What Teachers Say:
My overall experience was excellent. The interaction between the different teachers was very stimulating. Everyone was invested and participated making the conversations enriching and academically relevant. I have walked away from this experience with a renewed desire to do even more than I already do in my classroom to meet each student where they are, create an engaging classroom environment and get each student engaged and learning to the best of their ability. Thank you for a wonderful experience!
I can imagine that MTI could grow to include more teachers. If there were 15-20 teachers there would be opportunities to cross-pollinate best practices. More opportunities to deliver lessons would also be beneficial. Instead of one lesson, two or three lessons delivered by each teacher would allow for more immediate improvement. I would also have loved an opportunity to craft a lesson designed for my students in the fall and get feedback. All depends on more time and resources.
Generally, it was a positive experience to exchange ideas with other teachers. The concept of applying our lessons immediately in a classroom setting was also appealing.
The greatest takeaways were 1) understanding how quickly students can be shut down by unwitting actions of teachers. We discussed remedies to this that I intend to apply in the classroom. 2) Various methods of shepherding discussions, and aiming for the Application and Analysis target on the “Blooming” taxonomy; learning techniques, such as “double planning,” and “think, pair, share” — some I have put into practice but for which I had no vocabulary.
One of most beneficial aspects of the program was the depth of discussion with a wonderful group of people coming from diverse perspectives. It was nice that not all of us knew each other coming in, and that half of us didn’t already work for MV schools. The size of the group was a perfect size, so that each participant had ample opportunities to contribute to our conversations. The text (“How to Build a Better Teacher”) was excellent in that the focus was on big questions facing education rather than cookie-cutter solutions. On the other hand, there were speciPc “best-practices” highlighted (eg TKOT) in the text that gave us concrete material to test and discover in the classroom. That was another strength – that we were each given an opportunity to deliver a lesson, observed by peers, followed by constructive and guided feedback. Again, the diversity of lessons, opinion, and experience allowed for rich and meaningful take-aways that will inevitably improve my practice. Finally, using twin texts, on on teaching methodology and the other, a young adult novel (“All-American Boys”) read alongside students, was symbiotic and effective.
Thank you for this wonderful opportunity! I hope this is the start of an ongoing program.
What Students Say:
“When the teachers are enthusiastic and have well-developed activities, it is successful in drawing the attention of the students.”
“I enjoyed multiple teachers this summer because more people discussed what was happening in the book, so it was a great way to debrief what had happened in the chapter just read.”
“I enjoy discussions especially when everyone is thinking on one subject, so as a group we are able to break down what a novel means and also predict what the outcome of the book will be.”