Hurray for winter break! Sometimes it's hard to be positive the last few weeks, but now that it's over there's time for some good thoughts. I thought I would take a few minutes to reflect. And then I'm going to forget about school and students for 3 weeks!!
My climate change project was a flop. I was really hoping it would take off, but it seemed to fall flat. I think there was just too much other stuff going on and it was hard to get students interested in anything. Note ton self not to try big projects so close to the end of the semester.
I did do a cool wrap up project in biology. It was just a simple research project on the kingdoms of life. I had a student make an awesome kids book. I will use the structure of a kids book for projects next semester.
I was also really proud of the results on my Earth Science final. The quality of responses was impressive. I feel like in terms of teaching this has been my best semester yet. I like how I am a lot more prepared. As my teaching coach always said: "it's all about the tools in your toolbox!" The more experience I gain, the more I see the rigor of my content increasing and my students are keeping up!
Top 5 things I've learned this year:
1.Cooperative learning when structured properly really works!
2. Structure and routine from day one are the key to a successful semester.
3. Relationship building and team building are essential to learning.
4. We must teach students how to use the Internet properly. Why stop them from finding information! Encourage them, but make sure you're teaching them how to evaluate if the information is accurate!
5. The more you have the students asking questions, and doing the investigating, the more they learn. In my classroom I want the students asking the questions, not me!
I leave you with those thoughts! I'm off until next year!
