What I Think I Have Done Well and Can I Please Have a Do Over
By Heidi Straka
Background
It just amazes me how time has gone by so fast in my teaching career. I often reflect on my teaching and how it has affected so many kids and their families throughout those years. Always hoping that my choices during those years were a positive experience in their educational journey and they are finding immense success in their adult lives.
When reflecting on those years of teaching Kindergarten, Second Grade, Title Reading, and
recently First Grade in my 33 years. I often think about the choices I made with my instruction
during those years. I have discovered I have made some good choices and continue to make them daily. Then a choice I wish I could have a do over with. I made a brief list to share those findings with you. Let us start with my opinion of the good stuff.
Relationships
Relationships have always been a particularly important part of my teaching. Building strong
relationships with students and their parents seems to bring the best out of them as a learner and myself as their teacher. When you need support from a parent with a child, it is so much easier and a productive conversation due to the strong relationships that I have built during the beginning of each school year.
Students always understand their role in my classroom and feel amazingly comfortable in the learning environment that has been established. When walking into the classroom you will feel a sense of pride, a family setting, empathy, and a support system towards all students and each other. My heart is filled with joy and sadness each year when it ends. But also knowing I have a chance to repeat it again in the upcoming school year.
Continue to Learn as an Educator
One of my personal goals throughout my teaching career is continuing to learn what best
practices will work with my students so they can find academic success every day. I find myself reading articles, collaborating with other colleagues, reading books, listening to podcasts, and following educational professionals on social media.
I genuinely believe that if you are going to continue to be a successful teacher, you need to keep learning also. You cannot be just satisfied with what you learned in your undergraduate years and think it would still work every year with each student. I have witnessed that throughout the years and told myself that will not be me.
You cannot depend on your school district to provide you with skilled professional development. As an educator, you need to seek out what is best for your students.
Time During the Day
Learning that you do not have any control of what happens outside your classroom. Your
students' life outside of their school setting can be complicated. Which they often have no
control of. But I, as their teacher, can control what happens to them during the 8 hours a day at school. Do they feel safe, are their emotional and social needs met during the day, do they love to learn, and feel like part of their classroom family?
As a classroom teacher of lower elementary students, I use my time wisely throughout the day to deliver their instruction. I want my students to be able to become better readers, writers, mathematicians, learn about the world around them, and most importantly love coming to school each day. They should never be able to feel the pressure that teachers often undergo of creating proficient readers, effective writers and increasing test scores.
Balance
Balance plays a key role in my classroom each day. You need to find the balance between
learning, playing, and being happy. Throughout my day I push them to be the best they can,
again without them feeling the pressure and frustration, but also having some fun too. We often have lots of movement, read alouds, choice time, and my favorite activity, class meetings. The balance during the day only enhances learning, relationships, and success for all students.
Now my list of just one at this moment, can I please have a do over.
Teaching a Child How to Read
I thought I was teaching kids how to read, but I wish I could teach them again. I want a do over please! When I came out of undergraduate school in the late 80’s, it was the push towards the whole language movement with Goodman’s. So, my training for the best practices was not really teaching kids explicit reading foundation skills, but kids will learn to read if you expose them to good literature. Then the reader’s and writer’s workshop approach came along. Which started to add some mini lessons, but nothing in explicit and systematic foundational skills. I did love and still enjoy giving my students during the day some time to have independent reading and writing. I do use that time to listen to kids read and look at their writing. Those are great opportunities for me to do some informal assessments to help drive my instruction.
I received my masters in the early 90’s around reading instruction. Reading Recovery was a
program that talked about the three-cueing system. So, what did I do, go back to my classroom using those practices to teach my kids how to read. And shocker the same percent of kids were finding success. But most were still struggling to read.
But what I did not do in the beginning years of my teaching was give all kids explicit instruction in breaking the code to start their beginning journey on how to read and write. I have learned so much in the last couple of years, thanks to my personal goal to continue to educate myself. Because of my continued strive to read research articles and books, collaborate with my colleagues, and listen to podcasts. I hope to use that knowledge to provide my students with the best practices. As a teacher, I need to continue to look at what kids do well and what they need to work on to support their reading and writing. My students will hopefully succeed in their reading and writing abilities.
I know there are many other things that I could have done better over the years. But I do pride myself on my work ethic, dedicated support for the future of education, and want to learn as much as possible to become a stronger teacher of young children. I am blessed to have a chance to be part of so many children’s lives even if it was only for nine months of their life. They all have had a strong impact on my life.
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