Ahead But Behind

I'm in the midst of reading "Simon Bloom the Gravity Keeper." In it, the character becomes the "keeper" of the Teacher's Manuel for Physics. He essentially is able to control the physics of the world around him. At one point Simon asks his dad about the Theory of Relativity, to which his dad replies about how every object exists in time and space, but it is all relative (and continues onward).

That helped me put my teaching into context (somewhat). We're nowhere near where we were last year as far as content. I think by now we were entering into the colonies, and we haven't even compared specific explorers yet. That being said, I feel like we have actually covered more and practiced a wider variety of reading skills. I'm not sure that my level of instruction, or assessment, was where it is currently (not to mention the fact that it still needs to improve). While we are behind with respect to content, we are ahead with respect to our ability as readers. Some might see that negatively because of the vast amount that needs to be covered. That, of course, is all relative.

We'll likely do less with explorers the next 10 days. We have a text with a wide variety of information about 9 different explorers. From there we'll also branch out to find other points of view. We'll work on questioning, comparing/contrasting, and evaluating. The ultimate takeaway is the fact that explorers had a variety of impacts (effects) because of their exploring- and not all of them are good. For every discovery there is making native people slaves, or stealing their land. It is a far cry from the mixed interaction they experienced last year as part of the Oregon Trail ("we traded with the native people!").

Spin, Spin, Spin

Picture this: You create a unit plan. It is filled with great lesson plans, and ideas for kids. You've looked at your state standards and you've got them covered- real depth with a few standards, or some breadth as you cover them over the course of the year. You start teaching and the first day or two goes great. Day three or four and you've lost your pacing (man that written response took a long time; gosh I forgot to build in time for those scaffolds so that they could ask effective questions while reading).

Soon enough you are looking at other content areas and going, "ummm how am I going to get to that?" You look ahead in your content area/time block and start to scratch your head. The same statement you were saying previously is running through your head again, particularly as you run the mental calculations regarding remaining time (total time, time per content area, time needed to effectively address units or standards...).

That definitely happens. At some point you need to exercise professional judgement regarding what needs to be covered in your standards (all of them- but some are more glaring with your kids than others), and where your kids are or what they are like. I just thought about that in light of issues regarding workload get voiced by peers and fellow teachers (in a myriad of districts). There really isn't any resolution to this post... just mere acknowledgement that it is there.

On Deck and In the Hole

I couldn't resist the baseball title considering pitchers and catchers report within the next 7 days. With baseball season coming, the urgency of teaching starts to kick in. It certainly has been there, but I feel like it is ratcheted up a notch (or five). Why? Well, state testing starts in early May. While testing is maligned for a myriad of reasons, the reality is that schools are evaluated in one way or another on their test scores.

Right or wrong, the scores are a reflection on the schools, teachers, and students. If you have 92% pass, then many will say that the teachers and students are brilliant. If 35% pass, then your school is seen as a failure. Those numbers are arbitrary, but the thinking isn't. For me, I don't want to be the weak link on my team that could potentially bring down the scores for the cohort as a whole. Is my instruction the major push in either direction? I don't think so. We're all in this together, and the instruction throughout the course of a student's life will be the driving force. But that doesn't stop me from feeling self-conscious, nor does it diminish the urgency in my teaching.

As far as content is concerned, we'll start diving into the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution. We'll also explore the branches of government. The content is exciting to me, and should be to the kids. If the loyalist/patriot debate is an omen, then this should be received very well.

Less Waiting, More Doing

I was placed yesterday. I'll be teaching 5th grade, and couldn't be more excited. While I student taught in a 1st-2nd split, I have experience with all grade levels and quite a bit with the 4th and 5th graders. Experience doesn't necessarily translate into teaching ability, but I believe I'll be successful. What I don't know, I'll need to pick up. But I also need to be confident that what I was able to do while student teaching, not to mention what I learned in college courses, will serve me well going forward (i.e. don't turn your back on that experience).

SPACE
The only oddity is the space I'll be teaching in. It was a shared space between two 5th grade classrooms. Now it will be used as my classroom, which is fine by me. To get to the space you can take one of three routes... 1&2) through either classroom, as each have a door into the space, or 3) via the door to the outside.

(Note: image not to scale, and based on short stay in the room) It is a relatively large space, although not as large as classrooms built in the 60's or 70's (like my wife's, which is giant). The classroom has high ceilings, which seemed to echo, but we'll have to see how that works. Currently there are 5-10 computers in the space, which I hope I get to keep. There is a ton of other stuff in there, but I'll start cleaning it up Monday. As far as getting in... well I need to go through the 2 other classrooms, or outside. The kids will line-up outside, so that works great, but we'll see from there. I'm definitely psyched to be right next to the other two 5th grade classrooms. Rotating kids should be easy (rotating kids you say... read on).

WHO/WHAT
The cohort of 5th graders is 60-64 kids. I heard 62 and then 64, so we'll say 60-64 for good measure. They were able to get another 5th grade teacher (me) because of the size, which means class size of 20-22ish. Hoooray! Additionally the teachers team, and have (or are open to) rotating kids. That would essentially create content area specialists, which I'm excited about. Instead of teaching a lesson once, you teach it multiple times, and have the ability to make adjustments each time (and hopefully improve your practice!). I'm not sure how this will work, or what content area, but I should know early in the week.

As a whole I am psyched. Kids are kids are kids, some just different sizes (and further along cognitively). I'll post more next week once I know more about the nuts of bolts. Until then...

Content Knowledge Flowing Like a Wide River

I am wrestling with the notion of depth vs breadth. I worry about having strong pedagogy, and having strong practice, but lacking strong pedagogical content knowledge. More specifically, I worry that I won't really know enough within given content areas to help my kiddos along. I know that you continue to learn, but that doesn't give me much consolation at the onset.

This all comes from a conversation about math curriculum, and knowing what to skip. A colleague was saying that she was unsure as to why the master teacher skipped a section of a lesson that my colleague thought was important for the content knowledge for students. How do you know when it is appropriate? How do you know that your kids won't be lost by skipping that section?

Reading Instruction

I am a firm believer in reading and writing instruction that involves authentic experiences. In particular, the instruction needs to be centered around ideas that are relevant to the kids we are teaching. With reading instruction I feel like this can often be lost. If we get hung up on the particular level of the student, students may miss the opportunity to be exposed to really rich content. How do you lose content at lower levels? Well, one of the big issues is the vocabulary being used, which can often bump up easier texts above what a student "is capable" of reading. Should a lower level reader be stuck in texts like "The cat sat on the mat. Go cat."? There needs to be more than those low level readers.

A great example of that is idea is found in the video below: