The audience for my capstone is fellow classroom educators. I want to design a project that will give clear instructions for how to create a streamlined unit that will engage multiple learning styles on multiple levels. My vision is to re-create differentiation in the classroom. To do this, one has to re-create teachers’ idea of what differentiated learning should look like.
I will need to explain: 1) seven types of learning styles 2) effective lessons for each type learning style 3) What a streamlined unit plan looks like, vs. a typical differentiated unit plan 4) Action research on how most teachers differentiate in the classroom 5) Explanation of Universal Design for Learning Theory
2 Comments
Dearborn:
Logo: This is a great, engaging logo. It is instantly clear what the author is trying to convey. Review: This is information for elementary educators. I feel that when you are trying to make a case for using technology as a substitute for traditional materials (blogging vs. pencil and paper) you have to work very hard to persuade people. Her home page has a clear goal, but then segues into Digital Citizenship, which isn’t an appropriate argument for technology substitution. Blogging is not a necessary skill for a digital citizen. It was an interesting presentation, but I wasn’t persuaded, therefore I cannot rule that it was effective. I didn’t feel that the argument was presented as clearly as it could have been. Gottfried: Logo: Clear and to the point. Without reading anything yet, I can tell this site has something to do with harnessing the power of the blog in the classroom. Review: It is a great concept, trying to create a blog project that can cross the barrier between classroom and the real world. I find this project much more compelling than the Dearborn project of a similar theme. The project is clearly for educators and it has practical real world applications. I found the idea clear and to the point. I liked the Gottfried capstone very much. It was very helpful to help me conceptualize what I would like to accomplish with my capstone. Vale: LOGO: It is an interesting logo, but the word choice of “Classroom” & “Community” clashes for me. I couldn’t connect the message of the logo to the message of the capstone. Based on the logo, I thought it would be more about connecting the Classroom to the greater community. Review: The audience for the capstone is educators at many levels, from the classroom to policy makers. I felt there were too many competing messages, I didn’t feel they were connected well. Creating a classroom community, creating a collaborative environment, creating an “academically safe” environment, and getting college ready. These are all important values, but how do they connect? How do I achieve it in a streamlined way? This was not clear through the capstone. Evolution of the Driving Question:
I started out wondering what does differentiation look like in the classroom? Through interactions with colleagues and the two cohorts I have been apart of, I began to want to help teachers create curriculum which would be able to maximize the affect of differentiation to the maximum learners possible. Basically, I want to create an utilitarian differentiation education. (Totally easy, right?) My audience is my fellow educators. Goals: I have all ready accomplished so much through the thinking this program has made me do, I feel it is almost chutzpah to ask for more! I have sharpened my perspectives and positions as an educator. What I hope to gain, in these final moments, is a solid foundation upon which to continue to develop my curriculum. I want people to keep questioning me, keep commenting, keep talking! In the cohort, my expectations are similar to my classroom: Be respectful of your peers, stay on topic, ask questions! I am an educator, an optimist, a believer, a mother. These are parts of a whole that only begins to tell you about who I am. These are all roles I have taken on, but to say that any one of these things is all I am or want to do would limit me in any number of ways. What do I want to do? I want to change education. Change begins with just one thought, one person, one will to achieve something different. How do I want to do that? I want to use the skills I have been given, use the information I have learned, and use the talent I was born with to impact the students, families, and schools I work with.
I was working at South Peninsula Hebrew Day School, when the headmaster there encouraged the staff to join the Touro Innovative Learning Cohort. Being apart of this program has encouraged me to think about how to marry my values as an observant Jew with the intellectual power of the Silicon Valley. I believe that being an Innovative Educator is being willing to re-invent, to pivot, to challenge the norm. This philosophy is what drives my passion as an educator. |
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