bye and happy holidays.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
A very busy slacker!
Well, that about sums it up. I don't have much time to post and I haven't posted much lately, but I'm pretty busy. Here's the basics: I haven't updated the Excel spreadsheet all week (what did I do with all that free time they give me third hour!!!!). And I didn't create a CPS how-to video yet (though dr. g. asked for one explicitly). But I did.... Make a 6-part podcasting video from the presentation that Lisa and I gave (though I can only host it on the south/staff sharepoint site right now b/c theater projects don't sit well in other places and my public_html folder can't handle fla and swv files. And I spent a bunch of time working on issues with TAC, though I don't know if any of that work will count for much! Oh well. Glad I'm not in admin. Too many meetings and too much consultation. I think I did some other stuff, too, but I don't have time to go into it. Of course, I have my own students, too, and my own pet projects to work on. I think I'll have more time over the break. As soon as I can link to the podcast tutorials I'll post it here. I could post each one separately, but not the theater project. Starting to not like the theater project!!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Post-Induction Breather
So yesterday I presented for year four teachers on Podcasting and CPS Clickers. I took the day and watched the other presentations as well. Picked up some tips and tricks for word, excel, camtasia/Jing, ClassServer, and voice recognition. Of course, I'm never in a quiet room, so voice recognition is tough, and I have some questions about how class server fits (or is even necessary) in a scorm compliant Sharepoint SLK environment.
It was a lot of fun, and draining, too. I really enjoyed working with LB on Podcasting, but honestly she uses it for so many more applications than I do that I felt guilty even putting my name on the header. I podcast to students and parents about assignments and course announcements. She has students create podcasts for all kinds of sorts of reasons with clear assessment rubrics and strong ties to the curriculum. It inspired me to rethink how I'm going to get kids working on Audacity to create digital story telling lessons. Working with LB was cool and we promised to do it again. She knows the conference circuit better than I do, so I hope she finds a venue. That's two new self-assigned directives. Geez, no wonder it took two weeks to get the Xmas lights up.
Sat in the back with a couple parents from a district parent technology committee and PB an Assistant Prnicipal over at Central (with whom I had worked a long time ago and who I respect a lot). I think it was a good opportunity for people with focused expertise to share perspective informally (meaning we chatted between sessions and sometimes when we shouldn't have). I'll tell me (you) what I was hoping to convey and also what I understood to be everybody's point of view. First, teachers are excited about, experimental with, and determined to use educational technologies. But there are a lot of very real obstacles that make the effective implementation of technologies and the integration of (what should be) complementary technologies difficult. Many of the delays in teachers implementing technology result from factors other than teacher-resistance. From the parents, I got the sense that there's a lot of positive support for teacher implementation of technology and a desire to ses more evidence of the 21'st century portable, reactive, and personalized technologies that would benefit the students. From PB, I got the characteristic enthusiasm for teachers who experiment with technology, as well as the sense that there are important and unexplored connections between technology applications and other initiatives at the school or district level. It certainly got me thinking when she showed me some of the work on student self-monitoring of growth. Since I've got "decent" standards tracking in place already, it wouldn't be hard to share data sets like that with the students so they can track their own progress in visual and graphic ways.
In a reflective mode, I thought that the presentation on clickers went well. My remote mouse broke :( so I was tied to the machine more than I wanted to be. I was really nervous and there were just over 32 people, so not everybody got a remote :( We got it all done on time, though, and I think teachers both had fun and saw the value in the clicker technology. One of the big questions that came up was about other brands of remotes (I think there are three or four brands floating between the schools). I don't think these will be particularly easy to service or support unless we can agree on a standard. I propose (of course) that future purchases use CPS either IR or RF depending upon proven need. But, hey, maybe they'll choose something else. In any case, there should be a standard. I also think there's going to be increased demand for the product, so I should be ready to lend a hand (and Dr. G better be ready to have cash on hand or to break some hearts!)
Geez, what am I doing? I need to grade lots of stuff that came in yesterday. And I didn't even mention a bunch of stuff that I wanted to get in. Next time. Oh, wait. Examview is going to give me access to something called REAP (a data export tool) so I'll keep you informed on that front. OK, busy. Bye.
It was a lot of fun, and draining, too. I really enjoyed working with LB on Podcasting, but honestly she uses it for so many more applications than I do that I felt guilty even putting my name on the header. I podcast to students and parents about assignments and course announcements. She has students create podcasts for all kinds of sorts of reasons with clear assessment rubrics and strong ties to the curriculum. It inspired me to rethink how I'm going to get kids working on Audacity to create digital story telling lessons. Working with LB was cool and we promised to do it again. She knows the conference circuit better than I do, so I hope she finds a venue. That's two new self-assigned directives. Geez, no wonder it took two weeks to get the Xmas lights up.
Sat in the back with a couple parents from a district parent technology committee and PB an Assistant Prnicipal over at Central (with whom I had worked a long time ago and who I respect a lot). I think it was a good opportunity for people with focused expertise to share perspective informally (meaning we chatted between sessions and sometimes when we shouldn't have). I'll tell me (you) what I was hoping to convey and also what I understood to be everybody's point of view. First, teachers are excited about, experimental with, and determined to use educational technologies. But there are a lot of very real obstacles that make the effective implementation of technologies and the integration of (what should be) complementary technologies difficult. Many of the delays in teachers implementing technology result from factors other than teacher-resistance. From the parents, I got the sense that there's a lot of positive support for teacher implementation of technology and a desire to ses more evidence of the 21'st century portable, reactive, and personalized technologies that would benefit the students. From PB, I got the characteristic enthusiasm for teachers who experiment with technology, as well as the sense that there are important and unexplored connections between technology applications and other initiatives at the school or district level. It certainly got me thinking when she showed me some of the work on student self-monitoring of growth. Since I've got "decent" standards tracking in place already, it wouldn't be hard to share data sets like that with the students so they can track their own progress in visual and graphic ways.
In a reflective mode, I thought that the presentation on clickers went well. My remote mouse broke :( so I was tied to the machine more than I wanted to be. I was really nervous and there were just over 32 people, so not everybody got a remote :( We got it all done on time, though, and I think teachers both had fun and saw the value in the clicker technology. One of the big questions that came up was about other brands of remotes (I think there are three or four brands floating between the schools). I don't think these will be particularly easy to service or support unless we can agree on a standard. I propose (of course) that future purchases use CPS either IR or RF depending upon proven need. But, hey, maybe they'll choose something else. In any case, there should be a standard. I also think there's going to be increased demand for the product, so I should be ready to lend a hand (and Dr. G better be ready to have cash on hand or to break some hearts!)
Geez, what am I doing? I need to grade lots of stuff that came in yesterday. And I didn't even mention a bunch of stuff that I wanted to get in. Next time. Oh, wait. Examview is going to give me access to something called REAP (a data export tool) so I'll keep you informed on that front. OK, busy. Bye.
Friday, December 5, 2008
A humbling week..
Not that every week (day) isn't somewhat humbling, but this week has been especially so. Working with my podcasting partner at Central (who is so on her game and hip with all the new apps) to my visits to a bunch of different sites nominated for the "eddie" awards, to watching some of the great Camtasia videos produced for training by JL, it's been a week of watching others who are much more adept at integrating technology. It was fun, mind you. I said humbling, not depressing. But still, it seems a guy could search forever to find the best tools to promote learning and then they'd just invent a dozen new apps (or a web 4.0) and he'd have to start all over.
So I spent my week working on the Camtasia/PPT and CPS/PPT (making it a CPS/PPT/Camtasia) project. I basically took a powerpoint lesson on sentence structure and camtasia'd the animations and voice-overs which resulted in a few short movies on the subject. In camtasia, I cleaned up a couple problems and added highlighting in a few places to emphasize points. Then, in CPS, I launched the ppt with the question bar on the bottom. After each short video, I had them respond to questions, and then we moved on to the next section of the video, etc, etc. I used a lot of visual humor to try to make some of the points, and also hoped that the rolling motion of a video presentation would hold attention and feel stimulating and familiar to the kids. I wanted the stop/question session to be kind of sudden and shocking - like if a tv show or movie suddently stopped and addressed the audience. I'm not sure that the video segment was narrative enough for that. I mean, it did definitely hold their attention better than I do when I present the rules of sentence structure with notes or orally. But, I don't know...
And, the data goon inside of me says - "You don't know because you didn't set up any reliable measurement device. In typical technowonk style, you ran ahead and tried something but didn't think in advance about how to measure it. i.e. pre-event measurements of student engagement with the introduction to materials, score-based measurement on the pre-post lesson learning, narrative feedback on student enjoyment/engagement..." Oh well. Live and learn. Gotta go.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Good Day for eInstruction Outreach
So today we had a demo from Nicole Fryeson at eInstruction and I thought it went well. We chatted up some of the Examview/CPS integration questions that I hadn't gotten satisfactory answers about and then she asked me to forward those and she'll see who she can get to reply from the development team. Here are the questions:
1. While it is possible to export Examview questions to CPS and CPS sessions to examview, a lot of important data get lost. Specifically, from Examview to CPS only the Keyword and State Standards are kept, so the reports that can be run are limited. When the sessions are sent from CPS to Examview, even that data are lost. If a teacher wants to track student and class performance on, say, specific learning objectives or local standards, he can’t. That matters more than you think, because in schools now the focus is all on RtI (response to intervention). So if a class or student is struggling with an objective, we need to be able to measure the success of specific interventions (like an engaging CPS session). How much priority is the cross-program maintenance of those data tags getting as you all continue to develop and integrate the two products?
2. Our district has had two high-level meetings recently to establish a standard testing software. Examview has been one among several candidates. In my opinion, in most ways it is the strongest. However, we’re replacing ParScore, and one complaint that has come up with Examview is the lack of any strong “statistics engine”. By this, the administrators were contrasting ParScore’s ability to measure the reliability coefficient of specific questions, etc. The second problem with Examview came in contrast to Amesweb (sp?). Specifically, the administrators were looking for a way to track waypoint progress for specific objectives. While Examview does allow a teacher to measure specific learning objectives for a given assignment OR across a range of dates (as an average of performance across that range), it does not plot performance on those objectives for specific assignments across a range of dates. While this can be done manually in a program like Excel, the administrators were looking for something that looked like a chart/graph that showed dates and performance levels along the way. Had you been at that meeting, I assure you that you would have seen the enthusiasm for the graphs on AmesWeb among the administrators. With RtI (again) being the big issue, we need an obvious and clear way to measure the effectiveness of interventions throughout the unit (not just at the beginning and end of the unit).
