A week ago I had the privilege of attending a full-day presentation by Bill Daggett. If you ever have the opportunity to work with him, do it! Highly recommended! Prior to the presentation I had heard so much about his ability to engage an audience. So, I was as interested in watching a world-class presenter do his thing as I was in the content that he would bring to the table. In both regards, he did not disappoint.
inquiry-based learning
Yes! Flip Your Classroom!
Dissonance.
According to dictionary.com, dissonance can be defined as “lack of agreement or consistency.”
From my research, it is one of the hallmarks of any successful organization.
In Good to Great Jim Collins declares:
Why I Refused to Flip My Classroom
A handful of years ago I was teaching fourth grade when the whole idea of the flipped classroom entered my radar. The Educause definition of the topic states:
The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. Short video lectures are viewed by students at home before the class session, while in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions.
In short, get the direct instruction out of the way so class time can be dedicated to problem solving.
The Problem
Front-loading direct instruction goes against everything that I believe in as an educator, and therefore, so does the way in which most classrooms are flipped.
The Problem with “Formative Assessment Tools” (part 2 of 2)
In the previous post (part 1 of 2), we explored the fact that student response apps (Socrative, Kahoot!, Plickers, etc.) are often mislabeled as “formative assessment tools.” What makes them formative depends on the context in which they are used. Formative assessment is a process, and in order for a tool to play a part in this process the results/data it produces must be leveraged to differentiate instruction or learning.
The Problem
Now, let’s explore a second problem with these apps, which is the belief that they are not generally associated with higher-order thinking.
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Making Waves: Student Radio Broadcasts
Right now, one of my classes is finishing up their current Language Arts project, Making Waves. This project, which was inspired by Colton Shone, a journalism student at Arizona State, requires students to create a radio broadcast through the use of Apple GarageBand. Everything is wrapped in the essential question, “What is an effective radio broadcast?”
Students complete the project in groups of two. The majority of their work is done in a Google document, and I created a template to provide them with a starting point. (To save a Google file as a template, access your files > right-click on your file of choice > Submit to template gallery. After, copy the template’s link and share it with your students.)
A PDF version of the template is here, and below is a shortened version of these directions:
Project-Based Learning: The Easiest Way to Get Started
As mentioned in a previous post, one element of effective professional development is taking into consideration who is on the receiving end of it (in regards to their experiences, beliefs, attitudes, current practices, etc.). On a recent webcast I listened to Daniel Pink claim how the project-based learning label is constantly overused and misused by educators, and this is a statement with which I can easily agree. As a result, when presenting project-based learning professional development it could be advantageous to not just discuss best practice, but to take educators from where they might be (projects) to where we think they should land (project-based learning).
We will compare and contrast the two columns on the chart, one step at a time, while also discussing how the transition could be made from projects to project-based learning in a way that is transparent and simplified.
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Adobe Educators’ Choice Awards
Recently, my Pinball Wizard project was chosen as the Grand Prize winner for the Primary/Secondary Cross-Curricular category in the Adobe Education Exchange 2011 Educators’ Choice Awards. This is a contest that features innovative teaching and learning materials, which are created with the help of Adobe products. Many of the teachers in my district and students at my school helped to support me in this endeavor, and I cannot thank them enough. As a result of the contest, I have won a 15-inch MacBook Pro (which I am typing on right now) and the Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection (which I am still waiting for in the mail). Also, after the contest, the PR manager from Adobe contacted me about doing an interview with one of their bloggers. The interview can be found here.
Below is a description of the Pinball Wizard project. This description was a part of my entry, along with the project’s website, student samples, and a video of students playing on their pinball machines.
Challenge Based Learning Presentation
My district starts off every school year with two days of staff professional development, which takes place at the building level. This year, my principal asked me to share with the other teachers what I had learned at this summer’s Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) Summer Institute in Arizona. My presentation took place during the second day of our professional development, and it lasted for about an hour.