Monday, October 31, 2016

Teach Well: What's on the Agenda - First Week in November 2016

Today's Halloween and then tomorrow November begins.

It's going to be a busy week of teaching learning including the following events.

Parent Conferences
Teachers on my team will meet with family members all week to discuss students' efforts to date. We have a host of data, study samples, and reflections to share with family members. Overall it's been a great teaching start to the year and as a teaching team we're very proud of each and every student. The conferences always provide added direction and insight with regard to our efforts to teach each child well.

Place Value Assessment
A couple of days will be devoted to the place value assessment test, and then I'll spend an evening or two correcting those assessments. The data related to these assessments will be used, in part, to create math RTI groups at the end of the week during our PLC.

Reading RTI and Progress Monitoring
We periodically progress monitor our reading students. I'll do that with my small group at the later part of the week. I have such a nice small group to work with. Last year the students coached me in how to use the "One Minute Reader" app which will continue to use this week in addition to beginning a new story.

Number Study, Powers of Ten Patterns, Order of Operations, and Multiples/Factors
Once the place value assessment is complete, students will begin studying powers of ten patterns, order of operations with a focus on powers of ten, and multiples and factors. Next week we'll look at the many ways to multiply and move towards solidifying multiplication skill with the U. S. Traditional algorithm. We'll weave that study into math problem solving as well.

Local Union Meeting
It's our local union's monthly meeting this week. Since it's a negotiation year, there's lots to talk about. The meeting always adds clarification to current events as well as some long term planning and efforts too.'

Faculty Meeting
It's our monthly faculty meeting too. A meeting focused on the school election, visiting each others' classrooms, and more.

It's one of those "keep the pace" weekends, beginning with a few final steps related to adding to students' showcase portfolios early this morning. Onward.