Teaching is hard work!! Teachers need to develop Professional Competencies that will make you more attractive as candidates for prospective teaching positions as well as for further developing your skills for those already teaching.
1. Collaborator - Collaborators work together to achieve a common goal. Working in collaborative teams has a direct impact on improving student achievement, if teachers are focusing on the "right things." The right things are: What do we want students to learn? How will we know that the students learned them? How will we respond when some students do not learn? How can we enrich and extend the learning for students who already know it?
2. Learner-- You finished school, have your degree and have your first job!! You think, "I am so glad I am finally done with school!" As a new teacher, you will be learning every minute of the day!! You will need to master your teaching skills, and that will be a huge learning curve in itself! With social networking now and the internet, the answer to almost every question is at your fingertips! Believe it or not, your students will teach YOU a few things. Reflecting on your teaching and learning is a critical piece to your life-long learning. You don't need to go to a professional conference to continue your learning; you will learn from your team members, from professional development in your school and from professional reading.
3. Data User--Using student data will help you to understand how students are learning and what skills and knowledge they have mastered. And I don't mean the grades in your grade book. Data can be collected at the district level, at the school level and at the classroom level. The data collected at the classroom level is the most powerful....where you can reflect on your own practices, determine effectiveness of instructional practices, determine and utilize new strategies for student learning, and make sure that students are learning the implemented curriculum. Again, back to the first PLC questions, what do we want all students to be able to know and do, and how will I know that the students learned it? Data will tell you, from your classroom formative and summative assessments.
4. Communicator--Teachers communicate to students, colleagues, parents, and other school personnel. As a teacher you are creating interest in learning, listening to students and colleagues, discussing learning with team members, interpreting data, talking to parents about student progress and using non-verbal communication every day. Being a good listener is critical to be an effective teacher. Communicating clearly and making sure students know what the goal of a lesson is will engage students in the learning. Use of humor is also a skill that improves communication. Teachers need to be open and approachable. Use of technology in communication is now being used, e-mails to colleagues and parents, and while this is time efficient, be mindful of school policies and how you are communicating via e-mail; re-read your e-mails and make sure that they say what you want them to say. Don't write anything that you don't want on the front page of the local newspaper!
5. Instructional Practices -- Examining your instructional practices and discussing them with other teachers, can help you develop them over time. Knowing best practices that are research based, meaning they are effective practices for student learning, will help you develop your units and lessons and communicate the instructional targets to students. Students need to be engaged and be able to demonstrate their learning through a variety of performance tasks. Formative assessments of learning needs to be incorporated so that teachers get the feedback they need to provide supports to students or extend the learning activities. Again, in your teams, discuss the 4 PLC questions that will help you design your instruction.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Gratitude
Did you think I fell off the face of the earth? I have been on "blogger hiatus" for a few weeks!
Today, I want to share a thought as we prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday. I want to talk a bit about gratitude and to use it in your life. In August 2010, I was a superintendent, the economy, property values and the lack of state of Illinois payments to school districts, caused the district to make HUGE cuts in educational programs and staff. It was an extremely stressful time for me; I was a year away from retirement and this was by far the hardest time of my educational career. Administrators, teachers and support staff losing their jobs, cutting programs for students, as well as families in our community were struggling with their own loss of jobs and maybe even their homes.
On opening day for teachers, a young second year teacher sent out an email to all of his colleagues.
"Budgets will no doubt be getting tighter, we will have to do more with less, more personal sacrifices will be made for the benefit of students and colleagues, and the list could go on and on. That being said, amongst the bleak forecasts I cannot help but be grateful and thus hopeful. I am so thankful to have a job I love. Even more so, I am grateful to get to work with a terrific bunch of professionals like yourselves who care deeply about our students - their lives and learnings. I am beyond appreciative for the fantastic group of students we get to work with, even those we have to drag by their toes to the end......The point is, no matter what goes down this year, from the mountain tops experiences of ecstasy to the deepest of valleys of despair, we need to be thankful and stick together--Faculty, Staff, Administration, and All. Being grateful changes everything, it brings hope and puts everything in a new perspective. Let's be intentional about being thankful in a tangible manner. Shoot an email, write a note, buy a little gift to show each other just how grateful we are - even for the little things."
