Distraction Attraction?

Are you attracted to distractions? Are you drawn in by notifications on your mobile device? Are you lured by hyperlinks on a webpage? Is your focus easily broken when someone on social media tags you, retweets your tweet or likes something you recently posted? When you're exercising on cardio equipment at your local fitness center, do your eyes jump from one TV screen to another? Might it be intrigue or boredom? Why are we so easily drawn away from our task at hand by something that could likely be so trivial?

As the psychotherapist Micheal Hausauer notes, teens and other young adults have a "terrific interest in knowing what's going on in the lives of their peers, coupled with a terrific anxiety about being out of the loop." Could this describe more than just teens? 

These excerpts are from The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr:

• "The Net seizes our attention only to scatter it."
• "When we're online, we're often oblivious to everything else going on around us. The real world recedes as we process the flood of symbols and stimuli coming through our devices."
• "When our brain is overtaxed, we find 'distractions more distracting'." 
• "The Net is, by design, an interruption system, a machine geared for dividing attention."
• "The more complex the train of thought we're involved in, the greater the impairment the distractions cause. "

I'm finding the following activities are regularly or maybe constantly being interrupted:

• Driving - I took a pledge two years ago to not text and drive. Since I was almost hit in the crosswalk by a student of mine in front of our school, I'm very sensitive to this subject. Before sending a message to someone, I think whether they might be driving. If so, I wait to send the message. Daily, I see so many drivers appearing to be even slightly distracted from their driving due to some mobile device. Many appear to be clenching their device while attempting to drive. 

• Reading - I greatly enjoy learning through reading. I'm often reading on my iPad. I'm now noticing how often notifications appear in the banner section of my device. My eyes are drawn to it as my ears hear a tone announcing the distraction's arrival. Sometimes I switch from reading on my iPad to reading on my Kindle where my focus cannot be broken by social media notifications. 

• Learning - When our Learners are in a state of "flow" where engagement, attention and communication are rich and that dreaded announcement comes over the PA System beckoning some uninterested strolling learner to visit the main office, I wish we had the opportunity to disable more 'notifications'. I've read that schools in Germany and Japan see learning as sacred and would not disrupt learning unless it was an emergency. 

• Listening - I've been in meaningful conversation countless times with people in and out of school only to be distracted by their mobile device. Virtually every individual chooses to yield to the distraction. After reading the above-mentioned book by Nicholas Carr, I understand why we change our focus even though I still see it as somewhat disrespectful and impolite. 

• Reflecting - Just while I've been writing this reflective post, I've received about twenty notifications scrolling at the top of my iPad. None of them were worth the loss of my focus. I've realized this year just how important reflection is and am trying to spend more time each week in a state of distraction-free reflection. 

As always, I appreciate you reading my reflection and welcome your thoughts. I wonder how many times you were distracted while reading this brief piece. If you were distracted, did you choose to yield to it and why? Was it worth it? 

Learning Life Lessons

Today I attended the funeral of the dad of one of our Learners. One of our senior boys, not only attended, but honorably participated in the funeral for his dad.

I went to pay my respects at the funeral home at the last viewing of the dad of one of our senior young men. As it turned out, I was in for a life lesson. As I learned today, Eric is a mature 17-year old young man with a level-head, a deep-rooted love for family and a yearning to love and support his friends, family and everyone with which he comes in contact. Just as soon as I entered the funeral home, he introduced me to his mom and his younger brother and sister. Soon after, he was sharing memories of his dad through the hundreds of photos displayed. These photos captured precious memories of everyone in his family with a focus on dad. Eric expressed such heartfelt love, respect and adoration for this man. I kept hearing, "Mr. Rowe, I have learned so much from my dad." Eric shared his love for hockey and all the support his dad had provided for him and his teammates. I later learned that his teammates were either at the wake the prior evening or at the funeral today. In addition to Eric's immediate family, I had the pleasure to meet some of his uncles, his grandmother and grandfather. Come to find out, his grandmother had substituted for my classes when I had been out of school last year.

