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I focused on the chapter titled "A Rampage of Gratitude" and it really resonated with me. I think it's super important, especially as teachers, to remember that we have a great job...even though it can be challenging, it's rewarding which makes it all worth it! Everyday we can find something to be grateful for and I loved the  activity where students get an opportunity to share three of their favorite parts of the day with the class at the end of the day. I will be using this activity with my classes!

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"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessing." - Eric Hoffer

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"I usually challenge myself to five things I like any time I leave my classroom...Between here and the classroom I will look for five things that make me happy, and I will find them."

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Keep All the Plates Spinning was focused on balancing all the key sections of your life from self care, social life, work social life, family life, financial life, mental health, fun factor, and physical health. I loved the little quiz that it had me take to genuinely see which sections of my life I am struggling in and which sections I am doing well in.

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"Consider cultivating a longer mindfulness meditation practice outside of school... There is nothing mystical or mysterious about the positive health benefits of sitting quietly... and focusing on your breath, and not being judgmental of yourself when your mind wanders. Meditating, even for as little as 20 minutes a day, can change your brain..." (67).

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Brain breaks are necessary for middle schoolers to help relieve stress and help them collect themselves. Not only does it benefit the students it also benefits the teachers so they can have a moment to themselves. Brain breaks can also help them be more focused and improve their social and emotional development.

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"We are all becoming increasingly addicted to technology, and its alluring feeding of the compulsion to be constantly distracted and stimulated."
Great examples of why we need brain breaks and we should limit chrome-books to a point*.

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I read the section "choose it, don't chase it." Stevens really stressed that you have to choose to be positive and choose to be happy. Yes some people are predisposed to being happier than some others but that is only a small percent of our happiness make up. The major part comes from just our ability to choose happiness and strive towards it daily. CHOOSE HAPPINESS and POSITIVITY daily!

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"...if I don't proactively focus on remaining positive and looking for joyful moments of my day, I could easily succumb to the 'dark side.'"

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"...if I don't proactively focus on remaining positive and looking for joyful moments of my day, I could easily succumb to the 'dark side.'"

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I would like to develop a more efficient way to connect with parents on a weekly basis. I regularly use Google Classroom and call parents, but I would love to send weekly/monthly newsletters...in Spanish/English, of course!

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We have been reading "Kids Deserve It" and "Teach to Empower." I am also looking to see if I can go to the Columbia Teacher's College Conference this summer as long as my dates line up. I joined a PLC about Classroom Management with Elementary school teachers. I am doing 3 Summer Zones as well (technically not PD but still learning and engaging with students). I am also trying to figure out what I will be getting my masters in.

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Honestly I haven't thought about it. I'm open to anything.

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I have attended many English as A Second Language meetings at the BCIU to gain more understanding of the timeline that s expected of us. I am also a part of several online groups that support first-year teachers and ESL teachers.

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I have been contacting parents more about the wins of the weeks rather than the bad.

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I am involved in SRI with Albright. I am in a Code.org cohort that we are trained in code.org and also share resources with each other. I am involved in PATTAN CS classes that are preparing me for a CS Praxis test. I have also attended many county wide networking meetings for Gifted and STEAM.

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Writing more emails to parents and having more communication with them. Still not completely happy but getting there.

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I would like to do a better job with posting newsletters updating parents on the work that we are doing in class. I do a lot of phone calls home, but I would like to do more mass communication.

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Today in class, I checked in with students to ensure that they are enjoying the books that they are reading and if they would recommend them to a peer. I was pleased to find that a majority of my students gave positive feedback about the books that they read. I also think that behavior is a great indicator of engagement. Today, during second period, my students who indicated that they were enjoying their novels were reading all period. I can use visual indicators and verbal indicators to determine student engagement. When students aren't engaged, it's important to switch things up, even from period to period.

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I need help with disciplinary issues. I'm not sure when I should write someone up, versus just talk to them outside of class, versus telling the office.

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I have failed to connect with a student who is completely quiet and does not complete any work. She interacts with me more when less people are around, but she does not use class time, does not want to interact with peers, and does not care about how she does in class. I connect with mom, and then she does some of her work, but it is on very rare occasions.

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Having a routine at the beginning of every class has been very helpful to me. The students expect it, it makes them more organized, and the class a better environment.

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Sometimes students just want to be heard--it's nice to listen when they need it, because I've noticed the more they trust you, the more likely they are to do well in your class.

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I think I need to start doing more positive contacts home so I can celebrate the wins rather than think about the losses.

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I can tell my students enjoyed learning this week because they were begging me to start reading the past two periods, remembered all the details from our read aloud, and some of them who would reluctantly read were saying things like "I actually WANT to read Miss McKAy and I never say that" or "I would gladly do work in here for 3 hours and be happy about it."

