LC meeting week 5

Abrash began the conversation so that we could look over where he was in his AR work and what questions we had from him. We encouraged him to make the process available for everyone to see (or at least the professors so that they can understand where you are going.)
We also spent a lot of time talking about writing and putting writing out there. How it is such a scary thing to publish for the world versus publishing for just the teacher. This is such a difference with an online Masters degree as well as with education today-Such a transformational difference. We tried to be encouraging and motivating for him to try something new and put him out there. We are here to support him and help him along. Hopefully, we can encourage him enough to at least share his thoughts with us.
Matt and tanner reviewed their projects as well. Tanner- adaptive expertise in the classroom- what classroom environment is most conducive to create experts. Learning theory and adaptive experts –cycle one, cycle two- what struggles do they face? Tanner also went over some stats from cycle one:
• Number of students who feel they are on the path to expertise 26%
• Number on path after class 70%
• Kids see change in themselves:
o Number who didn’t and now do 70%
o Expert students 13%
Tanner alluded to one struggle is with kids changing classrooms and moving into his classroom. We discussed why is this hard for them to change classrooms? Why is it hard to change? Why is change hard? We all seemed to discuss because of our OMET work that we notice the difference in teaching- we are now different teachers- we are facilitators not just teachers “provide the spark for them to learn with”, learning what is important to them and how they want to learn.
We seemed to end his presentation on looking at cycle two and trying to help him uncover the layers to get to the next cycle possibly looking at defining expertise? What how and why?
Matt discussed creating a digital computer classroom that allows for collaborative inquiry with students: teacher asked questions of students, kids came up with gold standard answer that fits that piece of history. Style of teaching turns students own ideals of learning onto their heads. Students realized lecture limits their learning and processing and thus they saw their grades tank. Learning is a three dimensional process: auditory, kinesthetic and visual- getting learning in three different ways. Rigor and time sensitive- kids are preparing for an AP exam. Collaborating online with one document- changed Matt’s views on how this was going to work. Kids aren’t talking to one another but rather than groups setting. Work in halves of the room. Cycle one- survey- learner in beginning v learner you are now. One idea we discussed is to do Myers Briggs testing? We also discussed how much responsibility for learning that lies on the shoulders of a teacher. Worst thing is to hear that you learned nothing from the class (so hard on the teacher) Kids do not remember what you teach but how you teach. That is what we need to remember.
I teach you how to learn not teach you computer science- awesome quote from Tanner
Then we went over my project and I went through my cycle one report asking them to give me feedback on this and the questions I have for my cycle two survey.
After they helped me work through the questions, we talked about the next few weeks and what we want to have done for each session. I really was pleased with our entire discussion. We were very supportive of Abrash with his anxiety over his writing, and I felt like we all developed a common ground to begin this next learning circle. We all shared our anxieties about writing and publishing work for the world. Hopefully, this will be a great starting point to move forward from.
I also sent my survey questions onto my principal and added a few of his suggestions to the form. I have the survey ready to distribute at the end of this next week using a Google form that can be embedded in to a blog. So cool!
Finally, with my cycle three work, I had been asked by my student teacher to lead small groups of students in the hallway with further work on their position papers. What I really enjoyed about this is I was able to maintain a connection with the kids, the group of 8 got more 1-1 learning time with individualized instructions, and it helped the other kids who were ready to move along, move along.
We decided after to have the kids reflect on how that 1-1 learning time went with them. Out of the 8 kids, 6 of the 8 rated it a 4-5 out of 5 on helpful. We are going to keep doing this throughout the cycle three along with the written feedback on their work to meet the AR goal of helping students be more successful learners.
Looking ahead, I can see us doing the pull outs about 4-5 more times and then we will also have our written feedback on their paragraphs that many times as well. This will be a big data set to qualify, but I think very meaningful.
Luckily, Randon and I are doing this stage together so it will be interesting with his feedback on the process as well. He and I created the feedback form for the 1-1 session:
I am revising my timeline a little as we are working through all of this. I think now I am looking at end of February/ beginning of March to be writing up my cycle two report and end of March beginning of April to be completing my cycle three report. Wow, time is moving along.

