Greetings Trail Blazers,
Welcome to our Coaching Corner, we have tried to post a little bit of something for everyone to use as a resource. All of our "older" content is still on the google shared drive, and most of it is linked with a button above. Please don't ever hesitate to reach out to us for assistance with ANY of these resources or to explore any area of your teaching that you need.
-OC, D, and Jen
We’ve seen our students' data and now we can start focusing on what we cando to move the needle. One easy skill to start demonstrating growth in the ACT english section is to focus on “Transitional words” which falls under “production of Writing.” Here are some resources for us to use as we continue our ACT journey.
When dealing with the loss of a student or grief in the classroom, a teacher should prioritize open communication, acknowledge the grief, provide space for students to express emotions, and connect them with appropriate support systems like counselors, while also maintaining a sense of normalcy in the classroom by continuing with routines while being sensitive to individual needs. Check out our quick link at the top or here for resources.
Math is everywhere, and most kids engage with it on a daily basis without even knowing. If a student claims they aren't a math person it usually means they simply "don't feel comfortable" with frustration from an academic setback. "Help students experience math with lessons that involve rich problem solving and support the productive struggle with a growth mindset.
Ever wonder what skills your students need to work on in order to make a jump to the next score band on the ACT? Look no more, attatched is each of the ACT subtests broken down by score band and the details of skills and standards for students to make progress.
Question Cubes
This week we've added an "ACT Resources" button near the top of the page that we are going to continually add to as we get closer to our new high stakes test. Included are some power standards and 12 tips for taking the ACT that you can share with students before the PreACT next week!
Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15 to October 15. We have a quick link button at the top of Coaches Corner that will bring you to our shared drive with many resources to help you celebrate this month in class. Spanish Mama is a helpful site with Latino resources including podcasts, books, songs, apps, games, and downloads for all teachers to use quickly and easily.
Like calculators and chromebooks, AI is classroom technology that isn't going away anytime soon.
Check out this article about how to use AI effectively in 2024 and more examples of educational AI tools beyond Magic School and Brisk.
Thank you for joining us for our morning session on Thursday. Here are the slides about integrating test prep into our daily and weekly lesson planning routines. Information on Test Nav, Brisk, and Magic School AI. More trainings a break out sessions comming soon.
In addition to being a common app for standardized testing, Test Nav also offers Test prep for all of the standardized tests we prepare our students for. For ACT prep, click ACT and "practice tests" to bypass the sign in screen.
With everyone getting used to the new projectorless Newline boards, we've featured some infographics on the basics to help everyone get started. Featured are the quick access tool bar and whiteboard tools, more coming soon for sure.
This summer we encourage you all to spend your time off doing something you love…but may we also suggest picking up just 1 book built for teachers. While it’s important to unplug from the school year and recharge… reading a positive book written for teachers can help empower you to start the next school year with a fresh mindset. Check out some of the current popular teacher titles if you find yourself with some downtime this summer.
As Justin Timberlake warned us, it's May and another school year is wrapping up. This month take a moment to reflect on the incredible work we have done. Happy teachers appreciation week! Here are some encouraging articles to help us wrap up the year in a positive way.
What a wonderful resource. The free version of Magic School AI provides teachers with the ability to generate resources such as lesson plans, worksheets, and activities tailored to their specific needs and the grade levels of their students. It assists in creating engaging and interactive content aligned with the Common Core State Standards, saving teachers valuable time and enhancing the learning experience for students
Let's keep our students involved in our lessons! Here is an easy to use cheat sheet to generate new lessons and engage the students. The graphic to the left is accompanied by dozens of ready to use pdf's and other resources to support these strategies here. If you want help with implementation reach out to your instructional coaches for some support.
HAPPY WOMEN’S HERstory month! Check out this free bulletin board resource! BT let’s revisit a classic. “The Carousel” is a tried and true engagement strategy. If you need a carousel refresher click on our two links for a review. Now if you are familiar with the carousel check out this link from Now Spark Creativity with ideas on how to kick your carousel activity up a notch! Consider taking a map, diagram, quote, poem, excerpt from a piece of information and turning that into your carousel and include active annotations!
This week we have an activity for the math CREW! Math war is like the kids's card game war, where the entire deck is distributed to players, two players per game, and they blindly lay down a card and the player with the higher card wins the hand. Math war has a special deck of cards where the students have math problems, equations, graphs, or tables that the students need to evaluate before determining who wins the hand. Here is an example using rate of change (slope) representations.
Even if it feels like we are still catching up from the latest Ed Tech revolution, the next one is coming up right behind us! (and it can summarized in two letters) . Experts explain the most important implications for the next several years of Ed Tech as AI takes on a more prominent role. Cyber security, critical thinking, and evidence based thinking are featured.
THOUGHTS, QUESTIONS, EPIPHANIES METHOD (TQE)
We all try to make school relevant to our students. Check out this article featuring Cross-Curricular connections and more to help spread the relevance to our students.
Tired of the same old rows and island seating arrangements? Consider new L shaped islands for benefits to group work. In this arrangement all students can face the same direction and allows for more teacher mobility.
Are you looking for an easy strategy to kick off second semester? “Three before me” is a simple strategy to encourage students to ask three other students before asking the teacher for further individual support. This can help open up some valuable classroom teacher time, promote growth midsets for the students, and improve peer to peer interactions.
The NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) is gearing up for summer!! If you like traveling for free, going on adult field trips and museums, learning about topics that specifically interest you, and like a few extra hundred/ thousand dollars in your pocket I encourage all staff to check out the professional development opportunities that NEH released. Here is a helpful form with the answers to frequently asked questions. Beyond this several other organizations offer FREE onsite, residential, and virtual professional development covering hundreds of topics across all curriculum areas. If you use Facebook consider joining the Facebook group called “Scholarships, Grants, Summer Institutes and Opportunities for Teachers” that continually post and advertise new opportunities.
Did you know the district has a premium subscription to Quizizz? Let Quizizz help you provide review in a gamified manner! In this program you can use premade lessons and even teleport existing questions from your library to generate a new game/quiz. You can import from google forms, a spreadsheet, and even google slides! You can also easily import your students from Google classroom. With the use of built in AI you can also modify Quizizz games and programs, differentiate by translating languages, reducing options , convert to real world scenarios, provide custom prompts, and add answer explanations!
Keep up with the most popular new chrome extensions that students are using in 2023. These extensions are an easy way to adapt students’ browsers and equip them with personalized support they can use on assignments and classroom activities throughout the year. Features include in browser mental brain breaks, dark screen mode, and auto highlight features.
Fun, silly, and light-hearted activities (when integrated into a rigorous curriculum) not only foster a positive classroom environment, but help to recharge students. They also humanize a classroom by balancing work and play. These are the times we use “light-hearted” activities.
*After a timed essay or exam.
*To break the monotony of school (it is inevitable).
*To energize a class that is lethargic.
*As part of a tradition (Fun Friday).
Tips and Suggestions for Parent Conferences
We're all aware that the new SAT is digital, but it has also changed in many ways. This test is designed to be a little shorter and most importantly its adaptive to each student. Reading comprehension is now combined with grammar, punctuation and word choice problems. They have also done away with non-calculator math and have an onscreen desmos style calculator.
Speaking of time, are you using a timer in your classroom? Having students complete timed assignments has great benefits! Visual timers can help students manage their time for classroom tasks, assignments, and is a great testing strategy! By using them consistently, visual timers can be instrumental in creating routines and establishing predictability.
As we try to support our growing latino population, specifically our Spanish speakers, take a look at google translate. Some might be familiar with its most basic translation features, but did you know it will also translate images, documents, powerpoints, pds'f, and websites as well? Here is a short video from your instructional coaches featuring the amazing power of google translate.
Special shout out to our newest teachers in our CREW this week. Whether you are a veteran teacher or a new teacher we have a teacher resource tool kit for you to check out. Resources on learning spaces, designing assessment, classroom management, tech integrations, working with parents and more!
Each of these engaging brain teasers involve the students picking a number from 1 to 100 and adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing their way through a path of specific but creative directions. Like a magic trick, all students will end with the same answer or an answer specific to themselves.
Teachers you can use this as an engaging bell ringer or ice breaker early in the year.
Using Socratic Seminar to Build SEL and Community
Hello and welcome to the 2023-24 school year Trail Blazers. Over the past two days we've shared resources and presentations at our districts first institutes. Included in the following posts are the instructions for Bloom Balls, I have/ who has, an article about character education and the slides from Bloom Trail's Instructional Focus.
Let’s make a "boring" learning activity a little more fun with a “horse race.” Put students in groups. Distribute questions and a reading. Give groups/tables ten minutes (or less) to read a passage. When time is up and a table thinks they have an answer they check it in with the teacher. If it’s right, they move their horse up a square. If it’s wrong, they have to go back to their table and get back in line. They can only check one question at a time and then they have to get back in line. This is an Instagram video and a Tik Tok video of students doing the strategy. (May not open on a school device–try your phone or personal device) This activity can be modified for lots of different kinds of questioning or any kind of review (cough cough SAT prep). Essentially all you need to know is students can move their horse when they get a question correct! Here are some horse templates ready for you to print.
We are all ready for summer! We encourage you all to spend your time off doing something you love…but may we also suggest picking up just 1 book built for teachers. While it’s important to unplug from the school year and recharge… reading a positive book written for teachers can help empower you to start the next school year with a fresh mindset.
While it’s important to celebrate and take care of mental health every single day, it’s helpful to have somewhere to start. These two articles are nice places to start when considering prioritizing our own mental health. Stay healthy BT!
Educators can use practice sets to:
Create interactive assignments and review
Save time with the auto-grade tool
Identify concepts that need more instruction time
The college board is providing study support right before the AP testing starts. Four review videos for each AP class offered have been released this week (4/17/23) on youtube and can be assigned on AP Classroom. Four more will follow next week. The videos vary in length but are around 15 minutes each and can support both multiple choice and free response sections.
One set of tests is over and anther one is coming up. Less than two weeks until AP testing begins! The college board is a premiere resource for test prep, along with some practice AP Exams and study tips with more content. Each of those links will take you to a different site with use material. Good luck #StriveForAFive
Hey AP teachers, have you ever wondered if your students' test scores would sky rocket if they had access to free digital flashcards on their phones? Find out now with High5 Wizard. Its teacher created with content on most AP classes and more on the way. Its teacher created with content on the following AP classes: AP English Language, AP US History, AP Government and Politics, AP Psychology, AP World History, AP Statistics, AP Calculus AB, AP Biology, AP Human Geography, and AP Environmental Science.
Artificial intelligence, more specifically Chat GPT, is being used by more and more students (and teachers). In case you weren't aware, this is AI powered software that will generate text or essays based on what the user is asking it to do and is quite powerful. Provided are some links to resources as to the Pro's and Con's of this software as well as a website (linked below) that can detect how likely it is that a given bit of text was written by artificial intelligence.
BT ENJOY YOUR DAYS OFF!! When you return reach out to us for Engagement and Project planning!
Did 4th quarter sneek up on anyone else? Here are some resources to stay resilient and finish the year strong.
In this article, "Disciplinary Literacy and the Value of Making Connections” we are reminded how it’s important to “Read like a mathematician” or “Read like a historian” and that reading is about literacy and teachers need to also emphasize “Content vs. disciplinary.” Please check our Quick Link above for "Active Reading Strategies."
