I believe most of us are being held back because of the time factor in the school curriculum. There is so much concern and directions toward testing, that there is hardly time to let ourselves go and be creative. I have been in teaching for over 16 years and it is totally different in classrooms now. The paperwork, testing and politics in districts and education are holding back the creativity for teachers.
Paperwork and testing seem to take up more and more of our time as teachers. I think some districts box teachers in by making them follow a particular curriculum to the T and don't want them bringing in extra resources. That can make turning a lesson into something memorable hard, especially when the curriculum wants you doing a lot of worksheets.
I couldn't agree more. So much of what we do is determined by the curriculum the school decides to use. Good or bad we are stuck with it. We can only smile and deal with it.
I agree with you! There are so many "things" that have to be done that the creative aspect sometimes gets pushed out the window. It's sad because that is what makes teaching and learning fun.
I think the thing that gets in my way would be the time to plan and implement. If I can come up with an activity that is different and memorable, I want to be able to implement it fast and easily. Some of the hooks would take some planning to implement. Getting into the pirate way of thinking is another struggle. It is being intentional in wanting to think that way and making yourself do it. Over time, I know it will get easier to think that way. The struggle is to just do it.
Time is a huge issue for me this year. I went from being single and knowing very few people in town to living with someone and having a 6 year old child. I can't work 12-13 hours at the school anymore. It's tough. Balancing it has kept me pretty stressed and tired this year.
Like what most people are saying in this discussion is that time is one of those factors that prevent us from being a relentless pirate. Even though my school is on a four day school week at the middle school high school we have over a full hour of class time that even doesn't seem like enough time to get everything in that we want to do, to express our creativity for kids.
Heather- I hear your same thoughts from a lot of my teachers as well. Several have expressed many great ideas to me, and when I say "Wow! That sounds awesome! How's it working???" The typical response is, "Well... I haven't actually done it yet because I don't have time." So sad; For the teachers AND the students :-(
The first thing that comes to mind is how small my groups are. Also, I really have my own room in one building. These shouldn’t be excuses, though. So, what I need to do is pick out the stuff the works readily in my situation and try to branch out with some of the others. I might have to change a few things to make them my own, but there are a great many things that I can use to engage students more readily.
We also need to remember that we don't have to use all of the hooks. We can pick one or two to start with and as we get comfortable with them, we can try to incorporate another one or two.
Group size is a factor for me too. There are alot of great ideas out there, not just in this book but others, that seem to require a certain amount of students. That is when I have to get really creative and figure out how to adapt things to my smaller class sizes.
I understand your point Jessica, sometimes we have 1 student at a time and is harder to do some of things he talks about, guess we need to really think out of the box to work it out.
I completely understand what you are saying about the groups size. A lot of my groups are small also, so we typically just get down to business because we have so much to cover.
I agree that some kids needs are more than others. It seems like this takes away from the amount of time we have to work on engaging our other students.
Time keeps me from accomplishing all I would like to do. It takes time to prepare the materials for use and it takes time for us to allow ourselves to relax and be creative. I find good ideas from other teachers and from reading journal articles, but again, that is more time.
It seems that we can always use more time. Being able to find the time is never easy. I too feel that our creativity is at time stifled due the time constraints of the daily routine and what we are required to fit into that daily schedule.
I think that the amount of time we have and the paperwork we have in special education sometimes holds us back. Sometimes I wish I could lessen the paperwork load so that I could spend that time on engaging my students more.
I find I spend an excessive amount of time taking data and completing paperwork. Finding a balance between the paperwork load and time spend engaging students is a challenge .
I agree with the data collection. I will get caught up.. then it seems right when I feel I'm getting everything else caught up.. its time for data again! AH! so little time.
I also feel like I spend a lot of valuable time with paperwork. The data collection takes a lot of time and then documenting it on the IEP web also takes quite a bit of time. I am still struggling with the new IEP web and find it very frustrating. It seems like there are many more steps than with our other system.
The book talks about perfectionism . I tend to find myself striving to be perfect and I feel this holds me back at times from teaching like a pirate. As I gain experience each year I still find myself as the author stated "killing the inner critic" and being happy with just striving to do my best. I have to allow myself to try and and sometimes fail and see that this is okay.
