Today I am heading out to Baden-Baden with three of my friends for a relaxing spa weekend. It is still snowing, and since I am driving (thanks to my new German driver's license), I am hoping that the roads are okay! I am usually not the one that volunteers to drive for something like this, but the train tickets were a lot of money and so was renting a car. I guess it's kind of fun to do road trip driving though. I am so excited to indulge in a relaxing, quiet weekend of unwinding! We are hoping to get in some massages, good food, and lots of rest.
I woke up this morning eager to hit the gym, and I am really proud that I got in a good 45 minute session on the bike before I have to leave. Now I just need to finish packing! My husband is spending the weekend in Cologne with a friend of his celebrating Carnival. I left him a homemade Valentine on his bedside table and some other little gifts for him to discover when he gets back. It's not super convenient that our long weekend from school for Fasching (Carnival) coincides with Valentine's Day, but I am very much a believer that Valentine's Day should not be so much about just a DAY, but really about the relationships that you have and celebrating your love. My husband is my best friend and the most supportive, loving person I know, so I am okay if we are not together on Sunday because all the other days in the year count too!
I will be returning on Tuesday, so there probably won't be any posting going on until then. Happy Valentine's Day! XOXO
Classroom Organization
One of the things about teaching (being a classroom teacher) that always got me feeling great was the satisfaction of getting things organized. I absolutely love this weekly organizer from Lakeshore that allows you to separate your materials by days of the week on which you will need them. These bright plastic buckets are perfect for storing lesson plans, handouts, homework, books, and more! Even though I seriously heart this organizational helper, at 49.95, I think it's a bit spendy. When I had my own classroom, I made my own similar alternative, which actually worked out really well.
I bought a set of these plastic drawers from Staples or a similar office supply store (although mine had 6 same sized drawers instead of a big one at the bottom) for only about 30 dollars (maybe even less). I made colored labels with the days of the week printed on them (in a cute font of course) and stuck them to the front of the drawers. When I did my weekly lesson planning, I would put all the materials I needed for the following week in the appropriate drawers and I was all set. When I was extra organized, I would even set aside my read aloud books and include them in the drawers as well. I found that this system kept me very organized and was also great for any time I need to call in a sub. It is so easy to say, just look in the drawer with the yellow "Tuesday" label.
I bought a set of these plastic drawers from Staples or a similar office supply store (although mine had 6 same sized drawers instead of a big one at the bottom) for only about 30 dollars (maybe even less). I made colored labels with the days of the week printed on them (in a cute font of course) and stuck them to the front of the drawers. When I did my weekly lesson planning, I would put all the materials I needed for the following week in the appropriate drawers and I was all set. When I was extra organized, I would even set aside my read aloud books and include them in the drawers as well. I found that this system kept me very organized and was also great for any time I need to call in a sub. It is so easy to say, just look in the drawer with the yellow "Tuesday" label.
I really like the idea of using colors in the classroom to color code for days of the week or even subjects. Heck, I even color coded my kids' groups when we went on field trips. Color coding just works for me! Anyone else?!
Another organizational lifesaver I used was color coded plastic trays for different subjects.
For example, I would designate green for science and keep all the kids' science work in that bin so that whenever it was time for science, I could set my bin down in front of me and have easy access to their unfinished work and activities for that day etc. I used the drawers for weekly planning, then I would sort by subject each day, so that materials could be found in their own bins throughout the day. The nice thing about these is that they stack, even when there are papers inside. When I was done with science, to the bottom of the stack the green bin went.... fantastic! These are also great to use for turning in homework. If you give homework in multiple subject areas and like to keep the different assignments separate, color coding by subject can be helpful to the kids.
Basically, color coding rocks. You should try it!
I also really loved using this beauty when I had lots of books/work to bring to and from school. This crate folds down into a small briefcase size and opens up to a wheely cart perfect for toting all of one's teacher belongings because the wheels make it oh so much easier than having a gazillion things in your hands and trying to juggle your coffee and scan the door with your badge all at the same time....
This is also perfect for trips to the library when you are borrowing lots of books. It's just like having your very own multipurpose teaching shopping cart (because it seems like teachers are just those kind of people that go everywhere with lots of "accessories.") Am I the only one who brings a huge purse/bag with me to PD days or workshops because of the necessity to bring sticky notes, pens, highlighters, paper, notepads, a book to read in case there is downtime, and definitely lots of snacks!?
I guess that is my pre-parental version of a diaper bag...teacher style.
