End of the Year Reflections

Wow!  What a year.  I've learned to make a list of changes and a list of keeps for next year BEFORE I let me brain rest for the summer.  Over the summer I will work on making the math smartboards more engaging to promote better discussion and student participation.  I will use resources from the web to add to instruction (ex. songs to help counting and identifying coins).  My students this year needed more practice telling time and counting money, so I will make a point next year to gather more/better resources and dedicate more time to these units.  I will keep the organization of class (whole group instruction, group work/partners/individual depending on skill, and then correction/homework time) to start the year.  The second grade team starting giving pretests before each unit.  We will continue to use this pretest data to form our group work/partners/and individual work time.  'Group work' continues of the students who need the most help from the teacher.  In my room, this is the group that sits at the kidney bean table with me (usually consisting of 4 to 5 students).  Students who need a partner are the students in the on-level group.  My philosophy is two heads are better than one when students have questions.  And then students in the 'individual group' get to work alone at their own pace.  These students then have time to do activities to further challenge them after their workbook work is done.  Our team also decided to connect the pretest to the unit test at the end of each unit.  We put the results on an attachment called "Math Results" so students and families can see how much students improved from their pretest.  The only thing I don't like about the pretest is that it is multiple choice.  The actual test is much harder than the pretest, so every once in awhile it doesn't show student growth (even though the student did improve).  I know making the smartboards will take up most of my summer work time, so maybe next summer I can work on making pretests that are not multiple choice.  Or maybe I can give the review test (in the workbook) as a pretest.  This review is very similar to the unit test and would eliminate some of those factors making the pretest easier.  Thoughts to ponder!

Unit 5 Test Review

Today we reviewed for our Unit 5 test tomorrow.  Students have unit reviews right in their math journals that are formatted the same as their math tests.  I like the layout of the review and tests; students don't have any surprises.  They know exactly what to expect.  The work time just felt right.  I had four students at the Smartboard with me, going through the whole review together.  I would give these students a few minutes to complete the problems that were easy for them, and then we would talk through the problems they struggled with.  So I mainly let them work until they got stuck, I was right their to assist them.  Seven of my advanced students worked alone on the review, and the rest of my class was divided into partners.  This worked really well.
The second half of class didn't feel right.  Students were working on a birthday book while they waited for my high school helper to correct their work.  The rest of the class I felt like I was running around with my head cut off.  I wanted to help the students who needed to make corrections, correct their corrections, and staple their reviews together so students could practice at home for the test tomorrow.  That was too much on my plate.  Should I give students more responsibilities?  Make them correct their own papers?  Maybe I could spread the review into two days.  The first day we could work on the review, and the second day we could go over the answers to the review.  That would be easier on me, but would that be best for my advanced students?  Would it be boring for them?  I know, I will assign portions of the review to my advanced students so they can teach them to the class (on the second day of the review).  That way we can all check our answers and students, who need to be challenged, can take on a more significant role in the classroom.  That will leave me hands free (while my students are teaching/going over the answers at the board) for me to walk around the room and assist struggling students.  I'm going to try this for Unit 6!

My Personal Professional Goal

Every year I learn more and become a better teacher.  But there is always more to learn and different techniques to try.  This year I will reflect on teaching mathematics on this personal blog.  I want to just write...write down all the thoughts and conversations I have.  Hopefully by writing down all my thoughts and conversations I will come to identify some specific ways in which a lesson might be improved.  My assessments of the lessons will be thoughtful and they will include specific indicators of effectiveness.  My suggestions for improvement will draw on an extensive repertoire.  By considering the lesson and the impact it had on students, I can determine where to focus my efforts in making revisions and I can choose which aspects of the instruction I will continue in future lessons.