It seems that I am in a continual redesign. Ideas come to mind about how to communicate something more clearly or do something more efficiently and I set to revising my lessons and lesson delivery. This usually happens immediately after a particular lesson is delivered or in anticipation of delivering an upcoming lesson. Since one of our goals as educators should be to model what it means to be a lifelong learner, I guess this is a commendable thing, although I find myself redoing things over and over which takes a considerable amount of time.

Although I did do a major redesign of my website interface as a result of this assignment, this blog post is not so much about what I have done during the week of unit seven, but what I have done since March 2020 when we were forced into remote learning. 

Being a technology teacher and not merely someone who teaches with technology, my learning spaces are mostly virtual. We do have a computer lab which is laid out in traditional rows with the projector screen at the front. I do teach with a wireless keyboard from the back of the room which allows me to simultaneously see what I am presenting to the whole class and whether individual students are on-task and/or not comprehending.

I value ease of use, everywhere access, and efficiency in my content delivery. For this reason, since last year, I have switched from content delivery based from our LMS Google Classroom to originating everything from a website on Google Sites that is intuitive, easy to use, available everywhere, and has links to everything that students need to succeed in class. 

They say that necessity is the mother of invention and it definitely was true in this case. At the time, I was teaching remotely because the schools were shut down and I needed a way for students to access the lessons asynchronously and have them available on-demand. And since I was delivering the lessons via email and Google Meet, I also needed a way for students to be able to easily get the content, practice the skills, and then return back to the lesson for another round without getting lost somewhere in the process.

The system that I created starts with the website (the Landing Page above). The students start there and all resources and assignments are linked from there. Each day, students start with the slide deck called “Today’s Lesson” (see image above ). Students have been trained since day one that this is where they go every day without question whether they are physically in class or whether they are at home for various reasons.

I am a very strong advocate of creating good habits in students that are centered around positive expectations. At the beginning of the class, students know that they have five minutes (see timer at top right) to complete the warm-up tasks. By this stage in the class, the students are also expected to manage their email inbox every school day on their own.

Students also know that they are expected to keep up with supplying answers to the Review Questions from the previous day so that they are prepared for quizzes and the eventual test. Early in the year, I hammer into the students that they are responsible for their own learning and that I am a guide in that process. It also helps that student agency, hard work, and self-management are institutional values and integral parts of the school culture.

I purposefully design the content slides to be as easy to understand as possible since I may have students out for weeks at a time and I need them to be able to learn on their own. I always try to include as many visuals and examples as possible.

As an unintended side-effect of this level of detail, now all of the students have anytime access to all of the lessons and can revisit them for refreshers whenever they choose.

Research has long stated the importance of giving students clear guidance as to the expectations of the class and how they can meet them. This gives the students a clear idea as to what levels of performance are to be the cultural norms of the class. Social learning happens when struggling students observe others meeting the expectations and then on their own or with the assistance of peers or the teacher, rise to meet the expectations themselves.

Communication skills, whether written or oral, are stressed early and often in the class. And once introduced, these skills are used over and over as tools to reinforce content. Students frequently are given opportunities to work in small groups and communicate their learnings to their peers.

Toyota has a core principle called kaizen by which they seek continual improvement as an organization. Successes are celebrated and pride in doing a good job is evident, but there is always the humbleness to ask if something can be done better. I fully embrace this concept and I believe that my system gets better with each iteration.