This Decade 2010 – 2020

There is a lot going around on social media about how are you going to spend the next decade or about how you are going to finish up this one. Then yesterday I saw something on Twitter that asked, how did you spend this past decade. What do you know now that you didn’t in 2010? So, I started thinking..what has changed for me..what is different?

Well, right off the bat, since 2010, I have taught 3 different grades, second, fourth and now third. I have had about 6 different principals and have taught in two different schools. It was definitely a decade of change for me, but all my teaching was done in the same small town in Connecticut that I have dedicated my career too. This decade has also seen the Common Core State Standards and Smarter Balanced Testing. There has also been a huge change in teacher evaluation, as 45% of my evaluation is now based on student test scores.

In this decade, I have found that Twitter is an incredible outlet for professional development and have met and had conversations with teachers and educators from all over the world. My social media presence is more about my professional development than it is about sharing my personal life (although I do that too). But Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have all become professional outlets for me. I have found great programs like Global Read Aloud and March Book Madness as well as developing an understanding of what education looks like in different areas of our country and our world. Social media has expanded my world beyond what a workshop can do.

We are grateful to have 1:1 computers. This teacher who started teaching before even owning a computer, now has every student in her classroom have access to a computer whenever they wish, or I wish. 😉 However, even with this technology, nothing beats a well planned lesson from a teacher.

I was able to get Skype in my classroom and through that, we have Mystery Skyped with well over 50 different classrooms. We have also used Skype to grow as people, whether it be a friend on vacation in Egypt or my cousin, a designer for Converse, in Massachusetts, my daughter in South Africa or our #kidsneedmentor author.

We began to use programs like Padlet and Kidblog which allow us to share our writing with others; making us aware that we write for an an audience. We recently added Flip Grid, which is a video way for us to allow others to hear our voice. We have been able to not only share our voice with our teacher, but also with our classmates and children from other states.  We can also comment and reply to others!

Ten years ago, I was using a basal reader to teach reading. Now students read real books. We meet in teacher-student conferences. They have book clubs. We read and read and read.  We read real literature.  We hold books in our hands.  We cry and get angry. We write to authors and they like our tweets or our instagram posts and leave messages, which encourages us to read more of their books. We write.  We write and write and write.  We have Writers Notebooks that are carried home and written in every night.  They become a delicious mess!

I read more middle grade novels than ever before! This genre has exploded and it is amazing.

I have discovered a professor from Stanford called Jo Boaler who is doing amazing things with brain science and math. She has created an incredible website called Youcubed.org. Through her efforts, I have learned to be a better math teacher who uses brain research to do what is best for kids. Students in my class know that no one is born a math student, that it is access to math that allows for growth. They know that math is not fast and it is during times of struggle that our brain grows.

Through research, I have learned how important math talks are and I start almost every lesson with one. I have learned that great math teachers such as Steve Wynborney are putting up content for teachers to use for free. I have notice HUGE improvements in my students math ability since I have started these.

With the explosion of technology for me this decade, I have grown more so as a person and an educator than any other decade. Being able to have 24/7 access to like minded individuals has allowed me to reflect on my craft like never before. It has also fueled a passion that has kept this job exciting for me after 33 years. I can only wonder what the next decade will bring.