Kirby+tackles+engagement


 * In Pursuit of a More Engaged Classroom**
 * L.Kirby**

It seems that I am truly the world's greatest teacher during the months of June, July, and August. Not only do I become full of fervor and rejuvenated ideals, but I also seem to think I am capable of quite a bit more than I ever achieve during the school year. Super Kirby (with a cape and all). I have visions of my 8th grade special ed population magically becoming enlightened and inspired by mathematics and motivated to interact appropriately and effectively to tackle multi-leveled problems and suddenly find it important NOT to lose their textbooks and pencils. Ahh, idealism. I find myself back in this mindset yet again but perhaps with a few more tools underneath my belt. This Manifesto paints a very vivid picture of the students entering our classrooms nowadays. We need to be able to reach students in a completely different way that we were reached when we sat in their same seats. The part that jumps out at me the most is their need to feel connected. We are expect students to leave their world of immediate connectivity, both with friends, entertainment, access to knowledge, and engage wholeheartedly in a classroom that has none of those features. (And I wonder why my students have no interest in the notes I am providing...)

My focus this coming school year is to make changes to the way I provide access to the curriculum through different instructional strategies. My interest is piqued about this flipped classroom idea. I very much subscribe to the idea of a classroom rooted in deep thought, creativity, and innovation. I feel I won't have to rush through those prized activities to cover more content if they are watching, listening, or reading content before they show up to class. This will provide more time for deeper level processing, formative assessments, differentiated groupings, parallel lessons/activities, interacting with the math practice standards... and hopefully you won't see my gums flapping for 45 minutes anymore. This strategy also speaks to the value of a constructivist attitude in the classroom; one I wasn't always able to achieve. And while this model will CLEARLY be less of me bopping around in front of the class, vying for their attention, the responsibility for learning is handed over to the students. Hopefully this will result in an increase in ownerwhip and an influx of pride in their work. The SAMR model, particularly this [|infographic], is a great guide for designing lessons. I appreciate the merging of Bloom's ideas as well as a list of activities to support them (with or without the support of technology).

My trusty co-teacher, Tracey Jensen, and I have collided brains on a few ideas we are going to integrate from the get-go next school year. We have dabbled in the integration of Nearpod and Knowmia to change the way we deliver instruction (either flipped or in a traditional day) as well as turned up the volume on a few old lessons. See below for our collaboration!

//#1 We found a few links to some Ted-Ed videos that we hope will further inspire us to flip the classroom. Below are a few 3-4 minute videos that we will use to review a few topics at the beginning of the year/pique their interest on a topic. // // Slaying the Math Dragon //

// Discovering Pi Using Pies //

//Here is a graphic organizer we intend to use to keep kids accountable to actually watching/listening to the video. //

//#2 [|Mathematical Practice Standards] - This is an example of using [|bighugelabs.com], where students apply their own language to the mathematical practice standards in a motivational poster form. //

//#3// #3 - [|Review Test Summative] //We also plan on loading our formative assessments onto Google Form this year. This will provide both us and the students with more immediate results (with the use of Flubaroo). We have increased access to laptops this coming school year. We uploaded our first unit Summative Assessment for you to take a look at. We intend on making more short forms, but didn't quite have the time today... //