Have you ever noticed that some students perform better in your class then others? Of course you have you would have to be practically dead not too. It is a fact that some students just about ace the pre-test for a course while others barely make it out of the single digits. As a teacher isn't your job to challenge all of your students the entire time that they are in my course, by providing differentiated instruction tailored to each student. Right know you are thinking to yourself "I can't possibly do teach to each student at one time, I am only one person." You are absolutely right, it would be nearly impossible to educate all your students at different rates, right. Maybe not. Think about it this way, looking back how many times have you taught the same lesson over and over? Can you imagine how many times the same lesson has been taught in your state in one year, or how about the entire country? Unfortunately you are the only one in your class and if your teaching the entire class by standing in front of them you have just wasted your time by teaching some students what they already knew the content and were speaking gibberish to those who were not ready to learn that particular lesson. We need to stop teaching our classes as if all the students are at the same level, it just wasting valuable educational seat time. We all know that it would take a massive overhaul of the traditional education system for this to change, and most likely wouldn't happen with all the educational and political red-tape. However you are the master of your classroom and do have the ability to take action to provide your students with the most you have to offer. After all isn't that why you became a teacher in the first place. So how can a teacher teach multiple lessons at the same time without running ragged? The integration of technology into the classroom allows for this to happen it just takes some initiative by the teacher. Think about how many times you have gone to the internet to find out how to do something or further education yourself. For example I was never taught how to build a website but was able to figure it out using the internet, mostly by watching YouTube videos that others have posted.
Over the past two years I have recorded my lessons mostly using screencast technology as I do not like seeing myself in my videos. I also use my cell phone camera to capture the hands on projects. My students watch the lesson when they reach that point in the course. This reduces the down time for the accelerated students and allows them to move ahead in the course without hounding me with questions. This also allows me to help the students who need and deserve help. I do ask that the students collaborate with each other in moving forward which is an important skill. So did I create all the lessons that I use in class, absolutely not. I just provided the platform that the student can easily follow. For the most part I use this site and I my classroom site. Both built using Weebly, but many teachers are using Schoology for managing this approach.
If you're thinking it is going to be a lot of work on your end to get this going your are absolutely right, and I understand your concern of spending so much time changing your teaching style. I will testify that spending the time to create the videos for my class and creating my class websites has been one of the best things I have done as an educator. I have experienced so many benefits from this approach it is sickening that I wasted years educating my students the traditional way. My students are performing better than ever before when looking at testing data, they are more alert and responsible for their own education, my accelerated students are doing activities that I never had time to teach before, classroom disruptions are at an all-time low, and getting students caught up with missed work do to absences is no longer an issue. There are many more benefits not listed but you get the point.
The downfall of this approach is that you must have the technology resources to pull it off. I am fortunate enough to have a computer lab built into my technology lab. Most school districts have been upping their game when it comes to increasing the amount of technology in their districts. The cost of devices capable of supporting this approach has decreased significantly over the last few years. Lower end tablets and Chromebooks seem to be the most popular for doing this. If you don't have the resources ask for them, as many districts acknowledge that using technology in the classroom does work and are looking for teacher willing to use it.
If you have any questions of comments please post below.
TechEd LLC
Over the past two years I have recorded my lessons mostly using screencast technology as I do not like seeing myself in my videos. I also use my cell phone camera to capture the hands on projects. My students watch the lesson when they reach that point in the course. This reduces the down time for the accelerated students and allows them to move ahead in the course without hounding me with questions. This also allows me to help the students who need and deserve help. I do ask that the students collaborate with each other in moving forward which is an important skill. So did I create all the lessons that I use in class, absolutely not. I just provided the platform that the student can easily follow. For the most part I use this site and I my classroom site. Both built using Weebly, but many teachers are using Schoology for managing this approach.
If you're thinking it is going to be a lot of work on your end to get this going your are absolutely right, and I understand your concern of spending so much time changing your teaching style. I will testify that spending the time to create the videos for my class and creating my class websites has been one of the best things I have done as an educator. I have experienced so many benefits from this approach it is sickening that I wasted years educating my students the traditional way. My students are performing better than ever before when looking at testing data, they are more alert and responsible for their own education, my accelerated students are doing activities that I never had time to teach before, classroom disruptions are at an all-time low, and getting students caught up with missed work do to absences is no longer an issue. There are many more benefits not listed but you get the point.
The downfall of this approach is that you must have the technology resources to pull it off. I am fortunate enough to have a computer lab built into my technology lab. Most school districts have been upping their game when it comes to increasing the amount of technology in their districts. The cost of devices capable of supporting this approach has decreased significantly over the last few years. Lower end tablets and Chromebooks seem to be the most popular for doing this. If you don't have the resources ask for them, as many districts acknowledge that using technology in the classroom does work and are looking for teacher willing to use it.
If you have any questions of comments please post below.
TechEd LLC
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