My teaching assignment this year is to teach to different groups with and without Individualized Education Programs(IEPs) Math. I teach within the co teaching environment alongside my co teaching partner, Ms. Munoz, Marez. I also teach two sections of a special day class math in a separate pull out setting.  My room is set up for easy movement, intervention and collaboration, that is why the majority of the time the co teaching classes utilize the space that I have created in my classroom.

Teaching in a post pandemic classroom has been a journey. Kids are struggling now more than ever and bringing their burdens into the instructional setting. Middle schoolers are not equipped to leave their problems at the door. When students are going through things that impact their emotional well being, it shows. The rigidness of traditional teaching structures do not allow educators the freedom to care for students without disrupting the flow. Students who are struggling emotionally are often fidgety, disruptive and sometimes downright mean. 

With the way things have been changing, even before the pandemic,   I could not allow myself to stay stagnant as a teacher by continuing to use pedagogical practices requiring kids to sit in rows and just stare at me for thirty minutes.  My students often have  learning struggles that involve difficulty with focus and sustained attention, teaching traditionally has always felt like a not so fun game of whack-a-mole. “Stop talking” (whack), “stay in your seat” (whack), “now is not the time to use the restroom”(whack), “What do you mean you don’t understand? I just went over that!” (whack). When my students were seated in rows and expected to sit through sometimes 30 minute lectures, I was constantly correcting disruptive behaviors coming from kids who were understandably bored and in need of attention. Years ago, I recognized that kids needed me to be a coach and a mentor often more than they needed me to be a teacher. I’ve been working for years now to find creative ways to clone myself so that I could be everything the kids need me to be.