Yesterday I posted about all I learned from A Sense of Belonging from a mentor angle, and tonight I will discuss what I gained from the book as a teacher. Aside from making me reflect on my teaching journey, it also made me consider additional ways that I can improve my classroom. A key concept that Allen expressed was the importance of data and appropriate use. This comes at a perfect time as our school has been heavily reevaluating the way we collect and utilize data. We have been really excited about all the ways that we have been able to improve based on a heightened awareness for what data can show us about our students and to guide our instruction. Allen stated, "The reality was that it takes years to learn to read assessment data and know what it means for instruction and that you can confer with kids one on one only if your classroom routines and management are firmly in place" (34). Lucky for the teachers at Allen's new school, they receive a lot of support in both areas. Another comment that I noted in my book was her comments that assessments are to gain information about students, so at times we may do something that is not exactly as the directions indicate in order to meet our purpose of seeing the fullest picture of our students possible (41). Later in the book Allen dedicates a chapter to further emphasize the necessity of on-going, consistent data (92-104).
This year as I am beginning my first venture into classroom blogging, I was excited to see the idea that one of the teachers at Allen's school networked with college students who contributed frequent comments throughout the year (61). Ruth at Two Writing Teachers recently mentioned how comments fuel writers, and this is an excellent opportunity to motivate our young writers. It would also provide a great model from someone other than the teacher of quality feedback. Last year many local college students participated in a reading buddy after school program with our students. I am sure that I could find some students that would be willing to interact with my class in this way once I get the student component going. It would even be a convenient experience for them because the hours would be flexible and whenever it was convenient for them.
Another way that Allen supported the same teacher was by reviewing one of her rubrics (61). That reminded me that I should have our new instructional coach review my workshop rubrics. When we discussed my goals at the beginning of the year I mentioned the direction I was going, but I was still processing it myself. Now that I have a working document it would be beneficial to have feedback in case I have overlooked something.
When discussing introduction of new resources, Allen provides a list of resources they have provided staff before with examples of how teachers have utilized them (69). I made reflective notes all over this page to remind myself to revisit these ideas and to note ways that I could utilize them in my classroom.
Allen also referenced Ralph Fletcher's "Dude, Listen to This!" frequently, and it is now on my list of resources to look into along with his book Boy Writers. (I am even more excited to read Boy Writers because last week the on-line preview of the book popped up as an example of Slice of Life writing. I shared the excellent example with my students, and I will do a separate post later about the positive impact it had.) I also loved a couple examples of implementing status of the class into workshop because I had just been revisiting this concept and she showed it from a different angle, opening up more possibilities (87-90).
Finally, I also loved the emphasis on being a reflective teacher. Allen said, "it's easy to miss some of the long-range plans and needs if you don't have regular times in which you stop, reflect, and look at the year as a whole" (107). At the start of this year I started a word document for both reading and writing workshop where I was going to reflect daily. However, it has been hard to keep up with, so I decided to switch to a weekly recap and reflection. Not only is it going to help me stay centered this year and to remind myself to integrate reteaching into my lessons when necessary, as well as ways to improve the next time I teach similar lessons. Previously I wrote reflections on individual lesson plans and left put them in a binder, but this method will be more accessible.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Allen's book to reflect on myself as a teacher, as well as to evaluate how I can contribute the strong sense of collegiality at my school by being conscious of how to best mentor when asked for suggestions. I am looking forward to the book discussion starting this week.
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