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High and Unwavering Expectations

That's the phrase that I've been saying over and over in my head to prepare for this school year. I continue to say it over and over to remind myself every single day. If I have high expectations, and if I don't allow anything but those expectations, and if I stick to them consistently from the beginning and don't start to make exceptions as the year goes on, then the students will excel. They will behave how I want them to (for the most part), and everyone will learn better as a result.

Most of my classes are great. I'm finding that I'm able to get some data, but I don't always know what to do with it. I'm able to come up with some simple ways to get them thinking about the math and problem solving, but I struggle with what to do when most of the kids are able to think and problem solve through a scenario, but a few students all day are unable to or choose not to. How do I get them caught back up? Today we're going to do some short notes which should allow time to stop and assess/ practice/ and ask questions about our review topic. That's great, but I feel like I'll have to do something similar tomorrow to give the kids a chance to assess and ask questions about the new material we've also been talking about every day this first week of school. Spiraling is hard!!!

1. Having the kids try things on their own first is something I absolutely need to continue going forward.

2. I need to help one of my periods with how to behave and interact while engaging in group work.

3. I need to work on some more collaborative group work where each student has some sort of accountability.

4. I need to continue making the students work out problems and making the students try examples in class. Right now, when I ask them to do something, they are all doing it. Some of them don't know how to solve the problem, but they're at least writing something down to either try or make it look like they know what they're doing.

5. I need to get all their names down!!! I've learned that my brain gets so tired from trying to memorize and recall every day that by the time the afternoon rolls around, I have a much harder time making myself ask their names because I feel like I can't possible remember any more.

6. Right now, I'm sharing with them exactly how I would structure my notes. I'm being very specific about their title, when they put a bullet, how they write their examples... I want to slowly start having them share what they think their notes should look like. I want to start asking them what the important information is that they either heard me say or saw on the slide or read in the book that they think needs to get written down or have its own bullet.

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