Hi Tiffany! Your key assignment looks great! I'm not sure I ever realized your position as a TA going through this course! After reading your paper, I can see the perspective you gained as a TA, where you got to observe many different teachers in many different classroom settings. Your observations speak to the fact that there are probably many teachers out there who do not take into account the individuality of each student, or as you said, it takes more work for them, so perhaps they don't bother. Whatever the case, your problem of practice is a purposeful one. Keeping students in mind, as they are the sole purpose of our jobs, it's important that we have teachers who are prepared to educate them in a way each one can learn. Your solution of a PD session for teachers is a great first step in helping those students. I think holding a PD session like this at the beginning of the year would really put the teachers on the right track when thinking about how to appeal to the different learners in their classrooms. Looking into the future, I think it would also be helpful to have more meetings such as this one, rather than just this one session. Perhaps the others don't have to be a full blown PD session, but just talk and share type of thing to keep track of the teachers and what they are doing in the classroom to meet all those different learning styles. You mention using Blend Space at the end of the PD session.. Meetings are tough when teachers are so busy, so perhaps keeping up with Blend Space or another form of sharing online, teachers can post ideas or lessons they have done to share with others regarding the different learning styles in the classroom and what they are doing. I think holding the teachers accountable and requiring they do something like this throughout the year will let them know how important is it that they continue to develop lessons where all student needs are met! Great work! I see lots of potential coming from this PD session.
I think you did a great job on your voice thread presentation. As a high school classroom teacher I can tell you that I am given accommodations that I am to follow, but not real feedback about suggestions for modifying my curriculum to meet those accommodations. I think a professional development meeting with examples of different types of learning styles would be very helpful. I also think you should consider a follow up PD day where teachers are able to share what strategies they were able to implement as a result of your Kahoot. Another thought that I had was for teachers to add to the Dot Storming phase any remaining questions that they might have.
I think your professional development is an awesome idea for teachers. I like the idea of splitting up into groups and working on a lesson plan with special ed teachers and gen ed teachers. To take it a step further you could have teachers bring a lesson plan from their class and work on it in the groups to incorporate the different learning styles in an actual plan they use for their class. It could really get the point across.
Hey Tiffany, I think every teacher can relate to how difficult it can be to reach every learning style in the classroom. I feel like because it is so difficult, many teachers tend to avoid it. Teachers are more focused on differentiating based on knowledge of a particular subject for example, a reteach, on target, or enrichment. Your proposal sounds like a great start in alerting staff on the different learning styles of your kiddos. There are also various quizzes/surveys online that I'm sure you can find to give out to the staff to give to their students. I really like how you included a collaboration piece where teachers can work together to design lesson plans. I feel like teachers do not get enough time to do this. Great work Tiffany, and good luck!
How long is the course and when would it take place? This is an excellent problem of practice that I believe should be adapted in grade schools and colleges.
Have you considered creating a mock class for each of the learning styles for your groups instead of letting them decide? For example, write numbers 1-5 on separate slips of paper to represent the number of students for a particular style, write each learning style on a separate slip of paper, then randomly pick a slip of paper from each group to create your classroom. Your room might look like 3 students (Jan, Michael, and George) are visual, 1 student (Roberta) is kinesthetic, 2 students are audio (Nancy and Albert), and 4 students (Bobby, Zuri, Thomasina, and Uma) are special needs.
Another idea is during the presentation, have one person pose as the teacher and the rest as the behaviors of the other students. This part should not be rehearsed as to keep the presenter on their toes and will also have the real element of what to expect in the classroom as each teacher will have experience with particular types of students.
Your dotstorming project could then be sorted by the classes that way teachers of the same grade/course can share their unique ideas to their counterparts.
You really have me thinking and I can see where there is room to grow with each iteration of this course. Excellent work!
