Second Quarter Reflection

For my formal evaluation this year, I am recording my experiences as a first year gifted education teacher here in my blog.  This will be my second of four reflections designed to explore successes, failures, and where I can improve instruction for my students.  I spent my second quarter teaching at East Middle School, the other middleschool in our district.

Quest Atlantis in the Vista Lab at East

We continued working in Quest Atlantis.  Since a big part of the grant I won dealt with incorporating Quest Atlantis in my classroom, we spent a little more time working on quests at East than at North.  I had all students working on the same mission at East, and I also provided them with a mission guide to help them record where they were at with their missions.  The increase in structure and exposure to the program helped students gain a better understanding of how to navigate through the program and the mission more effectively.  Also, the fact they were all working on the same mission increased the amount of collaboration that occurred between students.  When I do missions in the future, my plan will be to assign the same mission to each class during each quarter I have those students and also provide some type of guide to help direct them through different aspects of their mission.

I posted two of the East news stories above and below and if you would like to see the rest of them you can click here. I re-examined the rubric I used to evaluate the students’ news stories and re-designed it to reflect what I was looking for in a final product.  You can access the new, improved rubric by clicking here.  Students truly appreciate having a rubric to help guide them when they design a project.  Although there was a rubric during the first quarter, the new improved one was far more descriptive and gave the students a better idea of the characteristics of an effective news story.  Also, I had students from a friend’s classroom in Australia commenting on and evaluating the work of my students.  Students were genuinely excited when I shared with them that there were Aussie students watching and evaluating their videos and appreciated the feedback that was given to them via the web.

ECS Shout Outs, a microblogging application I have been using with my students, continues to be an experiment for my students and me.  Some students “get it” and utilize it far more often than others.  I was hoping it would be more collaborative than it has been, but by nature, it is probably too informal to be as collaborative as I would like.  Still, I was able to get students sharing with students and teachers on a more global basis, a goal I believe twenty-first century classrooms should have.  I pasted a few of my favorite shouts below.

ECS Shout Outs

Finally, a new tool I have been utilizing to collect both assignments, information and feedback from students is Google docs.  An example of one of the forms I used can be accessed by clicking here.  The information I collected from that form is gathered in a spreadsheet for easy evaluation and access by me or anyone else I want to share it with.  The spreadsheet for the above form can be accessed by clicking here.  I think google docs are a fantastic way for students to complete assignments, evaluations, and reflections and easily share them with the teacher or others designated by the teacher.

Google Form

In conclusion, I am looking forward to going into the second half of the year.  I plan to continue utilizing web tools as a means to encourage students to collaborate with others and share their work and ideas with a larger audience.  I continue to hope that my students are learning as much as I am in this adventure I am experiencing of becoming a gifted ed teacher.

Christmas Eve, My PLN, and Blogging from the Ski Hill

My dad came over for dinner on Christmas Eve and he made the mistake of asking me why my computer kept making strange bird noises. I spent the next 45 minutes explaining what my Personal Learning Network (PLN) was to my mystified (okay, confused) 71-year-old father. I showed him Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, and Second Life. I almost showed him World of Warcraft, but when he told me he was understanding about a tenth of what I was telling him, I came to the conclusion that explaining my exploits with an Australian Death Knight named Vorsprung in the great land of Azeroth might be a bit much for my aging father. My dad has a computer that he never uses but I believe if he attempted to understand and utilize his toy, he would really enjoy it.

Photo Courtesy of http://bigskyfishing.com/

On a personal note, I went skiing twice over the Christmas break and I just can’t ski as hard as I use to. I still think it is a fantastic way to spend time with my wife and two sons. Two or more hours stuck with each other either in the car or on a chair lift provide us with plenty of opportunities for talking and enjoying each other on a totally different level. And if I need to take more breaks because of my old age, the ski lodge just got wireless…SWEET!!!

End of Year…still blogging

Students Playing Quest Atlantis

I haven’t written a blog post in nearly two months.  I guess learning my new job has been a little bit overwhelming.  I am enjoying my new position; but I believe any time you start a different teaching job, the learning curve can be a bit steep.  I need to remember why I started to blog, if I am to continue blogging. It is because it helps me become better, both as a teacher and, I believe, as a person as well.  Even short blog posts, like I am certain this one will be, are important for me.

