Inquiring minds want to know!

Inquiry is something that a lot of educators are pushing for in the education world right now. And why wouldn’t they? Inquiry is all about getting students to take charge of their learning by researching and exploring topics that are interesting to them, and students get to choose how they present their findings afterwards. This allows students to a) have some freedom to do want they want how they want, and b) gives them responsibility over their learning journey. Which of course means, the teacher gets to step off the stage and takes on the role of learning facilitator rather than information dumper.

Over my life as university Ed student I have had a number of opportunities to participate in my own inquiry assignments and then on the flip side, plan an inquiry unit of my own.  As a student embarking on the path of inquiry I found that it can be frustrating the first time around. The structure feels very loose and the lack of prescribed constraints and direction can feel awkward and unsettling. Honestly, for the first little while it just feels like you’re floundering like a fish out of water. BUT thankfully that’s when the teacher should step in with prompts about questions that interest you about a subject/topic, and hand you, the student, a graphic organizer to act as your framework for this open-ended project. From there it’s really just independent research and wait for it….inquire! Find out what you can, how you can (just make sure your students know how to properly do those tasks ahead of time, or you give instruction on them during the process), and the results should fall into place.

Of course there are hiccups, and some students may lack the personal motivation to make use of the set-up, but I would recommend giving it time. The first inquiry may not yield the results you want, but then the students have at least tasted the potential of what could happen and learn from what other students have come up with. Also as a teacher take the opportunity to reflect (apparently that’s a good thing… cough cough…blog entry reflection….cough cough), and see which areas students seemed to need more direction, guidance, resources, etc. and then as a teacher you can be more prepared next time.

The most recent inquiry project that I have had the opportunity to participate was in relation to areas in which I, as a pre-service teacher, would like to know more about or receive more support in. The result would then be to come up with out own resources and supports that we as individuals could take advantage of and support our peers with.  My partner Brad and I chose to complete a project on teaching in split classes, which would include finding tips, advice, resources, and frameworks that would benefit teachers who find themselves in the position of teaching a split or multi-grade classroom.

The resource we came up with is called Teaching Across the Divide (teachingacrossthedivide.wordpress.com) which is a WordPress page that acts as a hub for helpful resources, interviews, and reflections that we thought teachers would benefit from (someone like you!).  After completing the resource we then had a chance to share our findings with our university classmates in a rotational, gallery walk/speed dating, type set up. I personally wouldn’t do this with my students, but this set-up was more like a professional development-esque thing where we could hear about each other’s projects and share our own findings, so it worked for our purposes. Overall it was a great experience, and I think we got a lot of great ideas for teaching in a split class out of it (you should seriously check it out).

Lately I’ve been thinking about the kinds of things that I want to bring into my internship, and I’m at the point where I want to try and bring inquiry into it. It seems a little risky at this point, but really, internship is about trying new things in a safe environment where you actually have a built-in support person to help you through it (co-operating teachers are literally there to help and support, so use them!). So stay tuned for future posts and resources from whatever inquiry experience I plan for them! I hope I can come back here later and say that it all went well, or at the very least that I tried it and know now which aspects to tweak and play with in the future.

My Experience in a Split Classroom

Growing up in a small town, split classes were always a part of life. Either a certain grade was too small and had to be consolidated with another to fill a classroom, or a grade was too large that it had to be split and partially added to a smaller grade to even out class size. It was a part of life, and it was normal.

It wasn’t until the past year that I started to look at from the flip side, or rather, as the perspective of a teacher thrown into teach two grades in one classroom. As a student it was fun to be a part of a split class, in September we got to find out who was placed in the straight grade, and who was moved over to the split (it literally changed every year, and sometimes our grade would split with either the grade above us or below us). But now, stepping into the teacher’s shoes I have a lot more respect for the teachers in my own life who found themselves teaching two grades at once. And I’m not going to lie, it is super intimidating planning a split class lesson for the first time!

