Next 6 Months
I had the opportunity to view a student’s electronic portfolio last week. She had organized her work from this year in neat organized files. At first I only intended to glance at it, and then give her a cursory “good job”, and move on. I’m a teacher, and teachers are busy, right? When I saw her work organized, and filling her screen, I stopped in my tracks and sat down to take a closer look. I was surprised by the amount of work we had completed in only seven months. Work that I had graded for 150 students. I was awestruck. I realized I am a busy guy this year, with big class sizes and a large population of students who need my guidance in science. The funny thing is I’m not feeling overwhelmed. I love the rigorous pace. The students do too. Instead of waking them up to leave, or being told it’s time to go, we tend towards mad scramble because time got away from us. I’m walking more than five miles a day, with at least three of those in my classroom (thanks Fitbit©). What a great life. So that said, for the next six months I intend to keep at it. I want to hit the ground running in September, so I will help the new 6th grade teacher create some learning opportunities for those students to prep them for my sweatshop next year. I plan to dig deeper into the curriculum and really heat up those teachable moments.
Next 5 Years
Well, this is tough to think about. I use Google classroom, and I realized it has archived about 95% of what I’ve done this school year. Really good stuff that aligns with the 7th grade curriculum. My assignments, activities, labs, quizzes, and homework are nicely archived and available for me to pick and choose from. Google classroom allows me to reuse my posts, and my notes let me know how to fix any rough spots. I’ve been using Google classroom to differentiate, communicate, and disseminate, all with great success. The thing is I know I can do it even better. That’s what I want to spend the next five years working at. I want to do more. I want to experiment and stretch my limits and my student’s limits. I want to be the guy everyone comes to for technology help. I want my students to go out into the world tech savvy and science smart. I want them to love science like I do. It’ll be a busy five years.
I had the opportunity to view a student’s electronic portfolio last week. She had organized her work from this year in neat organized files. At first I only intended to glance at it, and then give her a cursory “good job”, and move on. I’m a teacher, and teachers are busy, right? When I saw her work organized, and filling her screen, I stopped in my tracks and sat down to take a closer look. I was surprised by the amount of work we had completed in only seven months. Work that I had graded for 150 students. I was awestruck. I realized I am a busy guy this year, with big class sizes and a large population of students who need my guidance in science. The funny thing is I’m not feeling overwhelmed. I love the rigorous pace. The students do too. Instead of waking them up to leave, or being told it’s time to go, we tend towards mad scramble because time got away from us. I’m walking more than five miles a day, with at least three of those in my classroom (thanks Fitbit©). What a great life. So that said, for the next six months I intend to keep at it. I want to hit the ground running in September, so I will help the new 6th grade teacher create some learning opportunities for those students to prep them for my sweatshop next year. I plan to dig deeper into the curriculum and really heat up those teachable moments.
Next 5 Years
Well, this is tough to think about. I use Google classroom, and I realized it has archived about 95% of what I’ve done this school year. Really good stuff that aligns with the 7th grade curriculum. My assignments, activities, labs, quizzes, and homework are nicely archived and available for me to pick and choose from. Google classroom allows me to reuse my posts, and my notes let me know how to fix any rough spots. I’ve been using Google classroom to differentiate, communicate, and disseminate, all with great success. The thing is I know I can do it even better. That’s what I want to spend the next five years working at. I want to do more. I want to experiment and stretch my limits and my student’s limits. I want to be the guy everyone comes to for technology help. I want my students to go out into the world tech savvy and science smart. I want them to love science like I do. It’ll be a busy five years.