Great post. We are our own worst critics at times! I think we can be a little too hard on ourselves sometimes. We focus on everything we need to work on, the stuff that we haven't been able to mark off our to do list, how far behind we are, etc.. rather than spending some time by taking a step back and looking at all the amazing things we have accomplished! :)
I think time plays a big factor. It seems that everyone runs out of time. I also think that sometimes it is very difficult to leave what we are comfortable with and explore other things that we may not be as knowledgeable about. I am a control freak. I have admitted that several times throughout this blog. Who knew this blog would be like its own counseling session where we can safely admit our flaws. For me, letting my guard down and going with the flow would be exhausting and challenging. I promise I am working on it! I am also a perfectionists. I will drive myself crazy trying to think of ways to make it better instead of just diving in and giving it a try.
Time is my biggest obstacle also. I have 2 very active teenagers at home and it often seems that after school I still out in another full days work with my family! I add a few new things each year and build on that and not try to do everything at once.
For me it is time and travel. Being in several districts does make things more difficult, you never know we you might be that day. Paperwork does interfere as it has a time frame placed on it. I guess all those are not that great of excuses to use, but they do impact what we do with students.
Paper work is definitely difficult though! I feel so behind with so little time. I get a 45 minute plan time which is often filled with IEP meetings and answering emails. I then work at the after school program to help the students keep up with homework or get extra help. I'm not done until a little after 6 and it is so hard for me to stay motivated after that to get other stuff done like great lesson plans and my masters homework!
Judgement would be a big one for me too. I guess I worry that the four students will think that I'm silly, and that going all out for one student would be a little too much.
One nice thing about being an older teacher, I really don't care what the other teachers think about me! My main priority is doing what's best for kids, not impressing anyone else. You'll get there and it's very liberating!!
Some days.. I am so tired and bogged down that it is hard for me to fake it. I think this will be better when I'm not getting my masters at the same time. I think also... the stuff the students need to know for the test. Reading this book made me feel better about getting so frustrated at that. I do try and tell myself the difference I'm making in some of these kids life is bigger than their test score.. but I still want them to do well. I don't want them to drop out and follow in the foot steps of their parents. I would like to incorporate more of the hooks Dave talks about, to have increase engagement on a daily basis. I think I could do something every day rather than every week. I want my kids to always enjoy my class.
The only thing that really holds me back from teaching like a pirate is the fact that I have very little classes where I am full blown teaching. I have one math class of four students and on English class with one student. The remainder of my classes are study hall/seminar. I will teach a lesson once a week on study skills, citations, paper formatting, etc. but the rest of the time is devoted to helping them with other classwork - so much of the teaching I do is unplanned.
What holds me back from teaching like a pirate is that I may have 3 different subjects going on all at the same time. I have very small classes. It is hard to teach like a pirate if you have some many different subjects happening at the same time. One hour I have 2 students on in High school math and doing elementary level math.
That is an extremely difficult situation to teach in. I have been there many times. I have often taught a class while my para works with the others students, then switched to teach her students while she works with my group. It is not ideal, and not the best for the students, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do!
I think what holds me back sometimes is fear. What if the lesson I create fails so miserably that it's not helping the kids at all. I come up with ideas and I'm sometimes too scared to try them because it's lost time that the student may have had an aha moment of taught a different way. I need to remember that we are always learning and they will
To kick of the school year this year, our superintendent had a great spiel on failing. He wants us to fail, because it means we are trying something new. It will also show our kids that we, as adults and teachers, are not perfect. We make mistakes, we fail....and it's okay. The important thing is that we can learn from our failures....and what if it is amazing and the kids love it and learn something!?!
I really do not have 1 thing that holds me back but several little things. Time is one of course, there never seems to be enough! Class sizes are another, I have small classes compared to regular ed classrooms. I have seen some really great ideas but only work for bigger class sizes (like Sorcratic Circles). I try to modify them to fit my classes but it does not always work as well. Resources is another factor. There is not much around Southwest Kansas compared to the more populated areas. Overall I feel I do a pretty good job of teaching outside the box. I am always looking for ideas and figuring out how to use them. Lately I have seen classroom doors decorated for Christmas on HPEC's Twitter page. That is a good way to "ship" ideas around. I have gotten some really good ideas for my reading classes from this blog!
I would have to agree with the class size when it is to small it is hard to do some of the activities that would be really cool and interesting for the students.
Small class sizes are definitely a factor for me as well. You would think that it would be easier with the smaller groups rather than a bigger group, but in our line of work it is the complete opposite of that. You get those kids in a small group in your own room, "I don't want to be in the room", they have no motivation to be a good student for that day or even for an entire year. They do just enough to get by so it's like being a comedian on stage and all you hear is silence and crickets chirping.
