6.2 Powerful Learning, Powerful Leadership, Part 1

6.2 Powerful Learning, Powerful Leadership, Part 1

1. How have you modeled and explored new opportunities for learning during your practicum?  Provide examples. 

At this point of the school year, I have struggled to be a model for a technology facilitator and maintain being a classroom teacher. I been posting on Twitter some of the activities I do in the classroom, but none of the other teachers on the team wish to try these tech activities. In their defense, we get so little time to plan that they don't get a chance to have the activities explained to them. I can barely planned my lessons more than a week out, sometimes just two days now. One example I can use for modeling, the other day I was reviewing with my students using Gimkit, and a learning walk came into my room. A learning walk is a time where other teachers can come in and see what is going on in others classroom. The teachers were amazed at the review game and they all sat down to watch other students work the game. They even asked me to show them what I can see on the teacher side of the program. I have been posting the activities I do in class to the classroom Twitter, so others can see how the students use technology to shift the way they can learn.

1. Provide an example of ways in which you provide informational learning, exploration, and "play" with new technologies in your practicum. 

Due to the lack technology provided by the school, I needed to design technology lessons which utilized the BYOD & BYOT policy of the district. I have played around a lot with flipgrid in the classroom this year. After a few trial and errors using a whole slew of different devices and app updates, the students learned to use some functions on the app. The students had to role play either a patriot or a loyalists during the road to revolution, and react to either a British Act or a colonial reaction. Link to flipgrid videos. Since the students knew the basics of how to record, they got a chance to use notes from class to explore the rest of the flipgrid app options, and play with the technology.

1. How are you moving from standardization to personalization within your educational setting? 

After much debate with my team, I got them to agree to having a menu option for a project out of the class so the students can create to show mastery. The district is very much a student assessment and data analyzation machine. The district loves their exams and data from said exams. In order to show that moving away from just testing can still yield results I have been educating kids in digital tools such as flipgrid, canvas, google apps. Once the kids become fluent in these apps use, and they start to perform better than peers who do not use them, I can proof that non exam based assessments are a good way to go. After that step, going for more personalized project-based learning will be the way to proceed. My principal is open to these new ideas, but my mentor and team are hesitant to risk different types of lessons.

Previous year student comic book