Ms. M's Tales of a Teacher: My Personal Teacher Blog

 We are now into our third full week of co-op teaching! Although I mentioned this in my last blog, I knew I wanted to start this blog with my repeated thought; veteran teachers can learn so much from their cooperating teachers! I've learned about different platforms that I am excited to integrate into my class from my co-op. As much as I am supporting her along her teaching journey, she has by far added to my path as well.  What I would like to focus on today is the importance of a mentor-mentee relationship, and the role that veteran teachers play in developing that. Yes, we can learn from our co-ops, however, they are there to receive our guidance; it's just a wonderful bonus when we realize what's reciprocated. Whether it is a co-op experience or a first year teacher with mentor, having a strong support system is one of the most vital parts of teaching to an early educator. I personally believe that all teachers are capable of being great mentors, however they have to de...

 Now that our co-op has officially begun, (and admittedly I did not get a chance to write last week,) I am excited to share with you updates! My new co-op and I have been hard at work with our discussions, plans, and learning new technology to implement in the classroom. I also admit that I too am learning about new interactive tools that can help my students successfully learn the material we cover in class! It just goes to show that being a cooperating teacher does not mean you know more than your student teacher or know everything, but rather you are a guide who has the experience with different teaching elements that he/she may not have had yet. It's the storytelling and genuine connection you make with each other that makes it a great learning experience for all.  My co-op and I have been speaking once or twice a week since we started two weeks ago. I get to hear about the different assignments she has to complete, and I've been sharing updates with what my students have ...

 I am truly excited to start this blog today! (Not that I am not excited to write my others mind you!) My goal in writing my blogs is to share out resources, ideas, and guide other educators along their journey as a teacher, but yet as Tom Murray says keep it "personal and authentic" at the same time. I try to share with my readers relevant topics that I think about as they happen or occur to me as a teacher. That is why I am excited I have this topic as my next "mini-series" for my blog... I am happy to announce that I was recently asked to serve as a cooperating teacher for a student in an Ed. Tech class, and I'm thrilled to participate! Recently Dr. Sam Fecich, the EduMagic genius, professor, presenter and author asked me to work with a student in her class that is learning about different technologies in the classroom. I will "meet" with this student once at least once a week and discuss what ed. tech she is learning in her class and we will collab...

 I must admit that it wasn't until recently that I learned about Scarborogh's Rope through the podcast The Science of Reading. Now that I've been an active listener and I've also searched for more information, I can confidently say that this is concept is one I will continue to learn about.  My first encounter with it was while listening to Season 3, Episode Three- Deconstructing the Rope: Decoding with Lousia Moats. Simply put, Scarborogh's Rope represents the different aspects/skills of reaching that when twisted together allow one to be a proficient reader.  One of the strands that was the topic focus of this particular episode was decoding. Being one of my favorite topics, I figured this would be a great place to start to learn more about the rope and how all of the concepts are pulled together.  One of the things Moats shared was: "that 50% of the words in spoken English are decodable if you know the phoneme grapheme correspondences. You can spell another ...