3. Finally, we’ve all been impressed by the flexibility of the algorithm-based questions, especially as they relate to math. However, teachers using vocabulary (foreign language, language arts, biology) would like something similar – a word bank that creates random questions from a collection of words and their definitions. As it stands, right now we use a lot of multiple choice and matching, and students get used to the same wrong answer set being attached to vocabulary words. Is this something in the works?
Of course, I also asked for freebies on a desktop launcher program, but we'll see. Bad news, looks like eventually they'll stop supporting quizshow. Darn.
Very excited about project with a teacher at Central. Odd b/c I only podcast a little, and that's the meat of the presentation. but what I like is that we're using google apps to try to pull it all together and I'm enjoying using the shared docs. Also google-apping the spreadsheet that records tech work. Anyway, I gotta go, but I just finished the camtasia/power-point/CPS practice for clauses, conjunctions, and sentence variety. I can't wait to see how it works. Seems like it has potential for stop motion interactive teaching with AV enhancements (which has been a weakness of mine historically).
Later
1. While it is possible to export Examview questions to CPS and CPS sessions to examview, a lot of important data get lost. Specifically, from Examview to CPS only the Keyword and State Standards are kept, so the reports that can be run are limited. When the sessions are sent from CPS to Examview, even that data are lost. If a teacher wants to track student and class performance on, say, specific learning objectives or local standards, he can’t. That matters more than you think, because in schools now the focus is all on RtI (response to intervention). So if a class or student is struggling with an objective, we need to be able to measure the success of specific interventions (like an engaging CPS session). How much priority is the cross-program maintenance of those data tags getting as you all continue to develop and integrate the two products?
2. Our district has had two high-level meetings recently to establish a standard testing software. Examview has been one among several candidates. In my opinion, in most ways it is the strongest. However, we’re replacing ParScore, and one complaint that has come up with Examview is the lack of any strong “statistics engine”. By this, the administrators were contrasting ParScore’s ability to measure the reliability coefficient of specific questions, etc. The second problem with Examview came in contrast to Amesweb (sp?). Specifically, the administrators were looking for a way to track waypoint progress for specific objectives. While Examview does allow a teacher to measure specific learning objectives for a given assignment OR across a range of dates (as an average of performance across that range), it does not plot performance on those objectives for specific assignments across a range of dates. While this can be done manually in a program like Excel, the administrators were looking for something that looked like a chart/graph that showed dates and performance levels along the way. Had you been at that meeting, I assure you that you would have seen the enthusiasm for the graphs on AmesWeb among the administrators. With RtI (again) being the big issue, we need an obvious and clear way to measure the effectiveness of interventions throughout the unit (not just at the beginning and end of the unit).
3. Finally, we’ve all been impressed by the flexibility of the algorithm-based questions, especially as they relate to math. However, teachers using vocabulary (foreign language, language arts, biology) would like something similar – a word bank that creates random questions from a collection of words and their definitions. As it stands, right now we use a lot of multiple choice and matching, and students get used to the same wrong answer set being attached to vocabulary words. Is this something in the works?
Of course, I also asked for freebies on a desktop launcher program, but we'll see. Bad news, looks like eventually they'll stop supporting quizshow. Darn.
Very excited about project with a teacher at Central. Odd b/c I only podcast a little, and that's the meat of the presentation. but what I like is that we're using google apps to try to pull it all together and I'm enjoying using the shared docs. Also google-apping the spreadsheet that records tech work. Anyway, I gotta go, but I just finished the camtasia/power-point/CPS practice for clauses, conjunctions, and sentence variety. I can't wait to see how it works. Seems like it has potential for stop motion interactive teaching with AV enhancements (which has been a weakness of mine historically).
Later
Friday, November 21, 2008
MSWMM's and Turkey
I'm not sure, but I think everybody's checked out on me. Almost no use of out-of-class resources, disappointing quiz scores, even disappearing PLATO results. It's a week with few bright spots - except the AWESOME student projects for Speak. Geez, how'd I almost forget that? They did a really good job on the MovieMaker Projects, in spite of the many freezes and glitches that MovieMaker is prone to. Much better than in the past! Walter credits the improved machines and the streamlined directions (though few watch the video tutorials outside of class, they do keep their attention when you demo for the class). I think it's because I forced them to do the voice-over narration. In any case, they are certainly quite good, and I'm proud of the kids for that.
That said, the quizzes still stunk, and that's a problem. All of the other grammar work on parts of speech, phrases, and clauses, leads to the sentences. And they're struggling on sentences. So I need to come back with some lessons that hit the mark a bit better. And they need to study more. Scheeesh!
On a completely different note, the PLATO system runs much better thanks to some restructuring and increasing of bandwidth allocation! However, while we did run PLATO much more smoothly this week, for some reason the student use reports came back to me completely empty (for the most part). As though the students accomplished nothing and were hardly logged on. !?! So would I rather have them working uninterrupted but never find out what they accomplished, or have them frustrated and underproductive but know the details? Of course, knowing me as I do, I want both. So I'll have to follow up with PLATO and find out what happened.
On another completely different note, I'm encouraging the district to start experimenting with Sharepoint SLK and perhaps NOW it's going to click. Let's hope. There was a big school meeting this morning and, I think, the outcome was a push to lurch forwards. I mean that optimistically, but honestly. We went back around on the teacher interface and how to improve upon that (and why that would be a good thing to do not only aesthetically, but for morale as well). I suspect I'll get pegged to work on that because I'm a loud voice for having a much more polished interface for the working professionals here than the glued together "employee" tab that we've got now. Anyway, that led to questions about what advances are available for Sharepoint for the teachers. Hey, only about 27% are building active sites here! But, then again, how much can the Sharepoint sites accomplish? And who can access them? Lots of go-around about what remains public/what is private and how to do that. And the calendar as well as the public html embedded page within sharepoint... So, anyway, at least people are talking about sharepoint. For goodness sakes, if we're planning to make that our future, we better figure out how best to use it (and use the best version of it we can get).
This year I'll be running (once again) my surowicki (Wisdom of Crowds) test. Using the rubric evaluations of the students vs. my own impressions, I'll measure their grading of the student movie maker projects. I'd go through the mechanics here (conducting survey in sharepoint on 4 5-point scales, exporting results to excel, compiling the class score, comparing against my own score). But this year I though of something else. There is actually a way to measure teacher vs. student accuracy (students as a crowd, not individuals) in grading with a definitive RIGHT answer. I'm going to go over the writing scale with them and look at a few papers. Then, we'll all blindly grade a few essays. Since I can collect their feedback via sharepoint, I can measure my grades vs. theirs (as a whole). So long as I pick essays that have been scored already (say, the norm-referenced papers from some grading session, ACT, etc.), and assuming I don't cheat and look at the scores, then I should be able to test Surowicki's thesis while also getting valuable work done in the classroom. BTW, for those of you just tuning in, surowicki posits that a large enough group of ameteurs, when given enough information, will come to a more accurate assessment (solution, etc) than a professional. Sounds like fun.
Also, lots of new materials to design. And, of course, teaching high school and raising a family. Crazy.
That said, the quizzes still stunk, and that's a problem. All of the other grammar work on parts of speech, phrases, and clauses, leads to the sentences. And they're struggling on sentences. So I need to come back with some lessons that hit the mark a bit better. And they need to study more. Scheeesh!
On a completely different note, the PLATO system runs much better thanks to some restructuring and increasing of bandwidth allocation! However, while we did run PLATO much more smoothly this week, for some reason the student use reports came back to me completely empty (for the most part). As though the students accomplished nothing and were hardly logged on. !?! So would I rather have them working uninterrupted but never find out what they accomplished, or have them frustrated and underproductive but know the details? Of course, knowing me as I do, I want both. So I'll have to follow up with PLATO and find out what happened.
On another completely different note, I'm encouraging the district to start experimenting with Sharepoint SLK and perhaps NOW it's going to click. Let's hope. There was a big school meeting this morning and, I think, the outcome was a push to lurch forwards. I mean that optimistically, but honestly. We went back around on the teacher interface and how to improve upon that (and why that would be a good thing to do not only aesthetically, but for morale as well). I suspect I'll get pegged to work on that because I'm a loud voice for having a much more polished interface for the working professionals here than the glued together "employee" tab that we've got now. Anyway, that led to questions about what advances are available for Sharepoint for the teachers. Hey, only about 27% are building active sites here! But, then again, how much can the Sharepoint sites accomplish? And who can access them? Lots of go-around about what remains public/what is private and how to do that. And the calendar as well as the public html embedded page within sharepoint... So, anyway, at least people are talking about sharepoint. For goodness sakes, if we're planning to make that our future, we better figure out how best to use it (and use the best version of it we can get).
This year I'll be running (once again) my surowicki (Wisdom of Crowds) test. Using the rubric evaluations of the students vs. my own impressions, I'll measure their grading of the student movie maker projects. I'd go through the mechanics here (conducting survey in sharepoint on 4 5-point scales, exporting results to excel, compiling the class score, comparing against my own score). But this year I though of something else. There is actually a way to measure teacher vs. student accuracy (students as a crowd, not individuals) in grading with a definitive RIGHT answer. I'm going to go over the writing scale with them and look at a few papers. Then, we'll all blindly grade a few essays. Since I can collect their feedback via sharepoint, I can measure my grades vs. theirs (as a whole). So long as I pick essays that have been scored already (say, the norm-referenced papers from some grading session, ACT, etc.), and assuming I don't cheat and look at the scores, then I should be able to test Surowicki's thesis while also getting valuable work done in the classroom. BTW, for those of you just tuning in, surowicki posits that a large enough group of ameteurs, when given enough information, will come to a more accurate assessment (solution, etc) than a professional. Sounds like fun.
Also, lots of new materials to design. And, of course, teaching high school and raising a family. Crazy.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Self-Inflicted Assignments...
