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when it comes to creating significant learning environments we must ask, "Are we there yet?"

9/24/2016

This summer I participated in EdCampVoxer! It's an awesome informal learning experience that I've been glad to not only participate but also coordinate with some dynamic members of my professional learning network: Sarah Thomas, Dr. Nicol Howard, Carla Jefferson, Shana White, Shaina Glass, and Regina Schaffer. However, the one chat that I was glad to participate in was the Growth Mindset chat! Mainly because Mary Cay Ricci, author of Mindsets in the Classroom joined us for an enlightening conversation on the Growth Mindset and its role in education. When she was asked," why is the growth mindset so popular now when the book has been around for a while," she responded with "the growth mindset gives us hope". That is why I think when it comes the industry of learning-education-it is important that we have a growth mindset. This kind of mindset helps us get up in the morning and know that no matter what deficiencies, disabilities, or issues our students come to us with each day, they can learn and we can help them learn. It all starts with us, educators.

As part of our blended professional learning innovation, each module will feature a video story or audio podcast that will focus on a growth mindset and the message of "Yet" for that topic. We will do this by sharing inspirational videos of exemplar learning environments and teacher/student interviews that reinforce the message of working at a goal and overcoming obstacles (physical, mental, structural, and social) to achieve those goals. We will also use the Digital Learning and Leading Today podcasts. I am looking forward to using that content to help promote a growth mindset. I have purposefully put in reflection questions in each episode for listeners and would like to see a community grow from that. These podcasts will also become a part of the content that participants access during the blended professional learning innovation plan we may use it for some of the online discussions. For each of those we will include an online discussion, where they address the first two steps in the 4 Steps to Changing Your Mindset: Learn to hear your fixed mindset voice and recognize that you have a choice. Here is the next episode of the Digital Learning and Leading Today podcast that includes a student interview and a samples of the kinds of reflection questions that address the growth mindset.

Then, when we come together for our face-to-face sessions, which I'd like to call our "Are We There Yet?" time, we will take the opening 15 minutes to support each other by listening to them talk back to it with a growth mindset voice and hold them accountable to taking the growth mindset action. It will be like our opening pep rally! We will also make "Growth Mindcheck" cards like these for teachers to refer to often.

When it comes to innovation in education, it will be imperative that we have a growth mindset. After all it will require us to change because today's learning culture is not the same as it was when we were in school. I share my thoughts on this New Culture of Learning by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown in this podcast. In order to determine our current mindsets we will need to start by identifying our learning philosophy and what we believe about our learners and how they should learn. My learning philosophy is all about Keeping it R.E.A.L. Then we will need to plan and design lessons in such a way that supports that philosophy. One way we can do that is by using Fink's 3 Column Table. It helps lesson designers to focus on the learning goals, learning activities, and assessment activities. I enjoyed using that new lesson planning template as it helped me to look at course design in a more modular fashion. In addition, it helped me to determine which learning activities would be online (since I want to develop this as a blended learning lesson). Another popular lesson design template is the one by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. I had never used this template to design a learning experience but found it very helpful. It was easier to plan with this UbD template after having created the 3 Column Table because many of my learning goals were already identified. The UbD design template helped me to flesh out the details for the entire course/unit on Career Research.
This course on Creating Significant Learning Environments gave me the opportunity apply a growth mindset when it comes to designing learning experiences. It allowed me to dig deep to discover my very own learning philosophy and support those with other learning theories-which I knew little but not a lot. Most of all it helped me to realize the need to consistently encourage learning (be it formal or informal) and growing in our ever-changing field of education so that we can prepare our students to not only succeed on standardized tests but also in life. It's also a reminder to me of a very important word when it comes to learning, mastery, and change- Yet. We must keep learning and growing even when we are not there yet!

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understanding blended learning by design

9/17/2016

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Image credit: http://www.indiancreekschool.org/creek-news/all-school/2014/11/new-blended-learning-opportunities-motivated-students

really enjoyed the lesson planning process with both Finks 3 Column Table and the UbD Template! I found that there were advantages to actually using both for me. The Finks 3 Column Table and other worksheets helped me to see the big picture in light of the learning goals. It also helped me to think of what kind of assessment activities would match the goal type (i.e. Foundational, Integration, etc.) This was great for someone like me who doesn't always see the details. It helped me to take steps to arrive at a more granular design like the Understanding by Design template (UbD).

When I began working on the UbD Template, it was much easier to flesh out the details having the 3 Column Table as a reference and guide. UbD helped me to be more specific and make sure I was aligning the learning goals with the states' standards for the course, the course standards even helped me with the verbiage for crafting the essential questions, understandings, and the knowledge and skills statements. I also appreciated how UbD helped me to see the value in the other kinds of evidence that still are an integral to every course: quizzes, tests, etc. After all, students do want to be measured I think it's just important that how they are measured is connected to meaningful, authentic tasks and activities. Listing the learning activities also helped me to sequence the activities in such a way that would help me place them in an order that would set students up for success. It also helped me identify which activities were going to be offered online and which would be a part of the instructional class time. By the time I was halfway through the learning activities, I found that it even stirred more excitement for facilitating this lesson that it made me want to get back into a classroom to use this design! I will be using part of this lesson for a project I will be doing with AVID students at my middle school. So that was also my motivation to be clear so when I'm ready to implement this lesson, I am one step ahead.

Ultimately, I wanted to test both of these models to see which would be the best model for teachers to use when designing units for their blended learning environments. As stated, I found that both helped me to get to where I could design a solid process that helped me feel confident with facilitating the lesson. So, I think I would like to present the teachers in the blended professional learning course with a blend of the two. I would like to create a 3 Column Table to outline the professional learning course. I will probably use the Significant Factors worksheets and Questions to Consider with the BHAG and the UbD template for them to design their blended learning courses for their learning environments.

