Self Portraits

Last year, Lauren Gaffney gave me an assignment she had created to connect students with some of the aphorisms that Wilde uses in his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. The project asks students to take a close look at themselves using two of Wilde's quotes:

1. “It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors” (Wilde 3).
2. “Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter” (Wilde 8).

and to construct a self portrait that reveals how the student sees him/herself, and another portrait as to how others see him/her. The portrait can take any form that the student wishes. I wanted to share a few done by my seniors. All are very different and show various modes of interpretation of the assignment. After looking throuhg them all, I am so inspired with how personal they all were to reveal themselves to our class. Well done!

Michael
Alex 1 and 2
Soo

Hopefully, I can convince these students to blog about their self portraits so there is a better understanding behond their pictures.

A Whole New Meaning

Friday was the last of our fishbowls on Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind with emphasis on the chapter of "Meaning". We had a plethora of live bloggers in period 2 (Julie Lindsay, Will Richardson, Stephanie Sandifer, and Kristin Hokansen) and period 5 (Judy O'Connell, Lucy Gray, and our own Superintendent of LPS, Scott Murphy).

Both sessions went very well; interesting, thought provoking, and of course, both flew by. Second hour seemed to really focus on the change in education. What is necessary to change school to create a more meaningful learning environment? How do grades fit into the process? How does personalized learning fit into Meaning? I think my favorite part of the whole process was finally getting Karl Fisch to go on one of his famous "Fischrants" about Math and how Math is taught.

Fifth hour was equally as impressive.This class took Meaning to a deep level that I didn't realize was possible. Not only did have the Superintendent of their school district sit in the inner circle with them, but they also managed to carry on a deeply philosophical discussion of what is meaning? what is happiness? They also connected their discussion to their history, science, language arts, and theater classes, as well as extra-curricular activities. My favorite part of this class was when one of my students revealed why she loves acting when prompted by her acting teacher. At first, she gave a very surface level response, but then was asked to really think about it, she explained that she loved acting because she loved communicating through a character what one's feelings and emotions would be in situations to help others understand one another better. It was a great response! It put the biggest smile upon my face as well as the rest of her classmates and even Mr. Murphy.

Overall, I am so impressed by my students from their willingness to try something new, for being put in the spotlight with a number of really intelligent people having to blog what they think of these senses as ninth graders, and for most of all, caring about the process and learning and education. They honestly want to change the way learning looks and I hope after this experience they realize the power resides in them to make the change.

Video Games Drive Me Nuts

Such a hard hitting title of my blog post must mean that I have something important to say. Sadly, I am feeling I don't. Reflecting on this past week's live blogging just seems to be not what my brain is thinking about. I just came from the Colorado Podcasting Summit where I learned everything I ever wanted to know about podcasting and more. However, I know that I want to look back on all of the efforts of my students as well as Maura and I and have a journal of our ups and downs. So, I keep on writing...



Period Two had some wonderful in class participants for our live blogging session on Play, Dan Maas and Sue Chandler as well as Cathy Nelson in the outer circle. I am not sure if have two guests in class threw off the discussion or if the kids were just stuck on the topic of "video games" but the discussion wasn't of the high caliber I have come to associate with this group. I don't think the conversation was horrible but I was just dissappointed. They were asked some really good questions from Sue and Dan but they didn't seem to "get" the questions. Also, I need to debreif with this class again about thinking about what you are going to say before saying it and not monopolzing the conversation.

I don't know what my problem is with the video game industry- this is turning into a stream-of-consciousness reflection. I understand all of Pink's arguments about what it does with creativity, collaboration, thinking skills, but I have to say, I would rather have my own children create their own games as I did when I was growing up. Why confine them to sitting in front of a television? And yes, I know some games are portable but they kids are still staring at a screen. Ironically that is what I am doing right now :( I don't think I am lacking in terms of any of the qualities that Pink says video games enable in us (I am opening myself up here for criticism); I just think there has to be a better way to incorporate Play into the Conceptual Age rather than using a video game.


On a side note, Play happened to be one of my favorite chapters/senses. I identify so much with Play existing in our lives. I learned more from my extra-curricular playing than I did at school. My coaches taught me team-work/ collaboration as well as probelm solving when situation became difficult. They also taught me to think for myself and enjoy what I was doing everyday because you never know when it can be taken away from you. I hopefully comminucate these ideas to my own students. I want them to love learning and see learning as a form of play especially with my wonderful sense of humor!

Period five did a great job really getting into school as a place of play. We had some excellent outer circle participants with Mike Porter chiming in from our district as well as Karl putting in his two cents every now and then. Eric Grant was solo with the outer circle and did a fantastic job keeping up with the kids pushing their thinking. This class also seemed to move on quickly from video games and focused more on other issues such as humor and joy. One thing I am proud of is that they posted another post continuing the conversation....

Overall not a bad day, but I think the kids are losing their steam. Heck, we don't spend 6 weeks on a novel let alone all the incredible thinking these kids have been exposed to and creating for themselves over the past 5 weeks. One more week to go! I can't believe how mcuh fun we have had playing! Next up- Meaning.

Empathy with Pink

Empathic or Empathetic

First of all, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW!

On Thursday, I had one of the best experiences in my educational career while I watched my students live blog and discuss A Whole New Mind with its author Daniel Pink. The expectations were high on Thursday as a lot of responsibility was placed on my students’ shoulders. They needed to show up on time, get logged-in to their laptops, and ask meaningful and relevant questions because a lot of people were watching what they were doing including the author who had given his time so generously to this opportunity. The students did all that was expected of them and so much more. I can’t express how proud I was of them and continue to be amazed at what kids can achieve given the opportunity to succeed. They all came in prepared and ready to show the world what they could do.

Mr. Pink logged into MeBeam with no issues, he listened to the inner circle conversation, participated in the live blogging with the outer circle, and to top it all off- wanted to talk with our students as well because he was so excited by what he was hearing them say. It is really fun watching a best-selling author appearing in jeans and a t-shirt in front of all of my students.

