Responding to Student Needs With Instructional Strategies

A number of established and best practices in education emulate the principles of inclusive education.  Educators today are better equipped to facilitate meaningful and inclusive education for students at risk.  However, a holistic and comprehensive school plan is an integral component of a school wide effort to provide all students with the education they are entitled to receive.  We must continue to enhance and expand the continuum of options available to our students.  Principles of this systematic plan include staff that is trained in successful instructional strategies, committed to teaching and progress, reflective on student performance, and responsive to the needs of all students.

In looking at instructional strategies, a comprehensive review of the lesson framework and the selection of strategies and practices contained is the first step. We can best meet the needs of our students by designing a classroom environment that provides opportunity for all. Do we design lessons that provide individuals the opportunity to connect prior learning, assess their understanding of content, collaborate with peers, ask questions and explore new learning?

When designing instruction to meet the varying needs of our students the instructional strategies we select are the first step to level the playing field. My colleague and I have designed an interactive pyramid of intervention to provide a toolbox for teachers. This toolbox aides in lesson design, instructional strategies and targeted interventions.  An exploration of the interactive Lesson Framework provides teachers with a toolbox of instructional strategies for each area of the framework.

Pyramid of Intervention

I have recently been involved in a initiative in Jefferson Township Schools to design and develop an interactive Pyramid of Intervention. The pyramid is used to supplement our district work on PLC's. The goal of the pyramid is to provide an interactive resource that teachers can access to uncover instructional strategies and specific interventions for students. It was designed by Eileen Daggett, Supervisor of Special Education K-12 and myself.

The pyramid has three tiers. Each tier has an acoompanying form that teachers will use to document their progress with individual students.  The requirement is that all teachers must utilize the resources in the pyramid and document the results of strategies and interventions. A student may not be referred to our I&RS committee without this documentation.

I utilized Google Sites to design the pyramid. You will notice that all of the content in the pyramid is interactive. The information is organized in an intuitive design. Teachers may located the information that they need with just a click. Tier one of the pyramid contains instructional strategies that should be used for all students and documented in lesson plans. Mrs. Daggett organized these strategies in a number of ways. Most notably you will see a Lesson Framework that has links to strategies for each component of  a lesson.  Tier 2 is designed for students who are not finding success in the classroom even with the strategies that are implemented. In Tier 2 you will find specific interventions that may be utilized for each student.

The pyramid of intervention is a very powerful tool for teachers. The availability of various publishing resources on the web as well as the access to the web that is ubiquitous makes such an initiative possible. We are very proud of this project. It is still a work in progress. We will be adding content frequently.
If you have any comments about this project or would like to share some resources please leave us a comment.

Are we teachers?

Today during our professional development sessions we introduced a new project that our Supervisor of Special Education, Director of Curriculum & Instruction and I have been working on called "The Pyramid of Intervention" The pyramid is an interactive resource for all teachers K-12. It provides faculty with resources, instructional strategies and interventions that can be used to assist students in your classroom. It is designed to be the first steps before the I&RS process.

The pyramid is divided into 3 tiers. Tier one contains strategies and resources that can be used for all students in your classroom. As you move up the tiers you are narrowing your focus to those students who are "outliers" in your classroom. These are the students who are not responding to your varied modes of instruction. They require more targeted resources. Our tier 2 provides a large inventory of targeted strategies for these students. Each tier of the pyramid has a corresponding form.  The form is used to track your progress with each student that you move through the pyramid. It is a great tool for documenting what steps you have taken to assist those students.  The last step of the  pyramid is a referral for I&RS.

It is our hope that by requiring the implementation of the pyramid before the I&RS process we will be able reduce the number of I&RS referrals. We strive to be able to provide teachers with a very intuitive resource to go to in order to find the strategies and interventions that are necessary for their students. By documenting these steps in the forms, our faculty will be able to go to an I&RS meeting with documentation of what was tried, what worked and what has not worked.

I am very excited to provide this powerful resource to our faculty. Now that the presentations are over I have had time to reflect on what we have done.  I am reflecting on my own classroom experiences as a middle school and elementary school teacher. I only wish I had access to such a resource then. Working on the pyramid of intervention has focused my thoughts on instruction and differentiation. How important is it to treat every student and an individualized learner? How can we address the various levels, interests, and learning styles in our classrooms?

