Moving Grade Levels

FROM PRIMARY TO INTERMEDIATE – FIRST TO FOURTH GRADE

Choosing to move grade levels can be exciting and overwhelming. I recently had the opportunity to apply for a fourth grade position in the same district I’ve been teaching in for 5 years. I am so grateful for the opportunity, yet my mind stays full with all the “stuff” I have to do.

You may be reading this and wondering how you are going to get it all done, too! I don’t know about you, but my mind works best when I “brain dump” or enjoy a little mind mapping to keep my mind right.

REFLECTIONS

I need to be honest with myself and get my priorities straight because I know that I am in for some major shocks moving from a primary building (PreK-2) to an intermediate (3-5) building. Woah! I haven’t taught intermediate grades for four years and now that I will be entering my sixth year in the profession, I feel confident that I can ebb and flow with the changes. After all, fourth grade is what I’ve always wanted to teach. 😉 It’s where I got my start – as a 26 year old student teacher.

Yes, I was a little older when I entered the teaching profession. Not unlike other adults who are figuring out their way to their passion. Mine was just a little delayed.

I earned my Bachelor’s degree in English – but without a teaching degree. Teaching high school wouldn’t have been a good fit for me and the wait list to get into the elementary program would have had me graduating with a Bachelor’s degree after about 7 years! Wait. What?!

That’s why I made the decision to just graduate in 5 years and go back for my Master of Arts in Teaching. I did and here I am with five years of self-contained classroom teaching under my belt. Where does the time go?

I have noticed in the past year or so that my ideologies and practices are changing. For the better, though. I have become more thoughtful in my practice and am starting to take on projects that I believe have meaningful outcomes for myself and my students.

After recently finishing up two courses through Advancement Courses about Cultivating and Managing Student-Centered Classrooms, I feel more grounded in my professional practice. Our world is changing and my district is in the process of restructuring the type of professional development they are offering to us. So, I decided to take control of my own PD so I can give my fourth graders the best learning experience possible.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

This question has rolled around in my head a few times, but I have to remind myself why I chose to leave a grade level I was comfortable teaching.

Content. Maturity. I was ready for a change! I liked teaching first grade and had an amazing team, but I was ‘comfortable’ teaching. Meaning – I felt like a robot teaching, but I already had everything prepared and it was like a walk in the park.

So, what was the problem? I was not challenged as a teacher. So, were my students? Probably not. This was my wake up call. While I was not burned out, I had become complacent. I was frustrated that I was not able to take my students to a higher level because it was developmentally inappropriate. I loved teaching kids to read; however, I missed teaching kids to interact with what they read and reading to learn.

Retention was always something that broke my heart. I never again want to have to tell parents their child will need another year of foundational skills because they were unable to make all of the connections during our year together. Those conversations are difficult and while most are not surprised, you always question yourself if you made the right choice. You question if you did everything you could. You question the interventions. You question everything. In the end, you have to believe that you are supporting that child with what he or she needs. That’s the mission I have as a teacher.

WHAT WILL I BE DOING TO PREPARE FOR A NEW BUILDING, GRADE LEVEL, AND TEAM?

While I spend this summer on the couch (although it’s about time I started doing something to prepare for the new year), I will be organizing and purging materials that will serve a purpose in my student-centered classroom. I have accumulated so much stuff that half of it is outdated and links no longer work that it’s a mess!

The DELETE button is my new favorite thing!! It feels good to look at “stuff” that is organized in meaningful ways. Beautiful, color-coded, alphabetical order. HA! My OCD is showing. =) There is just something so simple and calming about organization that allows you to give your best.

I will also be organizing and labeling my classroom library. I have 4 large plastic totes and 8-10 paper boxes full of intermediate level books collected over the years and gifted to me by librarians and retiring teachers. That is the major summer job I gave myself. Ugh! I remember doing that for my first grade library. I vividly remember glaring at my living room floor as piles of books lay helplessly in organized chaos.

Now, I know I said organization is calming, but I never said the process was great! It is a huge task to organize a library. Where do I start? Well, I’m going into a new grade so my first attempt may not be my last as I adjust to my students’ needs throughout the years.

I will organize my library by:

Genre
Accelerated Reader (AR) Level (my district/grade level uses this tool)
Special Interest
Student Created books

Special Interest books will be interdisciplinary with cross-curricular ties to our current literacy and social studies units.

The student created books will be published books from students that would like to share their work with their peers. Throughout the school year, I will be providing my students with opportunities to self-publish their work. I will be researching different platforms available for free that will have the capabilities I’m looking for. I have a few in mind to start, but let me know if you know of any great self-publishing tools for students to use! I plan to revisit this topic in a later blog post and will focus on student-centered writing projects.

CURRICULUM

What about curriculum? The great thing about this is that the fourth grade team is AWESOME!! They have been working hard to create curriculum guides and share their notes and resources in a common space. I have had access to the curriculum since May and you better believe it has become like a second job for me to read and understand my new curriculum.

I am so excited to be teaching fiction and nonfiction, literature, and biography series! I get to teach about Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King, Jr.! I also get to teach Science! So much has changed with that – and to be honest – I haven’t spent much time looking at it. I do know they will be using an engaging platform called Mystery Science.

If you’re like me, you have been pouring over your Teachers Pay Teachers cart and previous purchases to put together the best resources for making this year awesome! Is it bad to say that my cart total is somewhere around $350?! YIKES!! Since my focus will be implementing a student-centered classroom, I have collected a variety of resources that will make my transition smooth and provide the best authentic learning opportunities for my students.

Here’s what I found:

BACK TO SCHOOL ACTIVITIES & MEET THE TEACHER NIGHT