My goal today is to share the various ways my instructional practice has helped students to achieve gains on New York State Standards. The approaches and results, have helped to reinforce my current philosophy about what makes a great inclusive educator.
Tomlinson & McTighe(2006) once said:
What really Matters in Teaching? (The Students)
How can students' lives influence their classroom experiences?
what does it matter to teach responsibly?
What are some starting points for responsible teaching?
All three of these questions have circled in my mind during lesson planning and instruction.
"Curriculum has to be implemented in a diverse way according to diverse timetables and in response to diverse learner needs'' ( Tomlinson & McTighe(2006), page 22)
My philosophy on teaching has changed over the pass couple of years as we have been thrusted into a new classroom model (remote and blended) and now back to fully in person. I have had to rely on research and team collaboration in order to adjust my mindset to a more fluid approach to instruction. These experiences has spurred my concept of breaking the monotony by intruding learning exercises in the form of games. Having learned how my students respond to various learning styles by observing them in my co-teach classes: US History, Government, Global History, Living Environment, Earth Science, Chemistry, Math, Computer Science and as a Basketball coach for the school, I feel very excited about leveraging this knowledge to spur enthusiasm and creativity while meeting the main objective which is to provide an inclusive learning environment for my students to flourish.. With that said, I use technologies such as Kahoots, Jackbox Quiz based games, PearDeck, Nearpod, Google Classroom (Google Forms(Quizzes, Do Nows, Exit Tickets)), web-based wheel of names, Google Translator, piper computers, and host of other tools i can not think of at the moment. All of which are used in the hopes of "reaching far more students than one who 'specializes' in one mode" (Tomilson & McThighe(2006), pg 22)
Below is an image depicting the creativity my students produced when given the freedom to explore ways to demonstrate their understanding of a given assignment. I took the liberty of printing out each of my students work and placing them in the hallway wall outside my classroom so all can see. The students were tasked with writing a computer program in python to produce an image that reflects who they are.
In my practice, I would like to see all of my students leveraging the technology they already use in their personal lives as a way to further develop academic skills. For example, the use of TicToc has proven very helpful engaging my students in instruction as the platform serves many purposes. I’ve had students create videos to demonstrate their understanding of key concepts taught in class. I’ve noticed similar excitement when I introduced math concepts using video games like “FortNite” as an instructional model. With that said, I truly see the most effective way to capture my students' minds and create lifelong learners, is to embrace the very technology they hold near and dear to their hearts and make use of it in creative ways such that learning is synonymous to fun.