Positive Feedback Loop

The feedback is rolling in, and the improvements are coming--and the challenges.

This morning, I had a double observation -- my IL and the principal. It was nerve-wracking. I got emails within 30 minutes of the lesson from both, with my feedback. Some things were good (they always start with the good), such as my use of Cold Calling, and others needed improvement (more aggressively monitoring student work during the lesson). The feedback is always provided in this format: Keep it Up stuff followed by Action Steps. I like that. It works for me. I get a pat on the back and specific directions. You might say, I get clear and specific directions. I've heard those are good.

One big problem, though, is that for the first time this year (Day 6), I didn't feel really good about the lesson. If I had had 90 minutes, instead of 55, it would've been perfect. I ended up rushing through some things, other things dragged, and I left each class today not totally confident in the students' understanding of the material. Of course, this is a huge improvement from last year, when I was never really confident in their understanding, and mostly worried about their ability to complete simple and straightforward exit tickets (and usually not quite so independently). This year, with higher expectations, I was unsatisfied.

I was teaching controls and constants (in the scientific method). The students were able to express why it was important to have a control and constants, but they were less proficient at identifying them, especially because the words are so similar. For example, they understood that to test the efficacy of fertilizer, one had to plant the exact same flower in the exact same conditions without fertilizer to compare it to, but were unable to identify that the control is the flower without fertilizer. I got all sorts of guesses, from the fertilizer to the soil. And they mixed up control with constants, but once someone came up with one example of a constant, the other ones kept coming: soil, sunlight, water, location, temperature, etc.

I'm going to have to practice this a lot. Every day, Do Nows and other questions will include a review of control and constant. I'm hoping that if I weave it into other content, such as tomorrow's lesson on multiple trials, the students will become more comfortable with it. I just have to make sure 100% of students are understanding it. For that, I'll have to use Thursday's quiz.

I love teaching, and I love data analysis. When the teaching doesn't work, there's always data to analyze. It's kind of a win-win. Unfortunately, we didn't have time for the exit ticket, so it's only subjective data for now. Ask me again next week.