June 5, 2008
How much do you and your classroom change each year?
Posted by Paul Bogush under Uncategorized | Tags: change, dkzody |Came upon an interesting comment on dkzody’s blog that she left in response to another reader’s comment:
“Education is the one career where you have a clean stop and start each year. You can always see the end of the tunnel.”
That is so true. Every year I teach I start off as a totally different person. Each year I grow and change so much and look forward to reinventing myself for the next year. Extending Moore’s Law to me as a classroom teacher, I think that every two years my classroom changes so much that it bears no resemblance to the previous years. Hmmm…I just went through my seventeen years and it does hold true. I can say with certainty that the kids that graduated three years ago would not recognize my current classroom(of course not talking about aesthetics). I plan on talking about some of the changes in my end-of-school fiesta post.
So…click on that little word “comment” and tell me what is the biggest way in which you have changed in the last two years? And what sparked that change. (Note that the question is not — What is the biggest change you have made? Subtle difference)
June 5th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
I will be making a major change next year; no longer teaching marketing I after doing that for 18 years. I will be teaching two sections of multimedia which I have never done, nor am I too sure how I am even going to do it. With MACs ( which I love), or with PCs (as it has been done for 5 years). I am still learning the components so will be a student right along with my kids.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Since I’m in the middle of creating education precedence (at least as far as I can tell), I change a lot every single year. And I intend to build that into the system of the school. We change our lunch time. We change our start/ending time, based on majority student need, we change our lessons and assessments, I’m adding new staff (and tripling enrollment), and I change how I approach the kids.
There are some things that won’t change: Turning Point Learning Center will always be open to change, growth, and adjustment to what is new and better.
People can talk all they want from their technology classrooms, but until they’re creating an entirely new system from scratch, as fas as I’m concerned, they’re blowing hot air. Paul, wanna move to Kansas? Your girls would LOVE the school.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Great question - got me thinking..
I am MUCH more organized and efficient than I was previously. The change was prompted by my board deciding to limit the storage space of all non-administrators. As a result, when I changed schools, I had burned all of my files to CD, and it made me crazy having to insert CDs trying to find the language file or the math or science file I needed. So,, I purchased a big external drive, and I just take it with me everywhere now - home, school etc.
I no longer need to wonder where stuff if because it’s all on the external drive and it is ORGANIZED beautifully. I also got a del.i.cious account so that all my bookmarks are in one place. Prior to that, I had five different computers that I worked on, and the files could have been anywhere. So happily - I’m much more organized now. And if I go back more than two years… if I go back ten years… I used to have a big metal filing cabinet with REAMS of paper; assignments, articles, exemplars…. Man i don’t miss those days!
June 6th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
As the new school year approaches, I’m planning to continue a major change that I began to undertake last year: narrowing my instructional focus to a smaller number of broad topics.
Around Christmas I realized that my instruction was scattered and fragmented. I was in the middle of my second year of teaching third grade (actually, of teaching anything) and relying heavily on the materials that were on hand (read: I was surviving with the textbooks and associated worksheets). The material was good, in my opinion, but moved so quickly through such a variety of topics that we weren’t concentrating on any one thing. This was true of all the subjects I taught.
Frustrated with that approach, I came to realize that teaching a “big idea” well and thoroughly was better than trying to hit too many smaller targets that most of my students simply weren’t ready for.
Example: when I taught addition and subtraction at the beginning of the year we were all over the place with various topics–this was difficult; after Christmas I taught basic multiplication thoroughly until my students had a firm grasp–this made the “follow on” topics such as word problems much easier to grasp. I know this idea isn’t new to an experienced teacher, but I had to learn it for myself.
The downside, of course, is the amount of work preparing my own materials. The upside is a greater understanding of the material for my students and myself. I guess that’s worth it!
June 10th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Every year when the new school year begins, I think I change. Its like no one knows me again. I have all new teachers, and I am with a totally different group of kids. They all have no idea what I was like in previous years, so they don’t expect anything of me. I like being able to change things about myself, that I may not have liked previously, and no one will think anything of it, because they don’t recognize it as a change. Coming in to school this year, I did change things about myself, but there are also some things I don’t change. I feel like this year I haven’t tried so hard to blend in. Last year, I didn’t want to stand out. I didn’t want to be recognized for doing or being anything different than anyone else. This year, I am totally different. I don’t worry so much about what other people think of me. I enjoy saying things that are the total opposite of what everyone else is thinking. It’s good to take an opposing view on an argument, even if that view is “not normal,” or makes me a “fluffernutter” or “oddball.” I have even changed the way I dress. I wear what I am comfortable in, not what everyone else is comfortable in. You don’t need an occasion to wear a dress to school! Lastly, I have changed my way of thinking in many respects. It is hard for me to explain it, but lets just say that I am more self-directed than before. And like I said, there are things I don’t change. Such as my work ethic and my motivation. I motivate myself to learn, and that is why I score well. My motivation doesn’t come from my parents, peers, or teachers. And sometimes I can be too hard on myself(which explains the migraines), which is something I would like to change maybe next year. Having a clean slate each year leaves plenty of room for change, and hopefully each year I will be strong enough to make a change for the better.