As Jodi O'Meara finished
her visit to support RtI on Wednesday, Christy Curran arrived
on Thursday to help AISC with TCRWP (Teachers College Readers and Writers
Project), thank you all for your time, efforts, flexibility, and above all your
willingness to discuss your practice of teaching with Jodi and Christy.
I have said this to a few people, but I will say it again here, having a
consultant on campus is like reading a book. What I mean is, they are
presenting information (usually at an expert level) and we are hearing,
gathering, reflecting, and dialoguing about what we heard. It is natural and
almost impossible avoid comparing, what a consultant says with what we are
doing in the classroom and as a school. I love it when an expert can give me a teaching practice I can use right away. I also very much
appreciate it when I hear something, pause and allow the idea to ruminate for a
while before I implement into my professional practice.
I also want to say as someone new to the school, there is a
difference between practice and policy. Why do I make the distinction
between practice and policy? because I want to offer reassurance, we as professionals, should
always be gathering advice on how to individually improve our teaching
practice. I also want to reassure teachers, we as a school have to take
time to determine what we will use from consultants in the school's policies.
Let me offer some examples of my thinking. A great example of a tip on
how to improve practice I heard this week from Christy was, "create
opportunities to have students think of themselves as writers!". This is different than policy. Policy is directing a school-wide protocol on the amount of writing
assignments used per grade. I would never want a consultant to come in
and dictate policy. They might inform our thinking about our policies. Policy creation is for the school to decide, after we
have heard, reflected, and discussed.
Having said that, please share your
opinions of our most recent consultants visit. I am also happy to have
you stop by to talk and tell me your thoughts!
- To provide feedback on Jodi O'Meara's visit FILL OUT THIS SURVEY
- To provide feedback on Christy Curran's visit FILL OUT THIS SURVEY
Survey
results, consultant feedback, and takeaways from conversations during
individual sessions will be used to inform further professional learning at
AISC.
Here are
a few practices I learned and some takeaways I had from the sessions I
attended:
Differentiation is strategies for high achievers by choice, challenge, and change--paraphrased from Jodi O'Meara:
- How you want to provide CHOICE to
students? Perhaps, developing targeted higher level thinking questions.
- Who you want to CHALLENGE with
learning extensions in your class? Grouping like minded peers.
- What do you want to CHANGE in your
delivery of instruction, alignment to assessment? One suggestion, provide enrichment through extended challenges.
"Build
both craft and confidence when you are teaching reading or writing, no matter
the grade"---Christy Curran. Examples from----Brian Cambourne's Conditions of
Learning:
- Immersion
- Demonstration
- Expectation
- Responsibility
- Approximation
- Practice
- Feedback/Celebrations
I hope to
share more takeaways and learning hits with you soon!
Wednesdays Oct. 12
In order to give teachers time to do the
necessary collaborative planning work, October 12 and early release on
October 19 will be dedicated curricular work time to allow teams and academic
departments meet the scope and sequence requests by December 7 (formerly was
Nov. 23). Team Leaders and Heads of Department will be meet with their
groups individually and sharing the individual agendas base on the objectives
they would like to meet. Administrators and coaches will be available
during the after-school time to support various groups. I hope this
dedicated time will be productive. Let me know how I can make it as
useful as possible.
Wellness at AISC
Are you interested in seeing what is happening with wellness at AISC and in Chennai? If so, click here to stay updated. We have lots of exciting events planned so be sure to check in!
Looking forward to another great week!
Best,
Dan
No comments:
Post a Comment