I’ve have been blessed with the opportunity to participate in some amazing professional development opportunities over the past week:

• I’ve participated in an Administrator Academy focused on school finance and special education…something I knew very little about!
• Engaged in a Twitter Chat hosted by @Think_Collab with questions focused around “A New Force of Adaptivity”…connected with some awesome educators from across the globe!
• Been working to complete an awesome Google Course by Kasey Bell…I  thought I was a Google guru, to my surprise I am learning SO MUCH and thoroughly enjoying this, it is actually feeling like an addiction as all I want to do is work on her course!
• Finally, I ended the week with the amazing Dr. Catlin Tucker as she presented an interactive workshop on “Using the 5Es Instructional Model to Create a Student-Centered Lesson in a Remote, Hybrid, and In-Person Setting K-5”

While all these experiences were amazing, my mind was blown and ideas were racing through my head the entire time I was online with Catlin. As with any learning, if we don’t apply, re-teach, or reflect on the new knowledge we acquire we will not retain the information.  I thought I would take this opportunity to share with you my learning from Catlin not only to fill your bucket with new information, but also to help me synthesize and reflect on my learning!  

Both Catlin and Kasey have reiterated to me this week the importance of starting with your learning goal THEN think about delivery, tech tools, etc..  Catlin did an amazing job breaking this down even further, after you have your learning target established think about whether you are designing an asynchronous or synchronous learning experience.  As Catlin shared with us the different types of learning experiences it was a huge Ah-Ha moment for me as it got me thinking about the type of learning experiences my daughter (who was a remote learner the past 2 weeks) was experiencing.  What type of learning experiences are you designing as a teacher? 

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These activities were amazing and got me thinking about ways we can continue to engage students in learning while providing student choice and variety to help meet their individual needs.

Catlin then took us on a DEEP dive into the 5Es (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, & Evaluate) all focused around inquiry! Below I have taken the time to organize my notes from this session to share with you! Note – all links come to you directly from https://catlintucker.com/2020/09/online-learning-thinking-routines/

• Engage
  • Purpose: Spark students interest, activate/assess prior knowledge
  • How: Start with an essential question
  • Activities: Open discussion, brain dump, drawing, KWL, See, Think, Wonder, Compass Points, hook with a book/image/quote
• Explore
  • Purpose: Challenge initial thoughts/ideas, develop research skills and compare information from multiple sources, think critically
  • How: Collaborate with peers, self-directed research, explore teacher created resources 
  • Activites: View asynchronous activities above :), Connect, Extend Challenge, interviews
• Explain
  • Purpose – Students are putting their learning and connections together in their own words
  • How: Students work collaboratively or independently to share their learning in small groups or whole group
  • Activites: Create videos, in-class discussion, chat feature 
• Elaborate (and extend)
  • Purpose – The priority is to have students make connections AND to take what they learned here and apply it to an actual task to transfer and apply their knew knowledge to a task or challenge
  • How: Provide students options or opportunities designed to help them apply their learning and make connections to other ideas/concepts
  • Activities: Choice boards, I Used to Think…Now I Think, Sketchnote, Concept Map 
• Evaluate
  • Purpose – Assess student learning AND gather feedback on the learning process/experience
  • How: Provide time for reflection and demonstration of learning
  • Activities: Quizzes, exit tickets, self-assessment, forms, learning logs

Please don’t think that this captures ALL the learning that I took away from Dr. Tucker last week, but rather my attempt to shrink down a captivating 3 hour presentation into immediate take-aways/resources that I could implement in my classroom (or yours) today!  

Please don’t worry if you missed out on Catlin’s presentation last week, we have her coming back to the Kane County Regional Office of Education on January 21st! 

Register today for just $50 to experience this dynamic presentation for yourself!