Week 4 UBD R Wooten--Rachelle Wooten Docs.com

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To BHAG or Not To BHAG

9/10/2016

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As part of my teacher education preparation, I remember learning how to create and develop lesson plans. I actually enjoyed it as I saw it as an opportunity to be creative and to make learning fun! It wasn't until I articulated my learning philosophy and developed a
Big Hairy Audacious Goal for a course/lesson that I realized the real value in lesson planning (as we know it). First of all, if you haven't heard of the term "big hairy audacious goal" it comes from Jim Collins and James Porras' book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. BHAGs, as they are known for short, are both strategic enough in that they clearly help us visualize the goal, but they are also emotionally compelling in that they make us want to get up in the morning and go after it (no matter what!). They also help serve as a guide when we are designing learning activities and assessments.

If we want to create significant learning environments, it is most beneficial to craft a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. I created this short video as a way to share this concept with my school district's mission in mind.

I also wanted to try my own hand at creating a BHAG for a student learning goal. Since I am currently out of the classroom, I created this BHAG for the course I used to teach- Professional Communications. If you're wondering why I didn't come from the perspective of a facilitator of professional learning, here's why. I wanted to craft a sample blended learning lesson that I could share with teachers who participate in the blended professional learning course as part of the Blended Professional Learning Innovation Plan. The BHAG for the course/lesson I created states:
Learners will collaborate to develop and produce a digital product for their student body to help them understand the importance and impact of professional communication for any career they choose based on their exploration of the 16 career clusters.
As part of this activity I also created a table that identifies the learner goals, assessment activities, and learning activities. You can see the table below:

Situational Factors and Questions to Consider

3 Column Table R Wooten--Rachelle Wooten Docs.com

Of course, I didn't just create the learner goals, assessments, and learning activities from nothing! I used two other worksheets: Learning Environment and Situational Factors to Consider and Questions for Formulating Significant Learning Goals adapted from David Fink's Creating Significant Learning Environment's Guide. I look forward to collaborating with a teacher to bring this learning experience to life!

I think it is definitely worth it for facilitators of learning to craft Big Hairy Audacious Goals in order to create significant learning environments! They will inspire us, motivate us, and help make learning fun and relevant for our students today and in the future!

References:
Fink, L. Dee (2003) Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

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when it comes to learning, keep it r.e.a.l.

9/4/2016

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I've always been a curious one. Problem is growing up that was always seen as being nosy. I just wanted to know what was going on. Often times when my parents would give us directives, I'd wonder "why am I doing this?". But I couldn't answer that question because my parents had a "because I said so" paradigm that meant I was not free to challenge their ideas or to ask why?

Since I've become an adult, I've realized there is great value in being curious. I especially know this to be true in my role as an educator. Now this doesn't mean that it has kept me out of challenging situations. As I've learned that even as adult, not everyone is ok with me asking "why are we doing this?". Still, that's the same question that has motivated me to speak up and challenge the status quo when a process clearly is not working. Our convocation speaker put it this way, "When your horse dies, dismount." It sounds simple but it's so hard when broken systems have been the modus operandi. Asking the "why?" question has made me stand out among my colleagues as "the idea girl". Whenever they are looking for a creative, fresh idea they will come to me. That curious spirit, has driven me to participate in action research projects, share lessons learned with other educators at a variety of conferences and to persevere when it came to publishing my iBook, Mission 'Pod'sible: A Teacher's Guide to Podcasting.

Asking why has helped me to make sense out of the clutter of ideas that may flood my mind. It has also helped me to be comfortable in my own skin- weaknesses and all. For example, I will admit that I am not the most structured learner but I thrive in systems-oriented environments that still give me the freedom and flexibility to be creative and innovative within the scope of my role. See in that freedom to be creative and develop mastery, I have helped develop systems for mentoring new Digital Learning Specialists. I've played an instrumental role in creating new professional learning models in our district. And, I've been given the freedom to design and facilitate our first completely online summer professional learning course. The system alone is not the solution, I still need to know why. When I know why, I can determine for myself if I want to join that bandwagon or confidently stand alone. Believe me, I've definitely been on both sides. But in the end, the decisions I've made have always led me back to another why question: "why can't learning be more meaningful and fun?" This question led me to my learning philosophy.

I started developing this new philosophy several years ago, when I was still back in the classroom teaching Speech and Debate. One of our units of study was "Interview Skills". So I asked myself, "why not bring real people into our learning environment to conduct a mock interview with my students?" The students loved being able to sit with someone that wasn't me to answer potential job interview questions. The interviewers loved interacting and learning more about the students! It was a win-win and it was a real-world learning experience for them. Just by asking why or why not, it led to an annual event and some repeat interviewers!

Then I became a digital learning specialist! In this role, my learning philosophy evolved even more because I would apply for different educator certifications, join learning communities, and actively participate in Twitter chats! I realized there were other educators out there like me that valued: relevant, experiential, autonomous, learner-centered learning environments. We were educators on a mission. Educators with a purpose. After all, teaching was never really about us it was all about our learners. When I reflect upon my learning philosophy, it really encompasses four key characteristics. Watch the video below to hear an explanation of my learning philosophy as it relates to my Blended Professional Learning Innovation Plan.

References Heick, T. (2012, August 30). 9 Characteristics of 21st Century Learning. Retrieved from Teach Thought: http://teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/9-characteristics-of-21st-century-learning/
Mims, C. (2003). Authentic Learning: A Practical Introduction & Guide for Implementation. Meridian, 12.

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when it comes to creating significant learning environments we must ask, "Are we there yet?"

understanding blended learning by design

To BHAG or Not To BHAG

when it comes to learning, keep it r.e.a.l.

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