Sometimes I feel as if I am in this never-ending cycle of too-much-to-do and not-enough-time. Because of this, my writing has taken a seat for the first of the year. This disappoints me. I had a goal to write every week about what is happening inside the classroom, and -TRANSPARENT MOMENT-that hasn't happened.
What's a teacher to do??? Keep going. Persevere. Sometimes those words are exhausting and that has been where I was for the entire first quarter of school.
Things are slowing down now. Less change is happening. That's good.
I made it through the content portion of my ISTE coursework. Now on to the portfolio. SCARY.
I led my first ever 15-hour Professional Development that I co-created with another teacher in the district. It was amazing. Still working on it. That's ok. I can manage that.
Have officially -not officially- made the switch with my curriculum that admin wants. That admin required 4 weeks into the school year. There went those routines.....right out the window. Still working on implementing the new parts. Some of which showed up yesterday. *Sigh*
Focus is so much on test scores at times I begin to doubt we are focusing on the kids. That's when I get upset. My students are more than a test score. But, I keep building relationships and focusing on the growth my students show with their confidence, effort, motivation, and academics. Just keep teaching....Just keep teaching....Just keep teaching.... (Yep, I borrowed that from Dory! 😜)
Keep plugging away. Knowing that after Thanksgiving Break I will be incorporating new curriculum and being a model classroom for AVID....
I can make it work. I have enough time in a day right????
Make time. I will not take away their reading time every day. That's a non-negotiable. It is valuable and needed to give them time. When we don't we get conversations like this one that happened yesterday with a student:
S: "Nyxia" was such a great book!
Me: I agree! I'm glad you liked it!
S: But, I'm confused about why we read it. We didn't even write an essay when we finished.
Me: We read it for fun.
S: That's weird. I don't understand why we would do that.
Me: 🙄😭
This reading was in an optional book club that met once a week before school. The student still couldn't understand the purpose because there was no essay attached to it. She loved the book and is currently reading the next one, yet still questions why we would read without doing work with it.
Ranting for a moment....again ➩ We are slowly killing students' love of reading. I hope to bring it back and I hope at the end of the year she can reflect on this conversation and know that reading-without an essay-is valuable and should happen more!
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