What you learn shapes who you are
by Cindy Kaump
Binders, Binders, Binders – A brief history
In my classroom I have two shelves full of binders that I used during my undergrad work. I hung on to that work because 1) I paid a lot of money for that stuff, and more importantly 2) what if I need it!? I have lugged those binders to 5 different homes and 3 different classrooms since graduating with my bachelor’s degree. I admit that I haven’t needed 95% of the material in those binders. Why? Because what I have learned has become a part of me and who I am as an educator. This taught me a lesson in how I learn and use what I learn. When I am making a decision in my teaching, any decision, I don’t need to look up a chapter I had to read or an essay I wrote because the big ideas of those courses I took have become engrained in me, they’re now instinctual in my practice. I rely on those big ideas and that strong foundation to get me through the year. Who has time to research instructional methods or curriculum theories when lesson planning every week? Not me. My formal education provides me with a solid foundation that I continue to build on as I learn and try new things. My master’s program continued to challenge me, and shape who I am as an educator. What you learn shapes who you are.
Get Your Feet Wet!
Technology is a huge part of my life. I admit I am one of those people who are always attached to their iPhone. I consider myself relatively up to date on the newest technologies thanks in large part to my husband and his career as an iOS developer. That said, I learned in my TE 831 - Teaching School Subject Matter with Technology course that just being up to date on technology and using it all the time doesn’t give you the confidence and technique needed to use technology with children in a meaningful, educational way.
Letting go of control is very hard for an educator, but it is so crucial in many areas of teaching. Using technology is definitely one of those areas. Kids need to be the ones doing the hard work in order to learn. (add more here)
In my classroom I have two shelves full of binders that I used during my undergrad work. I hung on to that work because 1) I paid a lot of money for that stuff, and more importantly 2) what if I need it!? I have lugged those binders to 5 different homes and 3 different classrooms since graduating with my bachelor’s degree. I admit that I haven’t needed 95% of the material in those binders. Why? Because what I have learned has become a part of me and who I am as an educator. This taught me a lesson in how I learn and use what I learn. When I am making a decision in my teaching, any decision, I don’t need to look up a chapter I had to read or an essay I wrote because the big ideas of those courses I took have become engrained in me, they’re now instinctual in my practice. I rely on those big ideas and that strong foundation to get me through the year. Who has time to research instructional methods or curriculum theories when lesson planning every week? Not me. My formal education provides me with a solid foundation that I continue to build on as I learn and try new things. My master’s program continued to challenge me, and shape who I am as an educator. What you learn shapes who you are.
Get Your Feet Wet!
Technology is a huge part of my life. I admit I am one of those people who are always attached to their iPhone. I consider myself relatively up to date on the newest technologies thanks in large part to my husband and his career as an iOS developer. That said, I learned in my TE 831 - Teaching School Subject Matter with Technology course that just being up to date on technology and using it all the time doesn’t give you the confidence and technique needed to use technology with children in a meaningful, educational way.
Letting go of control is very hard for an educator, but it is so crucial in many areas of teaching. Using technology is definitely one of those areas. Kids need to be the ones doing the hard work in order to learn. (add more here)
Success Breeds Success
I consider reading to be my strongest area of instruction. I feel inspired while planning lessons for reading, I feel the most successful in my day when I’m teaching reading, and the data shows my students grow a great deal in reading in my classroom. Understandably, I also enjoy teaching reading the most. So in the summer semester of 2012, when it came time to take the TE 842 - Elementary Reading Assessment and Instruction course I was both very excited and a teeny bit skeptical for what the course had in store for me. This class was both my favorite and the one I worked the hardest in throughout my master’s program.