In my Pre-Internship at St. Jerome I had my first experience teaching in a 7/8 split grade. Admittedly, my focus Math unit was only with the Grade 8’s while the Grade 7’s in my class went to join the other Grade 7’s for their Math, but I still had a lot of experience teaching and interacting with students in a multigrade classroom. Throughout my time at St. Jerome I had the opportunity to teach 7/8 English, Science, French and Phys. Ed, 5/6 Science, and 6/7 Science.  To view these lessons, go over to my “Lessons” Section  of my blog to see samples of my lesson plans!

With numerous lessons planned, taught and rewritten, I’ve picked up some helpful tips (that may still need to be refined, but they’re a good starting point!) for teaching students in split grades:

1. If your school division has a policy or schedule outlined for split grades, follow that! 
   • Regina Catholic School Division has developed a unit schedule for classes that are split. How this works is that there is a framework for even and odd years that dictates what units are taught in split classes. For example, in the 2015 school year, all classes with grade 6 in them should do the Electricity unit in Science. Then in the following year, the grade 7 unit that would normally be taught at the same time as the Electricity unit would be taught instead.
   • It’s a slick system, but really has to be stuck with to avoid students missing units or getting repeat units as they progress through various split grades.
2. Look for similarities in Outcomes while planning.
   • For subjects such as English and PE, look for outcomes and indicators that are similar so that the lesson you are teaching hits outcomes and indicators from both grade levels. This makes every lesson you teach meaningful and purposeful for both grade levels.
3. Treat the class as a whole.
   • To create a good classroom atmosphere, treat your students as equals, and without a constant reminder that students are in various grades. Students need to feel like they belong so make sure that they have positive shared experiences. The classroom I was in had a pretty strong sense of community. If it wasn’t for having split math classrooms, I’m not even sure it would noticeable which student was in which grade (not that they students wouldn’t be keeping tabs on it, but it’s good for the teacher to treat students in each grade like they belong to the larger whole). Students have enough trouble dealing with social isolation issues that we as teachers shouldn’t be creating more ways to add to the issue (especially in the dramatic grade 7/8 age group)!
4. Keep a good handle on classroom management.
   • I’m pretty sure I can’t claim that this is only a tip for split classrooms, because I’m pretty sure that the key to running any classroom successfully comes in part from classroom management skills. My cooperating teacher ran a pretty tight ship. Not that it was extremely strict, but the teacher had established a respectful presence in the classroom, and the students knew what he would allow and what he would not. Someday I hope to imitate some of his strategies, and run a classroom as smoothly as he could.
   • Not that there isn’t any drama in his classroom. It’s full of 13 and 14 year olds… it’s a hormone free-for-all on the best of days, but somehow there are ways to work with them!
5. Differentiate where necessary. 
   • This really just goes hand in hand with point #2. Whether it’s in assessment, or planning for individual student needs, do the differentiation thing and do your best to help all of your students succeed in their learning journey. This really should be happening in every classroom, it’s just that in this case, there may literally be different outcomes and indicators for different students, and in that case, it only makes sense to plan and differentiate for that.
   • Inherently, students are going to be at different levels, so remember to be flexible! Which leads me to my last point:
6. Be flexible!
   • Make plans, and be ready to change them and make adjustments. Try out new classroom management strategies, and if they bomb, oh well! Tweak and try again, or throw out the idea altogether. The important thing is to find a strategy and style that works for you.
   • Teaching in a split class can be really fun and rewarding. So embrace it! And be the teacher that your students need you to be.

To learn more about teaching in split classrooms, and gather resources to help you in your split classroom, check out the blog: Teaching Across the Divide.  This blog is a compilation of resources was compiled by myself and a university classmate, Brad, for our ECS311 class. It has a lot of great stuff on it, so stop by and check it out!

Getting out of the tunnel vision

 

Has it really been over a week since my last post? Weeks feel like they are days, and at the same time weeks feel like months. Lately I have been learning a lot about myself as a teacher. When I set my mind to something, I go in full bore. Like full on, I am in the moment, I am focused, and … I am completely oblivious to everything else going on around me.

