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Yesterday at the staff meeting, an AP assigned a "learning experience" to all of the teachers. "Okay, it's homework, but we're calling it a learning experience so it doesn't sound like homework," she admitted. The assignment? Write about what you'll do, bell to bell, on a typical day in your classroom.
It's hard to give just one answer to this question, because what I'll do in my classroom can differ drastically depending on our unit of study, the students' needs, and the format of my lessons. This year we'll engage in book clubs, meet with writing partners to craft and revise essays, use the laptops to write reflection blogs, read and write poetry, have a class "campfire," and keep online portfolios of writing samples and projects. But I suppose even though the meat of each lesson and the way it's served will change, a few procedures will provide the framework for each day's lesson. Consistent Framework for Class 1. Warm Up: The warm-up might be a grammar exercise, a creative writing prompt, or a question about what we’re currently learning. It's aim is to access prior knowledge about the day's material. Students will label the title of the warm-up and the date in their daybooks and start the warm-up at the beginning of class. 2. Objective-based: The objective for each day's lesson will be on the whiteboard and students will know what they're focused on learning that day. 3. HEART of the lesson 4. Exit Ticket: "We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience." -John Dewey Students will reflect on their learning daily. This might take the form of a "great American one sentence summary" of the lesson written in a student's daybook, answering a question on the way out the door, or submitting a question about the lesson to me via a google form. Moving past the daily routine, I’m really eager to apply what I’m learning in my grad classes in my classroom this year. A few changes that I will institute include giving my students more autonomy, writing a blog, and having my students reflect more on their learning through student blogs and online portfolios. I want to help my students become intrinsically motivated to learn this year. I hope to cultivate the type of classroom environment in which that is possible by making my students decision makers. They will have more personal freedom when it comes to literature selection and how they respond to what they read and how they respond to literature. Today's staff meeting involved a presentation about our new school grading policy, an unveiling of Symbaloo in conjunction with the MPMS website, motivational speeches, a PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Support) Presentation, new-staff introductions, and a wonderful lunch provided by the PTSA. Something that made an impact on me was our discussion of Mind-Sets. Our admin team passed around Mind-Sets and Equitable Education, an article by Carol S. Dweck. The article discussed fixed vs. growth mind-sets and the difference a mind-set can make in learning. A person with a fixed mind-set is praised for the end result. "Well done! You got an A!" or "You won! You're a winner!" Rather, growth mind-set focuses on praising the process, the effort. "You worked so hard!" and "Look at how far you've come!" The problem with fixed mind-set praise is that when students win, you tell them that they are winners, so when they lose, they feel like failures. Fixed mind-set learners worry about how they'll be judged, the final results. Growth mind-set people worry about what they'll learn and how they'll grow. Research has shown that students' minds-sets have a direct influence of their grades and that teaching students to have a growth mind-set raises their grades and achievement test scores significantly (Blackwell, Trzesniewsi, & Dweck, 2007). It shows that all students have the ability to learn and to succeed. It's my job as a teacher to praise strategies and effort, tell the students that they can do better, try harder, and provide them with specific ways to do so. Check out Eduardo Briceno's TED Talk that explains the difference between fixed and growth mind-sets. Today is the first work day for MPMS. It was great to catch up with all of my fellow teachers and start getting my room ready for my students. It seems to take less and less time to set things up as the years go by and I had my room ready to go by lunchtime. My website is up and running and no longer password protected. There's a lot to do next week, but I couldn't do too much more today that doesn't require meeting with my professional learning team and the other Jaguar teachers. So what did I do? I created a video! Here's your first step to surviving middle school language arts. Come prepared! Watch the first installation of Surviving Middle School to find out what to bring to LA class on your first day. |
Jill Zappiateacher, grad student, bibliophile Archives
October 2015
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