Alli's Journey to 4/5

For the last 3 years I have been teaching kindergarten here at Lincoln Elementary.  I love the kindergarten kiddos but ever since my fifth grade student teaching experience, I have wanted to go back to teaching fifth grade.  After implementing personalized learning in my kindergarten classroom last year the opportunity to apply for a multi-age personalized learning classroom presented itself and I applied.   In order to apply for these positions we had to create an artifact and then we had to interview.  Then we waited, and waited, and waited!  Our administration had a lot to figure out in order to release our personalized learning implementation plan so, while all that work was happening I thought I would go and rupture my achilles tendon.  The only thing I remember from my post-op room was constantly asking when I could go home, and then receiving a letter.  I seriously have no idea what the letter said but I do know that somewhere on that piece of paper I saw the two numbers I was waiting for, ⅘.  I’m not quite sure how I got my phone or how I found her number but I do know I called Hannah immediately because I remember fighting very hard to stay awake and focus while I asked her what she was.  Again, not quite sure what happened in that very brief conversation but she assured me she was ⅘ as well, we were a team!  

So in my dazed state I had gained a new position as a fourth and fifth grade teacher and a new “work-wife.”  We were anxious to get started as we were both extremely excited at the possibilities before us.  As the 2014-15 school year ended we had big plans and throughout the summer we worked hard to refine and implement those plans.  I was constantly receiving and sending messages to Hannah most along the lines of, “hey look what I found,” with a response along the lines of, “awesome, we’re doing it!”  This could have been anything from simple Google sheets, to a full year sustainability program.  We have been very fortunate to be on the same page at every turn (I was a little hesitant about the slimy worms but even they have wriggled their way into my heart).  Luckily for us, so far, the struggles of implementing a multi-age personalized learning classroom have all been structural things that we have to work out together.  Through this blog we will, as our principal encouraged us to do, “share our story” as we figure out how to work together, build a team, and be a part of the educational shift to personalized learning!