Adapting the Learnings from Year One: Assessing My Knowledge

One of my college roommates wrote a lot of academic papers during undergrad and grad school and it seemed like his profound and insightful writing always had a title with a colon in it.  I figured it might add credibility to my blog if I tried it too.

anyway...

My district has a comprehensive induction (new teacher) program that takes us through our first 4 years in the district - aka until we get tenure.  We attend monthly meetings about best practices, technology, the new evaluation model, etc.  The program started with 2 days of meetings for the 25 newly hired teachers - a lot for a little district! During these meetings, I went between feeling lucky that I knew a lot of the information already and feeling lost and overwhelmed.  I've been reflecting on that as I prepare for the students to come to school tomorrow and I think it's revealed interesting things worth sharing.  Hopefully you, my loyal readers, can get something from this post as well.  

While we were hearing an overview of the new observation and evaluation model (which hasn't been used in the district yet so the administrators have questions about it too), I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on it and wasn't stressed out like some of my colleagues.  Maybe it's because I already heard all of the freaking out in my last district? But when it was time to discuss curriculum, that's when my anxiety started to come into play.  I have no set curriculum for any of my classes which is definitely a blessing and a curse.  Blessing - I get to pick what I do every step of the way in my general music class and in ensembles.  Curse - I have to figure out everything for my general music class soon! This mixture of questioning and confidence (actually "Questioning and Confidence" would have made a good blog title...) kind of makes me feel good.  As a musician, I am inherently critical of myself because I've had to be for my entire musical life - always pushing myself to be better.  That striving for excellence can sometimes make me feel like I'm not succeeding as a teacher/performer...but that feeling lets me know in my heart that I am working and I do care, regardless of how my head perceives it.  When you worry about something it shows you care, so always worry about teaching.

In my first year I learned practical things, like how to use Genesis (an online database where we submit grades, attendance, and starting in January will also host our lesson plans), but I still need to work on figuring out grading schemes.  Being that I don't know exactly what my general music class will look like until I do a start of year assessment with the kids, I can't tell what the grading breakdown will be.  Grading is something that is always challenging, from what I'm gathering.  There are always rubrics to be written (which I actually think is fun) and always new methods of assessment to try out that will shape how grading is done and calculated. I only had to figure out a couple of my own assignments in my last position, but that was basically deciding what category of the already-in-place grading scheme to put them.  So I guess nothing in undergrad can really fully prepare you for the first year of having to hash that all out yourself from stratch.  

And now I will shortly sum up some of the other things I learned versus what still has a floating question mark above my head.

:) - confidence with kids

:/ - confindence when presenting and defending my pullout lesson schedule (more on this later, as it will be a pervasive issue in my first month)

:) - confidence planning

:/ - what am I teaching them?!

:) - picking pieces for band

:/ - picking pieces for a band I know nothing about

:) - teaching chorus

:/ - the changing male voice!!

:) - I know I have resources in my parents, friends, and colleagues

:/ - There's nothing that will make me question that fact - I just have to swallow my pride and not be afraid to ask!

I've been "inside my head" about these things so much lately that I'm excited to jump in with kids.  Soon I won't be able to stress about finding out what the kids know and I'll get into the real nitty gritty planning stages.  I'm excited to meet my students and work on a relationship with the staff because I'm not sure I got off on a good foot with my colleagues today. Let me just say as a cautionary phrase to anyone in any job - be cognizant of being "that guy" who is super resistant to change. In schools, we collaborate for greater student learning and with collaboration comes compromise.  Keep your mind open when someone pitches an idea and remember that not every new thing is scary, not every new thing is permanent, and not every new thing is going to mess up your good old thing. 

Here's to a new school year with new students and new problems (but good problems!) Keep on worrying, teacher friends.  

Remember Me? and other questions

hello world. 

I know, long time no post. Like my friend Dana, I've tried to post meaningful things for the last month and a half but I haven't really felt like there was anything of importance.  And being that I like to analyze things in my life, the fact that I haven't wanted to post anything is something to post about. Let me explain.

Teaching kindergarten and 1st grade general music, it's hard to feel like anything I'm doing is groundbreaking, interesting, or worth telling my loyal readers about.  Not that what I'm doing isn't worthwhile or that I'm not into it, but it's just not something to record for all time on this blog.  I think what this stems from is the fact that this is just a stepping stone in my career as a music educator.  I know that I won't be in this district next year (unless something extraordinary happens) because I'm looking for a full time instrumental job and as of right now there aren't any anticipated openings.  I would assume that most educators, like me, want to put their stamp on things and make a lasting difference wherever they are working, but I don't feel like I can do that in my current situation.  

curriculum 

During the original research project that Dana, Devon, and I did, we all grappled with curriculum issues; one of us had difficulties because there was no curriculum and I didn't like the book that the curriculum required me to use. Fast-forward to now and I have a curriculum that I really really have to follow.  Being that my class is the first music class these students have in this district, I need to make sure what I'm teaching aligns with the curriculum so that next year they will be on the right track with whatever teacher they have.  One thing I brought up in a department meeting was that the new kindergarten curriculum (since this is the first year of full day kindergarten, thus the first year of kindergarten music, art, and physical education) is pretty close to the 1st grade curriculum.  For example, both grades need to be able to sing and identify sol and mi.  It's hard to know how far my kindergarteners will go until I continue to assess them.  Will they be able to do what the 1st graders can in terms of sol and mi identification? If they do, won't that mess up the 2nd grade curriculum because these students will be more advanced? Will that end up inflating grades and have all students end up being above grade-level (not that it's bad to have high achieving music students, but we want the curriculum to push the students, right)?  I brought up these questions at a department meeting and no one knew the answer because we all have the same thoughts.  It's just interesting that in real life teaching in a large and successful district, when I thought that teaching within the curriculum would be super easy, it has made me question long-term goals for these students...in a district I won't be teaching long-term...which brings us back to the issue of me feeling like I'm not leaving a lasting mark. Mid-year malaise? I don't know.

on deck

Sorry for that baseball reference - it's just now that the Giants are out, I'm counting down until my next sports disappointment, my beloved NY Mets.  Because we lost days for Sandy, our district has school straight through January 2nd and March 23rd.  No. Days. Off. Needless to say, lots of us teachers will be taking personal and sick days to alleviate the discomfort of that much school. For me, I'll definitely be taking off a few days to go to my state music education conference and for the NAfME All-Eastern conference.  One thing I really liked from one of my instrumental pedagogy classes was the idea of a unit study.  It makes lesson planning easier when it's in big chunks based upon the same idea.  I just finished one that I used for all of December on The Nutcracker.  The kids danced to, drew, listened to, critiqued, compared and contrasted, and watched performances of parts of The Nutcracker.  It hit lots of national standards and was fun for them to learn little by little.  Maybe I like it because it's like watching the next episode in a series - "tune in next class for the dramatic conclusion of the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy!". But anyway, to get myself through this next long haul, I will most likely be doing a unit on Peter and the Wolf. I know I'll definitely do it for 1st grade, but I have to think about how I'll do it with the little ones. 

Well world,  I feel better having this all down on...paper screen. Happy New Year!! I promise to post more regularly from now on. Let's call it a resolution.