Watching this from the outside, I often just stood looking around at all that was occurring and was amazed. Here were my students communicating with a living author of a book they were reading. They were having intelligent conversations about Empathy and the role of empathy/ sympathy in education, in the world around them, and how they dealt in their own lives with empathy. Kids were jumping in and out of the inner circle, they were asking good questions of one another, and the teacher was not even participating. They were doing this all on their own! Although, I couldn’t resist chiming in my two cents a couple of times.

My other great take away was watching the administrators marvel at what these kids were doing. They were so taken back by their level of thought and engagement. I felt such pride in my students to have not only knocked my socks off, but those of the faculty as well.

The technology worked so well for us on Thursday despite all my nervousness. Pink was able to MeBeam in successfully both through the audio and video. He was able to live blog with the students (and I think he was a little take back by the prolificness with their comments- what can I say, they have a lot to say!). As I said previously, he even talked to them at the beginning, waving hi and letting us see where he was. He also had them conduct a little experiment about Empathy, and finally with the last couple of minutes, left them with a message to not always believe authority figures. (That tied in perfectly with what we have been telling our students when reading anything)

We spent some time fifth hour debriefing with what they thought of the combined 2/5 hour classes and having all those kids blogging with Mr. Pink. There were positives and negatives, but overall, the kids expressed such gratitude at having this opportunity. They really got it and I think they will never forget this moment in their lives.

So, thanks to Mr. Pink, Karl Fisch who continues to put all his energy into making this possible, and Maura Moritz for putting up with all this craziness in her class too! WOW!

Creating Symphony

This last week we focused our fishbowl discussions on the “Symphony” chapter of Daniel Pink’s AWNM. We had some very good, in-depth discussions. I have to attribute some of the reasons for our good conversations to introducing our students to a blog post written by Gary Stager who has some serious issues with Daniel Pink’s book and theories. Stager especially disagreed with this chapter on Symphony making for intriguing points of discussion. Most of the students read his blog post and some were able to even live blog with Stager as well. (This makes me think immediately of what a great educational opportunity this has been and continues to be for my students. Here they are in Centennial, CO reading a book from a guy in Washington, DC and will be able to communicate with the author this coming week. They have also been able to read criticism of the book and live blog with the author of the critical review. I am just awe struck for a moment. When does that ever happen in education that we put students in contact with authors and their critics allowing for students to make up their own minds?) So, my greatest reaction to this past week is the fact that my students are confused. Some are still standing by Pink, some are in the middle, and others are in disagreement with Pink. What a great classroom environment! I think the best comment came from a student in my second hour who said, “I don’t know what to think anymore!” Isn’t that what we want in education?

I have to admit after the first couple of blogging sessions I wasn’t sure where my students were going with Pink. They all seemed to be in such agreement with what he said. Because of this, the discussion seemed to be very surface level. This can also be attributed to the fact that it is different discussing non-fiction than the fiction books we have previously read and discussed. Now, we are all over the place in terms of our understandings and connections. I love the differences of opinions. And I also appreciate how willing they are to listen and learn from one another. Although they disagree, they do it in a respectful manner. I don’t know where we are going from here, but I am extremely anxious about this upcoming week and blogging with Mr. Pink. I am wondering if the students will confront Pink with some of their problems in the book (hopefully in a respectful manner) or will they simply revert back to agreement.

So, thanks to those who contributed to our Period 2 discussion Eric Grant, Tim Stahmer, and Renee Howell, and our Period 5 conversation: Judy O'Connell, Christian Long, and Gary Stager.

Feedback from our participants:

Christian's comments

Judy's comments

Gary's comments

Tim's comments

My favorite part of the day was when Mr. Stager informed one of my students that she had won a scholarship:

Gary said...

I love this kid!!! (the one who doesn't like the Pink book)

You win a $15 Gary Stager college scholarship!

I am highly encouraging her to collect.

We were telling stories...

My kids spent this past week focused on "Story" from A Whole New Mind. It was a big week for us all coming off a pretty good start with "Design." I had emailed the links of our work on "Design" as well as blog reponses from our invited guests to Daniel Pink. He was impressed with the work the kids are doing. I shared the email with the students and they were, of course, very excited that he was interested in what they were doing. He even left them a question to think about.



The kids read "Story" on their own this week completing an activity from the portfolio section and then we also started working on thesis statements from their Wikified Research Paper. We began talking about one girl's idea about her WRP topic and before you knew it, it became a free exchange of ideas and helping one another out with possibilities each could explore for his/her paper. Some students even posted links on our class blog asking for further feedback on their papers and for the entire class to use as a way to communicate beyond the classroom. I love it when things are spontaneous! It is so encouraging to see kids helping kids become better learners.



We fishbowled with live blogging on Friday. Period 2 our guests were our school board vice-president Renee Howell, and Kristin Hokanson . The kids did a good job once again. I am continually impressed with their starting questions. They always seems to make me take a step back and remember that they are only freshman. Crazy! Renee sat in the class in the outercircle while Kristin contributed from King of Prussia, PA (I love that name). It was really interesting to change the discussion to a topic the kids could relate to a little more. It seemed stories are such a huge part of all of our lives that we have so many examples to fit with what Pink was talking about. Beyond the discussion, one really awesome thing happened (like Karl says when you work with high schoolers you have to say awesome every now and then). I have a brand new student thrown into the mix of Pink, 1-1 environment, live blogging, wikis, WRP, PLJ, and well, me. Two of my students have taken him under their wing showing him how to set-up everything from his blog, wiki, live blogging, etc. They really stepped up and I couldn't be prouder.



In period 5, our guests were Christian Long, Jim Gates, and our own CIO, Dan Maas. These kids greatly improved over last week asking better questions and focusing the discussion to more relevant issues. In fact, my cool thing for this class was that one of my students broke her arm on Wednesday night at a soccer game, came into school Thursday, and stayed home Friday. I received an email from her mid-day on Friday asking if she could still blog with the class- umm, let me think about it- YEAH! She blogged from home with a broken arm. Why? Because she didn't want to miss out on the experience and her learning wasn't limited to our classroom. That is AWESOME!



