My innovation project, where do I begin? Well, deciding to do a flipped classroom was an easy decision as the semester before starting the DLL (Digital Learning and Leading) program with Lamar University I started flipping my math class. My flipped classroom was pretty basic and with each lesson I flipped I learned a way to make it better and better. I knew I still had a lot to learn as this was still new for me and I had only done a little research, but I knew it was the right thing to do. In my class, prior to flipping, I was teaching the entire class period using the traditional method, whole group, every day leaving no time to reflect or practice the skill taught. In 6th-grade math, there are so many TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) to teach, 58 TEKS to be exact, with only 177 instructional days. If you do the math that gives me 3 days per TEKS, but that doesn't include the days we must give state and district level assessments, final exams, unit exams, pep-rallies, and half days. In reality, I only have 2 days per TEKS and some of them are pretty intense so the need for a different strategy, in my opinion, was very much needed.
0 Comments
During the spring semester of 2018 is when I challenged myself to get my master’s degree. The next thing I knew I applied to Lamar University and was accepted. What have I done? There was no turning back now. I really put myself out there as I remember saying I was never about to go back to school! What’s that saying “Never say Never”. I received my bachelor’s degree roughly 21 years earlier and took a few graduate courses as part of the alternative certification process about 16 years ago. Needless to say, I was very nervous with my decision of going back to school as I watched my husband get his MBA several years ago and he was knee-deep in reading articles and books and writing tons of papers. Well, well, well! I’ve made it to week 4 and let me tell you what a relief it is to be more than half way done with this course. I can see the light now! Plus, this week is much easier than last week as this week hits a nerve from within. I have such empathy for our students today that are victims of cyberbullying. This week during our weekly conference, Monday night, I was online listening to Dr. Still discuss our assignments for the week and provide us a snapshot of cyberbullying. Our call is at 7 p.m. and I was just sitting down to eat dinner with my 15-year-old son and he was able to hear our conversations as I wasn’t using headphones and when our session was over he asked “Is cyberbullying a real thing?”. Wow, was I was shocked, yet relieved all in the same. I was shocked that he didn’t know that it was a real thing, but in the same I was relieved as that must mean he’s not a victim or knows anyone that is… or maybe it is he doesn’t recognize it. Hmmm. Well week three is coming to an end and let me tell you I think this has been the hardest week of all, thus far. Last week, I thought was time consuming as I had to create the animated video and as a perfectionist I spent a lot of time creating it and perfecting it. However, this week, it was purely tough as it had us focus on intellectual property law and that is something I have a hard time comprehending so I’ve had to read and read the material several times to ensure I grasped what was being said. Actually, I understand the concept of what it is and why we have it but to really understand how it works is the difficult part. So, I’ve approached this week with a growth mindset, I know I will persevere and concur! Copyright laws have been put in place to promote the growth of the arts and other creative works. It is to safeguard those authors and artists who are finding themselves especially with the internet in today’s digital world. A lot of people feel that anything on the internet is a free for all, but in reality it isn’t and we need to understand that and as educators we need to ensure that our students understand that also. When we find someone’s work that we want to use we need to do the following. First, check who owns it and get permission to use it. Either cite the creator or buy the rights to use it, if necessary, and use it responsibly (Common Sense Education, 2014). If you do all of these than you are not stealing and what you are doing is lawful. Wow, another stressful week in this course. During this week, I was really hoping to get ahead as I had the whole week off for Thanksgiving break, however, I was able to decorate my house for the holidays, prepare Thanksgiving dishes, shop for Christmas, spend quality time with my family, and of course complete this week’s assignment. So even though I didn’t get ahead as planned I do feel accomplished. Oh, Happy Thanksgiving by the way!! Wow, what a week this has been to start my eleventh course out of twelve. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that is a relief, but this course is different from all others and with us nearing the holiday season it is making me stress just a little. However, I’ve been looking forward to this course all semester and after digging in to this week’s readings and assignments I’m really excited to learn and enhance my knowledge of digital citizenship.
This week I've spent a lot of my time creating a professional development plan for my fellow teachers at McDonald Junior High. I would love to get all the math teachers on board flipping their classrooms and eventually broadening out to the other subjects/classes. This past year I've flipped my math class and I feel that I've had a lot of success doing so. So, my focus has turned toward the teachers to get them up and running in the flipped world.
Teachers spend roughly 10% of the school year in professional development and regardless of these efforts teachers are not improving at a substantial rate from year to year as expected (TNTP, 2015). Why is this? There is no definitive answer, but the professional development that we are currently using is not helping. We say we are helping teachers but are we really? Teachers are being put in professional development that does not apply to their subject or specific grade level and they feel that is wasting their time, therefore, not being actively involved.
I COMPLETED my online course that I was designing for my EDLD 5318 course. What a relief!! Actually, I really had a great time planning, designing, and working on it. I feel so accomplished. Let me start with sharing with you how I designed my online professional development course. My learners/students will not need any external resources. I've embedded everything they need within the course. I'm using Canvas as my LMS and I have inserted pages that have links to reading assignments and embedded videos they need to watch. I also have embedded external digital tools within assignments where they need to go to the digital tool so they can learn on their platform more in-depth. Once they have the basic concept of these digital tools they will then have to submit it in the assignment via a snapshot or a link. This course is designed to be a self-paced course that each learner will complete individually, however, they will need to participate in discussions with their peers where they will share digital tips and tricks or favorites with the digital tool being taught. This week OSCQR standards focused on assessments and feedback. My course is for professional development credit so there are no "official grades", however, they will have to complete activities and submit assignments and these are just a completion grade. When I'm thinking of a course such as this one that we are in I tend to focus on standard #45 - learner assessment. As educators, we need to ensure we are keeping our learners engaged on a consistent and regular basis as this will help them master the material. Reference: OSCQR. The Open SUNY Course Quality Review (n.d.). Retrieved from https://oscgr.org/standard45/ on August 8, 2019 Empowering teachers with the tools they need to improve their interaction with students is the main focus. This course that I'm creating will provide teachers the knowledge they need to develop their Canvas course utilizing variuos digital tools that are available to us through our district. I've decided to create this online course because I feel that teachers are able to learn these skills on their own, through experiementing, and since it's an online course they will always have this course to look back on to review, if needed. Each module will address a digital tool or two that will address how they can use this tool for warm-ups, video lessons, homework/vocabulary, quizzes/tests, and reviews. This helps learners build on their learning because they will be learning a new digital tool in each module along with how to incorporate it into their canvas course. Canvas is the LMS we have in my school district so they will learn how to incorporate this digital tool into their canvas as they are learning how to do something new in canvas each time. They will be completing practical exercises in each module that by the time they are done with this course they will have a vast amount of knowledge of canvas and how to use several digital tools within it. I'm still in the building stages of my course and I'm really excited about it and how it will affect teachers and their usage of technology in their classrooms. |
Jill HobbsMatthew 6:34 'Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' Archives
February 2020
Categories
All
|