"Develop the tools and dispositions to study and learn from teaching"
Instructional Rounds
"Rounds are not about 'fixing' individuals teachers. Rounds are about understanding what's happening in classrooms, how we as a system produce those effects, and how we can move closer to producing the learning we want to see" - Elizabeth A. City
My first thoughts about doing instructional rounds was to find what the teacher was doing wrong and create ways to fix the problems. After reading Elizabeths A. City's article, "Learning From Instructional Rounds", I understood the real purpose to instructional rounds. They are not to criticize or fix your colleagues teaching methods or procedures. Instructional rounds are meant to help you understand how and what students are learning, see what is effective for the students or not, and what could be added or taken away from the classroom that will benefit all students. During my first instructional rounds I was able to pinpoint a problem of practice that might be useful for Mr. Han's 4th grade class (checks for understanding). I positively wrote about ways it might be useful to add checks for understanding and when best to use it. During my last last instructional rounds, however, I had a hard time finding a problem of practice. Mrs. Right kept her students actively engaged throughout the entire lesson and knew how to keep their attention. Dr. H informed us that problem of practices don't necessarily have to be something that is missing, it can be something that is being implemented in the classroom that is good practice. We decided to create our problem of practice as something that was already being implemented, active engagement. Instructional rounds has taught me how to view and understand other colleagues classrooms (teaching methods) in a positive and educational way. Instructional rounds are meant to help all teachers better their teaching practices.
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Instructional Round 1- May 12th, 2018
Instructional Round 3- June 1st, 2018
Reading Response Cards
At first I didn't understand why we had to create reading response card. It wasn't until we brought them to class to discuss that I fully understood the reasoning behind it. All the articles and chapters we read throughout this course was intended for us to become better learners and future teachers. In our small groups in class we shared the quote we used and why we choose it. It was very interesting and educational to listen to other peoples quotes and why they choose them. Almost every time someone read a quote I thought they picked it for a different meaning then they did, which helped me widen my thinking about the message of the reading. When you look at my first few response cards to my last couple response cards, I can see the difference in my reasoning. At first I wrote about how the articles related to my previous thoughts of science, but now they relate to how I want to view and teach science now. Reading response cards made me do the readings which overall bettered my understanding of science education. They also allowed me to listen and understand my colleagues view points of science which helped me widen my thinking and better my understanding of concepts.