Overall, the kids did a much better job. They were more focused, stayed on topic, and asked good questions. So, suggestions? Yep, here are some to think about:

• Jim Gates offered up a good pointer for Maura and I of bringing in good comments from the outer circle to the entire class when we meet again to make sure the inner circle didn't miss out on any of the valuable conversation in the blog. Great idea!


• I would like for my students to start exploring the texts more in-depthly and asking bigger questions. I guess going beyond how this relates to me and looking at the text in a global sense. This might be a stretch for them, but I know there are those that could lead the way!


• I don't feel as though my presenters are as prepared with their questions as they need to be. This is something I will bring up in class.


• I would also like to see this next week, because it fits in so well, for the students to begin synthesizing a wide variety of texts (all different media forms) to prove their point or to ask good questions. One, this would help them go beyond the basics of the book; two, it would broaden their perspective on how big these issues really are; three, it pushes their thinking. Jim Gates did an excellent modeling of this for them. He brought in a Christmas Story he often passes around, a clip from NASA, referenced a movie, Apollo 13, and podcast all while talking about story. WOW!


• Finally, my students were always very good with their fiction books by using the book to back up their points or using it as a jumping off point to ask good questions. They can do the same with non-fiction. Use those quotations people! They won't bite, I promise!

Up next week: Will Richardson, Christian Long, Judy O'Connell, Eric Grant, Tim Stahmer, and Renee Howell. I can't wait to see what we talk about then.

Design Reflections

We are under way here at Camp Smith regarding our pursuits of learning what it means to use a whole new mind. Maura and I spent the first week school came back into session introducing the two major projects, the Personal Learning Journal and the Wikified Research Paper, to our students. There are so many questions as to what each needs to look like (this I would hope wouldn't be a consideration seeing as how we spent most of the first semester focused on the idea that they are in charge of their own learning) but alas, it still is. I guess some kids are more difficult to change. I too have many questions as to what this is all going to look like since nothing like this has ever been done before, but I really trust in my students that THEY will lead me where they projects need to go. We completed a test run of the fishbowl with live blogging so that Karl could work out the technical side of bringing in our valued guests. We were successful that it all seemed to come together. I really never doubt that though when Karl is involved.

Week Two was a focused week on Design. This is the first of the senses Pink explores in his book A Whole New Mind. I re-read the chapter while Karl and I were on a plane to Philadelphia. It is not an easy chapter- I am not speaking here of the reading level but more on a discussion basis. I mean how are ninth graders going to think about this on a deeper more meaningful basis. I remember thinking, how will they connect this to education and to their own lives?

So finally Friday our first live blogging day with influential and learned professionals came- Period 2 and Period 5. We were ready, the kids were ready, even the technology seemed to cooperate. The invited guests were all that and so much more. I can't thank them enough for taking the time, the energy and the love for education to connect with our students. It was definitely something I know our students will never forget. Thanks Darren, Dean, Julie, Sylvia, Karen and Tim!

Overall, it went fine. I am not giving it a fantastic review because there is so much left to come I don't want to over sell it. But here are some of my contemplated thoughts- they are contemplated because I don't want to hurt my students' feelings knowing that some read my personal blog, but also that I have taken some time to think about what happened on Friday...I guess here is the GOOD, THE BAD, and THE UGLY:

THE GOOD:

• the kids all participated and were enthusiastic. One student who was even home sick, blogged along with the class. His example shows the perfect reason why technology makes learning possible anytime anywhere by breaking down the traditional walls! How many kids do you know would still participate in class while home sick?
• the technology worked bringing us all together
• MEBEAM was too cool- I loved being able to see the people chatting online with my students
• Karl didn't explode
• the outer circle live bloggers were on fire (in a good way) They asked meaningful questions, connected the inner and outer circle conversations, kept up with the kids, etc. I was really blown away by them. Wahoo!

THE BAD:

• The kids normally focus on many subjects when we have done fishbowled and live blogged before. They easily connect many texts to one another, traversing ideas to other subjects, but the non-fiction threw them for a loop. We were often stuck on one subject for a long period of time. Sometimes the subjects were way off basis and not even focused on design. This was frustrating. I am going to talk with them about what I observed here.
• In one class, that will go nameless, we talked about labeling kids with "honors" -you can see how we got off on the subject of Design by this example- they brought up a point that if they weren't labeled as Honors or in an Honors class they wouldn't try as hard. This is really disturbing to me for a couple of big reasons; one reason is that I know I have talked to them about what grades mean to me. This doesn't mean I expect them to buy into the philosophy that grades don't really matter, but heck, they have spent a whole semester focused on the idea that education is different in this class. This is not education as usual! This class is about learning and if they were in any class, not just my class it should always be about the learning-NOT ABOUT THE GRADE OR THE LABEL BUT THE LEARNING! That is all we want in education. We just want you to learn. AGHAGHAGHAGH!!!!! and so I digress. The other reason it bothered me was the idea that if they were in a normal class or labeled as regular they wouldn't try hard. Why? Why wouldn't you try? Haven't your parents, teachers, siblings told you that all they want you to do is to try? Why would it be any different in a regular class? The stories that followed their comments were disappointing to say the least especially since this is a class I really admire. I walked away upset and dismayed. These are supposed to be the best and brightest of our school and they feel this way about education. It really got me down.

The UGLY:

• I don't know if there is anything really ugly about it- I wish more of our online participants had used MEBEAM.
• Disappointment about my kids attitudes towards education and Honors level classes could fall into this category as well. I am really perplexed by them. I need to have a serious conversation with them about what I heard.

Not to leave this on a sad note, we had some great commentary from our invited guests. Check out the following links:
Darren
Julie
Sean

Also, looking back over what I have written, always a good habit before you post, I realize how many more "goods" there were than "bads" or "uglies". I am not turning into a Karl like pessimist here; these are just some difficult and even challenging conversations to have with my students. There always seems to be more opportunities to learn.

I am looking forward to this next week and to another conversation. Heck, this next week it is all about conversation- our chapter is Story!

