Changing my teaching ideas

Interns: You've been in your internship classroom since late August, assisting your Classroom Teacher in launching the school year. For your first blog post describe, briefly, one strong conviction about teaching that you brought to the classroom that has changed considerably during this time. What changed, and why is this a sign of personal growth?

One of the major things I have learned this year is that each class is so different from one year to the next, or even one day to the next in some cases. I thought that teaching second grade was teaching second grade. Of course there would be those memorable moments in each classroom that distinguished one from the next, but more or less the content and the lessons would be the same except for slight adjustments based on previous experiences. However, the more time I spend in the classroom I understand more and more how different each class can be from year to year. Based on the copies of last year's plans my CT has showed me several activities that were done last year during the same time of year, that the current group of second graders are simply not ready for - both developmentally and academically. This surprised me because I wouldn't have thought that a group of children would have changed that much over just one year.

Additionally, it surprised me to see how many things change simply because the teacher is interested in trying something new that he or she learned about over the summer or was dying to try out during the previous year but didn't have the time or resources to do so. I know in my classroom I have heard of major changes that have occurred between this year and last year. Some examples are including and developing a social studies curriculum for the year, basing instruction more on SIOP methodologies to increase accessibility of content to all students, and including the content and language objectives for the work day so that students can understand what we are doing over the course of the school day and why the skills are important. And that is just the beginning!

This realization has helped me grow as an educator and future classroom teacher because I understand that there is no one blanket format that fits all students, all the time. Coming into this experience I knew that there would be differences from year to year, but I never expected for the classroom teacher to initiate so many of those changes in addition to adapting lessons and units based on changes in student learning levels, making lessons so different from one class to the next. This has help me understand that as my learning progresses through my years as a classroom teacher, so will my instructional methodologies as well as what I am able to teach for the year. It seems that summers will be a time to catch up on those ideas that I had but didn't have time to put into action over the course of the school year and develop new ideas based on additional courses that I will take to keep my teaching certificate valid.

These realizations will help me be better prepared to adapt my lessons and instructional methods as the year progresses and I learn more about my future students. I can't wait to apply these lessons to my own future classroom to test my ability to change and adapt based on the needs of my students.