What would a teacher do?
  • Home
  • WWATD Blog
  • Educator Resources
    • Building Fundamentals
    • Classroom Pick Me Ups!
    • PD That Works!
    • The Self Paced Classroom
    • Useful Tech Tools
    • Math Resources
    • Social Studies Resources
  • Signup for Freebies!

Becoming a Google Certified Educator

6/24/2019

0 Comments

 

Whether you are one-to-one, have select computer lab time, or even limited access to technology, learning a few Google apps can be really helpful for amping up some lessons or even organizing your own teaching resources. Lucky for us, Google has its own training available for educators similar to the Apple training we blogged about last week! So what are the big differences and which one makes more sense for you to try to accomplish this summer?
 
The beauty of becoming a Google certified educator is that you can use Google resources no matter what type of device you are using. I just switched from a mac school to a chromebook school...I used Google apps before and I will continue to use them now! It is a great transferrable skill. Unlike the process for becoming an Apple certified teacher, becoming a Google certified educator does cost some money. Taking an Apple assessment simply required the click of a button. Taking a Google certification assessment requires you to register and pay a fee before an assessment is made available to you (within 24 hours).
Another big difference between the two distinguishments is the leveled certification Google offers. There is basically one track to becoming an Apple teacher...take the assessments and pass. The end. There is much less time commitment, especially since so much of Apple is built to be intuitive and the multiple choice assessments are easy to take and re-take. If your goal is to get that Google certified educator badge for your resume, you have to pass the level 1 or 2 certification assessment. While a lot of the Google apps are pretty intuitive, you are expected to know some specifics before attempting the $10 or $25 matching, multiple choice, and performance event based assessment. What I like about this is that there is a lot of work to becoming a Google certified educator, it really is an accomplishment to get through all of the work. I really like that they leveled their certifications to distinguish between the different skill levels needed to be a level 1 or level 2 Google certified educator.
Once you have become a level 2 educator, you do have the ability to become a trainer or innovator.
  





HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE DECIDING IF PUTTING THE TIME INTO GOOGLE TRAINING IS SOMETHING YOU WANT TO DO:How often do you use or want to use Google apps?
 If you never use Google apps and are just stepping into using them, there are a lot of training videos available on the Google educator site that have nothing to do with getting certification. It’s ok to dip your feet in and get a little bit of free training before diving into the full certification process! If you are ready to fully utilize Google and would like to integrate it into your curriculum next year, it might be a good time to dive right into the certification training! 

How much time do you have to devote to pd this summer?
 There is an ETA for each “chapter” of material so you have a good estimate of the time involved!

What prior knowledge do you have about Google apps?
If you have a lot of familiarity with Google apps, you may be able to take the certification quizzes without going through the whole training process. Google provides some sample exam questions so you know what to expect as well as an easy to read outline of what each chapter in the training entails. If you have no prior knowledge of Google apps, maybe you want to start at the free training/fundamental videos or level 1. Look through some of the material and it should be pretty easy to tell where you land!

I am in the process of level 2 training right now and I really like the layout of their training! I will give some updates as I learn and I’m excited to develop lessons where technology enriches the experience! Who else is up for some Google training this summer? Click here to get started!
​
0 Comments

Becoming an Apple Teacher

6/17/2019

0 Comments

 
A really good PD option for a teacher that works in 1:1 schools or district is being a teacher expert in your type of device or program. Apple and Google both have options for teachers to become certified in their products. 
 
In this post we will go through the steps to becoming an Apple Teachers and what kind of resources you can use for professional development through Apple.  
 
The first step is go to the Apple Education site. There you will find articles, tips, resources, and other teacher stories to learn new things about using Apple products in the classroom. On this page there is also a link to a resource called Apple Teacher. You will need an apple id to sign in.

Then once you are in there are more options of resources. The best place to start is the section on becoming an apple teacher. This is a professional development program where you go at your own pace and take quizzes over different apple programs. There is an iPad path or a Mac path. When you pass the quiz you get a badge for each section. 





​After you choose your path, you will see the different programs that you can work on. When you select one, it brings to your resources to help you learn the program if you need to brush up on it. When you are ready you can take the quiz over the program. If you get at least 4 out of 5 questions correct, you will receive your badge. They keep track of the badges you have earned on your profile page.


Once you have made it through all of the programs, you will receive an Apple Teacher icon that you can use on your credentials. They also make available more resources and additional badges you can earn for different programs. 

Becoming an Apple Teacher is a good way to learn the programs for the system you are using. It is free and a way to take charge of your technology learning, especially since many districts do not offer system specific program training. Once you go through this process Apple has many more steps you can take to gain even more knowledge of Apple products and how to use them in the classroom. 