CSAP scores revealed-SCARY

Last week, teachers of ninth grade and tenth grade students were given in their mail boxes a highlighted sheet of their students who are partially proficient or unsatisfactory. Out of the 24 students I have in my ninth grade class, 11 are in the above categories. SCARY! I always have these weird feelings about test scores when they come out. One, I get really worried that I am going to somehow be measured as a teacher by their ninth grade test scores. What if they don't improve? If they don't improve then I am not doing my job. Also, I want to know what has happened to these kids? How can they not have applied all the writing strategies their teachers have used up to this point to this test? What is even more scary is that it seems that these students scores compared to former students are lowering at a greater rate.

So why write about this? I guess because I am frustrated. What should I do? If I am overly committed to them succeeding on this test, I could offer for them to come in on all of their off-hours form now to CSAP working on CSAP type exercises so that they actually apply the strategies we are working on in class to the standardized test. I actually offered this the other day and only one student out of all 11 wanted to come in.

I believe in all the writing exercises and real world applications I am doing in class, but I worry that those techniques won't transfer for them.

I guess I am wondering what to do? I know I am going to spend some serious time at the beginning of second semester working on their struggling areas, and I hope this works. I just wish I felt they cared as much about improving as I feel like their teachers do.

Rubrics, rubrics, rubrics

I was sitting in class the other day and had what I like to think of as a Ah-ha moment- or environmentally conscious moment. It was nothing too revolutionary, but here I sat grading presentations on Personal Learning Networks and The Chosen background information as well as previously had graded This I Believe essays. With all of these, I printed out rubrics I had created on the computer. Why did I do this? It seems like a no-brainer that I would use my laptop to assess my students work rather than printing out a rubric and then handwriting illegible comments for my students to later decipher (I actually think I have nice handwriting but I guess my students would beg to differ on the writing they see). This is a change I want to make. I want to be able to use the rubrics online and then comment directly on them.

No big in depth revelation here- just an easy solution.

Reflections on PLN...12 weeks in

I want you to take some time and really reflect on our use of Personal Learning Networks. Think about the following questions and compose a detailed and thoughtful response in order to guide our use of PLNs for second semester.

1. What do you like about PLNs?
2. What are some challenges of PLNs?
3. What do you think of the PLN presentations in class on Fridays?
4. Does reflecting on your presentation in an evaluative form in your personal blog help you?
5. Do you access the audio version of your PLN presentation? If so, does it help you? If not, why not?
6. Does it help you to read the reactions of your classmates to your presentation?
7. Are the categories of your subscriptions helpful?
8. When you don't complete an assigned PLN, why don't you?
9. Are there any suggestions or changes you think we need to make for next semester?

Parent Teacher Conferences-Reflection

As previously posted, I changed the way I did conferences this semester. Instead of concentrating on my students' progress via their grades in class, I conducted conferences with their learning as the focus. I asked my students to reflect on their learning based on the following questions:

• Assess your learning in class so far this semester. Look at your participation, growth in writing, comprehension, etc..
• Where, in terms of your learning, do you want to be at the end of the semester?
• How are you going to get there?
• What can I do to help?
• Write a message to your parents.

The students then were asked to bring home a copy of their learning assessment for their parents to read before conferences as well as place a copy in my class drop box for me to access at conferences. Most of my students did give a copy of their assessment to their parents. Some parents hadn't read it but had been told by their kids they had a letter for them about school and so they read it off my laptop as part of our conference time. Only a few parents had no idea their child had written a learning assessment. Overall, the reaction I received from a number of parents was positive to what they read regardless of how their child grade-wise was doing in my class (we post grades online so almost all of our parents know their child's grade). In fact, I recall only once throughout two nights of conferences actually talking about grades- the student is failing.

What was difficult about this whole process was that 5 minutes for conferences was definitely not long enough. I had actual conversations with parents about their child and feel like I took away more from them about how their child is growing as a learner, or how their child needs to grow as a learner. I felt like I listened as much as I talked which is a huge change from the way I participated in conferences before. I was the one relaying all my information to the parent rather than allowing them to give me insight into their child and react to what their child had written.

Here are a few samples of things students said in their assessments:

Student 1: I have grown a lot so far during this year in terms of my reading comprehension and the understanding of different texts. Being in this class has definitely improved these things. I love coming to this class every day because it is very enjoyable and it is a great learning environment. The way that our class learns is so different that it is almost motivational for me to learn in it because it is so much fun. We have already read Macbeth and Lord of the Flies so far this year. Every day we would have discussions in class about the story, which not only allowed me to share my ideas and interact, but it allowed me to gain more understanding of what was going on in the story. When our class was required to read and annotate Lord of the Flies it helped me learn about the book by myself. My reading understanding has definitely improved. I also love participating and speaking up in this class because everyone will listen and then be able to give you feed back about your thoughts.

At the end of this semester I want to be able to read a book without any annotations or discussions but still be able to fully understand it. I want my mind processing to become much better, and for me to have deeper thoughts even when reading a book that was not assigned in class. I love reading and it would be great if I were able to understand something without having to research or ask questions about it on paper. I want my head to do all of the work in my head and be able to understand a book that I might read in my free time.

I am going to achieve this goal by doing all of my work for reading books. I will annotate and ask questions which will then teach me to do thinking for myself in my head. It is something that I will have to work for, and it will also come as I get older and grow in my thoughts and ways.

Mrs. Smith, you can help me achieve this goal by having more class discussions and helping me ask good questions. It might sound like a funny goal, but it would be amazing if I could understand everything that I read. Even if it was some book that had nothing to do with our class. I don’t know if there is much else you can do to help me achieve this goal. It is mostly something that I have to work for.

