Me and my posse

I didn't mean to do this, but I sure am loving it!

I have 2 student teachers at the moment. Life is sweet - but not for the reasons that may seem obvious.

I am now able to muster enough man-power to accomplish all that I had wanted.

In literacy, I assigned each TC a certain skill to initially assess, plan, teach, check-in and monitor. We are seeing such great results now! I'll try my best to post the pictures of our tracking methods.

What I am noticing is that the kids have no spaces to hide, to do less than their best. It is pretty exhausting for some of them! 

Others, I've noticed, are being pushed and challenged. I've noticed in my teaching that there are some kids that I let "go", as they are independent and can coast along doing good work. This has become necessary as I push along the lower kids. The time I needed to move them along, I am taking away from the quiet, independent kids that are doing well, demanding no attention.

Now that I have leveraged my posse, I can now spread out the attention to encompass all of the needs in the room, whether they demand it or not.

As hard as it is to convince others, this is not a time off for me. I am not putting my feet up and cruising along. I am engaging the class in ways I cannot normally do. I am giving my attention to that which normally doesn't demand it.

And it is awesome!

M.