Time to Reflect and Shift

This is the time to stop and reflect upon the past and establish goals for the future. As educators, we are constantly reflecting and adjusting throughout the year, but often we lose sight of the long term goals.

Moving from elementary to middle school has been a fun and rewarding challenge. While I miss the young, enthusiastic sponges of the elementary students, I am enjoying getting to know them and discovering their deeper level thinking and the challenges of being an adolescent student. They keep me on my toes, and when they begin to understand a new concept, a magnificent celebration follows. Do I prefer one over the other? Not really, because the needs of each is so different, they are challenging and rewarding in very different ways. Now for my first goal – continue to build my understanding and experience as a secondary teacher beyond my own classroom.

Continuing my own studies in professional learning has been the most exciting and frustrating part of this past year. Having developed a deeper understanding of coaching teachers, digital learning spaces, leading in a school environment, policies and procedures, etc. has moved my thinking beyond the school walls. I have discovered a passion for helping those who help our students. Yet, I have not become involved beyond my school. Which brings me to my second goal – become involved by providing at least one professional learning course which expands beyond my school district.

Over the past few days, I’ve taken the time to catch up on reading the various publications and blogs which I subscribe to and once again an overwhelming feeling comes across me.  No wonder, there are so many things educators need to consider not only within the classroom to meet the various student needs, but also outside the classroom in order to remain current.  Should one focus more on critical thinking, problem solving, cultural diversity, communication skills, collaboration, questioning, building relationships, creating positive cultures, feedback, assessment, data, measuring student growth, differentiation, motivating students, project based learning, STEM, blended learning, flipped learning, close reading, creative or informational writing, professional development. How does one keep up and remain effective? My final goal – develop this blog from a self-reflection to sharing

strategies which will help fellow educators reach more students with my first focus on being a 21^st century learner.

What are your goals? How can we work together to achieve them?

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year filled with many ah-hah moments. 

Sh...Did You Notice That?

This morning, I rose early intending to simply submit a new entry.  Over the past several months, life has been crazy and has not allotted the time to capture my “world problem solving ideas.”  In three short months, I have

• Moved from elementary to middle school as an interventionist,
• Completed a condensed graduate level course in Coaching and Mentoring,
• Sent a son to Germany on exchange, moved another into an apartment, and
• Pretended to stay caught up around home and have a social life.

When I actually sat down at the computer, all those wonderful insights I had planned to write disappeared.  I felt like one of my students who always has something to share, but when it is time to write, nothing.  After procrastinating with a few games of backgammon, I realized, I have re-experienced a variety of feelings, multiple times, in these past few months.  Recognizing these feelings allows me to connect with my new colleagues and students at a new level.

Two days before school began, I accepted an interventionist position, moving from elementary to middle school.  Being the new kid on the block re-opened my eyes of being the new student in a new culture.  I needed time to explore, and I’m still finding my way.  Just like a new student, I am not totally lost, I have resources to fall on, but it is the small things that trip a person.  I have found myself listening and asking more questions.  While a new student listens and watches, are they asking questions?  Their transition doesn’t occur within a week; it can take months until they become embedded into their new surroundings. How are we supporting them?

Besides changing schools, one of my new students doesn’t speak English.  For those who have been trained, have experience working with ELL students, and have the resources, no problem.  However, this is a brand new experience for me, and my bag of tricks is empty.  Don’t get me wrong, I excited for the experience, but I’m afraid of the cost while I experiment.  I understand the costs of having a poor teacher for just one year.  Each day, all within one class period, I feel excited, nervous, and disappointed. I feel like a brand new teacher again when the first few years are about experimenting.  Wishing I had a coach, I am reminded that teachers truly need support of an excellent, trained coach.  The cost is too high.

Old news? How can we help? One can complain or be resourceful and creative. The first step, I believe, is to listen.  Truly understand what our students and colleagues mean when they speak or don’t speak. Then, we will know where to begin.

As a course assignment, I presented on the importantce of listening for understanding. Catch the presentation:  Sh...What Did You Notice

(And for all of my math friends, yes, there is a mathematical error in one of my stories. Correcting the mistake is further down on my to do list.)

Their Story...

Each child holds the beginning of their own life story.  Someday they will take this crafted story using it to forge their way in the world.  The people who surround each child guide and influence that story by impacting the child’s life experiences. While some children willingly share their story, others will hold it quietly to themselves.  As we approach each day and each moment, what do we want our children to include in their story?

This past week I had an opportunity to participate in the Xperience STEM conference in Denver, CO.  What an amazing experience!  This “non-conference” involved educators gathering together and participating in various experiential learning opportunities which required us to stretch ourselves and be risk-takers.  Through these experiences, well-guided reflections, and collaborative conversations, we each began to craft a story from our experience.  These stories are not only for sharing but can help us to gain a better understanding of what our students’ experience.

Zip lining with educators
from around the country in Colorado

It is not natural for a person to run off a platform in the mountains.  However, this was necessary to feel the freedom, speed, and explore the valleys through zip lining.  Each zip line brought a different feeling when faced with speeds up to 50 mph.  My story evolved by mustering the guts to run off the platform in order to feel the wind whip through my hair and discover the unbelievable views as the trolley zipped along the steel cable.  Within our group, each educator’s experience brought more than just a simple story.  For some there was a direct science and math learning experiences, while other found the challenge of risk-taking.  One individual discovered disappointment.  For me, it was an excellent reminder of how children feel at different points in their education.  There are days where we need them to be a risk-taker as if stepping off the side of mountain.  There are times when we need them to listen to directions in order to ensure their safety.  There are times when we need to them to keep climbing the mountain even though they feel like giving up.  There are times they need to share their stories based on an experience.  The manner in which we help them through these experiences will craft their story which they will use throughout their lives.

