INTEL Day 6

Today we looked at how to accommodate different learning styles as well as differing student abilities. What can you do to facilitate the learning of special ed students and ELL students. Every teacher faces this situation in the classroom and has to prepare for differentiated instruction. Special ed students need more attention; they may need simplified instructions; they may need modeling in personal way. If they have physical disabilities, they may need special seating or other physical accommodations.
Ell students have language issues and will need vocabulary pages and similar exercises for them to understand what is expected of them. They may need intervention in their native language to aid understanding.
The gifted student has his own issues. He may get bored if his intellect is not challenged. The teacher has to provide more open-ended work; work that requires reflective, creative thinking.

We also learned about how to keep students on task. We developed a formative assessment checklist for the student to remain focused on the objectives of the lesson. As the student progresses, he checks off that portion of the list and rates himself on how he did or didn't do. This is a self-assessment, and one hopes the student takes it seriously to gauge his participation and learning. A self assessment can help the special ed and ELL student remain on task as long as the language is accessible.

As to myself, all these ideas are new and useful. A checklist is a great idea to keep students focused. Adding a time component will make them reach a goal in a timely fashion and not fall behind.

There are two major drawbacks that I foresee: having the time to prepare these checklists, and what consequences to give the student who does not keep in step with the checklist - and therefore, with the rest of the class.

INTEL Day 5

Today we reflected on assessments. We visited a website with numerous examples and rubrics on how to assess student learning. Seeing these examples opened my eyes to the many creative ways a teacher can assess his students' learning. We generally stick to the traditional form of testing, but this website showed other ways to gauge student learning. It provided rubrics and checklists for gauging participation, critical thinking, use of media, investigation from outside sources, and self assessment. I personally have never used student self assessment to grade student work. It will be a new experience.

Being exposed to these other methods of assessment made it possible to incorporate them into my unit plan. For example, a KWL chart, a powerpoint presentation, a discussion of modes of transportation and their merits, drawing parallels between real life examples and the concept of slope of a straight line, and finally the graphing of straight lines and finding their slope. All of these activities are student-centered rather than teacher-centered, and they are assessments embedded in the learning process.

This exposure has given me new tools to use and share with the other teachers at school. I will be more alert to alternate ways to assess and how to incorporate them into my lessons and classroom instruction. I would expect better student response if they can see that their input counts for something; if they see that the process of learning means as much, or more, as getting answers right on a test.

The good thing about being exposed to varied assessments is that a teacher has tools and options. Not all assessments are good for all subjects. But with more tools, the teacher can vary his assessment strategies and incorporate student assessment when possible. Students will respond more readily if they see they have a real stake in and possibility of influencing their final grade through participation. This encourages the student who is not a good memorizer, but may be a great organizer or team worker or investigator.

INTEL - Day 4

Today was especially useful because I learned about podcasting in education and heard examples on the Amphi website. I had a little practice with Audacity and will load it onto my pc. I think that the more you vary instruction, the more students will become motivated to learn. If we look at society in general, everything has progressed/modernized, except the method of instruction. I heard a person say one time that if a person from the 1800s were transported to our time, he would not recognize anything nor how to use any of the tools we take for granted today; but if he were shown a classroom, he would immediately recognize it as such. Desks, teacher, students, lecture, take notes, take tests. We have to incorporate the world around us into our classroom and utilize all the available tools to educate. Otherwise students see too much of a disconnect between school and the 'real world.'

By using the technology myself in the creation of a student sample, I go through what the students will go through. Perhaps even more so, because I did not grow up with this technology, but they did. This personal experience will help me understand their difficulties and better prepare me to answer their questions.

Then there is the question of what is expected of the student in light of the standards and objectives. By preparing a student sample, I can gauge how closely my objectives fit with the actual lesson. It is a kind of reality check on my planning and expectations.

Student learning is ensured with the preparation of a clear rubric for each project. The rubric tells the students how to model their presentation to achieve the greatest effect while meeting the objective(s) of the lesson. It keeps me on track also as a teacher, and constantly reminds me of what I expect. Teachers can be forgetful also.

The knowledge gained today included podcasting and the exploration of websites to support podcasting. My students are always listening to something when they can. Everyone seems to have an Ipod or similar. By incorporating the technology they like into the lesson plan, I make it more attractive to them. They also see that the classroom is not so divorced from 'real life' as they might have thought. Most children and youth love to perform, and incorporating this desire to perform with classroom learning can awaken otherwise dormant interest. Also, the more ways we present a lesson to the students, the better chance they will have of retaining it.
Finally it adds another tool to our assessment portfolio.

Intel Course Day 3

How can I use the internet to support my teaching and students' learning?

There are websites that cover every kind of information. By careful selection, the teacher can direct the students to websites that will aid their research of a specific topic. Since this is the age of information and today's students are for the most part computer literate, it is only natural to use that interest to further their learning, teach them correct internet protocol, and make them aware of the dangers of careless surfing.

How can I ensure responsible and appropriate use of the internet?

The students have to read and sign an internet use agreement, whether it be of the teacher's making or a standard form of the school itself. That agreement has to clearly state consequences of improper use. The teacher has to circulate the lab/computer area while the students are online. Students need to keep a log of sites visited and information obtained.

Day 2 of INTEL

In order to plan ongoing student-centered assessments, I have to engage the students more directly in the learning process. In other words, I talk little, and they talk much. I need to incorporate learning logs, graphic organizers, oral presentations, KWL charts, and so on.


Today I did a lot. I filled in much more of my course outline, I finished my pamphlet, I prepared a PowerPoint presentation to introduce the lesson to the students. I also learned about framing essential questions, unit questions, and content questions; and how to distinguish between them.

The important thing I have learned today is the need to be more creative in both teaching a unit and assessing student learning. There are a lot of learning styles; and multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank tests are not always the best way to determine depth of learning. Also students benefit from ongoing assessments because they focus on key points as developed by the teacher in these assessments. Another benefit is that the course grade is not based on only one or two evaluations. With ongoing assessments, there is a better chance for a more objective appreciation of student learning.

My main concern is that since my school already uses computer-based curricula, it will be difficult to fully implement what I am learning. What I can do is be more creative in special projects, and incorporate more ways to assess student learning.

A New Experience

Today, I created my first ever blog for the INTEL Essentials Course. I have never blogged nor thought of blogging. We shall see if I get the bug to blog or not.

In the meantime, today was a very informative day. I learned a lot about the importance and relevance of project-based learning to getting students interested and involved in the learning process.

We have used projects in a very limited way at my school as another means of assessment, but never to the degree and depth as outlined in Module One.

I feel this has been quite an eye-opener. I hope to do a unit on direct variation. It will be interested to see how I can develop this idea over the course of the next eight days.