Google Classroom – A differentiated experience

Today I am facilitating a f2f PD session around Google classroom and wanted to do a quick reflection before my next session.

Knowing we have users with different abilities, I decided to do a 1 question survey – to find out how comfortable our staff is with the tool.  Below is the results of this survey.

Results of Survey

 

 

 

 

 

I was surprised at how many staff had already adopted the tool.  I also recognized – that the Spray and pray – One size fits all PD session was not going to suffice to be adequate to all of our teachers’ needs.  And so, I decided to use Google Classroom (blended learning) and stations – to differentiate this experience for our teachers.

We also are going down the road of standards-based learning in our district.  Last year teachers determined their course ELO’s (Essential learner outcomes) based on standards. They also started creating scales (building on 1-4 model) to show the progression of learning those critical ELOs. For those of you who have adopted Marzano – you should be very familiar with this.

However, I wanted to also model this idea of progression, (a path to mastery) and create learning experiences to go along with it and differentiate the experience.  Having observed Daily 5 station work in the elementary school – I decided to create stations within my classroom for the day and test it out with adults.  Here is my concept idea.  Please feel free to comment or make suggestions to make this better.

I also wanted to try to create an experience where the learners also had access to personal TV screens (after my visit in Burnsville a few weeks ago)

2016-12-16-10-05-04How did it go?

My 1st session was a great learning experience and by the second session, I felt I was getting better at it.  The opportunity to use technology (like Google classroom or any other LMS) to blend this experience was invaluable.   Also, providing direct instruction to those who needed it (small groups vs large group) also helped.

I also wanted to do a 360 recording of this video so I could have some time to observe myself as well.  First 2 sessions did not work, Hopefully, I will get a recording soon – I will add it to this post if it works!

Stay Tuned!

One Comment
  1. Hi Jen,

    I applaud your effort to differentiate for staff. How do we convince teachers to differentiate if they themselves have not experienced the benefits? We tried this in Mankato using Moodle with some success when doing PD around the SAMR model. (Talk to Marti Sievek for more info.)

    Doug

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