Student 2: Mrs. Smith’s class really is my favorite class. I actually understand what is going on. She always has interesting and different projects for us to do so that we don’t lose interest and work hard. Even though I like the work in her class I think that she kind of gives us a lot of it. Even though her class is my favorite, it is also the class that I have the most homework in. But the reason why I don’t mind doing it so much is because a lot of it is done on the computer and I like working on the computer. But I always do the work that we are given. But now that cross country is over I will have a lot more time to work on my homework and assignments. I know you think that I am a horrible student that doesn’t work hard and only cares about her social life, but I’m really not like that. I promise that my grades will go up and I am striving for an A in this class, Soccer/ Rec, and US History and a B in Science and Math. I really want those grades by the end of the semester. I am going to start going into my teachers when I need help after school and during my off hours, I’m going to spend less time on the phone willingly instead of being grounded from it, and I’m going to start studying really really hard on all my tests. I don’t like studying for tests very much but I will start doing it more often. Mrs. Smith doesn’t have to do anything to help me other than when I go in for help because she is already doing a good job teaching me in class. But the only thing I would like for you to help me with is to not put me down so much. I know I have bad grades, but I’m working on it really hard and when you take my phone away and tell me I can’t go trick or treating with my best friend. High school is already stressful enough and it doesn’t help very much when things like that happen.

Student 3:

1. Assessing my learning: I feel like I have learned a lot this semester, but not just learned. I feel like I have actually connected things we learned to life. Macbeth and LOF, for instance, were very relevant to human nature. It was so interesting to read these and talk about humans and society and the attrition thereof. The discussions we have are awesome and I always want to keep going. I think the main thing I need to work on is responding to others more on blogger. I need to learn how to have actual conversations on blogger (since it is hard for me to do this when there is no actual verbal dialogue going on). Other than that though, I feel pretty confident with what I have learned.

2. At the end of the semester I really want to take the idea of “learning outside of the school walls” to a whole new level. I definitely incorporate what I learn with how I live, but I feel like I could do more. Overall, there is no specific goal I want to achieve, like better grades or anything, just continuing to add my learning to my way of living. After all, that is the true reason for education.

3.I just want to continue conferencing with you about papers. This really helps me to understand what I need to fix in my writing, and it is just so cool that a teacher actually wants to spend time talking about learning instead of just being a teacher when in the classroom.

Student 4: I have grown in class in a few different ways. First off, I am able to make connections to different things better. For example, I was able to make a lot of connections to Lord of the Files and Macbeth. I have also been able to manage my time better. I feel that I have participated in class quite a bit. I not only raise my name in class, but I also participate in all of the class blog discussions. I feel that my writing has always been pretty good, but I feel that I have gotten a little bit better at extending my word choice. For example, I think that I used good vocabulary words in my Macbeth essay. I think that I do have a good foundation for my comprehension. I feel that I really benefit when we discuss the book in class, though.

At the end of the semester, I would like to be in the position where I feel less stressed. At times, we have a lot of homework, and on other nights we don’t have hardly any at all. I would like to have a more constant amount so that we can plan out nightly homework a little bit more. I would also like to write more essays, rather than do so many projects.

I will reach that goal by trying to plan ahead more. I will try to use all of my time wisely. I will continue doing what I have been doing all semester. I think that I have been doing a pretty good job this semester.

You can help my by giving us more warning for all of our projects, and assignments. I think that you could maybe print us out a sheet that has due dates and our schedule for about a month. There would be no surprises this way, and we might be able to all have things done on time.

Would I do it again? Most definitely, but I would do a couple of things differently. One I would make sure all the parents had received the letter early enough to read it and be able to react to it. Also, I would have sent a letter with their child's learning assessment indicating my purpose behind doing conferences differently.

I am going to ask my students and hopefully their parents to comment on this process as well. Yep, that's right I want the parents to create blogger accounts as well so they can participate in the conversation. After all, that was my goal all around to create a conversation about learning.

¡

Releasing My Seniors from Grades

My seniors created their own semester long project constructing their own definition of a hero through studying the works of Oedipus Rex (tragic hero-Greek), Beowulf (epic hero), Canterbury Tales, and Hamlet (Shakespearean tragic hero) as well as connecting to our in class discussions of modern day heroes. These are group projects which will be presented as their class final.

We discussed some ideas together one day in class about different ways they could demonstrate their understandings of heroes. I shared with them some projects I had come across regarding creative ways to construct a definition. One was as sample Oxford English Dictionary Definition my friend and colleague Lauren Gaffney created. Another was a Time Magazine article of the future looking at heroes (Gaffney created this as well- what can I say, she has great creative assessments so I keep stealing them from her). I showed my classes these two assignments but clarified for themas well that I wanted this to be their project. After taking the better part of two classes (different weeks) we came to the following criteria:

Final Project: What is a hero?

• Multi-media
• -- Photo story, movie maker…
• Group project
  -- 4-5 maximum
  -- Everyone participates significantly-veto power
• Individual reflection of contributions
  -- Self reflection
  -- Peer evaluation
• Modern examples
• OED Definition as a part
  -- Portfolio
  -- Document comprising all work
  -- Include OED written definition
  -- Overview summing up all ideas into one
  -- Organized
  -- Creative
• 10 minute presentation
  -- Clear and smooth transitions
  -- Organized
  -- Answers essential question
  -- Goes beyond the expectations
• Synthesize all text covered in semester
• Personal commentary
  -- React to what you have learned about a hero
  -- Give feedback through modern day heroes
  -- React to the evolution of the hero
  
  Point Value:
  No grade-intrinsic motivation

Hopefully, after looking over the criteria you noticed this final point (no pun intended):

Point Value:
No grade-intrinsic motivation

This was the decision the class agreed upon after much deliberation. We talked about the seriousness of an agreement like this and the trust that takes place between the teacher and student as well as the students working together. What would happen if members of your group weren't taking the assignment seriously? What would happen if members of your group weren't completing the project? What would happen if group's fall short of the expectations of the assignment? If groups don't show any work at all? I really felt like we talked through a lot of the pitfalls that could come from releasing the control of this project by getting a grade to completing this project to demonstrate learning. This is a project they created so if research is correct, they shouldn't need to receive a grade on it because they will be intrinsically motivated to succeed. Right?

My reaction to all of this is two-fold. On one side, I am excited of the possibility. How could I not be? Here are students taking their learning in their own hands. YES! They are using real world skills of collaboration, critical thinking, synthesis of information, to demonstrate their own understanding of information as well as relating it to the real world. On the other side,I am scared. How could I let them not be graded especially on something as important as a semester final. What are my colleagues going to say? What is my principal going to say? I feel like instead of letting them down I am raising the bar, but will they see that?

