The skill development I am most proud of is my organization. I came into student teaching most concerned that I (unlike many of my peers at St. Kate's and seemingly in the teaching profession) do not care particularly whether or not postit notes are color coded or whether my poster looks pleasing. I have always been of the mindset that it is more important to get the content and let these organizational/aesthetic details fall to the wayside. I was however very nervous that this was an essential teacher skill/tendency that I lack.
Although it may not appear as such to someone visiting our room, I have made great strides in my organization and presentation this year. I happened to be placed with one fo the few teachers who is more disorganized and even less concerned with aesthetics than I am. For this reason, I have had to become the organized one. It's been a bit of baptism by fire as our year started with such a haphazard array of semi-complete materials and resources, and no clear system for doing anything. I now am the primary record keeper in the room, and I set the whole space up and organized it so I'm also the one who knows where everything is/belongs. Anyone visiting our space would notice that the walls are a still a but less cheerful and colorful than other rooms, but we're getting there... It's been a big step and even bigger confidence boost for me.
I love this entry, Meggie, because of all the irony! I was smiling the whole time I read, from the "Post It" comment (Staples and Office Max really upped the ante there), to your observation that Diane is, perhaps, more disorganized than you, which means you've needed to take the lead.
ReplyDeleteI'd probably argue that "disorganized" is the wrong word to describe your approach. A focus on content (and not style or presentation) is absolutely the right approach, and it doesn't signal a lack of organization. Instead, you can be choosy about which adornments move you forward in presenting material that's engaging, relevant, and memorable to kids. Post-its and bulletin boards have a skinny connection to those loftier goals.
Still, it's great to see that your confidence around managing a classroom has grown. Some skills you can only learn on the job, and it sounds like you're doing that very well.