After a short walk to the church where the funeral was held, I was greeted by several of Eric's classmates. They were well-dressed, well-spoken and so appropriate given the situation. Upon arriving inside the church, I sat with Eric's classmates and teammates that filled about four pews. It was a sight to see nearly fifty respectful young men there to pay their respects and to support Eric. Eric's dad had influenced many of these classmates and hockey players. I was more than humbled by the way these young men represented themselves, their families and their community.

What had the greatest effect on me was when Eric made his way to the front of the church with his mom to eulogize his dad and her husband. Eric's mom initially spoke offering such love and commitment to her husband. She smoothly transitioned to enable Eric to speak as she gracefully stepped back and Eric approached the microphone. At that moment, my tears began to flow as they are at this moment. This 17-year old young man spoke with such strength, honor and gratefulness for the man his dad had been to him. Eric shared that his dad had been his best-friend, hero and role-model. Through Eric's words, he shared that he was committed to follow in his dad's footsteps and be a role-model and be there to love and support those with whom he connected. Eric conveyed that he knew he was now the man of the household and promised his dad that he would make him proud. This young man taught us a great deal today. I'm sure his dad is already so very proud of his son!

Learning on Vacation

Whether it was the beauty of Bermuda's pink sandy beaches, the 185 steps to the top of the Gibbs Lighthouse, the sights from the Bermuda Island Drive, the glass-bottom boat cruise along the water's edge to view the homes of famous people living in Bermuda or the incredible entertainment on the cruise ship, we were learning every day how to appreciate life with other cultures.

• Trust - As our captivated audience was spellbound by Jocka (@JockAcroFlyer) and Maria (@MaRiAerialDancr) and their Aerial Flyers show, the trust they had for each other was evident. Their balancing and flying stunts were only possible with implicit trust in one another. After meeting them F2F after their show, it became even more apparent the passion, trust, respect and dedication they had for one another. 
  

• Arts - In addition to the awe-inspiring aerial and balancing show that Jocka and Maria put on, we were entertained by Luke in the piano bar. Luke graduated from Berkeley School of Music in Boston, and like Jocka and Maria, were booked as entertainers on our cruise ship. Luke's personality and connection with his audience created repeat customers night after night. In addition to taking many requests, he took time during his breaks to relate to his audience. 

• Dedication - The cruise ship's Production Crew was more than sensational in their song and dance. Their commitment to the family they have fostered in their Crew and the time and effort they give to one another to bring out the best in each other was paramount. Having the chance to meet and talk with them in the cruise ship's fitness centered reinforced their commitment and  dedication. 
  

• Questions - Taking the opportunity to ask questions of Jocka, Maria, Luke, the Production Crew and so many tour guides and servers greatly enriched our cruise. So much can be learned through clarifying questions, reflective inquiry and questions conveying interest. We felt that our questions and their responses added so much to making our vacation even more relaxing, enjoyable and fulfilling. In addition, by being observant and asking questions at the right time saved us a great deal of time and money. 

• Communication - Our vacation was enriched through the constant communication with servers, cruise ship staff, tour guides and fellow vacationers. Whether it was in a glass elevator or a piano bar, we met and chatted with students that had previously learned in class with me or teachers who taught next to me in our district. It was mind-blowing to be on a cruise ship and have another guest call you by name and share how you've impacted their life. 
  

• Interdependence / Community / Family - In addition to the ship's Production Crew working together as a family, so many of our servers exhibited a sense of family and community by connecting, disclosing and asking questions. At least two of our servers had a fiance waiting for them at home at the end of this commitment on this cruise ship for a wedding around the corner. In addition to Jocka and Maria, the Production Crew of singers and dancers, our Thrillussionist David and his wife and child on the ship displayed a commitment to family and community. 

