My Favorites Thursday Afternoon #TMC13

The Hole Punch Game  – shared by colleague at Quality Core training, for reviewing or skills practice. 

2 Minute Assessment Grid –  for student reflection at end of lesson or unit of study, all related posts are linked here.  Read about this in a post, I am sorry, I don’t remember who to credit, but found it again via Pinterest.

Student Engagement Wheel from @dsladkey –  teacher reflection tool to score themselves on providing opportunities for student engagement. Reflections from a High School Math Teacher blog is where I first read about this tool.  The book offers very practical strategies for each slice of the wheel.

 

How I implemented…

Choose 1 class
Score everyday for one week
Analyze your average
Create a plan of action for improvement
Discuss with colleague for accountability.
Implement
Reflect
Discuss with colleague for accountability.

Repeat with different class of students.

Initially, it takes only a couple of minutes to fill-in the wheel daily, but had great impact on my planning…

Also, allow your class to fill-in last couple of minutes in class…very interesting to hear their perspectives on each slice, they are very honest.

On this particular day, students told me we had used graphing calculators, but not to enhance learning.  I appreciated that statement because it says just because we are doing “things” does not mean they impact student learning.

The other thing they pointed out – I use index cards to randomly call on students, almost always, but they laughed because I didn’t on this day which caused me to lose that piece of pie.

Pam Wilson, NBCT
Currently Reading
5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematical Discussions, Smith & Stein
Teach Like  a Pirate, Dave Burgess
From Ashes to Honor, Loree Lough