One of the great things I saw was a classroom data wall that tracked the class’ achievement in all the content areas. Having the visual representation of progress for students to see was motivational in addition to being a more transparent means of including students in setting goals. It’s a strategy that I look forward to implementing next year for my classroom, but this year I’ve been able to make data more public in a couple of ways. We’ve begun tracking our reading growth as a class and look at data from our reading tests every Monday so that we have a clear focus for the week. The students have responded phenomenally, and it’s great to see them taking more responsibility for their own learning.

Overall, being able to observe other classrooms was energizing, and I think that any opportunity that we as teachers can have to share ideas and learn things from each other should be taken advantage of in order to truly improve public education for all students.

TCAP strikes fear in the hearts of many, especially my students. They are already getting worn out by testing (with me, Interims, ACCESS). I have really tried this year to create lessons that will teach skills my students can use on the testing they have to do and at the same supporting them with their core needs. During my residency year, I was working with ECE-2 so I did not have to give TCAP, but it was still something I had to plan for. This year teaching intermediate I have to focus on TCAP and that is what the last 2 months have been, preparing my students for TCAP.

My fear with TCAP is that I did not do enough for my students for them to show growth. Beyond my paycheck and evaluation, TCAP scores are talked about and focused on by teachers in most grades and schools. If they did not do well on TCAP they will know based on their groupings in class. In a data driven culture like education, there is not much I can do to change this, but I can give my students everything they need to try their hardest on the exam. In my eyes, any growth is good!

I hope to have some of my students exceed their scores from the previous years. A few of my students scored unsatisfactory in previous years, but their scores were HIGH Unsatisfactory! Who knows what they can do this year, partially proficient, proficient, and a special education teacher can dream for an ADVANCED!

All of the teachers I observed were very willing to share their handouts, data trackers, and other parts of their practice.  After coming back to my own classroom, I was actually able to implement a student behavior tracker that I saw at one of my Learning Rotation classes.  Like many DPS classrooms, the classroom management was based on a “clip system.”  This system allows students to move their clips up when they’re meeting or exceeding expectations, or down if they need a reminder.  The teacher I was observing had her students track their own clips at the end of every day.  They colored a worksheet, and wrote a simple one-sentence reflection about their day.  I thought this process was such a powerful one as it gave the students ownership over their behavior daily.  I was really excited to implement this behavior tracker in my own classroom when I came back.

Being able to see other strategies and bring them into my own classroom was such an exciting experience.  It was great to be able to collaborate with other teachers in the district and show my lead teacher all of the great things I’ve learned.

Professional – My first few months as a teacher have been amazing, MUCH harder than my year as a DTR. Yes, DTR was a challenge, but now I am in charge of my own classroom and I have to balance PDUs, teaching, and writing IEPs.  I am loving it. My goal for 2013 is to maximize my time with students and keep outside distractions to a minimum. I also want to make learning fun for my students and teaching fun for me!

Personal – Get caught up on bills is a major goal for me this year. I need to stop spending money on my classroom and get my high interest bills down, so I will have more money to spend on my classroom! Maybe I will start saving for a fun summer trip in 2014.

Educational – As a teacher, my learning is continuous. I need to keep up with the trends and new ideas in education and learning. Plus I am a total nerd. I love learning! One of my educational goals this year is to join the National Association of Special Education Teachers. They have a bevy of resources available for special education teachers and I can learn so much from their resource library.

Fears – My biggest fear this year is not meeting the needs of my students. The first few months were definitely a learning curve for me. DTR helped prepare me immensely.  In my own classroom, while I do have some support, I don’t have someone right there to bounce ideas off of. Growth is the name of the game, and I hope with some carefully crafted lessons and units, my students can make the growth they need to be successful.

This year promises to be challenging, perhaps even more challenging than last year. Hiring season starts soon, and the process in any field can be daunting. I will say that the support from DTR thus far has been invaluable, and I feel like I will be well prepared when it comes time to begin interviewing. The real challenge will be defining exactly what I hope to bring to my future classroom; that list is 1,000 pages long right now, so obviously I have some synthesizing to do.

On the whole, however, I’m genuinely hopeful about the coming year. I’m excited to see how my students continue to grow, and I plan to take advantages of the months I have left as a resident to really focus on improving my practice. If everything goes according to plan, I will be teaching by this time next year. The fact that I can type that and only feel mildly terrified has to be a good sign.

