SHOWCASE | inspirelilminds

I N S P I R A T I O N & T E C H N O L O G Y

You have found my showcase! This is a highlight reel sharing several of my key experiences as a teacher and as a student. The artifacts speak to the ways I aim to inspire the young minds within my classroom, as well as where I, myself, find inspiration both professionally and personally.

I gather inspiration for myself and my students in many ways...

through collaboration, exploration, blended learning, as well as making. The explanations that accompany each artifact serve as a summary of purpose. Please use the slide capability to browse through each experience. You will find additional media, videos, and explanation by clicking on the image of each artifact.

Wicked Problem Solving Project COLLABORATION: Wicked problems exist within many professions. These problems tend to unveil other problems in the pursuit of making meaning and moving toward possible solutions. In a collaborative setting, my team chose to: “Rethink what it means to teach, and reinvent everything about teaching.” We used the Danielson Group’s Framework for Teaching to aid in our exploration of what it means to teach. We published our findings to encourage others to reinvent teaching.	Collecting the Day's Thoughts COLLABORATION: Tweet! Feeds! Blog! Hashtag! Prior to my MAET studies I hesitated joining social media. However, I now recognize the importance of connecting with educators that hold similar interests, as well as educators that will push my thinking in new directions. Staying connected is also important as it keeps me knowledgeable of current issues and innovations. This Storify post is just one example of what I believe it means to pursue connected learning.	TEAMMAET3.5 Poster COLLABORATION: “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” – Ryunosuke Satoro How blessed I was to find myself a member of TEAMMAET 3.5! On the very first day we created our poster that is filled with DRIVE! My teammates made the summer cohort experience that much better; they stretched my ideas. A huge reason for my growth is our interactions and discussions around teaching and learning.
Assistive Technology Webinar COLLABORATION: “If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” – Ignacio Estrada It was a feeling of accomplishment to see this project through to fruition. TEAMMAET 3.5 arranged a webinar that provided insights, tips and ideas on technology to assist learning, especially through Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It was a not-to-miss discussion with leaders in the field of assistive technology and UDL.	Newton Re-Examined Video EXPLORATION: “Experience, the most deceptive of teachers, had to be met head on.” –Watson and Kopnicek in Teaching for Conceptual Change: Confronting Children’s Experience Plan, shoot and edit in a hurry! Our teams created videos in response to a few physics questions. We explored framing, lighting, and audio components of filming while simultaneously confronting our experiences with falling objects. It shed light on the importance of uncovering students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions.	Book Binding Learning Project EXPLORATION: My deep appreciation for literature has brought about an obvious focus. As Cicero so eloquently stated, “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” Books breathe beauty into our world. Stories stir up our emotions: bring us to tears, tickle us with laughter, even evoke a celebratory grin, and help us connect to our world in new ways. My learning goal is to single-handedly bind a book from scratch, which includes not only binding the book, but making the paper as well.
Columbus & Misconceptions Video EXPLORATION: “Nothing is more dangerous for a new truth than an old misconception.” – Goethe As a team, we identified a misconception that continues to resurface in learning–the role that Christopher Columbus played in history. Further research was conducted to locate background information about misconceptions related to the infamous explorer. Next, we conducted interviews to expose people’s understanding, analyzed, and finally, shared our findings. This video was compiled using iMovie.	A Website For the Misunderstood EXPLORATION: In order to provide context and organization for our exploration of Christopher Columbus and the existing misconceptions about him, our team created a Wix website. This was my first exploration of this website platform, and I am proud of how our collaborative efforts created a comprehensive look into our experience as researchers.	Flipped Math Class Website BLENDED LEARNING: The traditional math setting does not allow students to devote as much time to their learning when teacher instruction begins each period. By using the out-of-class-time for initial instruction, I have found increased motivation in students because of more supports (peers, teacher, online access, manipulatives) in the classroom when they are developing their understanding. This is the Weebly site I have been slowly building as a home base for lesson videos and resources.
Educreations in the Math Classroom BLENDED LEARNING: I believe students should have the opportunity to model and share their thinking. This requires students to identify their problem solving steps, and it allows them to reflect on their process. We found this past year that the Educreation videos also provided content for rich class discussions and allowed for peer feedback and constructive criticism.	Make! A Castle That Defends Itself MAKING: “Knowledge is a consequence of experience.” Jean Piaget I was fortunate to attend the 2015 Constructing Modern Knowledge Institute with Sylvia Martinez and Dr. Gary Stager. The entire experience celebrates the constructivist and constructionist theories. I collaborated, explored, and learned alongside a group of teachers intent on building a castle that was self-defending. "Hard Fun!" is the CMK motto! A motto I aim to breathe into my classroom.	Analysis Using a Stop-Motion Video MAKING: We read Dan Willingham’s book, Why Students Don’t Like School? and shared our learning with our peers. Our requirements were specific—cover 3 key ideas (from our selected chapters) as well as 3 classroom applications in under 3 minutes. As for the presentation method, the sky was the limit! It was interesting to see how each team interpreted the directions. 3x3x3 Presentation #1 – Focus: Willingham’s Chapter 4 “Why Is It So Hard for Students to Understand Abstract Ideas?”
A Story of Intelligence MAKING: This project is a continuation of our team's understanding of Dan Willingham’s book, Why Students Don’t Like School? 3x3x3 Presentation #2 – Focus: Willingham’s Chapter 8 “How Can I Help Slow Learners?”	I-Image MAKING: “People will stare. Make it worth their while.” – Harry Winston We played around with photography. Terms such as The Golden Mean, Rule of Thirds, symmetry, contrast and movement guided our exploration as our team set out to create an iImage slideshow journal. Our objective was to “dress up” content from our curriculum to make it fashionable, artistic, and ultimately interesting—to make content worth our students’ attention.