• Adapting - Learning to adapt and graciously accommodate other's needs in a changing schedule can not only reveal one's heart, but often comes with unexpected and pleasant surprises. We were invited to join other guests one evening in the dining room and found it to be a very pleasant and uplifting experience. We inquired as to their plans on the ship and met them at other times. There was a time change as a result of traveling through different time zones that caught some guests unaware. Adapting in the early morning for breakfast or at a showtime when they've failed to change the clock caused them to learn quickly. We had a tour that was originally scheduled for Sunday that was changed soon before the tour to a later day. It's stress-free when you can learn to just adapt. Even coming upon 12-foot waves on a cruise ship in the Bermuda Triangle causes one to learn to adapt and take a couple of Dramamine. On the island of Bermuda, traffic drives on the left side on the street and traffic moving clockwise around a roundabout caused many to quickly adapt. 
  

• Listening - Many of the above could be summarized in the need to listen intently. Whether it was being on the correct side of the glass-bottom boat prior to crashing waves, the time to be on which deck of the same boat, the time changes for dinner, shows or disembarking, it really pays to listen with the intent of understanding and adapting. 

Overall, our vacation was exhilarating while relaxing due to many of the above. Let's incorporate these into our learning environments as often as possible to enable our learners to experience smooth sailing. 

Advocates For Learning

I aim to always be learning with and from our Students, our Professional Learning Network (PLN) and from personal reflection based on my journey. On Friday May 1st, our Algebra 2 Students inspired, encouraged and caused me to see learning from their perspective. Our class Friday was last block of the day with the anticipation of the weekend and the Senior Prom in the evening. Our Students did not let up for a moment with their laughter, engagement, collaborative questions and interegating me with why I continue to raise the bar with our learning. As I'm writing this post, I'm  realizing how thankful I am for responding to the Call of becoming an educator. Regularly, I see struggles, maturing, heartache followed by understanding and so many other benefits of learning alongside them.

Planning - In preparation for Friday, I had reviewed their prior learning, offered feedback about it and made notes about how to adapt our learning based on where our understanding was currently. After reviewing their prior learning, I better understood some next steps to bring our understanding to a deeper level and to make more meaningful connections. I designed four (4) different avenues of learning for our next class together, hoping to stimulate their thinking, prompt more questioning and extend our learning to greater depths to help solidify their understanding. 

Executing - As our Students entered our learning environment, they could view our daily agenda on the board listing various opportunities for learning. As they were arriving, I returned their papers from our prior class with my written feedback. Once settled, we reviewed our agenda and I asked our Students to individually choose which of the four learning opportunities they thought would resolve the most questions, stimulate their thinking and challenge them to new thinking. I requested they work to complete a couple of them prior to the end of our 84-minute block. They knew it was their choice to learn through any of these options. There was a bit of chatter among their learning groups as to which opportunities they wanted to undertake. At that point they began their individual learning. I was so encouraged to hear our Students exchanging "You get the one on Logarithms and I'll help you with it", "Can someone help me with the Exponentials since I'm still struggling with them?" and "Mr. Rowe, would you please explain to me what I'm doing wrong in this third step since I know that's where I'm messing up?". Our Students have become advocates for their learning with their collaborative questioning, confidence through challenges and willingness to put themselves out there when they know they're missing a piece of the learning. As they were working together in groups of four or five, they were helping each other, asking each other questions and developing deeper relationships with their peers. We hold in highest regard the Culture of Learning that we have fostered during this school year. The interdependence, respect, trust and sas / attitudes was very obvious as the chaotic learning was unfolding. Every few minutes I was summonded to respond to some questions by our Students. I aim to encourage our Students to think deeply about possible responses to the questions and think through some of the better approaches. I rarely answer their questions for them. One of our Students uttered the statement twice during our class, "Mr. Rowe, my brain hurts again!". At a certain moment during our learning, I realized we had engineered the learning to be student-centered, student-driven and student-owned. I reminded our Students how grateful I was with their focus, their perseverance and cooperation. One of our Strudents simply stated, "Mr.Rowe, it's just what we've learned to do. That's all.". I was stunned! 

