My brain is on fire, but success means to cool it down.
Thanks to the AMLE conference, I have been inspired. Not only that I have a renewed sense of purpose, a drive drive and I have become more passionate about teaching (if that is possible). AMLE was a turn around for me professionally and personally.
Coming home from a conference as large as AMLE is a overwhelming task. All the handouts, the new books and don't forget Teacher Swag. Add to that all the new thoughts and ideas I want to try RIGHT NOW with my students. Putting on the brakes is a must. Trying too much too soon can lead to frustration and burn out very quickly.
I have been playing with Standard Base Grading (SBG) since about the 2nd semester of last school year (thank you, Rick Wormeli and Robert Marzano). I have always struggled with how it should look in my school online gradebook. Thanks to long emails with Mark Clements (@edunators) I have now believe I have solved that issue. So this is the first item on my list to try. Check one!
Second up-Focus on learning and making sure the students really know the objective. I had an awesome lunch today with Mr. Clements. Through the lunch I have a great plan in place to start with the students on Monday. It is engaging, there are a high expectations, the expectations are communicated with the students and all students will be held to the expectations. It also has some of my favorite SBG parts: re-dos, re-takes, formatives and summatives. I am taking baby steps with this plan and will keep track of my progress on here. Come back and check for updates. Check two.
Third and Final-technology. I have tried Edmodo in the past but thanks to Brooke (@lincolnslady96)I renewed my interest. This week I set up my class group and introduced it to the students. The response was immediate awe and amazement. I have about 86 students on my A day, 53 have already signed up (score!). The mobile app makes it even more exciting for the students. It is a great way to get the students to think outside the classroom and to take action. The parent connection on the site is also wonderful. The fact that the parent is connected through the student page so the parent can view what the students are doing takes a lot of worry away. (Reminder: send out another email reminding parents to sign up) It is a great way for parents, students and teacher to stay connected and to be apart of the learning that is taking place. Check three!
With these three items I hope the fire in my brain will start to cool down. Making sure learning is taking place in my classroom is the focus and I need to maintain that focus.
While I am making sure learning is happen, I need to remember who I am teach how I teach. I don't want to change who I am just to try out something that sounded cool. Some of the strategies and techniques I heard last week just doesn't fit my teaching style. Question is what is my style......
Coming home from a conference as large as AMLE is a overwhelming task. All the handouts, the new books and don't forget Teacher Swag. Add to that all the new thoughts and ideas I want to try RIGHT NOW with my students. Putting on the brakes is a must. Trying too much too soon can lead to frustration and burn out very quickly.
I have been playing with Standard Base Grading (SBG) since about the 2nd semester of last school year (thank you, Rick Wormeli and Robert Marzano). I have always struggled with how it should look in my school online gradebook. Thanks to long emails with Mark Clements (@edunators) I have now believe I have solved that issue. So this is the first item on my list to try. Check one!
Second up-Focus on learning and making sure the students really know the objective. I had an awesome lunch today with Mr. Clements. Through the lunch I have a great plan in place to start with the students on Monday. It is engaging, there are a high expectations, the expectations are communicated with the students and all students will be held to the expectations. It also has some of my favorite SBG parts: re-dos, re-takes, formatives and summatives. I am taking baby steps with this plan and will keep track of my progress on here. Come back and check for updates. Check two.
Third and Final-technology. I have tried Edmodo in the past but thanks to Brooke (@lincolnslady96)I renewed my interest. This week I set up my class group and introduced it to the students. The response was immediate awe and amazement. I have about 86 students on my A day, 53 have already signed up (score!). The mobile app makes it even more exciting for the students. It is a great way to get the students to think outside the classroom and to take action. The parent connection on the site is also wonderful. The fact that the parent is connected through the student page so the parent can view what the students are doing takes a lot of worry away. (Reminder: send out another email reminding parents to sign up) It is a great way for parents, students and teacher to stay connected and to be apart of the learning that is taking place. Check three!
With these three items I hope the fire in my brain will start to cool down. Making sure learning is taking place in my classroom is the focus and I need to maintain that focus.
While I am making sure learning is happen, I need to remember who I am teach how I teach. I don't want to change who I am just to try out something that sounded cool. Some of the strategies and techniques I heard last week just doesn't fit my teaching style. Question is what is my style......
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