Congratulations on the completion of EDUC 522.  I will be reading your unit plans this week and posting grades.  I will let you know if you have earned less than full credit in order to give you the opportunity to improve your unit plan for EDUC 526 CAPSTONE.  Thank you for your time and dedication to this class.

You all did a great job!!  I was thrilled to get to know you!!  Please email me anytime during your program and even after if needed!!! Let me know when you complete the program so I can send you best wishes.

_You are finishing up your unit plans and sending them to me by Saturday.  I am so impressed with all your hard work so far.  I have enjoyed my one on one conversations with those of you who have asked for help, guidance and clarification.  Please know I am here to help whenever you need it.  Just text, call or email!!!

We are preparing our students for a unimaginable future.  Are we creating future adults who can work in diverse groups and express ideas??

Let me introduce you to another teaching strategy that I believe is necessary to prepare our students for their future.

Reaching consensus
Tim Bedley is an incredible teacher in Lake Elsinore.  He has some great teaching strategies and incredible videos and information.  Once of his teaching strategies is called “Reaching Consensus”.  We will read an article and look at some videos from his classroom.

Read Article http://www.timbedley.com/articles/article01.htm

Please be sure to watch a few videos concerning consensus as well as read the link at the bottom of the article named See a framework for the teaching strategy "reaching consensus."   

 
Reaching Consensus on a Reading Assignment(5:08)         If you have not already seen this video (third video down on the page, please watch.
In this powerful video, you will see a small group of 5th graders reaching consensus on some comprehension questions. Notice how they dig through the text to support their answers. They were never instructed to do this, but because of the learning activity "reaching consensus," they automatically skimmed the passage on their own. Two of these students are English language learners. 
The last half of the video is an interview with the students on the benefits of this teaching method. You'll love hearing these 5th graders insights.


I would also like to share a great video!!  Another teaching strategy to reach our young digital learners.  

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

Imagine a classroom where students listen to the lecture at home and come to school to practice their homework at school with the teacher.  The teacher helping students to put into practice what they have heard in the lecture with the teacher nearby to guide and encourage mastery.  The FLIPPED classroom.   Even the news is noticing. News Report

Please respond on the discussion board about the video THE FLIPPED CLASSROOM.

The last assignment is to complete a unit plan. 
The unit plan is due this week by Saturday, Jan. 21st

I would like to briefly share another theory of learning.
Daniel Pink has authored of a great book; A WHOLE NEW MIND Why Right Brainers Will Rule the World.  Daniel Pink writes business books and is a motivational speaker to encourage others to choose their career paths and their futures. We as educators are interested in his view of the future and what will be expected of our students in order to succeed.
Please watch the following video.  Our discussion board will have more specific questions this week in response to Dan Pink, Adundance, Asia and Automation . 

How does this relate to teaching elementary school? 
With so much attention focused on THE TEST, it is easy to lose site of our true focus.  We are preparing our young students for a successful future.  Our students need to learn to become brilliant adults who invent and create and move our culture into a new generation.  So what is that future we are preparing them for? Watch Did You Know

The first video is Daniel Pink sharing some of this thoughts on what our world is becoming and what we and our students need to be to be successful.
The second video is Daniel Pink discussing how this applies to education.  Daniel Pink: Texas senate hearing on education. (You can fast forward to 1:51)

I strongly recommend adding the book, A WHOLE NEW MIND to your summer reading list.

RUBRICS

In our Bloom/Gardener grid, we came up with wonderful learning experiences to give our students.  We have gone beyond the paper and pencil worksheets to exploring the world around us, collaborating with peers and using our creative mind. 

Now…. What if I told you had to grade each and every student on each and every idea and project in the grid?
For example.. How would you grade the following assignments? What is the difference between an assignment grade of a B or a C for each of these?

1.                  Create a photo collage about their assigned community helper.
2.                  Make a vodcast showing pictures of each type of element.
3.                  Hypothesize what kind of food you would want to eat if you were a butterfly.
4.                  Make up a chant to describe animals that fly.
5.                  Find a series of parabolas in nature
6.                  Create a human fact and opinion chain about farm animals.
7.                  Tell which element you are most interested in and why.

 
Your textbook information on rubrics can be found here.  Please read the five page article.


Our next assignment is to create a rubric for one of the assignments in your Bloom/Gardner Grid.  It may a rubric for the lesson plan you just completed.  It may be a rubric for any other assignment in your Grid.  You may use any rubric generator to create your rubric, although I suggest Rubistar (Please note, the link is for the FREE Rubistar website for teachers) The easiest way to use Rubistar once a rubric has been created is to cut and paste the rubric into a word document.  You can save it to your computer for later use as well as emailing to me.  - Your rubric is due Saturday.
Please post it on your website/blog as well as emailing it to me.  Please label it "RubricYour NameFall2".

Here is a rubric tutorial you may watch if you feel you need more information. This video also has a part one and three, if you are interested.

I will be using Aunt Olive’s rubric on rubrics to grade your assignment.

We are nearing the end of class.  Our last assignment is a Unit Plan.   Below is the template and a sample.   You have already brainstormed over 35 ideas (Bloom/Gardner Grid) and completed a lesson plan as well as this week's assessment rubric on one curricular area.  Let's use all of this information to create the Unit plan.  Hopefully, you have or will have additional projects to this unit plan from your other classes.  Feel free to include these other projects in your unit plan.  Your unit plan should included EVERYTHING.... links, documents, PowerPoints, vodcasts.  Your plan should be so clearly written that any teacher or substitute teacher could pick it up and use it next week in their class.  This unit plan will be an incredible jump start to your CAPSTONE.  Your capstone is MANY, MANY, MANY things but it is usually based around a curricular unit. (Your unit plan!!)


Rubric due: Saturday, January 14
Daniel Pink Discussion board due by Saturday, January 14
Unit Plan due Saturday, January 21 (Last day of this course)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
I hope your Christmas was blessed and relaxing.

We have three weeks left to our class.  We have learned and applied Multiple Intelligences and Bloom's Taxonomy.  We will continue to apply these strategies to our last few assignments.  We will need to create a lesson plan (due Jan 7), a rubric (due Jan 14) and a unit plan (due Jan 21). As we continue to work on these important assignments which will be used in our CAPSTONE, I would also like to explore some brain research on how learning occurs.

I have a guest speaker this week.  Edutopia has created a webinar by Judy Willis.  She does a great job explaining what happens in our students' brains.  She also has the wisdom of an experienced teacher.  It is a long lecture but the only information I am sharing this week.

Our next assignment is to choose one of those ideas on our grid and create a lesson plan.  It is your choice, if you choose an idea that is most likely to be used and successful in your classroom today, OR you may choose the idea that you wished you could do!!  Imagine laptops for everyone and unlimited time restraints.  Sometimes these crazy (if I could do anything ideas) lead to practical possibilities once thought completely through.  If you have a classroom, you may be more likely to choose practical. If you do not have a classroom, you may wish to dream big.
Use the one idea from the grid that you choose and complete a lesson plan using the template provided. At least 2 multiple intelligences should be covered as well as a technology component.
The template provided has a blank for "STANDARDS".  I would like both the California State Standards and the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Students. (NETS.S).  The NETS.S can be read online. Please read the NETS.S and add the appropriate ones to match your lesson plan.  (PLEASE NOTE: the sample included may not have NETS.S.  Your lesson plan needs NETS.S) It should be saved as "Lesson plan Your Name Lesson name" When complete, it gets email to me ([email protected] ).  It also should be posted on your website/blog.