During the course we read and discussed topics in reading instruction. We had to record areas in our own instruction of reading that were affirmed by the research we were doing and areas in our instruction that could be strengthened a bit. I found this assignment to be immediately beneficial and I’m continually reminded of it over a year later. One thing I do with my students is ‘book buddies.’ My third graders each have a buddy in a kindergarten class that they read to once a week. Everyone had a great time. I knew it was benefiting the kids and their reading fluency, but I wasn’t sure about specifically how. In the research I did for this course I found that this practice benefits all students involved in different ways and I learned how to strengthen this time. Because of that research, I now have some of my students with slower fluency practice reading the book they’re going to read to their kindergarten buddy so that when they read that book to their buddy they already know what the book is about and they can work on reading with expression.
I consider reading to be my strongest area of instruction. I feel inspired while planning lessons for reading, I feel the most successful in my day when I’m teaching reading, and the data shows my students grow a great deal in reading in my classroom. Understandably, I also enjoy teaching reading the most. So in the summer semester of 2012, when it came time to take the TE 842 - Elementary Reading Assessment and Instruction course I was both very excited and a teeny bit skeptical for what the course had in store for me. This class was both my favorite and the one I worked the hardest in throughout my master’s program.
During the course we read and discussed topics in reading instruction. We had to record areas in our own instruction of reading that were affirmed by the research we were doing and areas in our instruction that could be strengthened a bit. I found this assignment to be immediately beneficial and I’m continually reminded of it over a year later. One thing I do with my students is ‘book buddies.’ My third graders each have a buddy in a kindergarten class that they read to once a week. Everyone had a great time. I knew it was benefiting the kids and their reading fluency, but I wasn’t sure about specifically how. In the research I did for this course I found that this practice benefits all students involved in different ways and I learned how to strengthen this time. Because of that research, I now have some of my students with slower fluency practice reading the book they’re going to read to their kindergarten buddy so that when they read that book to their buddy they already know what the book is about and they can work on reading with expression.
One of the aspects of my reading instruction that I identified as needing improvement was teaching vocabulary. In that reading course I found strategies for teaching vocabulary in a meaningful way and research proving their results. Because of that research I introduced a few classroom practices that were student-driven. My students last year were responsible for producing and maintaining a word wall with words they found in their reading. My students also added to a class book of homophones that they had complete control over. I was really glad to have the opportunity to research topics in reading that mattered to me.
The Power of Choice
The same summer I took the Elementary Reading and Assessment course, I also took the TE 848 – Methods of Writing Instruction course. Like the reading course, I was able to do research on a topic of interest for my writing instruction. I chose to research how to implement writing partnerships into my writing workshop. I wanted to implement writing partnerships because I kept coming across partnerships being mentioned in a lot of the articles I read about writing. My fear about just trying it was about losing control. I worried that my students would lead each other astray or, even worse, they would be off topic and fooling around, wasting precious writing time. I was grateful to have the opportunity to research writing partnerships. I found the research very beneficial to my practice and it was a great use of my research time.
Because of that research I implemented a better structure for when my students are writing with a partner. The students had guidelines for what they were to discuss when talking about each others' writing. I did a great deal of modeling for what it means to listen to another person’s writing and how to give meaningful feedback. I feel much more confident in starting year-long partnerships next year.
Powerful Books
The class I had the most fun taking was TE 836 – Awards and Classics of Children’s Literature. I love reading and I love books. Period. I loved having the opportunity to read children’s books that I might not have picked up had I not taken this course. More seriously I discovered the importance of having children’s book awards and children’s classics. This course opened my eyes to book awards and how winners are chosen and why. I grew to value ‘smaller’ book awards that aim to award books that highlight specific aspects of a child’s life. They highlight powerful books that may shape young minds into being more open and accepting of others. My favorite book of these smaller awards was The Pirate of Kindergarten by George Ella Lyon which was winner of the 2011 Schneider Family Award. In this book a young child wears an eye patch to help her vision impairment and highlights her positive attitude in a realistic way.
When the second half of the course featuring classics began I admit I groaned a little at the thought of reading classics. To me, classics were boring and hard to read since they were written so long ago. My experience in this class changed my thinking on that. I understand why classics are important. It’s a kind of shared experience among generations. References to the classics are found everywhere, explicitly and implicitly. When my group read Peter Pan and Tuck Everlasting we found parallels to Twilight and we wondered if Stephanie Meyer picked up some inspiration from the classics.
