Thursday, October 23, 2014

What Are We Doing?

Designing instruction daily can be exhausting. I am constantly searching the web and finding pertinent stories, video clips, news articles, infographics, opinion pieces and images to develop my unique lessons. Common core programming is clear, and we must develop students' thinking skills, collaboration skills, and improve their ability to read deeply and with analysis. How do you do this effectively with students who never choose reading in their free time? You build their skills, which are not grade level to begin with, without it seeming like a chore. Common core tells us, without question, this is what is to be taught at each grade level. How we accomplish that is our task. Some teachers teach the same novels, poems, and short stories for 20+ years. That is not what we should be doing. I never do the same exact lessons more than one time. Each year, the news changes, my knowledge grows and I develop more personally and professionally. My class design and structure is my own creation. My current graduate class is following what I do and how I do it. My presentations at Christa McAuliffe conferences for 4 years in a row draw educators from around the state to me to learn how to design instruction like I do. My passion is to create dynamic relevant and topical lessons. Every year my pallet is new, as the world is new and opportunities to read expands. Whether it's reading a novel or a web page, reading is a skill that can define us and determine our futures and that is why my instructional design grows, breathes, and is alive...