Rallying Cry
Impacting the learning of our students: What is your rallying cry?
We have learned that the first step toward blended learning is defining problems and goals that serve as rallying cries. The problem that persists in my present circumstances is that students misuse and misunderstand technology. Luckily, this is the most urgent problem in my classroom. I believe that due to the fact that most of my co-workers do not know about the ISTE standards, or what they entail, a ‘functional’ team would be the best fit for this problem. As the book Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools states, “Functional teams are best suited to improving one component of a product or one step of a process” (Horn, 131). Improving students understanding of how to appropriately use technology for education is the specific goal.
There are currently two sections of second grade at my school. Together, we always discuss how to help our students and move our instructional practices forward. My teammate has taught for 22 years, 18 years longer than myself. We learn a lot from each other's vastly differing teaching strategies. She understands content and standards while using good classroom management and conscious discipline. I am more excited about technology and innovation, creating a thinking classroom and inspiring creativity. Because authors Horn and Staker discuss that schools should use functional teams, “made up of teachers or staff within the same department, to make changes that are not interdependent with other parts of the school,” I believe the first step would be that only second grade be apart of the functional team. To begin, we would get the training to be on the lookout for disruptive opportunities, which is significant to our goal. With the two of us, I could lead discussion and research, but it would not be until we include others that I would ‘lead.’ Our team could then think about extending to a lightweight team to include third-grade teachers, who we work with the most during PLC (professional learning communities) time. To maximize the impact of learning, most of our reflections are held here.
With the SAMR model in mind, enhancing the learning tasks would be first so we would take it slow. I would like to consider the 5 C’s of the 21st Century learner as a model to use throughout this process. These 5 essential skills, which can be read about here, prepare students for 21st-century careers and life. These skills blended with the SAMR model will help us to make a significant change. SAMR starts with substitution, and we would need to review every process and make sure we are not just using technology to substitute something else, with no significant change. With augmentation, technology is used as substitution with some functional improvement, which is where we place emphasis if we are moving slowly. I know that we use technology, but are we using it to improve learning? Modification is significant task redesign, no longer giving an essay but an article crafted for the world. Why ignore an opportunity to improve on what already exists? Redefinition is a task that was previously thought to be inconceivable. Redefinition is the end goal, where students are leveraging technology and taking an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals. This could be attainable by the end of the school year.
We have learned that the first step toward blended learning is defining problems and goals that serve as rallying cries. The problem that persists in my present circumstances is that students misuse and misunderstand technology. Luckily, this is the most urgent problem in my classroom. I believe that due to the fact that most of my co-workers do not know about the ISTE standards, or what they entail, a ‘functional’ team would be the best fit for this problem. As the book Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools states, “Functional teams are best suited to improving one component of a product or one step of a process” (Horn, 131). Improving students understanding of how to appropriately use technology for education is the specific goal.
There are currently two sections of second grade at my school. Together, we always discuss how to help our students and move our instructional practices forward. My teammate has taught for 22 years, 18 years longer than myself. We learn a lot from each other's vastly differing teaching strategies. She understands content and standards while using good classroom management and conscious discipline. I am more excited about technology and innovation, creating a thinking classroom and inspiring creativity. Because authors Horn and Staker discuss that schools should use functional teams, “made up of teachers or staff within the same department, to make changes that are not interdependent with other parts of the school,” I believe the first step would be that only second grade be apart of the functional team. To begin, we would get the training to be on the lookout for disruptive opportunities, which is significant to our goal. With the two of us, I could lead discussion and research, but it would not be until we include others that I would ‘lead.’ Our team could then think about extending to a lightweight team to include third-grade teachers, who we work with the most during PLC (professional learning communities) time. To maximize the impact of learning, most of our reflections are held here.
With the SAMR model in mind, enhancing the learning tasks would be first so we would take it slow. I would like to consider the 5 C’s of the 21st Century learner as a model to use throughout this process. These 5 essential skills, which can be read about here, prepare students for 21st-century careers and life. These skills blended with the SAMR model will help us to make a significant change. SAMR starts with substitution, and we would need to review every process and make sure we are not just using technology to substitute something else, with no significant change. With augmentation, technology is used as substitution with some functional improvement, which is where we place emphasis if we are moving slowly. I know that we use technology, but are we using it to improve learning? Modification is significant task redesign, no longer giving an essay but an article crafted for the world. Why ignore an opportunity to improve on what already exists? Redefinition is a task that was previously thought to be inconceivable. Redefinition is the end goal, where students are leveraging technology and taking an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals. This could be attainable by the end of the school year.
References:
Horn, M. B., Staker, H., & Christensen, C. M. (2017). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Integrating technology into your classroom with the SAMR model. (2018, March 08). Retrieved from https://startime.com.au/2018/03/07/integrating-technology-classroom-samr-model/
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