Let Them Teach

With the help of one of my teammates, her knowledge from Math Workshop conferences, as well as my own scouring of blogs, I've thought through several station options. I only implement about 5 of these, but as this is my first year of Math Workshop, I expect to expand my horizons next year. The options for stations are: Small Group Instruction Fact Fluency Technology Math Games Notebooking/Vocabulary Interdisciplinary Spiral Practice/Weak Standards Great. Now what? Find the stuff for the centers. The quicker they are to acquire, the more likely you are to do them :) I started with what I had on hand. My stations look something like this: Small Group Instruction - 4-5 students and I working with manipulatives, white boards, and having think alouds and problem solving discussions Fact Fluency - flash cards, mad minute timed test (self check) Technology - online leveled practice (Think Through Math, iStation Math) or discovering how to use an app and creating ...

I was chosen to be part of a cohort this year in my district to pilot the use of instructional coaches. The goal of our district is to turn professional development into a daily occurrence, fueled by peers. I was super excited to be part of this opportunity, and it's turned out to be the biggest life/game changer. In the beginning, we took a self-evaluation to rank us on 21st Century Teaching Skills . We took it again mid-year, and we'll take it again at end of year. It's a great tool to use for goal setting. Based on my low scoring areas, I was able to set goals for myself this year on what I wanted to accomplish in the classroom. It really focused my growth, which is something I haven't had in the past. My first goal was Math Workshop. My second goal has been Project Based Learning. I'm in the middle of my first PBL unit, but I've been doing Math Workshop for months, so I have a bit more reflection to share on that particular topic right now. First rule of...

A new role model of mine, whom you can find on Twitter @TechNinjaTodd, stood up at our most recent PD and announced that everything he was showing us that he had done was an idea he learned from someone else. He did not present a single unique idea. Except that he totally did. Unique in the way that no one in our district talked about developing themselves through social media. He gave us permission to seek out greatness even if no one supported our movement. He gave us permission to teach 50% academics and 50% life. He is a game changer. I want to be a game changer. It's so refreshing to hear that someone that amazing (super high testing scores in a very low SES population) is simply copying his favorite ideas from other people. When I meet someone so great, I tend to immediately throw myself into this other category of "not good enough." I was on a personal high on Friday from co-leading a Math Workshop PD. My teammate and I had gotten some great feedback that had us ...