I am excited to link up again with Greg from The Kindergarten Smorgasbord for the Teaching with Intention book study. The hosts from Chapter 2 are:
Melissa from Mrs. Dailey's Classroom
Latoya from Flying into First Grade
and Amanda from The Primary Gal
This chapter asked us to define our beliefs as teachers and align that with our own practices. Debbie shares her own beliefs with us and remind us that we have to start with the end in mind. I loved this quote from the beginning of the chapter:
"When teachers have a set of beliefs that guides our work, we know where we are going. There may be twists and turns along the way, but we always know where we are headed."
We have to think specifically about what we want to see our children doing by the end of the year (or even the end of each unit or lesson) and use that to guide our lesson planning. I also kept thinking how important that is when we are working in small groups or conferencing. We keep our guided principles in mind as we scaffold our children in their zone of proximal development. As Debbie points out, we are the only ones who know "where our kids have been, where they are now, and where it makes the most sense to take them next."
When I picture my ideal classroom I see:
- A warm and positive atmosphere
- A classroom where students know how to both work together and independently
- A lot of classroom conversation. I want my students to have a space where they can talk about themselves and their lives as well as have lively conversations about learning.
- Students using books to help them learn
- Large and small group instruction as well as workshop time
- Hands on learning that is purposeful and project based
- F-U-N!!!
Debbie poses some questions for us at the end of this chapter that really helped me define my own beliefs. Sometimes I find that it can be difficult to put beliefs into words and make sure your practice matches your beliefs. I can see the end game, but how exactly do I get there? What are all of the little steps along the way? These questions really helped me and I hope they help you. Below are my thoughts... please add your ideas :)
Question 1: How do you go about teaching kids something new?
- Start with their schema: what do the kids already know?
- What questions do the kids have about a given topic? Can I guide them to asking more in-depth questions?
- Identify key vocabulary and concepts I want my student to learn.
- Research with books, magazines, and articles
- Pair learning from a book with something active. We can do a science project, observe something, find a real life connection, watch a video to see what we are learning about in action, take a field trip (or a virtual field trip), or do a project.
Question 2: What principles guide you?
- All Students can learn
- All Students can succeed
Question 3: How do you know if kids are getting it?
- Besides assessment, one of the best ways to know if your students are "getting it" is to observe to see if they are asking and answering questions about a topic. Can they do this independently without much teacher guidance or support? Are they using target vocabulary? Are they having academic conversations with each other?
Question 4: What do you do when they don't?
- I try to figure out why they don't get it. I usually look at my teaching first. Do I need to re-evaluate how I am teaching this topic? Do I need to re-teach the topic or vocabulary? Do I need to re-teach in a different way?
- I talk about this in a past post {Here}
See you next week for Chapter 3,
