Sunday, September 27, 2015

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize: Teaching Well

Schools are filled with distractions that can knock you off your good teaching path, but you can't let those distractions get in the way of your success criteria--the goal you are moving towards.

What is that goal overall?

First, in general, my acronym this year is LEAD. It's got a good amount of challenge and sets my direction in a positive way including:
  • Listen
  • Engage with Collaboration
  • A Positive Attitude
  • Deep work with regard to math and STEAM learning/teaching.
Then my more specific charge is to teach math and STEAM well to a range of students in fifth grade and at the college level. To do that job well requires the following;
  • Research and reading about the subject area to stay current.
  • Well designed, prepared, and facilitated learning experiences.
  • Personalized, differentiated coaching, mentoring, and teaching.
  • Feedback that inspires, leads, and creates worthy, forward moving teaching/learning conversation, action, and result.
  • Assessment, analysis, reflection, revising, and refinement to teach well. 
What's the teaching "prize" you're reaching for this year? How will you make sure that distractions don't knock you off course? In what ways will you make reaching your goals a regular part of the teaching/learning weekly routine?