First-Year Teachers: What to Expect

The months before you start teaching for your first year bring about all sorts of emotions.

Excitement & Nervousness.

Ambition. & Paralysis.

Clarity & Confusion.

Your mind begins to fill with questions upon questions.

Did I choose the right school?

Do I really know my content?

Do I know how to manage a class of teenagers?

Am I ready for this?

All of these feelings and questions are normal responses and you shouldn't worry!  If you're having these thoughts, it likely means that you're concerned about your career and your path in life in a productive manner.  You're a responsible adult who wants to take his or her profession seriously.  But don't let it consume you.  

Instead, choose to be prepared.  Take time to learn about what to expect during your first year of teaching.  Plan for your responses to those different successes and challenges.

Below, I've outlined what I experienced during my first year of teaching.  I know from my colleagues that all of these situations are to be expected.  

1. You will be overwhelmed.  They're not lying when they tell you that you will have more than you can possibly imagine on your plate.  The teacher role wears several hats.  The counselor.  The curriculum builder.  The assessor.  The instructor.  The planner.  The employee.  The leader.  There simply is a lot to do.
   
   My Tip: Take time on Sunday or Monday to intentionally plan your week.  Consider all of the tasks that you can imagine for the upcoming week (grading, planning, meeting, teaching, in-services, coaching, etc.).  Then mark 3-4 for the week that are the most important goals to get done.  This will give you focus for the week.  For each day, then, be sure to write a to-do list.  Highlight the 1-2 urgent tasks that you need to accomplish and 1-2 important tasks that will help you with your 1-2 weekly goals.  This is not a mind-blowing solution.  However, taking that time to intentionally plan out your week and focus your actions makes all the difference.  I continue doing that to this day and my boss, her boss, her boss, and his boss are always astounded by the amount of work that I can get done and the level of focus that I have.
   
2. You will be confused.  The summer that I was hired for my first teaching job was spent planning. I knew what classes I was teaching and my Department Chair had given me the texts.  However, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to teach those classes with the textbooks I was given.  It was the day before classes started that I finally reached out to him about it.  Turns out, he had given me the wrong text books.
   
   My Tip: Ask questions but not before you've exhausted all of your options.  Your leaders want you to reach out when you're confused.  As a teacher supervisor myself, there's nothing that I want more than for my teachers to ask me questions. The one caveat here is asking questions for something you should already know.  Please exhaust your options.  Check your resources. Check your emails.  Check with a co-worker.  Then reach out to your boss.  He or she will greatly appreciate your doing so.
   
3. You will be challenged.  You will be doing something that you've never done before.  It will be difficult and that's okay!  Some of the most challenging moments are when students challenge your authority.  I still remember on the first day of class where a student told me "I own this class" while throwing a ball in the air.  I had no idea what to do. I'm telling you, they can smell fear from a mile away.  They can smell uncertainty.  That was a huge hurdle for me when I started teaching.
   
   My Tip: Invest in yourself.  Make personal and professional development on your weekly, if not daily, to do list. I love to listen to podcasts on my way to work.  Listen to teaching podcasts yes, but feel free to branch out.  Podcasts on multi-level marketing are particularly interesting to me because they are always about team-building and creating an environment of safety and recognition.  Imagine if I had started listening to that during my first year!  I would have prepared my communication skills to respond to that troublesome student.  My favorite podcasts are Team Beachbody, Build Your Tribe, The Daily Boost, Coaching for Leaders, and Vibrant Happy Women.  Shameless plug, check out my Spark Mentorship Program for some exclusive training from me!
   
4. You will be proud.  You should be!  Your first year of teaching is hard work.  It takes dedication and consistency.  You will find yourself being thrilled over the big and small - from successful units to conversations with students.  I remember a unit I did that focused on giving back to the community by paying it forward - oddly enough it was paired with Lord of the Flies.  I was so proud to read the acts of kindness that my students participated in.  Holding doors open.  Talking to new students.  Picking up garbage.  They weren't huge.  But they were special.
   
   My Tip: Journal.  Keep track of what you're proud of.  If you don't want to keep a journal, then keep it in your planner.  At the end of the day or week, make a note of what was successful.  I like to do this as it keeps me motivated.  Sometimes it's easy to move from one thing to the next without truly reflecting.  This gives me the opportunity to be joyous in the work that I've produced.  Do this with your students too.  Choose 5 students a week to write notes to.  Tell them that you're proud of their hard work, their effort, or how much they've grown.  Not only will it show that you notice, but it'll create an environment of recognition.