Last week I had this great lesson planned where I was focusing on pacing, you know, giving more time to students who are struggling, and letting students who are on the ball work ahead. So I planned to spend quality time with the strugglers,  and gave out an assignment for the ballers to work ahead on. So far so good. And then it all fell apart. The assignment ended up not taking nearly as long as I had anticipated. The volume went off and students got off task. So I eventually noticed that that was what all of the noise was about, and gave those students another task, but the damage was done. Students were getting off task, students were measuring and discussing items that shouldn’t be measured or talked about in class (but that’s grade 8).  And there was me, completely immersed in my 4 students, completely oblivious to all of the shenanigans going on in the larger classroom area.

This all went on until my my Co-op drew my attention to the tremendously out of control mess in front of me. Yay… you know things have gotten to a point they shouldn’t have when the actual teacher has to point it out. So that was that day.

The whole point of this, was that that isn’t the end of the story. In today’s class I made a point of not getting immersed in a tiny clump of students, and take time to step back and see the larger picture.  And it couldn’t have gone better!

For me this is like an ironic life lesson. I’ve put so much time and effort and even pride into thinking that when I get in the zone and focused, that I’m all in. Which in some situations zoning in and focusing is a very good thing, but not when managing a group of antsy teenagers. So in the case of teaching, I need to escape the tunnel vision and emerge to a place where I can get a view of the whole area, while still giving time to the students who need attention…just without the blinders. It’s about finding balance, and being flexible.

Other highlights of the week include: co-facilitating the KAIROS Blanket Exercise for our 7/8s, teaching a Treaty-centered Math class (blog post to come), and being a judge in the St. Jerome Science Fair! I can’t believe that I only have 3 days of pre-internship left–there’s still so much to do!!

 

 

Dear Board/Bored of Education,

This last week, I stumbled on this spoken word song about the education system. Mostly it critiques standardization, (which tells me the artist is American), but it also has an important message for teachers: structure learning so that students’ are inspired to learn, and have a chance to learn by doing. To me this speaks to inquiry based learning, and experiential learning, which are both things I want to include, but it also speaks to being real with our students and actually caring about them.

So here is the spoken word piece by Propaganda, it’s incredible, so check it out:

While this may be a strange post to have right before heading into pre-internship, I think it’s a good reminder that our students are in here for the long run. We might only be in the classroom for a short time, but this is their education experience, and as a teacher, I want it to be a meaningful experience.

Technology & Me

TECHNOLOGY. You can’t live with, can’t live without it. At least that’s how I feel most of the time.  I remember a time when I didn’t have smart phone, or even a cell phone at all for that matter, and being perfectly content with that reality. Why is it now that I can hardly pull myself away from my phone, laptop or TV/internet hook up? It’s not that I lock myself in a room to watch Netflix for hours and hours on end, or that I find myself perpetually glued to my phone, but I keep on noticing my continuous reliance on technology.  Oh, and when I say “technology” I’m mostly referring to smart phone technology and internet access, as today you can hardly have one without the other being referenced

Of course I’m not saying that ALL technology is ALL bad, or even that technology is bad at all. Just to prove that I’m not hating on technology, I’ve put together a list of pros and cons (because you can’t have one without the other), that you will either agree with, or not, and you can do that because we all have opinions. Here we go:

PROS:  Technology provides easy access to knowledge/information/multiple perspectives on topics which can be used for learning; a great source of entertainment (Netflix, online videos, youtube, games); a global form of communication and connection (skype, twitter, Facebook, snapchat, or any other social media site/app); a tool for expression (youtube, blogging, art, photos, music, etc.); can be used for basic computations or technical operations, all of which has revolutionized the work force. Many people also use technology as a form of relaxation, and possibly the best pro of all is that is that technology is convenient: all of the above can all be accessed in the palm of your hand, what is more convenient than that??

