These questions will lead my work:
My Teaching/Learning Behaviors
- Do I have a positive teacher-student relationship with each child, a relationship characterized by trust, warmth, consistency, dependability, positivity, stability, and affirmation.
- Am I modeling productive behaviors?
- Do I have high expectations for all students?
- Do I contribute to a positive teaching-learning environment?
- Do I avoid attaching labels and maintain high expectations for all learners?
I will use these question to assess my daily efforts, use of language, and self-coaching/development.
- Is the teaching environment a high support, low threat environment?
- Do I consider both the psychological and physiological conditions for productive learning?
- Are the learning and behavioral expectations clear?
- Do I foster a growth mindset which demonstrates that every person is continually capable of learning new things.
I will share these questions with colleagues and students, and enlist their ideas and support in the development of a positive, productive teaching/learning environment.
- Do I work effectively with colleagues to create strong, positive, and responsive collegial communities of teaching, service, and care?
- Do I regularly and positively reach out to families via newsletters, response to questions, parent meetings, problem solving, and more?
I will increase my depth and efforts in this regard.
Student Coaching
- Are mistakes and misbehavior treated with empathy and opportunities to learn and develop better ways of completing tasks and getting along with one another?
- Do I engage in empathetic back-and-forth conversations with students on a regular basis?
- Do I know each child well, and respond to that knowledge with personalized supports and learning plans that acknowledge students have different needs with regard to pacing, instruction, and healthy learning and development.
- Do I provide helpful feedback on a regular basis?
- Do extended learning opportunities including homework help exist?
- How do I support students' sense of purpose, self-confidence, advocacy, and collaboration with explicit teaching, learning experiences, and coaching?
- Do I regularly relay positive, helpful, authentic comments and feedback in response to student efforts, behaviors, and ideas?
I will use these questions to assess my work with students individually, in small groups, and as an entire class/grade-level. I will also increase opportunity for positive, helpful feedback, student conversation, homework support, and explicit social-emotional/academic teaching.
Learning Experiences Prep, Planning, and Design
- Are the learning experiences relevant and robust including personally relevant topics, related to students' lived experiences, and made-up of rich resources and materials that inspire excitement and curiosity?
- Do students have the opportunity to set goals, assess their work, create learning paths, revise as needed, and reach mastery?
- Is the instruction active, organized, relevant, student-centered, inquiry/discovery-based, well-scaffolded, well-designed, relating to big ideas, and solutions-driven?
- Do students have the opportunity to construct knowledge and exhibit learning regularly?
- Is social emotional learning explicit and integrated throughout the academic program?
- Is the teaching/learning culturally responsive, inclusive, and respectful?
- Do students have sufficient, regular opportunities to exhibit and extend their learning?
- Do I give regular low stakes, targeted diagnostic assessment to assess student learning, interest, and need?
- Am I systematically developing students' social, emotional, and academic skills, habits, and mindsets?
I plan to dig into the learning design more to reach the intent of the questions above. I will embed social-emotional learning goals and explicit teaching into specific lessons beginning with science/STEAM lessons and I will use Jo Boaler's fifth grade math book to design more collaborative, differentiated, and culturally responsive learning experiences. Further, I'll update learning/teaching structures in the following ways:
Learning Menu: The menu will include a differentiated path with a number of engaging choices as well as self assessments.
Reflection Journal: The math reflection journal will include opportunities for practice, vocabulary building, and reflection related to specific mastery goals and the general math program.
Learning Experiences: I'll focus on designing experiences with and for students that are relevant, hands-on, and scaffolded. These experiences will include choice and opportunities for children to learn and exhibit that learning in multiple ways.
Assessment/Design: I'll engage students in the conversations and efforts related to learning assessment and design regularly.
