If at first you don't succeed...

What a powerful post! After reading this veteran teacher's post reflecting on her experience with persistence in her classroom, both with her students and how it's affected her, there are many things I can relate to and agree with.

I'm inspired by the idea of persistence because, quite frankly, without it, I may not show up to work each day. What we do as teachers is one of the hardest jobs there is and you have to have grit, passion and persistence to do what we do. I also easily relate to having students like "Kara" in my class who seem nearly impossible to figure out. However, I learned very early on in my first year that if I gave up on these types of students...I'd be no different than all the other adults in their lives. Most often, these students are behaving the way they are because they WANT you to give up on them...why not, when everyone else does?

I too discovered that keeping the consistently positive relationship is key to making any progress.

However, it is this that I struggle most with. Sticking to it is EXHAUSTING!! Both emotionally and physically draining in every sense of the word. You love them, yet you can only be knocked down, rejected and faced with failure so many times. What I have learned is that these truly are the students you learn the most from and these students inspire me to teach all students the importance of persistence.

I feel that teaching my students what persistence means, looks like, FEELS like is key to success in my room. All students can benefit from knowing how to persist in times of struggle and why persisting is worth the effort. As Lily Jones quotes: "The road to success is filled with failure." Many of my students know what failure feels like, so to help them understand that persistence leads us to overcome these failures is a a life lesson I'd love to leave with them.

My Virtues

My top virtues were empathy and enthusiasm. I wasn’t at all surprised to see these as either of my top virtues because I feel that my empathy is what makes me an effective teacher. I strive to teach my students how to empathize for another and see our class as a team that succeeds only when we work as one and help each other when we "fall." I strongly connected to this quote regarding the virtue of empathy in our classrooms: "If parents, teachers, and administrators can’t teach their children to empathize with another child’s suffering, then all the other academic and social things we do for them are for naught...we should educate all our children not only for competence but also for caring. Our aim should be to encourage the growth of competent, caring, loving and lovable people."

I also feel this virtue plays out in my role as a spouse and colleague as I frequently find that I try and place myself in someone else's shoes in order to better understand and support any situation they're in.

While my virtue of enthusiasm can play to the benefit of others, sometimes I feel that the high level of enthusiasm I have for my job tends to take away from the enthusiasm I have left for my home life. I put so much thought and effort into making my classroom an engaging and successful place that I have little left to give at home. However, with our first son coming in just a few months I'm certain that the source of my enthusiasm will drastically change :)

Both empathy and enthusiasm play a strong role in many aspects of AGAPE (Association, Generativity, Adaptation, Presence).

Association: Because of my virtue of empathy, I feel that I'm able to better encourage teamwork amongst a group of people. First, helping them to see the to unique qualities and goodness in each other, and empathize with any weaknesses, allows them to more easily collaborate towards a common goal.

Generativity: Empathy plays an essential role in the area of generativity as I can model to my students, and colleagues, how to respect and empathize with others in order to create and caring, safe and welcoming environment for all involved.

Adaptation:I feel that my virtue of enthusiasm is most beneficial here, in the adaptation aspect of AGAPE. Because I have a high level of enthusiasm I frequently find myself looking for ways to keep our learning interesting, authentic, and meaningful.

Presence: I think in order for your students, colleagues and family to benefit from your virtues you have to first be aware of them. Presence allows us to self-reflect and become more aware of our strengths and just how we can apply them in many facets of our lives.

Best Practices in Writing-The Highlights!

After spending the summer immersing myself in articles and books regarding best practices in writing there are ideas and concepts that have reshaped how I will teach writing and I feel, could benefit any "writing teacher."

The most important concept that stuck with me is the importance of teaching writing in both an explicit, mini-lesson format, as well as workshop method that allows for students to write...a lot! Without the opportunity to see themselves as writers and practice actually being a writer, no amount of teaching will help to improve their skills. However, without guidance through explicit, focused mini-lessons, students can feel overwhelmed with the task. It was this knowledge that led me to my action research topic of implementing daily, 10-15 minute explicit mini-lessons focused on the Six Traits of writing. The mini-lessons will be determined based on what I see my class of writers needs to work on (with various conventions and grammar mixed within the lessons). 

Another "epiphany" I had was the concept that every student, regardless of age, academic level, or language abilities is a writer and they have to know that! It's okay if the student can only draw a picture to express their story. It's a starting place. It's important that students are given some way to take a story they want to tell and put it on paper, whether that be via words or pictures. 

Being that there is so much research out there and, so little time to read it, I'd highly suggest looking into using the book Daily 6-Trait Writing. It provides explicit mini-lessons focused around one trait at a time. I plan to use these, along with a few other supplemental activities to take my students through the writing process. I'd also refer you to Steve Peha's Website: Teaching That Makes Sense. The left side provides many tabs that link you to PDF's full of mini-lessons and information if you're hoping to establish a writer's workshop model in your classroom!

Roadblocks and Successes

Another first week of school is in the books and I'm feeling better about this year than any before! There are many factors that contribute to that feeling of success and I know having a year of grad school learning and reflecting is a huge factor. Because I was "forced" to really focus on the truly important  components, both socially and academically, in my classroom, each activity I taught had a purpose! No more coloring pictures just to pass the first few days! Each lesson was thought out and I really believe helped to reaffirm our class routines and expectations. The activities were also centered around continuing to build the relationships we worked so hard to form last year! 

I face two roadblocks when I continue to look forward into the year. The first is also my biggest question...the unknown. This is a new grade level for me and, while having the same class certainly helps, it's hard to think ahead and plan in a Backwards Design kind of way when I've not taught some of these standards or this curriculum before. Luckily, I have a wonderful team of experienced teachers who have already stepped in to help in any way possible. I'm trying to even out the deal by sharing what I've learned about community building and Backwards Design with them :) My second roadblock is by far and above the most common for teachers...TIME. Not necessarily time within a day because I feel as though cutting out the "fluff' and teaching my lessons as big ideas and concepts and not isolated learning experiences will help. I struggle with balancing my desire to want to spend HOURS researching best practices or supplemental interventions (which is not hard to do) and remembering to leave time to PLAY and enjoy these last few months with my husband before our little guy joins us :) I have to keep reminding myself that every lesson doesn't have to be this overly planned, complicated 45 minute time frame and that, sometimes, the students' questions and experiences guide me to something bigger than what an internet search could've provided. 

In the meantime...I'm going to take my own advice...play today..plan tomorrow :)