This teacher e-mail impacted me greatly! With all the decisions to be made, the tough conversations with people, the worry and stress, I felt like a robot just making it through the day. HOWEVER, that changed when I read this email. That day, I started a gratitude journal, writing every day, the things that I was grateful for: my great secretary and office staff who worked long hours, my teachers who were doing more with less and were still dedicated to students, my principals, my Board of Education, the great students we had, my husband, my kids, my family, my health....it just flowed each day I wrote in my journal (IPhone app-gratitude journal). Not only was I appreciating everything that I had, but I felt stress relief, happier and more hopeful. Research says that people who embrace gratitude either through journaling, thanking others, etc. are 25% happier after 10 weeks of focusing on being thankful.
Just this week, I saw two 24 years olds on TV whose lives were changed forever. Amiee Copeland who was ziplining and got a flesh eating bacteria and lost her hands, feet and right leg and Lauren Scruggs, who walked into a helicopter propeller which sliced off her left hand and had her left eye removed-- both of these young women expressed their gratitude for life.
So as we prepare for Thanksgiving this Thursday, reflect on your gratitude. Yes, we all worry about finding a job, losing a job, our performance at our job, paying our bills, paying the college bill each month, insurance, house repairs, car repairs, and the list goes on. So try a Gratitude Journal for 30 days, either an app on your phone, or a spiral notebook, and see how you feel. I know that you will feel different, I did!!! Thank you Jonathan!! Happy Thanksgiving!
Today, I want to share a thought as we prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday. I want to talk a bit about gratitude and to use it in your life. In August 2010, I was a superintendent, the economy, property values and the lack of state of Illinois payments to school districts, caused the district to make HUGE cuts in educational programs and staff. It was an extremely stressful time for me; I was a year away from retirement and this was by far the hardest time of my educational career. Administrators, teachers and support staff losing their jobs, cutting programs for students, as well as families in our community were struggling with their own loss of jobs and maybe even their homes.
On opening day for teachers, a young second year teacher sent out an email to all of his colleagues.
"Budgets will no doubt be getting tighter, we will have to do more with less, more personal sacrifices will be made for the benefit of students and colleagues, and the list could go on and on. That being said, amongst the bleak forecasts I cannot help but be grateful and thus hopeful. I am so thankful to have a job I love. Even more so, I am grateful to get to work with a terrific bunch of professionals like yourselves who care deeply about our students - their lives and learnings. I am beyond appreciative for the fantastic group of students we get to work with, even those we have to drag by their toes to the end......The point is, no matter what goes down this year, from the mountain tops experiences of ecstasy to the deepest of valleys of despair, we need to be thankful and stick together--Faculty, Staff, Administration, and All. Being grateful changes everything, it brings hope and puts everything in a new perspective. Let's be intentional about being thankful in a tangible manner. Shoot an email, write a note, buy a little gift to show each other just how grateful we are - even for the little things."
This teacher e-mail impacted me greatly! With all the decisions to be made, the tough conversations with people, the worry and stress, I felt like a robot just making it through the day. HOWEVER, that changed when I read this email. That day, I started a gratitude journal, writing every day, the things that I was grateful for: my great secretary and office staff who worked long hours, my teachers who were doing more with less and were still dedicated to students, my principals, my Board of Education, the great students we had, my husband, my kids, my family, my health....it just flowed each day I wrote in my journal (IPhone app-gratitude journal). Not only was I appreciating everything that I had, but I felt stress relief, happier and more hopeful. Research says that people who embrace gratitude either through journaling, thanking others, etc. are 25% happier after 10 weeks of focusing on being thankful.
Just this week, I saw two 24 years olds on TV whose lives were changed forever. Amiee Copeland who was ziplining and got a flesh eating bacteria and lost her hands, feet and right leg and Lauren Scruggs, who walked into a helicopter propeller which sliced off her left hand and had her left eye removed-- both of these young women expressed their gratitude for life.
