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

 When most educators hear the word "standards" there are a few common natural reactions. Some teachers sigh, roll their eyes, or even cover their face. Others might have choice words or even smirks to offer in exchange for the word being spoken. Still, there are others that might break out into a sweat because they know mentioning the standard means changing something, unfavorable PD, or an evaluation of some sort.  While this might all seem humorous, it's quite true. I myself had had several of these reactions multiple times. Recently however, I was inspired by a podcast episode on "Teach Me, Teacher" in which Jacob Chastain took listeners into a deep dive for Readers' Workshop.  Since I am always on the look out for new ideas and ways to approach Workshop in my classroom, I was surprised to hear that in his classroom, Jacob starts with... (drumroll please) the standards. He always shows the students what standard they are covering, and throughout his lesso...

Let's take some time to talk about opportunities that everyone can benefit from: Focus Groups!  Since April of last year, I've had a wealth of opportunities to participate in different focus groups. Most of these were from Scholastic, however, I recently joined a new focus group with CEC (Council for Exceptional Children).  It was during this focus group that I expanded my scope even further to realize the power of these types of meetings. Whether formal or informal, a focus group can be very beneficial. As teachers, it's vital to maintain a steady rhythm of learning and networking.  In my experience with Scholastic focus groups, our main discussion points were on various aspects of Scholastic; book clubs, flyers, placing orders etc. But the true melody of these groups were the moments when someone would speak from the heart and strike a chord in the rest of the group, and the conversation would develop from there. Those are the moments that I appreciated the most, and wa...

 I am thrilled to be back to posting blogs this week. I know there has been some stagnant time since the start of the month and this post, however, I decided to take the advice of putting myself first and taking time over Spring Break for self-care. Although I do admit, I missed writing, I think taking time to read, exercise, and re-energize was just the key to powering up for the final blog in this min-series.  Recently I've met with my co-op to talk about a few different tech. tools she has been learning about, and I've been infusing into classroom learning. Shout out to my students for trying Blooket for the first time! It really is the updated version of Kahoot ! Based on a recent poll, my students enjoy both, but Blooket was the fan favorite due to its accessibility and it shows the answers in the blocks (traditional view.)  What I appreciated most about my co-op's work was that the game directly reflected the concepts in one of our math lessons we recently complete...

 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 ...