Today was an institute day. If you think students are challenging the day before they start spring break, you should see a school full of burned-out teachers.
This first-half of the day focused on sharing some of the work of our Science Curriculum Team with the rest of the district science teachers. We on the team are still struggling to keep our Next Generation Science Standards’s disciplinary core ideas straight from our performance expectations. Other teachers have a lot of anxiety and questions about what the fall of 2015 will be like when the new curriculum starts. Unfortunately, we on the team have few answers at this point. Regardless, it was good to hear everyone’s questions. We also watched one of the NGSS Bozeman videos:
The rest of the day was spent as a faculty discussing recommendations from our “Closing the Gaps” committee. Understanding the context in which many of our students are struggling compared to their peers is an incredibly important topic, and I’m pleased the entire faculty participated in the discussion. It is a tough discussion for the limited time we had and the day before break starts. I personally learned a lot and have a better understanding of the challenges these students face and the challenges we face in our efforts to “close the gap.”