ItsLearning - Week 2/3 "Classroom Chaos"

Yep, that's my classroom the past two weeks . . . there are students watching video notes, completing feedback assignments, working through practice assessments, taking final lesson assessments, collaboration amongst students, students asking teachers for intervention, students asking if they can move on to the next lesson/activity.

It all can be overwhelming at times, but for the most part I absolutely enjoy the experience.  I sent out a google form survey to some students to get their take on ItsLearning so far.

 

I  hope to share those insights in a future blog post.  I selected students who have done well all year to see if they like itslearning more/less than what we were doing first semester.

The one thing that I am finding is that my set up on Itslearning and my entire classroom set up is continually changing . . . hopefully for the better.  I have had some days where we have worked on "whole class" activities to focus on one particular area of weakness that seems to keep creeping up in a lesson.  This is something I am going to look at incorporating more into my weekly lessons - whole class activities that allow the stronger student to "review", the ones who get the gist for the most part to "gain confidence", and those who are struggling to "fill some gaps."

This video by @math_johnson is a great visual summary of what I think I need my classroom to become.  Take a moment and watch it:

Things I need to get better at:  video - right now they are very boring and to the point.  I am trying to keep them simple and stress to the students that it's not the video, but the work that they complete that helps them learn the material/topic.  But, I think I could put a little more pizzazz into the videos but that means a better screencast program and that means $$$$.  Maybe my school district will . . .

On to week 4 of itslearning!!