Hello, everyone! I've taken a LONG break from blogging: I was shocked to see that the last entry was October 1. It's been on my "to do" list every day, but other priorities (a.k.a. emergencies of grading, planning, and life) have taken over. But I'm back and will try to be more regular with the posts.
I've been up to a lot. Our district had a snow week this week (blizzard of 2015!), so I've had some time to reflect on the first half of the year. Preparing for EdCamp Malden on October 18 led to an awesome event. Our school is going 1:1 with Chromebooks, so that's on our minds. My schedule this year is what I wanted but has kicked my butt: lots of kids, lots of challenges, lots of work, lots of fun! It's been great but overwhelming, as I'm sure all teachers feel.
I've also been trying to achieve more of a balance between work and life. I'm working on sleep, diet, exercise, and relaxation, topics I used to ignore. I've found resources like http://wholeteacher.com/ that focus on the topic of teacher balance. Interesting stuff!
My Ed Eval goals are about dialectical journals and student-run discussions (see resource below). I'm trying to get on board with some instructional routines of my department.
Resource: Here's a great rubric that my department made before I joined it. The only thing I did this year was make it less holistic. I broke the different tasks of "Student-Run Discussion" into categories so students can see where they need to focus to improve. I have found it really helpful this year:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5awuiLlCqN5c3JEOGNvZEVGcDA/view?usp=sharing
If you can't open it, please let me know! Still getting used to this Google Drive world.
Thanks. Happy late new year to all my friends out there in the world of literacy. Feel free to say hello at abbeydick1@gmail.com or @abbeydick. Stay safe and warm!
