10/1/16
Well, I am just about a month into the school year, and I just got back from the Ed Leader 21 conference in Denver. I am finally starting to feel at ease with our daily routines in our third grade classroom. We did finish up NWEA testing, and I am eager to starting forming small groups that directly relate to student goals and their Des Cartes. Even though it has only been a month, a lot has been going on. This summer, I began coaching an Assessment Literacy Team here at Pleasant Ridge. The 4 teachers attended the training, and we schedule dates to continue to meet throughout the school year. Over the last two months, I have worked very closely with Trina Bell using assessment literacy practices to deconstruct our weather/climate science standards. We collaborated and created a project based unit that tied in reading and writing. I am quite excited to teach this unit at the end of November! I am also very eager to continue to work with our Assessment Literacy Team. I can see they are starting to think deeply about formative assessments and how to make our learning clear to our students. Updates to come!! I am trying to think hard about how to use some of my assessment literacy background and tie it into project based learning. After attending the Ed Leader conference in Denver, I want to try out more project based learning activities in my classroom. I want to continue to think about how I can incorporate these types of units into reading and writing workshop.
1/13/17
It's January! Boy time is flying by in third grade. I am sitting down just after meeting with the Ed Leader 21 performance task team. In the last month, I was able to apply some of what I learned at the conference to try out a 4Cs performance task. Students were taught about different learning spaces, and then they were asked to use their creativity and critical thinking skills to design their own 21st century learning space. Many different schools across the country participated in this performance assessment, and it was quite interesting to go through the data protocol and see the strengths/weaknesses in regards to 4C's assessments. This is still an area that I feel we need to work on, but I am excited about what I have learned. I also think PR is working in the right direction by developing their own 4C rubrics, specific to each grade level and outcomes. I think we need to continue to work on how we can make the expectations clear to our kiddos, as that will make their learning more meaningful.
I am starting to really see the benefits of best fit math. Trina and I are piloting best fit math in third grade this year. We are using the EDM deconstructed units to pre and post test our students. We pretest and then make best fit groups based on the results. I feel like we are finally seeing great results, and I am feeling much more comfortable with our system. Throughout the first couple months of school, we tried out a few different formats with grouping our kids, implementing formative assessments, and providing intentional and timely feedback to our kids to fix misconceptions. During our first couple of units, we were trying to have the math tutors and Sherry push in, but we found that some students were still slipping through our eyes. It was difficult to manage student misconceptions when they were working with the tutors for a majority of our math block. We now have transitioned to a different model where all of the students hear our whole group lesson, with a very clear learning target. From there, all students begin working on the EDM journal pages. About 5-10 minutes into the page, the students with the highest need transition to Sherry's room to work in small groups with the math tutors. The rest of the students finish their EDM journal page(s) and then transition into math workshop with a flipped lesson for math boxes and math games. During the math workshop section of the lesson, I am able to reteach on the previous day's learning target to students who did not master the target as evidenced by their exit slip. At the end of the math block, students complete their exit slip to "show me what they know." Students who were in Sherry's room complete the exit slip there and also receive reteaching right in that moment if they make errors. The tutors note this for us on top of the exit slip. This system seems to be working smoothly because we are finding it easier to provide the reteaching needed for all our kids. We are able to administer the exit slip and give feedback very quickly! I also like that I still get 5-10 minutes with my students who go to the math tutors os that I can work with them and see how things are going before they go off to Sherry's room. I am starting to try to think about different ways that I can integrate technology into this block. Students do play math games on the devices, but I would like to try out some flipped lessons. I shied away from this because our groups were constantly changing with my kids and Bell's kids, but in the next couple months, I would like to trust my instincts and put student learning into their own hands with some flipped lessons.
Our Assessment Literacy team has had the privilege to meet monthly for release days. We have made some big gains in understanding from the beginning of the year until now. I am excited to see their understanding growing. During our last meeting, I had each teacher share out their progress and some big takeaways thus far in the year. It was very empowering to see some veteran and expert teachers talking about how assessment literacy has transformed their teaching in big ways! I am eager to take next steps and talk to Steve about what the future for assessment literacy will look like for Pleasant Ridge and potentially other schools in Saline.
5/7/17
It is crazy to think that this year is coming to a close. It has been such a growing year for me as a teacher, and I feel very blessed to have spect my countless days with my third grade students. Now that I am wrapping up all of my assessments, it is a quite affirming to know that these great kids made great growth! Many students grew levels and levels. Looking closely at pre and post test math scores, my kids jumped so much! And, I am proud to share that I think assessment literacy is a big part of that.
