I want to focus on my craft to be inspired and to inspire excellence in educators in order to cultivate and motivate inquisitive students through collaboration and positive conversations.
I like to begin my posts with my purpose, my why.
I consider myself a life-long learner! I thoroughly enjoy learning new things, specifically strategies that will benefit my students. One such strategy, or in this case a process, is continuous improvement using the framework Plan, Do, Study, Act. What made this a game changer? My students became part of the process.
How does this process work?
First, as a class we use data to choose a goal to work on. This becomes our plan. Our class goal is usually a standard the students struggle with. At this point in time, our goal is the standard NBT.7 (Division).
Do Next, as a class we have conversation regarding my responsibilities as the teacher and the responsibilities of my students. For example, after discussing how, as a class, we are struggling with division, I ask my students, "what do you need from me?" I record their needs on our learning board. ie; pull more small groups; create more interactive Google Slide practices; more partner work; etc. I then ask students "what can you do to master this standard?" I also record their suggestions on our learning board. Some examples include, ask for help, complete the Google Slide practices, etc.
Study After implementation of Plan and Do, I assess my students then analyze the data. I present this data to my students. As a class, my students set a goal of 100% will score an 80% or better on assessments. We set 80% as proficient.
Act After analyzing the data we discuss what worked and what did not work (plus and deltas). If we are not even close to our 100% we will start the cycle over again until we get close to 100%.
NOTE: As with any strategy or process, I "tweak" it to fit the needs of my classroom! I would love to hear from other educators as to what works for you!