Back to School

I have been meaning since graduating this summer from grad school to take some time and put down my thoughts about this school year. Of course, here it is the second day of school and I am finally getting an opportunity.
This year will be a different year for me in many ways. I am unsure of where I belong in the big picture of education. I know I want to stay in the classroom, but I feel like there should be more. What that more is, I am not sure. Opportunities for things outside the classroom pop up but they are not always interesting or motivating ones, just ones to make more money. Much like the characters I teach to my students, or my students themselves, I find myself trying to figure out who I am and what I want to be. This year is also different because I have two new classes. I am still teaching English Literature, English 9 and English 9 Honors, but my English 9 class is now an all-boys class (yes- me and 33 boys!), and a Spelling and Vocabulary class. All my classes are now in laptop classrooms so we have the information abundant world at our fingertips.
I think the beginning of the year is always a challenging time not for just for the new students, but for the teachers as well. I think every year I feel the trepidation of starting. Will this class be as good as last years? Will they be able to let go of their preconceived notions of education and try something new? Will they want to do more, be more and learn more than they have in the past? How will they respond to me? Will it be bigger, better, and more rewarding than the years before?
This year, I want to do something different. I am not sure what it is yet. There are many possibilities bouncing around in my head, but I know I need to be open to whatever comes my way. I want my kids to connect with classrooms in their own school, in their community, state, and world. I want them to own their learning, to be empowered by knowledge and seek it in every aspect of their life. I want to be as fearless towards their curiosity as they would be to mine. I want to be a learner with them and for them. I want to not only conference with them about their writing but their reading as well. Heck, we can even conference about life. I want there to be endless possibilities for these kids. I want to change the world, and I want these kids to show me how to do it. We are off and running…

Come and watch:
http://smith9h0910.blogspot.com/

http://smith90910.blogspot.com/

http://smithewl9010.blogspot.com/

Gary's Debate

Where will I be tomorrow?

Where will I be tomorrow?
This last semester of OMET has me really thinking with all of the reading, discussions, and influence of friends and professors, where do I want to go with my career?
I know that I feel a special pull to remain at the school I teach at now. I can’t imagine leaving to go anywhere else because I really do love my job. I still love being in the classroom, teaching students, lighting the fire within, and creating a new way of learning for them and with them.
I wonder though, if by staying in the classroom am I limiting myself? Am I limiting the possibilities that could exist for me and my future? I think there is a lot of validity to my being a classroom teacher with speaking about my changes I have implemented in my classroom. But I wonder if that too is a cop-out? Am I sacred to try something new? Am I scared of change and where it might take me? Couldn’t there be a hybrid out there of classroom teacher/staff development instructor/ speaker, etc…?
I know one thing, I am surrounded by people who can help me talk through these changes and where I am to go? Graduating from OMET and all the hard work and learning that has taken place has made me more open to changes. Heck, it has me eve n thinking about going for my doctorate something I never considered before.
Something else I can see me doing is teaching courses in OMET. I would love a chance to try teaching people who were in my position.
The possibilities seem endless right now…

Where I am today

Where I am today...
Today, I thought about the fact I haven’t blogged for class for a while. Part of it is challenging because with my AR work done, and the school year at AHS over, I feel like there is not much to right about. I am leaving tomorrow to go to LA to present my work on creating more successful learners. I feel proud about what I have accomplished this year and am thankful for the never ending guidance of Margaret and my LC. I truly feel blessed to have had such a community of learners guiding me through this past year. What a challenge, change, and blessing.
I have practiced my speech about 8 or so times; it has been helpful to help me deal with some of the raw emotion in discussing a topic I put so much heart into. The first few times I read my speech, I couldn’t get through some of my personal changes or quotations from my students because it touched something deep inside of me. I was too close. I liked the emotion, but didn’t like feeling as though I was going to cry during an important presentation.
Having gone over and over it again, the challenge for me now is to maintain that control, but allow the personality of the speech to shine through. I want my passion for my subject to be known to all and for them to recognize the difference.
I wonder what kind of questions I will be dealing with after my presentation. Having been selected to go first, that is a worry that I have because I can’t anticipate questions having witnessed other groups. I might have to ask my LC for some help with this.
I shipped all my stuff to the hotel last week to await my arrival tomorrow. On Wednesday we have time to put our boards together and I am anxious to see what everyone’s creations will be.
For now, it is just time to practice the speech a couple of more times, then put it away, and let whatever happens happen.

Reworking My Job Prospectus

Colby who is completing this project as my interviewer, has been fabulous helping me flush out y ideal job. After the first go around and subsequent Skype sessions, I feel better about where this job is headed:

Model classroom teacher and learner
Summary:
The ideal candidate will be a well-qualified, veteran teacher who is engaged in 21st century teaching and learning that will create a model public school classroom where other teachers can learn from the teacher and his/her students. Additionally,
· Minimum of five years of classroom teaching experience in Language Arts or similar experience.
· Demonstrated experience with various on-line technologies and computer programs (Microsoft Office Suite, blogging, wikis, etc…)
· Connect his/her classroom to 21st century practices (see ISTE standards [teachers and students] and NCTE standards)
· Dialogue before and after with observers in order to provide the opportunity for reflective growth.
· Excellent written and oral communication skills
· Travel around the country and world to spread the message of 21st century teaching and learning practices as well as examples of exemplary work the classroom is producing.
· Present at conferences, schools and universities.
· Contribute to the academic world through writing about practices in journals and publications.
· Participant in various on-line communities (blogging, Twitter, Ning, etc…)
· Model continuous learning through attending various educational technology conferences and pursuing further educational learning opportunities.
· Demonstrate evidence of a reflective practioner who is continues to learn and grow.
· Evaluation of job performance is conducted by administrators and students
· Collaborate with faculty to promote interdisciplinary teaching and learning.
Education:
· A Bachelors degree and teachers certification from an accredited university
· Masters degree in education or related field
Preferred related skills and experience:
· Online presence in various social networking and professional organizations
· Background in public speaking
· Experience in mentoring other teachers in 21st century technologies and classrooms
· Experience in creating collaborative work environments working with teachers, administrators, staff.
Compensation:
This is a salaried position based off the Littleton Public Schools Salary Schedule. Additional salary is gained beyond the structured step scale through model classroom observations and speaking engagements.

Thoughts?

As I am preparing for my exhibitions, I have been doing a lot of thinking about how to condense down by final report into a 10 minute presentation on my work. We have an outline our LC developed in order to get us thinking about our presentation. The outline that we constructed basically looked like this:

Exhibition Presentation Outline
· Elevator pitch introduction: (1)
· Present your action research - what did you read/Lit review that lead to your AR work (1)
· what approach you took - AR cycles (2)
· how it worked- (2)
· what changed - in yourself and in your subjects (2)
· what did you learn overall: about your practices, your workplace, and yourself - essentially a conclusion (2)
*remember to keep using your metaphor!

