Weekly Best Practices - Don't just assign, teach!!

Model some skill everyday Whatever I assign, I should model its creation in front of students. As teachers, we should model a piece of writing or the construction of an equation from scratch so that the students can see our thought process as we progress from blank page to end result. To paraphrase Kelly Gallagher, "Don't just assign, teach."

My goal this week: To work through the assignments that I have asked my students to do to realize how much work they are actually asked to complete. I hate to think of the student staying up til midnight to complete "work" that we have assigned, hoping that we have communicated the "standard" that they are to learn. I would rather work along side my student, have a deep converstaion with them and explore the "standard" in depth to how it applies now and how it could apply in the future, not only for them, but for the community. I don't want my student staying up til midnight, working on something and getting stressed or staying "busy". I want them to really think about what we are teaching them, why we are teaching this, how it could apply to not only my class, but to others, to their lives, to others' lives and practice what they are taught.

Project Goals this week: Museum Wall Transitions, painting the canvases, Google Doodle Sketch and our Elizabeth Murray Collective Artwork. Pictures to come at the end of the week. :)

**Above Quote taken from Edutopia**
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/ted-lesson-planning-student-writing-heather-wolpert-gawron