Plan to action - a work in progress: Part 1

My overall goals and ideals:

To incorporate more student voice into their learning:

• More say in how they learn
• Type and form of projects (videos, electronic presentations etc)
• Type of work submitted (posters and presentations rather than just written questions etc)
• Type of work they do in class (variety of things – vocab, workbooks, own internet research, watching videos, making summary cards/posters/charts, experiments, exam questions, mini-lectures) depending on own understanding of topic and how much extra help they need
• Incorporation of vertical differentiation and personalised learning into these ideas/goals will be easy, in particular the last point.

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• More say in what they learn
• Harder to implement in NCEA classes, as the content is mostly from an external source, but I could still ask students for guidance as to what they would like to spend more or less time on, and whether they have interests in expanding their knowledge beyond the standards in certain areas. Ideally, they should be co-constructing their personal course with input from me, to maximize their potential in terms of how many internals and externals they should be sitting, and as to where their interests lie.
• Junior science classes – ideally they should be designing the units with me, giving a large amount of input as to where their interests are, and letting me weave those interests and passions into the context of the curriculum.

To incorporate more useful IT/technology into the classroom 

• In a way that it complements what they are already doing, rather than being something that replaces it.
• Edmodo?
• Pearl tree?
• Socrative?
• Using mobile learning (expanding use of videos and photos to interactive feedback?)
• Expand how students are already using their phones – recording experiments for example, and getting them to present their own findings back to class via class wiki or presentation?
• Utilise MPower more and simplify it, to make it easier for students to access (and choose to access) materials on a per lesson/per content basis.
• Is there a way of extending MPower so I am using it as the full potential to allow bi-directional (or multi-directional!) info transmission?
• Expand use of class wiki’s already set up, as a way for students to help each other out, rather than a one-way transmission of info.

More time to really explore their learning. 

• This would mean flexibility in the planning of units, and the ability to expand or contract aspects of the content where the students desired it. Obviously for NCEA classes, the content needs to be covered for both internal and external standards, but ideally in a flexible programme, students could choose which AS they would sit (within the parameters of sitting adequate credits for the course), and therefore perhaps have more time to give to deepening and extending their understanding, thereby increasing their achievement in the standards they do choose to enter.

More to come no doubt as I further explore my teaching practice!