I have been gone a long time!!! Not something you want to happen if you want to communicate helpful information to those that might follow or even read your blog if you send it to some readers!!

Since August 2013, I have purged my house of 27 years, sold my house, moved 1800 miles away from IL to AZ, put our belongings into storage, built a new house, moved in and am still purging our belongings from storage!!! My son is getting married in about 60 days.

But really, I have no excuse for not working on my blog during the last 10 months. Even though I have not been blogging, I have been teaching online and some face-to-face sessions on Professional Learning Communities and realize I still have enthusiasm and passion for school leaders and teachers collaborating together to improve student achievement. (I did retire in 2011, too)

Now that the house is built, I am moved in, wedding plans all finalized for the most part and everything done for the wedding, my husband asked me, "Now what are you going to do, now that all that is behind you?"

Transitions in our lives can be challenging and uncertain. Whether you are at my stage of life, or fresh out of college, looking for your first teaching job, or looking to or are transitioning to a new position, your kids are going to high school, kids are off to college or kids are moving out of your house. Life can be challenging and uncertain. Most of us like order in our lives.

During these times we need to look for opportunities and connections. How can I find where opportunities might be and how do I connect with someone that might help me find what I am looking for? How do I feel about this place in my life? What do I need to focus on to improve where I am at and where I want to go?

Most recently, I have been exposed to the Wheel of Life.

You look at each section and rate yourself from 1-10, with 10, highly satisfied, being the widest part of the pie edge and 0, being highly dissatisfied at the center of the pie. Doing this can help you see where you need to focus your efforts.

Being "intentional" on what you need to work on or focus on, makes your actions more deliberate and productive. Reviewing the wheel periodically will allow you to see how fluid your life is and how you can focus on various areas.

After all this going on in my life, I felt that the Fun and Recreation for me was something that was sorely missing. As a result, I decided that week, that I would go to a movie, talk--NOT email or text, 3 friends, and entertain at our home. By focusing on that area of my life, I did what I planned and enjoyed it!!

What does your Wheel of Life look like?

It is mid-August and you are still looking for a teaching position....now what?

You are feeling frustrated, disappointed, and maybe a little angry, that you finished your schooling to pursue your dream of teaching and you have been unable to land a position. It is a tough time in the economy for school districts, with budget cuts, most are increasing class sizes and reigning in. So now what for you?

1. Get registered for a substitute teaching certificate. Depending on where you are, that could be a Regional Office of Education, or at the local district level. That will include some paperwork, a fee for the sub certificate and a background check.

Sub everywhere and every day!! No you won't have a consistent salary or benefits, but this is a way to get into the schools and get to know the teachers and principals. If you do a great job, teachers start to request you for their classroom when they are out and this is how you get noticed and show your stuff!! This also helps you see where you want to be teaching...Believe it or not, there are about 500 applicants for every K-5 position, and it is beneficial to get to know the teachers and principals in the schools where you are subbing. Subbing gives you experience in a variety of grade levels, in a variety of content areas, and can provide learning for your improvement. You will know quickly what your real strengths are and what you need to work on.

Look for long term sub position or maternity leaves. These really get you interacting with teams of teachers as well as school activities. These subbing experience give you experience with classroom management, unit planning, assessment, use of student data, professional development offered in your schools...these are invaluable, and if you hear of one, APPLY!!!

2. Network, network, network....find ways to network. In the fall, there are several teacher job fairs, find them and go! Get your face and your resume out there! Take every opportunity to find ways to connect with teachers and principals. Reach out to those that can help you and don't be afraid to ask for advice. While LINKEDIN is not big for teachers, get a page and there are education discussion groups that you can participate in.

3. Continue learning and building your teaching repertoire. Get online and read about the common core, the Danielson framework for effective teaching, John Hattie's work on Visible Teaching, Professional Learning Communities, common formative and summative assessments....it goes on and on. On my Facebook Page, The Teacher Guru, I post articles daily that can easily support your continuous learning, so check it out. This continuous learning builds your knowledge base and then apply to your subbing position.

4. Keep your resume updated and fresh. Make sure that your resume outlines your teaching experiences to date. Principals are looking for entry level teachers that have had experiences with the Common Core, are collaborative, have looked at data to guide their instruction. If you have those experiences, get them on your resume. While the summer jobs you have listed on your resume show your work ethic or perhaps work with children, those jobs really mean nothing if you don't have the teaching experiences that catch the principal's eye.

5. Spend time every day looking for a teaching position. Check the vacancy list every day, people resign, people are let go, people have family issues and may need to take a leave, so don't be left behind!! Create a list to link quickly to all your websites that you check, so that you can check all of them in a few minutes.

6. Keep practicing those interview questions. As you sub, you will have greater clarity on your teaching and skills. When approaching a question, it is best to begin with effective teaching research and then embed your personal experiences into the response. For example, when asked about differentiation, explain the principles of good differentiation practices (high expectations, individual student needs, differentiate by content, process, produce and learning environment) and then how you have or will differentiate. Teacher candidates often just discuss what they did in student teaching or give an example of what they did in a unit while student teaching. Practicing your responses using this approach will allow your principal to see that you understand the best practices, AND can give concrete examples. This also helps teacher candidates not get lost in their responses and ramble on. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

QUESTIONS?

