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100 Days Project – Day 8 – Monday mornings!

September 12th, 2011 · 100 Days Project, Musings, Teaching & Learning, Work

100 Days Project – Day 8 – 9:31 a.m.

Last Friday it dawned on me that 100 days project in school meant 100 days in school!   I had to debate with myself whether I was going to plan to write everyday or give myself permission not to make an entry on non-school days.  So as you can see – if you count and really why should you? –   I didn’t write on these two weekend days, but I counted them!  Confused?  Suffice it to say I’ll count the days as they pass, but may not have written on weekend or holiday times.   And, this serves as a reminder for me to do research on how the 100 Day Project in schools got started as a curriculum idea.

This weekend was so wonderful, and so exhausting, and didn’t include a bit of schoolwork!  This is pretty unusual in the lives of teachers.  While most of the teachers I know take Saturday off from their work – although most of us will tell you our brains are always thinking about the children or adults we work with – they generally sit down to some task on a Sunday afternoon, knowing Monday mornings just around the bend.

Due to the Hurricane and follow-up tropical storm rain of 10 inches plus, we needed to spend Saturday mowing, helping our neighbor clean rain gutters (and hubby had to do in at least 5 paper wasp nests – likely a record of some kind), and stoop painting.  Sunday, we went to the local agricultural fair with daughter and granddaughter.  We won ribbons for entries; some of us ate ice cream for lunch and fudge for dessert.  Exhausted and still hungry we came home to drag ourselves to bed.

But, I tell you this because these are the kind of weekends that more teachers should have.  Time to relax, recharge and spend loving time with their families.  Burnout is a real issue for teachers.  I recently read that almost 50% of new teachers leave within the first five years due to lack of recognition, and low wages.  I’m closing in on the years that many take retirement, and I must admit there are days when the job is too full, with too many administrative tasks (called administrivia by a friend), that have nothing to do with direct teaching for me that I would be tempted to leave the field as well.  Fortunately for my students, and I suppose for me, I’m trying to build up my savings and retirement income so that I must take the tough days with the good and find my reserves of energy and push through to the good day.  I’m not saying that all days should be perfect for teachers, I am saying our nation does not honor the job enough; and we teachers feel that disrespect.

What to do?  Give yourself permission to have a whole weekend of joy, of fun with the family, okay, even some chores like painting the stoop that uses a different part of your brain and recharges the other part for the classroom and your students.  They and you will be glad you did.  Today I’m thinking about Monday mornings!

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100 Days Project – Day 4 – Community!

September 9th, 2011 · 100 Days Project, family, Musings, Teaching & Learning

100 Day Project – Day 4 – 9:36 a.m.

Yesterday’s teaching load was one that probably most wouldn’t choose!  I begin the day at 8 sitting in on half of a learning community that a colleague and I set up.  At 9:30, the class is mine to lead, in what is generally called Freshman Study Skills.  Although it is called College Success at our institution – I don’t love the title as it infers, to me, that the strategies learned are only applicable to making it through college.  I don’t consider time management skills so exclusive!  But that’s another line of thought.

At any rate, after those two classes, I teach two early education and care classes.  Somewhere in there I find time to walk between buildings for a little exercise and eat a pb&j.  On top of that, dash home, check in with the family, change clothes and walk several blocks to just catch the kick-off to the county’s agriculture parade, in which our college was walking.  One hour of marching (some uphill), and I arrive at the fair to enjoy a hot dog, watch teenagers scream on crazy rides and young children enjoy being up way past their bedtime.

But let me back up.  I ended the last class of the day early because one-quarter of the class was participating in the parade; and a fair share of the rest of them hoped to get home in time to give their children dinner in order to take them or join some family and friends to watch the parade.  I imagine it must happen somewhere else in America; but in this small town of 17,000 in a rural county, this parade and fair is one  – if not the – highlight of the year.

As I marched with colleagues, along the route, parade watchers shouted our names, clapped and waved at their community’s college!  Delightful.