Okay, point one. Sharepoint has stopped, just stopped, collecting site usage statistics and I hope that gets fixed soon b/c I was harvesting that data.
2. Self-assignment - make a cps game that integrates a camtasia movie that integrates powerpoint. Really. Learn how all that stuff fits together.
3. Self-assignment - make how-to videos for the scanner and the vision software. The vision will be hard b/c I can't install camtasia on the library screens, but the library screens will look different...hmmm
4. self-assignment - think of some new experiments that could be used to measure interventions. How well does something work. One quirky thing for sure about intervention - the thing that is most likely to work in general is not always the thing that will work for a specific kid. How would you measure both?
All right. I'm not tremendously ambitious today and I've got some grades to update. Enjoy the weekend.
2. Self-assignment - make a cps game that integrates a camtasia movie that integrates powerpoint. Really. Learn how all that stuff fits together.
3. Self-assignment - make how-to videos for the scanner and the vision software. The vision will be hard b/c I can't install camtasia on the library screens, but the library screens will look different...hmmm
4. self-assignment - think of some new experiments that could be used to measure interventions. How well does something work. One quirky thing for sure about intervention - the thing that is most likely to work in general is not always the thing that will work for a specific kid. How would you measure both?
All right. I'm not tremendously ambitious today and I've got some grades to update. Enjoy the weekend.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Renaming the Past
Sorry, I don't think you'll find a single, intelligent, unified strand of thought here, but since, as I point out from time to time, I'm the only real intended audience for this blog, all that really matters is that I say these things and try to get the thoughts that bump around in my head clear.
First, the title of this post refers to the previous post about the communication between teachers and administrators about technology integration. I should have called it "What we talk about when we talk about tech" in homage to Raymond Carver and his outstanding short stories (see What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Vintage, 1989) (and thank you Marisha Pessl for encouraging annotation - see Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Viking Adult, 2006). But I didn't, and it would be cheap to change it now. So why would I want to have changed it? I think the title included the word frustration, and I think people might have been worried that I was making a targeted or specific accusation. Not true, at all, of course. With the exception of the empathy I felt for my neighbor at the conference, I wasn't expressing personal frustration at all. Rather, my gentle and collegial point was that technology is giant and all-encompassing and so needs to be discussed in more specific detail if specific outcomes are desired.
On with the show. Played with Camtasia last night to make a new video for recording voice over music on Movie Maker. I can't see Camtasia 6 as being that big a deal after Cam 4/5, but it worked pretty well. I uploaded to screencast and got good download speeds here at school. What has definitely not "clicked" with me is how Camtasia could be used often as my respected friend at Central assures me. He's half barking mad about Camtasia and screencasting as a revolution in education and I'm just not seeing the big picture. BUT, it is more reliable than movie maker so I think I'll make some more stuff more quickly this way. Hmm, what could I really screencast? How would Powerpoint/screencast theoretically work with Powerpoint/CPS? It's true, you can use powerpoint with the remotes (CPS Clickers) and you can use powerpoint with camtasia. Could you make movies that people take tests during? Kind of like those old interacTV games the kids had a few years ago. ...Which road should dora take..., and all that. Perhaps that's worth playing around with.
Computer 18 keeps restarting, it bugs me.
I updated all the Quia and Sharepoint stuff finally. It takes a long time to get the phrase/clause coding right (and then getting it all into quia), thank goodness for Macropro. It's not that the Macro saves me all that much time. Instead, I spend more time troubleshooting and programming and less time re-entering data. Let's face it, if you've gotta spend time doing something tedious or something difficult, the latter is the better choice. A bit behind on grading. Computers keep crasing on student projects. Gotta pitch MovieMaker next year. Way too unstable. We'll probably use Photostory 3, though I'll miss some of the MM features.
Anyway, I've gotta go. Lots to do, etc. oh. Here's my video on adding voice and music to a movie maker project:
First, the title of this post refers to the previous post about the communication between teachers and administrators about technology integration. I should have called it "What we talk about when we talk about tech" in homage to Raymond Carver and his outstanding short stories (see What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Vintage, 1989) (and thank you Marisha Pessl for encouraging annotation - see Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Viking Adult, 2006). But I didn't, and it would be cheap to change it now. So why would I want to have changed it? I think the title included the word frustration, and I think people might have been worried that I was making a targeted or specific accusation. Not true, at all, of course. With the exception of the empathy I felt for my neighbor at the conference, I wasn't expressing personal frustration at all. Rather, my gentle and collegial point was that technology is giant and all-encompassing and so needs to be discussed in more specific detail if specific outcomes are desired.
On with the show. Played with Camtasia last night to make a new video for recording voice over music on Movie Maker. I can't see Camtasia 6 as being that big a deal after Cam 4/5, but it worked pretty well. I uploaded to screencast and got good download speeds here at school. What has definitely not "clicked" with me is how Camtasia could be used often as my respected friend at Central assures me. He's half barking mad about Camtasia and screencasting as a revolution in education and I'm just not seeing the big picture. BUT, it is more reliable than movie maker so I think I'll make some more stuff more quickly this way. Hmm, what could I really screencast? How would Powerpoint/screencast theoretically work with Powerpoint/CPS? It's true, you can use powerpoint with the remotes (CPS Clickers) and you can use powerpoint with camtasia. Could you make movies that people take tests during? Kind of like those old interacTV games the kids had a few years ago. ...Which road should dora take..., and all that. Perhaps that's worth playing around with.
Computer 18 keeps restarting, it bugs me.
I updated all the Quia and Sharepoint stuff finally. It takes a long time to get the phrase/clause coding right (and then getting it all into quia), thank goodness for Macropro. It's not that the Macro saves me all that much time. Instead, I spend more time troubleshooting and programming and less time re-entering data. Let's face it, if you've gotta spend time doing something tedious or something difficult, the latter is the better choice. A bit behind on grading. Computers keep crasing on student projects. Gotta pitch MovieMaker next year. Way too unstable. We'll probably use Photostory 3, though I'll miss some of the MM features.
Anyway, I've gotta go. Lots to do, etc. oh. Here's my video on adding voice and music to a movie maker project:
Friday, November 7, 2008
What do you want from me?(Teacher frustration and the administrative decree)
I was at the BER conference "Using Innovative Technology Projects to Strengthen Content Area Learning" and our first job was to talk to a stranger around us about their use of technology in the classroom. In our one-on-one chat, a K-8 teacher from the area told me, "I don't know what they want. They want us to use technology, but I don't know what they want us to do with it." And I think she hit the mark with that comment. When administrators encourage teachers to incorporate technology in the classroom, what do they mean? Do the administrators themselves even know? Are they expressing it clearly to the teachers?
There are obviously a million things that students and teachers can do with computers, most of them even legal. So when administrators aren't clear in their specifications for what constitutes a successful "technology integration", teachers can't easily design practices and lessons that ensure this is being done. Administrators who wish to effectively encourage these teachers to use more technology in the classroom must be clear about which of the following goals they are expecting to see met:
- Engagement – Students are motivated and excited by the assignments they are given because the activities are hands-on, reactive, and immediate.
- Just-in-Time instruction – in the quest to produce formative learning environments, technology allows teachers to intelligently collect data on student performance and to give those students challenges that meet their exact level of readiness at that moment.
- Exploration – The internet and distance learning programs allow students to choose what to learn and provides nearly unlimited resources from around the world from which students can learn.
- Communication – Technology can improve parent-student, parent-teacher, and student-student communication. Also, students' now have expanded outlets for communication with and publication to communities worldwide.
- Management – Teachers can use technology to monitor and control student use of technology resources. Furthermore, detailed assessment reporting allows for more intelligent grouping of students in the class from one learning objective to the next.
- Creative Expression – Students can express their understanding and interpretation of the key elements of a unit using a multitude of applications resulting in dynamic multi-media presentations.
- Technology Literacy – Rather than using technology to teach or learn course content, technology can also be the objective. Students need to understand the terms, applications, browser functions, e-mail capabilities, HotKeys, etc. that make daily use of technology in the school and workplace efficient.
Inevitably, there are other goals as well. The fact that I missed a goal only emphasizes my point – evaluators have certain objectives in mind when they look at teachers' use of technology. When those objectives are not expressed clearly, then teachers are left on their own to establish learning objectives about technology use. They are stuck guessing what administrators want, and are often left frustrated when told they're "not doing enough".
Monday, November 3, 2008
Does Nothing Matter?
No, this isn't a nihilistic posting or philosophical musing. I was looking at a lot of the quarter stats on student performance, and there's a lot of good news - I can see strong growth in grammar and vocabulary, and the writing seems stronger but I haven't created any good technical standards for tabulating that kind of information yet. It will be done, but not yet. It's pretty straightforward to do this using ACT/ISAT style rubric based grading, but I'm just not quite there yet.
With all this good news, though, the problem is the "nothing" that I refer to in the title above. Statistically, there seems to be "no reliable relationship" between some of the class tools that we're using to improve performance and the actual changes in performance. So while everybody is improving, increased utilization of resources doesn't seem to correlate with greater improvement.
Here are the stats:
So, 1st q means first quarter, total is total grade, imp is improvement. The first number column is a correlation and the second is covariance. It looks like there is very little relibility between any of these relationships, except that improvement from pretest to post-test is more closely tied to quia practice quizzes than anything else, but at .252, it's not very compelling. I don't really understand the covariance, but my guess is the relationship between hits on sharepoint and overall performance and improvement is pretty small. Is it possible that it takes 171 hits to account for one point of improvement?
There are, or course, contingencies to account for this. For example, I force AR students to practice in ways that are optional for Regular English students, so many of the students with generally weaker scores or slower improvement are using the resources more often than average. I also have small samples and a couple of wild outliers. But perhaps what is most important is that I feel compelled to try some new interventions to compare against them.
Well, anyway. I've gotta go. I've got work to do. Also, starting now I've got to log time that I work with people. That's all for now.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
So the update that I promised weeks ago...
