Next Steps in the Teaching/Learning Year

As family/educator conferences come to a close, it's time to think about the many jobs to do to prepare for the spring teaching/learning to come.

Fraction Computational Thinking
Once we finish the fraction unit one test, we'll make time for the computational thinking fraction unit.
Efforts to come: reviewing the curriculum, making/ordering related lesson materials, introducing and tracking students' learning. Keeping an online log of the efforts, needs, and successes.

Math Tech
Students are engaged in a large number of math tech endeavors and we'll be working to complete the goals in that regard. Regular check-in on students' efforts. Personal support during class, RTI, and extra help sessions.

Survival Science
We'll cluster our STEAM projects with the creation of plant packets, solar ovens, and water filters.  Creation of unit booklet, prep of materials, and teaching in April/May. I'll work to deepen these explorations by incorporating some of the specific language and activities from the updated state STE documents for grades 3-5.

Science MCAS Review
Students will take tests and complete science slideshows as part of their MCAS science review. We'll also delve a bit into the science of sound and electric currents which are topic not covered as part of our fifth grade science study, but are included as part of the  MCAS test. Students will use books to take an open book test of the physical science material.

Math Review
Prior to MCAS and systemwide assessments, students will take part in a number of math review activities. Lots of online and real-time review including computation review for homework.

Classroom Organization and Clean-Up
Before the hot days of summer, I'll likely spend a few afternoons here and there cleaning up the room, organizing supplies that we will no longer be using, and getting rid of things we don't use anymore.

Climate Change Service Learning Projects

Students will continue working on these projects and hopefully finish up by April break. While the projects are terrific, time has been short. I was happy to see that this project is a direct match for the state standards.

Transition Activities
Our team will prepare transition materials for the end-of-year transition events and expectations.

Reading and Research
We'll make plenty of time to support students' reading and biography research goals.

Professional Learning
I'll do the research for the "Math Practice Conversation" I'll lead at ATMIM, follow up on the computational study, and plan to attend the 6/11 state STEM conference.

Evaluations
I'll review the evaluation/evidence documents for end-of-year evaluation expectation.

Report Cards
By late May, I'll complete the report cards and other related end-of-year paperwork related to students efforts.

It's good to stay abreast of all of these activities and whittle away at them during the cool days of spring rather than wait for the hot, tired days at the very end of the year. Onward.

Working for you or against you

Would the students in your class say that you are working for them or against them? What evidence would they use to support their claim.

How are you helpful?

What kind of listener are you?

Do you go out of your way to help them out?

In general in life there are those that work for you, work with you, and some who may actually work against you for any variety of reasons.

As an educator, you want to consider your role as one who works for your students--doing what you can to support their general welfare, learning experiences, and growth, and as you do your work, it's best to steer your ship in the direction of those who work for and with you too rather than those that work against you.

Today's Teaching: March 19, 2018

The introductory phase of the fractions first unit is complete and now we're digging into lots of practice, coaching, and support. I like this phase of the teaching and learning because I get to work with lots of individuals as they work to master the concepts introduced. Students overall were invested in this study and today, I expect they'll bring similar energy and good attitude to the work--study that will take up the lion's share of the day as I work with three classes and my Math Mix RTI group on this work.

Now that the family/teacher conferences are almost over, I have more time to organize materials, prep for science study, and ready for upcoming future math, reading, and writing units too. Spring is in the air too which is also energizing. Seems to be that it will be a positive teaching/learning day ahead. Onward.

Know the Mission and Keep it Upfront

It's easy for systems to get mired in the details and forget the mission, that's why it is essential to keep the mission upfront with regard to what we do and why we do it as an educational organization.

As I think of this, I'm wondering which document best tells what our collective teaching/learning organization is about.

I think of this today for many reasons. First, I just read that our high school won a robotics competition. That excites me and makes me think it's a perfect fit for our collective mission which is to be successful with modern age learning and teaching.

