So, You Still want to be a Teacher?

 Let me start by saying,  "technology sucks."  I had crafted my best blog ever and some how I deleted my completed blog post, as I tried to widen the screen.  I wanted to throw my computer out the door.  I was so out done.  I tried everything.  Nothing worked. I was just sitting staring at this screen.  All of the sudden,  My daughter goes, "You can use that as a jump of to how to integrate technology into the classroom."  I believe she thought she was solving my problem,  Not. After taking a break,  I decided to buckle down and start over.  So here we go.

Do  I still want to be a teacher?

I ask myself this daily.  Trust me, you will have those days when you ask this very question.  I ask it every now and then.  It has been days that I have been overwhelmed  and ready to quit.   How about you?  I am  self contained teaching 6 subject areas.  Being self contained,  is  a lot of work.  You have to plan, prep and grade for 6 subjects.  I became very overwhelmed.  When I first started teaching, I used a journal that I would reflect in daily.


 I decided in the last couple of years to begin the reflection journal I mentioned in earlier blogs again. In this journal, I reflected on my day.  I looked back at what went well, what didn't go well, what adjustments I needed to make and what reteaching I would need to do.  I also just vented about how I felt about my performance, and the students. This helped me to not bring home my frustrations.  I would write in the journal, lay it to the side for an hour and go back to it to analyze my thoughts, problem solve and make plans.

This is the hardest job in the world besides being a parent.  People who aren't in this field have no idea of the stress teaching puts on a person.  Despite this, I grew up with a family of teachers, and I remember as a child pretending to be a teacher in my bedroom.  I knew at the age of  7 that I wanted to be a teacher. I never though of any thing else. So when I became burnt out and frustrated, I had to recall those memories.


 Yet, I still started questioning whether this field was for me.  I remember talking to people and them telling me to make sure I have a balance. I knew I wasn't doing that. When I first started teaching, I was coming home and still working on school work.  I was bringing my stress from work home and stressing everyone else out.  I was so determined to study, analyze and plan how to be more efficient and effective in my planning and implementation of lessons. I forgot to have fun teaching,  I loved teaching and had to find the love again.  How did I do that?


I had to stop, breath and reflect. It was at my worst point that I knew it was  at this point that I started using my Reflective journal again.  My journal kept me balanced and focused. It allowed me to decelerate and not bring the work home as much as I had been.  I thought after I got past my first five years, I wouldn't need my journal.  I was so wrong.  My journal is my life line.  I also make more time for me and find a balance.  So make sure you do this.  My journal also helped me to be more productive, and efficient with my planning. This was not the only think that helped me to find a balance and determine if I really wanted to keep teaching. I started getting signs I couldn't ignore.  I asked the question and it was answered.


It was like clock work.  After one of my hard days, a former student would show up and remind me why I started teaching. For example,  a former students left a letter  in my mailbox expressing her gratitude for helping her to learn how to read and comprehend higher level text, because now she loved reading and was able to.   take honor classes.  On another day,  a different former students came through  the car rider line and stopped traffic.  He was one of my most challenging students.  So I figured he was coming to be his usual playful self.  So when he tells me he was accepted into UNT and it was because of me, tears began to flow.   He said every time things got rough he would remember me and how I never would let him give up or get away with slacking.

So why did I go into teaching?  We all know it isn't for the money.  It is for the love of the kids, reaching the unreachable kid, seeing the light bulb go off as your working with the struggling kid, and last but not least to make a difference.

So, do I still want to be a teacher?

Yes,  a teacher that knows how and when to modify and adjust as well as find a balance.

I learned to use student  Data to drive my instruction and  to plan for small groups.  When I started,  I didn't know just how important using Data was to my field.  I take my Data and I look for my lowest areas for the whole class and plan lessons accordingly.  I than list all the Teks for whatever subject area I am analyzing at the time and placed students in groups according to the Teks that they additional support is needed.  I then  would work on creating a  schedule for when I would meet with each group.  Scheduling is another battle. More to come on scheduling in a future blog post.

One thing to make sure to consider when you do small group teaching,  is the size of the group. Some people say that it doesn't need to be more than 4 kids to be effective.  But with a class of 26 one year, I had groups of 6.  I was able to meet with each group at least once in a week and sometimes two in a week.  I had to find a way to make sure to address every ones need so, I began to incorporate games and technology into my instructional plan.When create the games I made sure they represented the skills needed as with any technology activity or program that I utilized.

Along with data, I would also use the Continuum of Literacy Learning.  It is broken into sections based on Reading levels and gives you suggested teaching points for each level.  It provides progress monitoring chart and other additional information.  Here is a picture of the one I use.  I since found out that the text has been updated,  It is the second book below.

The last tool I use is the Reading Band levels.  It further breaks down what students should be able to do at each Reading level in order to move to the next level or what  are missing in order to be independent at a level.  I usually use the level below, on and above to make plans and form small groups.

See link below:

https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/blogs/genia-connell/migrated-files/text_level_indicators.pdf

The Bands give you the characteristics of the Reading level and what students should be able to do at that level.  Once I started working towards using small groups more,  things got better.  However, with everything you run into obstacles.  I often had to modify and adjust my schedule. As a self contained teacher, time management was important.  I had to deal with changes and become flexible. So I became  flexible with my grouping.  The great thing about small groups is that you can mix different levels of students in one group.  You don't have to just group by levels, you can group by strategies, by skill, and by Teks.

I also worked hard and trying to make the most of my time, by integrating my subject areas.  I chose Read Alouds that allowed me to teach multiple subjects Teks.  The students were exposed to more books and more time to read independently.  Which in turn allowed me to be able to pull students in small groups through out the day.  That for me was the best benefit of being self contained.

So do I still want to be teacher?

Yes,  I do.  I couldn't image myself doing anything else.  I learned how to modify and adjust and to plan more effectively to be more efficient.  I am back to keeping a reflective journal and working toward making sure to take more time for myself to avoid burn out.  I want to work more toward my goal of being a Reading/Language Arts teacher.  I love to read and want to spread the love of reading and focusing on 2 or three subjects allows me to be more targeted with my planning than 6 subjects.  

I wrote this blog to show you that even the most seasoned teachers have their bad day and their good days.  However, as in any job if you are passionate about what you do you must figure out the why and let it guide you to move forward. 

I am continuing to work on creating Reading Comprehension packets that I plan to upload to my TPT account that I will link to my blog and my Pinterest board.

What are you struggling with as an educator?  What makes you keep going?  Let's inspire one another.