Category: reflection
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To Begin the School Year, Turn Inward
Yesterday was the first time I’ve seen my colleagues in my school building since March. I can’t even begin to tell you how it fed my heart and soul to see them in person! But being together after a long quarantine summer also means that we continue our individual and collective work as anti-racist educators…
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Whose Independence?
I spent quite a lot of time thinking about independence this year. It isn’t that I hadn’t considered the Declaration of Independence through the lens of equality and inequality before, but a recent PD session at Academy for Teachers helped me think about independence in a historical way that I’d not really considered. The idea…
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Student Surveys
Just before the Thanksgiving holiday (which feels like forever ago!), our school sat down together to work on what we call our “Professional Growth Process,” which was designed as a way for us to work together with others in our community to foster our growth as teachers. The professional growth process was carefully and thoughtfully…
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Reflection for Assessment & Growth
As a reflective practitioner, I see so much value in the way thinking about my teaching can help me improve. I leave myself post-its in my planner so that when I come back to units the following year, I know what I want to change, I keep a notebook for writing down ideas that I…
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Flipgrid & a Martin Luther King, Jr. Lesson
A few weeks ago, thanks to the Twitter universe, I stumbled upon an educational tool called “Flipgrid” (@flipgrid – sidenote, their team looks like a hoot based upon their Twitter cover photo.) Flipgrid’s website touts their product as: “Flipgrid is where your students go to share ideas and learn together. It’s where students amplify and…
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Lesson Plan: Gender Fluidity in Colonial History
In keeping with my philosophy to make sure all students feel included in American history class, I tweeted Katherine Ott (@amhistcurator)for inspiration. I wanted to know how to include my students who are part of the LGBTQA+ spectrum in the story, and since #LGBThistory as part of the story in the Colonial Era isn’t…
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Spark Learning
As 8th grade dean, I am part of my school’s Academic Planning Committee. The APC meets once a month to discuss and determine school policies. Department chairs work together to make curricular changes, and grade level deans meet to further improve the social-emotional education of our students. These meetings; however, always begin with the entire…