Reflecting on the Year

It is time to close out another year. As I look back I see some great things we did with our iPads this year. I see that we need to work on building our thoughts about how we are going to use them in the classroom. I saw some great things in writing, reading, and language.

Using Google Docs to produce writing and build language skills was great. Reading on our McGraw-Hill app was good. I wish it was a little easier to download books. I also wish it was faster downloading the books. We used iBooks to read texts that we created. There are many texts I want to build in iBooks Author to publish for students to use.

I like to fact that we can upload pictures, files, movies, and other items, into Google Drive. Having that 30GB for each student has been fabulous to keep whatever students need access to. They can access the files anywhere.

We underused the Explain Everything App this year. I want to use it more as a white board to show work in math and for putting together assessments of what students learned. In language I want students to use it more for fluency. This year we had the students take pictures of a book page and read it while they recorded themselves. EE kept the time so they could go back through to mark what words they missed. It also gives them the ability to listen to themselves again and hear themselves as they read.

McGraw-Hill has an app for our Math program that works ok. It is not as friendly as I wish, but I hope they will make it easier for students to use. It is a bit finicky to use at times.

Next year we will be adding Schoology to our list if apps for students. Incorporating a student management program will be interesting. We have tried to make assignments as student independent as possible. It had not worked as well as we thought this year, but we learned what we shouldn't do. More management as a teacher is needed. I have always hated grading papers, but have enjoyed reading student stories, discussing ideas, and interacting with them during math. I hope Schoology will help students be able to pick assignments and projects easier. Management should be easier next year. We are heading to the @schoology conference in Denver this summer. I am expecting to learn how to set up the individual lessons for each student and how to manage them. I want it to be easy, but I also know that it will take work on my part. I want it to be easy for students to access and use.

Reflection is a major part of teaching. We should reflect as often as possible. I love taking a few minutes every summer and reading my blog to see what mistakes I have made over the years and what I learned. Revisiting them keeps all the ideas I forgot to remember, fresh in my mind.

Teacher Appreciation

It is teacher appreciation week and I want to take a moment to send some love to a couple teachers I appreciate. There are many, but a couple come to mind that have helped me through my teaching career.

When I was in school I had a wonderful example of what a teacher should be. Dan Frieberg was my choir teacher in high school. He showed us love through the help he gave us in class. He took time to help me as my friends and I would put together bands and quartets. He would give us suggestions and provide us with songs we could sing. He would then take time after school to listen as we played songs and told him our ideas. I remember Norman and I going to his house after we had graduated to play him a couple songs we wrote. He was always the listener and offered needed constructive criticism with love. He was amazing. Thank you Dan for listening to some punk kids with dreams.

During my first year of teaching I met a teacher that had only been teaching for a few years and had some amazing ideas for teaching social studies. He would dress his students up in Civil War uniforms and have them march around the school as they went to library or to lunch. As they learned about the Civil War through a little reenacting and role play, they learned parts and performed a short play about the Civil War. As we became better friends we started putting ideas together and bouncing ideas off each other. We moved to a new school together and began doing plays together. He would work on his Civil War play and I would work on a Shakespeare play. We wrote together, designed together and had a lot fun teaching together. Mark Powell taught me that nothing is impossible. I would come up with crazy ideas and he would always be game to try anything. We put together many activities that made school fun for the students and for us. Mark taught me that teaching was supposed to be fun and that no matter what we had to teach, there was always a way to make it enjoyable. Thank you Mark for guiding me through so many years of fun.

Another example to me is a teacher that left our school for a year and has decided to come back to us. Tina Shenfeld is a Special Education teacher. She showed me how a passionate teacher should work. Where there is a need for a student, the teacher needs to fill the need. Sometimes that means starting school and hour and a half early or staying two hours late. Tina had some great ideas about how to teach students and would do anything she could to get the most and the best out of the students. All students. Not just her kids, but all students. She taught me that All students can learn. I believes that before Tina, but she really taught me that every student that will be a productive member of society can learn. If they have a bad attitude, they can learn. If they have no desire to learn, they can learn. Every student can learn. She also taught me that all students deserve to have my best every day. That is a hard concept to actually out into practice. She always gave her best and expected it of everyone else. That sometimes ended I a conflict with another teacher, but it was about what is best for a student. Thank you Tina for teaching me that students deserve my best.

The greatest example I had as a teacher was my father. My dad was a band teacher. He worked hard to help and build all those musicians he taught. As I think about him and teaching I think about his passion as a teacher and musician. He has played in many bands over the years. He still plays in a jazz band each week. His passion for music and teaching has had reaching effects for me as I have taught. I try to keep the passion in my teaching as he did. Thank you dad for being an inspiration to me.

There are so many others that have inspired me and made me a better teacher. I am a product of those around me. Thank you for those I teach with now. Thank you for all those I have taught with. Thank you for being teachers. The world is better because of you.