Lucky for us, MR came out yesterday with a timeline as well to guide us along:
(1 min) Introduction-- your opening statement should be more interesting than My action report is about.... You might start with a provocative statement, a quote, a question, or some other way of getting the interest of your audience. (It is good practice to memorize your opening and closing sentences. ) Really put some thought into the your first sentence as that starts the tone of your presentation. This can be something that you mull over for the next few weeks.
(1 min) Some theoretical justification or some framing in terms of the literature. You all did a lit reivew... tell the audience what you learned or what was the most critical thing you learned from your reading and how it helped shaped your planning .
(30 secs ) Tell us about the problem you plan to tackle in your context
(30 secs) A comment or two about why action research is a good strategy for explroing your problem might be helpul
(3 min)Then in broad stocks, what did you do in each of the cycles. You will NOT have time to tell the whole story in all of the rich detail. Give us the "Cliff Notes" version. Depending on your work, you might want to give more time to one cycle. You don't have to spend equal time.
(3 mins) Then tell us what you learned from the experience of doing action research...--what you learned about your own development or practices,--what you learned about creating change in workplace (including that it is not as easy as you might have thought) ,--what you learned about yourself as you worked through the process.You might end by sharing an insight, a quote, telling us something youplan to do in the future or maybe by giving advice to the new recruitsfor cadre 12.
So I started going through my final report trying to pull together elements that I thought captured each area in my LC outline. Here is where I am at so far:
Opening on screen- fuzzy sort of Monet-esque picture of me
Elevator pitch introduction: (1)
A teacher can see behind the stone facade that masks student potential. How does a teacher unlock the masterpiece that lies within each and every student? How does a teacher engage her students to want more, to know more, to be more? Students in a traditional educational setting struggle to find their place in the world of learning. Education seems something more done to them than they are a part of the design and implementation of their learning. Students should be more than receptacles of information teachers fill up and pass along from class to class, hour to hour. Students who are valued, encouraged, motivated and who have high expectations set for them achieve. Too often as educators, we allow students to slip through the cracks disappearing behind layers and layers of paint covering who they really are. Teachers do not expose the original work of art that lies beneath the facade. Students need to be collaborators in their learning working with their teacher and peers to change the picture of education. Students need to expect more from themselves than they have done previously raising the standard of achievement and learning. No more should a student desire to just finish a product, but instead produce a creative and interesting new way to demonstrate their understanding. Teachers should work together with their students. By engaging their students in meaningful, relevant real world projects, teachers are communicating a larger message to all the learning matters. By assigning projects that must be completed on time and only see one version, teachers are halting the learning process. Instead, teachers and students should be engaged in learning as a process with multiple revisions of student work and reflection on the learning process throughout. Then, learning becomes the focus, not simple completion.

Students must be held to a higher level of expectation, be participants and leaders in constructivist learning environment collaborating with their teacher and peers, revising piece after piece thus moving from blank canvases to wonderful masterpieces of art.

Present your action research - what did you read/Lit review that lead to your AR work (1)
Michelango is often quoted as having said that inside every block of stone lies a beautiful statue (Zander and Zander, 2000, p26). In our current educational system, many students are viewed not as beautiful statues but rather simply as blocks that are unwilling to change. The industrial model of education has received the brunt of the blame being cast on all sides from teachers, to students, to legislatures and the larger community. Rather than focusing on assigning more blame, many researchers suggest what is needed is a shift in conceptualizing student learning and motivations in order to create learning environments that are beneficial for all parties. (The Alliance for Excellent Education , 2008;Tapola & Niemivirta 2008; Jones, 2008; Khamois, Dukmak & Elhoweris, 2008; Vansteenkiste, Timmermans, Lens, Soenens, & Van den Broeck ,2008). This review of these studies will examine the modifications necessary to transform our traditional classrooms by focusing on reshaping the classroom environment, recasting the role of a teacher and his/her instruction, and increasing student motivation. By creating student centered classrooms where teachers deliver personalized instruction, there is evidence that students are more motivated to learn and be successful thus revealing the possibility that lies within every stone.

what approach you took - AR cycles (2)
In the first cycle of my action research, in order to empower my students to become more successful learners, we decided as a class to remove the possibility of a D. No student could get by with barely passing. So that I was not setting my classroom up for failure, we decided that students needed multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning and understanding. Students and teachers need additional opportunities to improve on their learning since learning is a continual process. When given chances to revise their work over and over gain, my assumption was that students’ comprehension, writing, and success would improve. Also, students needed a role in deciding how they are going to be assessed. When students know the expectations for work ahead of time, they can determine their own grade and take ownership over their grade.
In the second cycle of my action research, our class accepted a student teacher where we focused on helping him become a more successful learner and teacher while still retaining the No D policy, multiple revision policy and student generated rubric. Together, we studied the use of feedback and explored the idea of one to one feedback, oral feedback, modeling effective uses of feedback, peer feedback, and written feedback. The students, the student teacher, and especially my self all grew tremendously as successful learners as a result of this cycle.

how it worked- (2)- use PowerPoints?
also think their reflections are a testament to the power of students having a say in the design of their education. By students being in charge of their grade through the multiple redo policy, the students generating the rubric to assess their learning, and failure not being an option, students achieved more in this class than in many of my previous years teaching this same class. I feel that through their comments, this was the best many of the kids had ever achieved in a Language Arts class. This success would have been possible without the mutual pairing of the No D policy with the multiple redos. I think the class would not have been as successful if only one element would have been implemented at a time.
1) Extensive Feedback: We decided that we needed to give feedback throughout the paper. Even if students are making the same mistakes, we thought it was important to give thorough feedback since we are doing limited in class peer to peer feedback. With the peer to peer work, we found that we needed to do a better job training our students on how to give feedback. This could be an extension of this work into next year and their next writing assignment since they have seen Randon and I model feedback and they have reflected on the kinds of feedback they have received from us.
2) Using similar language terms for editing helps students: I used writing terminology that is familiar to the kids when I taught first semester and Randon used language in his feedback when he taught the class. This might have lead to some confusion because I overheard students debriefing with Randon at their final writing conference that they were confused as to some of the terminology (explanation of quote, relate quote to point of paragraph, relate quote to thesis- Anne’s terminology v. Randon’s –quote says, point to the paragraph, make the point). Keeping our language similar would assist the students in their feedback and understanding.
3) Stress Coherence. We discussed the need to focus on bringing all their points back to the overall point of the essay. This was a struggle for Randon having never taught writing before. This is one area consistently where he would consistently focus on details rather than the students making the big argument. Are they actually relating everything back to the thesis?
A major area of reflection is the change in giving feedback both to our students and to Randon. The students responded so well to helping us all learn and grow from the experience. When first presented with dual sets of feedback the students were really overwhelmed. Interestingly though, although the feedback was abundant, they rose to the challenge and realized how valuable the feedback was even if it seemed too much for them.
Looking forward, I am wondering how I will do all this next year without a student teacher. I wonder what will make the greater difference in my students’ success: more class time to work or individualized time with teacher (Ruggles or Smith) or even dual feedback on assignments? In school there is limited time for me to connect and conference with each student. Not to mention, I actually need to teach the curriculum and meet each student’s learning needs in a 55 minute class period. So as the teacher in the classroom, I must decide how to spend our class time to benefit all students not just some. Can I enlist the assistance of the students who are more proficient or advanced in providing feedback to some of the struggling students?
Based off their feedback, most all students found growth in their writing. 21 students indicated positive growth in writing. This is a huge accomplishment for not only them as they have improved, but for Randon’s teaching as well. This demonstrates the power of mentoring and feedback (oral, written, 1-1) in changing the students by changing Randon.

