A different idea! Instead of spending the day trying to visit with as many teachers as possible during my day at the middle school, I decided to spend the entire day in one content, one grade level.
Thankfully, four teachers, Mrs. Mills, Mrs. Yarbro, Mrs. Foote, and Mrs. Albers allowed me to observe their classroom when they taught the lessons.
As I was observing, I would listen for key words and concepts that they were discussing or presenting to their students. As soon as I heard the concepts, I would scour my Evernote resources that I have accumulated over the years or search Google using key words and categories. I found a number of resources and accumulated those resources on collaborative documents.
After the class period, I discussed some of the resources that I found and why I placed them on the document. Spending the class period in their room allowed me to have a deeper understanding of the content and educational aspects of their class for the upcoming weeks. In addition to the resources and thoughts already included on the document, I will add any further resources found in the next couple of weeks.
I truly believe this was a successful utilization of a technology integrator's time. Instead of short conversations, I had an opportunity to immerse myself into their classroom and provide resources that they may use in the future.
The lists of resources created:
Mrs. Mills (Writing) | Mrs. Yarbro (Reading)
Mrs. Foote (Writing) | Mrs. Albers (Reading)
I am truly thankful to these teachers for their willingness to allow a support teacher to visit their classroom with the sole purpose of collaborating! They are ROCK STARS!
