Starting Out With An LMS

It has been a great year using Schoology in my classroom. When I first started using Schoology it was a place for students to do worksheets or a laundry list of assignments to complete. I have come to the conclusion that there will be lists. There will be procedure I need the students to do. There will be specific activities and assessments I need them to do within the curriculum. I will be given district assigned activities and assessments I will need them to complete. Within that framework I can work on differentiating assignments. I can also provide them opportunities to complete the assignments as they need to and not on a specific day or at a specific time. This is what I am excited about.

I started with Spelling. I differentiated the lists for students. As I grade tests I set up individual sets of words for each student. The first set of lists I set up I have 18 different lists for 26 students. management was fun the first few times, but as students found their spelling videos, they watched and completed the assignments. Each student had their individual set of word patterns to learn. It is fantastic.

I have moved to building choices into units for students to complete on their own. The first unit was in science. I created 5 activities that would each student would complete at different times. My class still talks about it. We are starting our next big activity doing something similar to the last one. There will be activities for students to complete, but they will complete them at different times depending on where they are on a map. I love simulations. As I move through the year I see more and more opportunity for students to learn using the LMS.

Student Behavior

It's time to change my mindset, again. This time it has changed because Angie (co-teacher) and I decided at the beginning of the year to not have a discipline plan. We had just started putting our classroom together and started discussing procedures. We talked about different plans for discipline; colored cards, discipline slips, Class Dojo, rewards, parties, and other ideas. We decided to not have anything. We just decided to talk with students and share with them our expectations and explain the reasoning behind the rules and procedures.

It has turned out to be quite a year for us. We have not needed to send anyone to the office for any problems. We do have talking and students not wanting to complete assignments. We just don't discipline the students by pulling cards. What I have found is that with or without the reward, students will do what is asked of them because they want to. So I do what I can to give them motivation to complete their work. Not all students buy in in the beginning, but building a relationship with each student helps them see that what we are doing is helping them succeed. Most of the time it works.

The biggest lesson I have learned is that students will do what is needed without a discipline plan. These are a few things we have  done to help motivate our class;

• Build a relationship with each student
• Show respect for students ideas, thoughts, and actions
• Teach acceptable behaviors
• Set high expectations and review them often
• Give reasons for assignments and activities
• Explain with real-world examples
• Share all data with students and set goals from that data
• Less lecture, more student engagement
  • student to student
  • teacher to student
  • Use Big-8 strategies

This has been a change in mindset for me. I hope it can be a change for many others.