November 2012
"To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching."--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Introducing the All-New Humanities Blog-ALL Humanities ALL the time!
As mentioned in the introduction of my blogging experience, this is the first time the MPS Directors had attempted to blog. We asked for patience as we know there was going to be plenty of trial and error. We decided to reconfigure our blog, and now our Humanities @ MPS Blog is ALL Humanities ALL the time! You can visit the STEM Blog at www.MPSSTEM.blogspot.com
if you would like to check out what STEM @ MPS is up to too!
30/30 Meetings
As I have mentioned in our Department and Faculty meetings, I will be contacting everyone requesting at time to meet with each person who teaches in the Humanities subject areas: Fine Arts, ELA, Foreign Language and ELA. The meeting will be scheduled for 60 minutes. On the agenda is anything you would like to discuss for the first 30 minutes, and anything I would like to discuss for the last 30 minutes. I have enjoyed a few 30/30 meetings already. Some of chosen to e-mail me a list of topics they wanted to discuss before the meeting, others have brought their list with them, while others have arrived with some ideas in their heads. Any and all formats work. One suggestion I have is to think about how I might be able to help support teaching and learning and what that looks like for you and your classroom. I am looking forward to hearing from each of you and what you think. My goal is to complete these meetings by the mid-year point (or sooner).
Food for thought: Effective Feedback
As I walk through classrooms, prepare for formal observations of student learning, and am wrapping up my season coaching little league field hockey, I have been thinking a lot about feedback. So did you have to go back a reread that sentence? Are you wondering what walk-thrus, observations, and coaching have to do with eachother? [insert wait time here] Think about it...
This was my daughter's first year playing field hockey, as was the case for the majority of our team in the Pee Wee Instructional Division. I coached high school freshman field hockey 7 years, and this was not a huge leap. The proficiency level of first-year players is not much different between a 1st grader and a 9th grader. We had a great season, finished 2nd in the league, and had a lot of fun. Last week we attended a post-season reflection meeting with the League Director to provide feedback about what worked well, what didn't work well, and how we might change it.
As I thought about what points I wanted to present at the meeting, I remembered some feedback I had received from some parents and players about how "loud" I was when I "yelled" during games. My response was, " I am not yelling, I am coaching...giving feedback" Upon reflection I realized that I was providing feedback, but it wasn't necessarily effective feedback.
At the post-season meeting, I suggested that in the Pee Wee Instructional League coaches should not only be allowed, but encouraged to be on the field during the game. We could provide instruction and immediate and effective feedback as the girls play resulting in more effective field hockey players.
I was not new to coaching field hockey this season, as I am not a new to classroom observations, but I am new to both teams. As a coach, I want to provide effective feedback that will help the players improve their skills and proficiency in field hockey. As a classroom teacher, I wanted to provide effective feedback to help students improve their skills, knowledge and proficiency in the subject matter. As an educational leader, I want to provide effective feedback to our teachers that will result in increased student learning. I look forward to working with all of you, and will do my best to be a coach that is helpful, supportive, and effective for our team. I hope the resources I have shared are helpful.
Below you will find some quotes from one of the best resources of teaching best practice I have ever used: Research for Better Teaching's The Skillful Teacher. I hope you will take some time to reflect on "Feedback" and maybe even provide some to me if you incorporate any of these resources. Feel free to include such feedback in the comments section below.
"Academic feedback is more strongly and consistently related to achievement than another teaching behavior. This relationship is consistent regardless of grade, socioeconomic status, race, or school setting" (The Skillful Teacher, 6th Edition, p.460).
"The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback. The simplest prescription for improving education must be 'dolops of feedback'"(The Skillful Teacher, 6th Edition, p. 461).
"Feedback Defined: Feedback is information about how we did in light of some goal. Feedback is descriptive of performance in relation to a standard or to criteria for success that have been clearly communicated" (The Skillful Teacher, 6th Edition, p. 461).
"Feedback the increases student learning significanly is:
- direct
- specific
- timely
- in the appropriate amount
- able to be understood (developmentally appropriate)
- credible
- frequent and ongoing
- nonjudgmental"
(The Skillful Teacher, 6th Edition, p. 461)
