Tuesday, February 07, 2017

Professional Development: Choose Three

I mentioned to a friend that I was a bit overwhelmed by all the learning possible. He suggested that I choose three. Though difficult to do, I know how important this is. So what do I choode:

Math Education
I want to deepen and extend my ability to teach math. This will include embedding Boaler's research into my work, adding more coding, looking at ways to differentiate the schedule more, using time more effectively, and developing greater "maker math" investigations and lessons.

SEL/Cultural Proficiency
Continuing to work with colleagues to build the curriculum program in ways that boost SEL and cultural proficiency. This summer at the MTA summer conference I'll focus on related study. Also our team has several days set aside to deepen our efforts in this regard. There's some research and procedural work to do in order to ready for those upcoming events.

Teacher Leadership
I want to continue to build teacher leadership skills and efforts. There are a lot of "soft skills" to develop in this regard and my work on local and state boards/committees gives me practice in this regard.

These are my three, what are your's?

Update 7/2018: While I continue to hope to lead through my classroom efforts, my three areas of focus for 2018-2019 will be Math Education, STEAM Education, and Social-Emotional Learning (including cultural proficiency).