Dear Dr. Jones,
I am really enjoying this class so far! I taught ELA during my first few years of teaching and boy do I wish I had this class before I did (this year I am teaching Social Studies and Science due to low numbers of 6th graders in our program). I have enjoyed reading Tompkins (2012). I think it's an easy text to engage with and find myself relating my own experiences as a K-12 learner to the material. I find myself relating to the text in my years in the teacher role as well. I took a Writer's Workshop PD through BOCES quite a few years ago and I didn't realize how much I learned! Tompkins (2012) supports a lot of what I already know about writing but has provided me with a solid framework to reflect upon. I have really liked the genre expert projects so far. I think having student led presentations is a powerful method that encourages learning. We are all teachers and it plays to our strengths. It's been nice having a writing group as well. We have been meeting before class weekly and that has really helped ease my anxiety.
This school year has been a tough one. I was injured by a student back in October and was out of school for close to a month with a knee injury. I have also been down staff since my classroom para walked out in September. I teach at the Bird/Morgan school where we support students with intense behavioral/emotional disabilities. The amount of violence this year has been absolutely earth shattering for me as a teacher. I am struggling to get through a lesson without calling our support team to help break up physical fights. I have known that I needed to find a different teaching position for quite some time. When I started brainstorming/drafting for my genre pieces project, I really realized that its my time to go. Teacher burnout is real in special education but the amount that I'm feeling is not healthy for me or the students in my class. Exploring my feelings through the writing process helped me realize that. Although it's not a primary learning objective for this class, this class has taught me to choose me and to choose joy. After my realization last week, I have applied to 3 different teaching positions and I have connected with all 3 districts. My first screening interview is actually today after school. Restarting my genre pieces project and focusing on something that makes me happy has made a big difference. I'm excited to see how it develops as I move through the writing process. Thank you so much for encouraging me to change my topic to teaching in Ghana.
This class is not what I expected in terms of how it is set up. I have struggled greatly with the flexibility and independence. This semester I have learned that the amount of structure I need increases especially when I am struggling. At the point in the class, I just need to create structure for myself so I can catch up. I think my own personal struggles as a teacher got in the way of my own organization and my own happiness as I started my journey here at Naz.
I'm looking forward to turning it around in the next few weeks and showing you who I really am! Thank you for everything you've done for me thus far. Working through the prewriting/drafting phase for my first go at the genre pieces project (teacher burnout) changed my life. It made me realize how much I was struggling in my current teaching role. I'm on the road of change and I have a bounce in my step for the first time in years.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Best,
Ashley Olin
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