What is ONE thing you wish you were better at? Just one! Why? What could you do better about it?
I really like this prompt.....I am all about self reflection, and today's will be a constant reminder of one of my goals for the semester.....if I can break the bad habit this year, I could kick it for good.
I LOVE Powerpoints and Lectures.........I know our teaching styles are easily derived from how we learn the best. I am an auditory learner, and I could listen to lectures and discussions all day. Even if I pride myself in creating interesting projects or assessments, they are diamonds in the rough, that students have to survive a lot of lecture to get to.
My goal/area of improvement is to diversify my teaching style, to reach everyone with different lessons that force students to fire on all cylinders on different days, so here is what I have been working on incorporating to differentiate my classes.
1. Some attempts to "flip" elements of my instruction. I believe wholeheartedly that a flipped model of instruction can be successful. However, teaching in a district that is relatively low-income, where not all students have access to the Internet or Technology at home, which defeats the potential for this model to be successful, so I have tried to use technology in my room to allow the use of videos on an individual basis, to then evolve into hands-on instruction and discussions. I have been using three primary resources for some outside video lectures/lessons: Crash Course, Hip Hughes, and Khan Academy. If anyone who checks this out has other suggestions (for History/Government) I would love to check anything out.
2. Increasing my use of documents in the classroom. A few posts ago, I talked about my use of documents and primary sources as teaching tools. I have mixed success here and there, and will continue to post future activities.
3. Summaries, summaries, summaries to help with readings, notes, discussions, anything really. I have tried to use conventional summaries, 3-2-1 summaries, poems as summaries, and would love any other templates or models to play with.
4. Tomorrow my classes will take on their first Socratic Seminar (using the inner-outer-circle model), I will post a reflection tomorrow (in addition to Day 7) to talk about how it went.
I would love for any suggestions that visitors have to help add tools to my toolbox!
More Tomorrow!
Rimmey
I LOVE Powerpoints and Lectures.........I know our teaching styles are easily derived from how we learn the best. I am an auditory learner, and I could listen to lectures and discussions all day. Even if I pride myself in creating interesting projects or assessments, they are diamonds in the rough, that students have to survive a lot of lecture to get to.
My goal/area of improvement is to diversify my teaching style, to reach everyone with different lessons that force students to fire on all cylinders on different days, so here is what I have been working on incorporating to differentiate my classes.
1. Some attempts to "flip" elements of my instruction. I believe wholeheartedly that a flipped model of instruction can be successful. However, teaching in a district that is relatively low-income, where not all students have access to the Internet or Technology at home, which defeats the potential for this model to be successful, so I have tried to use technology in my room to allow the use of videos on an individual basis, to then evolve into hands-on instruction and discussions. I have been using three primary resources for some outside video lectures/lessons: Crash Course, Hip Hughes, and Khan Academy. If anyone who checks this out has other suggestions (for History/Government) I would love to check anything out.
2. Increasing my use of documents in the classroom. A few posts ago, I talked about my use of documents and primary sources as teaching tools. I have mixed success here and there, and will continue to post future activities.
3. Summaries, summaries, summaries to help with readings, notes, discussions, anything really. I have tried to use conventional summaries, 3-2-1 summaries, poems as summaries, and would love any other templates or models to play with.
4. Tomorrow my classes will take on their first Socratic Seminar (using the inner-outer-circle model), I will post a reflection tomorrow (in addition to Day 7) to talk about how it went.
I would love for any suggestions that visitors have to help add tools to my toolbox!
More Tomorrow!
Rimmey