[jockml]

in reply to: Discussion Post Topic: Visions and Actions #15156

That’s awesome that you use hands on materials for Math and make it applicable to their lives. I do not teach Math but the students always say that don’t understand how it applies to their live. Providing those connections is so important and I am sure the kids love your class.

[jockml]

in reply to: Discussion Post Topic: Visions and Actions #15155

I agree that knowing our students names is a key to building relationships. I also greet all my students at the door. I can always tell if something is going on with a student by the way they enter the room. Students need to know we care about them and using their name is a great way to show them we care.

[jockml]

in reply to: Discussion Post Topic: Visions and Actions #15154

How will you prioritize relationship building?
I will dedicate time daily for informal conversations or one-on-one check-ins with students to understand their needs and interests and incorporate shared activities, such as team-building games or collaborative projects, to create connections within the classroom. I think it is important that students learn to work together. This helps to build a sense of belonging and community within the classroom.

How will you establish a positive learning community?
Co-Create Classroom Norms where students engage in setting expectations for behavior, collaboration, and mutual respect to foster ownership and accountability. This may be harder for me to do since it requires me to give up some control to the students. I think it is super important to create a safe Environment. I will continue to establish a classroom culture where mistakes are viewed as opportunities for growth and all contributions are valued.

How will you bring your curriculum to life for your students?
Connect to Real-World Issues: Link lessons to current events, societal challenges, or local issues to demonstrate the relevance of the material.
Use Hands-On Activities: Incorporate simulations, debates, and project-based learning to make abstract concepts tangible and engaging.
Invite Guest Speakers if allowed by administration: Bring in professionals, activists, or community leaders to provide real-world perspectives and expertise.
Integrate Technology and Media: Use digital tools, videos, and interactive platforms to make content dynamic and accessible.

How do your assessment and grading practices align with your vision for learner engagement?
Use formative assessments and provide opportunities for revisions, encouraging students to view learning as a process and allow students to demonstrate mastery through various formats, such as presentations, portfolios, or collaborative projects, to honor different learning styles.

[jockml]

in reply to: Feedback and Student Agency #15146

I like how you said you give the students rubric and have them assess their classmates. Students tend to listen more to their friends than teachers. I like this structured approach so students can get a different perspective to correct their mistakes or work on misconceptions.

[jockml]

in reply to: Feedback and Student Agency #15145

I agree with all of you that students do not know how to constructively give feedback. They even struggle on how to discuss the issues. Most students like to divide and conquer just to get the work done. I liked the TAG strategy because it sets a framework for the students to follow and can be expanded upon once the students understand the basic structure.

[jockml]

in reply to: Feedback and Student Agency #15144

How Utilizing a Peer Feedback Routine Might Increase Student Engagement

Encourages Active Participation: Peer feedback encourages students to take an active role in both giving and receiving feedback, making them more engaged in the learning process.
Responsibility and Improved Motivation for Learning: Students feel a sense of ownership over their own work and the work of their peers, motivating them to put more effort into assignments and into learning the material.
Promotes Collaboration: Peer feedback encourages students to engage with each other’s work, fostering a sense of community and shared responsibility.
Encourages Active Participation: Students become active contributors to the learning process by analyzing, evaluating, and discussing peers’ work. This helps students to develop their critical thinking skills.
Diverse Perspectives: Receiving feedback from multiple peers can spark new insights, ideas, and approaches that students may not have considered, deepening their understanding.

The Connection between Feedback and Student Agency in Learning

Encourages Reflection: Receiving and acting on feedback helps students develop metacognitive skills, enhancing their ability to self-assess and set meaningful goals.
Builds Confidence: As students see how applying feedback leads to improvement, they gain confidence in their ability to influence their learning outcomes which leads to improved academic success.
Ownership of Learning: Feedback allows students to reflect on their work and make decisions about how to improve, which fosters a sense of ownership over their learning journey. This also will lead to more informed decision making. Students will have the information they need to set realistic goals and create plans for academic improvement.
Self-Reflection and Accountability: Constructive feedback encourages students to reflect on their learning, which increases self-awareness and helps them take ownership of their academic development.

[jockml]

in reply to: Expanding Your Tech Toolbox #15108

1. Pick a Tech Tool: Pear Deck: Pear Deck is a technology tool integrated with Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint to create interactive presentations. It transforms traditional slide presentations into interactive experiences, allowing teachers to engage students in real-time and gather immediate feedback as the they present information to the class.

2. Exploring Pear Deck’s Website:
The official Pear Deck website provides a detailed overview of the tool. It explains that Pear Deck is designed to create interactive lessons, opinion polls, quizzes, and formative assessments that allow for student participation. It is a good way for quiet students to make their voice heard.

Key features include:
-Interactive Questions: Teachers can add slides that ask students to give their opinion on current event issues, multiple-choice questions, and text response prompts to engage students.
-Live Feedback: Teachers get real-time insight into students’ responses, helping them to address misunderstandings as they arise. This can provide the teacher with opportunities to reteach concepts.
-Student-Paced Mode: Allows students to go through the slides at their own pace, encouraging independent exploration and learning. This helps to differentiate material for those students who are above grade level as well as the learners who struggle.

