Second Semester was supposed to start tomorrow. Because of 2 snow days that came right before Christmas break, we now won't start second semester until Tuesday. I do not feel prepared...
1. We don't know which kids are going to end up failing the semester. We know who might, but they have to take their tests first. We don't do the same thing for all students that fail. I feel good about looking at each individual student and coming up with a plan that suits their needs and addresses their reason for being unsuccessful in the first place. I feel stress because we're having a meeting tomorrow to talk about what we're going to do. We've had informal discussions with lots of administrators and our PLC about what to do for these students and what their options are, but no decision has really been made at all.
Comfort: God already knows what those students need. I believe that God cares too much to let us ruin their lives by making the wrong decision. I pray that he will give all of us wisdom as we look at each student and do our best to determine how we can best help them be successful and overcome their individual challenges. All things work together for good for those who love God. I trust God and his plan so even though I feel a huge lack of control and structure since there isn't a black and white plan already in place, everything will work out fine. I should celebrate the hundreds of students that were successful this semester and are moving onto second semester with the math skills they need to be successful again.
2. We still have to edit, rewrite, finalize, and send to print shop the first unit of second semester, the stuff that we're teaching on Tuesday. I should have worked on this over break, but due to traveling, a wedding, and bad timing with floor waxing in the hallway outside my classroom, I couldn't have worked on this if I had wanted to until Sunday. Then I made excuses and decided to just relax for the last few days of break. I think, ultimately, I would have ended up doing a lot of work only to make tons more changes once we collaborated on the materials when we got back to school anyway.
Comfort: I have an awesome team of teachers that I know will work together. We will all pull our weight to get done what needs to get done. We also have 2 solid days of testing which means lots of time to work on materials, email questions, and accomplish what needs done. Praise God for what will hopefully be 3 solid hours on Monday afternoon to just work! We also did most of the work on second semester last year. Even though we're making some changes and they happen affect the first unit of second semester, we don't have to recreate anything from scratch. It's more a matter of balancing, moving, and editing here and there.
3. There are things I want to change from 1st semester. I feel like I haven't had time to process them, though because of the weird schedule with the snow days and first semester still going on. But I don't want to make excuses. I want to make positive changes and grow as a teacher so here goes...
I need more homework accountability. I know I've blogged about that before so I'm going to revisit those ideas and talk about them with some other teachers and possibly the principal to get a better idea of what I can realistically do.
I want to teach the kids and then expect them to problem solve more. I envision a classroom where I share a big idea. Then I pose different scenarios to the students and have them work together to try and apply that big idea to different scenarios. I could see having lessons where they have steps to the lesson. First is the "I do" where I model the big idea and possibly one way that it's used of applied. Then I have them try the second step where they have to try to either on their own or in small groups or partners try to figure out how to apply the big idea to a different presented scenario. I could have them write hypotheses first. Then the groups could share their different ideas and we can test them, discuss what worked, what made sense, and how we can know that what we're doing is correct and logical. This could take place multiple times. Other days we could start the same, but then students could try a couple different scenarios at their own pace alone or in small groups. I don't want to spoon feed my students everything they need.
I want to consider giving a quiz where students need to match the formula with the shape. Last semester we just gave the students every single area, surface area, and volume formula known to man. It was pathetic that some students left Geometry without knowing the formula for the area of a triangle... If they can get a certain score on that quiz (100% even?) then they will be given a formula sheet on upcoming tests. They could retake this quiz as many times as needed. I think there is something to be said for learning through memorizing some formulas.
I want to put up quotes! I've been doing a fun quote of the day when a student says something funny or clever or smart. I want to start putting up a legit inspirational quote of the week on my board. I have a cool list of quotes that I think I emailed to myself. I'll have to find that, but it wouldn't be difficult to google some good ones.
Another teacher told me today that it's important for students to have time at the end of a class to consolidate and summarize their learning. We often feel like we run out of time. I would love to have a way to do this every day so that the kids know the last 5 minutes of class will always be devoted to some sort of short activity to summarize what they've learned. I want it to be taken seriously. If I'm being totally honest, the last 5 minutes have sort of become pack-up time, but we can do a lot with that time. I wonder if I could do Bell Ringers at the end of class. I could always have a box that asks a question where they have to write about whatever we did that day. I could even leave it blank and write the question up on the board for them each day so I can formulate the question based on how the class period went.
Well, on the bright side, I get to wear jeans to work for the next 3 days. God is in control of my life, so I can be still and know that he is in control even though there are many things that I clearly have no control over! My birthday is on Friday and we get to go out for lunch because it's a final test day! Then I get to go to dinner with my husband! Because of God's presence, I can more forward with confidence and compassion.
