Characteristics of High Performing Schools
After listening to the lecture this module and reading OSPI’s Nine Characteristics of Effective schools and Lezotte’s Correlates of Effective Schools I am very thankful that the leaders in my district and my school site emmerse themselves in research on effective teaching. Our professional development for the last 4 years has been research-based. My colleagues are buying in to our common vision for Relationship, Relevance, and Rigor for all students. We have been reading through and working towards Grading for Learning for the last 2 years and are now in a place to really focus on student learning. Our science department is going to be involved in OEL the next 3 years in order to give us protocol for discussing what our students are actually learning. Our school can be a very effective school and we are making strides to be a “second generation” school in more categories.
Ken O'Connor's Book: Grading for learning
Bridging the Gap
I very much agree with this comment in the Bogle article: “Common barriers to uptake and development include time constraints, lack of experience or familiarity with applications and their purpose, reservations about the relevance of emerging technology for education, and importantly lack of access to support and expert consultation.”
Our school district does provide quite a bit of support for technology, but I still struggle with finding the time to fit certain newer pieces of technology into my classroom (Blogging, Voicethread, Vernier software, etc). Each of these pieces of technology can enhance the learning experience of my students, but sometimes I don’t see how it will help more than a class discussion or lab. If I had more time to sit with an expert and fit technology pieces into my curriculum I would be more inclined to use it. Implementing technology is something that needs to happen at the classroom level- it needs to be a grassroots endeavor, as the article says. Teachers need to be supported, but they also need to want to use the technology in their context. Individual teachers are the key to the model that Bogle suggests because we are the ones actually using the technology and learning processes with our students. I think that if more time and energy is given to the model below more teachers could more confidently incorporate technology into their classrooms.
The model given by Bogle seems like a great way to help more teachers incorporate more technology into their classrooms. The model tries to do 4 things that are essential for teachers as they try to incorporate technology:
o Increase awareness of emerging technology, particularly in its capacity to enhance learning and teaching;
o Model effective use and best practice in a way that holistically integrates pedagogical factors;
o Establish a comprehensive support framework;
o Embed eLearning activities in wider policy measures.
Overall I am feeling overwhelmed this week with the amount of learning I need to do to make technology more useful in my classroom context and look forward to more practice with different technologies in this class.
Technology is at the center of Marzano's "best practices"
Minds on Fire
“We are entering a world in which we all will have to acquire new knowledge and skills on an almost continuous basis.”
As I progress through my M.Ed. program I am often reminded that my calling is to help students learn how to learn and think critically. It is impossible to teach them everything there is to know about Physics, Chemistry, Earth Science, Anatomy, or Psychology in the short time that I work with students. What will make the biggest difference in my students’ lives and in the world as a whole will be to teach students how to acquire new knowledge and skills on their own.
Our reading this week dealt with social learning and the role of the Internet in facilitating networking between people. I hadn’t thought much about how much the Internet has opened doors for more social learning and more connections between people. The Minds on Firearticle says that the Internet opens doors to focus on how we are learning and not so much on what we are learning.
Knowledge is constructed socially, but I wonder about how engaged most people really are with their online learning. Being in class and having in person discussions often enable more engagement. I have enjoyed my online classes, but some of them I know I could have learned more and made more connections between the content and my context had I been able to discuss new ideas in person with others.
The article also mentions that students in study groups learned significantly more than students who studyied on their own. Maybe this is a way to get the best of both worlds- online learning convenience with more connections to the content and more social construction of knowledge. I will definitely share this piece of information with my students next year. Maybe they will start showing up more regularly for study sessions…
I am trying to figure out how to best utilize online resources to help my students and struggling with the idea of encouraging more of my students (and myself) to spend more time in front of a glowing screen. This article listed so many resources that would be helpful to use if I could narrow down a more specific purpose. My students are great at “networking” online and I want to encourage them to use this amazing resource to increase their understanding of their own metacognition and our content material.
My student are constantly plugged in to technology and have to sort through tremendous amounts of information daily. I need to work with them on how to do this critically so that they aren’t passively receiving information.
Students are constantly plugged in to technology. We can help them to use it for good. (from http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_tGwb5kDIW4M/R9mPlDSLz2I/AAAAAAAAAFY/UOqfJeqmW3Q/s400/technology-overload2.gif)
Standard 2 Meta-Reflection: Learning Environment
Standard 2: Learning environment indicates that I need to create and maintain school-wide and classroom environments that are safe, stable, and empowering.
I have created two artifacts to reach the standard of learning environment. Both of these were required as part of the Human Development and Principles of Learning course. The first artifact is a reflection on how I view the role of human development and learning in my high school science classroom. The second artifact I have included is a Case Study that shows how I can apply one theory of development to a typical student in my classroom. I chose to use Bandura’s social learning theory to analyze the behavior of the boy in the case study.
These both show my competency of creating and maintaining a classroom environment that is safe, stable and empowering because I understand various theories of development and learning and how they relate to the students in my classroom. I was able to incorporate what I have learned about the research on how students learn and how different theorists view how development impacts student learning. Knowledge of learning theories enables me to help students in ways that meet their individual needs. I state in the Reflection paper that “students’ developmental, social, and cognitive needs should be at the forefront in my classroom to ensure the maximum development of their whole person.” This takes a lot of work but ensures that students feel safe in my classroom and can focus on learning.
As I take a larger leadership role in my department and on campus I can take this knowledge to a school and district level to work with other teachers and administrators so that all students can feel empowered to reach rigorous standards.
