handwritten on June 1, 2014
This past week was my very last day of teaching flute lessons at the Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School. Lately, it seems as if I have only been writing about the "endings." Nevertheless, I have no doubt that there will be many new beginnings.
Out of all of my experiences during my undergraduate career, teaching flute lessons was probably my favorite. I have always had the upmost appreciation for my music teachers who I believe taught me everything I need to know about life and much more. My father started my brother and me out on piano at the age of six years old. In fourth grade, our parents encouraged us to try out an instrument; I ended up playing the flute and my brother played the...
handwritten on May 21, 2014
My last days and weeks at Conroy were incredibly bittersweet. I'm sure many teachers can attest to this, but it always seems like you have just built a relationship with the kids and then it is time to let them go. However, this goodbye was quite different than all the other goodbyes. It was not different because my paraprofessionals and my teacher bought me a cake and threw me a surprise party in the classroom. It was not different because I thanked all of them and began to get a bit choked up in the process. What was different was that my students did not grasp the concept that I was leaving. To them, it was a fancy day of eating cake; I would probably be back tomorrow. Some would find...
handwritten on April 7, 2014
This past semester, my low incidence disabilities class required that we carry out two instructional plans. One of the instructional plans had to focus on an academic skill and one had to focus on a functional skill. After one week of intense observation, I decided to choose Mark (psuedonym) for my academic plan and Angie (psuedonym) for my functional plan.
With Mark, I noticed that he knew most of his upper case letters, but was unsure of many of his lowercase letters. Thus, the instructional plan focused on helping Mark learn his lowercas letters. The baseline data collected showed that Mark knew around 50% of his lowercase letters. Using the cold probing technique of the verbal behavior...
handwritten on April 6, 2014
When I am a teacherI am going to make sure that my students are given bright yellow pencilsso they will never say… “Teacher, I lost my idea!” I can’t find it…and the pencilWill be without an eraserbecause the point of the pencil is what creates the castles and the riversand there is no such thing as erasing a mistakebecause the strongest castles are built on staircases of mistakes And my door, won’t be any normal door.My door will not have the nameplate that says “teacher” it will say“Student in bright bold letters”and when I look at the confusion on their facesI will smile and tell them that before I became a teacher I was a student and before a student I was a person. And I am still a...
handwritten on March 18, 2014
I recently just read a book by Diane Dreher entitled Your Personal Renaissance. Ultimately, it is a book of practical lessons that are very applicable to the field of education. As I began reading the fourth chapter, I came upon a remarkable quote that I have since reflected on:
Your Job is not your calling. You are always more than what you do-what matters most is the spirit in which you do it.
Although this appears to be a simple quote, it is actually filled with complexity. As a student, I have always had a difficult time understanding veteran teachers who tell me that the most important thing for me to remember is that you must have a balance between your work and your personal life....
