Three Blogs Might Be Too Much but Here Goes My Third!

I write two other blogs, one that is based on the lessons God is taking me through and the other is devotions.  This one is dedicated to the other passion in my life, teaching. I am finishing up my eighteenth year of teaching and have been pondering changes I'd like to make. This blog will be my journal along the way.

I am starting off the summer with the idea that I will be teaching my reading class using a combination of what I call "MUSTS" and "MAYS". Each week we start off with a class meeting with what we will be working on as a class. Students will know what they must accomplish during the week. Some of these will be done in a whole group setting. The others will be done in small groups that they may be assigned to be a part of. Then there will be flexible groups and individual learning opportunities. Students can decide whether to do it in the group setting or on his or her own. This will allow them to still complete what must get done but be responsible to choose how that happens.

The MAYS are completely choice. They will be able to choose to complete these in a group that involves me or ones that they form on their own. Or they will be able to choose to do these on their own. Some of the MAYS will be review items, some exposure to future MUSTS, and others will be based solely on their interest.

I know this will take a lot of planning and monitoring on my part. I have already created a way for students to document everything that they do through out the week, including setting goals, ranking their effort for each aspect, having a daily peer review of their work, and writing weekly summaries to their parents about their work. This is heavy on the personal responsibility part of everything.

So this summer I will be working on preparing for the first few weeks of school. I know I really have about three weeks that I will be very motivated to do this and then my summer brain will slowly take over. That means that it'll probably be August before I get motivated again, so here's to planning this great adventure.