So I guess it took longer than I thought it would take, but I do have new numbers and some new ways of storing those numbers. That is, I can now grab the weekly quiz score, the total number of visits to sharepoint, the total number of points on practice Quia Quizzes, and the total amount of time spent on Quia practice games. So, if I assume the weekly quizzes are a fairly consistent data set and should produce fairly consistent results (the stuff that I add each week is equally difficult and their retention of the stuff added before stays static), then the ups and downs of sharepoint/quia quizzes/quia games should have some correlation with the anomalous ups and downs of the performance of specific kids. Also, the general increases and decreases in class use should correspond with some general increases and decreases in different product use. And, ideally, we could run some comparisons between the effectiveness of one and another. But, honestly, it's probably best to isolate variables for the purpose of research - quia games only, quia quizzes only, sharepoint review guides only - but I also want to release as much review as possible for the benefit of the kids.
Obviously the spreadsheet as it stands is of greatest interest to me, but not a good item to share in much detail, as it contains student info. I don't know, though, if I can really wring anything meaningful out of it. Right now, it's just a collection of numbers and I'm not even sure how I would find any definitive trends. I could run some correlations on some columns, I guess, and maybe I could try graphing some relationships to see what they look like. But I think I have to recognize that the limited sample size and the overlapping of types of information would make it hard to conclude anything. That said, learning how to collect all this information is valuable because I can find out the limits and possibilities of what a teacher can know about student practice and performance. I'm not sure anybody knows the degree to which we can track student performance and identify challenges based solely on tools that we already have. And while the mechanics of pulling all this stuff from on place to another (and ending up crunched on excel) are ad hoc and clunky, the fact that a person can do this (measure visits to quia, visits to sharepoint, time spent on games, percent performance on specific learning standards) is good. It's gotta be good.
Why?
Formative Assessment. RtI. And just good old fashioned efficiency. Probably other reasons as well. While it's good to know how kids are doing from pretest to present, and who's struggling, and what resources seem likely to help, more is needed. In particular, there needs to be some streamlined path that links all these pieces together and says, "Hey, Joe, you're doing well with this and this, but you definitely need to reinforce that and that, so go do these activities located here." Or, perhaps it says, "Hey, Mr. Moore, Joe is on track with this and this but needs more help with that and that. I'd recommend these activities and then retest." But right now I've got to sift through a lot to figure out what the Joe's strengths and weaknesses were this week, how they have changed from last week, what resources were accessed, how effectively those resources impacted performance, what activities were not applied, and which of those might be best suited to encourage performance before the next test or during a retest. Multiply that process by all the students and the technology isn't really saving anybody much time. It's easy to see why an intuitive intervention ("Joe seems to be struggling with grammar, so I'll give him a couple more worksheets to practice") is common even though we have the tools to go beyond that. I would definitely prefer to say, "Joe, take the online prepositions quiz until you score over 80% and I'll get a report telling me the number of times you tried, the score each time, your final score, and the amount of time you spent trying. If you can improve your score to that level, I'll (a) give you a retake of the test (b) change that portion of your grade on the test (c) add 5 points to your quiz". That's a lot easier to monitor and definitely targets the specific area that needs it the most.
Is it possible that macro automation could be strengthened? Is it possible that students could be used to track performance? ie "I scored x% this week on y skill. Then, I engaged in z intervention. The next week I scored a% on this skill."
How does all of that get tracked without creating heavy burdens or paper trails? I can come up with more ways to monitor student skills and knowledge, and more activities to supplement student performance, and better ways to analyze the effectiveness of those activities, I don't have a differentiated/responsive system in place. That system would store non-grade data (performance on learning objectives [rather than raw grade performance on the whole test], participation in different interventions, effectiveness of those interventions) in addition to grades and attendance. It would have excellent import capabilities and room for links and narrative notes. Finally, it would need to be able to establish more intelligent relationships between entries. Click two different tests and find improvement from one to the next on specific learning objectives, not just the average of the two.
Well, I guess what I'm looking for is a gradebook/recordbook/flowchart that takes the best qualities of Examview (ability to track internal data on a test [standards and learning objectives]), Excel (ability to build intelligent relationships among and between pieces of data), and Access (the ability to track non-numerative data side by side with the numbers).
How necessary is something like this, anyway? Since nobody has one, and nobody is asking for one, then it seems the recordflowgradebook is just a silly dream. But, if we really believe in RtI and Formative Assessment, then shouldn't we have some system in place whereby any preassessment or in-progress evaluation forces us to (1) identify problems or issues (2) make an intervention (3) monitor the student's engagement with the intervention and (4) evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention by (5) measuring change on a post test? All of these are non-grade (and some non-numeric) entries but are an essential part of the story of a student's performance or progress in a class.
Wow, no wonder I put off adding another entry. Seems like any step that I take forward will still lead to a missing piece of the puzzle. Oh well. I don't see what else to do but keep moving forward and hope people invent better tools.
Obviously the spreadsheet as it stands is of greatest interest to me, but not a good item to share in much detail, as it contains student info. I don't know, though, if I can really wring anything meaningful out of it. Right now, it's just a collection of numbers and I'm not even sure how I would find any definitive trends. I could run some correlations on some columns, I guess, and maybe I could try graphing some relationships to see what they look like. But I think I have to recognize that the limited sample size and the overlapping of types of information would make it hard to conclude anything. That said, learning how to collect all this information is valuable because I can find out the limits and possibilities of what a teacher can know about student practice and performance. I'm not sure anybody knows the degree to which we can track student performance and identify challenges based solely on tools that we already have. And while the mechanics of pulling all this stuff from on place to another (and ending up crunched on excel) are ad hoc and clunky, the fact that a person can do this (measure visits to quia, visits to sharepoint, time spent on games, percent performance on specific learning standards) is good. It's gotta be good.
Why?
Formative Assessment. RtI. And just good old fashioned efficiency. Probably other reasons as well. While it's good to know how kids are doing from pretest to present, and who's struggling, and what resources seem likely to help, more is needed. In particular, there needs to be some streamlined path that links all these pieces together and says, "Hey, Joe, you're doing well with this and this, but you definitely need to reinforce that and that, so go do these activities located here." Or, perhaps it says, "Hey, Mr. Moore, Joe is on track with this and this but needs more help with that and that. I'd recommend these activities and then retest." But right now I've got to sift through a lot to figure out what the Joe's strengths and weaknesses were this week, how they have changed from last week, what resources were accessed, how effectively those resources impacted performance, what activities were not applied, and which of those might be best suited to encourage performance before the next test or during a retest. Multiply that process by all the students and the technology isn't really saving anybody much time. It's easy to see why an intuitive intervention ("Joe seems to be struggling with grammar, so I'll give him a couple more worksheets to practice") is common even though we have the tools to go beyond that. I would definitely prefer to say, "Joe, take the online prepositions quiz until you score over 80% and I'll get a report telling me the number of times you tried, the score each time, your final score, and the amount of time you spent trying. If you can improve your score to that level, I'll (a) give you a retake of the test (b) change that portion of your grade on the test (c) add 5 points to your quiz". That's a lot easier to monitor and definitely targets the specific area that needs it the most.
Is it possible that macro automation could be strengthened? Is it possible that students could be used to track performance? ie "I scored x% this week on y skill. Then, I engaged in z intervention. The next week I scored a% on this skill."
How does all of that get tracked without creating heavy burdens or paper trails? I can come up with more ways to monitor student skills and knowledge, and more activities to supplement student performance, and better ways to analyze the effectiveness of those activities, I don't have a differentiated/responsive system in place. That system would store non-grade data (performance on learning objectives [rather than raw grade performance on the whole test], participation in different interventions, effectiveness of those interventions) in addition to grades and attendance. It would have excellent import capabilities and room for links and narrative notes. Finally, it would need to be able to establish more intelligent relationships between entries. Click two different tests and find improvement from one to the next on specific learning objectives, not just the average of the two.
Well, I guess what I'm looking for is a gradebook/recordbook/flowchart that takes the best qualities of Examview (ability to track internal data on a test [standards and learning objectives]), Excel (ability to build intelligent relationships among and between pieces of data), and Access (the ability to track non-numerative data side by side with the numbers).
How necessary is something like this, anyway? Since nobody has one, and nobody is asking for one, then it seems the recordflowgradebook is just a silly dream. But, if we really believe in RtI and Formative Assessment, then shouldn't we have some system in place whereby any preassessment or in-progress evaluation forces us to (1) identify problems or issues (2) make an intervention (3) monitor the student's engagement with the intervention and (4) evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention by (5) measuring change on a post test? All of these are non-grade (and some non-numeric) entries but are an essential part of the story of a student's performance or progress in a class.
Wow, no wonder I put off adding another entry. Seems like any step that I take forward will still lead to a missing piece of the puzzle. Oh well. I don't see what else to do but keep moving forward and hope people invent better tools.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
A whole week passes...
It's been a week without much Sharepoint, and a week with improved Quia. I'm not sure where to begin...
First, I guess I should sing the pros of Workspace MacroPro. Without it, I never would have transferred so much question data from Examview to Quia so quickly. But I could and did, and so now I have a ton more material available for practice on quia. And it's easy to make stuff a bit more targeted.
In fact, I can also track their completion of assigned quizzes and activities. SO, in terms of interventions, I can look at quiz grades this friday, note weaknesses, assign quizzes and activities, track to see if they were completed, and look for improvement (or lack thereof) from this week to next in a particular area. Which is good for a kid who is off in one area, but also for somebody who is suffering across the board - it shows whether or not a focused intervention will make any difference at all and gives us a plan to chip away at problems a piece at a time.
I'm not very focused today. I think there's something I'm supposed to be doing to prepare for next week. I'll share the reports as they come out. I'm excited to have another set of information (time using quia, quia practice quiz scores) but since the practice quizzes can be targeted to a learning objective, it seems like I could make experiments with a lot of variables, which means even more work in tracking the relationships between quizzes and practice. Also - a problem, I admit - by posting quia in a window on sharepoint, I can't quite figure how to differentiate between sharepoint stats for practice and quia stats for practice (i.e. - kids using quia will inflate the sharepoint numbers). Oh well. I'll see how it works.
I'll get back soon. Hmmmmm... any other big interests? nothing i can think of.
First, I guess I should sing the pros of Workspace MacroPro. Without it, I never would have transferred so much question data from Examview to Quia so quickly. But I could and did, and so now I have a ton more material available for practice on quia. And it's easy to make stuff a bit more targeted.