1. We don't know which kids are going to end up failing the semester. We know who might, but they have to take their tests first. We don't do the same thing for all students that fail. I feel good about looking at each individual student and coming up with a plan that suits their needs and addresses their reason for being unsuccessful in the first place. I feel stress because we're having a meeting tomorrow to talk about what we're going to do. We've had informal discussions with lots of administrators and our PLC about what to do for these students and what their options are, but no decision has really been made at all.
Comfort: God already knows what those students need. I believe that God cares too much to let us ruin their lives by making the wrong decision. I pray that he will give all of us wisdom as we look at each student and do our best to determine how we can best help them be successful and overcome their individual challenges. All things work together for good for those who love God. I trust God and his plan so even though I feel a huge lack of control and structure since there isn't a black and white plan already in place, everything will work out fine. I should celebrate the hundreds of students that were successful this semester and are moving onto second semester with the math skills they need to be successful again.
2. We still have to edit, rewrite, finalize, and send to print shop the first unit of second semester, the stuff that we're teaching on Tuesday. I should have worked on this over break, but due to traveling, a wedding, and bad timing with floor waxing in the hallway outside my classroom, I couldn't have worked on this if I had wanted to until Sunday. Then I made excuses and decided to just relax for the last few days of break. I think, ultimately, I would have ended up doing a lot of work only to make tons more changes once we collaborated on the materials when we got back to school anyway.
Comfort: I have an awesome team of teachers that I know will work together. We will all pull our weight to get done what needs to get done. We also have 2 solid days of testing which means lots of time to work on materials, email questions, and accomplish what needs done. Praise God for what will hopefully be 3 solid hours on Monday afternoon to just work! We also did most of the work on second semester last year. Even though we're making some changes and they happen affect the first unit of second semester, we don't have to recreate anything from scratch. It's more a matter of balancing, moving, and editing here and there.
3. There are things I want to change from 1st semester. I feel like I haven't had time to process them, though because of the weird schedule with the snow days and first semester still going on. But I don't want to make excuses. I want to make positive changes and grow as a teacher so here goes...
I need more homework accountability. I know I've blogged about that before so I'm going to revisit those ideas and talk about them with some other teachers and possibly the principal to get a better idea of what I can realistically do.
I want to teach the kids and then expect them to problem solve more. I envision a classroom where I share a big idea. Then I pose different scenarios to the students and have them work together to try and apply that big idea to different scenarios. I could see having lessons where they have steps to the lesson. First is the "I do" where I model the big idea and possibly one way that it's used of applied. Then I have them try the second step where they have to try to either on their own or in small groups or partners try to figure out how to apply the big idea to a different presented scenario. I could have them write hypotheses first. Then the groups could share their different ideas and we can test them, discuss what worked, what made sense, and how we can know that what we're doing is correct and logical. This could take place multiple times. Other days we could start the same, but then students could try a couple different scenarios at their own pace alone or in small groups. I don't want to spoon feed my students everything they need.
I want to consider giving a quiz where students need to match the formula with the shape. Last semester we just gave the students every single area, surface area, and volume formula known to man. It was pathetic that some students left Geometry without knowing the formula for the area of a triangle... If they can get a certain score on that quiz (100% even?) then they will be given a formula sheet on upcoming tests. They could retake this quiz as many times as needed. I think there is something to be said for learning through memorizing some formulas.
I want to put up quotes! I've been doing a fun quote of the day when a student says something funny or clever or smart. I want to start putting up a legit inspirational quote of the week on my board. I have a cool list of quotes that I think I emailed to myself. I'll have to find that, but it wouldn't be difficult to google some good ones.
Another teacher told me today that it's important for students to have time at the end of a class to consolidate and summarize their learning. We often feel like we run out of time. I would love to have a way to do this every day so that the kids know the last 5 minutes of class will always be devoted to some sort of short activity to summarize what they've learned. I want it to be taken seriously. If I'm being totally honest, the last 5 minutes have sort of become pack-up time, but we can do a lot with that time. I wonder if I could do Bell Ringers at the end of class. I could always have a box that asks a question where they have to write about whatever we did that day. I could even leave it blank and write the question up on the board for them each day so I can formulate the question based on how the class period went.
Well, on the bright side, I get to wear jeans to work for the next 3 days. God is in control of my life, so I can be still and know that he is in control even though there are many things that I clearly have no control over! My birthday is on Friday and we get to go out for lunch because it's a final test day! Then I get to go to dinner with my husband! Because of God's presence, I can more forward with confidence and compassion.
Comments
Post a Comment