•Do as much of the work as you can before classes start. You continue to get more work each day, so it is better to start the program with all of the readings and assignments already done. •Keep up with the reflections. Try to do them on the same day as the presentation you are reflecting on, but don’t worry if you skip a day every now and then. Just don’t let them pile up throughout the week. The last thing you want to do is spend most of your weekend writing up reflections. •Be ready for the workload of student teaching! Everyone will have a different workload during student teaching, but be prepared to start on your own on day one. Don’t be surprised if you get home from ARC in the evening and find that you spend the rest of your day planning lessons for the next day. •Don’t beat yourself up. It’s good to strive to have the best lessons you can each day, but sometimes you need to be realistic and make sure you spend enough time sleeping too. You may not have the time to practice everything that ARC teaches you in every single one of your lessons, so don’t be hard on yourself because of that. •Use the resources at ARC. You will have some great core presenters and methods instructors, and you will find great ideas among your fellow ARC students and your cooperating teacher. Keep in touch with them through the program to get feedback on your ideas. •Take some time to enjoy yourself! You won’t have too much free time, so when you do, enjoy yourself. Spend time with family, do something you like, grab a bite with your fellow math candidates. •You will get through it! It may seem like a daunting task before you start, and it feels like an even more daunting task while you’re going through it, but as long as you keep up with your work and use the feedback you receive to improve, you’ll be fine!
Make ARC your priority. This summer will be crazy busy but you've paid to do it. Make it your priority and tell everyone in your life because you're going to be absent. Record and do assignments as soon as you get them! Create a spreadsheet, keep a planner, or whatever you need, but write them down and KEEP UP! It doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to be done and on time. Just do your reflections daily after Core. It's tiring, it's aggravating, but it can be useful. Make what you can of it but at least get it done. Try (almost) everything from Core in student teaching. Stickers seem stupid, but they work! You came here to learn so keep an open mind and TRY it! Find time for yourself! Take a day off. Do something with a loved one. Keep your perspective: you WANT to do this, you WILL get through this, you WILL be a teacher! Respect the program, the presenters, your colleagues, and yourself. Be present, be attentive, and participate. It's a lot: you will be tired, you will get annoyed, you will desperately want to do something else or be somewhere else at times. Make the most of it and help each other. Enjoy the kids! They're why you're here and they want your attention--give it to them and have fun with it!
Suggestions for future ARC I: • Find time for yourself and your family. The process is overwhelming at times and I needed the support and encouragement of my family to keep a level head and get through it.
• You are not the first to go through this program, there are going to be times when you feel overwhelmed and unable to finish work. YOU WILL GET THROUGH IT!!!
• Do work as soon as it assigned. There will always be one more assignment, writing reflective journals on Sundays is not fun!
• Take advantage of your classmates. They will have ideas you never thought of, they will also be a great source of support and encouragement.
* No matter how confident you feel or how easy you think this will be, it's going to get tough. Be open to the challenge, and understand that everyone is going to face a difficult time in the program for different reasons.
* Develop community with your classmates as soon as possible. It might make sense to come into this program thinking that you're not here to make friends, but it turns out the friendships you make will be what gets you through the program. You have a wealth of knowledge in your classmates, and sharing ideas with each other is invaluable. They're also the only people who know exactly what you are going through -- that emotional piece is not to be disregarded!
* If someone jumps, ask how high. If someone else says to jump in a different way, do it, and don't complain about how you just had to jump twice. As difficult as this program can be, remember -- you are getting a life-changing certification in 10 weeks (as opposed to 1-2 years). Grin and bear it!
* Follow up on any contact you make with the ARC office. They receive a lot of paperwork and have a lot of stuff going on. There are a lot of ARC candidates -- the reality is that you will not be their priority. Be responsible for yourself.
* You will get through this. Even in the hardest moment, remember -- you can do it, and the reward on the other side is totally worth the late nights, the hard work, and the strained relationships.
