Providing special services for students K-5, I am working hard with my special education colleagues here at Eagle Creek to identify our "best fit" within the PLC model. I was fortunate to join our building's PLC team at the Summit this summer and feel that I have a strong grasp on the procedural and learning focused outcomes for the model. However, key barriers/topics to address for us as special education teachers include:
-Time restraints of attending two PLCs, attending both a general education and special education community (IEP and Eval. meetings make our morning availability tight). Should we participate in only one? How do we prevent a dichotimous relationship between Sped. and Gen. Ed.?
-Creating SMART goals for students we impact across grade-levels and abilities.
-Devoting our time as a "special education resource" to the achievement of students without IEPs (this barrier was raised as our services/funding comes through special education) and how do we be a part of a team/commit time towards general education student goals when we are also responsible for student IEP goals/needs/objectives.
-Creating formative assessments/common data sets across our disparate caseloads of students.
Thoughts to chew on as we move towards this way of doing to affect all student learning :). The goal, really, is that all of the students are all of our students, as we move towards inclusion. Thank you for any reflection you may have!
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Where does homework fit in?
As I'm easing back into the groove of teaching I find myself taking a critical look at grading. More specifically with homework. It seems that more and more emphasis is being put on test scores as opposed to homework. Now that we are using standards based grading I find myself in a bit of a grey area when it comes to using homework as merely formative assessment which is ungraded, versus actual assessment of the given standard. Penny for all your thoughts?
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
End of the Year
It’s the end of the year! Can you believe it? Last year I had the students write
letters at the beginning of the year as a way to get to know them, and then had
them write letters at the end of the year reflecting on 6th
grade. I also had time for the students
to make posters for the “future 6th graders” giving them tips on how
to succeed in 6th grade. This year I feel like I ran out of time, so
students will be finishing up our last unit, poetry, basically until the second
to last day. However, I still
want to make sure I take time to say good-bye to the students and wish them the
best for the summer and 7th grade.
Just wondering if you do anything special in your own classroom for the end of the year?
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Grading Practices - Always Evolving!
Hello Everyone!
I just finished reading A Repair Kit to Grading by Ken O'Connor. It has been a very rewarding book study for me. These are the big things I've taken away from it:
1.) Always accept late work and don't take off points. Kids that are behind easily get into "give up mode" when they know they aren't going to receive much credit for late assignments. While you need deadlines, if students talk to me and continue to show they understand the content, I will reward them with full credit.
2.) Don't grade participation, aesthetic concerns, or behavior. That doesn't show what they know! And some kids don't let grades control their behavior.
3.) Make good assessments. Make sure they are balanced and show what students know. This is tough, but the makes grading a more accurate indicator of what they know.
4.) Don't grade formative assessments. These are practice. In the future, any vocab quizzes I give will be graded but won't calculate into their final grade for the quarter.
My question to all of you... what are your grading practices like? What concerns do you have about grading?
I just finished reading A Repair Kit to Grading by Ken O'Connor. It has been a very rewarding book study for me. These are the big things I've taken away from it:
1.) Always accept late work and don't take off points. Kids that are behind easily get into "give up mode" when they know they aren't going to receive much credit for late assignments. While you need deadlines, if students talk to me and continue to show they understand the content, I will reward them with full credit.
2.) Don't grade participation, aesthetic concerns, or behavior. That doesn't show what they know! And some kids don't let grades control their behavior.
3.) Make good assessments. Make sure they are balanced and show what students know. This is tough, but the makes grading a more accurate indicator of what they know.
4.) Don't grade formative assessments. These are practice. In the future, any vocab quizzes I give will be graded but won't calculate into their final grade for the quarter.
My question to all of you... what are your grading practices like? What concerns do you have about grading?
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Poems and Other Creative Assignments
I am so excited because in English we are creating poems right now, and while there are many requirements to these poems (they have to be quatrains and ballads), students are still able to be creative and play with language. I forgot how much fun it can be to listen to students as they discuss poem generation. Many students are coming in and saying things like "I wrote an awesome stanza last night, Ms. Goedtke!" and when they are talking to their partners, students are actually discussing how to improve rhythm and rhyme in their poems. I love that our fourth quarter in English focuses on creative work. I think it fits nicely with the Spring.
This also makes me wish there was a way to make researching and other writing as interesting and personal to students. We unpacked the research standard as a VT at the last VT meeting and are in the process of shaping our research to be based on a question. I am hoping that questioning will help students find the fun in research. But I wonder if there are other ways to pull that creative part of writing into more formulaic writing styles like essays and research papers.
Thoughts? Do you think that it is possible to adhere to more rigid writing styles (or other required projects or papers that are more rigid) and still have students excited about learning? How have you been able to do that in the classroom?
This also makes me wish there was a way to make researching and other writing as interesting and personal to students. We unpacked the research standard as a VT at the last VT meeting and are in the process of shaping our research to be based on a question. I am hoping that questioning will help students find the fun in research. But I wonder if there are other ways to pull that creative part of writing into more formulaic writing styles like essays and research papers.
Thoughts? Do you think that it is possible to adhere to more rigid writing styles (or other required projects or papers that are more rigid) and still have students excited about learning? How have you been able to do that in the classroom?
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Professional Growth over the Summer
I just started thinking about my summer plans and the possibility of doing the SORLA workshops. I think it is so awesome that Shakopee reimburses for SORLA, and also may give a stipend? I feel really lucky to be in a district that is committed to professional growth. I am wondering what other people are doing over the summer to contribute to professional growth. I think it is really important to rest and relax, but this summer I would like to take more opportunity to expand myself with many different areas--especially since I will be teaching the more "junior high" grades--7-9. I keep thinking I need to be more trained with technology--Smartboard use, etc. Or maybe it is learning more techniques with classroom management designed for this specific age. Am interested in what people are doing . . .
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