Tiffany- As a teacher I can say that I think I would benefit from the professional development you've created. It's engaging, informative, and interactive. In addition to having the kahoot about the different learning styles, it might be a good idea to have the teachers learn about what type of learner THEY are. For instance, we did an analysis at our new teacher training and I learned that I am a mastery learner and this very much impacts how I view lesson planning and how I would expect others to want to learn. Of course, just because I am a mastery learner doesn't mean my students will be so it really helped me pull back my own lesson designs and think about how I was writing them/who my target audience was. After all, we, as teachers, are also learners and sometimes forget to reflect on what we bring to the classrooms in terms of our own personality, teaching, and learning styles. Great work! I hope it's successful for you this fall! Becca
I agree with you, this is a big problem in my district. I believe that professional development is needed in this area; teacher need new fresh ideas to help with differentiating instruction. I love your opening tool, Kahoots, I use this in my class. I think using this tool in your professional development would be a wonderful idea for them to get a hands on approach to a tool they can use with their students. I love the fact that they would have to teach a lesson to their colleagues. However, I think that having them bring in a lesson that they have already taught, completing the professional development with different resources and strategies to differentiate instruction, then grouping them together with special ed teachers to revamp that same lesson with the new information from PD and feedback from their colleagues would go a long way. The reflection piece is also a wonderful idea, I don't think enough teacher reflect on anything really. Dotstorming is a great tool to use for this, and hopefully they would use it in their classrooms.
Tiffany this sounds great. I think your initial Kahoot and the opportunity for teachers to work on a lesson during the development is fabulous. One of the most difficult things about most PD is that there is never enough time to implement or creating the things we just learned about once the PD ends. I think having teachers bring a lesson or unit plan of their own would be a great idea. I think it would make the opportunity to put the PD into practice more understandable for teachers as well. You may even want to survey staff before hand to have them identify their learning style (if they don't already know it) and which learning style they have the hardest time implementing in their lessons. That would help you target specific needs. You could also have teachers work in small groups based around what they identified.
Hi Tiffany!
ReplyDeleteYour key assignment looks great! I'm not sure I ever realized your position as a TA going through this course! After reading your paper, I can see the perspective you gained as a TA, where you got to observe many different teachers in many different classroom settings. Your observations speak to the fact that there are probably many teachers out there who do not take into account the individuality of each student, or as you said, it takes more work for them, so perhaps they don't bother. Whatever the case, your problem of practice is a purposeful one. Keeping students in mind, as they are the sole purpose of our jobs, it's important that we have teachers who are prepared to educate them in a way each one can learn. Your solution of a PD session for teachers is a great first step in helping those students. I think holding a PD session like this at the beginning of the year would really put the teachers on the right track when thinking about how to appeal to the different learners in their classrooms. Looking into the future, I think it would also be helpful to have more meetings such as this one, rather than just this one session. Perhaps the others don't have to be a full blown PD session, but just talk and share type of thing to keep track of the teachers and what they are doing in the classroom to meet all those different learning styles. You mention using Blend Space at the end of the PD session.. Meetings are tough when teachers are so busy, so perhaps keeping up with Blend Space or another form of sharing online, teachers can post ideas or lessons they have done to share with others regarding the different learning styles in the classroom and what they are doing. I think holding the teachers accountable and requiring they do something like this throughout the year will let them know how important is it that they continue to develop lessons where all student needs are met! Great work! I see lots of potential coming from this PD session.
Hi Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job on your voice thread presentation. As a high school classroom teacher I can tell you that I am given accommodations that I am to follow, but not real feedback about suggestions for modifying my curriculum to meet those accommodations. I think a professional development meeting with examples of different types of learning styles would be very helpful. I also think you should consider a follow up PD day where teachers are able to share what strategies they were able to implement as a result of your Kahoot. Another thought that I had was for teachers to add to the Dot Storming phase any remaining questions that they might have.
Nice job!