I know the first year can be scary. But revel in it. Allow yourself to experience those fears and truly engage those feelings.  Be prepared on how to handle them when they come up. Most of all, give yourself permission to grow.  Often times, we just want to be in the end result.  But that's not how it works.  We need the growing pains if nothing else to appreciate where we end up.

Love y'all!

Commenting Manifesto Freebie

Caution: Freebie for My Followers ahead!

Commenting is something that I didn't used to discuss with my students.  Sure, I would read my students' papers and mark allllll over them.  I felt like I was imparting my wisdom.  After all, I had studied this content intensely... shouldn't I be sharing my wisdom?

It wasn't until I read and heard Nancy Sommers talk about Responding to Student Writing that my philosophy of commenting completely changed.  Where as before I would mark up the drafts as much as I could, now I follow the Minimal Marking Philosophy (though I'm not a devout disciple).  I give my students one long note at the end of the paper that points out the general strengths and weaknesses dealing with global issues like logic, reasoning, organization, purpose, etc.  Not only do I point out the weaknesses but I give them suggestions as to how to improve.  They're no longer overwhelmed with corrections that they need to make.  Instead, they are focused on developing their writing in a deeper and more fruitful way.

But what does all of this mean if we don't have a conversation with them about essay commenting?

Absolutely nothing.  Our students need to be involved in the commenting process.  Sommers suggests to create a class manifesto.  

Bouncing off of that idea, I have my students create a Mini-Class Manifesto on Commenting with a small group.  They collaborate with 4 peers to create 4 general guidelines for paper commenting.  That means they need to boil it down to the 4 most important elements to a successful essay.  This is hard work!

(to get your hands on this bad boy, see the directions down below!)

Not only that, but they need to give a full description of what that guideline entails.  So instead of suggesting we comment on organization, they have to be explicit with what makes a good organization or why organization is important to an essay.  Furthermore, their Mini-Class Manifesto on Commenting has to include sample comments representing these guidelines.  So what would a helpful comment on organization look like to them?

Once they have finished creating this Manifesto on Commenting, they then need to try it out! Let them experience what it is like to comment on an essay with certain expectations.  Then have a discussion about it.

What worked?
What didn't work?  Why?
What comments kept popping into their heads that didn't fit their criteria?

In general, this exercise is very beneficial to the students.  They get a first-hand look at the grading process.  Even better, they give you insight into what's most important to them!

Want to get your hands on my Class Commenting Manifesto?! 

(click me!)

-> Like my Facebook page and you'll see a tab on the top (or side) that says "Freebie Grab Bag!"  (If you don't, it's either because you haven't liked the page or you'll find it under "More").  Click the Freebie Grab Bag tab and you'll be rerouted to free content just for my followers!

Positive Thinking Thursday

Welcome to Positive Thinking Thursday!  I'm glad you are here.  I hope you will visit Mrs. Laffin's Laughings to see many positive thoughts from the teacher blogosphere!  Everyone is welcome here.

As we settle into the school year, we need to be reminded of our passions.  It's easy to get into a comfortable routine.  My passion in my teaching career is two-fold.  I love my students and I love innovation.  But how do I combine the two to stay fresh and unique each day?  That's the question I attempt to tackle before every class meeting.

During a conversation I had with Noam Chomsky he mentioned that "...you're supposed to challenge.  Come up with new ideas.  [And] go in new directions" in regard to education.  This thought really stuck with me over the years.  I challenge both you and me to mesh our passions with creativity and innovation. Stay current in your content area and pedagogy.  Try new things.  Explore new routes for teaching.  

As always, good luck and happy teaching Brownbaggers!  I look forward to hearing (or seeing) your innovative ideas!

How-To Record Your First Screencast

So you've decided that you want to record your first screencast!  That's excellent!  Once you get the hang of it, it will become a natural part of your teaching repertoire.  I'm here to help make the "getting started process" easier. What do you need to have ready?  How do you set it up?  How do you post your information?  All of that is included down below so let's get started!

