Success Thus Far
What is your biggest success so far this year? Why was it successful? How did you plan for that success?
posted by Diane Starnes @ 10:56 AM
8 comments
SCRI Regional Blog
This blog is a place for SCRI coaches to come together and reflect on their practices as well as share accomplishments at their individual schools.
8 Comments:
I have two in particular that I consider big successes--
(1) Getting students and teachers alike excited about reading. We aren't at 100% but the fever is rising!
(2) Changing the curriculum in the special education classes. This has been slow going, but it will be worth it in the long run!
One of the greatest successes I’ve had this year has been with a social studies teacher. She’s always been a good teacher, but she now says she realizes it’s HER JOB to teach students to read. She’s constantly taking what we’ve learned in study group and applying it to her class. In class we wrote a memoir recipe, and she turned around and had her students write recipes for African folk tales. She’s always had her students do book reports but admits that’s boring and now plans to have her students this semester do a multi-genre project instead. Her students are currently in book clubs with Alex Flinn novels. (Flinn is coming to our school in March, and she wants them to have read at least one of her books.) She said she knows that the books have absolutely nothing to do with Global Studies, but she just wants her students to READ. She’s also using it as a training ground before moving on to YA historical fiction for lit groups. Just today she told me she’s not real happy with the way the students’ conversations are going in the clubs, so she’s going to do a mini-lesson on it tomorrow in hopes of improvement. I love the success with this teacher because I’ve been able to work with someone who was already doing a great job and help her become even better at it.
I think the success with this teacher has happened because of the efforts I put into study group. I’ve tried to make sure the teachers know that it’s not just the English teachers who are responsible for teaching students to read, and I make sure with each class teachers have at least one strategy they can easily implement into their own classrooms.
I don't mean to sound corny, but I get so excited over just the small things that I count any progress a big success...I know what you mean though. I guess I would have to say one of the most successful things I've managed to get off the ground this year(with the help of many other teachers)has been the book clubs. We paired the teacher cadets with ESOL and special education students.
The hardest part was the preparation in the beginning--getting enough "just right" books, organizing places for all the small groups of kids to meet(within the proximity of a teacher), planning a mixer so kids could get to know each other before the final groups were set up, etc...
As with anything, it's the thoughtful planning ahead of time that makes everything work. I still have to give credit to all the teachers who helped with this. They are the one's who really made this work.
My biggest success this year is getting SSR off the ground in the English classes. I thought these teachers were avoiding me last year and the first semester of this year, but I had to keep remembering what someone told us (Diane Deford?)--that we are a threat until we establish trust and good will. First semester of this year, only two English teachers--the two in my study group--asked me to help them with SSR. The word spread . . . and in January every other English teacher (except the department chair, of course, who is still proud that he teaches LITerature)asked me to help them get SSR started. The students are my greatest ally because they ask their teachers point blank, "Why don't you have Mrs. T come in? She can help us find good books." I have relied on the two English teachers in my study group to share their success with SSR as well. I refer the other English teachers to them for ideas about what to do with the SSR books--how to keep track of them, get students writing and talking about them, etc. One of our school goals is to have school-wide SSR for the 08-09 school year. If I'm just now getting the English teachers on board, I know it will take another year to get the rest of the faculty on board. SSR in English classes was not what I expected to be spending time on, but at least I am gaining the trust of these teachers at the moment. I know it will open other doors.
My biggest success this year has been in getting our faculty study groups off the ground. I've been very pleased at how open the faculty has been to trying new things. My first meeting was definitely an iffy one. There were several resistent people who were very loud about it. Dr. Martin sent out a memo that said literacy was here to stay, and I was surprised to see the vast majority of even the squeaky wheels got on board. Now, people are stopping me in the hall to show me what they are trying and ask questions. The faculty is getting excited about literacy and my calendar is packed. It's been amazing.
I just have to share this moment---
I worked first semester to implement book clubs into our human growth and development classes. I haven't really been back to the classroom since the start of second semester, but I heard from the students that the teachers are doing a read-aloud with Give a Boy a Gun. She said that she read it for pleasure and realized how many of the themes related to what they studey at the beginning of the semester, so she decided to do a read-aloud. Talk about teaching them how to fish!
My greatest success has been my study group. I have a wonderful crew who are truly the literacy pioneers of my school. Last week we presented to the entire faculty during our in-service and it went beautifully! My study group members paired up and presented to groups of 25 teachers on 4 different strategies (Quick Write, Written Conversation, Read Aloud & Textbook Feature Analysis.) It was wonderful. These folks are really the heart of our school! We have all received positive feedback, even from some unexpected folks. One of my study group teachers said, “I believe in these strategies. I use them with my students and they work. People can’t balk at success.”
My biggest success has centered around my study group. I seriously thought that I could not get a group of my faculty members together to really sit and talk professionally. I couldn't have been more wrong. We are a very diverse group and we have had an incredible time learning and growing together. I have really tried to make it my central focus this year and a lot of my time goes into preparing for this group. I also spend a lot of time talking and working with them individually.
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