Back to the Classroom

The 2014-15 school year was a transitional one for me. It was my first year working in a role outside the classroom since I began my career in education in 1998.

My role this year as an instructional coordinator in the nation's largest universal pre-kindergarten program roll-out provided me with a lot of insight and knowledge about the behind-the-scenes work at the DOE. It also provided me the opportunity to expand my scope of work beyond one class and one school. My favorite part of this role as compliance officer, thought partner, supporter, resource fetcher was the time spent in classrooms watching teachers interact with students, and having conversations with 4 year-olds while they built block structures or painted a portrait.

I was excited to broaden my work scope and engage with teachers and students at multiple school locations. I was motivated to get out there and be in classrooms, but as the year progressed I realized how much I missed the classroom. Although I only spent one school year in this role, it was a great learning experience for me.

Due to life changing at a pace that sometimes I can barely keep up with, I am thinking about how I have already left this role I really wanted to be in, to go back to what I think is my biggest passion and enjoyment - teaching. Stepping out of the classroom made me realize how much I still wanted to be in it, but needed a change of scenery. Knowing me and my desire to keep things changing and moving, I know I will transition in and out of the classroom again as I progress through my career. So my new adventure of heading back into the classroom in August is extremely exciting to me. New school, new environment, new part of the world. The opportunities available are unlike any I have participated in so far. The world is at my fingertips! To say I'm excited is an understatement. This opportunity has been in the works for some time, and it's finally coming to fruition.

Looking forward to sharing the experiences!

Professional Reading

In my ASCD Voxer PLN, someone was asking about some good ASCD reads. We found ourselves recommending books so I thought, why not write a little about reading.

My routine - I tend to read a professional book simultaneously with a non-preofessional read to balance my mind between work and imaginary. Since the fall I've read a few professional reads, and unfortunately my pile of books never gets smaller, it keeps growing and growing. Sometimes I choose the book that seems the most relevant for the moment in my role, and others I chose because of interest.

1. Eric Jensen's Engaging Students With Poverty in Mind 

What I learned from the book: The discussion of the "seven engagement factors" was helpful as were the practical actions and solutions to engage students living in poverty. While the structures and suggestions are geared for students living in poverty, I'd use many of the actions and solutions with any students.

2. Richard Dufour & Michael Fullan's Cultures Built to Last: Sytemic PLCs at Work 

What I learned from the book: Zeroed in on the difference between accountability and building capacity, and the reasons why systemic change is hard but necessary.

3. Pete Hall & Alisha Simeral's Building Teachers' Capacity for Success: A Collaborative Approach for Coaches and School Leaders

What I learned from the book: Learned about a continuum for teacher practice and a practical approach for offering feedback to teachers. A valuable read for building a safe and positive culture of professionals who can trust an learn from each other.

4. Marilyn Chu's Developing Mentoring and Coaching Relationships in Early Care and Education 

What I learned from the book: Suggestions around specific mentoring and coaching strategies for early childhood educators. Great reflection questions and informative coaching/professional development plans.

5. Derald Wing Sue's Microagressions in Everyday Life (currently reading)

What I'm learning from this book: Wow, what am I not learning. A very informative read about society, how we judge people, and how the unintentional judgmental looks or comments we make can have a profound physical and psychological effects on groups of people.

What are you reading?

Growing Your PLN

Why is it that having a personal and/or professional learning network even important? Well, particularly as educators, we signed into this deal to educate. And that includes educating ourselves. Let's face it - most of us are obsessed with learning, we are that dedicated. Learning pushes our practice forward, and our lives in general.

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As you can see in the graphic, there are so many ways to be a #connectededucator with an active PLN. So if you're new to education, or not - maybe just new to PLNs, here are three places you can start growing your PLN, and also some ways to sustain it!

1. Workshops - Let's face it, we've been to tons but generally don't make the most of them. At every workshop there is another teacher who is bound to be someone you should stay in touch with for practical daily classroom advice. Many times you go to the workshop, you learn, and then leave. No, no, no! Stay in touch with this person so you can plan together via email, FaceTime, or a GoogleChat.

2. Conferences - When you spend a few days with the same group of people at a conference that you all share an interest in, you will definitely find a group of people you will want to stay in touch with. Remember it's not enough to get names, you have to set up a communication plan like I did with my ASCDL2L group. We didn't want to lose the connections we created at our first conference together in July 2014 so basically the next day Brad setting up a Voxer group where we communicate with each other almost daily. Can't imagine life without my Voxer group now!

3. Twitter - Isn't Twitter just for putting a status update? No! Twitter is a network full of educators from around the world. Start following chats with hashtags like #edchat and start following some of the zillions of educators. Edchats are structured conversations guided by questions on a particular topic and followed with a conversation hashtag. You can jump on these daily conversations whenever you want and they will help you get connected to many educators from the same or different regions, and give you a lot to talk about with like-minded people.

Some of the value I gain from my PLN:

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How do you stay connected? And if you are not, get to it!