what changed - in yourself and in your subjects (2)
1-When students feel in control and empowered, as we all want to feel in our lives, change is possible. Students realized that by determining the rubric, there were going to be no surprises in the grade. And, if students did not achieve to the best of their ability in round one of an assignment, they had the opportunity to keep revising it as many times as necessary up till the six week period in order to truly demonstrate their learning and understanding. They seemed to really embrace the idea as a class that failure was not an option.
2-One thing that really surprised me was how encouraging all their feedback was towards me as their teacher and the changes I was trying to make in the classroom. Some students now see their learning and grade in their hands and not so much in the teachers. I think this is a dramatic shift for such young kids to experience. I also was impressed by the reflections of students who really see my role as a teacher as more of an encourager, not wanting them to fail, but instead giving them multiple opportunities to be successful. It makes me wonder what teachers have done in the past to them that teachers haven’t created this feeling within them before. This echoes the difference between teachers as coaches and teachers as assessors. Students are differentiating roles of a teacher into a golden standard
3-Focusing more specifically on the multiple revision policy, I think one of the things I garnered from their comments is how critical it is for students to be able to redo/ revise/ rework their work in order to learn. …My students overwhelming value the chance to redo their work, and see it not as an expectation placed by me, but an expectation they place on themselves. They value the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and to grow as learners. Whether it is through feedback I have given them as their teacher, the peer feedback or student teacher feedback, they have taken all of this in mind to change their work
One aspect all indicated was that the feedback from the teacher was instrumental in their ability to redo their work
I am not sure I would be capable of giving the quantity of feedback in all of my classes that was necessary to assist these students.
Another area to acknowledge is helping the students see themselves as writers not merely students in a Language Arts classroom. I think the students do not always see the huge changes they have made since they stepped foot into my classroom back in August. I noticed this as well with Randon. He would be so focused on the negative or things he did not do well, that he would forget all his accomplishments and areas of growth. So whether it is helping my students see themselves as more successful writers, readers or learners, I need to focus on making this an aspect of my classroom. Learning is a continuum and we are all on the path towards continued improvement.
Over the semester, I have seen growth in Randon and myself each of us becoming a different version of who we were before. Having never taught before, Randon grew into someone who put together a writing unit, developed writing skills in his students, and challenged them to change the world with their essays. He grew in learning to accept feedback from me and his students in order to improve as a teacher. There is still so much to learn for him (giving consistent feedback, remembering the big picture with writing, variety in feedback, expanding in explanations), but he is on the continuum of learning especially if he learns to accept, reflect, and be open-minded. He has had such an experience of student teaching because he not only had me mentoring him, but in a way, he had a classroom of students mentoring him in teaching and learning as well.
I saw a change in how I think about feedback as well. I realized how important it is to make sure I am explaining my comments, the value of 1-1 time with my students, the value in providing multiple feedback times without overwhelming myself, and the need to train my students to be better at giving feedback. I already see how important it is for me to explain the kind of feedback I give and why I give that feedback. Thinking ahead, I will make a more conscious effort to give positive feedback but making sure it is meaningful and relevant.
Another change in me was the realization that I need to be supportive of ways Randon wants to teach things even if I disagree. It is better to let him or my students fail and learn from their mistakes rather than jumping in to try and save them

what did you learn overall: about your practices, your workplace, and yourself - essentially a conclusion (2)
Just as my students moved from blank or masked canvases to masterpieces of art, so too have I been changed through this process. This year has been a challenge and a blessing at the same time.
I learned that it is more important to learn from my students. If they need me to work harder by providing them with more feedback so that they can be successful learners than that is my job. If only given one chance to succeed on an assignment, they do not learn, they simply feel defeated and give up. Giving multiple opportunities improves their writing, their work ethic, and their personal feeling about themselves as learners. It also improves the student teacher dynamic because they see all of us working together to achieve the same thing: success as learners. I am learning from them, they are learning from me, and they are learning from one another.
The responsibility rested on their shoulders. I had moved from the enforcer of policies to a supporter of their learning. It was such a natural shift and so welcomed by me. The positive change to the learning environment was transformational. I could now be the teacher I wanted to be. I could be the coach, motivator, encourager, educator not the task master, scheduler and hand holder. Kids were staying after class to finish work. They were reflecting on their learning and changes they witnessed meta-cognitively

do not know why it took until I was working on my Masters to feel that I had permission to change.

Whether they knew it or not, their drive to do more and be more, was inspiring me to do the same for them

I have incredible support around me to try new things- to be the masterpiece of myself. I am surrounded by greatness that my students embody. They want to work hard for someone who believes in them. When they are challenged to do more and be more, they rise to that level. I know great things lie ahead for these kids. They will be forever changed and opened to the possibilities that are contained within them. I see the same for my student teacher Randon. He has so much to learn, but if open to the opportunities, he will be amazed at the transformation that comes from learning from others and reflecting himself. Lastly, I have learned the possibilities that lie with in me. I am an agent of change who will not be satisfied with mediocrity anymore. I will hold myself and my students to a higher standard.

Through empowering my students, I have empowered myself. The art of possibility has created not only more successful students but a more successful teacher and learner as well who will continue on the path of reflecting, changing, questioning, and growing.

Close with clear picture of myself and my class.

I still need to do a lot of condensing, but I think I am at least getting an outline down that works and is more manageable than where I was a week ago. I need to do some thinking about my backboard and brochure. I am going to continue with the art metaphor and creating great works of art, but I need to make sure that aligns with the art of possibility. Anyhow, lot of thinking and time narrowing down.

Creating my ideal job

One of our tasks this semester in Action Research is to create a job prospectus of our ideal job. Being in the midst of planning a wedding, school finishing up, my own kids school finishing up, and grad school still under full swing, it was nice to take some time to think about what my ideal job would entail. So far this is what I can imagine for myself:

Seeking a well-qualified, veteran teacher who is engaged in 21st century teaching and learning to create a model classroom where other teachers/educators can learn from the teacher and his/her students. Prospect must be willing to connect his/her classroom to 21st century practices (see ISTE standards [teachers and students] and NCTE standards) and willingness to dialogue before and after with observers in order to provide the opportunity for reflective growth. Additionally, to fund such a classroom that is a 1-1 professional learning environment, the teacher must be willing to travel around the country and world to spread the message of 21st century teaching and learning practices as well as examples of exemplary work the classroom is doing. Travel could include presenting at conferences, schools and universities. Finally, the teacher must be a participant in various on-line communities ( blogging, Twitter, etc…), be willing to model continuous learning through attending various educational technology conferences and pursuing further educational learning opportunities. The teacher must be a constant example of a reflective practioner who is continuing to learn and grow.

As I reflect on where I want to go with my job I have now, I realize I don’t want to go anywhere. I love where I teach, whom I work with and the students never cease to amaze me with their willingness to try new things. So why would I want to go anywhere else? My thoughts were that if I didn’t want to go anywhere, how am I going to grow and be challenged with where I am at? Over the past few years of having a 1-1 classroom, I have had a number of visitors come in to watch me teach as well as observe and talk with my kids about their learning. This is an aspect that I would like to grow. Our district is moving forward into all 9th grade Language Arts classrooms being 1-1 learning environments with the ASUS EEE PC’s. I can see myself leading some of this change because I have had the experience of transforming a traditional classroom into a 1-1 classroom. My classroom could then be a model for other classrooms. And I wouldn’t want to limit visitations to just my school but we could bring in other teachers and educators as well. I think it is important to not only see what is going on in these observations, but have the opportunity to dialogue before and after with the teacher and students. My final area of growth that I would like to see in my ideal job is more speaking opportunities. I already travel some now with The Karl Fisch (whom I love and adore), but I know this is an area where I haven’t achieved my full potential. I want other teachers to see the power in constructivist learning environments where students and teachers are all learning together. I want to spread the message about the power of technology in learning.

This is a start to crafting my ideal job; if anyone has any additional feedback and suggestions, I would appreciate it.

AR week 2- Moving Forward

Moving forward...
After completing my last cycle of my action research, I started working towards exhibitions and how I was going to present all this information, learning, and growth in a 10 minute presentation. The task, ever since I have started concentrating on it, has become daunting. I am not afraid of speaking nor lacking excitement about what I am presenting. It is merely, how do you reduce down a year’s worth of thinking and reflecting into 10 minutes.

I am hoping what I am presenting will be worthwhile and memorable. I want to start off presenting my kids, their one word reflections and then move into what I did this year and reflections from me. I also want to Skype in one of my students, maybe two depending on time, into the presentation. Time is a factor though and I am unsure how much time to devout to each section.

Moving forward though, I have been thinking about where I want to be a year from now. In Melissa’s class we are spending some time looking at being agents of change. Reflecting on where I am now, I can’t imagine anymore on my plate, but there are some areas I know I want more from and want to expand.

