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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LC week 4

Our LC meeting this week seemed to come out of no-where. Part of the reason was that we had just returned from FETC and our F2F so it was a shock to the system to not have some time off. I spent most of my time coming home from FETC in the airport and on the plane working ahead on projects, getting caught up on my reading and trying to put things together in my head of what I need to accomplish.

Our meeting started out with us reviewing our AR projects since this is probably the first time we have had the chance in our new LCs. MR was there to encourage us along thinking about pulling in the aspects we discussed while we were meeting with her in Orlando. When I shared my progress on my AR I focused on my work with making my students more successful through the No D policy, the ability to redo assignments multiple times, and now how I am mentoring Randon and focusing not only on making my students more successful learners but my student teacher as well. By helping Randon become a more successful teacher, I will be helping myself grow and change and help my students at the same time. How? Because if I can help Randon grow, learn, and reflect while I model these same behaviors, he will do his best work teaching for our students. With this change, and focusing specifically on giving students multiple sets of feedback, I will be helping Randon grow and learn about giving feedback and at the same time, this will benefit our students because they will be receiving multiple sets of feedback on their work with 2 teachers helping them learn versus one. Also, I think what will be really interesting is to notice the change in myself from teacher to mentor. I am hoping with the mentorship classes and being Randon’s mentor, using the mentors I have around me, that all of this will work together to create a dynamic transformation in all of us.

Concerning the feedback, Randon and I are going to begin by giving feedback on my freshman’s position papers focusing on paragraph to paragraph. This weekend I will spend the time going over their intro paragraphs first modeling good feedback to our students. Then I will give the papers to Randon for him to add his feedback to as well. Then I will do the same with the 1st body paragraphs with Randon following and giving additional feedback. I think moving forward we can split the second body and then move him into the lead position on the third body and conclusion paragraphs where I am providing supportive feedback to what he has already done. Finally, I need to think about what would be the best result on the final papers. Maybe just a sampling where he and I spend detailed time looking at each others feedback discussing the papers and then reflecting on each others comments and assessments? Hmmm. I will need to talk about this with my LC. The important things to keep in mind are looking for an absence and presence of notes. Do we do things similarly or differently? What do we each bring to feedback. And for sure, making sure we reflect on what we are learning from one another . What is really going to help is that Kristin Leclaire is going to do this with him as well so I hope we really help him along in this process. Feedback is such an important aspect of teaching and something all teachers struggle with in making sure you are giving enough, that you are praising enough and challenging enough. Maybe we can use MR’s model for feedback: affirmations, mechanics, extensions, and critique. That might be the best format to use then we have consistency with the areas we are trying to comment upon. I will need to go over that with Randon and KK.
MR reminded me at the end of my session time that really what this is all about is knowledge building both for my self and Randon and even I would say for my students. Overall we all want to be successful it is about supporting one another through these changes that we will all learn and grow.

At the end of the meeting we had time to go over our schedule for the remainder of classes:
Before Feb 3 meeting: short description of AR project, AR plan revised, AR timeline- all of these posted on your website
Feb 3: review Abrash and Leah projects, review calendar of suggested due dates, look over one another’s websites
Feb 10: tutorials due, suggestions for surveying students, cycle one report structure
Feb 17: cycle one report feedback,
Feb 24: cycle one report feedback, (cycle one report due 2/28)
Mar 3: cycle two report structure
Mar 10: cycle two report structure
Mar 17: cycle two report feedback
Mar 24: cycle two report feedback
Mar 30: cycle two report due

And then we had some great time to just talk with MR. We talked about conferences, learning, and of course, she gave us some more reading to reflect on. What I love is that she continues to challenge us. She pushes us to do more and be more. More as teachers, as professionals, as examples of technology, and as people. She holds us accountable for one another and that is something that I am really going to be focusing on this semester. I am helping everyone in my cadre? I am extending myself to make sure everyone is successful and is heard. As Matt indicated and Tanner echoed, we are here to make sure all of us graduate. I am on board and I will help.

