1. I would really like to find a way to make my classroom more comfortable and welcoming for my students so that it is more student-centered instead of teacher-centered. One thing that I would really like to see happen is getting rid of a HUGE teacher desk that I inherited by default my first year teaching. The second thing is eliminating some, if not all of the student desks w/ the attached chairs from my classroom. Most of my students, when given a choice of where to work in the class, choose the floor over these desks. Plus, I hate the fact that they are so big and take up so much room. It really limits the way that I can arrange the room and still allow for easy passage through it. My hope is to bring in some tables, more comfortable chairs, exercise balls and possibly a couch. The difficult thing about this though is that I really would like some student input on this, but I would also like the furniture in place before school begins. I may just have to get input from some of my students that I am working with over the summer to get their opinion.
This example is by Alice Keeler. Absolutely amazing and where I would love to go with my classroom eventually!
2. Since I incorporated some flipping of my math classes last year (Algebra and Pre-Algebra), I would like build this idea even more to make it an even more effective tool. A teacher I have connected with on Twitter introduced me to the concept of Explore-Flip-Apply because it is what he is looking at doing in his classroom. He directed me to a Ramsey Mussallam lecture on YouTube. You can follow the link and learn more about this if you want.
I am hoping to keep exploring this concept and using it in my classroom this year. My thought is that I will devote most of my effort with this towards my sixth grade Math class, and then as they progress through middle school move this concept up with them.
3. There is A LOT of buzz about genius hour on Twitter this summer. I absolutely LOVE this whole idea and really want to find time to build it into my classroom. Right now I am leaning towards pitching the idea to my principal and middle school team as something we incorporate at least in the middle school. Right now we have a time slot on Thursdays that is designated "Advisory Time" which is mostly a time used by students as a study hall. The purpose was to allow students to receive extra support if they needed it with a specific teacher, or to make up missing assignments or tests. Since all of our classes have Advisory Time at the same time, I thought this would be the prime time to incorporate our genius hour. So, from this point forward I plan on looking into genius hour more and how I can get this great idea into my school.
These are my big three right now. There are also some apps that I want to play around with more, such as Remind101 or Aurasma. Realistically it is going to come down with me playing with them more, but I keep reading so many positive things about them, how can I not check them out?
So as summer starts to close, and as teachers we start heading back into our classrooms to prepare for the upcoming year, where do you want to focus your time and energy to make this your best year so far?
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