The school year got off to a rocky start. First of all, there's not much for the Reading Specialist to do the first few weeks of school. It was too early to start working with the teachers, who are just trying to get things up and running in their classrooms. I was uncomfortable with not being busy enough. Second, my responsibilities are still somewhat ambiguous. No one has sat down with me and told me what I should be doing. I've just heard a lot of what not to do. It's a new position, so I don't think anyone really knows, and I'm just kind of making it up as I go along based on what I learned in grad school. Also, it's like my confidence has been out the window since I moved back. Suddenly I was questioning myself and my abilities, knowledge, and qualifications for this position. I was afraid I was out of my league and had nothing to contribute.
Well, things have started to turn around. I knew if I could just get a few people to "hire" me, and if I worked hard and did well, then they would tell their friends about my "services." (I've realized that I'm basically trying to get a small business going here.) Finally, two sixth grade teachers asked me to come into their social studies classes and model some lessons about determining importance and notetaking. I was so nervous before my first lesson! And then I got up there, and it was like, "Oh yeah, I know how to do this," and the lesson went smoothly and the kids were really engaged and the teacher took notes and said she was getting lots of great ideas! Now she is telling people how much she's enjoying this, and other teachers are approaching me. I'm so happy! And relieved- I want them to need me. I want a job next year!
Things are going well with my reading strategies classes, too. I only teach two periods a day, a 6th and 7th grade class. I think the 6th grade class is a lot more fun because I'm not as bound to a curriculum, so I can do my own stuff. Well, my 7th grade class is a little, um, energetic. It's hard because they are all good kids, it's just all rowdy boys in there. This is the class where I threatened to make a boy write an essay titled, "What's So Funny" because they keep getting the giggles. At first I was annoyed, but then I thought how lucky I was to have such enthusiastic boys who are eager to participate in class, even if it's not always at appropriate times and in appropriate ways.
Anyway, there are three boys in there who are frequent fliers in my lunch detention, meaning that they eat their lunch in my room while I'm teaching a 6th grade class. Last week, I noticed that they were all quietly listening. By Friday, they were participating (appropriately!) in the activities. They've asked if they can come back on days when they don't have detention! I've never heard of middle school kids wanting to give up lunch to be in their third reading class of the day. It makes me so happy! I told them they could come on Tuesdays and Thursdays (the 6th graders just work on their computers on the other days) when I do my reading strategy lessons. Tomorrow's going to be great. I'm trying to teach them how good readers ask questions before, during, and after reading. Whenever I introduce a strategy, I start with a simple, concrete mini-lesson that we can refer back to. So I got some dried Turkish apricots from Whole Foods tonight, which look all crazy and kind of disgusting. The kids are going to practice thinking of questions before, during, and after eating them. And just like it feels good to satisfy your curiousity about how a food will taste, it also feels really good to find the answers to things you've been wondering about while reading! I think I'm also going to have a giant poster where kids can write things they've been wondering about. And then the kids are going to practice writing questions before, during, and after reading using an article from one of my favorite books: "Oh, Yuck: The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty." They love reading about the science of boogers and head lice and burps.
Didn't mean to ramble and be boring, but I'm just so excited that things are finally looking up at work. Hopefully I continue to live up to people's expectations and can learn and grow in my profession. Even though I'm less nervous, there's still so much I don't know. No matter how long I teach, there will still be things I need to learn! This is yet another reason why I love what I do.
Well, things have started to turn around. I knew if I could just get a few people to "hire" me, and if I worked hard and did well, then they would tell their friends about my "services." (I've realized that I'm basically trying to get a small business going here.) Finally, two sixth grade teachers asked me to come into their social studies classes and model some lessons about determining importance and notetaking. I was so nervous before my first lesson! And then I got up there, and it was like, "Oh yeah, I know how to do this," and the lesson went smoothly and the kids were really engaged and the teacher took notes and said she was getting lots of great ideas! Now she is telling people how much she's enjoying this, and other teachers are approaching me. I'm so happy! And relieved- I want them to need me. I want a job next year!
Things are going well with my reading strategies classes, too. I only teach two periods a day, a 6th and 7th grade class. I think the 6th grade class is a lot more fun because I'm not as bound to a curriculum, so I can do my own stuff. Well, my 7th grade class is a little, um, energetic. It's hard because they are all good kids, it's just all rowdy boys in there. This is the class where I threatened to make a boy write an essay titled, "What's So Funny" because they keep getting the giggles. At first I was annoyed, but then I thought how lucky I was to have such enthusiastic boys who are eager to participate in class, even if it's not always at appropriate times and in appropriate ways.
Anyway, there are three boys in there who are frequent fliers in my lunch detention, meaning that they eat their lunch in my room while I'm teaching a 6th grade class. Last week, I noticed that they were all quietly listening. By Friday, they were participating (appropriately!) in the activities. They've asked if they can come back on days when they don't have detention! I've never heard of middle school kids wanting to give up lunch to be in their third reading class of the day. It makes me so happy! I told them they could come on Tuesdays and Thursdays (the 6th graders just work on their computers on the other days) when I do my reading strategy lessons. Tomorrow's going to be great. I'm trying to teach them how good readers ask questions before, during, and after reading. Whenever I introduce a strategy, I start with a simple, concrete mini-lesson that we can refer back to. So I got some dried Turkish apricots from Whole Foods tonight, which look all crazy and kind of disgusting. The kids are going to practice thinking of questions before, during, and after eating them. And just like it feels good to satisfy your curiousity about how a food will taste, it also feels really good to find the answers to things you've been wondering about while reading! I think I'm also going to have a giant poster where kids can write things they've been wondering about. And then the kids are going to practice writing questions before, during, and after reading using an article from one of my favorite books: "Oh, Yuck: The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty." They love reading about the science of boogers and head lice and burps.
Didn't mean to ramble and be boring, but I'm just so excited that things are finally looking up at work. Hopefully I continue to live up to people's expectations and can learn and grow in my profession. Even though I'm less nervous, there's still so much I don't know. No matter how long I teach, there will still be things I need to learn! This is yet another reason why I love what I do.
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