As part of our new push to reach out to our KCTM membership, we
recently took on the responsibility of writing articles for our publications on
a monthly basis. When I was tasked with
writing an article on CHETL, I admittedly had to contact someone to find out in
the educational world of acronyms what exactly this meant. In my defense, I
missed the May KCTM board meeting for the birth of my son, but it could also have
been that I was in a constant state of sleeplessness, or that I’ve grown tired
of trying to keep up with the latest regulation, acronym fad, or whatever you
would like to call it. Take your pick.
Most of us know characteristics of highly effective teaching. It didn’t take a state document to tell us,
but it does open the conversation around determining if we are doing all we can
to help our students. As I read through
the characteristics I was excited that the students are required to “accept
responsibility for his/her own learning” but highly disappointed there was no
similar statement for the teacher. As we
move through our summer “break”, it can be difficult to find time to do much in
the way of learning to benefit our students. Recent cuts in state professional
development funds have made the ability to continue our own education even more
difficult. The number of university courses in the summer has even dwindled due
to decreases in the post-secondary funding.
This leads to fewer “traditional” opportunities for teachers to become
more highly-effective teachers.
The summer is a time to re-energize our batteries, but also
a time to learn and grow. I invite you
to take yourself to the Internet for a webinar, get on twitter for #edchat, check
out educational pins on Pinterest, or even just call up a colleague for a
meeting at Starbucks to discuss a new project.
Make your learning fun, but most importantly make it your own. Find something that you enjoy and that will
also benefit your students. Natural
curiosity leads to learning that will be retained and most-likely used.
In the coming months I will be writing to you about
different parts of the CHETL document via my challenges and growth. I have the distinct honor of piloting a STEM
course in my middle school. Piloting
isn’t really the right word as I am responsible for teaching and if it goes
badly then my students will lose a year of learning. This will not be an
elective course, but rather a double-block course of Math and Science with the
same group of students. Two challenges
await; combining and teaching two new sets of standards (CCSSM and NGSS) and
engaging students for over two hours each day.
I’m sure I will struggle along the way just as my students
struggle. I have less than two months to
put together a curriculum. I have plenty
of ideas in my head, but it’s time to head out and do some professional
development and learning to make sure I’m prepared to be a highly-effective
teacher. I’ll let you know what I find.
You can follow my school journeys on Twitter at @csstem.
