NVUSD's Forward Thinking This quote that resides on the NVUSD Technology landing page truly epitomizes the innovation that we as a district are aiming for: "The new mission of schools is to prepare students to work at jobs that do not yet exist, creating ideas and solutions for products and problems that have not yet been identified, using technologies that have not yet been invented." Linda Darling-Hammond, (2010). The flat world and education: How America’s commitment to equity will determine our future. NVUSD Mission Transforming lives by instilling 21st Century skills and inspiring lifelong learning in every student. NVUSD Priorities I love that we have a level of detail that truly addresses how we are going to prioritize our initiatives to focus on 3 simple goals: 1. Increase Rates of College and Career Readiness
NVUSD, My Personal Practice and Capstone Vision Given my current position as a District level TOSA, I have included the District Mission statement and priorities. I feel very strongly about these priorities, and appreciate as I mentioned above that they are very specific in what we are doing to obtain the larger goals that support the mission. I have underlined in the priorities above where technology, and in a larger extent 21 Century Skills, is specifically noted. It is very evident that these are built on foundations that focus on creating learners that can live and thrive in the 21st century. As these priorities have been refined I personally felt more and more compelled to learn how I could better understand these skills, how to teach them, and eventually measure them. This was a large impetus for why I chose the TU Masters in Innovative Learning program. It is providing me with a deeper dive into how TPACK can be effective in supporting the goals and priorities outlined above. The learning I have been able to bring to my daily work has been very powerful. I am in a unique situation where I am focused on supporting teachers with Professional Learning for ELA/ELD. With that I feel a daily responsibility to connect the dots and bring together all of the different initiatives and resources we have in our district. With my understanding of TPACK, SAMR and some the Instructional Design work of Clark and Dervin, I feel like I am better prepared to support in connecting these dots. As I think about 21st Century Skills and the 6 Cs, I go to how that fits into what I was describing above. I spent some time this year facilitating the Elementary Grading Summit, where all teachers at each grade-level developed rubrics for Collaboration and Critical Thinking. As we think about what a proficient collaborator and critical thinker looks like at each grade-level it gives us the opportunity to really think about what we are doing to teach these "soft skills". I learned a lot through this process, and look forward to working next year to round out the reaming 4 of the 6 Cs with rubrics to support teachers in not only how to teach these skills, but what they can do to measure them. Now, how does this support my Capstone vision? I began with my Driving Question being more focused on language acquisition, and how we could support struggling readers and language learners in better reading and understanding complex text. Through this program I have narrowed it, specifically researching how we could use technology and different realms of feedback for students. Beyond just the teacher, what are the tools we have that can support this? Where I am currently really supports all three of the priorities listed, and it feels good to connect my OWN dots and know that I am heading in the right direction.
6 Comments
I appreciated spending some time this week reviewing other capstones, specifically looking at who their audience was. Of the three we looked at Preview & Critique of 3 Capstone Projects, it make me think more thoughtfully about how I will include my audience on each page. I am currently in a more unique position, primarily supporting teachers in their learning. Daily I am asking myself the question, so what do I get out of this? What does this mean for my classroom practice, and how might I use this in my classroom tomorrow? Having these questions in the forefront of my daily work will help me as I craft this capstone site. I think you have to intentionally speak to your audience. My audience will be teachers, teacher leaders, and Academic Specialist. When working with a group of ELA/ELD Lead teachers this year I worked to support them in being able to share the information they learn in digestible chunks. If you have 10 minutes at a staff meeting or PLC, if you have 20 minutes with your PLC, or if you have a more dedicated professional learning time where you can share 30-45 minutes worth of content and processing. I would like to utilize this somewhere within my capstone page, likely it will live on the Learn More page. That is the MEAT of the capstone, and I want it to be clear, concise and easy to navigate for resources. As I think about the Learn More pages, I want to break it down to the following:
If there is one thing I have learned in the past few years in working with my audience, teachers, is that less is more and we need to make the most of our learning. We as teachers have such limited time, so when we encounter new knowledge it it is important that we provide small amounts of content, and ample amount of processing and application time. How might I build in processing and application time within my capstone site? I can't necessarily, however, I can use the resources and provide reflection questions and bread crumbs to what that looks like from an application standpoint. I came into this masters program with a tight vision of what I wanted to achieve. I have since been open to so many new learnings and experiences, and many of those have come from my fellow teachers in my cohort.
|