Follow up blog about what you may have learned, how your thoughts may have changed, and the way that you impacted the learning of others in the course.
1. What new resources, curated resources, or ideas did you share this week?
I participated in the Tuesday Tweet session and commented on other people’s projects and comments. This week I also e-mailed Brandi some Vocabulary resources that I think might help her with her project and focus on vocabulary. With Scott I provided some links to articles that I had found about using graphing calculators in his classroom and links on the GAISE report, which is about statistics and the common core. Hopefully they will be helpful and I think that they will fit in great with his research project. When commenting on Colin’s blog, I also provided input about what to do if he couldn’t find sufficient research. I shared that I thought that he could possibly began looking into what makes an affective teacher training program, that way when he does find out what technology his district is using, he has some good ideas for the training program.
2. What did you intend these new resources, curated resources, or ideas to do in terms of impacting others’ learning?
On Saturday morning after being up late to finish up my blog entry, I got an e-mail from the Teaching Channel with a link to a video about Differentiation in the classroom. I was a little confused at first because I didn’t know where it came from (and because it was early), but I thought it was just meant to be. The link provided me with 3 videos of differentiation examples and shared that the website would be focusing on this topic this week. It’s my lucky week! The resources are just falling into my lap. One of the videos that I watched was about exit cards, which is similar to exit tickets which I have used. What was different about this strategy was that the teacher had 2 different levels of exit cards. The first was one with problems at grade level and the other was problems at a higher level of difficulty. I like this idea and will consider using it in my class.
3. What was the actual impact (that you could discern)?
I am feeling more confident in my ability to differentiate instruction. I learned that some of the things that I already do could be considered differentiation. What made me feel the best about learning that is that I don’t feel like I have that far to go now. When I first started this project idea, I thought that I was going to have to totally change things and it would be a TON of work. I know that it is going to be work, but I feel that it will be manageable.
4. What would you do differently next week?
I am going to try and start working on my blog entry earlier, which may be hard. I have a very hectic schedule and struggle to find the time during the week because I have to have my classroom running well.
5. What resources did others share that made a difference to your learning?
I had several people share links to other articles that could help me. One person mentioned UbD, which is a model that I learned in a previous class. I had totally forgotten about that resource and book, so I plan on pulling that out and seeing how it applies to this project and my research. It was also good to hear feedback from my peers that they also struggle to differentiate at times. It was also nice to hear their encouragement and interest in my research.
1. What new resources, curated resources, or ideas did you share this week?
I participated in the Tuesday Tweet session and commented on other people’s projects and comments. This week I also e-mailed Brandi some Vocabulary resources that I think might help her with her project and focus on vocabulary. With Scott I provided some links to articles that I had found about using graphing calculators in his classroom and links on the GAISE report, which is about statistics and the common core. Hopefully they will be helpful and I think that they will fit in great with his research project. When commenting on Colin’s blog, I also provided input about what to do if he couldn’t find sufficient research. I shared that I thought that he could possibly began looking into what makes an affective teacher training program, that way when he does find out what technology his district is using, he has some good ideas for the training program.
2. What did you intend these new resources, curated resources, or ideas to do in terms of impacting others’ learning?
On Saturday morning after being up late to finish up my blog entry, I got an e-mail from the Teaching Channel with a link to a video about Differentiation in the classroom. I was a little confused at first because I didn’t know where it came from (and because it was early), but I thought it was just meant to be. The link provided me with 3 videos of differentiation examples and shared that the website would be focusing on this topic this week. It’s my lucky week! The resources are just falling into my lap. One of the videos that I watched was about exit cards, which is similar to exit tickets which I have used. What was different about this strategy was that the teacher had 2 different levels of exit cards. The first was one with problems at grade level and the other was problems at a higher level of difficulty. I like this idea and will consider using it in my class.
3. What was the actual impact (that you could discern)?
I am feeling more confident in my ability to differentiate instruction. I learned that some of the things that I already do could be considered differentiation. What made me feel the best about learning that is that I don’t feel like I have that far to go now. When I first started this project idea, I thought that I was going to have to totally change things and it would be a TON of work. I know that it is going to be work, but I feel that it will be manageable.
4. What would you do differently next week?
I am going to try and start working on my blog entry earlier, which may be hard. I have a very hectic schedule and struggle to find the time during the week because I have to have my classroom running well.
5. What resources did others share that made a difference to your learning?
I had several people share links to other articles that could help me. One person mentioned UbD, which is a model that I learned in a previous class. I had totally forgotten about that resource and book, so I plan on pulling that out and seeing how it applies to this project and my research. It was also good to hear feedback from my peers that they also struggle to differentiate at times. It was also nice to hear their encouragement and interest in my research.