What are some strategies or products that you have implemented from our summer NTI that made your semester begin more smoothly and more managable than last year? If this is your first year, what is working well? Remember to post and then to comment on another classmate's post. Grading criteria is located in your course syllabus.
We have been back in school for a little over four weeks now and I have implemented several things that I learned during summer NTI. The first is the use of a daily objective. The students no longer come in and ask "what are we doing today?" They are able to look at the board for the day's objective and then know what they are expected to learn. I've also implemented the rule ask three then me. This has worked well because I have students who are notorious for coming to me with questions I've already answered, now they are paying more attention because they don't want to have to ask their classmates what to do because they weren't paying attention.
Thanks to the many group activities we participated in during the summer NTI session I've learned to facilitate different learning strategies in my classroom. One topic that can be boring not only for myself but for my students is healthcare government agencies. I had the students get into groups and each group had to research the assigned governement agency then create a poster. Once the posters were created the students did a gallery tour and had to take notes on the other posters. This made them more engaged in their learning and avoided a long boring lecture.
I look forward to this semester of NTI and all the new material I will learn. This class has been so beneficial in making me a better teacher. I know I still have a ton to learn and I look forward to doing so in this class.
Response to Jennifer W. from Elissa
ReplyDeleteI am so glad to hear that you did the gallery tour! It amazing as the students take ownership and they get to teach the class and it is self-directed. Many topics which we may seem boring can become more interesting when the students are in control. The daily objective! I am with you on this when they come in they can see already what is expected. Ask 3 then me has worked great in my room as well sometimes they ask 6! Ha I am glad to know that all schools and classes have different learning strategies. Great job already! Looks like everything is flowing well! I will be doing more gallery work and I am also using that as their project grade!
I agree that the lessons we were given during the summer have been most useful so far. I am finding taht my class runs a lot more smoother than it did last year. The simple learning ideas and activities seem to keep the students more engaged. I also utilize the NTI notebook that we created in order to add a fresh atmosphere of learning so that the students can remain engaged.
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI love that you don't have to answer, "what are we doing today?" a million times! I am so pleased you chose the gallery tour method for a potentially boring lesson. It seems that as we continue to learn new things and then implement what we learned teaching is more and more fun (and learning is more engaging for your students). Thank you for tryig things and then sharing then in your post. Dr.J.