My wicked problem of practice in my classroom
The hard part about identifying a wicked problem of a practice in my classroom, school or workplace currently is a little difficult right now. This is due to the fact that I am currently not employed. So let me first start off by telling you a little bit about myself to make things a bit more clear and so you know my background and where I am coming from. Plus this is my first blog for CEP812.
I graduated AdrianCollege (Southeast, MI) in December 2010 majoring in Mathematics & minoring
in Communications for Secondary Education, as well as representing the
AC Bulldogs on their Volleyball team.
After a fall semester of student teaching middle school mathematics, I
was lucky to lay my hands on a full-time subbing job until the end of the school
year teaching at a small middle/high school with four preps (Math 7, Algebra,
Geometry, Algebra II); Addison High School also located in Southeast
Michigan. What a great experience I had! Not only did I have four preps...but to top it off, I was using a cart and sadly known as the “cart lady.” Ha-ha. I would float to
different teacher’s classrooms when they were on their planning hour and teach
there. It was a struggle at first, but
once I got my routine down I truly felt like I was a pro. Just starting off teaching is a difficult
task, but having four preps and on a cart made it more of a challenge and I was
up for it. I thought to myself, “If I
can do this, I can do anything.” You
know what, I did and I loved it. It had
its moments but I managed and I just love teaching. It is definitely what my passion is in,
teaching kids…trying to make a difference in their life through academics and
life lessons. Unfortunately that school
couldn’t afford to hire me at the end of the year due to budget cuts, but I got
exceptional letters of recommendations and was thrilled to receive a job that
summer. I recently came from Sturgis
High School, located on the southwest side of Michigan (where I am from-White
Pigeon, MI). I was hired the summer of
2011 and recently resigned the end of November of 2012. Resigned? Yes, I will
explain.
Sturgis was blessed to have received a grant from the state
of Michigan for 1:1 technology. Each
student at SHS has their very own iPad. Amazing, right? This didn’t happen until this fall (2012,
starting my second year at Sturgis). At
Sturgis I was teaching high school Algebra, consisting of mostly freshman
ranging from 25-32 kids in a class.
These classes were mostly inclusion classes, I was lucky to even
co-teach a few of them. Going from 4
preps on a cart, to one prep and having my very own classroom and being able to
teach with technology and have the resources is any teacher’s dream. Unfortunately I had to resign. My heart is in education, but it longed for
my husband. My husband is in the
service, Army. He was deployed in
Afghanistan and got back this November. As
much as I love teaching and my job at SHS, I love my husband more and moved to
Fort Lewis, WA; where my husband is stationed and where I write this blog. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to my
amazing job, my students, and my colleagues who became my best friends and to a
school that offers its students incredible opportunities. I am job hunting and hoping to get my foot in
the door here soon. Eager to sub or
tutor, even better would be to find a long term subbing position. But time will tell. Though I don’t have a job right now and can’t
give you a wicked problem that I am having right this very moment. I believe I have enough teaching experience
under my belt to still explain some of the problems that I faced when I did
have my own classroom.
WPP-PART A
THE EDUCATIONAL NEED
OR OPPORTUNITY
In all of my classes, but mostly my co-taught classes my
students really struggle with their basic math skills. For example, adding and
subtracting integers, fractions, times tables, inequalities, long division,
etc. The students are supposed to know
these things by the time they are freshman in high school. How come they don’t? They have to know their multiplication facts
in fourth grade. Why do they forget
them? Is it because they start to use a
calculator in 5th grade on and rely on it? Some say that is the
case. Is it because they really don’t
know them and their elementary teacher recommends they repeat the class next
year but the student’s parents insist they go on? All these things run through my head, what is
the cause? America used to dominate the
field of mathematics through the fields of engineering, finance and
engineering…but now we are falling way behind compared to other countries. This is definitely a wicked situation and one
that hopefully we can fix now.
THE TECHNOLOGY-INTEGRATED
STRATEGY
At Sturgis, my
co-teacher and I decided that technology base drill and practice and having
some tutorials can help to improve student performance. The nice thing is we didn’t have to worry
about computer lab time anymore. The
resources were with us 24/7 due to the student’s each having their own
iPad. My co-teacher and I came up with
the technology-integrated strategy by using the following resources with our
students: Study Island & Khan Academy.