In fact, I can also track their completion of assigned quizzes and activities. SO, in terms of interventions, I can look at quiz grades this friday, note weaknesses, assign quizzes and activities, track to see if they were completed, and look for improvement (or lack thereof) from this week to next in a particular area. Which is good for a kid who is off in one area, but also for somebody who is suffering across the board - it shows whether or not a focused intervention will make any difference at all and gives us a plan to chip away at problems a piece at a time.
I'm not very focused today. I think there's something I'm supposed to be doing to prepare for next week. I'll share the reports as they come out. I'm excited to have another set of information (time using quia, quia practice quiz scores) but since the practice quizzes can be targeted to a learning objective, it seems like I could make experiments with a lot of variables, which means even more work in tracking the relationships between quizzes and practice. Also - a problem, I admit - by posting quia in a window on sharepoint, I can't quite figure how to differentiate between sharepoint stats for practice and quia stats for practice (i.e. - kids using quia will inflate the sharepoint numbers). Oh well. I'll see how it works.
I'll get back soon. Hmmmmm... any other big interests? nothing i can think of.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Examview Results and Reports
So... there's a lot of stuff to wade through today.
1. Big disappointment - Sharepoint was out the last couple days. So I routed my kids to review activities through Quia. But that means I can't track any meaningful Sharepoint usage data. I may keep this week anyway. But since I emailed the kids to go around Sharepoint, I won't really know whether many took advantage of this option. If I add this week, the Sharepoint numbers will look low, so if scores stay stable or even go up, it'll look like Sharepoint is inconsequential. On the other hand, if scores go way down, it will look like the lack of Sharepoint really hurt their grades when many students may well have used the online activities and still suffered grade reductions. There is a hit counter on the quia site which is at 237, but I didn't check it prior to yesterday. Well, I'm glad I had quia! I at least had some other way to get the kids their resources. But a lot of parent emails are outdated, too.
2. Speaking of Quia, I'm excited about the upgrade next week. I'll keep you up to speed on that.
3. Examview Reports. I've always liked the detail that you can get from examview reports if you code your questions well. I used to think coding the questions was a lot of tediuos work, but if you have a lot of questions with the same criteria then you can "Duplicate question" and then just change the stem. EVEN BETTER, though. I use MacroPro to go edit and code bunches of questions. So I can still use old questions that I didn't code well or other people's questions and add my codes to them. Then I get more useful reports. For example, I give a quiz weekly on the vocab, grammar, and notes that we've covered in class. In order to find out how a kid does on vocab or grammar or notes, I used to have to give the quizzes separately. Now I just call those major headings National Standards and can get a simple report like this:
Well, you can't really see that, can you? But it gives the class average on Notes, Grammar, and Vocab as well as the number of students performing above a threshold (in this case, 70%) in each area. You can also print out the names of those "in range" students who are not at or above the threshold.
But that's not all... Within any one of those "national standards" there are state and local standards. For example, in Grammar I have the state standard "parts of speech" and the local standard "nouns". But I can go even more specific than that! Using the Learning Objectives code, I can add a tag like "Common/Proper" "Singular/Plural" etc. to the nouns standard. When I run reports at any of these levels, then, I can find out who is doing how well on each specific skill. I'll print out another report you can't see. I should figure out how to do this better!
Through the haze you might be able to make out our struggles with pronouns (so many kinds!) and our peace with nouns. Once again, you can print the names of students who need more work and then you know exactly where to focus the students' energies.
But all is not perfect in Examview land. When you go to take the next step - Initiating interventions to improve performance - you hit a snag: How do you use examview to track one standard across multiple assessments? After all, if I can't easily figure out the difference in someone's scores from one day to the next, I can't measure the value of the intervining interventions (ha). I could probably export all this to excel, but I'm not working on a stats degree here! Don't get me wrong, Examview will provide a report of a student's TOTAL performance on a learning objective or standard over time (you can enter a date range and get an average across that range). But you can't get waypoint measurements to track change over time. PLEASE, PLEASE Examview listen to me on this one. Teachers want to know that our interventions work, and we need a tool that lets us measure these fairly easily. Examview has the numbers we need for this, but not the subroutines to crunch these numbers in a way that we can use.
Well, that's enough for now. Enjoy the weekend...
1. Big disappointment - Sharepoint was out the last couple days. So I routed my kids to review activities through Quia. But that means I can't track any meaningful Sharepoint usage data. I may keep this week anyway. But since I emailed the kids to go around Sharepoint, I won't really know whether many took advantage of this option. If I add this week, the Sharepoint numbers will look low, so if scores stay stable or even go up, it'll look like Sharepoint is inconsequential. On the other hand, if scores go way down, it will look like the lack of Sharepoint really hurt their grades when many students may well have used the online activities and still suffered grade reductions. There is a hit counter on the quia site which is at 237, but I didn't check it prior to yesterday. Well, I'm glad I had quia! I at least had some other way to get the kids their resources. But a lot of parent emails are outdated, too.
2. Speaking of Quia, I'm excited about the upgrade next week. I'll keep you up to speed on that.
3. Examview Reports. I've always liked the detail that you can get from examview reports if you code your questions well. I used to think coding the questions was a lot of tediuos work, but if you have a lot of questions with the same criteria then you can "Duplicate question" and then just change the stem. EVEN BETTER, though. I use MacroPro to go edit and code bunches of questions. So I can still use old questions that I didn't code well or other people's questions and add my codes to them. Then I get more useful reports. For example, I give a quiz weekly on the vocab, grammar, and notes that we've covered in class. In order to find out how a kid does on vocab or grammar or notes, I used to have to give the quizzes separately. Now I just call those major headings National Standards and can get a simple report like this:
Well, you can't really see that, can you? But it gives the class average on Notes, Grammar, and Vocab as well as the number of students performing above a threshold (in this case, 70%) in each area. You can also print out the names of those "in range" students who are not at or above the threshold.
But that's not all... Within any one of those "national standards" there are state and local standards. For example, in Grammar I have the state standard "parts of speech" and the local standard "nouns". But I can go even more specific than that! Using the Learning Objectives code, I can add a tag like "Common/Proper" "Singular/Plural" etc. to the nouns standard. When I run reports at any of these levels, then, I can find out who is doing how well on each specific skill. I'll print out another report you can't see. I should figure out how to do this better!
Through the haze you might be able to make out our struggles with pronouns (so many kinds!) and our peace with nouns. Once again, you can print the names of students who need more work and then you know exactly where to focus the students' energies.
But all is not perfect in Examview land. When you go to take the next step - Initiating interventions to improve performance - you hit a snag: How do you use examview to track one standard across multiple assessments? After all, if I can't easily figure out the difference in someone's scores from one day to the next, I can't measure the value of the intervining interventions (ha). I could probably export all this to excel, but I'm not working on a stats degree here! Don't get me wrong, Examview will provide a report of a student's TOTAL performance on a learning objective or standard over time (you can enter a date range and get an average across that range). But you can't get waypoint measurements to track change over time. PLEASE, PLEASE Examview listen to me on this one. Teachers want to know that our interventions work, and we need a tool that lets us measure these fairly easily. Examview has the numbers we need for this, but not the subroutines to crunch these numbers in a way that we can use.
Well, that's enough for now. Enjoy the weekend...
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wow - Time flies
So, I meant to continue that last posting but ran out of time and then had two days out with sick kids and now I'm running around catching up. But here's the a screen capture with pretest, sharepoint usage weekly, and weekly quiz scores. I've cut out names and id numbers for privacy.
Oh, exciting news, too. Quia is making activities trackable starting next week, so students who do more quia than sharepoint review guides can figure into the mix. I may even be able to compare the two...
Gott run
Friday, September 19, 2008
Sharepoint, weekly scores, coding in examview
I'm on the wrong computer to be blogging, but that's gonna have to work. On the other computer, I have MacroPro updating the coding on a bunch of Examview questions.
Part 1 overview - I hope, within the scope of today's blog, to make it clear how the coding can help me figure out what kids know and don't know. And I'll also critique how the codes let me down in a few cases. And I may vent about a shortcoming of Examview that I'm begging them to fix. So, some cool stuff, some mistakes on my part, some wishful thinking about how a product could be improved.
Part 2 overview - I'll post some info about how I can compile Sharepoint/Examview data to measure weekly visitation and progress on skills-based tests. The blog is already helping me here, in that I have thought about how to get weekly data so that I can see how the kid does from week to week and in comparison to the pretest. Now my problem is that I don't know how to crunch the numbers. So, a step forward and a problem.
Part 1 - As Examview is superlative for objective assessments, my most frequent applications are for quizzes on vocabulary, grammar skills, and class notes. I like to give a quiz each week that measures performance on new skills and knowledge and retention of what we have learned in the past. Since Examview banks let me store lots of questions, I can generate tests easily and create tests from a combined set of banks. Each Friday I give the students one of these combined tests and use the results to figure out what we've learned, what we've still got to work on, and how quickly I should move forward or tread a little water. Obviously, if I just got the overall results on such a unified quiz then I wouldn't know much more than overall success (they're doing pretty well vs. they are doing great on vocabulary, good on notes, and poorly on grammar - with a particularly disappointing grade in pronoun usage). So, for each examview question I add information in these little boxes for learning objective, national, state, and local standards because those are the data tags that I can run reports from. So I'm going to switch computers and continue this on the next entry b/c I can add screen shots to clarify and give examples.
Part 1 overview - I hope, within the scope of today's blog, to make it clear how the coding can help me figure out what kids know and don't know. And I'll also critique how the codes let me down in a few cases. And I may vent about a shortcoming of Examview that I'm begging them to fix. So, some cool stuff, some mistakes on my part, some wishful thinking about how a product could be improved.
Part 2 overview - I'll post some info about how I can compile Sharepoint/Examview data to measure weekly visitation and progress on skills-based tests. The blog is already helping me here, in that I have thought about how to get weekly data so that I can see how the kid does from week to week and in comparison to the pretest. Now my problem is that I don't know how to crunch the numbers. So, a step forward and a problem.
