Wait, That Wasn't on My Lesson Plan

The bell rings. It’s 5^th bell, English 9. My students are sitting there, staring at me -- waiting for me to do something. I begin teaching. It’s going well. My students are really getting the lesson.

I’m happy

…until I look at the clock. Then, my happiness becomes shadowed by the realization that there are still 20 minutes left in class, and my lesson, which was supposed to last all 48 minutes, is doomed.

I begin scrambling.

In my head, of course. I can’t let me students realize I have nothing planned.

My thoughts are racing.

Okay, Miss Valco. Think. We’re looking at this piece as readers today. What else can we do?

Then it clicked.

Now, normally, I would have given my students workshop time in a case like this. But I hadn’t yet introduced the first writing assignment. This experience happened in the first few weeks of school, when I was still getting the hang of things.

If this were to happen now, I would be able to shrug it off like it’s no big deal. I’m just here to let everyone who has had a moment like this know that it’s okay. It’s horrifying when it first happens, but it’s okay.

But when you’re in that moment? Well, there’s a good chance you’re full of panic.

I managed to maneuver around the issue by asking my students to write their own short little narrative in the style of the author, despite reading the piece like readers that day. It worked. 

I Could Not Be a Teacher Without Sticky Notes

Sticky notes are my lifeline.

A lot of my cohort was at the edTPA
Boot Camp that we had this week, so
before we started working, we had
to document our mini-reunion.

My cooperating teacher has started to notice that as the stack of student papers grows on my desk, so does my stacks upon stacks of sticky notes reminding me that so-and-so needs to take Vocab Test 1 & 2, and that so-and-so has not yet turned in their concept map, and that we need to work on such-and-such skills before this-or-that paper is due.

And then there’s my stack of edTPA centered sticky notes. These ones are reminding me that I need to go back and proof-read Task 1, that I need to grade my students assessments so I can complete that portion of the edTPA, and that I need to finish deciding which video clips I want to use.

I have sticky notes everywhere. On my binders, on my notebooks, on my students notebooks, on my students work, on my students notebooks, on my gradebook, on my lesson plans, on my desk, and even on the edge of my keyboard. The desktop on my laptop screen is even covered with virtual sticky notes. And don’t even get me started on the sticky notes hanging in my room.

Sticky notes are keeping my student teaching world stitched together -- somehow. What may seem like a chaotic system of disorganization becomes an ordered system that is quite effective for me.

Without my mountains of sticky notes, I don’t know where I’d be. I’ve already gone through three packs of sticky notes since school started.

I even give my students sticky notes to practice their vocab words.

This week, I had a day off to work on my edTPA, and I attended an event on campus called edTPA Boot Camp. On my walk there in the morning, I realized that I forgot two essentials: my nice headphones (unfortunately I had my old and broken ones) and sticky notes.

Despite already being on campus, I considered walking the mile back to my apartment just to get sticky notes.

I didn’t make the trek, but I definitely would have appreciated having my sticky notes during the edTPA Boot Camp, as they would have been nice to make small notes on about what I had done, what I hadn’t done, and what I still needed to do.

Needless to say, I don’t know how I would be a teacher without sticky notes.

Do Not Start Training for a Half Marathon the Week You Record for the edTPA

My advice to all those who are presently going through or will go through, at some point in the future, the long, arduous, and often mysterious edTPA process: do not start training for a half marathon the week you decide to record your classes.

This week, I learned that student
teaching requires a lot of
baggage.

Now, let me set something straight -- this is not the case for me. I had no intention of beginning to train for something as difficult as a half marathon this week, but I had plans to do things other than obsess over my edTPA.

I had plans to eat dinner somewhere other than in front of my computer screen. I had plans to at least say “Hello” to my friends. I had plans to take a break every night and you know, just breath.

But those plans did not happen.

You see, it’s not that the edTPA is all that difficult. Sure, the process can be confusing and hard at times, but when you break it down and really look at it piece by piece, it’s not a level of difficulty, but a level of clarity that needs to be reached.

The issue I had this week is with the time commitment. This week, when I wasn’t working on my edTPA, and when I wasn’t planning lessons for the other classes I teach, and when I wasn’t grading papers, I was trying to figure out what I still need to do for the edTPA, and when I wasn’t doing that, I was sleeping.

I will not lie. The edTPA is demanding. I’ve already put in hours of time and energy -- and I’ll admit, a puddle of tears as well – but I still have a long way to go before I can turn it in. What makes the process so grueling for me, is that I’m still planning and teaching other classes besides the one I have chosen to use for my edTPA, so I’m finding myself in a position where I’m trying to do all of the items I’m required to for my classroom, as well as everything I’m required to for the edTPA.

It’s time consuming and it’s hard to split time between the two. It’s not easy to find a balance.

For now, I’m just waiting to land on some sense of clarity as I fumble through this process.

Just remember, whether you’re working on your edTPA at this exact moment, or whether you’re completing it in the future, you’re not the only one. Remember to breath and enjoy your time in the classroom. The edTPA is just a small portion of your student teaching experience, and soon enough, it will all be turned in.

Just breath. It will all get done.

And remember, don’t bother training for a half marathon the week you record your lessons. There will be plenty of time for that in the future.