While everyone I meet can contribute to my becoming a more effective lead learner, some individuals or groups deserve special recognition.
God - God has equipped me with compassion for others, a passion for learning and influencing learning, and a perseverance to always be improving. I am eternally grateful to God for the heart and talents with which He has blessed me.
Twitter Chats and our Professional Learning Network (PLN) - Our #ChristianEducators on Thursday nights are a dedicated group of believers, educators, administrators and caring individuals that continue to encourage us to always serve God and others with all we have. I am so grateful to God for allowing me to have a part in moderating this sacred fellowship. I am also thankful to Dr. Bill Ziegler (@DrBillZiegler) for trusting me to partner with him in leading this fine group. Our #COLchat or Culture of Learning chat on Monday nights encourages participants to initially build relationships to develop an interdependence that fosters a mutual respect and a love of learning. Our #SBLchat or Standards-Based Learning crew on Wednesday nights continues to show how genuine learning can be developed by focusing on standards or learning outcomes and creating an environment that is conducive to creating lifelong learners. I am thankful for the dedication of our co-moderators Darin Jolly (@drjolly) and Garnet Hillman (@garnet_hillman) for always focusing on what's best for our students, their parents, our teachers and administrators. Our #LeadWithGiants crew on Monday nights is always an assembled group of individuals that strive to bring leadership to the forefront, develop the leader within us and empower us to develop enduring leadership qualities in our students. Our #EdChatMA are educators primarily from Massachusetts gather on the first and third Tuesday nights to discuss how to best integrate the diverse components that can aggregate to create sustained learning and the love for it. I'm grateful to our founder and co-moderator David Hochheiser (@DavidHochheiser) for his commitment to the furtherance of our efforts and influence.
Family - Finally, at Thanksgiving, I chatted at length with a family member who provided several healthy insights into empowering learning, providing an environment where all learners are valued and encouraged to reach or exceed their potential and especially to develop the needs of individuals rather than those of the class. He reminded me that courses or classes are made up of individuals with varying backgrounds, interests, tolerance levels and abilities to focus. He defended his position by explaining how he struggled with school leaders who expected him to fit in, be compliant and just "play school" until graduation. Unfortunately, due to many challenges in and out of his control, he chose to withdraw from secondary school prior to earning his diploma. He has since earned his GED, become an entrepreneur and is maintainng a multi-million dollar company. He reminded me to not ignore the individuals in our classes that struggle to fit in as typical learners since those students often see learning differently and many are not willing to just comply with the requirements of "playing school". I expect that integrating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into our learning environment will significantly help in this endeavor. He thanked me for being an educator who is focused on the learner, rather than on the currculum. He instilled in me a commitment to identify those atypical students and provide them with the resources and support to enable them to develop into contributing members of society, even though they struggle to comply with the rules of the road in our schools. I promised him I'd spend more time and energy on our student outliers to help them reach their potential. Will you join me in this commitment?
Friday, November 28, 2014
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Top Twelve Observations from Our Day of PD
Several teachers in our school had the opportunity to observe classes in another district today. We left that district discussing that today may have been the best Professional Development (PD) that our district had provided in ten years! We have so many fresh ideas to bring back to our classes!
- Some students may be lost or daydreaming even when others are very engaged.
- Students can use their electronic devices appropriately when trusted.
- Students can be at various levels of understanding at any given moment in class.
- Using colors well during learning can highlight, differentiate and ignite learning.
- Student desks arranged in groups work much more collaboratively than arranged in rows.
- Announcing transitions is important to student connections and the flow of learning.
- Students explaining and asking questions clarifies the understanding for many in the room.
- When students ask questions, we must verify that they really understand the answer.
- The more student-centered the class is, the more engaging it is for students.
- When teachers speak for more than 5-8 minutes without student intervention, student engagement decreases.
- When students sense that teachers are approachable and trustworthy, learning ignites.
