A word from the wise.

Student teaching is SO soon. I decided one of my best courses of action was to talk to a student teacher, who will finish his last 5 days of student teaching this coming week. After speaking with him, I learned several valuable lessons. I asked what his biggest lesson learned was and he told me that you will not know what to expect from students until you are actually in the classroom... And then you still won't know. He appreciated the experience that the field gave him and he felt that classes were great steps for preparation, although you can never be fully prepared for the real classroom until you are in it. 

I have to say, I agree with him. It proves this even in the ncpts 5: Teachers reflect on their teaching. He found, through practice, what worked and what didn't work. He reflected on this every hour to every day of his teaching. 

These past few weeks I have learned to roll with the punches and grow as time allows. For some reason, every college student is bombarded the last month of school. Whether this is their own fault because they've put off everything, or because professors need a few more grades, it happens. And it is felt all across the campus. Even though this widespread panic and stress attacks all of us, this does not mean it is okay to get sloppy with your work because it's drawing near the end of the semester. 

It means finish strong because you're nearing the end. This is a good thing. 

As my friend, Troy Bolton, famous Wildcat basketball player, once told me, "we're all in this together."

Always,
Brittany Kertesz

Teach well.

Did you know that there is a responsibility to teach math? Not only is there a responsibility to teach how to get answers, but there is a conceptual push behind every math problem to see the bigger picture. No longer is math just drill and practice; math is something that can teach and can grow students in their critical thinking skills and in their practices of all other subjects of learning too.

These standards are as follows:



Many of these are self explanatory, and if not, the little bald guy helps act it out in many of these scenarios, so model after him. Through these, students are responsible to demonstrate their thinking and persevere in working hard.

This seems like a weird topic to talk about, but as a teacher leader, we strive to be the best teachers we can be so that our students succeed. And let's be honest, we wouldn't be in this field if it weren't for our students. These students that get on your last nerve when they ask a question that you literally just finished answering or the student that you watch mark the wrong answer on the EOG test when they had just "mastered it" a day ago.

But these students are also the ones that draw pictures of you and them holding hands underneath that same sun and tree that every person has drawn before. They are the ones that you catch looking at you and when you redirect their eyes to their paper, you still see them smiling at their paper because that bond between the two of you is still there, even when being reprimanded. These students that want to tell you all about their day, because they trust you enough to share these minor details in their lives that right now, mean the world to them.

These are our students. We have the responsibility to teach them and teach them well. So, get out there and exhaust those resources, because we often see these children more than their parents do. We are some of the biggest influences in their lives right now, and although we may get frustrated, they are the reason we are still here.

Seriously, I'm exhausted too...
And I'm not even a teacher yet.
You're doing great!

Sincerely,
Brittany Kertesz

Post observation blues?

On Monday, I had the chance to teach a math lesson to my class. I was observed by not one, but two professors and my CE. Let me just say, I was given enough feedback to last me a good bit of reflection practice. I was pleasantly surprised when a lot of my feedback was positive. I don't really know why I was expecting something negative, but knowing that all 3 of these marvelous educators want me to be my very best, I knew I would have an improvement list to last a lifetime.

My lesson was on multiplying by the multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000. Unfortunately, the technology was a little wonky, but I jumped into my lesson as soon as I realized we were losing precious learning time. The students picked up this learning SO quickly. I was very impressed, especially when our tier 3 and EC students got the hang of it! WOW! I knew my students were capable, it was just exciting to watch the learning happen in their brains. At one point in the lesson, one of the girls in my class answered the problem correct and did a little dance of joy in her seat and my heart was so full!

Lately, I have been told horror story, after horror story of the education world... It is discouraging and makes me look into the future with questions and doubt. But when I see dances of joy because LEARNING happened, I know this is good.

Now on the title of my post... Luckily, I don't have the blues from this observation. I have approached my feedback with curious appreciation and a lot of it I can work on and fix easily. For instance, I have trained myself to not say the words "like" and "um" while presenting for fear of someone keeping tally. Unfortunately, I have another filler word that distracts from learning. This terrible word is "okay." Weird, right? One of my observers counted.. And let me just say, it was a big number. I was disappointed because I feel myself getting comfortable with something and then I realize that I too have this strange tick of filling the silence with my noisy mouth.