0 Comments

Summer Institute Vs Edcamp

6/10/2019

0 Comments

 
Are you wanting to organize a professional development day for a group of teachers? Summer Institute or Edcamp may be for you!
 
What is the difference between an Edcamp and Summer Institute?
 
A summer institute is a more formal professional development opportunity with scheduled speakers, sessions, and presentations. The presenters can be your fellow teachers and staff or outside presenters that you bring in. A summer institute lasts usually around a week to two weeks. It is a great way to get professional development in a small time frame and learn from peers and experts in their fields. 
 
An edcamp is typically described as “unconferences”. They are typically one day in length and are created by the participants when they show up that day. It is not meant to be a presentation but a discussion about topics that teachers are interested in. The Edcamp organization describes them as “free, organic, participant-driven, un-conferences that empower educators to maximize professional learning experiences and peer networks.” They have a bunch of resources on their site if you would like to find an edcamp near you or organize one. Below is a video that gives an overview of what an edcamp is. 
Both options are great ways to learn new things over the summer that can give new life to your teaching practice or offer you an outlet to share your experience with other teachers. You get a chance to learn and network with other teachers which is always a good thing in our business. 

PLANNING OUT YOUR SUMMER INSTITUTE
  • Check with your district about PD funds. Can you pay presenters or attendees as an incentive? Can you use a school building? Are there particular dates to avoid so that you don’t conflict with major pd or camps that would affect the teachers you want to serve?
  • 2 Months before - Get Presenters. Once you have a date, location, and possible incentives, send out an invitation to gain presenters. You will need to collect information such as when they are available, what they will present about, and how many people they can host in their session. I would suggest using a google form to collect the information. Set a due date for session presenters to sign up. If you are working on a budget with paid presenters and attendees, be sure to let your presenters know that their session will need to “make” in order to have it run as a paid session. 
  • 1 Month before - Get Attendees. Once you have all of your potential presenters, it is time to get your attendees! I used a google doc to create the event schedule and linked each session to Eventbrite so attendees could sign up (or cancel) themselves. Eventbrite will send email reminders to your attendees as well as provide easy access to a spreadsheet roster and class count for each session. 
  • 1 Week before - Reminders and final details. Eventbrite will let you export class rosters with all pertinent information. Pulling emails from the sheet allows you to send reminders to your participants so that the event is well attended! It is also a good idea to check back in with your presenters to be sure they don’t have any scheduling conflicts that have come up in the past month. Remember, they signed up for this 2 months ago and crazy things happen! You will also want to give final numbers to your district or businesses who are helping to fund either payment or prizes for your event. You’ll also need to be sure all the rooms your presenters are using have the appropriate setup or technology for the sessions. Create signage to help attendees find the rooms easily and export your rosters for a sign in sheet and you are all set!
  • The Event! ​ On the morning of the event, be sure all the rooms you are planning to use are unlocked and the lights are on. Set up a registration/sign in table and post your signage in the building. Because the presenters and attendees signed up ahead of time, it really runs itself at this point! Have fun and be sure you get to attend a couple of sessions!
PLANNING OUT YOUR EDCAMP
  • Check with your district about PD funds or visit with local businesses about donating prizes. Can you pay presenters or attendees as an incentive? Can you use a school building? Are there particular dates to avoid so that you don’t conflict with major pd or camps that would affect the teachers you want to serve? Can you incentivize attendance with a prize raffle? It's a great idea to try and get donations for breakfast since the first bit of edcamp is getting to know each other and signing up to present or host discussions. Having breakfast and some raffles gives people something to do while they mull over what they want to attend or present. 
  • Register with Edcamp if you want to follow the true tenets of an edcamp. They also have an edcamp in a box to help you get started building your own edcamp.
  • (at least) 1 Month before - Get Attendees. It’s time to advertise!  Remember, ed camps do not have a set schedule of sessions to sign up for and requires attendees to give impromptu sessions on the spot (though it is a good idea to secure at least a few volunteers to guarantee a session!) Many people have never been to an ed camp so it is important to include some explanation of the set up in your flyers, Facebook event, email invitations, etc. Again, I would suggest using Eventbrite for attendees to register. 
  • 1 Week before - Reminders and final details Eventbrite will let you export class rosters with all pertinent information. Pulling emails from the sheet allows you to send reminders to your participants so that the event is well attended! You will also want to give final numbers to your district or businesses who are helping to fund either payment or prizes for your event. You’ll also need to be sure you know what type of technology you have in each room so that presenters can sign up for a room that suits their presentation. Create signage to help attendees find the rooms easily and export your rosters for a sign in sheet and you are all set!
  • The Event! ​On the morning of the event, be sure all the rooms you are planning to use are unlocked and the lights are on. Set up a sign in area which could include a raffle, breakfast, a photo booth, and more. When attendees start showing up, someone should greet them and show them what they can do until the first session. About 5-10 minutes after the scheduled start time, get everyone's attention and show them the master time sheet with available time slots and room numbers. Explain how the edcamp works (that people need to sign up to present about a topic or host a discussion) and then release them to sign up to lead a session! From this point until the end, it is about helping suggest sessions or leading one if you need to. At the end, you can conclude with the raffle or closing remarks about the day! You made it!

