Welcome to the new teachers in OMSD and welcome back to the returning teachers. For me, it is hard to believe that the summer is over - it feels like it goes faster and faster every year. I hope that you found some time to relax and re-energize for this school year.
As I reflected during the summer on what I wanted to focus and improve for this school year I eventually came to the idea of 'connections.' And as I started to think about this more and more, it continued to get bigger and bigger.
It started with making stronger connections with my students. I believe that when we make connections with our students that they will work harder for me. I also wanted to try and create a positive atmosphere before my students ever met me. So, I wrote each my students a personal postcard and mailed it to them a week before school welcoming them to our classroom. While this took some time, I found value in writing each of their addresses because the community area became real to me as I envisioned where each of my students lived around school. It was nice on the first day when a few students said that they got my postcard - and I feel that the first day had a more positive atmosphere.Then I realized that making connections also involves the parents. So in an effort to make better connections with my parents I decided to create a website for each of my subjects. My own child had a second grade teacher who did this last year and I found it very useful as a parent to reference throughout the year. After building the website on Google Sites, I realized that it was not very difficult and it was worth the time and effort. While I have heard comments that teachers do not always update their website, I am going to try very hard this year to keep it updated for my parents. The ultimate goal would be to have it in Spanish as well but at this point it is something that I am working on to make better connections with parents.
And finally, I am trying to make better connections with colleagues on campus. This year I am working with a couple new teammates so it is my goal to build a working relationship with these two teachers so that we meet the needs of our students and each other, create meaningful common assessments, and design lessons that have a better impact on our students. I am still project based focused so creating a working relationship where everyone feels their input is valued is important to me. In addition, to my department I want teachers at my site feel free to come and visit my classroom whenever they want - in the ideal world, I would enjoy teachers showing up to my class without telling me ahead of time.
For those of you who follow my projects - my 8th graders are currently doing "Journey To Space" demonstrating their understanding of scientific notation and exponents. My 7th graders are doing "Comic Strip Stock Market" where they have a portfolio of $100,000 - we are using the website, www.howthemarketworks.com (more about this next month - if you are interested in creating your own competition and assign students articles to read about the stock market, then I would suggest exploring this website.) Finally, my Integrated Math I students are doing "#MathInMyLife" based on the game Life - today students got their job salaries to help them buy items of their choice.I invite you to join me this year as a write about my personal focus for the year. And I invite you to come and visit my classroom whenever is best for you or schedule a Spotlight Teacher visit.
Teaching and Still Loving It,
Kevin Stott
De Anza Middle School
Wow Mr.Stott that was very cool and alot of feeling and good job
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