This week was a whirlwind of wonderful experiences. I feel like I learned a lot, ate a lot, laughed a lot, and made a lot of new friends. I think the highlights of my week were the meals, the walks I took with people, and patio PD. I just thrive when I am able to chat with other passionate educators and learn from their great ideas. Similarly, I gained a lot from the small conversations I got to have during EdCamp and during the diving board experience, because it was a smaller group setting where I could ask any question that popped in my head.
I want to try to start by implementing things that I already feel decent at and could make some tweaks to that would make it better. The brand that I came up with for myself so describes me and my classroom experience for my students that I think I can immediately implement it as a filter and feel like I have refined my practice with that simple change. My brand is: positive, engaging, learning experience. I want my students to feel as if they are positively treated, have space to share any of their ideas, wonders, or questions; I want them to feel as if I engage in their world, and help them to engage in the math, and I want them to feel like they have been through a learning experience in which they have gained new knowledge or skills that will help them in some way. I believe I already do this well on most days, but some days get tired or lazy with the lesson, get angry or annoyed with the students, or otherwise don’t live up to the brand, so it will help to have an articulated brand to aspire to each day and each moment.
I also think I can easily implement some of the laughter ideas: like memes during warm-up, or playing the songs that I use already on repeat whenever students don’t remember the formulas. The ideas that came out in that session seemed to be small additions that could make a huge impact on increasing the amount of laughter we share in my room. Similarly, I got some fun ideas for creating and maintaining a welcoming classroom culture that I intend to utilize, that will not be much different than what I am already doing, but will provide a great experience for my students and for myself. The main one that excites me to no end is a Day 1 activity where I project a list of value words and words of meaning (that Kristie is going to share with me) and I have students choose their top ten. Then I have them cross of five (and I do this exercise with them). Then I have them cross of three. Then one. And we see what word is left as most important to each of us and discuss why we chose that word. I think that it is an exercise that would very quickly and meaningfully bring us together as a class, more than most icebreakers will, and that is awesome to me.
My biggest ambition is to use Paul’s feedback ideas from his book, because I have been trying to find ways to give my students effective feedback and formative assessments that actually help them understand where they are at for a while now, and finally feel like it will be possible with the ideas he shared. I want to use the standards-based apps that I learned about, MasteryConnect and Freckle, to create quick online formative assessments that tell the students which standards they are rocking out. I want to use Unit Overview Sheets that have each standard and a rating of how well they are getting it, so they can keep track of how well they are learning, and I want to use missing assignment sheets to help students, parents, and myself to keep track of who and why they are not doing work. I think all of this will provide data to myself, my parents, and my students about their work ethic and help to have the conversations I need to with them about what to adjust in order to be more successful. I want to get away from doing for the grade and increase doing for the learning, and I think these feedback strategies are a good way to start moving that direction or even to get me there immediately. I say it is my biggest ambition because I have never done any of this stuff before, or at least very effectively, and so I will need to put more energy into doing it if I’m going to do it well, and my fear is that in the midst of trying, I will give up and lean on old strategies. But hopefully, since it is the main thing I will be working on, I will be able to make it happen in a helpful way for my students.
This summer, I want to create simple graphics that help my students utilize computational thinking and design thinking in order to articulate their ideas as they work. I noticed that the different lines of thinking all have a lot of overlap, so I’m hoping to create those visuals and add them to the visuals I have already for my students, including good questions to ask each other. I want to implement the “three before me” rule to a tee (I tried it last year and failed, but now I have more experience with being consistent with my phrases, and I plan on making them show me what three they did before me, which, from prior experience, I think will eventually lead to them calling me over prepared to explain what all they have tried before asking for my help), and I think that will help them start using the language and articulating their learning to their peers. These things will help me improve the PBL that I am already doing in my classroom, and will allow me to think more about how to make the products public and how to do more effective checkpoints (back to the feedback idea from above).
I’m really excited about everything that is to come, and I am hoping that after I implement these things, I will be able to write about them and publish them with one of my professors. I have already reached out to my professors about this, so they know that I’m thinking about publishing and would be a good partner for them. I know that it will help my students grow as humans and I’m looking forward to seeing how they grow as mathematicians as well.
This PD was amazing at modeling what it looked like to do what we are going to be learning about, so that we knew how to implement it in the classroom when we start doing it, and I loved that. The only other training that I think did that really well that I have attended was my MVP Math training, where they modeled task-based learning for us. Every other PD I have been to has either been an exact repeat of what I already knew or it has been a sit-and-get that left me confused as to how to implement it in the classroom. Here, surprisingly, even the Myers-Brigg session and the PBL session (which I have done many like them before), were still exciting and provided a few learning moments for me. I think this was a direct correlation to the attitudes of the people in the room, because many of the trainings I’ve been to have had a lot of groaning and frustrated teachers, but this training put together some of the most enthusiastic, passionate, and excited teachers in the state, so it was hard not to learn something and grow from every single session. That was probably the best part, honestly, was just learning about new stuff around other people who were excited to soak in new ideas and learn new things about education. And then, they were also excited to share what they knew and help you further your ideas to be more effective. It was just all around amazing to get to spend a week talking about education with people who are so passionate, and so experienced. I feel like I found my niche, or as Erin put it, my marigolds.