Blogging in the Classroom

Write a description of the most recent Staff Development you implemented and describe

how it went (good and bad) and what you would do to change it (if needed.)

My most recent staff development was Introducing SMARTBoards to classroom teachers. Things that went well:

1. I started and ended on time. I think this respects teacher’s time, and the more often I am consistent with how I spend my time, teachers will reflect this and show the same. (ie: attending meetings/workshops on time)

2. I modeled setting up the board.

3.  I showed video examples of teachers and students using SMARTBoards in their classroom.

4. I linked websites where they can find pre-made lessons specific to their grade level and subject area.

5. Additionally, after reading their comments from their exit slips, I worked individually with three teachers, and modeled a lesson with one teacher.

A change I would make would be learning the Notebook software better to show teachers how they can create their own lessons to better tailor the instruction to fit their specific needs.

Definition of Professional Development

The article made an interesting point about using data to drive professional development. It stated “(PD) defines a clear set of educator learning goals based on the rigorous analysis of the data.” Currently, that is not what we practice. Our data analysis skims the surface, and is rarely rigorous. I’m not sure what we can do to better understand our data. I think our problem is that we look at the data once. We offer initial reactions, but don’t dig deeper.

My school tries to follow the problem solving technique called The Five Whys. This can become extremely frustrating to take such a long time to get to the root of the problem, but I can see how this in-depth focus could be usefully applied to looking at data. We’ve never applied it to our ISAT, or Reading Benchmark data, but perhaps we should try in the future and see if that helps us determine future professional development.

What do you consider the most important aspects of 21st Century Literacy?

I think information and visual media literacy are perhaps the most important aspects of 21st Century Literacy for us to teach. Our students are bombarded with images on TV, in games, and online. With the popularity of Javascript and Flash, even navigating safe and educational websites can be difficult for teachers. If we teach our students to be literate of how media tries to influence their audience, not only will we teach students to think independently, but also this gives their background knowledge for their own media-making.

What was the last GREAT professional development you attended and why?

Great PD? As I mentioned earlier, most are terrible. I remember one series of workshops I took in 2007 that were excellent. It was on using drama in the classroom to teach the content skills. The organization leading it was called Creative Directions.

What made it great? It was very hands on, gave lots of text to take back into the classroom, and was led by seasoned teachers who knew how to manage a classroom very well. They were practical, yet had fun and that mix invigorated me. I felt excited to take this new knowledge and apply it in my classroom. And I did. For the entire year. The kids loved it, and it increased not only their reading comprehension, but their awareness of themselves and their empathy for others. We definitely bonded.

I raved about the workshop, shared with my colleagues, and recommended it to as many others as I could. Thats another sign of greatness; you want to spread that joy of teaching again.

A blog post reflecting on the experience of creating and implementing a problem-based lesson, and on what you might do to improve the learning experience.

Creating a problem-based lesson around the ISAT was timely and a welcome break from routine. Unfortunately, January and February are notoriously rigid months that don’t provide a lot of wiggle room to break from test prep.

Having students create a audio-visual jingles to help memorize concepts allows students to be original and showcase their ability. It also gives students the opportunity to own their education. The teacher exposes students to WHAT needs to be learned, but students define how they will craft their understanding of the subject. Would this lesson be taught in isolation? No. But this would be a welcome addition to any particularly dry subject.

I think this problem-based lesson definitely reaches the knowledge and comprehension levels of Bloom’s, but which others? Synthesis because they have to compose information and apply it in a new way? Perhaps even evaluation, for them to follow up and evaluate if their creation aided their peer’s understanding.

Thoughts?

What is the best way to get others at your schools to use more technology

in their teaching and the students’ learning?

The best way to get teachers to use technology in their teaching:

1. Knowing what they’re teaching. When I have built an authentic relationship with my teachers and I know what their content is and who there students are, teachers feel like I am genuinely interested in and understanding of their needs. This allows me to give better recommendations for what will work with their curriculum.

