CAROLYN
BEITZEL
Diary #2
We
Can Hit a Curve Ball!
The vision is becoming a reality.
Let's throw a curve ball into the best laid plans. A few days before school started my co-leader and I found out that the newly hired science teacher was not going to be available to start teaching until four days after school started. We were not even sure if we would have a substitute. We scrambled to make the first days of school work. There will be time enough to get our last team member on board when she returns. We developed team rules, etiquette and a discipline plan. We decided that we would provide a united front to the kids. Consistency would be the key to our team success. It was exhausting. Mike and I are nearly new teachers ourselves, who could certainly use a couple of more years to get "seasoned" in our own practice before being given the additional responsibility of running a team. But, you figure out your strategy with the cards you are dealt. First Day: Fair, fun and firm Remember the FISH philosophy: Be There, Play, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude! How can you not be positive those first few days, regardless of the circumstances? Here I am, being handed a new group of children, entrusted to me by their parents, to teach them skills, responsibility and citizenship. How exciting! How frightening! Even though we felt pulled in many directions our team was successful in setting a tone: Fair, Fun and Firm would be our motto. The second day found our entire team in the auditorium balcony for the first (of many) scheduled team meetings. This year our district has enacted a student uniform policy for K-8. We wanted to address this fact first and foremost for as teachers we do not have leeway in the interpretation. Out of our 100 kids only 6 were out of uniform that first day. We let our team know how proud we were of them for their compliance! I value honesty above all else. I tell it like it is. The teachers on our team have decided to be as open and forthright with information and expectations as possible. As one student already told me, "Mrs. Beitzel, there aren't any secrets in your class, are there?" They are learning our rules and understanding the consequences. I want all of us to be on the same page. What the kids told us I have a few expectations (or more). After telling my students what they were, I turned the tables on them. "What are your expectations of a good teacher?" "Describe a teacher who you felt met these expectations." The responses were varied from not yelling (a lot), to being fun, doing activities that get you up out of your desk, having choices in assignments, taking notes, listening, participating. It was enlightening to them to discover that they had many of the same expectations of me as I did of them. After having this discussion one of my students asked "Can we write a letter to the teacher we thought was the best?" What a great idea, and not in my plan, but let's go for it! The letters were awesome. I asked for their permission to send them on to the teachers in question and every student said "yes." I wish I could be there when that teacher opens their interoffice mail envelope. What a thrill they will get. I experienced it the first time myself the day before. Three of my students from last year came and saw me after school. To take the time to seek me out was the biggest compliment they could have ever given me. They weren't my "star" students, although their efforts were rewarded. One of them I was constantly challenging to perform up to her abilities. But they thought enough of me to return. That touched my heart and made me realize that I am on the right path.They will help me grow
This new group of kids is going to open my eyes this year. I can feel it. They are going to help me grow and learn. I don't consider myself a "humorous" kind of person although I have been told on occasion (okay, more than once) that I have a sarcastic wit. I am going to have to work on my comedic delivery if I am going to keep their interest.
Next week will be harder than this one. Our last team member arrives. She will have a lot of work to do to set up her classroom. Mike and I will need a lot of her time to get her up to speed on a philosophy that she did not create, but hopefully will embrace. I have my fingers crossed that all goes well.