The thing that hold me back is lack of time, student/teacher ratio, and curriculum. We have to cram so much into the kid’s day and where I teach our day is pretty well structured for us what subject is taught when even at the K/1st level.
I also agree that lack of time is an issue and the curriculum. It is hard to get everything accomplished in the time frame we have especially when it takes our students longer to catch on.
There is a lack of time to get everything done that the district, state, and nation want done. I have first graders that are constantly getting new information, vocab. words, math facts, and they are testing, and progress monitoring, and do you know this, do you know that. There are times that when they come to the resource room, I can tell they are just exhausted and we just color, build with blocks, dance, anything other than more work. I always have to remind myself that they are 6 or just barely 7 and really some of them may not be ready to sit and soak in all the new information....so we play instead.
I think for me it's mostly because of the content I teach and programs I use. I taught Biology and Earth Science to high school sped students when I began teaching. I used so many hands-on activities, long term projects, visuals, films etc. every day could be something new and exciting if I wanted it to be. Teaching common core math using a basal program provided to me by the school district is pretty cut and dried. I try really hard to add my own little "hooks" and ideas in as needed, but feel really limited in that respect. In teaching reading, I feel I have a lot more wiggle room to do creative and out of the box activities with the students. Also, having such small groups sometimes it limiting. I know it's good that I have to pull very few for instruction, but I think it sometimes makes it hard to do things that could be done in cooperative groups, etc.
I would have to say that time is a big factor in holding me back, and also other educators that don't necessarily understand how special education works.
So true! It appears that we should have more time since we have fewer students. I don't think that others realize how much individualization we have to do, as well as paperwork and meetings.
For me, at this point in time, lack of focus is what is keeping me from teaching like a pirate. Right now, my plate is full. My focus is not on one thing, but instead on several. There are times that I really feel like I am living minute to minute..whatever is happening at that moment is what I am focused on. When nothing is happening at that moment, I don't even know where to begin. I have about 7 sticky notes on my desk of "things to do" and they are slowly getting taken care of. I am hoping to start the next semester refocused on my students and their needs.
This is exactly where I am! This is my 20th year EPEC. You would think it would be routine and easy for me. I attended a Kim Sutton workshop in the summer and our school has had Kagan trainings during the school year. Plus I have 3 daughters at home ages 14, 15, and 16. It is hard to focus and hard to make sure I implement all the new information from the trainings. I seem to bounce from one thing to another without being successful with any of them.
TIME. This is my first year as a special education teacher and I feel like I am starting completely over. I do not have the resources that I did in my last position. With two small boys at home I find it difficult to get things done at home like I should also. If there were only a few more hours in the day that would be great!
It is incredibly difficult to find the time to be creative with planning and preparing lessons, especially when in a new position. Family time is so important too!
I am not nearly as animated and outgoing as I should be to Teach Like a Pirate! Although I do follow the philosophy with Passion, Immersion, Rapport, Ask & Analyze, Transformation, and Enthusiasm, I have difficulty with many of the hooks. I am trying to push myself out of my comfort zone, but I have very small classes and the students & I know each other well. I don't want to seem fake with them.
I think the one thing that perhaps holds me back from teaching like a pirate is all these hoops that we have to jump through such as teaching to The state standards as well as school budgets. I think also parents have a small hand in that regard as well, due to the fact that most of our students home life is not what it once was. We have parents working more than ever now at different hours of the day and when our kids get home from school and school activities parents are more than likely not there because they are working and kids have no one home when they get there. I think parents are in the mindset that it is the Teacher's job or responsibility to get these kids through school. But a lot of times the balance is not there between teachers and parents, when kids get home a lot of them do not usually sit at a table and start doing the homework to get it done, they play the video games,hang out with their friends, or watch TV. Parents are not there a whole to guide them or have them do their homework once I get home so they can have time to do the things that kids want to do after they get out of their home and then they come back to school the next day and don't have the work done. And then the teachers have to turn around and try to get these kids caught back up in school. It is a never ending cycle and parents need to seriously get more involved with the kids no matter how busy they are. I would love to try all the ideas that were presented in this book because yes I want to make an impact on my students and point them in the right direction to be successful life long learners.
Tyce- Oh my gosh, I feel like we have the same brain right now, haha! I become so frustrated by the exact things for the exact reasons that you mentioned in your post!!! Well said!!!
