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.