Sunday, June 23, 2013

Wholly Whole Brain (from October 8, 2012)

Feet first. Deep end. Let's go!! 

This week I wanted to give it up.  I wanted to give it all up.  I wanted to stop teaching altogether.  The situation wasn't even directly related to my kids.  I love my job... and that's why I stayed.   Here's what's going on...

1.  We are now implementing the Common Core State Standards.  Full implementation, but no resources or curriculum with which to implement.  Every weekend I am creating my own curriculum which I am capable of, but consumes a LOT of my time.

2.  Our state is implementing a new teacher evaluation system called COMPASS.  Teachers in my state are now being evaluated according to a 20-page rubric and the Value Added Model.  My job security is now half-based on my students' scores. Even though I am confident in myself as a teacher, I don't like the idea that my kids could show up and have a bad day the one day they are tested and it could cost me my job.  And it happens... last year one of my kids was making wonderful progress then his parents let him stay up really late and skip the first day of testing and his scores bombed... and now, my future is based on that?  Research has even shown that the VAM is unreliable.  And yet we are going towards it at full force.

3.  Lesson planning has returned to the dark ages--full lesson plans that are inflicted on new teachers are now the norm.  And we are being told not to share them with each other.  Which makes me feel like I am a castaway on Teacher Island with no support.

Enter--me walking into the assistant principal's office in tears and trying to quit.

Then I remembered something!  I don't teach legislators.  I don't teach rubrics.  I don't even teach standards or curriculum.  

I TEACH CHILDREN!!!!!

Because I am determined to love my kiddos and teach my students, I decided to get back to Whole Brain Teaching.  I've dabbled with WBT every year since I started teaching.  I've used Class-Yes, Hands and Eyes, and the Scoreboard as permenant staples in my room.  You can even hear those words ringing through the hallways of my school because other teachers have seen how well it affects my children and my classroom management in general.

But this time... I want more. I want it ALL!  I want full on mastery of every concept and I want to LOVE my kids with ZERO behavior interruptions.  So, WBT is my answer!

I went WBT Full Throttle this week and LOOOOVED it!  We had gestures for everything, practiced with Papers, Papers, Papers and Lines, Lines, Lines.  We now have Star Homework and the Super Speed games as permenant activities that my kids LOVE!  This program, system, routine... whatever you want to call it, allows me to focus fully on my kids while I am teaching and leaves me with enough energy to tackle all the teacher "junk."  Either way, I am going to be tired at the end of the day.  With WBT I am tired, but productive.  I know what my kids have learned because they can explain it to me, to each other, and to their parents at home.  I am receiving tons of feedback from parents that they appreciate the system of homework being linked to choice.  I am also getting reports of how much the children are teaching their parents at home.

All of these changes have helped me to embrace the changes in the "junk" and ultimately, "Keep the dear teacher happy!"

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