I have learned a lot over the past four months about the gifted and talented population.  Mostly, I suppose, is that the majority of these kids seem to have parents who truly care about academic success.  For the past seven years, the majority of my students and their parents cared little about academic success; and for the most part, their grades showed it.  There were exceptions, but they were few and far between.  So far those who argue that the biggest predictor of academic success in the classroom is “the teacher”, I would disagree.  I believe it to be parental involvement.  Intrinsic motivation is rare among middle school students…Parental motivation is NOT.

One of my bicycles

On a personal note, I am regaining my passion for cycling and hope to start racing again in the spring.  I forgot the amount of dedication it requires to be really fit, but it is very slowly coming back to me.  I have not been in really stellar health since I started working towards my master’s degree a little over three years ago.  That stupid piece of paper seemed to really take its toll on my health and on my checkbook.  Hopefully I can use the machine pictured above and some better eating habits to regain the health I possessed in my pre-master years.  Thank God for New Years Resolutions!

First Quarter Reflection

I am being evaluated by a new person this year as it is my time in the good old evaluation rotation.  The principal (Jane G.) at one of the middle schools where I am a gifted and talented teacher is doing my evaluation, and my goal is to record some reflections upon what went well and what  didn’t go so well during the school year . I thought that doing that here in my blog would be a perfect place.  I am keeping a journal on a Google Doc as well, but I figure end of quarter reflections here in my blog might be a great place to not only reflect, but also to share some student work.

My first quarter was exciting, frustrating, fun, and not-so-fun, all at the same time.  I was so use to the job I was doing as  math lab teacher for the past 7 years that I believe I was becoming a little complacent in my willingness to try different methods of teaching and new things in my classroom.  I mean, if what I was doing in math lab was working well, and it was, why should I change a bunch of things.  I believe the attitude I just expressed in that last sentence was leading me to stagnation.  I was ready for a change in my career and still grateful that I made the effort to make that change.

I took my first real crack at Project Based Learning this quarter and had some successes and also some failures.  The best teachers and research both support that PBL is a great way to get kids motivated, engaged, and learning.  I think at times I forgot the driving question that I crafted in Washington, DC with my friend Dean Groom last summer.  I also wasn’t as sure as I could have been what the end product was going to be, which was a bit problematic considering that PBL principles state that you should begin with the end in mind.  Anyhow, the end product that kids created ended up being a news story on the career they were hoping to have when they became adults.  I wanted them to find someone to interview who held that career,  and many of my students were really afraid to make that initial contact.  Many kids interviewed teachers, partly because teachers were the easiest person to interview, and partly because some of them really had an interest in becoming a teacher.  When I teach this unit again next quarter, I plan to give students more freedom with regards to how they decide to conduct their interview, possibly letting an actor or friend stand in for the interviewee.  Also, I should have had students research their career before they conducted their interview.  Part of the reason for this I feel was my lack of foresight into what exactly the end product was going to be.  I still believe the project was a good idea, and I plan to do a similar one, with a few adjustments, next quarter at East Middle School.  Many of the final projects were very well done, as you can see from the two news stories around this paragraph.  The ones that were very well done were probably well done not so much because of how fine a job the teacher did, but as a result of innovation and creativity on the part of the students.  Man, I have some creative and imaginative students!

You can find more of my students’ final projects by clicking here.  Please, if you have time, give one or two of my students some feedback by commenting on their News Story by clicking on their episodes permalink.

Something that I also tried this quarter was an application called Shoutem.com.  It is a microblogging application that I used as a way for students to communicate with each other about a variety of things.  I believe it was very successful with several of my students as it gave them a way for anytime, anywhere, communication with both their peers and their teacher.  Kids enjoyed creating their own web page and designing their profiles.  They also enjoyed the social aspect of the application.  I plan to use the same account with the students at East Middle School, so that the students I had at North Middle School can share and communicate with each other via this awesome learning network application.  As more students see its usefulness in their own learning process, I believe more kids will begin utilizing it for that purpose.  Hopefully, students who see no purpose behind our Shoutem account will learn from the kids who are gaining the most through the application.

