meL’s Word

This session’s topics include communication and collaboration – I think these are both very important from a variety of standpoints.  Is the teacher able to communicate effectively with students?  with fellow teachers?  with administrators? with parents?  Collaboration is also crucial.  Is it possible to survive in today’s globalized world and not collaborate with others?  I work in two middle schools and there is a vast difference both between the schools and among the grades as far as teacher collaboration is concerned.  Most of the collaboration I do see is between the two teachers at each grade in a particular subject.  Seldom do I see collaboration within a team.  Sure, they get together to hash out details of working with challenging students, but I see little, if any, collaboration between subjects.  If we as teachers do not model this behavior, how can we expect our students to be successful collaborators?

And ask teachers to have students work in a team?  I get the oddest looks when I mention it – and every excuse imaginable.  We even have parents call and ask that their child work alone.  The fact of the matter is, life is a team sport.  None of us can survive on our own.  We all need to be able to work together (”Together Everyone Achieves More”!!!), we rarely get to choose who we work with (and for).  Students need exposure to this early on.  Project-based learning, and even better, Team-based learning are the best places to start.  I just recently read of team-based learning and am very intrigued and would love to try it.  (And I was so glad the example in the article is a Virginia middle school teacher – no SOL excuses here).

So many of today’s tools scream “Collaborate!” – blogs, wikis, online document collaboration, online mind maps.  There are too many tools out there to ignore, I say it is time to get the ball rolling.  (Perhaps I need to more effectively communicate the need and reasons to collaborate with the teachers I work with??)

This article is a good example of how much things change in 5 years.  Written in August, 2006, the article talks about the budding Web 2.0 in education.  How blogs were beginning to be used in education and how Apple was pioneering the use of podcasting in education.  Granted, for many districts this is still fresh ground – but I think were the article written today, the author would have many more examples from which to choose.

I am a fan of Web 2.0, but I think the sticking grounds for many districts is how to incorporate Web 2.0 into the classroom and maintain the safe identity of students.  The degree to which blogging sites protect students varies.  There are some sites designed specifically for education.  Teachers and schools look for free sites because budgets are extrmely tight and Web 2.0 is still considered to be “fluff” and not necessary for the classroom.  Many sites want email addresses and many students do not have them.  Most of the teachers I talk to want to maintain strict control over their students’ blogs (don’t get me started on this one…..) so blogging hosts need to be friendly to moderation for teachers to consider them.  I recently ran across Kidblog (http://kidblog.org/home.php), a blogging site designed for elementary and middle school teachers who want to give their students their own blogs.  No student emails are needed and teachers maintain complete control.  Visitor access can be restricted, as can unsolicited comments from outside sources.  And the final piece teachers will like – no ads.  I will be looking into this one before the next Capstone course since I plan on having students blog about science experiments.

Blogs can offer so much to a classroom.  Teachers can journal the days activities to parents and the community – a great way to show off what your class did.  Students can journal about books being read, science experiments being conducted, thoughts on topics in social studies.  The ideas are endless.  As a teacher I can ask for thoughts an opinions in class and no one raises their hand.  If I ask students to blog their thoughts and opinions, suddenly the proverbial hands shoot in the air.

I love this article, and so much of it should be used in every classroom.  However, in my district, a few are pretty tough:

1. Free your classroom of restraints based on time, material and tasks – the ever present pacing guides don’t allow you to free your time.  Teachers are required to keep up with the pacing guide or risk poor evaluations.  (Don’t get me started on pacing guides!)
2. Set up a classroom environment that stimulates the senses – our teachers are constantly asked to “get rid of the clutter”, “get rid of the personal material”.  Sure there are educational posters galore, but after a while they get pretty boring.

So many of the other ideas seem like common sense, but I constantly hear teachers use the excuse of “I have to teach the SOLs, I don’t have time for all that other stuff.”  Me, I think it is a cop out.  I recently read in Learning and Leading (January issue) about Team-based Learning.  I fell in love with the concept and I was soooooo excited that the teacher used as an example is a middle school teacher in Virginia – no excuses here.  He teaches science SOLs and has tons of time by using TBL.

So, yesterday I discover I have been adding everything to my portfolio incorrectly.  And today I discover the 2000 character limit (yes, character – not word).  In trying to descibe designing learning activities using a variety of digital tools and resources (with research to support) I have been deleting over half of my case.  What I will be left with is virtually useless.  My resources alone just about meet the 2000 character limit. 

At least I am not the only one frustrated….