Hi Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI think your professional development is an awesome idea for teachers. I like the idea of splitting up into groups and working on a lesson plan with special ed teachers and gen ed teachers. To take it a step further you could have teachers bring a lesson plan from their class and work on it in the groups to incorporate the different learning styles in an actual plan they use for their class. It could really get the point across.
Hey Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI think every teacher can relate to how difficult it can be to reach every learning style in the classroom. I feel like because it is so difficult, many teachers tend to avoid it. Teachers are more focused on differentiating based on knowledge of a particular subject for example, a reteach, on target, or enrichment. Your proposal sounds like a great start in alerting staff on the different learning styles of your kiddos. There are also various quizzes/surveys online that I'm sure you can find to give out to the staff to give to their students. I really like how you included a collaboration piece where teachers can work together to design lesson plans. I feel like teachers do not get enough time to do this. Great work Tiffany, and good luck!
Hi Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteHow long is the course and when would it take place? This is an excellent problem of practice that I believe should be adapted in grade schools and colleges.
Have you considered creating a mock class for each of the learning styles for your groups instead of letting them decide? For example, write numbers 1-5 on separate slips of paper to represent the number of students for a particular style, write each learning style on a separate slip of paper, then randomly pick a slip of paper from each group to create your classroom. Your room might look like 3 students (Jan, Michael, and George) are visual, 1 student (Roberta) is kinesthetic, 2 students are audio (Nancy and Albert), and 4 students (Bobby, Zuri, Thomasina, and Uma) are special needs.
Another idea is during the presentation, have one person pose as the teacher and the rest as the behaviors of the other students. This part should not be rehearsed as to keep the presenter on their toes and will also have the real element of what to expect in the classroom as each teacher will have experience with particular types of students.
Your dotstorming project could then be sorted by the classes that way teachers of the same grade/course can share their unique ideas to their counterparts.
You really have me thinking and I can see where there is room to grow with each iteration of this course. Excellent work!
Tiffany-
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher I can say that I think I would benefit from the professional development you've created. It's engaging, informative, and interactive. In addition to having the kahoot about the different learning styles, it might be a good idea to have the teachers learn about what type of learner THEY are. For instance, we did an analysis at our new teacher training and I learned that I am a mastery learner and this very much impacts how I view lesson planning and how I would expect others to want to learn. Of course, just because I am a mastery learner doesn't mean my students will be so it really helped me pull back my own lesson designs and think about how I was writing them/who my target audience was. After all, we, as teachers, are also learners and sometimes forget to reflect on what we bring to the classrooms in terms of our own personality, teaching, and learning styles.
Great work! I hope it's successful for you this fall!
Becca
I agree with you, this is a big problem in my district. I believe that professional development is needed in this area; teacher need new fresh ideas to help with differentiating instruction. I love your opening tool, Kahoots, I use this in my class. I think using this tool in your professional development would be a wonderful idea for them to get a hands on approach to a tool they can use with their students. I love the fact that they would have to teach a lesson to their colleagues. However, I think that having them bring in a lesson that they have already taught, completing the professional development with different resources and strategies to differentiate instruction, then grouping them together with special ed teachers to revamp that same lesson with the new information from PD and feedback from their colleagues would go a long way.
ReplyDeleteThe reflection piece is also a wonderful idea, I don't think enough teacher reflect on anything really. Dotstorming is a great tool to use for this, and hopefully they would use it in their classrooms.
Tiffany this sounds great. I think your initial Kahoot and the opportunity for teachers to work on a lesson during the development is fabulous. One of the most difficult things about most PD is that there is never enough time to implement or creating the things we just learned about once the PD ends. I think having teachers bring a lesson or unit plan of their own would be a great idea. I think it would make the opportunity to put the PD into practice more understandable for teachers as well. You may even want to survey staff before hand to have them identify their learning style (if they don't already know it) and which learning style they have the hardest time implementing in their lessons. That would help you target specific needs. You could also have teachers work in small groups based around what they identified.
ReplyDelete