1- I want my classroom especially my students to be examples of the possibilities in education. I want to put my kids out there so others can see the possibilities.
2- I want to put myself out there. I have really enjoyed over the past couple of years traveling and speaking with Karl Fisch. I want to do more of this, and unsure how to move forward on this. I know at one point Margaret suggested just speaking at various conferences, but this requires time and money to travel of which my district doesn’t fund and I don’t personally have the money. Anyone out there want to fund this endeavor?
3- I want to be a leader in my school, district, state and heck, even nation for teaching. I want to speak about the transformational difference of empowering students with their learning and technologies role in the process. Next year, our ninth grade LA classes will all be 1-1 classes. I want to help lead this adventure. I can foresee a role for me in sharing my past experiences to help others move forward. I also can see me being a leader for my district in having a classroom where others can learn from.

I am really thankful for this opportunity to start thinking about where I want to grow and how I want to grow. I know after having some time off this summer, my batteries will be refreshed, my spirit enlivened and more clearly see how this next year fills out.

Why Standardized Testing Doesn’t Work for My Kid

The other day, my daughter came home from school and as usual we started in on her math homework. They are starting to learn fractions in her 1st grade class. The first question on the worksheet asked her to take two candy bars that were drawn on the paper and divide each into ½. Now, one of the candy bars was much larger than the other. After she had divided the candy bars into two, the next part of the problem asked which half of candy bar she would rather have. Knowing that she is my daughter, she, of course, picked ½ of the smaller candy bar. I asked her why she picked that half? She said that if she picked the smaller half then she wouldn’t get sick from eating all that candy.

Do you think on standardized testing they have a space for her to explain her choice for eating healthy on a math question?

LC3- Week 2

I have been reading The Handbook for Emerging Technologies and am pleasantly encouraged by the work I have done in my classroom and staff development efforts that I have experienced that align so nicely to what the authors are describing. The authors are describing the necessary changes we must make to our educational system in order to embrace the technological revolution that is underway. They however, do not just jump at using tech for tech sake, but using it in meaningful and relevant ways. I find that throughout this handbook they provide such well thought out counterpoints that this handbook would be a great basis for discussion for teachers who are on their way to 21st century learning environments ad those who are more hesitant. They provide well thought out groundwork for us to consider and how to see our role as an educator change and adapt.
What strikes me the most is how doable a 21st century education or learning environment is and how often we make excuses as to why it can’t be done. We are at the peak of change here. It is our time to step up for our students and make a difference. As the authors claim:

“The aim of education to 'arm every single person for the vital combat for lucidity' appears more difficult in a world of hyper-fragmentation, reflected in the development of the Internet and in the breakdown of traditional information structures such as newspapers, journals, and books.

How is education to fulfill its societal role of clarifying confusion when tools of control over information creation and dissemination rest in the hands of learners, contributing to the growing complexity and confusion of information abundance?”

I see all of this coming true with the changes I have made in my classroom. By empowering my students with technology that allows them to seek out understanding and clarification, my students have a new understanding of the world around them. However, this doesn’t mean that I have just let them loose in the wide world of web-surfing. Instead my role as a teacher has shifted. I can see my job as a combination of atelier, network administrator, facilitator, concierge and curator. Teaching is not a one descriptor job anymore. We need to be adaptable as do our students. And technology makes it all possible to not only meet the ever growing and changing needs of our students but for ourselves as professional learners too.

LC3- AR reflection

Having lost my student teacher, I am back to full time teaching. It was so great to have the kids back. I missed them so much. I missed teasing them, talking with them, and watching them grow and learn. It was so hard to remove myself and become a “bystander” to their learning while helping Randon grow as a teacher and learner. To transfer my focus from 30 to 1 was a challenging task. I am still wondering how well it all went. I think it was hard on all of us, but over the long term, will be something we are all better for.

Interestingly, after Randon was done student teaching, I talked to the kids about taking away the No D policy and multiple redos. They were adamantly against it. In fact, many of the kids were not comfortable with going back to a traditional approach to learning. I wonder what will happen with them next year. How are they going to succeed next year in classes where there are enforced deadlines and no redos? Have I set them up for failure? Or can I look at this in a positive light wondering that if they now know how to succeed and learn best, will they apply those skills into other classes? Will they advocate for themselves in their future classes letting their teachers know how they learn best? So we are continuing on with these policies in place and the kids still in charge of their grade and learning.

I also wonder for myself what I am going to do next year. Will I try this again? Will I take away the D and have multiple redos? How will the kids respond? Will they be as engaged and interested? Will they want to be participants? Can I do this again?

The rest of this semester the kids have been working on coming back to me. It has been a welcome transition I think for them, but they are readjusting after struggling at times with classroom management policies that were in place with Randon and now switching back to the way I run the classroom. I am planning on taking their pictures and doing some wordle.net work them this week for my final presentation. I am asking them to give me one word that describes the change in them, in the class, and the change in learning. I want to take these words and their images creating some works of art to display at my presentation creating more of a gallery approach rather than a traditional poster board. Hopefully my art metaphor will carry over into all things. My vision is of frames of them as art work with charts, data, and words as art work as well. We will see if I can get it all to come together without it being tacky or overwhelming.
The mode for the next few weeks is working on my presentation, cleaning up my website (adding images and quotes), and doing lots of reading.

LC3-1

Last nights first LC meeting of the last semester of our OMET program was desperately needed. I think many of us are facing this last semester with trepidation and excitement. We can see the end in sight, but there is much work to be completed before all the hard work pays off.

We discussed what this next semester is going to focus on and I really appreciated hearing about our readings, expectations, and assignments going forward. I am especially excited about the idea of creating our ideal job and then interviewing with one of our classmates to get that job. I think this is a prime example of a real world application of learning. This is the kind of activity I try and create for my students where their learning is applied to a new situation. Also, there is a great measure of creativity here. We get to think about our ideal job- what would we do? What would we be responsible for? What changes could we make to the world? I am excited to learn who I will be paired with and start working towards designing my ideal job (right now I have no idea) and thinking about where that job would be and what I would be doing. I think talking this out with some people that know me best would be a good idea to flush out some thoughts. Luckily MR is sending us information about this assignment with interview tips and suggestions for designing our ideal jobs.

We also talked about presentations/ exhibitions in June. This is something that has been weighing on my mind for some time. I really want to do my best and impress not only my colleagues but myself as well. I remember watching the presentations from last year and hearing people say that some of the presentations were mind blowing. I want to hear that about mine. It was really helpful to get some clarification on what all of this is going to look like. I like the idea of presenting with our group all focusing on similar ideas/ topics/ venues of AR work. I think that lends itself to a nice cohesive presentation. I have already started working on my presentation (more the visuals that I want to use). I think I am going to use some charts and graphs, but I want to remain consistent and steadfast with the use of the emerging works of art metaphor- Creating more successful learners. We did a great exercise last night playing with verb choices that reflect our metaphor. MR did this with me first semester, but I would like to spend some more time with my LC exploring this.

Going forward, I think I will continue spending time figuring out my presentation, planning my exhibition board, and contemplating what my future job will be. Also, I will be reading, reading, reading, and umm…reading. I like the idea that we are going to be exclusively in Google Sites. I think this will be an excellent change into using one platform for all things OMET. I am doing something similar in my own classes and would like to see ways that I can expand my classroom by the work that we are doing in LC’s.

Last Lecture- The Final Project

The final semester for seniors (and for teachers, too) is always a challenging one to keep everyone motivated and on task. When I think of some of the activities I have created in order to keep the kids focused on their learning and not on holding down a beach chair, I wonder how effective and meaningful these projects were. This year I decided to start the semester off a little differently and a little more challenging. Rather than focusing on a question that dealt specifically with a thematic topic connecting all the pieces of literature, I challenged my students to answer the question “What’s the Point?” Under that mind blowing question, student needed to consider why we are reading the assigned texts, what relevance do they have towards their own lives, and what messages are the authors trying to send to us all? What’s the point of their final semester of the senior year of high school?