Upon reflection, I have practiced taking more time to speak, just in daily talking. I practice allowing a little bit of silence to fill my conversations and I am pleased to say I am noticing a change in how I approach speaking. This sounds so silly, but allotting more time to speak and allowing silence makes me more comfortable with the silence of the classroom. I can't wait to try it again in the classroom for a lesson!

Another one of those important acronyms.

Today in class, my classmates and I were charged with the direction to somehow present the NCPTS (North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards). My partner and I worked with standard 3, teachers know the content they teach. During this study, we created a series of memes (a humorous image that is spread rapidly throughout Internet users), to introduce and share about this standard. Here is an example of one of the memes we created:

The man on this meme is known as "the most interesting man in the world," so we figured, educators are pretty impressive, who better to represent us than THE most interesting man? 

This standard that he is representing is standard 3, section d, part 1: 

Teachers incorporate 21st century life skills into their teaching deliberately, strategically, and broadly. These skills include leadership, ethics, accountability, adaptability, personal productivity, personal responsibility, people skills, self-direction, and social responsibility. Teachers help their students understand the relationship between the North Carolina Standard Course of Study and 21st century content, which includes global awareness; financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy; and health awareness.

If you are a teacher, or are training to be a teacher in North Carolina, this link takes you to a shareable Google Drive document that breaks down each of these standards in a know, understand and do format. Everything on this document is what a North Carolina Professional Teacher is responsible for and held accountable to uphold in their classroom at all times. With this document that you adhere to, your classroom will be a place of impactful learning and engaged students. 

Dare to be great, people!

Brittany Kertesz

When you're gone for a week...

Technically, it wasn't even a full week out of the classroom, just 3 days of instruction time. The students noticed, and the material they are learning is so much farther than I thought it would be. The students were thrown off by my not being there one of the days I'm usually there. It's interesting to see the way students react to the smallest things.

After creating plans for a substitute teacher for one of my assignments, I realized how much work it takes to walk someone through an entire day of class. Also, it is a big task to prepare an entire day of lessons. I have learned so much more in preparing a full days worth of classes than I have learned in creating individual lesson plans. Although there are pros and cons to creating individual lesson plans versus creating overwhelmingly huge unit plans, I have learned so much in the way that I think and in the way that they work together by creating the big picture. 


Throughout my education career, I have not seen a lot of the benefits of creating a single lesson plan that doesn't fit into anywhere. Not that we're practicing creating a plan for three weeks of instruction time with our students in student teaching, I'm continuing to see the form and flow of the classroom. Also, we have real life scenarios that we get to work through. Instead of trying to prepare lessons for the "what if" student, we have real students that we know and get to prepare for. 


Also, there are very helpful when creating substitute lesson plans. Although some of them can be cookie-cutter lessons, for the overwhelming majority of them, you can differentiate the lessons to for to your classroom. A substitute teacher can look like a practiced teacher by carrying out your instructions! 

So you need a substitute.

Today was an interesting day. My CE had already notified me that she would not be in the classroom today because she had jury duty. She asked me if I would be willing to close out the day with a mini math lesson and a social studies integrated literacy lesson. I, of course, jumped at this opportunity!

The only problem was I didn't have the material she was wanting me to teach the class.
This was the epitome of flexibility in a classroom.

I showed up about 30 minutes early to study the material, but with the sub trying to talk to me the whole time, it was really hard to focus on the task at hand. I was able to read over everything once and get somewhat of an understanding on what was expected in today's class. Luckily my CE leaves INCREDIBLE notes to follow. I had no question of what I was supposed to do and I felt confident in what she had left for us.

It was a great feeling to have this much practice, even unmentored. I am preparing for a smiliar experience tomorrow (continued jury duty for my CE) and will lead the math lesson at the beginning of the day along with 3 of the guided reading groups. I created a lesson plan for the guided reading groups, but as for the math, it is a little different.

Working through transitions is one of the best experiences I took from today. Directions have to be clearly stated and students have to be redirected as you, the teacher, are trying to prepare which slides are next and what devices should be turned off, on, or connected. The papers should be passed out as whiteboards are being picked up... Whew! It's a lot to take in. But I witnessed it for the first time and I'm proud of myself for completing all required material with plenty of time to spare.

From today, I learned that you have to be prepared for anything as a teacher. Whether this be your duty as an American or any other problem, teachers need to be prepared for situations like these that arise.


