Teacher Designer

Blog 4:  Mind in Society Reading the book this past week wasn’t easy.  It helped to discuss it in class.  I still don’t feel that I have a solid understanding but, as I understand it right now, Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development is talking about that space in time when a person is ready or interested in moving ahead with learning.  “It is the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peer.”   Learners need to be at the right developmental stage.  When we’re ready, we use tools that we’ve acquired from the environment we’re in and gradually, using the tools we are given, begin to internalize the learning.  This internalization allows us to use what we’ve learned for problem solving, critical thinking and cognition.  In children, this happens through play....

Blog 3:  Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning, and the third design principle The Knowledge Principle Good learning designs recognize concepts as tools, situate those concepts in the context of their use reflecting authentic activity, conceptual tool, and culture, and analyze content for generalizable knowledge. As teacher designers we need to think: > In the context the students are in (whether it be math or music), what conceptual tools do students need? > In order to understand and use a concept, what do they need to know? > What authentic activity may be done for student to learn/reinforce their understanding? > Would these activity be authentic to the culture of that subject?  (Would a musician do this?  A mathematician?) > What knowledge can be generalized, to go beyond that specific situation? As a math teacher, I’m struggling with authentic activities.  In Algebra 1, we are pr...

The Sabertooth Curriculum and the Ends Principle: Blog 2 The Ends Principle:  Good learning designs prepare learners to meet community needs by linking living and learning to the PICKLE: Problem-solving, Information using, Community participation, Knowledgeable, Literate, and Ethical decision-making In the beginning of Sabertooth, we meet New Fist.  It was said that “he knew how to do things his community needed to have done, and he had the energy and will to go ahead and do them.”  By observing what his community needed, he developed a curriculum of study to make life better for his tribe.  He embraced learning to live and living to learn.  He reflected on the problems he saw in society and came up with a way to teach the basic skills that were needed.  Other community members saw how well the program worked, and they copied his ideas.  His process was developed for the good of the community as a whole. As time went on, the tribe got stuck in t...

Teacher Designer Teachers as Designers What did I learn? Designing is not planning.  Design requires reflecting on and coming up with an idea for teaching before actually creating a “plan of action”. What is the best way to go about this?  How can I best help my students to learn?  Design is about innovation.  Design allows for ideas that are outside the traditional methods, but don’t necessarily exclude them.  Thinking about choosing the right methods for learning.  Designing the idea.  What do I see happening? Teachers need to reflect while the teaching process is occurring.  Teachers must reflect after the lesson: What did I like?  What needs to change? ·          What does it mean and what supports that position?  It means that teaching from a prepared pacing guide isn’t the best way for students to learn. It means we, as teachers, need to stop and think, prior to begin...