This year I have really been struggling with fitting everything in which shouldn't be new. We don't have new TEKS, but this is the year where many new initiatives are being tried! Itslearning, Mastery Connect, Reading A-Z, MAP testing, conferencing with students one-on-one, etc.
This year I have moved my social studies lessons to Itslearning. I am thankful for the Curriculum Campouts so my teammate and I can collaborate and build content for the upcoming units. I have realized though what I plan has taken my students much longer to complete then I would like. It has taken me twice as long to cover units. The quality of the work I receive from students is not always their best effort. Students who struggle with completing work in a timely manner REALLY struggle when they are having to self-pace themselves in itslearning. This results in work not getting completed.
The students are slowly becoming more independent, however I still feel like they are still too teacher-dependent on me for their tech issues. I am trying an idea that was shared by Jennifer Roberts at Edcamp by creating a screencasting video with instructions. My hopes are that this will eliminate cries for help and I can focus on my small groups or conferencing with students.
As I drive home from work, I reflect on how the day went. How can I re-work/re-structure my time with students to meet with more of them! Monday I am going back to the station rotation model, so all of my students can get time to work on MAP Skills.
It's definitely a challenge to have students complete all assignments! It's such a balancing act of do I move on with the curriculum or do I give finishing time to students? I think learning how to "finish" is such an important skill for life, so I rearrange the days often. Good luck with the stations and keep us posted.
ReplyDeleteThis has my kind racing too. I wonder if it were like a game? Candase uses Classcraft and loves it. It might be worth looking at trying to recreate that. If the kids were working toward completing a mission, and responsible as part of a group, it might spur them on a bit? Happy to be a thought partner in this! (P. S. Something new is coming to itslearning soon that will help organize this even more! 😉)
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