Thursday, June 27, 2013

Student Work

WOW...I am so overwhelmed!!!  My brain is exploding in so many directions.  What is the purpose of student work?  For teachers? for students?

How can teachers look at student work and get an understanding of what they (students) clearly understand, meaning conceptual understanding!!  What is their level of ability and how do I push them forward with purposeful feedback.

After many conversations today with other teachers/professionals I have come to a conclusion...everything starts with your students.  Find out what they know first, then facilitate their with rich experiences filled with constantly and consistently wondering!!!  The same is true with teachers and their journey through their own learning.  Students, teachers, people in general must make up their own minds to change...my job as a math coach is to create opportunities for them to ask themselves questions about their beliefs and to encourage change.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Encompass: 1st day in review

Today left me with a lot of questions.  What was the purpose of all the activities?  How are all the activities connected?  I asked these questions not to seek answers from someone else but to ask myself. I keep thinking about how the day started talking a reflecting on the pre-institute activities and am wondering how I channel those conversations about risk-taking and cultural building into what tomorrow will bring.  I am very excited about the work we are doing and it continues to leave me wondering...

How can I capture this idea of constantly wondering about the world around you and get students to do the same??  Maybe thats the goal.  Finding ways to create opportunities for people to engage in activities that allow our minds to wonder in directions that we would normally not venture into by ourselves but in this environment feel at ease and comfortable to do so.

Encompass

Today is my first day at the summer institute with Encompass. Very interesting meeting an array of teachers from across the United States.  

Conversations:


  • looking at pre-institute activities: what worked and what didn't?
  • looking at rubrics
  • taking risks: if we (members of encompass are hesitant, then how can we model this behavior for our students)
Here are a couple of questions from the morning:


What can we do better?

What type of assessments to give students? With standards based grading, how can I accurate give a grade to students to assess what they know?

Getting students to communicate their thinking and how to put that on a rubric?  Shift from answer to the process.  Get the students to value the process!

How assessment is used to see what students know and drive the learning process.

Students having a clear vision and that they trust their work because they have ownership.

How can help teachers see the process of assessing student work and that it is important to collaborate with other teachers.