...and so it goes.

I just finished my first round of real life Student Led Conferences.

Not the ones where I was just a student teacher observing. No. These were my students sharing work that I gave them. These were students that I see every single day sharing the goals I helped them write.

It was one of the most unexpected experiences I've ever had.

I am so lucky to be where I am this year. I'm teaching 6th grade Social Studies at Stewart Middle School in the Tacoma School District. It's one of the SIG schools in TPSD. They lost about 80% (if not more) of their staff to displacements last year and have completely restructured the school.

The principal for Tacoma's School of the Arts (SOTA) and brand new high school the Science and Math Institute (SAMI) had an incredible vision for a middle school that went along with the SOTA and SAMI model. Thus was born Stewart STEAM school.

We have a heavy focus on science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Our goal is to use these outlets of education to help foster not only improved test scores, but more readiness when it comes to the future. The work has been incredible so far.

Many of us on the teaching staff this year are first year teachers, and most of us have been teaching five years or less. We have a wonderful team that uses collaboration like I've never seen it used before. I've taught many classes with another teacher where we've combined our students into one room and team-taught, and the entire 6th grade humanities (language arts and social studies) team is working on a School Building of the Future where students design a school that best suits student needs and focuses on how they affect the environment. This project integrates social studies issues (environment, needs of people, interaction), math (scale drawing, scale building), technology (computer programs, educational technology), language arts (writing, public speaking), art (physical representations), and architecture (they actually build their buildings!). Working with an entire team on a single project has been both overwhelming and awe-inspiring.

Another way we're going to collaborate, a way that I'm extremely excited about, is during our January Mini-terms. In January, we'll get three weeks to teach a collaborative lesson with another teacher (or two) with only 15 students per teacher. We'll see the same kids for three weeks, all day every day, and put our efforts into a project (which will be displayed Down Town Tacoma for those who are interested!).

I'm so excited about everything we're doing that I want to spill it all onto the keyboard and explode with all the knowledge I want to endow you with! But I'm starting to realize that for the non-teacher, this particular blog is really not that interesting.

In fact, it's probably interesting only to me.

I'd love to share more about my mini-term (Discussions on the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years War and Hamburger Hill during Vietnam-- and the art, literature, media, and theater that came from it!) in a later blog. I'm very excited to work with the drama teacher on that effort.

Please bare with me as I post these long, rambling blogs... it's been two months since I've been teaching and I have so much to share!

Broken Thoughts from my Experience Thus Far

From Week one of my Practicum experience (2/9-2/13):

-The students in Ms. Barksdale's class at Jason Lee are mostly 'highly capable', performing above average. This is SO DIFFERENT from where I was at Woodbrook, where the population was mostly military. The things Ms. Barksdale does with the students is really making them respect themselves and their education. Before they even know who I was, they were expected to introduce themselves and give me a firm handshake.

-Ms. Barksdale gives rubrics for every assignment. Yesterday, they shared with my why rubrics help them. Some people say 8th graders can't understand rubrics, but these students really knew how to use them and why it is important and beneficial.

-GLEs are written on the board every day as well as a schedule and an objective. I think it helps that they knew why they're doing what they're doing.

From Week 2 of classes and practicum (2/16-2/20)

-Community building comes from inclusion. Everyone needs to have the same high bar set in order to succeed, and everyone needs to feel comfortable in their environment. As a teacher, I need to challenge my students and expect the best from them. To build that comfort zone, I can do something similar to what Jan did by not singling a person out, but letting everyone talk to feel comfortable. One of the students in class missed the first day where we introduced ourselves, so instead of singling her out to introduce herself, the teacher, Jan, had everyone say one thing about themselves before she had to introduce herself.

-On Wednesday, I noticed extreme diversity at Jason Lee, especially in my practicum classroom. I realized that I notice race now more than I ever have, but I don't think it's a bad thing. Instead of thinking that everyone is the same and completely equal as I previously thought, I'm starting to see that there are differences of all kinds, and that includes race. I can use the differences to be more accepting of the differences in culture, mindset, and privilege.

-I met one of the classes for the first time on Wednesday. After introducing myself as a future Middle School teacher, Ms. Barksdale asked the class if they had any advice for me. They said:

• Keep an open mind
• Stand strong
• Stay organized
• Don't be a push-over
• Don't be TOO mean, but be strict

The fact that they could articulate advice for me amazed me. This group of "high risk" kids is performing at a highly capable level and they're able to understand lifer from another's perspective. This realization is going to make me the best teacher possible.

-Some of the kids remembered by name, and I've been making a point to remember theirs. Names are relationship building, and building a realtionship with these kids is going to help us both be successful, teacher and student.

From Week 3 of classes and practicum (2/23-2/27):

-Grouping students seems to be a common practice, even after all we know about how negative it can be. It's really important to group students in a way that gives them the best environment to learn.

-It was really eye opening to see that my values tend to cluster around rules and consequences. I think of myself as a little more passive... but it's good to be able to embrace different management styles that I'll be able to use in my classroom.

-Things to remember:

• amount of time on task=achievement
• be aware of which students you focus on
• be positive about change to make students more comfortable.

-Interesting story: Found a student passing notes. Asked her to put it away until the end of class, and she looked like she hated me. After class, I told her upbeatly, "thanks for putting that away earlier" and smiled. She really perked up and doesn't hate me now. It goes to show that POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT rather than NEGATIVE DISCIPLINE are very effective.