Day 22: My DREAM Team #aprilblogaday

Prompt: If you could collaborate with any teacher/class what/who would it be and what would the collaboration look like?

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Our spring break is very late this year. It's felt like an incredibly long stretch, I am sure exacerbated by my surgery at the end of February. (It was my second surgery this school year and the 4th time I was subjected to anesthesia). All these things are incredibly hard on one's body. I'm ready for a break.

However, this is also the time of year I start thinking about next year. All the things I can do differently... better. I often feel like I have failed my students, I could have done so much more, so how can I improve and do better. 

Next year will be round 9 in my own classrooms. Year 11 since I walked into my first DOE classroom. I have lost some of my passion when it comes to teaching and I have to work harder to fine new ways to grow and challenge myself and my students. There has been some great stuff with student led discussions in my 10th and 11th grade classes this spring that I would like to figure out how to vertically align so students are doing this type of work each year. Giving students a structure and the space to teach and learn from each other is powerful. I learn so much about my students and the content from listening to them grapple with what they are studying.

That's all well and good Meredith, but get to the prompt. I would like to teach a block with someone from our social studies department for 9th grade to design and implement a humanities curriculum that reflects some of the themes already existing in the 9th grade curriculum around power.  I want to take many of the things I have learned and design a scope and sequence that challenges students to read, write, speak and listen. That it challenges them to find connections between literature and history. 

I think back in one of my most successful semesters in college. I took:

1. Intro to political science
2. U. S. History, 1865-today
3. Clothing history (my BFA is in costume design and construction)

I remember the point in the semester that the first two classes synced up and suddenly the content was clicking in a new way. The parallels between clothing history and the political climate was eye opening. When content from multiple POVs aligns the learning can be so much richer.  

Another class I would love to teach is in fact a costume design and construction in Design & Tech with our teacher Mr. Rothman who runs the makerspace.   That is my HUGE dream class. 

Happy Spring Break!

Day 18: Teacher Traning #AprilBlogADay Challenge

-->Prompt: What was your favorite part of your teacher training?

Tes, Jill, Me and Toni: My 3 best friends from NYU.

Last week my friend Kathleen, an 8th grade teacher here in NYC, emailed me: 

 Hey Meredith,

I'm changing up my next unit, like, a lot. Normally I mirror it with what they are learning in history but the history units are different this year....so I am spicing things up. 

I am starting a creative writing unit. We already did a few days of writing workshop and it's great! I am incorporating Postsecret as well. With all the tests done, they really need this. BUT... I want it to be differentiated  everywhere---especially with choosing what they actually create. Essentially, their final project can be any genre of writing BUT I wanted to give the option of a play. The problem, is I have little experience with theater. I was wondering if you have a relatively short play that follows a general story mountain to use as an example? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Miss you. 

Kathleen and I did our English student teaching together in the fall of 2007.  I relied heavily on her that fall as she had done ST in undergrad and was already far more seasoned than I was. Here we are, almost 10 years later still supporting one another.  I went into my materials and threw together a readers theatre version of Oedipus as well as a play writing template and rubric. 

Hi Kathleen: 

This is one of my favorites do read aloud- it is a really easy version of the play and follows the dramatic structure.

A play should have: 

inciting incident

rising action

climax

falling action 

denouement (in theatre- this is the resolution- we don't use the R word though)

To which she replied: 

You're amazing! Thank you!

 This is what my teacher training gave me: COMMUNITY.

Meredith and Kathleen! Summer 2015

In undergrad, I briefly thought about teaching.  A family member advised me to study what made me happy because I could always go back to school to become a teacher.  To be honest, I never thought it would happen: becoming a teacher.  I was so done with school after 5 years of undergrad that I was ready to just have my career.  This is what I did for a spell. But teaching called me back and in the fall of 2006 I started my MA in Educational Theatre and English at New York University. My program trained me well.  I felt confident leaving theory and moving into practice.  I, as all teachers are, was in for a rude awakening.  

The first few years were challenging and amazing.  I knew I was where I was supposed to be.  I was extremely grateful for my network of teachers I had built while in grad school.  The community and friendship it offered served as the backbone of my teaching practice.  

With Erin and her daughter.

Some teacher-friends have gone on to create amazing humans and I feel fortunate for our history and know that no matter what I could reach out and support is there.  This is one of the best parts of my teacher training.  Longevity.   

My extended teacher family from NYU continues to challenge me and remind me #whyiteach.  The articles they post on social media or the sharing of the work they are doing in the cities they work in inspires my own work.  It is not simply about networking, it's about COMMUNITY. 


So when picking a teacher traning program, ask about the community of teachers.  Ask what life has been like for them after they leave.  Ask to talk to teachers about what the program offered them.