If you are in the Joplin area, no need to organize your own edcamp, sign up for the August 4th Edcamp at Joplin High School here!
0 Comments

Why do we need summer pd?

6/3/2019

0 Comments

 
The last day of school has just passed, the kids are gone, your room is cleaned, and your grades have all been finalized. This is when all teachers rejoice and all we can think of is sleeping. The last thing you are probably thinking about is PD.  

We all know it is a myth that teachers have the summers off. Many of us teach summer school, attend conferences, work on curriculum, and some even work other jobs. 

When it comes to how you spend your summer and how you recharge your batteries for the next school year, every teacher is different (Take our quiz to see what you may need to recharge!). It is definitely important for us to take time to recharge and take a defined break from teaching so that we can come back the next year ready and willing to teach. 

Summer is a good time to reflect on the previous school year and work on becoming a better teacher for the next year. During the summer, we are free from the stress of having to plan lessons and manage the day-to-day of teaching and focus on making ourselves better.  

We came across this article from Edutopia about developing a growth mindset in teachers. It is a good article that discusses the value of growth mindset in teachers and ways to incorporate those concepts into your teaching practice. We always talk about this being a good quality and skill for students, but it is equally important for teachers to be focused on growth and a willingness to learn and improve. 

There are a lot of opportunities in the summer ranging from conferences, panels, college classes and webinars if you don’t want to travel. 

Where do you find quality PD?
If you are looking for something more involved you can look for local districts to host Edcamps or summer institutes. Don't know what those are? Don't worry! Next week we will be walking you through the steps of planning and implementing an EdCamp or Summer Institute at your school building or district. EdCamps and Summer Institutes are a great way to open up communication about what is happening in other classrooms and learn some new ideas from your peers!

Don't have time to set up a Summer Institute or EdCamp? You can find professional development in a lot of different places now. There are small PD bites and articles all over Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets.  Many colleges also will offer specialized courses and programs for K12 teachers. The Department of Education in your state will also have professional development that you can turn to as well. We have found that sometimes the best pd is finding a group of teachers that are willing to try new things share opportunities and stories with each other. This summer our blog will also focus on PD to help you recharge and reflect over the summer.
  • June 12 - Creating Your Own Summer Institute or EdCamp 
  • June 19 - Becoming an Apple Teacher
  • June 26 - Becoming a Google Certified Teacher
  • July 3 - Breaking Down Your Curriculum 
  • July 10 - Resources to Create Meaningful Activities For Your Standards
  • July 17 - Turning Your Meaningful Activities into a Self-Paced Setup
  • July 24 - What Does Your 2017-2018 Classroom Look Like?
  • July 31 - Communication and the Nitty Gritty Details
  • August 7 - The First Week of School

Can't wait for these dates? Here are some websites that offer online PD in the form of courses, conferences, and webinars. 

PBS TeacherLine
Learners Edge
edWeb.net
ASCD - Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development - Webinar Archive
SimpleK12
PBS Learning Media - Webinar Link

Do you know of some good places to find quality professional development? Please leave your ideas and comments below. ​
0 Comments

May 20th, 2019

5/20/2019

0 Comments

 
This summer our goal is to talk about professional development and how to grow our practice over the summer break. We will post resources and ideas we have about growing as teachers. To get us started try this quiz to see what you need over this summer!
​
0 Comments

Breakout EDU!

11/12/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
​It's no secret that I'm pretty competitive. I also love logic games. Brain teasers are my fave. When I heard about escape rooms, I was so pumped. WHAT IS AN ESCAPE ROOM?An escape room is an activity where participants are put through a search and find like challenge that include puzzles and locks. There is usually a given scenario to help engage participants such as: you are the survivors of a zombie apocolypse but you've all been contaminated. You are locked in a laboratory where they were creating an antidote. Find the antidote within an hour and save yourselves!....You can see how decorating and creating a story helps engage you in the game! Clues can be out in the open or hard to find (invisible ink, random numbers on the wall, etc.). Participants "win" if they can unlock all of the boxes - usually one is containing whatever you are trying to find (example: the antidote). When you find that box, you win!

