Summer School's Impact On Students

In this country, we offer students many chances to fulfill their requirements of responsibility. One of these second chances is summer school. As a student, I did not know what it felt to be in summer school or, in other words, summer school did not exist in my vocabulary. However, as a teacher, summer school is a word I hear every day. It is an idea our students rely too much on.

My first time teaching summer school was last summer. It was an interesting opportunity for me to go through because I was able to choose my subject, and also make a last impact on students who we know can do better than what they have achieved. 

As of February, 2016, every student I taught during summer school is either afraid of me teaching it again or have thank me for being their summer school math teacher. I am not offended by this because I know my expectations are never low, nor I took it as a "free money" summer. I was interested in the students' knowledge. 

Last week, one of these students came to me, in front of my Assistant Principal and said: "I'm sorry Ms. C. but when I was in summer school, I was not afraid you. I was afraid of Ms. G. (referring to me) because she made it clear that I would not be passing my grade if I was late or did not do my homework, but instead, I learned what I did not learn during the school year...Thank you Ms. G.". Her statement made me feel powerful. I have shown to them that it is important to work hard for good outcomes and that they should not wait until summer school to keep up their grades. 

This is just one of the many statements different students have made to me about their summer school experience. With this said, I am not sure if I would do it again but it was definitely an experience to remember. 

I love this profession regardless. Period!

- Ms. A

Having High Expectations in the Classroom Make a Difference

Several weeks ago, I was invited to a party in which I was able to meet a couple of NYC teachers who serve our elementary students. In the beginning I was pretty excited because in my head I was thinking we would be able to share our experiences and struggles, however, the experience was completely different and disappointing. While having our small conversations, some things were obviously, in my opinion, wrong. 

First of all, this person shared that she had issues helping all the 2nd graders in the classroom with tying  their shoelaces. My response to that was that if this is something she needed to do with many, maybe it was a good idea to teach them how to tie their shoes by modeling it for them. Her response was close to "how can you teach many kids how to tie their shoes?, I have 29 kids to do this for and they are not able to do it by themselves". The problem with her response was not the part of teaching them how to do so, but the fact that she already thought "THEY ARE NOT ABLE". This mentality made very angry and my response was a bit brusque because in the future years, her students will come to me and they will already be low with some skills. I simply said: "I teach kids with learning disabilities as well as those who are emotionally disturbed, they are mixed with kids who are higher and the teaching varies from student to student and we also have 29 students as average, but I do NOT do things for them, they NEED to learn it by themselves." She stayed quiet and we just switched conversations. 

Although, some of us, are learning the way to keep these high expectations with kids who are, unfortunately,  thought to not be able to succeed, it truly pays off! During parent-teacher conference, parents were giving me feedback on how their children I teach actually go home and do their work because they know I will not be happy the next day if the work is not completed. The parents see changes in their children and these are good changes! These changes involve having ownership of responsibility and knowing that they are expected to achieve higher. One of these parents was a parent of one of my IEP students (lingo for a child that receives special ed services). This parent was able to share how she is, now, trying to set high expectations with her daughter at home. Hearing both  child and mother share how they feel and think about expectations is a great feeling!It was such a good moment because although they may see me upset when things are not done, they know I am not expecting mediocre work, but the work that should be given by any 6th grader!

Moral of this blog: Students know when you have high expectations, keep them high at all times! They know when you care and when you do not. 

The Power of Understanding Math Concepts in Middle school

I am more than happy to share this with you all! This year, I am teaching 6th and 7th grade math!!! I love teaching something concrete such as MATH!!! LOVE it! With this in mind, I have to say I love it when students feel proud of their work and understand the skill when it is given to them in steps or  in detail.  The two students I am showing work from are two kids who DISLIKE math! They are always insecure and tend to have a hard time working independently, however, during this class, they were the ones that wanted to explain their work and even labeled how they worked throughout their independent work! During their sharing time, they came up to the front and explain what this data means!! I ALMOST cried because they made me so proud! They feel comfortable with my explanation, but most important, they feel comfortable with math! Now, its time for them to feel this comfortable throughout the year! I have to keep on fighting the hate against math!. 

The pictures below shows their way of setting up the problem given to them. Love the organization from each one of these individuals! I truly had a #proud # teacher moment! 

House music and Teaching

Throughout the years, music has influenced how I represent myself and what calms me down when I need to vent and relax. I have to say this year has been extremely interesting (ups and downs) and my favorite music has been there to help me through these ups and downs! I have been able to remember the reasons I love Tropical House Music and some trance, but in this country, we know it more as EDM. 

I am proud to say this year some of my students and myself will start a "House Music/ music" club with some of my 6th grade students! I am thrilled to say one of them knows how to DJ and does a great job at it, another one plays the piano and drums! We will be collaborating and practicing some songs together. 

The picture below shows what we listen too and what I listen to in my daily basis. I love sharing this with my little ones.

What does ICT mean for a Special Educator? Positives and Negatives

This is my fourth year teaching in in NYC, second year teaching in the Bronx and the more I learn about my profession, the more I fall in love with it, but it also becomes more challenging! 

This is also my second year teaching in an ICT (Integrated Co-teaching) environment but this time, all my classes have an ICT setting.  Although this is my second year teaching in such setting, I have put together some personal positives and negatives about being a Special education teacher working along with a general education teacher. 

Positives:
- Co-planning can be great when both personalities respect and show each other a level of professionalism. 
- If material is given to the special educator before the actual lesson, then it is easier to modify it. 
- Students have double the help when it understanding the content becomes a problem.
- There are multiple ways of gathering data in which the responsibility is shared.
- Students and teachers feel comfortable and enjoy the class.
- Projects can be directed differently depending on the students' needs and preferences.

Although all of these points seem logical, sometimes it does not work that way leading to the following negative points:

- When teachers don't communicate, students can see it and may take advantage of it.
- Lessons are not planned carefully.
- Mediation between the two parties is needed.
- Everyone becomes miserable. 
- Students show negative behaviors. 
- Personalities may clash and it will not create a good professional environment. 

The reason I am only labeling these four negative points of ICT is because these are the points I can see causes direct effect on our students and our teaching methods. 

ICT is supposed to help the students and it works wonderfully when the two teachers have great ways of working together and treating each other equally.  My experience so far has been both positive and negative. 


Note: I will write another blog in the middle of the year to see if something has changed or not. Thank you for reading.