Letters to a New Teacher

First and foremost, thank you so much Dr. Benson, for everything you have done for us. I just wanted to let you know that you have given our cohort of future English and Language Arts so much valuable information and ideas for lesson plans/units that I wanted to let you know how appreciative and lucky we have been to have had you as our C & I instructor more than once. You are a great professor--keep up the great work.

With that being said, you have also outdone yourself again by choosing a great book for us to read. At first, I was thinking, "oh great, another think to add to the million other things to do at the end of this crazy semester," but after picking it up and reading it while laid up in bed in pain helped ease the other pain of anxiety and worries of when I take my first own my own teaching. I will definately continue reading this book in the future to prepare myself, but for now, I will just highlight certain aspects of the book that I found to be the most helpful, as the rest of this book discussion group has done.

Managing a Class of 35

This particular section really appealed to me as I had a class of 36 students in my intership last semester. Not to mention, this class of 36 was inclusion AND during the last block of the day. My students were always out of hand and loud, and would take approximately 7 minutes to quiet down. At first, I was really nervous about taking this class on. However, to sum up what Burke says, you need to make adjustments in order to address the students and effectively manage the classroom. And, in teaching this class, I had no control over them when I first took over. Shorty after, I found that discussing the classroom rules and strictly enforcing them for everyone made my life much simpler. Also, in order to let them know I was ready to teach and in control was my nonverbal cue of standing in front of the classroom with my arms crossed. This surprisingly was very effective and hushed the entire classroom within seconds.

Creating A Teaching Unit

In many cases, I understand that we will be busy, but Burke reminds us to still continue creativity in the classroom. I remember making many different units within all of the classes we have taken in the past 5 years, and I will continue to make my own units because I prefer to teach my students what I want them to get out of a text...it's not that I dislike units that come along with classroom sets of novels or anything like that, but I think those are boring and sometimes useless, especially the 20,000 page textbook that weighs 15 lbs. Students don't want to do worksheets created by a textbook company. And, not everything in those are completely essential. And, personally, I like to create something I will absolutely save and use again--and revise a few things after using it for the first time in a classroom.

Pressure

Many of us have posted on this issue, but I would have to agree with all of you when you chose to write about this section. I must admit, especially for many of us, that I am a procrastinator--I know personally that I work the best under pressure. In fact, my mother and I had a discussion the other day about this and she is the same way--she had procrastinated many of the papers she wrote in college, and it's just odd that we had a conversation about this. Anyway, another thing I must also point out is that I don't exactly always have the best luck, either--my car accident happening, and everything else to go along with it--Let's all just face it, we all have other entruding forces that can affect our teaching, and as Burke points out, it is evident in your classroom. No matter what, we have to learn a way to make that pressure masked while teaching. p.s. People, no matter what job we end up in (teaching or not) stress and anxiety will be there, too. We'll get through it. We got through our internship:)

Competing for Attention

I found this section to be the most helpful. After having the day from hell which included an assembly in the morning and class registration right before lunch, students are absolutely not paying attention to you. They don't care--they are disinterested, distracted, and would rather hear about their friend's fight with another girl at lunch. In fact, the whole school is talking about it. When I first did my intership, I kept thinking to myself--"Why is my host teacher so calm and doesn't mind that they aren't focused on her students learning what she had planned for today?" But after reading Burke's book, I see why... she thinks "it isn't THAT bad" because she has more experience and this was the least of her worries. She knew that there would be days like this and I didn't expect it to be this way. Now I know why. After teaching for more than a semester all the time, and all the time, rather, I will understand that competing for my students attention won't always happen, but should know and understand why and how to handle it.


Great book choice!

P.S. WE'RE GRADUATING...I can't believe the time has finally come!!

Letters to a New Teacher

Whew-finally posting. I am a terrible blog contributor, I know. I had to borrow the book and didn't finish in time, yada yada...
However, I really liked this book. Adrienne let me borrow it and went on and on about how amazing it was, and I thought there was no way assigned reading could be that good haha. But I brought it to work to read and I really learned a lot! I found myself skipping to chapters or letters that were more relavent to me, but almost all of the letters had something that related to my life. Here are a few parts that I thought were most helpful to me at this stage in my teaching career:

Managing Your Time

I'll admit I am super on time and super organized--contrary to the fact that this posting is late. However, this semester I did a 3 week stint at a high school with block scheduling for the first time, and it almost killed me. I had NO idea how to manage my time. Since I always had time left over in class, I would spend all my time at home trying to find more activities to add to my lesson plans. Obviously, that left me terribly burnt out. I still have a lot to learn about managing time, but I think it gets better as you get more experienced. I liked this section not only because it had good tips, but mostly because I felt like "Whew, I'm not the only one that isn't walking into class calm as the ocean, just full of time-appropriate plans!" haha. I saw that other group memebers liked this section too--that made me feel better:)

Challenging Students

I think I am a middle school teacher at heart. This letter about the challenging girl student reminded me soooo much of students I have had during my high school placements. I also wished some students just stayed at home, which is terrible. It is true that one student can ruin a class atmosphere.
I didn't like that the teacher had a conversation with another student about the problem student, but I know things like that happen. I did like that she tried to get to know the student better. I know that I was having a lot of problems with the 11th grade class I was teaching, until the day I finally said "ok, fine...we're just going to talk a little today." Just getting to know the students and let them know I cared about them seemed to open the doors a little, and they really did respect and listen to me a little more. It sounds like Joy's students always seem to know she cares, and I think that was the main point of this letter. Even if students are difficult and drive you crazy, just keep letting them know someone really cares. Eventually, they have to give in a little.

Engaging Students/Competing for Attention

Oh man, I was SOO hoping this letter was going to have some magic "teacher formula" for this problem haha. But alas, nothing ever does. It is so hard, especially in the older grades, to overcome interest in anything but what is going on. Even in the younger grades, classes before lunch, after lunch, and at the end of the day are very distracted. That doesn't leave many classes that are paying attention!
I thought Jim had good advice, but I thought he sounded a little optimistic about the problem--like, "It isn't THAT bad". However, when I thought about it, that actually made me feel a little better. Like "Ok, once I get more experience, I will feel the same way Jim did!" haha. Again, it is nice to know other teachers recognize this as a problem. I wish there was an easy solution, but since there isn't I guess it will be something I'll have to work on in the future.

Pressure.....

Ah, so much pressure! When we are student teaching, when we are teaching for real, when we compare ourselves to teaching peers, finishing the program...so much! Again, I wanted an easy answer to this one, but there never is. However, Jim helped just by saying "Hey, let yourself off the hook a little." I think most educators are a bit of perfectionists--we are never easy on ourselves. But we just make our problems worse. I really recognized myself in this letter, and even felt a little bad for myself haha. I am the kind of person that always puts a lot of pressure on myself, so I don't know that I'll ever really escape that. But I know that having older mentors like Jim that assure me I'm not a total failure will be a help.


So, I really got a lot out of this book. Also, I got a lot out of this reading group. It may not seem like we posted a lot, but I know personally I talked to other group members a lot out of class about it,and we felt like an actual professional peer group. I felt like we were teaching but also learning together. Thanks for providing the opportunity for us to do this. I wish we could be like the teachers in the first book we read and continue to work together after graduation. I know some of us are staying around here soo...you never know!

Letters

Creating a teacing unit

I chose this issue because, although I have created many units throughout my education in the program, I feel that creating interesting and enriching units is a skill that you can always use. What I ended up learning from the letter revolved more around elements that can make any class and student successful. There is no right or wrong way to create a unit. The important issues that Burke brings up all seemed to back up thoughts and ideas that I have been working with throughout my teaching and my education.

Reading aloud builds community.

Have students reach ideas naturally. Ideas and concepts should not be forced into what state standards want students to learn from a text.

Give kids a variety of ways to explore a text (DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION!).
Variation is essential.

Perhaps the most interesting thing that Burke advises (although I'm not sure, by reading his other letters, that he actually practices this) is to think and do other things that do not revolve around teaching. This is essential to your personal health as a teacher.

Every teaching is going to have different ideas about what to include/not include within a lesson plan or unit. Burke did the right thing by discussing universal elements that will help any teacher create creative units....and he gave me some pretty fun ideas for House on Mango Street, should I ever teach it.

Approaches to Teaching Writing

I chose this issue because writing in any classroom is important to me. It has always been an asperation of mine to teach a writing workshop, in high school, middle school or otherwise. I also focused on writing with my Action Research, so the subject has a great deal of importance to me.
Things that I found most important in the reading were tips like "Repsond like a reader" when reading student writing. "Writing teachers should be doctors, not judges". This quote spoke to me the most. As teachers we arent going to make a difference in our students writing by making short, confusing comments on our students papers. We need to be specific and invest ourselves in creating a dialogue on paper.

