Blog Post # 9 Common Core...... the BIG concerns!

Blog Post # 9 Common Core......  the BIG concerns!

California adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) on August 2, 2010.   Each California LEA (local education agency) was charged with developing its own local plan for CCSS systems implementation. 

There are several concerns associated with Common Core:

1.      Concern about the current general lack of content knowledge in math and English language arts and literacy in grades K–8 in the context of the Common Core State Standards.

2.      Concern with the school’s technological capacity to assess students with the new computer adaptive assessments being developed for 2014–15. Concern about the school’s current capacity to facilitate teaching and learning with technology, as well as assessing students with the next-generation assessments.

3.      Concern about the funding, time for, and availability of high-quality professional development, especially for K–8 English language arts and literacy and K–8 mathematics educators.

4.      Concern about the pedagogical knowledge of K–8 teachers to effectively deliver content at the rigorous level required by the Common Core standards

5.      Concerned about aligning immediate implementation to CCSS instructional shifts.

Solution for concern #1 - Professional Development (PD) and Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

• Teachers need to examine the standards and assess what skills and knowledge they already have and determine what skills and knowledge do they need as a group (PLC) and they need to go through the process of unpacking the standards for better understanding of what they are going to teach (PD)
• Plan together in teams (PLC)
• Plan common formative assessments (PLC)
• Teach the lesson
• Analyze data

Solution  for concern  # 2

• Maximize use of  current computer lab and classroom computers by planning structured computer lab time for each class
• Buy more computers

Solution  for concern # 3 

• Send a key teacher from each grade level to conferences that will  help them acquire the necessary tools to come back and impart that knowledge to the rest of the teachers at the school site
• Train the core group of teachers who will in turn train the rest of teachers (math leads and El leads)
• Incorporate  professional development during staff meeting

Solution for concern # 4

• Professional development
• Collaborate in PLCs
• Create units and pacing guides
• Administrative observations/feedback

Solution for concern # 5

• Create incremental goals for implementation
• Set timelines
• Train staff
• Have a core team create units of study or review published curriculum to adopt
• Have select teacher preview and make suggestions
• Redesign units with corrections or if funds are available adopt a curriculum
• Create  pacing guides and assessments
• Professional development to unveil units district wide by grade levels/review newly adopted curriculum
• Grade levels work as teams collaborating and sharing strategies to teach unit/curriculum
• Implement CCSS in all grade levels
• Have administrators become instructional leaders and monitor implementation. They need to decide what they want to see and articulate that expectation to the staff.
• Continue to provide professional development and support as teachers get familiar with Common Core

Common Core from adoption to implementation

Train teachers

Prioritize the standards

Unpack the standards

Construct units of study

Create assessments

Prepare a pacing guide

Implement units

  

Implementation to sustainability

Integrating technology

Monitoring

Continuous training

Technological capacity is a huge topic that must be addressed as we transition to common core and computer based assessments. The district has to ensure that all schools have the necessary hardware to accommodate the computer based assessments. Teachers must also be trained in the use of technology to facilitate teaching and learning for the assessments.

Blog Post # 8 - Badging

Blog Post 8 Badging

Well we talked about the concept called badging in one of our Google hangouts and it sounded really cool so I thought I’ll investigate how this could be incorporated into my educational community.

So what is a badge or badging?

Dictionary.com defines it as a special or distinctive mark, token, or device worn as a sign of allegiance, membership, authority, and achievement. So a badge is a symbol or indicator of an accomplishment, skill, quality or interest. Many communities of practice such as the Boy and Girl Scouts even our Armed Forces use badges to represent some form of accomplishment and communicate success in many contexts. Badges can be used as motivators or goal setters as well.

