As I think of the program we promote, I notice the following areas for improvement:
- Greater opportunity for student academic voice. I want to elevate opportunities for students to share their thinking with one another, and I plan to do that by using a performance assessment process that includes the following steps:
- Open Ended standards-based project Introduction/Exploration
- Draft solutions
- Peer- and teacher-edits
- Final copy including solution and next-steps list
- Presentation, debate, and discussion
- Reflection
- Better collaboration with special educators, coaches, and others who work closely with our fifth grade team. Think deeply about the processes we use to collaborate and serve students well--how do we assess these processes and effort accurately and what can we do to elevate this collaboration in specific ways that lead to greater student confidence, capacity, and engagement?
- A positive start to the year that includes a good introduction/creation of classroom community protocols, routines, and schedule. As much as possible I want the classroom to run in a seamless way where students know what to do and when to do it so we can spend most of our time on engaging, meaningful study rather than the nuts and bolts of teaching.
- Use of the best possible learning experiences by continuing to evaluate the teaching/learning program to revise, modify, enrich, and retire specific parts of the program as needed.
- A focus on positivity by working to elevate the good and diminish the not-so good.
- Continued professional learning in math, science, and SEL to develop the program.
