I'm also very fond of my best bud Tom Brady as he guest starts in my 3 classroom expectations of Mutual Respect, Attentive Listening, and No Put Downs.
One of things I'm most proud of this year is my "Grade 9 Math at a Glance" bulletin board. I've got all the General Lerner Outcomes and Specific Lerner outcomes, written in student friendly language. The topic of the day is pulled off the back board and is seen as soon as the students come in. Along with the equation (Date) of the day.
I'm also very fond of my best bud Tom Brady as he guest starts in my 3 classroom expectations of Mutual Respect, Attentive Listening, and No Put Downs.
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I've been fortunate this year as a new teacher to be selected for the District's Math Assessment Committee. We have been focused this year on creating strong blueprinted exams for grade 7, 8 and 9. In the beginning we worked on unit tests that had been shared district wide. We reviewed them analyzing each question for taxonomic level (low, moderate, high) and identified which specific outcome and achievement indicator the question was testing. It has been amazing to get to share ideas with a wide range of math teachers, with various experiences. Below I'm sharing the criteria we used to determine the level of questions and a rough blueprint. As we were blueprinting we realized we needed to beef up some questions to reach the desired ration of 35:45:20 for low, moderate and high level questions. There are 2 types of Jr High students: Those who like playing with lego...and liars.
My students enjoyed the opportunity to build with legos in our Scale Factor Unit. I had them measure their towers and we used there real measurements to find scale factor and practice using scientific notation. Another surprising hit was using pattern blocks as a formative assessment of Line Symmetry and Rotational Symmetry. Most students immediately did well with line symmetry, but rotation symmetry was a new concept. Using blocks that were easily movable helped students remember the concept and calculate angle of rotation. After only a few times practicing with the 3D models, most students could apply the concept to 2D pictures. Highlights:
My teaching philosophy has changed through the experiences I’ve had and the mentors I’ve met. As a whole, my classroom and teaching values can be summed up in 4 C’s: creativity, collaboration, camaraderie and citizenship.
As a math enthusiast, people are often surprised with the high value I place on creativity. I feel failures provide the opportunity for my students and I to practice our most creative thinking. When a math problem doesn’t work out to the correct answer it takes a creative mind to envision another way to attack the problem. This is also why I allow re-dos for summative assessment tasks. If a student is willing to put in the work to improve or go at a task from another way I believe we will get a clearer picture of their abilities. It is with creativity that we allow our mind to get messy with learning. I strive to bring creativity into my instruction, whenever possible, my favourite way to teach is through movement and experience. The demands of our profession require a creative teacher to balance whole class, small group and individual instruction while varying learning modalities. This is my goal when planning for instruction. From a professional standpoint I’ve learned that collaboration with colleagues produces some of the greatest professional development. I look forward to bouncing ideas and sharing resources with grade-level or subject specific teams. I strive to echo this spirit of collaboration within my classroom by creating an environment of positive interdependence. I believe that collaboration is one the most important employability skills we teach students to prepare them for the rest of their lives. The tools I have gained through my exposure to Kagan structures, have allowed me to teach these skills. I also find that when everyone has a clearly defined role within a group, the need for behaviour intervention is reduced. The gang in High School Musical sang it best “we’re all in this together.” For ten months my class and I are a team. Education is a group endeavour. For camaraderie to be a classroom element, I strive to build high trust relationships between students and myself as well as between students. If we are going to go about the hard work of learning, students need to be able to tap into one of their most valuable resources – each other. From providing meaningful peer feedback to peer coaching to building friendships, each is built on a foundation of camaraderie. What it means to be a citizen is taught to students everyday from the start of their education. Whether it be a citizen of our classroom, our city, our country, and ultimately our world, students have the ability to impact the community around them. This focus is seen in the Ministerial Order (#001/2013) stating “an Ethical Citizen understands that it is not all about them, has learned about and is appreciative of the effort and sacrifice that built this province and country and sees beyond self-interests to the needs of the community.” I believe this starts by using routines that empower and encourage students to be part of building a strong community in their classroom. The goal is to create a space that is welcoming and values kindness, so that students can build relationships based on respect, empathy and compassion for all people. I also have a passion for programs that promote the greater good such as bringing awareness to social justice issues, community outreach, or environmental stewardship. I strive to be a model for students by being a part of campaigns and opening a dialogue of current events and issues with students. A couple ways I am encouraging grit and growth mindset in my students is with this bulletin board. Its been great to hear some of the language change within the classroom, especially when it comes to the hardest subject...Math! THIS WAS A BIG DEAL! I could see from the shading in the background this student was frustrated by this question. I felt it was important to PRAISE that fact that they did attempt to answer the question. Now I am better able to see how I can help this student with this math concept.
Above you'll find one of my best written unit plans. It's a thorough look at the essential questions and understandings need the for problem solving with radicals in Math 20-2. Now that I'm in the real teaching game, it is much more difficult to spend the time to go this in-dept in my planning. For me, it's now a fine balance between planning to be aligned to the curriculum and achievement indicators and providing a variety of formative assessment opportunities for students before taking on a summative evaluation.
Still searching for a way of planning that works best for me? What do you use? Recently, I got hired to finish the school year teaching a grade 5/6 split class. The class had a rocky start to the school year and administration was looking for someone to come in and treat the class like it was September. Build teamwork, establish routines, and try to give these 18 students a sense of community. This is a daunting task for a new grad like myself, but I was up to the challenge!
Change is hard for everyone, so the first thing I did was ask for their opinion. “What does your ideal classroom look/sound/feel like?" Here are two examples of what I heard: "Looks like everyone working, sounds quiet so that people can focus, and feels like home" - Grade 5 Student "My ideal classroom is like a second home, where people don't interrupt, and it's fun" - Grade 6 student The best part of this exercise was I could give their words back to them. When I enforced my expectations I could bring it back to what they told me, for example when they were getting too loud, I would remind them that THEY said they need quiet to do their best work. Wish me luck! "I would like to go to We Day because I think it is just amazing all the things one person can do." - Grade 7 Student This year, I was fortunate enough to get 15 last minute tickets to We Day in Calgary for the grade 7 and 8's at Alexandra Middle School. As a part of Student Leadership, we had a hard decision to make about who we could take to this day of empowerment. I asked students 2 questions:
1. What do you know about Free the Children? 2. You can't buy a ticket to We Day you have to earn it, what will you commit to doing to earn your ticket? If students didn't already know the story of Craig Kielburger and how he started free the children at age 12 by binging an article about child labour that he had found in the local newspaper to school, I wanted students to find it and see that their age is not a limitation to what they can do, in fact their youth is an asset. Reading the students responses to my second question made me so excited for the potential of these future change makers! They were thoughtful, realistic, and heart warming. Many spoke about the commitment they would make to attending student leadership meetings, how they would organize and participate in initiatives like "We Scare Hunger" and almost all of them said they would reach out to the students in their classes by making an effort to my kind and helpful. Below are a couple of my favourite excerpts from students answers: "Not judging people and being polite could change the world one step at a time" "I will help my fellow students around me and be a good example" "Not always think about myself, but care about others as well" I was surprised how much I enjoyed planning this Dance Unit for ED 3700: Physical Eduction for Non-Majors. Dance can be a difficult unit to get middle schoolers excited about but I tried bring in multiple types of dance to hold students interest along with the opportunity to build their own dance and showcase their creativity. In this unit plan I've also utilized checklists, rubrics and student goal setting. Physical Education is a great place for student to practice goals setting as students can see results quickly and transfer this skill into there young adult life. |
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