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Dell Now Offers 100+ Skins On Studio Laptops

For the last couple of months now Dell has been offering customizable skins that you can put on your laptop to give it a unique feel that matches your personality. If you still are not sure what it is here is what Dell has to say about their laptop skins.

“Oil. Watercolor. Photography. You name it – you know fine art and quality technique when you see it. Think about it like a tattoo for your computer – it’s an impression in people’s minds! The vivid colors and photo-realism make the art come alive. Each image is permanently infused into the laptop display’s back, making it extremely durable. The look and feel engages – it becomes part of you…Now that’s self-expression with a technology twist.”

I personally have yet to see one of these laptop skins. I would like to see how much they really jump out and also to see if it looks awkward to see a giant mural on the back of your laptop.

Also they are not too cheap. If you want one done by an artist it will cost you $75 and if you want just a different color that will cost you $30. The only one that is free right now is the default jet black model.

To see all of the Studio Line designs click here.

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What is the purpose of education?

What is the purpose of education?

Sir Ken Robinson asked us this question while we were watching his TED talk. Mr. Fisch has already written about this and David Warlick. I am interested in what you think? So, what is the purpose of education in your opinion. Maybe ask your parents and sibilings to respond to this question as well.

What is your role? What should the teacher's role be?

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AR cycle 3 round 1

Randon and I met today going over the intro paragraphs the freshmen submitted for their position paper project. I took the weekend to write my comments and then Randon spent Monday night adding his comments to the papers as well. MR had suggested we look at absence and presence as the point for our discussion. We started looking at each paper one by one and after the first five noticed that we were commenting on the same things. Randon indicated he didn’t want to repeat my comments so he didn’t repeat what I had already written. As far as analysis, that made it more difficult to determine reliability since his comments weren’t on the paper but instead indicated orally to me. This is one thing we are going to change for the next time we go through this process. I also recorded our session using my iPod so that we can review our process later on and see what changes we have made or growth we have had over the course of peer grading these papers.
We agreed that all the students need to work on eliminating personal words and contractions in their essays that their proofreading for these features needs to greatly increase. We also pinpointed some students who need extra attention with their thesis statements before they move on. We discussed a course of action for these struggling students in that I would take them aside separately and almost conduct a writer’s workshop of sorts in order to help the student along individually.
We aren’t sure at this point why some of the students are still struggling with their thesis statements and intro paragraphs. We both commented that the form of intervention above might be the best to assist these students as well. Most of the kids who are struggling seem to be the ones who are completing only some work in class, are not following the structure of the paragraphs, and really need some one on one attention. This is going to be the intervention strategy we are going to explore and see if it makes a difference.
We are also wondering why so many kids are not completing their work. Why are we not receiving thesis statements, intro paragraphs and now first body paragraphs? These are conversations I think we need to have individually with the students emphasizing the work of a differentiated classroom. We even noticed going through our comments together that we are differentiating comments for each student. Some students who struggle more in writing receive more feedback and direction than students who are getting the concepts and formats. So not only is our classroom a differentiated learning environment but our feedback reflects that as well. We are going to make sure we are meeting all kids needs by giving them more in class time to work and to meet with us individually to hopefully see greater growth in their writing and work completion.
I wonder what will make the greater difference in their success: more class time to work or individualized time with teacher (Ruggles or Smith) or even dual feedback on assignments?
Specifically looking at our feedback we noticed that we had a lot of common aspects such as citation of sources, structure of writing, and personal words and contractions. The areas we differed were how we went about conveying other aspects. I typically write my comments into the margins of their essays offering constructive criticism and some praise. Randon writes a direct note to the writer offering praise, suggestions for improvement and a positive message of encouragement on most of his responses. He does this all in a paragraph format at the end of the essay.
What was really interesting is the lack of praise I gave in my responses to Randon’s praise of almost everything. This lead to a good conversation about accurate praise versus false praise making sure we are encouraging but no giving false hopes. I wonder if I am becoming to direct rather than focusing on some good aspects of the writing. Often times, I find it challenging on the first go around of editing papers to give a lot of praise and work towards that with each revision.
We concluded that the best thing Randon can do is to find a system of giving feedback that works really well for him. We both agreed that we really need to keep up with the differentiated instruction as well as that carrying over into the feedback. Every kid needs different forms of feedback to assist them in their learning. Going forward, we are going to use a differentiated instruction method where I pull out kids into the hallway and work specifically with each one on areas they are struggling with. Randon will remain in the classroom to work with the entire class. Then on days where they are doing peer editing Randon will work specifically with kids one on one and I will be roaming the room.
For our next round in this cycle, we are going to work on having 2 sets of the papers turned into us. We will each grade our sets and then compare the results. We are also going to ask the kids to take the intro paragraphs we went over today and add their comments and feedback to those so that they can see what they need to do to improve. I am going to save these sets of papers to reflect on with Randon.
Overall, I think it was a really interesting round of learning about each other. Randon and I had a good conversation about feedback, quality and quantity of feedback, what is important about feedback as well as what are differences are in giving feedback. I think we both walked away from the conversation excited about where we are taking this cycle. We are both in this together and it feels like this time we are both vested in seeing the students succeed. I think that Randon is directly involved in this cycle versus inheriting the other cycles is making the difference. I will be anxious to see and read his reflections on our conversations.

