New District, New Risks, New Me!!!

    This whole school year has been a risk. With all of the stress that is going on in the world, it has seeped into the classroom. With the students and teachers going back and forth from 100% traditional to hybrid to AMI-X to four day weeks and to being out two weeks straight due to the snow. We have been through the ringer at my district. I am happy to say so far we made it through. This year personally was a big risk for me as I completely changed from a very urban district in the city to a pretty rural district an hour out from St. Louis. My world was completely changed. What used to be big problems in my old district no longer cross my mind here. 

    My big thing that feels risky to me every week is that I am now apart of team that collaborates every day. My teammates call me every day to talk about how things are going and we are able to reflect and I never had that at my old district. At first, it seemed really risky to loosen my reins on how I ran instruction and homework in my classroom but now I am loving that I have someone to actually bounce off ideas with instead of working alone like I had for so many years. At first, it really was stressful to give up all of that control I had and share with someone else but knowing that making the connection with someone else and sharing those ideas is what is best for our students is really helping me push through and be better each day. 

    Another way I have taken a risk in my classroom, is that I have a completely new system for testing and homework with my students. It is semi-paperless. At least for me, I no longer have to hand grade any student assignments as it is all graded digitally and I am sent the scores through a Google Sheet. This  has been fantastic and has made my life a breeze. It is still hard for me to give up on the hand graded paper homework and tests because I a math teacher and I love to look over all of their work. But in this system my students are able to receive immediate feedback on their work and I am able to check over their work when I am noticing a low score or they are continuously missing the same questions.