What does SUMMER look like?

Do you hear that sound? Or the lack of that sound?  It is SUMMER break here at South Eastern School District.  

I hope that all my students are out there enjoying the summer break, but reading, lots and lots of reading should be happening too.  What is your teacher doing this summer? I am reading too, both student books and teaching books;

I am also taking Grad classes on the best practices for introducing technology into the classroom.

If you are a student of mine reading this in the future, YES, teachers take classes too.  We take classes to learn and implement ways to make YOUR education more engaging and to increase your knowledge.  During this class, I am learning about the ISTE standards and how they are the guide for teachers when incorporating technology into the classroom. Our school is 1:1 with Chromebooks and with that comes to the responsibility of all faculty to ensure that it is not a tool for distraction or busy work but more of a tool to increase higher order thinking, research skills, and the ability to distinguish how to be a productive and responsible digital citizen.

Another valuable lesson I am learning in this class is the responsibility of a teacher to customize the learning process to meet the learning style and needs of each member of the class. This means to a teacher not thinking about "how you were taught to teach" but rather what is the BEST way for my students to learn. In the article 10 Key Components of Customized Learning, the author Mike Muir discusses 10 components that are essential for a district to efficiently customize the education of students to meet the learning styles of all students. The following five apply directly to me as your teacher. As a teacher, it is important for me to TEACH, but recognize that students all learn in different formats and different time-frames.  I look forward to determining different ways to implement this into my classroom to provide a learning environment that is geared to meeting the learning styles of YOU the STUDENTS!

1. Instruction for Low Order Thinking: this component states that students need the ability to practice and recall information in a format that works best for them.  This skill allows students to build base knowledge and recall of information.

2. Instruction for High Order Thinking: this component states that students need to know how to use their knowledge to think constructively and critically. Research has been done that students need to be able to advance past recall of information to the application of knowledge and even to critically thinking based on their knowledge.

3. Formative Feedback: this component states that teachers need to be providing students with formative feedback during the learning process. This allows the student and teacher to customize the learning process, environment, and knowledge results.

4. Learning Progress Management: this component states that both the student and the teacher need to have a defined pathway for students to track their learning, that holds both the student and the teacher responsible for the outcomes of learning.

5. Multiple Pathways: this component states that teachers and schools need to provide students with multiple different pathways that individual students can choose to conduct their learning through, whether that be online, inquiry, or face to face as a few examples.

One of these components that I would like to improve on and will be working this summer on implementing is a learning progress management program for GRAMMAR.  Yes, we all love grammar, and all have different levels of comfort, knowledge, and skills when it comes to grammar.  So, future 6th-grade students, look forward to a self-paced inquiry-based lesson plan for grammar this coming school year.

One component that my class this past year did very well with was instruction for higher order thinking. During this project-based learning, the students needed to be able to construct WHY the events of one person's life made a positive impact on the lives of African Americans, not just list the events.  The 5th-graders last year completed Google Slideshow presentations for Project Based Learning.  The driving question for the PBL was "How can one person positively effected the lives of African Americans in history?" This assignment required the students to research an American in history that made a positive impact on African American lives and then create an Ignite presentation to share their knowledge with the class.

KB: completed her 10 slide Ignite presentation on Sojourner Truth

Ignite presentations are fun and faced past slideshow with LIMITED to NO words on the slides, the slides change automatically, this technique requires the presenter, whether a student or teacher to demonstrate their knowledge on the subject without reading slides or cards. 

Scott Berkun does an Ignite presentation on the power of Ignite presentations. Ignite presentation will continue to be part of my PBL because it requires YOU as the STUDENT to KNOW the information you learn through discovery.  Go learn something, use the tools you have to discover something new.

Students, your teacher wants you to enjoy summer, but also to read and write, do it for fun.