My experiences with using CER's in my classroom have likely been unique from many individuals who have sought to become a professional developer in this capacity. I began using CER's while teaching 8th grade math. Two years later, I switched to 7th grade and took on a new curriculum (meaning that I had to create new devices like unit organizers and FRAMEs to match that new curriculum). Then I attended VaLI in the summer of 2019, while I was making yet another transition - this time to the high school level, where I again took on new curriculum (Algebra 2) and a completely new semester structure to the Algebra I course that I knew. I was just beginning to get my feet under me in my second semester of high school teaching, reaching a point where I had some comfort with my material that would've allowed me to expand into other realms of CER as I saw fit. But before I could get there, March of 2020 brought the COVID shutdown and threw education into upheaval for the better part of two years. I was fortunate to get my first PD session done just 4 days before the world closed its doors. Like most other educators, I spent the 2020-2021 school year attempting to figure out how to teach students who weren't present in my classroom, and then were only present certain days a week, and all other manner of constant adaptation. Needless to say, under the strain of those circumstances, my focus was squarely on helping my students, my colleagues, and myself survive the experience. I also ended up teaching in a year-long model - yet another adjustment from what had been "typical." Trying to learn and incorporate new CER's under those conditions was, quite honestly, not a feasible aspiration.
This school year carried its own weights, as COVID protocols and other educational challenges (e.g. a lack of substitutes) meant that planning time was frequently absorbed in keeping the school afloat. And while we did end the school year under conditions that somewhat resembled the "old normal," it was still a season of time where I had less time to focus on expanding my own mastery. I did continue to use my unit organizers faithfully (back in a semester context once again). Furthermore, I have had the privilege to develop those unit organizers in collaboration with my fellow Algebra 1/Algebra 2 teacher, who has quickly become my workplace best friend and biggest supporter. She attended my PD session on the Unit Organizer in 2020, and since then, we've built all those UO's together. Our ability to discuss critical content, student needs, and to strategically co-plan our curriculum has been the most substantial area of growth for me in these past 3 years since I moved to the high school.
So while I perhaps have not added "new" CER's to my repertoire, I sincerely believe that, through all the trials, I have gained knowledge and experience that is invaluable to fostering student success. In the future, I hope to see if there might be weak spots in my teaching of the curriculum that could be made "sturdier" by a CER (e.g. Concept Comparison for types of variation, Question Exploration for various types of word problems, etc.). But given all that the world in general, and the world of education specifically, has been through in the last 2.5 years, I'm extremely pleased with what I've been able to learn, and the successes that my students have had.
This school year carried its own weights, as COVID protocols and other educational challenges (e.g. a lack of substitutes) meant that planning time was frequently absorbed in keeping the school afloat. And while we did end the school year under conditions that somewhat resembled the "old normal," it was still a season of time where I had less time to focus on expanding my own mastery. I did continue to use my unit organizers faithfully (back in a semester context once again). Furthermore, I have had the privilege to develop those unit organizers in collaboration with my fellow Algebra 1/Algebra 2 teacher, who has quickly become my workplace best friend and biggest supporter. She attended my PD session on the Unit Organizer in 2020, and since then, we've built all those UO's together. Our ability to discuss critical content, student needs, and to strategically co-plan our curriculum has been the most substantial area of growth for me in these past 3 years since I moved to the high school.
So while I perhaps have not added "new" CER's to my repertoire, I sincerely believe that, through all the trials, I have gained knowledge and experience that is invaluable to fostering student success. In the future, I hope to see if there might be weak spots in my teaching of the curriculum that could be made "sturdier" by a CER (e.g. Concept Comparison for types of variation, Question Exploration for various types of word problems, etc.). But given all that the world in general, and the world of education specifically, has been through in the last 2.5 years, I'm extremely pleased with what I've been able to learn, and the successes that my students have had.