Feeling organized is wonderful and I am always on the lookout for new ideas and ways to stay/get more organized.
What do you do to stay organized in the classroom?
Tidbits
- I ran a 5K on the treadmill at the gym last night in 26:23
- One of my students ROCKED IT OUT on his math quiz and got a 97%
- I think we are skipping German class tonight and going out for a delicious sushi dinner to celebrate passing the driving test and Valentine's Day since we won't be together on Sunday)
- I subbed for the library teacher today during one period and had to do a read aloud. It has been too long since I have done a read aloud!
- I was supposed to have a meeting tomorrow at 8:15, but it was canceled, so I don't have to go into work at all tomorrow :0)
- It's still snowing....
- I am still obsessed with my daily To Do lists and I think they are doing an amazing job of helping me get things accomplished. Today I did 2 loads of laundry, took out the trash and recycling, read a chapter in my book, vacuumed the apartment, and now I am about to start working on my second intervention lesson for my online class.
What is the best thing that happened to you in the past 24 hours?
Calling all Homeschoolers!
I know that at least a few of my readers are homeschooling mamas and I need some help from those lovely ladies. I am writing a paper about education in Germany for one of my courses and part of the paper will discuss the ban on homeschooling in this country. Since I have to compare education in the U.S to education in Germany, I am really interested in the perspectives of some homeschoolers from the U.S.to generate ideas about reasons why German parents might want to home school as well.
Would you share your top 3 reasons for educating your children at home?
Also, if you don't mind, can you tell me what state you live in and what legal regulations you have to be aware of/abide by in order to have permission to home school your children?
If you prefer to email me instead of leaving a comment you can contact me at kwright626@yahoo.com
I know you are busy, but I would love to hear from you!!! (Even if you can refer me to your own blog as I know a lot of homeschooling moms have blogs that discuss what their reasons are).
Thanks a bundle!
Would you share your top 3 reasons for educating your children at home?
Also, if you don't mind, can you tell me what state you live in and what legal regulations you have to be aware of/abide by in order to have permission to home school your children?
If you prefer to email me instead of leaving a comment you can contact me at kwright626@yahoo.com
I know you are busy, but I would love to hear from you!!! (Even if you can refer me to your own blog as I know a lot of homeschooling moms have blogs that discuss what their reasons are).
Thanks a bundle!
Team Players
When I worked in OR, I was on a teaching team with three outstanding women. It was because of their support and help that I made it through my first year of teaching and they taught me the fundamentals of how to make what I learned in college actually work in a classroom. Everything that we taught was a combination of our efforts and I loved the experience of working on a team. I think one of the best things about teaching is the opportunities to share with and learn from other teachers. Working in an environment where a team effort is valued is my kind of place.
Right now, I am feeling a little frustrated by some of the circumstances at school that involve cooperating with other teachers. Working with other teachers is the nature of my job. Being a team player is absolutely essential. I pride myself in being someone that is positive to work with and I try my best to show other educators that I am very invested in the students and am willing to work hard to provide them with what they need. This week, I got assigned to a new class. Since it is not content that I am well versed in, I emailed the teacher requesting information on what topic they were currently working on and whether or not there was a text being used.
I didn't get a response.
I emailed another second teacher who might have been able to help provide me with this information asking the same questions.
I didn't get a response.
I did get my hands on a copy of the textbook that is being used, but not until 30 minutes before the class and I didn't know what topic to look at, so basically I went to the classroom completely unprepared.
I am not comfortable being unprepared.
My job is to help students, but I cannot do that to the best of my ability if I am not well versed in the material. When I am responsible for the instruction, I never begin a lesson without being fully prepared. I feel like I am at the mercy of other teachers and can only do my job well if I have their cooperation in telling me what to expect when I enter the classroom for that particular period so I can get ready. I felt awful when a very nice student looked to me for help today and I was fumbling around in the book trying to find answers because I had no way of getting ready and previewing the material.
I felt like I was thrown into the fire and I was so frustrated during this period. I felt like a failure myself and worse than that, I feel like I failed the student who looked to me for support and help with his work. I simply cannot understand why a teacher would completely disregard the email I sent. I understand that teachers are busy, but I didn't send a last minute email. I gave an entire week's notice that I would be joining the class and was hoping for some guidance regarding the lesson content for today.
