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...

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!

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.

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.