As well as trying a few flip-classroom lessons or having them learn a
lesson through a video I made (which the student’s really seemed to enjoy
because they heard my voice and not someone else’s). LOGISTICS
Using such resources like Study Island, Khan Academy and
your own personal tutorial/videos helps define students into a 21st
century learner and learning and developing in a 21st century
classroom. These sources are refining
the way we learn and teach and they have the TPACK framework embedded in
them. Though, the teacher must be
creative in introducing it and using them.
Study Island focuses on the common core standards while providing immediate
feedback to the student. In addition, as
an educator I was able to monitor my student’s progress. To top it off, my students were engaged while
using Study Island due to the incentives that it offers. If they do well in a certain area, they can
then play a game related to that topic.
They get badges for completing and doing well in certain lessons, etc.
Read more at: http://www.edmentum.com/products-services/study-island
Khan Academy is a FREE resource. It has thousands of educational videos. I used it for mathematics, but it also offers
videos in biology, chemistry, health, etc.
The nice thing about Khan Academy is if a student was struggling with a
particular topic, they can go right to Khan and watch a video on that
particular subject. As a teacher, I can
create a username and password for my students and watch their progress. In addition, with the iPads we were able to
“practice” directly from our iPads .
Plus, each student could be working on something different. For example,
if Johnny struggled with solving one-step equations he could be working on the
practice portion covering that material, while Sally may struggle with
fractions and could be working on that. Furthermore, Khan provides me the teacher
known as the “coach” an Exercise Program chart.
This chart displays the exercise the student is working on, if they are
proficient or failing in that topic, what videos they have watched, what they
have worked on, currently working on, what they have finished, etc.
Read more at: http://www.khanacademy.org/about
I don’t have a lot of background with the flip classroom but
I did try it a few times with my co-teacher while I was at SHS. Due to the fact that student’s had their own
iPad made this easier. However, the
first time around the students really seemed to struggle. I personally think it was just the idea to
them because they have never done anything like it and they felt out of their
comfort zone. But I believe if I were still at SHS and we were to continue to
do it, you would see a huge improvement and the kids would enjoy doing it. I had my students was get in groups and film
themselves and demonstrate how to solve specific math problems or explain a
math concept. If I felt that it was put
together well and professional, I would show other classes and the thought of
using it next year in my class to introduce a lesson.
RESEARCH THAT
SUPPORTS THIS STRATEGIES
The following link http://www.studyisland.com/web/results/research/ provides evident documentation that Study Island helps to increase student achievement.
Please note that using these resources should not be an
everyday thing. I think if doing so,
students will get bored with it and lose their enthusiasm and not be engaged
anymore. I think doing something like
this with technology should almost be an incentive to them because it is
different and challenges them in a different way. Again, you as the teacher should master these
resources before implementing them into the classroom. As educators, it is only effective if we are
creative and knowledgeable of the material to see real results. The logistics of Khan in itself show the
research that Khan supports: students working at their own pace, students can be working on different topics
while the teacher walks around and monitors the classroom and helps those who
have questions, the teacher becomes more of a “coach”, etc. Some even say that these resources seem to
“humanize” the classroom.
A PLAN BASED ON RESEARCH FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Due to the fact that I am unemployed at the moment, my plan based on this research for implementation
will not be possible. However, if I were
to still have my own classroom, I would plan on using these resources through
the remaining of the school year. I was
only trying this with a few of my classes.
So I would compare the classes to each other. See how helping students more of the traditional
way compared to the technology way. See
which one they enjoy more as well as me.
See if there is a huge improvement on their skill level they were
struggling before and after. Not only that but see if their technological
skills and views have improve or change to bitterness. As the year dwindles down, I would plan to
use these tools more and utilize these resources as well as others through the
student’s iPad as much as possible in my
classroom.
INDICATIONS OF SUCCESSFUL PROJECT
To indicate that this project is successful I would have to look
at all features. Look at my student’s
progress (tracking), their engagement and knowledge of using the technology. Furthermore, I would have to critique
myself. Did I have an effect on how I
taught my students? Did using the
technology and tying it to my creativity have great value to my students. A question you may be asking yourself is, “well,
how can you tell all of these things?”
It’s simple, were the students enthusiastic, motivated, engaged,
actively participate (participation is key here), ask questions when confused,
want to use technology more often, etc.
RELEVANT RESOURCES
& CITATIONS
Khan Academy:
http://www.khanacademy.org/aboutJourneyintech.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-khan-be-done-with-it.html
Study Island:
Flipped Classroom:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_teachinghttp://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/
http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/how-the-flipped-classroom-is-radically-transforming-learning-536.php
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