Ready for the Real World

As we are continuing to familiarize ourselves with our clinical placements, I have been spending more and more time in my classroom observing, assisting, and teaching.  Today, I spent my first full day at my clinical site and loved every minute of it.  It was a typical Monday, so the students were a little drowsy coming through the doors; however, my teacher found a quick fix to that when she allowed them to turn and talk with a partner during their morning work time.  The students got to discuss what they did over the weekend.  She used this exercise to improve their active listening skills, and to get them engaged and excited to start their day.  I also started my small group instruction today and I was very pleased with the effort and participation from all of my students!  I look forward to continuing to work with them throughout the semester.

This week, the principal at my school actually sent us an article from Edutopia.com bragging about how great it was and she encouraged us to check it out.  The article is called "9 Ways To Plan Transformational Lessons: Planning The Best Curriculum Unit Ever" After reading this article, I was able to gain some great tips on how to make my lesson plans stronger and more meaningful.  This article did a great job of explaining the importance of the 9 ways to plan the best curriculum unit.  Some of the tips were common sense, but it always nice to have a refresher that emphasizes the importance of teaching the standards by being creative, using different technological resources, and working together to share ideas on how to teach a particular concept.  The 9 Ways that this article lists to plan great curriculum unit are as follows:

1. Know the Standards, Curriculum, Core Concepts, and Strategies

2. Shift From Solo to Collaborative Lesson Design

3. Create the Assessment Before Developing Content

4. Write Objectives for Students (Not an Administrator) to Read

5. Create Presentations That Do More Showing and Less Telling

6. Don't Forget the Introverts

7. Provide More Opportunities for Students to Choose How They Accomplish Tasks

8. Plan Ahead

9. Integrate Productive Struggle Into the Curriculum

Here is the article if you would also like to check it out: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/9-ways-plan-transformational-lessons-todd-finley

 

I love that this situation my principal took the initiative to share a resource that helps to better the professional development aspect of her school.  I think this resource can tie in with NCTCS 1 because a teacher leader shares their ideas with others.  It also correlates with NCTCS 3 because the article clearly states several times, teacher should know the curriculum they teach.  Also, when applying these 9 ways to plan a great unit, NCTCS 2 and 4 are addressed because the teacher should recognize the differences in among the students and be able to differentiate instruction to cater to their strengths.