Poverty

I do not face poverty day to day personally or professionally, but on occasion a student that enters our school is from an incredibly low income household or even homeless. I’m thinking of a specific child I taught, that lived between homes and a car. He and others in similar situations seemed distracted and often misplaced work. He frequently arrived without shoes or a jacket. He was in survival mode, which meant that schoolwork was not a priority. I spent much of my time nurturing him with kindness and trying to inspire him to aim for his goals. I was resourceful in gathering supplies, clothing, and food items to provide him while he was with me. (One year, he even spent Christmas Eve with my family, because he and never had a visit from Santa before).  I just tried to make school a fun, engaging, and safe place to be.

Another major concern for children like him is the quality or lack of health care they receive. The few poverty-stricken students I've had in my class were all facing health issues that needed to be dealt with. One was facing obvious diabetic issues, and have had many others with chronic asthma. This was very hard for me to stand by and watch and not be able to help. 

Professionalism

I believe I am a professional, because I respect the rules, leaders, and routines at my school. I try to model going above and beyond to my peers along with maintaining boundaries to take care of myself. I believe that when I am doing my best, acting out of kindness, and keeping the child’s best interest in the forefront, I am acting professionally. I often seek advice and feedback from my peers and school leaders to better myself and grow.

Unprofessional Behavior

I have witnessed a staff member acting unprofessionally by listening to her gossip and vent about another staff person. Initially, I listened and said nothing to avoid a conflict. Afterward, it was weighing on me, and I eventually suggested that she solve the problem in person. Since then, I have supported our school in a plan of “Courageous Conversations” and a “No Venting Zone”. In this environment, we neither listen nor participate in negative conversations about people or our school. It helps us to focus on solutions and the fact that we are here for the children. This is such a more comfortable and positive circumstance to work. 

Bullying

As a child I experienced bullying as a victim, bully, and witness. I was part of a trio of girlfriends that often excluded one another and other girls. Along with excluding, my "friends" gossiped and hurt the girls on the outside of our group. In hindsight, when I chose to participate in this behavior, I assume it was due to fear of my own exclusion from the group, which occurred from time to time. This experience has helped me spot this scenario in the classroom and empower bystanders and group members to challenge the bully. It has also helped me be proactive and speak to girls about insecurities and maintaining positive, healthy friendships. At our school, I support the discipline policy which strictly enforces no gossiping or insulting, because I know that bullying starts with those smaller acts. I “survived” the situation by eventually moving out of those friendships, but now I feel like I can support and prevent girls from entering into those relationships. 

Semester 2 Goals

This semester my goals are to continue to do my best, stay on track with assignments and job responsibilities, and continue to grow and learn. With the stress of school and work, I am striving to keep my attitude positive and implement positive self-talk and affirmations for my students. I am lucky to be supported by my Cadre leader that is readily available to answer questions and offer advice. This is just the kind of support I need: a great “Go-to Person”.

Curriculum Mapping

Curriculum mapping is a very important at the school I work at. Because the Montessori model is to group the kids in three year blocks (3-6 yrs., 6-9yrs., 9-12 yrs., and 12+ or middle school) we need to have a strong map. We call this a 3-year cycle. We need to make sure that while a child is in our class we have covered everything. I have sat on the team that does the curriculum mapping, and while it's not an easy task, it is so important and rewarding. I feel it gives the teachers a roadmap of the content that needs to be covered in a years time, yet the freedom to differentiate the instruction from there.

Differentiating Instruction

As a student, a mom,  and a Montessori teacher, I strongly believe that the one-size-fits all approach to teaching is the most damaging. In my opinion, the ability to differentiate instruction is what makes the best teachers stand above the rest. I believe that the first thing needed to be able to differentiate instruction to your students is to know them...truly get to know each child. If you know what kind of learner they are and what makes them "tick", I believe you can give them all the best possible education. One way I've gotten to know the learning styles of the students in my class is to give them a learning inventory. This not only can be used as a tool for me, but I like to see them reflect on how they feel they learn best. Assessing often is another way to really know where your kids are at. If I know where they all stand in a subject, or even a single topic, I can then group the kids and give smaller group lessons. By knowing how the kids learn best, I can give different tasks or follow-ups to the kids on the same topic. This gives them an opportunity to become an expert on their portion of the topic taught, and then share that with the class. Another, more traditional way to differentiate is to give different homework as needed. I really feel that there is no right or wrong way to differentiate instruction, you just need to know your students and the rest will come.