Saturday, September 15, 2007

No. I wasn't kidnapped---just busy!!!

so far, i've just been spending my time reading and getting to know my own students. i am ready to focus on data collection right about now, though, according to my timeline, i should be pretty much done with that now. woops. ha!

i have to admit i am just loving my students this year. i have laughed so much already. i've laughed to the point where i am hunched over and have to take a pause. selfishly, this has been my complete focus so far this year. i used to have that a lot, and last year, i got that maybe once or twice, but not often. i am adjusting to my district's new curriculum maps, our school's crazy pace in first quarter, and my getting up with an alarm again.

luckily, i team teach with a brilliant special ed professional who is always an advocate for the kids. i am learning a lot from her this year, like i used to be able to do, since the kids enjoy being there and are not a problem, rather a partner in class. my team teacher for our skills class is also a part time "instructional coach" for our building, which is another crazy district-mandated, (though not clearly defined), position where she can share her research and experience with the rest of the staff. basically, it frees up some of her day to help the rest of us improve our own teaching, since we rarely are able to do so alone.

so, this week, she taught my first two sections, modeling a new way of reading text as a group. for my last two sections of the day, i tried it and she watched me. every class loved it! i was also free to watch our team-taught class try it and scribe the events of that section. so i hope this is useful info/data for my research, too. i am pretty sure it is. i just need to go through it and maybe categorize it or match it to some of the things i am reading about special ed kids and reading/poetry/self-efficacy, etc....i think the more organic model of team-teaching will help me with my research, too. we are modifying the other district-mandated way of teaching our classes and visiting with the computerized reading program less this year, only to use it as a starting point, supporting it with what we know works with our kids.

so, i am having a killer year so far and am refreshed by that. i laugh every day, which is something i missed so dearly last year (kids last year were largely neglected, mistreated, misbehaved, missing skills, and lost....sad, sad, sad). i am excited to include research and data collection into my classes this year. the kids this year have positive intentions and will try in earnest, i think, to aide my research.

so, inquiry group, i think i just maybe need to bounce ideas off of you and, again, just hear what you would do as far as data collection---maybe brainstorm some more so that i can try all sorts of new, crazy things in my classroom!!! i think i lost momentum and your ideas and energy should push me right back into research mode! i look forward to hearing what you're up to and telling you what i find out. oh---one concern i have is that our poetry unit (isolated unit, though i throw poetry in class all year long) won't start this year until third quarter, which does NOT cooperate with the CSUWP conference, so i may need your ideas about THAT! thanks ahead of time! :)

3 comments:

smb said...

It sounds like your year is fabulous! I must admit, I am loving team teaching. Every teacher should do it! Burn out would be non-existant.

I'm feeling the same with writing groups vs. teaming ideas. Poetry vs...? What specifically would you focus on? Writing groups? Teaming? Other thoughts?

Jason Clarke said...

I'm glad to hear you're having a good time. I feel the same way, that this year has started off with a really positive feeling, which definitely makes our job a lot easier.

Since you are able to insert poetry into the class I think you should be able to get what you need in terms of data even without the actual "poetry unit."

I am working with a new curriculum this year where we group our texts by theme instead of genre, and so I am able to bring non-fiction, short stories, and poetry into our reading of Lord of the Flies or To Kill a Mockingbird. It actually works really well, because students make the thematic connections between texts much more quickly than they did before.

Obviusly you have to stick to your curriculum, but I think that finding some poems that fit in to whatever you're doing now should give you some good data.

Anonymous said...

Steph, I wonder if you're not at the research stage yet - maybe you're at the defining the issue state? Perhaps you don't know the data yet because you are defining the group? Stay on course, I think you're hitting a much needed gap.