I ask the question, "Are we teachers?"  I say no. Teachers are individuals who Teach. The traditional definition is someone who teaches or instructs.  The model of, " I teach and you as a student choose to learn or not", does not properly represent what we are charged to do at the K-12 level. It more fully defines a college educator.  In a college students pay tuition. Professors teach content and it is up the the college student to decide if they will learn and apply what they have learned. It is not the responsibility of the  professor to ensure that all students are learning.  It is an entirely different story in K-12 education. I think a good name for us is "Student Learning Consultant". As I see it, our job is not to teach. Our job is to ensure that students learn. If a student is not learning it is our responsibility to identify the reason why and provide the interventions necessary to change the behavior.

Our pyramid of intervention, Universal Design for Learning tools, online pd courses and blogs that were introduced today are tools to  assist us in our challenge to ensure student learning. I look forward to helping you vet these resources.

Enjoy!

PD Workshop- Digital Stories Using MS Photostory 3

I will be offering a course on Digital Storytelling using MS Photostory 3 on September 20, 2010 at White Rock School. This course will introduce digital storytelling. We will explore the process of creating and managing a digital story project. Participants will create a short digital story using MS Photostory 3.

•  Topics

1. What is digital storytelling? How can it be used?


2. What are the steps involved in planning a project?


3. How to find and organize images?


4. Creating your story using MS Photostory 3


5. Publishing Options for your story.

When:  Monday, September 20, 2010

Time: 3:30 to 5:00

Location: White Rock School Computer Lab

Professional Development Hours: 1.5

This workshop is open for all educators grades K - 5. Project examples will be provided for all grade levels. Digital Storytelling provides an authentic experience for students to publish their work for an audience. The focus on writing, organization, and delivery of content has proven to develop high order thinking skills. Come and explore this effective Web 2.0 tool and start infusing multimedia creation into your classroom.

You can register for this course by filling out the below form.

50 Excellent Open Courses on Teaching With Technology

The information below is taken from a recent posting on www.onlinecollegesanduniversities.com.
It is a listing of 50 free online courses that are offered on a wide variety of instructional technology topics. The courses are free, self-directed, and accessible over the internet.  Rather then listing a few examples in this posting I decided to paste all of the links below.



Using technology and creating unique learning environments are two big dreams that all types of teachers have, from elementary educators to distance education teachers to college professors. If you're already used to taking classes from an online college but are curious about creating your own open resources, or if you are studying to be a teacher in today's tech-fueled economy, check out these 50 free courses on teaching with technology.

Technology and Learning

Find out why technology is such a draw for educators and how we learn from non-human tools.

1. Blogs, Wikis, New Media for Learning: This course will show you how blogs and other new media are optimal teaching tools. [Utah State]


2. Computer Games and Simulations for Investigation and Education: This class will teach you how we learn from computer games and interactive technologies. [MIT]


3. Instructional Gaming: Learn how to use instructional gaming to reach out to students. [Utah State]


4. Creativity, community and ICT: Discover how online learning and technology fuel creativity and collaboration. [The Open University]


5. Intro to Instructional Design: If you're curious about how humans interact with and learn from non-human tools, take this course. [Utah State]


6. Videogame Theory and Analysis: Find out how videogames are legitimate teaching tools. [MIT]


7. The Impact of Open Source Software on Education: Learn how different countries are using open source for college education and beyond. [Connexions]


8. The review of the development of eLearning: Get a 10-year history of eLearning here. [Connexions]


9. Principles and Practices of Technology: Designed for teachers, this course will teach you about the application of technology for learning and principles of instructional technology. [Utah State]


10. Cultural History of Technology: Consider how technology has shaped our culture and is now a tool for learning, communication and more. [MIT]


11. Artificial Intelligence: Discover how tools can actively teach us, even non-human ones. [MIT]


12. Technological Tools for School Reform: Consider how innovation and modern technology contribute to the school reform debate. [MIT]

Online Education and Distance Learning

If you want to create online learning environments and manage a distance ed course, look here.

