19 Jul 2015
A Belated End-of-Year Reflection : Highlights

A Belated End-of-Year Reflection : Highlights

Check out some of the changes I went through from 2014-2015 in my previous entry.  These middle schoolers aren't the only ones going through changes! In this episode: HIGHLIGHTS Low stress Behavior Management-The behavior problems I had this year didn’t even come close to the stuff I would have to deal with in the past.  I had one student who was a bit too cool for school and wouldn’t always follow directions, but even she engaged in our class discussions.  The kids generally did what you asked them to do.  Behavior management was a huge stressor at Iduma. It was…
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19 Jul 2015
A Belated End-Of-Year Reflection : Changes

A Belated End-Of-Year Reflection : Changes

This is part 1 of a 3 part blog on reflections on my 2014-2015 school year.  I figured before I started planning for the upcoming semester, it'd be best to reflect on what happened. In this episode: CHANGES Before exploring the highs and lows of the year, I think it’s worth noting the changes from last year to this year. SHIFTS Went from Iduma Elementary School to The Khabele School Went from 5th grade to 6-8th grade Went from teaching math, science, SS, and ELAR to math and robotics Went from a school of 1000 to a school of 250…
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11 Jul 2015

Reflecting on ‘Building A Better Teacher’

Just finished up 'Building A Better Teacher' by Elizabeth Green. I anticipated a book that would discuss teacher preparation programs in the US and how we can do better.  I was surprised by how much of the book seemed to focus on the history and development of an inquiry-based approach in a math classroom (which being a math teacher, I loved).  I think Green went in that direction since math education seems to be where our teachers are lacking direction the most.  The latter half focused more on the developments in teacher preparation programs (triumphs and failures) as well as…
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07 May 2015
“The Best Discussion I’ve Ever Had”

“The Best Discussion I’ve Ever Had”

I just got out of my 6th grade Math Skills class. We finished up the Proportions project (something akin to THIS) and spent half the class getting their final papers printed and putting the project papers up in the hall. I thought it would be hard to really have an engaging lesson afterwards as they were a bit hyped up but we refocused and got started on our lesson on converting percents. Being that it was our first lesson on percents, I had a few opening questions just to get their minds geared into thinking about what percents actually were:…
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29 Apr 2015
5 Ways To See If Your Students Are Learning

5 Ways To See If Your Students Are Learning

I recently wrote a reflection on a prompt given by our middle school director on how I know students are learning.  He's followed up and given us a couple articles to read.  I reflected on what I felt I was already doing, what I've done before but stopped, and what I should start doing. The first article was an excerpt from Checking For Understanding by Fisher & Frey.  The second article was the New York Times article Why Flunking Exams Is Actually A Good Thing by Benedict Carey. This entry is on the first article. Checking For Understanding by Fisher…
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