Stay inspired,
Brittany Kertesz

There's always one.

Continued adventures at the elementary school... I have been working with a fabulous class. This class has been great to observe and work with because my CE is incredible and my class is a great variety of students. These 4th graders have a range of reading abilities, from the 1st grade to the 10th grade reading level. My teacher has been described to me as a "gentle leader" of any group. She encourages, but not too often. She reprimands, but in a way that is constructive, not belittling.

This amazes me.

There is one student in the class and she does NOT STOP TALKING. I have tried proximity. I have tried calling her name out. I have tried talking to her, but she never quite gets it. And its not that she doesn't understand, she just loves talking. She's actually quite brilliant. She does well in every subject, has an impressive reading level, and she goes to 2 AIG classes. I do not believe it is because she is bored, she just has a lot of wit and sarcasm that she has to keep contained all day. She has been moved 3 times already, but she can genuinely talk to anyone and everyone.

So... what do you do?

After researching a few articles to fix this problem, I actually found a couple that were very interesting ideas. From this article, one teacher said that she had a very talkative student and what helped was when she finally brought in the child's parents to observe their child. After this, there was a huge attitude change. First of all, this is a good tactic because it gets the parents involved as well as straightens out the student's behavior. This was my favorite idea. There are more on the website, so I strongly suggest checking it out!

Good luck out there!
Brittany Kertesz

The new kid in town.

Fortunately, I have never experienced being a new kid at a school. My dad grew up and moved around almost every single year of his childhood and after attending 13 different schools Kindergarten through senior year, he vowed to never have anyone do this. That is why he allowed his dream of being full time active duty military to have a backseat to his family. He shares every now and then how it was to be the new kid at school, since he has many experiences to choose from. 

There is a new student to this school this year and although she has been here since the first day of the school year, it is difficult for her to come to a new place where most of the students have been in the same classroom since Kindergarten. She has been one of the students that stand out the most to me. One, because she consistently takes the time to welcome me to the classroom and greet me with a hug any chance she gets. And two, she constantly looks my way throughout the class period. 

After observing her for these past few weeks, I have seen what a hard transition this is for her. Some of her test scores did not transfer from her other school, and she always reminds me that she should be in 5th grade because she was retained in 1st grade. This girl struggles with fitting in, in this classroom. According to this article, the biggest difference in the new student's life at school is made on the first few days of school. To keep transitioning the student and ensure them a safe, welcoming environment, this literature about the study of Native Americans can be a good piece to acknowledge the experiences the students come from. 

The change that the "new kid" goes through by moving homes and/or schools is grand enough. These few little things we can do to help this transition run smoothly is greatly appreciated and can be helpful to keep behavioral issues down in new students. This also helps to focus the student when they can relate to things such as literature and safe topics. 

There is so much information and help out there! Use it to help your students and yourself in the long run.

Always,

Brittany Kertesz

A little bit of everything...

Over the past two weeks I have been able to observe the students in my classroom and watch my CE as they communicate with each other. It has been a time of growth and has taught me a lot about my personality and relating to the students, such as how do I compliment, what do I compliment for and how often do I choose this tactic. Our classroom is full of students from every background, every personality, every learning level and style. In this classroom, we have reading levels from 1st grade to 6th grade. When the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards requires that you teach to a diverse group of students, it wasn't joking. You need to be prepared for all things.

Differentiation in a classroom is always one of the biggest obstacles to face. If a teacher longs to be more than a "cookie cutter teacher," one must clearly and effectively demonstrate differentiation.  This link leads you to a few methods of keeping this in the classroom. It shows what the pace should look like in the classroom to how assessments should be altered in able to be appropriate for the student. I once made the mistake of saying differentiating lessons for students is the same thing as "watering down" the lesson. This was a mistake I WILL NOT be making again. I had meant that watering down the lesson for this child was creating a different version for the student to better understand, but in the education world, this did not mean the same thing. Watering down a lesson in this world is something similar to saying you were talking down to the child. We are not talking down to anyone in this profession and we are not simply teaching to the middle. We are creating ways to better communicate with people and help prepare them for a world that is difficult and is very advanced. This includes preparing them for living in the 21st century. 