1. Creating Open Educational Resource: Learn how to write learning units that enhance self-directed learning. [The Open University]


2. Producing Distance Education Resources: You'll use Dreamweaver and FTP in this course as you learn how to develop open and online learning spaces and resources. [Utah State]


3. Collaborative Learning and the Open Educational Resource Movement: Get an overview of the popularity of open education resources. [Connexions]


4. Introduction to Open Education: Here you will review some of the main topics in open education like sustainability, licensing, creativity and more. [Utah State]


5. Accessibility of eLearning: Learn more about eLearning solutions for disabled students. [The Open University]


6. Facilitating online: This course will walk you through all the course models and lesson planning strategies you'll need as an online teacher. [Centre for Educational Technology]


7. Master Online Teacher Certification: Teachers interested in creating their own online courses get a lesson in interactivity and other key issues here. [Weber State University]


8. Online Instructor Training: This course features 10 areas of study to help you become an effective online teacher. [UC Irvine]


9. An Overview of Open Educational Resources: Find out how open educational resources can be beneficial to all class levels. [Connexions]


10. Understanding Online Interaction: Design better learning tools and environments after taking this class on online interaction. [Utah State]


11. Best practices in online teaching: Learn how to prepare for and manage an online course. [Connexions]


12. Managing your Distance Course: Discover ways to manage students learning from home. [Connexions]


13. Managing and Maintaining the Discussion Board for Distance Courses: Facilitate online discussions through discussion boards. [Connexions]


14. The "How Tos" of OER Commons: Practice creating open educational materials to add to the OER commons here. [Connexions]


15. Connecting People with Online Resources: This course will train you to become a better researcher and collector of quality online resources you can share with students. [Utah State]


16. Establishing Tone in the Distance Course: Get your point across so that your students really understand what you're teaching when you take this course. [Connexions]


17. Promising Practices in Online Teaching and Learning: This class can help distance ed teachers become capable designers of online courses. [Connexions]


18. Introduction to Copyright Law: Make sure you're correctly sourcing and citing any materials you reference when creating online courses. [MIT]


19. eCommunities: Study how we interact with each other via online communities, which can help you design better courses or get the most out of networking with other students and classrooms. [University of Michigan]

Younger Students

These open courses will help you work with technology in elementary classrooms.

1. Technologies for Creative Learning: Study games like the LEGO Programmable Brick and Computer Clubhouse center to get a lesson in innovation design and how children learn. [MIT]


2. Play, learning and the brain: This course explains how playtime and experimentation is important in young childhood education, and that sensory deprivation can really hurt brain development. Consider this when planning interactive lessons with computers and other technology. [The Open University]

Tech Tutorials

These courses will introduce you to the technology systems you will need to create blogs, websites and other media that can bring learning to a new level to your students, as well as safety and legal tips.

1. Living with the Internet: keeping it safe: Find out how to avoid viruses and hackers. [The Open University]


2. Information on the web: Become a master at using search engines so that you can quickly direct your students to quality materials. [The Open University]


3. Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier: Learn about privacy laws, the U.S. PATRIOT ACT, and more. [MIT]


4. Interactive Multimedia Production: Practice using Macromedia Flash so that you can create animations and graphics. [Utah State]


5. Computer Applications for Instruction and Training: If you use a Mac, then take this course to review some of the best apps like PowerPoint, iMovie and Photoshop that aid in lesson planning. [Utah State]


6. Video in Distance Education: This mini-course will teach you how to use video for an online course. [Connexions]


7. Designing the user interface: text, colour, images, moving images and sound: Here you'll learn how to design a user-friendly learning environment that includes great design and interactive media. [The Open University]


8. Open Web Mapping: Create maps for history or science lessons after taking this class. [Penn State]


9. Creating Interactive Multimedia: If you want to design interactive learning environments for your students, take this course. [USQ]


10. Learn and Apply HTML: Learn the basics of HTML to create websites. [Utah State]


11. User Interface Design and Implementation: Continue your education of creating good user-friendly websites and educational platforms. [MIT]


12. HTML Basics: This is another course designed to teach you about HTML tags and coding.

Secondary and Higher Education

College and high school teachers can take these courses to design innovative learning systems and resources for their savvy students.

