This past week, my district so kindly sent our English department (all four of us!) to the NCTE Convention in Minneapolis. It was amazing! I can't wait to share with all of you my experience and what I learned while there. My students were very excited to see the pile of books that I brought back with me!
This got me thinking about professional development and how it looks during the busy school year. I try to read texts about pedagogy, teaching styles, and adapt unit plans. The reality though, is that I only have time to read bits and pieces. I often find myself reading articles online that are shorter and I am quickly able to relate to. Below are some articles that I've read this fall and a short reflection as to why I think they are important to share with other educators.
Minnesota Students' Scores Mixed on Nation's Report Card
I will admit, my principal forwarded this article to me, but I strongly believe that we should be aware of how our students are performing and what's being reported about them. I may not be a fan of testing, but I'm also a realist and understand why administrators and legislation look to statistics to measure student progress. As an English teacher, I can see how each of my student increases their communication through writing, reading, and speaking each year, but I am grateful that I don't have to write individual reports about each of these students. That would be an unrealistic feat to complete each spring.
There are some positive highlights in this article, including 8th grade scores: third-best in math and seventh-best in reading. Our 4th grade scores took some dips, but math is still second-best and reading is higher than the national average.
Declining Student Resiliency
This article from Psychology Today intrigued me because we had a training about resiliency this fall. This article explains how professors and other college faculty have noticed a drop in college student resiliency. Students are professionally visiting with mental health services and are visibly, emotionally upset in their classes.
I find this interesting because my career goals include preparing students for life outside of high school. The article suggests that "helicopter" parents are to blame for this. This may be true, but it is also societal. I also can't help wondering what role middle and high school teachers play in this. Are we meeting the expectations of society and holding the hands of our students too much?
Writing Workshop is Hard
I can't agree more with this article title. The days we have writing workshop in my classroom are the most exhausting. They don't seem to take too much prep as I try to limit to one or two mini lessons, but moving from student to student for individual conferences is a workout for my brain. I try not to limit my students' topics, so my mind is doing gymnastics as I go from essay to essay.
I think this article gives some good tips for sharing this process with parents, which I think is fantastic! It's also relatable to anyone who teaches using a workshop menu.
What have you been reading?