Part 1 - As Examview is superlative for objective assessments, my most frequent applications are for quizzes on vocabulary, grammar skills, and class notes. I like to give a quiz each week that measures performance on new skills and knowledge and retention of what we have learned in the past. Since Examview banks let me store lots of questions, I can generate tests easily and create tests from a combined set of banks. Each Friday I give the students one of these combined tests and use the results to figure out what we've learned, what we've still got to work on, and how quickly I should move forward or tread a little water. Obviously, if I just got the overall results on such a unified quiz then I wouldn't know much more than overall success (they're doing pretty well vs. they are doing great on vocabulary, good on notes, and poorly on grammar - with a particularly disappointing grade in pronoun usage). So, for each examview question I add information in these little boxes for learning objective, national, state, and local standards because those are the data tags that I can run reports from. So I'm going to switch computers and continue this on the next entry b/c I can add screen shots to clarify and give examples.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
After a long absence...Welcome Back
So I ran out of time, energy, motivation after about four months of blogging last year, but now I'm back and hope to keep a good account of the technology interventions employed throughout the year. As an introduction (starting completely over) the hardware that I have available for my students includes 27 wireless tablet PC's (new this year), an overhead projector connected to vcr/dvd/stereo receiver, a class set of eInstruction's CPS remote response pads, headphones, a digital voice recorder... I think that's it. That's pretty sweet!
In terms of software/webapps, I have all the Microsoft standards and use Microsoft Sharepoint (a District standard) for sharing information and course content with students and parents. To the limited degree that I use it, the Sharepoint site Discussion board serves as our social networking. I use Examview 6.0 for in-class testing and to create activities for the remote pads (which are delivered via CPS and Quizshow). Online, Academic Reading students use PLATO for targeted instruction. There are also numerous review games posted on Quia.com for kids to use. The whole lab is snugly blanketed in GenevaLogic's Vision software for lab monitoring - an awesome tool for keeping students on task and for speeding up the delivery of content on the computer. The district also employs Deepfreeze for the protection of our computers.
Oh, and our textbook, HRW's Elements of Literature, is online at my.hrw.com. Our vocab book, (Sadlier-Oxford's Vocabulary Workshop Level D) has limited activities online. We have no grammar book per-se at the freshman level, but I try to follow along with the early chapters of what is now HRW's Holt Handbook and used to be Warriner's. And for sure we have novels of all kinds. We've also got a ton of audiobooks both within English and in the Library. Well, not a ton, but a growing collection.
As for human resources, I try not to name names or anything in here. My partner in teaching an and learning works in the same class environment as me and we often work together and sometimes go separate directions when developing materials and activities. Like a character in a Russian novel, I'll call him D-. In tech support, I'm lucky to have the ongoing assistance of someone who has been willing to come early, stay late, work weekends, and image and re-image machines while we troubleshoot problems. I'll use the name Kelty because we've talked camping a bit (I'm an avid camper and could digress for hours on where the family has been and would like to go). I have a tech release period along with another tech-type guy (though he knows a lot more than I do) and he'll probably come up so I'll refer to him as Oak. The only two people ever likely to read this (a department chair and assistant principal) are both good resources but I won't mention them often because it would be weird to evaluate someone who is writing about you. (unless they score cool resources for me, in which case I'll give them mad props - Thanks for the Listening Library CD's WoW.).
At any rate, if I wanted to state my purpose for exploring technology as a means of improving student learning it might take a little time. Essentially, I'm looking to increase engagement, target learning, and improve reporting. That said, the process should be recursive so that better reporting enhances my ability to target assignments, and assignments that give a student the right challenge at the right time are more engaging than those that are too easy or unaccessible. To this end, I have had to learn a little more (last year) about numbers. At first, it was a struggle figuring out how to get numbers that provide more and more specific data about how well students are doing in reaching specific learning goals. Once I finally got numbers to do that, I had to try to figure out what (if any) meaning could reliably be derived from such statistics. After a year of this self-guided study, I know a bit more about what kids know and can do prior to a lesson and afterwards. I also can monitor some of the interventions that they have taken in order to prepare for assessments and can judge the efficacy of some of these interventions.
If those last couple sentences sound a bit loose, you're spot on. The whole point of the blog (and the work that I do behind it) is to examine what I do know about student learning, question the degree to which I really know it, and deliberate whether there's any substantial benefit to students from such knowledge. Sometimes I learn silly things, as with last year's exposee on the difference between my perceptions of how well a class did vs. their actual performance. I kept rating my period 10 lessons as less effective, but the remote control data collected showed the students (an energetic bunch at the end of the day) were learning just as much as my more docile students in period 2. They looked and acted less scholarly, to be sure. But they learned just as well.
Perhaps an example would help - I can take the site usage statistics from Sharepoint and see who has visited the site more often and compare that against the performance in the class to seek a correlation. Last year, I did that at semester's end and found a positive correlation. BUT, what do I really know? Since kids who are more likely to go to a class website are probably the kids who are more likely to do homework, study, etc, it seems almost inevitable there would be a correlation (meaning it's possible that all my sharepoint stuff is a waste of time... or not). But this year, I've pretested all the kids. Soooo, I should be able to measure improvement vs. Sharepoint participation which seems like it could tell me a more valid story about the effectiveness of using a Sharepoint site bolstered with numerous supplemental learning activities. Furthermore, week to week site usage statistics can look for correlations between the ups and downs of those students who perform with dramatic inconsistencies. Are trips to the Sharepoint in line with those ups and downs? I can look.
The details of doing such an experiment are enjoyable to about a half dozen nerds in the world. But in the end, I pull data from Sharepoint into excel and drag test results from Examview into excel and the rest is history. In fact, I've got a ton of review stuff up now and I know some will ignore it and some will use it, so tomorrow I'll run a correlation and post it back here. For now, I've got stuff to do....
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Beware the ides of March (almost)
Today - not a lot of time b/c subbing for stu teacher. Main goals, spruce up research project materials and perhaps camtasia the whole thing. Grade study guides and old JP stuff to wrap up that part of life. Try to work on Walter's grades and V - Examview dumped a few grades, including the stinkin' final exam. Ay-yi. Anyway, T is working to update my computers right now so we can visit all the library research databases. NoodleTools is running painfully slow on my class computers (even with Vision off). Lot's of crazy tech stuff. But if I'm caught up on grades by the end of the day and comfortable with the students' place on the research paper, it will be good. Tomorrow I have a sub for the afternoon b/c of a student council convention. So I also better have a plan in place. Well - gotta move, then. But it pains me to see this become more of a to do list than a place to formulate bigger picture ideas about curriculum and technology integration. I mean, of course I've got stuff to grade, but where is a cogent statement on the interactive blending of data-collection strategies with fun, interactive, engaging, and inquiry-based instruction? Who has time? Who talks like that anyway?
Later...
Later...
Monday, March 10, 2008
NOT AGAIN!!!
I just typed an entire discussion of the new unit on research - how and why to wrap it up and the outline of the project- and it got deleted again!!! I couldn't even ctrl-c it because I must have slid the mousepad and got the "hey, if you navigate away you'll lose stuff" message so I hit cancel so I wouldn't lose everything - but it navigated away anyway!!! Arghhhhhhhh! Well, I hate to say it, but I don't have time to do it twice. Action research, questions about tools, research/JP unit - look at prewriting/postwriting for improvements in writing clarity/structure, research processes, and critical thinking about technology. I think the information is there - but is the time there to pull it apart? Especially since I need to create the research unit now! I need models, sample topics, notes and noodle-bib how-to's, etc. So I'm off and this better not get deleted!
Friday, March 7, 2008
Slip-Sliding Away
Aaaaagh! That stinks. I just posted about how hard it was for me to find time to post and then the post got an error and when I backed up to what I typed... It was gone. Well, it wasn't the pinnacle of wisdom anyway. Some ideas on what I'll need to do to make the upcoming research project work, a desire to Camtasia what I do around here, and a real need for reflective time to staple down what data matters and how it can be used to improve instruction. A very good discussion with Walter about communicating expectations with students - a need for posters and other clear evidence that we have standards for good writing, expectations for reading advancement identified by specific tasks (hierarchical), requirements that students demonstrate proficiency with the Enlgish language (grammar and usage), and the insistence that students be able to gather reliable information and present it in various modes using relevant technologies. But those posters need to be in regular English, not the way that I talk. Which is funny, because when I listen to real authors, I realize how meagre my own lexicon is. Even meagre is a horrible substitute for some just-right John Fowles-ish word that means exactly a watery, shallow and weak as a result of too little substance rather than mass. Still, the message to kids should be simple and reflect the rubric by which they will be judged. I think we can do that, and also tag question types based on that rubric so that we can react to weaknesses in groups or individuals based on at-the-moment needs. Over time, we could develop lessons that are targeted for specific shortcomings and use data to determine which lessons are most effective for that particular area of need. But alone? While I teach?
Anyway, I've gotta post grades. Hope this post doesn't delete, but since I'm gonna copy to clipboard, I bet it won't.
Anyway, I've gotta post grades. Hope this post doesn't delete, but since I'm gonna copy to clipboard, I bet it won't.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
InService Day
So I've got about two minutes at an inservice and I don't have the time or space to grade anything, so I'll just jot down the ideas from the training (CRISS). First, obviously it makes sense for teachers to get together from time to time to talk about strategies for student learning. Second, it seems (I say seems) obvious that each school perild should be able to be broken down to the main idea - exactly what was learned today. Finally, the structure and organization of information should be made obvious (not merely intuitive) to students.
Of course, I also am reminded how much I despise forms, boxes, and other graphic organizers. But, on the whole it's somewhat enjoyable. Gotta go - back to work.
Of course, I also am reminded how much I despise forms, boxes, and other graphic organizers. But, on the whole it's somewhat enjoyable. Gotta go - back to work.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Where does the time go?
Today -
Need to teach a new reading lab lesson, get together with V about student teaching, put together quizzes and reading guides for upcoming chapters, make a few phone calls to parents, enter a whole bunch of grades, and contemplate some writing assignments. Well, that's more of a laundry list, but I'd better hop to it.
Need to teach a new reading lab lesson, get together with V about student teaching, put together quizzes and reading guides for upcoming chapters, make a few phone calls to parents, enter a whole bunch of grades, and contemplate some writing assignments. Well, that's more of a laundry list, but I'd better hop to it.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Busy Day
So I need to update lots of grades, post next week's schedule, run a reading lab PSAE lesson, read ahead in Jurassic Park, call a few parents, and figure out how to bring more writing into the next few weeks. I'm definitely feeling a bit tired by now. February is a long month...
