 These last five weeks have been hard and very challenging. I can say that I have learned so much about myself and LOVED pretty every moment in this class. People might question these two statements because I am tired and feel like I am running ragged (it did not help to have the flu virus and the stomach bug.) As a teacher, I do not always know why I do certain things. I know I have not ever made the best choices, but I always learn from my mistake (growth mindset!) I also realized that my parents have played a big part in my learning. (This is close to my heart since eleven years ago both of my parents passed away.) Thomas and Brown’s (2011) book on “A New Culture of Learning” confirmed to me why my makerspace innovation plan is important to continue in my classroom and add it to the whole school. This area has given the students to engage with their projects. The book said that “change motivates and challenges.” I know that changing different ways that I do things gives me a chance to grow and challenges me! As I think about my new culture of learning, I realize that it helps to have a growth mindset so there I can learn as I am challenged. When I did my learning philosophy, I did not realize how personal it was going to be to me. My parents and teachers started me on a road of constructivism theory, and then classroom behavior happened. I know that the series of events took me out of the behaviorist theory. I am glad that my classroom environment has changed this year with all of the rotations (see both learning philosophy and the new culture of learning.) With all of the environment, philosophy, and growth mindset, I have been looking for the end in mind and teaching the students for LIFE (not just a daily task.) Whether I am developing a lesson plan with the 3-column table (BHAG) or the UbD template, I am able to connect students to talents, interests, or life in general. I know that with these two lesson plans, I can see the big picture for the students. Fink’s Taxonomy (2003)- Six Aspects of Learning (3-Column Table with Big Hairy Audacious Goal) 1. Foundational Knowledge- Understanding and remembering information and ideas 2. Application- Developing critical, creative, or practical thinking skills 3. Integration- Making connections between information, ideas, perspectives, people or realms of life 4. Human Dimension- learning about oneself or others 5. Caring- Developing new feelings, interests, or values 6. Learning How to Learn- Becoming a better student, inquiring about a subject, becoming self-directing learners Wiggins and McTighe’s (2005) has an acronym WHERETO that highlights the key elements and considerations in instructional planning (pp. 197-198). W- Ensure that students understand WHERE the unit is headed, and WHY. H- HOOK students in the beginning and HOLD their attention throughout. E- EQUIP students with necessary experiences, tools, knowledge, and know-how to meet performance goals. R- Provide students with numerous opportunities to RETHINK big ideas, REFLECT on progress, and REVISE their work. E2- Build on opportunities for students to EVALUATE progress and self-assess. T- Be TAILORED to reflect individual talents, interests, styles, and needs. O- Be ORGANIZED to optimize deep understanding as opposed to superficial coverage. The things I have learned these last five weeks will be with me for years and years. I am glad to have the books so I can reference them frequently.  References
Brown, J. S. & Thomas, D. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, KY. CreateSpace. Fink, L. D. (2003). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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 In the start of my masters, in July, I really have to dive into what growth mindset incorporated. In my paper, I designed a week-long lesson plan for the first week of school where I taught my students Carol Dweck's (2010 Mindset website) four steps to changing your mindset. •Step 1- Learning to listen to the fixed mindset "voice." •Step 2- Recognize that they have a choice in their growth mindset. •Step 3- Talk back to Fanny (fixed mindset) with a growth mindset voice. •Step 4- Taking the growth mindset to action.
In my district, we are asked to set aside the first five days at the beginning of the year to teach the expectations and have a community building. Adding this growth mindset lesson plan started the year off with a bang! It was amazing how I could see the children connecting to books that I read. On the second day, we read Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by Deak, and I saw that this one little boy (we will call him Tim) cringe when I told them that as they would learn things this year, their brain might hurt (like muscle does when you exercise.) At that time, I knew he had a “fixed mindset” because Tim feels like he needs to quit when he cannot do things in class. We have had some successes with him, and I reflected on this a couple of months ago.  I have connected in growth mindset with quite a few things. I voiced with my colleagues about rewards and praise. Alphie Kohn (not related to me) talks about that praise or being rewarded by doing is more about controlling than encouraging. It is having the child get something with strings attached. The students need our unconditional support by commending their effort. In my makerspace area, I feel like I can give them praise for their effort that they put into their projects. I know that this is why I would like the whole school to be able to push themselves to explore different things too. I have not given rewards to certain students this year. Instead, I give gifts to the whole class for their effort in working on their projects. I have given a snowflake ornament to each of my students (in all my years of teaching.) I read this poem (by a Pinterested Parent) to them:
 I want the students to realize that they do not have to compare each other to themselves. They need to know that all people have their own way to grow. I have put the students in groups that are more level, so I can differentiate the instruction and challenge the students that are ready for things at the next grade level. I have decided that I need to be challenged so I do not become bored. Being in graduate school has allowed me to learn so much, even though I am very busy with the assignments and readings. I have said this before, but I love learning, and I am growing as a teacher and as a person.  Mistakes have become my friend. I used to hate to make a mistake, but I have realized that it is a way for me to learn. During math meetings, we tend to have many errors (see blog post.) This makes the class a great atmosphere where we can use the mistakes to be a learning opportunity. If the students do not make a mistake, I make one!  Growth mindset…YET…mistakes…Again, I am so glad that I started with this the first week of school. The district that I teach in wants to be a growth mindset district. I am not sure all the teacher and administration know what it incorporates. I am planning to share my plan with someone in the district.  References:
Andreae, G., & Parker-Rees, G. (2001). Giraffes can't dance. New York: Orchard Books. Deak, J. M., & Ackerley, S. (2010). Your fantastic elastic brain: Stretch it, shape it. Belvedere, California: Little Pickle. Diesen, D. (2014). The pout-pout fish goes to school. London: Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. Dweck, C. (2016). Mindset- the new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books. Dweck, C. (2010). How can you change your mindset from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset? Mindset. http://mindsetonline.com/changeyourmindset/firststeps/index.html Monae, J. (2014, September 10). Power of yet. On Sesame Street. New York: Sesame Workshop. https://youtu.be/XLeUvZvuvAs Reed, C. (2016). Growth mindset: the power of yet. Retrieved from https://brownbagteacher.com/growth-mindset/ Smith, K. (2017, August 19). Developing a growth mindset in young learners. A Day in First Grade. adayinfirstgrade.com/2017/08/developing-a-growth-mindset-in-young-learners.html Yamada, K. (2016). What do you do with a problem? China: Compendium, Inc.  These last two weeks have been eye-opening to me. I have not been asked to write a comprehensive lesson plan since my education classes in college (and that is almost twenty years ago.) My first thought about Understanding by Design (UbD- Wiggins and McTighe) and 3-column table (based on Fink’s “A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning”) is that it looks at the whole picture and then thinks about the details. A couple of years ago, I went to a class monthly in which the presenter had us look at the math concepts and then they showed us some of the lessons that we were going to teach. This really helped me think about the end in mind as I prepared my lessons. This week I made the UbD model with the learners in mind. It was a good thing that I had already made the 3-column table and thought about different knowledge and the goals for this overall project. I was able to think about the reasons that I added the various activities for designing a disaster proof structure. Wiggins and McTighe’s (2005) has an acronym WHERETO that highlights the key elements and considerations in instructional planning (pp. 197-198). W- Ensure that students understand WHERE the unit is headed, and WHY. H- HOOK students in the beginning and HOLD their attention throughout. E- EQUIP students with necessary experiences, tools, knowledge, and know-how to meet performance goals. R- Provide students with numerous opportunities to RETHINK big ideas, REFLECT on progress, and REVISE their work. E2- Build on opportunities for students to EVALUATE progress and self-assess. T- Be TAILORED to reflect individual talents, interests, styles, and needs. O- Be ORGANIZED to optimize deep understanding as opposed to superficial coverage. And now my UbD Model… As I reflect over these two backward design models, I see positive things for both of them. Both of these designs have a useful checklist in which I, as a teacher or a facilitator, can make sure I am getting “those big ideas from work and that transfer of learning based on those ideas is accomplished” (Wiggins & McTighe, p. 222.) I like the W and H of Wiggins and McTighte’s (2005) acronym WHERETO because that is where I can get the students hooked on a project and in the past, that has been my favorite part of teaching. But this is not where I want my students to be thinking about while they are creating the project, like in my Makerspace innovation plan or this design process of building a disaster-proof structure. Building 3-column table (based on Fink’s “A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning”) has made me realize that even first graders should be able to see the whole picture. When I start my club in January, I am going to show them the 3-column table the first time we meet. I would like to think that I could use the 3-column table in teaching the scientific method (during the first six weeks of the school year) and other topics. I might even start putting the ideas of Fink’s books on my objective/ goal board in my room. The possibilities are endless for my classroom environment…  I have never had the pleasure to write math or science curriculum in my district. (Last year, they asked for volunteers, but I know I was not ready to help them write it at that time.) If they ask again, I will volunteer! References:
Fink, L. (2003). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Over the last couple of weeks, I have thought about how I run my classroom. I have changed so much in the learning environment with my first graders. First Change- Make a Makerspace areaThis allowed me to start to develop an innovation plan for the school to have a Makerspace room or area. One of the areas in this innovation plan is engineering design process. I was introduced to this way of thinking during one of the classes at CAST (Science conference.) As I was reading about Fink's 3-column table, I kept thinking about how this design process could work in my Makerspace club. For the first round of clubs (started in October,) I had students just design what they want to create by putting an end product on paper. They have worked hard on finishing their product.  Retrieved from https://www.teachengineering.org/k12engineering/designprocess In January, we will be starting the second round of clubs and I have decided that there should be a purpose for the makerspace projects. This brings me to my Big Hairy Audacious Goal for this assignment.  BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) – Overarching Course Goal |
AuthorCindy Kohn is a teacher who learns by reflecting from her growth. Categories
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