Exploring the Blogsphere

I've been a blog reader for some years now, but I mostly stick with baseball. I'm a huge Mariners fan, and it just so happens that the Mariners have one of the best "blogspheres"around. Reading about baseball at my favorite blogs has made me a better and more knowledgeable baseball fan. Unfortunately, that's not a skill that is so easily applied to professional life.

Teaching seems to have it's own blogsphere, and exploring some teacher blogs has been a fun and rewarding experience for me. Here's hoping that reading expert teacher blogs will provide me with the ability to be a better an more knowledgeable teacher, just as baseball blogs have made me a good fan.

One blog that I really appreciated was "My First Year" which is updated by Siobhan Boylan. It can be found here; http://www.ibabuzz.com/myfirstyear/. I like this blog because Siobhan talks about failure. Failure is going to be a big part of my first year of teaching, I can see it now. I am not going to be perfect - there will be days when I just don't have much to bring to the table. But I will improve, and I must always remain steadfast in my determination to get better. This type of thinking resonates in Siobhan's blog. That has proved comforting to me, and helps me remind myself that while I'm not perfect, I can certainly improve.

Another blog that I have been checking in with is JT Spencer's Musings from a Not-So-Master Teacher. It can be found at http://jtspencer.teacherlingo.com/default.aspx. I like this blog not so much because I always agree with him - sometimes I think that he is too harsh, like when he rudely and publicly denied a successful student partial credit. However, I like that he doesn't act impulsively. He looks at his decisions and critically evaluates them. That's pretty cool, I think. He also updates very regularly, which is nice for a reader, and his posts get some feedback too.

I appreciate bloggers who are regular, honest, and well spoken, and these two blogs that I have mentioned are both. I wonder what role blogging will play in MY teaching experience. To blog would be a natural progression for me, I think.

Only time will tell. Until then, I've got some great blogs that should keep me thinking until I feel comfortable enough to fully enter the blogsphere with a self-driven professional blog of my own. Perhaps I'm not far away!

-Mr. Reni

It seems hard to believe that this first quarter is coming to a close. Harder still to believe it when I glance at my still lengthy to-do list. It's been a very rewarding quarter, one to remember, for sure. Each day has presented me with new challenges in organization, priority, professionalism, self-motivation, skill, and practice. With these challenges as my fertilizer, I have grown. Along the way I've found certain elements to be just as I expected. Others have certainly surprised me.

My biggest concern, coming in, was that I wouldn't be able to find a teacher voice. I worried that perhaps I was too informal, too young, too green - not ready. But when I got in the classroom and stepped up the stage, I was surprised at how readily I morphed into the role. The kids respond to me in a productive way. I've found that if I'm confident, if I believe in my role and my ability to rise to the situation, I can. "If you build it, they will come." Of course, I'm still a touch informal, a touch too young, and a touch too green, but I am ready.

I am ready.

That has been the message that I've taken from this quarter. I'm not going to be perfect, and there is always much to learn. But If I've learned one thing in these last three months it's that I'm ready to start learning it, and practicing it.

Along that same train of thought, I'm excited for next quarter, and that's surprising in itself! I have found that I feel at my best when I'm involved in curriculum and pedagogy decision making. If I'm not, I can feel disconnected or useless. This quarter I was able to do a little bit of that with my unit planning. Next quarter, with my classes in math, literacy, and special education, I anticipate more planning, thus more connection with the everyday life of the classroom. So while six months ago I was dreading the upcoming workload, now I'm surprised to say that I'm eager to begin.

This year will be over as quickly as it began. It's important to absorb as much learning as I can along the way. Here's hoping that even more surprises and opportunities for learning are headed my way!


-Mr. Reni

Simulating Success

Man, oh man, have I taught a couple of marathons this week. They've both been very fun and rewarding for me and, more importantly, my students, but sheesh, they've really eaten up some hours. I'll have to get better at keeping them shorter, because there simply won't be enough time in the day!

The lesson I'm going to talk about today is one that I'm particularly proud of. I spent a lot of time creating the idea, and it seemed to go over very well. I was trying to teach a lesson that made students aware of the following learning target: humans' ability to meeting their basic needs is both limited and helped by their environment and the natural environment around them. I was teaching them this universal lesson through the lens of Native Americans, the theme of my unit. As this was the first lesson, it was important that I get them familiar with all of the topics at hand. To do this, I created a survival simulation. With the lights low and their eyes closed, students listened to me read them a description of a survival challenge that they were being thrust into: a month alone in the pacific coast wilderness. When the lights came on, we talked about what we'd do first, and then brainstormed a list of basic human needs, including food, water, shelter, warmth and tools. The students continued to brainstorm in small group discussions their strategies for survival, prompted and pushed by my questions and alterations to the situation. To keep their minds imaginative, a slide show of PNW coastal wilderness pictures flashed by on the screen. At the end of the activity, which took over an hour, the students responded to a writing prompt that I'd created, describing their strategies for meeting their needs. They also drew pictures of their imaginary created shelters. This was a subtle set up for the final evaluation of the unit - students will make model Native American houses with regionally appropriate resources.

