GAETI Day 2

Whew! What a day. This morning was interesting listening to the social studies teachers and how I can plan across the curriculum with Spanish. It's really neat to know that I'm doing good things in my room. In the future, I plan to expand on some of the geography lesson I already have in place to try to meet more of these common core standards. Some of the presentations were hilarious! Mr. Chauncey Spears was excellent! I have a new perspective on Common Core. At first, I was overwhelmed at all of the "extra" stuff I was going to have to do. In reality, all I have to do is focus on literacy in my subject area. It has been a while since I have used Excel; it was fun creating graphs. I can use spatial maps and data in my classroom to show how many students have traveled outside of the U.S. or how many students speak languages other than English. Spatial data could be used to see how many students have experienced the focus of a chapter. Lots of things can be done to compare the data collected at the beginning of the year vs the end of the year. It is do nice to be with a group of teachers to collaborate, hear about the different struggles we face in certain areas of the state, and in the end know that we are in this profession for one reason, to positively impact the lives of others. It takes guts to do what we do...NO GUTS, NO GLORY!