Shaking it up.

This week was my second week in my pre internship, but it was the first in which I felt like I was actually doing and learning. I no longer needed to get to know the students, the classroom, their schedule, or what curriculum they were learning. Now I got to walk into the classroom, jump into the curriculum, take over the lessons, and get the students learning. While reading the Dana chapters assigned to us this week, I read something that stuck with me while I observed my teacher and classroom this week:

"Teachers have for so long had no perfunctory or no influence on school policy, on curriculum frameworks, on time use, on professional standards, - or pretty much anything involving their work experience- EXCEPT in the privacy of their own classroom."

This was a quote by Joan Thate, a researcher, and I used this quote to develop a wondering for this week. My teacher is constantly telling us how she doesn't exactly play by the rules, but gets away with it because she is a veteran teacher, and she simply just doesn't say much, and lets her students' progress speak for itself. My wondering was "how does my mentor teacher's decisions to put in place her own curriculum effect the students' learning?"

I watched this week as me and my partner implemented UFLI training, and my teacher did her own reading groups and centers, which we had not seen in place in the first week we were there. As far as I know, the other kindergarten classrooms were not participating in these same groups, or using UFLI, and I am wondering why more aren't? Is it because they don't work? Or because they are scared of change? My mentor teacher speaks about how she uses a different handwriting program from those of her colleagues, and just does not tell administration when it comes to meetings, because they have been told they need to be consistent, but she likes her program best. She also discusses how she is the only teacher in her grade to use differentiated instruction (such as the literacy centers) and that her colleagues are stuck to the pacing guides and structure that they know. However, I see our students' work and their handwriting is beautiful, and the students I am tutoring in UFLI are already making leaps and bounds in their reading, and it has only been three days. The article talked about how looking past the curriculum, and having your own teaching experience, in the privacy of your classroom leads to isolation, and this is most definitely the downfall I see in this situation.

To address my previous wondering, yes the students do benefit from this new and different curriculum that my mentor teacher has decided to put into place- but has she? She has students who are excelling, and learning, and she is excited about it, which is the ultimate goal and wish for a teacher. However, she has awkward and distant relationships with her colleagues, who should be working together as a team and a support system, and I wonder how hard it is, to actually come to work each day, knowing that you are that odd-one-out, or if it effects her at all?

I think the point of inquiry and the Dana chapters from this week is that inquiry is beneficial, and this precious information you gather should be shared, not hidden away in a classroom because you are too scared to show that you are not following the strict guidelines, or because your colleagues are stuck, and don't feel like making the change.

My goal for the next week is to truly work my UFLI tutoring to it's potential, so and to continue to administer things such as running records, to have proof that a new system can be beneficial to the classroom and these students.

I am left wondering for most likely my entire pre internship, or maybe career, "would teachers benefit from straying from the structure laid out by the district, and in-turn, would their students?"