CONS:  Smart technology are time wasting tools that kill productivity; the increased “connection” actually isolates a lot more people than providing genuine connection points; too many “noise-makers”– since everyone can voice their opinions, you get all of the annoying, uneducated comments and trolling that creates more chaos than harmony; focus consuming (sure, let’s chat with a person far, far away rather than the person sitting next to you that wants to spend time with you); it is very expensive; people become completely dependent on technology and social media outlets, that often time it seems as if their very identity and personality is tied up with it. Technology can also increase the amount of pressure and stress we place on ourselves (since we can compare ourselves to anyone and everyone, whether the representations we see are accurate or not), and it can also increase narcissism and ego-centrism.

So that’s the list that I came up with in under 5 minutes of even really stopping to think about it. Sure, there’s more that can be said about any number of the points listed above, and I’m sure I left out good points on either side of the spectrum. If you have some good ones, please leave a comment below!

So I’ve thought about the good, and I’ve thought about the bad, and then I can’t help but stopping to think about me (…ah yes, the ego-centrism piece…). What does my technology use say about me? It’s impossible to say that that technology affects us all the same. I prefer this app, or I watch this show instead of that one, or  I only allow myself to go on during  x time of day… the list could go on. Lately I’ve been thinking about not letting myself be ruled by technology. So I end up ditching my phone when I get home or neglecting it while I’m in class, and then I give myself a pat on the back. But then when I look at my phone I see that I’ve missed a phone call from my mom and failed to reply to a message that needed an urgent reply that came in 2 hours earlier… and then figuratively smack myself because I hate being that person who is unreliable to contact via technology. It feels like an losing battle.

But this I do know: When I’m with friends, or at public events, or visiting family, or in class, or having a date-night with my husband, my phone will be away. Not to say that I won’t ever pull it out to check if I’ve missed an important notification or to look something up, but I want the people I am with to know that they are important enough that I will not be paying rapt attention to a small metal and plastic device over them. I want my technology use to say: when I’m with people I value them over technology. In many other ways my stance is still in the formative stage, especially when it comes to technology in the classroom, but it’s a conversation I’m having constantly having with myself.

What does your relationship to technology say about you?

Stone Walls

Over the past week I have had the privilege of enjoying a so-called “break.”Yes, I have had time off from classes, yes, I have been given a week without due dates…but somehow this “break” hasn’t felt very restful.

After spending a couple days dedicated to working on my Grade 8 math unit on the volume of right prisms and cylinders, I hit what can only be described as a big, solid, intimidating, brick wall. I had full intentions of finishing off that unit plan this week and to emerge from this break with my head held high. But somehow my momentum got put on hold as I found myself face to face with a wall that forced me to slam on my breaks. I actually hate to admit that I had to put the brakes on at all. I like being the person who can keep going, stay positive and keep on keepin’ all through all of the craziness. But unfortunately, this wall popped up during a break.

I say unfortunately because even though I hit this “wall,”   I didn’t feel the immediate pressure to find a way over it because, well, I had a whole week to figure it out! Which is when my good ole friend Procrastination made it’s formal appearance. So what may have started as a hiccup, was turned into a solid wall merely because I the time to let it become one. And we all know Procrastination has a way of getting the best of people when they want to give into the ideas that if they just give it time, issues and assignments will solve themselves…

I let this “wall” and Procrastination put a halt on all of my school work. There! I said it! After two days of diligently working on things, that feeling of accomplishment faded fast. I welcomed it happily, and had high hopes that I could give in, and then that I would easily be able to let go of it in a couple days. But that process is always harder than I like to pretend.

This morning I finally decided to say goodbye to my friend Procrastination. However, I’m still in the midst of figuring out how to scale this wall, or find a gate, or dig a trench or whatever I need to do to get past it. I’m not trying to imply that I need someone to come rescue me, or even that the wall I’m facing is unique. In fact, I’m saying the opposite.

If you are also experiencing this “wall,” let’s talk. Maybe we can talk strategy, give each other pep talks or just commiserate on the unfortunate circumstance we are up against. You’re not alone in this, and neither am I. It may just be a simple case of procrastination and lost motivation, or maybe the feeling of being lost and confused is overwhelming. But we’ve all been there (and at this moment I am still there).  Professional or personal, walls have a scary way of creeping up on you when you least want them or expect them.

