Many life lessons come from the Brady Bunch. I still don't play ball in the house, when I'm at a theme park I make sure to lock up valuable architectural drawings, and I try not to be jealous of my siblings like Jan when she screamed, "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!" But forgive me for resorting to petty jealousy over math. In our district, many of the decisions seem to have been made with a math model in mind. Our PLC system was largely based upon a series of decisions made within math PLC's. It would be nice to see examples from another discipline, maybe even Social Studies!
Khan Academy's genesis was generated from a solution to a math problem. I have bro-love for Rob McEntarffer but even in his presentation to an audience made up of largely district Social Studies teachers, the example video used was from a math classroom. Maybe math-centric examples are used because that is all that exists. Let's fix that!
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Assessment Thoughts
Today's presentation by Rob McEntarffer was excellent. It provides food for thought about what is done in the classroom. It also makes me wonder how long it will take for me to get my classroom to the stage he described, where all assessment is done for a purpose, all feedback is constructive, and that students use the feedback again.
The journey to that stage may be as important as the end goal. The process is often as important as the result and, in this case, the process can allow me to adapt my classroom to fit my teaching style while enabling the instruction to accommodate the learning styles of the students.
The journey to that stage may be as important as the end goal. The process is often as important as the result and, in this case, the process can allow me to adapt my classroom to fit my teaching style while enabling the instruction to accommodate the learning styles of the students.
Monday, June 8, 2015
Start
The struggle many teachers have when confronted with the technological divide is the fear of losing the authority in the classroom. One of the remedies for this fear includes an time honored technique for good teaching: preparation. That is where "ipads in the Classroom" comes to the rescue. The idea is to just get started... somewhere.
The expectation is that I will be a better prepared teacher because I am ahead of the game when it comes to the incorporation of technology in the classroom. Often, it is the classroom that stays the same year after year that misses out on the best practices for student learning. My goal is to avoid using an app or program simply because it is new but instead choose methods that will improve student learning.
The expectation is that I will be a better prepared teacher because I am ahead of the game when it comes to the incorporation of technology in the classroom. Often, it is the classroom that stays the same year after year that misses out on the best practices for student learning. My goal is to avoid using an app or program simply because it is new but instead choose methods that will improve student learning.
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