Devon Davidson, Grade 5 Teacher What are the benefits of Langley’s new teacher feedback model? The observations allow for a more holistic approach to the feedback process. Having observers come into my classroom regularly gives them the chance to see authentic moments which help develop relevant feedback. One of the things I find most helpful in our post-observation conversations is the immediately applicable suggestions. For example, I often design activities with a lot of collaboration and can sometimes leave out independent work. Last year, after one of my observation conversations, I felt reaffirmed that independent work is a necessary component of classwork and began incorporating it more regularly.
Mollie Morneau
Jr. Kindergarten Teacher What skills does the JK interdisciplinary ramp unit build? In JK, we explore ramps as an interdisciplinary STEAM unit. We learn what defines a ramp by looking at pictures of structures like wheelchair ramps and walk around campus hunting for ramps. Then the real hands-on work begins. Over the course of several months, students build ramps and manipulate them to meet different goals. At first, they use blocks to understand the underlying physics and engineering principles of ramps. In later challenges, they build a ramp and use string to measure how far a toy car goes past the end of the ramp. We tape paper to ramps and use vehicles whose wheels are rolled in paint to create works of “ramp art.” Throughout these interdisciplinary activities, students’ critical-thinking, observation, and problem-solving skills grow, along with their resilience. While we give the students guidelines and suggestions to jumpstart their play, there is plenty of room for their individual creativity and new ideas.
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WINTER 2017
Teacher Voices & Perspectives Langley has made exciting progress on the academic excellence pillar of our strategic plan and our faculty has embraced these forward-thinking initiatives with energy and passion.
Jessica Robinson Grade 3 Teacher
How did the Advanced Writing Institute influence your teaching? Held at Columbia University’s Teachers College, the Advanced Writing Institute was a wonderful opportunity for me to delve deeply into effective strategies for teaching writing. I explored how to use different types of small groups, rubrics, and “mentor texts” to support and guide my teaching. After incorporating some of these strategies into my lessons, I’ve found that my students have taken more ownership of their writing, recognizing themselves as authors, gaining confidence, and developing greater writing stamina and quality.
Ryan McKinney Science Teacher
How has the new teacher feedback model enhanced a specific lesson? Earlier this year, Phil Petru and Ryan Jefferson observed my sixth-grade Earth history lesson where students were learning about the geologic time scale. We talked about ways to bring the lesson to life even more clearly for the students. During that 10-minute meeting, they helped me support student learning by suggesting I change the timing of how and when I share fossils from each of the different time periods. This change forced students to make predictions before finding out the time period of each fossil, encouraging deeper levels of inquiry-based learning.
Alexandra Kingsley Kindergarten Teacher
Tell us about the Teachers College Writer’s Workshop you attended last June. This week-long workshop was geared toward educating kindergarten teachers to use Writer’s Workshop, a program which incorporates choice into students’ daily writing and instills a love of writing in young students. The information I learned has elevated my teaching this year and helped my students develop a sense of ownership as they choose what to write about, understand that they have a story to tell through writing, and gain confidence to share those stories with the world.
Inga Schoenbrun, Math Specialist What did you learn at the NCTM conference you attended? Last spring, several Langley math teachers and I attended the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) conference in San Francisco which focused on “Building a Bridge to Student Success.” We were all engrossed when Jo Boaler, professor of math education at Stanford University and co-founder of youcubed.org, spoke of the growth mindset and how our brains work differently when we believe in ourselves and believe we are capable of doing math. Her talk reinforced how critical it is for us to help kids believe this. Dan Meyer’s presentation, “Beyond Relevance and Real-World: Stronger Strategies for Student Engagement,” inspired me to decompose textbooks so students can engage with math through a more constructivist approach, allowing them to create and develop the mathematical questions to be answered and actively involving them in the process.
Joanna Edie, Drama Teacher
Paige Dunn, Art Teacher
How does your “selfie” project integrate across subject areas?
How has the new teacher feedback system helped you grow? The new system helps teachers
The eighth-grade teaching team created essential questions focused on identity, culture, and the power of a story to guide our curriculum in each subject area throughout the year. In our interdisciplinary unit with visual art, eighth-graders create an original “selfie” performance. Students explore their past, present, and future by interviewing a family member, re-enacting a moment from their lives, and choosing a song that says something important about them. The project concludes with students filming a performance, complete with costumes, props, sets, and lights. The kids appreciate how open-ended and inquiry-based the assignment is. Within some basic guidelines, I allow them to take the project in any direction that inspires them. As they get ready to leave Langley, I see the “selfie” project as both a graduation and a commencement – a product of their learning at Langley and also the beginning of their journey into adulthood.
grow to be the best they can be. These less formal observations have enabled me to realize small things in my teaching that I wouldn’t have noticed on my own. For example, thanks to feedback I received, I’ve learned to wait for a longer period of time before I call on students after asking a question. This technique allows the students time to think on a deeper level. It’s nice to have feedback that not only helps the students’ learning, but also helps my teaching style.
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