- A Culture of Learning that is safe and engaging is required for retention and application.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Student-Centered Learning
Here are seven students and their journey through their recent challenges to their now success!
Student #1 - Soon after I tweeted the results from our #WHSPrecal Summative Assessment, this student asked me through @Voxer which student number he was in the list so he could identify his proficiency level. Through @Voxer, we discussed the misunderstanding he documented on his assessment. We worked through several iterations until he had his "aha" moment. He practiced several questions on his own. The next day he came to our classroom and asked for an opportunity to prove his heightened understanding. I suggested he create a question with some guidelines that I offered. He did. He completed it correctly. I asked him to defend his solution. He explained it thoroughly and earned back all the points that were originally deducted. One of his comments had been, "I really want to prove to you that I have an 'A' worth of understanding in our class. It's that important to me." He did. He expressed that he was thankful that he has missed this question since it provided him the opportunity to consult with me on some new strategies for checking his work!
Student #2 - As the student who has demonstrated the highest level of understanding in our #WHSAlgebra2 course, she requested some enrichment opportunities that would really challenge her thinking. I was thrilled for her request, though I was a bit disappointed that I had yet to challenge her adequately. I had been differentiating her practice, though now know she needs even more of a challenge. I will be providing her with more challenging learning opportunities going forward!
Student #3 - We recently has a Complex Numbers Summative Assessment in our #WHSAlgebra2 course. One young man missed solving one Quadratic Formula question with complex roots. He had a slight error at the start of his process that resulted in an incorrect solution. He knew something was incorrect, but was unable to find it during the day of our in-class assessment. When he received his assessment back with feedback, he brought it to me and began to explain what his error had been and asked for some Extra Practice to prove his understanding so he'd be eligible for a reassessment. He proved his understanding on the Extra Practice and, therefore, was given the opportunity to redo his Quadratic Formula questions with complex roots. He answered all of them correctly and was ecstatic to earn a perfect score on his assessment! He could not have been more proud of himself. He was almost glowing!
Student #4 - One of our seniors in #WHSTrig was distraught to receive a Not Yet Proficient (NYP) comment on his recent Proficiency Ticket. He has failed to make some important connections that caused him to miss almost all of the questions. He was stunned as he thought he really understood the process. He began to explain his thinking and how he arrived at each of his solutions. We had a great meeting of the minds as we discussed what he understood and the one piece he was missing. I shared with him that I wanted him to find the missing piece himself. He began to work through each of the questions when he stumbled over exactly the piece he had been missing. He couldn't thank me enough for encouraging him to find it himself. He did enough Extra Practice to be eligible for a reassessment on our Proficiency Ticket. He assured me he'd be able to demonstrate top proficiency on the eight questions. He made himself proud by solving each correctly and made me proud by asking to explain to me how he arrived at his thought process. His results were flawless!
Student #6 - One young man in our #WHSAlgebra2 course brought me his graded Summative Assessment on Complex Numbers. He explain where he his thinking had gone astray and asked for Extra Practice to prove that he really did understand this topic completely. He correctly worked through all of his practice questions. I offered him several different versions of our assessment for him to select one for his re-assessment. He asked if he could complete two different assessments to prove that he really had thorough understanding. I indicated that one was adequate. He insisted that I offer him the toughest two versions as he was thankful for the opportunity to prove his proficiency and earn back his 'A'. He did just that!
Student #7 - One of our #WHSPrecal students had failed to complete his recent assessment since he got hung up on one particular question and lost a great deal of time. He brought that question to me and explained what he had done and where his misunderstanding had been. He was pretty tough on himself when it came to the only question he had missed. He showed me the Extra Practice he had completed and asked me to confirm that his thinking was now correct. I agreed. He agreed to practice a few more and send me his results through an email or a tweet. He then wants the opportunity to demonstrate his proficiency on this last question. He was so thankful for the opportunity to discuss his misunderstanding and where his correct thinking had brought him. I'm awaiting his tweet and know he'll soon be reassessing on that final situation!