Sketch and Tell and 9 other of the most significant educational studies of 2022
Improving our students media literacy is more critical than ever. Help them wade through media bias to critically analyze text.
Here are the slides from our presentation on Monday with A TON of extra content. If you were with us during the institute, you experienced some phenomenal reading strategies that can be applied to all classes. We ran out of time for some math content connections but the slides, links, and templates are all still in the attached presentation.
Flextangles are an easy to build paper art resource for any type of class. The example to the left is basically colorful art patterns but the triangles can be used to make connections between content in any class.
Black history month is almost here so as we start planning lessons for February we've attached a dcument with some AAHM lessons that we've shared in the past. Additionally, we're sharing digital resources for the Smithsonian's Museum of African American History and Culture. There's a lot of very accessible free resources.
The article and site provided are intended for math engagement but can easily be manipulated for other literacy strategies. Provided are several problem solving templates including 4 corners, stations, addem' up, card sorts, and what vertical learning is.
This final exam season, boost student accountability while providing meaningful choice with authentic assessments generated from students' knowledge. This doesn't have to replace more traditional assessments but it can be a vital piece of the assessment puzzle. Student designed assessments should start small, maybe 15-20 minutes, and doesn't need to be complicated or stressful. Sharing this control of the assessment process can lead to more personalized learning and increase engagement.
Its December and final exams are just around the corner. Since we are not all math teachers, sometimes its hard to answer "What do I need on the final to earn or keep an A?" Use this website, enter quarter weights 40/40/20 and grades earned and let it do the calculations for you. Feel free to post in your google classroom for students to use independently.
Additionally, we've provided an article from The Princeton Review with the best 12 tips on how to prepare for final exams.
Gratitude is on the minds of everybody this time of year. Harnessing this attitude of appreciation, kindness, positivity and bringing it to your classroom can reap powerful benefits. The article has many links to scientific proof of the difference gratitude can make. Also we've provided the gratitude poetry tiles we've previously shared so you can have easy access. Happy Thanksgiving everyone :)
As our focus continues to build reading and literacy skills with our students we are providing an easy to use tool called "YES MA'AM." Similar to a CER, YES MAAM prompts our students to make a claim and provide evidence but allows the students to provide more personal perspective and is a great tool for demonstrating R. 1:Citing Textual Evidence
Checking in with our students' social emotional status on a constant basis is becoming more and more important. Here are some articles, prompts, tools, and a google form to helps us normalize talking about emotions and potential SEL problems before they become unmanageable. Also great for building up our school community. BT CREW!
We all know a little about google forms but there are many many create ways educators are using them. From basic surveys and assessments to virtual escape rooms, and word clouds google forms can help gather data for diverse lessons. Check out the attached articles for some examples of the extra things google forms can bring to your classroom.
"What do we need to do again?" Listening is a skill that we have to teach like all other content. The provided article offers five easy strategies to move our passive learners into active learners.
The following article identifies several skills that are important for high school readers like Prediction, Inference, Summary and Questioning. These skills are then supported by simple to use strategies for in class use including "Zoom in/zoom out" and "Five fingers".
METACOGNITION IN THE CLASSROOM
Communicate more effectively with smore.com's interactive newsletters. Its super easy to use and a free way to communicate to parents, guardians, or any other group. The website comes with templates but they can be customized to your needs. We've provided an example from the Dual Credit PreCollege Math program.
Smore.com is quite self explanatory but in case you need some help getting started this video should be a good staring point :)
Wheelofnames.com is an easy to use website that allows teachers to enter a class roster and randomly select students like they were ono a famous gameshow. Bein intentionally random is important as a no opt out strategy. It also can be used to expand students choice and randomly select problems to assign to students so they don't all have identical answers.
Credit to Dorith Johnson and Donna Popovic for sharing and examples
Consider This: Reading in Print VS Reading in Digital
Check out our resource folder
Active reading strategy 1: Claim evidence reasoning
CER is a great way to get our students to engage with text. Check out Model Teaching-CER & its lit teaching-CER along with many other resources in our shared folder for active reading strategies.
