My Eventual Goal

I was doing a little spring cleaning of my email inbox the other day, and I came across an email notification that was from our school district message board for professional staff. The subject for the message was "What Kids With ADHD Need to Learn." I can remember that it had piqued my interest (due to my classroom population), which is why I saved the email with the intent to read it. Clearly that hadn't happened, but I am glad that I kept the email. To my utter joy, I opened the message post to find the article was centered around personalized learning, an educational path that I have been traveling on for the last few years after attending a few conference seminars led by some dynamic teachers. And the author of the article was none other than Katie Novak, who helped to kick-start our school district's UDL journey (which makes sense why the article was shared on the message board in the first place).

Katie's articled highlighted several aspects of personalized learning, some of which I have incorporated into my classroom, and others that are still on my to do list for full integration (doing it all at once would be pretty overwhelming). The topics included keying in on students' passions, providing flexible seating and opportunities for self-regulation, utilizing student-driven teaching methods, and personalizing assessments. When I reflect on my classroom and teaching, I can definitely see that I need to focus in more on the students' passions and incorporate those in their learning. I would say I'm definitely starting to get a firm handle on flexible seating and self-regulation, but the article still gave me some things to think about. I think the elementary school has been on the right path when it comes to student-driven teaching methods through the use of our Daily 5 and Daily 3 structures, as well as the growth we have been making with UDL. Using personalized assessments is another area where I still have some growing to do, but I look forward to that growth. We still have a full quarter of school left, with plenty of opportunities to try out new things!

In other news, we had a little excitement this week. Our kindness chain was able to add on another section, so we are getting close to spanning one side of the classroom!
We also had a sock day in the school district on Wednesday for Downs Syndrome Day. Here are a couple pictures of our socks!




Mindfulness thought for the week: Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. --Dalai Lama

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