Good Morning, I can't tell you have how many hours I pondered on the pros and cons of moving forward in the interview process for the reading position. Six years ago, I decided to go back to school to obtain my certification in reading because throughout my teaching career, I have always gravitated towards literacy. My inquiry led me to acquire knowledge and strategies to benefit the struggling readers in my classroom. I believe reading is the basic foundation that holds the gap between all subject areas. I was able to help so many students in my classroom. Then, an opportunity opens up, to deliver "Best Practices" to not only a group of 23 students but to service students in a entire building of students who struggle in the area of reading. I was excited to take on new role and willing to go through the entire probationary process in the meantime, if I was offered the position. It was dishearten to hear that I there could be a possibility that I may be excessed within the next few years after devoting an entire career to the West Hempstead community. I believed our motto in West Hempstead was to provide the best instruction and guidance for all our students. Our contract even states that the district could move …show more content…
I have collaborated with numerous staff members throughout my entire career about an article I have read or new information I obtained to help our students. In addition, I have been able to to present workshops and co-teach with my colleagues to share research based lessons that boost student achievement. I wanted teachers to come to me for a book that I knew would be perfect teaching theme or any other literary device. I would open up my reading classroom as a resource. We do not have elementary curriculum coordinators or reading textbooks to help guide teachers with delivering the best instruction. I knew I would be an asset to the district for this
I had the pleasure of being able to shadow Superintendent Shirley Hall of the Maplewood School District. Ms. Hall took the reins of the district over in 2012 from a very popular superintendent who was credited with making great strides within the district. Although Ms. Hall had very large shoes to fill, she seems to be doing it with grace and enthusiasm. She credits the previous superintendent with making systemic changes and establishing the overall forward momentum of the district, but recognizes that she cannot rest on past success. Her goal is to take the district to the next level of educational excellence by focusing her and her administrative team's efforts on the P.E.L.P. coherence model from Harvard University.
This school has had 5 principals in 4 years. I spoke earlier about this school being a part of the I-zone. The I-zone is a special subset of schools within Shelby County that are given the task of leading a school from the bottom 5% to the top 25%. In that there is a high turnover rate with administrators and teachers. I was selected to be a turnaround principal given a certain amount of time with the authority to make necessary changes. The community asked for a principal they could relate to. They wanted to be involved with the school and wanted resources given back to them so they could help their children. I listen to community concerns and established a parent power committee so they could be partners in education with us. We reached out into the community to garner some wrap around services to help and support our students. We gained seven (7) new Adopters who have formally taken the charge to provide resources that all students will need to achieve academically. Life Church gives us food. Bellview Baptist Church comes in and tutors all our 2nd grade students. Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity has volunteered to come in and work with our students on STEM projects. We have Omega Psi Phi who comes in an exposes our kids to social and character development. And the list goes on. There just so many programs and organizations ready to work with us because they know
our school district never faces a problem as big as the ones presented in this
I went to the school board meeting on March 21, 2016 in Kanawha. The following people were at the council: Wayne Kronneman, Leah Deutsch, Ryan Hiscocks, Ryan Johnson, Jay Burgardt, Mona Buns, Gary Chizek, Todd Hammer, and Jon Harle. The others were mainly community member which included teachers, principals, parents and supporters. Some of the West Hancock staff included Mr. Peterson, Mrs. DeHart, Mrs. Bruns, Mr. Francis, Mrs. Gast and others. The other people who were there were parents and other community members. The first part of the meeting was the revision of the budget and presentation of the budget. This was given by Wayne Kronneman. He explained the budget of this year and how it compared to last years. Also he also talked about the budget for next year. After that they had a discussion with the
He had secured the county’s reading specialist to lead a variety of professional development activities throughout the school year to support us. The administration team would conduct walk-throughs to ensure we were utilizing what we learned. This new vision was to enhance what many of us were already doing and to ensure we were all on the same page. Similar to the penguins, communicating the new vision was met with a mixture of emotions. The majority of the teachers were supportive while a few naysayers, such as NoNo were skeptical (Kotter & Rathgeber,
The superintendent and principal are stymied in their efforts to reach a compromise as Mrs. Durnitz refuses to change her position that the policy must be followed to the letter. She appealed to the teachers’ association for support when it appeared that the administration and board might not uphold her position. The local newspap...
The main challenge that Rocky Road School District is currently facing is the several lawsuits from former parents and staff. As well as the lack of team work that is shown within the district. Having a meeting with all Principals in the Rocky Road district is a most. Negotiation of teacher’s contracts and the hiring of new qualified teachers which will help assist the testing scores for the district. Giving parents a sense of comfort that their children are being well educated is a key challenge. My main challenge will be getting all parties involved in the movement to “Strive for Excellence.” Our main concern is getting faculty, staff, student, parents and the community working together to make Rocky Road School District successful, it takes a team to fix such a messy situation.
