While my head is swimming these days with things I am noticing and questions I want to ask, I have noticed two things that I keep wondering about/mulling over/mucking about (a favorite phrase at Westlawn Elementary, especially of the math specialists). One of these is pacing and the other is intentionality.
In terms of pacing, I see the impact of students and teachers being rushed in everything from during a lesson, across the day, across the week and beyond. Right from trying to think about the pacing issue, I see intentionality enter my thoughts. As a teacher, I need to take responsibility for trying to improve the pacing in order to establish more effective learning relationships with students. While I accept that I will struggle with pacing, I hope that I can find the energy to continally evaluate how I could pace better in leading learning opportunities with students. Somewhere I read this week (probably in a class reading?) that teaching is one profession that allows for the greatest opportunity for "do-overs" -- if you did not think you taught something as effectively as you would like, you will have an opportunity to do the lesson over and try to make it better.
I hope that I will be in a collaborative school like Westlawn where my colleagues will spend time talking about this common problem. I have seen small genius ideas that we have discussed in some of our classes put into action (hand signals for common behavior issues, scrutination of routines for efficiency, etc) and providing me with their genius ideas for tweaking the schedules for maximum efficiency. Like Pat mentions in his blog, sometimes it is the little organizational ideas that will buy you several more minutes of instructional time. Sometimes, like Heather mentions in her blog, it is the larger issues of establishing community.
In terms of establishing community, pacing and the other issues that so many of my cohort mentioned, I think much of it boils down to intentionality. What do I intend with my words (I really connected with Helai's blog in that respect), the physical space of the classroom, the procedures, or the way I structure the lesson? Prioritizing what I intend to intentionally target first may be almost as hard as breaking myself of some habits that go against the grain of my intentions and research on best practice (again, praise comes to mind). At first, it will be hard to get all I intend refined into this multi-layered environment.
But one day... one day.... maybe? A girl can dream, can't she?
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