What about taking a teacher aide position? Taking an aide position can help you network, work in the school system and become acclimated to working with teachers, parents, students and principals. It gives you a salary and benefits and can be very fulfilling. Look at what your skills are and make sure you have a match; most of the time, these are special education positions.

I have been looking for a job for two years, do I give up and try something else? I know how hard this is if you have not yet found a job. I would say, DO NOT GIVE UP. Things are tough out there with funding and what is going on with federal and state mandates. If teaching is your passion, continue to work on the areas above. If you have found a job outside of education because you need a salary and benefits to live (and most of you do need those!!), find a way to connect to education someway. See if you can volunteer somewhere for a literacy volunteer at the local library or a community educational activity. The longer you are away, the harder it will be to get those connections back and to stay current.

Feel free to email me at susan@theteacherguru.net for advice, a question, or just for moral support.

Perseverance

Have you ever wanted something so bad, and it just is not happening for you? You feel discouraged and disappointed that all of your efforts have not panned out. You wonder if you are doing the right thing? You wonder if you made the right career choice? You wonder if you “shoulda, coulda, woulda?”

Persevering in difficult situations means that you need to continue your efforts to achieve something despite difficulties, failure or opposition. You need to try to stay the course.

Positive thinking is really important during a challenging time. The research shows the benefits of staying positive:

• People who were pessimistic had a nearly 20 percent higher risk of dying over a 30-year period than those who
were optimistic.
• People who kept track of their gratitude once a week were more upbeat and had fewer physical complaints than
others.
• People who obsessively repeated negative thoughts and behaviors were able to change their unhealthy patterns
and their brain activity actually changed too.

By staying positive, one can look at the situation differently. How have I grown from this? What have I learned? Have I developed new skills?

Appreciating the positive things going on in our lives can also help put things into perspective. Being grateful for what we have is one way to practice being positive. Several years ago during a particularly challenging time in my job, I began a gratitude journal on my IPhone. Every day for about 2 months, I wrote what I was grateful for…sometimes it was just that I got out of bed!!! I still keep the journal today; After practicing gratitude for a while it becomes a part of your thinking.

Laughing decreases pain, it may help your heart and lungs, promotes muscle relaxation and can reduce anxiety. It helps defuse a tense situation. I can attest to this!! The other night at about 1:00 a.m., we had a bat get into our bedroom and my husband was chasing it around our room trying to swipe it down…I was freaked at the time, but we laughed for hours, which I think was a message to us to chill out!

When we focus on clearly defined goals, know what we want to accomplish and have an action plan, we are able to persist.

Preparing for your Interview Questions

While working with my clients, I like them to prepare for a variety of questions that might be asked in the first or second interview. When interviewing, remember, the interviewer(s) wants to know YOUR responses, answers, thoughts, about YOUR perspective on teaching and learning.

When preparing for an interview, ALWAYS review the district and school website-- know their mission, their values, what is included in the school improvement plan, how the students perform on state assessments, etc.; this will separate you out as someone that has done their homework, rather than just one of 400 applicants for that one position. Also make sure that this district or school is a match for you as a teacher.

When formulating your responses, think about what YOU really believe, value, your successes about teaching and learning; not what you did in your student teaching or what your cooperating teacher did. For example, when asked, "What Classroom Management Structure Would You Implement?" be prepared to answer that question based on best practices, the grade level that you are applying for and your teaching experiences. Responses for this question might include:

1. Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport-- developing relationships with students
2. High Expectations for all students - value in the work of students, perseverance, challenging work
3. Procedures and Routines - student engagement, seamless transitions, effective use of instructional groups
4. Managing Student Behavior - clear expectations, monitor student behavior, response to student behavior
5. Set up of the Learning Environment - physical arrangement, safe, use of resources

Do these 5 items look familiar? They are from the Danielson Framework for Teaching, they are research based on WHAT highly effective teachers do in their classroom. It is KEY that you include researched based practices in your responses, and then of course, add a story, a scenario, or specific example from your experiences to personalize your response.

Prepare your responses for major teaching and learning issues such as assessment, instruction, Common Core, Differentiation, RtI, balanced literacy, etc. with researched based practices with your stories and experiences woven into your answers.

Now... practice, practice, practice, so that it becomes automatic. Practice in the car, in the shower, on your run! This will make you more confident and comfortable in your responses. You will be less likely to get "lost" in a response, when you have a framework for your response and then examples to support the framework!!!

End of the Year Reflections.... A MUST!!!

It is the end of the year!! The students are gone for the summer, you have cleaned your room, had your end of the year celebrations and now what?

