As one of the others here in this PLC and thought I would post my goals for the year here. Not sure about if this is what I should do but will summarize on what I elaborate more on here.
A new year is upon us and I have decided to make a few changes. I think it is important to verbalize and express some goals for this coming year. So here are a few things to be checked on at the end of the year and see how well I did.
- Provide better Feedback to my students.
Feedback to students is key to help them understand what went wrong on the quiz. The score alone is a distractor. So I plan to provide only written feedback on quizzes and record their score 24 hours later in ActiveGrade. To master a math skill or standard takes some understanding what you do right and what you do wrong. I have a saying that “Math is a game of failure”.
I plan to use Gradeable in order to help me implement this goal. It is an interesting web based app and we will see. I believe it will save me time.
- Better know the Rulebook.
This comes from my many years coaching baseball. It takes time, but you need to really know the rules of the game. There were many times I won a game or changed the outcome because I knew the rules. The umpires incorrectly applied a rule and had to reverse their call – in my teams favor. But if you don’t know the rules, then you’ll just go along with those you think are the experts. I need to be the expert.
- Collaborate.
Recently someone posted an ad on twitter wanting to collaborate with others who teach 7th grade math. He was interested in starting something that could benefit those involved. In order to bring my teaching to a higher level of effectiveness collaboration with others is essential. It is easy to get into a rut. I don’t want to be in a rut. So here I am to share what I can with some others and receive their feedback. I’m a little nervous about it but am very open and excited. This leads to my final goal for the year.
- Make a Roadmap.
I plan to blog once a week about what I am doing in my classroom. I need to record and summarize in order to document where I have been. Keeping it all in my mind is not possible. This roadmap includes things that work and things that don’t work. I believe it will give me the ability to improve upon my reflection of what is going on and if we are getting there as a classroom. As the year progresses, this can be expanded upon and it will.
These are my 4 simple goals for the coming year.
-Mr. R.
My Math PLC 