But I have hope. I believe in them. Why? Read their comments after we created the project. Here are a couple:

Brooks K...

Guys, it is our duty as responsible students to take a leading initiative and care enough about our scholastic achievement that we excel beyond standards despite receiving a grade or not. I have found that when grades are less applied to study habits and to my work ethic, I succeed. When I go into class not for a grade but to actually learn and take away something valuable, my mentality is always in the right place and I know I have structured myself with full potential to learn.

Kyle B...
I think that all the fuss that this style of evaluation has created is based upon the fact that, ever since middle school, we have strived for personal gratification through good grades. This is all we have known and, by not receiving a grade on an assignment that would normally comprise a sizable portion of our grades has upset the pattern that we have known and accepted for the past 7 years of our education. We are all members of an exceptional class and none of us would wish to abuse this opportunity that Mrs. Smith has given us, an opportunity to succeed and exceed expectations solely for the knowledge of success.

I will keep you posted on the progress of the project. I am planning on giving them some tools like Google Docs to organize their projects as well as some in class time to meet and discuss with the group where they are going.

Welcome to Conferences

I am one of those teachers that usually walks towards conferences dreading the conversation with parents because of the fear that one of them will go off on me about some aspect of my classroom, teaching, something random I said (I say a lot of random things not realizing what I say until I see it on a scribe post- i.e. I would kick kids in their shins if they didn't complete an assignment). However, usually, I walk away from conferences feeling appreciated by the parents as well as having learned more about my students. One aspect of conferences that we have been trying to change here at AHS is to steer the focus away from grades per say and focus more on the student specifically. In fact I recall a teacher who will go nameless saying he wished to put up a sign at conferences that would say, "If you want to talk to me about your child's grade, check Infinite Campus; if you want to talk about your child, see me." This is the direction I am hoping to go with conferences this year. I asked my students today (I wish I would have done this on Monday) to reflect on the following questions in a typed paper:

Assess your learning in class so far this semester. Look at participation, growth in writing, comprehension, etc…

Where do you want to be at the end of the semester?

How are you going to get there?

What help can I provide to achieve your goal?

Write a message to your parents.

I let them know before I gave them these questions my purpose behind doing conferences differently was that I know grades are important to them and to their parents, but what my greater concern is about is their learning. That is what I wanted to focus on with their parents at conferences rather than just talking about their grade. Now I know some of you are thinking that their grade should be a true reflection of their learning, and I agree that it is in part, but I an still one of those teachers who holds my students accountable for turning in work on time. Because of this, I think their grade measures part of their learning but not all of their learning. I actually think that grades can't fully capture a student's understanding because there are too many other factors to consider, but that is another conversation entirely.

After my students responded to the questions, they were asked to print out a copy to take home to their parents. The had a couple of options with what to do once they gave the note to their parents. One option is to let their parents know that we will be talking about this at conferences and not to talk about it till then or option two is to talk right then and there discussing their learning with their parents. Either way their parents are to bring the copy to conferences. Also, my students were to put a copy in our class drop box for me to access at conference to discuss.

I am anxious to see how this all turns out.

¡

Cross Curricular Happenings

I have always been fascinated with the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. I know it sounds dorky but here is a teacher, John Scopes, who chose with the help a few close friends (I don't know if I want these kind of friends) to challenge a law he felt was unjust. I find the history behind the whole trial as well as the outcome fascinating. I think I bring a lot of this enthusiasm into our discussions when we start reading Inherit the Wind. However, one area I feel like I have never done a great job of is making the trial relevant to my students- that is until yesterday.
Ideally, I wanted two Biology teachers to come and speak with my ninth graders about what it is like to be a biology teacher in the 21st century. I asked Adam Wallace, a passionate evolutionist, as well as Cara Syers, a devoted Creationist, to come and speak to my students. Cara wasn't able to find a sub for her class but we were quite fortunate to have Adam come and speak. The kids didn't say much to Adam after his presentation, but they left some interesting comments on our class blog in reaction to his presentation.
I do have to confess I was nervous exploring the issue of religion/ faith/ creation of the earth with ninth graders but I am very pleased with how this turned out. I hope it made to more personal and relevant to them. I know I learned many new things from Adam that I hadn't thought of before regarding his role as Biology teacher and all the various beliefs versus hypothesis about the creation of the world (notice Adam I used the word hypothesis). I am looking forward to next year hoping that I can have Cara and Adam both present to facilitate this important conversation with our students.
Adam- I would love for you to comment about the presentation and experience as well.

Macbeth Fishbowl Discussion Test...A Student's Perspective

Being an honors student all my life, I have gotten used to discussing, and I have loved it since my very first guided discussion in fourth grade. Personally, the best way for me to process my thoughts, and for them to be fully formed, is for me to talk them through with other people. I grow so much from hearing others ideas and from having to support my own. It helps me to become a better communicator and a better thinker. This past Tuesday, we had our final test on Shakespeare’s great tragedy, Macbeth. Generally, a test is a series of questions on a piece of plane white paper. However, Macbeth is not black and white, so that type of test just wasn’t going to cut it. Instead, we tried out our very first world famous Anne Smith Fishbowl discussion. This is not your usual discussion (Surprise, surprise! Like Ms. Smith would do something out of the box, please!). In this discussion, we mixed verbal discussion with blogger.

When I first heard about this double discussion idea, I was not too jazzed. I am not a lover of technology, so it seemed very impersonal to me for there to be a chance for teenagers to not talk in class. I mean, what sane teenager wouldn’t rather blog than discuss Macbeth? Let me just say, I was very pleasantly surprised! I couldn’t get a word in edgewise! Me, of all people, the one girl who usually dominates discussions and prays for others to speak up, did not get more than three chances to talk! It was astounding how much thinking was going on during those forty minutes of class. I felt like we could have spent many more hours discussing and growing as learners. There were 175 comments on our blog when we were finished, and there are only about 30 of us in the class! Wow!

