Staying positive and coming up with a plan in the midst of chaos...

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     Sometimes chaos is nobodies fault.  Even if it is someone's fault, dwelling on that (or secretly wishing they fall down a flight of stairs) is completely pointless.  Kids are coming in every day.  I think deep down inside, they want to be engaged, challenged and to have fun.  I would like to think the best of them.  They hope that this place called school takes them to a better place.

     I hope that also.  It is hard when the anxiety monsters in my closet show their ugly face...map testing, snow day interruptions, sick kids, OGT, early release days, unexpected interruptions...etc.  However....I still have free will.  I can still make choices every day.  If I can make choices, I am going to try to make choices that most likely, statistics say, will have a positive impact on kids.  So, I still go back to Bob Marzano.  What are statistically the top 10 strategies that teachers can do when they walk in a room to help kids learn?  Here it is...(Link).

1. Vocabulary

2. Compare, contrast, classify, analogies, and metaphors:

3. Summarize and note taking

4. Reinforce effort and give praise

5. Homework and practice

6. Nonlinguistic representations

7. Cooperative learning

8. Setting objectives and providing feedback

9. Generating and testing a hypothesis

10. Cues, questions and advanced organizers.

So this is the goal each week from now until June, despite the craziness of the schedule.

     I cannot hit all of these all the time.  But I can hit some of them some of the time.  This week in Accelerated I put together a vocabulary list.  They should be able to easily look up the words but I have told them they must draw a picture for each word as well (#6).  In Academic we are getting into orbital and electron notation.  I am going to explicitly show some examples of orbital notation as goal setting (#8).  The POGIL activity will allow me to go around and check and provide feedback.

     It is kind of like throwing spaghetti on the wall.  I am hoping these strategies give me the highest probability that it will stick.