Finally, I began utilizing Moodle with my students as well.  It was a bit clunky and difficult to get use to, but I think the kids like it, and it is a great way for students to share ideas and work with both their peers and their teacher.  I need to let go of my need to have a hard copy assignment if I am to truly utilize Moodle to its full potential.  It would be nice if it were more like Shoutem.  I believe that security/fear issues keep teachers from using the web to its full potential.  The ability to have a larger audience to share ideas with is the purpose behind twenty-first century learning.  I want my students to have feedback, not only from me, but from their peers from their own school, peers from other schools in other places, teachers, and teachers from other schools and other places.  Twenty-first century applications via the WWW will allow students to gain that feed back if we get over that fear.

I told my first class of the day that they were like Guinea Pigs, an idea I was given by a retired gifted education teacher.  I felt haphazard at times in my delivery, and I am sure it came across that way to many of my students.  My hope is that my students learned one-tenth as much as I did during my first quarter as a gifted and talented teacher.  If they did, I believe I can consider my first quarter a success!  Last spring I wrote a grant proposal which included much of what I have tried to do during this first quarter.  So someone at Qwest or ACTE must think that what I am trying to do in my classroom has value, because I was awarded the grant near the end of the first quarter.  Without the ability to collaborate with some very fine teachers in my PLN on the other side of the globe, I would never have been able to win that grant.  That collaboration is exactly the type of thing I hope to share and instill in my students.

Blogging My Way Through a Construction Zone

The only time I have time for blogging any more is when I am driving on a highway, flying on a plane, or riding on a bus.  I just started a new teaching position as a gifted and talented specialist and I feel as if I haven’t got a clue what I am doing.  I think everyone should feel like that once in a while because I believe that is when real learning occurs.

My last post was about microblogging in the classroom and my students have been doing just that during this quarter of school.  We are using a tool called Shout.em which is very similar to Edmodo.  Some of the kids really “get” microblogging and are asking questions, sharing information, making connections, and getting to know one another in a new way.  Other students are not sure and some see it as a big waste of time.  There is an old saying that goes something like this:

“Contempt prior to investigation will lead a man to everlasting ignorance.”

This attitude seems pervasive with people who do not see the purpose behind the connected learning applications like shout em, moodlechat, Quest Atlantis, Second Life, Reaction Grid, etherpad, etc. can provide.  I am finding that the students who investigate with an open mind, in most cases, find the purpose behind connected, anywhere, anytime learning applications and begin utilizing them to enhance their own learning.  When email, fax machines, telephones, automobiles, nose hair trimmers, and toasters were first introduced many people didn’t see their purpose either…until they decided to investigate them with an open mind.

Big Thinkers: Henry Jenkins

I received a link to this video in a school email.  It seems like many people in our district are really getting on board with these new tools.  I really like the ideas that this man presents in this video.  Here’s hoping that people in high places pay attention to Mr. Jenkins.

more about “Big Thinkers: Henry Jenkins on New Me…“, posted with vodpod

Microblogging in the Classroom

Our district has been bringing in big-pay speakers like Kevin Honeycutt and Leslie Fischer to discuss the power of learning networks, mobile devices, and social media in our classrooms.  I think it is simply fantastic that people in my school district are beginning to see the power many of these tools might have in our classrooms.  For me, the ability to learn new things has increased exponentially as I have become increasingly proficient in utilizing many of these new tools in my own life, both personally and professionally.  I am hoping that others see how powerful these tools are and continue to push their use in the classroom.  I believe microblogging tools  can be powerful tools to share ideas and content with students.  I also believe they give us a new method for assessing student learning.  Sharing your thoughts in 140 characters  requires communication with precision and clarity.  I have talked with one teacher who has used a microblogging tool in his classroom, and he shared that the benefits far outweighed the detriments.  I really want to use many of the tools I have learned about, but it sometimes seems an uphill battle to use them as many people fear the negative repercussions of implementing these tools in a middle school classroom.  I can see why many teachers simply give up when it comes to using new tech.  It seems so much easier to simply maintain the status quo.  Anyone out there have any similar experiences?

