Lindsay Achtman
Teacher. Leader. Lifelong Learner
Showcase
In my classroom, I want my students to become endowed with the skills needed to succeed in a 21st Century working world. This includes being able to collaborate, communicate, problem solve, think critically and creatively, and come up with innovative solutions. But I believe this goal can become a shared vision with fellow colleagues on a building or district level. In order to make this vision a reality, I constantly search for opportunities to explore leadership roles and qualities, how technology can aide in this learning, and exploring how new initiatives can extend student learning to new heights. I have divided up my work into four categories: Leadership, Understanding Learning, Teaching with Technology, and New Initiatives.
Leadership
Professional Development
Networking
One of the most overlooked important parts of teaching is giving consistent and constructive feedback to our peers and to our students. We must also teach our students how to give strong peer to peer feedback. In order to teach fellow educators about how to utilize this type of feedback in their classrooms while incorporating the components of TPACK (Technology Pedagogy Content Knowledge), I worked with my colleagues to design a Professional Development. This Professional Development is geared towards all grade level teachers and lasts for one morning session.
A key component of learning as a students and as a leader is WHO you go to and WHERE you go to for information. The internet is a prominent resource for staying connected to other expert and novice learners. As a teacher and future technology leader, I have spent a lot of time growing my Personal Learning Network. I also understand that my network is never complete and everyday is a new opportunity to learn something new. Below is a Popplet Model of my current Personal Learning Network (click picture to see larger image).
Teaching with Technology
Lesson Planning
TPACK (Technology, Pedagogy, Content Knowledge)
Maker Education
When writing a lesson plan designed for the 21st Century, you must not only align to the Common Core State Standards, but also make a connection to the ISTE (Learning, Teaching, and Leading in the Digital Age) Standards. Below is an example of a reading lesson I wrote focusing on two ISTE Standards and the State Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.9: Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.
Maker Education describes students who engage in the creative production of artifacts and find physical and digital forums to share their products and processes with others (Halverson & Sheridan, 2014, pg. 2). There are many advantages of using technology to incorporate Maker Education as a part of our curriculum. I designed an infographic to visually explain these advantages (click photo to see a bigger version).
Technology was never designed with the purpose of being used to aid in instruction, yet teachers find ways to re-purpose it everyday. In my own classroom, I remember when I wanted to model how to complete an activity up close for students to see. That is easily done with an ELMO, Overhead, or even Smartboard but I only had my iPad and Apple T.V. I decided to place my iPad on a stack of books with the camera piece hanging over the edge. Next, I set my iPad to camera mode and set it up to mirror on my Apple T.V. When I placed work under the camera feature, my students were able to see it bigger on my television. I am sure Steve Jobs did not intend a camera feature on an iPad to be used in this way before but it worked for us! The below video demonstrates how putting together Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge can be done in repurposed ways as I attempt to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with an ice cream scooper (an item clearly not designed for this purpose).
New Initiatives
Maker Movement
Project Based Learning
Problem of Practice
The Maker Movement is a great way for students to explore their curiosity by creating new "inventions" out of used materials. These new materials are linked to the computer through the help of a Maker Kit, for example "Makey Makey". It is a trial and error process as creators play around with materials and coding to figure out what works and what doesn't. Creations can be presented at Maker Faires around the world. You can view the "Sequencing Counts Lesson" I put together to help students with their retells using my own Makey Makey Kit below.
Project Based Learning allows students to come up with solutions to a real life problem. Students collaborate with community members, peers, and technology to find answers to their inquiries and present their findings. I wrote a grant proposal for a project based learning project where students are tasked with creating the "House of the Future". They use iPad applications to come up with a geometric design solving the issue of having less space and a greater need to be more ecological. Click the link below to view my proposal.
A problem of practice that has come about when teachers are implementing technology is they are doing so in superficial ways. When we are just taking our current teaching strategies and digitizing it we are seeing no change in the higher order thinking skill areas needed to thrive in a 21st Century working world while the teacher is still doing most of the talking. As a technology leader, I would help teachers and administrators develop a solution by focusing on project-based learning, maker movement, and design thinking. To read more about how these new initiatives can solve this problem we are all facing, follow the link below.
