What is Your Lesson Flow?

When I was a teacher, there were times when I threw together an assessment. It happens, I know, but my life would have been easier had I planned better. 

• Did I start with the unit standards and look at them?
• Did I plan a final project or assessment that would allow the students to show they could meet the standards?
• Did I make formative assessments that aligned with my unit plan?
• Did I create a universal screener that showed me where students need help?

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

One thing I am trying to encourage teachers to do is to use a universal screener. As a learning support teacher, the universal screener gives me the data I need to better understand where students are. This gives me information about how I can group students to more efficiently support them.

Unit Concepts

Standards

Assessments / Outcomes

Create Universal Screener

Unit Plan / Path

Formative Assessments

Lesson Plans

Time Spent Coaching as a Year One Tech Coach

This was a post that was left as a draft from when I was coaching at KAS in Taiwan from 2015-2017. This data was from my first year as a tech coach. One thing I would add is the number of minutes per interaction.

Time spent per interaction

The Willing ... and Able

For most of my career, I have been studying teacher growth. I have found, as I am sure many readers have found, that one-shot workshops and other quick-fix forms of professional development often have little impact on teaching and learning. For that reason, my colleagues and I have spent more than a decade studying instructional coaching.                                                                                             

Jim Knight

Coaching is all about relationships and understanding. The more I understand teachers, the better our relationship, and the more likely it will be that we can achieve our goal.

#techcoach #educoach #diglitcoach supporting Ts via @isteconnects https://t.co/F1gcA0zMPQ #asiaed pic.twitter.com/bCZvUuNWhH

— #asiaED Vip (@asiaEDchat) November 10, 2015

There is no manual for starting a coaching program or being new in the role (and if there is please send it to me), so, as a result, I spend a lot of time reading or interacting with other technology coaches online.

On coach I stalk follow is Kim Cofino, who has started coaching programs at several schools (so maybe she has a manual) and one thing she has suggested is to work with the willing in year one.

I really like this approach because teachers who are willing are more likely to be open to change allowing me to showcase interesting work teachers do so I can enrol more teachers.

I have taken this approach this year, but one thing I have noticed is that there are teachers who are willing, but not able. And there are those who are able, but not willing.

My Averse Reaction to Blocking Sites

During a recent coffee morning (a forum for the school to talk to parents about different issues), a fellow teacher asked my opinion about blocking specific sites for children. 

This question corrected to me was unexpected.

There have been times in my role as a technology coach and teacher that I have counseled parents when students are having a hard time finding balance with the technology they use. 

However, I would only monitor computer use and block sites as a last resort. I prefer to use education and open communication to influence behavior. 

Photo by Ludovic Toinel on Unsplash

Here are my suggestions for getting the process started:

Start when the child is young

When possible, begin to have conversations with your child when they are young. All the steps flow if a routine has been established when the child is young.

Use the internet together

Connecting to the point above, try sitting with your child when they use the internet. Be genuinely curious about what they are doing. If they are playing games, maybe you could join in. It is helpful for you to listen in when the friends are chatting with other players so you understand what they are talking about.

With your child's permission, of course.

Normalize conversations about internet use

Frequent conversations about internet use will normalize them and these conversations will be come a part of 

Normalize having screens always visible

This has to start at an early age and should happen in both the home and school. Students should know that an adult could potentially see what they are doing at any time. This is for safety and helps those who help them when they need it. 

(Have you ever tried to solve a computer issue when a student is jammed into a corner?)

Do not allow technology in bedrooms

Students will try to take their computers into their rooms and will use the excuse that they gave homework to do it. As much as students don't like homework, it is used as an excuse to get out of many things, isn't it? 

In my experience, students who bring computers into their rooms will often stay up later than usual doing things other than homework. It's best to leave this temptation off the table.

Have students self-monitor their use

This was an idea I had during the coffee morning. I suddenly thought of this while talking to a parent when discussing options other than full-on blocking or more monitoring. 

The idea is to have students chart their digital use. They would write things like the date, what they did, how they felt after it, and how long they used it for. The important one is how they felt, but I also think that keeping track of the time using it is important to know as well.

I should make that template.

Listening to Music in Class

When I first started teaching classes that were 1:1 devices, students would listen to music when they were working. 

I thought this was fine as long as they used headphones. I mean, I like listening to music when I work too.

Then I changed schools, and changed grades, and going myself in primary school. We were not 1:1, but my students frequently used computers for writing, research, or digital art projects. These students used to want to listen to music we well. Again I allowed it as long as they used headphones. 

I was then moved into a position of learning support where I could see many different classrooms and the different levels of agency teachers grant to students in classes. I was also able to observe student behavior from the sides.  It was shocking to see how much time students spent adjusting playlists instead of working. 

Time went on and I was teaching a coding course where students followed along. Students would all be at different points of the lesson and were required to again use headphones to listen to the introductions and follow along. 

The students I was teaching here ranged from grades one to six. When I'd check on on them, almost without fail, the younger students all had their volume to the max. They would argue when I'd lower it and couldn't understand why I was invading their space. 

I get it. I was being intrusive, not having played in a band, I know about hearing loss. They're too young for that. 

Those experiences changed my mind on music in the classroom. 

With these experiences in mind, I have paid more attention to it in the grade 5-8 classes I support. I see music being more distracting in grades 7-8.

The takeaway (one of the takeaways) from this article (https://www.psychologytoday.com/sg/blog/writing-for-impact/202407/music-to-write-by) is the following: 

If you want a creativity edge, listen to music before you write. Silence is then golden.

So, students work better with silence. 

How might we shift our culture to be more inclusive to students who need silence when working. When thinking? 

How can I advocate for this?