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I've had many students tell me that they are enjoying the station work where they read about American Revolution battles at different stations. They enjoy walking around the room instead of just being in their seats.

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I would like to do better at giving my parents classroom updates. Right now I feel like I am doing a lot for gifted that I have not had the time I would like to keep parents consistently up to date. 

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I would like to do better at giving my parents classroom updates. Right now I feel like I am doing a lot for gifted that I have not had the time I would like to keep parents consistently up to date. 

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How to do Machine Learning and the biases that can happen with it. They were enjoying drawing the faces and  entering them into the computer. 

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How to do Machine Learning and the biases that can happen with it. They were enjoying drawing the faces and  entering them into the computer. 

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My goal for the second half of the year is to remember to finish as strongly as a I started. Being that I am a trimester teacher going into the third trimester it can be hard to keep excitement up to restart a class for the third time. I want to make sure that I continue my excitement for CS and learning all the way to the end of the school year.

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My goal for the second half of the year is to remember to finish as strongly as a I started. Being that I am a trimester teacher going into the third trimester it can be hard to keep excitement up to restart a class for the third time. I want to make sure that I continue my excitement for CS and learning all the way to the end of the school year.

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I am really proud of the things I have developed and learned for the school year. Coming into this school year I have never been gifted trained. Now I have developed multiple GIEPs and have developed a report with my gifted students that has given them a safe space to be. I am also proud of the Computer Science course I have developed and implemented this year. With anything new their are some bumps and bruises that happen but I have weathered the storms and I feel have gotten students farther in their coding then some anticipated. I have learned how to do more reflective teaching as I have gone through my curriculum and will continue to change what we have developed until I feel like it is at a solid point.

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A win I would consider is having a student recently come to me and say that they miss me and my class. They said they felt respected and safe in my class. They said I pushed them when they didn't like to code but gently and they came out of my class every day knowing someone cared about them.

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I agree with my fellow new teachers that I need guidance on what to do in certain disciplinary issues. When should students be getting a teacher detention vs a school detention and things like that.

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I have been really successful in doing self-paced learning for my higher level cohorts. They are given lessons to work through and as they are working I am able to conference and discuss where they are in the lessons and address any struggles they are having in their coding. It has given me an opportunity to really form relationships with those students and be able to plan lessons based on their current needs.

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I learned that the school district is really looking to launch a TEL program that will benefit all students. It will be a time that students will get to find their passions and dig deeper into an area of learning that is their choice.

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I learned that the school district is really looking to launch a TEL program that will benefit all students. It will be a time that students will get to find their passions and dig deeper into an area of learning that is their choice.

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My goal for the second half of the year would be to focus on mastering what I have already learned and tried so far this year while continuing to explore new techniques and tricks that work best for each age group I work with. -Nicole

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I'm really proud of the relationships I have formed with not just my students, but with all the students in both of the buildings I work at. Having those relationships with kiddos makes it a 1000x easier to do my job and better serve them every single day.

I'm also proud of being halfway done with WIDA testing. I can see a lot of growth in my student's writing as I monitor them completing the test. Writing was a big focus for us the first half of the year and I believe it really paid off! They used to only want to write one, incomplete sentence with no capital letters or punctuation and now they are writing properly in well-written paragraphs!! -Nicole

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A goal I have for the second half of the year is to try new and outside of the box things. I feel like this year so far has been getting my feet under me, getting the hang of things, navigating behaviors, and learning the curriculum. Although I appreciate units of studies, I would love to try to twist some of the lessons into more engaging, unique, and outside of the box activities and lessons! -Abby

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My students have been doing their iReady Diagnostic Test and at this point in the year they should be around 50% growth. My students have almost all completed it and our data shows they are around 100-118% growth already and we are only halfway through the year!!! -Abby

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I have a specific cohort that I am really at a loss with. I feel as though I am everything I can think of to motivate them to turn in their work, stay focus and motivated, and keep behaviors under control, but it has been such a roller coaster. I would love to talk through it some time. - Abby

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I wanted to share something that I found really helpful on those virtual days (just in case they come again). I had my Google Meet open on two different monitors so that I could be with the whole class on one screen if anyone needed me while they worked on research, but on my other screen I was pulling some of my students into break out room for one on one help or small groups if they all had the same question. It worked so well, felt so efficient, and I felt like I completed double the amount of work and progress because I could be in two places at once! -Abby

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Since I just started in January I'm really proud of the bond that I am forming with a lot of students, not just my own. I try very hard to be in the halls and make connections with students so they feel safe everywhere in the building. 

