I used to be a literacy coach... and here's why I need one.

I am not a new teacher.  In fact, this is my twenty-third year in my school district.  Eighteen of those were spent teaching seventh grade language arts (and sometimes US history) and four of them were spent as a literacy coach.

As a coach, I worked with the teachers to improve literacy instruction across the curriculum.  Surprising as it may seem, I spent most of my time working in math, science, and social studies classes rather than in the language arts classes.  I loved going into these classes and thinking with the teachers about the challenges of incorporating reading, writing, and choice into their curricula and then working with them to implement the ideas we came up with together.  I was always amazed at how we could take my knowledge of research in literacy education and pair it with their content expertise to find new ways to engage students in the hard work of learning.

Now, I'm back in the classroom, and I'm finally able to put all of the things I've learned over the past four years into practice.  I know so much more about teaching and learning than I did when I first stepped away.  I've had the opportunity to watch teachers and kids and think about engagement and learning.  You'd think I'd be the best teacher I've ever been, right?

I am.

I am much more aware of limiting how much I talk so that my students can talk and think more.  I provide my students with opportunities to make choices about their learning over the course of the school day.  The feedback I give my students is clearer and more targeted than ever before.  You'd think I wouldn't need to work with the literacy coach in my building.

You'd be wrong.

I've spent the past two months working closely with my coach because I want to continue to grow. Having Luanne come into my room to work alongside me provided the opportunity for me to discuss my teaching and my students' learning with a highly knowledgeable peer in a setting unrelated to my professional evaluation.  She could make recommendations for next steps with particular students and small groups because she was in my class, getting to know the students as readers and writers, and we had many conversations about what to do to move students forward.  This time with her in my class was important to my growth.  In some ways, it validated me; it helped me to see that I DID remember how to teach after being in a support role.  In other ways it challenged me by reminding me that my way was not the only, and perhaps not the best, way to approach a topic.  I'll miss having Luanne in my room several times a week.  She's now moving on to work with other teachers in our building.

I know not all teachers are lucky enough to have instructional coaches to support them in their work.  But we can seek out coaches and mentors on our own.  I know that I rely on one of my teammates to help me plan my math instruction - trust me... I need that help as I've never taught math before!  I seek out Twitter chats such as #g2great and #3rdchat which focus on instructional practice in order to "meet" other teachers who are smart and innovative and help me push myself.  This desire to continue to grow as a teacher is as strong as ever.  It is important for all teachers to have this growth mindset. We need to be models of curiosity and life-long learning for our students.  We need to keep up with the research and new thinking in our field.

So I think the thing I've been trying to write through today is the idea that as a teacher, I can never stop learning.  I can never know all there is to know about my craft and there is always room to grow. Need a friend to read and discuss a professional book?  Email me.  I'm always a willing participant. Have a problem you need someone to think through with you? I'm your girl, as long as you'll do the same for me.  Read a great book about teaching and learning lately?  Tell me the title so I can buy it.

Because I honestly believe you can never learn too much.

The More You Know

This year is my second year as the literacy coach in my 6-8 building.  Last year I survived.  This year, my goal is to do more than survive; it's to thrive.  I'm being strategic in my schedule.  I've come up with an organization system for my coaching plans and notes.  I am reaching out to teachers in many different content areas.  I'm reading.  I'm watching.  I'm listening.

Today, Ellin Oliver Keene, author of many books including Talk About Understanding and co-author of Mosaic of Thought came to work with a group of teachers in the building.  A colleague and I realized we had been working with Ellin since our daughters, now in 7th and 8th grades were in K and 1st.  We relish the opportunity to learn alongside Ellin and to have her push us in our thinking.  Mrs. M., the teacher who hosted our observation agreed to have Ellin coach her in the moment while she taught.  Mrs. M. is also a coach (of the sports variety), and she understands that sometimes coaches have to give instruction to players during the game or even in the middle of a play.  The other teachers who were part of our group would have the opportunity to experience this type of intense coaching vicariously and the students in the class would get to view their teacher as a learner.

While I love watching Mrs. M. teach, I was in that room with a different purpose.  I wanted to watch a master coach coach.  I wanted to learn from Ellin how to be a better coach than I was last year.

