All students can learn. It is my job to help them learn.
No excuses. No exceptions.
4 essential questions guide my daily lesson planning and teaching practice: 1. What do students need to learn? 2. How will I know if they have learned? 3. What will we do if students are struggling? 4. What will we do for students who already “get it.”?
PLCs and EDI: Educators are forever inventing new acronyms to describe what we do, which is to help kids learn.
PLC stands for Professional Learning Communities, which is when teachers work in teams to plan lessons, analyze data and create common assessments. Our modified Wednesday schedule allows teachers to meet every Wednesday afternoon to work together to improve student learning.
EDI stands for Explicit Direct Instruction. This method of teaching requires teachers to continually check to make sure students understand the lesson. It involves several components I use in my classroom such as:
- Daily learning objectives posted and reviewed. Students know what they are expected to learn each day. Teacher continually checks to make sure they are learning.
- Everybody gets called on. Random, non-volunteers.
- Checking for understanding several times during each lesson.
- Students speak and write in complete sentences.
