Aug 12, 99

 So it’s the beginning of school and last year was horrible and I’ve had nightmares about how this year will go already. Mostly I’m teaching reading and its going great and we get to the end of one activity and I realize that I don’t have any more plans for that day. Everybody looks at me and I feel the balance of power and sanity switching from me to them or no-one.  I hate that dream, it was reality at least once per week all of last year.

 This year has to be different. I have to commit to teaching and nothing else. I have to take any scientism and abuse by the other teachers because they don’t know yet that this year will be different. I’ll let them and the principle find out for themselves. I need to read more on how to teach, observe more of the experienced teachers, and join the union.

 The last one is my early security and the others help my eventual success. I want to plan my classroom in advance and make it public, not because I’m pretentious but because it will hold me to a higher standard.

 My goals are to make my class a family and to finish Dr. Patterson’s class on reading assessment. Last year through me into such a funk… It’s time to climb out.

 Justin Olmanson

 Welcome back to 12 hour days and splitting headaches. Just listening to that teacher inservice was enough to remind me how much stuff I needed to do before the kids march through the doors and into my life. Going to read the first chapter of the Patterson book, Framing Literacy. Hope it gives me some ideas, because right now all I’m doing is pulling TAAS workbooks out of title one and putting them on my shelf. 

 I know that my reading program needs to come second at first, what need to come first is the classroom management scheme. Last year was horrific, kids everywhere, no discipline, no worse yet inconsistent discipline. First set the tone for the year, be firm and fair, then during instruction when the time is write and we are acting out a book or I’m reading the Cat in the Hat for ESL then be funny and make them laugh.

 Be strong but not tyrannical, firm but understanding, in other words be perfect!

 Justin Olmanson

 Aug. 15, 99

Ok so tomorrow is the first day and I’m really nervous that last year will happen all over again, so nervous that I’m breaking out in acne all over my face and back. I look horrible.

 Ok chapter one of framing literacy, good writers share characteristics.

 How can I instill in my students those same characteristics?

First I think that I have to concentrate on two things first and foremost, self-efficacy and imagery.

 My children need to be risk-takers who believe in themselves. How do they get there? By seeing me taking risks as well. I teach bilingual education, reading in Spanish, I need to show them that I too can take risks when it comes to reading. When we are reading a book together in Spanish and we come to a word that I don’t know I need to stop and ask a struggling reader or any reader what that word means thus giving them success and modeling how even a teacher needs help with vocabulary,  and pronunciation.

 Modeling will be key. The other aspect is imagery. In the book Mosaic of Thought by Keene and Zimmermann, their approach to reading is what it reminds you of… Negotiating the meaning as a group coming in with experiences and beliefs. I need my kids to see the barn, feel the calico, smell the burn microwave popcorn. Then and only then can they make text to text, text to world, and text to self connections.

 Justin Olmanson

Aug. 18 1999

The first few days have been going so well thanks to my consistency and school’s newness. I have observed another teacher almost every day so far and he seems to look forward to my comings and goings.

 My kids are great, I can see that there is a lot of work to do and next week are benchmarks. Poor kids, those things will suck the life out of Methuselah. But I have to act like they are  no big deal and then the kids won’t mind them so much.

 They are so stratified, some can read no problem 4^th 5^th grade stuff, others are at a 2^nd or 1^st grade level. I have to go back to the Title 1 room and get more books, all kinds of books at all levels.

 Justin Olmanson

Aug.  21 1999

Thank God for Saturdays!

 So I’m planning next week’s direction and I’m told that I’m getting four new students. I teach the third grade and a teacher is being moved up to the 5^th grade from third. His kids will be split up between the other 4 bilingual teachers.

 He tells me that I’m getting the worst one, should be in 5^th grade age wise but is lazy (his words). Says that another one I’m getting is more of a vegetable than a student (his words again).  I don’t know what worries me more, the fact that he called them lazy and stupid or the fact that I’m getting one child that can’t read and one who has a girlfriend who is in middle school.

 How am I supposed to reach the one who is struggling with phonology? The others are ready for books. Chapter two in Framing literacy tomorrow.

 Justin Olmanson

 Aug 24, 99

 Reading Frances Mallow’s thoughts on increasing self-efficacy in order to elicit more risk taking was just what I needed to read.

 The older new boy in my class will not be a problem. He just wants to be challenged and be seen as a capable person. He is also bitter about still being in the third grade even though he passed the TAAS last year.

 I’m going to look into fluency models for my struggling child, I’ll call him N, I feel overwhelmed  by his needs and the needs of all my other students. I have to get the rest of the class rolling before I commit a disproportionate amount of time to N.

 I know that this time next year I’ll know what to do. Know how to balance it all. The third year is supposedly the most rewarding. The question remains, what should I do this year? His mother wants to put him back in second grade, his second grade teacher thinks that he’s better off in third. He reads real slow and seems to have little retention. He is listed as resource or special ed but there is no Spanish language special education offered at the school.

 Justin Olmanson

Aug 28 1999

 Otro Sabado  (another Saturday).

 I am so excited about this weekend. I am going to put all my lesson plans and class plans on the internet so that I can access them more easily. It also forces me to combine technology and teaching something everyone is talking about but few people actually get around to doing, or doing well. I know that it will take 5 – 10 hours just on layout and design but it should be worth it in that I can build on what I have done which should save me time and the trouble of writing out my lesson plans by hand every week.

 I read about Becky’s classroom in chapter 3 of Framing Literacy and it seems like I have so much to learn. She is answering questions that I haven’t thought to ask yet. I pushes me and deflates my feelings of accomplishment. I thought I was getting close to on top of things but no, not even close. I needed to hear about her long term plan and how reading / writing workshop works for her. My school implements SFA and I feel like my hands are tied at times, but on the other hand it is easy to pick apart a system that tries to work for everyone.

 I see the statistical merits of a scripted reading system in the inner city. It helps lost first and second year teachers accomplish more than they might otherwise. There are however, personality / situational factors which take precedence after awhile.

 I still have to prove myself before I can complain or speak out about the holes in the system.

 Justin Olmanson