How do I prepare?
1.  You'll need to have some objectives.  Just as you would with a normal class period, you'll need to figure out what your students need to know by the end of the tutorial.  What's you end game?  It could be as simple as giving them definitions and them being able to identify strategies or terms.  Or it could be more complex where you're teaching them writing strategies and want them to be able to identify and apply these strategies.  You decide.

2.  What do you want the screencast to look like?  You can create a PowerPoint and lecture over it.  You can pull up student work samples and do "read alouds".  You can pull up a blank document and record yourself through your own writing process.  The options are endless but they should match up with your objective(s).  Once you figure that out, get all of you information prepared.

How do I record?
1.  Choose your recording technology. There are quite a few options out there but the easiest by far is Screencast-O-Matic.  It's pain free, user friendly, and requires NO installation.  

2.  Start recording.  Once you have your documents pulled up on the screen (or PowerPoint), hit the record button!  You'll see a little dot-outlined box pull up.  Anything inside of that box will be recorded in the screencast.  You can, of course, change the size.

You can also choose whether or not you will have audio.  You can have no audio if you would like to just show them how to do something.  Or you can turn the audio on and talk them through the process or the lecture <<<< that's the best option!  Audio and visual together make for a more successful screencast.   Talk through your information and be your normal self.  Your students will like that it's your voice and your personality.  They will trust the material because it's coming from you so be you!

What if I mess up?
1.  Pause, Rewind, Start Over.  So you started rambling on and on about last night's episode of The Good Wife.  Happens to the best of us.  You have a couple of options.  If you're not too far into it, just start over!  If you're 6 minutes into a 10 minute screencast, don't start over.  Rewind the video to the part right before your "mess up" and start recording from there.  The technology for Screencast-O-Matic allows you to be flexible with your recordings so don't worry.

Where do I post the screencasts?
1.  YouTube or Screencast-O-Matic.  There are three options using the Screencast-O-Matic software.  The first is to download the screencast you've recorded.  I wouldn't suggest that since it will take quite a bit of time and take up a large chunk of memory.  Instead, let this bad boy live online.  Option two is to leave it on Screencast-O-Matic as a searchable video.  This is a good option for those of you who would like it in a somewhat private environment.  You can then send the link to your students.  Option three is to upload the video to YouTube.  This option is only good if you don't mind your screencasts being available for all of the world to see.  Remember, you can always take it down in the future.  Regardless, do whatever is most comfortable to you.

What sorts of things should I record?
1.  Options are Endless!  Below is a list of my favorite ideas for screencasts:

Introductions to a Unit

Literary Definitions with Examples

Vocabulary Context Clues in Action

Student Essay Samples

Common Errors from Previous Assignments

PowerPoint Lectures

Questions from the Last Class

Read Alouds with Texts or Student Work

Example of Your Grading Process

How to Use Your Online Grading System

How to Use Your Online Classroom Platform

How to Create an Email to a Teacher

Review of the Prompts

Study Materials

Collection of Sites to Find More Information

How to Search for Scholarly Journals

How to Use the Library Software

How to Set Up Their Blogs

Really, the options are endless.  Just be creative!  Remember that when you make these, you can use them for years to come!  That's the best part :) Happy screencasting y'all!

Leaving Class with Questions

So you had a great class, but in the last 10 minutes there was an influx of questions.  Really big questions.  Questions like, "but how do I organize my essay?" or "what if I'm having trouble identifying the rhetorical strategies to analyze?"  It happens to everyone but what if you don't have time to cover it next class?  We're on strict schedules with our curriculum.  Even worse, I only see my students 2 times a week.  And one of those times is in the computer lab!

Frankly, I don't have time to hold the class back one extra day to cover what was confusing.

So what do we do?

Here are three things that you can do to address 

those last-minute questions for next time:

1.  Email:  I have a professor who, after every class, emails us.  It usually starts a little something like this: "After class, I began to think about..."  It never makes us feel like we're idiots and he has to waste his time to teach us more...via email.  Instead, he brings up the issue in a conversational tone and directs us to places (text book pages, website, podcasts, videos, etc.) that will help us address those questions.  He helps us take our learning into our own hands.

2.  Podcast:  If it's not something that you need a visual for, why not just record your voice lecture style.  But make it a short lecture.  Audio without visual can drag if it's too long.  No more than 10-minute sound bytes.  Also, make sure you're using verbal cues to help your students stay on track.  Say things like "3 things I'd like to discuss" and mention "first, second, and third" when you get there.  Using those verbal cues will help them with note-taking.  Feel free to visit my podcast to get a feel for how I do things.

