Student Led Goal Setting: When NISD Intentionality Makes Big Student Impact!

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Elevating Student Learning with Technology Integration Academy

Goodbye one-size-fits-all lesson! See ya to an old mindset of technology use automatically equaling a higher level learning experience! 

HELLO personalized, needs-based & interests-based, choice-filled, differentiated, self-paced instruction! Technology Integration Academy meets teachers, administrators, and librarians where they are with technology integration and provides tangible resources and intentional modeling to elevate experiences for their unique learners. 

"But I'm already using technology in my classroom. Can I be exempt?" One of the best parts of TIA is that it is structured to grow EVERY learner from their current experience as choice is embedded in every module to provide a meaningful and tailored PD. Rather than providing a skills-based checklist where everyone meets the same end-goal, in this growth-mindset course, there is no technology proficiency ceiling, so the sky is the limit with possibilities that meet individual comfort levels. 

A primary goal of TIA is to highlight that technology usage itself does not elevate the learning experience; rather, it focuses on what students are being asked to do with the technology. Listing ideas on a Google Doc might have it's place in the lesson cycle, but are there also opportunities to publish to a larger audience, digitally collaborate outside the walls of the classroom, choose a personalized path or product, or create using higher level thinking? Focusing on the cognitive demand of the task helps to shift the focus from "Does this lesson have an element of technology" to "How can I pick the right technology platform to meet the intended learning goal?" 

The course content is structured around digital learning platforms we support in Northwest ISD, such as Learning Management Systems by grade level and the suite of apps in Google Workspace, accompanied by high impact instructional practices, like collaboration, creation, critical thinking, choice, reflection, and goal setting which are modeled in the course design and supported by participation requirements.

Take a look at some examples to explore the original prompt for various modules paired with unique creations and perspectives that develop as a result of choice, ownership, and collaboration.

 

To solidify new learning and identify actions steps moving forward, participants have a variety reflection opportunities in final module. Here are a few takeaways from the Spring 2021 TIA Cohort:

• I have really liked exploring the different opportunities for choice and differentiation throughout this course. It has been nice to be able to pick according to my learning level and not have to be able to review things I have already learned. Another aspect I have enjoyed from this course is being able to be reflective and set goals on how I want to grow in the future. I want to try to incorporate more technology especially with goal setting and student choice. - Elementary Interventionist
• Opportunities for Choice and Differentiation - I've come to realize that technology can play a significant role in the efficiency of differentiation. Meaningful Technology Integration - Technology is more than just assigning a google doc for the students to complete and submit. It can be collaborative and used to help students connect and enhance their learning. -7th Grade Science Teacher
• I thought it was important to review SAMR and take a reflective look at the technology integration that I currently use in the classroom. I noticed that most technology I use is on the lower end of SAMR, so I've set a goal of looking at the technology use that allows for even more learning involvement for the students. My goals for moving forward also include being more productive with technology use in the classroom (like using the iPad to be more mobile and keep track of student progress), and for parent communication. -5th Grade ELA/SS Teacher
• I will say that there are SO many options when it comes to technology use in the classroom. I was amazed at how many choices we have as teachers that are made available to us. My biggest plan is to use the technology to engage my students with presentations. I also want to really start using the IPAD for Doceri so I can walk around my room more. - High School CTE Teacher

Ready to take your technology integration to the next level? 

Enroll in the Summer 2021 TIA cohort today! The course content is available June 1st - August 8th, 2021.

For more information, visit these Technology Proficiency FAQs.

At Northwest ISD, we believe technology enables us to extend our reach and become more effective, relevant, and connected educators. We strive to use technology as a tool that engages our students at high cognitive levels, and this course is designed to reflect that philosophy in every way. This is important because NISD educators are expected to design, implement, and assess learning experiences to engage students and prepare them to be competitive and successful in a global marketplace.

A Recipe for Success: "Stringing" A Rhythmic Pattern

Learn.

Act.

Reflect.

Goal Set.

Repeat.

Is nailing down this process a Science or an Art? I'd argue it’s an Art - Fine Arts to be exact. Students in Gary Keller and Sessalie Shapley’s Orchestra class at Byron Nelson High School have perfected this process on a continual, weekly basis to improve students' overall abilities. One might think that Technology doesn’t doesn't have a logical place in an instrumental-based class, but that's far from the truth as this Orchestra class is fully dependent on the technology used in preparation for and reflection of daily performance.

