Residency Reflection
This year had its share of challenges, some anticipated and some unforeseeable. Looking back, though, this has been an amazing period of growth, from my first "what do you notice/what do you wonder?" protocol all the way to spring takeover. Through lots of reading, design, redesign, practice, and reflection, I've grown in my philosophy, skills, and relationships. I'm excited to keep learning, keep practicing, and keep growing as an educator.
Teaching Strengths
Connecting Big Ideas and Key Skills within a Unit
Lessons are designed with the "big picture" in mind, connecting to previous and future lessons as we work toward the specific learning target for the day. Warm-ups engage learning from the previous class that will be relevant to the lesson today, and I refer to co-created resources like anchor charts to help ground students in what they know while pushing them toward the "i+1" zone. Real world examples and applications are highlighted, and students are asked to reflect on their progress with key unit skills and understandings. Projects help students connect big ideas and key skills in authentic context.
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Use of Different Teaching Modalities
Lessons support learners with different needs and strengths through multiple modalities. Students have frequent opportunities to think, listen, speak, read, write, and draw about the mathematical ideas they are developing, thereby growing in their understanding as well as their communication skills. Communication routines are sensitive to the needs of emerging multilingual learners with attention to vocabulary acquisition and mathematical sense-making. Classes are structured with student-led portions as well as teacher-led portions to increase student agency and mathematical authority.
Area for Growth
Building Classroom Community with Diverse Peers through Group Work Routines
Last year, my Cooperating Teacher and I didn't use any specific routines or protocols for forming groups and structuring group work. I believe that group work protocols like group roles and co-developed group norms would really benefit students, leading to greater accountability and relationship building. It is my hope that students see their whole class as part of their safe learning community, not just their close friends.
How might I use group work to create a stronger classroom community?
At this point in your career, what does it mean to be an antiracist educator?
Being an antiracist educator is a commitment to think, act, and advocate for justice and liberation, which requires critically examining and talking about systems of power. It means doing the personal work of exploring my identity and biases, and how I benefit from privilege in a culture that centers and extols whiteness, and it means deeply listening to the experiences and needs of people of color. It means creating space for identity, humanity, and healing in a subject that is often characterized as impersonal and inaccessible if you don't look or sound a certain way. It means seeing and celebrating the brilliance of students and providing opportunities for that brilliance to develop and shine.