Alternative Seating

After rearranging my bedroom over the long weekend, I had an extra set of tall bed risers. I have been thinking that one of my students could benefit from an alternative seating method since he's very active tends to lose focus while sitting. I decided to try putting his desk on the bed risers to give him the opportunity to have a standing desk.

In the past, I have considered getting exercise balls for students to use as chairs. However, moving out to the portables ended this dream of mine. There's nowhere to store a bunch of exercise balls or excess chairs.

I found these risers a while back at Target. They were on clearance from the dorm furnishings in August/September. These ones are the extra tall risers, I think they're eight inches tall. In all, I think they cost me $1.50. I will definitely buy more if I see them on sale again because more of my students would like to try a standing desk.

This kiddo didn't last very long while standing. I watched him as he slowly transitioned to kneeling on his chair, which is when I gave him my stool. (If I have end up giving more kids standing desks, I'll have to find more stools!) He asked at the end of the day if he could keep his desk that way though, so he must like it. He was also more aware and engaged in the classroom.

Long Term Planning

Coming out of college, I thought that I would have a year-long plan for my curriculum for all subjects in my first year. I knew it would take a lot of work, but I didn't realize how hard this really is. When you're not familiar with the curriculum or the district/school pacing guides, it's really hard to make a long-term plan. Even if you manage to make a plan, it is likely to change drastically when you find out new information. In my first year teaching last year, I never ended up with a long term plan for any subject other than science which is district directed. I had drafted some plans for other subjects, but ended up ditching them a month or two into the school year because they didn't match pacing guides or I didn't fully understand the curriculum. Because I never made a long-term plan for each subject and didn't write much down other than my short notes in my plan book, I didn't have much of an advantage going into my second year.

I am currently working on taking notes from each unit that I teach and trying to recognize and note what to add or change next year to fill any gaps. It just doesn't make sense to reinvent the wheel every year instead of having a foundation of a plan to build off of for each unit. Right now, those notes are jotted on random sheets of paper and I'm trying to find a good format to long-term plan for next year as I teach this year and to take those notes of things to change next year. I'm not sure what this will look like yet, but I would like to have one standard form for each subject or each month of the school year that I can have with me at all times. Then, I can jot notes whenever and wherever I think of them.

My biggest piece of advice for a beginning teacher would be to do exactly what I have begun to do, but start it earlier, on day one of school. Get in the habit of taking notes on everything you do and noting what you think you could change. Often we realize that we should have taught a lesson a little different, in a different order, or before/after another concept. Make a note of those things so you can change it next year instead of trying to remember what you did.