3.  Screencast-O-Matic:  So you like the idea of a podcast but the topic really would benefit from having a visual?  Okay, use www.screencast-o-matic.com.  This is a free service that allows you to audio and visual record your screen without installing anything to your computer.  I use it in one of two ways. Sometimes I will create a PowerPoint and go through that while discussing what I naturally would as if I were in class.  And sometimes I pull up sample pieces of writing and do a "read aloud" with my students noticing what strategies the authors are using in their writing.  Both are great options.  The best thing is that Screencast-O-Matic will set up a video page for you or upload it straight to Youtube.  That way you can have it for all the world to see if you'd like!   See one of my examples down below or visit my How-To for your first time screencasting!

Whatever you choose to do, make sure that you have a plan before you begin.  Just like you would with any class, you need to have an objective.  If you have that set from the beginning, you're follow-up will be clear and concise!  Good luck!

Lil' Durk Time: Building Community within the Classroom

Apparently there is a new up-and-coming, Chicago-based rapper.  Lil' Durk.

How do I know this? Well my students were taking a survey for my Peer Advocate (more about this down below) so that he could learn more about them.  One of the survey questions: Who is your favorite artist?  As I creeped over their shoulders, I learned that many of them really liked Lil' Durk.

Side note.  Yes... that's his name.  It's really stupid.  Let's be real.

After I made a joke about how ridiculous of a name that was and how I didn't believe that he was even a real person, it made me start thinking.  You see, I have been working on a pilot program in the First-Year Composition Program called the Peer Advocate (PA) Program.  Holy program.  The goal of the program is to help retention rates, a problem that is plaguing college campuses nationwide.  As a cohort leader/trainer of PAs, I always tell my students that the real goal of this is to get them connected to one another.  In all honesty, it doesn't matter how cool a college campus is.  It doesn't matter if the football team is amazing or if there is great Greek Life.  

If students don't connect with one another, why would they stay?

This program, although it is a pilot, is large scale.  It involves 30 students being attached to 30 FYComp classes with 25 students per class.  That's a total of 750 incoming Freshman being impacted!  While the PAs have successfully completed the FYComp classes themselves, their goal isn't necessarily to help the students in class.  Instead, they invite students to events, attend club meetings, and take them out for pizza.

Like I said, this is large scale.  But what can we, as teachers, do right now? What can we do in our classes without having to ask for approval, form committees, and run pilot programs?  

Here's a list of 5 things you can put in place in your classroom today to help start build community with your students this week.

1. Lil' Durk Time:  Like I mentioned above, my students love Lil' Durk.  However, every Monday in my class we discuss deep topics like gender, sexuality, race, and religion.  I want to loosen them up and have them connect on a human level before we get into these heated discussions. So, I have them sit in different groups each week and give them one odd ball question to get discussion flowing: This is our "Lil' Durk Time".  Questions like: What's the worst song on the radio? or What's the best movie you've seen lately? give them a chance to connect with each other as people. Priming them to build relationships.
2. Group Projects:  Every teacher has group projects.  Make it a requirement for them to meet outside of class once.  You can have them tell you the time/place or you can have a student leader help coordinate. Forcing them to meet outside of class will give them another opportunity to create friendships with one another.
3. Email: We all have email lists of our classes but don't delete the classes that you don't have any more!  Send out an email blast to your old students.  Let them know that you're happy the year has finally gotten under way and remind them that you're still here for them. Tell them when your office hours or free periods are and where at so they know when and where to find you.
4. Seating Arrangement:  Don't be afraid to switch it up.  Rows facing forward.  Rows facing each other.  Groups.  Large circle.  Semi-circle. Pairs. Putting them in different seats allows them to be next to new people that they might not know.
5. Pictures:  Take a group picture! Most of us have an online classroom environment like Moodle or Blackboard.  Use that picture as the online class banner!  That way the online space becomes theirs.

Whatever you do, remember that while content is important, the most important thing in life is relationships.  We want our students to not feel alone in this cray cray world.  They should feel comfortable expressing themselves with one another. As terrible as this sounds, I used to say "The class that parties together, stays together."  While I don't endorse the partying part, it is true. Our students are more apt to stay involved with the program or school if they feel like they have built roots there.