End of the year reflection on your teaching is the NOW WHAT! Reflecting on what worked, what didn’t work, strategies, approaches, relationships, are some areas that you can start with. Effective teachers reflect to provide insight into their practices and then make changes if necessary.

You could start a teaching journal that outlines these reflections at the end of the year and then add your goals at the beginning of the next year! This will provide a “story” of your journey.

Some guiding questions might be:
What worked well?
What bombed?
What did I learn?
Did I meet my goals?
What was my Aha moment?
What would I do differently?
What did my data show and what did I do differently as a result of looking at it?
How did I grow as a teacher?
How did I get along with my teammates?
How did I communicate with parents?
What did I struggle with?

Posing these questions to other colleagues about each other can help with the reflective process. You might start next year by sharing your reflections, or better yet, get together over the summer and share your reflections. That will allow you to start the school year after you have thought about your discussions.

Check out this teachers reflection and begin yours today!!
http://teamteachers.tumblr.com/post/8920483020/end-of-year-reflection

“It is when you lose sight of yourself, that you lose your way. To keep your truth in sight you must keep yourself in sight and the world to you should be a mirror to reflect to you your image; the world should be a mirror that you reflect upon.” C. JoyBell C.

Lessons beyond the Boston Marathon...Mr. Rogers' Words of Wisdom

I have been mesmerized by the stories about the Boston Marathon bombing. And as a result, who is being quoted on how to help children, Mister Fred Rogers. I love Mister Rogers!! I remember when my daughter was young and watching the operas, the plays, the stories, with her. In fact, in 2003, I bought my principals his book, The World According to Mister Rogers, Important Things to Remember. The book had various quotes and stories by Mister Rogers that I think are inspiring for educational leaders to think about as they lead their teachers and students.

"Some days, doing the 'best we can' may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn't perfect--on any front-- and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else."

"I'm proud of you for the times you came in second, third, or fourth, but what you did was the best you had ever done."

A few years later, I bought his second book for my adult children, Life's Journeys According to Mister Rogers, Things to Remember Along the Way. Quotes that make us think!!

"It's really easy to fall into the trap of believing that what we DO is more important that what we ARE. Of course, it's the opposite that's true: What we ARE ultimately determines what we DO!"



What great advice from a wise man! What a great way to comfort our children....and ourselves. I think the news has done a great job of highlighting the heroes and the helpers, focusing on those attending to the hurt, carrying people away from dangers, people hugging another person in distress...helping others!

As educators we will be faced with questions and comments from the elementary, middle and high school students about this event. How do we begin to explain this event.....share what Mister Rogers has to say about scary events.

Thanks Mister Rogers for reminding us "You Are Special."

What Do I Want to Happen in My Life? Vision Board or ACTION board?

You have been looking for a teaching job now for a year (or maybe longer?). You are frustrated, disillusioned, disappointed and are starting to wonder if you should continue to pursue your dream, your goal of being a teacher.
As you have been job searching, what has your process been? How have you approached the search? Do you have a weekly plan or monthly plan for applying and communicating with school districts?

I recently have met a new friend, Carol, who has been diagnosed with Stage IV lymphoma and began her treatment last week. While I have only known her about a month, Carol is very headstrong, has a good sense of humor, seems to be a fighter and trying to be optimistic about her prognosis. Carol recently told me about a session that she was going to attend on developing a vision board.

According to Christine Kane (christiinekane.com),
“A vision board (also called a Treasure Map or a Visual Explorer or Creativity Collage) is typically a poster board on which you paste or collage images that you’ve torn out from various magazines. The idea behind this is that when you surround yourself with images of who you want to become, what you want to have, where you want to live, or where you want to vacation, your life changes to match those images and those desires.”

I started to think that this process would be good for aspiring teachers to go through, so I did some research and found an article, “Throw Away Your Vision Board,” by Neil Farber. M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Farber suggests that just visualizing what you want does not necessarily materialize, however this process might help one organize and more clearly delineate your goals.

Dr. Farber suggests instead, develop an ACTION board. An ACTION board helps you transform you dreams into reality. Think about it, dream about it but then MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Try some of these descriptors to use for your ACTION:

1. What is your ultimate goal? Clarify where you are going. What do you want?
2. Prioritize: what is your top priority? Look at what you need to do and simply prioritize what it is you need
to take action on.
3. Put together a schedule or plan. Simplify what you need to be doing: daily, weekly and monthly.
4. What do you need to get to your ultimate goal? What help do you need, who can help you, what do you need to
learn, what do you need to work on? Break things down in what you need to do in order to get to where you
need to go.
5. Get support: who can help you with this? Network with a variety of people who can support you and keep you
on track. Having someone hold you accountable is a good thing.

Some quotes to think about:

"Do it, and then you will feel motivated to do it." - Zig Ziglar
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” – Leonardo da Vinci
“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.” - Joel Barker



Check out the APP store to see if you can find something to get started on! You don't need to use this process for pursuing a teaching position, think about how it applies to any goals in your life. You might be retiring from teaching and trying to figure out the next steps. MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!