The best part of this lesson was that I think it worked! Students responded to all of my questions very thoughtfully. By the end of the lesson, students were able to describe to me with great confidence basic human needs, and how they could meet them using only natural resources from their surrounding environment. When I challenged them by reshaping the environment (taking away the option of driftwood) students were able to thoughtfully come up with other options for shelter that relied on other resources, and explain why they made their decisions. When I taught the next lesson, brainstorming natural resources was a cinch. In fact, they were able to develop a hypothetical list for the Plateau tribes as well, a very thoughtful list, too, I might add.

Now, just because it was successful doesn't mean that it was perfect. I regretted a couple of things along the way. If I could reteach this lesson, I would be way more aggressive with writing things on the board. I decided in this lesson to let the discussion stay oral, and not write anything down. In hindsight, I don't think that this was the most beneficial for the students. I think that more students would have been able to create more complete answers to the writing prompt if some of the language that we'd used would have been present in written form for them. I also think that I should have been a little bit better about only responding to raised hands. The behavior of the class was over all absolutely stellar, especially considering the duration of the activity, but during discussion certain students had the tendency to holler out the right answer. If they were wrong, they were reprimanded, but if students blurted what I was looking for, I (oops) sometimes went with it. I can improve.

I've already planned on extending this lesson, by taking it more deeply into a study of how the Native Americans responded to the same natural resources, but with over 10,000 years of time to figure out how to meet their needs. Students were excited to figure this out at the end of the lesson. If I wanted to, and if I had the time and resources, this would be an optimal unit for a field trip. And at the very least, the students general interest in shelter will be very useful when I assign the take home project. There is no reason that every student shouldn't be able to use this information in many aspects of their life. Any time that we talk about a foreign culture, I will be able to relate back to this EALR, and they'll have the tools to appropriately and fluently respond.

This lesson was an overwhelming success, and I'm very proud of it. If they all went this well, life would be too easy. My second one, for the record, went very well too. I hope that you all are having such fun with your respective lessons. This was an excellent experience for me - one of those "I can do this!" moments. I can only wish you the best of luck, so I will. Good luck!

-Mr. Reni

(editors note: whoops, I forgot to click publish when I wrote this earlier this morning. I hope that my eager and devoted readers weren't left wanting!)

Finding my voice

Perhaps the most important part of being a new teacher is finding your voice -your role in the classroom. Occasionally you'll see teachers who have assumed an amazing role, and they power their children's learning, assisting and supporting and crafting unique independently thinking individuals. Other times, a teacher is not so successful. I would wager that some teachers even vary in their role year to year, some years finding luck, and some years finding struggles. I'd like to think that I will always assume the "perfect" role, but I can't be sure. I think that the biggest secret is to be flexible. That's what I'm trying to do right now.

Mrs. Candini has her classroom down to a science. She knows her routines, procedures. She knows how she'll handle different situations as they arise. She has her own class. When I have my own class, will it operate just like hers? No. It won't, but that's not to say her way isn't excellent - elite, even. She has her voice, and I have mine. My job, then, as a student teacher in her classroom, has been to find my voice within the confines of her class. That has proved to be easy in some ways, and tricky in others.

It's not hard for me to stay useful. Mrs. Candini always has all sorts of things lined up for me to do. Some days I can barely look over the pile of papers she asks me to grade (wild exaggeration). I've had all sort of projects that have not only taught me interesting things about the background setup of a functioning class, but have also given me a bit of ownership into the room. This "parking lot" poster I designed is one such example - kids use it to put aside things they want to share with the whole class. It's been very efficient, and is very helpful. I like that I was able to put my own spin on it.
I've been working on finding that voice within my teaching, too. I've administered many spelling tests, which the kids got a kick out of. I motivated them with the promise that at the end of the unit i would rap the spelling list - which I did, freestyle. I was sure nervous for that. Funny, I've been rapping at tennis lessons (my other job) for years now, but in front of the classroom, in my "Mr. Reni" clothes, it felt like the first time. It was certainly a dorky moment for me, but it was refreshing, because for that moment, the class was mine. It was a bit of my authentic teaching voice coming through. I've since silenced it a bit, trying to hold back on my inherent goofiness out of respect for Mrs. Candini's structured feat of organization and suave.