At the beginning of the semester, Lauren Lee (formerly Gaffney), told me of an assignment she was thinking of asking her students to complete. The task was to have our students write his/her own last lectures mimicked after Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture. During Pausch’s speech he reminisces about important and seemingly unimportant aspects of his life growing up and how each of these elements influenced the person he became. He ends the entire motivational speech with humor, tears, and lessons we should all take away. He didn’t write this last lecture for us, but for his kids.

Lauren and I talked about how their speech should be structured and what elements we wanted to have it contain. At first we thought the speech should be around ten minutes, but realizing how much time that would take to complete each students’ speech, we decided to narrow down the time. We decided on three parts to their speech: reflections on the past, lasting legacy to Arapahoe High School, and looking forward (what do you want in the next year, five years, ten years). Having the central question “What’s the Point?” helped focus the students on what they wanted their speech to say to the audience.

The first two segments of their speech were to be turned in at the end of each six week grading period. I commented on the written papers, and then the students met with me or my student teacher individually for one on one conferences. On a side note, one to one conferences are far more meaningful than any written feedback. After the second part of their speech was written, we discussed during their writing conference how they would bring together all three parts of their speech. What was going to be their focus or central theme? What is the lasting message they wanted the audience to have from them? We brainstormed during this session mapping out some possibilities of bringing all the parts of their written speech together into one cohesive, inspirational 5-7 minute speech- knock your socks off quality. Also, I wrote my own last lecture delivering the segments to my students for their review and feedback. Here are the first and second segments. This was really challenging to put my thoughts, ideas and writing out there for my students to not only to read, but to comment upon as well. As Karl reminds me, it is important that whatever we ask our students to do, that we are willing to do the same assignment ourselves.

Before finals, students are not only going to be giving their last lecture to our class, but we are going to tape and U Stream out their speeches for their families, friends, and the world of course, to see what these wonderful talented and charismatic kids have to say. I am anxiously waiting to see how it all comes together. The students agreed to this rubric to assess their speech. Hopefully, as they have done before, the kids will rise to the challenge realizing what an incredible opportunity this is to leave a lasting impression on their peers, teachers, and world to let everyone know what is important, meaningful, and relevant to each and everyone of these kids.

If you are interested in watching the last lectures, keep an eye on The Fischbowl for times and the Ustream link. Also, there will be blog posts on our class blog to comment on each individual speech. We are asking commenters to leave feedback about the presentation and to be every careful about how they comment regarding topics the presenter discusses.

The following students have signed up for presentation dates and times: (all presentations will occur during fourth hour which meets from 10:35- 11:34 am MST).

May 6:
Steven W
Rick M
Lauren B
Hailey M
Taylor S
Lauren L

May 8:
Adrienne B
Katie M
Kevin N
Shelli Marr
Jordan S
Jake F

May 11:
Eric L
Drew B
Anna P
Brittney W
Sara B
Patrick B

May 13:
Kendra S
Tom B
Will B
Kaitlyn W
Mackenzie L

May 15: (Juniors only)
Molly
Irene L
Sara E
Kim
Kaitlyn R
Katie O

Toons and AR work: getting to know our LCs

Cartoons to get to Know Someone
When we were first given the syllabus for 665, we had to create a Learning Activity that would be a small part of a larger course in which we would work at using the planning of Understanding By Design. My group spoke right away of what we wanted to do, and after talking with Melissa, came up with some greater clarification and direction that we wanted to proceed. We all decided that for us, Virt Camp was something although meant to be well designed, lacked design. So, we put our head together to create a new improved vision for Virt Camp or an introductory camp like it. What we soon realized, given our LA was that our focus and G7’s focus were very similar. We both valued getting to know people in our groups before we opened up to them. They created a really fun activity that I can see using in my own classroom not just with getting to know others.

As students of OMET, we are conducting research in our field of work. Each semester, we are asked ot switch learning circles in which we learn, support, and challenge one another’s research work. The challenge in switching LC’s so much is that you have to relearn someone else’s project and how far they have come. In order to make that process simpler and more clear, G7 developed a cartoon acitivty where I would create a toon of my AR without captions, then in our LC we would exchange toons and another of my LC members would add the captions to go with my AR work. The three toon programs we could use were ToonDoo (web-based), BitStrips (web-based) or ComicLife (download free trial software). We were also asked to read an article about building trust in online learning circles.

It was fun to see the hard work some put into their toons and as usual how others would not contribute. This was a fun activity and was nice to see a bridge between our 665 class and 638. I thought their activity was very effective as did Margaret because she is adding this as an activity to assist in our LC work.

The followed their activity with a survey for us to complete looking at the connections between this activity in their essential questions and learning goals. I think it did an effective job and is something I am going to use in my own classrooms.

Real World Economics

Saving for the Future...
After working on the large activity of learning a foreign language, I was worried about how big in scope each groups’ Learning activity would be. Luckily, the following group created a very meaningful and relevant activity for us to learn about real world economics.

Their group assigned each student a profession and a salary. We all had the common background that we were all single and no children. We were then to figure out a savings plan for ourselves in light of our current US economic situation considering rent, insurance, utilities, grocery, etc…. This assignment was interesting in many ways because we all had ot step out of our lives and consider what it would be like to be another individual earning either more or less than we do now. The activity asked for us to learn Budgetpulse and create charts that demonstrated what we would spend and what we would save. We used these charts for a discussion that followed.
I enjoyed this activity a lot and thought the relevancy for today’s adults and youth was quite meaningful. We could all learn, especially with the numerous software applications available, to budget appropriately and learn the power of saving. Additionally, the follow up questions that were asked created a nice discussion for us to examine our current practices in spite of what we learned.

Finally, the group concluded with a survey asking about the connections between their essential learnings and the activity itself. I was really impressed with the overall plan of their lesson, the execution, the follow-up discussion and the survey.

Learning a Foreign Language

The Furious Five had ambitious goals for their learning activity asking the students to learn a foreign language, prepare a travel itinerary, learn a new piece of technology, and write paragraphs in the foreign language about all of this. The developed a wonderful learning cite that would guide us students throughout this journey. I shared the Busuu.com site with our foreign language teacher in order to provide another tool for their tool box to use at school.

Some of the aspects of their LA I really enjoyed were the number of interactive and informative tutorials to assist the learner throughout this adventure. The tutorials working your way through Busuu was helpful and necessary so that time could be concentrated on the assignment itself. Also, I really enjoyed all the mapping their website provided. Whenever you had a question, there was a point of reference that could be found on the website to answer your question.

Challenges included the scope of the assignment. I felt for a one week assignment, this activity was well beyond what you would learn or be able to do in a classroom. The time just to make it through the tutorials, and writing paragraphs was considerable. I am just unsure of how realistic the assignment was.

Overall, I was glad at the variety within the activity. I could take the learning as far as I was interested in pursuing and I think that is essential with a large activity such as this. I wish there was more participation in the discussion boards when I reacted to my participation in order to conduct more of a dialogue. What I was impressed by and influenced my approach to my LA was how attentive the leaders were to your answers. I took away their attentiveness and applied it to my groups LA.

LA reflection Type A: Redoing Virt Camp

When we were first given the syllabus for 665, we had to create a Learning Activity that would be a small part of a larger course in which we would work at using the planning of Understanding By Design. My group spoke right away of what we wanted to do, and after talking with Melissa, came up with some greater clarification and direction that we wanted to proceed. We all decided that for us, Virt Camp was something although meant to be well designed, lacked design. So, we put our head together to create a new improved vision for Virt Camp or an introductory camp like it. What we soon realized, given our understandings of UbD is that this was going to be a challenge.

