CHETL Part 1

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.