Our teaching team collects lots of informal and formal data about students, and we use that data to inform our program. We also meet as a team a minimum of four times a week to discuss student goals and strategies to teach well. We're trying to give every child the chance to develop with academic confidence, joy, and success. This is a positive goal, and one that we're all invested in.
The next six weeks of school are rich teaching time. Energy is good, the days are colder and darker, and we know the students quite well by now. What will we do to boost student success in light of this?
Targeted groups, seating, and activities
We've targeted a number of activities including one-to-one coaching, extra help sessions, bonus/enrichment activities, independent practice, preferred seating, and personalized tech menus to support individual students. I'll hang a copy of the detailed plan near my teaching area and monitor the plan's success and need for change. We'll continue to meet and discuss how we might make the teaching and learning experiences a good fit for all students. This is the part of the job I enjoy the most.
Cozy, Comfortable and Positive Learning Environment
I'll continue to work to make the environment match the learners. Each year's group is different and thus requires a bit different environment. There's a number of simple changes I'm looking at with regard to the physical set-up of the room and materials organization that may help the students.
Teaming with Families
I'm looking for ways that we can deepen our teaming with families to support students. With large numbers of students in heterogenous classrooms, working with families is key to student success. Fortunately we have an outstanding group of loving and supportive families, and we'll keep a two-way conversation going about each child's progress and supports.
Growth Mindset
Our goal is positive progress for every child. The more that we can encourage children to work for their own progress by asking questions, choosing good places to learn, accessing helpful resources, and utilizing a large number of helpful learning strategies, the better they will learn. We are mostly in the business of teaching students how to learn, and having a positive attitude and growth mindset is critical to this endeavor.
Everyone Belongs
That's the theme on our class website, and the theme that we are fostering in every way possible. We want our teaching/learning environment to be a welcoming, positive place, and we want to bridge any opportunity gaps that exist in order to let every child know that he/she can learn, and we are there to help them. A child gave us a vote of confidence this week when he said, "Why is everyone so nice to me." He noticed our efforts to make the learning accessible to him. Now the goal is to teach so that every child feels the same way.
Engaging, Empowering Learning Experiences
A standards-based curriculum demands a lot of creative synthesis and exploration to make the sometimes seemingly dry standards lively and engaging. This is another part of the job I find to be a terrific challenge--how can we translate those standards into engaging, scaffolded, empowering learning events. My team and I will continue to work towards this aim in the days to come.
To look deeply at every child and to aim for concerted cultivation as Malcolm Gladwell discusses in his book, Outliers, is the aim of good teaching. That's our team aim, and the work to meet this goal is the reason why I teach.
