Standard 1: Learners and Learning
Effective teachers demonstrate attention to the impact of unique learner characteristics on development and growth by:
- Personalizing Learning - Designing learning that builds on background knowledge while providing opportunities for each student to access, practice and refine new learning.
- Building Relationships - Building positive and authentic relationships with students as learning partners and supporting students in developing similar relationships with each other.
- Respecting Learner Backgrounds and Perspectives - Demonstrating respect for each learner and exhibiting actions consistent with recognizing learners’ diverse backgrounds and perspectives as assets to the classroom community.
- Fostering Student Self-Awareness - Providing formative and timely feedback to guide students in self-assessment of learning and demonstration of competency to support students in understanding themselves as learners.
Reflection:
Personalizing Learning - One of my favorite math routines is called Notice and Wonder. I love this math routine because it allows students the opportunity to enter into a math task, no matter their current level. Students often notice patterns that connect to background knowledge and wonder about future topics that come up in the lesson. When I do Notice and Wonder routines, students are not afraid to engage with presumably difficult mathematical concepts because they know that whatever they notice and whatever questions arise are valid.
Fostering Student Self-Awareness - One way I offer feedback to learners and engage them in the learning process is through test corrections. When students miss a question on a test, they have the chance to do test corrections which not only allows them the opportunity to improve their score, it allows them an opportunity to reflect on their learning, overcome misconceptions, and identify mistakes. It is a valuable tool in empowering students as learners. I also really love to do a warm-up called "My Favorite No" in which students answer a question, and I find my favorite mistake and display my favorite mistake (without identifying the student who made the mistake). It helps students to feel courage to make mistakes as part of their learning process, it provides immediate feedback to all students, and helps all learners, both those who made the mistake and those who did not, to improve their understanding of concepts.
Building Relationships - The part of teaching that I struggled with the most in my early years was building relationships. I was so focused on teaching content that I didn't make time to learn who my students were as individuals. I am grateful that is no longer the case. Each year I have my students fill out a brief get to know. you sheet that I read multiple times throughout the year to help me understand them better. This has led to many long-lasting relationships with my students who come back to visit me each year. I get nice little notes from my students throughout the year and love the end-of-year messages I receive from students in my yearbook or on the graffiti board. Teaching is not an easy job, but the relationships I build with students are what encourage me to persevere when things get difficult.
Personalizing Learning - One of my favorite math routines is called Notice and Wonder. I love this math routine because it allows students the opportunity to enter into a math task, no matter their current level. Students often notice patterns that connect to background knowledge and wonder about future topics that come up in the lesson. When I do Notice and Wonder routines, students are not afraid to engage with presumably difficult mathematical concepts because they know that whatever they notice and whatever questions arise are valid.
Fostering Student Self-Awareness - One way I offer feedback to learners and engage them in the learning process is through test corrections. When students miss a question on a test, they have the chance to do test corrections which not only allows them the opportunity to improve their score, it allows them an opportunity to reflect on their learning, overcome misconceptions, and identify mistakes. It is a valuable tool in empowering students as learners. I also really love to do a warm-up called "My Favorite No" in which students answer a question, and I find my favorite mistake and display my favorite mistake (without identifying the student who made the mistake). It helps students to feel courage to make mistakes as part of their learning process, it provides immediate feedback to all students, and helps all learners, both those who made the mistake and those who did not, to improve their understanding of concepts.
Building Relationships - The part of teaching that I struggled with the most in my early years was building relationships. I was so focused on teaching content that I didn't make time to learn who my students were as individuals. I am grateful that is no longer the case. Each year I have my students fill out a brief get to know. you sheet that I read multiple times throughout the year to help me understand them better. This has led to many long-lasting relationships with my students who come back to visit me each year. I get nice little notes from my students throughout the year and love the end-of-year messages I receive from students in my yearbook or on the graffiti board. Teaching is not an easy job, but the relationships I build with students are what encourage me to persevere when things get difficult.