Today, the ELD Instructional Coaches attended in-services presented by our own. The writing presentation today was AWESOME!!!! I was greatly impressed and learned more in two hours than any writing training I’ve had in 7 years total. I have always struggled with teaching writing. I have come to realize that maybe my lack of drive in teaching writing is connected to my lack of writing here. I never really thought about how as a teacher of writing I need to have some connection to writing myself. I have not made writing a priority. If I really want to improve my teaching of writing I need to give some priority to my own writing, not just here, but also my own personal writing. All writing is not worthy of publishing, but surely I have more to say than what I have so far…
Tag: professional development
We are so lucky
I spent the last week working with several teachers and 1 principal learning and working on Best Practices in Math. This could have gone pretty badly, but let me tell you it was GREAT. I was pleasantly surprised. The work I did this week has truly made me a better teacher. I hope that the relaxation of summer does not dilute my intentions at this moment. But the best part of this past week and the reason I felt compelled to write was my grand realization I had. We have a lot of really good teachers in our district. In the seven years I have been teaching and attending district provided professional development, this is the first time I have felt this way. That is great for our district, but even better for our kids. I wish we could collectively build a superteam of teachers for our school. What a difference that would make. A group of adults focused and dedicated to the same kind of learning. Oh, the possibilities.
AzTea Way Out West Conference
I am at the WOW conference in Glendale. I like this conference and have been coming for about 4 of the last 5 years. It seems to have gotten smaller this year, not sure why. Everyone’s budget I guess. I can tell you I was bummed about missing the refreshments to start and the number of companies you were bombarded with before you could get to the keynote. I know that sponsors carry this conference, but I don’t need to be hit over the head with it. There are also a large number of presentations being given by sales reps and companies. Also disappointing. I am waiting for the first breakout to begin and the presenters out number the audience. We’ll see……
Math standards…here we go!
I spent Monday and Tuesday working with teachers and coaches working on a pacing guide for our district. It was very difficult but interesting work. The new math standards will be a challenge to everyone, not just the students. We have to look at the way we teach math differently. Students are not prepared for this and it will be a challenge to get everyone to change their mindset and conceptual thinking. I think that is only good for all of us to get math back to the way it used to be, not just teaching kids to compute and nothing else. We will spend to more days to finish the pacing guide. Hopefully it will be published quickly enough for teachers to work this summer and be prepared for next year. New things to come.
Learning Required 