Goal: To increase my proficiency and confidence in these two areas I want to make sure at least one math lesson a week meets these two indicators. If this year I adapt and change one lesson a week to meet these two indicators I will work next year to adapt the remainder of the lessons with the help and support of my colleagues.
Action: In order to meet this goal I will work with my teacher partner during our weekly planning time. We will use our math curriculum textbook and pick a lesson that could be adapted in order to give students a real world or authentic problem. Much of our math curriculum’s lesson will easily fit this requirement. Next, I will work to incorporate a digital tool to provide an alternate way to teach the concept. Perhaps, students will view online advertisements to learn about percentages; view online weather resources to learn about the different types of graphs or how to determine mean, median and mode. What ever digital tool I choose to use it will have a real world/authentic application.
Monitor: As I begin to take action I will need to make sure this goal is manageable. While adapting each lesson and providing students with a real world/authentic purpose I must still continue to teach/use the required district curriculum. Once I spend more time on adapting lessons I might see how I can integrate other content areas. For example, in math we are currently learning about the different types of graphs and mean, median, mode and range. In science, we are learning about salmon. Using online resources I can incorporate the two contents to ensure that both curricula goals are still being met.
Evaluate and Extend: One way I will evaluate whether or not my goal is met is by observing student behavior and performance. My hope is that the changes I make based to the lessons will increase student interest and participation. I will be able to compare how students are motivated when I do a lesson that isn’t authentic and doesn’t allow creativity with a lesson that does. In addition, I can seek comments from students. Based on what I find, I will either work to modify and adapt more lessons or rethink my GAME plan.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.a
Kristi, you are so lucky to have a teacher partner. Having a person to you share challenges and successes in your classroom will really help you achieve confidence in your indicators. I like your idea of using online advertisements or weather resources to create an authentic real-world problem for your students.
ReplyDeleteI teach eighth grade Spanish and I am part of the academic team. The Science teacher in our team uses online weather resources in her class often. Students respond enthusiastically in her class to these types of activities mainly because of the technology aspect. In addition, I have used authentic advertisement in my lessons and it always surprises me how much students learn with these resources and how engaged they become when something is of real interest to them. I wonder how much interest I will get if the advertisement is online or they are ones that students find and share with the rest of the class?
I look forward to read about your progress…good luck!
Mariza,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I think real world and authentic experiences are often under utilized in the classroom. I know for me I sometimes get caught up in what is easy and what I have traditionally done. Taking the time to provide the real life experiences for our students sets them up for success once they leave our classrooms.