My ONE GOAL for the 2017-2018 School Year

I work at a public high school in Texas, but my school is a school of choice - students must apply and be accepted into my school.  We are an Early College High School - our students will (ideally) graduate with a high school diploma AND an associate's degree in four years.  We just opened last year with a freshman class of 76 students and will add a new class each year (we're adding about 80 students this year).

The target demographic for our school is first generation college, low-socioeconomic and at risk students.  Since we just opened we do have some students who don't fit our target demographic, but most of our students do.  For almost all of our students not only are they taking college classes for the first time, they're taking Pre-AP classes for the first time, too (all of our high school offerings are designated Pre-AP).  We help our students find success in our program by providing them with TONS of academic and social supports.

I am happy with how our first year went - almost all of my students passed their Algebra I EOC last year.  Many have already passed the math portion of the TSI (similar to the Accuplacer) that is required in order for them enroll in college level math down the road.

But I do feel like I could put in some work when it comes to being more aware of where my students are mathematically on a student by student basis.  As a whole, I can tell you what skills my students have mastered and which ones need more work.  I know what deficits most (but not all) of my students come to my classroom with.  I know where most (but not all) of my students will get hung up when introducing new concepts and I can usually plan my instruction accordingly.  I know how to engage and motivate most (but not all) of my students.  But I don't feel like I know where each of my students are at on their math journey on a truly individual basis.  So that's my goal for this year - to spend more time one-on-one with my students.  I want to spend more time watching them do math and less time showing them how to do math.  I want to spend more time listening to them explain their thinking and less time telling them what or how to think.

I'm so thankful for the #SundayFunday blogging challenges and look forward to using them to help focus and refine my craft as a teacher over the course of this upcoming school year!  ;)