Transition

Please come visit my TpT store, Facebook page, and Pinterest page!

I have been adding products to my store like a mad woman! I plan to use them all this year as I transition to 1st grade from intermediate grades.

My biggest AHA! this summer has been around brain research and how people hold onto information or create learning pathways. I have given an interview to Dreambox about being a teacher of math in elementary school and what I'd really like to see regarding student data. I have read Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler. I have read Intentional Talk by Kazemi and Hintz. I have created a classroom theme for my new 1st grade classroom (Garden) and created tools for myself with this theme (see my store Sarah's Teaching Points Store.  I have reflected on how first grade will be the same and different than any other grade I've taught before.

I have accepted that blowing noses, tying shoes, and zipping jackets will be a part of my daily life and am working on a plan for fostering independence.

I am excited to teach a grade without a state test and yet worried that I will be the primary teacher who totally misses the key building blocks for students to build upon in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th.... I have to trust that my experiences, training, and instincts (really my brain knowing so much from almost 20 years of teaching at all ability levels) will lead me in the right direction. The research cited above have given me a new understanding of my role as teacher: pathway maker. It is my job to advocate for my students' brain growth by fighting senseless timed drills of knowledge and overwhelming their working memory, giving them time to really think and explore. It is my job to provide tools and ideas for them to question and engage in solving (and failing to solve!) those questions. It is my job to gently nudge them toward the big patterns in all subjects, not isolate their learning.

Can I write that paragraph on my wall in cute sticker letters? It will be hard to remember my job under the pressures of a system that still uses math timings and sight word flashcards as a basis of primary learning and teaching.

Maybe just a post-it on my clipboard with this quote:
"When we make mistakes, our brains spark and grow...yet many classrooms are designed to give students work that they will get correct." Jo Boaler Mathematical Mindsets.  It is my job to fight back against an influx of low level, skill and drill, teacher based rules teaching. Even (especially) for seven year olds. And teachers.