Artifact: Plickers QR Code Activity 

Performance: 5(c) Facilitates learners’ use of content tools and resources to maximize content learning in varied contexts.
5 (e) Develops learners’ communication skills in disciplinary and interdisciplinary contexts by creating meaningful opportunities to employ a variety of forms of communication that address varied audiences and purposes. 

Essential Knowledge: 5 (l) Understands how to use digital and interactive technologies for efficiently and effectively achieving specific learning goals.

5(m) Understands critical thinking processes and knows how to help learners develop high level questioning skills to promote their independent learning.

Critical Dispositions: 5(s) Values flexible learning environments that encourage eager exploration, discovery, and expression across content areas. 

Description: Plickers is a formative assessment app that allows each student to have an individual QR code that is linked to their name and class, and tracks their answers to the questions. The QR code is a way to have each student work out and answer practice problems independently and answer in a low risk way that has no time limit. The app provides immediate feedback of who answered correctly and the percentage of the class as a whole who got the question right to help guide instruction. 

Rationale: Throughout of my TWS I used this artifact called Plickers because it increased student engagement and participation. Students were excited about the new technology and spent more quality time on practice problems even when they were struggling to understand the information. This artifact guided the pace of my instruction and shaped the conversation between the students and I. We as a class used this tool to check for understanding and determine what information gaps were present and could pause the activity to go over the material in depth. Since each QR code had a unique look and orientation style (you have to hold the QR code in the proper orientation to answer a, b, c, and d) students were forced to do their own work and answer independently. This artifact made my instruction more efficient as I could move on to different topics if all students were answering correctly and spend more time on the content where students were struggling. This artifact allowed me to pick up on individual learners critical thinking patterns and created a supportive and flexible environment for the students to explore the content in a low risk way that increased their participation and engagement.

Artifact: Mrs. Bean’s Website

Performance: 5(f) Engages learners in generating and evaluating new ideas and novel approaches, seeking inventive solutions to problems, and developing original work.

Essential Knowledge: 5(k) Understands the demands of accessing and managing information as well as how to evaluate issues of ethics and quality related to information and its use.

Critical Dispositions: 5 (s) Values flexible learning environments that encourage eager exploration, discovery, and expression across content areas. 

Description: Throughout the semester I kept a website that every student could access and look under their specific class to see what was happening in math class. I provided subpages for each class that told them what teacher pace was and gave them access to links other than the flipped math curriculum to help them understand the material in different sections. 

Rationale: The creation of klbean.wix.com/mrsbean was a way to model for my students how to create independent and original work that solves the problem of students having trouble understanding the content. This website was a resource that students could use at all hours of the day whether they had class or it was the weekend. Operating in a flipped classroom meant that many students were at many different spots and by providing resources for entire units at a time on my website allowed for them to experience a flexible environment to complete their work. Students discovered that there are a variety of resources available to them and that they could problem solve on their own even if I was not available or it was outside of class time.