Apr 30, 2019
It’s time for another amazing guest! Carly Black is an eighth-grade language arts teacher in Ashland, Ohio. She and her teacher husband also have toddlers at home, so she’s well-versed in handling kids of various ages!
Carly is here to share some classroom struggles and some projects that she’s tried. We can all be guilty of finding cool, engaging projects and forgetting to make sure they align with our purposes, and that’s what Carly is struggling with.
Over the course of the episode, Carly and I work through coaching questions to help her discover something very interesting about her assessments, and possibilities for improvement going forward.
After Carly describes her struggle with the choice board part of her lesson, I’ll push her to figure out answers for herself. For example, she muses that it might have worked better to leave some choices blank so that kids (who might know about new technology) could figure out ideas of their own.
Don’t miss this conversation! Even if the specifics of Carly’s struggles don’t quite apply to you, the process we’ll go through is one you can apply to your own lessons to figure out how to make them even better.
In This Episode:
[00:28] - Kasey welcomes listeners back to the Shake Up Learning Show, and introduces today’s guest!
[02:16] - Before digging into the meat of the episode, Kasey gives a shoutout to Sarah Ackerman-Hale, who shared an amazing project with all of us in the Shake Up Learning Community on Facebook.
[04:26] - Today’s question comes from Sarah Fromhold, who wants to know how to integrate the dynamic learning framework within the parameters of the reading/writing and math workshop model.
[08:10] - Kasey explains how her on-air coaching episodes work.
[09:02] - We hear a bit about a typical day in Carly’s classroom, as well as why this year was particularly challenging.
[11:51] - Carly talks about the kind of technology and devices that she has available to her students in her classroom.
[14:46] - What’s going well in Carly’s classroom this year? And what tools does she use for her class blogs?
[18:11] - Carly tells listeners about a lesson that she wants help in revamping to reach all the students in her classroom.
[22:25] - Kasey responds to the points that Carly has been making.
[23:37] - On a scale of 1-10, how would Carly rank the choice-board part of the activity that she has been talking about? What would she have to change to move it closer to a 10?
[25:52] - Carly muses that maybe she should have left some choices blank to let the kids come up with ideas.
[27:47] - What would Carly’s students be doing differently if her project were a 10? How would she be able to measure the change in her students?
[29:32] - We learn about how Carly made her initial assessment at the beginning of the year, and what would have brought the assessment closer to a 10.
[32:02] - Did Carly’s original assessment align to the learning goals that she had for her students?
[34:44] - Now that Carly has explored the answers to Kasey’s questions, she talks about what her next steps would be in reshaping and redesigning this lesson.
[38:19] - Kasey responds to what Carly has been saying, and shares her appreciation for Carly’s willingness to participate in the conversation and exercises.
[41:37] - How can other teachers get in touch with Carly? She suggests visiting her site Teach Mom Repeat or visiting her on Twitter or on Instagram.
[44:19] - Carly shares her biggest piece of advice for teachers: talk to each other!
[44:51] - Kasey takes a moment to share her thoughts on the conversation with Carly.
[46:51] - Here’s the podcast question of the week: “How do you ensure that your assessment strategy is aligned to your end goal?” Post your answers in the Shake Up Learning Community on Facebook, or on your favorite social media platform with the #ShakeUpLearning hashtag.
[47:44] - Have you thought about getting Google Certified? Kasey can help! She helps educators get certified through her three online courses:
The Google Certified Educator Level 1 Academy
The Google Certified Educator Level 2 Academy
Become a Google Certified Trainer Online Course
If you’re interested in taking more than one of these courses, get a bundle to save big! Enrollment only opens twice a year, so sign up when it opens on May 21st or you’ll need to wait until November. If you’re ready to learn more, head to this link!
[50:12] - Thank you for tuning in! Kasey shares some final thoughts on her conversation, and invites listeners to subscribe and leave a review for the podcast (bonus points if you use the word “y’all” in your review!).
Links and Resources:
The Shake Up Learning Community on Facebook
Join the Shake Up Learning Book Study!
Shake Up Learning: Practical Ideas to Move Learning from Static to Dynamic by Kasey Bell
Teach Mom Repeat (Carly’s site)