Staying Open to New ideas

 

Though I have been teaching 20 years, I am always striving to learn new and better ways to reach my students academically.  This past fall I embarked on a new journey and headed back to college to work on my math specialist degree.  Math for me has always been a subject that has been a little intimidating, so I decided to challenge myself to learn better strategies to be a more effective teacher.  Some of the classes have been online, and though I feel I am fairly tech savvy I was totally outside of my comfort zone the first few classes.  The pandemic had me pretty competent with zooms, but nothing prepared me for breakout rooms, jam boards, and doing cooperative assignments in groups online.  My last college degree was in person, so this dinosaur really had to learn and grow to feel successful.  It has been a great topic in my third-grade class for community circle though, I love being able to model for students that you can be a lifelong learner.

Another area I focused on this year was a building wide training to implement a program called UFLI in my room.  The students I am currently teaching were in kindergarten when schools went virtual.  A lot of students are still missing some basic skills to read and decode and this program seems to be an excellent resource for students still struggling.  I have been working with students in small groups to try and implement this “new” program.  It has been trial and error at times, but I think it is making an impact on student learning. 

The great news with education is there is always room to grow at any age!

Jennifer Mitchell -- 3rd grade teacher in the Kansas City area