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Tough Times in Mentoring

Today I had an interesting experience being a mentor. I have written before that mentoring was something I thought I would like to do in the future of my professional career, but am struggling with it now. It is much more challenging to be a mentor (a good mentor) than just to give positive feedback and affirmation. This morning, after returning from Orlando, Randon and I were reviewing what had gone on while I was gone. Randon had taken over all my classes. It was great to hear that things had gone so smoothly in my classes and how successful Randon was in teaching the classes, then we started talking about English Literature, a college prep English class. After a bit of discussion, I started realizing that the class was about a week behind where it should be. Presentations that were assigned took a lot longer than they should have, and things weren’t accomplished as I had thought they should have. This was really tough hearing because in a class that is college prep, only meets three times a week, we can’t have down moment. While I was working through all the things that hadn’t been accomplished, Randon became more and more defensive even raising his voice. It was quite a shocker to both myself and my deskmates. I stopped the conversation and asked Randon not to talk to me that way. I also clarified for him why I was disappointed and how the class is expected to do more because of it being a college prep class. This is probably something I had not made clear to him (totally my fault) but I was very clear from here on out, this is something he needs to correct. He has to find a way to get this class back on track. We also talked about how this class, as well as the American Lit class he will be taking over, are different than the English Nine and Ten classes he currently teaches. I am glad I voiced my disappointment and expectations for him. I let him know that Kristin and I are going to hold him to as high of expectations as we do our students. We want him to be the best teacher possible. Randon was clearly upset by the disappointment and it made me think and reflect about how I handled the situation as well as how can I help Randon be more open towards criticism. I do not want him to be defensive but rather open to the learning moment this provided him. I talked to him about that there are two ways he can walk away from this conversation, the first being to be angry and upset, and the second being an opportunity for growth for the both of us.
I spoke with Ray Hawthorne my instructional coach about this encounter looking for some guidance and assistance of how to help Randon grow as a teacher, reflector, and mentee, and also how to help me become a better mentor. We came up with an excellent strategy of taking away the fear of failure from Randon, as well as focusing on his strengths and looking to him for his suggestions as to how I can help him be more open to suggestions for improvement.
Then after school, I used some of the strategies Ray and I spoke about in order to make a more safe environment for Randon to feel open to suggestions for improvement. He let me know what things I could do to help him be more open like walking him through the process of what he did, beginning with the things that went well and then going into the constructive feedback.
I really learned a considerable amount about mentoring today. And, I learned a lot about myself and Randon. I think we both walked away from today as not the best day, but knowing how we need to handle situations like this in the future.

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Reflection on Symphony

I don’t know if the topic was ironic, (we discussed Symphony) but today it all came together for the kids in both period 2 and 5. Maura also said her kids had dynamic conversations in both sections so our school today was on a roll. I want to make sure I thank all of our visitors who took the time to come in and challenge our kids thinking pushing them in new directions. Period 2 welcomed the wonderful Bud Hunt and Kelly Dignan, and Period 5 had the terrific threesome of Lucie Stanish, Christian Long and Eric Grant. All of them have our big thanks!

Period 2 had such a wonderful conversation centered around changing education to make learning more meaningful and significant for themselves. They even proposed having a fishbowl for the school board and bringing them here or going there to show them how learning can look and be different. I challenge them to do so. Why not? I hope they see that education exists for them not something that should be done to them. The power to change rests in them, not in me, not in Karl Fisch, and not even in our guests that attended today. If they have a vision and a purpose for redoing education, they need to embrace the passion and vision to make a difference. If they don’t do it, who will? If they don’t do it now, will anyone ever make the changes necessary? I wouldn’t be surprised if some AHS kids are emailing the school board and Scott Murphy to come in for a discussion.

Period 5 had a great conversation as well focusing instead of homework with their learning and finding the symphonic connections to school. They also really focused on how school could look different but no one seemed to think about how to change it or what steps are necessary to make the changes that they see need to be made. I would challenge them as well to take some action. In this class I saw the inklings of great thoughts. Kudos to Nick and Justin for making some excellent points! I am so impressed by the entire class for really seeing learning differently and how they are beginning to truly grasp that learning looks different than simply regurgitating facts. Learning is applying the information in new ways so that they understand it.

Some things for both classes to think about:
· Who is education for?
· What role do you play in changing education?
· If you know education/ school should look differently, why not do something about it?

Remember kids, there was only one thing I wanted you to do this year: Change the World. What are you waiting for?

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Tutorial Reactions

The tutorials put on by OERI were quite detailed and overwhelming. I guess that is not an area I am pursuing and might be a reason, although a lame one, to not pursue my doctorate. (Having just come from a F2F with my OMET group, there are a number who are interested in pursuing their doctorate. It is not something I had totally considered until talking with them, and now after talking with them, there are inklings in my mind of doing it.)

After putting together a presentation on qualitative analysis for MR and the OMET group, I really can see now how imperative it is to divulge everything about the process you used while compiling and coding research as well as the methodology of accumulating the data. There are just so many areas where if you are not careful or truthful about the process, your data doesn’t work to prove anything. This is good to keep in mind seeing as how I need to probably go over my cycle one data again (even though I am dreading it) to enhance and better support my cycle one report. I really wish I had seen these tutorials before I had written my report. Is that payback for doing the paper early even though MR had suggested it? Hmmm… Also, there are so many different kinds of data one is able to collect and in so many different manners that once again, it all comes down to ensuring that you really well document your process.

