February 05th, 2014

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. :)