Saturday, October 24, 2015

The Week Ahead: Last Week in October 2015

Wow! One small incident turned into about a dozen posts and new ideas. It takes time to unravel a challenge and seek new footing.

I'm really looking forward to the week ahead. In some ways, next week marks the end of our first chapter of school for multiple reasons:

Parent/Family Conferences
During the first conference our TeamFive team will meet with adult members of each child's family. One reason I prefer this for the first conference is that it gives us time to talk about any confidential information or sensitive issues with regard to a child's teaching/learning program. Students have put together showcase portfolios filled with their thoughts about school, interests, and goals. We'll review the information, discuss pertinent questions, and set some goals. The conferences will likely result in some curriculum/teaching fine tuning for the next chapter of the year. The teachers on our team consider ourselves, family members, students, colleagues, and leaders as one big learning/teaching team with the overarching goal to serve each child well.

Blog Post Responses
My team of 20plus university students have posted a large number of blog posts in response to multiple education articles, videos, and questions. I look forward to reading the students' thoughts as they truly teach me as much as I teach them.

Number Posters
I can't wait to see students' completed number posters. If anyone hasn't completed the task or completed it without a final edit, I'll make sure to edit and help those students reach mastery with the task. We'll use the posters as a reference point for math study to come.

Professional Learning
I'm involved in two professional tasks. For one task, I'll join a group of teachers from throughout the system and partake in the High School walkthrough where we'll focus our observations, follow-up discussion, and response on one question that high school teachers are interested in. In the other professional learning endeavor, I'll work with two grade-level colleagues and the math coach from a sister school to develop a learning path for specific CCSS standards.

The Lightning Thief
We'll continue to journey with Percy Jackson.

School Assembly
Another class group will anchor the event while others serve as ushers and tech crew.

Place Value Unit
We'll begin the unit with enthusiasm as we create place value charts and study populations.

Tech Committee
Tuesday will mark the first meeting. Since I'm a tech enthusiast I thought it important that I serve on this committee.

Hopefully I'll bring forward the learning from last week to the challenges this week. One thing for sure, when it comes to teaching, it's rarely dull or passive :) Onward.