Even though I didn’t blog too much, it was such a relief to type my thoughts when I couldn’t speak up because of all my fervently discussing peers. In that way, I could still have a discussion and finish thoughts that had been passed over in the verbal discussion. I could also remember what I was going to say during those long periods when others were conversing.

People whom I had never heard speak before let go of all their reservations on the blog. They spoke freely about their opinions and gave new insights to portions of the text. I was truly enlightened by the findings of my peers, and apprehended the material much more completely. Also, it was fun to have little disagreements that had to be worked through, and to be in complete agreement at times as well.

For any teachers who may be reading this post, I would seriously recommend trying this type of discussion out with your students, especially if you are reading literature that has important implications but that may be hard to understand. It was very beneficial to my understanding of Macbeth and I look forward to many more rewarding discussions like this in the days to come! - Hannah L.

Audio of PLN Presentations

Anna K.
Josh TS.
Brandon H.
Alex E.
Lauren E.
Alena V.
Sean B.
Carter W.
Carter W. 2
Joey W.
Annie S.
Berek M.
Kelly S.
Angelica O.
Lauren E. 2
Xavia H.
Alena V. 2
Dennis K.
Sean B. 2
Brandon H. 2
Anna K. 2
Lauren P.
Samantha H.
Jackie N.
Mandi G.
Ethan L.
Berek M. 2
Sean D.
Adam A.
Kelly S. 2
Mandi G. 2
Alex E. 2
Joey W. 2
Samantha H. 2
Annie S. 2
Jackie N. 2
Lauren P. 2
Adam A. 2
Ethan L. 2
Josh TS. 2
Dennis K. 2
Sean D. 2
Xavia H. 2

Personal Learning Network-Presentations

Last Friday, I had our first group of students present on their personal learning network. I used this rubric to evaluate their presentation as well as had the class access the student blog he/she was referencing to leave real time comments about the presentation( we pulled up the blog and had it appear via our overhead projectors). While the student was speaking, the class reacted to the presentation. The instantaneous feedback the students provided was valuable to the presenter. If a classmate did not feel comfortable offering oral feedback in our class debriefing, the evaluator could reference his/her blog and see what reactions the class had to the presentation. Here are some examples:

seanb said...
Brandon good job presenting. you had a clear voice and didnt studder or fidget. But next time try and be more descriptive and dont fade off reading the story.

laurene said...
brandon! Good job on your presentation. Your pace on your speaking was good and slow so I could really understand you. Your eye contact with the class was also good. I also really liked how you compared your article with your history class and your english class and you went into details with how they relate to the article. I also think that you should try not to fade off win speaking and try to speak a little clearer, but other than that good job.

berekm said...
Anna, You did a good job speaking loud and clear so everyone can hear. I liked your relations with the story about taking pictures of landscapes. I think its funny that you thought New Jersey was New York. I agree with you becuase people do take the easy way out and also students do it too. I understood everything you said and i agreed with the getting pictures online. You looked up while you read and talked to the class as if you memorized the writing. You added an interestin personal aspect to your presentation, good job.

avereel said...
Anna, I really enjoyed your presentation. You really got into detail about how it connects to the world and to yourself. You were so calm about presnting, you were so brave to go first! I totally agree with what you said, too many times, we do take the easy way out. I haven't read My Flickr Conundrum, but your presentation made me really interested. Good job!

annies said...
Alex! Good job explaining the article. I agree because students in the US should have a high literacy rate, and then people will see them as "Kids of the future". But i think it could have been a little longer, and you could have related it to the world and yourself. But otherwise, good job!

Xavia H2011 said...
If you have your notes, try not to look back and forth to the screen and your notes, just choose on. Good job though, your blog was well explained and it was good how you related it to yourself. Try to make it a little longer to.

I also asked for the presenter to add an additional blog entry to their personal blog critiquing his/her presentation. I think it is important for them to reflect on their preparation as well as evaluate their delivery and effect of the presentation. Thinking out loud, it might be interesting to do some goal setting before their presentation on what they hope to achieve in their personal blog and then assess that piece afterward in a reflection blog. Here are some examples of their personal reflections:

Anna K, Overall, Friday's presentation was pretty good, but I still need to work on not sounding so nervous and fidgeting so much. I think I did a good job at keeping eye contact with everyone and not talking to fast which I normally do.

Josh TS, For my next presentation I would like to do a few things diferently, first of all I would liek to be more prepaired with note cards instead of reading off the screen. I would also have like dto have a longer presentation

Alex E., After presenting my PLN in class, i think that i didn't prepare enough, by practising talking and have the materials needed, and my writing didn't have enough detail in it and could have been longer. Also i could have spoke up more and made more eye contact, and work on not saying "ummm" and "like" so much. But besides that i have learned from my mistakes and now i know how to prepare for my next presentation

We have some work to do on the reflection side, but hopefully we will get to some honest feedback on what they did and how they can improve after we practice what good reflection looks like. I am also going to add podcasts of their presentations to their own blogs as well as to Learning and Laptops for them to reflect on. I think this is a valuable piece to a reflective evaluation be hearing what you sound like when speaking in front of a group.

Some changes I decided to make to the presentations after conferencing with Jessie Comp about her classes presentations were that the students need to speak about all their blog postings. I am not sure how this will work out once they have numerous entries but I like the freedom it grants them in their presentation. Also, I am asking the presenter to create follow up questions to their presentation to create a post-presentation dialogue with the class. After all, one of my focus points for creating a Personal Learning Network is to get my students talking about issues that are relevant to them. Jessie had great success with this in her class and I am hoping to create the same dialogues in my class.

Lab

So today, I tried something new. I know, me?

I created a new blog for my Advanced Placement Chemistry Lab students. I had one group volunteer to keep a video/pictorial record of their actions in lab. I even allowed them to repeat the demonstrations that I did at the beginning of the class. One member of the group kept a typed record of what they were photographing/videotaping and then that student is going to send it to me tomorrow. What my plans are, and I need a little help figuring this out, is to post this information in a blog so that we have a record of all the things that we do this year. I just am not sure how easy it is to post video to a blog. Is there another format that I could try? Are there teachers out there that have done things like this already?

