Wednesday, April 06, 2016

Updating Learning/Teaching Efforts

As you know, I've been in the process of updating the classroom approach and organization this week. All at once it seemed like we needed some change to keep the momentum going, and this week I've been focused on this change.

First of all, I rearranged the room to match the current focus of a more traditional test prep/test focus and the STEAM focus that will follow the tests. This meant that many materials were reorganized and/or moved to new places.

I also rethought the math direction with the tests a few weeks away and have focused our efforts on review of all that's been taught and studied this year. So far the review is going well and serving to pull the pieces of the math year together. Students have reacted with positivity.

We also met as a team to shore up our collective work making sure that together we're meeting all the expectations and keeping the sense of a grade level team strong. I continue to really like our shared teaching approach as I feel we're much stronger together.

There will be times like this in the classroom, times when it's time to rethink the path and update accordingly. I must say the change has reenergized me and the students too. Onward.