As educators, we each have created our own stories and perspectives based on our own experiences.  It is those experiences which makes us better at our craft regardless of our profession.  In the beginning, it is the practical experience which allows us to effectively operate in the classroom.  However, in order for teachers to grow and become masters, we need to broaden our horizons by expanding our experiences, challenging who we are, exchanging ideas with other around us, and continuing our own studies.   We need to expand our own life stories in order to better connect with our students and create learning experiences for them.

Where do you begin?  Anywhere...begin small and grow from there.  How will you be a risk-taker?  How can you create learning experiences for your students?

Engage and Motivate

With the start of school around the corner, I’ve been contemplating various ideas for motivating my students to become responsible for their own learning.  Then, I stumbled upon Krissy Venosdale’s Because School Should be Exciting Like the Ultimate Theme Park inspiration poster.  Her message was school should be fun, complete with wondering, success, struggles, and the push to do it all. Children spend most of their waking hours in our classrooms; they should be excited to come to school and learn. 

A flurry of questions have been racing through my head.  When are students engaged in their learning?  When are they smiling and having fun learning? Why are people motivated to do certain things?  How do we accomplish those things we are not interested in but know have to be done?  So many questions with so many answers varying between people and different situations. Reminding myself to start small in order to make a difference, I decided to focus on a couple of ideas.

Purpose – If I am going to spend time doing something, I like to know how it fits into the overall picture.  This summer, I laid a flagstone patio in our front yard.  As I read various websites on how to install the patio, people repeatedly stressed the importance of taping down the sand base layer and ensuring the stones were level in order for the patio to remain stable and level in the future.  When I was spending hours in the heat of the sun tapping and leveling, I reminded myself to “do it right the first time or redo it.”  This was when I made the connection to students and their need to understand how various lessons fit into the grand scheme of learning to read, write, and problem solve (notice I didn’t say “do math” – that’s for another day.)

Thinking about the meaning of reading, using everything we know to decode and understand the meaning of print, and the five components of reading, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, how many of us have ever tied these together for our students?  When we teach a phonics lesson or a comprehension strategy, do we help students understand how this will help them become a better reader and writer?  In math, when we teach different strategies for adding, do we help the students to understand when to use them and how they help our fluency?  It is tough to add more to our lessons, but making a simple tie or having them generate ideas of when to use their newly learned strategies will help them connect the small lessons with the ultimate goal.

Fun – This past year, my favorite math lesson in kindergarten was solving a problem from Inside Mathematics.  The children talked with each other, shared their ideas with the class, and used the manipulatives in order to answer several questions.  By the end of the lesson, they were using repeated addition (the beginning of multiplication) to find the answers, and all I did was facilitate their discussion.  In fifth grade, the students were smiling and having fun when they were sharing ideas and challenging each other’s ideas in order to find a solution in math or better understand the novel they were reading.  Again, they took ownership for their learning and I facilitated the discussion.  In first grade, they were creating writing pieces in the writing center or were exploring the idea of motion by rolling different sized balls down ramps they created.

Why were they engaged?  What was making it fun for them?  They were challenged to solve a problem or find information to share.  They were exploring ideas.  They were sharing ideas.  They felt safe to take a risk in our classroom.  Ultimately, they were seeking to understand and validate their ideas.  My role was to provide them the basic foundations necessary for them to engage in the discussions and problem solving activities.  Then my role was to facilitate so everyone’s ideas were heard, to ask questions, to help them learn to manage the conflict which arose, and ultimately, to observe them learn.  And in honesty, I was having fun watching them take on these challenges.

When are students in your classroom having fun learning?  What did you do to prepare them? What are you doing when they have taken ownership?

Introduction

Well its time.  As I established my professional goals for this next school year, I’ve decided to take on the blogging challenge.  Even though I have so many ideas, thoughts, opinions, etc.  I’m finding it difficult to begin.  So here goes…

Hello, I am Melissa Gibson-Steiner.  Just over ten years ago, I decided to embark in the education world as a second career teacher.  After volunteering in my children’s classrooms and being given more and more opportunities to work with children, I fell in love with the challenge of helping children to think, problem solve, and understand concepts so they could understand the world better.  During my professional business career, I never encountered the same fulfillment as I do working with children.  While there are many teachers who impacted my decision to join them, it was Kristy Crouch and Mary Smithey who became my mentors in this decision.  Thank you, ladies.

I have taught in both the primary and intermediate elementary grades.  Last year, I began teaching half-day kindergarten and spent the second half of the day as the math interventionist (a new position for our school) and math instructional coach.  I have discovered I really enjoy working with both children and adults.  This summer I completed my Colorado principal license through the University of Colorado at Denver and look forward to taking on more leadership responsibilities in the future.

So why am I here?  I am a very reflective person and discovered that if I establish goals for myself, I am more proactive.  As this school year approaches, I have established the following goals:

1. Establish a Professional Learning Network (PLN) so that I can learn from others, reflect, and engage is thoughtful conversations.  I decided to challenge myself to use the following tools to establish a global network:  Blog, Twitter, and Google+.
2. In Kindergarten, I need to engage students to become responsible for their learning and to better incorporate technology as a learning tool.
3. In Math, last year I discovered struggling students need help engaging and taking responsibility for their learning.  This year, my goal is to have them more responsibility for their learning by having them progress monitor their own learning and to utilize math journals.

A dear colleague and mentor, Autumn Crosby, share something she learned about goal setting from the ISTE 2011 conference.

• The first goal, you will have fantastic success at.
• The second, you will make headway and be pleased with what you have done, but will want to do more.
• The third, you will most likely have little growth, but that's ok! Celebrate what you have done with the first two goals and try again next year.

Hopefully, there is success and growth this upcoming year.