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Semester reflections
It is crazy, but I have not blogged once during this semester. My last post was a forward looking statement on class closures that I wanted to do. The good news is, I did it. Every single day, I had an alarm set, and I did the class closure. You can find my form here:…
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Closures: my first goal for new semester
The semester starts tomorrow for me, and I am working hard at addressing some of my shortcomings. One weakness I have always had was the closure to my lessons. I could never really figure out how to close the lesson. No, scratch that. I knew how, I never really could REMEMBER to do a good…
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Thinking about types of assessments
The other day, Ann Arden posted about “Beyond tests in HS Math (part 1).” This was her very first ever blog post, and I am eagerly awaiting her second! In Ann’s post, she set up a framework for understanding assessments which I had not seen before (someone please give me a citation if you have),…
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Different Cooperative strategies
In my last post, Why I won’t use Direct Instruction, I was provocative and challenged some of the typical thinking about math instruction. The post generated some terrific conversation, both here and on Twitter, and although I have not changed my mind for my own classroom use, I do admit there may be times when…
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Why I wont use direct instruction
This post is born out of a PhD class I am taking called “Models of Teaching.” It is a great class, but one of the requirements early in the semester was to write how I would use direct instruction in my classroom. I refused. I wrote a lengthy screed against DI. I attacked it, aggressively.…
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#ObserveMe: Changing culture in classrooms
#BlAugust is going strong so far. I am digging the morning writing for sure. Yesterday I was taking a moment after work to look at my Twitter feed and I saw this hashtag #ObserveMe with a picture of a sign outside a classroom. It was this pic. (you can click on any picture to make…
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Teaching machines never will go away
#BlAugust Continues with my Knowing and Learning posts I was sitting down this morning at 7:30 to do today’s post, and I was stymied. What to write, what to write? So I opened Twitter for inspiration and Christopher Danielson had re-tweeted this: HULK SUGGEST DITCHING SENATOR FOR SPEAK & SPELL! JUST AS INTELLIGENT! AND…
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Knowing & Learning: setting the tone
Continuing on the #BlAugust train! Yay. To help set the stage for the Big Questions of Knowing and Learning, I will be using the results from this survey. I asked on Twitter for teachers to take it, and it will be required for my learners to take it. (Same questions, but a different set of…
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Knowing & Learning Syllabus
Another #BlAugust post. Staying strong on building the habit of writing in the morning. I finished my syllabus for Knowing and Learning. I have all the questions written for each reading section (a huge thanks goes out to Walter Stroup at UT Austin for his course site that has his questions on the readings). The…
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Doing what you love means no more impostor syndrome
#BlAugust Continues strong! Creating a habit of writing is something I need to work on both professionally and personally, so this challenge is definitely useful to me. Thank you Shelli! Wow, I have earned my second Star of the Week from Meg Craig! Awesome! As I was getting ready this morning, I had a thought.…