June Workshops ~ 2011

It's been a busy summer.  I attended many workshops in June.
Math Academy -  I spent two afternoons with the curriculum director and math teachers in our district.  I printed the CABS from the Milwaukee Math project with Grades 1 through 8 before the workshop, and shared these with grade levels.  I made a promethean of the CABS for 4th grade to share and use at our grade level.  Four of our six teachers were present, and we decided to implement a constructed response with each unit test.  We are hoping that as our students practice and participate in constructed responses, they will become better problem solvers and write better explanations for their thinking.  It felt good to move math forward at our grade level and in our district!

Instructional Coaching - I spent one afternoon with other instructional coaches, sharing and reviewing skills, and discussing ways to develop a learning community within our building.  I know our teachers have much to offer each other in teaching strategies and math knowledge.  I look forward to working with teachers in developing an open door policy where anyone can feel free to walk into another's room to see what great things are going on there!  We have a meeting August 23 to finish our planning for this year.

Writing Academy - For two afternoons in June I attended a writing academy.  We became more familiar with Common Core Standards, decided our three on-demand writing topics, and chose which writing topics will get our attention each unit.  We will limit our process writing to fewer than last year, but need to find time to conference with students, (that's where improvement will show itself) and we will bring back "Life Books".  Life books will work wonderfully as a piece in our Daily 5 "Work on Writing".

Reading Academy - Three afternoons in June were to work on reading.  We reviewed WKCE scores, The Daily 5, CAFE, and made plans for the Inquiry Projects.  One year with Fountas & Pinnell progress monitoring and LEAD21 and we saw wonderful improvement in reading abilities!  Excellent ideas were shared; we have so much to be gained by sharing and being given time to share!  I will be implementing The Daily 5, and all of the skills in CAFE.  We will have the first six days of school to set our routines in order before beginning our reading curriculum.  I purchased  many books to support the skill introductions for comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expanding vocabulary.  I feel like this introduction to my reading program will help the students learn how to monitor the skills they need to work on.  I am not going to try to do these programs perfectly the first year; I just want to improve my teaching and help my students see their strengths and enable them to work toward reasonable goals.

Compass Learning - I attended two afternoons of training for Compass Learning, our new computer math program.  This program will support student skill levels as shown on their MAP testing.  We discussed setting up lessons in areas where students may need support, such as elapsed time and place value.  More training will come in August.