"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."
John Quincy Adams
Welcome!Welcome to my personal webpage. My name is Gary Strickland. I teach high school physics and IPC in a small, rural Texas community. Prior to my high school assignment, I taught science to 8th graders for ten years. Our school is a 1-to-1 environment. All of our students in grades 4-12 have laptops. Needless to say, we are deeply immersed in technology.
Our technology provides opportunities that are not available to many educators. Technology makes it possible to differentiate instruction in ways that are not possible in a paper and whiteboard environment. Instructional delivery is exciting and comes in many forms. Technology harbors a hidden danger; there is a temptation to think that technology can teach. Technology is simply a tool - a very exciting and useful tool - but just a tool none the less. Students in a tech-rich environment still struggle to make sense of what they are being taught. For this reason, good pedagogy and best practices are as important as ever. |
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Outstanding student achievement begins with a quality curriculum. My school district here in Texas uses the CSCOPE curriculum. In my opinion it is a very solid curriculum, but with a few components that are missing. CSCOPE relies heavily on instructional strategies advocated by Dr. Robert Marzano. I will attempt to address the shortcomings in CSCOPE that I percieve following the curriculum design philosophies of Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins through Understanding by Design.
Understanding by Design is an approach to curriculum and lesson design. Within this framework, differentiated instruction can be addressed very effectively using technology. Technology allows the teacher to vary content, process, and product in a way that addresses the particular needs of students in the classroom. The model for differentiating instruction advocated on this website is derived from the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson. The last component of powerful instruction must include comprehension (literacy) strategies. New technologies provide exciting opportunities, but they do not eliminate the age old problems of helping students create understanding. The literacy and comprehension strategies follow the work of Susan Zimmerman and Cris Tovani.
If a teacher can effectively coordinate the trilogy of curriculum, differentiated instruction, and coaching comprehension, then magic can happen in the classroom. School can become a place where students and teachers are fulfilled and meaningful education is achieved.