Anybody have a sledge hammer I can borrow? This unit isn’t going to finish itself…

 

The joys of melted ice cream cake

Today was a very unexpected kind of day.  With my Mondays very full of classes, being scheduled from 10:30am-8:15pm, Mondays really are not that conducive to celebrating. However, I happen to be going to school with a very special group of people, and have some fantastic people in my life who give me amazing support. What started as a rushed day off to class became a day full of surprises, gifts and joyful messages from friends and family all over the place! And the best of all: a melted ice cream cake.

After the first hectic class of the day, my classmates had all gotten together and threw me an impromptu surprise party in the Ed lounge.  The plan was flawless: one friend distracted me while the others prepared for the surprise,  and one friend was a look out for our return.  I have to admit that I was suspicious by this point, and thought I knew what was coming. But as I walked into the lounge, it wasn’t just a couple people there but the majority of my cohort, and some other Education students who just happened to be in the lounge.  A chorus of “Happy Birthday” met me as a was ushered in, and there on the counter, waiting for was a beautiful, half-melted ice cream cake that read “Happy Birthday Amy!”

The fact that it was half-melted makes it memorable enough. But I felt incredibly touched! Maybe others would be disheartened to see that their cake was slowly becoming a puddle of cream, chocolate crunch and icing, but all I saw was a reminder that I am loved and supported. No one was required to throw me a party, or get me a cake, but they did (you know who you are!), and it showed me, that I am surrounded by people who love and support me, and that is a huge blessing.

And the cake wasn’t just a reminder of my classmates’ awesomeness, but as in many cases of birthday celebrations, friends and family far and near, call or send messages of happiness, cheer and support. All day long, I couldn’t stop thinking about how we all, as teachers, and as human beings, need support systems to get us through. Life, love and work is full of ups and downs, battles and victories, positives and negatives– and sometimes, or maybe most times, it really feels like we (myself included) cannot do it all on our own. And in honesty, we shouldn’t. I read a good article a few weeks back about teacher burnout, and it mentioned that we need to create support systems around us that keep us from getting sucked into hard times, and keep us afloat (I’m definitely paraphrasing here, but you get the point).

The cake was also a symbol of belonging. Usually at the beginning of semesters, or the start of something new, I struggle with feelings of un-belonging, especially when others seem so close. But I have to keep telling myself that feeling of belonging is something that grows over time as trust builds with one another. This year has brought the most growth between me and some special classmates and teaching partners, and this cake was one huge way to show me that I have a place of belonging with them. As we get out into the teaching world I, that feeling of belonging may take a while, and some of our students may be looking for it too. Just some more food for thought (and yes, I may be making a Circle of Courage reference here, for those who do not know what that is, I recommend following this link).

Finally, that sloppy cake was a reminder of the many blessings that fill my life. To be 100% honest, I think every ice cream cake I eat from now on will not compare to that melted one, because it had reached the perfect eating temperature. It was like a soft-serve cake: easy to eat, still resembles ice cream, and still full of that chocolate crunch goodness. Did I mention that I prefer soft-serve over regular ice cream any day? And the blessings go beyond the cake too. Every person who said a cheery “Happy Birthday” to me in the hallway, or sent a message via text or Facebook, or card, or gave me a gift,  or phone call was a blessing to me. What I really need to remember is that those people and blessings exist on days when I don’t get all the attention, I just need to reach out to them. Teaching or not, we all have those people we can rely on, and even seeing the small positives in our students can do that for us.

Well that’s one cheesy (or should I say creamy) blog post coming to an end. Thanks for reading! And I hope that one day you will discover your own joys of melted ice cream cake.

#CYWC: Regional Training

This weekend I had the incredible experience of attending the Canadian Youth Workers Conference: Regional Training in Saskatoon. This organization is travelling across Canada offering workshops and sessions to equip and encourage those who volunteer with youth or work with youth in full-time ministry. This whole weekend was an overload of information, but brought entirely new perspectives of what it means to grow a community of Christ in a youth group or ministry setting.