V is back from a few days' sickness and has piles of grading, too. Poor kid. Also, integrating the technology is a bit tough - though it simplifies grade recording and entry a lot! We need some head to head time, too. But in covering this week, I've fallen behind so it's tough to pull it all together. Well, I think I'll put grades in as first priority and make calls this afternoon.
Right now, I better grab coffee and get ready for reading lab.
BTW, some snags getting Vision up and running with the library. Also, looked at the new grade book and I'm told it will never, under any circumstances import grades. Great. So we have a content server on one hand providing assignments and scooping in grades. We have another asking us for the grades. But they can't talk?
Gotta get to work.
V is back from a few days' sickness and has piles of grading, too. Poor kid. Also, integrating the technology is a bit tough - though it simplifies grade recording and entry a lot! We need some head to head time, too. But in covering this week, I've fallen behind so it's tough to pull it all together. Well, I think I'll put grades in as first priority and make calls this afternoon.
Right now, I better grab coffee and get ready for reading lab.
BTW, some snags getting Vision up and running with the library. Also, looked at the new grade book and I'm told it will never, under any circumstances import grades. Great. So we have a content server on one hand providing assignments and scooping in grades. We have another asking us for the grades. But they can't talk?
Gotta get to work.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Nine Minutes
All I can give myself is nine minutes. It seems long gone are the days when I could try out any new initiatives. I'm just trying to keep the novel going and stay ahead of the kids with study guides and quizzes. Ay yi yi. I'd like to try out the team game with CPS for a review of the third iteration. But I'd need to plug in all the questions tonight. What are the odds?
I'm meeting about eSchoolPlus tomorrow to see how the teacher interface works. I'm not a big fan of the Sunguard software that we use now, so it's a bit ironic that I would pilot it. Nonetheless... I will. So I need a sub for the morning, I need to be ready to duck out to do a quick reading lab at the tail end of the presentation, I need to connect with V if she's in tomorrow (which will make sub-plans simpler), I need a Third Iteration Quiz (which would be the same question bank as the game if I ever pull it off). Hey, if I don't pull off the game it means I don't have a question bank which means I don't have a quiz! So then I'm really in trouble. Also, no study guide questions for pages 181-197. Geez, do I do anything around here? Ok, so I got grades updated today and taught and made materials and all that... Late start day, too, and we watched a demo of Noodle Tools. I liked one of the NoodleTools links on visual literacy. Where's that been my whole life... But really, I haven't done anything with vislit for about a year and a half. Seems like there ought to be more time in a day.
Off to pick up all the kids so gotta run. I never mention what I read on the Blog. Wonder why? I mean, it's tangentially related to education so really would fit on the site. Maybe I'll start next time. Michael Pollan - The Botany of Desire. But only for another day or so...
Later
I'm meeting about eSchoolPlus tomorrow to see how the teacher interface works. I'm not a big fan of the Sunguard software that we use now, so it's a bit ironic that I would pilot it. Nonetheless... I will. So I need a sub for the morning, I need to be ready to duck out to do a quick reading lab at the tail end of the presentation, I need to connect with V if she's in tomorrow (which will make sub-plans simpler), I need a Third Iteration Quiz (which would be the same question bank as the game if I ever pull it off). Hey, if I don't pull off the game it means I don't have a question bank which means I don't have a quiz! So then I'm really in trouble. Also, no study guide questions for pages 181-197. Geez, do I do anything around here? Ok, so I got grades updated today and taught and made materials and all that... Late start day, too, and we watched a demo of Noodle Tools. I liked one of the NoodleTools links on visual literacy. Where's that been my whole life... But really, I haven't done anything with vislit for about a year and a half. Seems like there ought to be more time in a day.
Off to pick up all the kids so gotta run. I never mention what I read on the Blog. Wonder why? I mean, it's tangentially related to education so really would fit on the site. Maybe I'll start next time. Michael Pollan - The Botany of Desire. But only for another day or so...
Later
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
So the story continues..
Sorry for the month off (me). I don't think that the time saved by not blogging was necessarilly of equivalent value. In other words, it was a mistake to take time off. The blog as to-do list is useful, even when it's painful to look at.
As I mentioned, I have a student teacher now, which will free up a bit of time after a bit - though in the early stages there's a lot of tet-a-tet daily interaction that is needed. Teaching Jurassic Park for the first time requires a lot of basic maintenance - writing study guide questions and quiz questions, etc. I'm behind on grading study guides and just getting the quizzes out as I go. My goal within this unit is to work on writing skills, but I can't even get the pretests coded! My short term goals include making an interactive "catch-up" assignment to review the story so far, reviewing and revising their old paragraphs, writing a mid-term paragraph assignment, designing a post-JP research paper, and finding a system for evaluating writing to measure change. I have a day out on Thursday for tech stuff, so I can only plan some kind of activity tomorrow or Friday. Tomorrow is ideal. In order to run that, though, I'd need to have study guide questions and quiz questions ready to go and that means working through the periods today. OK. So get tomorrow's quiz and study guide done. Then - create a review activity for tomorrow. In the background - get caught up on study guides and paragraphs.
Break!
As I mentioned, I have a student teacher now, which will free up a bit of time after a bit - though in the early stages there's a lot of tet-a-tet daily interaction that is needed. Teaching Jurassic Park for the first time requires a lot of basic maintenance - writing study guide questions and quiz questions, etc. I'm behind on grading study guides and just getting the quizzes out as I go. My goal within this unit is to work on writing skills, but I can't even get the pretests coded! My short term goals include making an interactive "catch-up" assignment to review the story so far, reviewing and revising their old paragraphs, writing a mid-term paragraph assignment, designing a post-JP research paper, and finding a system for evaluating writing to measure change. I have a day out on Thursday for tech stuff, so I can only plan some kind of activity tomorrow or Friday. Tomorrow is ideal. In order to run that, though, I'd need to have study guide questions and quiz questions ready to go and that means working through the periods today. OK. So get tomorrow's quiz and study guide done. Then - create a review activity for tomorrow. In the background - get caught up on study guides and paragraphs.
Break!
Welcome Back
Okay, so it's been a long time. And I've gone and privatized the Blog, which I think is the worst thing ever. I've got 1/2 a mind to undo that move. My student teacher did it and then I thought, well, nobody ever comes anyway... so why take a chance on somebody getting upset or something about what's posted here. But I think the benefit of an open society outweighs the potential for personal offense or embarrassment. The ability to search the inner-thinking of others might be essential to rapid expansion of a knowledge-base. Though blogs can be faulted for being unpolished, it is the unselfconsciousness of the media that allows people to postulate and experiment with ideas publicly without the pretense or presumption of expertise. In my case, I'm working on experiments on a small scale using new but relatively unsophisticated software. Ideally, I'd come across others doing something similar and we'd share information. However, since it's new and there's not a large profit-incentive, there's probably a small and unprofessional group of people working at my level or a close proximate. Since none of us is likely to publish the "Small Scale data collection and so what if we did" manifesto, the only conceivable way to meet so far would be to blog and leave our blogs open to the searches of others. Perhaps from there we form a community and make some serious progress.
So, I've convinced myself to open this back up. The drawbacks, I think, are the possibility that students and parents and community would stumble on this blog, or at least I guess that's the thinking. Teachers are private citizens with unique public personae and must follow some unscripted rules. I couldn't (and wouldn't) talk about specific students or even events from class that would seem unprofessional, so that's not really a concern. I might say - period 7 shows a 4% gain from... to .... but that's not something I think that could offend the masses.
Also, it's funny to think it, but I probably can't let the public Mr. Moore express political views because this posting is about my teaching experiences and research. I would venture to say that I could (in theory) create a very political blog as Stephen Moore - resident of the world. Luckily, I don't really want to do that, so who cares that it would lead to controversy. I will say, however, that it's insane that many courts have decided that becoming a teacher in the public life means that I have given up my right to the freedom of speech in my private life. For the purposes of this blog, however, that's neither here nor there.
So I think my biggest concern, and the reason I went private for all of one day, is that I'm honest about my day to day accomplishments and failings and such information could be used against me. That is, I type things like - "I finished that quiz, but still need to grade all those paragraphs. I really need to catch up on grading" and a person could say - "See, that teacher admits himself to being delinquint in his response to student writing...." I'll even say things like - these absences are killing me - which implies that my teaching and research is compromised by the ongoing sickness of one of my children. Well... They are. C'est la vie. The degree to which we engage with any one thing affects the resources that we can devote to all other enterprises. Everyone with a family who also exercises is selling quality time with his mate and/or kids in order to serve his own well being. I'm not criticizing that decision - just opening it up for comparison. The fitness buff who replies - "by exercising I have more health and energy to share with my family" has made my case for me. When I know all is well with my family, I can serve my students with peace of mind and without resentment. Similarly, it gives me a more compassionate mindset for working with students. As the business of school is secondary to the care of my family, the business of today's assignment is secondary to understaning and meeting the complex needs of my very unique students.
So, that's my defense for unprivatizing the blog...
In the next entry I'll actually blog...
So, I've convinced myself to open this back up. The drawbacks, I think, are the possibility that students and parents and community would stumble on this blog, or at least I guess that's the thinking. Teachers are private citizens with unique public personae and must follow some unscripted rules. I couldn't (and wouldn't) talk about specific students or even events from class that would seem unprofessional, so that's not really a concern. I might say - period 7 shows a 4% gain from... to .... but that's not something I think that could offend the masses.
Also, it's funny to think it, but I probably can't let the public Mr. Moore express political views because this posting is about my teaching experiences and research. I would venture to say that I could (in theory) create a very political blog as Stephen Moore - resident of the world. Luckily, I don't really want to do that, so who cares that it would lead to controversy. I will say, however, that it's insane that many courts have decided that becoming a teacher in the public life means that I have given up my right to the freedom of speech in my private life. For the purposes of this blog, however, that's neither here nor there.