So as we prepare for Thanksgiving this Thursday, reflect on your gratitude. Yes, we all worry about finding a job, losing a job, our performance at our job, paying our bills, paying the college bill each month, insurance, house repairs, car repairs, and the list goes on. So try a Gratitude Journal for 30 days, either an app on your phone, or a spiral notebook, and see how you feel. I know that you will feel different, I did!!! Thank you Jonathan!! Happy Thanksgiving!
Monday, October 22, 2012
Transitions in Life
I am a week behind on my blog!!
Today I presented at the Illinois Principal Association's, Principal Professional Conference in Peoria, Illinois. I drove down to Peoria on Friday, and stayed with a friend for the weekend. I lived in Peoria for 3 years when I first got out of college, and landed my first job in Peoria Public Schools. It was an interesting and nostalgic weekend, I went to take a picture of the first home that we owned, which looked like the size of a doghouse now! I was so excited to move into that house, as I was pregnant with our first child at the time. I saw three of my cousins who live in Peoria and we had so much fun just talking about how much fun we had as kids growing up and what was happening in our lives now.
It was ironic as I looked at all these firsts, that I have now just just completed my first year of retirement. Where did the time go? When I looked out into the group of attendees at my session for my presentation today, I noticed most of them were 30-45 years old. The age of education is changing, meaning that the Baby Boomers like me are moving out of teaching and administration and these younger administrators have new thoughts, new values, new visions, and new goals. Working with them, both teaching at the university level and in discussions, is so exciting to me!! They have some different perspectives, but their passion for education, learning and kids seem to be the same as mine. Still!! I asked them to share their transitions today during my presentation, and they shared: now an empty nester; new home, new baby and new job; and a 51 year old principal shared he was the father of a 23-month-old child. NOW THAT IS A TRANSITION!!!
Transition is a natural thing that we go through over and over in our lives. Changing and growing from the first breathe we take until our last breath. Some of those transitions are fun and exciting, some are painful and difficult, some we can control and some we have no control over at all.
Change happens externally, a new program or a new process; transition happens internally, how we adapt to the change or the new situation. Many times it is the painful or difficult transitions that take our time and attention. We need to focus on moving forward with change and being aware of the transitions that we are experiencing.
Accept the changes. Embrace the negative feelings that might arise from the changes you are facing. But then move forward to accepting those changes and building a support system that will assist you in moving forward positively. This will be the first day of change!!
Today I presented at the Illinois Principal Association's, Principal Professional Conference in Peoria, Illinois. I drove down to Peoria on Friday, and stayed with a friend for the weekend. I lived in Peoria for 3 years when I first got out of college, and landed my first job in Peoria Public Schools. It was an interesting and nostalgic weekend, I went to take a picture of the first home that we owned, which looked like the size of a doghouse now! I was so excited to move into that house, as I was pregnant with our first child at the time. I saw three of my cousins who live in Peoria and we had so much fun just talking about how much fun we had as kids growing up and what was happening in our lives now.
It was ironic as I looked at all these firsts, that I have now just just completed my first year of retirement. Where did the time go? When I looked out into the group of attendees at my session for my presentation today, I noticed most of them were 30-45 years old. The age of education is changing, meaning that the Baby Boomers like me are moving out of teaching and administration and these younger administrators have new thoughts, new values, new visions, and new goals. Working with them, both teaching at the university level and in discussions, is so exciting to me!! They have some different perspectives, but their passion for education, learning and kids seem to be the same as mine. Still!! I asked them to share their transitions today during my presentation, and they shared: now an empty nester; new home, new baby and new job; and a 51 year old principal shared he was the father of a 23-month-old child. NOW THAT IS A TRANSITION!!!
Transition is a natural thing that we go through over and over in our lives. Changing and growing from the first breathe we take until our last breath. Some of those transitions are fun and exciting, some are painful and difficult, some we can control and some we have no control over at all.
Change happens externally, a new program or a new process; transition happens internally, how we adapt to the change or the new situation. Many times it is the painful or difficult transitions that take our time and attention. We need to focus on moving forward with change and being aware of the transitions that we are experiencing.
Accept the changes. Embrace the negative feelings that might arise from the changes you are facing. But then move forward to accepting those changes and building a support system that will assist you in moving forward positively. This will be the first day of change!!
