You can see some examples in the posts below. 90% of the class got A’s – this was a project they were excited to do, they had to do a self-assessment before so that really they wouldn’t turn it in without having a 100%, and I was pretty lax on the requirements. I gave one class period to work and then it was due a week later (all of my assignments are given at least a week before the due date if graded). Not all of them were works of art, but the learners had fun and were proud of it. I even had some that created a real Instagram account. Also, because of all of you out there in the #MTBoS, there were a bunch of examples that my learners were able to see with a quick google search!
I debated not even giving them back and putting them up somewhere in my room, but then I know not everyone wants their work up on display. So I returned them to my learners and asked if they would provide donations to put on display. I got 10 or so that I put up actually in the hallway outside my classroom. With my VNPS, I didn’t leave much wall space that’s close enough to eye level that people could actually read.
Comment votres étudiants montrent leur créativité (et leur amour pour les réseaux sociaux)?
I’m so excited that Jennifer @jenfairbanks8 has set up a monthly blogging challenge described here:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bD-zYHpkP0RR7shkovBtOEB4c_rlSuiUKtJCQtid9QY/edit I’ve been a little more active on my blog this year than some past years, but I am still someone that needs that little push of motivation to make things really happen. This blogging challenge is just 12 posts in a year, so I think I can manage. You should join! And if you’re just here to read, then I hope you get something out of it!
It’s been (a little over) half a school year and I only really revisited my 2019-2020 goals once back in the first midquarter. Should have been checking in more for sure. But better late than never, right? Here it is:
Collection of Work – It may be kind of an abandoned goal at this point, but I think I’m going to adjust it a bit and have my learners make basically a study sheet that they keep in their class folders (where all of their assessments and Grade Trackers live in my classroom). I saw it in an old post from Pam herehttps://pamjwilson.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/bonus-session-teacher-hacks-tmc17/. I think I can make it work really well. All my classes have their first quiz on Wednesday so I think I’m going to have them make the start of it tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.
Birthdays – still going strong. I realized, though, that since I only have about 2/3 of the same learners in 2nd semester because of schedule changes, I have a bunch that I never got to. But it’s actually been nice because I still usually see them in the hallway and it’s fun to just check in with them and see how their new classes are treating them.
Instagram – still great. This quarter I WILL have learners start taking the pics. I had a bit of a trust issue last semester where a lot of my puzzles and some other things were going missing and never got returned. I hope that in this semester that doesn’t happen and I can let the learners have a little bit of the control.
Vocabulary – Hmm I really need to do more with this. Need to project vocab more while groups are working.
Family Connections – I’m happy with what I’ve done. I had all my classes take a Pre-Class survey at the beginning of the semester and had FormMule send an email home when they submitted that was structured a lot like what I found here in Kristen’s post: http://kfouss.blogspot.com/2017/06/studentparent-survey.html. So every guardian with an email address got contacted in the first week. Calling is still hard, but after we have this first assessment I’ll have more to call about.
Language – Need to focus on this more.
#VNPS – still can do more, but it’s been better than in previous years.
Delta Math – going strong and I even wrote a blog post about it a couple months ago!
Puzzles – I kind of redesigned a little bit of my room because I had to get rid of my mini-fridge (which was also being used as a shelf for lots of other stuff) and that allowed me to have a better “play table” aka extra desk in a somewhat awkward spot. But I was able to have one of my friends 3D print some puzzle pieces for polyhedra and it’s been so fun watching them create.
Not working Harder Than Students – The beginning of the semester always feels like a whirlwind of never having enough time to get everything done, but it’s started to settle down and I think it’s going to still be good.
Not Blaming – still check
Office Hours – still check
Google Level 2 – still not yet, but I did retake the Level 1 test and passed just in time for me to give a presentation at a district PD so I could still say I was Level 1 Certified (like I mean it happened the night before 🙂 ) I think Level 2 will be more of a summer project.
More Percussion – I haven’t played that much in the last few months. I should do more.
More #MTBoS – I’m doing it with #MTBoS2020!!!
Cooking – I acquired a bunch of bananas from a band event and froze them and asked my classes and the #MTBoS and other people for recipes to use them and I ended up with a bunch of different banana bread recipes that are all good, banana bread brownies that are amazing and I brought to my family’s holiday dinner, banana pudding (don’t do it with frozen bananas if you want it to look appetizing), and banana smoothies. All so good and I feel so accomplished. Also have a new favorite where I cook up chicken, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and some sort of broth with a bunch of herbs and whatever else needs to be used and put it over rice. It’s not from a recipe, but it makes me feel so adult and reminds me of how my mom cooks. I haven’t tried too many new recipes for the Instant Pot or any of my other cooking tools since the summer, though. That should change!
#FitBoS – Didn’t make it for 2019. I’m kind of sad about it, but I worked out 108 hours over the year. In 2018 I only did 72 hours, in 2017 I did 92 hours, and in 2016 (the only year I met my goal) I did 100 hours. So I still had the best year yet for working out, and I want to keep doing better. So I set my new 2020 goal for 120 hours and I am gonna meet this one! Who’s with me? Read about it from Meg and sign up here: http://www.megcraig.org/2020/01/02/2020-fitbos-challenge/
A new thing for this semester is I’m teaching a night class at the local community college! It’s Intermediate Algebra, and we meet twice a week for an hour and forty minutes. We’ve only met twice so far and I had a few kinks to work out in the online grading system (Canvas syncing with MyMathLab was not going super well at first), but everything seems to be good now and I have 10 great learners. The class is a pre-requisite course for the first for-credit math class, so that’s why I’m allowed to teach it without a Masters in Math. I’m so excited for this opportunity and just have to say it’s so refreshing to be in a class with these adult learners. I think it’s a mix of growing up and being more mature with also having a clear goal in mind (and also paying for the class) that just makes more learning seem to actually happen. It does mean I have less free time to get to some of my goals, but I am adjusting.
Alright so I am setting another reminder in Google Keep to check in with goals at the end of the quarter and this time I’m actually going to do it. I hope. But at the very least, I’ll have a few more #MTBoS2020 posts before then.
Quelquefois, on doit recevoir les rappels. C’est normal, n’est-ce pas?
