#Whatsup Wildcats - Classroom Edition

Back in October, I shared the past, present, and future work of the Collaborative Learning Team at Neuqua Valley High School. You can click here to view that post if you need more context regarding today's post. On that day, I shared my excitement for the team's future because of the work our teachers planned to do over the next 6 weeks. And don't you worry...our teachers rocked out the tasks by completing horizontal classroom observations and experiencing what our students do on a daily basis in various classes around the school. This week, we came back together to reflect , hypothesize , and plan for the future. The room was full of energy as teachers discussed student learning. Teachers were grouped based on what level they observed: Freshmen, sophomore, junior, or senior. First, the team was asked to Reflect . Here are the questions they answered after their observations and then talked about in groups during our meeting: What intrigued, surprised, or made you c...

One of the best parts about being an educator is observing the various ways that students learn. There is no one definitive way to engage and inspire; instead, we get to continuously brainstorm, take risks, and learn ourselves as we try various techniques in the classroom. This week, my partner-in-crime, Mr. Steve Wick , shared his plans to engage students and spark curiosity about their current class topic, Time and Earth Systems. His plans included various techniques to teach them necessary content, have them do something with the content, engage with their classmates about the content, and then eventually, assess their understanding of the content. His assignment sheet provides the expectations and resources needed to learn about Time and Earth Systems and do something creative with this content:  Step 1: Learn the Content Students were given digital resources to learn various topics connected to time. These resources included visuals, videos, and textual information ...

Our students appreciate teachers who take time to understand their learning process and then adapt lessons and content to fit their students' needs. We can't expect students to truly understand something if they cannot wrap their heads around it and make it work for them. This, my friends, is the challenge we all face as we start new units or introduce new content in our classes. I am excited to share a rockstar math lesson I witnessed that combined questioning and vocabulary to introduce a new unit of study. It was awesome. Many of my students know that I love to visit other classrooms around the building. Over the past few weeks, I've heard numerous students complimenting the teaching style of one of the teachers in our math department, and when I asked more about the class, two of my students encouraged me to come in and observe. So, I contacted Mr. Emmett Farrar and was able to observe an introductory lesson in his Honors Algebra 2 Trig class's upcoming unit. Le...