Claire Molony Educational Blog

 Authentic Intellectual Work: The nature of Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) is to have students engaged with the learning that will take them beyond just memorizing facts and following steps. It encourages students to construct their knowledge in a meaningful way. Students are then able to study the details of a problem, create a product, and share the product that has meaning outside of school. (Newmann et al., 2007, p. 2) This is different from traditional approaches because in a lot of classrooms, students are going through the motions to earn a grade or credit. They have very little buy-in and no ownership. AIW makes students be active members in their learning and creates an environment where they want to be engaged in order to create a product they are proud of for success in society.  The three criteria for AIW are: Construction of Knowledge, Disciplined Inquiry, and Value Beyond School. Starting with Construction of Knowledge, which is "organizing, interpreting, eva...

 Introduction: Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog! My name is Claire Molony and I teach high school science in Iowa. It is crazy to believe this is the start of my sixth year of teaching. Currently, I am focused on getting my Master's in Educational Technology so I am better able to incorporate technology into my classroom and maybe in the future switch to a technology job. I want to continue to grow as an educator and be better able to help my students be successful in the 21st Century.  Computational Thinker indicator 5b says "students collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them and represent data in various way to facilitate problem-solving and decision-making." Students in a high school Biology class could address science standard HS-LS1-3 by using their technology to conduct and collect data to support their claim that feedback mechanisms maintain homeostasis. In the classroom, students can use a Google Sheet or Excel to collect ...