Well, here we go!!!
What I learned this week:
This week I learned that even though I am a teacher, I am also a constant learner. This week's schedule was full with lots of training, classroom visits by our state legislators and round-table discussions about state-wide education issues.
Tuesday I attended a full-day training by Yolanda Westerberg, our Writer's Workshop guru. She, as a consultant, visits our school district 2-3 times a year to support our implementation of Writer's Workshop. She meets with grade-level teams to discuss how best to use the program in our classrooms. Since beginning the program this year, we had a lot of questions to ask. It was nice to meet with as a grade-level team to discuss what has worked for us and what hasn't. Much of this info will be added to my research paper.
Tuesday evening I attended 4 hours of an 8 hour Mandt training. This system is a "comprehensive approach to preventing, de-escalating and intervening when behavior poses a threat of harm to themselves and/or others." www.mandtsystem.com I have two special needs students in my kindergarten classroom. Our school also houses the district's autism program and we are faced daily with potentially harmful behaviors. This training will enable me to step in and hopefully reduce these outbursts. I did not think as a general education teacher I would be dealing with things like this. I am thankful for my district to give us the training needed to support these students.
On Friday morning I welcomed Senator Gary Stevens and Representative Alan Austerman into my classroom. They were in town to learn about the issues facing teachers. In the afternoon a group of teachers and parents took part in a round-table discussion. The issues of flat-funding BSA and vouchers were the "hot topics". They let us know that the best thing we can do is to continue to educate the legislators and the governor about these issues. I have learned quite a bit about these issues as well as issues that directly impact teachers especially those in Tier III and Tier IV. Defined Contribution vs. Defined Benefits, teacher tenure, evaluations, and health care changes proposed. Very interesting, and scary at the same time!
Now that this week has come to an end and I enjoyed an extra hour of sleep, thank you for the fall-back time change, I am ready to put all of my efforts into this paper. I look forward to receiving feedback as well as helping others through the final stage of this process.
I've tried to link through Weebly but I could not get it to upload. Please let me know if you are able to access my paper through this link. Thank you
http://www.scribd.com/doc/183727535/Classroom-Research-Paper-docx
[scribd id=183727535 key=key-2cwj3b82sd2im3sz4xe9 mode=scroll]
What I learned this week:
This week I learned that even though I am a teacher, I am also a constant learner. This week's schedule was full with lots of training, classroom visits by our state legislators and round-table discussions about state-wide education issues.
Tuesday I attended a full-day training by Yolanda Westerberg, our Writer's Workshop guru. She, as a consultant, visits our school district 2-3 times a year to support our implementation of Writer's Workshop. She meets with grade-level teams to discuss how best to use the program in our classrooms. Since beginning the program this year, we had a lot of questions to ask. It was nice to meet with as a grade-level team to discuss what has worked for us and what hasn't. Much of this info will be added to my research paper.
Tuesday evening I attended 4 hours of an 8 hour Mandt training. This system is a "comprehensive approach to preventing, de-escalating and intervening when behavior poses a threat of harm to themselves and/or others." www.mandtsystem.com I have two special needs students in my kindergarten classroom. Our school also houses the district's autism program and we are faced daily with potentially harmful behaviors. This training will enable me to step in and hopefully reduce these outbursts. I did not think as a general education teacher I would be dealing with things like this. I am thankful for my district to give us the training needed to support these students.
On Friday morning I welcomed Senator Gary Stevens and Representative Alan Austerman into my classroom. They were in town to learn about the issues facing teachers. In the afternoon a group of teachers and parents took part in a round-table discussion. The issues of flat-funding BSA and vouchers were the "hot topics". They let us know that the best thing we can do is to continue to educate the legislators and the governor about these issues. I have learned quite a bit about these issues as well as issues that directly impact teachers especially those in Tier III and Tier IV. Defined Contribution vs. Defined Benefits, teacher tenure, evaluations, and health care changes proposed. Very interesting, and scary at the same time!
Now that this week has come to an end and I enjoyed an extra hour of sleep, thank you for the fall-back time change, I am ready to put all of my efforts into this paper. I look forward to receiving feedback as well as helping others through the final stage of this process.
I've tried to link through Weebly but I could not get it to upload. Please let me know if you are able to access my paper through this link. Thank you
http://www.scribd.com/doc/183727535/Classroom-Research-Paper-docx
[scribd id=183727535 key=key-2cwj3b82sd2im3sz4xe9 mode=scroll]
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