When reading this chapter, I thought ‘Ok, which of these reasons best fits me???’ and to be honest, I feel like I can relate to ALL of them. Which kind of sucks, you know??? I always want to do the best job I possibly can (With everything, not just in my profession), but now I realize there’s a lot of things that I’m letting drag me down. However, the good news is, they’re all TOTALLY fixable and not life threatening. The bad news is, easier said than done, right??? Geeze… Haha!
I like many of the "hooks" in Teaching Like A Pirate. Time is the biggest factor with all the expectations and responsibilities put on our shoulders. My classroom size is a big factor this year. Our school ran out of classrooms and I now teach in an office. It limits what I can do. Another thing that holds me back is the time it takes to deal with paras. Time sheets, leave forms, trainings, being absent, them having friction with classroom teachers...that takes a lot of my time and attention. Again, back the time factor
I think this year there are a lot of "reasons" that I am not teaching like a pirate. I could probably list them all (caseload, group size, time, just had a baby, etc), but they all kind-of feel like excuses. I think that when I was a kindergarten teacher, I was more able to teach like a pirate. In my current position, it just seems a little more difficult. I think that teaching like a pirate is definitely something to strive for and work towards.
I believe most of us are being held back because of the time factor in the school curriculum. There is so much concern and directions toward testing, that there is hardly time to let ourselves go and be creative.
ReplyDeleteI have been in teaching for over 16 years and it is totally different in classrooms now. The paperwork, testing and politics in districts and education are holding back the creativity for teachers.
Paperwork and testing seem to take up more and more of our time as teachers. I think some districts box teachers in by making them follow a particular curriculum to the T and don't want them bringing in extra resources. That can make turning a lesson into something memorable hard, especially when the curriculum wants you doing a lot of worksheets.
DeleteI agree that we are so test and paperwork driven that it can hinder the amount of time we have to spend on becoming a more creative teacher.
DeleteI agree that the time factor does alter how and what we teach, sad but true.
DeleteI couldn't agree more. So much of what we do is determined by the curriculum the school decides to use. Good or bad we are stuck with it. We can only smile and deal with it.
DeleteI completely agree with you!
DeleteI agree with you! There are so many "things" that have to be done that the creative aspect sometimes gets pushed out the window. It's sad because that is what makes teaching and learning fun.
DeleteI think the thing that gets in my way would be the time to plan and implement. If I can come up with an activity that is different and memorable, I want to be able to implement it fast and easily. Some of the hooks would take some planning to implement. Getting into the pirate way of thinking is another struggle. It is being intentional in wanting to think that way and making yourself do it. Over time, I know it will get easier to think that way. The struggle is to just do it.
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree with you - time is a factor that impacts us all.
DeleteTime gets away from us and it is hard to get done the required things without adding more
DeleteTime is a huge issue for me this year. I went from being single and knowing very few people in town to living with someone and having a 6 year old child. I can't work 12-13 hours at the school anymore. It's tough. Balancing it has kept me pretty stressed and tired this year.
DeleteLike what most people are saying in this discussion is that time is one of those factors that prevent us from being a relentless pirate. Even though my school is on a four day school week at the middle school high school we have over a full hour of class time that even doesn't seem like enough time to get everything in that we want to do, to express our creativity for kids.
DeleteHeather-
DeleteI hear your same thoughts from a lot of my teachers as well. Several have expressed many great ideas to me, and when I say "Wow! That sounds awesome! How's it working???" The typical response is, "Well... I haven't actually done it yet because I don't have time." So sad; For the teachers AND the students :-(
The first thing that comes to mind is how small my groups are. Also, I really have my own room in one building. These shouldn’t be excuses, though. So, what I need to do is pick out the stuff the works readily in my situation and try to branch out with some of the others. I might have to change a few things to make them my own, but there are a great many things that I can use to engage students more readily.
ReplyDeleteWe also need to remember that we don't have to use all of the hooks. We can pick one or two to start with and as we get comfortable with them, we can try to incorporate another one or two.
DeleteGroup size is a factor for me too. There are alot of great ideas out there, not just in this book but others, that seem to require a certain amount of students. That is when I have to get really creative and figure out how to adapt things to my smaller class sizes.
DeleteI understand your point Jessica, sometimes we have 1 student at a time and is harder to do some of things he talks about, guess we need to really think out of the box to work it out.
DeleteI know what you are saying about small groups to do something just for one or two kids.