Now, tonight, after having some time to process, I feel like I have so much more to learn.  There were things that Ellin saw that I missed, words she used that I wouldn't have thought of.  During the reflection time following the observation, I realized I still observed with a teacher's eyes, thinking about how I could take various strategies and language and adapt them to my own classroom.  Well... now I'm a coach.  My eyes and thinking should be tuned to the teacher, her needs, and the needs of her students... not necessarily my own.

This type of reflection and learning is important.  Thinking about my practice helps me to understand what I need to do to improve in my now not-so-new role.  I have some ideas about reading, talking, and thinking I want to do with MY coaches, and luckily I know where to seek those resources out.

The more you know, the more you realize how much more there is to learn.  Isn't that great?

This post was written as part of the Tuesday Slice of Life series sponsored by Two Writing Teachers.  Want to read what others are writing?  Go check it out!

As Ready As I'm Gonna Be

 It's hard to believe my summer is over with!  On Monday, I report for my first official day of the 2011-2012 school year.  The kids start Tuesday, and I've been working hard getting our space ready for a year full of reading, writing, talking, and thinking.

(This photo is the view from my doorway.  The room is much smaller than it appears in this photo.)

Just this week alone, I spent six hours with my learning team working on two of our genre study units.  We chose learning targets, identified possible mentor texts,  planned some mini-lessons, chose notebook work assignments, and wrote rubrics for our free verse poetry study and our memoir study.  I'm excited because I think this hard work will pay off as we seek to provide intentional instruction in our workshops every day.

(This is the view of the front of the room from my desk.)

I've written lesson plans for the first two weeks of school, focusing on launching my reading & writing workshops, and I've sent my picture of my summer reading book stack to our media specialist to make into an ALA style READ poster.  I've made my copies.  I've weeded and rearranged my library.

(This is our meeting area/reading corner.  I used to have sofas, but they got really smelly in my "garden level" classroom.)

Now I wait and wonder.  I wonder about my new kids - what will they be like?  Will they be readers like my last two groups; kids who devour books as quickly as I do?  Will they see themselves as writers and embrace the genres we will study?  Will they gel into a community where risk-taking is appreciated and undertaken?

(Most of my classroom library--arranged by genre)

 I wonder about myself as a professional.  Will I take all I have been reading about, thinking about, and talking about and work it into a classroom system that makes sense?  Will I work on my own writing and finally embark on the kind of scary project I've been mulling over in my head for the past four years?  Will I ACTUALLY start my doctoral program the way I want to?

(The back corner where my desk sits.  I haven't had the urge to get rid of it yet!)

One of the best parts of my job is that I get a fresh start every August.  Each school year I have the chance to be a better teacher than I was the year before.  I love the challenges that come with the territory of teaching young adolescents, and I love the laughter they carry with them through my classroom door (pictured, left).

So bring it on!  I'm ready (I think).

Welcome to the Inaugural Post of Making It Work in the Middle!

School starts just one week from today, and I finally feel like I'm ready to start tackling planning.  Last year was a difficult one for me, both professionally and personally, and I'm looking forward to a better year this year!

One of the ways I am setting myself up for success is through this blog.  I'm hoping to post here on a regular basis as a way to process my thinking and learning this year.  One would think that after 17 years of teaching seventh grade language arts I would have it all figured out.  Not quite!  What I discover, year after year, is that the more I know the more I realize I have left to learn.  I am lucky to work in a school district that values professional learning, and as such I have access to amazing mentors such as Ellin Keene and Diane Sweeney.  Just as important are the mentors I have sought out for myself, people such as Donalyn Miller, Teri Lesesne, Jim Burke, Kelly Gallagher, Patrick Allen, and the many other teachers who are part of my online professional learning network.  Each of them challenges my thinking every day.

One of the books I'm reading right now is Day by Day by Ruth Ayres and Stacey Shubitz (Stenhouse, 2011).  Ayres and Shubitz have formatted this book in such a way that it compels the reader to reflect on her practice and strive to become better.  Right now, I'm still on chapter 1, "Routines."  As I've begun my planning for the first few weeks of school, I've thought about the routines that help to make my reading and writing workshops run smoothly.  I know that establishing and practicing these routines is essential to the success of my workshops, but sometimes I get bogged down in the day-to-day minutia of my class that I forget to practice them with my students!  If anyone else out there is working through Day by Day, I'd love to have someone to share my thinking with!