Next week I'm supposed to go 100%. This means that I should have everything planned out and teaching without any assistance. To say that this makes me somewhat anxious would be an understatement. Not that I don't think I can do it- I know I can. But I don't know what is going on in math as far as the workshop setup that has just happened. The groups aren't established yet and I am pretty freaked out about trying to teach something that I don't know how it is supposed to work! I have taught a few math lessons this year, but they were simply math lessons with the whole class following along- not math workshop. I know RM has been working on it the last couple of weeks, but I don't feel like it is established enough for me to even consider doing. I have the kid's respect and I want to keep it- I know they will see my lack of confidence in the procedure (which I don't know) for math workshop.
I have seen math workshop live in a classroom and it was incredible. But the groups were established already. And the students were familiar with it. We are struggling with getting groups set up because we still don't have NWEA's full report. RM said she is going to make some groups this weekend so that it can be established on Tuesday, but again, I am supposed to be 100% by then and it isn't going to happen. We have a basic understanding of what each student's ability is though, so I'm ok with just putting them in groups and perhaps adjusting those groups at a later date so that we can get this routine in concrete. I know math workshop is the best way for teaching student's math- and I want to get this going so we can move along!
We had a staff meeting after school today. Three of the teachers at our school have been going to a professional development about writing and how it has changed over the last several years. Their excitement about this new approach is certainly contagious! They went through many things they are learning and shared some student work samples. One of the teachers doing this training is a second grade teacher so she had already shared with us what she is learning and we were applying it. What we started the year out doing for writing was having the kids simply create their own books. We staple 4 sheets of paper together and they use that to write a story, illustrate it, and give it any other details they want. We have been adding requirements (putting the author, adding a cover with front and back aspects, writing a title page, etc.) I have to say- "work on writing" time is one of my favorite times in the morning because when I announce that that is what we are going to do I always get a "yes!" from most of the kids (and no groans!) They love doing this and that is certainly an achievement- we want them to love reading and writing- it is so important to their learning success. I have gone through some of the books and looked at them in my evenings and it is really something- we have only been in school for 7 weeks and I can already see some improvements in their books they are creating! (we have them put the date on the book when they first start it so that we know when it was created since they keep them all together in a writing folder).
Anyway, the staff meeting was dedicated to learning more about this program. We will see some improvements in both writing and attitudes with this new approach which will only benefit our students.
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