There are so many things that I want to reflect and share. First and foremost, I want to share my growth and student growth with the 4Cs. I feel that I have gained a much bigger perspective in using the 4Cs this year with my students. Professional development, the ED Leader 21 conference in Denver, and several of my grad classes have opened my eyes to the bigger picture with 4CS learning. As I think about next year, I want to continue to use 4Cs in many of the ways I have this year, but I want to continue to see the whole picture and envision units that integrate the 4Cs with science, reading, writing, tech integration, etc. I even want to continue to think about how my third graders can collaborate in different contexts with different grade levels and students. I am really excited to continue to work with Trina over the summer to develop another assessment literacy unit for our ecosystem science standards. I plan to use some of this knowledge to work in tech integration, reading, writing, and project based experiences. When thinking about my third graders this year, I have seen them develop into quick and innovative learners who can use technology in ways that sometimes I don't even think of! If you were to walk into my classroom now, you would see students using different technology tools to document and enhance their learning. Some students prefer Google docs and slides while others prefer the organization of Popplet. It is very important to me that my kiddos leave third grade ready to make smart choices in regards to their learning. I hope that I have instilled in them a path toward choosing technology tools that benefit their learning.
Another aspect of this year that I feel has pushed me to be a better educator is my involvement with Assessment Literacy and our Assessment Literacy team here at Pleasant Ridge. I feel that I have been pushed to step into a "leadership" role that at the beginning was different for me. I am excited about the growth I have made with this team, and I smile when I think about all the new teachers joining the Assessment Literacy team next year at Pleasant Ridge. It is a remarkable thing to think about so many teachers joining a network that truly puts student needs first. I have a passion for Assessment Literacy because it really is best practices for students. And, I look forward to continuing to coach additional teachers next year in ways to use Assessment Literacy with their own kiddos!
And the last thing I want to share is how proud I am of the relationships I have built this year. I am a firm believer that effective instruction cannot occur with proper classroom management and personal relationships. Personal relationships with my students are very important to me, and I think this year I tried some things to heighten these relationships: reaching out to parents, attending extra curricular events, organizing out of school events, etc. My heart is certainly with this class, and I hope they leave knowing how much I truly believe in them.
Well, I am just about a month into the school year, and I just got back from the Ed Leader 21 conference in Denver. I am finally starting to feel at ease with our daily routines in our third grade classroom. We did finish up NWEA testing, and I am eager to starting forming small groups that directly relate to student goals and their Des Cartes. Even though it has only been a month, a lot has been going on. This summer, I began coaching an Assessment Literacy Team here at Pleasant Ridge. The 4 teachers attended the training, and we schedule dates to continue to meet throughout the school year. Over the last two months, I have worked very closely with Trina Bell using assessment literacy practices to deconstruct our weather/climate science standards. We collaborated and created a project based unit that tied in reading and writing. I am quite excited to teach this unit at the end of November! I am also very eager to continue to work with our Assessment Literacy Team. I can see they are starting to think deeply about formative assessments and how to make our learning clear to our students. Updates to come!! I am trying to think hard about how to use some of my assessment literacy background and tie it into project based learning. After attending the Ed Leader conference in Denver, I want to try out more project based learning activities in my classroom. I want to continue to think about how I can incorporate these types of units into reading and writing workshop.
1/13/17
It's January! Boy time is flying by in third grade. I am sitting down just after meeting with the Ed Leader 21 performance task team. In the last month, I was able to apply some of what I learned at the conference to try out a 4Cs performance task. Students were taught about different learning spaces, and then they were asked to use their creativity and critical thinking skills to design their own 21st century learning space. Many different schools across the country participated in this performance assessment, and it was quite interesting to go through the data protocol and see the strengths/weaknesses in regards to 4C's assessments. This is still an area that I feel we need to work on, but I am excited about what I have learned. I also think PR is working in the right direction by developing their own 4C rubrics, specific to each grade level and outcomes. I think we need to continue to work on how we can make the expectations clear to our kiddos, as that will make their learning more meaningful.
