Again the goal is not meant to be inflamitory, but cause us to reflect on what we do. Are we in a place of continually "recycling" lessons from year to year, or are we "refining" them to better meet student needs?
Is there pointless stuff in our day that needs to meet with the ax?
16 comments:
As for myself, I have actually been in both the recycling and refining boats. When I have been "recycling" I have not felt confident with what I have been doing but sometimes have not really known a better way to do something. Thank goodness the recycling phase has passed! I know that I feel better about myself as a teacher and my abilities as a teacher when I am able to refine something that I have done previously to help students understand the concept better. Our grade level does a great job with sharing ideas, successes and even failures to help all of us become better teachers and to better meet student needs. We all can benefit from sharing with each other.
So do you think that learning to refine simply comes with time? Hoe do you know what to get rid of with regard to classroom classes that don't work?
Learning to refine did take me some time, but I can only speak from personal experience. I had to notice what worked and what didn't and whether it was the group I was woking with or the lesson itself. That's where working well with your team comes in. If we all teach a concept but use multiple strategies and then share, we know quicker what works and what doesn't. If you don't work well with your team, you have to figure it all out by yourself and that takes much more trial and error on your part. I also know that my bag of "tricks" has grown over the years. I realize more that does not work than I used to and I am also not afraid to try new things. I was concerned about that when I first started teaching because I was afraid I would do something wrong. With regards to getting rid of things that don't work, my usual judge is whether the children were engaged, learned and liked the lesson. If they were bored or did not do well when they were assessed, I know something went wrong. There is more than one correct way to teach a child and I have learned that if they like what you are doing, they will learn more.
We have limited time with the students so I think that the lessons need to be engaging as well as highly educational. Sometimes the students have fun doing the activity, but they don't really learn anything from it. Maybe those are the lessons we need to eliminate. I think we need to be reflective about how much learning is actually taking place with the lesson. Having time to adequately plan and reflect with our teams is crucial.
We need to eliminate anything that we do "just because we've always done it that way". That is a poor reason to do something. As we become more reflective practioners, we will easily decide what we do that is purposeful and positively impacts students' learning. In the same token, we will also easily see what we do that does NOT positively impact student learning.
We feel that our daily practices are reflective of our students needs and abilities. Each year our lessons are different as the children come to us with various backgrounds and levels of need. Some years we have to water down and other years we have to "beef it up". We don't need to adopt every new math or reading series that comes our way. By perfecting the programs that we are now using, we are able to see a drastic change in our students learning.
(kindergarten/speech team)
The ECPLC believes that our time could better be spent working with students and concentrating on their needs rather than the endless repetetive paperwork required by the state legislature. When IEP meetings and paperwork take hours to complete, we are left with no planning time to prepare for students. Many times our actual time with students is interrupted with meetings. We realize that these mandates come from Raleigh and are out of our control, but it is frustrating when noninstructional duties take precedence over student learning.
As far as using the same lesson plans, we are rarely able to recycle. Each student has his own education plan which is addressed in our classes.
We are in the process of refining. We feel strongly that co-teaching and teacher assistants are necessary in order to maintain quality education with high levels of student learning. We need to keep in mind that what works with one group may or may not work with another group of students. No matter the years of experience, teachers need to be open to new ideas and not get stuck in a rut.
SASSI + ONE + 1 again
We are continuously refining what we do. As our students change from year to year we need to refine our methods to best meet the needs of the students. When we as learners are exposed to new research based methods that are proven to be effective, we need to be receptive to those ideas and practices.
The ECPLC agrees with Ireland's comment that we don't need to adopt every new program that comes along. If we find something that works, we need to stick with it and refine it.
5th grade was just having a discussion about constantly refining our practices and teaching methods which require us to spend even more time on creating new lesson plans that span the curriculum and accomodate various learning styles. Having the SmartBoard has opened up a new world of teaching and learning, but the endless possibilities it offers is constantly causing us to re-examine our teaching practices and making changes, even on newly created lessons since aquiring this wonderful new technology. As in any other job, new discoveries requires extra hours spent in research. As we all know, our job of working late hours and finding better practices is never-ending.
I have found that reflecting on activites I have completed in class does help me to prepare for the concept we are to tackle. While I am working through a topic, I am able to find new and interesting ways to possibily help students the next year. When I'm stuck in a rut, I have my peers to turn to. By bouncing ideas off each other we are able to create a better learning environment for the grade level. Sometimes I do get a "case of the LAZIES" and revert back to old school. When that happens, I find that my class does not retain a concept as well.All in all, I like to take the old concepts and teachings and adding alittle gusto to them.
I agree with "wondering about the future." Some things seem like "fun" to the students but you have to ask yourself, what are they getting out of it? I remember my teachers in elementary school (many moons ago, don't ask) playing games and making up songs and poems but I couldn't tell you now what they were or what they were about.
I think that it is more crucial to allow planning time for diverse learners. For example, government lesson - visual learners: textbooks and smartboard, auditory learners: walking field trip to Town Hall to hear speakers and kinethestic learners: making mobiles, foldables, etc.
I would rather spend my time on attempting to reach diverse learners as to target only one group.
Note: This is only my second year so I have a lot to learn. So far, I feel like I am "catching" at least a few of them.
If it hasn't worked up to now, why continue to do it? I change plans in the middle of lessons. How can someone continue to use the same lessons for years? Totally ineffective... Goes along with the whole tenure thing for some.. once hired and job secured why push yourself... Cut the down time out of the day. All time at school should be for remediation or acceleration. That is why they call it work!!!
“Trends in education”…. I just love to here folks say this. It is completely ironic in nature. I am either fortunate or cursed one, to have an entire family full of educators. They range from elementary, middle school to the community college level. You can imagine dinnertime conversation, we all try not to talk shop but one word about school slips out and the heat is on. With that in mind the “trends” that are now available that everyone is just a craze over are in fact the some of the same ideas that my mother used when she first started teaching some 32 years ago. So do we recycle…yes, the only thing is we are too young and new as educators to remember. I attended a conference this summer for science. I was so excited when I left because they were talking about “units” that had been created based on the 5 E’s of instruction. Naturally, the first person I called was my mother (to talk shop). She supported my enthusiasm and then said, you know when I first started teaching we used a similar format just a different name. I think the key to any lesson taught or planning for the lesson should have the individual child in mind. Not the class, not the grade but the child. Allow that child to drive what you do in the classroom. They know how they learn; they know what works for them. Is it okay to recycle, why not? If it works for a child and that child learns the concept…congratulations. On the flip side, if your recycled “trends” are based on convenience in the classroom, an easy way of grading, SOLEY EOG based, or just to make you look good as a teacher then just maybe the recycling bin is not a good place, the trash bin would be better.
I think that, as teachers, we should constantly be reflecting on the time spent in our classroom. We need to make decisions on what is working and what we need to eliminate. For me, over the past three years, I have learned so much just by reflecting. (At Barton College, we reflected on EVERYTHING! We even reflected on our reflections! :) ) I have changed things not only year to year, but month to month, week to week, and even day to day. If something is not working, I do not continue it. Over the past years, I have worked on my transition times and end-of-the-day routine to eliminate time wasters. One of the workshops I went to last year said that students remember the most about the beginning of the day and the end of the day. Now, I pack up my students earlier and spend the last hour of the day completing an instructional activity. I believe that it is our job as educators to provide students with the BEST we have to offer. To me, that means we refine past lessons, search for new ways to teach objectives, utilize instructional time and always give the students 110%. I think we need to push students to complete higher order thinking activities which will in turn help them to succeed.
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