I like to make my classroom as welcoming as possible. It is colourful, open, functional and contains numerous resources to help students succeed. The front of the room is organized in a U-Shape almost like a large round table. This set-up allows for fluid class discussion and serves as a meeting place for students before they move around to work on their own projects. The back of the room contains groups of desks for small group work and or discussion. Students are allowed to move desks if they need to work alone or they are allowed to use the other study zones in our school. They are encouraged to choose the best learning environment for their personal learning style. One side of the room is dedicated to student organization. I have a large weekly calendar on the wall that shows what students can expect to happen in each class that week. There is a resource station with scissors, glue, pencils, rulers, etc in case a student forgot their own. On the far side a hand in bin is located where students hand in all work for any class. This way I can't misplace their assignments on my desk and they know exactly where their work is expected to be on due dates. The wall behind this section also includes information relevant to our school culture and goal. We are focusing on self-regulation skills, GRIT, and developing a Growth Mindset. The rest of the bulletin boards are subject specific. I teach a wide range of subjects in my room but each board contains a combination of student work and resource posters for students. The back history board contains posters on the Big 6 historical thinking skills and student work from Social Studies 8. The Science and Math boards share the Metric Staircase. The Science board contains student projects mostly from Environmental Science 20. Realistically Senior math doesn't have any student work to share other than tests; therefore, this board is dedicated to helpful math hints, common formulas and problems. Lastly, I have my own personal bulletin board. This one is mostly for me. It contains pictures of friends, family, past students, and other school memorabilia. It is a small space in my classroom that reminds me why I do what I do and that I have a support system out there even when the days become crazy busy and stressful.
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The Goal: Increase student engagement and achievement by using student learning profiles with every student to design lessons and assessments that address the different learners within my History/Social Studies and Science classes by providing choice of summative assessment at the end of each unit.
1. The Plan: How is your goal going? What strategies are you using to achieve your goal? The goal is working well. I've had choice of projects in history 10 and environmental science 20. There will be continued choice in in these courses and I hope to implement my goal in History 20 and social 8/9. Strategies include: using outcome based assessment and providing rubrics so students know what is expected, and teaching necessary skills for students to complete projects. (Paraphrasing, citing, research skills) 2. The Support: What supports do you still need to help you achieve your goal? How can I help? Who else can help, if anyone? Continued access to technology and internet is very important for students to research information. Any suggestions for different formats for assignments? (I.e. Presentation formats, video tools, info graphics?) 3. The Proof: How are you following the achievement of yourgoal? What data or information will help you to reflect on the achievement of your goal? Are you seeing any progress in your students (in relation to your goal) that you may not have "recorded" but can reflect on? My goal worked best in Environmental science. The students in that class have very different interests and get excited when they can show their learning in any form. I've kept copies of these projects and rubrics. As well, several projects are on display in my classroom. At first some were overwhelmed by the amount of choice. To help them get started, I created a list of options. Some used these options but as the semester progressed many began to think of their own ideas. Students have gained a sense of independence that will become more evident as they are allowed to demonstrate their learning in similar ways for the rest of theyear. 4. The Review: What have you learned so far? What revisions and/or adjustments do you need to make for the remainder of the school year so to be satisfied that you're achieving your goal? I have learned that sometimes students need/want some guidance when first dealing with open options. Therefore a list of outcomes and ideas were always provided, but students were never limited by these ideas. Something we need to work on is daily goal setting. There are some days when not a lot is accomplished. I think I need to implement a similar tracking system to the one used in our heritage fair so students get more comfortable with goal setting. This way they will become more accountable for work completed or not completed during class time. Walkthroughs from your principal can be nerve racking but in the end they are usually quite helpful and informative. I received this piece of feedback from my principal in October when I introduced the 'new' format for my personalized grade 10 math course. I had started off the year using an online textbook with videos and notes; however, the online textbook did not fit well with my students and I quickly realized I would have to go back to the drawing board to get them back on track. Having feedback from my principal was encouraging and helped re-enforce that I was taking the right actions. Personal Professional Goal(s)—What will I achieve?
Increase student engagement and achievement by using student learning profiles with every student to design lessons and assessments that address the different learners within my History/Social Studies and Science classes by providing choice of summative assessment at the end of each unit. “The Plan” Strategies—How will I achieve my goal(s)?
“The Support” Resources—What do I have and what do I need to achieve my goal(s)? I have:
I need:
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About the AuthorVanessa L. Warnock Archives
May 2018
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