A+discussion+with+LISD+teachers

The following are comments from teachers across the district who had 100% of their students meet expectations on common assessment #2 in math and/or science. This page will be updated often as more teachers share their strategies and ideas.

Question: What are some of the strategies and/or activities that you used with your students that you feel contributed to the success of your students on the common assessment #2?

** Responses: ** ** I believe that doing labs has helped my students. They can visualize what they did in the lab as they are answering the questions. We do not always go to a lab, in fact sometimes I do the lab and they watch. However, they do labs approximately 75% of their science time. **

** *Each time we do a lab, they do an agenda page that includes steps of the scientific process. They are able to go through each part of the process and see the purpose of the lab. ** ** 1. **** Objective Review ** ** 2. **** Observation ** ** 3. **** Summarize ** ** 4. **** Graph/Data **

** 5. ** What I learned today.
=== *I am also working on test taking skills and strategies in class. This has helped some students because they are able to eliminate answer choices and narrow their choices down to 2. This gives them a 50/50 shot to get the correct answer. === === *We strive to teach cross-curricular all day long. We use graphs in reading. We talk about place value when turning to a page #. We discuss weather in math and if 88 is greater than 44, which season would you find that weather in. ===

//2nd grade teacher at LES//


What I feel contributed to my students success was understanding of the material. During lessons I take the time to monitor learning and assess understanding. If understanding is just not there, I teach it another way. Games are also a great way to make sure they understand the material.
 * //Christine Grimm//**
 * //1st grade teacher at Belt Line Elementary//**


 * Lots and lots of hands on real world activities. Math and science both require hands on activities in order for the students to truly master the objectives. The only way they learn it is to feel it, move it, and experience it. This in turn creates a more in depth understanding of the objective as well. **
 * //Melissa Lestina//**
 * //1st grade teacher at LES//**


 * My concept wall covers all the vocabulary and concepts we’ve learned this year. Most have pictures to reinforce the concept. Every week we review all concepts taught. Before I introduce a new concept, we review the old ones and discuss how they are related. At the end of a chapter, or unit, we review everything again. The repetition helps them retain the information and provides building blocks for the newer concepts. I also remind them to listen to each question and answer choice carefully before they bubble. Often, they don’t listen and will just bubble the first thing they see without thinking about the question. I tell them that there is usually one answer choice that they can immediately identify as wrong. **
 * //Leah Chandler//**
 * //1st grade teacher at Houston Elementary//**

Responses:
//**Leah Chandler**// //**1st grade teacher at Houston Elementary**//
 * I would like to claim that I’m just that great a teacher and I had no help, but my colleagues are the reason for my success. They let me bounce ideas off them and help me be a better teacher. When I’m teaching a lesson and notice that not everyone gets it I go to them and ask for help. If I was alone in this I don’t think my students would have been as successful. It helps that my students arrived in first grade with a love for science and math. Thank you Kindergarten teachers! **

//** My team works really well together. This is a choice we make for the success of our students. We are not best friends, but we know that we have to walk the talk. If we want our kids to work well in groups, they need to see us working well. We like to team teach. I don’t think that any of us feel like they are “your kids” and these are “my kids”. In reality they are going to new classes next year and they will be someone else’s kids. **//

**// *We do a great job at planning; we keep an open dialogue and share successes and struggles. //****// We don’t just complain, we find solutions for __each other__ and we try our best to do the same activities, the same homework and have the same discipline plan. //** **// Deniece Frideley //** **// 2nd grade teacher at LES //** // Melissa Lestina // // 1st grade teacher at LES // My students are successful because they are hard workers, but I also contribute our success to the advice and ideas of the other educators that I work with. //**Christine Grimm**// //** 1st grade teacher at Belt Line Elementary **//
 * Rely on the service and support of others and live and breathe the TAP rubric, it really is what exemplary teaching looks like. **