I was so stressed! What was I going to do for my innovation plan?
“It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.”
― Roy T. Bennett
Why:
I believe the most important question to ask before starting any project is, “Why?” Always start with why. Why did you choose to be an educator? Why do you choose the lessons you teach? For my innovation plan, the question I asked myself was, “Why does middle school math need to change?”
Along the way, I was introduced to Nicholas Negroponte. His visions impress me. Particularly, during a Ted Talk, his prediction of our future ability to ingest knowledge within 30 years (Negroponte, 2014). This would potentially eliminate the need for math teachers to teach process, so what do we teach?
We have not reached the point of eliminating process in the math classroom, but the need to focus on applications is imperative. Students need to connect learning experience to real-life. This connection not only helps students retain information, but it makes learning more interesting.
The Plan:
My innovation plan is to use blended learning to help guide middle school mathematics students to reach their learning potential. Using the blended learning techniques, flipping and station rotations, students receive instruction at home and guided learning in the classroom. Posting video lessons online gives students the opportunity to learn at their own pace. Instead of spending class time lecturing, class is spent reteaching, hands on learning, higher-level questioning and most importantly, real-life applications.
Implementation:
In my position as instructional coach and curriculum writer, I have substantial influence on how math is taught on my campus. My original plan was to begin blended learning in an 8th grade math classroom, but right before school started, I was asked to teach Algebra instead of 8th grade. I immediately began converting my innovation plan to Algebra. Because of personnel issues, I was not able to begin implementation of my plan until November.
I met with the other Algebra teacher and devised a starting plan. Using the Google Classroom, we posted lesson videos for students to watch most nights. During classroom time, students worked a variety of activities. The activities included online, hands-on, group, projects, and real-life problems. We met weekly to discuss and plan for the class and adapted as we went.
Changes:
After a couple of weeks of posting videos, we noticed many students loved the videos, but some students were not watching them. After a few phone calls home, students were watching the videos most of the time. Classroom activities were a learning experience. Most classwork was performed in groups. Some students did not work well together requiring groups to be reorganized. Most students in the class were able to make connections and learned well in groups. When students were absent, it was difficult to make up the class activities. We found ourselves sending worksheet home for make-up work. Unfortunately, students were not able to return to school after Spring Break and we were not able to continue our plan.
What Now:
Because my students did not return to class, we were not able to get accurate data. We were not able to send out end of the year student surveys or look at state test data. We were able to meet online, but the we did not feel like we had enough data to make accurate predictions or changes. We were able to discuss changes we felt were necessary to improve implementation of blended learning in the class.
We are looking into options to make interactive videos. Our thoughts are to have students answer questions or do activities during the videos and use those outcomes as warm ups, focuses, or introductions during class. Since group activities were a challenge, we are looking at ways for group members to hold each other accountable. One idea is to assign roles in the group. We are also looking at activities for students who are present for the class or activity. Worksheets are not ideal. My main focus this year is to create class assignments following the COVA model. Connecting learning to students real-life is important, but having students make those connections on their own is invaluable.
This will be an on going plan. Eventually, I would like to have all middle school math classes using a blended plan where lessons are introduced and taught online and class work consists of lesson based on the COVA+CSLE model. As I continue to work toward my goal, I will use lessons learned about building change within my organization, building significant learning environments, designing instruction, designing effective professional learning, and building a growth mindset. This is just the beginning.
Resources:
Negroponte, N. (2014, March). A 30-year history of the future. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_negroponte_a_30_year_history_of_the_future?language=en
I believe the most important question to ask before starting any project is, “Why?” Always start with why. Why did you choose to be an educator? Why do you choose the lessons you teach? For my innovation plan, the question I asked myself was, “Why does middle school math need to change?”
Along the way, I was introduced to Nicholas Negroponte. His visions impress me. Particularly, during a Ted Talk, his prediction of our future ability to ingest knowledge within 30 years (Negroponte, 2014). This would potentially eliminate the need for math teachers to teach process, so what do we teach?
We have not reached the point of eliminating process in the math classroom, but the need to focus on applications is imperative. Students need to connect learning experience to real-life. This connection not only helps students retain information, but it makes learning more interesting.
The Plan:
My innovation plan is to use blended learning to help guide middle school mathematics students to reach their learning potential. Using the blended learning techniques, flipping and station rotations, students receive instruction at home and guided learning in the classroom. Posting video lessons online gives students the opportunity to learn at their own pace. Instead of spending class time lecturing, class is spent reteaching, hands on learning, higher-level questioning and most importantly, real-life applications.
Implementation:
In my position as instructional coach and curriculum writer, I have substantial influence on how math is taught on my campus. My original plan was to begin blended learning in an 8th grade math classroom, but right before school started, I was asked to teach Algebra instead of 8th grade. I immediately began converting my innovation plan to Algebra. Because of personnel issues, I was not able to begin implementation of my plan until November.
I met with the other Algebra teacher and devised a starting plan. Using the Google Classroom, we posted lesson videos for students to watch most nights. During classroom time, students worked a variety of activities. The activities included online, hands-on, group, projects, and real-life problems. We met weekly to discuss and plan for the class and adapted as we went.
Changes:
After a couple of weeks of posting videos, we noticed many students loved the videos, but some students were not watching them. After a few phone calls home, students were watching the videos most of the time. Classroom activities were a learning experience. Most classwork was performed in groups. Some students did not work well together requiring groups to be reorganized. Most students in the class were able to make connections and learned well in groups. When students were absent, it was difficult to make up the class activities. We found ourselves sending worksheet home for make-up work. Unfortunately, students were not able to return to school after Spring Break and we were not able to continue our plan.
What Now:
Because my students did not return to class, we were not able to get accurate data. We were not able to send out end of the year student surveys or look at state test data. We were able to meet online, but the we did not feel like we had enough data to make accurate predictions or changes. We were able to discuss changes we felt were necessary to improve implementation of blended learning in the class.
We are looking into options to make interactive videos. Our thoughts are to have students answer questions or do activities during the videos and use those outcomes as warm ups, focuses, or introductions during class. Since group activities were a challenge, we are looking at ways for group members to hold each other accountable. One idea is to assign roles in the group. We are also looking at activities for students who are present for the class or activity. Worksheets are not ideal. My main focus this year is to create class assignments following the COVA model. Connecting learning to students real-life is important, but having students make those connections on their own is invaluable.
This will be an on going plan. Eventually, I would like to have all middle school math classes using a blended plan where lessons are introduced and taught online and class work consists of lesson based on the COVA+CSLE model. As I continue to work toward my goal, I will use lessons learned about building change within my organization, building significant learning environments, designing instruction, designing effective professional learning, and building a growth mindset. This is just the beginning.
Resources:
Negroponte, N. (2014, March). A 30-year history of the future. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_negroponte_a_30_year_history_of_the_future?language=en