Phase II - The Big Idea
I currently teach middle school Science at Myra Bradwell School of Excellence, which is a neighborhood school. I serve as our school's Science Fair Coordinator. For the upcoming school year 2015-2016, I will have three classes of eager scholars and scientists of about twenty four - twenty seven students. The student population that attends Brdawell School of Excellence are about 98.9 % African Americans. Each class is block instruction which is about sixty minutes per class daily. I plan to implement the Big Idea in all three Science classes.
There is no typical day in a balanced classroom. Each day brings different challenges, new goals to achieve and higher levels of rigor to attain.
This new innovative designed program with this great partnership through Michigan State University and WIPRO, essentially connected educators to empower themselves and embrace the world around them through Technology, Pedagogy,and Content Knowledge to become equipped with a new way of applying content from a different scope. This new way of application of content knowledge and interaction supports effective teaching and learning as being a reciprocal classroom environment where knowledge is being transferred and student engagement increases which leads to students having an active role in their education.
The key big idea that will be the ultimate goal of my teaching will be to integrate Fine Arts into every Science unit in order to establish a platform for creative opportunities, fluency of interdisciplinary knowledge, solve real-world problems and master skills associated with holistic learning.In connecting to what was learned in this STEM Fellowship through this big idea will engage and lead students to explore, discover ,and be creative. Diving deeper with the big idea will afford me an opportunity to collaborate with other disciplines such as Social Science, Music, Art and Physical Education content to streamline the interconnectedness in the different domains.
The content I will uncover over the course of the year will be Life Science, Earth Science, and Physical Science. The Big Idea will uncover the content for my students through the inquiry process, cross curricular investigations, and develop the ability to design a solution to a problem. Through the Fine arts and connecting other disciplines students will identify their place in the world as living creatures, consumers, decision makers, problem solvers, managers, and planners. The greatest reward of me knowing students achieved the goal would be assessing their daily reflections, student knowledge delivery of product oriented/process oriented projects, student interviews and peer to peer discourse.
The kinds of performances of understandings I will seek to implement are design tasks where students seek multiple ways to design a new product or idea. Another performance task for implementation is evaluative tasks, students justify information given according to a set of criteria. Analytical tasks where students distinguish between different parts breaking down information into elements to show they understand and application tasks where students transfer information in a new way of understanding.Through this STEM Fellowship I will incorporate and implement some of the performance tasks which spiral back to the aforementioned, that includes This Day in History, World of Wonder, Improvisation, Design process, illustrated summaries, Maker Ed, collaboration with real world problem solving,and daily reflections. Implementing these kinds of performances of understanding will support and build an learning environment that is authentic and valuable.
The pedagogical approaches I seek to implement are discovery learning associated with discovering and building knowledge for themselves. Through discovery learning students are highly self-directed and constructivist. This type of learning calls for a multiplicity of perspectives so that the learner has a full range of options from which to construct their own knowledge. ( (de Jong and van Joolingen,1998). The technology feature in discovery learning would be a web-based assessment, a communication letter with peer and teacher and digital portfolios.
Learning by doing is a interactive approach or experience.This approach would lead students to interact deeply with product oriented/process oriented projects. This can be done online, posing questions, creating web brochures documenting knowledge. Repurposing materials can also be used and access google slides to create scenarios for peer responses.
Learning through discussions and debates involves organized and accountable talk. This can be done in small group or whole group. Technology to include chat rooms for content , digital journaling,and online text messages.
Blended learning combines different teaching approaches and learning styles. ( de Boer, 2004).This pedagogy also includes Interdisciplinary learning, opportunities for learning in a number of domains, students can showcase learning through videos, slide presentations, creative expression, song, artistic and physical movement.
Differentiated learning will address a range of learning styles and multiple intelligences. Technology would be integrated through student choice.
Content Knowledge fits into this framework through the transferring of knowledge in a new way blending technology and pedagogy to increase student motivation, curiosity, and engagement which leads to the "sweet spot". Creative Expression with the integration of Fine Arts will build opportunities for students to showcase their learning in a new way and connect content across domains.
TPACK (Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge) will be introduced to the staff as a framework that is a conceptual structure which is interwoven and drives authentic teaching and learning experiences which ultimately leads to the “sweet spot”.
