Mallory+H

Line of learning--How have my understanding and application of the CEI influenced my thinking and instruction.
Aug. 2: The characteristics of the START model has influenced my thinking by showing me how many components can go into one lesson. I realize that my lessons can always be tweaked to fit the specific students in my class. I also have to constantly observe and adapt to the feedback from the students. My thinking about formative assessments has also changed in that it can be very informal and still get the same data. It inspires me as a second-year teacher to really reflect on my previous lessons and incorporate a lot more into them. I have a better understanding of what a quality lesson looks like. I am anxious to assess some of my own lessons to see where I can make changes.

Aug. 3: After honing in on Assessment For Learning, I have a completely different way of looking at formative assessment. I have never really looked at my classroom as a partnership between the teacher and student, and I would like to increase my level of collaboration with students in developing rubrics and outlining expectations. Formative assessments are one of the biggest tools to use in assessing where a classroom stands and where each individual student stands in the learning process. These type of assessments can really pull up the bottom half of a class that typically never reaches proficiency. It makes it easy to differentiate in a classroom. By understanding more about Assessment For Learning, I am constantly thinking of ways to revise lessons and units so that students achieve more success and find success more attainable. Overall, CEI deepens my understanding of my role as a teacher and assists me in establishing my expectations for myself and for my classroom.

Aug. 4: I now understand more about Rigor and Relevance and the importance of each Quadrant in lesson planning. Although we are always striving to get to that Quadrant D question or activity, each step has a purpose in the unit. Watching examples of Teaching for Learner Differences on the video gave me a lot of ideas on how to differentiate in the classroom but guide the students to meeting the same goals. Giving students the opportunity and responsibility to facilitate their own learning through Student-Centered Classrooms allows for higher order thinking skills to develop and for me as a teacher to take on different roles as motivator, coach, etc. Implementing ideas from all three of these concepts can really enhance my classroom environment and the amount of learning that goes on in the classroom for my students and me. I start to wonder with all this information where to even start the process of implementing these new ideas. Although several already existed in my teaching, it can be overwhelming at times to think about all these different components that should exist in each lesson.

Aug. 5: Today we have hit on concepts concerning student growth and transferring skills to different disciplines. The idea of teaching for transfer is one I have not thought a whole lot about in my own teaching. Looking deeper into these characteristics continues to help me reevaluate my lessons. I hope to do a lot more collaboration and be more in tune with what my colleagues are teaching and what skills they are trying to reinforce. Luckily, as we continue to implement the ICC, we will be observing each other throughout the year and will have more opportunities for team planning time. This will allow us to talk about strategies and how we can create more of a learning community rather than the more isolated system we have now where math has nothing to do with science or language arts never ties into social studies. I am very interested in how my new insight will affect my teaching.