Lessons Learned

This week I invited an educator who retired from the Missouri Public Schools system (who also happens to be my lovely grandmother) to share her thoughts on teaching.  As a teacher of over twenty years’ experience (and now retired for ten years), I have seen many changes in classroom teaching, only some of which have been helpful.  Many have not. As more and more attempts at micro-managing the classroom have been implemented over the years, education seems to have suffered rather than prospered as rigid curriculums have become the increasing focus of administrators and vocal parents alike to the point that all teachers should be teaching exactly the same lessons on the same day with total focus on content.  All goals and objectives should be listed in lengthy, detailed lesson plans and not to be deviated from when once written down. The unfortunate victims of this paranoid attempt at making one education fit all has often seen the demise of two of the most necessary compon...

       Yesterday, I completed a district-provided professional development on cooperative learning. Cooperative learning presents collaborative learning experiences for students and creates a higher rate of student participation. It can increase student understanding and achievement at a much higher rate than basic call-and-response lectures. I love the practice of getting students up and moving and changing the flow of a typical work day.       I am implementing cooperative learning strategies in my classroom by first creating a seating chart more focused on learning needs- this is something newer for me. I tend to focus on arrangements more on behavior, now I have added another piece to the puzzle and created a space that I hope will be more productive for every one of my students.      Once students are in their new seats, we will do some team building and bonding activities. I plan on asking them to create a team mascot and they...

As an educator, I have always found it critical to reflect upon any sort of inequity taking place in school communities. This past week, I interviewed a teammate to learn about technological inequities in our school district. What I found really surprised me. I grew up in a more rural school district that already had Chromebooks one-to-one and spent my first year teaching in a more urban area, again, in a school district that already had Chromebooks one-to-one. I assumed since I am now teaching in a district that is both geographically and fiscally right in the middle, our district also had Chromebooks one-to-one across the board. I found out that only a small handful of the elementary schools in the district have these devices for every student. This made me wonder if we are sending a message to students that they are less deserving of the enriching, relevant learning experiences their peers have? The schools that do have one-to-one access worked hard to get to that point, and that ...

 Hello! Welcome to  Lessons Learned !      I was invited to create this blog as part of a course for my masters in education. I love reading, cats, and Taylor Swift. I just as much enjoy hiking, fishing with my boyfriend, and going out with my lovely friends. This blog will be almost like my digital diary - I will reflect on lessons I've learned as a new teacher, lessons my colleagues have learned (both new and veteran), and lessons my students have learned.       My resolution for 2025- which I made about three weeks late- is to intentionally choose books that reflect a wide variety of identities. I plan to share my favorites and highlight how I used them in my instruction and how it impacted learning for my students.       To focus on my own well-being (and make more time for homework) I have taken a step away from social media. You can connect with me on  LinkedIn  or via email:  missdeters@gmail.com . He...