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.

BFTP: Growing old or growing up?

A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post February 13, 2006.

My strategies for creating change have themselves changed as I’ve gotten older.  I am, for good or ill, less likely to take issues head on. It doesn’t mean I’m not passionate about things, just that the passion has been tempered a bit. I think I’m learning to:

Play the hand you’re dealt. It doesn’t pay to waste a lot of energy bemoaning one’s fate, dwelling on what one doesn’t have. It makes more sense to spend one’s time figuring out how to leverage the assets available. Yeah, we could always use more computers, more bandwidth, a better book budget, and more personnel, (along with more time, more intelligence). And we should work for these things. But until Santa comes, a heck of a lot of fun can be had and good can be done in meeting challenges with the resources on hand. If you wait for the perfect conditions, you’ll spend your life waiting.

Dance with the one what brung you. Some people will never “get it” no matter what the “it” might be: the importance of libraries, the power of technology, the need for kids to have 21st century skills, whatever. These people might be your principal, your teachers or your parents. Passions have to be discovered; they can’t be transferred. But we still need to be working with the folks we pull into the parking lot with each morning, despite the fact that they don’t share all the same concerns we do. Increasingly, I am finding satisfaction in helping other people achieve their own vision rather than convincing them of the righteousness of my own. Think about it. Do schools exist to support libraries and technology or do we create good library and technology programs to support schools? I hope you didn’t have to think too hard answering that question.

Steer the camel in the direction it's already going. Yeah, I dislike standardized testing. I think this grim obsession with basic skills is hurting our kids. Technology is being implemented without enough consideration to the impact it will have on kids or society. The direction society has taken on many issues over the last few years is not one I would choose were I King of the World. But rather than simply being obstreperous or living in denial, I may as well figure out how, if I can’t turn, at least nudge this camel in a direction that’s better for kids. It’s why I advocate including information/tech skills as an assessed part of NCLB. It’s why I stay involved in technology and library issues in schools. I can control almost nothing, but I can influence almost everything.

Love and balance.  One of our principals is fond of quoting John Wooden, former head coach of UCLA´s basketball team who says love and balance are the two most important words in the English language. Nobody’s going to deny the power of love, but we underestimate the power of balance. Balance doesn’t get headlines like the extremes do. And yet attention to negotiating, creating win-wins, developing understanding, endorsing moderation, creating shared ownership, and building consensus – keeping one’s values and honoring the values of others seems at the heart of both love and balance. I’m working on it.

To travel fast, travel alone. To travel far, travel with others. This is an addition to the original list. I've been thinking a lot lately that, almost paradoxically, I could have made more progress in my district had I been less impatient for change. Working with others and building joint objectives, developing relationships built on trust and respect, and doing more listening to and caring about the concerns of others who also want the best for kids, all take time and patience. For me this is the toughest one as a I see, year after year, classes of students graduate who could have been better served by our schools had we had better libraries, better technology resources, and a greater variety of teaching practices.

So maybe my fire has burnt out. But remember, it’s easier to cook over the coals.