Friday, May 8, 2015
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Checkoff Lists
I don't know about anyone else, but I find it extremely hard to keep track of which standards I've covered and which I haven't. There's just so many.
In my case, this year I'm expected to cover 4 different grade levels. I know I haven't been able to cover all of them. And it really, really bothers me.
Here's the thing, though. While I currently am responsible for students from Kindergarten-Third grade, none of them are actually working on grade level in reading/la. Most are behind in math (though on grade level, they're just working much slower than general education students). I have to carefully pick and choose what to teach from each grade level to ensure they're actually learning at the appropriate level. Some are working close to their assigned grade level and some are functioning well below it.
Please don't ask me how I do it. I don't think I do enough. I go home every night and stew over what I could have done better or different. And I get frustrated that what I just taught the day/week/month before (and have been reviewing constantly) didn't stick. Or that one day they get it and can do it perfectly, and then the next day it's like I never taught it at all. It's exhausting.
Honestly, it probably wouldn't be as difficult if I didn't have administrators breathing down my neck constantly asking me why they aren't FSA ready. And my response of "you can't put the cart before the horse" falls on deaf ears.
So anyway, in order to help myself keep track of everything, I created a checkoff list of sorts. Each grade has the strand, cluster, standard, and standard code as well as a second box to write in what week(s) the standard was taught. I'm hoping this will help me keep track of what I've already covered and what's left. I doubt I'll be able to get to everything since there just isn't enough time to teach 4 grades in the same span that general education teachers teach 1 grade, but maybe I'll do better.
I will be posting these to my Teachers Pay Teachers store soon. Right now I only have Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd done for Reading/LA and Math.
In my case, this year I'm expected to cover 4 different grade levels. I know I haven't been able to cover all of them. And it really, really bothers me.
Here's the thing, though. While I currently am responsible for students from Kindergarten-Third grade, none of them are actually working on grade level in reading/la. Most are behind in math (though on grade level, they're just working much slower than general education students). I have to carefully pick and choose what to teach from each grade level to ensure they're actually learning at the appropriate level. Some are working close to their assigned grade level and some are functioning well below it.
Please don't ask me how I do it. I don't think I do enough. I go home every night and stew over what I could have done better or different. And I get frustrated that what I just taught the day/week/month before (and have been reviewing constantly) didn't stick. Or that one day they get it and can do it perfectly, and then the next day it's like I never taught it at all. It's exhausting.
Honestly, it probably wouldn't be as difficult if I didn't have administrators breathing down my neck constantly asking me why they aren't FSA ready. And my response of "you can't put the cart before the horse" falls on deaf ears.
So anyway, in order to help myself keep track of everything, I created a checkoff list of sorts. Each grade has the strand, cluster, standard, and standard code as well as a second box to write in what week(s) the standard was taught. I'm hoping this will help me keep track of what I've already covered and what's left. I doubt I'll be able to get to everything since there just isn't enough time to teach 4 grades in the same span that general education teachers teach 1 grade, but maybe I'll do better.
I will be posting these to my Teachers Pay Teachers store soon. Right now I only have Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd done for Reading/LA and Math.
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