Letter to myself

Dear 18 year old, just entering college Tyler

You're now known as Mr. Slattery.  Some students got wind of your high school nick name: "T-Slat." But now that I have rounded out my freshmen year, you correct them and say "That's Mr. T-Slat to you guys."  I know this is probably a little weird but I wanted to write a letter to you just to let you know that you successfully finished your student teaching and have a job lined up for the fall.  Congrats.  There are a few things that you may need to know to prepare yourself for student teaching.

1.  Expect a few fights.

Where you have teenagers, you will inevitably have fights.  This year I broke up 3 fights and I can confidently tell you that after the first one, you are not prepared for the next one.  A little piece of advice: Don't take it personally.  It's really hard to see your students duke it out in the hall ways or even a class that you are a para in but you have to remember that their hormones are raging through puberty and that you can't control the actions of your students.  However, you still have the power to deescalate situations.  That's your job as a classroom teacher.  You play an intrical role in these students lives and its your job to protect them emotionally and physically.

2.  Your last day will be your hardest.

You will have not just one last day-but two.  You see, block scheduling equates to two last days so they will be your hardest.  Yes, you will have cookies, and cupcakes but there will also be a few tears.   You got a book signed by Alan Sitomer, the author of "The Secret Life of Sonia Rodriguez" and as you are sitting at your desk, listening to your cooperating teacher and one of our students go over missing assignments.  You will then overhear them talking about the reasons she turns things in late, or not at all.  Both of her parents work and she takes care of pretty much everyone int he family.  She reveals that she doesn't get to start her homework until 10:30 in the evening due to her familial duties.  This is literally steps you right through the plot of the book that i just mentioned.  You will decide to give her your signed copy of the book because you believe that she might be able to find something out of this book and possibly give her a different outlook on life. All on your last day.

3.  It happens quick.

Prepare for things to happen quick.  Once you start your studen teaching you may feel like graduation is so far away but let me tell you, between your kptp, family, and friends, your student teaching year will go by so quickly.  Number one rememdy for this is to expect it and prepare for it.  Get all of your stuff done ahead of time so you don't have to worry about it in the future.  Your load is pretty stacked between grading papers, planning, and doing other things for licensure-so stay on top of it.

Anywho,  your experience through college and student teaching will carry you a long way.  There are just some things that a book can't teach you; and that's experience.

Sincerely, soon to be graduate,
Mr. Slattery

Complexion vs. Identity

Humans operate on “first impressions.”  For those that are blessed with 20/20 vision, individuals mainly make assumptions based on the outward appearance of people they encounter.  This includes but is not limited to skin-tone.  Young adults and teenagers often have this blurred vision of making assumptions based on skin-complexion. Assumptions based on skin-complexions often make individuals of mixed races uncomfortable and could possibly appear as offensive.  Our culture in America is diverse and our outward appearances can be deceiving so I pose this question: how can individuals, especially educators, avoid making assumptions and acknowledge that complexion is not an indicator of one’s identity?  In this blog post I will attempt to answer this complex question. 

As a teacher-candidate working in a diverse district and school, I have come in to contact with mixed-races.  Furthermore, growing up in a Hispanic community, I have been guilty of making the assumption of student’s knowing Spanish based on their skin color, and Hispanic last name.  Back home, I spoke Spanish when I was around my Hispanic friends and community members in order to make these individuals feel comfortable speaking in their native tongue. I attempted to do the same with individuals that appeared to have Hispanic origins due to their last name and skin color.  I did this because I wanted to establish a positive relationship with these students.  Never did I consider that I might have actually offended these individuals until I came across the article “Complexities of Complexion” by Nichole Berg. 

Berg states her experiences with having a white outward appearance.  She is actually half Mexican-American and is fluent in Spanish.  She outlines her experiences as being profiled due to her skin complexion and states how assumptions regarding her identity have affected her positively and negatively: “My experience has led me to believe we do not have to choose one identity over the other. Our various identities serve to make us the complex and unique people we are today. And, engaging multiple points of view strengthens the one piece of our identities we all have in common: co-creators of the future.”

Her experiences have enlightened me to avoid such assumptions in my classroom.  It’s only natural to be observant of the outward appearances of students but we need to be more observant of the behaviors of our students in order to get an accurate depiction of their actual identity. As educators we need to ensure that our classroom is comfortable and inviting.  In reading this article, I plan to observe a student’s behavior and interactions among other students before I assume that they speak Spanish or any other language.  This is also just another part of getting to know our students.  When we get to know our students, aside from their outward appearance, we understand how they work and how they process information.  For my readers, I challenge each and every one of you (even if you aren’t an educator) to take a step back from making assumptions based on the outward appearances of individuals that you come in to contact with. 

For further reading, explore this article and the resource Teaching Tolerance

http://www.tolerance.org/blog/complexities-complexion

Interviews, KPTPs, and Mayhem (Online Reflection 2)

So I’ve officially taken over two classes for four weeks now.  That’s right.  Full duty. My cooperating teacher allows me the freedom to create activities, agendas, and assessments.  Although I’ve taken over two classes of direct instruction, the rest of my day is devoted to co-teaching.  Here’s a peek in to my every day routine. 

