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Today's PD Takeaways

PD - Professional Development.

Today's wasn't the most enlightening thing I've ever experienced. We got to hear from a great teacher, but her situation is quite a bit different than ours. I could complain about all the negatives (there are quite a few), but instead I'm just going to comment on my three big takeaways from today.

1. I want to do a better job of teaching the kids how to read a math textbook. I'm going to pick one day a week to do at least an example or a small section of the book as a read/think aloud/model for the kids. I'm going to actually read the book with them and insert my expert thoughts and techniques and strategies as I go.

2. I's... Because... It makes sense that modeling my thinking (using "I" statements so the kids can hear what's going on inside an expert's brain) will help them learn the material. I need to remember to explain the why and answer the because of my thinking instead of just saying "I" statements that are only procedural.

3. Make sure kids always know what the learning purpose is and WHY we're learning it.

None of these things are new for me today. None of these things all of a sudden seemed important because of the PD we did today. I was just reminded of them during the hours that we spent talking about the formalities of purpose statements and modeling... Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the littlest things. How I state my purpose isn't going to make a kid pass. I agree that students should always know what the purpose of being in my class is, but I think that can look a lot of different ways, and I am never going to spend 20 minutes of my precious planning time discussing the exact verb to use in tomorrow's purpose statement...

As a side note, I absolutely think it is wrong for students to receive test grades that don't reflect what they as individuals know and are able to do. Tests are not the place for collaboration. If I only know how to do 50% of a test, I should not receive a passing grade because my 3 group mates knew more than that. An assessment grade that goes in the grade book should only reflect what each individual student knows and is able to do.

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