My 2017–2018 Classroom Vision
The following is my vision for the 2017–2018 schoolyear. As I enter my third year of teaching, much of this vision draws upon things I learned at a Harvard class I took this past summer called “Deeper Learning for All.” Now that I’m in my third year teaching, I am in a place to look beyond a classroom vision involving classroom management and student relationships and towards a deeper desire to make my students’ education empowering and transformative. The following outlines some specifics as to how I will try to do that. Here’s hoping I can look back at this vision with feelings of success in June! If you’re reading this and have any encouragement or advice for me, it would be greatly appreciated!

My classroom this year will be a room where deeper learning takes place. The emphasis in my classroom will be less on coverage of material and more on inspiring students to become members of the field of science, either professionally or passionately on the periphery. To accomplish this, my lessons will need to challenge, engage, and empower my students.
Deeper learning, my definition, will emphasize the underlying concepts behind the material, not merely the surface symptoms. It will challenge students’ minds, with the knowledge that the person who is doing the cognitive work in the classroom is the person that is learning.
The mindset that involves depth over breadth is inspired by Ron Berger’s blog linked here. Rather than rush through the content like a train racing through a scenic countryside, I will emphasize a select number of lengthy stops, in which students have the opportunity to explore a particular content area in a rich, project-based manner.
With select projects, I will host exhibitions of learning. This means that students’ projects will be displayed in a way that allows the “public” to observe, enjoy, engage with, and commend.
This year, collaboration will play a central role in my classroom. In the past, I have considered the teacher-student relationship to be the primary relationship of importance in the classroom. This year, I will seek to build a culture of learning in which the relationships between students are of primary significance. This will involve conversation protocols, group learning in a way that reflects the scientific community, and character development with an emphasis on interpersonal skills.
In an effort to involve students in the greater scientific community, I will expose my students to the use of primary documents, and will teach them annotation techniques to make said documents comprehensible.
Though I will continue to use popsicle sticks at times, I will add consistent use of cold call into my repertoire. This will be done in order to create a “culture of engaged accountability” (in the words of Doug Lemov), thereby increasing the number of students engaging in the most rigorous activities.
I will seek to build my students’ metacognitive skills by regularly debriefing with them at the end of class about that day’s learning. I will also teach students the difference between a recall question and a conceptual question, so that they can better enter the deeper learning mindset.
This year, I will emphasize a few quotes that will comprise our class’s “Quotes of the Year.”
1) “How much talent does it take to pay attention and try your best? Zero!”
2) “It’s not just knowing what you need to do; it’s becoming the person who would actually do it.”
3) Albert Einstein: “I have no special talents; I am just passionately curious.”