Tuesday, 8/9 Bloom Trail presentation on our Instructional Focuses
Focus Area 1- Reading & active reading strategies in everyday teaching.
Providing Meaningful Experiences with Text—BDA (Before, During, After)
Sheet 1-Set a Purpose, Preview, Predict– Before
Sheet 2- Make a connection, Annotate, Question and Infer- During
Sheet 3- Summarizing, Evaluate, Synthesize:After
Focus Area 2- No Opt Out Teaching/Learning in everyday teachingEngagement Strategies
Sheet 4-No Opt Out
Focus Area 3- Feedback Loops that center on student-to-student feedback and self-evaluation
Sheet 5-Feedback Sheet 6-Metacognition
Teacher Summer Reading Suggestions
Project Based Learning In AP Courses
College Board and a project based learning (PBL) program, "Knowledge in Action" are finding new ways to help our students succeed in AP classes. Students who engage in KIA PBL AP programs are 8% more likely to score 3+ on the respective AP exam. The PBL focuses on themes and commonalities through out the course and provides projects and rigorous questions designed to dive deep into learning. AP central also promotes PBL summer workshops for AP Environmental Science (and AP US Gov).
Click on the blue box for the slides and the yellow box for a video webinar below.
While we are approaching the end we are NOT DONE and at this time we want to encourage you to try something new, something different, something engaging that maybe you were intimidated by earlier in the year. At this point you know your students and they know you it’s the time to experiment with something. Please reach out to us to let us know how we can help
New Teachers, keep your head above water! You're almost there!
Experienced teachers, you might want to read some of these too :)
Social media can play a positive and negative role in our students lives and it can dominate our students lives inside and outside the classroom. The article focuses on three problems that social media creates for our students and conversations we can have to help our students make the best choices as they explore social media.
Building Arguments for Justification
Justification and argumentation are critical for learning content in a meaningful way. This starts as a math strategy but can be applied much more broadly. The video demonstrates a "carousel" activity where students walk around the classroom to view five problems solved incorrectly and have to argue why they are wrong and how to fix them. After all, learning from mistakes is among the most effective ways to learn.
The main idea in ANY text is important and can be complicated. Main idea crosses over into all disciplines and is equally important on the SAT. Here are some resources on teaching main idea.
War is a sensitive subject, and even though the current conflict isn't on our boarders, many of the students are aware of the broad consequences that can impact them. While its important to speak a objectively, fostering a sense of agency can be helpful for the students. Allow their stories to be told and voices heard to validate their responses.
Robert Moses was a civil rights activist and believed that "Math literacy is a civil right." He noticed grave inequities in the levels of math taught in prominently African American schools and formed "The Algebra Project" to provide teacher training, professional development, and community involvement to promote students towards college readiness in math. Over the course of 20 years the program trained over 300 teachers affecting 10,000 students across 10 states.
A Taxonomy of Reflection
As we continue to think about UBD and what our transfer goals really mean we have to remember that "Transfer Goals" are statements of what students should know and be able to do in order to use, or transfer, the knowledge, skills and abilities they have acquired through the education you are giving them and apply them to authentic tasks. As we continue this process the topic of the Taxonomy of Reflection may help us refine and guide our teaching. When we look at knowledge versus skill and it’s future applications. Here’s a great resource that can help us break down the process for not only ourselves but also our students.
The article encourages us and our students to follow the SPARK for better feedback strategies.
Specific, Prescriptive, Actionable, Referenced, Kind
A student generated method. Watch students who are ready for a peer review put their name on the back wall and wait for another student who is at the same place as them to peer review. Each student cites a "praise" and a "push" or something they liked and something they think their peer can push a little harder on.
Teacher and Student Reflection Tools for the END of the semester
Tips for Teaching before the break!
