As I think ahead to summer study, I want to set the stage now. I've already identified a good reading list and reading will be my main avenue of summer study this year. To read well this summer, I will need to seek out cozy spots at home and in local, air conditioned libraries and museums--good places to read matters if you want to get the most out of it.
Also, good questions matter so that you can manage your reading well. These are initial questions that will lead my reading:
- Are we doing all that we can to promote a culturally proficient program? What else can we do to reach this goal?
- Are we teaching students about social emotional learning, emotional intelligence, and learning to learn attitudes and behaviors in explicit ways? Does the signage in our classrooms reflect the language and ideas related to this? How can we better embed these areas of knowing and being more into the academic curriculum?
- How can I embed meaningful project/problem based learning more into the math curriculum to make that learning more engaging, effective, and empowering for all learners?
- What questions and problems will be the best focus for math writing process related to specific units?
- How can I best contribute to the culture of the school and the development of the school system? What big ideas matter? What contribution. behavior, and demeanor matters most?
These are the pressing questions that will lead me as I read the books and articles I've identified.
Further, summer study will include study and activity that makes me better able to teach in the year ahead, activity that includes an optimal room set-up with the materials available, good energy, and the collaboration with my dynamic grade-level team and school team.
To further set the stage for summer study means that I'll get rid of a lot of books and materials that exist in the classroom that the students and I no longer use, and I'll make better, more accessible spaces for the many new science materials we've acquired--materials I need to teach STEAM and physical science.
In the testing days ahead, there's less prep needed since the tests are scripted and students do the work on their own, so that gives me time to begin the preparation for new study and growth during those wonderful summer months. Onward.
