"You can't do it all, but where can a teacher really cut corners?"

"You can't do it all, but where can a teacher really cut corners?"

This is the title of a podcast by National Board Certified Teacher Angela Watson, a transcription of which I came across on her blog The Cornerstone: Practical ideas that make teaching more effective, efficient, & enjoyable. This podcast/blog-post was in response to the following question from a teacher:

•  “Everyone knows that a first year teacher is not going to perform at the same level as a 30 year veteran. I would like to be intentional about where I am cutting corners so that my inexperience has the least impact on my students. What areas do you think are most important for first year teachers to focus on? How do I ask for guidance about where I can cut back without sounding like I’m incapable of doing my job?”

As a teacher in training on the verge of beginning his student teaching before graduation from college, I found myself very much encouraged by this article. It gave the following advice to beginning teachers.

1. Refuse to internalize the pressure to be as good as a veteran teacher;
2. Focus on cutting corners in areas that have the least impact on students;
3. Don't try to do all your lesson plans alone or create everything from scratch;
4. Reach out to other teachers unabashedly;
5. Cut the cutesy and let go of perfectionism;
6. Reflect on what works/what doesn't so you can learn to trust your own judgment.

This article spoke to my fears of struggling through the inevitable failures of being a beginning teacher. To address this fear, I found Watson's use of the business metaphor of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to be particularly helpful. As a beginning teacher, I am a minimum viable product that will be upgraded to the desired specifications with years of practice, reflection, and personal growth. 

If anyone reading this post is experiencing similar anxiety about being a beginner in any field, I'd highly recommend getting Watson's full post either by blog or by podcast by following the links above.

Student Login Activities - STAR Testing

With the increasing use of computers in elementary school classrooms, it has become commonplace for students to have to login to an online resource in order to complete class assignments. For instance, the students in the first grade classroom use STAR Testing, an online assessment resource produced by Renaissance.  To access this resource, students must login to the site and then select the area in which they will be tested (math, reading, etc.).  They login by using their lunch number as their username and the letters "we" (acronym for the school name) as the password.  STAR testing is used for a variety of things on the administrative level. For more information about it, please consult Renaissance. However, a teacher's primary concern with it is to determine what students know and how they as educators should best proceed in order to help students get where they need to be academically. 

Student Creativity with Technology

Without a doubt, the main thing that draws teachers to the profession is the joy of watching young minds "spread their wings" as they discover the world around them in unique ways of their own. Now with the increasing availability of and student access to digital technology, students now have new ways to new avenues to express their creativity.

Sadly, I have yet to witness an occasion when students had the opportunity to demonstrate their creativity due to the lack of technology available to students in the classrooms I have visited. However, one instance in which this has occurred is Armstrong Elementary third-graders incorporate 21st-century skills in classroom projects.

The idea here is simple yet profound: have third-grade students use technology to video record a presentation about their science project. 

This results in the participating students taking initiative to:

1. gather information within a content area (e.g. science), 
2. present the information to an audience,
3. record the presentation using digital technology.

By structuring the assignment in this fashion, the lesson designer(s) have essentially made student creativity a requisite to completion. Furthermore, students are not just learning about a component of scientific knowledge, but they are also practicing public speaking and working with digital technology--both essential "college and career readiness skills," as Common Core so often puts it.