The last few days have been a bit tough with the murder of a little girl here in Springfield.  The alleged killer worked as a paraprofessional in a local middle school, so not only do we have an elementary school mourning the loss of a ten-year-old, we have a middle school where everyone is in shock and questioning that they had a coach who could be capable of such an atrocity.  We did spend some time in class talking about it as one student is in  a practicum at the middle school. I had a lesson to teach yesterday but I felt I should forego that so we could have a conversation about how to help students when a tragedy occurs.  Of course, when it is violent, it is so entirely different than a student dying by natural causes.  It's a source of fear and anxiety.   I think we came up with some good ideas on how we can help students: try to maintain normalcy, answer questoins as you can, but without going into details, simply say, "I'm so sad" or "I'm sorry."  

In the past few weeks, we have looked at the requirements for the microlesson and I have taught two lessons: one on Burke's "Big Idea" and one on digital story telling and how we can focus on a local topic or issue.  We also watched one of the videos my students did about poverty and hunger and then we imagined that as the final summative project for a unit.  I made a calendar on the board and asked everyone what they imagined my students did for each day of the unit.  (I was demonstrating backward design).  Of course, my students wanted to know, "Well, how do you know how much time it is going to take?"  Well, that is the trick of teaching and after a few years, you begin to figure out how long things might take, but that can change from year to year and class to class.  It's just one of those things that you plan ahead and have the plan and maybe you might have to add a day but eventually, you will learn how to pace and time a lesson.  

Well, two weeks have gone by and I am just now posting on my blog.  I am asking my students to be reflective practicioners, so I must reflect, too.  I want more time in my day!  I know new teachers feel the way I do in that it takes a tremendous amount of energy to create lesson plans and then teach them let alone find time to write reflectively.  By the end of the day, you are just plum tuckered out. So, to recap last week, we are once again in "catch up" mode, but worth it in that last week, Ms. Suzi Jordan came to visit to talk about the practicum experience and what she expects when she comes to observe.  I think it's good for her to come and introduce herself so students know her when she walks into the classroom.  It helps put them at ease.  And she also helps them to know what to expect and what she is looking for (based upon the assessment tool). We finally got to our deep map sharing last Wednesday, plus we looked at our case study guidelines !  And Monday, I demonstrated how we should use essential questions in the classroom based upon Jim Burke's "What's the Big Idea?"  We need to be considering the big idea each day in the classroom.  After I gave my lesson, students used Todays Meet to comment on what I did well and what I needed to improve.  I was really impressed by what they noted I did in the classroom and what I did well.  I allowed too much time for group work (or I should have re-directed groups by giving them another task to keep them focused) and I needed to spend time explaining the Common Core SS a bit more.  Also, to call upon students who didn't raise their hands.  So, today I addressed those issues by giving each student a card with a fruit on it.....and I called out the fruit for responses. So, today we started the class by "writing to the day" with  a focused free write asking them to write about what they felt we should assess in our microlesson teaching.  I was so impressed by what they came up with.  Each of them is to create a scoring guide and we are having a competition for the best one.  I need to go buy some books as prizes!  Each day in class, I try to utilize a new app on my iPad so they can also see what a teacher can use in the classroom if they go one-to-one with iPads. We ended the day sharing what small groups noted should be on the scoring guide and we celebrated that each person received an email about their placements in local schools!  And I forgot to tell them that I have been looking at their blogs and deep maps, and will continue to respond to them. Woo.  It has been a crazy but good two weeks. Especially enjoyed my trip to Atlanta for the i3 grant work where we got great ideas to continue our work in the College Ready Writer's Program.  A great, great weekend.  The highlight: Eatnig at an Ethiopean restaurant. Wonderful food.  No silverware. :)