I've been the "sub" twice, thus far. True, there was a paid sub that sat in the back of the room all day, but I was in charge. Once the subbing was planned, and it was a full day, the other day was a big surprise for me. Subbing is exciting, and it was a fun taste of being a real teacher. But it seems like so much of subbing is doing worksheets, and trying not to ruffle too many feathers, or mess up the sheets. It's hard to make a positive impact on a group of kids in just one day, doing mundane activities. No, I'll need my own classroom if I'm going to truly love what I do. I'm excited for when that finally happens.

The kids have been very busy lately, especially in the field of social studies. First, there was Columbus Day, and all related activities. I wasn't there for that, but in light of what we've been reading lately, I wondered if perhaps there could have been some more meaningful learning taking place during such an authentic opportunity - oh well, wait 'till the next holiday, right? While the kids may not have touched on all the deeper issues, they sure did create some beautiful art! Look at these paintings!
Who knew we had twenty-four Monet's in our classroom!?


After Columbus Day, we had my read aloud, which went very well. I was impressed with the discussion that the kids had. Mrs. Candini agreed that it set a very nice foundation for our election unit. I was proud of the work that I put into planning the read-aloud, I was even more proud that I was able to teach it using a voice that felt like my own and fit into Mrs. Candini's classroom.

Finding a voice is a tricky thing to do, especially when you have to blend it with one that isn't your own. I wonder if I'll be brave enough to establish my own style, my own voice this year. If so, when? Next quarter? Spring? Should I even try? Or rather should I continue to try to fit in as seamlessly as possible. Tricky choices, eh? Has anyone else pondered this query? What do you think?


-Mr. Reni

Convictions and Growth

I love to teach. It's a professional that requires passion, poise, leadership, conscious thought, and personal reflection and growth. These are great things to have as part of your profession. They certainly beat plugging numbers into a computer accounting system - at least in my own humble opinion. There is, however, a serious amount of tediousness and monotony that walks hand in hand with teaching's finer traits. There is very little fun in running photo copies, ripping posters off walls, disciplining deviant children, collecting and grading papers... the list goes on. In fact, the negatives can move so far into the forefront of some teacher's brains that they burn out - leaving the profession in a cloud of frustration.

I'm not saying I know that I'll be a happy teacher forever, but I need to think carefully about why I'm teaching if I want to even have a shot. I need to outline my convictions or I won't be able to look past those things that aren't immediately rewarding. (Sounds like a life lesson, doesn't it?).

Those convictions don't necessarily remain static - that is, they can change over time. Some of mine already have. For example, I came into this year believing strongly that I would have to operate on an island, because my teaching style and means of communication has differed somewhat severely from those I've seen in textbooks. I was worried, perhaps because I'm a male, perhaps because I've chosen not to associate myself with a religion, perhaps because of a number of reasons, that I was not going to be able to identify or connect with many of the teachers that surround me and that they would perhaps look down on me. I did not think that this would stop me from my job, in fact, I thought that it would help motivate me, albeit in a sick and twisted way.

This has NOT been the case. The staff at Northern Heights do differ than me in many ways, and my teaching style will surely be different than theirs when I have my own classroom, but everyone has been more than willing to assist and accommodate me in any way that I've asked. It's a very civil, fun, and motivated group, and I'm honored to even be mildly considered their colleague. I can only hope that other schools that I may work at will boast such a functional and friendly group of teachers that I can work and grow with.

Convictions are important for teaching, perhaps the most important thing. If you don't believe in something, then that something will never be true. But convictions can, and should, be altered and tempered under the fire of real life. It's important to remember that they can come out different, but better. Convictions can evolve, and when they do, so do we.

-Mr. Reni

It Begins

Welcome to my brand new blog. While I admit that I've never written in an official blog before (can they be official?) I do hold myself to be a remarkably articulate person who always sees the ultimate truth in everything I choose to discuss. Hopefully, with those expectations, you can proceed to be wowed, thrilled, and astonished by the profundity of my dialogue.

...

Probably not. But perhaps this blog will offer you, the curious reader, insight into the wild and hectic world of student teaching. A world that is constantly abuzz with change, reflection, critical thinking and growth.

Currently I'm at Northern Heights Elementary, in Beckey Candini's classroom. I'm lucky in that Beckey is easily one of the most knowledgeable and capable teachers I've met. She has been and will be an amazing mentor to me as I go forth into my future. I personally can't wait.

Enjoy!

-Mr. Reni