This week have seen a huge increase in mastery on daily exit tickets in math. Last month I identified lack of independent practice as a possible cause for low exit ticket scores and have established new procedures and incentives surrounding independent practice and exit tickets. In order to get their exit tickets, scholars must have completed their IP. I have always tracked mastery privately, but am rolling out a public class tracker; I think this will up investment and commitment to completing the entire independent practice, and result in higher mastery.
Another area I am working on with my class, is developing independent thinkers / solution finders. I often enable them by giving them the answer or showing them how to solve a problem too quickly, because I am impatient and want the flow of the lesson to keep moving. But, I am forcing myself to allow wait time and make them show me two resources they have consulted before providing them with my help.
I am going to be out of the classroom one day this week, and am interested to hear how the day goes - If they are able to use the skills and the strategies we have been discussing to help them be successful even when I am not in the room.
Chelsea
This week was a little bit crazy, between a field trip, our African Heritage Festival, and a new music schedule that is cutting into my literacy block, I feel like actually finding instructional time this week was difficult. This was especially difficult because I had so many absences throughout last week that many students needed to make up work, so I felt like I was just filling in strange bits of time with students working on different activities, which is never managed as well as a whole group lesson, or at least something in the usual routine. I hope to get back into a good routine this week. With fewer interruptions I'm hoping I can adjust my literacy routines/schedules to work around the music schedule. I was happy that my class had a good discussion on the day of the African Heritage Festival about the representation of African cultures in movies and TV shows-- we discussed the fact that popular movies like The Lion King and Madagascar only focus on the wildlife of Africa, and even sometimes poke fun at tribal people and traditions. We talked about how we actually have more in common with people in modern day Africa than we would think, but that that's not usually what the media portrays. The kids definitely could empathize with the idea of underrepresentation in the media and assuming that all people from one background were the same-- one of my students pointed out that "there's always just the one black person in a movie," and a few talked about the stereotypes of Mexican gangs. When I mentioned people in Africa having cell phones and one student shouted out, "They do not have cell phones!" a few of the students got upset that he was "being racist." We ended up having a good teachable moment about how many of us might not know much about other cultures, so we need to be open to learning new things about them. We also need to understand that many people have not been exposed to other cultures, and if someone expresses an idea that we disagree with or that we find offensive, we need to understand where they are coming from and try to explain our feelings and our point of view to them, instead of getting upset with them and further isolating them. Thanks to Mr. Cartwright for co-planning that discussion with me!
Stephanie
-Student data/ outcomes- In their weekly quizzes this week, my homeroom averaged 83 percent in math, my other class averaged 74 percent on their math quiz and 75 percent on their science quiz.
-Student action progress/ Prioritized student action to change- Students from my non-homeroom class (afternoon class) are missing more class lately, primarily for disciplinary reasons. Some are on my watch, but the majority are due to misbehaviors either from their other teacher in the morning or from cafeteria staff or their specials teachers. I am seeing about 4-5 kids pulled out of my class each day for these reasons.
-Teacher action to change to impact student action- Emphasize importance of being in class and the waterfall effect of absences. Try to have student testimonials to share with class otherwise share on my own -- ex. one student who missed two days because he was in the office both days and proceeded to miss two objectives and fail weekly quiz.
-Plan for development/ solution- Journal entry during religion on importance of being in class. Readjust participation points for the day. Anyone not in class for disciplinary reasons automatically will receive 0 "Oprah points" for the day instead of a pass like in the case of excused absences.
-Anticipated change in student data/ achievement outcomes- Students focus on making sure they last the entire day without missing valuable math time. Achievement increases expected with better attendance in classroom.
Tom Schalmo
*
Rather than use this week's post as a chance to reflect on last week, I think I will benefit the most from putting some classroom-related to-do's down in writing. For March through June, I want to return to my weekly routine of tutoring for 2-3 hours at a McDonald's (location chosen based on targeted students or parental requests). Secondly, I also want to drive home the importance of taking ownership over independent work time by rewarding students for the products (practice assignments and whatnot) that they work on during independent time. I regularly give shout-outs for top scores and most improved scores on quizzes, tests, papers, and projects, but I rarely do this for the more formative assignments, and my impression is that this is keeping my students from realizing the value of working responsibly during independent time. Thirdly, I intend to do a better job preparing clearly labeled review work folders in my classroom. I'm confident that I give good feedback to my students when they don't master a concept, but I don't have a terrific system for distributing teacher-independent remedial materials. Finally, as the end of the year approaches, I want to fill up my students' "college" portfolios, which currently include overviews of several colleges, and tidbits about college life, but which I want to be full of college recruiting/marketing publications.