Technology is a great way to create differentiated instruction and help familiarize the students with proper tools of this time. My CE is confident in using her smartboard and she uses it effectively. She creates many lessons that are fun and engaging. I plan on going into one of the classrooms here on campus and just practicing using these strategies. This site takes you to the smart board website where you are able to put in the standards you are looking for, the grade, and the subject. Then you find a great supply of lessons to teach and smart notebook to help you lead better in the classroom. My CE will be expecting that I know how to use these types of devices when I start officially student teaching, so might as well start now. I look forward to using these tools and I am excited to prepare lessons with these devices. 

Until next time,
Brittany Kertesz

What I learned this week.

As an education class, we are able to reflect openly and honestly about how our time in the classroom is going. This has proven to be very important and helpful when faced with the challenge of "what do I do when this happens" and receiving direct feedback to our questions. This class has been a lot of looking at ways to manage your classroom and incorporate the most effective teaching strategies.

In the classroom that I am observing, I have not been able to witness any learning centers set up around the room, so I did a little bit of research on how to best manage those. This link leads you to 5 tips on managing learning centers. These 5 tips walk the teacher through a few steps of how to plan, prepare and lead using learning centers. Often times I am unsure of a best way to make these learning centers effective and useful for learning, but this link has helped me find a variety of ideas to use when it is my turn to prepare lessons for learning. I chose to research learning centers for 4th grade math because many students in my class have a hard time understanding many of the concepts introduced to them. I saw test scores from the class and my CE has shared with me that math is going to be an important focus this year. These learning centers allow them to have different practice, work together to develop answers and move around in the classroom,

One opportunity I did have in the classroom was to work with the students while solving problems in rounding numbers. The lesson moved quickly and some of the students took off with flying colors. Others; not so much. I got to talk to my CE about differentiation and she shared with me a few things she does in order to make sure she has prepared her students in the correct way and sets them up for success. The students had a test on a book they read in class and she gave two of her students entirely different tests with half of the number of questions and with a reading passage that was on a first grade reading level. She then put them at another table so they could easily access her if they had questions.

It's on days like these where observing in the same classroom is wonderful. It is beneficial to your learning and shows you what is expected of you. We know this because of the standards the CE model for you and the NCPTS. Days like these make teaching look good. Every time I leave the classroom, I feel a little more fulfilled a lot more confident in what I am getting a degree in.

To more learning,
Brittany Kertesz

Preparing Myself.

These past 3 weeks have been a lot of learning about patience and learning about being a proactive student. This is BIG for me because usually that's not what I'm known for. Throughout my college career, I have been enthusiastic about people, places, and fun, and occasionally I have enjoyed a class or two. But lately, instead of watching my 3rd hour of Netflix (okay, realistically, my 5th hour.. But who's counting?), I find myself reading blogs about teaching students, better ways to administer tests, and ways to make the classroom a safe environment for learning. My Pinterest is no longer only filled with pins from the categories of humor, weddings, and food, but it is now filled with the essentials you need to know for your first classroom experience. These posts include "10 ways to use Google Drawings," "3 Brain Based Strategies Every Teacher Should Use," "7 ways to increase student engagement in the classroom," ways to practice social skills in the classroom, and better ways to prep your classroom for the next day. These have inspired me and have been helpful to push some of my doubts away, as well as get me thinking that this will be all too real, VERY soon. They have probably also annoyed my followers, but that's beside the point.

I have been in class with most of these girls in 435 since our very first education class sophomore year. We were young, we were new, and we were extremely confused. Granted, many more moments of confusion and frustration have been shared between us all, but it is somehow different now. We're older. We're more experienced. We have 3 years of college under our belts and we rely heavily on each other to get through these classes and to swap silly stories with. We speak differently (like we've been educated or something, go figure) and what we say is also different. It has been a joy growing with these girls and preparing myself in this way, alongside my classmates.

In this way, I have learned how to effectively collaborate ideas and I have changed the way I view education. These classmates have taught me to have a different perspective on how I view students and of the coworkers I will soon have. I look forward to working with people of all backgrounds and experience, because instead of trying to gauge whether or not I am more knowledgeable than this person, I am trying to always learn from them. One of my favorite lines in Disney's Tarzan is "in learning you will  teach, and in teaching you will learn." This is because we must always be looking for learning. Although there are many flaws in the system, we must approach this world as something new and something good. It is vital to our education to change our mindset in this manner. As people, we're trying to find our place in this world; as teachers, we're trying to better the world.