* Make time for your family. Don't let this program be something that drives a wedge between you and your loved ones. Plus, your loved ones will take your mind off the program - also a healthy thing to do at times!
* Do your work as soon as it is assigned -- especially your reflections and the Unit Plan.
* Always do a task analysis even if you don't write a full lesson plan. You'll teach better.
* Remember - it's about the kids. Don't focus your student teaching efforts just on passing your evaluation. Focus on creating effective and engaging lessons and on helping each individual student. If your focus is on the kids and you use the strategies your learning, your evaluation will be a-o-k.
* Sleep plays almost as big of a part in your teaching effectiveness as your planning and preparation. Try to find a balance!
* It turns out that the methods instructors really know some stuff. Their strategies might not align with your own personal learning experiences or philosophies, but they are very effective! Be open to changing your perception of how students should be taught. And remember - they are not pulling this stuff out of thin air. They have a lot of experience in schools and in teaching ARC. Trust their guidance, take all feeedback that comes to you, and you will shock yourself as to the growth and skill you will achieve by the end of the program.
* Be both prepared and thankful for the frontloading of work! Yes -- ARC has started a lot earlier than your paperwork says...plan on a decent amount of work weekly up until the official start date. But trust me, you want to get all this reading and blog posting out of the way so that you don't have any additional assignments once you've officially started ARC. It may seem like a lot and it may seem frustrating, but it's worth it! Doing these weekly assignments will help foster your cohort's community, will ease you into the rigor of the program, and will put you in the right mindset as you start to immerse yourself in education materials.
First, you need to have a good organization plan. You are going to have a lot of material thrown at you constantly. You need to be able to identify the pieces you want to keep for reference and have a method of accessing them easily. And when it comes time to student teach, organization will become even more important since you will be juggling lesson plans, quizzes, tests and ARC work. Also you are going to want to save many of those lesson plans as they will be helpful in the future.
Second, try not to get behind on your assignments in the beginning as the work can pile up. By the time you get to student teaching you will need to learn to triage work, what needs to get done now and what can wait. Also triage in terms of time. You will not have time to be perfect on everything and time will be a limited resource which you need to allocate intelligently.
Third, be humble. You are going to be told to things you may not agree with. However you will find if you follow the advice of the instructors, that the methods they teach work and once you are in the classroom they will make lots of sense. The more you practice the techniques during ARC the better your muscle memory will be when you are on your own.
Fourth, have a thick skin. You are going to get lot of feedback from many different people often about what you need to better. It’s all part of the process and is all meant to be constructive. Don’t take it personally.
Fifth, steal ideas liberally (as long as you give credit). This will not make sense until you student teach. If you try to make each lesson plan original and just your own ideas you will run out time. Your colleagues and the web are all great resources for activities and questions. You want the lesson plan to your work but the peripherals can come from anywhere.
Finally, make sure to stop and have fun. It’s a great experience.
The ARC summer is intense and exhausting but rewarding! You will be certified to teach Math in 10 weeks! My advice is to: (1) keep up with the daily reflections otherwise you will fall behind quickly and not get any real-time value out of your reflections- keeping up is easier than catching up, (2) Make time for family and rest whenever you can, (3) make arrangements for field observations as soon as you can; it can be difficult to get responses from school districts – I made phone calls or emailed people directly until someone called me back, (4) during student teaching, don’t take the constructive feedback personally. I had a hard time just not being good at something new after leaving a job where they called me "Mission Control." Constant feedback is humbling sometimes but it is all to help you grow and improve as an educator, (5) get up to speed on technology if you aren’t already and bring your flash drive everywhere—I started Core with an old bulky laptop and transitioned to a tablet style PC which was much more efficient, and finally – (6) collaborate with your peers as much as possible, it is invaluable. Enjoy the experience and all the new friends you will make on the journey!
•Do as much of the work as you can before classes start. You continue to get more work each day, so it is better to start the program with all of the readings and assignments already done.
