Building Community and Learning About Your Students

While October can seem to last forever, November is often a month that flies by. Students and teachers are anticipating the holidays and some breaks in the calendar. This month we look to provide resources for you that support your assessment of student understandings, your design of your classroom community, and your use of student centered instructional approaches. We encourage you to take a break and check in with your teaching practices as one or more than one of these modules might connect with something you are grappling with.

Assessment

An important part of teaching is being able to assess students’ understanding. Around this time of year you have most likely moved through a variety of units. The assessment module can support you as you plan and use formative assessments to inform your teaching practices.

Classroom Community

It is never too late to check in and think about your classroom rules and procedures. November can be a time where you begin to feel like certain routines and procedures are not working or that you need to do a lot of redirection during lessons. The classroom community module can support reflection on how you work with students to develop rules for the classroom that support learning in the classroom.

Student-Centered Instructional Approaches

One way to support student-centered instruction is to think about discussion and how you build routines that facilitate class discussions. The student module can support you as you design and think about the ways you are providing space for and structuring class discussions.

As we mentioned in our October communication, you can be a leader on your campus. Consider sharing these resources with the new teachers on your campus, department heads, your leadership team, and even your district leaders. Make a presence at your next PLC, grade level team or at your next department meeting by teaching others about the Inspire at UT Austin online modules.

We also encourage you to register for and to join the webinar being offered through Inspire.

We hope you have a great November with your students!

Upcoming Webinar from INSPIRE

Date: November 13, 2019, 3-4PM CST

Inspire Webinar: Caring Beyond Expectations

Presented by: Dr. Brian McDaniel, 2018 California State Teacher of the Year

November 3, 2019 | ElevateTxEd