Getting Into the Flow of things...

       OK, so this week I have been proud of myself. To start of, I enjoyed the Monday night meeting that we had for class. We really went in depth with finding generalizations for our units. This helped me to get the flow of my unit and I think I might actually be enjoying it (Scary, huh?). I am doing a first grade unit on Government and Leadership. The only problem that I have come across would be thinking in the Backwards design mindset. I want to plan my learning tasks and assessments before I have my"big idea" of the unit plan.  I also tend to over think, which is not always helpful. But I can honestly say, I am really learning something in the process of it all.
   
      This week I had the opportunity of talking with some great teachers in relation to Social Studies and instruction. I was amazed how, though  I asked the same questions to both teachers, the answers were COMPLETELY different. In one of my questions, I asked about differentiation instruction. I heard some interesting remarks about that. One teacher (3rd grade) spoke of differentiation as in independent learning and the other teacher (Kindergarten) spoke of differentiation in whole group. It was amazing how differentiation is used do differently.Speaking of differentiation, I enjoyed the differentiate video in  the google community this week. That video of Mr. Smith gave a clear and concise example of what differentiation can look like in a real classroom (even though he was a cartoon). Great job Meghan and Lacey!

     

To take the cake of this week has got to be the flipped classroom. Is this not the best idea ever? I like the idea of allowing mys students to look at the lesson prior to the classroom. That way the students are ale to fully engage in what they are suppose to gain, without having to spend to much time on the "background information". I personally think this would especially be helpful in math (especially college math-- hint, hint). The only thing I would question about the flipped classroom theory would be, what happens if the students do not go home and watch the video's? Then would you still have to teach the lesson, making the flipped classroom strategy ineffective? Or what if they do not have a computer, laptop, or technology in the home? I guess that is why its important to know your students and their demographics.

All in all I can honestly say that this has been a pretty productive week for me and it feels good. Now, what about this virtual museum????


Tying it in with the standards... 
This week my focus was surrounded with preparing myself for teaching, research and planning, and collaboration. Therefore the standards that I feel most appropriate to tie in this weeks learning experiences would be: 

3a. Teachers align their instruction with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study: Finding the appropriate standards to go in our unit 
4b. Teachers plan instruction appropriate for their students: collaborating with classmates on differentiation as well as teacher interviewee's.
4c. Teachers use a variety of instructional methods: Using the flipped classroom approach