There are a lot of scenarios where I would use an escape room! This blog explores a couple of times that I used (or would suggest using) an escape room!
​
THE FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL Day one - I introduced myself and did a welcome activity. 
Day two - I showed the syllabus and the classroom rules/expectations.
Day three - I gave a pretest (yuck)
Day four - BREAKOUT EDU!!!!!
First of all, pretests are not fun but for my class, they are necessary. Because we are on a three track system, it helps me to be sure students are in the right class and allows me to gauge the right starting point for the following week. After three days, they know a little bit about me and my classroom but now I want to know about them. Other than their academic work, I want to know their personalities - enter Breakout Edu. 
Breakout Edu has a lot of team building pre-made escape rooms. I had ordered their breakout box (you can also make your own!), picked a scenario, and set up my room. That first Friday, students came into the room and I simply introduced them to the scenario (you need to unlock the box within 40 minutes in order to get the prize!), and started the timer. There were a million questions. But that was my plan all along! I answered some basic structure questions but didn't answer anything that would help them solve the puzzles included with the escape room. I was looking for 
  • Who spoke up
  • Who took the lead
  • Who knew the answer but didn't say anything
  • Who tried to open the locks by trying a million different combination and not doing any of the actual work
  • Who tried to disengage
  • Who was incredibly motivated by competition and the game based activity etc.
This escape room helped me to learn who my kids were in 40 minutes in a way I haven't been able to accomplish before. It also gave us a jumping board for relationships. They definitely remember doing that first escape room and how much it frustrated them! How do I know they loved it? Because they asked to make their own as projects!
​

  











As I've said in previous posts, I ask students to choose a project that shows they know the material. They have to present (or in this case facilitate) the project for the class. My Geometry class loved creating escape rooms for their congruent triangles unit. Even more helpful, it ended up creating a couple of days of review for my students before the unit test! They loved watching their classmates struggle through problems and they loved being sneaky about creating it. I definitely saw more engagement for this project choice than any other I've done so far!
Lucky for us, Breakout Edu provides a template for teachers to create their own escape rooms. It walks you through the process so nicely that of course my students can figure it out! 
I highly encourage you to have your students create escape rooms. Something I will be trying during my next unit will be splitting the class into two groups and having them create escape rooms for each other to try. That should amp up the competition! :)
​
THE NEW BREAKOUT EDU OR 
​"CAN'T I JUST MAKE MY OWN?"Breakout Edu has recently changed their website/cost. It is now a subscription service. When I first began doing escape rooms, I definitely thought the cost was worth it. Now that I have the hang of it as well as the template for myself and students to use, I'm not sure how much I will go back to the site for more game scenarios. It really depends on your experience and how much work you are wanting to put into it. Getting the scenario from Breakout Edu takes almost no work. They have everything completed for you (including a Youtube video that walks you through the story and how to set up the room!). If you are willing to put in some more time (or give your students time to work on it!) you may be just fine creating your own!
Either way, you should definitely try an escape classroom! Competition, team building, content review and more can be gained from it! AND IT'S SO MUCH FUN!!!!!
0 Comments

my 5 favorite Books for Teacher Professional development

7/9/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
The search for the best teacher professional development book can be an overwhelming task. In an effort to make your search easier, I want to share 5 of my favorite professional development books. The topics vary but these are books that I always come back to help remind me of the best practices in teaching or have really helped me grow as a teacher. 

Picture
Teaching Outside the Box
by LouAnne Johnson

This is one of my favorite books for new teachers. I found this book by accident when I was looking around in a Barnes & Noble. What I love about this book is that it is very real. She is very up front about the challenges of teaching and ways that you can engage your students in practical ways. She gave me some practical ways to approach teaching and think about how I interact with students and think about teaching and what I really want to get out of teaching. 

This was the book that I came back to when I left teaching for a year to pursue my masters degree and relocate. Every time I read it I feel like I gain something new or it reminds me of what I have lost in my practices. 

Picture
The Essential 55
by Ron Clark

This is one I am sure most people are familiar with. My copy was a gift to me from my Cooperating Teacher during student teaching. I love this book because it applies to life and education and works for any grade level. As a secondary teacher, I often struggle to find books for that work for me in the same way they would for elementary level. This book doesn't have that issue. I feel this is a must read for all teachers. Many of the rules discussed in the book are things that I would think most teachers would consider best practices and it a great reminder when we need it. 