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Since I just started in January I'm really proud of the bond that I am forming with a lot of students, not just my own. I try very hard to be in the halls and make connections with students so they feel safe everywhere in the building. 

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Kalie Anagnos

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One thing that I think my students did really well last quarter was their work in their research unit. They did a great job of reading a wide array of articles on their topics and took ample notes, in which they kept track of sources, found significant quotations, determined implicit and explicit meanings of those quotes, and asked research questions. Most students read 6 articles - with at least one article that shows the counterargument - but some of them read and took notes on up to 9 and really challenged themselves. This made working on our infographics much easier.

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A win I would consider is a connection that I made with a student who at first was struggling. I was happy to call home and reward her for her hard work.

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Disciplinary things like what to do when they flat out just don't do something you ask them to do...

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I had one of my most difficult students write me a letter of apology and he genuinely wants to come to my room every day even though we have several conversations about his behavior. He now comes and does small jobs for me as a reward like helping with name tags and watering plants.

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One lesson that I feel was successful was when we were talking about how to summarize a book, including the characters, setting, conflict, and plot using Goodreads (and then writing a brief review). Students were engaged when I used Spongebob (letting them pick the episode) for guided practice, and they were able to do complete it for their novels in their assignment. I was really happy because even students who sometimes are hesitant to participate were engaged.

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A WIN I would consider has to be having one on one conversations with students who may not be a model student. Understanding why the act out is important for me, this way I can help them avoid those triggers whenever they are around me. After having these one on one conversations I see a positive attitude change with the student. -Elias 

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A WIN I would consider has to be having one on one conversations with students who may not be a model student. Understanding why the act out is important for me, this way I can help them avoid those triggers whenever they are around me. After having these one on one conversations I see a positive attitude change with the student. -Elias 

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Learning students names as quickly as possible has been helpful.  From there, learning an interest or favorite of theirs that allows me to spark conversation anytime, anywhere.- Nicole

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Learning students names as quickly as possible has been helpful.  From there, learning an interest or favorite of theirs that allows me to spark conversation anytime, anywhere.- Nicole

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Sending them to the office for not putting their mask up or for other disciplinary things such as not listening the first, second, or third time. Do I just send them and call down? What if it is a couple students and not just one? Also, if multiple students are not listening, I feel like I cannot send them all to the reset room or office. What should my next move be?

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I've really learned the importance of connecting with students and getting to know their names, interests, and dislikes which helps to facilitate max learning in the classroom especially since I am in so many different classrooms and between two buildings.

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I feel like I need more assistance we behavior situations. I have contacted several parents and received responses. The students of the parents I emailed actually asked me during class if they were being good and if I could email their parents about it. This showed me that they actually DO care about how they are seen in school by their teachers, peers, and parents. -Elias  

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I feel like I need more assistance we behavior situations. I have contacted several parents and received responses. The students of the parents I emailed actually asked me during class if they were being good and if I could email their parents about it. This showed me that they actually DO care about how they are seen in school by their teachers, peers, and parents. -Elias  

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That we have Malvern Behavioral Health and Counseling services available for students who may need it.  This is an outside agency who has an office in the school.  The counseling is funded though family insurance, but saves that parents the trip to the agency.  - Nicole

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That we have Malvern Behavioral Health and Counseling services available for students who may need it.  This is an outside agency who has an office in the school.  The counseling is funded though family insurance, but saves that parents the trip to the agency.  - Nicole

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I used STANG cards last year as a reward for work completion and participation in class, but this year I learned how to use the STANG matrix as a way of reinforcing class norms. For example, "How can we show respect to another student who is talking right now?" It's helpful to have a school-wide expectation to which everyone can refer and for which we have common language.- Alex W

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Writing letters to people who deserve appreciation. To practice writing to an audience my students wrote letters of appreciation to a suggested list of people or an approved person and it brought a lot of smiles to their day.

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When working with Ms. Ziemer, I really liked the co-teaching situation we had going. When students were confused or a little behind I could go around and individually help them. That helped me build relationships with numerous students. -Elias 

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When working with Ms. Ziemer, I really liked the co-teaching situation we had going. When students were confused or a little behind I could go around and individually help them. That helped me build relationships with numerous students. -Elias 

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Using skits/demonstrations where the students can volunteer. They love getting in front of the class and being an example (for the most part)

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Using skits/demonstrations where the students can volunteer. They love getting in front of the class and being an example (for the most part)

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Try to build relationships as soon as possible. Have positive reinforcement ideas that show the STANG method. If positive reinforcement does not work then go back to the 3 strike system. -Elias 

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Try to build relationships as soon as possible. Have positive reinforcement ideas that show the STANG method. If positive reinforcement does not work then go back to the 3 strike system. -Elias 