Wonderfully Choreographed Final Day: A Team Effort 2017

The final day was wonderfully choreographed. I give my colleagues and the parents credit for this good learning/teaching design for a final day of school.

First we visit the high school where students have the chance to engage in all kinds of wonderful outdoor and indoor games. Students played soccer, tennis, basketball, drip-drip-drop, a version of capture the flag, and ran the track. They also spent some time exploring nature and playing chess. I had an awesome game of chess with one of the best opponents I've ever faced. I learned a lot and had fun even though I didn't win the game.

Later parents served delicious pizza and water. After that we hiked back to school and I handed out progress reports with a few kind words for each child. Then children shared summer plans.

At 12:30 we met with the parents in the gym for a terrific farewell slideshow produced by the parents. Students joyfully sang along to the popular songs as they watched images of themselves from their earliest days through fifth grade. Finally we gathered back in the homerooms and then students marched through the school as the whole school paid tribute to them by lining the halls and clapping them out. Parents lined up at the back of the school and continued the tradition with proud clapping and words of celebration and cheer.

It was the perfect way to end fifth grade and send our young students onto the Middle School.

Success in 2017-2018

As I think deeply about the past year and the year ahead, I am focused on attributes of success. The past year met many criteria of success and left some challenges to meet in the year ahead as well. Clearly documenting efforts and related observations, anecdotes, and data can help you to measure success as well as plan for the year ahead.

Success next year will be identified in the following way:

• Successful, engaging mastery and/or progress towards mastery in all math standards. While students met mastery or progression towards mastery last year, I'd like to really focus in on the word "engaging" in the year ahead by deepening and enriching math units with attention to relevant, blended units of study.
• Positive student advocacy and leadership with respect to their individual and collective learning paths. As a team we inspired this attitude and behavior throughout the year, and I'd like to continue and deepen this effort with a focus on embedding SEL, growth mindset, learning-to-learn, and mindfulness behaviors.
• Everyone Belongs. With careful listening, questioning, and attention to cultural proficiency and individual student strengths, talents, passions, and challenges, our team will continue to build a sensitive, culturally proficient program that welcomes and encourages voice and choice from all stakeholders: students, family members, colleagues, administrators and community members. 
• STEAM: As a team we'll look for ways to employ greater science/STEAM teaching. Time was a challenge this year, and it will take a close look at the time available in order to meet this expectation with depth and breadth.

Essentially in the year ahead, I'll plant a 

Steam: interdisciplinary study using the design process

Engaging, deep, standards-based math study

Everyone belongs, is treated with respect, and acts with respect toward one another

Develop self-advocacy, choice, questioning, and ability to create/navigate personal/collective 

     learning paths. 

A Time for Analysis, Practice, and Research

Educators know that doing the job well requires the continual intersection of analysis, practice and research. During the year, practice and analysis typically trump since we spend so much time-on-task with students. Now that summer is about to start, it's a good time to shift that equation by putting most of the energy and time into research. Good research and reflection set the stage for promising teaching in the year ahead. Hence, I'll make that shift today. Onward.

Redesigning the Math Unit

How can we redesign math units so that the learning is rich, deep, and memorable. Here's what I hope to do next year:

• Make home study simple and interesting
• Include one floor-to-ceiling exploration in each unit
• Organize the learning path in each unit from standard introduction to review to grade-level standard to enrichment
• Give students a chance to navigate the learning path on their own with check-ins, coaching, team projects and assessment along the way
• Make the learning relevant with real-world data, scenarios, and problems
• Build one unit on top of another so that students are able to continually apply the lessons learned
• Add opportunity for reflection and metacognition
• Present/Teach the learning to others
• Discuss and debate the standards in multiple ways

I will use this template as I rework each unit. 

Deep, Satisfying Learning

Yesterday when I met my rising fifth graders, I asked each child to share one learning experience in their life that they truly enjoyed. All students shared experiences of deep, satisfying learning. The kinds of learning shared included learning to sail, reading a good book, writing stories, engaging in STEAM projects, and computer-related learning.

Similarly, the projects that students enjoyed most this year were the deep, rich projects they engaged in. No one is saying that they really enjoyed learning lots of facts or taking tests as that's not rich learning and teaching.

As I think of this, I am cognizant of the fact that I want to include these rich learning experiences in each subject area next year. These projects take time and require lots of teaching/student investment, but they are the kinds of projects that stick since these projects are rich, memorable, and real-world. Students get excited about this kind of learning. They talk about it and extend the learning well beyond the school hours. This is the kind of learning we want to reach for in schools everywhere.