1. Introduction to Open Educational Resources: Take this course if you're a college teacher wanting alternatives to textbooks. [Connexions]


2. Teaching using digital video in secondary schools: Take this course to discover new ways to use digital media and video in the classroom. [The Open University]


3. An Open Source Vision for Caribbean Higher Education: Find out how the higher education system in the Caribbean is opening up to open source. [Connexions]


4. Teaching College-Level Science: This course includes a lesson in using educational technology in your curriculum. [MIT]


5. OpeningScholarship: Here you'll learn about different ways technology can be used in higher education. [UCT]

Have you created a Personal Learning Network yet?

I publish a monthly newsletter for my school district. In my last issue before the summer break I discussed personal learning networks. I provided 5 options that teachers and administrators could look into in order to begin to develop their network.

Technology has allowed for 24/7 learning on-demand. I started building my personal learning network about 3 years ago. I have never been so excited about learning since it became so easy. I have access to thousands of individuals who share the same interests as i do. Many of these are professional contacts, but some are individuals with similar personal interests Ex: fly fishing, travel and the health/fitness. I check/communicate with my network many times throughout the day. I learn something new every time I do.

My network consists of the following:

A maintain a feed aggregator page. I use Igoogle and Google Reader. I subscribe to a number of blogs. Each time someone updates their blog postings i receive an update in my aggregator. I subscribe to blogs that focus on many topics. Primarily i subscribe to Educational Technology Blogs. I also subscribe to some that relate to my personal interests.  This has probably been the number 1 resource in my network.

I am a member of Twitter. Currently my network consists of about 300 followers. I network with individuals who work in educational technology. I also follow espn, cnn and some other organizations that I am interested in. I must admit that i do not spend a lot of time on Twitter. I find it hard to find the time to stay connected. I do not use mobile technologies to connect to it. However, every single time I do interact with my network i walk about with at least 3-5 new resources, ideas or thoughts. I sometimes use it to throw out questions. It has been a valuable resource for me.

I am a member a few social networks. Primarily I am a member of NING networks. The most notable is www.classroom20.com. This is a network for educators who utilize web2.0 tools and technology in general in their classrooms. Recently they have reached 25,000 members. I could go on an on about the value here but i will leave it at " you have to join".  I subscribe to updates in the forum in my feed aggregator.

I read a number of publications. Most of them I subscribe to in my feed reader. I can get a quick snapshot of the new articles. I can then decide which ones are of interest to me. It makes it very easy to stay on top of multiple publications without spending a lot of time. The best part is that it is free. A few that i read are eschool news, the journal, technology and learning and ASCD publications.

I maintain a social bookmarking account. I use www.delicious.com. This is a powerful tool. Social bookmarking sites allow you to save your favorite websites on a website. This means they are accessible from any computer with an internet connection. You add and access bookmarks easily by installing a couple of buttons on your internet browser toolbar. I have organized thousands of sites with tags (keywords that you apply to sites you bookmark). The real power of this service is the social aspect. You can search and share bookmarks with everyone that uses the service. I have networked with many individuals who share the same interests that i do. I am constantly reviewing their resources in addition to my own. It is such a time saver and a valuable tool.

Open courseware and video sharing are the newest addition to my network. www.academicearth.org, www.ted.com, itunesU,  ustream, and other open course providers are some of my favorites. i can watch short videos or take complete courses on topics that are of interest to me professionally and personally. I can even take part in live workshops. I am really starting to take advantage of these resources lately.

I encourage you to start to develop your own personal learning network. If you would like to read my newsletter that discusses RSS feeds and developing you "PLN" you can view it here. I invite you to add me to your networks and feeds as a start. I will share my contact info below.

twitter: walkerd
delicious: dwalker500
Classroom20: dwalker500
Skype: dwalker500
Gmail: dwalker500

Experimenting with Online Professional Development

I have spent the last year experimenting and promoting the use of Moodle in education. It is my belief that classroom managment software such as Moodle is a very valuable tool for educators to tap into.

In an effort to take the next step regarding the experimentation and implementation of Moodle among my faculty i have decided to use it as a Professional Development tool. We have started to create our first online professional development course using Moodle. I am hosting and managing this site under my private domain Edunology.com which hosts this blog.

It is my hope that by educators using the services of Moodle to complete a professional development course they will eventually see the power of the service. I hope that the learning by using approach is successful.

I would love to hear from anyone who is using this software in the same manner.