Colleagues and Collaboration

I was so worried when I went to my first staff meeting before the beginning of the school year. I had no idea what anyone looked like and I was terrified that they would reject me or brush me off because I was young. Soon I found out that would never be the case with my colleagues. They are awesome!

The hallways at the middle school are separated primarily by grade level (700 Wing is 7th grade, 800 Wing is 8th grade, etc.) and I started working in the 7th grade wing so I could be next to the 7th grade resource teacher. This was helpful at the beginning of the year when I was so worried about starting the year out right, but I began to struggle because I wasn't physically near my grade-level colleagues. Either they had to go downstairs to bring me items and talk about students OR I had to go up there to return items and chat about students. It became a bit too exhausting and it was hard to work with them.

Thankfully, the next year it was decided that there was room for me to move upstairs. I am so happy about that. I can walk down the hallway and talk about accommodations or what I am hoping for them to look out for. I can return tests more easily easily and the students can come to my room for tests more easily. And, the most important thing, I got to know them better.

It is so important to have a positive relationship with peers. I learned that very quickly on. I'm glad that I am working with such exceptional educators that have helped me grow as a person and as a teacher. I can't imagine starting teaching without these individuals!

Thanks for reading,

Kelli

Classroom Design

If I could choose what kind of desks I wanted in my classroom, this room would look somewhat different. However, it was not up to me on what desks I would be getting, though I was able to wrangle some circular tables and a few longer desks that I am happy with. While I only have between 6 and 12 students in my resource room, I have plenty of desks to choose from. It's always interesting to see where the students choose to sit and how possessive they become of their area. I don't make a seating chart unless absolutely necessary because I want these students to be as comfortable as possible in their areas. With that said, the round tables sit 4 and, without fail, there are only 2 students at each table. So, my current set-up is student-oriented in which I move around the classroom and work with students on an individual or small group basis.

Ideally, I would like to have a classroom that is station-based. If I had more instructional assistants (not complaining, just a fact), I could have an area for students (with goals in reading comprehension) to practice with ReadWorks passages and answer comprehension questions. I could also have an area for students to practice math, either related to what they are working on in class or to boost their confidence in previous areas that they are struggling with. I could also have a check-in station, about 5 minutes in length so I can work with each student briefly on organization, checking PowerSchool grades, and checking Canvas to make sure their planners have been filled out correctly.

With all that said, these stations don't need to be mandatory. I can set it up so that each student has to work with me or the IA twice a week for 15 minutes each or something similar to this. I don't want to take away their ability to work on homework, but recently, I've been working on finding engaging activities for my students to complete in the resource room as a way to work on their goals. It's somewhat tricky to get the students in the mindset that "Study Hall" is more of "Let's Work on Your IEP Goals" Hall. It's also going to be tricky to talk to the parents about this switch as they are often expecting their students to work on just homework in the resource room.

This change won't happen overnight, but I'm trying my best to ease everyone into this setting as best as I can.

Thanks for reading,

Kelli

(Playing a review game - answer a question then pass it on to another person to answer a question)