Continuing Education Essay

As a perspective teacher I have a long ways to go in both knowledge and experience in creating lessons and curriculum. As I continue to add the tools necessary it’s important for me to realize some of the most important resources available to me are my fellow teachers. Their prior experience and years of continuing education truly is invaluable. It is my hope that my youth and fresh perspectives can aide these teachers when we collaborate. The encouragement of teacher collaboration is important in creating higher levels of instruction. This is very exciting for me personally moving forward. Norman Webb’s Depth of Knowledge calls for teachers to raise the bar by collaborating. It also requires us to challenge our students to do know more

than remembering important dates and reciting only key details. By working together teachers can create a more “rigorous” curriculum. By doing this we will empowering students to use evidence as justification for their responses. Students will be able strategically think so that they can connect ideas to formulate hypothesis, investigate and apply learned concepts. The use of Webb’s model can help create students who are capable of higher levels of thinking and as a result of this they will be more equipped to solve the complexities that await them both academically and professionally.
If teachers can maximize the use of technology in the classroom accompanied by the use Webb’s Depth of Knowledge Model then students will be armed with both the power of higher levels of cognitive ability and the tools to maximize their potential.

Students will be able to work together by using technology to brainstorm, collect information, communicate findings and create a product that’s more fully developed and well rounded. The use of SAMR will not only help students collaborate more efficiently it will also aid them in creating products that were once not possible. Students can use and create new technology that not only show’s their level of understanding in a new way they can use that technology to be truly imaginative and inventive. In the not so distant past teachers and students would have gone without the use of technology in their classroom. Today it is imperative to both teacher and student that technology be used as a means to create engaging curriculum. Students will no longer only use a simple word program to type a paper. In an imaginative classroom they will modifying and redefining the uses of technology. The use of technology will be used as tool for the most expressive and creative generation the world has ever

seen.
I believe that the combination of technology and Webb’s model makes becoming a teacher very exciting. The tools that technology gives students along with a creative and rigorous curriculum will produce the most capable generation of students that we have ever seen. Teaching these students comes with a great responsibility. This is why the State of Washington has set forth a high level of Essential Academic Learning Requirement’s (EALR’s). The learning standards state that “High school graduates can expect a brand of globalized opportunity-unbound by borders, enriched by the fusion of industry and culture-available to those who know how to investigate, solve problems, collaborate, create, and innovate” These standards are categorized around two EALR’s:
EALR 1 Integration Students use technology within all content areas to collaborate, communicate, generate innovative ideas, investigate and solve problems.
EALR 2- Digital Citizenship Students demonstrate a clear understanding of technology systems and operations and practice safe, legal and ethical behavior.
It seems that if we as educators are to meet these standards then we will have no choice but to incorporate models of learning like SAMR and Webb. Failing to do so would result in students not reaching their full potential.