Inspiring Bits « johnsonLAB

I watched this video and found it to be extremely insightful. The web is only 5000 days old, a little older than most of my students. What will it look like 5000 days from now? The connections we make on it are only going to continue to increase in an exponential way. I think that is an exciting thing to think about…

more about "Inspiring Bits « johnsonLAB", posted with vodpod

Blogging from Joanie’s Minivan

Seems like the only time I blog anymore is from a fast moving vehicle.  I guess if I am not sitting in a car or a plane traveling to a new destination…I would just as soon be on my bicycle riding up a hill.  I am in my car with my wife and two sons heading to Lincoln City, Oregon to spend some time with Joanie’s family.  Her parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary…so I thought I had better go.

On my last trip out here to moodlebootcamp, several teacher friends told me about this game/activity called geocaching.  They explained it to me and it sounded very cool.  Geocachers search all over the place for hidden treasures called geocaches.  The coordinates of each Cache are loaded on Geocaching.com and you can actually load them on your Ipod or Iphone with their application.  There are several different types of Geocaches, but I have only found one kind so far.  When you find the cache, there is a notebook inside for you to sign that says you found it.  When you return home you can log your find, or non-find in some cases, on the Geocaching.com website.  Some of the Geocaches are far more well hidden than others, but actually finding the geocache is really quite rewarding.  It could be compared to completing a difficult and arduous quest in World of Warcraft.

Geocache at Hidden Lake

When I went to the Geocache.com web site, it was boggling to my mind how many geocaches were placed around my hometown.  I investigated a little further and found that people place them at the end of terribly long and strenuous hikes…but man…those hikes have some kind of a view.  We went for a family hike earlier this week and found a very beautiful mountain lake with a geocache hidden in some rocks right next to it.  There was one other cache up there that I did not have time to hike up to…but I know I will go back again for that one.  Our district just purchased several GPS devices for teachers to begin using and geocaching will be an excellent way to incorporate those devices into my classroom.  I found an excellent blog that was entirely about classroom uses of Geocaching if anyone is interested in ways to utilize this awesome technology in their own classroom.  This blog contains an excellent video that describes in far more detail exactly what geocaching is if my description was not enough.

On a personal note, We are going to hike up to Multnomah Falls on our way to the coast tomorrow.  I found four Geocaches on Geocaching.com and uploaded them onto my GPS device.  My two boys, joanie, and I are going to do some geocaching before we head to the beach.

Blogging on a bus 2

I recently purchased a wireless card from Verizon and let me tell you, it has totally increased my ability to learn on an anytime, anywhere basis.  I spent several hours on a bus to and from a workshop called Moodlebootcamp at a place called Pack Forest near Eatonville, WA.  It is the most productive traveling I have ever done.  On the way there, I wrote two blog posts, re-connected with numerous twitter and plurk friends, tweeked several Moodle Tasks I have been working on in a course I am creating, and I even played a little World of Warcraft.  On the way home I continued customizing Moodle tasks and started planning a workshop I hope to conduct in the fall.

Blue Acer

I am writing this blog post an Acer Aspire One Netbook that costs less than $300.00usd.  I believe similar machines will soon cost under $200.00usd.  My wireless card is a little pricey, but I would gladly pay the amount I am paying to get productive things done at times when in the past, productivity was impossible.  I beginning to truly love my time writing in and posting to my blog anytime I want…even as I move across three states coming to and from a workshop.  Learning anytime, anywhere, anything will only become increasingly possible as we continue moving through this century.  The ability to learn in a mobile way will only become more efficient and inexpensive over the next few years for our students.

Are we ready to let our kids take advantage of these increasingly inexpensive technologies by allowing them to utilize mobile devices in and out of our classrooms for learning, sharing, and collaboration purposes?  According to many of the teachers I know, we are not.  Mobile devices and the communication they produce are nothing more than a distraction to the learning process is what many teachers I know profess.  Perhaps we should be teaching them HOW to utilize those devices as learning tools instead of forbidding students from having them anywhere near our classrooms.