I was excited to work with this instructor, and on her project, because I have long wanted to help her push the engagement level and collaboration aspects of the classroom. I felt this was a key opportunity to show her the potential success and connections she could make by trying something different than what she had done the last 30 years of teaching.
The instructor’s typical lesson plan for these units consisted of daily lectures, note taking, worksheets, and standardized assessments. I knew a sit-down and analysis would be extremely important to make sure she understood my plans, but also so I would understand her expectations. Throughout the meeting I realized that a secondary benefit to the analysis was that I was able to ease her discomfort at giving up so much control.
With her entire career leaning towards a sage-on-the-stage method of teaching, she was apprehensive about placing the learning in the hands of the students. Her biggest concerns were, “what if the students don’t watch my videos? What if they fast-forward the whole thing? What if they just ask each other what happened?” We were able to plan accordingly and address how those concerns can be handled and avoided.
We paced the entire unit and walked through best-case and worst-case scenario. At the end, she felt confident that the students would rise to the occasion and take ownership of their learning. Our analysis gave me the information needed to make sure all of the instructor’s content was covered thoroughly, it allowed us to finalize a timeline, and to confirm the resources available for the unit.
SReed LTEC5210 