DeleteI completely understand what you are saying about the groups size. A lot of my groups are small also, so we typically just get down to business because we have so much to cover.
DeleteThe intense needs of some of my students make it hard to "think/teach like a pirate" ! Building relationships with classroom teachers really helps.
ReplyDeleteWhen you build relationships with other teachers, you have easier access to their ideas which may save time.
DeleteI agree that some kids needs are more than others. It seems like this takes away from the amount of time we have to work on engaging our other students.
DeleteBuilding relationships with others in your building is a great idea! You share ideas, and you can support each other through this process.
DeleteTime keeps me from accomplishing all I would like to do. It takes time to prepare the materials for use and it takes time for us to allow ourselves to relax and be creative. I find good ideas from other teachers and from reading journal articles, but again, that is more time.
ReplyDeleteTime is such a factor. For students to really get the concepts and make connections, they need to talk and express their ideas, which also takes time.
DeleteIt seems that we can always use more time. Being able to find the time is never easy. I too feel that our creativity is at time stifled due the time constraints of the daily routine and what we are required to fit into that daily schedule.
DeleteTime is a big factor ! Even on teacher "workdays" admin often have agenda's
DeleteI think that the amount of time we have and the paperwork we have in special education sometimes holds us back. Sometimes I wish I could lessen the paperwork load so that I could spend that time on engaging my students more.
ReplyDeleteI find I spend an excessive amount of time taking data and completing paperwork. Finding a balance between the paperwork load and time spend engaging students is a challenge .
DeleteI agree with the data collection. I will get caught up.. then it seems right when I feel I'm getting everything else caught up.. its time for data again! AH! so little time.
DeleteI also feel like I spend a lot of valuable time with paperwork. The data collection takes a lot of time and then documenting it on the IEP web also takes quite a bit of time. I am still struggling with the new IEP web and find it very frustrating. It seems like there are many more steps than with our other system.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe book talks about perfectionism . I tend to find myself striving to be perfect and I feel this holds me back at times from teaching like a pirate. As I gain experience each year I still find myself as the author stated "killing the inner critic" and being happy with just striving to do my best. I have to allow myself to try and and sometimes fail and see that this is okay.
ReplyDeleteWe are often are own worst critics..... if we constantly strive to do our best we'll add to our bag of tricks . Easier said than done....
DeleteGreat post. We are our own worst critics at times! I think we can be a little too hard on ourselves sometimes. We focus on everything we need to work on, the stuff that we haven't been able to mark off our to do list, how far behind we are, etc.. rather than spending some time by taking a step back and looking at all the amazing things we have accomplished! :)
DeleteI think time plays a big factor. It seems that everyone runs out of time. I also think that sometimes it is very difficult to leave what we are comfortable with and explore other things that we may not be as knowledgeable about. I am a control freak. I have admitted that several times throughout this blog. Who knew this blog would be like its own counseling session where we can safely admit our flaws. For me, letting my guard down and going with the flow would be exhausting and challenging. I promise I am working on it! I am also a perfectionists. I will drive myself crazy trying to think of ways to make it better instead of just diving in and giving it a try.
ReplyDeleteTime is my biggest obstacle also. I have 2 very active teenagers at home and it often seems that after school I still out in another full days work with my family! I add a few new things each year and build on that and not try to do everything at once.
DeleteFor me it is time and travel. Being in several districts does make things more difficult, you never know we you might be that day. Paperwork does interfere as it has a time frame placed on it. I guess all those are not that great of excuses to use, but they do impact what we do with students.
ReplyDeletePaper work is definitely difficult though! I feel so behind with so little time. I get a 45 minute plan time which is often filled with IEP meetings and answering emails. I then work at the after school program to help the students keep up with homework or get extra help. I'm not done until a little after 6 and it is so hard for me to stay motivated after that to get other stuff done like great lesson plans and my masters homework!
DeleteI think time has been covered pretty well. I guess the fear of judgement has quite possibly held my back from teaching like a pirate.
ReplyDeleteJudgement would be a big one for me too. I guess I worry that the four students will think that I'm silly, and that going all out for one student would be a little too much.
DeleteOne nice thing about being an older teacher, I really don't care what the other teachers think about me! My main priority is doing what's best for kids, not impressing anyone else. You'll get there and it's very liberating!!
