New thinking, well not new, continuous

From Tony Gurr - all things learning

Does the traditional reading, writing and mathematics model fit into this future oriented way of teaching. I don't think so. We need to explore new ways of doing things.

I am going to design a grid of activities for the week. This grid will give general choices to my students that involve must dos and choices where they have time to work individually or collaboratively to learn. Some of the choices will allow students to focus on identified needs. I will scaffold students in this area. For example basic facts , students will know and explore different ways to learn these. ( I do need some handy hints for helping visual special learners / dyslexic learn basic facts. I feel strongly students need in class time to do this. Homework is not appropriate in this case.

Each day I will still call groups of students for explicit lessons in maths and reading. Small lessons with an explicit lesson in writing will be shared with the whole class. ( I need to make more vocabulary lists). I really want my students to identify what they need to learn and to be able to book into lessons , not sure how to get there yet.

What I see when 8 do this
 Engaged students
Students are in charge, have choice and are responsible
Allowance of different times on tasks for students with different needs and interests
Collaboration
Other students can take the teachers role
Computers are in use
No more compliant kids grabbing all the attention
No great lengths of sitting with Teacher dominated discussion
Flexibility in who works with the teacher

A more natural learning environment where all learners have to act like learners. I do not set them up, using the timer on google helps students monitor time. Tracking on their planning sheet is a scaffold as we move into this. My job is to actually keep my students accountable for their learning. I need to stick to my teaching, it's easy to get caught up in those who are off task, those who come straight to the teacher.

Accountability, I need to start hard!! I've identified those I need to constantly check up and never not do this. ( This is hard, duty, other tasks, days out of the room, how can I set up systems of accountability where students do this and not just me checking up??) Get other students to do this? Check lists for some ( not all).

I will start Monday.

I want to have some flexibility for my students. The must dos cannot be too heavy so all can finish. Those who need more time in a negotiated activity need to have this made available. We need to make time to reflect on our achievements and next steps. Also how did we go as a learner.

There will be some gaps where students can choose the tasks.

I'm looking forward to it.