Each class is infused with technology from start to end. For example, students are tasked with the responsibility of tuning their own instrument at the start of class each day; they use readily available, free, phone-based tuning apps such as DaTuner and InsTurner to put the accountability on themselves rather than the teacher to ensure the instrument is in the right key. This process is critical to harmonizing as an Orchestra and developing a natural ear for the correct sounding notes.

To continue in the lesson design, classes often provide traditional opportunities such as learning new music and practicing as a full Orchestra. However, the power of technology is truly evident in the individual practice times. During these times, students participate in the general format as follows:

Recipe for Success:

1. Students create a video of themselves playing a specific song or section of a song determined by the instructor. During this time, students use a combination of their phone and their computer to have both the online metronome and video camera co-functioning. This video serves as a pre-assessment to create a base-line of performance and needs assessment for the week.
2. Self-critique that video to identify one specific goal to work towards throughout the week. This then becomes the targeted focus for all practice times throughout the week. Topics of suggested focus include intonation, bow placement, vibrato, dexterity confidence, or other of choice.
3. The student then creates an end of week video over the same content and again uses that as direct evidence to self-assess progress towards goals.
4. Upload and reflect upon these artifacts in Google Classroom. The Orchestra instructors then review each student's performance to provide individualized attention and feedback focused specifically on the students' performance and self-set goal.
5. Based on their self-assessment and teacher feedback, the student then goal-sets via a Google Doc for the following week to continually focus on targeted instruction and self-improvement.

Each of these weekly goal sheets provide evidence for the student to reflect up on their progress towards goals and make new objectives based on previous performance. Since the evidence gets uploaded to Google Classroom, students have a personal Google Folder within their own Google Drive which serves as a private portfolio that stores their yearly progress. Students then have the ability to select which pivotal pieces they would like to showcase within their published ePortfolio.

Assistant Orchestra Director, Sessalie Shapley, comments on the power of infusing technology into their classroom, "Google Classroom video recordings allow me to give feedback to every student based on what I see and hear in their recordings. It is a far more efficient use of time letting the recording and grading happen outside of class instead of one at a time, in class, while all of the other students are waiting;" furthermore, "The video recording assignment allows and even encourages students to record themselves multiple times in order to get their “best” recording" which is the ultimate goal: student-driven success fueled by continual practice in perfecting their art. Best of all, the power of technology has helped Mr. Keller and Ms. Shapley build connections beyond what would be traditionally capable with a large Orchestra on a time-restricted class period as Sessalie continues, "The goal sheets and comments have given me several opportunities to discover something about the student’s expectations and other musical talents, gifts and thoughts, which then allowed for deeper discussion about their playing and their musicianship."

As a natural final step, students reflect on their year in an open-ended format. The power of reflection, goal-setting, and improvement shine through in the following student final responses:

Student 1:

“I thought that the goals were a great way to stay conscious of our playing abilities - to constantly be reminded of our strengths and weaknesses so that we can improve on them over time. I also believe that the exercises we were given are great practice strategies for improving many aspects of musicianship like dexterity and intonation.  I think I have certainly seen evidence of our goals in action as the progressed. Some of the goals on the goal sheets did not always pertain to me, but still having to look at them on a regular basis caused me to think more upon how I can always channel my actions in class and practice towards furthering the goals and the overall quality of our orchestra.”

Student 2:

“This year I have heard and felt so much progress in my playing. This was the first year I took private lessons, and I think that was extremely beneficial by itself. But beyond that I have felt so much more confidence in my playing. This was the first year I made it through a solo contest without crying, and the first year I came out of an audition room feeling proud of myself. And confidence alone has made a world of difference in my playing. I have also noticed a lot of progress related to our goals and goal videos. I didn’t realize it in the beginning, but when we came back near the end of the year and redid the dexterity video, it was actually really cool to find how much easier it was for me to do and how much clearer I sounded than in the beginning of the year. It was also useful to see the goals and realize that it’s okay to experiment with the bow and with the left hand, and just that everyone is doing what they can to make beautiful music in the outcome. I have seen so much progress this year in my playing and how I feel about it and I hope to see even more in years to come.”

The presence of technology has empowered these students to find value in the daily struggle of learning, trying, and occasionally failing all while appreciating their own growth that would otherwise not be as apparent strictly as perceptions and memories.

