First question: does the new color hurt anyone's eyes? I like it and it seems very "Phoenix" to me, but I don't want to cause any headaches. Speaking of which, I passed out a handout printed on yellow paper last week (not on purpose, it was left in the copier) and one of my students told me that it gave her a headache. I think maybe she just didn't want to do the assignment...but I gave her the original that was on non-headache inducing paper. I think she was a little disappointed. I digress.
Right now I am weighing my desire to post with my desire to sleep. I'll compromise and post briefly. I want to share some of what is tiring me out.
The year is still going well. I am having a wonderful time with my kiddos. This year I am able to focus on my instruction a lot more because behavior is so much more under control. I have been thinking about my instruction a lot and how it is doing a lot of things that I want it to do. My students are, as a whole, mastering the knowledge and skills I am teaching them. Yay! I have identified where some of the gaps are and am working collaboratively with the reading specialist to fill in those gaps. I am working to get parent volunteers to help me pull off the intensive reading intervention that needs to happen for my struggling readers. These things are going well. I want to restate how AMAZING it is to have my classroom be a positive place for my kids and myself to be every day. I am happy to go to work every day. I respect my kids and genuinely enjoy them and they know this.
Yesterday and today I was privileged to attend Understanding by Design training. This is training on strategic backwards planning to increase student engagement and achievement. This is the model that TFA uses to train us--this is the way that I generally understand planning. However, the training the past two days pushed me in two main ways:
a) I realized that I AM backwards planning--planning with the end in mind. I identify standards that go together, figure out the knowledge and skills involved in the standards, create an assessment that measures the knowledge and skills and then plan from there. This is good. However, this is only the basic level. I am not actually pushing my students to higher levels of thinking--I am not actually backwards planning for higher levels of understanding. I am focusing on the level that is required by the standardized tests and then hoping that higher level thinking happens along the way. My assessments are NOT multiple and they are NOT varied and they assess knowledge and skills but NOT greater understanding.
Hmmmm....what does this MEAN?
This means that I am on the right track. I have a firm understanding of all the processes involved here. I have identified what is missing. I have the resources to begin to bring higher level thinking goals into my units. This will not happen overnight, but the important thing is that I am moving in the right direction.
now, for the second way the training pushed me
b) I am part of the Understanding by Design Leadership Cadre for my district. This is new. 15 people are being trained in UbD throughout the year and at the same time using the planning framework to plan how UbD will be implemented in the district. It is EXCITING to think of being part of an initiative that is being thought through and will be implemented strategically and that I actually believe will impact student achievement. It is also OVERWHELMING to think about all of the challenges to implementing it successfully. Instead of criticizing how my district doesn't implement anything consistenly, efficiently or effectively, I am stepping over to the other side and challenging myself to actually put my money where my mouth is (so to speak). Wow. This is scary. And exciting, especially given that in this cadre I am amoungst a group of passionate, effective and SMART teachers. We care about our district, schools, teachers and especially students. Its feels risky to think and believe that what we are doing might actually change things for our kids in a significant way. I have an understanding of my ability to change things for my kids within my classroom, but being part of change on a district level feels way different.
Being pushed in this way the past two days has been tiring, especially since I've been going back to school afterwards and have stayed til 7pm both days. You would think having someone else teach your class would mean less work. It doesn't! Its LOTS more. I also missed being with my kids. I was very pleased that they generally behaved well for the sub and that she would be happy to sub for me again. This means that I have trained them at least reasonably well :)
On that note, I'm going to sleep.
30 years
11 years ago
