Cut

“Our nation’s most precious resource, our youth, are developed according to their race and funds, instead of their own capabilities.” -- cut from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address in 1961

Bits and pieces from class yesterday evening:

Diversity is defined as the people in the room. No individual has the ability to better represent diversity than any other individual.

We need to show our kids that this will be the best July ever, that they will enjoy our class.

Remember that the most important aim is student achievement, both over the summer and during the next two years.

In a successful classroom, two things must be present: a culture of achievement and a rigorous curriculum. That is, student must learn the material, but the material must be challenging to be meaningful.

Goals are set to be ambitious and feasible.
Goals are context-specific for each student.
We will be told, for each student, what the top 25% achievement gains for summer students with those scores in that subject have been, and that is our goal.

Borrowing lesson plans is okay, and doesn’t make you a bad person, because it is all about the children.

Today's learning began with a discussion of New years' resolutions. The conclusion that was handed to us was that intentions are hard to achieve without a specific plan. (Well, I did complete a half marathon, but I might have enjoyed it more if I had trained more consistently.) The same goes for our classrooms. We must create specific plans to reach our specific goals, which will help us achieve our vision.

We also "learned" the I Do, We Do, You Do model. Apparently (though I haven't seen any sources), any good lesson plan involves a lecture/explanation component (I Do), and guided practice section (We Do), and an independent work assignment (You Do). It definitely makes sense, and reiterates some of the techniques I used with Revolution Prep during the school year. It's a little satisfying to finally know exactly why Professor Z_____ was a terrible teacher, why his class once averaged 41 on an exam, and why about 40% of his class failed the second semester.

We also had to create our classroom Vision. With a capital "V". I came up with this:
My vision is to inspire students to enjoy science, to work hard at science, and to bring this enthusiasm to future classes. Students will begin to observe the world in an analytical way and ask questions based on their observations.

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I am hearing more about the hard work that we will have to do, but still no details on what we are supposed to do. The next session, though, involves working with our collaborative teaching partners. Maybe begin lesson planning?

I've also received a unit outline for the summer, showing all of the topics needed to be mastered for the Biology/Living Environment Regents Exam. I'm so excited! I love this stuff.