Possibility can be tiring

First question: does the new color hurt anyone's eyes? I like it and it seems very "Phoenix" to me, but I don't want to cause any headaches. Speaking of which, I passed out a handout printed on yellow paper last week (not on purpose, it was left in the copier) and one of my students told me that it gave her a headache. I think maybe she just didn't want to do the assignment...but I gave her the original that was on non-headache inducing paper. I think she was a little disappointed. I digress.

Right now I am weighing my desire to post with my desire to sleep. I'll compromise and post briefly. I want to share some of what is tiring me out.

The year is still going well. I am having a wonderful time with my kiddos. This year I am able to focus on my instruction a lot more because behavior is so much more under control. I have been thinking about my instruction a lot and how it is doing a lot of things that I want it to do. My students are, as a whole, mastering the knowledge and skills I am teaching them. Yay! I have identified where some of the gaps are and am working collaboratively with the reading specialist to fill in those gaps. I am working to get parent volunteers to help me pull off the intensive reading intervention that needs to happen for my struggling readers. These things are going well. I want to restate how AMAZING it is to have my classroom be a positive place for my kids and myself to be every day. I am happy to go to work every day. I respect my kids and genuinely enjoy them and they know this.

Yesterday and today I was privileged to attend Understanding by Design training. This is training on strategic backwards planning to increase student engagement and achievement. This is the model that TFA uses to train us--this is the way that I generally understand planning. However, the training the past two days pushed me in two main ways:
a) I realized that I AM backwards planning--planning with the end in mind. I identify standards that go together, figure out the knowledge and skills involved in the standards, create an assessment that measures the knowledge and skills and then plan from there. This is good. However, this is only the basic level. I am not actually pushing my students to higher levels of thinking--I am not actually backwards planning for higher levels of understanding. I am focusing on the level that is required by the standardized tests and then hoping that higher level thinking happens along the way. My assessments are NOT multiple and they are NOT varied and they assess knowledge and skills but NOT greater understanding.

Hmmmm....what does this MEAN?

This means that I am on the right track. I have a firm understanding of all the processes involved here. I have identified what is missing. I have the resources to begin to bring higher level thinking goals into my units. This will not happen overnight, but the important thing is that I am moving in the right direction.

now, for the second way the training pushed me
b) I am part of the Understanding by Design Leadership Cadre for my district. This is new. 15 people are being trained in UbD throughout the year and at the same time using the planning framework to plan how UbD will be implemented in the district. It is EXCITING to think of being part of an initiative that is being thought through and will be implemented strategically and that I actually believe will impact student achievement. It is also OVERWHELMING to think about all of the challenges to implementing it successfully. Instead of criticizing how my district doesn't implement anything consistenly, efficiently or effectively, I am stepping over to the other side and challenging myself to actually put my money where my mouth is (so to speak). Wow. This is scary. And exciting, especially given that in this cadre I am amoungst a group of passionate, effective and SMART teachers. We care about our district, schools, teachers and especially students. Its feels risky to think and believe that what we are doing might actually change things for our kids in a significant way. I have an understanding of my ability to change things for my kids within my classroom, but being part of change on a district level feels way different.

Being pushed in this way the past two days has been tiring, especially since I've been going back to school afterwards and have stayed til 7pm both days. You would think having someone else teach your class would mean less work. It doesn't! Its LOTS more. I also missed being with my kids. I was very pleased that they generally behaved well for the sub and that she would be happy to sub for me again. This means that I have trained them at least reasonably well :)

On that note, I'm going to sleep.

Two Words: Second Year

Yes. The second year of teaching has commenced. We are one progress report (five weeks in real people time) into the school year. I am continuing to enjoy a honeymoon period with my students, and also enjoying very much knowing what I am doing much more than last year. Now, that is not to say I am an expert, but this time around I am calm as I bumble my way through things. We started reading Bud, Not Buddy today and the kids seem to be really enjoying it. Even more exciting, I have a clear unit plan and know exactly which objectives I will teach with this book and how I will assess them! (that may not be as exciting to the non-teacher nerds who are reading).

