I have a framed poster in my room that says, "I teach. What's Your Superpower?" I had a student get all excited when he read it. He said, "YOU have a superpower? What is it?" To which I replied in my most impressive super hero-ish voice, "My superpower is teaching you how to read and write...in English. It is the most powerful of all superpowers." (I even made a Hulk pose to highlight the power.) For some reason his enthusiasm diminished following my response. (Maybe the Hulk pose was too much.) So I asked him what superpower he would like to have. He thought about it for a minute and then said he would like to fly. "That way I can sleep longer and just fly to school." The other students in the group each shared their preferred superpower AND the reasoning behind their choices. One wanted to know everything that way homework would be easy. Another wanted to be invisible so that he could prank people. It was wonderful. The students were questioning each other on their decisions with what if this happens/how would you do this etc. Just the type of thing I love to hear from my ELL students! It was at this point that my prepared lesson was set aside to use another day. Instead we wrote about our superpowers.
At times I think I forget how important it is to just work in the moment with my students. After all I have a goal for each student and a plan of action. Don't get me wrong, I adjust lessons ALL the time in order to best support the needs of my students. I am a tweaking queen! However, setting aside an entire lesson, to completely change it, made me feel a little guilty. Just a few short years ago I would never have felt guilty about teaching in the moment. If the students were excited about something they discovered, or something they were discussing I would often run with it. I wanted to capture their enthusiasm while it was at its peak and challenge them to do something with it. Today there is so much pressure to have our kids preform well on tests that are, at times, neither developmentally nor grade level appropriate...and there are so many MORE tests! (I am sure that I am not the only educator who finds this frustrating.) I know for myself I have lost 15 days...FIFTEEN DAYS of intervention instruction time with my ELL kids so that I could help administer tests. Sigh. Unfortunately, I can't do anything to get those lost days back. All I can say is that on THIS day I got to use my superpower and I feel like a super hero.
At times I think I forget how important it is to just work in the moment with my students. After all I have a goal for each student and a plan of action. Don't get me wrong, I adjust lessons ALL the time in order to best support the needs of my students. I am a tweaking queen! However, setting aside an entire lesson, to completely change it, made me feel a little guilty. Just a few short years ago I would never have felt guilty about teaching in the moment. If the students were excited about something they discovered, or something they were discussing I would often run with it. I wanted to capture their enthusiasm while it was at its peak and challenge them to do something with it. Today there is so much pressure to have our kids preform well on tests that are, at times, neither developmentally nor grade level appropriate...and there are so many MORE tests! (I am sure that I am not the only educator who finds this frustrating.) I know for myself I have lost 15 days...FIFTEEN DAYS of intervention instruction time with my ELL kids so that I could help administer tests. Sigh. Unfortunately, I can't do anything to get those lost days back. All I can say is that on THIS day I got to use my superpower and I feel like a super hero.
RSS Feed