Let Them Teach

Two weeks into this #IMMOOC challenge I prescribed myself, and not only am I surviving, I am fully engaged and ideas are pouring out of my ears. I can hardly contain my excitement, but I think my principal will help me with that, as I am sure she is really over my emails. :) I have rarely read a book DURING the school year. I found my spreadsheet soulmate in @alicekeeler. This is going on my must read list of books for sure. Validation. It is a bridge builder. It lowers the affective filter. It primes your heart and brain to take in new information and make the connection to ways you can use that information.  I have had countless conversations with my colleagues at various levels about our grading system. What does an 86 in math mean? I stopped taking points off for no name. That doesn't have anything to do with how well a student understands rounding. I've stopped averaging first and second attempts. The goal is mastery, right? Don't we have the whole year to...

I'm all for small group instruction. Narrowing down that student-teacher ratio from 22 or 26:1 to 4 or 5:1 is ideal for my understanding where my kids are and for directed instruction that the students stay engaged in. A few questions arise when you dip your toe into a workshop model of instruction . Here are a few I had: 1. How do I group my kids? See Below. 2. What do the other kids do while I pull a small group? It depends. Coming soon. 3. How do I manage behavior in a station/center/rotation atmosphere? See #2. 4. What do I do once my kids are in small group? See #2. I can answer Question #1 today. Heterogeneous grouping a la Kagan. I recently attended a Kagan training that our school hosted. You can buy the book online, as I did prior to attending the training, but the training itself is very helpful in understanding the idiosyncrasies of using the cooperative learning strategies. This is NOT a curriculum. Its a great way to access curriculum in a team building...