Student #1 - Soon after I tweeted the results from our #WHSPrecal Summative Assessment, this student asked me through @Voxer which student number he was in the list so he could identify his proficiency level. Through @Voxer, we discussed the misunderstanding he documented on his assessment. We worked through several iterations until he had his "aha" moment. He practiced several questions on his own. The next day he came to our classroom and asked for an opportunity to prove his heightened understanding. I suggested he create a question with some guidelines that I offered. He did. He completed it correctly. I asked him to defend his solution. He explained it thoroughly and earned back all the points that were originally deducted. One of his comments had been, "I really want to prove to you that I have an 'A' worth of understanding in our class. It's that important to me." He did. He expressed that he was thankful that he has missed this question since it provided him the opportunity to consult with me on some new strategies for checking his work!
Student #2 - As the student who has demonstrated the highest level of understanding in our #WHSAlgebra2 course, she requested some enrichment opportunities that would really challenge her thinking. I was thrilled for her request, though I was a bit disappointed that I had yet to challenge her adequately. I had been differentiating her practice, though now know she needs even more of a challenge. I will be providing her with more challenging learning opportunities going forward!
Student #3 - We recently has a Complex Numbers Summative Assessment in our #WHSAlgebra2 course. One young man missed solving one Quadratic Formula question with complex roots. He had a slight error at the start of his process that resulted in an incorrect solution. He knew something was incorrect, but was unable to find it during the day of our in-class assessment. When he received his assessment back with feedback, he brought it to me and began to explain what his error had been and asked for some Extra Practice to prove his understanding so he'd be eligible for a reassessment. He proved his understanding on the Extra Practice and, therefore, was given the opportunity to redo his Quadratic Formula questions with complex roots. He answered all of them correctly and was ecstatic to earn a perfect score on his assessment! He could not have been more proud of himself. He was almost glowing!
Student #4 - One of our seniors in #WHSTrig was distraught to receive a Not Yet Proficient (NYP) comment on his recent Proficiency Ticket. He has failed to make some important connections that caused him to miss almost all of the questions. He was stunned as he thought he really understood the process. He began to explain his thinking and how he arrived at each of his solutions. We had a great meeting of the minds as we discussed what he understood and the one piece he was missing. I shared with him that I wanted him to find the missing piece himself. He began to work through each of the questions when he stumbled over exactly the piece he had been missing. He couldn't thank me enough for encouraging him to find it himself. He did enough Extra Practice to be eligible for a reassessment on our Proficiency Ticket. He assured me he'd be able to demonstrate top proficiency on the eight questions. He made himself proud by solving each correctly and made me proud by asking to explain to me how he arrived at his thought process. His results were flawless!
Student #6 - One young man in our #WHSAlgebra2 course brought me his graded Summative Assessment on Complex Numbers. He explain where he his thinking had gone astray and asked for Extra Practice to prove that he really did understand this topic completely. He correctly worked through all of his practice questions. I offered him several different versions of our assessment for him to select one for his re-assessment. He asked if he could complete two different assessments to prove that he really had thorough understanding. I indicated that one was adequate. He insisted that I offer him the toughest two versions as he was thankful for the opportunity to prove his proficiency and earn back his 'A'. He did just that!
Student #7 - One of our #WHSPrecal students had failed to complete his recent assessment since he got hung up on one particular question and lost a great deal of time. He brought that question to me and explained what he had done and where his misunderstanding had been. He was pretty tough on himself when it came to the only question he had missed. He showed me the Extra Practice he had completed and asked me to confirm that his thinking was now correct. I agreed. He agreed to practice a few more and send me his results through an email or a tweet. He then wants the opportunity to demonstrate his proficiency on this last question. He was so thankful for the opportunity to discuss his misunderstanding and where his correct thinking had brought him. I'm awaiting his tweet and know he'll soon be reassessing on that final situation!
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