As the school year roots itself in time and place, it's time to review the success criteria. Is the learning path headed in the right directions?
Mastery of All Math Standards
This is the big goal of my role this year. How can I bring every child towards mastery with every 5th grade math standards. We've doubled up our math time to catch up to the scope and sequence schedule provided by the school system. We've signed on to Khan Academy, That Quiz, Extra Math and other programs to practice, and we're learning the curriculum standard-by standard. The time is set, and the routines quite solid so now the goal is to make the learning experiences as engaging, empowering, and educational as possible so all are learning these standards with strength, meaning, and relevance.
Mastery of Science Standards
We've participated in a number of school based learning experiences and special events to grow this knowledge. Like math, the tools for teaching are numerous and the challenge is to blend the best tools for optimal teaching. I'm still waiting to hear back about a couple of grants that will support this curriculum area, and I have a meeting this week with the local river shed organizations to plan an outdoor ecosystem study. During the winter, students will research, prepare, and present Ted Talks to teach each other the standards too. I'll change the standards to a long list of science questions, and each student will choose one question to teach to the class.
Class Community
There's a lot of energy in our double class community, and most of the time everyone is focused and getting along. We still have some work to do to strengthen our efforts to care for one another and help each other learn, and we'll continue to boost those efforts through team meetings, service learning, and other special class events.
STEAM Stars
We continue to learn about science, tech, engineering, arts, and math stars, but the program hasn't had the time it deserves due to the other objectives. Perhaps when we catch up in math, we'll be able to make more time for this.
Read Aloud
Again, this area has suffered a bit due to the number of math and science objectives, but we're in the midst of Wonder and continue to read aloud when we can.
ELA/Social Studies
Since I share the responsibility of teaching with another teacher, that teacher focuses on reading, writing and social studies. It's amazing to see how much reading the students are doing on their own and with that portion of the class. Their social studies' reports have been thought provoking, and the writing projects artful and reflective. It's nice to know that the students are in such good hands in this area, and it also makes my job more manageable to focus on two subjects rather than all subjects.
In summary, we're on the right path with a big focus on math, science, and class community. The challenge at hand is designing learning experiences well with and for students so that everyone learns with happiness and success. Onward.
