My Story

Narrative

Who am I? Connect to teaching life

SLIDE 1

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I am a learner, a mother, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a teacher, a sibling, a community member, and a colleague. My relationship with education has not always been smooth, not as a learner and not as a teacher. My experiences have shaped me for better or for worse. I have learned that my struggles provide me with a very unique perspective on how to reach children.

SLIDE 2

As an elementary student I presented with no unique needs, as far as my teachers could see.  I was easy to teach. I was bright, I was agreeable, I excelled in academics and the teachers liked me.  What they didn’t see was what I brought with me. What they didn’t know was what I was thinking.  They didn’t know me, they just saw me.  

SLIDE 3

What they didn’t know about me could have filled a book. I was smart, really smart, but that doesn’t mean I felt connected to what was being taught.  I didn’t see myself as part of the community. I felt  different. I was different because my home life was different.  Not bad. Just different. I was mostly alone with my books. I needed to be inspired to interact.

SLIDE 4

By the time I went to junior high, school had lost any interest it had held for me. I became a child who was difficult to teach.  I was tired of trying to fit the mold. I became disengaged. I took every opportunity to buck the system.  I got in trouble. I barely graduated.  I even failed out of college. School wasn’t for me.

SLIDE 5

Someone suggested that I go into education.  Then the light bulb went off.  The instructors taught in a way that inspired me. They allowed for differences and creativity. This is what I could be good at.  I understood first hand why some children were hard to teach. I was really good with those kids. I felt empowered to make a difference with exceptional children.  I knew I could do this.   

SLIDE 6

SInce that time I have received an undergraduate degree in psychology, an elementary teacher certification, master’s degrees in both special education and reading and am working on my master’s degree in TESL. I am certified in Wilson and Reading Recovery. I am Nationally Board Certified. I determined to better myself as a teacher.  I am determined to reach every exceptional student I come across.

SLIDE 7

I hope to inspire my students to embrace who they are. To show their true selves to the world. Bare all their flaws. Not be the curated persona that Susan Patterson described.  Being able to take risks and get out of your comfort zone is where learning takes place.  This can only happen in a safe and inspiring classroom environment where children work together.

SLIDE 8

I try my best to accept all that I encounter for who they are, children and adults alike. I try to show them my true self, flaws and all. I try to make them feel safe. I try to make them feel that their differences are special and wonderful. I want them to see that SCWAAMPY roles do not need to be followed.  Especially not in my classroom.  

What do I believe….?   Connect to self

SLIDE 9

Philosophically, I believe that it takes varying amounts of repeated practice for children to master sight word lists. I believe increasing your store of sight words is one factor that leads to increases in your reading ability.  I feel that the best way to take on these sight words is through a multisensory approach. I believe that technology can enhance learning.

SLIDE 10

I believe that the acquisition of sight words is greatly enhanced by seeing the word in isolation, in context, in a pictorial representation and when children are allowed to translanguage.  I believe that learning needs to be linked to positive emotions, feelings of interest and enjoyment. Positive emotions are linked to a child’s home language not SCWAAMPYNESS.

Why?

SLIDE 11

“We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.”

I want my students to co-create a means for all learners to independently practice sight words.  I want to create a learning activity with a real goal and a useful purpose.  Just like Simon Sinek refers to the Golden Circle “People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it.” I want my kids to buy why we will be working on this project.

SLIDE 12

I want to use Animoto in order to offer children repeated practice with sight words. I want to include them in the process of creating the resources. I want these resources to be used by all children who need them. The act of completing the project with students will be part of the learning and the resulting videos will be a useful product for all students to share.

SLIDE 13

I want everyone to feel special and that they have plenty to share and learn from one another. We need to respect and appreciate each other’s strengths and needs.  As, Dr. Bogad reaffirmed for me “nobody can be good at everything.”  We need to create a learning community that relies on each other.

SLIDE 14

I want to reel against SCWAAMPY practices. I want language differences to be celebrated. I want to allow children to translanguage to build better understandings. I want children to buy into the teaching methods I am using.  I want them to see themselves in teaching materials. I want them to feel that they are part of a community of learners, not just recipients of information.

SLIDE 15

What problem am I trying to solve?  Connect to text

I want all students to be able to learn to read.  I want to be able to teach them through any means necessary. I do not want to be bound by the programs and techniques that I am told to use. I don’t want to compare children to benchmarks.  I want to look at each child as the wonderful, beautiful, full of potential small human being that they are.

SLIDE 16

I want to take them from where they are developmentally and propel them forward.  I want to help them become the learner they were meant to be regardless of age, gender, race, culture, language and address. I want children to feel proud of who they are and what they know.  I want them to share all of their knowledge with one another.

SLIDE 17

As Boyd has stated, there is a “Need to think about issues of access and literacy for our students and PARENTS”.  Many parents do not have the means to provide repetitive sight word practice when a child is at home. Through this project I want to allow equal access to sight word practice to all students and their families.

SLIDE 18

Sight word acquisition is only one small piece of becoming literate, but I feel that it is a place to start. Education today is so data driven and this is a piece that can be easily tracked.  Once administrators see the progress in this one measurable area it will ultimately pave the way for other innovative methods to be used in the area of reading instruction.

SLIDE 19

I want to eventually expand all of my practices to ensure that language differences, cultural differences and different levels of home support do not continue to be a barrier to students attaining the highest level of literacy that they are capable of at any given time.  I want all of my students to feel they have a place in the school That they are an integral part of their own education and the education of other students.

SLIDE 20

What is the project exactly?  It is my students and myself working together to create a better more meaningful way to help all students practice their sight words using Animoto. Through this process students will have multiple interactions with the sight words. They will see the words in isolation, in context, a pictorial representation and hearing the words. All children will be both the teacher and the student with this project.  All children’s input will be needed and valued.

Some other stuff about me.

As I have mentioned many times in class technology and I do not always have the best of relationships.  I try new things when I feel supported, but do not branch out and explore on my own.  I use my smartboard and ipads to replace many paper pencil tasks.  I have yet to really change my instruction with technology.  I still feel that I am firmly rooted as a techno-traditionalist even with the new Animoto project.  We will still be doing the things that we usually do just using technology to get us there.

After this class I feel empowered to branch out and use more technology. I am no longer afraid to use things that I don't know. I can now Blog, post, Pecha Kucha, screen shot and zoom in and out. I learned this all by just asking for help.