I am starting to really see the benefits of best fit math. Trina and I are piloting best fit math in third grade this year. We are using the EDM deconstructed units to pre and post test our students. We pretest and then make best fit groups based on the results. I feel like we are finally seeing great results, and I am feeling much more comfortable with our system. Throughout the first couple months of school, we tried out a few different formats with grouping our kids, implementing formative assessments, and providing intentional and timely feedback to our kids to fix misconceptions. During our first couple of units, we were trying to have the math tutors and Sherry push in, but we found that some students were still slipping through our eyes. It was difficult to manage student misconceptions when they were working with the tutors for a majority of our math block. We now have transitioned to a different model where all of the students hear our whole group lesson, with a very clear learning target. From there, all students begin working on the EDM journal pages. About 5-10 minutes into the page, the students with the highest need transition to Sherry's room to work in small groups with the math tutors. The rest of the students finish their EDM journal page(s) and then transition into math workshop with a flipped lesson for math boxes and math games. During the math workshop section of the lesson, I am able to reteach on the previous day's learning target to students who did not master the target as evidenced by their exit slip. At the end of the math block, students complete their exit slip to "show me what they know." Students who were in Sherry's room complete the exit slip there and also receive reteaching right in that moment if they make errors. The tutors note this for us on top of the exit slip. This system seems to be working smoothly because we are finding it easier to provide the reteaching needed for all our kids. We are able to administer the exit slip and give feedback very quickly! I also like that I still get 5-10 minutes with my students who go to the math tutors os that I can work with them and see how things are going before they go off to Sherry's room. I am starting to try to think about different ways that I can integrate technology into this block. Students do play math games on the devices, but I would like to try out some flipped lessons. I shied away from this because our groups were constantly changing with my kids and Bell's kids, but in the next couple months, I would like to trust my instincts and put student learning into their own hands with some flipped lessons.
Our Assessment Literacy team has had the privilege to meet monthly for release days. We have made some big gains in understanding from the beginning of the year until now. I am excited to see their understanding growing. During our last meeting, I had each teacher share out their progress and some big takeaways thus far in the year. It was very empowering to see some veteran and expert teachers talking about how assessment literacy has transformed their teaching in big ways! I am eager to take next steps and talk to Steve about what the future for assessment literacy will look like for Pleasant Ridge and potentially other schools in Saline.
5/7/17
It is crazy to think that this year is coming to a close. It has been such a growing year for me as a teacher, and I feel very blessed to have spect my countless days with my third grade students. Now that I am wrapping up all of my assessments, it is a quite affirming to know that these great kids made great growth! Many students grew levels and levels. Looking closely at pre and post test math scores, my kids jumped so much! And, I am proud to share that I think assessment literacy is a big part of that.
There are so many things that I want to reflect and share. First and foremost, I want to share my growth and student growth with the 4Cs. I feel that I have gained a much bigger perspective in using the 4Cs this year with my students. Professional development, the ED Leader 21 conference in Denver, and several of my grad classes have opened my eyes to the bigger picture with 4CS learning. As I think about next year, I want to continue to use 4Cs in many of the ways I have this year, but I want to continue to see the whole picture and envision units that integrate the 4Cs with science, reading, writing, tech integration, etc. I even want to continue to think about how my third graders can collaborate in different contexts with different grade levels and students. I am really excited to continue to work with Trina over the summer to develop another assessment literacy unit for our ecosystem science standards. I plan to use some of this knowledge to work in tech integration, reading, writing, and project based experiences. When thinking about my third graders this year, I have seen them develop into quick and innovative learners who can use technology in ways that sometimes I don't even think of! If you were to walk into my classroom now, you would see students using different technology tools to document and enhance their learning. Some students prefer Google docs and slides while others prefer the organization of Popplet. It is very important to me that my kiddos leave third grade ready to make smart choices in regards to their learning. I hope that I have instilled in them a path toward choosing technology tools that benefit their learning.
Another aspect of this year that I feel has pushed me to be a better educator is my involvement with Assessment Literacy and our Assessment Literacy team here at Pleasant Ridge. I feel that I have been pushed to step into a "leadership" role that at the beginning was different for me. I am excited about the growth I have made with this team, and I smile when I think about all the new teachers joining the Assessment Literacy team next year at Pleasant Ridge. It is a remarkable thing to think about so many teachers joining a network that truly puts student needs first. I have a passion for Assessment Literacy because it really is best practices for students. And, I look forward to continuing to coach additional teachers next year in ways to use Assessment Literacy with their own kiddos!
And the last thing I want to share is how proud I am of the relationships I have built this year. I am a firm believer that effective instruction cannot occur with proper classroom management and personal relationships. Personal relationships with my students are very important to me, and I think this year I tried some things to heighten these relationships: reaching out to parents, attending extra curricular events, organizing out of school events, etc. My heart is certainly with this class, and I hope they leave knowing how much I truly believe in them.