Thinking about Critical Thinking

We had a school staff training regarding the critical thinking component of the evaluation rubric recently. Some of us found that this was a difficult skill to implement into our every day teaching. I wondered why. That evening, I wondered if it is because we are used to being the traditional teacher. Let me explain. Teachers are thought to be a human dictionary, encyclopedia, or computer. Basically, we should be "know-it-alls." How many times, (fellow educators), has a friend asked you a trivia question or how to spell a word, and when you didn't know...They replied..."I thought you were a teacher!" Yep. So maybe that stigma carries over into how we teach. We might feel the need to teach the kids all the information we know about a subject instead of allowing students to discover it for themselves. SO what if...we "channeled" Kay Toliver and used questioning to guide students towards the answers we want them to realize. WOW, huh! You can see the wheels turning of Kay's students when you watch her teach in this questioning way. I think this seems like a good starting place as a way to promote an environment of critical thinking in my class.

More From an Inspiring Young Man!!!

William Kamkwamba on building a windmill | Video on TED.com

William Kamkwamba on building a windmill | Video on TED.com

Thoughts from Oct. meeting

Some thoughts from the October induction training;
I appreciated all the movie clips as examples. I am a visual learner and movie lover so that helps me connect to the content. A clip from ET was used to identify inappropriate student behavior and how the teacher dealt with it. It was funny but relevant. It was also a great hook to brainstorming how we as teachers can handle behavior needs in our own classrooms. I took away two things from this part of the training. One was, that I want to be creative and use more "hooks" for learning, especially in the mornings when students are still sleepy. I appreciated the instructor's effort to keep me engaged so late in the day and I know my students will appreciate my effort when they need engagement help as well.
The second was, I want to make sure and not "skip rungs on the ladder" as the presenter shared in the video. He mentioned that as educators we can have a tendency to go from calm to upset and therefore skip steps in the process. This is unfair to the student and create more of an emotional charge in us than need be. If I can communicate clear behavior consequence steps, the student who needs behavior help and I will be more calm.

Did we really have fun reviewing math?

This post is titled, "Did we really have fun reviewing math?" And the answer is, YES! I watched students enjoy themselves. I watched students who struggle in math participate. I had fun too. Some of the factors that contributed to a great session were, using Kagan games to include everyone and being a bit silly. In groups, students came up with ideas for math charts that we could tally and find landmarks, like maximum, median, and mode. We used numbered heads and take your corner to keep practicing. I facilitated one chart on the board. I made mistakes on purpose but congratulated myself until the students figured out I was incorrect. I then got booed...all in good fun of course. They were able to correct my mistakes, even struggling students were able to by the end of class. Will all students get a 100% on Friday's test because of all this? No, but we all had fun in math and learned. Nice way to end the day!

School Started

So, yes I am blogging a week before my blogging is "due." I think that is progress. (I could have waited until Wed at 3:30) It was in the back of my mind. Every Saturday I had my computer ready to blog but didn't. One reason may be that I was intimidated by it, being a new blogger. A second reason may be that I am learning the art of prioritizing. Some days I fail, while other days, I go home feeling good. I had an emotional moment recently and the more experienced teachers on my staff listened with a great amount of empathy. They understood. They have been there. One teacher said it gets better in November after parent conferences. Another said it slows down in summer. All I know is that I still love teaching and am so grateful for an awesome class. I would have probably run away by now if it were not for the fact that I really enjoy teaching. And so now it's day by day for the rest of the "stuff' that goes along with it.

Reflections from Beaver Creek

The district training was my first experience seeing the Village at Beaver Creek since I moved over a year ago. Here are some reflections. It was exciting to be with all the staff from my school in such a beautiful place. I wish we had more time to sit and "talk shop" on an outdoor patio. The time crunch of knowing we still had to finish setting up our classrooms was pressing on the minds of everyone.
The state commissioner was inspiring! My training teacher was right about Spencer Kaagen. He was great! My students already know Hagoo, Rally Robin, and Celebrity Interview to name a few. In fact, I won't dwell on the one session that was a bummer cause those were so good. I think I appreciated Kaagen the most because I could use what I learned right away. Some other information or ideas were daunting to say the least. I would be happy to go to this training again.