ReplyDelete•Keep up with the reflections. Try to do them on the same day as the presentation you are reflecting on, but don’t worry if you skip a day every now and then. Just don’t let them pile up throughout the week. The last thing you want to do is spend most of your weekend writing up reflections.
•Be ready for the workload of student teaching! Everyone will have a different workload during student teaching, but be prepared to start on your own on day one. Don’t be surprised if you get home from ARC in the evening and find that you spend the rest of your day planning lessons for the next day.
•Don’t beat yourself up. It’s good to strive to have the best lessons you can each day, but sometimes you need to be realistic and make sure you spend enough time sleeping too. You may not have the time to practice everything that ARC teaches you in every single one of your lessons, so don’t be hard on yourself because of that.
•Use the resources at ARC. You will have some great core presenters and methods instructors, and you will find great ideas among your fellow ARC students and your cooperating teacher. Keep in touch with them through the program to get feedback on your ideas.
•Take some time to enjoy yourself! You won’t have too much free time, so when you do, enjoy yourself. Spend time with family, do something you like, grab a bite with your fellow math candidates.
•You will get through it! It may seem like a daunting task before you start, and it feels like an even more daunting task while you’re going through it, but as long as you keep up with your work and use the feedback you receive to improve, you’ll be fine!
Make ARC your priority. This summer will be crazy busy but you've paid to do it. Make it your priority and tell everyone in your life because you're going to be absent.
ReplyDeleteRecord and do assignments as soon as you get them! Create a spreadsheet, keep a planner, or whatever you need, but write them down and KEEP UP! It doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to be done and on time.
Just do your reflections daily after Core. It's tiring, it's aggravating, but it can be useful. Make what you can of it but at least get it done.
Try (almost) everything from Core in student teaching. Stickers seem stupid, but they work! You came here to learn so keep an open mind and TRY it!
Find time for yourself! Take a day off. Do something with a loved one.
Keep your perspective: you WANT to do this, you WILL get through this, you WILL be a teacher!
Respect the program, the presenters, your colleagues, and yourself. Be present, be attentive, and participate. It's a lot: you will be tired, you will get annoyed, you will desperately want to do something else or be somewhere else at times. Make the most of it and help each other.
Enjoy the kids! They're why you're here and they want your attention--give it to them and have fun with it!
Suggestions for future ARC I:
ReplyDelete• Find time for yourself and your family. The process is overwhelming at times and I needed the support and encouragement of my family to keep a level head and get through it.
• You are not the first to go through this program, there are going to be times when you feel overwhelmed and unable to finish work. YOU WILL GET THROUGH IT!!!
• Do work as soon as it assigned. There will always be one more assignment, writing reflective journals on Sundays is not fun!
• Take advantage of your classmates. They will have ideas you never thought of, they will also be a great source of support and encouragement.
* No matter how confident you feel or how easy you think this will be, it's going to get tough. Be open to the challenge, and understand that everyone is going to face a difficult time in the program for different reasons.
ReplyDelete* Develop community with your classmates as soon as possible. It might make sense to come into this program thinking that you're not here to make friends, but it turns out the friendships you make will be what gets you through the program. You have a wealth of knowledge in your classmates, and sharing ideas with each other is invaluable. They're also the only people who know exactly what you are going through -- that emotional piece is not to be disregarded!
* If someone jumps, ask how high. If someone else says to jump in a different way, do it, and don't complain about how you just had to jump twice. As difficult as this program can be, remember -- you are getting a life-changing certification in 10 weeks (as opposed to 1-2 years). Grin and bear it!
* Follow up on any contact you make with the ARC office. They receive a lot of paperwork and have a lot of stuff going on. There are a lot of ARC candidates -- the reality is that you will not be their priority. Be responsible for yourself.
* You will get through this. Even in the hardest moment, remember -- you can do it, and the reward on the other side is totally worth the late nights, the hard work, and the strained relationships.
