Reflections on the Year in Lab
@whatedsaid Edna Sackson:
My best tip for new year would be to focus on how students learn rather than how you teach. It changed things for me completely #elemchat
I’ve held off doing a final “Week in Lab” post because I just couldn’t figure out how to put into words what had gone wrong this year. I focused on things from my perspective. I was going through the motions, I was on a treadmill just doing what I had done in prior years, etc. Even my husband complained that I wasn’t sharing much about the exciting things I was doing with the kids, as I had in years past.
In my conversations with my husband on this topic, I focused on the things outside of my control that made this situation what it was; too many grown-up dramas in my professional-life, the constraints of being a prep teacher and having so many students for so short a time (~375 in two 45-minute periods a week).
Those were factors, but I thought back to the time before I came to the lab, a very turbulent year, both professionally and personally. That was the year that I broke out with education technology, and started my students blogging, and creating a whole bunch of new instructional approaches. So the adult stuff can’t be all of it.
I also remembered my first year in the lab, and how I changed the entire pacing and delivery of my instruction to match the developmental depth, and chronologically shallow schedule, so I haven’t let time or space stop me in the past either.
Then I saw the tweet above fly by today, and I knew what had been missing. Don’t get me wrong, I have had moments this year where I have approached lessons by thinking about how students learn, but I think the missing ingredient for this year, especially this Spring, was listening to students, and hearing what they were telling me about their learning: whether or not it had taken place, and adjusting my teaching accordingly.
I still don’t know where and who I will be teaching next year (my surplus date is Tuesday, but this is the fourth time the district has scheduled this event, so who knows what will happen). But, I do know one thing, I will need to think more about how the kids learn, and let how I teach follow from that. I will need to listen to what students are showing me they are learning, and how that is happening, and adjust my instruction accordingly so I’m not “…flat-footed and out of position, as others fight for the ball.”
Happy Summer!
Hi Alice
I’m so glad my tweet got you thinking 🙂
This is a great reflective post which means you are on the right track for next year. How does it work? How come you don’t know where you be will be next year? 🙁
Edna
Starting Monday, we all go into a room in order (I have a time slot on Tuesday am), and pick from the list of open teaching jobs in the district. We then get checked to make sure we are “qualified” (have the right credential and meet the eligibility criteria–long story that). My first time doing this. I’ll like blog after the fact about it.
Thanks for checking in!
Alice, thanks for opening your practice and sharing these reflections (again). Like our friend Larry, you’ve done a service to yourself, your students, and your readers, by doing this type of work and writing. I’m inspired to do something similar – sometimes it takes me a few weeks to feel ready for that examination of the past year. Stay tuned for something on InterACT in about a week.
I just thank god I don’t that I don’t have to “justify” asking to return to a self-contained classroom from the lab. I can only imagine what district lawyers at a hearing would make of this post (ex. http://mizzmurphy.blogspot.com/2011/05/message-received.html).
Hey Alice,
Ditto. Remembering to listen to our students seems to be a challenge most if us face. I had mixed reults this school year too. After 5 years teaching 3rd grade I’ll be teaching 5th. I’ll be spending time this summer reflecting on the successes, challenges and next steps in my own teaching. Have a great summer!