WE ARE THANKFUL FOR YOU!!! Have a restful and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
The Ultimate Ed-Tech Spreadsheet
This recently updated comprehensive sheet lists and categorizes all of the tools, free and premium, that have been found useful to teachers while in-person, hybrid, and remote teaching. We've taken a lot of time familiarizing ourselves with many of the common ones but by no means are we experts in all of these. If you think there is something worth exploring, please don't hesitate to reach out to either one of us.
*Please scroll to the right for subject specific resources
Students can choose a slide and rearrange the tiles to make messages and poetry to show and express gratitude. Many special words are carefully provided to prompt reflection but students can opt to create their own word tiles as they seem fit. Once the poem is completed the students can delete the unused words to have the poem really stand out.
Mentimeter is similar to Peardeck, Nearpod, OR a google form with google slides. If you are looking for a free and different format this might be something you like. The free version of Mentimeter, has the following features:
Maximum of 2 questions (Word cloud-my favorite, Multiple choice, open ended, scales, ranking, and Q&A (and 5 of the Quiz question type)
Unlimited number of Content Slides.
Unlimited number of presentations.
Unlimited number of audience size/voters.
Export results in PDF or individual image screenshots.
These work great as a quick bellringer, icebreaker, or for a larger audience if you don’t want to log into google, Nearpod, or Peardeck.
Bloom Balls-Editable Template and How to article
High engagement and analysis while hitting all of Blooms Taxonomy
Middle and high school students are hyper sensitive to criticism so developing a feedback centered classroom depends on students feeling safe and supported. In the article there are rubrics and starters to help in the feedback cycle process.
Turn your favorite worksheets into interactive pixel art in google sheets
Turn your favorite worksheets into interactive pixel art in google sheets
Hexagonal Thinking
Google Slides: editable slides on using hexagonal thinking in most any subject
Google Slides: examining hexagonal thinking in Math
Article: Hexagonal thinking steps and toolkit
Article: Using 'Hexagonal Thinking' to deepen Classroom conversations
Phrases to keep in regular use for student feedback:
I believe in you
We missed you
I'm listening
Oops, I made a mistake
We'll figure it out together
I really admire
I'm sorry
Provided is an article that clearly lists several easy things we can do to ease our students back into school. Among my favorites are "addressing social awkwardness to build trust" and "nurture the adults who need to nurture students."
This week we’d like to feature TeachRock.org a completely FREE resource that empowers teachers and engages students by using popular music to create interdisciplinary, culturally responsive education materials for all 21st century classrooms. This month they are highlighting Math and Music but there is a full catalog with ready to use lessons for EVERYONE with subjects including: Art, Civics, CTE, ELA, General Music, Geography, Math, PE, Science, History, STEAM, and SEL.
NEA has an interesting podcast called “School Me” their podcast empowers seasoned educators to use their years of experience and wisdom to help get the most out of your career in education.
Along.org is a free tool that allows students to anonymously respond to prompts and is full of pre-made SEL library questions that promote reflection.
Check out this great article from Edutopia about feedback :)
Here are the slides from our new teacher presentations for 8/3
A time for reflection...lessons learned from the 2020-2021 school year!
A helpful article with guiding questions to reflect on this "abnormal" year.
NEA examines key take aways from this school year.
Teachers from around the country offer their takes on what they have learned from teaching through a pandemic.
Hey BT, for your convenience, we dissected the Illinois Priority Learning Standards document by subject area. The document was 185 pages so we thought this might make it easier to use in our work for UBD and eduplanet21. We also took out some pages that didn't apply to high school. There is a button on the top of the page for you to easily connect to this resource. We have also provided a quick link at the top of the page for additional UBD resources. Finally, here's a great link with even more on this subject
The secret to teaching may be as simple as asking students good questions and then giving them the opportunity to find the answers.
Education should strive to develop and deepen students' understanding of important ideas and processes so that they can transfer their learning within and outside school.
