My dad passed away last Friday night at 6:30 pm. He had fought cancer for 2 years. Because of all the busyness of his passing and with my coming marriage in just 6 short days from now I have really found that my heart and my mind has wandered far from my room and from my kids. I guess that there are times when a teacher needs to just drop the dry erase marker and leave the kids behind to focus on other larger life issues. This is one of those times for me. I am still struggling a bit though. In the midst of all of this I still have not given the district benchmark exam. It is something that really does seem to matter. The scores will stay with my kids and with me for the time to come. I was thinking about sneaking back in on Monday and giving the test, but have decided to wait until after the memorial for my dad this Tuesday. It seems that there is always the tug and pull of personal and professional. For the next two days I am walking away from my job to remember my dad... decided...

Insecure teachers

Lately I have been thinking a lot about a teacher's own emotional perspective in the classroom... It just seems to me that for a long time some of what I did in the classroom was done not because it was what the kids needed, but rather because I was insecure in my own abilities. I remember being very unwilling to try a new strategy that had the possibility of flopping because then, if someone was passing by, or if my principal walked in, I might be discovered as a below standard teacher, or something of the like. Now that I have been going at this a while longer it just seems that things go better when am asking myself the question, "what do the KIDS really need right now?" as opposed to, "how can I keep myself from making a mistake and being a "lesser than" teacher?". How do you get that more educationally functional place? I have been teaching 9 years and still feel like I am dealing with that quite a bit!

"that kid better behave or I am a bad teacher!".... sound familiar? Hummmmm

Today we had a training given by Steve Olsen on the use of questions in the room. He said that the effective use of questioning in the classroom is one of the hardest things to do. It really got me thinking about how I question kids, what I question them about... even how long I give them to answer my questions. Apparently 10% of the kids answer 80% of the questions and teachers average only about 2 seconds of wait time after each question. To say nothing of the fact that the vast majority of the questions asked are lower level thinking questions. Good Lord! Is that my classroom as well? What can a first grade teacher do to ask more efficient and effective questions?

getting started!

As part of my professional growth and development this year I have decided to try and be more reflective in my teaching. It just seems like a really good idea. The more I can think about what I am doing in my classroom, hopefully the better I will do it... assuming I am thinking clearly. That is where I hope my friends out there in the teaching world will help me out. So, I am starting a blog. The purpose of this blog is to log the things that I see happening in my classroom, the stuff that I am doing or not doing that I feel has an impact on me as a teacher. The goal hopefully is to be a better teacher, a teacher who thinks about what they are doing and doesn't simply do the same thing that they did the last year, pulling out the same lessons and doing them in the same way... uuggg. Now since my principal is reading this I am obligated to say that I will not use any of the real names of any of my kids, and, as much as possible I will keep everything innocuous and as free from liability as possible. (is that good enough Mr. H? ) ... (not his real last name initial) ... anyway, I would invite you all to come and help me think a little more, be reflective a little more... maybe the kids at some point will be able to learn a little more.