The Foundational Knowledge Standard involves preparing individuals for roles in the reading profession and encompasses the major theories, research, and best practices that share an agreement of acceptance in the reading field. Individuals who enter the reading profession should understand the historically shared knowledge of the profession and develop the capacity to act on that knowledge responsibly. (IRA Standards, 2010). This semester I really learned how I could develop the capacity to learn from my previous experiences and contemplate my own practices in systematic ways to benefit students rigor. Based on several decades of cognitive science research on human learning, knowledge is domain specific and contextualized. Social experience and context play a role in the construction and development of knowledge (IRA Standards, 2010). Knowledge in the reading field includes archival research-based knowledge and practical knowledge that reflects the wisdom of practice. Knowledge represents the currently shared content of the reading field, subject to change over time as new knowledge and understandings are acquired. This is what drives educators into having their own philosophies of teaching. Each educator develops his/her own capacity to learn from experiences and contemplates their own practices in systematic ways. It wasn't until the numerous experiences I had in a multitude of classrooms, during my undergraduate, that I was able to construct my own philosophy of teaching and abide by it.
While I believe every child is a reader, I do not believe every child will be enthralled with reading all the time. All students have the capability to read and enjoy reading, but just like any other hobby, interest will vary from student to student. The students in my classroom will be encouraged in their reading, be provided with choice, taught how books can take you into another world but, my students will not be forced to read. This paper will illustrate my philosophy of reading through the theories I relate to, the way I want to implement reading and writing curriculum, and the methods I will use motivate my students to read and help them become literate.
Every child deserves a positive, safe, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment where they will grow academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. My role as an educator is to provide my students with this type of environment as well as an education that will help them succeed academically and become life long learners. It is the responsibility of a literacy educator to provide students with this type of environment, but also to provide instruction that will help students become successful readers and writers. There are numerous programs and philosophies about literacy and reading. Through years of experience and research, one begins to develop their own creative approach on teaching these skills. After looking at different programs and seeing the positive and negatives of each, an integrated and balanced approach of literacy seems to be the best way to teach the differing needs of each student.
Our job, as educators, is to create an atmosphere in which students learn and thrive. It is a goal of every teacher to be efficient in guiding students through the learning process, all the while instilling within them the means to succeed. It has become clear that one of the most important ways an educator can do this is by helping students learn to not only read, but to understand what they’re reading as well. Learning to read and comprehend is an important skill that is used consistently throughout everyday life. It is not only used for discovering new things and expanding the imaginations of readers everywhere, but it is also a vital tool in communicating during day-to-day activities. One way that teachers can accommodate students with the gift of reading, is by introducing students to literacy strategies that can help them make reading an easier and more enjoyable task. Luckily, there is a wide variety of strategies that an educator can use, but the one that I will focus on is known as reciprocal teaching.
Vacca, Gove, Lenhart & Burkey, 2012). A teacher’s belief system is formulated around what he or she knows about literacy learning and teaching literacy. A teacher’s beliefs can be based off ones own personal experience with reading and writing as well as practical experience which is obtained from working and learning with students throughout his or her career. A teacher also uses ones professional study to formulate beliefs. This practice helps a teacher expand on his or her knowledge when teaching literacy. Even though teachers all share the same common goal when it comes to teaching literacy, it is the teacher’s beliefs in literacy learning that influence instructional decisions and practices. Teachers may use different methods of teaching literacy to different students within ones classroom based on the needs of his or her students. When teaching literacy through ones beliefs, a teacher finds ways to explore reading and writing in the classroom. This allows students to feel comfortable to grow as independent readers and writers. Teachers who engage in professional study may rely on a literacy coach. “Using their expertise in reading and learning to read, literacy coaches provide professional development opportunities and resources” (Vacca et al., 2012). A literacy coach has many various roles, but their primary goal is support teacher learning. Literacy coaches also develop curriculum, present valuable professional development to teachers, model lessons and supply material and feedback. Teaching the provided lessons and u...
“The single most important activity for building knowledge for their eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children,” a report from 1985 by the commission
During my time in my second grade clinical placement I was showed the reality of teaching. I observed reading time and ELA during the hours I was there. I was able to “book shop” with my students and help them choose level appropriate texts to take home or read in class. That was my chance to really connect with each student and help him or her become excited about reading. If I said that I loved that book or think they would enjoy it their faces lit up. Knowing that I made an impact in their reading experience really made me feel like I will be a good teacher in the future. Many of my students come from homes where their parents may not always be able to read with them or too them. They wanted to read to me and show me their skills. I was so excited to hear the students excel in their levels and help them when needed. I would always ask comprehension questions because that is what a lot of students struggles with.
In conclusion to this, most teachers who educate young people are presently declaring to be true or admit the existence of the fact that the objective of having nearly all primary students to understand literacy or reading and writing is not being doubtful of accomplishing or dealt with. Furthermore, as stated by Snow, Burns and Griffin that they recognized that “ensuring success in reading requires different levels of effort for different segments of the population” (Griffins, Burns and Snows, 1998, p.16). However, good classroom instruction is at the first level of support for the success of primary literacy. Moreover, children who are identified as having reading difficulties need intensive individualized instruction from a highly experienced teacher.