I feel because of this course I am able to put better books into my students’ hands. I’ve built my classroom library more thoughtfully since taking this course, adding more classics and ‘advertising’ them to my students in an appealing way. They love when I recommend a book to them individually, so I’ve started considering my classics more often when I’m looking to recommend a book to a student. I also feel I’ve learned about the power books can have on children. Authors have a great deal of influence in the way they showcase life. It’s important they use this influence responsibly, and it’s good there are awards to showcase those authors who do.
Looking back at my experiences in the MAED program though Michigan State University I can see how each course I took changed a part of me. Just like how whenever I talk about patterns while teaching math I think about a particular undergrad professor who stressed the importance of patterns each and every class. Each course changed my perspective, or grew my understanding in a way to shape who I am as an educator. It’s now my turn to take this foundation to my classroom each day and build upon it with my own inquiry and research.
The same summer I took the Elementary Reading and Assessment course, I also took the TE 848 – Methods of Writing Instruction course. Like the reading course, I was able to do research on a topic of interest for my writing instruction. I chose to research how to implement writing partnerships into my writing workshop. I wanted to implement writing partnerships because I kept coming across partnerships being mentioned in a lot of the articles I read about writing. My fear about just trying it was about losing control. I worried that my students would lead each other astray or, even worse, they would be off topic and fooling around, wasting precious writing time. I was grateful to have the opportunity to research writing partnerships. I found the research very beneficial to my practice and it was a great use of my research time.
Because of that research I implemented a better structure for when my students are writing with a partner. The students had guidelines for what they were to discuss when talking about each others' writing. I did a great deal of modeling for what it means to listen to another person’s writing and how to give meaningful feedback. I feel much more confident in starting year-long partnerships next year.
Powerful Books
The class I had the most fun taking was TE 836 – Awards and Classics of Children’s Literature. I love reading and I love books. Period. I loved having the opportunity to read children’s books that I might not have picked up had I not taken this course. More seriously I discovered the importance of having children’s book awards and children’s classics. This course opened my eyes to book awards and how winners are chosen and why. I grew to value ‘smaller’ book awards that aim to award books that highlight specific aspects of a child’s life. They highlight powerful books that may shape young minds into being more open and accepting of others. My favorite book of these smaller awards was The Pirate of Kindergarten by George Ella Lyon which was winner of the 2011 Schneider Family Award. In this book a young child wears an eye patch to help her vision impairment and highlights her positive attitude in a realistic way.
When the second half of the course featuring classics began I admit I groaned a little at the thought of reading classics. To me, classics were boring and hard to read since they were written so long ago. My experience in this class changed my thinking on that. I understand why classics are important. It’s a kind of shared experience among generations. References to the classics are found everywhere, explicitly and implicitly. When my group read Peter Pan and Tuck Everlasting we found parallels to Twilight and we wondered if Stephanie Meyer picked up some inspiration from the classics.
I feel because of this course I am able to put better books into my students’ hands. I’ve built my classroom library more thoughtfully since taking this course, adding more classics and ‘advertising’ them to my students in an appealing way. They love when I recommend a book to them individually, so I’ve started considering my classics more often when I’m looking to recommend a book to a student. I also feel I’ve learned about the power books can have on children. Authors have a great deal of influence in the way they showcase life. It’s important they use this influence responsibly, and it’s good there are awards to showcase those authors who do.
Looking back at my experiences in the MAED program though Michigan State University I can see how each course I took changed a part of me. Just like how whenever I talk about patterns while teaching math I think about a particular undergrad professor who stressed the importance of patterns each and every class. Each course changed my perspective, or grew my understanding in a way to shape who I am as an educator. It’s now my turn to take this foundation to my classroom each day and build upon it with my own inquiry and research.