3. How Other Teachers Use Pear Deck for Data Collection
-Gathering Prior Knowledge: Many teachers use Pear Deck at the beginning of a unit to assess students’ prior knowledge. For example, before a science lesson on ecosystems, teachers might ask students to label parts of an ecosystem using a drag-and-drop question or describe what they know about food chains through a free response slide.
-Quick Polls: Teachers often use quick polls to gauge student familiarity with a topic. For instance, in a high school history class, a teacher could start with a multiple-choice question to assess what students already know about the Industrial Revolution or the Progressive Movement.
-Pre-Assessment Quizzes: Pear Deck is used to conduct short, formative pre-assessment quizzes. In math, a teacher might use Pear Deck to ask a series of conceptual questions to determine which topics students understand and which require further instruction.
-Class Discussions: Pear Deck’s open-ended question feature is valuable for fostering classroom discussions. A literature teacher, for example, could ask students to respond to a prompt about a character’s motivation in a novel before beginning the lesson.

4. My Own Idea for Using Pear Deck: To engage students in using data to drive their own learning, I would design a student-centered data-tracking activity using Pear Deck for a 12th Grade Government class:

Activity: Supreme Court Case Analysis using Pear Deck
Objective: Students will analyze and categorize various Supreme Court cases, identifying the types of jurisdiction and the constitutional amendments involved.

Step-by-Step Plan:
–Warm-Up with Prior Knowledge Check: Begin the lesson with a Pear Deck multiple-choice question asking students to choose the correct definition of “jurisdiction” from several options.
–Interactive Scenarios: Present different case scenarios using Pear Deck. Students will use a drag-and-drop feature to categorize cases into “Original Jurisdiction” or “Appellate Jurisdiction.”
–Data Collection and Reflection: After categorizing the cases, students will complete a self-assessment using Pear Deck, reflecting on how confident they felt about their answers. This self-assessment will help students identify areas they need to study further.

Why This Activity Works

–Instant Feedback: As students submit responses, use Pear Deck’s real-time data collection to identify common misconceptions which allows for re-teaching opportunities.
Self-Monitoring: The teacher can share data with students, showing which case types were most challenging and encourage each student to self-reflect. Students can reflect on their understanding and use data to drive their next steps, which enhances self-regulation and promotes growth.
–Peer Learning: Pair students who excelled in different areas based on the collected data, promoting peer-teaching and collaborative learning. Students can learn from each other which promotes student engagement.
–Engagement: By using interactive elements, students stay actively involved in the lesson rather than passively receiving information.

[jockml]

in reply to: Establishing Relationships #15099

“Establishing Relationships”.

In addition to the resources shared in this chapter, share an activity you have successfully used to build relationships in your classroom. Be sure to include the necessary steps, resources, and any helpful pointers.

At the beginning of the school year, I use various icebreaker activities to get to know the students and to allow them to get to know one another. I use a scavenger hunt activity and I use an interview strategy where they have to ask their classmate questions and then present to the rest of the class. Throughout the year, I have the students work in groups often or at least in pairs. I want them to collaborate to figure out the answers. This allows them to build relationships and learn from one another.

[jockml]

in reply to: Learning Communities and Engagement #15047

How might you create new opportunities so that each student begins to actively drive their own learning?

I can create new opportunities so students can begin to drive their own learning by allowing them to have a choice in some of the learning activities, use strategies that allows them to discuss and work more closely with their peers like Think Pair Share, Gallery Walks, Jigsaws, cooperative learning groups to complete activities.

What connections do you see between John Hattie’s advocacy for teacher learning communities and Amy Berry’s Engagement Continuum?

Both John Hattie’s advocacy for Teacher Learning Communities (TLCs) and Amy Berry’s Engagement Continuum highlight the essential role that teachers play in shaping student learning experiences. Both scholars discuss the impact of student engagement on academic success and teacher collective efficacy.

John Hattie’s Teacher Learning Communities emphasizes that teachers are the most significant factor influencing student achievement. He advocates for teachers to collaborate and collectively plan lessons for students as well as share instructional strategies. Hattie’s method promotes using student feedback, assessment results, observations, and other data to refine teaching practices.

Amy Berry’s Engagement Continuum framework categorizes levels of student engagement, from passive compliance to deep cognitive and emotional involvement. Moving students to the higher levels of engagement on this continuum requires skilled and intentional teaching. Berry stresses that even when students are not actively engaged in the lesson, they are still learning. She focuses on strategies to move students from passive learning to more active engagement.

What is the connection between collective teacher expertise and empowering active student engagement?

Collective teacher expertise maximizes the strengths of every teacher, creating an in-depth, adaptable, and resourceful learning environment. This ensures that students are not just learning from one teacher but are effectively benefiting from the combined knowledge and skills of the entire teaching community. When teachers collaborate, they exchange effective teaching strategies, techniques, and resources. This pooling of expertise ensures that all students benefit from the best instructional practices, not just those taught by one exceptional teacher. This shared collaboration enhances a student’s educational experience allowing them to make deeper connections which is more impactful. It is important for teachers to collaborate with one another to learn strategies, share resources, and analyze data to impact student achievement.

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