And the Super Power Is...

Day 16: If you could have one superpower to use in the classroom, what would it be and how would it help?



As I think think about the question: "What superpower would I like?" I find myself reflecting a lot on
Photo: flickr.com
the need to effectively differentiate in order to allow every student access to the material.  I have really come to see that more as I have been in Administration looking at the bigger picture, not just my classroom.  So I would like my super power to be the ability to consistently differentiate for each and every student with every lesson.  You know how there are times when you walk in and think "I totally have this!" and then it falls flat?  Or you are really good at differentiating for some learners, but not all?  Being able to completely overcome those challenges would allow such a dynamic learning environment.  My hope is that everyone would feel that they could achieve in my classroom.

Having a child myself who has learning differences, I have become very attuned to how teachers differentiate.  In addition, technology allows us so many options it almost seems criminal not to differentiate.  But I also know that "the best laid plans..." So if I could have the power to know that when I wanted to differentiate I could, and when I needed to come up with good alternatives if my original plan for differentiation wasn't working, I could.  While I learned to work hard at differentiating, I have to admit that there were still many lessons that would revert to more traditional lecture style than inquiry based or student-focused learning.  I'm a history teacher and one thing about us history teachers is that we have our "favorite" topics.  How can I turn those over to students?  What if they don't learn all the super-cool stuff that I can share with them if I just lecture?   That was and is hard to overcome at times.  But if I could fully let go of that sense of ownership and let the students learn in their own unique and sometimes "messy" ways, that would make me feel like a real super hero.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Popular posts from this blog

Pictures vs. Words

Image
This week's # EduBlogger Club prompt is all about pictures.  I love this prompt because I spend a lot of time finding images to match my posts. I find that the posts I personally enjoy reading are the ones that include good images.  I also know from lots of reading, attending conferences, time in classrooms, and leading PD, that images are much more powerful than words. So I have spent much of the past week noticing images and thinking about how I use images as well as how I can better use them in the future.  Image from one of our (previously NOT upgraded) classrooms I enjoy using images and have actively worked to improve my use of them over the last few years. For example, part of my job as an administrator is to justify projects to our Board.  We educators know that there is never enough money in the "pie" to go around so I take my job very seriously when it comes to lobbying for funds for our teachers. For some requests, images can definitely help strengthen th
Read more

Good (Digital) Citizenship

Image
This is part of the #EdublogsClub year-long challenge to blog every week.  This week's focus is on Digital Citizenship. Digital Citizenship is a favorite topic of mine. As a high school administrator, this is a topic that comes up in multiple ways every single year.  As this year gets ready to launch, I see this as a wonderful opportunity to take stock of what we currently do and set a few goals for the coming year. Opportunities to Teach Digital Citizenship Image Source At our school, our process for instilling good citizenship, digital or otherwise, is part of our DNA.  Several years ago when digital citizenship became a hot topic, we immediately turned to Common Sense Media's education page to augment a program we already had in place for instructing our students on plagiarism.  Over the last few years, we have worked to be sure all faculty know about Common Sense Media so that they can utilize the rich resources there as they build their own lessons that in
Read more

Student Feedback Dilemmas

Image
This post is part of the #EdublogsClub – a group of educators and edtech enthusiasts that blog around a common theme each week.  After a few weeks off, I wanted to jump back in but this week's topic-- student feedback-- has me struggling.  Feedback is so very important to all of us.  We all crave feedback because we want to know what resonated with people and where to improve.  Our students crave feedback because they need affirmation that they "did it right", whatever that means. And here is my struggle. I want our students to crave the learning process.  I want them to accept the challenge to always improve.  A "good job", or "wow! that's really interesting" is only part of the process. They should then continue from that point and be asking questions like: "What else can I do with this?" "Where can I go from here?" "What will my next step be?"  Instead, they are usually satisfied with the former and mov
Read more