Reflecting - This post serves as the start of my reflection based on Friday's learning. I realize we experienced Personalized Learning, freedom to ask anyone any question to clarify the understanding and a safe environment in which to laugh, move around, help one another and stay focused on a task. I don't remember learning this way during my high school days, though I wish I had. 

Thank you for reading and for sharing this learning journey with me and our Students! 

Leading The Dance of Change

After reading The Dance of Change" by Peter Senge and a host of other authors, I realize the need to capitalize on more ways to sustain momentum in our learning organizations. I realize there is a huge "dance" going on related to the learning when it comes to planning, facilitation, instruction, asking questions, offering solutions, providing feedback, assessing and reflecting. Our students need to play a more significant role in all aspects of our learning. The more of this "dance" I share with our students, the more engaged they are, the more of the learning they own and the more passion they find in the furtherance of their education. Here are several ways I'm learning with our students.

• Students asking questions - In order for our students to be doing more of the thinking, we need to provide them with more opportunities to be asking the questions and thinking through the various solutions. Our Probability and Statistics seniors are being presented with prompts or situations where they're asked to compare and contrast or differentiate the thought process behind mathematical concepts. Their questions are becoming exceptional and they're taking the questioning in directions I had not anticipated. Thanks to Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana (@RightQuestion) for their book "Make Just One Change" which has helped to transform our learning through questions. 

• Students facilitating learning - Our Honors Pre-Caclculus students are regularly offered the opportunity to start class with something they are unsure about from a prior class or something they've been pondering and have questions. They take center-stage and facilitate our learning with their questions. Their questions combined with the collaboration of their peers creates a learning environment that is often conducive to frequent "aha" moments and expressions of radiance that reveal deepened understanding. I'm so grateful for the Culture of Learning that we have fostered to empower learning to this level. I wish to thank Michele Corbat (@MicheleCorbat), Rodney Hetherton (@RodneyHetherton) and Adam Hartley (@aj_hartley1) for their leadership in our weekly discussions around developing a genuine Culture of Learning (#COLchat). 

• Students requesting practice - More and more students are requesting Extra Practice as they have a greater desire to improve and reach for higher levels of proficiency. Our Standards-Based Learning environment focuses on the learning to communicate more effectively. Lately we've had several Algebra 2 students request specific math practice as they've learned through their ungraded feedback exactly what they need to practice to gain the expertise they desire. I continue to be in awe of the dedication, perseverance and follow-through of our students in their quest to become more proficient, and they say to not disappoint! Thanks to Danny Hill (@hilldw61) and his powerful read "Brick House". 

• Students owning learning - Several of our students have recently taken a more serious approach to their studies by taking more responsibilty for their learning. Many of our Algebra 2 students have become more aggressive. I continue to hear "I know I can do this.", "Look at what I just figured out!", "I've been examining your feedback and I just realized..." and "I dropped from an A to a B. I promise you that won't happen again!". These students mean business and it's an honor to learn alongside them each day. I look forward to hearing some students walk into class saying "I can't imagine what Rowe has in store for us today!". I realize this comes down to leadership and influence and I need to share my appreciation for Salone Thomas-EL (@Principal_EL) and his "The Immortality of Influence". 

• Students providing evidence - One of our Probability and Statistics seniors approached me the other day with the statement "I've been thinking about what we've been learning recently and I've come to understand something. Let me show you.". On our whiteboard, he detailed the differences between Combinations (nCr) and Permutations (nPr) in a very clear and meaningful way. His explanation was something I wish I had seen and shared with our students. We incorporated his thinking and findings into our collaborative learning that day and gave him full credit for his deep understanding. He went on to share that he was thankful for us providing a learning environment where students are prompted to think outside of class time. He is one exceptional student and an even finer young man. 

• Students having pathways - Finally, one of our Algebra 2 students recently shared with me his deep conviction for students learning at various paces and the need for teachers to accommodate the needs of all students. He said "Mr. Rowe, let me suggest some ways I think we can help more students in our class to learn at their own pace.". He provided specific ways our learners could benefit from traveling on parallel pathways appropriate to their pace of learning. He prompted me to think about our students on an "Expressway to Learning", a "Main Street of Learning" and the "Scenic Route to Learning". I am now challenged to offer better and more varied "Pathways to Proficiency" where our students can reach and exceeed their potential! 

Getting On Board

Since our students spend much on their time on their mobile devices, I'm thinking it's wise to enable them to access our learning on those same digital tools. I've been in search of a platform that is browser-based, collaborative, intuitive, clutter-free and accessible from laptops, tablets and smartphones. Thanks to John Miller (@agileschools) for introducing me to Trello as a digital tool for collaborative learning. Trello enables us to create a "Flow of Learning" on a clutter-free canvas where we can collaborate and communicate with our students regardless of where any one of us is located. Trello has a Board as its canvas. We can place countless Lists on these Boards. Each List can house many Cards. Each Card can have checklists, attachments, links, conversation activity and more, We have the ability to integrate Trello with Evernote, Twitter, IFTTT and more tools that I rely on daily. I've recently created a Flow from Evernote or Email directly to any Card on any List on any Board. This is helping to have Trello be a central repository of content for our learners.

Our students easily adapted to Trello and are already communicating with me and each other on the Trello Cards specific to our content. I'm attaching documents and links so our students can operate from a central location to learn, understand and apply our content. Trello enables us to create a left-to-right flow that becomes intuitive on our learning journey. As we make progress through our learning, we move our Cards through the Lists from "Still to Learn", "Now Learning", "Learning To Be Assessed", "Assessed Learning" and "Reflections of Learning". Everyone on the Board can visibly see where we are in the process and with what content it is related. The "Reflections of Learning" List holds a card entitled Reflections document. I see this as a shared document for all learners to record our thoughts and reflections on our learning. I can see it housing many "aha" moments and after the fact realizations. All learners can access these thoughts at any time, but might be especially useful to study for tests.

We are in a Standards-Based learning environment and our Trello Cards are created based on the Standards we're learning. Cards can easily be added, moved and archived to create our Flow. Our students and I are already accessing Trello on our mobile devices to work through suggested practice, review checklists aligned to our material, see relationships with Mind Maps and have conversations with each other to clarify and deepen our learning. Each student is a Member of the Board and can move their avatar to any Card indicating that content is something they're currently learning. All individuals in our learning environment can see at any time who is where, who might be helpful as a resource and who might need our support.

With each passing day, I'm realizing there is so much more to Trello to track our learning journey and to keep all involved persons connected to each other and our learning. Just recently, teachers and administrators in other districts asked for access to our Boards to share in the learning, get ideas and to stay in contact with each other. In addition to John Miller, I'd like to thank Mark Kuniya (@MKuniya) and Lauren Moon (@elmoonio) for being inspirational and supportive as we collectively move to make our learning more visible to our students with the aim of putting them in the Driver's Seat for their education.

Responsibility Travels

While traveling over a 2-day period, I witnessed several individuals demonstrating responsibility under various circumstances. I continue to be encouraged when I see others being responsible in their circles of influence.

• A Starbucks barista willingly promoed my two hot beverages since their in-store WiFi was not working and prevented me from accessing my Starbucks card on my phone. The barista indicated that their malfunctioning WiFi should not cause me to use cash since I had a prepaid Starbucks card. She couldn't have been any nicer.

• Eric was the gate representative for our JetBlue flight. The flight was changed to leave from a different gate, delayed since the pilot scheduled for our flight had not yet arrived from his prior destination and the new pilot and co-pilot had not yet arrived to the airport. Eric did everything in his power to clearly communicate to everyone waiting for this flight. He was factual, clear and incorporated a healthy sense of humor. Eric was instrumental is creating a calm atmosphere while this sold out flight was waiting to depart for Tampa prior to pending blizzard conditions in Boston and at Logan International Airport. Eric maintained a level-head, a smile throughout our 3-hour delay and offered assistance to anyone needing it. I commend JetBlue Airways for hiring, training and keeping such a fine representative. 

