"What I Have Learned"

This summer I have learned that my personality, experiences, and what I learned as a student affects the way I teach. The common core standards are moving us as educators away from traditional schooling. Traditional ways are not wrong, but they need to balanced with other ways. Best Practices allows a teacher to make their classroom student centered. The kids who need Best Practice teaching the most are not getting it mainly because of standardized testing. As reading teachers we must teach thinking and no longer depend on the basal. We must provide students with text worth thinking about, help them think, and give them others with whom to think. Reading is interactive and strategic. Time often interferes with social studies instruction.Therefore, we must teach social studies content in reading / language arts. Through careful planning, teachers can integrate social studies across the curriculum. Integrated units is how teachers pull it all together. These units are student centered and the teacher is a model, and manages the inquiry process. This kind of learning requires big blocks of time. Students do not see the picture when subjects are are  departmentalized.