Extending My Professional Development

Created using MindMister. Click HERE for a closer look at my example of PBL approach.   Syllabus Concept Map. Click HERE for a closer look at my example.  I have always been a fan of Understanding By Design by Wiggins and McTighe. I found it to be a useful framework that I could easily apply to lesson planning that would improve my students learning. I found that it allowed me to navigate within the systems standardization framework, but allows me to tie in the big 3-questions, "How can I use this?", "Why must I use this?" and "When will I use this?" UbD allowed me to be creative as well as a level of autonomy for myself and my students. As I became more comfortable and confident with UbD, Universal Design for Learning seemed a natural progress.  As a student, I struggled with remembering or activating prior knowledge. However, I seemed to always remember the projects. Why? Because the projects allowed for my strengths as a learner. Projects all

  What makes a great pasta dish? The sauce! Every individual (family) has their own way (process) of making their famous sauce. Wether it's canned and doctored sauce or all fresh ingredients, everyone agrees- it's in the sauce! A good sauce fills gaps, blends ingredients, and binds. Like The Sauce, much of our Prior Knowledge and cultural nuances are nothing more than ingredients that come together to create learning experiences. Ingredients that are dictated by the language used to retrieve them, cultural and sub-cultural norms and personal experiences as well as high-context and low-context and trauma.  Prior Knowledge is not strictly canned or homemade sauce (an either/or) in on student's learning journey. I see the misconception of Prior Knowledge's 'either/or' application in education as well as culture misconceptions as opportunities to upgrade our thinking as educators. Asking key questions during the lesson planning process, like,"How can my student