Take a peek inside Claire's classroom!

Written by: Heidi Dull, DCTF Recruitment Ambassador and 2010 Fellow

Today I had the opportunity to take a look around DC Prep's Benning Road campus at Claire's classroom and school and I wanted to share some of the great things I saw!

Right when I walked into the school I saw this large bulletin board reflecting the school's attendance goal. This board helps convey the important message that attendance matters to both students and teachers.  The H.O.T. tracker appears outside of every classroom in the hall for students to check themselves in with each morning as a daily reminder that being at school on time is important for success!

 

  

And here we are at Claire's door! It is a special education pull-out room so I like that she named it the "learning lab" so students understand the importance of coming in and getting right to work.

 

Walking in you'll notice this room is pretty tiny- Claire has done a great job squeezing in all the necessary components of a successful, engaging class. Let's take a look!

 

One great thing for every classroom to have is a BIG GOAL! This helps students keep track of their progress and holds both the teacher and students accountable for success. Below is a picture of Claire's goal as well as two other data trackers (one for number recognition and one for letter identification) that I saw in another preschool class nearby.

 

 

 

 

In Claire's classroom I saw many things focused on classroom culture that aligned with having both high academic and behavior expectations of students. Her school uses the "Shine Model" to track student behavior throughout the day. Students are "shining" when they are following all rules and meeting expectations- the goal is for the entire class to earn shines throughout the day to recognize this great behavior. Tracking student behavior as a whole class can be a great way to create buy-in and increase community among students.

 

In order to track behavior students must know what is expected of them. This poster creates a visual for SLANT- a common expectation for how students should participate in classroom lessons.

 

Claire clearly posts a student friendly agenda which is great for students in special education classrooms who benefit from consistency.



 

 A great practice is to set-up a "calm down" area for students. In this area of the classroom students can either choose a way to calm themselves or spend time talking it out with friends.

 

 

What students were learning was obvious as I walked around, especially through large anchor charts that students could use to refer back to at later times.  



 

 On my way out I caught this little framed picture near the door. It holds notes from people who come into the classroom and see great things happening. I loved that Claire had made a space for celebrating both her students and herself for wonderful work!

 

 

 As I walked through the hallways on the way out of the school I noticed these two great bulletin boards. One focused on the early childhood theme of fairy tales (with student writing samples) and one celebrating Black History Month.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this peek inside a real DC school and classroom as much as I enjoyed my visit!

 

Thanks for reading! 

 

Do you believe in magic?

Written by: Brian Garfield

“Mr. Garfield, do you believe that unicorns are magic?” 

         I was in my first week as a brand new teacher of English as a second language.  Even though I had spent my entire summer with the DC Teaching Fellows being exhaustively trained on how to answer every conceivable question my students could throw my way, my training had not quite prepared me for this one.  Ngan, an inquisitive first grader from Vietnam, was making me work hard for the money.

       I quickly scanned my brain for the right approach.  The wrong reply to a question as crucial as this could ruin my entire year.  Since I was teaching in our nation's capital, a few blocks from Embassy Row at Hearst Elementary School, I made a snap decision to go the diplomatic route.  I turned the question back to her: “Do you believe in unicorns?”  

    “Of course, Mr. Garfield.  Everyone who knows anything believes in unicorns.” 

      Humbled, I pushed on with our lesson on animal names.  I didn't know it then, but my exchange with Ngan would prove the first of many interactions with my precocious pupils in which the teacher would become the student.  Thanks to the DC Teaching Fellows program – and to dozens of students like Ngan – my life as a first-year teacher has been as rewarding as it has been humbling. 

 

            I made the career change into teaching after serving as a lawyer in the Army JAG Corps.  The training I received during a summer of intensive coaching and hands-on classroom instruction was like boot camp for teachers.  Along with a hundred other teaching fellows, selectively culled from a pool of over a thousand applicants, I spent my summer days in a strict routine: rise with the sun to prepare for the day, teach summer school until 1500 hours, and then, after scrambling for an afternoon coffee, launch into several more hours of training with Teaching Fellows instructors.

 

            Though the routine was strict, it was never predictable.  My students were mostly English beginners, and the challenge of engaging them required equal parts discipline and flexibility.  Because my students were new to the language, my first task was to break down their “affective filter” – educator-speak for the wall that beginners erect as a defense mechanism for dealing with the discomfort of expressing themselves.  Because of these filters, many of my students didn't speak much during the first week of school.  But the Teaching Fellows program made sure I had the resources and support to create a comfortable learning environment.  After a week, my students' filters came down, their natural enthusiasm shone through, and their achievement skyrocketed. 

            The most valuable of all these resources were the expert instructors who coached me through the summer institute.  These brilliant teachers were like drill instructors with smiles.  Each one brought to the job a wealth of experience teaching in high-achievement schools.  More important, each one was as demanding of me as they expected me to be with my students.  Whenever I had a doubt or a question – in other words, every day – they were quick with an answer, and, more than that, quick to demonstrate a technique themselves.  This first-hand modeling allowed me to see a first-rate professional in action every day.  It was like learning how to play quarterback by having one-on-one tutoring with RG3. 

            The best part of this coaching is that it has continued throughout the school year.  My DCTF coach observes me in the classroom several times a month, and always follows up with a de-brief session filled with ideas on how I can make myself a better teacher, with an emphasis on data-driven lesson planning and comprehensive objective-setting.  This allows me to implement suggestions in real-time, to the benefit of my English language-learners.  Because of this professional mentorship, I have grown as much in a few months as I would have grown in a year without it. 

 

            As a result, I've been able to broaden my students' horizons, and that feeling of satisfaction has been more rewarding than the most successful day in the courtroom.  My experience as a first-year teacher has been a living illustration of Yeats's dictum: education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. 

 

            As for Ngan, whenever I plan her lessons I try to steer clear of material that could give rise to impromptu questions on unicorns.  But she continues to teach me every time we meet, and it's nothing short of magic.