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
What Does YOUR Facebook Page look like?
My daughter is a personnel recruiter for an IT company and the other day she suggested that college kids or anyone else trying to find a job, should adjust their Facebook page. Many employers are doing their due diligence and checking social media sites for prospective employees for information that may be considered in the hiring process. Here are some tips:
1. Make sure that your cover and profile photos are appropriate. Recruiters and employers today are checking your page! "A survey conducted by CareerBuilder found that the top reason employers reject candidates is for posting inappropriate photographs."
2. Watch what you put on your social media pages about alcohol or drug use. How you acted at a bachelor or bachelorette party, might have potential employers misjudge you for the workplace.
3. Make sure that you have an appropriate e-mail address. Sexylady78@gmail.com is not the email that you want your potential boss or employer contacting you at.
4. You may not want to "like" pages that show your political affiliation or your opinion on various social or religious issues.
5. Control who sees your social media pages. You may not be able to delete those crazy photos you posted from Las Vegas, but you CAN control who views them through your privacy settings. Make sure that you have the settings right!
Social media, such as LinkedIn can be beneficial for job hunting and making professional connections. Professional discussion boards can also highlight your strengths for potential employers. So, be careful with Facebook!!!
1. Make sure that your cover and profile photos are appropriate. Recruiters and employers today are checking your page! "A survey conducted by CareerBuilder found that the top reason employers reject candidates is for posting inappropriate photographs."
2. Watch what you put on your social media pages about alcohol or drug use. How you acted at a bachelor or bachelorette party, might have potential employers misjudge you for the workplace.
3. Make sure that you have an appropriate e-mail address. Sexylady78@gmail.com is not the email that you want your potential boss or employer contacting you at.
4. You may not want to "like" pages that show your political affiliation or your opinion on various social or religious issues.
5. Control who sees your social media pages. You may not be able to delete those crazy photos you posted from Las Vegas, but you CAN control who views them through your privacy settings. Make sure that you have the settings right!
Social media, such as LinkedIn can be beneficial for job hunting and making professional connections. Professional discussion boards can also highlight your strengths for potential employers. So, be careful with Facebook!!!
Monday, October 1, 2012
Don't Give Up!! Keep Pursuing Your Dream!!
You have just finished college, earned a Bachelor's Degree in Education and are looking for a teaching position. You have taught for a few years, and now have relocated to a new area, city or state and are looking for a teaching position. You graduated with a Bachelor's degree in another degree area besides Education and now have completed your Master's in Education and are looking for a teaching position. No matter what your story is, finding a teaching position in this economy is difficult. Schools are increasing class size, eliminating classrooms, reducing staff and looking for the least expensive teacher to hire.
Talking to principals who are posting vacancies on the online sites, they receive an average of 800 applications for any one position. Can you imagine reviewing or sorting through applications to find the 8-10 candidates that you would like to interview for the first round? How can you make your application stand out? How do you continue to pursue a teaching position AFTER the school year has started? How do try to get yourself noticed in a school?
1. Make sure that your cover letter is connected to the goals of the school or district. In your cover letter, you do not need to reiterate your education, student teaching experiences or how much you love teaching. Your cover letter should outline the goals of the school and how these match your goals and what you can contribute to the school. Your experiences with PLCs, unit development, assessments, student data and the common core would be areas that you should highlight in your cover letter. THOSE are the experiences that principals want.
2. Your resume should outline your professional competencies-- your strengths, what you can do very well. Make a bulleted list: establishing procedures and routines in the classroom? collaborative team work? work with the common core? use of student data to differentiate instruction?
3. Your resume should outline your work experience. Again highlight the experiences that you had in either a teaching position or student teaching. It is not necessary to say, "developed science units on electricity and energy." It would develop more interest to the reader to see, "developed science units identifying essential outcomes for student mastery and designing assessments."
4. Tailor your resume to the teaching vacancy. You should tweak your resume if you pursuing a kindergarten position vs. a 2nd grade position vs. a fifth grade position. There are different literacy competencies that principals would be looking for dependent on the grade level.