We are all opinionated members in Type A and all are outspoken in what we feel, but this has extreme advantages when working with others who understand you and want to do their best work. By meeting several times before Orlando, during and after, we were well organized. We put together a plan for introducing ourselves to one another before we would arrive at Virt Camp in order to have a better understanding of whom each individual is and why they would want to pursue their Masters degree with OMET. We addressed this issue in the broader learning goal of understanding what makes up a community of learners and how to do create a community of learners. Our learning activity can be found here.

I think we introduced the plan well in our initial email that Tanner sent out, and also sought out questions and clarification our group members would need by reintroducing the lesson again at the TI session. This way, we could make sure students understood the essential learnings that would be the focus on the lesson, why we wanted them to create the video, and hopefully, begin building the foundation for a community of learners. We introduced the essential questions first in our lesson design so that students could see the whole then break it down into parts as it would relate back to the whole.

It took some time to get people to participate in this activity as can be expected because three LA’s were all assigned at the same time. However, the videos that were posted were all fun to watch and interesting to see other’s reactions to each others videos. Some were of course higher quality addressing all the questions that were asked for them to put into the video in order to address the essential questions, but overall I think it worked well.

After the videos were posted, we asked the students to react to one another’s videos. This is one area where we were hoping to see not just acknowledgement and praise for each others efforts which could be the basis for building trust in a community of learners, but to also ask for additional clarification and understanding. Some did a good job of this, and others chose not to complete this aspect of the assignment at all. I think we could have put the students in smaller learning circles or taken their LC’s to have them react to one another’s videos in order to assist in reacting to videos. This way at least their would be smaller groups checking in on one another versus us.

As a final reaction from the group, we asked them to complete a survey to see their reflection on the assignment as well as its connection to our essential learnings. The survey results provided clarification on some aspects of the videos. Students who did a good job on their were frustrated by others who had not answered all the questions, and others who produced poorer quality videos expressed the challenge in being limited to 1 minute or of learning a new piece of technology. Some discussed the challenge of this being an opening activity at Virt Camp and would everyone have the expertise to know how to create a video. All of these are good reflection to consider when redesigning this lesson for another class or as Margaret has suggested for use in when we change LC’s.

I think it can’t be emphasized enough the importance of building a foundation to grow from when you are working in cooperative groups. Because we have all gotten to know each other this year, it has helped build that trust. But, could this trust have been established sooner if some of the techniques our group and G7 used? I think so.

Overall, I was happy with the Learning Activity. I wish we could have received some better quality work from all members, increased assistance from one of my Type A members, but regardless, we all completed this activity as a team, and building the foundation of a community of learners.

Kids responses to cycle 2 feedback

What was the most effective part of the dual feedback you received?
Understanding what other people have to say(JO)
Where my mistakes and errors were shown to me so I could go back and fix them (BG)
I liked the two opinions expressed in ever feedback (AW)
Getting back two different perspectives of advice (MB)
The feedback was very helpful because most of the time if I didn’t understand something the feedback would help me and it was very detailed (GV)
Getting feedback from two people is very helpful to me. The most effective part of it has been getting information back on ways to improve writing from more than one person. (CW)
That there are mistakes or other opinions that just one person could not find (ML)
I got feedback from two different points of view (FB)
I found it to be interesting to have feedback from two teachers. It was kind of weird at first but it really helped later on. It helped me to revise my papers correctly and accurately (CO)
Most effective part about the dual feedback was that each teacher had different suggestions. And if one missed one mistake that I made the other teacher would catch it. (BS)
The most effective part of the dual feedback that I received was I got to see how two different teachers graded my papers, and what they thought. (AL)
I can always see what I’ve done wrong (MB)
It helped me look at different aspects of my paper in different ways, from different standpoints and it helped me perfect if you will my whole paragraph structure. (NK)
The most effective part was that I had a chance to hear from two teacher and what they thought was good and what was wrong. It was quite overwhelming (JL)
The most effective part of the dual feedback was the fact that if Ruggles missed something Smith could catch it and vice versa (OB)
Having two points of view to listen to and two different sets of advice, because if I didn’t like one idea I could go with a different one (NL)
I got to see what I was good at and what I needed to improve. It also helped me see what the teachers said and if I missed something they would tell me so that I wouldn’t get graded down on it. (BB)
The most effective part of dual feedback is that since two people were looking at the paper there was less of a chance to keep having to redo stuff that was missed the first time. (AS)
The most effective part of the dual feedback has been that my paper was more carefully looked over things that one missed and the other caught. Also I gave me the chance to see the opinions of two completely different people and apply the suggestions to my paper making it even better. (EK)
The most effective part of the dual feedback that I received was just the idea of having two different sets of opinions. You get to see from two different people with two totally separate writing styles what one thought you did good and another teachers opinion of what you did bad. (MI)
Probably the punctuation in my paper (ER)

What could have been improved about the feedback you received? Think about oral feedback, written feedback, and dual feedback.
Oral was ok, written needed to be more clearly, dual was good
More specific on the feedback and examples to help me fix it
I think I would have done better one my paper without two conflicting opinions
Feedback contradicted each other
Dual feedback wasn’t as specific as the oral was
The feedback that I received was very helpful tome. It was all good feedback oral, written and especially dual.
What could have improved is completely different thinking and not the same thing twice
Explain what you are saying more
I think that what could be improved is that on the feedback you guys could talk to each other so that you guys don’t put down all of the same corrections on the papers.
I really liked having the oral feedback. It made more sense to me when it was explained in person instead of having the mistake written down and not understanding it.
We needed more time because it was overwhelming to get so much feedback all at once.
On the dual feedback there are a lot of repeated things
I don’t think that anything needs to be changed about feedback. I don’t really see how you can improve anything on feedback, feedback is just comments left by teacher, usually just ideas.
The feedback was a lot to handle all at one and was a lot to fix. I thought it was way too much to fix and it was crazy.
I think the written feedback could have been explained more because I always have questions on the written feedback because either I can’t read it or it is not explained clearly enough. I like the oral feedback better because it is one on one and I can question right then and there. I like the dual feedback as well.
I think that sometimes the written feedback was hard to understand and a lot of times I had to ask about what exactly the writing meant.
Was explaining on why we had to change something in our writing. Oral feedback was good because they could come to our computers and show us what we needed. The written feedback was good because they would circle the things that had to be changed to show what was wrong. The dual feedback was not my favorite because it went by really fast and I didn’t get all my questions answered.
The thing that could have been better about the feedback in general is that it could have been more consistent. It just felt like I fixed all the mistakes on my paper just so that the next time we turned in another draft there was always more in the same place I had just fixed. I think it just needs to be more consistent.
Often I had to fix a part of my paper and then I would get feedback the next day instead of before I fixed it. It would have been more helpful if we didn’t correct the papers until we had the feedback from the day before back. That way we could use the feedback when we were revising our papers.
I think sometimes the feedback can be too harsh. I understand that it is important to criticize what was done wrong, but I think more ideas need to be given how to fix the problems.
I don’t think much could be improved I think Smith and Rugs did a pretty good job at covering everything we need to fix.

