Reflects On Teaching

The teacher makes a thoughtful and accurate assessment of a lesson’s effectiveness and the extent to which it achieved its instructional outcomes, citing many specific examples from the lesson and weighing the relative strengths of each.  Drawing on an extensive repertoire of skills, the teacher offers specific alternative actions, complete with the probable success of different courses of action

2019 - 2020

I am fortunate to have the opportunity to teach high school level courses to advanced middle school students. However, with that specialty, I often have more preps than other teachers. 

This year,  had four preps, which WAS daunting at times. I love working collaboratively with other teachers, but this many preps required that I work more independently.

While I greatly value sharing ideas as well as the work load of planning with others, the independence gave me a lot more flexibility. 

I enjoyed being able to respond more nimbly to the needs of my students that being in lock step with other teachers prevents. It was fantastic to change lessons to take advantage of a teachable moment, as well as reflect after each lesson to make changes for the following day. 

Reflecting on how I create a positive classroom culture.

Moments of unexpected joy are one of the things I love about my middle school kids.

Portfolio items below are from years prior to the 2016-2017 academic year.

During work on distinguishing the viable curriculum for our Pre-Algebra class in August 2014,  teachers decided to revamp our program to incorporate Common Core Standards. With this change, my classroom is significantly student driven. This change is thrilling to me, as every day brings surprises, incredible excitement and deep learning by students.  This video shows a student, who understood more than I expected about how to solve a performance task and needed to share his knowledge with the class: