In our district this year, we are focusing on “purposeful” teaching…making sure that every lesson has a clear and meaningful purpose–so clear that students understand what they are working on, why they are working on it, and how they are doing with it.  There are some AMAZING resources out there with respect to this topic–and this month’s Educational Leadership magazine is full of great articles that address purposeful teaching, motivation, and engagement.  If you are NOT a member of ASCD, I highly recommend that you consider an annual membership.  The latest research and top authors are featured and there is a constant stream of information streaming from ASCD.  If you aren’t ready to commit to a membership yet, consider following on Twitter (@ASCD) or Instagram (@officialascd) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ascd.org) to keep yourself as current as you can.  There’s my “Back to school” plug for ongoing professional development!

The reason for today’s post is that I am making a commitment to do a better job keeping my students involved in understanding the purpose of my lessons–especially when it comes to process standards.  

I’m going to play around with different anchor charts to see what works best…for our first “spotlight strategy”, we are going to talk about perseverance!

Stay tuned to see how it goes!  Tomorrow is our all day inservice…Thursday is our work day and “Meet the Teacher”…and then I start counting in hours rather than days!  Hope all of you are doing well as you either get to know your students or finish your preparations!