This intentional goal-setting and reflection process meets the following Student ISTE Standards:

Empowered Learner: Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.

• 1a: Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.
• 1c: Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

This also exemplified the following TEA Music Level 1 TEKS in which the student is expected to develop processes for self-evaluation and select tools for personal artistic improvement (6c).

A Revelation about Resolutions

Watching a short TED talk on “Grit” by Angela Duckworth, a former consultant turned middle school math teacher, brought about thoughts of personal goal setting and perseverance, thoughts of new years resolutions, thoughts of never-ending attempts at self-improvement, thoughts lacking follow through, and thoughts of failure. It didn’t take long for those thoughts to bring on an overwhelming feeling of defeat with reminders of past inadequacies and ineptitude. As a new year begins, many will set personal and professional goals while trying to figure out how to keep from losing sight of those intentions and eventually abandoning them altogether. In that TED talk, Ms. Duckworth said one thing that began to turn lingering self-defeat into clarity and motivation: “…the ability to learn is not fixed...it can change with your effort…We have to be willing to fail, to be wrong, to start over again with lessons learned.” She very eloquently explained that the key to success and growth is not viewing failure as a permanent condition but as an opportunity for growth and forward progress.

Humans are conditioned to view failure in a very negative light and taught to take steps to avoid it at all cost. When failure is experienced, it is often seen as an endpoint in a journey instead of a brief detour or change in route. The question of how to change this mindset is one that is often neglected when working to facilitate skills for student success and, ultimately, life. However, when searching for solutions to this challenge, it becomes obvious that key elements for success must include clear and attainable goal setting and a frequent and effective self-reflection process.

Sticking with the traveling analogy, it stands to reason that experiential learning is a journey and beginning that journey without a clear destination in mind is futile and pointless. Even if the goal is to aimlessly explore and enjoy wherever life takes you, there is a destination, or goal, of some sort. While traveling, it is also good to keep in mind that when construction, a traffic problem, or an obstacle in a planned route arises, a detour can bring about many new and helpful experiences. The discovery of new places, the skill sets of flexibility and problem solving, and the knowledge of a better way of traveling for the future are all benefits to diverging from a planned path. Whatever it is that alters the planned route to a destination, the “failure” experienced in the pursuit of that original route is ultimately beneficial and one can only know this by reflecting on those experiences, understanding lessons learned, and setting a new course for success.

Eaton High School’s current resolution, or “problem of practice,” is to help students “demonstrate goal setting and reflection to foster critical thinking.” With this goal at the forefront of instruction, EHS provides prime examples of students utilizing digital resources for experiential learning, goal setting, and reflection. One of those examples can be seen in Jennifer Hamzy’s Psychology classes. Mrs. Hamzy uses Google Suite in two ways to provide EHS students with opportunities to reflect on content as well as course progress.

By copying a Google slide deck template, students receive detailed notes over chapter readings and lessons. In addition, these slide decks ask students to respond to reflection questions individually in their copy of the slide deck. They not only are able to increase understanding by making connections to complex psychology concepts but they can also go back to see their answers as they review information for course activities and assessments. Mrs. Hamzy’s students also receive a Google sheet that includes built-in fields and formulas for tracking assessment results and course progress.

This creates more student independence and allows students to see measured progress and areas of need or growth in one quick glance. By frequently documenting personal course data, students who find themselves in situations where they are facing an obstacle or failure, of sorts, can begin to see areas where they can alter their course and focus on a change in strategy for progress and growth, thus correcting previous failures and pushing forward.

While many students have the opportunity to learn practical lessons associated with experiential learning, some have thrived and begun to acquire the “grit” and perseverance necessary to push toward their goals. E-portfolios are an amazing tool for accomplishing this and for providing students with a platform for self-branding, goal setting, self-assessment, and reflection. One student who is an ideal example of utilizing digital resources for goal setting and reflection through experiential learning is Megan, a student in Kristal Holmes’ architecture course. Megan has set goals for herself related to professional architecture, design preparation, and future employment. She utilizes Google Sites to house her e-portfolio showcasing her collection of designs and floor plans as artifacts documenting her work and progress over the course of her studies.

