; I had a parent who helped on lights and a science teacher to help me with set building. At the time, I wondered how I could sustain such a demanding position . . . Continue reading My “Dramatic” LREI Journey to My Progressive Practice
Really Listening
So back in January, I began to think about how best to gather information about what my math students know at any given point.
Librarian, Focus!: Organizing a Self Study
As I said in my previous post on this topic, school librarians often find themselves wearing the hats of “actor, caretaker, clerk, crafter, event planner, manners police officer, meeting goer, paper cutter, professional developer, sympathetic ear and window dresser.” Add to that list magpie, as we are always picking up and exclaiming over every shiny object we see, whether it be a new piece of hardware or a glossy coffee table art book. (Which is a myth, apparently.) We change direction constantly, depending on what the new trend, app, or gadget is.
How to Pause?
Everyone is moving so fast from task to task. Sixty minutes surely flies by and 45 minutes sometimes feels like a blink. My plan book details the activities of each math class but I’m not always sure of my students’ experiences or what they REALLY gain in the time we spend together. Many things pull at their attention: the humanities presentation they just gave, the science test next class, the basketball game at 3:30pm. Hence, I’ve initiated a self-study about examining how best I pause to gather information about what my students know at any given point (formative assessment) and how math class is really going for them.