I also spoke with a colleague recently who lamented the weaknesses of our teaching/learning organization. As I listened, I thought that I don't want our schools to become weak and how can we work against that. One way is to make sure that we all agree on the mission and work to achieve it, and whenever there's a problem, use the mission as the first point of assessment.

For example, with regard to an issue I recently put a lot of time into, I'll keep the mission upfront. When we have the meeting about the issue, I'll be thinking, how does our collective work with regard to this situation support our central mission as a teaching/learning organization? What can we change in this situation to better meet the mission.

I believe that people in general like to work with a common mission in mind, and they like to help one another be successful with that mission. I will do more thinking about this in the days ahead.

Student-Led Family/Teacher Conferences and Showcase Portfolios: Update

I believe this round of conferences have been the best yet due to our increased efforts and depth with students' showcase portfolios. I want to capture what I found to be the positive aspects of this effort so that we can repeat these efforts next year.

Supplies
Students were asked to bring a one-inch showcase binder filled with about 100 clear sheets to school in the fall. They could choose whatever color they wanted. These hand-held binders serve as a good vehicle for saving and storing students' learning highlights and reflections. The notebooks are also a good vehicle for share and at the end of the year, a wonderful keepsake of a child's fifth grade year.

Class Twitter Account
The class Twitter account includes an ongoing visual story of fifth grade learning highlights. Students capture pictures from the account for their showcase portfolios. This adds valuable images to students' reflections about the year's learning highlights and accomplishments.

Introductory Showcase Portfolios Pages
At the start of the year students complete a cover page, table of contents, divider pages, a happiness survey, and initial assessments of their social emotional and academic learning/goals. This creates a good framework for the portfolio efforts throughout the year.

All About Me
At the start of the year we have students complete an "All About Me" page. Students really enjoyed sharing this page since for the first time I added it to their portfolios. Next year, I'd like student to share this page at the start of the year when we first sit down with students and parents to discuss the year ahead in terms of goals, challenges, and interests.

SEL Reflections
Students reflect on CASAL's five areas of social emotional learning at the start of the year and then mid year they reflect on character traits. These assessments introduce families and students to the language, value, and details related to what it means to develop positive social emotional attributes.

Assessment Results
We merge our spreadsheets of student data points into one-page stats sheets that provide students and their families with their scores on grade-level assessments and unit tests. We add comments and descriptors to these pages so parents have a good idea of how their child is doing at this point with regard to the grade-level standards and expectations. In the future, we may want to add a hard copy of the standards-based report card to these portfolios too.

Program Assessment
Students complete a number of reflections that assess the learning program. This provides families and teachers with a good evaluation of our efforts to date as well as ideas about how we can improve the program for individual students and the grade level as a whole.

Examples and Reflections of Academic Work
For each main academic area and project, there is a reflection page. Students generally reflect on and include examples of their writing, book list, science learning, social studies reports, and math projects.

Signature Learning
To prepare for the student-led conferences, students choose and mark with sticky notes about five examples of their most meaningful learning to share with families. Students' choices represent a wide range of learning efforts. It is wonderful to see students' pride and ownership as they share highlights of the year's learning.

Conversation
As children share their showcase portfolios, family members, students, and educators engage in a positive conversation about a child's strengths, challenges, interests, and needs. This conversation becomes a positive collaborative coaching session emphasizing a child's strengths and interests and thinking about ways we can all work to support that child more in and out of school.

These student-led family/educator conferences are a great match for modern learning. It gives students center-stage with regard to their learning for a good 30-45 minutes.

Improvements
The greatest challenge with these valuable conferences is time. To give students a good 30-45 minutes to lead their learning is positive, but this is an add-on to the already busy week that includes about an hour a day for prep and about 5-6 hours a day of time-on-task teaching with large numbers of students. I think it would be worthwhile for systems to acknowledge the strength of this family/teacher conference model by reworking schedules and support to provide more time for preparation and the conferences. This is something we can think about and perhaps advocate for in the future.

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• https://www.edutopia.org/video/developing-agency-student-led-conferences