Post Vacation Blues

I was a little MIA last week as I visited West Palm Beach with my mom as a sort of Last Fling for the summer!  It was a wonderful time!  Now that I'm back home, though, I'm a little bit sad.  I miss being able to scamper around and do what I want when I want.  I mean, within a short amount of time being home our car over heated, my dog was sick, and our policeman neighbor told us that someone could have been peeping in our house.  Needless to say, reality set in pretty quick.  But, if you're headed to WPB anytime soon or just want to live vicariously, check out what we did!

We visited Sloan's Ice Cream parlor located in the City Place of WPB.  The ice cream was fabulous - all homemade and unique.  My fav's - Chocolate Chip Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough & Sloan's Dark Chocolate.  I consider myself an ice cream connoisseur though I didn't try anything fancy like their Coffee Ice Cream with Krispy Kreme's.  

The coolest part?  Their bathroom!  The bathroom has a glass wall.  When you lock the door - it freezes out in solid white!  How cool is that?   

Then I got to live out my CSI: Miami fantasies by going on an alligator air boat tour in the Everglades and visiting South Beach.  

Air boat tour = amazing.

Alligators = amazing.

South Beach= eh.  Who cares.

The best part was obviously yelling "YOWWWWW" like I was part of the CSI: Miami theme song...

Lastly, we beached it up.  Went to West Palm Beach and South Beach in Miami.  I didn't get any pics of the beaches because I didn't want to bring my phone with me but here is a pretty sweet dressed up palm tree.  

The best part of the beach trip?  Well here's a little story for you.

1.  Night before I ask a local what are the "must-do's" in WPB.  He says paddle-boarding.  I love paddle-boarding in Lake Michigan but am a little weary of shark-infested waters, I tell him.  He says I should be as sharks are migrating and there are "thousands of them up and down the coast right now." <- his words, not mine.

2.  Swimming in the ocean maybe 20 feet away from shore, the waters start to get dark.

3.  Everyone in the ocean starts sprinting out screaming.

4.  Everyone on the beach starts sprinting towards the ocean (and us) with cameras pointing.

5.  School of manatees swim up and by us MAYBE 5 feet away.

Obviously this was amazing but wayyyy cooler after I realized they were manatees and got over the fear of being attacked by sharks!

This isn't all we did.  We did quite a bit of shopping, ate at some amazing restaurants, and went to stand up at the Improv Comedy Club.  All of this makes me think, why stop having adventures when the school year starts? Adventure doesn't need to be limited to summer time vacations.  We can do it in the classroom and in our spare time.  With that being said, I'm going to start creating a adventure list of sorts to accomplish this year with my students.  Any suggestions to get me started?  I'll be posting about it soon so stay posted!

To Journal or Not To Journal?

I always had a problem with having to journal when I was a student.  I never knew what to write about.  Worse, I never understood what the point was.

This perception carried over when I started teaching.  I had the impression that having my students journal was simply busy work.  It was something that I could have them do while I was taking attendance, passing out papers, or talking to students individually.

Boy was I wrong.  Journaling can be an excellent tool for your students - 
IF it is set up right!

This summer while I was teaching summer school, I started to implement journals as part of the daily routine.  But my students weren't only writing about what they would do if they had $1 million.  They weren't only writing about which 3 books they would take with them if they were on a deserted island...

Yes this was my elementary understanding of journal prompts.

Instead, they were writing about their past experiences in writing classes. They were journaling about what part of the writing process was the easiest for them.  Which was the toughest for them.  Journaling became a reflective part of the learning process that was essential to their learning.  

Better yet, their final exam turned into a reflection of their overall growth in the semester.  They were able to look back through old journal entries and see where and how they were struggling.  They were able to scan through their challenges and triumphs.  

I compiled a list of 14 Journal Prompts along with the Reflective Collage Essay for you to try out in your classroom.  You can utilize these prompts every day in class for 3 weeks or have them done once a week for an extended-writing project.  Either way, they promote reflection in the writing classroom.  

I don't know about your experiences with journals before.  But I do know that journaling has been a way for my students to truly reflect, both short- and long-term, in ways that I hadn't seen them do before in my classroom.  Try them out and let me hear how it goes!  I look forward to reading your reflections of their reflections!