I know that when the wireless network is running I can hav ehte students post directly as they are doing the experiment, but what are some possible work arounds right now?

Google Earth meets the Odyssey

During my first few years at AHS, Maura Moritz and I developed an assignment where we had our freshmen complete personal learning journeys on big laminated map mimicking Odysseus own journey. Along the map, they had to carefully mark 10 places they had visited, what they did there, as well as what they learned from the experience. We displayed the maps around the classroom and everyone could marvel at all the places their classmates have traveled.


Once I was introduced to PowerPoint, I updated this assignment to the use of PowerPoint complete with linking slides and maps. However, this past spring, I watched a presentation from Mike Porter about his use of Google Earth and saw how The Odyssey Personal Learning Journey could take on a whole new level.


My students will be creating a Google Earth journey of their travels following the same criteria as before looking at where they went, what they did there, and most importantly, what they learned. Odysseus during his travels learned something about himself as well as other cultures along his journey home, and I hope they will do this as well. I am hoping that these will be true reflections of their learning. Also, I am anxious to see the impact that these presentations will have on one another. Will they find they have visited similar places? Will they see and reveal the lessons they have learned over their short life thus far? Putting together my presentation did that for me. It was difficult to recall some moments, but allowed for me to really laugh and appreciate all I have been through. I would love to know suggestions others might have for this assignment. Although mine doesn't contain pictures, video or audio, these are things I am thinking of adding to their presentations.

Here are their examples

A Twist to College Essays- Using Google Groups

Google is taking over our senior essays!

Michele Davis, Lauren Gaffney, and I were interested in approaching our senior college essay unit differently this year focusing on more collaboration work done outside of class. Typically, we have our students compose a series of essays of which the teacher responds and provides feedback to the student. For my class, my students write three essays dealing with either a crossroads in their life, how have their parents impacted them, and a who am I essay.

Over the years, I have changed the focus of the essays to meet the needs of the colleges they are applying to, but for the most part in the past, it has been an out of class, teacher to student assignment. To give myself some credit, I do have them use Word’s reviewing toolbar to peer edit one final paper in class. Also, I have them conference with me about their final essay before they turn it in so we can discuss changes one on one.

However, even with all this work, Michele, Lauren, and I wanted something more this year from our seniors. We wanted them to connect with one another and see what their peers were saying. Last year, Michele had used Google Groups with her seniors to submit their essays online so that their classmates would be able to provide valuable feedback to the posted work. After discussing how to do this, we came up with the following criteria so that our combined 5 sections of seniors could upload, comment, and read their peers work. We had some basic criteria in completing this assignment:

Post one final essay

Students can choose to post anonymously. We actually came up with a coding system of the teacher’s last name followed by a number (Smith 4).

Students could choose to use their names to post, but no last names. (Anne S)

All students needed to post their essay by the same date.

Students need to give constructive criticism and valuable feedback to at least 5 other essays. (These essays need to be students in other classes)

Constructive criticism needs to be memorable and helpful.

Try not to comment on essays that have already received feedback. If an essay has received 3 comments, move on to another essay.

I will have my students blog about their feelings on this assignment, but most really felt the process was helpful. Some suggestions that we need to think about next time we do this:
· What does constructive criticism look like? Some kids received valuable feedback while others had no comments.
· Clearer identification of who is in what class.
· Do we want to open up the essays to a larger audience?

Overall, I think we are on the first steps to a really valuable and interactive assignment. I really feel that in order for the seniors to become the best writers they need to read what other students/ writers are producing- as well as the great writers of literature (We don’t want to forget Oedipus’ memorable crossroads or was it a fork in the road). This assignment enabled them to do so. In fact, when I asked them if they would want to put their essay out their for the whole world, many said yes, but only if they could go back and make the changes that their peers had suggested as well as what we talked about in our teacher student conference.

Michele’s comments on set-up and process…
Building this site was quite simple. Google groups make it easy and user-friendly. Google groups also provide pages to help users navigate their way through the site. One such link is the Google Groups Quick Start Guide. Google groups has 3 easy steps to follow to start: 1) set up the group (name it and decide who can view the site), 2) add members (if you like), and 3) add information to your page (add additional pages, upload information, change the logo, change the access, etc.).

We decided to set our College Essays site up so that we did not have to invite students; they just needed a Google account to sign in. If students did not have an account, we had them register for one. (One somewhat annoying aspect was that every time a student puts their paper (adds a page as Google groups calls it) on the site, it emails the managers.) This was a little bothersome, but it did show us who was responding by the deadline.

Overall, I love how this site provides an opportunity for students to place essays and get feedback from multiple readers. And, for this assignment, students go feedback from students in other teachers’ classes. The benefit, we feel, is that we all teach the college essay a little differently, so students from other classes will notice different things, find different areas to improve, etc. Since this was the students’ first drafts, we did not prompt them on what to respond to; however, next year, I would like to have 3-4 things for the students to critique in particular: voice, narrative, word choice, and getting to know the student. Students, for the most part, were specific with their comments, but I think it could be more focused.

Lauren's comments on the process...

Much like anything one tries for the first time, this Google groups experiment had both successes and failures. In terms of successes, some students received up to eight full paragraphs of comments. In previous semesters of teaching the college essay, students would have received feedback from a teacher and from one or two peer editors. In contrast, this Google groups assignment provided feedback from me as well as up to eight peer readers. Another positive students mentioned was that they could edit their essays with each piece of feedback they received as the Google groups’ pages function as Word documents. If students were struggling to think of a writing topic or a way to approach the topic they had chosen, this assignment also allowed them to scan hundreds of essays for ideas.

For next year, I will have students comment on three essays instead of five so the feedback is more authentic; several students felt like five comments were too many and that peer readers started getting lazy with their feedback. In addition, I would spend a class period talking about how to give good, specific constructive criticism based on the final rubric on which their essays were graded. Another student suggested that teachers comment on the essays of students who are not in their classes so writers not only receive feedback of students outside of their class, but also receive the opinion of another teacher.