My MACUL Experience

In anticipating this event, I thought that I would learn more about tools that I am already familiar with, and be introduced to new ways to use them in the classroom. This was true for a portion of my experience. I sat in on a presentation about providing constructive feedback, in which the presenter was talking about using Google drive. She informed viewers that there is a research tool on Google docs and slides that allows you to search for information and photos in a sidebar, and when you insert these photos or information, they are automatically cited at the bottom of the page. This would be useful for my middle school students, the majority of whom are unclear when they need to be citing information. 

However, during this event, I also encountered a number of new tools and practices that I would like to try to work with and perhaps implement. For instance, one presenter talked a little about Lanshark, which is a site that allows an administrator type to manage the screens of all students in the classroom. The administrator has the power to freeze the screens of students who are not working, as well as redirect them to where they should be. When students are working on computers in my classroom, there is often a great deal of off-task behavior (youtube, games, etc.) and I think that having something like Lanshark would deter much of this behavior. 

Although math is not my content area, I sat in on a presentation from a math teacher's perspective on how to incorporate differentiation in the math classroom. She talked about Menus, which are projects that students work on throughout the semester that have 3 layers. The 'C' layer asks students to perform the bulk of the cognitive work of learning how to perform a particular math skill. The 'B' layer asks students to apply that knowledge, and the 'A' layer asks students to create a project (film a video, build something, etc.). 

Additionally, each layer has several sections, and students must perform one task from each section to complete that layer. This presentation was about math, but I could just as easily see using Menus to teach literary concepts or as a reading guide. It was amazing to see some of the work her students were able to come up with, and I think that much of it was because they were able to choose the activities they were most interested in. One student created a stop-motion video, for which she said that she had to take over 700 screenshots and put them together. When students are motivated, they will produce amazing pieces of work. This work may not have been possible had the teacher assigned every student the same project, and certainly would not have been possible if she followed the notes-homework-test style of teaching math. 

Altogether I learned about a number of tools and practices that I had not come across, and am interested in researching and implementing when I have time. I also saw a number of presentations from impassioned individuals, who reminded us that all of this is really about students. It was really a great experience.