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 am always looking for opportunities to grow as an educator. Being part of the National Assessment Governing Board has given me the opportunity to express my opinions in writing. Please click on the links below to read the two articles!
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!