2. Modeling. Lets be honest: sometimes its hard to jump feet first into something new. It is helpful to see a lesson from start to finish with real live (read: not perfect) students. Modeling helps teachers of all experience levels. A fresh pair of eyes can always offer new tricks of the trade.

3. Co-teaching. Co-teaching provides a step after modeling, but before being completely independent. Co-teaching can also help troubleshoot when tech goes awry. And once its happened with help in the room, its not as scary when it happens and you’re alone in the room.

4. Being flexible. In the end, if a tech teacher is inflexible and only gives tech help on their own time and not on a classroom teacher’s time, this develops an uncomfortable relationship. Classroom teachers are busy people who work directly with our students. We need to work around their schedules and generally speaking be more accomodating.

Contribute to the debate over the use of computer games as educational tools.

There are many computer games that are educational tools. Teachers need to not use computer games as babysitters. Some games, but not nearly enough, automatically assess student’s progress and adapt (get harder or easier) to continusously differentiate to different learner’s needs. If a teacher does not use these types of games, it is the teacher’s role to make sure students are gaming at appropriate skill levels. For example, one game on addition may not be appropriate for an entire second grade class. Some students may need to practice adding by single digits, some double, and some may be ready to carry. Even within computer games, teachers need to provide differentiated practice.

Discuss the evaluation of students’ use of technology tools.

One thing that classroom teachers need to remember is that when digital tools are used as vessels for projects, the content and the technology standards should be both addressed and assessed. When lesson plans are written at the beginning of the unit, the assessment should be created immediately to reflect the knowledge that should be learned from the standard. One site that has helpful pre-made rubrics is found on Kathy Schrock’s webpage. Scroll to the bottom of the page to where it says “Multimedia Rubrics.”

Students will create a list of “essential questions” (20) that could form the basis of problem-based learning experience in your classroom or in the classrooms of teachers that you work with and will list possible student approaches to answering the questions. These questions should refer to relevant ISBE or ISTE standards.

In preparation for the ISATs, I want the fourth grade student to do an inquiry project that determines the best ways for students to retain information.  The end project should be some audio/visual or web created study guide to be used with their peers in their classroom. The following standards will be addressed:

Language Arts:

• 4A: Students who meet the standard can listen effectively in formal and informal situations.
• 4B: Students who meet the standard can speak effectively using language appropriate to the situation and audience.
• 5A: Students who meet the standard can locate, organize, and use information from various sources to answer questions, solve problems, and communicate ideas.
• 5C: Students who meet the standard can apply acquired information, concepts and ideas to communicate in a variety of formats.

Technology:

• 2B: Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
• 4A: Identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation.
• 4C: Collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.

Below are 20 essential questions that will guide our mini project:

1. What is the purpose of the ISAT?
2. What do the ISAT results indicate?
3. What determines “success” as a fourth grade student?
4. How are ISAT results an indicator of our success?
5. What is the teacher’s role in preparing students for the ISAT?
6. What is the student’s role in preparing students for the ISAT?
7. How can we support our peer’s preparedness for the test?
8. What are ways that people memorize information?
9. What are ways people retain concepts?
10. What emotions do students experience when preparing for tests?
11. How can students manage the emotions they feel?
12. How can we share our best test prep activity with our class?
13. How can we share our best test prep activity with other classes?
14. How can we influence other students to create their own study skills? 
15. How can we create a method for remembering math strategies?
16. How can we create a method for remembering reading strategies?
17. How can we create a method for remembering science concepts?
18. What do you think our results will be after viewing/experiencing our test prep method?
19. How can we measure the success of our ISAT prep method?
20. How can we archive our methods for subsequent years?

Should technology (computer skills, typing, software instruction, etc.) be taught as separate skills or as part of an integrated lesson?

Integrated! Its become a part of our life. A recent study found that children from 8 to 18 spend 7 hours and 38 minutes in front of media (TV, video games, computer, mp3 player, phone) every day. Students are multitaskers and can learn content and process at the same time. Teach tech integrated. They can handle it.