-Joe Cartwright *
Another area I am working on with my class, is developing independent thinkers / solution finders. I often enable them by giving them the answer or showing them how to solve a problem too quickly, because I am impatient and want the flow of the lesson to keep moving. But, I am forcing myself to allow wait time and make them show me two resources they have consulted before providing them with my help.
I am going to be out of the classroom one day this week, and am interested to hear how the day goes - If they are able to use the skills and the strategies we have been discussing to help them be successful even when I am not in the room.
Chelsea
This week was a little bit crazy, between a field trip, our African Heritage Festival, and a new music schedule that is cutting into my literacy block, I feel like actually finding instructional time this week was difficult. This was especially difficult because I had so many absences throughout last week that many students needed to make up work, so I felt like I was just filling in strange bits of time with students working on different activities, which is never managed as well as a whole group lesson, or at least something in the usual routine. I hope to get back into a good routine this week. With fewer interruptions I'm hoping I can adjust my literacy routines/schedules to work around the music schedule. I was happy that my class had a good discussion on the day of the African Heritage Festival about the representation of African cultures in movies and TV shows-- we discussed the fact that popular movies like The Lion King and Madagascar only focus on the wildlife of Africa, and even sometimes poke fun at tribal people and traditions. We talked about how we actually have more in common with people in modern day Africa than we would think, but that that's not usually what the media portrays. The kids definitely could empathize with the idea of underrepresentation in the media and assuming that all people from one background were the same-- one of my students pointed out that "there's always just the one black person in a movie," and a few talked about the stereotypes of Mexican gangs. When I mentioned people in Africa having cell phones and one student shouted out, "They do not have cell phones!" a few of the students got upset that he was "being racist." We ended up having a good teachable moment about how many of us might not know much about other cultures, so we need to be open to learning new things about them. We also need to understand that many people have not been exposed to other cultures, and if someone expresses an idea that we disagree with or that we find offensive, we need to understand where they are coming from and try to explain our feelings and our point of view to them, instead of getting upset with them and further isolating them. Thanks to Mr. Cartwright for co-planning that discussion with me!
Stephanie
-Student data/ outcomes- In their weekly quizzes this week, my homeroom averaged 83 percent in math, my other class averaged 74 percent on their math quiz and 75 percent on their science quiz.
-Student action progress/ Prioritized student action to change- Students from my non-homeroom class (afternoon class) are missing more class lately, primarily for disciplinary reasons. Some are on my watch, but the majority are due to misbehaviors either from their other teacher in the morning or from cafeteria staff or their specials teachers. I am seeing about 4-5 kids pulled out of my class each day for these reasons.
-Teacher action to change to impact student action- Emphasize importance of being in class and the waterfall effect of absences. Try to have student testimonials to share with class otherwise share on my own -- ex. one student who missed two days because he was in the office both days and proceeded to miss two objectives and fail weekly quiz.
-Plan for development/ solution- Journal entry during religion on importance of being in class. Readjust participation points for the day. Anyone not in class for disciplinary reasons automatically will receive 0 "Oprah points" for the day instead of a pass like in the case of excused absences.
-Anticipated change in student data/ achievement outcomes- Students focus on making sure they last the entire day without missing valuable math time. Achievement increases expected with better attendance in classroom.
Tom Schalmo
*
Rather than use this week's post as a chance to reflect on last week, I think I will benefit the most from putting some classroom-related to-do's down in writing. For March through June, I want to return to my weekly routine of tutoring for 2-3 hours at a McDonald's (location chosen based on targeted students or parental requests). Secondly, I also want to drive home the importance of taking ownership over independent work time by rewarding students for the products (practice assignments and whatnot) that they work on during independent time. I regularly give shout-outs for top scores and most improved scores on quizzes, tests, papers, and projects, but I rarely do this for the more formative assignments, and my impression is that this is keeping my students from realizing the value of working responsibly during independent time. Thirdly, I intend to do a better job preparing clearly labeled review work folders in my classroom. I'm confident that I give good feedback to my students when they don't master a concept, but I don't have a terrific system for distributing teacher-independent remedial materials. Finally, as the end of the year approaches, I want to fill up my students' "college" portfolios, which currently include overviews of several colleges, and tidbits about college life, but which I want to be full of college recruiting/marketing publications.
-Joe Cartwright
*