So why am I writing about this on my teaching blog? Because working with youth is something that I am passionate about. Getting to know them, being there to support them; being a person who will listen to and love them; being a friend to come along side and a role model to look up to. Many of these things line up with what I want to do as a teacher, the approach is just a little more on the causal and relational side.

Amidst all of the information overload and lack of sleep that I had, there were some things spoken in sessions and discussed with my youth leadership team afterwards that really changed how i think about interacting with youth (or students), and I wanted to share them with you.

1. Students grow into the stories you tell about them. Students are constantly being told things about themselves by others, and depending on the running narrative it can positively or negatively affect them. It’s not enough to just fix negative narratives by piling on compliments, you need to act like you believe it. Treat students to the potential you see in them. For example, if you tell them that they are smart and value their opinion, when you have a problem ask them for their thoughts and treat their response seriously. Changing a narrative takes time, and how you interact with students can slowly help to change that narrative.
2.  Students have developed assumptions about themselves that need to be challenged. This is similar to the one above, but focuses more on how students develop a sense of identity. When students start to mature and develop a sense of who they are, they look for fulfillment in 1. finding love, 2. a sense of purpose and 3. belonging. Often their first experiences with those longings are disappointment of not having them. This can lead to a development of a negative self-identity in which they are not worthy of those things. Therefore, they treat themselves like they do not deserve them, and develop behaviours and emotions in reaction to that (mostly negative). We only see those outer, negative, behaviours. If we focus on only changing those, then we aren’t getting to the real issue. We need to challenge those twisted and untrue thoughts about themselves in order to help them gain a clear picture of who they are.
3. Forget about being culturally relevant and be personally relevant instead. We get so caught up in knowing the latest trends, movies, and music that we forget what our purpose is. We need to get caught up in who are students are as individuals, who they hang out with, and what they like. They are we should focus on, not what’s the latest and greatest in culture, because they are what truly matter. Put your time into what matters!
4. Students are constantly being measured by how well they perform, that they focus too much on results than the journey to get there.  Academic, social , sports, future endeavours– everything is about results and how well they “performed” that we forget to focus on the journey to get there. Instead of building students who are full of character and personality we churn out kids who are endlessly worried about results. No wonder our generation and the generation of our students are more anxious than ever! What are we celebrating with our students? Their “success” or “marks” or “performance” and comparing them to the expectations that others hold over them? Or are we celebrating the steps they made along the way, how they responded to tough situations, the effort they put in, or the character that develops as we work through our struggles? While marks and grades have a place in school, they should not be the end-all criteria for the young people we interact with.
5. You make a difference! Remember, even if you feel like what you say doesn’t stick, or you have no idea what you’re doing, or that no one even cares that you’re around. It does! If you are consistently making an appearance in the life/lives of young people, then they see you, and you are making an impact on their life/lives. While it may not be immediate, and you may not see many results, but in the long run you may be the thing that made a difference in their lives. (Although I also believe that Jesus also has a big thing to do with that!)

These are just a few of the tidbits that I picked up amidst the avalanche of information and love thrown at me this weekend.  I could talk about this and more things for a long time, so don’t hesitate to ask!

Did I  mention that that I got to reconnect with a bunch of people from Bethany College? Being able to reconnect with friends was definitely a huge highlight for me! #Thankyoubethany

When in doubt, act it out!

I have never been good at improvisation.  I have some classmates who thrive on it, and I’m told that the bulk of teaching is really just improv and learning how to roll with whatever happens in the classroom. To be perfectly honest, I’m more of a person who likes to rely on a script. When I did was at Bethany College working on my Diploma of Biblical Studies I was a part of a travelling drama troupe, and loved it–but again, I always had a script, so the words were always created by others, and hardly ever my own.  But I’ve come to find that strange and wonderful things happen when you allow students to use improv acting in the classroom.