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The Power of the Web

I feel like I always tell my students about what a different world they live in and how amazing the web is at helping them learn. Over this past weekend, starting on Friday and working through today, I was able to prove it.

I had assigned a project to my seniors where they were looking into future careers that they were interested in pursuing in college. They were to select 2-3 people whom they could interview about all aspects of their profession. My hope was that the students would learn a little bit more about the profession they would like to pursue, get some questions answered, learn something new, gain insight, and possibly make some future contacts. The students were then to take that information, post their interviews and results on their wiki, and then compose a summary response paper about all they learned.

Most of the students really enjoyed the project where they were able to learn more and extend what they thought about the career. Interestingly, others discussed during the debriefing how it was challenging being a teenager making contacts with the professionals. Some wouldn’t talk with the kids, some wouldn’t return information after initial contacts were made, and some couldn’t get anyone to talk with them at all. To me, this doesn’t say much about us as adults or human beings if we can’t help out kids!

A few kids expressed how challenging it was to contact people out of the blue without knowing people in their chosen profession. This led to a good discussion about life skills and introducing yourself to someone especially when you are pursuing jobs. I think one thing I would spend more time on next year is creating a network of contacts for the kids so that they have a starting place. We discussed interview questions, but the questions aren’t going to help if they can’t find people to talk to.

Towards the end of the debriefing, one student let on that she couldn’t get anyone in her chosen profession to contact her. She didn’t know anyone in the profession and was really struggling with the whole assignment trying to get something turned in versus her best work turned in. This assignment hadn’t even been meaningful for her but rather a HUGE struggle. That didn’t fit into the goals of the assignment at all. So, what’s a teacher to do with a struggling student?

Once I found out that my student wanted to move into the FBI or secret service, I went to my computer and got on Twitter putting out a tweet looking for connections to these professions. From my tweet, two other friends (cgfaulkner and karlfisch) retweeted my request putting this student’s interest out into a much wider audience. Before I knew it, tweets were coming in from all over, emails were being feed to her and I by all sorts of people willing to help her in her quest for knowledge. I can’t tell you what that meant to me other than to say, it is good to know that all of you are out there. Thanks for showing me and my students the power of the web. Rather than walking away from a learning struggle, I hope she learns that the web can make learning possible- the web connects us. Thanks to all who assisted in this learning adventure and thanks for reaching out to not only me, but to my students as well.