This was in a Diigo email and it gave me ideas (one I already added to my lesson for a formative assessment) – Classroom Assessment Techniques http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/assess.htm. Generally these are non-graded assessments that give the teacher feedback on the class as a whole. In this age of grade-obsession I think this is a good way to step back from the ABCDF cliff without losing your idea of where the class stands as far as “getting it” is concerned.

This isn’t entirely related to my Capstone course, but I came across a site I can see has potential classroom use – http://wallwisher.com.  Basically, you create a wall for sticky notes.  The site allows you to choose a picture for display, or use one of theirs, and choose a background.  You give the wall a title and subtitle.  Wallwisher allows you to choose who can see and who can post – you or eveyrone.  You also have the option of approving stickies before they are posted.

I can see this as a pseudo-class discussion. Imagine you are reading a novel for English, you could post a quick question or note.  As a class you could post stickies of essential knowledge about a topic.  You could use it as a place for notes to yourself as you conduct research.  Like so many Web 2.0 tools, the possibilities are endless.  I don’t see a way to search so unless you tell someone the URL of your wall, it would be unlikely for someone to find yours other than by chance (not sure on that one).  Have a peek at mine http://wallwisher.com/wall/meLsWall and let me know how you could use this tool.

Okay – gonna rant here. We get two web pages with link to portfolios. On the first, OOPS, I tried four links, none worked. I usually only allow a website three broken links, gave this one an extra since it was for class. On the second website, Teacher Taps, the first one I clicked was broken, the second is still trying to load, 5 minutes later. Sorry.

The article “Intersections” talks about data-driven instruction – and why more school districts don’t make use of this.  One thing the article mentions is fear.  Teachers think they will uncover something they don’t want anyone to know, and too often data has been used against a teacher rather than as a benefit for students.   On another note, I think time is a factor, to0.   Teachers are constantly being asked to do more with less – larger classes, fewer resources, more reporting/data, less pay.  At some point, there will come the proverbial straw that will break the camel’s back.

Our middle schools administer a benchmark exam after the first nine weeks, and then a mock SOL in spring.  Teachers are provided disaggregated data from each of these tests to aid in instructions.  However, I am not sure how much this data is truly used.  I rarely hear a teacher do an “ah hah!” – occasionally, but not often.  This data helps with remediation, but I don’t know if it inspires/encourages teachers to back track and think about how something was taught and then modify the lesson next time.

I was interested in the examples used in the article.  My district pulls enough data from various sources that several of these are viable options that probably should be looked into.  We could easily combine demographic data with test/skill data.  I am not aware of any perception data that exists in our district, but this would certainly be good information to use.

The state of Virginia has given districts the option of ITRTs vs. data “compilers” (don’t remember the exact term used) – or a combination of the two positions.  To help ITRTs who might find themselves in the role of data person, the state held workshops.  I went to one at WHRO in May that was taught by Julie Mersiowsky from the VDOE.  I still have the materials, but was told after we returned to not worry about it.  I wish now I remembered more of the training.  We did look at data from fictitious schools to see where problems were and suggest intervention activities to combat the problem.

Before I had a chance to look at the content for this session I saw a link from a Diigo email entitled Formative and Summative Assessments in the classroom. I read the article, saved the PDF and was all ready to post it to the discussion board as a resource for everyone else. Lo and behold when I start reading the content for the session, the article was the first reading item! So much for sharing.
Seriously, this is a great article from the standpoint of defining summative vs. formative and providing examples and uses of the two types of assessments.

Every time I read about multiple intelligences and differentiation and universal design for learning two thoughts come to mind – “well, duh!” and “where are teachers supposed to find the time to teach to every style and need?”  It makes so much sense to adapt a lesson to teach to as many types of intelligences at one time as is possible.  Differentiation makes so much sense.  Making lessons accessible to everyone seems like a no brainer.  Yet, how does the average classroom teacher adapt a lesson for each of the 100(+) students who will walk through the door each day?  However, reality, especially with the probability of larger classes in the next several years due to budget cuts – the reality is, little of this will happen.  Teachers are continually asked to do more with less – more students, more expectations, less time, less resources.  The example of offering Tom Sawyer in digital vs. traditional print was intriguing (in fact, I sent it to one of my bosses).  To me, offering a choice of print vs. digital seems easy.  But in the reality I work in, I see teachers tossing roadblocks left and right.  It keeps coming back to time – where is there time to research the possibilities – find a novel available in digital format for free, that is aligned with what I am teaching.  How and when do the students who need/want the digital format get it?  Maybe it is me throwing the roadblocks???  Maybe not.  More on this later when I have had some more time to dwell on it.