I learned...we all need a Pep Talk. We NEED YOU.
The end of the school year is always full of emotion. Many educators will find themselves asking questions like: Did I do enough? Did my students get the most they could have out of this year? Are they ready to move on? Am I? Read on for more tips....
Its been a tough year for teachers. USA Today took this opportunity to shine the spotlight on some educators who have not only stuck it out, but have made major impacts on their students this year. Teachers who've learned to rap in order to appeal to their students, teachers who opened a nonprofit theater to keep kids involved, teachers who've hunted down seniors and forced them to get grades up, as well as teachers who openly rely on the students to get through this year as well.
As we have moved away from final exams this semester, project based learning (PBL) is a great way to authentically asses students. For math students, you can finally answer "when will I need this?" Or better yet, they can answer it for themselves. Attached is an article that offers advice and consideration about implementing a PBL assessment. Consider student interest with a student inventory. Choose appropriate math content and consider including incorporating "Problem solving and data analysis" problems from the SAT.
Furthermore, this is not exclusive to math content. Also attached is a website, PBL Works, with hundreds of PBL assessments across many content areas and topics that are ready for your consideration.
As the Chauvin trial continues and more information is released about how Chicago Police fatally shot 13 year old Adam Toledo one can't help but to have strong feelings. Beyond that we have to acknowledge how our students may also struggle with these difficult issues. To support our continued efforts to best address these topics with our students we have added some articles and lesson plans in our growing folder about "Difficult News Cycles (teaching strategies)" These resources can be found easily using our quick link button in the header.
Chromebook Feature
Most of us are aware that our new Chromebooks have a touch screen but did you know there is a stylus built in for your convenience? I was today years old when I found it. :)
For better or for worse, we've relied pretty heavily on video instruction this past year. This article brings to light that there are massive differences between watching a video and engaging with a video for learning. Watching a video is passive, like watching tv, while engagement will activate a learner. Remove the verb "watch" from our vocabulary when considering video instruction. Instead, replace it with "interact" as if it were a video game and encourage students to pause, rewind and reflect during the video as many times as necessary.
As we serve a growing number of EL students, being able to provide resources in different languages is a real strength. Many staff already know how to do this and if the directions aren't clear enough we can make a video as well.
"Why is sitting in front of a screen all day so exhausting?!"
The article focuses on student Zoom/Meets fatigue but it resonates for all of us. Try to make small talk when appropriate and find time for it in class. Have a student show off a pet at an appropriate time. Walk around and get blood flowing. Or bring a guitar to work and serenade the hallways! Mr. Rogus is killing it!
No surprises here, The SAT math section draws heavily from Algebra and middle school math topics. You can't get very far into any SAT prep material and not feel just totally showered with slope applications. Systems of equations shows up a ton along with ratio and proportion.
-OC
Here are some DO's and DON'T'S for teaching in a hybrid model that the article suggests and I think are worthy of reminding us all.
DO Divide and conquer
DO Simplify, "Great ideas that normally work well may not under current circumstances"
DO try to keep in person and online assignments seamless to minimize doubling your work.
DO NOT let go of deadlines entirely
DO NOT set unreasonable expectations for yourself or your students
^^^^The last one was my favorite, "Yes, people are concerned about students 'falling behind.' Behind who? No one is doing quite what they expected this year. We will improvise, adapt, and overcome, but we will NOT be able to re-create a 'normal' experience with all the trappings this year."
The last twelve months haven't been normal, embrace that and recognize we are all doing the best we can to provide a reasonable substitute for that normal. Find some new best practices along the way and have a better 2021-2022 school year.
Even with most of our students remaining distant, its important to connect with them when we can. Follow the 10/2 chunk and chew model and reach out to ask them a conversation starter. "How was your weekend?" or "Are you as excited for soccer season as I am?"
Scaffolding is an essential teaching strategy. Unfortunately, sometimes we aren't scaffolding we're rescuing... do we know the difference?