Over the course of the A-CW paper, do you think your writing improved? If so, in what ways? If not, why not?
Write a better essay get a better grade
I really do that think I just exercised my previous skills but I did learn about how to put quotes in and to organize a paragraph but my skills did not improve
I do not think my writing improved that much because I didn’t receive writing instruction on how to improve my writing in the future. I only got instructions on how to improve this paper.
My writing improved because I received feedback so I knew exactly what to do to make my paper better. I improved my grammar and structure
I would say that this assignment helped me a lot because I didn’t really know that there was so many steps to writing a paper.
Doing the ACW paper helped me improve my writing in many ways. Before that paper, I did not format papers very well. Now I can format the entire paper
Yes, I think my writing improved lots because before I started I did not know how to right a formal paper
I think my writing improved more because we did a lot of writing
I think that my writing improved. I learned a lot more about attention getter for an opener. So I had a new creative way to start off essays and paragraphs.
I think my writing did improve. All the feedback that was received was very helpful and even more helpful that it was from two teachers
I thought that my writing had improved. I improved in the way I put my writing together, along with learning the correct way to quote people as well as making a point to the paragraph
I think that it has because every time I thought I was done, you would always have more things I could improve upon
I think that with all of the papers we had to write and all of the research we had to do, I think that it made me think of some topics in a more broad spectrum if that makes sense.
My writing improved in the way that I think . I normally do not do papers that make you think a lot and this one was a challenge for me
I think my writing did improve over the course of the paper. I have become better at providing information …
I do think that my writing improved because as the paper progressed because I learned how to use the format better and what I should say when writing my paper.
I believe my writing had improved because I understand how to line up paragraphs better. I have also gotten better at quotes and citations. I am now good at understanding where to put the citations after the quotes.
I think that over the course of the paper I did improve my writing a lot because I learned about some of my common mistakes and because of all of this I could proofread myself better.
I think that my writing improved in terms of structure. We made sure that each paragraph had every part and that they all flowed together. Also we made sure that we all understood how to write each part.
I think that it has improved because from the start I found this assignment very challenging. It was hard to make everything flow and to keep my opinion toned down into a manner that was acceptable for formal writing piece which is challenging when your topic is something you want to change. Through this unit, and even still now I am working on my corrections I am learning more and more about the set up of writing styles.
I think it got a little better however, I do not think I’m an excellent writer.
What essential writing skills did you take away from the unit?
Better topic sentence, thesis, longer paragraphs
None except incorporating quotes and organizing paragraph skills
I learned how to write a 5 paragraph essay and stay on topic
Organization skills and structural skills. I learned how to write a paper in sections and how to write it in a good advanced form.
All the punctuation that I didn’t exactly know how to use
The things that has helped me the most outside of that paper and that unit is knowing how to format papers and more specifically the paragraphs in the paper
I took the skills of not saying I me my or you and also to write a formal paper
I learned the structure of writing a paragraph
I learned a lot about grammar and correction and revision. I now know how to efficiently revise and correct my paper and know the right grammar to use in some situations.
I think I got a lot better at the forms of my paragraphs and how to write them better and relate back to the topic sentence
The essential writing that I got out of the unit was the overall format
The most important writing skills I took away from this assignment would be proofreading
I learned how to keep the reader glued to the paper and really make my paper come to life with elements that are interesting to the reader, and it really make writing easier if you know how to put it all together in some sort of creative way.
I did not really take any essential writing things away from this thing.
An essential writing skill I took away from this unit were stating a position, writing a better thesis and overall writing better paragraphs.
Took away a new format for writing including the format for writing thesis and how to use quotes and research in my paper.
How to put together a perfect paragraph. Now I know how to do lead-ins and my topic sentence better.
I learned a lot more about grammar and things that should be written a lot because I learned about some of my common mistakes and because of this I could proofread myself better.
I learned how to write properly and in a certain format. Now if sometime in the future I need to write a paper like this one I will know how and I will have experience.
Opinionated and persuasive writing skills were taken away in my paper. When writing a formal letter, you do not want your passionate feelings and reasonings to come across rude.
How to form a position paper.

What suggestions for improvement do you have for teaching the A-CW paper next year? What suggestions would you give to students next year in completing A-CW?
Make sure you get it right the first time
Not to do the paper period, (BG)…
I think that you should do more of the paper in class so that students can ask questions when they have them instead of later when they forget them
More work time and the project cut into a shorter amount of time…
It might be hard to find quotes for some of the topics they might choose.
Not to pile so much work on at one time. It is a very challenging paper and should not be rushed too much.
Give more work time to those who need it and let them use their I pods so the classroom stay quiet
Give more time
I would suggest that you expand more on the intro and how to do that. More time for each paragraphs
Improvement for a teacher on the paper would be to go at a little slower rate towards the end of the paper.
Give students more time to finish the paper
I wouldn’t change anything
Just turn it in on time
Do not do the double feedback thing because it is a lot to handle and a lot for a kid to try and fix on his won. Also he needs more work time with the teacher just one on one.
One improvement is to explain the difference between point to the paragraph and make the point. They are so hard to differentiate so it was hard for me to actually think of them and I didn’t actually add one of the two for some paragraphs
Would suggest that you have one on one editing time for papers because that helped me the most when I got one on one time.
The suggestions that I have for the teachers nest year is to give us a better explanation on our mistakes in our writing.
Stay on top of this work
For teaching the paper next year, I think more time should be spent on finding subjects to write about, exploring action plans.
This isn’t something that can really be taught. I think its important that the students pick a topic they are passionate about or else there will be no point in them even doing the job. SO your job as a teacher should be to motivate and inspire the kids maybe by showing them videos about problems throughout the world, read articles, anything.
Just let them know that although they might have the redo policy it’s still in their best interest to get everything in one time so they can be squared away for the due date of the paper.

What kinds of feedback were the most meaningful and relevant? Think about oral feedback, written feedback, and dual feedback.
Dual feedback
Oral, written and dual feedback is best because it gives a variety and two teachers can help you the more the better
Written most relevant
Written feedback- let me know exactly what I needed to do to make my project better and was very specific
Best feedback was the oral kind because I would understand it better
Written feedback was the most helpful. I always knew what was being asked of me because it was written right on the paper.
Oral and dual feedbacks were the most meaningful and relevant
Written feedback
Big errors like missing quotes and stuff
The most meaningful feedback was the oral feedback because I learn better when I hear it
Dual feedback because we got to see not only one but two different ways that people revised the assignment
The most helpful feedback was the oral feedback because I could argue and or show my side of the point instead of the teacher telling me what I did wrong
Like I said before, I think any kind of feedback and ideas and corrections are good for me as a writer.
Do your best speech
Oral feedback I think helps me the most because when I think of a question at that moment I can ask it and won’t forget about it. I think the oral feedback helped me the most and I work better that way. (OB)
Oral feedback because then the teacher can explain exactly what I could do to make my writing better.
Oral feedback- because when we had work time the teacher will be talking around the room for any questions that we might have on the paper and they will help us.
Didn’t answer
Dual feedback was the most meaningful and relevant because I got twice as many corrections and twice as many suggestions to make my paper better.
Written feedback that was more than a sentence explaining that you had a good start and just needed more work. That type of feedback meant the most and was the most useful because it doesn’t insult you and it shows you that you are getting there.
See question 1 response