Picture
A Repair Kit for Grading
by Ken O'Connor

This book I came across when my district was working on grading practices and looking at standards based grading. 

In this book the author takes you through 15 fixes for broken grades. What I liked about this book is that it made really think about what I am grading, why am I grading, how I communicate grades. This book is what got me started on the path to focusing my grades on assessments rather than behavior. It lead me to try and shift my grades to reflect what students have learned rather than the behavior of school. I do have to say though that there are some things that I am not fully on board with like the no zero policy. 

On the whole though I recommend this book for someone that is interested in rethinking grading practices and some different ways to approach grading. 

Picture
The Fundamental 5
​by Sean Cain and Mike Laird

This book was a school book study that my district did a couple of years ago. This book is a really quick read and is very practical for all grade levels, but I feel really works in the middle and secondary levels. 

This book takes you through what they consider 5 fundamental practices for teaching. All of these practices are practical and probably things that many of us have heard about in some form before, but I like how this book presents them with ways to implement and how it can benefit the classroom. 

Picture
Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design
by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe

This book I came across because I have become dedicated to writing quality curriculum and creating a differentiated classroom. 

This book is all about how to take your curriculum and make sure that it really addresses the standards, but also talks about how to take your curriculum and created a differentiated model to go with it. What I really loved about this book was that it is the first time I really had someone take me through what it really means to be differentiated. This book has really made me think about my curriculum, my classroom processes, and my assessments/activities. A full review of this book can be found here.


These are some of the professional development books out there on a range of topics related to teaching, but I find all of these to be useful and interesting. What good professional development books would you recommend? Have read any of the books above? We would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for all teachers! 
0 Comments

5 Tips For Creating STudent Project Options

3/19/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
Projects are awesome! I am one of those teachers that loves to do as many projects as possible. The unfortunate thing is that I struggle fitting in all of my project ideas within my short semester timelines. I feel like for every unit I have over the years come up with 4 or 5 projects that I have tried at different times. The struggle is that every student likes different types of projects and as teachers we are trying to reach as many different types of learners and interests as possible.

The solution to this that most of us have figured out is to give our students a list of project options to choose from. Students like this because they have the ability to make a choice in their learning and what they focus on within your parameters. Teachers like it because typically students take the project more seriously and care more about the project overall since they had the ability to choose what they work on.

Project choice options are another tool that teachers can use in the student-directed classroom or as a tool to differentiate assessments in your classroom. There are a lot of pieces in creating quality projects and structuring those options for your students. Here are 5 tips and things to think about when creating your project options:
  1. Consistency in assessing the different projects. One problem that teachers can run into is that the projects we are offering are not assessing the same objective/content. Offering choice is key component of differentiation in the classroom, but when we create choices for the student, we need to make sure that all of the possibilities a student can take measure our key standards, objectives, and learning goals. This needs to be clear when it comes to the rubric. Even though you may have two, three, or five different options for projects the core components of all projects and rubrics need to assess whatever key content you have. I always try to make them the same point values as well so that no matter what project a student picks they know that the content parts are all assessed the same. Then each project can have the extra pieces added on to it as needed.
  2. Try to hit different learning styles with the different projects. If variety is one of your goals in giving students choices then try to offer a different style of project that hits the different styles. For example, I for my Human-Environment Interaction unit I offer the following options for my projects:
    1. Documentary - The students that are visual and really into technology love this option because they get to be creative and show off their skills at creating video.
    2. Children’s Book/Story - The students that are creative writers and sometimes my artists really like this option because I allow students to do this digitally or more traditionally on paper. This works for people that like to be creative but also process through writing.
    3. Song/Music Video - This definitely for the students that are auditory and love music.
    4. Research Paper - This serves the student that doesn’t like to be creative and is more of a researcher and analytical. I have several students in my classes that are always wanting to ask different questions and argue differing opinions, so with this option they have the ability to create a research question if they want and show deeper knowledge of the topic.
  3. Considering offering difficulty levels within your project options. One thing that I have started doing is within most of my project offerings, I try to give them options on the tone and level of critical thinking within the projects. For example in two of my HEI projects I incorporated different levels or styles within the project option. I did this to further allow me to differentiate to the needs of my students. I have some students that are special needs and do not have the ability to take some pieces of the content to different levels. I also feel like this allows students to speak more to their abilities and interests. Here is what I offered in two of my Human-Environment Interactions projects:
    1. Documentary - Students have the option of creating a public service documentary that is geared to prompt, solve, or create awareness for an issue that touches on the key components of the unit. Students also had the option of creating an education video for middle school students that could be used in middle school classrooms to reinforce or introduce issues related to humans and the environment.  
    2. Children’s Book/Story - Students have the option of creating an educational text (for students that are more literal in their thinking) or writing a creative story that covers the main themes (for students that are able to critically think and transfer knowledge).
  4. Have your projects be as relevant as possible. One of things that can make a project be successful is how relevant it is to the students. Are the students solving an actual local, state, national, or global problem? Are they creating a product that will be used by another group of people? When students understand why the students are doing the project and they know that something will actually come from their project, the seriousness of the project because much more real to them. We all know that it isn’t possible to always have our projects and work be real-word because of resources, time, etc. The more often we can do it the more students will see the relevance in our content and how it can apply to our world. For my Human-Environment Interaction projects the students had the job of creating education materials for students in middle school and elementary school in my district. Also with the public service option in the documentary, students had the potential of creating a product that would be released for the general public and would be released on youtube and social media.  
  5. Groups or no groups? I struggle with this because groups can be hard and sometimes unreliable with work. On the other hand though I like groups because it can allow for more creativity and critical thinking when students get to talk about their learning. What I have been doing is creating specific roles when I have group projects and making sure that students understand their expectations. Then other times I typically just allow my students to choose. They can work with a partner or they can work individually. When it comes to assessment projects, I typically only allow partners or occasionally groups of three. I do not like to go over that, because it can be easier to allow students disappear and pass off their work on others. For some projects though, I do not allow partners at all. It really just depends on what other assessments I have for that unit and the structure I am looking for.

Check out my Student Choice Projects and Rubrics Here! 


Picture
2 Comments

How my classes have improved by using pretests more effectively

3/5/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
To pretest or not pretest? I don't really think that is the question teachers ask anymore. It seems to be standard practice to give students a pretest at the beginning of the school year or semester at the very least. The question really is are we using those pretests effectively?

I will admit that I was really not one of those people that was using pretests like I should. I was only giving one pretest that was too large at the beginning of the semester. I always looked at the overall results, but I didn't really look at the individual student results and I really didn't change my teaching style or material based on those tests. I also never asked questions about what students thought about the topic I was pretesting them on. I knew I really wasn’t using pretesting very effectively but honestly I was afraid of the workload that I thought would be created if I was really analyzing my pretests. Then I read a book (Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design) that reinvigorated my drive to better myself (read more about that here) and one of the things I wanted to delve into was using pretests more effectively.

What I took away from the book was how you don’t want to be teaching in the dark, which really stuck with me. Why would I not want to know what my students already know and why wouldn’t I want to use that for my teaching. It was I would call a "duh" moment.

That was all took to get me to dive into how I was going to use pretests more effectively. From there I used stories from the book to guide me and pieced together what I wanted to do with it.

How I scheduled my pretests

I have broken my content down into 3 sections so I am going to have three pretests at different points in the curriculum which I have based around my units.

Here is a break down of my class to show you what I mean:
  • Class Introduction
    • Pretest covering Human-Environment Interaction
  • 5 Themes of Geography
  • Human-Environment Interaction
    • Pretest on Culture
  • Human Characteristics - Culture
    • Pretest on Movement
  • Movement
  • Globalization

​I decided to not give a pretest on my first unit because that is the one that sets up my entire course and I feel it is important for the students to complete it. It allows me to see how students work towards a deadline and get a feel for them as students. It also allows me to review the results and implement them.

My plan with pretesting was to use the results to decide what activities students would need to complete in order to show proficiency in my standards and objectives and add elements of personal choice/interest based on what they said in the pretest. In my class students have a certain amount of flexibility in how they progress through a unit in terms of time and mode of learning. I refer to it as student-directed and self-paced (see more about how I do that here). In the beginning it was really just self-paced but as I have progressed it has really been about teaching students content but also working on the skills of learning and working students in small groups as opposed to large groups unless it is needed. Now I am adding more options in assessments and creating a personalized experience based on their pretest results.
​

Makeup of the pretests

When creating the pretest I was looking to have 2-3 questions per content focus for the unit. My goal was to have no more than 25 questions. Then I asked some opinion style questions to see how they felt about the material from this unit. The questions I ask were:
  1. On a scale of 1-5 with 1 being not important to 5 being very important, rate how important it is for people to understand their environment and how people interact with their environment.
  2. What do you think about climate change and the concept of global warming? Explain your point of view.
  3. Pick one of the following issues that you think is the important problem regarding our environment right now. Explain why you picked that issue. (Then I gave a list of like 10 different environmental issues and a write in option).

