In the meantime, and after great systematic thought, I want to point my learning/teaching ship in the direction of what I need to do now to teach and learn well.
Math Education: Practice
I'm really loving this year's math teaching goal which is to focus on the role of practice in learning math. As part of my goal, I am working to make sure that every child gets adequate and rightly directed math practice each week. I created this goal based on a score assessment of last year's teaching/learning efforts. I found that capable students who did not practice, did not do as well on standardized tests. I felt bad that these students did not meet their potential and could clearly see it was due to their lack of practice. Hence this year I'm focusing in on student practice.
So far this effort has demonstrated to students that I know what they are doing each week with regard to practice. I'm calling them up for meeting if they haven't completed their practice, and I'm helping them out if I notice that they don't have the skill or knowledge to complete the practice successfully. I'm offering extra help sessions and contacting parents if I need their support. All this work is helping me to build deeper teacher-student relationships and resulting in a more dynamic class focus and atmosphere too.
Good, veteran teachers have always known that practice is essential, and they also know that staying on top of each child's work and effort is imperative to teaching well. These kinds of efforts can be easily lost in the school house due to the limited time available to do this work. We see that successful school systems around the world typically make much more time for teachers to follow-up, analyze, and support student practice. That's something that U.S. schools need to consider more.
As I teach each standards unit in math, I'll continue this focus on practice adjusting as I go along to better support each student.
Embedding Standards into Environmental Education
Our efforts working with a naturalist coach finds me working to embed our science standards into relevant and engaging environmental education. There's lots to do in this regard including the following:
- Focusing in on the properties and science of matter
- Making an environmental studies resource area including ponding nets and more
- Creating more outdoor environmental science education efforts
- Studying systemwide resources and embedding those resources into this environmental effort
- Discussing this effort with system leadership with respect to the future and support for efforts like this.
New Social Studies Standards: Read Aloud
While my colleagues are mainly focused on teaching the new social studies standards, I am doing my part by bringing the standards to life via special events and read aloud. I need to make time to complete this work.
Lit Mix: Reading RTI
My small reading group is reading Kwame Alexander's book, Rebound. We love it!!!! There's so much to discuss and think about with respect to this book. I look forward to continuing this effort.
My small reading group is reading Kwame Alexander's book, Rebound. We love it!!!! There's so much to discuss and think about with respect to this book. I look forward to continuing this effort.
Math Mix
I manage a 20+ plus group of enthusiastic mathematicians during Math Mix. We'll begin with a discussion about math learning, then we'll engage in a large variety of math learning efforts during this one-hour a week effort.
Showcase Portfolios
In preparation for upcoming student-parent-teacher conferences, students will create showcase portfolios. They will use these portfolios to showcase their student profile, learning efforts, and goals as they lead upcoming conferences.
Student Teacher
I'm working with the student teacher to create an interdisciplinary unit that she'll teach to my homeroom class and I'll teach to the other classes. The student teacher brings an enthusiastic, bright, and intelligent skill and perspective to my practice. The students love working with her. This is a positive endeavor.
There's much to focus on in the days ahead, and what's important is to keep the focus and get the good work done. Onward.
