Organizing Chaos: Instructional Design for Middle School Teachers

While this blog aims to explain how to use instructional design to enhance your teaching, we will dive into the world of  Personal Learning Networks or PLNs.  A personal learning network is all the communities and platforms you use to explore your learning. There are so many networking sites available to educators, but today I am going to share my personal learning network for my hobby. When we teach students, we get so focused on teaching what the standards are, we sometimes forget that our students are whole human beings with interests and knowledge bases outside of what we might deem "school-worthy." However, being able to explore one's own interests and knowing how to do so safely is an incredibly important skill.  When I'm not being an educator, I love to explore my artistic side and create beauty with papercraft. In the chart below, you can see how I've used social media to increase my learning network. This is just a small portion of what I use to connect a...

 When I first heard about microlearning, I thought making a micro-lesson would be easy. Microlearning is all about being brief, concise, and filled with only the important information.  A short, 2-5 minute lesson would be perfect for my students and even my colleagues. In my teaching, I am good at chunking up a lesson into bite-sized portions for my students. However, distilling the core elements of a lesson in that short amount of time was painstaking. Five hours of work on a 4-minute lesson had me second-guessing my decision to try microlearning. However, after I completed my training, I knew I had made something usable and professional. My microlesson was for teachers who need a refresher on understanding and dealing with student stress and crisis behavior. The lesson had 3 objectives, and the video assessed each of those objectives. First, it reviewed what the levels of crisis and stress were. Then it asked the learner to review scenarios of students in different states of...

My name is Shannon Edwards and I have been an educator since 2011. I have worked with students from elementary school to college students, but my primary focus has been those tricky middle school grades. Currently, I teach 7th grade ELA at a school in Painesville, Ohio where my students keep me on my toes every day. My personal educational background is varied. I've always loved school and have had a curiosity for learning. My undergraduate degree is from Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Theological Studies, and my master's degree is from John Carroll University in Theology and Religious Studies. After becoming an adjunct professor for a year at John Carroll, I decided I needed a change. I loved the teaching aspect but was no longer was passionate about the content. I wanted to teach something that mattered. So I went back to being a student at Cleveland State University and earned my post-baccalaureate certificate in middle childhood education.  The work I do at my school i...

Middle school educators have a lot on their plates. Their students are going through rapid-fire changes physically, emotionally, and academically. The tasks students are required to do become more challenging and complex. And while students at these transitional ages want independence, they also need community and opportunities to share and work with their peers. Designing a learning experience that meets all of these needs is an overwhelming task for teachers. It would be difficult to do so for a class of twenty, but having a hundred or more students can make the challenge seemingly impossible. The purpose of this blog is to give teachers strategies when they are creating lessons and units of study. One strategy or way of designing lessons will not fit every class, but with more tools in their toolbelts, classes will get more of what they need and teachers will have more time and energy to spend on what is most important.

If you have ever scanned the web looking for a recipe, a tutorial on how to do or make something, or looked for travel advice, you’ve probably come across someone’s blog. In my own life, I have used a blog to connect with people who share my interest in crafts, and have created tutorials on how to make different crafty projects. The positive feedback from people around the world gave me confidence. Their advice in the comments helped me grow as an artist. Also, their links to other creators helped me see work from others’ viewpoints and introduced me to new techniques. Using blogging in education can be just as valuable for students in a more formal educational setting, especially older students and adults. Having students blog for a particular activity or assignment can do many things. First, blogging gives students the opportunity to work together. Blogging does not have to be a solitary activity. Groups of students can come together and share their wealth of knowledge on a blog. Stu...