Alan November does a great job of providing an eye-opening reflection on student learning and how teachers need to teach in the digital age. As a parent of young children and an adult child, I both agree with and disagree with his theory that educators should entirely change teaching methods that are proven to work. Young children need a proper foundation developed prior to reaching the higher levels of blooms taxonomy that November desires students to attain. As a former teacher of high school students, and as a parent of an adult student, I do however, agree with November’s statement, “When students have purpose in their work (e.g. making a contribution), they take more responsibility for quality.” Students need to be provided with a sense of purpose, a collaborative space to think critically, and with skills that enable them to solve problems. As a teacher of students in a virtual school, it is all too common for students to copy and paste answers to open ended questions from the internet. They use sites such as Answers.com, Quizlet.com, Wikipedia, Course Hero, and the often used by my students, Brainly.com and Jiksha.com. As a result, I do not look forward to grading their LMS generated quizzes and tests. I do enjoy reading and grading their discussion prompt answers with responses to peers and their projects. I agree with November, because students need teachers to create the higher order thinking questions and problem solving-based assignments, while helping them make connections with others as they analyze content in an authentic context using 21st century skills.
I am looking forward to learning about critical thinking tools to help me develop life-long learners and problem solvers of my general education students, but I especially am looking to learn about specific tools to help my students with IEPs and ELL students. While showing a brief video to my students last week, one of my students reminded me that I did not turn on the closed captioning while showing the video. I appreciated the student’s awareness of her learning style. I was able to replay the video later for her and the rest of the class with the closed captioning. Many of my students benefit from this type of tool, but not all of them are as self-aware or as confident as the one student who spoke up and asked me to address her need. I address multiple intelligences in my lessons, but adding components of universal design, that include the facets of representation, action & expression, and engagement would greatly benefit my students. As an educator in a virtual school, we collaborate constantly using Google Hangouts. We use it to share ideas, provide feedback and to conduct meetings. We also use our Google Drive to share and collaborate on documents, presentations, resources for lesson planning, and professional development. In addition to receiving training documents on Google Drive, we also receive trainings via our LMS and via Adobe Connect. As grade school teachers in this virtual environment, we are at the forefront of the next generation of education, but we are still learning how to best use tools in this setting. Our students come from a variety of back grounds with varying learning styles and skill levels. We must meet them where they are. We use e-text, video, games, synchronous sessions, recordings, our LMS and a variety of other resources to guide our students’ learning, and at times, we provide students with choice in determining the form of their assessment. I would be the first to admit however, that we sometimes fall short in teaching our students additional skills that would enable them to own their learning, while collaborating and learning other’s points of view. I believe that once teachers are trained in effectively using the appropriate resources to support our students with IEPs and ELL students, we will enhance and advance all students learning experiences.
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E. DrakeVirtual School Educator, ITEC Ed.S. Candidate Archives
May 2019
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