Shout out to my cooperating teacher!

This is a rough draft of the letter I will be putting into my cooperating teacher's portfolio. She is currently one of the top three teachers in the district that were nominated by their schools. I believe that she deserves the title and beyond because of all she does for everyone.

To Whom it May Concern:

As Ms. Fraser’s student teacher I have been able to observe her in many capacities throughout my time with her. It was clear from the first day that she takes extra time to get to know all of her students individually and provides a structured environment that enhances their learning. Because she knows her students so well they know that she cares deeply for them and in return they love and adore her. This relationship that she builds with her students helps her in creating a classroom that is full of the joy of learning. Her relationships with each of her students’ continue on through their entire careers at Carmichael Elementary. She continues to be a positive presence in their school lives and encourages them to keep working towards their best.

Ms. Fraser has continually made unique and individualized lesson plans that provide the rigor and relevance that the district is encouraging all teachers to provide in their daily lessons. She continues to help me in lesson planning as I am not familiar with the sequencing and standards that are being covered during my time with her because I moved down here from Iowa to student teach. Ms. Fraser has made sure that I get all the resources and training that I may need while I am here. Because of her persistence and encouragement I was able to be trained in Reading Mastery.

Ms. Fraser is always happy to share her ideas and lessons with her fellow Kindergarten teachers and any others that ask for her help and ideas. She has been very open with me and helped me to grow as a teacher and an individual. Ms. Fraser has been a great example of a master teacher. In her role as grade chair she has shown me that being in charge of a group of teachers can be a challenge at times, but through hard work and encouraging others all the work that needs to be accomplished can be completed above and beyond expectations. Her excellence in the role as grade chairperson has played a large part in bringing cohesiveness among the Kindergarten classes.

I am very sad that I will be leaving Ms. Fraser’s class at the end of February because I do believe I was placed with the best teacher in the district and the state of Texas. I know that even though I will be at another school in the district she will continue to guide and support me during my entire student teaching experience. This kind of guidance and support and all of her characteristics make her the best candidate for Aldine ESL teacher of the year.

Sincerely,

Nicole Hurd

In Desperate Need of A Time Machine

Today we had half-day planning. The first part of the day all the kindergarten teachers had substitutes in their rooms so they could all get together with the skills specialist and plan out the next six weeks activities and lessons. The skills specialist is in charge of making sure the curriculum aligns with the TEKS and for laying out the sequence and scope of the topics covered. Because of this structure the teachers are restricted in what they could do with the students, but working together they found ways to make their lessons unique and individualized. They also changed some of the sequence and length of social studies units, which is allowed as long as they cover what is required. The thing that really struck me the most was the fact that although I was helping to plan I would not be there for the time period at all. It made me realize that the time I had with my students would soon be done and I wouldn't be seeing any of these lessons being put into action. It made me sad  that I would have to leave soon because I really enjoy working with my students and the teachers. I would love to stay, but I know that the second part of my student teaching will also provide me with unique and challenging opportunities. In the meantime if anyone has a time machine so I can go back to the beginning I'd love the chance to repeat and get even more out of my time.

Super Centers

Super centers is a great idea that I can see implementing in the future, so I wanted to share it with others. I don't know if I can explain it clear enough that every can understand, but I will try my best and if you have questions just ask. The basic idea behind the process is that students rotate to three different centers each day for three days. Every day all the students come to the teacher in a small group for teaching as one of their centers. The first day is the longest because you have to introduce the new centers you are rotating in to any of the six independent work centers. I don't suggest changing out too many stations at a time because it may be two days before a student gets to a station and if there are six new stations to remember they likely won't remember what to do unless they are upper elementary, but kindergarteners especially ESL students have difficulty with too many new tasks to remember. Each day is labeled with a picture and the centers are all identified by a shape.It
does take a bit of prep, planning, and effective classroom management, but it definitely is a great way to work with your students and allow them to be responsible for working independently.
I was able to recreate the chart that is on the front of the students folders. The folders hold all the work that they produce at the centers. Not all centers have a product, but for the ones that do they are kept in their folders until they are collected at the end of the week. Also, only having three days to complete allows you to do different instruction or tasks for math on the other two days.

