My Mission To Teach

Wow...Sandy is beating down on Long Island! The wind is crazy...gusty and strong.
School was closed today, but a teacher's work is never done...I decided to go over the notes I took during my attendance at the Teachers College Saturday Reunion on Saturday. It was really great! I attended three different sessions. One with Lucy Calkins, another with Kathleen Tolan, and the other with Lauren Kolbeck. There was lots of talk about teaching for transfer. I hadn't really given this topic much thought before Saturday. Really does make sense though...you have to teach kids to transfer their learning to real life...it doesn't just happen. I have always taught thinking about how my students would apply what they are learning in the classroom, to situations outside of the school day. This was always the ultimate goal of my thinking and planning. However, I never really explicitly taught kids to transfer.
With some self-reflection and looking back at lesson plans from last year...It seems that I often told and taught kids how to use what I was teaching in my reading, writing, and math workshops in their daily lives. I hope I have planted the seed for this thinking and self-reflecting in your own practice.

Peace,
Carol