5. SUBSTITUTE teach. Get out and get in those schools and sub!!! That is how you get to know the school or district, get to know the goals of a school or district, get to know the teachers and staff, and get to know the curriculum. If teachers see your professionalism, they will request you. They want a sub who can follow their plans and that will continue the learning in their classroom.
6. Know what is going on in education. Professional Learning Communities, Common Core Standards, in IL, the new teacher evaluation process, balanced literacy, formative and summative assessment, collaborative work with a team, are some of the buzz words that you need to understand and be able to talk about. Can you?? Look at the IL state website, www.isbe.net, read my weekly blog on www.theteacherguru.net and check out my Facebook page, The Teacher Guru, for the most up-to-date educational issues.
7. Keep checking the vacancies!! I am so excited that one of my clients just got a teaching position this week, the last week of September!! Schools/districts have vacancies that occur during the year for a variety of reasons: maternity leaves, medical leaves, and increase in state or federal grant funds, to name a few. So check those vacancies every day!!!
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
What Do YOU think About Homework?
Homework....can be an issue that teachers have to deal with especially at the middle school and high school level. How much to assign? What to assign? How to monitor homework? How to make homework meaningful? What if the kids don't do the homework? Is homework included in the student's grade? What if a student never turns in their homework, but does well on all their assessments?
It is time to take a look at homework again. There are many research studies on homework and the effectiveness on student achievement. Homework should not be just answering the questions at the end of the chapter.
Here are some key ideas for you to think about:
"There is no evidence that any amount of homework improves the academic performance of elementary students. There is only a moderate correlation between homework and achievement in middle school. Even in high school too much homework may diminish its effectiveness and becomes counterproductive." (Cooper, Harris, Jorgianne Civey and Erice A. Patall, "Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement? A Synthesis of Research 1987-2003." Review of Educational Research, 76, 2006, 1-62).
Students need feedback on their homework and they need it in a timely manner. Doing homework and then putting it in a bin in the classroom and receiving the homework back with a check mark on it serves NO purpose for student learning. That type of homework is simply making students comply rather than using homework as a learning or assessment tool. Design the homework so that you can provide meaningful feedback to the student, acknowledge student understanding and point out any issues that need reteaching.
Teachers need to develop homework that focuses on smaller pieces of learning so that students can practice the skills at a deeper level. How about homework developed around the instructional target that you are focusing on in the essential outcome of your unit? Having students practice more on focused concepts will increase learning. "Mastery requires focused practice over days or weeks. After only four practice session students reach a halfway point to mastery. It takes more than 24 more practice sessions before students reach 80% mastery."(Anderson, 1995; Newel & Rosenbloom, 1981).
How do you develop homework so that students will DO the homework? Homework should not be too easy or too hard, it needs to be at the appropriate level that ensures learning with some challenge. How can you design the homework so that it is relevant and meaningful and that the students see the benefit of the practice?
Look at your grading practices. How much does homework count in the quarter or semester grade? Think about the impact of one low homework grade on a student's total grade? Is the "grade" about doing the homework, or about the student's mastery of learning?
Happy Homework!!
It is time to take a look at homework again. There are many research studies on homework and the effectiveness on student achievement. Homework should not be just answering the questions at the end of the chapter.
Here are some key ideas for you to think about:
"There is no evidence that any amount of homework improves the academic performance of elementary students. There is only a moderate correlation between homework and achievement in middle school. Even in high school too much homework may diminish its effectiveness and becomes counterproductive." (Cooper, Harris, Jorgianne Civey and Erice A. Patall, "Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement? A Synthesis of Research 1987-2003." Review of Educational Research, 76, 2006, 1-62).
Students need feedback on their homework and they need it in a timely manner. Doing homework and then putting it in a bin in the classroom and receiving the homework back with a check mark on it serves NO purpose for student learning. That type of homework is simply making students comply rather than using homework as a learning or assessment tool. Design the homework so that you can provide meaningful feedback to the student, acknowledge student understanding and point out any issues that need reteaching.
Teachers need to develop homework that focuses on smaller pieces of learning so that students can practice the skills at a deeper level. How about homework developed around the instructional target that you are focusing on in the essential outcome of your unit? Having students practice more on focused concepts will increase learning. "Mastery requires focused practice over days or weeks. After only four practice session students reach a halfway point to mastery. It takes more than 24 more practice sessions before students reach 80% mastery."(Anderson, 1995; Newel & Rosenbloom, 1981).
