Day 2
As a substitute teacher, I visit all classrooms in primary school (KG-Y6). Having said that, I am delighted to see the wonderful work of my colleagues and different classroom management strategies.
In Y4, I saw a flower and as the students showed the CLAs the flower gets another petal. By the end of the week, if the flower is complete, they get the golden time. I saw a variation of the same strategy with the letters that complete the sentence TEAM WORK.
I will keep collecting ideas and posting here.
Day 3
"The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards."
– Anatole France
I am going to evaluate this teacher's performance, identify performance gaps in regards to effective teaching and suggest strategies to change this setting.
Case 2Mr. Noyes has taught social studies for 22 years at Eastville High School. Twenty-five Modern European History students come through the door. They slide their desks into cluster formation so they can be close to their friends and as far from the teacher as the space permits. Less than a third of the students have their textbooks and or notebooks. Shuffling through some well-worn lecture notes, Mr. Noyes neither greets nor
acknowledges students as he gets ready for the class. The bell rings; students are still entering. He does not ask students why they are late or why they are unprepared for class nor is there any attempt to provide them with replacement materials. Mr. Noyes comments to the last student that enters “You are late.” The blackboard is clean.
Two minutes after the bell rings, Mr. Noyes says “Okay, today we are going to cover the four causes
of World War II. Take out your notebooks while I take attendance.” Five students respond by taking out their 3-ring binders with un-punched ditto handouts spilling out. Most students ignore the request and continue talking. “Okay, let’s simmer down while I take attendance.” He calls the roll and checks off his attendance log. Students “simmer down’ but do not take out notebooks, which are either crumpled in their locker or lost. He takes about five minutes to complete the attendance routine. “Ackerman, Baer...” Then he passes out some paper for those without notebooks. “Who needs paper today?”
Mr. Noyes goes to the blackboard “Okay, we can start now.” He writes “Four Causes,” followed by the
numbers 1 through 4. Jamie in the back of the room curses audibly. Mr. Noyes ignores him. Mary
yawns, and Brian puts his head down preparing for his daily nap.
“I hope you had a chance to read the home-work assignment” Noyes says in a voice clearly implying his belief they will not have had a chance. Four kids say “What homework assignment?” and Mr. Noyes responds, “I put it on the board at the end of the class yesterday. You know, two pages about the causes of World War II. If you didn’t have a chance to do it, I will go over the material now. You had better listen up. There is a quiz tomorrow.” There is no attempt to check who did the reading. Mr. Noyes opens up with the same lecture he has used for years.
Fifteen minutes into the class, 80 percent of the students are disengaged or disruptive. Two students
are spending time copying their Spanish homework from a classmate in order to be prepared for the
next period. Three boys are out of their seats and playing ‘push lite.’ a game of friendly poking. Two girls are applying make-up and chatting quietly about a recent date with Chad. Two other students are quietly playing a math game, and one girl is quietly doing her French homework due the next period. The students have tested the limits and know exactly how much they can get away with. Mr. Noyes punctuates his presentation with refrains “Okay, knock if off,” “Enough of that.” “Come on, this will be on your quiz. You won’t learn it if you don’t pay attention. One more thing from you, Jack, and you will be going to the office.”
This process continues for the entire class. The bell rings, and students stream out the door as Mr. Noyes calls out: “be sure to read the next section in the text for tomorrow, and don’t forget the test.” Students head out for lunch without being dismissed. There is no summary or wrap-up. When he is asked about the class in the post-observation conference, Mr. Noyes says: “These kids are in the average age group because they don’t care much; they never do their work. I can’t really teach them if there is no effort. They have no interest in the material.” A check of his grade book shows very few entries, but all term grades are A’s and B’s
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Performance gaps in regards to effective teaching
1. Setting expectations;
2. No bonding or connection with students;
3. He's not prepared in advance or engaged with students' success;
4. His teaching style doesn't cater to students' needs and 21st century demands (fixed mindset, growth mindset);
5. He gives no feedback to the students that were actually prepared;
6. He doesn't think he's responsible for students' learning;
7. His assessment system does not reflect his real class and students' learning;
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
What change do I wanna see? How am I going to measure it?
1. Classroom management: The teacher should set higher expectations on behavior and commitment. The teacher could create an essential agreement with his sts;
1.1. How can we measure it? Students are following classroom routines and being responsible for their own learning and material;
2. Teaching Style: Motivate the teacher to innovate and give him tools to do so, like cpd training and technology, encourage peer observation;
2.1. Students are engaged in using other tools rather than just notebooks and worksheets;
3. Evidence of learning: Suggest that the teacher creates a more detailed and reliable criteria for his assessments;
3.1. We can examine evidence of learning such as papers, posters, projects and notes on sts' notebooks;
Hopefully, by the end of the 1st term, I will notice some of the changes working for the progress and ignite in him the desire and ability to make change.
Is there learning going on? Growth mindset is a key element of being a teacher and catering to the students' needs and commitment to their success.
Change management
6 conditions of Systems Change
Policies, Practices, resources Flows (Structural Change - Explicit)
Relationships & Connections, Power Dynamics (semi-explicit)
Metal Models (transformative change - implicit)
Day 4
Unit and Lesson Plan Analysis
In this post, I am comparing the cover lesson plan with the UDL lesson plan template.
The unit plan template does contemplate the UDL principles by including sections for potential barriers for learning and UDL strategies for multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression.
In contrast to the cover plan, this is what I notice:
The substitute teacher's cover plan only provides a general outline of the day's activities, lacking specific information such as the lesson goal, enduring understandings, and essential questions. It also doesn't include details about accommodations and modifications for students. Learning targets, standards, and clear expectations for both the teacher and students are also missing from the cover plan.
In conclusion, the cover plan will often be more task-based, which can be a challenge I may face going forward in trying to implement effective teaching strategies in my classroom. My strategies to tackle this issue will be observing and assisting all classes so I can create a bond with the students, then I should be able to roughly trace the class profile and identify the students who might need accommodation when I cover those classes.
Day 5
Authentic learning products are something that has value beyond the classroom and it contributes to the community.
Three parts to a learning Goal
Content standards, Performance standards, Learning competency
FLEX vs Constricted verbs
Flex verbs are focused on learning purpose;
Constricted verb = scaffolding
I learned how the use of flex or constricted verbs can affect the elaboration of learning goals. To elaborate SMART goals, I will need to use more flex
Day 6
Today, we did a self-assessment regarding our current practice.We should consider important targets in our journey to become more effective, peaceful teachers. We were encouraged to set future professional goals to work on.
It was very useful because I could have specific goals to work on and reflect on the strategies I was not using or not even aware of.
For instance, I realized I need to plan my assessment tasks before beginning to teach a unit, design tools to collect evidence of student thinking, work processes and attitudes/dispositions; Besides that, I need to learn to assess when it is best to design a holistic or an analytic rubric.
It was a very useful lesson as it provided me with a meaningful and specific opportunity to identify the areas I should further refine.