DeleteSome days.. I am so tired and bogged down that it is hard for me to fake it. I think this will be better when I'm not getting my masters at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI think also... the stuff the students need to know for the test. Reading this book made me feel better about getting so frustrated at that. I do try and tell myself the difference I'm making in some of these kids life is bigger than their test score.. but I still want them to do well. I don't want them to drop out and follow in the foot steps of their parents.
I would like to incorporate more of the hooks Dave talks about, to have increase engagement on a daily basis. I think I could do something every day rather than every week. I want my kids to always enjoy my class.
I would definitely agree. Not having to worry about all the extras would leave more time and energy to invest in teaching like a pirate.
DeleteThe only thing that really holds me back from teaching like a pirate is the fact that I have very little classes where I am full blown teaching. I have one math class of four students and on English class with one student. The remainder of my classes are study hall/seminar. I will teach a lesson once a week on study skills, citations, paper formatting, etc. but the rest of the time is devoted to helping them with other classwork - so much of the teaching I do is unplanned.
ReplyDeleteWhat holds me back from teaching like a pirate is that I may have 3 different subjects going on all at the same time. I have very small classes. It is hard to teach like a pirate if you have some many different subjects happening at the same time. One hour I have 2 students on in High school math and doing elementary level math.
ReplyDeleteThat is an extremely difficult situation to teach in. I have been there many times. I have often taught a class while my para works with the others students, then switched to teach her students while she works with my group. It is not ideal, and not the best for the students, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do!
DeleteI think what holds me back sometimes is fear. What if the lesson I create fails so miserably that it's not helping the kids at all. I come up with ideas and I'm sometimes too scared to try them because it's lost time that the student may have had an aha moment of taught a different way. I need to remember that we are always learning and they will
ReplyDeleteBe back the next day.
DeleteTo kick of the school year this year, our superintendent had a great spiel on failing. He wants us to fail, because it means we are trying something new. It will also show our kids that we, as adults and teachers, are not perfect. We make mistakes, we fail....and it's okay. The important thing is that we can learn from our failures....and what if it is amazing and the kids love it and learn something!?!
DeleteI really do not have 1 thing that holds me back but several little things. Time is one of course, there never seems to be enough! Class sizes are another, I have small classes compared to regular ed classrooms. I have seen some really great ideas but only work for bigger class sizes (like Sorcratic Circles). I try to modify them to fit my classes but it does not always work as well. Resources is another factor. There is not much around Southwest Kansas compared to the more populated areas. Overall I feel I do a pretty good job of teaching outside the box. I am always looking for ideas and figuring out how to use them. Lately I have seen classroom doors decorated for Christmas on HPEC's Twitter page. That is a good way to "ship" ideas around. I have gotten some really good ideas for my reading classes from this blog!
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with the class size when it is to small it is hard to do some of the activities that would be really cool and interesting for the students.
DeleteSmall class sizes are definitely a factor for me as well. You would think that it would be easier with the smaller groups rather than a bigger group, but in our line of work it is the complete opposite of that. You get those kids in a small group in your own room, "I don't want to be in the room", they have no motivation to be a good student for that day or even for an entire year. They do just enough to get by so it's like being a comedian on stage and all you hear is silence and crickets chirping.
DeleteThe thing that hold me back is lack of time, student/teacher ratio, and curriculum. We have to cram so much into the kid’s day and where I teach our day is pretty well structured for us what subject is taught when even at the K/1st level.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that lack of time is an issue and the curriculum. It is hard to get everything accomplished in the time frame we have especially when it takes our students longer to catch on.
DeleteThere is a lack of time to get everything done that the district, state, and nation want done. I have first graders that are constantly getting new information, vocab. words, math facts, and they are testing, and progress monitoring, and do you know this, do you know that. There are times that when they come to the resource room, I can tell they are just exhausted and we just color, build with blocks, dance, anything other than more work. I always have to remind myself that they are 6 or just barely 7 and really some of them may not be ready to sit and soak in all the new information....so we play instead.
DeleteI think for me it's mostly because of the content I teach and programs I use. I taught Biology and Earth Science to high school sped students when I began teaching. I used so many hands-on activities, long term projects, visuals, films etc. every day could be something new and exciting if I wanted it to be. Teaching common core math using a basal program provided to me by the school district is pretty cut and dried. I try really hard to add my own little "hooks" and ideas in as needed, but feel really limited in that respect. In teaching reading, I feel I have a lot more wiggle room to do creative and out of the box activities with the students. Also, having such small groups sometimes it limiting. I know it's good that I have to pull very few for instruction, but I think it sometimes makes it hard to do things that could be done in cooperative groups, etc.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you!