I currently teach middle school Science at Myra Bradwell School of Excellence, which is a neighborhood school. I serve as our school's Science Fair Coordinator. For the upcoming school year 2015-2016, I will have three classes of eager scholars and scientists of about twenty four - twenty seven students. The student population that attends Brdawell School of Excellence are about 98.9 % African Americans. Each class is block instruction which is about sixty minutes per class daily. I plan to implement the Big Idea in all three Science classes.
There is no typical day in a balanced classroom. Each day brings different challenges, new goals to achieve and higher levels of rigor to attain.
This new innovative designed program with this great partnership through Michigan State University and WIPRO, essentially connected educators to empower themselves and embrace the world around them through Technology, Pedagogy,and Content Knowledge to become equipped with a new way of applying content from a different scope. This new way of application of content knowledge and interaction supports effective teaching and learning as being a reciprocal classroom environment where knowledge is being transferred and student engagement increases which leads to students having an active role in their education.
The key big idea that will be the ultimate goal of my teaching will be to integrate Fine Arts into every Science unit in order to establish a platform for creative opportunities, fluency of interdisciplinary knowledge, solve real-world problems and master skills associated with holistic learning.In connecting to what was learned in this STEM Fellowship through this big idea will engage and lead students to explore, discover ,and be creative. Diving deeper with the big idea will afford me an opportunity to collaborate with other disciplines such as Social Science, Music, Art and Physical Education content to streamline the interconnectedness in the different domains.
The content I will uncover over the course of the year will be Life Science, Earth Science, and Physical Science. The Big Idea will uncover the content for my students through the inquiry process, cross curricular investigations, and develop the ability to design a solution to a problem. Through the Fine arts and connecting other disciplines students will identify their place in the world as living creatures, consumers, decision makers, problem solvers, managers, and planners. The greatest reward of me knowing students achieved the goal would be assessing their daily reflections, student knowledge delivery of product oriented/process oriented projects, student interviews and peer to peer discourse.
The kinds of performances of understandings I will seek to implement are design tasks where students seek multiple ways to design a new product or idea. Another performance task for implementation is evaluative tasks, students justify information given according to a set of criteria. Analytical tasks where students distinguish between different parts breaking down information into elements to show they understand and application tasks where students transfer information in a new way of understanding.Through this STEM Fellowship I will incorporate and implement some of the performance tasks which spiral back to the aforementioned, that includes This Day in History, World of Wonder, Improvisation, Design process, illustrated summaries, Maker Ed, collaboration with real world problem solving,and daily reflections. Implementing these kinds of performances of understanding will support and build an learning environment that is authentic and valuable.
The pedagogical approaches I seek to implement are discovery learning associated with discovering and building knowledge for themselves. Through discovery learning students are highly self-directed and constructivist. This type of learning calls for a multiplicity of perspectives so that the learner has a full range of options from which to construct their own knowledge. ( (de Jong and van Joolingen,1998). The technology feature in discovery learning would be a web-based assessment, a communication letter with peer and teacher and digital portfolios.
Learning by doing is a interactive approach or experience.This approach would lead students to interact deeply with product oriented/process oriented projects. This can be done online, posing questions, creating web brochures documenting knowledge. Repurposing materials can also be used and access google slides to create scenarios for peer responses.
Learning through discussions and debates involves organized and accountable talk. This can be done in small group or whole group. Technology to include chat rooms for content , digital journaling,and online text messages.
Blended learning combines different teaching approaches and learning styles. ( de Boer, 2004).This pedagogy also includes Interdisciplinary learning, opportunities for learning in a number of domains, students can showcase learning through videos, slide presentations, creative expression, song, artistic and physical movement.
Differentiated learning will address a range of learning styles and multiple intelligences. Technology would be integrated through student choice.
Content Knowledge fits into this framework through the transferring of knowledge in a new way blending technology and pedagogy to increase student motivation, curiosity, and engagement which leads to the "sweet spot". Creative Expression with the integration of Fine Arts will build opportunities for students to showcase their learning in a new way and connect content across domains.
TPACK (Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge) will be introduced to the staff as a framework that is a conceptual structure which is interwoven and drives authentic teaching and learning experiences which ultimately leads to the “sweet spot”.