This semester, that learning community I am trying out for the first time is grounded in research. There is “recognition that student engagement in educationally purposeful activities inside and outside of classroom is a precursor to high levels of student learning and personal development as well as an indicator of educational effectiveness (ACPA, 1994; Kuh, 1996, 2003; MacGregor, 1991; Study Group, 1984).” My fellow instructor and I are aware of this research through our own learning about learning.  Already after two class meetings, we can see a difference.  Students are  speaking aloud in class (all of them!), they are forming new friendships, and asking questions about the semester ahead.  And, although next week will really tell, no one has dropped as yet (to not have at least two students change their minds is unusual for both of us).  We know it has to do with learning in community.

Last night, during the parade, I experienced the palpable feeling of community.  So many of those marching and lining the route, have been, are, or will be learning somewhere — many in the halls of the community college I have the privilege to work.   And, these are folks, whose friends and family, if not themselves, have just lost homes, belongings, rich farmlands, crops, and roads to their homes to a Tropical Storm.   On Tuesday, in my classes, it will be important at the beginning of class to give students time to greet each other and talk about the hot dog, the crazy ride, the prize their animal won, or the friend they hung out with at the fair.  Not one or two students, but most will have been part of this community event and will need to share it with each other, before they sit down and know that they are learning amongst a collection of people they know care about them – care about their learning.

As teachers, we must not underestimate the connections and powerful effect that learning in community holds for our students and us.  Today, I am thinking about community!

 

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100 Days Project – Day 3 – Time.

September 8th, 2011 · 100 Days Project, Musings, Teaching & Learning, Work

100 Days Project – Day 3 – 5:55 a.m.

When I was thinking about doing this project, I had grandiose ideas of reading important authors writing important thoughts about teaching and learning and reflecting on that material.  I have read quite a bit of it, and have more stacked up.   And, I still intend to do that.  Yet yesterday was a day of reminding me that teaching and learning is also about finding your way through the everyday matters of teaching:  the necessity of paperwork, such as attendance and planning sheets, working with team members who are sure they have the only way to do something, a copy machine that has its own idea of what to do with the odd size original you want 22 copies of, and the clock ticking away the time you thought you had to do that reading.

Time to reflect has always been a goal of mine, a treasure just out of reach on too many days.  This semester, I teach four classes on Tuesday and Thursdays, very long days.  I have managed for these short three days of the project to get up even earlier on these days to write – to give myself time to think and write.  How will I find it other days?  Especially weekends, and holidays and days where life and family seem full and exciting?  I just will.  Time to teach well is time to think well.

Teaching well takes time.  I often explore with my pre-service teachers that, I believe, in early childhood (and I know in community college teaching), the easy way out is the way that takes less time.  For young children, that means coloring books, worksheets and other busy work day after day. For adult learners, that means lectures class after class.  To create learning activities, rich learning activities, takes time.  After ten years of teaching at the college level, it takes me, still, about 1 hour of preparation time for every one and half hours of class time.  On this September second day of class meetings, I don’t teach the same thing I did last year on that date.  This day has new students, different students living in different times than those of last year.

But, then again, that’s my value, isn’t it?  I also talk with my students about how we bring ourselves to our teaching.  And, so I get back to the frustration of having to teach and take time to think about teaching and learning while I have to work with a system and people who are, on occasion, inefficient and self-righteous, and determined to use my time.  Or at least, when I’m tired and wishing I was retired and at home gardening, that’s how it feels.  And, so today I think about the fact that I have grandiose ideas about what I’ll do in this 100-day project.  That’s okay, I can have them.  Some days I’ll pull it off – some days I won’t.  Some days the incessant rain will worry me and I’ll try not to think about my basement as I stand in front of my students.  Other days, I’ll be able to be the most incredible teacher.  Time is the key.  Time will tell.  Time will support.  Time will undermine.  Today I think about time.

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100 Days Project – Day 2 – Friendship!

September 7th, 2011 · 100 Days Project, Teaching & Learning

100 Days Project – Day 2 – 9:15 a.m.

I hesitated for several weeks while I thought about whether I should pursue this project; time, busy live, family, time, homework to read, time – well you get the idea.  Already this morning, although I’m working at home for a couple of hours, I’ve had to help students over email, and Blackboard, make some phone calls, and organize my briefcase.

But I know that when I want to achieve a goal, I figure it out – I do accomplish a terminal degree while working full time after all!

