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Carmen.Oliveira Professional Learning and Growth, Resources

Let’s Reflect, Read, and Regroup!

Just like Alison, I too enjoy taking some time during my breaks to reflect on the teaching and learning during the previous months in our classroom.  I agree with the fact that it’s a wonderful opportunity to take a closer look at our work, experiences, progress, etc.  in order to celebrate what we did well while at the same time tweaking aspects that may lead to greater benefits for the students and overall learning in the classroom.

I have taken some time during my break to look at and read some professional resources that had come to my attention during the first term.  Below I’ll include them with a brief overview.  I also made time to read a new “young adult” series which was recommended to me by my students and, I have to say, they have very good taste because I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Book List:

Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry – Jeffrey D. Wilhelm

Wilhelm shows that it’s easy to teach with inquiry no matter what the subject area.  The book includes: examples of guiding questions for every content area; planning guidelines and sample inquiry units; prompts, walkarounds, and dozens of activities to deepen thinking about topics; engaging examples of questioning schemes that promote inquiry-oriented reading; and much more.

Comprehension & Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action – Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels

This book is a guide for teachers who want to realize the benefits of well-structured, engaging, cross-curricular projects.  It is an excellent resource for teachers to join with students to explore rich content inside and beyond the curriculum- to wonder, question, build knowledge, care, and take action in the world.  I engaged my students in a unit about hunger (which I described in my blog entry entitled: When Teaching Comes Full Circle) which was structured around the strategies shared in this fantastic resource.

Matched and Crossed – Ally Condie

My students recommended this series stating, “If you liked The Hunger Games then you’ll love this series.”  They were right! A futuristic fable of love and struggle against an oppressive society, it asks the question: Can there be freedom without choice? A very easy read that had me hooked right from the first page.  Well worth it for junior/intermediate  teachers especially.

As you can tell, having the first week of the year off was a great way for me to reflect, read, and regroup 🙂

Happy New Year to everyone and all the best for the continuation of the school year!

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Alison.Board Classroom Layouts, Planning

Time to Reflect

Our two week break allows time for a much needed and deserved rest. However, it is also a good time to look back on the first 3 months of school and think about what worked well and what might benefit with some tweaking. I always find the return to class in January and the return after March Break, an opportunity to change things up a little. This might be as simple as moving the desks around to give the students a new perspective of their environment, or creating new centres such as a science inquiry corner or a recycled materials corner for exploration and expression.

When I look back at the photos I have taken in the past months, I can see before me the images that show the children engaged in their learning. These images resulted from opportunities to learn together in collaboration and to explore a variety of materials and forms of expressions. It required planning that integrated language, math, science, social studies, and visual art. It confirms for me that I want to continue to provide these opportunities when we return in January. On the other hand, I see a corner of the room that is not utilized, a listening centre that is rarely used, and a need for another table to build or create collaboratively at. So, when I return in January, I would like to make a few physical tweaks to the layout and add something to the listening centre as an invitation (maybe plain tapes to record the child’s retell of the story or paper and coloured pencils for the children to draw their mental images of the story they are listening to).

Whatever the changes are, the children will notice. See the classroom as their invitation to learn. Continue with what works, and edit or make changes to things that need it! Enjoy the start of the New Year!

 

 

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Tina.Ginglo Learning in a Real Life Context, Mentorship, Professional Learning and Growth

The Power of Co Teaching

I have heard about the power of co teaching for some time now, but I have only had the opportunity to experience co teaching first hand in recent weeks.  I am sold!  Co teaching mathematics with my teaching partner and Family of Schools Math Coach challenges me and engages me in authentic context based professional learning.   For those who are not familiar with co teaching, co teaching is not synonymous with team teaching. In team teaching, the students basically have two teachers teaching them a lesson.  Each teacher takes a turn leading a specific part of the lesson.  When co teaching, one teacher is the Lead Teacher and the other is the Co-teacher.  The Lead Teacher teaches all parts of the lesson and the co-teacher is the “kid watcher” as well as “teacher watcher”.  For example, today I was the co teacher for a third grade number sense lesson.  In addition to paying close attention to the strategies my students were using to solve an addition word problem that required them to add two large numbers, I was also paying close attention to the probing questions the Lead Teacher asked the students.

Valuable learning occurs at a number of levels.  First, I value the opportunity to observe my students closely, recording every noteworthy observation, what challenged them, student “aha” moments, and evidence of understanding or confusion.  I am free to concentrate fully on my formative assessment.  On another level, I am also gathering data on the questions and instructional strategies the Lead Teacher used while teaching the lesson.  During the debrief (which usually occurs during lunch or a common planning time) we first focus on what the students were doing.  We assess the problem we presented to students, analyze the different types of responses students provided and we determine where we are going to go next.  For example today, we concluded that our students are ready to move on to adding and subtracting larger numbers.  We also noticed that many students use place value algorithms to solve addition math problems, but they don’t understand why they are “carrying a 1 over.”  We decide that we need to review grouping and tens and ones with my class.

After we have decided on our next instructional steps.  We then reflect on the Lead Teacher’s instruction.  How were the questions?   Is there a different way we could ask students a particular question?  How might we phrase questions in our next lesson?  On the days that I am part of a co teaching experience, I leave for home feeling confident about where I am headed in my math instruction and committed to following through on the next steps that were collaboratively planned.  For the next co teaching lesson, teaching roles will be reversed and I will be the Lead Teacher.

My teaching partner and I both value this professional learning and instructional strategy.  We are now looking for creative timetabling ways to make co teaching part of our literacy program as well. If you have an opportunity to participate in a co teaching experience, I strongly encourage you to go for it!