• While waiting to board our JetBlue flight, I has the pleasure of speaking with Jake. He was an engineering sales rep headed to Tampa with his wife and twin teenage sons. During our 30-minute conversation, he conveyed a great deal of responsibility about coaching his son's team, his alignment with his company's mission and his commitment to his wife and sons. His attitude, respect and communication was uplifting and encouraging. I immediately could see why his wife and sons followed his leadership.

• When the co-pilot for our JetBlue Tampa-bound flight arrived to the gate, everyone applauded his arrival. He was gracious, responded with an award-winning smile and briefly spoke with us with a sense of humor. He assured us he and his pilot would do everything possible to ensure our safe and comfortable flight to Tampa as soon as our pilot arrived. His brief interaction with us added to the calm situation that Eric has previously established. 

• Upon arriving to Tampa International Airport, my driver was immediately helpful, respectful and polite. He, too, incorporated a sense of humor into our conversation. We conversed during our 40-minute ride to my home in Florida about times in our lives where we were grateful for the responsibility demonstrated by others. He even shared with me details of the time he flew on an SST Concorde and the unbelievable thrill that it was!

In closing, I continue to be encouraged by individuals choosing to accept responsibility for their attitude, actions and dealings with others! 

Strategic Confusion

I recently watched an hour long video from Robert Duke about learning and how to create exceptional learning environments. He caused me to reflect on the learning environment that I aim to create daily while facilitating mathematical thinking at the high school in which I teach. Robert has helped me to realize that how I teach has very lttle to do with the learning that our students experience. The learning that is significant is how our students deal will confusion, uncertainty and misunderstanding. Through his talk, I've come to realize that real learning stems from learners knowing how to optiminally navigate confusion. Our students' learning can be much more effective if we learn together how to handle "strategic confusion". The following big ideas I extracted from his talk and I highly encourage you to provide yourself the opportunity to challenge the learning that you offer to your learners.

• Retrieving what we know requires various types of practice.
• We need to practice getting content out.
• If nothing goes wrong during our learning, it's unlikely we're going to learn anything.
• Learning requires much more doing on the part of the learner.
• Teach how to be optinally confused.
• Two central ideas of learning: a) You're a learner, too. b) Learning is error correction.
• Learning is not efficient. Learning is chaotic.
• "Because I'm an excellent teacher, I'm going to wait a few moments while you figure it out for yourself."

After you've experienced the shift in thinking that provides for real learning through strategic confusion, I look forward to sharing thoughts with you. 

Dance of Change Initiation

First, thanks to David Culberhouse for his insightful post on Designing Systems of Change. David offers a consistent and informative flow of thoughts that cause me to ponder and reflect about my learning and teaching. His post influenced me to bring Peter Senge's "The Dance of Change" back into view and I've resumed my reading that I barely started years ago.

Second, the following except in "The Dance of Change" is causing me to consider yet another shift in our learning:

     "Sustaining any profound change process requires a fundamental shift in thinking. We need to understand the nature of growth processes (forces that aid our efforts) and how to catalyze them. But we also need to understand the forces and challenges that impede progress, and to develop workable strategies for dealing with these challenges. We need to appreciate 'the dance of change,' the inevitable interplay between growth processes and limiting processes."

     "This requires us to think of sustaining change more biologically and less mechanistically. It requires patience as well as urgency. It requires a real sense of inquiry, a genuine curiosity about limiting factors. It requires seeing how significant change invariably starts locally, and how it grows over time. And it requires recognizing the diverse array of people who play key roles in sustaining change - people who are -- 'leaders'."

This post marks the begnning of my new journey as I seek to better understand my growth and limiting processes as well as those of our students. As always, I yearn for your feedback.

Better Than I Thought...Not!

We just ended our second marking period, Midyear Exams and I had the opportunity to reflect on the progress we were making toward becoming proficient on our Standards or Learning Outcomes. I'm dismayed to realize that we're not doing as well in two of our classes as I had hoped. Our second marking period was focused on five Standards. I consider Proficient to be 3.0 or better. The following table represents the percentage of our students that demonstrated proficiency on each of our Standards during the second marking period.

