3.1 Classroom Management and Collaborative Learning
Candidates model and facilitate effective classroom management and collaborative learning strategies to maximize teacher and student use of digital tools and resources.
Artifact:
Reflection:
The Online Learning Planning Grid (OLPG) was used to assist us in planning for our Online Learning Experience. In the OLPG, we had to develop learning objectives, activities, and assessments, while also determining the Blooms level for each assignment. This was to ensure the tasks we were giving our students would encourage higher levels of thinking. We had to work through this process for each of the standards we wanted to teach in the Unit for which we were preparing.
This artifact demonstrates mastery of Standard 3.1, because it illustrates how students will be able to use digital tools and resources to collaborate online. It also indirectly illuminates the fact that when lessons are well-planned and communicated, and students are adequately engaged, teachers have a much better handle on classroom management, especially in an online environment.
Although this activity was meant to help us prepare for our larger Online Learning Experience Project, I certainly learned a great deal more from this activity than the larger one. I learned the importance of developing sound objectives as a starting point for my activities. From the objectives stem all the lessons in which students can express their mastery of the standards. I also learned the importance of tying the assessments with the learning objectives, and ensuring the learning I want students to do will promote higher level thinking skills. I have always used Understanding by Design to plan all of my lessons, so I found it interesting to do this a different way. As I think about this project in retrospect, I would have liked to have extended the project into something more extensive. The learning with this project was much deeper than simply developing the Online Learning Experience.
This experience impacts school improvement indirectly as a result of inspiring students and interested teachers to think critically and to think creatively. By creating innovative, creative lessons and units in the classroom, more students are going to be engaged, not just inside of the classroom, but now…with accessible technology like wikis, podcasts, voicethreads, screencasts, and websites like Edmodo, students can now engage in content related information outside of the classroom as well, and they CHOOSE it and WANT it! That is what makes adding technology so critical and so exciting! Therefore, if students and teachers are more motivated and more willing to do what they are supposed to do, then the school is impacted with higher scores on high stakes tests. Surely then, the emphasis will shift from performance on high stakes tests to the love of learning. Now wouldn’t that be amazing? Amazing and possible.
This artifact demonstrates mastery of Standard 3.1, because it illustrates how students will be able to use digital tools and resources to collaborate online. It also indirectly illuminates the fact that when lessons are well-planned and communicated, and students are adequately engaged, teachers have a much better handle on classroom management, especially in an online environment.
Although this activity was meant to help us prepare for our larger Online Learning Experience Project, I certainly learned a great deal more from this activity than the larger one. I learned the importance of developing sound objectives as a starting point for my activities. From the objectives stem all the lessons in which students can express their mastery of the standards. I also learned the importance of tying the assessments with the learning objectives, and ensuring the learning I want students to do will promote higher level thinking skills. I have always used Understanding by Design to plan all of my lessons, so I found it interesting to do this a different way. As I think about this project in retrospect, I would have liked to have extended the project into something more extensive. The learning with this project was much deeper than simply developing the Online Learning Experience.
This experience impacts school improvement indirectly as a result of inspiring students and interested teachers to think critically and to think creatively. By creating innovative, creative lessons and units in the classroom, more students are going to be engaged, not just inside of the classroom, but now…with accessible technology like wikis, podcasts, voicethreads, screencasts, and websites like Edmodo, students can now engage in content related information outside of the classroom as well, and they CHOOSE it and WANT it! That is what makes adding technology so critical and so exciting! Therefore, if students and teachers are more motivated and more willing to do what they are supposed to do, then the school is impacted with higher scores on high stakes tests. Surely then, the emphasis will shift from performance on high stakes tests to the love of learning. Now wouldn’t that be amazing? Amazing and possible.