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| My one-word mini poster to lead my professional goals this year. |
Yesterday I wrote a post about the need for educators to lead themselves, and today I'm focusing in on one element of leading yourself which is goal setting. I have found that the clarity you match with your goals is the accelerant you bring to your goals to make that what you work for a reality.
So as I think ahead about the school days to come, I'm thinking about those goals.
Full Circle Teaching in Math and Science
Analysis of student learning experiences performance, assessments, surveys, and observations points me in the direction of deepening the units we bring to fifth grade with what I define as full circle teaching. My analysis demonstrates that while we introduce most topics and bring those topics someway with deep, engaging, and meaningful experiences, we can still reach to solidify the learning so that children are able to embed that learning into their mindsets and skills while also applying that learning across discipline and to multiple real-world situations.
You can tell by the way that I write this, I still have work to do to deepen my own understanding of full-circle teaching which will be a quest of mine this year. I want to read about deeper, more meaningful, and rich teaching that results in students' strong understanding and ability to use that information in multiple ways.
Specifically, with regard to science, this means adding on to the learning experiences in ways that propels students to demonstrate their knowledge of the knowledge, skills, and concepts taught in meaningful, personal ways. For example, last year we taught the students a lot about the local watershed, water cycles, the carbon cycle, and climate change. Students then came up with team projects to better the ways we deal with climate change and protect the local watershed. Their projects were very good, however, I think we can work to build even deeper understanding of all the standards embedded into this learning experience by asking students to show what they know in deeper and more detailed ways along the learning path. This means taking a more deliberate approach to the learning standards, and making sure that the approach embeds new research about what it means to learn well. I will begin this effort with a new unit of study related to composting and biomimicry which embeds brain-friendly, culturally responsive teaching approaches as outlined in these posts:
In addition, we have found that to teach science well with a STEAM approach (science, tech, engineering, art, and math), we have to build the TEAM in STEAM. Building that team also demands a full circle approach including a step-by-step team building process. We began the year with a graffiti team effort. Observation during day one of this activity demonstrated limited ability to work as a team for many. We stepped back and discussed that as a group. Children came up with the chart below:
Most students were able to work with more success after the discussion with day two of the project. Some mentioned that their teams were not the best and desired a change and others were not able to work as a team. Tomorrow, we'll re-work our table group teams to make sure everyone has a team they can work well with. We'll also get ready for our upcoming note-card challenge with a focus on everyone in the team contributing.
With regard to math, full circle teaching will include a writing-process-like approach to math where students embark on investigations with partners and small groups. They'll tackle meaningful tasks and check-in with teachers to see how they're doing, then return to the task to better solve the problems embedded in the task. This will help students to move from dependence to independence as they bring the learning full circle.
Apt Communication and Collaboration
In many ways, our team enjoys wonderful communication and collaboration, however, in some places those areas are compromised. One goal I have is to better the areas of less successful collaboration and communication. I'll work with my grade-level colleagues to do that.
Initially, I'll seek to answer the question, what are the goals of the many people I work with. I believe that not understanding colleagues' goals is one obstacle to good collaboration and communication. For example, early in the year a colleague promoted an activity that demonstrated to me that I was all wrong about the individual's goals. I want to listen carefully to this individual in the days ahead to truly understand what her goals are. In another situation, I am very confused about a leader's goals--what are the goals and what's most important is something that I'll strive to understand in the days ahead. Understanding colleagues' priorities and goals is a first step to good collaboration and communication, and that's an initial step as I strive for that goal.
Serving Students and Families Well
This is my prime goal of teaching and learning well this year. My initial step toward this goal is to slow things down in order to focus on establishing richer, deeper, more meaningful, and more successful relationships with students and families.
These are my primary goals of the teaching/learning year, goals that I'll strive for in the days ahead.