Doing further research I discovered the concept of a digital badge. A “digital badge” is an online record of achievements, it tracks the recipient’s communities of interaction that issued the badge and the work completed to get it. For those of us that are involved in social media, we can display badges earned or received on our Facebook and LinkedIn pages. This concept can be utilized in the classroom as well. Digital badges can support learning by motivating students to acquire badges for academic success at all grade levels. It validates and displays success. Badges can represent traditional academic achievement or the acquisition of skills such as collaboration, teamwork, leadership, and other 21st century skills.

Examples of badging:

• K classroom – badge issued to students who have mastered letter and number recognition
• 1^st grade – sight words and math facts
• 2^nd grade – Blending, addition and subtraction
• 3^rd grade – multiplication
• 4^th grade – division
• 5^th grade- fractions

I think badging which recognizes achievement will foster community engagement in the classroom. I see it going hand in hand with competency based learning, as students master a concept they receive a badge.  The visualization of the accomplishment will drastically change how students look at their learning.

It’s a new way of thinking about learning and assessments and as the classroom teacher you set the rules. I can see using badges even for staff and teachers to acknowledge dedication and efficiency. Hey I smiled when I saw I acquired 3 badges in this class already.

Read more about it

http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2012/06/13/03badges.h05.html

Blog Post # 7 - Gaming

Block post # 7

Gaming

What’s the big deal about gaming?

My teenage sons can sit for days in front of a computer playing a video game. I may be aging myself but I see it as a big waste of time, before you yell at me I am just sharing my opinion. So for this blog post I decided to investigate what is gaming and what makes people spend hours upon hours in virtual wonder land.

I was quite stunned to find out that the term gaming originated as a synonym for gambling. Although most electronic games today do not involve gambling in the traditional sense one can assume that pleasure is certainly derived from game playing. In the United States, the average video game player is 30 and has been playing video games for over 12 years. Similar statistics are stated for many countries. Indeed gaming and gamers make up a community of practice where the shared experiences are pleasurable as measured by the enormous amount of time spent playing.

So I interviewed 5 ardent gamers to get the big idea behind gaming.

I started with my two sons who told me gaming gives them an adrenaline rush when they have conquered the bad guys and that it is exhilarating. Another gamer told me, it was cheaper than a date and you have just as much or more fun without spending a dime. Yet another explained that gaming saves him visiting the doctor as it relieves the stress after a long day of work and its a way to escape reality. I asked my sister who is also a gamer and her response, it’s a way to bond with her husband. People have many various reasons for becoming gamers and today gaming is an industry that is worth over 44 billion in sales.

As an educator I can’t help but wonder if a game can be invented to teach math facts and parts of speech that would have students so engaged that it would take them hours to play. What if there was a PAC- man game for fractions or vocabulary words? Would we see student scores go up on state test?

Well I tried a game with my boys and found it to be fun. So next time you are stressed out and want to get away, play a video game you just might enjoy it.

Blog Post 6- - Blended Learning- education of the future or today?

Blog Post # 6

Blended Learning- education of the future or today?

Common Core adoption and the smarter balance assessment have many veteran teachers very uneasy about their abilities to provide students with the tools they need to master the technology to take the test. As of this year, the old paper and pencil way of testing is now being replaced with computerized assessments that call for students to have specific technology skills. So where does blended learning fit on the spectrum of 21^st century skills and learning?

The definition of blended learning is described as a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and or pace of the learning. It takes place in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home with each student’s learning within a course or subject area connected to provide an integrated learning experience.

The majority of blended-learning programs resemble one of four models: Rotation, Flex, A La Carte, and Enriched Virtual. So some wonder will this kind of learning replace the teacher and the answer is absolutely not. Blended learning includes teachers along with technology. So is it futuristic or applicable today? Blended learning even though it sounds like something of the future is very relevant for today’s student. Embracing technology is a must for today’s classrooms and by incorporating technology into class projects, students are able to better evaluate their understanding of course material. Teachers must become IT literate in order to keep up with the current shifts in education.

Now is the time to make a difference in the lives of our learners, to propel them into the world as beacons of success and hope.  So as educators we need to embrace the future, today!