Soon, I am going to start interviewing for my cycle two report. I am hoping to do something I learned from the OERI tutorials. The site talked about collecting a good sampling of data and how to go about this process. Well, I was just going to pick some kids who I thought would have something to say about the No D policy and multiple redos. According to the site, that doesn’t seem to be the best way to go about this process, so I thought I would now refine my thinking and complete a two step process. Step one would be to administer a survey to all the students with more closed response questions and then do a random sampling for the interviews to see if the random sampling is representative of the larger group.

Knowing what I know now about qualitative analysis and adding to that the information from the OERI tutorial, I need to move forward and put together a survey for the students. I hope to get this accomplished soon so that I can get some feedback from my LC about the questions. I am just not sure from my first semester cycle that I asked the best questions (although according to the tutorial they were good because they addressed my goal). What I am hoping is that I can take the survey results and match them to the personal interviews which will take place at the end of February to see If they correlate and if not, try to determine why. So, I definitely have some work ahead of me trying to create a survey as well as interview questions for personal interview time with my ninth graders.

Thinking ahead, I am wondering if that is something I also need to be doing with Randon especially with cycle three starting as soon as I get the go ahead from him. So much to think about….

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Action Research Week 4

I met with MR today at our F2F in Orlando regarding my work on AR. We were driving with Colby, Malika’s friend Marty and myself. I already had listened to MR and Colby discuss his AR project, ironically what he and I as well as Dan talked about the night before. It was really interesting to hear him go through this thoughts, struggles, and looking at his AR in a different light. I also have to say I felt quite privileged to be part of his debriefing and learning process. Sitting with your professor, a colleague and a stranger all talk about your work, it was quite an interesting experience. I was so impressed by what Colby is confronting at his work and the changes he is trying to illicit throughout his organization. Whether MR knew it or not, having both of us there to hear one another’s AR work, was well planned. It gave me insight into my own work environment as well as thinking about the overall dynamic change each of us in this program is trying to initiate.

Up till this point, through my AR process, I have felt very lucky throughout. I have had my cycles come together well, flowing through cycle one and two building off of each other and now finding myself before I got here struggling with what cycle three is going to be about. I am not teaching that class anymore since I have my student teacher, Randon, and feeling disconnected from my students. So having the debriefing session with MR was exactly what I needed.
We talked about what my AR is all about. I told her (and I am going through all this to get these thoughts out of my head) that really my AR focuses on making my students more successful learners which in turn I hope makes them more successful life long learners and learners in all their classes. Also, another aspect of this would be allowing me to examine practices in class that I have used since I started teaching and now I have a chance to try something new. A chance to be an agent of change. That is such an empowering feeling. I spent some time going over my first two cycles which she is well aware of seeing as how I have asked for her feedback time and again on them. I really enjoy hearing her thoughts and reflections about where I am going. I think I almost have more epiphanies when I am speaking aloud to her than me just thinking on my own. I guess that is a change within myself that I am identifying myself as a learner who needs reflection and dialogue with a mentor.

Then came stage three and this is where I really was so pleased at having all that time with Colby and MR. I expressed my challenge at now having a student teacher and am unsure of how cycle three with Randon would fit into successful learners. MR talked about how much feedback and grading have increased for me since my students now have multiple redos. I told her it was a quite a bit more and we even discussed the possibility of training the students to be better peer editors so that they could be providing that feedback to one another. I think this is a great idea and really gives them ownership over their learning as well as creating a community of learners in which to see one another grow. She had a coding system she had developed for giving feedback that I want to go over with my students and LC in order to use it when we are reacting to one another’s work:
Affirmations: praise, identifying positive attributes

Mechanical/technical corrections: make these corrections as a second set of eyes

Extensions: build on the ideas, give examples, how do I help push the learning

Redirect: critiques of the work still given in a constructive light

Training the kids on how to do each one of these will really assist me in my grading, but I still didn’t see how this fit in with cycle three or with Randon. Then I had the epiphany. Really what I am focusing on is learning and making all students more successful learners. Why isn’t Randon a learner? I started thinking about he and I as learners and how we both need each other in this mentoring relationship (That’s for you Jenith). In order for my class to be more successful learners, I need to help/ guide/ mentor Randon to be the most successful student teacher he can be. How do I do this? Modeling / mentoring and guiding. Because if I am successful, I will change as a teacher, Randon will be a stronger, better version of himself and my students will be successful learners.

I am going to talk about this with Randon, unless he reads this blog first, but what I am thinking is that for a cycle (maybe 4-6 weeks) we try peer grading together. The students will receive feedback from both Randon and I. I will still not be teaching the class, but I will still maintain that contact with their work, seeing their progress as they grow in learning, and hopefully, with double feedback, the students will become better writers, thinkers, and problem solvers because they have two rather than one. And everyone knows, two is always better than one.

If Randon goes for this, the timing couldn’t be better with their position paper AKA Change the World project. With all the writing, revising and editing that needs to take place, I am both mentoring my students to be better writers and mentoring Randon about teaching, grading, assessing and feedback.

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