While improv acting is far, far out of my comfort zone, I’ve begun to use the method of having students act out course material. To clarify, what I have them do is not true improv. True improv acting is done completely on the spot, with little or no time to come up with material, but to react to the theme or situation that has been given to you. The task that I have now used twice in the classroom allows students 10 minutes to come up with a short performance to present in front of the class. So while student-groups are given time to prepare, they do not have time to come up with a polished performance, but since all of the students are in the same position, it goes over surprisingly well!

The first time I had students act out a concept was back in my pre-internship last semester. I was teaching an introductory lesson on the water cycle (to see more click here) and after watching a video, and going over notes, I had the students split into small groups to act out the water cycle processes. As this was my first time ever attempting this sort of activity I had no idea how students would react or even how they would act it out. But they loved it! Not only did each group come up with a short skit (well within the time limit), but they were all slightly different and hilarious! Students acting as water droplets were “falling” all over the place and suns and clouds were performing a mixture of modern dance moves and delivering some priceless one-liners that had everyone laughing. And the best part was that everyone demonstrating an understanding of the processes, were receiving memorable knowledge reinforcements through the repetition of performances, and were taking ownership of their learning. I’d call that a win-win situation!

I tried a similar tactic in a classroom I volunteer in on Tuesdays, this time using a student-created analogy to act out the functions of cell structures. This group wasn’t as up and coming with the acting part, but in under 10 minutes I had groups demonstrating how cells functioned like houses, schools, and in one case, a bicycle! Now tell me students aren’t creative!

I’m starting to be convinced that fun learning moments, and activities that get students up and out of their desks are what they are going to remember. Even if they don’t remember all of the facts entirely, it’s more likely that the positive memories they associate with those experiences are probably more powerful then the lessons learned. This is one strategy that I will be keeping around — when it doubt, have them act it out!

Routine, Habits & Professionalism

Have you ever noticed that after a long, relaxing, enjoyable break that it is impossible to jump right back into the swing of things? Maybe you’re one of those people who love getting back into the thick of things and this seems really out to lunch for you, but I am one of those people who are feeling the struggle at full force.

For me, I think it has a lot to do with the dramatic change of class scheduling (that I did not choose for myself) in which I no longer have morning classes (okay, well one, but that hardly counts), but instead have mostly afternoon classes and a couple night classes. This of course means that there is no “routine” for me to jump back into, and that is where lapse in jumping back into the swing of things begins.

 

I suppose beginning a new series on Netflix, sleeping in and not setting any sort of morning rhythm isn’t helping anything. Go figure.

So as this new semester is once again ramping up into full force, and I need to pull up my socks (as someone at some point once said) and get back to it. Besides, not only do I need to be productive in order to meet my class requirements, but I am preparing myself to be a teacher, where I need to be meeting the daily routine of school life and expect the same of my students. This makes the need to get up at a set time, and designate a time for doing homework about more than just university life, but makes this routine-setting practice into a professional development experience. If I am not able to motivate myself to get up and get going like every other job-oriented adult, how  am I going to step into the mindset once I need to be in the class by 8-8:30am every school day? I may as well get myself used to that routine than set myself up for a struggle at that point.

True, another argument could be made that since I do not have requirement to get up and get going now, I should take advantage of that fact now and get my extra sleep and relaxation in now—I’ll have the rest of my career to get up and moving in order to be at work on time! But the fact that professionalism is such a big part of being a teacher, I find it hard to ignore the reality that the day will come when I wish I had that routine already in place so that I was more ready to deal with them when it is required of me. My whole degree is about preparation, why not include my daily routine into that preparation time?

It’s not that I am slacking off in my class attendance, or even behind in my school work, it’s just the draining realization that I have not been able to wrap my mind around getting a new routine in motion. I’m past the point in this degree where I can float–too much of it is at the practical stage where I need to be ready for the classroom. I want to be ready for my classroom, and I want to be ready for my students, and right now, that means getting myself ready to meet the challenge of getting used to and setting routines that set me up for success.

Maybe what this should really be titled is a step towards maturity, but it all leads to bettering my professional demeanor, so why not label it a professional goal? So this is me, finding my motivation to get myself up in the morning, to get school work done, to form some daily habits and routines that in the long run will help me in my professional career later on.