EDU629: Module 7 Journal Post

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EDU629: Module 7 Journal Post

Looking at how the flipped classroom is outlined by Tomlinson I am reminded of a Pre-Calc class I had in high school. As Hansen outlines the goal of a flipped classroom is for teachers to spend more time focusing on students as they may struggle on practice problem(Hansen, 110), etc. My experience in high school was quite the opposite in which I struggled with the homework, and while we reviewed it in class we always seemed to be lacking guidance and clarity without a fresh problem during demonstration. Meanwhile I believe my technology instructors at the time were attempting this as the book for web design had a CD with videos that we could watch at home, and in class we would apply any new skills and get help as needed.

While in high school I remember blackboard was beginning to take off, and we rarely utilized it outside of the classroom. Meanwhile Khan Academy was also just in its infancy, so that was not of much use to me until College. Moving forward I am always apprehensive to new apps or tools and how well they can be utilized in the classroom. I believe it is my goal to keep things simple and accessible, and only use apps when they’ve fully proven their usefulness, or they’re widely adapted across content areas and relevant to a current task. An example of a tool that I love to use to make it easier for my students to show their learning throughout projects is Flipgrid, thankfully at my current school from an equity standpoint it’s accessible to all my students and easy for them to utilize.

I believe having worked in a number of different fabrication shops my focus moving forward should continue to be on making my rooms physically reflect the goals of the affective and intellectual environments. My rooms have some modular adaptability, but I must continue to test how to best utilize the room in my highly physical demonstrations and learning experiences(Tomlinson, 188). While I’ve never experienced someone graphing my strengths, but was introduced to in in a class with a unit on portfolio and CV creation, I do this in my STEM Capstone course. In the beginning of the year I have my students graph their interest and self perceived mastery level in various skills and technological tools. We utilize this data to drive what seems reasonable for them to take on as an independent project and what additional learning they may want to do. This is very different from just trying to highlight your skills to an employer, and it’s something I hope to begin to track or integrate into my foundations and level 2 courses.

Hansen, C. B. (2019). The Heart and Science of Teaching: Transformative Applications That Integrate Academic and Social–Emotional Learning. [VitalSource Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780807777497/ Tomlinson, D.A.S.C. A. (2018). Differentiation and the Brain. [VitalSource Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781945349539/

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