Merry Christmas from Boston!: Great CCSS Web Resources

Hi Folks! I'm attending a Learning and Leadership Center Common Core State Standards Conference this week. One word--AWESOME! While here in Boston I've put together some great online resources that take into consideration UDL and address leadership and teacher development in CCSS, content area teaching, and growth mindset.

In the spirit of Christmas in June (come on, I'm trying to give you a gift--just go with it!), here are the websites. Enjoy exploring them! Your feedback about which ones you like is welcome!

http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

Common Core State Standards Initiative

http://illustrativemathematics.org/

Illustrative Mathematics

http://www.achievethecore.org/

Achieving the Core Standard for All Children

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos?page=1&load=1

Teaching Channel

http://www.edutopia.org/

Edutopia

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/

Google in Education

http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/

The IRIS Center

http://www.ixl.com/

Advancing education through web based learning

http://www.senteacher.org/Print/Maths/

free teaching resources for special education

http://www.netc.org/focus/

Integrating technology into research-based strategies

http://educationnorthwest.org/

REL Northwest

http://www.insidemathematics.org/

Inside Mathematics

http://www.mindsetworks.com/professional-development-and-tools/

Mindset Works (a product, but it is so important and looks great!)

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/

Google in Education--new and great compilation of resources. Leave it to Google!

Sitting in the Airport...on Info Overload

As I sit here in the Memphis Airport waiting for my flight and exploring and reading more about instructional technology and UDL, I'm convinced of something. Trite but true...there's always a new "magic bullet" being put forth in education. (e.g., put "research-based" in front of any practice and its value sky-rockets, but does it really mean anything? Does calling it "research-based" or "evidence-based" make it so?) With high stakes related to student achievement and rigor required with the Common Core State Standards, we are seeing an explosion of speakers, solutions, and sure cures that promise significant student progress IF ONLY we pledge allegiance to them. So, I think we often find ourselves chasing after practices, getting excited and adopting them, and not necessarily tiring of those practices but slowing moving on to the "new" and leaving the "old" behind.

It is to be expected of those of us in education to want make sense of our world by framing our beliefs and principles about learning and teaching in some kind of sensible way to guide our daily practices. For me, universal design for learning (UDL) provides that global yet thorough framework to hang all that we know is effective (i.e., research-based) and all that we must keep in mind as we guide students to become expert learners. All have a place on the UDL framework.  It's refreshing and reassuring that we can keep using this framework, embed new practices without abandoning or forgetting the tried and true. UDL is a framework that works when guiding us in our goal of reaching all learners. What about you? Does the UDL framework make sense to you, too?

UDL and Bloom's 21: What I learned today

Bloom's taxonomy has been "reimagined" and reordered to accomodate effective teaching for the 21st century by Shelly Wright at Powerful Learning Practices. Originally created by Benjamin Bloom and colleagues in the 1950s, Bloom's taxonomy reflected the belief that a hierarchy of skill acquisition exists and that learning must begin with the most rote and simple tasks and be mastered prior to moving up the hierarchy to more cognitively demanding processes.

A subsequent review of Bloom's taxonomy led to Blooms 2.0 with  "creating" replacing "synthesizing" and moving to the top of the hierarchy with "evaluating" settling in just below "creating." 

Bloom's 21 refers to learning in the 21st century, taking what we know from brain research and theoretical underpinnings of universal design for learning and applying them to align Bloom's 2.0 with today's classroom practices.

When reading about Blooms 21, I had a "should've had a V-8 moment." (Hope you are not too young that you don't remember this commercial!) Really! How many times have I told participants in workshops that students with learning disabilities may have trouble remembering but they can certainly analyze and and evaluate and to not hold them back from higher, more challenging levels of thinking just because they stumble on the first "stair step" of processing. How many times have I told workshop participants that the way to help students with disabilities to learn is to give them more depth (increasing the complexity of thinking) rather than breadth ( keeping it simple but giving them more to remember). I wish I had made the natural link to "flipping Bloom's" but kuddos to Shelly.

By starting with creating, we tap students' engagement, action and expression, and representation. While it may not apply to everything that schools require students to learn, viewing teaching from the Bloom's 21 perspective helps us move students from novice to expert learners!

