Danielson's Framework and Tech: Domain 2

Charlotte Danielson in her book Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching organizes effective teaching practices into four domains each with several sub-domains. I've added below some possible areas regarding teacher technology use as it impacts and improves teacher performance in each area. (See Framework for Teaching  - and Technology)

Domain 1:  Planning and Preparation

Domain 2:  The Classroom Environment

• Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport
• Establishing a Culture for Learning
• Managing Classroom Procedures
• Managing Student Behavior Organizing Physical Space

Technology-related competencies in this area.

1. Teacher interactions online follow the same guidelines as face-to-face interactions.
2. Teacher demonstrates an enthusiasm for educational technology and its uses. 
3. Teacher uses technology to provide a wider audience for student work which leads to higher levels of concern by students about their work's quality. Appropriate safety and privacy efforts are made.
4. Teacher helps student use technology in the revision process of their creative efforts.
5. Teacher uses technology to facilitate peer-editing of student work.
6. Teacher has rules and expectations for productive technology use in the classroom, including rules regarding the use of personally owned technology devices.
7. Teacher use the student information system efficiently, resulting in minimum use of class time in management tasks.
8. Teacher monitors student technology use and responds to misbehavior if it occurs.
9. Technology in the classroom is arranged for ease of monitoring and flexible use.

What's missing? What doesn't fit? 

Danielson's Framework and Tech: Domain 1

Charlotte Danielson in her book Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching organizes effective teaching practices into four domains each with several sub-domains. I've added below some possible areas regarding teacher technology use as it impacts and improves teacher performance in each area. (See Framework for Teaching  - and Technology)

Domain 1:  Planning and Preparation

• Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy
• Demonstrating Knowledge of Students
• Setting Instructional Outcomes
• Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources
• Designing Coherent Instruction Designing Student Assessments

Technology-related competencies in this area.

1. Teacher uses online resources, including professional social networking sites, to stay current on the latest research and best practices in his/her field.
2. Teacher is aware of the characteristics of "net generation" learners and their relationship with technology and its uses. Teacher uses this information in using technology in the classroom to design engaging activities.
3. The teacher determines the technology skill level of students, knows the expected competencies for productivity and research, and finds means of remediation of individual students when needed.
4. Teacher uses adaptive and adoptive technologies with special needs students. 
5. Teacher establishes appropriate goals for technology applications for students.
6. Teacher knows, accesses and uses digital resources provided by the state and district, including productivity tools, online teaching/reference materials, and textbook supplemental materials. Teacher uses other digital materials available online outside the district that support student learning.
7. Teacher designs learning activities that use the technology resources available.
8. Teacher uses online resources to provide instructional materials at differing levels and subjects to meet individual student abilities, needs and interests.
9. Student work assessment criteria includes qualitative indicators of effective technology production.

What's missing? What doesn't fit? I suspect these could be easily put into rubric form and made more individualized by district.

Can a big helping of passion improve learning?

When most people think of my home state of Iowa (if they think of it at all), passion is not usually the first word that comes to mind. Iowa is best known for its corn, hogs, soybeans, and even the Iowa Test of Basic skills. But passion? It was certainly frowned on when I was a little boy growing up on the Iowa prairie.

But then I was lucky enough to receive a complimentary copy of my Iowa friend Angela Maiers and co-author Amy Sanvold's new book, The Passion-Driven Classoom: A Framework for Teaching and Learning, Eye on Education, 2010. Maybe I need to re-think the Iowa-Passion connection.

Angela and Amy are (OK this one is obvious) passionate about passion in the classroom and how it is vital to closing the achievement gap. In this short, very readable and affectionately told book, the authors define passion, describe its impact, and outline a technique they call "clubhouse learning" - using individual passions to form club-like groups within one's classroom.

Research shows that most educators prefer compliance to passion in our kids despite teachers' protests to the contrary. At the same time there is growing recognition that today's students need to demonstrate creativity, innovation and flexibility - anti-compliance traits. A & A call this problem the "passion-gap" and offer three steps to closing it:

• Know and Show Your Passion
• Know and Show the Student's Passion
• Know and Show the World Passion

The real strength of this book lies in the very concrete and practical suggestions for putting the passion-driven classroom theory into practice. Lessons, activities and classroom management techniques move this book from the ivory tower into the real classroom. The authors, with long histories as classroom teachers, have obviously made their own passion work for them. They also describe ways technology can be used by both teachers and students to support passion-driven learning.

In my own workshops I often ask participants to reflect on when a teacher's enthusiasm for a topic has influenced them and few have any problem describing such a situation. Most of us would readily agree that we would not suggest a book, teach a subject, or use a technology that we ourselves don't love. And we've all known kids who will never be reached through the brain, only through the heart.

The Passion-Driven Classroom articulates and makes accessible strategies to harness these basic understandings. Get the book, read it and apply it. You can thank me later for the recommendation.