How do you develop homework so that students will DO the homework? Homework should not be too easy or too hard, it needs to be at the appropriate level that ensures learning with some challenge. How can you design the homework so that it is relevant and meaningful and that the students see the benefit of the practice?
Look at your grading practices. How much does homework count in the quarter or semester grade? Think about the impact of one low homework grade on a student's total grade? Is the "grade" about doing the homework, or about the student's mastery of learning?
Happy Homework!!
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Start Preparing for Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences
It seems like school has just started, in fact school has been in session about 5 to 6 weeks. In about another 5 to 6 weeks, your school will be holding parent-teacher conferences, an annual fall event. I would like to talk to you about parent-teacher conferences and how you can make them more meaningful for parents, students and YOU, as the teacher.
• As you prepare for conferences, review the learning outcomes you have developed for each unit, the instructional targets and assessments that demonstrate student learning. Using the Common Core standards now should allow you to assess students on each standard and know exactly where they are!
• Tell parents how their student is doing on the learning outcomes. Use your assessments to demonstrate their learning. It means nothing to say that the student has a grade of an A, B, or C…that does not tell how the student is doing. Be concise, develop an agenda that you can use in your conferences to share information effectively. Use language the parents can understand; with the educational jargon we use, that can put parents on the defensive.
• Have samples of student work to demonstrate progress. YOU do not need to compile all of the student’s work; have the students select work that demonstrates their progress and put in a folder to share. This engages students in understanding their current level of performance and how they are progressing. You should start this at the beginning of the year with students; if you haven’t, start at the next unit.
• Involve students in the conferences. Even little bitty Kindergarteners know what is easy and hard for them. By having students a part of their conferences, there is no hidden agenda, they understand how they are doing and they should be able to communicate that to their parents. Can you imagine your principal doing your evaluation with your husband or mother?!!!! Students are the learners and should be part of the process in understanding their progress and achievement.
• Some conferences with parents and students might be difficult. If you anticipate that, ask the principal, department chair, or another support staff to participate in the conference with you. Remember to communicate regularly with parents on student issues and not have conferences be the first place to discuss student difficulties or significant issues.
• Listen to what the parents have to say. Most parents are genuinely concerned about their student and if you listen to what they have to say, you will
build a better partnership with them. If there are issues that need to be addressed, have two or three solutions that you and the parents can work on together.
• As you prepare for conferences, review the learning outcomes you have developed for each unit, the instructional targets and assessments that demonstrate student learning. Using the Common Core standards now should allow you to assess students on each standard and know exactly where they are!
• Tell parents how their student is doing on the learning outcomes. Use your assessments to demonstrate their learning. It means nothing to say that the student has a grade of an A, B, or C…that does not tell how the student is doing. Be concise, develop an agenda that you can use in your conferences to share information effectively. Use language the parents can understand; with the educational jargon we use, that can put parents on the defensive.
• Have samples of student work to demonstrate progress. YOU do not need to compile all of the student’s work; have the students select work that demonstrates their progress and put in a folder to share. This engages students in understanding their current level of performance and how they are progressing. You should start this at the beginning of the year with students; if you haven’t, start at the next unit.
• Involve students in the conferences. Even little bitty Kindergarteners know what is easy and hard for them. By having students a part of their conferences, there is no hidden agenda, they understand how they are doing and they should be able to communicate that to their parents. Can you imagine your principal doing your evaluation with your husband or mother?!!!! Students are the learners and should be part of the process in understanding their progress and achievement.
• Some conferences with parents and students might be difficult. If you anticipate that, ask the principal, department chair, or another support staff to participate in the conference with you. Remember to communicate regularly with parents on student issues and not have conferences be the first place to discuss student difficulties or significant issues.
• Listen to what the parents have to say. Most parents are genuinely concerned about their student and if you listen to what they have to say, you will
build a better partnership with them. If there are issues that need to be addressed, have two or three solutions that you and the parents can work on together.
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