I find that I employ Self Regulation Strategy Development (SRSD) each day to teach well. To cheer myself on, I find the nuggets of gold in each day and the worthy challenges to meet in order to gain the kind of inspiration that spurs me forward as a teacher of young children.
In many ways, teaching remains a solitary profession. Though we have colleagues, the schedule finds us mostly by ourselves with multiple children most of the day. New evaluation systems that focus more on individual work than team also serve to emphasize and promote the individualistic aspects of teaching rather than collaboration and team. I think this is one downside of the new evaluation system--with so much emphasis on individuals, team and a sense of learning community seem to suffer.
So finding that just right inspiration and level of challenge each day can energize educators. Today, we'll smooth out the rough edges of the new initiatives we started yesterday. We'll spend an hour on Khan Academy beginning with some time for questions, problems, and highlights--I'm finding Khan to be one more advantageous tool in our terrific teaching tool kit. We'll also review the focus and emphasis of our grade-level Where the Mountain Meets the Moon parallel storyboard paper-cut bulletin board. After that students will have time to work on the project, one that's a bit more challenging with respect to collaboration and creativity than I originally imagined. We'll start our new whole class home-school book study with the mystery story, Out of the Deep, and we'll create a number of fraction, decimals, and percent models using 100's grids and coin models. Tuesdays include both music and art classes too, and time for two recesses. It's one of our best days of the week with regard to the schedule as there's a more natural flow from one subject to the next, less interruption, and the most teacher planning time (1 hour, 15 minutes).
Leaving space for the unexpected is also part of the daily schedule, and inevitably, there are changes due to illness, skinned knees, visiting professionals, project questions, and more--the day never goes exactly as planned, but good planning does ensure that most days are successful with significant learning.
Perhaps it's the gray days of early spring, or the fact that there are big changes on the horizon in my school system, but nevertheless it seems like the "coach yourself" activity is more important at this time of year than any other. Do you agree?
