When I tell people I am a high school English teacher, I sometimes receive a not so warm response. At this point, I can tell English class was not a pleasant experience for them. I want my students to love reading and writing. This is not happening with all of my students. So I am revisiting my personal educational philosophy to see if I need to change things. At the beginning of this year I wrote,
“I feel it is my responsibility to give students the opportunity to become a thinking, productive adult. I am responsible for caring for my students. They are responsible for the choices they make. Each student comes to my class with baggage and my job is to try to encourage the soul inside. I must move past the bad behaviors and try to find a way to communicate with each student whatever their level is right now.” Well, I still believe what I have written here. I want my students to become thinking, productive adults. I want to feed their minds and their souls. If I don’t take the time to know my students then I won’t be able to differentiate and personalize when it is necessary. For example, I was giving examples of different types of graphic organizers to my class today. I know I have a couple of students who need things to be factual and logical; by the way they love math class. I specifically chose one that would be a very linear design. Then I chose one that was geared toward my student who is more free thinking. If I had only offered one example, I would have not covered all of my students. Good professional development is an essential element of teaching. If we are not learning, then we are not growing. This year I had the opportunity to attend at PD day with Kay Daughtery from the Missouri Reading Initiative. The topic was blended writing and how to integrate it into the classroom. The new Missouri Learning Standards for the English department roll out next year and this is a part of the new standards. I would highly recommend Mrs. Daughtery’s seminars for English teachers. I liked it not because it covered new standards but because it is good teaching. I left with several lesson plans I can really use in my classroom. Teaching has been a challenge for me this year because I do not feel like I am doing a good job. I am not reaching a number of my students. This is incredibly frustrating to me. I want to feed their souls. I created a “Take what you need board” that is full of post-it notes with words of encouragement on them. If you are feeling sad, you can take the laughter post-it with you and hopefully you will then find laughter in your day. I have also tried different technology ideas to increase engagement like the use of Augmented Reality. It was a great idea but it flopped. I would be willing to try again but I would have to make sure the technology would work for me this time. I can continue to do all of these things and work my tail off but if my students are not taking responsibility for their actions will it work? I don’t believe it will. I believe I need to do a better job of holding my students accountable. I cannot do the work for them, they must make the decision to step up or fail. It is important for me to find a better way to encourage personal responsibility within my students so I feel that I am doing the best job I possibly can for them. My hope is with learner driven units incorporated into my spring semester, I may see improvements. Revisiting my philosophy of education is a great idea. It helps me prioritize my goals for myself and for my students. I care deeply for my students, all of them. I truly want each of them to be successful. My goal is to finish the semester strong and come back pumped up and ready to try new ways to increase engagement in my classroom. For more information about the Missouri Reading Initiative: www.missourireadinginitiative.com/
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AuthorMy name is Lisa and I teach English Language Arts at Forsyth, MO. Archives
May 2017
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