Continuing the dream

This week brought two observation post conferences. Reviews were more mixed than previous and I think this was good for me. In both observations I was rated at basic/developing. While I got a bit defensive at first, after reflection, I realized that this is a learning experience. If I am always rated high, then I am not in a true position to make myself a better teacher.
One new activity that I have added to my arsenal is an activity called whip around. It worked well with my honors classes but I was a bit apprehensive to try it out in my standard classes. However, it was an overall success in al my classes and I can see myself using this again in the future. The premise is that each student is given a post it note. They are asked to wrote down a minimum of three things and then stand up. Students take turn sharing around the room, crossing out their items when they are shared. This goes on until all items are crossed out. The activity takes about 15 minutes, depending on class size. When I used this, I connected it back to one of the posted objectives.
One of the areas of improvement was to make sure I'm using my objectives. I am trying hard to make sure we read through and explain the objectives in the beginning of the class. Then, as we transition to another activity, someone reads the next objective. At the end of the class, I have a student read an objective and make the connection to what we did in class. I actually had an objective on the board that we were unable to get too. I had students at the end of class questioning that objective, thinking that they missed something. It's nice to have the students to as back up to keep me on track and to see them taking an interest in their learning.