1. To be as available as any student, colleague, or parent requires.
2. To attend an extra-curricular event for every student I teach.
3. To promote mastery as a priority in the learning environments I create.

The first two resolutions are the same as last year, and continue my committment to building community, and serving the individuals and groups I interact with.  The third is a new-ish priority.

As educators we assign activities, and assess the quality of product which is produced.  This assessment will ultimately become a qualification, or in the case of an administrator a positive performance evaluation.  Indeed, one of our primary functions is to be a gatekeeper, or even a bouncer, determining which of our charges will be granted entrance to the next stage of their educational, or career journey.

I feel that I have been repressing another purpose.  Education is also about helping others to perfect their understanding of a topic, or to complete their development of skills.  Educators as responsible for ensuring mastery of material.  This attitude subtly  changes the approach to any learning activities.

Formative assessment becomes the norm, even with regard to end of unit projects.  This year all of my summative assessments will be given with the option to repeat all or part of the activity if skills or knowledge have not been mastered.  My aim is to be more aware of student achievement and to reteach more often.

I know that there will be challenges.  Allowing students to redo essays will increase my workload, and there are only so many multiple choice questions available in question banks.

How do you promote mastery in your educational situations?

Gate image from: flickr.com/photos/wallyg/

Yoda image from flickr.com/photos/cirofono

Some of you may have noticed that I dropped off the twitterverse, history teacher’s discussion forum, and the various blogs I comment on a few weeks ago.  I think I am now back… at least I was able to put together a coherent blog post and make it back onto twitter.  Tomorrow will be the test to see if it can last. :-o 

I think it was the beginning of the school year that kicked me out of my networks.  I became a spectator, rather than a contributor.  In some ways this has been good for me.  I focused on my teaching, and implemented some great ideas I found in my feedreader. 8-) 

Sorry to everyone that was expecting resources from me… especially Nick who is still waiting for some stuff on 19th century China… I promise it is coming!

To anyone else who is feeling information overload… take a break… focus on important things… family first, then friends, then work, then the cloud… it helped me!

I have spent the last weeksetting up my room, welcoming new ninth graders, and trying to get a plan together for the new school year.  I am excited to be teaching World History AP again, and to begin to teach World Religions.  For the first time since I left the UK I will be teaching some of the same students… it is quite a privilege.

Every year I ask my students to set goals, and my administration ask us to pen our own (a recurring theme across the world, I think).  This year I am going to publish them here… feel free to hold me accountable cyber-space ;)

1. Ensure that I am as available as needed for each student.
2. Plan at least one field trip for each class.
3. Attend an extra-curricular event for every student I teach.

You may be surprised that none of these involve technology; That is almost a given in my teaching now.  In fact, I know that I make more of an impact through the relationships I build with my students, than I could with any gadget.  I want this to be my focus for this year.

Finally, I included a goal concerning field trips because, even though I live in an incredibly well located area for history, I do not seem to take advantage of it.  This year I am going to take my students to DC, and hopefully a number of other places.

What are your resolutions for the new year?

See drdennis.edublogs.org/2008/07/26/need-i-say-more/

Blogs have been a huge part of my online life for the past two years, but this post constitutes my first (or kind of) venture into the edublogosphere. I am an avid follower of Jeff Utecht’s Thinkingstick, and Doug Belshaw’s blog in particular. In fact Doug’s list of plugins helped me to get this blog set up the way I wanted it to… I am certainly endebted to him. :-D

As a newbie I am unsure exactly how I am going to use this blog. I want to reflect on my current experiences as an educator; so expect posts on history teaching, the use of technology, and school leadership. However, I think that, most importantly, I want to engage in blogging so that I can help my students to develop their ability to express themselves online. Just this summer I have installed Wordpress MU on my server, and I am planning to roll it out with my students in the fall. How can I teach them how to blog when I have only ever been a spectator? ;-)

I think this is central tennet of my educational philosophy… I want to be a participant in my student’s learning and will never ask them to engage with material I have not emmersed myself in.

Thanks for reading this first post, and feel free to leave a comment below… you are welcome however you found me: twitter, history teacher’s discussion forum, AP World list serve, or from a comment I left on another site.