Cassadie Ross

Use Bloom's taxonomy to ensure that higher level thinking verbs are included in your objectives.

Documenting your lesson plans saves time in the longrun, but should be done in a way that is easy to edit. Everytime you teach a lesson, you will find ways to improve it. Ideally, you are also collecting feedback from students on the learning experience. Over time, your lessons will evolve and improve. 

Striking the balance between routines and predictability and variety in instruction. This can be tricky, but is an essential part of successful lesson planning. Students should know what is expected of them when the enter the classroom, and they should have their interest piqued by the learning experiences they encounter. Successful teachers are able to craft lessons that accomplish this. 

Respectfully, I completely disagree with the suggestion that if an instructor writes a bad test, they can simply scold students for doing poorly and write a new test making it worth double the points of the original, poorly written test. Why tell students you are disappointed in them if YOU are the one who wrote a bad test? This is a terrible idea. Own your mistakes. Come clean with the students. They will respect you for it. 

Always have a Plan B, and always be ready to pivot as needed. I liked the suggestion to pause and study the room for 20 seconds, allowing yourself to get a read on the class and to view the learning activity at hand through the students' perspective. 

Asking students to build powerpoints (and teaching them best practices to do so) is another great way to engage students. 

I liked the suggestion about preparing guest speakers with focus questions to ensure that the learning experience aligns with your objectives. I have had students write the questions before, and I have even had them do the outreach and communication with guest speakers ahead of time. That has been a useful approach to student engagement. 

One of the most salient aspects of this module is the notion that education will never return to pre-pandemic methods of instruction. Students crave different learning experiences and the focus on technology must be harnessed as an asset, even in traditionally hands-on CTE classes. 

Creating engaging lessons for younger learners (Gen Z) requires teachers to really lean into their aspirations and the ways they process information. Teaching today, both online and in person, looks WAY different from the way we experienced high school, so teachers have a blank canvas to fill. The flipped classroom model is a great way to approach the challenge of engagement in remote instruction and the challenge of differentiation. 

I like the suggestion to begin online lessons with collaboration and inquiry rather than lecture. Lecture is the kiss of death in online instruction (and it's not that great for in-person teaching, either), so teachers should look for other methods to engage students in the content such as experiential learning. I am also thinking about the virtual and augmented realities as being ways to provide remote experiences that enhance the CTE classroom, rather than fill time or attempt to replicate in-person instruction.