Writing is amoung the most personal aspects of learning. Perhaps this is why students are so afraid of it?

Students must have a sense of pride/ownership for their writing. Especially if you want them to take chances with their writing.

What I thought was a bit strange about this letter, though, was the long email that Burke wrote to a student of his...on a friday night. Now thats dedication. While the overall outcome of the email was positive and he was able to further build a relationship with a new student, I still thought that grading papers for four hours on a Friday night was a bit much. Watch a movie, at the very least.

Engaging Students and Competing for Their Attention

Every teacher struggles with this, I feel. Even veteran teachers. Each class is different and presents new challenges. I felt that Burke's letter was uplifting and provided a support that was needed. The article that he included just seemed to be a repeat of things that I have read for the past three years in the program. While it offers helpful hints and tips to implement, it wasnt anything that I havent read before. I think the best way to keep students attention is to just keep self assessing your performance as a teacher and the performance of your students. Asking what they like, dislike, and finding a balance.

Harnessing Self-Doubt

First of all, I love that he referenced the book Blindness. It's wonderful and shocking and everyone should read it. Now, on to the issues.

I chose this letter because self-doubt is something that I experience every day, especially as a novice teacher. While I have had many positive experiences through the course of my student teaching, I still always wonder if I can make it as a teacher. If I can make a difference. While I was expecting some inspirational words from Burke in this letter, I felt that the inclusion of his own self-doubt and his correspondance with the student that it spawned from was very useful. If a seasoned teacher still worries about his performance and constantly assessing his interactions with students on a daily basis, then this self-doubt is a natural, normal (and useful) thing for any teacher.

The Teacher's Role During a Classroom Crisis

I chose this particular issue from experiences and stories that I have heard during my student teaching. Not a year has gone by where a student has not died from a car crash, 4 Wheeler accident, or suicide at my PDS. My PDS has run the mill of tragic events and as a teacher that loves writing and wants students to be open and honest in their work, I have come across pieces that openly discuss these tragic events (in particular, the suicide of a smart boy that had once charmed the entire school, student and faculty alike).

Burke explains that, while it may feel wrong, it is important to keep on going when there is a tragedy in the school. I feel that it is important to discuss what occurred and to let students know that there is help for them should they need it but it is also important to bring students back to that sense of normalcy.

Sage Advice

I started reading the book and almost couldn't stop. I really liked the casual way in which the information was presented. Mr. Burke always provided really helpful answers and included lots of additional resources for her to read. It really made me want a mentor to write to during my first year (*cough cough Dr. Benson =p).

Managing a Class of 35

I really liked how he emphasized the importance of being empathetic to the students. It is really important to understand where the students are coming from. Sometimes it is hard to understand why students are acting the way that they are in our classes. I try and think back to when I was a student to help me understand what they are going through. I decided to become a teacher when I was an angsty student because teachers weren't listening to me. I really want to implement students' interests in my teaching.

Creating a Teaching Unit

In this section I really like Burke's stress on the importance of creativity. I feel like teachers need to remember to use their skills and creative talents in the classroom while also enhancing the creative skills of their students. That is the key to a successful classroom. When you combine it with student choice and interests you really can't fail. I like that he doesn't give her a specific answer but talks about the issues surrounding it so that she can discover how she should teach it on her own. It makes so much sense when he talks about The House on Mango Street. He really gives her a good example of bringing in the idea of community and threading it through the unit. It made it make so much sense the way he explained it. He would teach it so that the students were creative and interested while also thinking about their surroundings. Great stuff.

Handling Pressure

I liked this section. I put so much pressure on myself and always feel like I won't be good enough for my students. I really need to think more about how I can use those stresses to improve myself. I can see where I am struggling and instead of getting discouraged I should be using that information to make changes in my teaching. The truth is we are under a lot of pressure and we should be. We are teaching the next generation and we have a great affect on their thoughts and development. We need to use the pressure we are under and go with it instead of bulking under it.

Challenging Students and Meeting Their Challenges

I was glad that the teacher was willing to keep trying to work with the difficult student that she had. I really don't feel like she was empathizing with the student though. I guess I don't really understand because I always do very well with students who cause problems in my classes. I seem to understand them and am able to connect easily. I witnessed my host teacher really struggling with behavior issues last semester and so that has helped me see where teachers get stuck. It was hard for me too because of the policies she had in place in the classroom. Teachers need to be adaptable to the different classrooms and students they have. We can't expect our rules to work the same way for every student. I'm not saying we need to be lenient but we need to understand that students are different and they will need different classroom management at times. What is usually hard for me he talks about in this section too. I really struggle with the waiting period. I put a plan in place but it doesn't mean that there will be immediate changes, I have to wait. That is something I (and it seems like the teacher too) need to learn more about.