DeleteI would have to say that time is a big factor in holding me back, and also other educators that don't necessarily understand how special education works.
ReplyDeleteSo true! It appears that we should have more time since we have fewer students. I don't think that others realize how much individualization we have to do, as well as paperwork and meetings.
DeleteFor me, at this point in time, lack of focus is what is keeping me from teaching like a pirate. Right now, my plate is full. My focus is not on one thing, but instead on several. There are times that I really feel like I am living minute to minute..whatever is happening at that moment is what I am focused on. When nothing is happening at that moment, I don't even know where to begin. I have about 7 sticky notes on my desk of "things to do" and they are slowly getting taken care of. I am hoping to start the next semester refocused on my students and their needs.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly where I am! This is my 20th year EPEC. You would think it would be routine and easy for me. I attended a Kim Sutton workshop in the summer and our school has had Kagan trainings during the school year. Plus I have 3 daughters at home ages 14, 15, and 16. It is hard to focus and hard to make sure I implement all the new information from the trainings. I seem to bounce from one thing to another without being successful with any of them.
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DeleteTIME. This is my first year as a special education teacher and I feel like I am starting completely over. I do not have the resources that I did in my last position. With two small boys at home I find it difficult to get things done at home like I should also. If there were only a few more hours in the day that would be great!
ReplyDeleteIt is incredibly difficult to find the time to be creative with planning and preparing lessons, especially when in a new position. Family time is so important too!
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ReplyDeleteI am not nearly as animated and outgoing as I should be to Teach Like a Pirate! Although I do follow the philosophy with Passion, Immersion, Rapport, Ask & Analyze, Transformation, and Enthusiasm, I have difficulty with many of the hooks. I am trying to push myself out of my comfort zone, but I have very small classes and the students & I know each other well. I don't want to seem fake with them.
ReplyDeleteI think the one thing that perhaps holds me back from teaching like a pirate is all these hoops that we have to jump through such as teaching to The state standards as well as school budgets. I think also parents have a small hand in that regard as well, due to the fact that most of our students home life is not what it once was. We have parents working more than ever now at different hours of the day and when our kids get home from school and school activities parents are more than likely not there because they are working and kids have no one home when they get there. I think parents are in the mindset that it is the Teacher's job or responsibility to get these kids through school. But a lot of times the balance is not there between teachers and parents, when kids get home a lot of them do not usually sit at a table and start doing the homework to get it done, they play the video games,hang out with their friends, or watch TV. Parents are not there a whole to guide them or have them do their homework once I get home so they can have time to do the things that kids want to do after they get out of their home and then they come back to school the next day and don't have the work done. And then the teachers have to turn around and try to get these kids caught back up in school. It is a never ending cycle and parents need to seriously get more involved with the kids no matter how busy they are. I would love to try all the ideas that were presented in this book because yes I want to make an impact on my students and point them in the right direction to be successful life long learners.
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DeleteOh my gosh, I feel like we have the same brain right now, haha! I become so frustrated by the exact things for the exact reasons that you mentioned in your post!!! Well said!!!
When reading this chapter, I thought ‘Ok, which of these reasons best fits me???’ and to be honest, I feel like I can relate to ALL of them. Which kind of sucks, you know??? I always want to do the best job I possibly can (With everything, not just in my profession), but now I realize there’s a lot of things that I’m letting drag me down. However, the good news is, they’re all TOTALLY fixable and not life threatening. The bad news is, easier said than done, right??? Geeze… Haha!
ReplyDeleteI like many of the "hooks" in Teaching Like A Pirate. Time is the biggest factor with all the expectations and responsibilities put on our shoulders.
ReplyDeleteMy classroom size is a big factor this year. Our school ran out of classrooms and I now teach in an office. It limits what I can do.
Another thing that holds me back is the time it takes to deal with paras. Time sheets, leave forms, trainings, being absent, them having friction with classroom teachers...that takes a lot of my time and attention. Again, back the time factor
I think this year there are a lot of "reasons" that I am not teaching like a pirate. I could probably list them all (caseload, group size, time, just had a baby, etc), but they all kind-of feel like excuses. I think that when I was a kindergarten teacher, I was more able to teach like a pirate. In my current position, it just seems a little more difficult. I think that teaching like a pirate is definitely something to strive for and work towards.
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