Entering the Doldrums
By Siobhan Boylan
Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 8:05 pm in Siobhan Boylan.
They say in mid-October teachers hit a plateau. Kids are mastering routines, but ceasing to make progress, the mountains of paperwork make it hard to find the note a kid left you telling you what a great teacher you are or the memo from the office staff asking you to turn in a set of forms. The year is in full swing, but you feel like you're not on it.
Welcome to the doldrums, where we're all on this great big boat together, but we're not moving forward. My kids are doing a great job of our morning routines: We come in, greet each other, play a quick community-builder game, and are ready to start off with Open Court. But by the time we get to our first recess, they're already more interested in the bite marks on their pencil than what's going on in our story about Jackie Robinson. It's almost as if the door that opens to the playground releases the wind from our sails.
I realized today that my ship's not moving because the captain has left the helm. I have been lulled into the security of a scripted reading curriculum, my wealth of math games, and a sense that my kids could behave for the first 5 weeks. I need to get back into the habit of planning every minute so I know exactly what to do — so that my kids know exactly what to do. But after spending 30 minutes on the phone with parents and 15 minutes debriefing with my colleagues, it's time to de-clutter my desk and pack up to go home, where I slump into the warmth and comfort of my couch.
I want this ship to go full-steam ahead, but I've run out of steam.
Siobhan Boylan is a 3rd grade teacher at East Oakland PRIDE
[You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.]
October 17th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
<p>I was struck by the phrase "lulled into the security of a scripted reading curriculum." Since I started covering the Oakland schools last fall, I've often wondered about how Open Court works with new teachers. Do you think it makes it easier to get through the lesson, but harder to do it well?</p>
October 17th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
My friend made the comment to me the other day that Open Court is like boxed macaroni & cheese. You can just make straight from the box exactly as the directions tell you, or you can get creative and add vegetables and meat — either way, you're getting fed, but in only one way are you making sure your food is balanced and nutritious.
The directions for teaching Open Court are so dense (so many parts, so many little details) that it is easy to get lost and forget about what's most important. It certainly affords new teachers a great framework, but then it doesn't necessarily challenge us to think critically about how children learn or ways to make it more authentic and responsive to their specific, personal needs and desires.