7:30 Get to school, start the computer, and get all of the days materials ready for the day.

8:00 It’s show time, wait for the pledge and Announcements.

8:05 Start your bell work activities for the day and take role.

8:10-9:22 Instruction, discussion, reading, writing, discussion, etc. Everyday Activities

9:22-9:27 Close out the day, take advantage of the recency effect and preview the agenda for the next couple of days. 

On top of my planning, teaching, co-teaching, preparation for my methods class and working Thursday-Saturday , I have had to take advantage of job/career fairs as well as my state portfolio assessment.  You could say that I have had the full, yanked-in-ever-direction, experience that every teacher feels.  I’ve talked this over with my cooperating teacher several times and she has given me some very insightful advice: “You will find out quickly how to save time, and make time and you will only learn this through time and experience.” 

Job-Search

So I first entered the job-market about a month ago.  It was my first career fair.  I walked in to this career fair only to get interview experience.  I heard that employers rarely hire on the spot, unless your interview skills and credentials blow them away.  I only signed up with one interview and it went great!!  I honestly thought that I had a real job opportunity but it was out-of-state… Which presented a problem but it was doable.

As I’m departing the career fair, I ran in to my old football coach from high school, only to find him at one of our conference rivals tables.   How could he?! Just kidding, how couldn’t he?! He had recently accepted the athletic director’s position and he smiled as he approached me.  He asked me how I was doing, what year I was in school, and if I would be interested in moving to southwest Kansas.  It’s funny how fate works.

The next week, I had received a phone call from a principal, and he had received my resume from my old football coach and he would like to set up an interview.  You could say I was ecstatic! My first real interview.  Who knows maybe I’ll actually get the job!

Interview

I was so nervous, yet so ready for this interview.  I drove two and a half hours to get home, and another hour and a half to get to the school that I was interviewing at.  I had a leather portfolio and my suit and tie ready to go.  I had everything ready for this interview.

WRONG

Uh oh, I forgot to prepare questions for the interviewer.  I had researched the school and planned to discuss the contextual factors during the interview anyways.  Crap.

THANK YOU GOOGLE

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/interview-questions/a/teacher-questions.htm

This link will take you to a number of interview questions that you can ask your interviewer.  I believe that having questions prepared is the best thing to do for an interview.  IMPORTANT NOTE:  make sure to have at least 5-7 questions prepared.  My interview was very conversational, structured around their questions but I felt very comfortable being myself.  Having said that, about four of my questions were covered during my interview so I was left with two.  But thank goodness they were very informative-to the point that I asked even more questions.

My tips to prospecting teachers going in to an interview

1. Don’t be nervous

2. Be yourself

3. It’s okay to laugh

4. It’s okay to be wrong and have flaws (They asked me a question about zone of proximal development and how I planned to implement it into my classroom.  Granted, I had just taken the PLT and gotten the question right, but they had said that I was the first person to get it right)

5. Breathe.  I took a lot of deep breaths

6. Expect the unexpected—the zpd question…. Wasn’t expecting that one.

7.  Practice sample interview questions and have responses such as classroom management practices, why you wanted to become a teacher, why you, and why me questions prepared.

The interview process is always the icing on the cake for teacher candidates but in the end, it’s our cake.

Online Reflection: Poetry Imitation

          Fate

ocurrirán cosas malas. 

Bad things will happen

Your favorite students will call

you derogative terms in a language

that you partially know.  Your alarm

will go off and you will set it for thirty

minutes later.  You will start your pot

of coffee and forget to fill your cup.

You broke up with your girlfriend or boyfriend

and she/he will come after you for

two hundred dollars because your

friend broke her/his guitar hero drum set.

You will forget your belt and your fly

is unzipped when you come out of the  bathroom.

You meet with a friend for a drink. Or two. Or three.

Or you will get sick and lay in bed—or decide

your health can wait.  Another pot of coffee left behind.

Breakfast will become absent as you are

getting the days presentations and activities

ready. Your favorite student will go back to

jail because he can’t handle school and it’s demands.

Another one of your favorites will get

kicked out of his foster home and move to another state.

You will over plan—you will under plan.

Your pipes will freeze and your blood will boil

when a student asks you what the assignment is about

when you have explained it thoroughly. Twice.

There is an ancient greek myth about a father

Who is betrayed by his son.  Fate had bestowed

This betrayal.  The son will kill his father

And eventually marry his mother.  Fate had made

Him a king and a hero.  King Oedipus

Will follow fate and this makes him a hero.

He gouged his eyes out and wandered in embarrassment.

So here’s the light in the blindness of life, the token

of epiphany that leaves you dumbfounded. 

Your pedagogy will be questioned and tested. You will

go to Vegas and spend your grocery money

for the next few weeks.  You will forget your phone charger,

and phone in your hotel. You will break down in the middle

of a lesson that your building principal observes

but he pulls you aside and reminds you

“We as educators are not super human

and sometimes we just let fate run its course,

just don’t kill your father and sleep with your mother.”

adapted from Ellen Bass's poem "Relax"