Preparing for Summer Study

Study of any kind takes forethought and preparation -- what will study? how will I study it? are questions that lead this work.

As I think ahead to summer study, I want to set the stage now. I've already identified a good reading list and reading will be my main avenue of summer study this year. To read well this summer, I will need to seek out cozy spots at home and in local, air conditioned libraries and museums--good places to read matters if you want to get the most out of it.

Also, good questions matter so that you can manage your reading well. These are initial questions that will lead my reading:

• Are we doing all that we can to promote a culturally proficient program? What else can we do to reach this goal?
• Are we teaching students about social emotional learning, emotional intelligence, and learning to learn attitudes and behaviors in explicit ways? Does the signage in our classrooms reflect the language and ideas related to this? How can we better embed these areas of knowing and being more into the academic curriculum?
• How can I embed meaningful project/problem based learning more into the math curriculum to make that learning more engaging, effective, and empowering for all learners?
• What questions and problems will be the best focus for math writing process related to specific units? 
• How can I best contribute to the culture of the school and the development of the school system? What big ideas matter? What contribution. behavior, and demeanor matters most?

These are the pressing questions that will lead me as I read the books and articles I've identified.

Further, summer study will include study and activity that makes me better able to teach in the year ahead, activity that includes an optimal room set-up with the materials available, good energy, and the collaboration with my dynamic grade-level team and school team.

To further set the stage for summer study means that I'll get rid of a lot of books and materials that exist in the classroom that the students and I no longer use, and I'll make better, more accessible spaces for the many new science materials we've acquired--materials I need to teach STEAM and physical science. 

In the testing days ahead, there's less prep needed since the tests are scripted and students do the work on their own, so that gives me time to begin the preparation for new study and growth during those wonderful summer months. Onward. 

Challenges Change: What Challenges Are You Focused on Now?

Over time in any profession the challenges change.

In the past, I was advocating for greater transparency, process, and clarity, and in many ways that challenge has been met with new processes and responsiveness to ideas in the past year. This ready response and greater transparency has put me more in the know of what is going on, and allowed me to focus into the classroom efforts with greater alinement to systemwide goals and focus.

This level of greater transparency and organization has also helped me to understand the roles and positions that exist with greater clarity, and this, in turn, has helped me to identify the parts of the teaching/learning job that excite me the most, and the parts that I am expected to carry out. I can better use my time thanks to this clarity. And as I've written before, the main thrust of my work now is the following:

• collaborating with colleagues, families, administrators, and students to develop a dynamic classroom/grade-level community with a focus on developing students' social-emotional learning, emotional intelligence, and learning-to-learn behaviors and attitudes.
• effectively teaching physical science standards and STEAM with meaningful, engaging, empowering, hands-on, standards-based learning experiences.
• effectively teaching mathematics with a focus on the standards, assessment and analysis, hands-on learning experiences, project/problem based learning, the math writing process, worthy tech-integration, and continued professional learning so that the teaching and learning relates to both tried-and-true techniques as well as new research and understanding of how students learn and apply mathematics. 
• Supporting reading/writing instruction as led by my colleagues and with efforts related to RTI and signature projects such as the Global Changemakers project. 

It continues to be true, that I need to coach myself ahead in view of the multiple potential paths that exist in education, paths that sometimes compete with one another and paths that can hinder the view of what really matters with regard to the work you do. 

So at this juncture, the goals are more of the same, but important goals nevertheless, goals that forward the teaching/learning path with clarity. Onward. 

Guided Math: Fraction Models

Years ago I read that it is brain-friendly to present two opposite or differing, but related concepts at the same time. That helps the brain learn. So today with colored pencils and pencils, I will guide students through an exercise of creating multiple fraction models to demonstrate the similarities and differences amongst fraction operations. Hopefully the model creation and coloring will help students to master their understanding of these operations and how they work with fractions. Guided learning like this is part of the overall math menu, a menu that includes hands-on exploration, guided learning/practice, assessments, writing, project/problem based work and more.

Math Notes: Teaching Better

As students take a math assessment today, I find myself a bit frustrated--why?

First, the curriculum is so dense that if  you miss a day, it's hard to keep up. We missed several days due to illness and weather, so we're a bit behind, but the MCAS date does not change so if I want to review all standards prior to MCAS that means rushing the curriculum program which is not ideal.

Further, as I've noted multiple times, for students who come in a grade level or more behind it's very difficult and almost impossible to catch up to the grade level standards without substantial, consistent skilled help and time. In a typical classroom situation there isn't the time or available help to significantly support students who are far behind the expectations unless there is a dramatic change in the way schools are run and the expectations for classroom educators (I'm actually a fan of looking at this change).

So what's a teacher to do?

First, I plan to look carefully at the scope and sequence over the summer to review how time is used to meet the standards.

Next, I am going to look at ways to scaffold the unit expectations and reorganize assessment questions so that those who are struggling to meet the expectations of tests will have a chance to do well with a manageable amount of material. I am thinking of reorganizing the tests into a 1-2-3 organization where 1 is meeting essential standards, 2 meeting most standards, and 3 enrichment level. I'll think about this on my own and with colleagues. What I like about the 1-2-3 approach is that #1 warms everyone up, #2 is the grade-level standard, and #3 is that reach, and by organizing tests, units, and learning experiences this way everyone gets a chance to first focus on, learn and/or review the essential material and everyone is also welcome to reach too if that's what they are ready for.

I'm sure that I'l come up with a few more ways to build the program on my own and with colleagues in the months ahead, but this is a starting point.

Busy Day Ahead: Stay the Course

Today is one of those days that begins quite early and ends quite late--it will be a long day. The objective is to stay the course with good listening, steady support for children, and completing the tasks expected. Onward.