So I think my biggest concern, and the reason I went private for all of one day, is that I'm honest about my day to day accomplishments and failings and such information could be used against me. That is, I type things like - "I finished that quiz, but still need to grade all those paragraphs. I really need to catch up on grading" and a person could say - "See, that teacher admits himself to being delinquint in his response to student writing...." I'll even say things like - these absences are killing me - which implies that my teaching and research is compromised by the ongoing sickness of one of my children. Well... They are. C'est la vie. The degree to which we engage with any one thing affects the resources that we can devote to all other enterprises. Everyone with a family who also exercises is selling quality time with his mate and/or kids in order to serve his own well being. I'm not criticizing that decision - just opening it up for comparison. The fitness buff who replies - "by exercising I have more health and energy to share with my family" has made my case for me. When I know all is well with my family, I can serve my students with peace of mind and without resentment. Similarly, it gives me a more compassionate mindset for working with students. As the business of school is secondary to the care of my family, the business of today's assignment is secondary to understaning and meeting the complex needs of my very unique students.
So, that's my defense for unprivatizing the blog...
In the next entry I'll actually blog...
Monday, January 28, 2008
It's a start..
Don't know why I'm distracted as I start-up the second quarter. I think it may be that I'm anxious to close on the condo and everything between now and then is just distracted by that thought in the back of my mind. But we're beginning Jurassic Park on schedule. Students got new vocabulary today with sentences due on Thursday and a quiz friday. They worked on their research projects which are due tomorrow and seem to be coming on OK. I need to set out a reading schedule soon and I need to get more books! But I have the unfortunate malady of midwinter malaise. Oh well, I'll be back on track tomorrow (or at least after February 4th).
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
A whole new world...
Hi me. I'm hungry and rushed today. I have a lot to do and not enough time and energy for it. Also, my grades are messed up from ac reading on the parent portal??? Oh well. Let's look at what's coming.
Jurassic Park - I need to read it and follow Walter along through the preamble. I have a lot of stuff in advance on the vocabulary and chapter questions. I have an idea that I would like to do a pre-research project on topics that students need to understand in order to understand the book. After the novel, I want to push a research project that requires students to report on a contraversial issue in science or technology today (or in the near future). Somehow, within all this reading I want to cover writing as well...
So today I reviewed paragraph requirements and assigned students to write a one-paragraph response to the prompt "I believe that technology will make life better/worse in the future". I realize that's pretty simplistic, but I thought it was a good start to get people thinking about a book which highlights the costs and benefits, the promise and peril. Today w gave the kids these topics:
DNA, genetic engineering, cloning, cross-breeding, genes, biotechnology. Kind of a pretest to get the kids thinking. But since there's no coding of it, the comparison from before to after will have to be affective/subjective.
I wonder if I have time to set up a pre-test using multiple choice tests so that I can see their growth. Take examples of events and ask what it is, etc. Also, maybe review the paragraph with them. See what w is doing, too, to try to stay on the same page until JVH takes over.
Gotta eat. I'll make that quiz then.
Oh, and I have a presentation after school of the Vision software to the rest of the school. Ugh. Gotta go.
Jurassic Park - I need to read it and follow Walter along through the preamble. I have a lot of stuff in advance on the vocabulary and chapter questions. I have an idea that I would like to do a pre-research project on topics that students need to understand in order to understand the book. After the novel, I want to push a research project that requires students to report on a contraversial issue in science or technology today (or in the near future). Somehow, within all this reading I want to cover writing as well...
So today I reviewed paragraph requirements and assigned students to write a one-paragraph response to the prompt "I believe that technology will make life better/worse in the future". I realize that's pretty simplistic, but I thought it was a good start to get people thinking about a book which highlights the costs and benefits, the promise and peril. Today w gave the kids these topics:
DNA, genetic engineering, cloning, cross-breeding, genes, biotechnology. Kind of a pretest to get the kids thinking. But since there's no coding of it, the comparison from before to after will have to be affective/subjective.
I wonder if I have time to set up a pre-test using multiple choice tests so that I can see their growth. Take examples of events and ask what it is, etc. Also, maybe review the paragraph with them. See what w is doing, too, to try to stay on the same page until JVH takes over.
Gotta eat. I'll make that quiz then.
Oh, and I have a presentation after school of the Vision software to the rest of the school. Ugh. Gotta go.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
During Finals
OK - the final exam is in place and students are taking it now. I have all the guides up, the exam typed and entered, back-up copies made in case the computers crash, and a little time to think. First - I should wrap-up the last-minute grades from Semester 1 (study guide 5, etc) and enter them on the portal. Second, I should enter them as report card grades. Third, I should start pulling together some reading passages for Thursday's AcRdg Test. Fourth, plan some time with Walter to try to build a schedule for Jurassic Park. Fifth, find some cool and relevant technology issues that can be related to the themes (if not exactly the science) of Jurassic park. Sixth, set up the vocabulary in advance. Seventh, plan the grammar and writing scope and sequence in advance. Eighth, think about how Ms. van Horn fits into all that (student teacher). And then, and then, and then. So let's put those last few grades in and print out grade reports (pre-final). Then let's hop on the ole' internet and find some good technology issues. Later
Monday, January 14, 2008
Ending the First Semester
All things considered, I'm in good shape. I've got the review guides for the grammar up on the Sharepoint now. I've had the vocab and notes up forever. I need to update the parent portal grades, grade the final OMAM study guides, add the extra credit grades for Pattern Projects, enter the OMAM questions for the final, compile the final, and deal with a few last-minute make-ups. Still, I should have substantial time during finals to try to plan ahead for the Jurassic Park unit.
I'm a little burned out I think, from all the excitement of the break. I think I need a break from breaks! I feel like I need a distraction so I hope I can spend some time looking for new outlets during the next few days. I think I would enjoy surfing a bit and looking for new ideas, including looking back at some old posts to get grounded. I still haven't given up on some of the more ambitious ideas about creating simulations and game-based learning, but I need to see something concrete to build off of.
BTW - played quizshow for the first time in a while with the kids for final exam review. It certainly added a lot of adreniline. Hopefully it also made clear the extent to which some kids are going to need to go to prepare for the test.
Got the big rejection on Jurassic Park audiobook, so I guess I have to find a copy of the paper (wha?) book in order to read this. Well, hungry and tired aren't the most motivating feelings in the world. Back to you tomorrow.
I'm a little burned out I think, from all the excitement of the break. I think I need a break from breaks! I feel like I need a distraction so I hope I can spend some time looking for new outlets during the next few days. I think I would enjoy surfing a bit and looking for new ideas, including looking back at some old posts to get grounded. I still haven't given up on some of the more ambitious ideas about creating simulations and game-based learning, but I need to see something concrete to build off of.
BTW - played quizshow for the first time in a while with the kids for final exam review. It certainly added a lot of adreniline. Hopefully it also made clear the extent to which some kids are going to need to go to prepare for the test.
Got the big rejection on Jurassic Park audiobook, so I guess I have to find a copy of the paper (wha?) book in order to read this. Well, hungry and tired aren't the most motivating feelings in the world. Back to you tomorrow.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Short and Sweet
Welcome to the new year. I'm very far behind because I have missed the first two days of school due to the illness of my youngest son. He seems to have asthma or something based on the three episodes of breathing problems in the last three months. But I didn't want to lose any momentum either so I figured I'd blog for a minute or two and then get back to work. On a personal note, Nick seems to be better and the new house is really nice - love the location.
On a professional note - I need to get some grammar review activities together. The semester vocab and notes reviews are already posted. The last part of the final will be OMAM and I already have a lot of stuff for that as well. So I'm not in too much trouble in terms of gathering resources for the final. I just want to have enough time in class to do some review. Today we just reviewed main events from the story so far - fairly easy. We're more or less on schedule. The big weight is grading. I need to update grades with projects and finish the pattern stories in the next few days. I suppose I'll have to give a lot of in-class reading time in order to catch up, but that saves them a bit of homework anyway.
That said, let's see what else is up - I need to help launch Vision school wide, but there is an update scheduled for the software which could put things back a week or two. I haven't written any of the grant, etc., stuff that I wanted and I need to put a proposal together for the state Tech Expo within a week or so. Also, I need to chase Edutek down again to get the CD of that PuzzleView thing and the installation disk for Illinois State Standards. That's the tech news.
For this semester, I can only hope to find time to create and tag a lot of grammar practice so that I can see how students are doing on different skills. For next semester, I'd love to pretest and posttest everything that I'm going to do and tag the data for it all, but this is the first year, after all. Imagine next year - tagging a pretest, following the data all semester and then tagging the post-test. I know I could kick butt first semester and maybe I'll do that this summer and so be very ready for the fall this year. Exciting possibility, anyway.
Oops, my friend is in trouble. Certificate problems. Anyway, it's Nick's birthday so I'll run out of here and get back in the swing tomorrow (I hope!). Happy New Year.
On a professional note - I need to get some grammar review activities together. The semester vocab and notes reviews are already posted. The last part of the final will be OMAM and I already have a lot of stuff for that as well. So I'm not in too much trouble in terms of gathering resources for the final. I just want to have enough time in class to do some review. Today we just reviewed main events from the story so far - fairly easy. We're more or less on schedule. The big weight is grading. I need to update grades with projects and finish the pattern stories in the next few days. I suppose I'll have to give a lot of in-class reading time in order to catch up, but that saves them a bit of homework anyway.
That said, let's see what else is up - I need to help launch Vision school wide, but there is an update scheduled for the software which could put things back a week or two. I haven't written any of the grant, etc., stuff that I wanted and I need to put a proposal together for the state Tech Expo within a week or so. Also, I need to chase Edutek down again to get the CD of that PuzzleView thing and the installation disk for Illinois State Standards. That's the tech news.
For this semester, I can only hope to find time to create and tag a lot of grammar practice so that I can see how students are doing on different skills. For next semester, I'd love to pretest and posttest everything that I'm going to do and tag the data for it all, but this is the first year, after all. Imagine next year - tagging a pretest, following the data all semester and then tagging the post-test. I know I could kick butt first semester and maybe I'll do that this summer and so be very ready for the fall this year. Exciting possibility, anyway.
Oops, my friend is in trouble. Certificate problems. Anyway, it's Nick's birthday so I'll run out of here and get back in the swing tomorrow (I hope!). Happy New Year.
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