Teacher Leadership Goal
March 14, 2014
As I reflected about what sort of goal I would like to aim for in the coming months, I struggled bit because I feel like I'm still treading water between snow days, conferences, yearbook deadline quickly approaching, and end of the quarter next week. Whew! Suck it up, Sarah :) Since my leadership style points me in the direction of a person who tends to go-with-the-flow I figured that's exactly what I should do. I just needed to get a plan and start working towards the goal.
My goal is to make students more aware and accountable for their own actions. This goes along the same lines as my current action research project. I have a good number of student who present the classic "do before you think" attitude. It causes problems with class distraction levels and individual productivity on class work. I will monitor students' behavior and visit with them on a regular basis. I hope that students are able to recognize poor behaviors more often and ideally prevent them from taking place as frequently as they currently do.
If anyone has insight about how to get my REFLECTIONS tab to work let me know! I edited the page and now for some reason you can't click on it. Ohhhh technology ;)
I appreciate your realization of the students causing distractions and having little productivity. You are a very reflective person! Are there any other specific activities or lessons you can do to help students become more accountable? What have other elementary teachers used? Would a reward-system help?
ReplyDeleteI am able to click on your REFLECTIONS tab. Did you fix the problem?
I am using an app on a school iPad called Class Dojo. It is taking some time to get used to but it's pretty cool to see exactly what behaviors happened and when. I think (hope) it will shed some light on problem areas for my individual students.... and then we can decide on our next step.
DeleteSarah, I like your goal. Are you continuing to use your 5 questions that you had used previously to monitor?
ReplyDeleteI am using Class Dojo for my observations and having students jot down a couple of things from their morning behavior and afternoon behavior. We then compare my observations with their notes on Fridays. It went well on Friday after just a couple of days. Most kids were quite accurate with what I saw; some needed a little chat on thinking honestly about how their day was going.
DeleteI am also able to click on your Reflections tab. I hope you fixed it! :) That is a great goal you have set. How will the students recognize 'poor' behaviors they are exhibiting? Are you thinking of implementing some sort of behavior system to show them?
ReplyDeleteMy sister used this Class Dojo app with her preschool special ed kiddos. It is nice to have something to keep track of specific behaviors being exhibited instead of me feeling like I am repeating the same reminders all day. I am hoping to see some trends and maybe transition into a behavior play/reward system if needed.
DeleteIt's a St. Patrick's Day miracle! I have no idea why the Reflections tab is now working but I'm not complaining!!
ReplyDeleteSarah! Great goal :) I'm super intrigued by this Class Dojo app. I am downloading it as I type this! Would you recommend it for a middle school classroom, or is it too elementary? I love that you let them self reflect on their own before comparing their answers with yours. And the fact that their answers are matching up with yours shows that they are being honest! Are there any students who are not responding well to this? What are your plans going forward with these kids?
ReplyDeleteThe look of it is pretty elementary but the data could be very helpful with any age of students. I do have a a few whose responses last week were good across the board (I had very different information). I talked with those students about specific examples and how they should think honestly. I stressed that they won't be getting in trouble but rather we are trying to figure out a plan to help them focus and behave better.
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