Description	CCSS	B4	W2
Complex Number Operations	N.CN.2	30%	25%
Polynomial Operations	A.APR.1	55%	45%
Factoring / Roots	A.APR.3	40%	50%
Remainder Theorem and Syn. Division	A.APR.2	55%	40%
Solving Radical and Rational Equations	A.REI.2	50%	30%

I can now see that Operations on Complex Numbers presented a challenge to both classes as those percentages are the lowest. Therefore, I'm planning to incorporate more Operations on Complex Numbers in the spiral review portion of our daily learning. In addition, the Blue 4 (B4) class needs Extra Practice on Factoring and Roots, where our White 2 (W2) class needs Extra Practice on Solving Radical and Rational Equations.

After reflecting on this analysis, I am more aware that I need to work more effectively with our students to raise their Proficiency Levels for all our Standards. I'm planning to offer more differentiation during our class time to provide the opportunity to work with our students. During this time, students will have the opportunity to ask questions and complete Extra Practice on the skills on which they have not yet demonstrated Proficiency. They will also have the opportunity to work through Extra Practice (HW) outside of our class time.

In addition to the above analysis, I'm examining how each student's Proficiency Levels during the second marking period compares to what they demonstrated on our Midyear Exam.

I certainly welcome any comments or feedback that might improve my effectiveness, deepen our understanding and increase our Proficiency Levels. 

"First Class" Learning After Vacation

As students and teachers head back to the classroom after having been on vacation, I'm mindful as to how we might smoothly transition back to a more empowered learning experience for all.

Jeff Zoul (@Jeff_Zoul) recently shared a tweet entitled "11 Habits of Effective Teachers". I found the post by Carrie Lam (@Cs_Teaching_C) to be encouraging and inspirational.

After reading "Universal Design for Learning:Theory and Practice" by Meyer, Rose and Gordon and starting to read "Disrupting Class" by Christensen, Horn and Johnson, I became more aware of the need for a student-centered learning environment with variability built in to accommodate all learners. With this in mind, I'm considering starting our "first class" back in each of our courses in the following way.

We'll start our 84-minute class with a Proficiency Ticket, Formative Assessment (FA) to guide instruction and learning. Once each student completes our 2-4 question Proficiency Ticket, they will individually compare they work to mine. I'll have mine copied and available by the windows.

• Mastery (4.0) - If they demonstrated Mastery, they'll move on to our newest topic with minimal guidance. 

• Proficienct (3.0) - If they demonstrated Proficiency, but missed some details or minor processing, they'll have access to some Extra Practice for just that concept. That Extra Practice can proabably be worked on independently, though they could ask myself or any other learner in the room to offer some assistance. When they complete their Extra Practice, they'll also be able to check their work and receive feedback to guide their learning and encouragement to prompt them to reach even greater heights. 

• Approaching (2.0) - If their understanding indicates that they're Approaching Proficiency, they will also have access to Extra Practice after they've had the opportunity to have a brief conference with me about where their processing or thinking might have gone astray. After we've had the opportunity to guide their thinking, I'm suggesting they work through some similar questions to those initially missed. Again, solutions will be available to them so they can check their refreshed thinking and learning. 

• Beginning (1.0.) - If the vacation potentailly caused some memory lapse or they're just in need of a refresher, students will have the opportunity to get some additional guidance from me or one of their peers to help align their thinking. They too will have the opportunity to work through some Extra Practice. In this case, I'd be available to work through the first couple of new Extra Practice questions with them to hopefully shed some new light on their thinking. As mentioned above, they will then have the opportunity to check their thinnking with mine already made available. 

Once students have had the opportunity to self-assess and get any needed guidance, we'll assemble to transition to our next, but related concept. We have only 3-4 classes left before our Midyear Exams start. 

I'd welcome your thoughts as we venture back together to our learning environments!