I went with these questions to see how much they valued their environment and what current biases and points of view they have about the environment and how humans use the environment. I will say that asking these questions gave me some valuable insight into my students and what they think about the topic. It was able to highlight issues and create connections that I am not sure would be seen in a typical multiple choice test.
​


Reviewing the student data

Once the students took the test I had the part that honestly I was dreading: reading through every test. I will say that I am super lucky in that my district uses canvas which allows you to create a spreadsheet broken down by student. The only problem was that I wanted a single 1-2 page breakdown of the test results for each student so I could review it with the students and not show them anything but their own results.

Luckily I have an amazing husband that happens to a spreadsheet genius and helped me organize my results by student with only the important information and helped me print it so it would be useful. Unfortunately I didn’t ask him right away to help with that and was trying to create a page form that I was going to hand write the results on for each student! I was creating so much more work for myself. My co-blogger is going to read this, roll her eyes and laugh, because she is also a spreadsheet genius.  (Yes, you should have called me! Plus I guarantee one of the Alice Keeler spreadsheet add-ons would help with the process...next time!  haha!- Becca)

Once I had my results printed and ready to review, all I did was highlight the areas of weakness so when I went to review with the student it would be easy to see what areas we needed to work on.

I also looked for patterns in the pretests. What I noticed was that I had three groups of students: students that were weak in the unit as a whole, students that were in the middle needing some review, and the students that were advanced in their knowledge of the material already.
​


The changes I Have seen in my classes

As students turned in their final assignment from the 5 Themes of Geography unit, I pulled them aside to review their pretest and their HEI checklists (see more about how I use checklists here). As we talked I highlighted the portions of their checklist that they needed to complete. Most students even if they scored advanced had some things that they couldn’t get out of. I usually have at least 2 formative assessments embedded into the unit to make sure they are getting the material before they get to the summative assessment. They could not get out of those and they could not get out of their textbook readings because we are working on reading and notetaking skills.

I used the opinion questions to guide our class bell work activities and added some of the topics they picked out as important to our assignments and have been making sure to talk about them as we work through content. It has been really nice to have those conversations with students and the students have responded pretty well because they can’t dispute the results and they appreciate that I have taken their answers and opinions into account.

So far I would say that really making use of my pretest has been very positive. It definitely has caused some extra work for me because I have to be on my game even more and have extra activities planned for students that need extra support or enrichment, but I feel like I am creating a more student-directed learning environment where students have more ownership in their learning and they know that I am considering them when I am creating materials for the class.
2 Comments

Integrating Differentiated Instruction & understanding by design - A book Review

2/5/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Curriculum and differentiated instruction. These are two of the biggest emphasis in education since I started teaching 10 years ago. There are always educational fads and sometimes they are just renaming a concept related to curriculum writing and differentiated instruction. I would have to say though that in my opinion your curriculum and your approach to teaching are the biggest factors in whether or not you are a successful teacher.

When I first started teaching, I really didn’t think about curriculum. I was hired to teach 6th grade ancient civilizations and all of my material was essentially provided to me. I had an amazing mentor that had previously taught the same subject and a partner teacher on the other team that was also amazing. I really had great materials and I just fed off of what they gave me. My building would occasionally give us a work day to review the standards for our grade-level and make sure they matched what we were teaching. The problem was that no one ever gave us any instruction about how to do this, what to look for, or examples of quality curriculum. I just assumed that because we were covering the standards that we had amazing curriculum.

Fast forward to now. I have been teaching at my school for 7 years and working on my curriculum for 7 years. I really love what I have built and I think it is strong, but I still feel like I am just going off my gut of what I think curriculum should be like. I realized that I wanted to understand curriculum writing, what good curriculum looks like, and how to write a really strong curriculum. At the same time the past couple of years I have become obsessed with differentiated instruction and how to make it work in a high school social studies classroom. I have been searching for something to guide me on and give me a hint that I am headed in the right direction.

This led me to search amazon for education books and I came across Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe. This immediately caught my eye. I am interested in curriculum writing and because of my recent move to student-directed learning I am trying to differentiate my instruction as much as possible. This seemed like it was meant for me.

Tomlinson and McTighe are seasoned educators that have multiple degrees and books on their perspective areas. Tomlinson focuses on differentiated instruction and McTighe focuses on curriculum writing. They are definitely experts in their fields.

