Curating Efficiently

Susie spent hours collecting and curating resources for her upcoming unit on cells. She is able to successfully use much of what she has found when implementing her plans.The following year, when it is time to begin the unit on cells again, Susie forgets about the resources she curated. She essentially starts from scratch, performing the task of searching, saving, and sorting once again.

This example displays Susie wasting invaluable free time shows the true value and potential of the Symbaloo project and curating resources in general.  Susie could spend time working on revising and enhancing her resources instead of digging up the resources she had already previously found.  As teachers, we do not always have the free time to do everything we want to do so something has to give.  The value of her lessons might be enhanced if she had more time to fine tune the finer details involved by reflecting on the previous lesson and making small changes.  Instead, she has wasted time rehashing the works he had done previously.

There are many options for Susie to save time and create better lessons that motivate and inspire her students.  As previously mentioned, Symbaloo is a great option to create a webmix of online resources.  Pinterest is also a popular tool to use  and both it and Symbalo are able to shared with teachers and students.

If Susie is not comfortable with various web 2.0 tools, she could always create folders on a flash drive or computer.  She could even create a binder with materials labeled by unit.  No matter what method she prefers, the importance is creating a system that is efficient and purposeful.  Time is something that we can never get back.  Once it is spent, we can never get those minutes, hours, and seconds back.  We always have to take time away from something else in our lives to make up for that lost time.  Susie should save time and curate efficiently so that she does not waste precious time each year. 

Daniel Pink's Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose

Traditional U.S. education methods focus on squashing creativity, individuality, and autonomy.  The assembly line factory approach of creating learners is still highly prevalent in the methods and structure of today's classrooms.  Autonomy is not rewarded and questioning purpose is frowned upon and considered insubordination.  Students are considered subjects and the teacher controls all power in the classroom, traditionally.  In order to truly transfer the ideas that Daniel Pink is suggesting requires a paradigm shift in the classroom.

In order to allow students autonomy, it needs to be taught.  Letting the students have control without guidance will not be successful because historically they have not been given this.  Amanda Fisher referenced this in the introduction video.  It will take time for them to become comfortable since they have been spoon fed and told what is and what is not acceptable for so long. A simple way that teachers do introduce autonomy is by providing choices on simple projects.  The RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) strategy has been popular for awhile and is a minor introduction for introducing more autonomy in the classroom. Given a open ended theme or idea, the students have control over the various elements that the project involve.

With required standards, it is nearly impossible to give students control of what is taught, but they should have some control of how they receive this information.  Present a variety of multimedia that they can access to get the information.  Provide mini-lessons that offer the same content that can accessed differently such as either podcasts, written, videos, and more hands on approaches, if possible. There are many other possibilities to increase autonomy in the classroom.  It just takes some time for both teacher and student to become comfortable with the new approach.

I feel in order for students to truly gain mastery, the content needs to be relevant to them.  If it is not relevant, then the information will not stick with the student.  They will just learn it to pass a test and forget it and move on.  If you think back to your days in high school, what sticks with you?  Was it the math unit that you scored an A on or was it a lesson or idea that you felt connected to?  You may not have received an arbitrary grade that showcased mastery in this lesson but you felt invested in it.  Having meaningful content that students feel is relevant to them and their lives will help foster mastery.  If they know the purpose for completing the tasks and learning the information, they will become more personally invested.  Some content areas are easier to make relevant than others, but that should at least be the focus.

Cool Tools- Khan Academy

One tool that I find incredibly useful and user friendly is the Khan Academy app and website.  Khan Academy is available to download from iTunes App Store, Google Play, Android, and also able to be accessed online.  Khan Academy offers online videos, examples, and other materials that cover several subject areas. Khan also allows students to earn points and badges along the way and provides instant data to teachers about their students' progress.   

Currently, I utilize Khan Academy for supplemental practice and provide students information to review and gain a deeper understanding of the material in their classes.  Students can also access the videos from home if they need additional help while away from school. I also plan to use Khan Academy during math remediation to provide additional practice materials and to track student progress.  Through the use of Khan Academy, the students can move through the content at their own pace and can focus on what they need to work on.  I feel that Khan's Academy would fall under the modification level of the SAM-R Model when used appropriately as a supplement to instruction.

Technology Integration Matrix

Based on the Technology Integration Matrix, (TIM), I would rate myself in the adaptation/infusion area and the class environment would most likely fall under collaboration/constructive. As a special services teacher, I am not a traditional role.  I am not currently teaching core classes where I am planning and delivering the curriculum. My role is to help foster growth and facilitate the students mastery of the learning objectives.  Due to this, I am not always able to use technology in ways that are authentic and innovative.  I need to find student centered resources and activities to meet the objectives outlined in the students' courses as well as prepare them for future success.   I also need to find better opportunities to allow my students to prosper and take ownership of their education.  I feel that I can do a better job at providing meaningful uses of technology to my students that are engaging, authentic, and goal driven.  

Moving Mindsets

In order for instruction to evolve and grow to help foster students in the 21st century, policy and policy makers need to evolve and transform as well.  Many schools believe in ideas like Relevance, Rigor, and Relationships.  While the intent of this theme this might not be that students need more homework, many schools perceive this ideology as meaning just that.  That is the easiest way out to justify rigor.  Rather than focusing on quality, schools focus on quantity.  As a teacher, I only have as much control over my classroom as my district will allow.  If I teach a course that has common curriculum with other teachers it is difficult to make sweeping changes.

 However, we can make incremental progress by making minor steps towards changing the culture of our classrooms.  Allowing students to submit their assignments in a variety of different mediums and formats for credit.  Finding creative ways to reach every student should be the goal of every teacher.  Moving away from the black and white idea regarding homework of do they have it done or right or do they not.  If the students do not have it done, what are we doing to ensure they either acquire the skills from the assignment or find an alternate means to gain it?  If the homework was not so vitally important for all students to do it, then why was it assigned?  This is the mindset that needs to change.  We need to stop being concerned with the status quo and become flexible in ensuring that all students are acquiring knowledge in some way rather than sticking to the tried and true method of assigning homework and grading homework. We need to stop passing over the students that are not doing the work and find a way to meet them where they are at and make sure they gained some knowledge from the assignment.  It may be picking a sampling of the most important pieces of the assignment or focusing on one major aspect that you wanted them to learn but having them show their knowledge in a different way.  Quality over quantity should be the focus.  The real rigor is ensuring every student is working to acquire skills and knowledge.  Rigor is not gained by completing pile after pile of homework that teachers do not analyze and does not display actual knowledge gained.

Rubric Reflection

Upon completion of the first module, I feel that I mostly fall under the "evolving" section.  I feel that I will continue to grow while in this course. Although I have a decent knowledge of blended learning, I have not been able to bring forth as much valuable information in my posts and reflections as I would like to. I believe that my mechanics and sentence structure would fall under effective as I am unfortunately not perfect in this area.  Hopefully as this course goes along, I will become a solidly effective contributor to many great discussions.