One thing is for sure, the busier I am the faster time seems to pass, and I can’t believe three weeks have gone by since I started teaching. After three weeks of teaching, I am left reflecting on a few things: how to balance the tasks associated with teaching, integrating technology and curriculum across the elementary grade levels, and behavior management strategies for a diverse student population. By far the constant theme has been the question of how to balance all the demands of the teaching profession.
As a new teacher, I’m finding myself focusing on more basic tasks such as getting to know the learning community, figuring out what the expectations for me are, and trying to balance learning, planning, teaching, and the rest of what I like to call life (family, exercise, friends, and sleep). I feel like I’m getting to know the staff, though of course these relationships aren’t very developed, though I do put great value in the learning of peoples names and using them. As a specialist, I work with the entire student population, seeing each class every six days. It has proven difficult for me so far to learn the student’s names, and I continue to focus on foundationds of relationship building. One of the more interesting aspects of my job is that it is an amalgam of various job titles and responsibilities. I haven’t seen how my position is funded, but like a good employee, I look to my boss, the principal, to tell me what it is I’m expected to be doing. Part of my time is as an Educational Technology (ET) specialist. I also teach lessons in the computer lab while the classroom teachers get planning time. Somewhere in there I’m told my responsibilities include tech support for the staff and if it is an issue I’m not sure about, or does not fall within my scope of responsibilities or abilities, I’m told I’m also in charge of placing the tech support calls for the classroom teachers. Coming into the building after the beginning of the year, I’m finding most of the time I’m not teaching is being consumed by technology related issues. As a technician I’m aware that I’m dealing with a bit of a backlog and I just need to get through it to see the work load decrease, but sometimes I’m not so sure. I’m struggling to find the time to do the planning for my math class and computer classes and I’m ending up working late into the evenings and early in the mornings, and I still don’t feel as though I’m doing the prep to the level which I would like it done. I’m thinking this feeling changes as teachers get more seasoned and we learn the curriculum, but right now, I’m finding it difficult to balance all of the demands of this position with anything resembling a “normal” life.
In my computer classes, I’m working on developmentally appropriate lessons which align with the goals and objectives of the classroom teachers as well as District and State standards. I have worked with all grade levels reviewing the terminology/vocabulary of computers so that we have a common language we can work with as we progress through the course of the school year. I’m putting some of this out there because I would welcome input from the educational community, so feel free to comment if you wish. For K-2, initially I’m going to focus on their understanding how the input devices work, in particular the mouse, by having them work with paint programs, where they can select various tools and manipulate a canvas. Later on I think I will move them towards a program we have which will help them learn the alphabet and associated phonics while becoming more familiar with the keyboard layout. I will add more differentiation by allowing students who are more alphabetically and phonetically aware to work on reading, math and basic keyboarding skills. For third grade, I think I will continue to focus on reading, math, and keyboarding, but begin to integrate more writing and publishing skills. This will also be a good age to introduce the promise and peril of the internet. We can begin to work with search engines and do basic research. For fourth and fifth grade, I will continue the math, reading, keyboarding, writing, publishing, and internet research, and add more media publishing options. The additional publishing options should include presentations, video, audio, and WebPages. One thing is for sure though, none of this will be possible without a good behavior plan in place.
The first session with each of the classrooms I have worked on the terminology and my classroom behavior expectations. I’m beginning to see classes now for the second time and I’m realizing what I did well and what I didn’t do well when explaining the rules and procedures. I’m finding that the way I communicate may not be effective with certain populations and I’m looking for tools which can help. For example, I had a fifth grade class come in and my goal was to familiarize them with our math curriculum’s (Everyday Math) online games. I had a handful of students who refused to go to the Everyday Math site. They would tell me things like it’s boring, or other terminology which communicated their dislike for it. The most common term used was boring. Anyone familiar with the Everyday Math online games should know that they skill levels are diversified enough that they should be challenged versus bored. If anything the games might be said to be too challenging. Though I suppose if one’s point of reference is a high paced action game on a game console then it wouldn’t bet too inaccurate to call math games boring. It really is just a matter of perspective I suppose. The students were asking to be able to go to different math game websites, and I was considering it. I really just wanted them to be able to demonstrate to me that they could log-in and find a “just right” math game. This group of students was incessant; they would not stop asking me if they could go to different websites for math games. It reached a point that even if I wanted to let them go to a different math site, I felt as though I couldn’t because I would be rewarding their off task badgering of me. I even had one student tell me “I’d rather be suspended then go do Everyday Math games.” I began to realize that rationalizing was just not working with these students and it began to be a distraction. I let the one student know that I would try and arrange that for him and went to call the head teacher. Our head teacher showed up and got immediate results from these boys. Unlike me, she modulated her tone of voice to communicate firmness, and firmly told the students not to talk back to her. She took them out in the hall and they came back and were on task. I think I need to learn some strategies from her. I’m still in favor of rationalizing, but it seems if the student is not willing to listen to me, no attempt at rationalizing is going to work. I look forward to getting more cooperation from some of my students with diverse perspectives and communication patterns.
Over the coming weeks, I hope to get a better understanding of my responsibilities, perhaps I’ll just assume that everything is my responsibility until I find out otherwise. I also hope to begin to find a better balance between work and home. I want to plan effective lessons and be able to at least begin to exercise again, as I see that as a key to me feeling better mentally and physically. I’m also going to continue to work on my behavior management techniques and explore different communication patterns for different student communication styles.
