What does it mean to be REFLECTIVE?

What does it mean to be reflective? Truly reflective!

Being a reflective educator is critical for growth and essential to being an effective teacher or educator. Reflective teaching is an ongoing process. A process where an educator thinks about his or her practice, what works, what does not work, and how might instruction be improved or changed. It is not always easy, but it is so worth it!

At a recent Leadership Florida institute in St. Petersburg, I was reminded of data that was shared with the Florida Teacher Fellowship during our institute in Tallahassee. The New Teacher Project (TNTP) conducted research regarding teachers’ understanding of the standards, shifts in standards, and designing student work aligned to the standards. The results were astonishing! Only 7% of Florida Teachers made instructional changes required by Florida State Standard. 

From TNTP

Only 36% of assignments indicated alignment to the standards. While 64% of Florida students met expectations of assignments, only 27% of Florida students met the expectations of the standards. 

From TNTP

From TNTP

A typical task for third-grade students.

What the task actually looks like on an FSA Practice

This information led me to my own reflection on my understanding and implementation of Florida’s Standards. Do I really understand the standards? Do the tasks I plan for my students align to the standards? Upon returning to school and my classroom, I quickly analyzed an assignment my fourth-grade team and I designed for our students to meet ELA standard 4.RI.2.6 (Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic; describe the differences in focus and the information provided). As expected, the task did not meet the depth of the standard. Part of being reflective is being honest and vulnerable; one must be open to the truth, no matter how it may hurt. I was not teaching to the depth of the standard. That realization hurt. 

I immediately gathered my team and shared this revelation. We gathered our tools (Florida Standards packet, Teacher's Tool Box, Item Specs) and unpacked that particular standard.  The task we designed just scratched the surface of the standard, it did not align to the depth of that standard.  From that day on (and currently), we take the time to study the standards, unpack them, study the toolbox, and now we are actually planning meaningful, engaging tasks that align to the depth of the standard. Yes, the process takes time, but our focus is on the students. The evidence that this process works is in the progress of our students! The engaging academic talk and the depth of understanding are amazing!  

This practice of reflecting on the data also led to an action research project I am currently working on. What would happen if teachers participated in job-embedded, practice-focused professional development unpacking ELA standards translating them into practice to the depth of the standards?  

According to Terry Heick (author of What it Means To Be a Reflective Teacher) states that reflective teaching is a self-awareness with humility.  It is timing, sequence, and procedure. Reflecting on your practice can be beneficial as it can result in a plethora of strategies, tools, knowledge, and most importantly, improved practice. 

Accountability Talk

With all this talk of high stakes testing and teacher accountability, is it possible to have fun teaching?  If you visited my classroom this year, the answer is an absolute YES you can!  I was almost giddy with excitement as I listened to my students' conversation about their discovery, learning, and problem-solving. 

In order to process new knowledge or information, students must have peer interaction.  Discourse among students helps extend their understanding.  This idea was one of Lev Vygotsky’s contributions to the world of education. Although educators know that peers can scaffold new learning effectively through active educational discourse, we (as teachers) are reluctant to allow collaborative discussions.  Why?  We are afraid of losing control and losing valuable instructional time.

Accountable talk (or Math Talk) is student-centered academic classroom talk that includes a variety of cognitive functions that help students explain their thinking. During “Accountable Talk”, students are accountable to their learning community, to the knowledge, and to rigorous thinking.  Students are accountable to their learning community by listening, summarizing, adding on to peer’s statements, or directing attention to the importance of a peer’s statement.  Students are accountable to the knowledge by checking understanding, explaining how he/she arrived at the answer, giving examples and support, or linking new knowledge to previous knowledge.  Finally, students are accountable to rigorous thinking by defending their reasoning and asking their peer to explain or provide evidence.

I model how to use "Accountable Talk" beginning the first week of school. In order for students to use Accountable Talk fluently and with fidelity, it takes modeling and practice! Each student receives a bookmark with conversation starters as well as a reference sheet with these same conversation starters that is kept in their interactive notebook.

  
To see my bookmarks and posters, please click HERE!

"Accountability Talk" in my classroom takes on many forms.  From "Reciprocal Teaching" to "Response Chaining" my students converse with each other academically.  This discourse is respectful and purposeful!

BloomBoard - A Place for Educators!

As busy educators (wow, that's an understatement), we are always searching for resources.  We spend endless hours searching for strategies, activities, websites, etc.  This takes time, time that we just don't have!  Let me introduce to you a time saver, BloomBoard!  BloomBoard is a place where educators can learn, share, and discuss the best teaching ideas and strategies to solve everyday classroom challenges and improve their practice.  BloomBoard offers easy access to high-quality, personalized content curated by experienced educators.  The BEST part is it's FREE!  As my son always says, "If it's FREE it's for ME"!  

Throughout the month of February, over 20 education bloggers (including myself) will be sharing collections of learning resources on our blogs and writing about how that collection powers our practice.  The collections will either be ones we have curated ourselves around a topic of interest or just a favorite of ours from the new BloomBoard.  You can check the BloomBoard Blog every Monday in February for the week's schedule of bloggers and follow along daily on BloomBoard's Facebook and Twitter pages.

My BloomBoard Collection

One of the collections I curated is "How to Make Cooperative Learning Work in Your Classroom". Recently (well, about five years ago) I was introduced to Kagan Structures!  Kagan Structures are cooperative learning structures that engage ALL students! Cooperative learning is NOT just group work.  Cooperative learning maximizes learning because ALL students participate. One of my favorite cooperative learning structures is Rally Coach. Students work in pairs, Student A and Student B.  The activity (usually a practice paper) is placed in the middle of the pair. Student A explains the process he will take when completing the question or task.  Student B will either agree or disagree and coach where needed.  Roles reverse.  This 'RALLY" will continue until the allotted time expires.  

With the help of Bloomboard, I have been able to create a collection of resources that will help teachers in the area of Cooperative Learning as well as collections that can help with other classroom routines and needs.  


I would now like to introduce the next featured blogger in this campaign.  National Writing Project is a network of sites anchored at colleges and universities and serving teachers across disciplines and at all levels, early childhood through university.  They provide professional development, develop resources, generate research, and act on knowledge to improve the teaching of writing and learning in schools and communities.  The NWP focuses the knowledge, expertise, and leadership of our nation's educators on sustained efforts to improve writing nad learning for all learners.