Reflecting on Reflection

As teachers, we are constantly reflecting whether we realize it or not. After a lesson, we consider what went well and what didn't, for example. The challenge--for me at least--is to take that even further. I need to make sure that I engage in "deliberate thinking" and figure out WHY something didn't work and how I can adjust it. In doing so, I would be able to tweak and build on my lessons rather than starting all over. Reflection is also important with student behavior. As a 7th grade teacher, I am lucky enough that I teach in a "house." At our team meetings, I can reflect with others to help with student concerns. If something is working for another teacher to help students be successful, I can try it as well. I need to remember that reflection isn't an isolated practice.

PLCs...

As we start an exciting new school year and settle into our new routines, we have some common practices that we can reflect upon. Here's a 'starter question' to help you build blogging into your weekly habits. :) Responses to these prompts are optional, as always! This is just one way to get your feet wet... 

My October reflection-of-the-month is: What is one way that active participation in a PLC is impacting your professional practice?

Think about: How is your PLC...

... enhancing your reflective practice?

... improving your instructional practice?

... challenging your philosophical beliefs?

     

Great Discussions!

Let's keep the suggestions rolling... I love learning from your experiences and suggestions. Also, no need to worry too much or apologize for being 'late' in posting to our blog. Give your best shot to be present each week and share your own ideas. You can start a new post if you choose, but since our primary goal is to engage in meaningful professional conversations, responding to others is a valuable way to contribute! Keep it up. :)

Talented kid with an attitude

I have a student who is quite musically talented. She learns music very quickly, and she was also selected for my audition 6th grade choir. My problem is she has quite the attitude. Her work ethic is not great. Within the academic school choir setting, her attitude and lack of effort are shown in her rehearsal technique and citizenship grades. My bigger worry is the way she talks to other kids. To me, it has a feel of bullying. Every comment she makes to another student has that sassy attitude tone and she often puts kids down when making statements to each other. I think she does this because she is a 6th grade girl who doesn't know herself all that well, but it drives me NUTS! She isn't meaning for it to be "so mean," as she has stated to me, but it really bothers me. Any ideas? I want to channel her talent positively.

Communication

We all know there are vast mediums to communicate with students, parents, and colleagues. It seems today that most people prefer to use email, phone, text, and face-to-fact conversation. However, with such limited time in the day how do we best communicate with parents and our colleagues? On average, my inbox fills up with 10-15 an hour - with 8-10 of those messages requiring a response. When do we have time to respond to those? Personally, I am an early bird so I've dedicated my 7-8 AM time (our start time at Sweeney is 8 AM) to answering emails, and then I try stay away from email during the day, as that's taking away from student support time. However when I see an average of 50-70 emails a day, and our hectic schedules, I don’t feel I always have the time to return communication in an efficient way. Do others have a systematic approach to communication? If so, are there particular ways you prefer to receive communication, and then organize it? At any given time I have support staff, general education teachers, and related service providers coming to me as a student's case manager consistently. I have moved to a paraprofessional tracking sheet this year where our paraprofessionals track some data, but there is room for narratives - which serves as some of this essential communication. Other than that, I am looking for any suggestions that others may have!

EL students being stuck in L3

Hello Everyone--Sorry I haven't been posting. It has been a really busy beginning of the year. I was at a conference last spring where the keynote speaker was discussing the "stuck in Level 3 syndrome." By this, she meant that there are EL students who seem to progress so slowly that they get stuck in level 3 and either there is a learned helplessness (and this is teacher's problem) or they aren't movitated to keep going (this is the student's problem) or both. So how can we balance student legitimate need for servicing from creating a dependency? I'd be happy for any feedback--I'll leave it open-ended and not share my opinions until I hear from others.

A fun new reward system in Phy Ed class at Sweeney

Just wanted to share something new that my teaching partner has started in phy ed class at Sweeney and I definitely think other subjects should try something like this out or maybe some other teachers have similar systems like this...
We started a reward system called, " I know what to do, and I will do it!" My teaching partner came up with wonderful idea.  We get to see our students 4 out of 10 cycle days, so it adds up to be about 100 minutes a week. It's really hard to waste time by chatty students or disruptive behavior in phy ed since we don't have that much time and need to get through our curriculum.

So... We had every student in the school grades 1-5 sign a huge poster saying I know what to do and I will do it. By having them signing the poster, they made a promise to us that they know the rules and expectations in phy ed class and will follow the rules and we hung it up in the gym. When we see a student doing the right thing and following the rules by listening or participating in the skill or game, we will give them a ticket. On the ticket, it has a face with binoculars saying, " You got caught!" For doing what is right, nice job! When a student receives a ticket, they quietly walk over and grab a pencil we have sitting out in the gymnasium and put it in their grade level bucket. Every two weeks, we draw 5 names out of the grade level bucket and will announce their names over the loud speaker so their teachers, the principal and classmates know that they are following the rules. One lucky name drawn out of the bucket will also get to come down and pick something out of the prize bucket. We have jump ropes, Frisbees, hula hoops, etc that they can choose from. We also added lunch with your phy ed teacher for a day and are asking some local business's in Shakopee, like cherry berry to donate some gift certificates. So far it is working great and we carry these tickets around and the kids are ready to listen, learn and follow the rules.
I know a lot of schools have a system school wide for positive behavior, but I just thought I would share this because it's fun to have something in your class. This works great with elementary students :)

Here is the poster. I tried to turn it so you can see how it hanging but I can't figure out how to do that on the blog, so you just have to turn your head :)