So this post is a bit late but I'm going to finish this reflection! Time often gets away from me as I go through my life but better late than never!
This summer I was fortunate enough to participate in multiple professional development activities. I say fortunate because this is the first time in the 10 years I have been teaching that I have spent nearly the entire summer working on ME as a teacher.
I have found that this has kept me in the classroom mindset and allowed me to explore new techniques without feeling the pressing need to be perfect.
The first PD was a unique opportunity for our school site. As I've said in previous posts I work at a Title 1 school and our principal wanted to give us the opportunity to practice a strategy or skill that we wanted to try but that we hadn't been able to during the year. Sooo...we opened the school during the month of July where we took a small group of students (15-20) in each group and worked with them. We spent 4 days a week with students for 2 hours and then on the 5th day we spent learning from each other and our principal.
This session benefited both students and us. Students focused on reading skills in an effort to decrease the summer slide. We benefited by trying something new without undue pressure.
I chose to work on Notice and Note: Nonfiction and Graphic Novels. Notice and Note by Kylene Beers and Bob Probst is probably one of the easiest ways to naturally help increase student comprehension when reading. This was not something that I was able to practice in depth with my class before school was released in June.
I also worked on something completely new - Graphic Novels. This was something that I had been wanting to do since I went to ILA in St. Louis in 2015.
After this PD opportunity I was able to flesh out and decide what works and what doesn't that I plan on putting into practice this upcoming year. At the same time the kids were avoiding that summer slide as they read books that they chose.
The second PD opportunity was heading up to Santa Rosa to the Pacific Coast Literacy Conference. It has only been within the past year or so that I've been fortunate enough to begin going away for PD. I have discovered that conferences not only provide some great information, food for thought and ideas to take back to try in my room but also rejuvenates me. You are surrounded by others who want to learn and hear from people who have found something that works. For me, that was hearing again from Kylene and Bob, along with Penny Kittle and Linda Reif. I was so excited to take away several wonderful writing ideas and Kwame Alexander's books, The Crossover and Booked. Both are written in prose and offer older boys as main characters who love sports and deal with serious issues, such as a parent's death. It is so hard to find male characters that will draw my boys in and I'm really excited to take this back to them.
Next up...blogging with my students, 1-1 devices and a combo class...not to mention a student teacher this first semester! Stay tuned!
This summer I was fortunate enough to participate in multiple professional development activities. I say fortunate because this is the first time in the 10 years I have been teaching that I have spent nearly the entire summer working on ME as a teacher.
I have found that this has kept me in the classroom mindset and allowed me to explore new techniques without feeling the pressing need to be perfect.
The first PD was a unique opportunity for our school site. As I've said in previous posts I work at a Title 1 school and our principal wanted to give us the opportunity to practice a strategy or skill that we wanted to try but that we hadn't been able to during the year. Sooo...we opened the school during the month of July where we took a small group of students (15-20) in each group and worked with them. We spent 4 days a week with students for 2 hours and then on the 5th day we spent learning from each other and our principal.
This session benefited both students and us. Students focused on reading skills in an effort to decrease the summer slide. We benefited by trying something new without undue pressure.
I chose to work on Notice and Note: Nonfiction and Graphic Novels. Notice and Note by Kylene Beers and Bob Probst is probably one of the easiest ways to naturally help increase student comprehension when reading. This was not something that I was able to practice in depth with my class before school was released in June.
I also worked on something completely new - Graphic Novels. This was something that I had been wanting to do since I went to ILA in St. Louis in 2015.
After this PD opportunity I was able to flesh out and decide what works and what doesn't that I plan on putting into practice this upcoming year. At the same time the kids were avoiding that summer slide as they read books that they chose.
The second PD opportunity was heading up to Santa Rosa to the Pacific Coast Literacy Conference. It has only been within the past year or so that I've been fortunate enough to begin going away for PD. I have discovered that conferences not only provide some great information, food for thought and ideas to take back to try in my room but also rejuvenates me. You are surrounded by others who want to learn and hear from people who have found something that works. For me, that was hearing again from Kylene and Bob, along with Penny Kittle and Linda Reif. I was so excited to take away several wonderful writing ideas and Kwame Alexander's books, The Crossover and Booked. Both are written in prose and offer older boys as main characters who love sports and deal with serious issues, such as a parent's death. It is so hard to find male characters that will draw my boys in and I'm really excited to take this back to them.
Next up...blogging with my students, 1-1 devices and a combo class...not to mention a student teacher this first semester! Stay tuned!