Day 3: Being Better

This one sat in the drafts folder a little longer than I had planned. Either way, here it is.

Day 3: Discuss one “observation” area that you would like to improve on for your teacher evaluation.

My teacher evaluation doesn't fill my mind as much as I think it would. I hear other educators constantly referencing the eval and making it out to be this big, looming inconvenience. This may be the dork in me, but I think about it as a test. A test that I am going to do my best in and I'll find out where I stand. Not much else to say there. It's a chance to see what I can do.

Of course I'd like to improve in every single area of my eval, but I won't do the KJ cop-out and say "all of them, because blah blah blah....."

I want to craft better learning experiences for my students. I want everything we do to be purposeful. And better. I want it to always be better. No matter what.

Day 2: FreshGrade in the Classroom

Thanks to everyone who read my first post of the 30-Day blog challenge! It's been super encouraging. Encouraging enough that I've already written my Day 2 post.

I'm also super pumped that I've got some of my school mates to play along with me. I'll be sharing their links, too, so everyone else can check those out.

Day 2: Write about one piece of technology that you would like to try this year, and why. You might also write about what you’re hoping to see out of this edtech integration.

I have a million things on my "To Try" list for the classroom, so to pick one thing will be quite tough.

The first thing that comes to mind is this thing called FreshGrade. FreshGrade is an assessment and communication tool that I've played around with towards the end of last year with one of my math classes.

One of the things I liked most was being able to use my iPhone to capture student work (picture, video, audio, text) and attach it to their profile. It saved it there in a chronological timeline that can be shared with the students and their families. All users can interact with artifacts and items can also be given scores for assessment.

I'd like to spend more time with this tool to bridge the gap between parents and the classroom.

Reflective Teaching: A 30-Day Blog Challenge for Teachers (Day 1)

I saw this on my Twitter feed a few days ago and favorited it, hoping to find time during the three-day weekend to check out the challenges and see if I would consider adding it to my already cluttered To Do List for September.

It's a 30-Day Blog Challenge for Teachers from te@chthought and man, I needed something to kick me in the pants and get me blogging again. For the sake of starting fresh, I've hidden all of my previous posts on my blog until I've had time to review them. I'm sure if I keep at this blog for more than a month, I will start republishing some of my old posts.

But for now, here's the first installment of the blog challenge:

Day 1: Write your goals for the school year. Be as specific or abstract as you’d like to be!

1. Lead well. I've joined a new grade level this year and simultaneously stepped into the role of one of two chairs for the team. I'm a little nervous of being the new guy on the show while also being the team lead. I know I would not have been given the spot if I was not capable of doing a good job, but that does not make it any less intimidating.

2. Develop my student teacher. Six full years of teaching. Two semesters of student teaching. Eight weeks of classroom observations and tutoring sessions. It's finally come full circle and I have my first  student teacher. I want to be able to be a great coach and mentor. I want them to be a better teacher than I was in my first year. And I want them to have fun.

3. Maintain high expectations. I always struggle with this. There always comes a time (usually a few weeks after state testing... around late April) where one of my classes starts getting the best of me and I don't hold my ground. I let them slip. I give them a few more chances than before. I am not as consistent as I had been. Things just fall apart. I set high expectations for all of my students at the start of the year, but I want to keep them high them for all of my kids until the very end of the school year.

Let's start with those three goals. This entry wasn't so bad. You should give it a go. Only took me fifteen or so minutes. Or if you're participating in the challenge, I'd appreciate it if you left your link to your Day 1. I'd like to see what others have selected for their goals.

No Opt Out

Getting this new class halfway through the year is forcing me to revisit some of my "back to school" routines and plans. A large part of that comes from the book, "Teach Like a Champion". It's full of great and manageable techniques to use in the classroom.

I'm going to spend the next few weeks looking back through the book to see if there are any that would work well with this new group of students.

Technique 1 - No Opt OutA sequence that begins with a student unable to answer a question should end with the student answering that question giving the right answer.

I could have used this today for sure. We were reviewing some math concepts and there were a handful of students who replied with, "I don't know" or "Umm..." that would have benefitted from this technique. By using this strategy, the class will soon understand that they do not have any other choice but to try.

Doing this tomorrow!

The class switch

I got a new class this semester. It's a year course and another teacher started with them back in the fall. For reasons that I'm not going to explain here, I've been switched to be their teacher for the rest of the year. Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal.

It's an 8th grade class.

I've never taught 8th graders before. I've hung out with them at youth group and taken them on mission trips, but in all of those situations, I wasn't expected to teach them stuff.

My teaching experience spans 4th, 5th and 6th grade. And that's where it stops.

I'm pretty nervous about it, but I'm also really excited about the new challenges it will present me. I am looking forward to seeing what works with them and what does not. What motivates them and what bores them. I'm also interested to see if my management techniques, which I had originally developed for 8 & 9 year-olds, will translate to 12 & 13 year-olds.