Narrative

This year was a whirlwind, honestly, comparable to a hurricane if you would. I started off my school year, only my second year teaching, switching schools within my district, and changing grade levels. I went from teaching 4th to teaching 5^th and trust me, there’s a noticeable difference. Just beginning to feel somewhat comfortable in my position, our union was in contract negotiations and we were then ordered, work-to-rule. And being the naive teacher I was, thought nothing of it and I didn’t understand the full implications. “Oh we only have to work during our paid hours? Sounds good to me!”  I quickly realized that is actually impossible, and it’s every teacher’s worst nightmare. 

So far, a lot of changes- new school, new grade level, and work-to-rule, and it’s only September 5th? Great. Let’s flash forward a few months, shall we? All right, so it’s November 4th. Yes, I remember the date because this was a plot twist I wasn’t expecting. Thankfully I have been on this Earth for 24 years, without breaking a bone (knock-on-wood) and never needing surgery. So my body decided my appendix was going to burst around 1 in the morning. It was a Sunday, and school was the very next day. In a lot of pain, but also on a lot pain medication, I nervously asked the doctor when I could return to work, and he responded with the following, “Thursday!” Ecstatic, I communicated with my principal that I’ll be back in no time! She responded, “yeah see ya in 6 weeks…” And she was exactly right. It was a long recovery and the worry of what in the world could possibly be going on right now in my classroom was whirling around in my head. The thoughts I had were, “Who is the sub in my room? Can he or she find my generic sub plans? Are they behaving?  Can they find my emergency binder? I don’t have sub plans, wait, I really don’t have sub plans for 6 weeks, what am I possibly going to do?!” 

With all that commotion, I finally returned right before Christmas break. You know, the most wonderful time of the year when all the students are working hard and totally on track and behaving! I realized, not only was I frantically a mess, so were my students. I had different subs thrown in and out of my room, nothing was graded, my expectations were out the window, and everyone was on different pages on what we were working on. 

Beginning my third year of teaching, I have learned a lot about myself that I don’t think I would’ve necessarily had if I had not gone into this profession. There have been moments I’ve wanted to give up, and the days that I went home crying considering if I was doing enough for my students. Though, to quote Dr. Bogad, “struggle without hope is self-defeating, hope won’t solve problems on it’s own” so I knew I needed to make a change. Looking forward to the 2019-2020 school year I want to make some positive changes.

The hurricane is finally over and the sun will be shining again in room 7. That is why I believe a successful academic school year is directly correlated by creating  a student-centered hub. Here, parents and students can come for academic support, community interaction, and collaborative learning through creation of a classroom website. I feel as though I can meet all of the expectations I have for myself, my students, and ultimately bridge the gap between the home and school environment.  Dana Boyd believes, “digital literacy needs to be taught, regardless of age or background” and during the first 6 weeks of school, I plan on walking my students step-by-step explaining our purpose for using our classroom website, and how to use it. Not only can students access the website during school, but they can access it at home. Just as Simon Sneck, I believe introducing my “why” and our purpose, will challenge my students to become critical thinkers. 

Technology is here, and it’s all around us. It is a fact that we can’t run away from it, and I believe we need to embrace this in our classroom. Before taking this course, and studying Scott Noon’s 4-Tier Model, I categorized myself as a techno-traditionalist. Someone who accomplished simple classroom tasks such as, Google docs, Gmail, and Google classroom, though that was the extent! Now, I feel as if I am teetering on the line of a techno-traditionalist and techno-constructivist. I am going to use my class website to completely reorganize the structure of my classroom. Not only will my students have access to helpful resources for math, including examples of what we had gone over that day, they will also have links to helpful resources and videos that explain key content. There are different sections for math, reading, writing, and science. 

I made sure to include a link for parents. There are accessible ways for them to contact me, a Google forum “beginning of the year” survey, as well as helpful links for homework resources. If a student forgets what we have for homework, or they are interested in getting ahead to see what our week looks like, a weekly agenda will be posted as well as a monthly calendar for upcoming tests. I had a few parents this past year that asked me to message them a few days before we had an assessment, because their child would become anxious. With this tool, parents will be able to access the calendar digitally weeks before.  This alleviates the stress for parents, students, and puts the pressure on me to continually reach at my goal of staying organized.

In grade 5, we also rotate classes for Science, Social Studies, and Writing. With that being said I created two new Google Classrooms for the other two fifth grade rooms, for their students to access, and to help myself stay organized in regard of who has completed what task, and what I need to grade. Last year, returning after my surgery, it was a nightmare trying to organize the remainder of my student’s grades- when I barely had my own 25 students covered. With the use of Google Classroom, this will lessen my stress of where everything is, because it is all conveniently in one place.

In conclusion, just as Wesch believes, learning is an ongoing process. I am still learning, my students are learning, and we can all learn from one another. Creating this website is a risk, but it is a risk that I am so excited to introduce to my future fifth graders and their families. Without taking this course, I would have never thought of creating a website for my classroom. I would’ve tried to organize my classroom with more paper, folders, and filing cabinets, than I have room for. Now, I not only have my class organized in one place, I have also organized my two other classes, for my writing block. Having my students submit their writing pieces digitally will save me a lot of time for grading 75 writing pieces moving forward. With that being said, I am more motivated than ever to continue to work on this website over the summer, and throughout the school year.