Journal+for+Week+6

This was a very busy week for us at Eastern Heights. This week we revised our student needs assessment and gave the student needs assessment to our students during Language Arts. We encountered several problems with our needs assessment. First, we were unable to get it as a direct link to our teacher pages, so with the help of our coach, Heidi, Karen created a word document with a link attached. The sixth graders did a good job following the directions to get to our survey on Survey Monkey. Second, we had too many choices for the students on several questions (i.e. 1 a month, 2x a month, etc...) Finally, we cannot get the results or our survey from Survey Monkey without paying for it. So we printed the results and Karen began putting them into an excel spread sheet, but we'll have to continue to look at that this week.

The readings this week and videos were interesting. Working on this grant has really energized my teaching and I feel like it is my first year all over again. My first year of teaching was 1988 and we were just getting a computer lab of Apple computers with bankstreet writer, and other programs. I was overwelmed, but excited. I did more projects than I taught basic skills. Now as a vetern teacher I can look at the whole picture, figure out the best ways to incorportae projects with the skills students need to succeed.

I thought the video of the school in Key Largo was great. I liked how the school had specific grades working in different areas; fifth grade, cooking, sixth grade, greenhouse, seventh grade, broadcast etc.... This is a great way to organize the program so that the grade level can focus on teaching a specific area instead of all grade levels doing small parts. That is how I feel our curriculum works. Every grade level has to write a research report, persuasive essay, etc... instead of one grade level focusing on specific skills and doing it well. I think less is more helps students to be successful.

Heidi says I am ahead of myself, but as we finish our mythology unit in the next week the students will be working on a podcast. Each student has been assigned a Greek god or goddess. They will be writing a report and then completing a podcast. I am going to try to attach a rubric. I am doing this only in my honors class, but I am trying to think of a way to incorporate it into my regular and inclusion classes.