Yesterday’s first day of classes was exhilarating (and exhausting)!   I’m part of a Learning Community that requires the same set of students to enroll in Survey in Health Careers taught by a colleague, and my class called College Success.  I sit in on that class, we have a 15-minute break, and then I lead my class.   It was different yesterday to get to know the students while watching them in a class before mine – very interesting.  Then I teach two Education classes between 11 and 4 – one of which is a 2-hour class.  So I was really done in by the time I got home.  But the thrill really is there!  Trying to learn almost 90 students’ names, beginning to see the quirks of their learning, noticing who already has 20 questions, who hasn’t spoken yet, and what I’ll do in tomorrow’s class to encourage them to participate.

A great moment happened when I was explaining how the reading works in one of my courses:  I’ve had great luck giving the students half of the semester to do the reading in their own way.    They submit a plan, have to respond in writing to each chapter or article, but they attack it in any order that appeals to them.  That can be a bit of a surprise, and they often spend several moments, if not half an hour, asking questions and trying to grasp the idea that a teacher has given them control over what to read and when.  In the confusion that my repeated replies were not clearing up for at least 4 students; a student raised her hand and said, “May I try to explain?”  Indeed, yes.  She stood up, and slowly explained the process (quite accurately); everyone, not just the four who had been lost, let out an audible “Oh!”   Thank you, thank you, I said!   To me that is so much a part of learning for my students – I especially treasure the times when they help each other on the journey.  That was a good moment on the first day of classes!

And, today my granddaughter went off to her first day of Kindergarten!  I hear already that helping others (which seems part of her developing nature) helped her enter the classroom.

Today I’m thinking about the value of students’ supporting each other’s learning – here’s to friendship in the classroom!

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100 Days Project — Day 1 — Bring on the joy!

September 6th, 2011 · 100 Days Project, Children, Musings, Work

100 Days Project — Day 1 — 5:45 a.m.

Well, I have to laugh this morning as I begin to write the first entry.  I got up very early on this first day of school to do some online research and writing only to discover that my Internet is down.  So the piece I was going to look up to read is inaccessible, not to mention a dictionary, and a few sites to use as resources.

This is flexibility – perhaps it’s best to be reminded of this important quality of teaching and learning on the first day of my venture.  As an early childhood teacher, I had plans, often elaborately written plans, that would quickly fly out the window when a child would come to school of a morning bursting with an important story to tell.  A story that begged for new reference books, new explanations, new desires to reproduce in blocks or clay or art products.  And a new story that would certainly entice classmates to pursue with you.  As a community college teacher, we think we are less waylaid by student needs to explore and know and learn; but even then, the best classes for me are those where this does indeed occur.  The questions entice, the disagreements flow as students work to understand  and connect this new piece of knowledge with old.

And, I don’t know about other geographic areas, but certainly here in New England, sometimes we are forced to be flexible simply because the weather has another plan for us.  Thanks to Irene, his past week has been one of rescheduled first days, reorganized spaces and bus rides, and even different buildings assigned wherein to have your first day of class – certainly bravo to these teachers and students.

So this morning’s lack of Internet asks me to consider my own thoughts on this first day of teaching, without referencing the great article my college’s President sent out yesterday (and thanks to Facebook, appeared on social media about the same time), or even information about just what is 100 days.  A dozen years or so ago when I was in the early care and education classroom, nowhere  was noted that day.  But, I know from my work supervising student teachers, 100 days is a part of the curriculum (here is where I would insert a link to a few books).

This morning, I am as I always am on the first day of class, a bit anxious.  I want to set a tone with my college students of one of your time will be well spent, you will learn something interesting, not only about some topic but yourself as well (and this will surprise you), but you will begin to experience the fascination, the thrill and yes, the joy, of learning.  Because that is what makes a life-long learner, the excitement of making connections between content and our lives. Many haven’t experienced this yet, but I have and the thrill of teaching for me is working to turn a student onto this life experience.  I also get overwhelmed with the job attached to teaching.  When I was a preschool teacher, on bad days, I would say “if only these children didn’t have parents.”  What I was bemoaning was the other part of teaching – not just the passing of knowledge along to someone, but the important, valuable and often most difficult work of setting the stage: the politics of an organization within which one works.

No other feelings last for long though, as I anticipate walking into the classroom and greeting these students who, I know when I remind myself, are just as anxious and excited as I am.

Here’s to first days of school everywhere!  Bring on the joy!

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