* Make time for your family. Don't let this program be something that drives a wedge between you and your loved ones. Plus, your loved ones will take your mind off the program - also a healthy thing to do at times!
* Do your work as soon as it is assigned -- especially your reflections and the Unit Plan.
* Always do a task analysis even if you don't write a full lesson plan. You'll teach better.
* Remember - it's about the kids. Don't focus your student teaching efforts just on passing your evaluation. Focus on creating effective and engaging lessons and on helping each individual student. If your focus is on the kids and you use the strategies your learning, your evaluation will be a-o-k.
* Sleep plays almost as big of a part in your teaching effectiveness as your planning and preparation. Try to find a balance!
* It turns out that the methods instructors really know some stuff. Their strategies might not align with your own personal learning experiences or philosophies, but they are very effective! Be open to changing your perception of how students should be taught. And remember - they are not pulling this stuff out of thin air. They have a lot of experience in schools and in teaching ARC. Trust their guidance, take all feeedback that comes to you, and you will shock yourself as to the growth and skill you will achieve by the end of the program.
* Be both prepared and thankful for the frontloading of work! Yes -- ARC has started a lot earlier than your paperwork says...plan on a decent amount of work weekly up until the official start date. But trust me, you want to get all this reading and blog posting out of the way so that you don't have any additional assignments once you've officially started ARC. It may seem like a lot and it may seem frustrating, but it's worth it! Doing these weekly assignments will help foster your cohort's community, will ease you into the rigor of the program, and will put you in the right mindset as you start to immerse yourself in education materials.
First, you need to have a good organization plan. You are going to have a lot of material thrown at you constantly. You need to be able to identify the pieces you want to keep for reference and have a method of accessing them easily. And when it comes time to student teach, organization will become even more important since you will be juggling lesson plans, quizzes, tests and ARC work. Also you are going to want to save many of those lesson plans as they will be helpful in the future.
ReplyDeleteSecond, try not to get behind on your assignments in the beginning as the work can pile up. By the time you get to student teaching you will need to learn to triage work, what needs to get done now and what can wait. Also triage in terms of time. You will not have time to be perfect on everything and time will be a limited resource which you need to allocate intelligently.
Third, be humble. You are going to be told to things you may not agree with. However you will find if you follow the advice of the instructors, that the methods they teach work and once you are in the classroom they will make lots of sense. The more you practice the techniques during ARC the better your muscle memory will be when you are on your own.
Fourth, have a thick skin. You are going to get lot of feedback from many different people often about what you need to better. It’s all part of the process and is all meant to be constructive. Don’t take it personally.
Fifth, steal ideas liberally (as long as you give credit). This will not make sense until you student teach. If you try to make each lesson plan original and just your own ideas you will run out time. Your colleagues and the web are all great resources for activities and questions. You want the lesson plan to your work but the peripherals can come from anywhere.
Finally, make sure to stop and have fun. It’s a great experience.
The ARC summer is intense and exhausting but rewarding! You will be certified to teach Math in 10 weeks! My advice is to: (1) keep up with the daily reflections otherwise you will fall behind quickly and not get any real-time value out of your reflections- keeping up is easier than catching up, (2) Make time for family and rest whenever you can, (3) make arrangements for field observations as soon as you can; it can be difficult to get responses from school districts – I made phone calls or emailed people directly until someone called me back, (4) during student teaching, don’t take the constructive feedback personally. I had a hard time just not being good at something new after leaving a job where they called me "Mission Control." Constant feedback is humbling sometimes but it is all to help you grow and improve as an educator, (5) get up to speed on technology if you aren’t already and bring your flash drive everywhere—I started Core with an old bulky laptop and transitioned to a tablet style PC which was much more efficient, and finally – (6) collaborate with your peers as much as possible, it is invaluable. Enjoy the experience and all the new friends you will make on the journey!
ReplyDelete