Phase 2: The Big Idea
One goal of the Wipro program is to encourage teachers to see the world around them through the lens of their content focus. This new way of visualization leads to a more creative teaching environment that will transform the student learning experience. I work with prekindergarten through eighth grade teachers at my school on adding STEM elements to their lessons. My plan is to share many of the resources and strategies that I have acquired (and will acquire) through this program, so that teachers can incorporate these tools into their classrooms, enhancing teaching and learning.
The big ideas that I will focus on are: the design process simplified in this program as explore, create, share; using creativity to ensure the learning "sticks"; and providing opportunities to allow student mental practice by the application of content in new areas.
As a STEM school, the design process is a high priority. The simplified explore, create, share is a fantastic way to encourage more STEM implementation on a regular basis. Many of the daily activities in the program - world of wonder, this day in history, creating real world problems, illustrated summaries, and daily reflection and collaboration - are powerful tools to guide instruction in all disciplines. In addition, student creativity will come to the forefront through these allowing the teacher to provide more and greater opportunities for learning enrichment. I will provide support in these areas by modeling the explore, create, share model. This will scaffold their implementation into the classroom, and provide tangible products for the teachers to utilize.
Many teachers (and people for that matter) may not consider themselves as very creative. This program provided multiple strategies for the germination of creativity through improvisation, TPACK (Technology Pedagogy and Content Knowledge) and teacher collaboration, and utilizing arts or media. I plan to introduce several of the improvisation activities during the teacher in-service week before the students return. This will help set the tone throughout the school year of creativity being at the forefront. It is also an excellent segue into the importance of arts and media. Suggestions for arts and media usage, and referencing activities like the illustrated summary or meme creation will be used for reinforcement.
TPACK will also be introduced during this time along with useful technology tools. I want to encourage teachers to improve their craft by collaborating with their peers. I plan to highlight a teacher each week and share what is going on in his or her classroom. This will provide a safe forum for teachers to see the great work that their colleagues are doing, and equip them with additional tools and confidence to guide their instruction. In addition, I will produce a bi-monthly video to model a strategy, provide a tutorial on how to use an app or software program, or share great teaching ideas from fellow staff members to help metastasize our learning community.
Lastly, professional development will be conducted to trumpet the importance of providing opportunities for students to apply their learning. This will include types of assessment, strategies to develop more of an open-ended teaching approach, and ways that technology can be utilized for transformation. Deeper exploration in this area, and how problem based learning can be incorporated will be developed. This professional development will be conducted monthly focusing on one of the readings from the program or teacher input; but learning videos will be created bi-monthly around this topic, some created by the teachers. These and other helpful resources will be housed on my website in the STEM Learning Community section.
The specialized focus on these areas will help create an effective learning community for the teachers at my school.