Changing a Teacher

For my last assignment I was to seek out a teacher and help them to gain more understanding and information about a topic that would benefit them.  That is why I owe my friend Tamara big time.  She agreed to be my ‘guinea pig’ and collaborate with me to seek out new information that would help her instruct her Grade 8 English class.  I was already out of my comfort zone of elementary, so that in itself was a challenge.  However, I did find the exercise to benefit both Tamara and myself.

To begin I quickly asked Tamara what she was working on in class and what units she was planning for the near future.  I figured this was the best way and the most realistic way of engaging a teacher to collaborate with.  While at work, I find that I gain a very brief understanding of the general topic teachers are looking at planning and then go from there.  Then over the course of a coffee meeting we discussed the resources I found.

            I found this assignment to be worthwhile exercise in practicing finding resources for teachers.  Realistically I do not think I would have an hour to discuss website validity, but instead, hand over a compiled list and give the onus on the teacher to judge whether or not they will be using the sources provided.  However, it was interesting to note, that while working with Tamara she was quickly able to recognize whether or not she would be using the resources.  She made an interesting comment regarding that new teachers do not have time to sift through mountains of reading material and that the most helpful resources are ones that can be searched from within the site, to narrow down literature based on theme or idea.  I am currently looking to find this source for her.  In the meantime I feel I accomplished some of the needs of Tamara’s planning, and while I did not entirely meet her needs, I was able to be of assistance.  I did enjoy the search for resources to aid in another teacher’s planning, something that I will be putting to good use in my current Teacher Librarian position.

            The website discussed was Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Educators which I found to be highly useful and used it many times since this assignment.  It has many good links and is host to a vast amount of topics, grade levels and themes.