Thursday, July 8, 2010

Current Practices I Need to Discard!

In order to design projects that inspire debate and controversy, allow students to learn how to work together, and that involve authentic meaningful assessment I will need to change the way that I plan for projects. I used to have an idea in my head that projects should not last too long because I did not want anyone who viewed my plan book to think that we weren’t learning new material or covering content because we stayed on one project for a long period of time. I was afraid to take the time to model and discuss the skills that students would need to work in groups, and I was afraid to take too much time to go back and reflect upon what the project meant to students. Reading this book helped give me the validation I needed that the amount of time that you spend on a project doesn’t matter, as long as you have evidence that students have grown and are working on fulfilling learning goals. Designing a project that takes 20 class periods to complete these last few days was a great exercise for me to get over my ideas about how many projects and content objectives I should be covering in a specific time frame. This exercise helped me to focus more on what really matters which is what the students are getting out of their experiences in my classroom, not how long they spend on them.


Another belief that I need to throw out is the way that I design and implement my assessments. This year I tried to focus on designing assessment that focused on student achievements and abilities instead of on content based procedures on a checklist. I did a good job of working towards that improved way of thinking about assessment, but after taking this course now I want to extend that goal. This upcoming year I am going to create assessments that focus on student’s growth and achievement as well making the assessments authentic and meaningful to the students.


Another strategy that I would like to throw out is the strategy of layering technology over old ways of teaching. In the book in chapter four it discusses common pitfalls, and I am guilty of layering a technology like websites, or the smart board to trick myself into thinking that I am implementing new strategies when I am really just layering simple technologies over my typical ways of teaching. I need to work this year to talk with my technology teacher and my principal to express my desire to get technology into the hands of my students, not just me, and use that as a vehicle to improve my projects and teaching practices. Having students utilizing technology will truly incorporate 21st century technologies and skills into my teaching, and will help me move towards a new more relevant way of presenting information to my students.

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