How about differentiated instruction for teachers?

Things got a bit hectic for me in the last couple of months. 

I ended up taking module courses because I am a new teacher this year.  These are required for my contract.  The sad part is that while our district has been facing heavy budget cuts since 2008, they feel it is important to force people to RE-LEARN their craft that they just graduated from.  Do not get me wrong, I do not think that the program is a total waste… for those who have been out of the “teaching” game for awhile.  My question is what is the point of forcing me to regurgitate these things when I just graduated from a college that bases its education degree upon the sole standards and curriculum our state department of education put forth to be the working gears of our schools’ foundation?

It is time and money wasted!

You should see how many people they have on hand to “teach” these courses.  The modules aren’t even grade or content specific, and in the end most of the stuff I sit through end up being geared toward elementary school grades.

Can anyone tell me how I will benefit from tools of the trade from a third grade or first grade teacher when I teach sophomores and seniors?

I honestly, and probably could guarantee, that we can save a few teachers’ salaries if we cut back on this program they force all new teachers to participate in.  If we refuse to participate in the courses, we do not get our step increase for the next school year.

WAIT! Budget cuts are coming along, and we may not even see that increase.  This means that the almost 30 hours I poured into this program because I was promised a step increase would have been for nothing.  I spent time away from my family for something I already knew.  Why not at least allow me to take professional development courses, workshops, seminars and conferences in lieu of classes that reinforce research-based practices?

I will tell you a secret about teachers and research-based practices and strategies.  While it is all good and great to hear how research has proven that X can work with Y because A and B are great strategies, it is ultimately up to the teacher to tweak it and mold it to fit their teaching style.  It is like students and learning, not all students learn the same way.  We have to differentiate instruction for our students to reach them all.  Why does this practice not apply to teachers in their learning world?  When teachers step back into their student role, why must they conform to learning the same way?

Kind of defeats the purpose of piping up for differentiated instruction when teachers cannot even get differentiated instruction to meet their needs and demands of their learning processes and styles…

So, while I have become the mother figure to 180 other students at the high school I once graced as a student myself, my children have been thriving and growing like weeds!  I enjoy my job immensely, and thoroughly love the fact that I can be home in the evenings to tuck my children into bed, be there for bedtime stories, and not have to be frazzled over procrastinating on papers (Ah, those were the days, huh Greg?).  I now worry about things like lesson plans, how to get my students motivated and encourage them to learn, figure out how to connect my standards to the real world, etc.  We all know the infamous question of “When will I use this in the real world” will inevitably come up at least five times a week.  Yes, at least once a day, but times that by five because it will pop up in each class period I teach.

So, what is my answer to that infamous question?  I am so glad my readers are so inquisitive!

I tell them they need to learn how to read different types of literature, and write in different ways.  They will never know when they have to give answers, verbally or written, in different ways.  I explained to them that when I interviewed people to work for me at McDonald’s, I had asked questions that were reality-based like “If a customer came up to you yelling and screaming that they found a hair in their hamburger, and showed you the hamburger but no hair, how would you handle the situation?”  They need to know that “I’d tell them to calm their ass down and stop disrespecting me” is not a professional answer.  So, just on that one experience alone, they need to know the different between informal and formal languages.

“Why do I need to learn how to write poetry, Miss?”  Because you never know when being poetic might give you an edge on a position at a place of employment, or it might be the one thing that becomes their romantic trademark among the ladies, or gentlemen.

“Why do we need to know how to write essays, Miss?”  Because most employment applications require short written responses now, and it helps frame your mind for thoughtful, logic answers to verbal questions.

{Sigh} Yes, I love my job, but it does get a bit tiring to connect the real world so simplistic like that, but I work with students who come from homes that are about survival day to day.  They have to work for what they want, and it isn’t ever just handed to them.  So, I have to be as simplistic and to the point with my answers, while exposing them to meatier texts.  I don’t want them thinking those that go off to college are only privileged to the text I expose them to!

Back to my two kids of flesh and blood…

Leilani just finished her CRT testing.  From what I understand, she did very well.  Last year, she got the highest score in math for her grade level.  This year, I was told that her math levels are a 22 when the norm for her grade level is 12.  She is on target for everything else.  She is just starting to get into creative writing, but detests essay writing.  I keep telling her it is like a puzzle: find the right pieces to fit together, and you have one awesome picture in the end.  She has yet to see the fruit of this analogy. 

Michael has been doing great in pre-Kindergarten.  He loves socializing and playing with his guy friends, but still will refuse to play with most of the girls.  We enrolled him in the phonics program his preschool offers, also.  We were worried he would not be ready for Kindergarten if we decided not to.  We had allowed him to attend one session, and he love it.  He talked nonstop about it for three days.  We knew we had to put him into the program then.  How can you deny them to learn when they are excited about it?  He has been doing great with it and enjoys his weekly sessions.  The great part about the program is that the teacher types up her evaluations and then sends home the activities and songs they worked with so we can enforce them at home!

I can finally say that I feel life is heading in the right direction for us.  It took a lot for us to get hear, a lot more tears and exhaustion on my end because I was working full-time and going to school full-time, but I can safely say that it is starting to pay off.  I can finally say that I am completely happy with my job, and that our family finally has some kind of consistency to Mommy being around!