Monitor+Student+Learning

=**//Monitor Student Learning// Key Component #3:** The Master of Education candidate is responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.=

=Component Reflection=

Throughout my career I have tried to emulate the maxim: the best leaders lead through example. As such, I have spent much time collaborating with classroom teachers. This collaboration frequently includes time invested in all aspects of the instructional process: analysis, design, delivery, and evaluation. Collaborating with teachers, I have employed individual computer programs to extend the central concepts of the lessons. After introducing a topic and completing various activities (both tangible and digital), the teachers and I introduced a related computer program and encouraged the students to utilize the software. More importantly, the technology is employed as a tool, a valuable asset in the pursuit of instructional goals; but as a tool, the technology is not an end of and to itself. The central focus remains on instruction. One such example of this approach is the WebQuest format.

To this end, I employed the principles of WebQuest design to fashion a lesson on the characteristics of government. Although the original design involved PowerPoint, I have converted the presentation into a video and have posted the video on YouTube. This document is below:

media type="youtube" key="IaogZDKAgmc" height="411" width="536" align="center"

Effective technology utilization not only creates memorable and powerful instruction, I believe (and the research suggests) that it also positively impacts overall student success on standardized tests. And this focus on student performance touches on another aspect of my professional identity: the promotion of a concerted instructional design process (be it the ADDIE model or Backwards Design) and the corresponding orientation to lesson design and delivery and an emphasis on research-based instruction. In regards to student gains, I have witnessed firsthand the benefits of a consistent program of interdisciplinary integration. Through technology, we have been able to support the instruction of students with significantly different learning needs. Technology, such as digital media, graphic organizers, presentation software, etc., allows for the scaffolding of instruction to meet the needs of the very highest and the very lowest performing students. More importantly, these scaffolds promote positive habits of mind which will increase student performance on state-mandated testing.

Below are two lessons that I designed employing the "backwards design" approach:



Some of the advanced features of PowerPoint (especially the non-linear design coupled with action buttons and links) can make highly effective assessment tools to monitor student success. For example, the link below consists of a short presentation with hyperlinks to different slides. Such an arrangement makes a quick and effective assessment.



Another powerful tool to monitor student learning is through the use of online surveys. These tools provide real-time, concrete data to measure student success. Of all the online survey tools (such as Survey Monkey and Zoomerang) I have found Google Docs survey feature to be extremely powerful. For example, I have employed Google Surveys to measure the effectiveness of a course I designed for Dr. Heeter in Clarion University's Educ 540:

[]

Timely feedback and proactive assessment greatly improves the quality of instruction. Indeed, one of the most challenging aspects of teaching involves evaluating student work. One tool I find especially useful in evaluating student writing is the comment feature in MS Word 2007. I regularly employ this software in my teaching for UMBC, both for my undergraduates and graduates. The document below, for example, showcases one student's work on one particular essay form--the classification and division--as well as my use of the comment features in the application.