Much love,
Brittany Kertesz

No class for 2 weeks.. Now what?

My elementary school is going through many changes. From hiring 4 new teachers in just a couple of months, sickness going around, a new principal, new scheduling, and new students; this place is a completely different school now then it was last year. During this transition, my CT requested that I give her and the students some time to adjust to all of this change, and to not return until September 2nd. This was a little discouraging at first. I had just met all of the students, gotten to know my teacher and then all of it was put on hold for an entire 2 weeks!

During this time, rather than just enjoying my Mondays and Fridays off, I decided to be proactive in my studies. I also decided to search for good blogs and tips for teaching once I got back in the classroom. My Pinterest is filled with classroom management skills, teacher websites to get great deals, interactive opportunities for students to get engaged in learning, and Twitter has been teaching me many ways to incorporate helpful technology tools into my instruction.

My 4th grade classroom has at least 5 recognized exceptional children (EC) in the classroom. This means I have my work cut out for me. I found a blog that focused on the "8 Essential Areas for Managing Special Needs Behavior" and figured I could at least check it out. Once I read a few of the bullet points, I thought most of this information was just common sense, but apparently not. My favorite area to focus on is the strengths of the particular student. I believe that everyone was given a gift/talent and sometimes it takes time and effort to discover what that is.

I think one of the most rewarding parts of teaching is helping children find their passion. Students who act out or are classified as "special needs" can often be shrugged off and "handled" for a while, rather than cared for and tended to. Although it takes a lot of time and energy, I believe most of these experiences can be rewarding. We the teachers must have faith in our students, because if we don't, who will?

Until next time,
Brittany Kertesz

A Brief Reflection of Meet the Teacher.

My first day at my school was a very interesting one, to say the least. My cooperating teacher is a very kind lady and she has been a teacher for 24 years. She began her career in upstate New York and has been at her present school for 11 years now. She is able to recognize her strengths and weaknesses with ease and was unafraid to share them openly with me. She loves teaching reading (this could be because she has a masters degree in English) and she also loves teaching math. She has admitted that she could use a lot of work in the science and social studies area and I am hoping to be very prepared with suggestions and pointers on how to incorporate this subject into her teaching. 


I find it fascinating that even while I am still a student who hasn't even taught more than 10 lessons in the classroom could provide input for a teacher who has been in the profession for more than my lifetime. It's exciting that she is open to the suggestions and that she wants to better herself every chance she can to provide a better education for the students. She even asked my opinion on guided reading and how it is best incorporated into the learning. 


My CT (cooperating teacher) was quick to share with me that this elementary school's school wide disciplinary system is PBIS. This stands for Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports. My teacher is her grade level's representative for PBIS and she is learning about a new system they are incorporating for their school wide proactive strategy. This system is called Class Dojo. It is an app on an iPad that the teachers carry around with them to keep track of where their students are in a more private way. Rather than the entire class knowing where a certain student is throughout the day, this strategy allows the teacher to keep track in a way that is useful and keeps up with them to provide positive and negative feedback. 

Upon reflection after the orientation tonight, I realized that I have my work cut out for me. Starting the night off with a school lockdown for the first 30 minutes (yes, it was a surprise to all of us), My teacher had told me that we had at least five children on the EC (exceptional children) list and we got a surprise tonight with the sixth addition who is low on the autism spectrum. This is very intimidating going into the school year. My teacher shared with me that at this elementary school, approximately 1 in every 6 students are listed as exceptional students. I'm excited to see differentiation worked into these lessons and watch as each child's unique differences are put into action in this classroom.


I made sure to talk to each and every student that walked through the door of the classroom tonight and introduce myself to them, their parents, and their siblings. I was provided with the opportunity to meet the parents, which put into perspective how important it is to have their cooperation for their child's success.  Some parents were obviously very supportive and took the time to get to know the teacher, while others either didn't show up for the night or glanced in the classroom, took a couple papers and left in a hurry. I was most intrigued when one of the students exhibited more excitement and interest in learning than the parents did in being there. I can't wait to work with the student and see where this dedication and interest takes them. 


Most of the students made note that a few of their new classmates were the same as classmates in previous years. I think this will be a great form of community and the continuation of growing together as students and learners in the classroom.