Collaborating professionally is a very important. In my master's program, we had two courses specifically about collaborating with colleagues. Throughout these courses, I recognized the importance of collaboration, but due to the strong team I was working on, I never felt like it was difficult to work with other teachers. Now, I see why so much time was dedicated to providing us with strategies to cooperate meaningfully with colleagues. Perhaps the cultural differences contribute to misunderstandings and different expectations, but I am starting to feel affected by the lack of relationships with some colleagues. I want to have positive working relationships with other teachers and I have established great working relationships with most of the teachers that I connect with during my day, but the ones that aren't so great are getting me down. I don't feel like it is bad enough to merit actually sitting down with these people to confront the situation, but at the same time, I am left wondering if I did something wrong. I know I am way too sensitive and I can make something small into something bigger in my mind, but I like to do things well and be successful.
I have never had this problem before because in the past all of my cooperative working relationships have been very successful. I guess I come from the "can't we all just get along" mentality, but I just want to feel like I am at least being acknowledged when I ask questions or seek help from others.
If you felt like you were up against a colleague who, for whatever reason, was not really responding to attempts to work together, what would you do??
Right now, I am feeling a little frustrated by some of the circumstances at school that involve cooperating with other teachers. Working with other teachers is the nature of my job. Being a team player is absolutely essential. I pride myself in being someone that is positive to work with and I try my best to show other educators that I am very invested in the students and am willing to work hard to provide them with what they need. This week, I got assigned to a new class. Since it is not content that I am well versed in, I emailed the teacher requesting information on what topic they were currently working on and whether or not there was a text being used.
I didn't get a response.
I emailed another second teacher who might have been able to help provide me with this information asking the same questions.
I didn't get a response.
I did get my hands on a copy of the textbook that is being used, but not until 30 minutes before the class and I didn't know what topic to look at, so basically I went to the classroom completely unprepared.
I am not comfortable being unprepared.
My job is to help students, but I cannot do that to the best of my ability if I am not well versed in the material. When I am responsible for the instruction, I never begin a lesson without being fully prepared. I feel like I am at the mercy of other teachers and can only do my job well if I have their cooperation in telling me what to expect when I enter the classroom for that particular period so I can get ready. I felt awful when a very nice student looked to me for help today and I was fumbling around in the book trying to find answers because I had no way of getting ready and previewing the material.
I felt like I was thrown into the fire and I was so frustrated during this period. I felt like a failure myself and worse than that, I feel like I failed the student who looked to me for support and help with his work. I simply cannot understand why a teacher would completely disregard the email I sent. I understand that teachers are busy, but I didn't send a last minute email. I gave an entire week's notice that I would be joining the class and was hoping for some guidance regarding the lesson content for today.
Collaborating professionally is a very important. In my master's program, we had two courses specifically about collaborating with colleagues. Throughout these courses, I recognized the importance of collaboration, but due to the strong team I was working on, I never felt like it was difficult to work with other teachers. Now, I see why so much time was dedicated to providing us with strategies to cooperate meaningfully with colleagues. Perhaps the cultural differences contribute to misunderstandings and different expectations, but I am starting to feel affected by the lack of relationships with some colleagues. I want to have positive working relationships with other teachers and I have established great working relationships with most of the teachers that I connect with during my day, but the ones that aren't so great are getting me down. I don't feel like it is bad enough to merit actually sitting down with these people to confront the situation, but at the same time, I am left wondering if I did something wrong. I know I am way too sensitive and I can make something small into something bigger in my mind, but I like to do things well and be successful.
I have never had this problem before because in the past all of my cooperative working relationships have been very successful. I guess I come from the "can't we all just get along" mentality, but I just want to feel like I am at least being acknowledged when I ask questions or seek help from others.
If you felt like you were up against a colleague who, for whatever reason, was not really responding to attempts to work together, what would you do??
Revisiting ADD
Last week (or maybe the week before) I posted about ADD/ADHD. Little did I know it would bring on my first not-so-nice comment! Especially after considering what the anonymous poster said about the negative effects that children with ADD or ADHD have on their classmates, I decided I really wanted to become more well versed on this particular "disorder." I put the word disorder in quotes because the book I read over the weekend puts ADD in a new light. Although I disagreed with this person's opinion that students with ADD or ADHD should be medicated in order to preserve the rights of the other learners in the classroom, I felt I wanted to dig deeper into the topic because I felt like I was in a debate and I needed to be more prepared with information.
Over the weekend I read Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perspective by Thom Hartmann and I am currently reading Driven to Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. and John J. Ratey, M.D.
These books have helped me to better understand the condition called ADD and have introduced a new perspective with regards to students that I may teach who display some of the traits that are associated with ADD.
