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Tyler Narciso (Nar-see-so)

9th / 10th

ELA

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2. Developing As A Professional Educator

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2. Developing As A Professional Educator

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At the start of this year of induction, I wanted to focus on my knowledge of the district curriculum and best practices of teaching it with clarity and fidelity. Coming off of my first year of teaching, I was tasked with creating my own curriculum. While that was daunting, the freedom of answering only to myself as far as curriculum design choices imbued me with a bit of false confidence in my teaching. Coming to a district with a mandated curriculum I wanted to make sure that my students were receiving the same level of instruction that my colleagues were delivering only a few classrooms over.

Over the course of the year, I spent a number of hours (many of which were spent during my personal time) to better understand the material that Springboard offers so I can better teach that to my students. I don’t regret any of that time because I was able to learn what needed to be further scaffolded and modified for my diverse student population resulting in more engaging lessons. This work was done by me but with the aid of the years of experience of the rest of my Sophomore and Freshman teams. So long were the times where I was only reliant on myself that it was a godsend working with teams that pushed each other to prepare instruction that works with my student population. I wanted to work on this goal because I knew that it was my weakest. Class culture building, relationship building, class management came easier to me than some of my other peers. I wanted to challenge myself with what I knew I wasn’t the best at “yet”. There were some carefully planned out lessons and units where students knew exactly what was to be expected of them and they had all of the resources to become successful.

When I first started teaching, I had the goal of becoming teacher of the year. I know this honor is typically held for those who have decades of experience within education but I think constantly aiming for that goal motivates me to become better with every misstep I have. The goal encourages me to stay malleable to challenges and consistently try to become the kind of educator that students remember fondly, not only because we got along but because they took with them a skill they will have for the rest of their lives. In my class I try to instill the idea of becoming a lifelong learner and I follow that idea as well. Whether that is a new piece of technology or a different method to teach writing I will always try to hone my practice but be open to new ways of thought. That all may come down to my personality. I told my students at the beginning of the year and have repeatedly through the dog days of the before breaks: I am toxically positive and infectiously so. It might be used to motivate my students to complete a difficult summative assessment or to make a colleague laugh during the doldrums of a PLC meeting.

My energy knows no bounds. Starting my career as a teacher during a pandemic showed to me the realities of teacher burnout very early on. I am not above acknowledging the faults and pitfalls within our profession but understanding that sometimes things are out of our control really puts the focus back on me and what I can do within the classroom.

Sisyphus can either languish in the fact that the boulder will never get up the mountain or know that he has the strength to continue trying.

I will always try.

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Check out the loom videos below for some awesome teacher tech that you can use in your classroom.

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bouncyballs.org

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flippity.net