Knowing You Make a Difference

There were so many great points made in this section. I liked all the real-life examples he put into the section. It is hard to remember that we do make changes in our students that are good. I really like his four C's. I want to find his book that addresses them more in-depth. He also makes a point of talking about teacher reflection. That is the most important part of this section. I really saw how effective it was when we had to reflect last semester. It was very time-consuming but worth it after I went back and read how things were changing. I plan to reflect as much as possible in the future although probably not online. I think I would keep up better using paper.

I would have read more but Ashley had to borrow the book. =p I really like the way that the book was put together, and it is a resource I will be able to take off of my shelf and read again. I am looking forward to finishing the sections to see what other practical advice he has to offer her.

Burke Reading

I have to say first, that I really enjoyed reading the sections that I chose. Burke’s words were so encouraging and yet showed that teachers do have flaws and do sometimes fail. He did not make everything seem perfect, but he showed me that our profession is worthwhile and that we will make a difference in the lives of the students we teach. With all the pressures we have been feeling as graduation approaches and we are trying to find jobs, these letters encouraged me to keep going and to know that I will make it.

Managing a class of 35

I have had classes where every seat in the room is filled. It can be very overwhelming to see a room that full and realize that you have to somehow get and keep all those students’ attention. I enjoyed this section because I related to it especially when Burke said that when students are talking and are not engaged we take it personally because our lessons are a part of us and we see it as the students rejecting us. I need to not take things like that so personally. I also liked his advice about getting to know the students because that is part of my philosophy of teaching. He said we sometimes need to realize there are many other reasons why students may not be engaged in the classroom. Burke also said to take students aside and I have noticed this works as well because you can address the issue with them personally and find out what is going on that may be causing the disruptive behavior. There was a lot of good advice that I took from this section.

Handling Pressure

I am clearly a “wait to the last minute” person. I am used to working under pressure, even though I usually hate doing it. I did not think this section gave a whole lot advice about handling pressure, but more of how to get to know students more again. I wanted tips on how to deal with the anxiety we feels as teachers, but did not really get that. I did like how Burke said to accept anxiety and fear because it is what makes us work harder. That is very true. I tend to try even harder when I fear I am going to fail and then surprise myself when I do really well. It is a good feeling when you have been so scared and then end up doing an excellent job. So I suppose there is not much advice to give for this, we just have to ride with it and accept that anxiety and fear come with the territory.

Challenging all students and meeting their challenges.

I could immediately relate when Burke started talking about that class after lunch and having to compete for their attention. My class that came in after lunch was the smallest, but yet the rowdiest because they were sliding into the end of the day and had just received more energy from food. My host teacher and I used to joke that schools should not feed kids because they get too hyper! However, Burke was also right when he said you bond more with this class because of everything you go through together, you develop a stronger respect for each other. He also highlighted the need for confidence, without which it is hard to survive. We need to be confident as teachers that we can teach and that we can reflect and learn from our mistakes. We have to be confident that we can continue growing as educators. I also enjoyed where Burke said we have to come in everyday committed to work, but to not let the students determine our success. If there is the one students that you cannot get to work, just keep trying, but do not let them limit you. Come in everyday prepared to help them and never give up. Burke really gave a lot of positive advice in this section and it is one that I think I will read over when I have that troubled kid in my classroom because it gave me a lot of hope and made me realize that we can never give up on a kid no matter how much they want to give up on themselves.

Approaches to teaching writing

I wanted to learn how to teach writing, and to see if Burke agreed with my philosophy on how to teach writing, which is to incorporate it into the lesson each day. In ways he did agree with that, but in others he did not. However, I did not always agree with him either. He says that brevity is the key to precision, I disagree. I spent a whole semester trying to teach my students how to add detail into their writing, so that it was not so brief. I do not want them always to get directly to the point. I want them to use different literary elements to get there. I did agree though that students should be given some choice of what they write about because that will make them more inclined to write and to make their writing more interesting.

