Building Student Understanding (Again)

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday. 

Building Student Understanding (Again) —

We have done great work working on our GVC and Learning Targets. Bob mentioned that he loved working with all the grade levels as you worked on your GVC last year. I don't think we can ever be reminded of the PLC questions enough. 

• What do we expect our students to learn?

• How will we know they are learning?

• How will we respond when they don't learn it?

• How will we respond if they already know it?

Using these questions, we set our GVC and Learning Targets. Once we have the what we want them to learn we set up our program and find our tools that help us teach so we can move to the next question. GVC is the one thing they need to learn on that subject, Learning Targets are the Steps that lead to the GVC, and daily lessons are scaffolded to reach the Learning Target. Teachers throughout the district met this summer and found the “Nonnegotiable” GVC fro each grade and subject. From those we need will look at what we have done as a school and see where we need to adjust what we have. Remember that our GVC will change a little as we find a more clear picture of what is important in our teaching. Scott had a great question a couple weeks ago. He asked, “Do we go deeper in our subject or do we teach everything”. Deeper is better. We have taken the most important curriculum and that is what we are teaching. To find out if they learned what we wanted them to learn and to see if we taught it well we assess the students. From that data we look at who did not get it, who did get it, and what we going to do next. The hardest part of the assessment is looking at our teaching practices as a team and finding out if there is something else we can change or tweak to improve our lessons. When we answer these questions we find our next steps and get to work. The work Bob did with us was the first step in this process. This is the first step in knowing what we want our students to understand. And that is our calling as teachers. To help every student, no matter their circumstance, no matter their behavior, no matter their attitude, is to give them the opportunity to learn and understand.

Quote I’m pondering —

“I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.

–Haim Ginott

What I’m Reading —

How To Win An Argument According To Science

This infographic has great information about the steps to arguing. Might be some good steps to teach students as they discuss concepts in class.

Favorite Article This Week —

17 English Words that Come From Japanese

I love language and where we get words in English. We have collected many words over the years from many different languages, which makes it hard to speak for some of us.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you Cami, Jaime, Shelly, and Lisa for taking the time to help with the afternoon snacks. After working on your club we appreciate taking little time to help pass out the snacks to all the students. for all you do. Sometimes you are there for a while as you wait for safety patrol and other stragglers. We also want to thank you for helping with Tan’s Treats every week as we go from class to class handing out weekend lunches and dinners. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful weekend.