So my chart won't load in properly not really sure how to do it so unless someone knows how I will get a picture of one of the students folders.

Roll of Darkness, Hear My Cry

Imagine washing your hands in the bathroom, the lights go out, there are no emergency lights anywhere,no lights period, and you can't see where the lock is on the door to get yourself out of the bathroom. Well that is what happened to me on Wednesday(2/2) as I was getting ready for the day. What a great way to start the day locked in a dark bathroom. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I panicked, for a second as I stumbled to the door searching for the handle and lock. Well I made it out of the bathroom and walked into the main office part where my favorite registrar and secretary were trying to contact the principal using their cell phones. I stuck around in the office instead of going back to my dark classroom to read like I do every morning. Rumors that came into the office said that the power companies were doing rolling blackouts all day because of the storm system that was going through. This didn't make sense to me because Texans were dealing with the coldest temperatures they've had in a long time. I had my phone at that point and my Mom confirmed the rolling blackouts as she was snowed in at home in Iowa City.

The tree right outside our living room window.(Iowa City) 

Standing on our screened porch looking to the backyard.(Iowa City) 

She had been sending me pictures because I was feeling left out on all the excitement of the massive snow that hit Iowa. I made myself useful because I was antsy just standing around in the dark doing nothing so I helped the secretary get out camping lanterns and walked them across the courtyard to the library where the kinder and pre-k classes are held before the day starts. After about 15 minutes of darkness the call was made to bring the children to their classrooms and start on with the day. Not the idea I had in my mind, but I made it work.
Thankfully the teacher next door was on duty so I just picked up her kids and they split from my kids when she meet us in the hall. This meant that I didn't have the normal mess of kids on my carpet for the first few minutes of class. Instead of having the kids work on their Reading Mastery books like they were supposed to I entertained them for a few minutes showing them the pictures of the snow. They were beyond excited because the weather man had been talking about the chance of snow for Friday and they thought that the pictures I showed were the kind of snow we would get. I let them revel in the uniqueness of being at school with no lights.
While we waited for our teacher, who was stuck in bad morning traffic with every stoplight out, I checked their homework and they worked as best as they could on their RM books. It was a very unique morning to say the least. The lights went on and off several times during the day, usually at the most inopportune moments. It was out while both my teacher and I were being observed. My teacher was observed, by the vice principal, doing math centers while the lights were out for at least 30 minutes. I was observed doing letter of the week activities with the lights out in the beginning and halfway through they came on causing a bit of an uproar about the lights flashing back.
While I should have asked for him to come back another day to observe me I thought it might be beneficial having him observe me in a setting that caused disrupt all day and the way I approached the situation and the students. His critiques of my lesson were of the parts that are routine to the students and all the things that my teacher did that I chose not to change because I liked the structure of the lesson. I also felt that it gave the students time to adjust to me teaching without having to adjust to a completely new style of teaching. (This could be a post on its own, but I'm not going to go any further.)
I did and still do wonder how they cooked all the hot food and kept it hot while the power kept going in and out. I will never know, but I was really glad I hadn't decided to eat with my kids because I did not trust the cafeteria that day.
The whole day was a little crazy because of the power going in and out, but it was a big lesson in just adapting  what you have planned to fit the things that are happening around you. I can definitely say after the day was over I never want to be in school in record low temps (for Houston) and have the power go in and out. I kept praying that they would call school early, but it never happened. I did however get my prayer for a shorter week answered when we got a "snow day" Friday(2/4). It was wonderful and much needed because I was starting to feel very sick and I needed the extra rest to ensure I stayed healthy.

