As I think a lot about how we can do this, I have noted the following personal and systematic efforts that will help.
Personally, as I look ahead, I'm steering my teaching/learning ship in the following directions:
- Earlier-in-the-year, more comprehensive, streamlined initial assessments.
- Advocacy for less extensive, but more informative/useful, assessments throughout the year.
- Greater differentiation in the math program to make sure that every child has opportunity for just-right engaging and meaningful growth and support.
- Development of our student portfolio efforts including the following:
- Thoughtful, early-in-the-year, identity cover creation
- Thoughtful, early-in-the-year, dividers creation
- More regular reflections and goal setting sheets
- Greater inclusion of specialists study evidence/projects
- Possible inclusion of all students at both fall and winter conferences including teaching children how to lead their own parent conferences.
- More time early in the school year devoted to teaching students how to access and use online teaching/learning tools well. Including times for parent instruction too if desired by parents.
- Providing technology for those students who do not have it at home at the start of the year.
- Providing greater home study support before and/or after school in conjunction with other existing home study programs.
- Finding a "job alike" group to connect with--this has been somewhat difficult to find given my place in the teaching/learning world, but I'll keep looking.
Systematically, I believe our teaching community will grow well with the following efforts:
- Regular, comprehensive, and streamlined communication, reports, and share
- Greater distributive leadership, less hierarchical management and focus
- Better, inclusive, strategic planning around all issues
- More transparent, open systems of stakeholder voice, choice
- Less superficial effort, and more deep, transformative action and effort
- Fewer administrators who do not work directly with students providing more time for teacher leadership and staffing that work directly with students
- A more streamlined evaluation system with better tools for reporting and sharing information related to the evaluation system--our current tools is very basic, not allowing quality share
- Greater, inclusive attention to research and development efforts in order to grow our practice in ways that truly matter and are researched based.
