What's a teacher to do?
I will continue to offer ideas, speak up, and work for change via the open doors that exist such as the local union, and then I'll focus the rest of my time and energy towards what I can do to support student learning well.
Practice
First, I'll focus on my overall student learning goal which is to grow effective practice opportunities and response with the rationale that it takes good practice to master skill, concept, and knowledge. This work means keeping a close eye on all learners to make sure they get adequate personalized practice to help them master the standards in meaningful ways. Specifically students complete a weekly practice packet, an online learning menu, in-class learning experiences, and online practice sets. I support their efforts by offering two extra help morning sessions a week, weekly check-ins, parent communication, and individual meetings throughout the week.
Environmental Education
My second goal is to embed science standards into environmental education in conjunction with my grade-level colleagues and Drumlin Farm naturalists and educators. We started this work with a professional learning day for teachers, background lessons, making watershed models with our naturalist coach, and a day-long hike, ponding, water testing, map study, and exploration at a local nature preserve. Efforts to come include reviewing and extending our study of properties, matter, the carbon cycle, habitats, and the atmosphere. We'll also study climate change and engage in student community action projects with our naturalist coach. We may tie a pontoon boat river tour into this project as well as part of a local grant effort.
Co-Lab
Last year the team wrote a grant to support creating one of our fifth grade classrooms as a collaborative lab with tables and student drawers. The new furniture has created the kind of collaborative learning environment I've always dreamed of. Now I need to make time to re-organize to better the room's organization and readiness for the many collaborative science, math, and STEAM activities ahead. That means making the best use of the shelves, cabinets, and other spaces that exist so that students can easily access needed materials and then put them away. Many of our learning experiences at fifth grade are materials intensive which means it takes considerable thought and effort to organize those materials in accessible and safe ways.
Student Showcase Portfolios
Students create showcase portfolios to share with family members and others at upcoming Fall conferences. Those portfolios will include the following materials:
- Beautiful Cover
- All About Me
- Happiness Survey
- Past-Present-Future Timelines
- Photos from the class photo sites (two-five student-selected photos in each portfolio)
- Learning Profile
- Score Report: standard assessments, unit tests, and more
- Goals
- SEL Assessment
- Learning Experiences
- Fall Field Study Reflections: Nature Walk, Museum of Science, Sturbridge Village, and McAuliffe Challenger Center experiences
I'm in charge of the physical science unit and that means reviewing summer work related to this study as well as a review of the multiple curriculum materials that exist. I want to ready the room for this study so that every student gets at least six learning experiences related to this topic and related standards.
STEAM Projects
We've moved these projects into the spring months so that we have enough time and space for the science units and environmental science study this month.
Math Presentation and Learning
I'll be presenting at a local ATMIM Math Conference in a few weeks so I'll need to make time to review the materials and the presentation prior to the presentation which will focus on tech integration in math learning.
Professional Reading
I can't wait to read Timeless Learning Pam Moran, Ira Socol, and Chad Ratliff. Books like this written by extraordinary educators truly empower what I can do with and for students.
Readiness for Good Teaching
Good teaching demands readiness which includes good energy, lead time, professional learning, and regular, positive collaboration.
Collegiality
I will work with a number of teams to organize and forward RTI efforts and sensitive, targeted student services.
Union Efforts
I'll continue to work as part of our local Union board. Fortunately our union enjoys the membership of all professional educators and represents a diversity of roles, voices, and interests. The meetings we have are always lively and our membership investment is strong and focused on excellence with regard to our professional efforts and the needs we have to teach all students well.
Supervising Student Teachers
This term I am supervising an outstanding student teacher. That role includes helping her to create and then engage students in worthy learning experiences. There's lots of work to do in this regard as she prepares for her take-over days and weeks. This is good apprenticeship work that results in worthy learning and teaching for educators, student teachers, and students. During her take-over weeks I'll complete the needed paperwork related to this work.
I like to continually grow my teaching/learning efforts towards betterment. Creating a list like this provides me with direction, the kind of direction I can match with good energy to teach well.
