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. 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? There are many witnesses to my frequent complaints about self reflection. Uncountable eye-rolls sent in the direction of teachers, umpteen sighs of distaste, and numerous nights of "just get something on the page and the fluffier it is the more they will eat it up!" Four weeks ago, in the midst of my PS1 course work, this was still my predominate attitude. But, as a reflect *shutter* back on my most significant learning, I would have to say that being forced to reflect on every lesson plan, group project, and experience i've had in the past 8 weeks has actually done me some good.
In a learning sense, I've found that reflection forces students to think back to what actually stuck with them. Maybe nothing did, which tells the student they should probably pay more attention to what's going on, or maybe something groundbreaking stuck with them. I know I've had a couple of both moments over the past 8 weeks. I've found that being able to think back on what i've done and experienced gives that experience another level of learning, and stays with the student longer. In a personal sense, I've had a big helping of humble pie. I really don't know how to be a highly effective teacher... yet. I have had superb teachers model what this looks like, but I haven't done it for myself. I am not going to get better if I don't reflect upon what I do and how to improve. Albert Einstein said "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result." Without reflection, I may indeed go insane. My effective teaching skills will grow as I go through practicum, and they will stay with me longer and be most meaningful if I take the time to reflect on what goes well and why along with what goes poorly and why. (I anticipate answering the latter part most often.) I've come to realize that reflection is not always fluffy, "how did this make you feel" stuff. It is ownership of learning, checking for understanding and bettering yourself. These skills, are my most valuable learning so far in PS1. |
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