I came into the program with some teaching experience, but I was mostly unaware of what it really took to be effective in the classroom. I knew I wanted to be a good teacher, and looking back now, that was perhaps all I knew.

One of the things I’ve learned this semester that has struck me most is how impactful a teacher can be simply by building strong relationships with students. It seems intuitive now, but I had never really considered how much respect and engagement is earned simply by giving students respect and engaging with them about their lives and what’s important to them. I take more care when I’m with my students to stop and listen when they are trying to share something with me, even when I’m juggling fifteen other things in my head. The impact of those seemingly small moments for kids is too powerful to ignore.

Going to class, teaching, and studying this semester has kept me busier than I’ve probably ever been, and I think I speak for a lot of my fellow residents when I say that finding balance has been a challenge. Learning to take time to relax is something I still struggle with, but I’m working on it.

On a lighter note, I’m happy to be doing what I’m doing. Lead teaching for two weeks was a positive experience that really allowed me to see how much I’ve grown. I couldn’t have led a classroom effectively when the semester began, and while I still have plenty to improve upon, I’m feeling good about where I’m headed and how far I’ve come.

I have learned so much about not only my practice, but about myself this first semester, and while I knew it was going to be a lot of work academically, I didn’t realize how much inward reflection happens and is needed to happen to grow as a teacher.  Now, I go back into a long stretch of thoughtful observation time to reflect on my teaching practice with a new lens.  This also means I get to have a later bedtime… Ahhh…

After my experience in the classroom with City Year, I knew that is where I wanted to be…after an intense internal struggle. Being in the classroom had an electric pull on me; experiencing reciprocal learning each day was so powerful and I found myself loving it, but how? How does a person, destined for Medical School, become enamored with the very profession that she promised herself she’d never take on? For some months I fought this newfound passion, stuffed it down and focused my attention on my applications… well, I tried. But I found myself asking veteran teachers when and how they knew they wanted to be and or loved being a teacher.

There was something viral about the change that came over me. I applied to other teaching programs and was either turned down because I wasn’t quite naive enough or accepted because I had something to offer. I chose to become a member of the DTR Cohort because there was something electric about the charisma of DPS, something that made this urban district distinct. I’m a success story that uniquely belongs to DTR because this program welcomed me with open arms as I was – experienced and lacking, full of a desire to learn and give—and I wanted to be a part of something that could make me the become the best in my field. Not for the sake of merely saying I am great, but for the opportunity to be a change agent, one dedicated to changing the trajectory of students’ lives for the better.

I found out about the Denver Teacher Residency almost by accident while searching for avenues into teaching. After a whirlwind trip across the country to participate in Demonstration Day, my wife and I travelling west from Michigan and back in four days, I was impressed by DTR’s commitment to the community and the people it serves. I was thrilled to be accepted.

I’m now working as an elementary education resident in a 2^nd grade classroom for Spanish-speakers at Sabin World School. Being a male teacher in elementary school makes me a kind of anomaly, and my work with Spanish-speaking students is something I hope will allow me to bring a unique perspective to this blog.

Being from the Midwest, I am still learning the language and customs of Colorado. I somewhat recently learned what a ‘fourteener’ was, though I’ve yet to feel brave enough to walk that high above sea level. I’ve become a brunch-appreciator, bought a humidifier, ridden my bike in traffic, and considered getting a dog despite my cat’s glares whenever it’s mentioned. Life has been good so far, and I’m happy to have made Denver my adopted home.

Jimmy Menter

Our group of six, aka The Super Six, works each day to really support one another and push ourselves to reach our high goals.  In this little introduction of mine, I’m going to, maybe to a point of overkill, give you a little insight into my time with the kids.  I smile and laugh every day and the days I’m in the DTR classes, I really do miss them.  Somehow these kids have won me over.  As much as I glare at them for talking out of turn, or pull my hair when I’m planning their lessons, I still get those excited butterflies as I watch them grow and learn.

Because that’s what it’s all about, right?  That the students who you become so attached to actually learn.  Of course I am writing this several days before I have my two-week lead teach, so I’ll let you know on the other end whether or not it is all worth it… just kidding.