Here’s a quick post of what is happening. This entire week I tweaked the curriculum to allow for the students to have more choice in their project. I have also started to use some different technologies to allow for the information to be more accessible to the students. For instance, instead of a student straining to see the overhead, students can now view the same information on their computer screens alongside their work (the software I use is called Vision). This lends itself well to interactive presentations and modeling. Finally, I stepped up the rigor. I created Do-Now activities (bell work) that are more challenging and requires the students to use higher level thinking skills.
For the most part the students are becoming more and more engaged, winning over the naysayers. I had a few students come after school to work on their project, and one of these students was my biggest challenge. He wouldn’t do his work and he was constantly disrupting others. I spent a good amount of time with him, which helped build a relationship between us. His behavior has improved and currently only needs gentle reminders from time to time.
In part III I will post some data/evidence that things are in fact improving or not.