Megan’s work with tiny house design is exemplary of how she documents her design experiences, reflects on them in her portfolio and makes new and improved designs that incorporate lessons she learns from previous architectural designs. Megan’s experiences in Mrs. Holmes’ course have also offered her the chance to develop skills and resources for her professional goals by participating in mock interviews and professional document preparation while constantly receiving feedback for improvement. All of these experiences with goal related tasks give Megan a chance to experience field specific work and tools that teach necessary skills and aid in driving her toward her destination.

Curtis Aguirre’s Spanish I students also utilize digital feedback and reflection tools as they practice using the Spanish language orally. These students use a web-based video tool called Recap where they are able to record themselves speaking Spanish and then receive video feedback concerning their recordings from their instructor and peers. Students can also record self-reflections regarding what they are working on and about their progress with course content. This feedback and reflective work are key to students seeing any challenges as areas needing focus rather than permanent set backs and failure.

Kathryn Watson’s French students are also frequently provided with opportunities to reflect on course assessments and grow through use of Poll Everywhere for informal personal and class reflection. Mrs. Watson uses this online survey tool for in-class reflections, discussions, and exit tickets assessing student feelings and understanding of course content. By allowing students to regularly utilize this tool for reflective tasks, they are being given the opportunity to think back on learning experiences and to contemplate how they dealt with previous assessments and challenges before attempting new ones.

With a true growth mindset at the forefront, anyone can find value in working through obstacles and reflecting on failure, which then facilitates independence, positive behavior changes, life-long learning, and permanent skill development. The learning process is incomplete without reflection. Rather than spending the new year resolving to learn knitting, overcome a personal fear, or lose weight, it would be beneficial to reflect on previously abandoned resolutions and begin to see failure as a temporary road block or detour pushing toward growth rather than a dead end. If we hope to see our students begin to drive themselves into the future, we must help them change views of failure and learn the “rules of the road” by discovering new perspectives and unearthing new routes along their journey to success.

The "E" in ePortfolio

When ePortfolios were introduced during the GT PLC last fall, Marcie Conrad (click on link to follow on Twitter) immediately saw the benefit it would have for her students.  Mrs. Conrad, GT Teacher at JCThompson Elementary, is a trailblazer when it comes to providing her students the most innovative and engaging learning environment.  When you observe her with her students their is a constant buzz of enthusiasm, excitement and energy.  Additionally, she constantly, through every opportunity, is coaching students with their personal choices, short term goals, long term plans and life-long passions.

When ePortfolios were launched on the secondary campuses and by choice at the elementary campuses, Mrs. Conrad saw this as the trifecta of learning. After some initial planning and consulting with her I.T. coach she was ready to launch. Like all great instruction, she introduced the “why” of portfolios.  It was not long before her students, who only see her a limited amount of time, were finding every reason to come down and work on their ePortfolios in her class. They eagerly worked on it at both home and at school.

Every aspect of the Google site involved student choice.  The students determined what work was “ePortfolio” worthy, understood that showcased work could go beyond the academic day, and reflected both on their own work and their peers’ work. Mrs. Conrad gently coaching and facilitating as they moved forward in the process.

Before too long they had ePortfolios they were not only proud of, but were becoming the talk of other GT teachers and educators taking the same journey.

Her enthusiasm, excitement and energy to facilitate the journey of ePortfolios was effective. Why? Because her students embraced the ePortfolios as their own and were equally enthusiastic, excited and energetic about the ePortfolio they had crafted and the products they had selected to showcase.

It was effective because in all parts it was reflective.  At every turn students were sharing their ideas and plans for their ePortfolios, then in the same motion would suddenly pause and ask themselves was their idea truly “ePortfolio worthy.”

How was this done?  It seems that the following quote best captures the practice in Mrs. Conrad’s class, “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”-James Levin

Through this experience students met challenges, learned to embed pictures, upload files, create tabs, create links, etc.  Most was done with students helping students, with support from Mrs. Conrad and the I.T. coach.  What resulted was excellence and a futuristic mindset.  Now when ePortfolios are discussed there is always a mention of how what presently is done will impact the future. All of it student-led.

Mrs. Conrad and the I.T. coach knew there was potential and possibility with ePortfolios.  What has been realized is far beyond what they even imagined.  When possibility is wrapped in enthusiasm, excitement, and energy there is no other option than to be effective. How ePortfolios was embraced and executed by the Students on their own drive and force was far more effective because Mrs. Conrad and the I.T. coach shared the vision, but let the students determine the path to excellence.