Sunday, September 20, 2015

Posting Objectives, Agendas, Standards and Goals

There is a trend flowing across the classrooms of America where teachers have to post their objectives and standards for the students to view and read every day. According to research and studies, students who know what the objective is for the day will be more successful in learning the concepts taught.

Last year I had my objectives written out in a language style my students could understand but few of them read the board without me calling attention to it. This year I decided to use a TV to post my objectives, daily agenda, and Texas TEKS. I have the TV in front of the room so as my students walk in they read it. Teachers on my campus also had to incorporate "We will..." and "I will..." statements. 

This year has proven much more successful than last year. The students come in and take a brief moment to read the screen for themselves. This is very important for me. As a secondary science teacher, I want my students to be confident in their reading skills instead of always having me read everything to them. Over the course of years that I have been teaching, I have a high percentage of students who expect me to just tell them instead of reading for themselves.

If you have a TV that you are not using, this is an innovative way to post your objectives, plus it impresses your administration. ;)

Another advantage is I write my objectives into a powerpoint file that I revise as needed by adding additional slides for the next dates and editing previous slides if I did not get through all the material or labs.  Everything is typed and I can copy/paste what I need from standards. By the end of this school year, I will have "lesson plans" for an entire year and all I will need to do is adjust the dates!

Here are pictures of my set up. I have a small laptop attached to the TV to project the power point unto the TV screen. I never used the TV in my classroom so it worked out perfectly for me.