Hop over to Brad Wilson's 21 Innovate blog to see his list of app recommendations for mathematics, reading, storytelling, writing, language arts, social studies, science, and other great apps as they apply to Bloom's taonomy. Then think about how to "flip the pyramid" and put "creating" at the entry point for teaching in order link into the principles of universal design for learning. 

Remember...this is one person's learning ideas related to UDL...one step at a time! See you back here next week.

To flip or not to flip: That is the Question!

Unless you've been under a rock in the last few years (you and me both!), you most likely have heard of the concept of a "flipped class." In my search of information on this topic, I've seen credit go to  Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann and Salman Kahn. I've also seen posted comments that flipped classrooms have been around a long time, which is evidenced in English Language Arts teachers who asked students to read and come prepared to discuss. The bottom line is that there is enough variation and ideas around extending and rearranging the typical class flow that it really doesn't matter. And it's about the ideas, not the people, right?

In a traditional classroom, the typical order is classroom lecture and instruction and then homework as: work learners do at home, under the guidance of family and that extends students' opportunities to practice and understand routines and knowledge. However, this model of post-classroom instruction  opportunities has its shortcomings. It is a precarious thing to ask students who are learning new routines or concepts to continue their learning through practices without the necessary supports and redirection that the classroom can provide. Consequently, the flipped class requires students to watch teachers deliver instruction through video prior to class and receive instructional support and clarification during class, where teachers can guide and redirect students.

I believe another powerful use of the flipped class is to wet students' appetite for what they are going to learn. TED Ed offers (at the time of this writing) 66 short, spellbound videos that are based on concepts that support instruction. For example, exponential growth is covered in  How Folding Paper Can Get You to the Moon and explains this concept in an understandable and memorable way. The site is growing and concepts in multiple content areas are addressed.

A few good sites on this topic are: Flipped Learning (new but growing!) and The Flipped Class Network, and Flip Teaching.

Bottom line, it's all about reordering the learning experience, engaging students through technology (hello 21st century!), expanding the time for learning, and crafting the learning experience as a collaborative effort.

Remember...this is one person's learning ideas related to UDL...one step at a time! See you back here next week.

A Mind Explosion!

Since my last entry I have found myself sucked into the vortex of Pinterest. I know what you are thinking: this is certainly not where you'd think that I'd begin my year long exploration into technology to support learning. However, I'll make the argument that it is a down-and-dirty way of quickly clustering same topic resources. If you are the only other person in the world who doesn't use Pinterest, you're on your own now. I am hooked. I remember a crafty friend, a real D-I-Yer, telling me a while back about it, but honestly, I did not get it. If you are a visual person, the ability to organize and bookmark visually by topic is very appealing. I have been pretty darn selective of my "pins" on my boards, remembering the sage advice of "garbage in, garbage out." The two boards I've created to post on are "Fire those neurons!" (educational technology related) and "Common Core State Standards." All pins are GREAT resources that on their own merit, deserve to be showcased.

Slip on over to my Fire those neurons! board for some great technology resources that will make your day!

Remember...this is one person's learning ideas related to UDL...one step at a time! See you back here next week.

Every Journey Starts with the First Step

This is my first step of a year-long journey to discover ways to reach and engage leaners that extend beyond the traditional ways of teaching. Not that there's anything wrong with tradition, but we all know that technology is here to stay. I know that I must lead by example with those educators I support.

How would I describe my current level of knowledge about technology-internet, hardware, software, etc? I would say I'm a "middler"--that is, I'm stuck in the middle of learning, but I frequently get side tracked by, as a friend tells me, "shiny, sparkly things." No more. Today is the first Don Quixote-type quest to "reach the unreachable dream" of learning everything there is to learn about how to infuse new technologies into teaching keeping in mind the 3 principles of universal design for learning-multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement. As I learn and outline my findings, I will make connections with UDL.

Thus begins a year long, weekly look at different ways of reaching learners. Each week, I will focus on an instructional methodology or resource that can enhance learning for our 21st century students. You are welcome to journey with me and share your thoughts, too. The journey is always more enjoyable with company!

Remember...this is one person's learning ideas related to UDL...one step at a time! See you back here next week.