Rather than seeing a forgetful, day dreamy, disorganized, or spontaneous and overactive student in a completely negative light, Hartmann poses the analogy of individuals with ADD or ADHD as being hunters in a farming world. He goes back in time to recall traits that were necessary for those individuals who needed to hunt for their food. Constantly scanning the environment, being quick to react, full of energy and ready to conquer their prey were all skills necessary for survival and sustenance. With the introduction of farming, a new set of skills became useful such as attention to detail, patience, focus, and duration of attention because without these skills, crops would fail, which again strikes to the farmer's core ability to survive. When agriculture and farming were introduced, these new skills were necessary and have remained the more "appropriate" skill set with reference to the schooling environment. Students are expected to pay attention for long periods of time, focus on details, have patience, tune out environmental distractions, and persevere at all costs. For individuals who gravitate towards the hunter personality type, which may actually be a transgression of specific "hunter genetics," the school environment is not accepting towards their less focused, more "aware" states of behavior.
The author points out that individuals with this "hunter" personality/genetic makeup actually have many positive traits--their strengths are simply not typically recognized as strengths in the classroom setting and are often viewed as disruptive.
The hunter/farmer idea really got me thinking about the fact that ADD which is labeled as a "disorder" is really no such thing. Students have been criticized and punished for something that is not within their control. If a child who is blind cannot help their lack of vision, a child with ADD cannot help the particular way in which his/her brain functions. The behaviors that accompany ADD are not intentional and there are definitely strategies teachers and parents can employ to help students who experience them.
In a section called How to Turn a Disorder Back into a Skill, the author recommends a few ways for hunters to be a bit more successful in our farming world:
I still feel as though medication is not the answer. Sometimes it might be, but there are other avenues of treatment to explore as well. This book truly supports the idea that nothing is "wrong" with students that have ADD, they are simply wired differently. I strive to be a very open minded person and teacher, therefore, to me, differences are always welcome.
Over the weekend I read Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perspective by Thom Hartmann and I am currently reading Driven to Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. and John J. Ratey, M.D.
These books have helped me to better understand the condition called ADD and have introduced a new perspective with regards to students that I may teach who display some of the traits that are associated with ADD.
Rather than seeing a forgetful, day dreamy, disorganized, or spontaneous and overactive student in a completely negative light, Hartmann poses the analogy of individuals with ADD or ADHD as being hunters in a farming world. He goes back in time to recall traits that were necessary for those individuals who needed to hunt for their food. Constantly scanning the environment, being quick to react, full of energy and ready to conquer their prey were all skills necessary for survival and sustenance. With the introduction of farming, a new set of skills became useful such as attention to detail, patience, focus, and duration of attention because without these skills, crops would fail, which again strikes to the farmer's core ability to survive. When agriculture and farming were introduced, these new skills were necessary and have remained the more "appropriate" skill set with reference to the schooling environment. Students are expected to pay attention for long periods of time, focus on details, have patience, tune out environmental distractions, and persevere at all costs. For individuals who gravitate towards the hunter personality type, which may actually be a transgression of specific "hunter genetics," the school environment is not accepting towards their less focused, more "aware" states of behavior.
The author points out that individuals with this "hunter" personality/genetic makeup actually have many positive traits--their strengths are simply not typically recognized as strengths in the classroom setting and are often viewed as disruptive.
- They're flexible, capable of changing strategy on a moment's notice.
- They can throw an incredible burst of energy into an activity.
- They think visually.
- They love action and thrive in active/hands on situations.
- They are very aware of their surroundings
- .They are risk takers.
The hunter/farmer idea really got me thinking about the fact that ADD which is labeled as a "disorder" is really no such thing. Students have been criticized and punished for something that is not within their control. If a child who is blind cannot help their lack of vision, a child with ADD cannot help the particular way in which his/her brain functions. The behaviors that accompany ADD are not intentional and there are definitely strategies teachers and parents can employ to help students who experience them.
In a section called How to Turn a Disorder Back into a Skill, the author recommends a few ways for hunters to be a bit more successful in our farming world:
- Organize your time around tasks
- Train your attention span
- Break your work responsibilities into specific "goal units"
- Create "distraction-free" zones
- Exercise Daily
I still feel as though medication is not the answer. Sometimes it might be, but there are other avenues of treatment to explore as well. This book truly supports the idea that nothing is "wrong" with students that have ADD, they are simply wired differently. I strive to be a very open minded person and teacher, therefore, to me, differences are always welcome.
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