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ED 665: Week 5

Blog: Identify a standard that impacts your local environment or practice. Reflect on the value of the standard and its intended affect on student learning.

Our district has moved from standards to essential learnings. One essential learning that our 9th graders are focusing on this year is writing for a critical and argumentative intent. We broke this essential learning down further into focusing on their topic sentences for the first common assessment.
Amazingly, when we were first making the switch to essential learnings, our staff was not all on board and so it has taken quite some time to get us all into a place where we are all focused on the same idea. Now that we are here, we are in our second year focusing on one aspect under this essential learning; we are really working at common assessments of this essential learning in hopes that we will soon move to best practices. This has been a tough process!
As far as the standard’s value, I do think it is a good life skill to know how to write effectively and communicate a point to a variety of audiences. I think where it is challenging is how does that look to each teacher and student? We are focusing solely on the one standard because we feel that this standard would benefit so many others in our students’ whole school experience. But it seems that when we are trying to assess this standard, it also becomes a reading assessment as well because some of the kids don’t understand the story they are responding to. Actually, reflecting I think so many of the standards are built off on another that in order to be successful in one, others must accompany it as well.
In the long run, I think the standard will directly benefit the students because once the teachers have shared best practices in how to achieve the standard, all our students will be proficient in their learning and written communication. This will in turn benefit their reading and hopefully will benefit their oral communication skills as well. Ultimately, our staff hopes this will be a transferable concept so that their learning in all their classes will increase.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dd27hj4j_3ccwwdf&hl=en

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AR week 5

This weekend Randon and I began the cycle three part of my/our AR project. Since he gets to be part of this new journey, not only is he student teaching, but now he gets to participate in my AR project, I decided it could be our AR project. After all, I am not only looking at the changes in learning in myself, and in my students, but Randon’s changes as well. I will be anxious to see how we do this cycle together seeing as how we are focusing on his growth as a learner by my modeling feedback for students and Randon and I discussing feedback on student work. Ultimately, I hope the changes will not only effect Randon and I but our students will be more successful learners as a result.
So, this weekend I took home their second attempt at writing the intro paragraphs for the 9th grade position paper. This paper is where our students learn how to write a formalized paper using research to back up and support their position, they learn to incorporate quotations and textual citations, and also how to write in a formalized multi paragraph thesis driven essay. This year the project is a little different in that we are asking the students to not only take a position, but they are to take a stance on something they wish to change in the world. Then they write their paper, and create an action plan on what change they can make in their own lives to help change the world…thus, Project Change the World.
After reading through the intro paragraphs, I am getting a good sense of what the kids are getting and not getting with Randon teaching the intro paragraphs. It seems that we need to spend so more time on making sure all the elements are in the intro paragraph. I wonder if the kids feel like all the elements are there, but Randon and I are seeing something differently. Maybe what they are writing fits their interpretation of the intro paragraph but it doesn’t fit my perception at the moment. I might ask Randon to see if they can respond to the feedback I have given them, as well as Randon’s feedback as well so that they can identify what elements they see in their intro paragraph that maybe I am not seeing. I just want to make sure that I am sticking somewhat to the idea I want to explore in this cycle without going to overboard. I think as long as I keep the focus on making my students more successful learners, and in turn Randon’s success as a teacher, noting the changes I see in myself through this process, we will all benefit.
One thing I want to make sure I reflect on was my feedback that I was providing to my students on this first go around in cycle one. While assessing their work on Sunday, I noticed I was much more conscientious about the feedback I was giving to them. I actually took a lot of time making sure the feedback I was giving was readable and understandable to both Randon and my students. Not that I do not normally do that, but I guess I do not think about it as much. Has giving feedback become such a part of me that I am not consciously thinking about it when I give feedback.
Tonight, Randon is going to review my feedback on the intro paragraphs and tomorrow we are going to sit down and discuss what we each learned from the feedback as well as reflecting on one another’s comments and where to go from here.

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