Staff Development or Staff Disillusionment

January 12th--The first staff meeting I went to a bit like what I thought a staff meeting would go, except for the Teaching with Love and Logic portion. This part of the meeting puzzled me quiet a bit because the school administrators were making the teaching staff read Teaching with Love and Logic and begin implementing at least one of the suggestions from the reading. I've heard many of the teachers talk about their dislike of the book especially with the types of children that attend the school. The book talks about giving students choices and giving them the power, but when you have classes that are already seizing too much power because of their behavior giving them more power just didn't seem like the right thing to do in those classrooms. The vice principal got up and asked to hear what people connected with and what they were implementing, there were very few volunteers and instead of explaining why she was making them do this that it wasn't a waste of time she went on told what she thought and then gave each grade level a chapter to read and teach to the other grade levels at the next staff meeting. Then each grade level were asked to pair off and complete a lesson plan  using Bloom's Revised Taxonomy and TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) given to them. We had to put the lesson into a specific format that laid out each of the six levels and the activity that would go along with it. These lesson plans were supposed to implemented in the respective classrooms within two weeks of the meeting. Many of the teachers saw no point in doing this task especially since the district lays out so specifically what they are to do and when. This annoyance would flow over into the Staff Development Day on the 14th.

Staff Development Day-January 14th
Whew! I had my first encounter with very heavy traffic due to a car accident and it took me a little over an hour to get to the school which got me to the school with 2 minutes to drop my things and get in to the cafeteria. I skidded into my seat just a minute before the first presentation began. The first thing on the agenda for the day was a handwriting presentation. The district is implementing a handwriting program and she presented the formating of what we are expected to teach and different techniques we could use in the classroom with students that have difficulty forming letters. It was a great presentation to see because it seemed directed at the kindergarten level and to teachers with students that have illegible handwriting. I came away with a lot of good ideas on teaching handwriting and worksheet samples that help students form the muscle memory needed to make all the letters.
The next part of the day was a PowerPoint showing a hot button issue and the real faces of the victims to bullying. The PowerPoint was a real tear jerker. Bullying has no place in our schools and if we teach our children correctly maybe one day we won't have to watch PowerPoints like this one to remind ourselves that bullying is a big problem. The school counselor spoke briefly to say that this was just an introduction into a much larger workshop that would happen in February.
Lunch Break
Rigor and Relevance was the biggest topic of the afternoon and the most demeaning of the day. We spent an hour going over Bloom's Taxonomy, making our own rigor and relevance framework, and then categorizing tasks into the right quadrant. Many of the teachers did not enjoy being told to make the frameworks and then being told that they should hang on the walls in their classrooms. The framework isn't something that an elementary school child would be able to understand it is just another brightly colored meaningless object hanging on the wall to distract the students. It also showed me how little the school invests in their teachers as people. If they really knew their teachers they would know that the Taxonomy is something we all learn about in college in our teaching courses. I know I have reviewed the Taxonomy in several classes at Coe in better and more significant ways that gave me ideas of ways to use it everyday in my classroom. The way the school here did it made me shut down and it made me resent being there because it made me feel like they thought we didn't have any idea what Bloom's Taxonomy is and how we can use it. That feeling was wide spread from the whispers I caught. The day ended with a team building activity that diffused some of the tension from the previous activities.
I have been left thinking if so many of the teachers were upset and annoyed by the Rigor and Relevance activity and I picked up on it just being there did the administrators pick up on it? Did anyone step up and say something to the administrators? What would you say and would they change what they do or would they keep it?
I would like to see another staff meeting and another development day to see whether these things are a common occurrence or if that was just something for that day. Thankfully I will be able to go to the staff meetings now because my seminar is no longer on Wednesday nights when staff meetings are held. The last few meetings have been canceled so hopefully this week we will have a meeting.