Engaging students and competing for their attention

Competing for your students’ attention can be very hard. It seems like they are more concerned about lunch and the weekend than what is going on in class. However, Burke makes a good point when he says that we are not competing against them, but against ourselves. We are competing to improve everyday and every class period. We want each class period to go better than the last and each day than the previous. We want room for improvement and room to learn. I read this section looking for advice on how to get students’ attention, but I realized that Burke is right. We are not competing against our students. We have to learn how to manage our class and how to improve our skills each day. We need to know that we can be less than perfect, so we have room to grow.

Managing your time

Time management is not my strong suit, so I figured this section was helpful. It did not tell me too much that I do not already know. I know I need to plan ahead and be organized. Organization is also not my strong suit, but I do take my career seriously so I tend to be more organized there. The best advice Burke gave here was to not only plan ahead and remember what is important, but to think about interruptions. We have to allot time for interruptions and be prepared to deal with them. I also like how he said that we do not want our students’ success to be on accident. We do not want to just “make it” through the year. I want to be able to take credit for my students’ success and not look back and not realize how the students got where they are. I hope I can achieve this and that I do learn how to manage my time as best as possible.

Assessment

It seems like an issue we are always discussing is that of assessment. I agree that standardized tests can be ridiculous at times. I do not think we should be required to teach to any test, but should have our own forms of assessment that allow the students to be creative and engaged in the classroom. After doing my action research, I do not necessarily believe that numbers lie, but I do not think they always represent the true progress of students. I had students that I thought made great strides throughout the semester in their writing, but my numbers did not always show a significant change. The number would change, but not as much as I had expected. I think that is what happens with standardized testing. Only the teacher that spends so much time with these students can really say how much they are learning or improving. Tests are not always accurate that way.

I also loved all the creative assessment ideas such as using feedback or portfolios. During my action research I assessed students' writing and tried to figure out if daily writing prompts would help student improve their writing. I also wrote feedback on each and every one of my students' papers that they handed in daily. I fixed their grammatical errors, but also wrote some words of encouragement at the bottom. The students responded to this very well and seemed to enjoy knowing that I really did take the time to read what they wrote each day. I also had the students build portfolios with these prompts. I figured the porfolios would allow the students to see how much they could accomplish in a semester and how a little bit of writing each day can add up. They were also able to see their improvements over the semester.

As far as assessment goes, I think we need to set goals for the students that are attainable and worth working for. Students do not care how they do on standardized tests unless it impacts them directly. The assessments we give need to engage the students and they need to personally affect the students in order to make them care about how well they do. However, if the assessment is creative, the students may even forget that they are being assessed in some way and actually enjoy the learning process. That would be ideal!

Letters to a NEW Teacher

I found this book extremely informative. It was very interesting to read about different ways to handle situations.

1) Handling Pressure
I was attracted to this issue because I found it something that I struggle with not only as a teacher but in my daily life. I often feel that I am overwhelmed and am unsure of what direction I should go in. One point that I found interesting was “see yourself as important to your students.” I believe that you need to personally feel that your job has purpose. In education, if you dislike your job kids can tell.


2) What Works and Why?
Initially I wanted to read about this topic because I felt that it was a well rounded issue that briefly explained skills that are needed to be a successful teacher. After reading about this issue I felt that a lot of the things we have to do through our teaching program are in actuality more relevant that I had previously thought. Everything that is talked about in this chapter, I am already familiar with because of my preservice training.


3) Professional Reading
Over the past five years I have not been able to read for enjoyment as much as I would have liked. I decided to look into this issue because I wanted to hear the author’s opinion on the importance of professional readings and other related issues. After reading this section I realize that important information about honing in the craft of teaching can be found from professional readings. Another thing that seems obvious is that teachers can learn a lot from other teachers.

4) The Teacher’s Power
I felt that this article would help explain the issue of social emotional education more to me. I was also attracted to the heading in the table of contents “Helping students find their own voice.” In our world today I have seen teachers on the new who were convicted of taking advantage of their students. This should never happen. Teachers must use their authority correctly. Teachers play a huge role in a child’s life. It is a shame that there are people in the world who change the perceptions of teachers by crossing the line.

5) The Teacher’s Role During a Classroom Crisis
During my student teaching I experienced many bomb threats. This required me to act in a situation that I did not have any training in. I hoped that this article would have some tips and suggestions on what I need to do if a crisis were to arise. I learned that preparedness is key. That people never know how they will act in a crisis, but a plan will help the teacher act effectively in a crisis situation.