I love ideas, but ideas are often difficult to promote due to so many factors. Sometimes you just have to step back from those ideas and rework the teaching/learning path in order to find the arenas where you can do good work, work that counts.
Math/STEAM
One area I'm going to continue to invest my time and energy into is math teaching and learning. I have the time in the day, the inspiration, and multiple pathways to explore in this regard. I'll enjoy this challenge, a challenge that's embraced by the greater learning community. I also look forward to working with my colleagues to embed STE and STEAM standards and activities into the curriculum.
SEL and Growth Mindset
Another area that I'm committed to is integrating SEL and growth mindset into daily lessons and the classroom community. This year I worked with colleagues on writing a book, Integrating SEL and Academic Learning, and I look forward to using many of the strategies in the book to help my students develop a good foundation for character development and emotional intelligence.
Teacher Leadership
A third area is my work to develop my repertoire related to teacher leadership. I'll be working with the MTA and NBPTS to dig into the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards as one way to lead teachers toward meeting their professional goals and expectations in ways that matter and are meaningful for teachers, families, and students. I'll also continue my work with DESE's Teacher Advisory Cabinet, the MTA's Teaching and Professional Learning Committee, and our local union board.
Contributing to a Strong Learning/Teaching Community
I'll work with my grade-level colleagues, families, and students to continue to build a strong grade-level teaching/learning community. In that regard, I want to focus on our collective efforts related to relationship building, teamwork, a signature introductory learning event, a welcoming curriculum night, showcase portfolios, field studies, project/problem based learning, targeted assessments, personalized learning paths, parent/student/teacher conferences, and more. There are so many ways that you can collaborate in order to build a strong teaching/learning community and I look forward to this effort.
Cultural Proficiency
This year with field studies, classroom learning experiences/discussions, and other special events we worked to build a more culturally proficient program. Next year we hope to do the same. I'd like to build greater cultural proficiency into math learning experiences next year.
There are countless ways to develop the teaching/learning community. Working in collaboration with students, families, colleagues, and others is a good way to achieve this development. I've entertained many possible avenues in the past few months, and now I feel that the areas listed above are a good match for the teaching/learning year ahead.