Morning Calendar Disaster

January 24th
Well the day started out any way but normal. Instead of picking up two classes from the library like I have been I was told to pick up a third class and to show the substitute for one of the bilingual classes where her class for the day is waiting for her. I got my class and the two extra classes and walked them down to our room. The extra students had to sit on the carpet while we waited for one teacher and tried to find the other teacher's split list. This was a new term for me, but it basically means that because there was no substitute available for the class so all the students would be split up among the remaining kindergarten classrooms. This was supposed to be my first day doing morning calendar and I was quiet sure that I was really ready to take it on yet. But it became obvious at 8:35 when my teacher was still trying to figure all the splitting and what to do during specials time that I had to do it. Well I did my best job with extra students and all. K was so upset by all the commotion and other things that he sobbed the entire time that I was doing calendar. Nothing I said or did changed his behavior, so I just had to teach over it which is something that I was very unnerved about. The students do their number of days math problems on a white board. As I was doing them I had a student tell me that my five looked bad. It came with a little bit of sting, but I responded that I was having a hard time writing on the new board that it was something I still needed to practice and that was ok. I continued on with their morning routine and got out their next activity, but thankfully by the time I was getting ready to explain what they would be doing my teacher was back and she took over. I had to reflect for a moment and realize that young children will alway be brutally honest I need not take it so personally and that as far as K goes I will have many more days where he cries through my teaching. Oh what a day it turned out to be!

Reading Mastery

**Edited to add the reading mastery webpage where you can get more information on it if you are interested.

Reading Mastery is the reading program that the district and most of the state of Texas ascribe to for teaching students to read. You cannot teach it unless you have been trained by the woman that supervises the implementation of the program in the area schools. Despite my teacher informing this woman that she would be getting another student teacher in January and she wanted me to be trained I wasn't going to get trained. Fortunately, a new teacher needed to be trained on January 20th she let my teacher know that she was willing to train me if I came during the time that she was training the new teacher. By this stroke of luck I was able to get trained so I can take over everything like suggested. The training began with her explaining that reading mastery is a research based and field tested. She really stressed that it was the only reading program that has been field tested to prove that it's methods work in teaching all students to read. Then she showed us the phonemes that are taught in Kindergarten and the remaining phonemes that are taught in first grade. The basic progression of the program wasn't explained to us because I am jumping in in the middle of the year and the other teacher is a second grade teacher. Although this didn't bother me at the time I am finding it hard to figure out where my students started because that was never explained. I know why it wasn't explained, but it is something I would like to know.
The program is all scripted! You must say what the book tells you and you have to respond to the students in the same way every time. I can't tell you how many times she stopped me from practicing because I didn't say the exact thing, I responded to her differently, or I wasn't prompting her correctly. It really takes a lot of the fun out of teaching being forced to follow a script and because it takes so much time there isn't any time for real literature study. There are even steps that are supposed to be followed if a student doesn't respond correctly when prompted. The one thing I really do like about the program is that the vowels are marked so the students can see right away if it is a long or short vowel sound in the word.
We then went over the introduction of the workbook pages. This again is scripted, but it is a little freer than the instructional book. There is a short two sentence story that they are to read slow and then read fast. After that the introduction of the other activities goes quickly because it is going over letters(that are to be written) and their sounds, what the picture is illustrating, and then the words with pictures underneath(which one illustrate the word and which ones don't). It takes from start to finish without having to correct a child 30 minutes, but if you have to stop and correct which happens it can take 45 minutes or more. If you have three groups to do this with it takes at minimum 1.5 hours! That's a large chunk of time just on that one program when you only have 5 hours with your students. And while you are working with one group the rest of the class is supposed to be working quietly and independently. That's an hour of quiet independent work that each child is expected to complete. For kindergarteners that is a hard task especially when they are just beginning school.
https://www.mheonline.com/program/view/1/3/21/0076181936/

A Little Sneak Peak

I have a bunch of blog posts in the work, but can't seem to get one finished before I can't see straight or before my "old person" bedtime of 9:30/10 pm. That being said I hope to finish them all this weekend, but I thought I would give you a preview of topics to come. Reading Mastery, Morning Calendar Day 1 Disaster, Title 1, Staff Development or Staff Disillusionment, TPRI, Super Centers, Challenge, and my personal favorite as it was the highlighting theme of my day Roll of Darkness, Hear My Cry. And now after a long chilly day I will make myself dinner (aka reheat leftovers) and crash quickly before tomorrow comes or before the roll of darkness strikes again and I lose this sneak peak and the chance to heat my food.
I hope everyone is safe and warm.