Vanguard Year 1: Hopes, Fears and Aspirations

I am so excited to be beginning this journey as a Vanguard fellow.  This will be my first year so I find myself like a kindergarten student on the first day of school-excited, nervous, and emotional. 

Excited because this is something brand new!  I will be learning so much.  I will be learning about new tools, learning how to utilize tools I already have to leverage student learning.  I will be pushing myself and that excites me.  I am excited because I will be meeting new people, learning from them and with them.  People who have already walked these first steps, who have invaluable advice and also, individuals who are just as wide eyed and bushy tailed as I am. 

I am also feeling nervous, much like that little 5 year old walking through those huge doors at the front of the classroom, walking down that long hallway to my new classroom, lots of people hurrying by going to where they  need to be.  Walking through that classroom door, wide eyed and not knowing what to expect.  Will my teachers be "nice".  Will they be patient with me?  Will I make new friends?  Will I learn everything I need to learn?  Will I be successful?  What if I fail?  What if I can't do it?  I will be pushing myself but that push, though exciting can also be very stressful. 


Finally, I am feeling a whole whirlwind of emotions as we embark on this journey together.  This is what will be best for our students.  What I learn as part of the cohort I will be taking back and utilizing with my kids.  I may have some ideas that I think are brilliant, but then will fall flat on my face.  On the flip side, I will have some instances where I will have huge ah-ha's with my kids.  I hope that teachers will see what is happening and be less "scared" and try new things with their students.  I just know what we will be working on is what is best for our kids and that makes me very emotional.  We have students who struggle-a lot.  We have students who find learning to be a breeze for them.  I know that being a part of this cohort will help me fine tune my craft to reach each and every one of them.  I will be able to open doors for them that may never have been opened if I had not participated in this opportunity and that makes me emotional.

As a Multi Classroom Leader, I do not have just one learning space.  I work with so many students and have such a great reach.  I have many goals for myself (I'm a pusher-I push myself all the time) and one of my first goals is to create lessons and learning experiences for 2nd grade students in itslearning where they will go to learn content at their own pace.  I started doing this this year with my grade level.  The students set learning goals for themselves.   Based on these goals, students will get on itslearning and get their assignments done.  As they work, they have journals and they write their learning goal and any notes that they take as they work (including definitions, in their own words).  A struggle I had with this was-students a)had no idea how to log in to the computers.  I had to work around that problem.  I printed Clever Badges for the students and taught them how to log in to itslearning that way.  I also printed off stickers with their username, email and passwords that they stuck in their workstation folders so they would not have as many issues logging in.  I noticed that I couldn't just show the students something and say, "off you go".  I fell on my face with that one
I had to go back to the drawing board!  I knew that I wanted students to be responsible for their own learning but how could I scaffold it to be easy for second graders to learn HOW to take charge of their own learning.  I decided that the best way was to provide plenty of support up front.  I modeled how to log into itslearning with my group of advanced learners.  They each had their device, their notebooks and I walked them through it step by step.  We worked together.  The experience was much better.  Another problem I have run into is time-I don't have any time now with testing.  MAP testing, mid year reading assessments, benchmark testing, and then TELPAS coming in February.  It is very difficult because my students are still at a level that they need me-a lot.  I am considering waiting to really get in this deeply with them after TELPAS testing is over.  I don't know.  Just one of the questions I keep asking myself-how and when.