As part of our Ocean Guardian School’s Environmental Stewardship Project, I give students a pre and post project survey. In addition to questions about their perceived understanding of the topics we cover before and after the project, I also ask questions about the project and what they liked best and least. It helps inform any changes I should make for the following year. While I have their attention, I also throw in questions about my class as a whole and my teaching.
I ask the following questions to get feedback from my students regarding the project, “Is there anything else you want to tell Mr. G or the Ocean Guardian School people?” In addition, I add the following questions, “What should Mr. Gonzalez keep next year?” “What should Mr. Gonzalez get rid of next year?” And, “How could Mr. Gonzalez improve next year?”
What follows are some of the responses I received from my students this year, 12 of whom were 5th graders with whom I will get to work again next year when they are in 6th grade!
I did get some positive feedback! I’m sharing some of the positive comments I received so that I don’t ONLY focus on the things that I need to improve.
how good he taught about flow rate and how to measure gallons per second also what is the measurement to flow rate is meters per second.
He can’t. His class is already perfect.
he can’t he is already a perfect teacher the way he is.
do the same thing this next year as you did this year
nope i loved the ocean guardian stuff but i would love to more minecraft stuff since we only did it during the start of the year
I really liked (i dont remember what he called it) how on wednesdays where we had himwe would do the statoins
Some did let me know what I could do better, so here are some things I need to consider as I plan for next year.
i think it would be a lot easier for him and his students if he didnt have a 5th and 6th class i dont know if he normallly does this but i think it would be better if he didnt next year.
I could not agree more! Trying to teach 5th AND 6th grade Math at the same time with no other adult support was not effective nor efficient. I was not able to give either group as much re-teaching or reviewing as they needed. IMHO when teaching two grade levels or more in the same room at the same time the teacher either needs at least one more adult in the room or the teacher should get to teach one of the two grade level curricula so that for most of the time everyone in the room can be learning the same thing. If the teacher can then loop with the lower grade students, just like I get to work with my 5th graders again in 6th grade.
idk not yell/talk so loud and stay in one spot when he is talking kind of cause he moves ALOT when talking but he gives great feed back when we are working <3 ?
Ouch! I didn’t think I yelled. Well, not much – it’s hard to be patient ALL the time.
Mr. Gonzalez can improve next year by giving a bit more time to measure out length and height for photos of the presentation, give a little more time to get even more facts about our parameter, and that’s all. He’s overall a very great teacher.
I love the, “he moves a lot when talking,” comment. I guess not everyone appreciated that. 🙂
in the next questoin i think it was a little too fast but thats not an optoin. I usuaelly got caught up pretty quickly but if you missed one day in his class it was like everything happend.
Wow, I feel so bad for that student. The is so stressful because LOTS of kids missed days due to illness, even non-COVID related illness because it’s protocol now to stay home when not feeling well. I do think that’s a good policy to keep diseases from spreading even more than they already did.
maybe just ease up on the students its kinda stressing.
That is a tough one. To know where the line is between encouraging my students and stressing them out. I’m sure that I will mess this one up again.
Make instructions simple and fast, not long and takes like 20-25 minutes.
Again, OUCH! There were times where I was having so much fun that I just kept on talking and talking.
Be strict but give rewards and breaks.
listen more
being nicer
Mr. Gonzalez can improve next year by talking just a little bit slower when explaining things.
not speak so fast
Good feedback for me to make sure I remember for the fall, and especially since 12 of this year’s 5th graders are going to be in my classes again next year as 6th graders! With regards to talking less and talking slower, I seem to revert back to that. It seems like I get that feedback from kids then I do better the next year or two then I start talking too much and too fast. Talking slow is something that I have to make intentional and conscious effort to do because talking fast comes naturally to me. With regards to talking too much. I need to really work on that, too.
With regards to the tech fatigue that I wrote about previously, I did get a few comments like the one below to use less tech but those comments are always balanced out by the exact opposite! It seems that what is too much tech for some is not enough for others who don’t like working out of textbooks.
have more work on paper and in textbooks
not so much big ideas math book work it was kinda hard still do it for shure but not as much ! ??
The highlight of the feedback I got were the following two unsolicited handwritten notes I received on the last day of school. These two notes I will keep and treasure forever.
And…
I also asked a question about the pace of my instruction. I’m glad I asked because I thought we took way too long on topics so I would rush students to get to other topics and activities. It’s good for me to know that even though I felt as though we were moving too slowly, for 22% of my students we were moving too fast.
I would love to use a mastery model where students are able to move through the learning at their own pace but I am just not sure how exactly to pull that off. If you have systems in place or ways of having students advance at their pace and not move on until they’ve mastered the content, please share in the comments!
I am amazed that not one single student mentioned anything about COVID, or masking, or getting sick, or when COVID spread. I guess this is truly the new normal now. I did catch COVID and gave it to my wife. Luckily our daughter is in college so we didn’t give it to her. My wife and I are both doubled vaccinated and have received multiple booster shots and we still got it. While it was quite unpleasant I think we lucked out in that we got a mild case compared to how bad it could have been. I missed a whole week of school then tested negative so was able to go back to work the second week after testing positive. It was a hard week because I was still fatigued that entire second week and I still had a stuffed/runny nose. I was shaken though that as soon as I went maskless, I got COVID, When I returned to school I wore my mask again. I would rather go maskless but I really don’t want to catch COVID again.
In order to improve for next year I also plan to get some reading done over the summer. Here’s what I’m reading this summer: UDL Now! and Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Mindset Mathematics: Visualizing and Investigating Big Ideas Grade 5 and Grade 6 (two different books), Digital for Good, and Developing Digital Detectives.
And here are courses I’m taking at my own pace this summer in addition to the esports conference I attended the week after school let out and the ISTE conference I attended the last week of June: the course that goes with the UDL Now book, discussions that go with the Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics book, Empowered Assessment online course, Flipped Classroom Model online course, and a Virtual Math summer institute. I’m also co-facilitating two Minecraft courses that Tammie Schrader and I put together for the WEA.
I need to make time with my family and relax so I will make sure to do that as well. I am hopeful that the 22-23 school year will be great. I will be working on my National Board Maintenance of Certification or MOC because it’s time for me to renew again. I can’t believe it’s been 20 years almost since I first got my national board certification!
