Today is a super busy day of teaching and learning, and the key is to just keep going. The day begins with a stop at a local store or bakery to pick up goodies for an important meeting. Following that I'll be running lots of science supplies to the school kitchen to wash them up and prepare them for today's science explorations (I don't have a sink in my room so prepping the materials requires an extra step). After that I'll set up the science supplies and ready the room for today's learning.
The day officially starts with a meeting to review scheduling potential for next year. Our team continues to develop our shared teaching model to effectively teach about 75 fifth graders. Each year we assess what's working and what could be better. Then we advocate for betterment typically beginning in January as administrators begin to think about next year's staffing and schedules.
Today we'll use the colleague circle model for problem solving as we move step-by-step through a collaborative discussion about a potential revised schedule for next year, a schedule that we feel will be more effective overall for our goals to teach students well as we meet expected standards, curriculum, and student priorities.
After that we'll move on to our Response to Intervention groups in math which are all focused on different areas of math operation and problem solving skill, concept, and knowledge. Then students wills set up science stations and explore states of matter, conservation of matter, and physical/chemical changes with hands-on explorations, note taking, video watching, and discussion. Following that is another science block where students rotate to another teacher's room to learn more science. I'll repeat the matter lab with a new group.
Lunch will be a welcome reprieve after that very busy morning, then in the afternoon I'll have time to complete the science clean-up, work with colleagues to send out our newsletter, clean up the room with students, and lead buddy-time with the kindergarten teachers. Fifth graders will read and complete small Martin Luther King, Jr. books with the kindergartners, then either read more books or make posters for the system-wide annual MLK celebration.
Teachers' days are typically very busy--we move from activity to activity as we work to coach every student ahead with positivity, kindness, skill, and care. I write a detailed post like this to acknowledge the busyness of our days. Onward.