Picture

Major Takeaways


A template and reasoning for planning backwards when creating curriculum 

​One​ of the best things is that this book takes you through step by step in planning your curriculum backwards. They provide charts and templates that you can use to start the process for yourself. That is really big for me as a person that loves to chart things out and see what it will look like at the end. The even better part is that give you logical reasons for why they have each step included. The break down what you do and why. I had a vague understanding of what it meant to backwards plan and it was something that I was sort of doing in my own planning, but what they presented was much more intentional. That was key for me. 

There is too much to really give you the full low down but the three core pieces of the planning backwards in this book are: 
  • Stage 1 - Desired Results
    • Content Standards
    • Understandings
    • Essential Questions
    • Knowledge vs. Skill
  • Stage 2 - Assessment Evidence
    • Performance Tasks
    • Other Evidence
    • Key Criteria
  • Stage 3 - Learning Plan
    • Essentially the lesson planning stage
    • Using the WHERETO acronym to plan the unit lessons. 

They do a great job of taking you through each stage and talking about each piece of the stage with tips and suggestions of how to do it. They also give examples tied to different contents and grade-levels. 
​

A reminder that I am responsible for designing and facilitating learning in the classroom

This reminder came at the best time for me. I had just wrapped up one of the hardest semesters of my teaching career and I wasn't sure what to do about it or fix the problems I was having. As I read this book, it reminded me that I am responsible for creating valuable learning experiences in the classroom and making sure that students are learning it. I had been wrapped up in the high school mentality that they need to learn to be adults and figure things out for themselves. This book reminded me though that it is my job as the teacher to guide them and find ways to make learning meaningful for my students. 

​
Tomlinson and McTighe believe that teachers need to "balance student opportunities to make sense of the big ideas of content, to monitor the evolution of student understandings, and to engage in teacher-guided student reflection on and direct instruction related to the enduring understandings." This was what I needed to be reminded of. In my journey to create a student-directed learning environment, I let go of the teacher guided material and was pushing to hard for the students to create meaning all of the time. This book helped remind me of the things I knew to be true to be best practices and why I need to do them. 

This book does such a great job in discussing the reasons why we do the things that we do. The first chapters of the book are dedicated to 'What Really Matters in Teaching' and "What Really Matters in Learning?' This honest discussion of why we do what we do and why it is important was a great refresher and affirmation of why I am a teacher. 

What I also love is that Tomlinson and McTighe want the students to work for it. My favorite quote in the book might be "Understanding must be earned." That is the best! There is so much blame going around and while teachers have a lot of responsibility in the learning process, the most important thing is that we have to provide opportunities for students to earn their understanding. 
​

Where differentiation occurs in the process of creating curriculum and what differentiation really looks like

I have never really been taught as a teacher what differentiated instruction really looks like. We talk about it a lot in schools and we all know that it is a good idea, but what does that mean. What does real differentiation look like? What pieces of the curriculum can be differentiated? All of these questions are answered in this book. Tomlinson and McTighe first talk about what differentiation really means then go through their stages of curriculum and discuss where differentiation can and should take place for students. They give scenarios to show what it looks like in different contents and grade-levels. I will say that there were times that I would like even more specific examples, but that is because I am very specific and like to see how things are broken down. 

One of the things I have really taken from this process is the importance of pre-testing. It is hard to actually differentiate your instruction with out first pre-testing students for their prior knowledge and their interest in the content. Without this it is hard to create activities that will address student choice and readiness level. 

Along with this I was afraid in taking the steps towards true differentiation that I would have to individualize everything for every student. That thought alone sent me into panic mode. There is no way I would have the time to do that in a way that was effective. Tomlinson and McTighe put me at ease though by saying that you do not have to individualize everything in the classroom. It is better to look for patterns of instruction that can help with multiple learners. This was such a relief. By identifying major patterns of instruction and areas that many students may struggle with, I can create supports and activities to build those areas. 

I really recommend this book if you are looking for a book to take you through the process of designing a curriculum that works for all students and how to use differentiated instruction to better instruct all students. 
0 Comments
<<Previous
    Picture

    Signup for our newsletter!

    Signup for our newsletter and receive the latest promotions and updates!
    Email address
    *
    campayn
    SUBMIT YOUR "AMAZING CLASSROOM"!

    Archives

    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017

    Categories

    All
    Amazing Classrooms!
    Building Fundamentals
    Classroom Pick Me Up
    New Teachers
    PD That Works
    The Self Paced Classroom
    Useful Tech Tools

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • WWATD Blog
  • Educator Resources
    • Building Fundamentals
    • Classroom Pick Me Ups!
    • PD That Works!
    • The Self Paced Classroom
    • Useful Tech Tools
    • Math Resources
    • Social Studies Resources
  • Signup for Freebies!