I really enjoyed the first face-to-face session. Someone else tweeted that it was “introterrifying”, which it definitely was, but despite the fact that it pushed me far outside my comfort zone I really appreciated the opportunity to meet and collaborate with CIS Ontario educators. I am the only Grade 4 Homeroom Teacher at my school so I do a lot of planning independently. I really enjoyed learning about what is happening at other schools and the tour of the York School was great! I love that teachers are encouraged to share the great things that they are doing and we aren’t hiding what makes our schools great. I was really struck by how welcoming and friendly everyone was. Thank you @nblair for being a great facilitator and @jbairos, @mwilcox, and @amacrae for being great coaches. The connection through social media has been amazing as well. I love seeing the resources that other people are sharing.
Now that I’ve had some time to get to know the students in my class this year I have identified three areas that I would like to try to help them develop further. I have a very high achieving class which is capable of working above grade level expectations. First, I want to help them develop their critical thinking skills. I want them to learn to delve deeper and really develop their thinking. I plan to help them achieve this goal by teaching them to use the Integrative Thinking tools that I learned about at the I-THINK workshop I attended in August. They will learn how to use the ladder of inference, pro-pro chart, and causal model. Second, I want to help them learn to persevere and be resilient. I want to encourage them to take risks and not expect perfection. Third, I want to help students learn ways to support their mental health. I’ve been teaching for sixteen years and I have observed an increase in students who are anxious.
I plan to ask students about their needs using these prompts:
Tell me more about what you would like to learn this year.
Explain something that you would like to try, but you are scared to try.
Describe what you worry about.
I think their answers to these questions will help me plan learning opportunities that meet their needs effectively.
