I'm particularly feeling this right now during these busy months of personal and professional efforts--a time when I'm very busy with the day-to-day action of running a classroom and supporting a family. The best way I can deal with this dilemma is to make a loose-tight plan to tackle the vision I have for so many areas of teaching, learning, and living.
Math
With regard to my main teaching/learning role as a math teacher, the daily lessons are planned well into the year as I introduce children to a fairly large number of skills, concepts, and knowledge points. There's lots to learn, practice, and review as children work to master fifth grade standards. The learning goes well beyond the standards themselves since students also need to develop optimal work habits, good questioning, collaboration and problem solving skill, and more. The focus is to learn math and also to learn how to learn successfully.
I can't wait to dig into the planning for a number of project/problem based learning (PBL) efforts in math. I know the students will love this, but there's lots to do to clear the path for these endeavors which take considerable time and collaboration effort and skill. We'll get there with rich standards-based PBL during the last week in December, and a couple of shorter PBL efforts before that which are focused on building strong teams for the December PBL.
Science
There's so much reading, research, and leg work to do to elevate the science teaching and learning. As I note above, I can see it, but I haven't been able to find that rich time to make it happen. Specifically there's lots of organization work to reach my vision for a student-friendly classroom lab where students are able to access materials with ease and respect.
The initial lessons I am planning are lessons that teach students how to use many of the materials we will be using in upcoming experiments. Then we'll dig into the experiments. So we'll take it step by step.
I also want to deepen my science teaching knowledge, and perhaps I'll use the voucher I'm earning for hosting a student teacher to take a good course with a quality instructor. Taking a course is a good way to make yourself attend to the topic, learn, and share multiple ideas. When the math standards were new, I took a great course about those standards, and that knowledge has served me well over time.
Deepening our Grade-Level Reading Culture
I'm really excited about our team efforts to deepen the grade-level reading culture. I'm looking forward to the pajama readathon kickoff next week, a time when we'll really get to talk to students regarding their ideas for elevating and deepening reading throughout the grade-level.
Teaching/Learning Repertoire
Timeless Learning is staring me in the face every day and I can't wait to find a good day to devote to reading that book. The authors are awesome and I know the book will move my teaching and learning ahead. I've also started a new reading list since many awesome articles and book recommendations have been coming my way and if I don't add them to the list right away, I lose sight of that valuable information and inspiration.
Healthy Balance
That healthy balance goal is always a reach as a teacher, but I know that this is essential because good energy and health is essential to teaching well.
I write about this again and again as I try to resist the many temptations to stray from most important aspects of my teaching/learning role right. Right now my goal is to dig in and do as much as I can to elevate the teaching learning program so that the program mirrors the latest research, students' interests and needs, SEL, brain-friendly programming, a dynamic student-educator-family team, and an overall robust program.
Success Criteria
The success criteria for the year includes the following:
- Teaching all math and science standards
- Supporting and building a robust teaching/learning program with my grade-level colleagues
- Creating rich math and science learning experiences with and for students
- A happy, healthy, and positive learning community.
Time to keep on plugging.