My students are wonderful. I encourage everyone to come and visit my classroom and see how delightful they are. If anyone wants to send me used books or $ for my classroom library, as always I welcome it.

Personally, I am enjoying having a little more balance in my life...which is not to say that I didn't spend 12 hours at school today...but I am bringing much less work home and I am feeling purpose in the work that I am doing. I am spending time doing the outdoor things that I love.

On that note, I am off to the gym. My roomie and I are training for a half marathon at the end of October.

SOrry for the scattered nature of this post--my brain is a little shot my the end of the day!

Back to Life, Back to Reality...

I leave Eugene headed south today. I am supposed to be packing and getting my car ready right now. I better hurry with this post before Dad catches me! I will stay with my counsin, Joe and his wife Karen in San Jose tonight and then all the way to Phoenix tomorrow. When I get back I'll be moving apartments, moving classrooms and getting some planning in place before I start teaching in just two weeks! It'll be a busy two weeks but I anticipate a (hot) and happy return. A couple of friends are there already and the rest will be trickling in over the next week before our (mandatory) teach for america training next Saturday.

I am happy to report that I achieved my summer "big goal" of visiting 8 breweries while in Oregon this summer--the 8th occuring just yesterday. I also went to an Organic Brewers Festival in Portland. Success!

Best 2 Reasons to Become a Teacher

June and July. Well, maybe not the BEST two reasons, but they are two pretty awesome perks. I am spending my summer in Oregon...though if you ask my parents, I'm not exactly spending them "at home." So far my 3+ weeks in Oregon has included: a trip to the beach, 2 trips to central oregon, a trip to portland, a backpacking trip on the Middle Fork of the Willamette River and a camping trip (with my parents). Unfortunately I spent most of the trip with my parents sleeping, as I seem to have come down with something.

Somehow with all of these trips I've also been working on the Littleton School District 6th Grade Language Arts Curriculum Map. I have finished up a draft and just have a few things to change before it is done. It has been a project that has lingered on a little longer than I anticipated, but it has been a rewarding project, knowing that I'll be ready with a long term plan at the beginning of the year and hopefully it can be helpful to other teachers as well.

Now I am at my parents' house in Eugene...sleeping and lazing the day away. I know there are things I must be taking care of, but mostly I am focusing on resting so that I can get better and be ready for my next set of adventures. I'm heading to Portland later in the week to celebrate Breanna's birthday! I'll also stop in Salem to meet up with some Willamette folks on my way through. Jerry Bader has promised me a beer and I have a long overdue gift to deliver to the Wogan's from our shared host mother, Silvia.

Besides this little sickness, life has been EXCELLENT and I am doing my good balance of relaxing and planning. It took me a couple weeks to be able to let go and stop being physically stressed, but I have done it. Hopefully this will last well into the fall :)

SIG GAINS!!!!!!

In Teach For America we have this belief: our students are grade levels behind--this is the achievement gap. If our goal is to close the achievement gap our students must make MORE than one year's progress in a year, otherwise the achievement gap stays the same. SO we set these Big Goals at the beginning of the year for our kids which are supposed to equate to at least 1.5 years of growth. Most subject areas the goal is a class average of 80% on a summative assessment. I actually set a growth goal--that my students would make 9 points of growth on the 6 traits of writing. If your students meet the goal you are said to have made "significant gains." If your students make 1 year of progress you are said to have made "solid gains." Basically, one of the main goals of TFA is for Corps Members to make "significant gains." They have this whole document that states their goal for what percent of Corps Members will make significant and solid gains within their first, and then within their second years. They set goals that this percentage will increase each year...cause that's just how TFA rolls.

OK I have set the state for you to understand my announcement:

4 out of my 5 classes made 9 points of growth on the 6 traits. WE MET GOAL!!!!! My other class made solid gains at 6 points of growth.

WAHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Somehow, someway, I actually taught my students something. They are better writers now than they were at the beginning of the year. NOW my data is far from perfect. Kids that came in during the year didn't count into my total because I didn't have beginning of the year data for them and scoring writing always will have a certain degree of subjectivity....but even if I give a 2 point +/- margin of error, which is the most I think it would be...my kids MADE GROWTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time to CELEBRATE!!!! and now I am going to go write a curriculum map for next year. Next year I am teaching both reading and writing in the same amount of time as I taught just writing this year. I have a challenge ahead of me....but it's a GREAT challenge.

Home Stretch

Last week I was sick and I taught anyway and it was just a TERRIBLE week. I felt like I was getting run over by a mac truck driven by 6th graders. THis week I feel better and have had some changes in mind set that have allowed me to have a much, much better week. This is a good way to finish out my year. FAR from perfect, but not miserable.

7 more teaching days. What does this mean for me, Ms. Burns, the 6th grade language arts teacher? It means a lot of things. It means that in just over a week I will heave a huge sigh of relief. I will feel a certain weight off my shoulders. It means that I have almost made it through my first year of teaching! It means that I will get a break from hormonal 6th graders and their drama. It means that I only have a little bit of time left to teach these particular students. As I read their year end essays I realized that my students actually became better writers this year. I actually taught them something...I also realized that there is so much that I want to be able to teach them. There are a few students who didn't make the growth that I had hoped for them. There are those students who I feel I am on the brink of getting through to...or the students who I just recently figured out. There are also those students who I know I connected with, I know I pushed them and helped them see why writing is important. These students I will miss greatly.. it is with a little sadness that I send them on, but also with great satisfaction and confidence in their ability to continue to do well. Of course, I would be lying to say that there are not a few kids who are just bugging the crap out of me and I cannot wait until another wonderful educator gets to work with them instead of me.

At this point in the school year, all of my students know what they are responsible for accomplishing by the middle of next week--they have projects they are working on. My job this next week or so is to guide them in their work and let them do their thing. They get to choose what they make of their last days in 6th grade, but I am setting high expectations that they will use their time purposefully. I will not force anyone to work...they know what they are responsible for and they know their grade will reflect the work they put in. Hmmm the joy of putting the burden on them instead of taking it on myself. I learn things, little by little.

I have a lot of paperwork, packing, grading, curriculum writing (whoo hoo this is a sweet project), and some celebrating of a year of HARD work between myself and my summer break, but I feel totally up for the challenge :)

Today I had a student keep track of all the interruptions during my 7th period class, because there seem to be a lot and it is throwing my teaching off. I was curious how many there actually were. Celease counted:

12 Intercom announcements
5 Bells
2 phone calls
1 person walking in to deliver something (plus a student bringing me a cupcake, but I didn't have her count that one :))

That totals 20 times during one class--granted this class is longer than others, with silent reading time included--that we had to pause what we were doing, our attention was broken and we had to then get back on track. Let me tell you, 6th graders are not easy to keep on track at the end of the day. I am getting frustrated with all of the interruptions! The strange thing is, today, with the student keeping track and the other students conscious that these were interruptions and our learning shouldn't be interrupted, they actually got off track less. Crazy. Anyway, I think I might have a different kid keep track for a week and just see what the average is. I am going to use the data to try and push for some different systems for next year within the school. If we really are prioritizing student achievement, and students have consequences for interferring with learning, there won't be 20 interruptions in one class period.

Maybe, just maybe, it is possible to get my students so invested in learning that they do not even flinch at an announcement, but the truth is, i lose my train of thought when i have to pause mid sentence for a few seconds. Maybe I am just venting about things that are out of my control because i like to blame things on other people. maybe it would be better if i just focused on the things that are under my control. ah. there are a lot of those. things i could do better. such is life as a first year teacher. my brain is mush and my post is quickly deteriorating into a stream of consciousness narrative. I'd say it's time for me to get out of here!