Over the course of the semester, did you notice a change in Mr. Ruggles’ feedback? Think about oral feedback (1-1), written feedback, and dual feedback. Did his feedback improve over time? What suggestions would you have for his continued improvement in giving feedback?
It did but I can’t read his handwriting
I think didn’t improve, his feedback has always been great
I think that oral feedback from Ruggles was the best and it improved over time
Did not see a difference in the writing feedback I received, but it is ok because the feedback was great.
I am not quite sure but I think the feedback that he gave me was good
His feedback has improved over time. At first I did not always understand what it was he wanted, now I always know what he is asking me to do. He should always try to improve on feedback to keep his feedback getting better and better.
You can’t really change the way you think or feel about how an essay is written
I think it was the same the whole time
Feedback became more informative and helpful overtime.
I think his feedback did improve and got more detailed when he graded my stuff. Suggestions would be to keep doing what he’s doing.
He improved mostly on the written feedback.
I didn’t take into consideration the writing/ feedback of Ruggles. During the course of paper, I was more focused on my writing
I didn’t really get much feedback from him. I struggle with getting my work in on time this year.
He kept giving way too much feedback but in the long run it was helpful.
Mr. Ruggles feedback improved over time because at first it wasn’t really that much help because it wasn’t constructive feedback. Now it is better and it is easy to figure out what you need to fix. A suggestion I have is not to worry about being to mean about something and just write what needs to be fixed.
I didn’t notice any chance because I was more focused on my writing and how I could fix that, than Ruggles feedback. I think that it did not really change that much over time.
At the beginning of the year, he didn’t really help out much because he was new and didn’t really know what to do. Now he knows our class and helps us all the time on our questions that we ask
Both feedbacks were very helpful. I just thought that it was interesting that the two feedbacks were different sometimes. I think that it might be good idea for both to do 1 paper. Ruggles looks over it and makes corrections and then Smith looks at the same paper and just puts down anything else she sees.
I noticed a slight change in Ruggle’s feedback it got nicer and less corrective. I think that the more corrective the feedback the better because it tells the student what they need to do to make it better.
Ruggles feedback was good and very helpful. The beginning of the semester I think he was a little more lenient about the problems he found in the papers. But he has changed in a good way and now is down to the point which in the end helps out the writer the most.
Not really

Over the course of the semester, how helpful was Smith’s feedback? Was the written, oral (1-1), dual feedback the most helpful? What was the least helpful? What suggestions do you have for Smith to help Mr. Ruggles with feedback?
Dual feedback was good
Same as above
Smith’s feedback was the most helpful in written form her oral feedback was the least helpful.
Smith’s feedback was great. She was really specific but a hard time reading her handwriting. Also, to read each others feedback so that they do not make the same corrections or contradict one another’s feedback because it gets confusing and is too much.
Smith’s feedback was very helpful to write the paper and I think that she could help Mr. Ruggles by maybe giving him some feedback on how to do things when he is teaching
Smith’s oral feedback was always the most helpful to me. Whenever we did not understand something, she would explain it to us and help us get started. The least helpful to me was the dual. This eventually got to be the best feedback I got, but at first it was new and got me jumbled. Keep giving Mr. Ruggles your best feedback and showing him things he needs to improve upon also things he is doing well on.
Over the course of the first semester Smith’s feedback was helpful but we didn’t get it very often
It was very helpful. I think Smith should show Ruggles how to explain his feedback
Pretty helpful most of the time. Some of the stuff got a little repetitive but that is ok in some cases because it could be a very obvious problem
Didn’t answer
Smith’s feedback was very helpful the most effective to me was the oral feedback because it helped me from falling behind in my writing. The suggestion that I would have for Smith to help Ruggles would be to keep on doing more of the 1-1 feedback because it helps people improve their writing skills.
Again the oral was more helpful
Same as above
It was helpful but once again a little too much to handle if I was going to read both teachers feedback.
Pretty helpful because I knew what needed to be fixed. Oral feedback is always the best I understand it more this way. Suggestion for Smith is to help Ruggles with feedback is show him how sometimes being what some people may thinking is mean really isn’t it is just being really helpful and makes them do better in the long run.
Smith’s feedback was very helpful because she is good at showing me what I should be doing better with my writing and how I should fix things that I do wrong. She is really good at helping me change what I have wrong.
Smith’s feedback is very helpful. The most helpful was the written feedback this is because she really isn’t our teacher right now but she was in the case of her reading and helping us with our paper. The least helpful was the dual because we didn’t really talk one on one with her. Suggestion- Smith teaching Ruggles how to control a loud and energetic classroom.
Both feedbacks were very helpful. I just thought that it was interesting that the two feedbacks were different sometimes. I think that it might be good idea for both to do 1 paper. Ruggles looks over it and makes corrections and then Smith looks at the same paper and just puts down anything else she sees.
Smith’s feedback was very helpful because it not only said what was wrong but she was willing to help you fix it and give suggestions of another way to write it.
Smith’s feedback was good and helpful. She was always down to the point to tell you exactly what you did excellent and what was done horrible which sometimes you really do need especially with big assignments like this. You want to be told about your problems as early as possible so you are not making them worse as you continue to go on with the assignments. The types of oral feedback that were the most helpful was one on one conference. I would maybe even suggest having a sign-up for this one time throughout the middle of the project.
I think both teachers did a good job letting people know what they needed to improve.

LC week 10

I spent the better part of Saturday composing my cycle two report (otherwise known as part 2 of my cycle one)according to some discussions that I had with MR and with my LC. We had decided before to show the iteration of my AR work by splitting up my cycle one into smaller sections. I was taking the idea that because of the No D policy that lead to the multiple revision policy which lead to students creating their own rubric. In essence, my cycle one report would be a rather large document generating smaller subsections that each dealt with the topics.
However, as MR left feedback about my report, she thinks it would be better to go back and do it the way I had started it which was all within the same report. Oh well! Nothing like a good rewrite to refocus and solidify your ideas.

Basically, the structure I will follow is that the report will be an overall focus of the iterations that took place as a result of instituting the No D policy. I will then break down the report into subsections only in the data analysis so that the data can be examined separately to see its effects upon the class and me as the teacher.

Also, in the reflection section of my report, I could break it up into various sections if I felt it worked well for my paper. I can see this being beneficial for a focused reflection, but sense each part of the cycle leads into one another, I feel like I often come away with the same reflections and questions about the process as a whole.

Impressively enough and I have to remember to pass this along to my students, MR commented about what great reflections my kids write. I was really proud of them hearing this compliment and hadn’t thought before about how good they are at reflecting. I have done reflections so much in my class and give my kids that class time to do them, so I hadn’t thought about how well done they are until she pointed this out. It really made me feel good, and I am excited to share the news with my students.

We also had a great conversation in our LC about writing as a reflective process and how important it is to write over and over again. Yet, in schools, we do not teach writing this way. We are so focused on the one time only assignment. And for me, that was especially my focus until this past year when I gave my students multiple redos. What a change for both me and my students.

Sadly, I learned that we have to change LCs again at the end of this semester. I really am not excited about that. It seems as though each time we start gelling and working together, then we have to move on. And especially, I don’t think it makes sense so close to our presentations because if the LC we are working with really knows our AR work, they could better assist us in making really effective presentations. I am not sure if a new LC with so short a time before our presentations can make that work. I need to trust in the process and last time when I was ambivalent about a new LC, it all worked out. I hope the same can come true again. Wouldn’t it be great if we could pick our own LC?

LC Week 9

We began by listening to budget cuts from Abrash and my district. We are all feeling the crunch. It is really scary to think about cut backs for all teachers and administrators especially people we know.

I asked the group about spending time going over how they are feeling about their AR and work on cycle 2. Many of us are either feeling overwhelmed or can’t get a handle on where to go.
I talked with Matt, Tanner, and Abrash about the amount of data I had accumulated for what I thought would be my cycle 2 and 3 but unsure of how to write it all up and where to put all my cycle report information. Should I try to incorporate within each of my six week period studies a further analysis of the multiple revision work? Or should I write a “Part 2” of my cycle report to add at the end of my part one which would be the No D policy?

After some discussion and frequent explanations because I wasn’t being clear about what was in my head, we decided to divide cycle one up into the three parts would be the most effective and meaningful way to illustrate and present the results of my multiple revision policy and student generated rubric.

So, that leaves me with a lot of writing and analysis. I really wish there would be time to get this all accomplished. I did a lot of work with the multiple revision policy soliciting feedback from kids, completing a survey and personally interviewing students as well. Now I need to put all that together. Also, I need to think about the aspect with the student generated rubric. How am I going to assess that piece of the AR puzzle? I think the kids reflected on it somewhat, but I haven’t used it this semester with them because of my student teacher and their Change the World paper. Hmm, I just need to do some more thinking and reflecting I guess to pull this all together. Time would be nice too!