Professional Learning Plan

Looking back at my Personal Growth Plan from CEP 810, I can say that I am coming closer to my goal of “flipping” my classroom. While there is not a true definition of a flipped classroom, I want to create an environment where students are able to learn ideas at home and then come into the classroom and have a genuine discussion proving they understand the material. However, as much as I would like students to do this every night on their own, I know they would get burned out by checking the site every night. I would like to transform it in such a way that my online portion of the classroom becomes the support section to what is learned in the physical classroom.

I hope to continue improving the connection between my online and physical classroom by making sure there is a near seamless transition between them.  My goal is to have one course outlined with guided notes. I think that this is a very realistic goal for me to complete by the end of the summer. If I dedicate myself to a unit a week I will have the course set up by the end of the summer. I also want to make sure that I do include the benefits of using an online CMS. I want to include videos and screencasts, regardless of whether or not they are created by me or someone else. My main focus is that my CMS is utilized as an asynchronous learning environment.  This will give students the chance to review and catch up on material when they are absent or confused. In addition, I have realized that I am very capable of committing this time as long as I set that time aside.

The goal that I think I’m going to need the most help with is making sure that I’m not “using technology, for the sake of technology”. The purpose behind integrating the technology is for me to push my students to higher levels of thinking. My students do a good job of recall and remembering basic ideas and concepts. I want them to do a better job of making connections of those concepts and the real world implications of those concepts. This should follow along with Bloom's Taxonomy where students are pushed to compare, contrast, and analyze. I think that I will have the support and help from my fellow colleagues with this goal. They can peer review my site and add insight to ways that I can further improve upon my CMS. The whole thought process of trying to improve the connections of concepts will not only help students in my classroom but also in their other classes. There is the possibility of changing the culture of the class and I want to be to be a positive part of that.

WPP Part D

Formative: I was able to implement my project in part.  Due to snow days and ACT/MME prep, my plan of adding a second lab this week was scratched.  We had another snow day this Wednesday and that has been four days in the past weeks that we have had off.  I did get one simulation run during the time period and was hoping to get a second lesson in about gravitational force.  However, due to time limitations I will not be able to complete a second lesson during this course.  I am excited to see the results of a second attempt and try to implement some changes to see if that allows for better connection for students.
Summative: After the first introduction of online simulations with more focus on driving the connection between concept and application, my students were able to have a sustained conversation about momentum and different types of collisions and what would happen based on elasticity.  Based on the one time implementation I believe that it was a success and that students will benefit from further inclusion of online simulations.
Approach/Lessons Learned: Lessons learned for me were that much like lessons in the classroom, lessons that are based on the use of technology can need different levels of explanation as well.  There were students that needed very little in terms of direction and then others needed specific parts of the simulation explained.  At first I tried to let them struggle and explore on their own but due to time constraints I had to direct them towards the main concepts of the lesson.
Changes: Some changes that I would make to the inclusion of online simulations would be to have two sets of directions.  One set would be somewhat ‘bare bones’ and then I would provide a second set that goes further in depth.  They were also able to make the connection between momentum and kinetic energy.  
Conclusions: Just like a normal school year you can never prepare for the unexpected especially when it comes to Mother Nature in Michigan.  In addition to the weather, we were under pressure to review for the ACT/MME.  These are two completely different styles of science tests.  The ACT focuses on reading charts and graphs with little (17%) focus on comparing and contrasting hypotheses.  Then the MME pulls content from Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.  I think that the inclusion of online simulations along with questions that are more inquiry based has driven my students to a better understanding of material.  I plan to continue adding online simulations into every unit for the rest of the year.