Sight Project--Assessment Day Four

Final day of this project.

It didn't take us long to finish up the grades. We had to watch two more movies that hadn't been played in class because the creators had been absent that day.

After finishing grading, we talked a little about doing the project next year. She wants to do it again, which made me happy. Then, because its a real possibility, I asked her if the grant ran out and there was no coach next year, if she'd still do it again. She thought for a minute, but said she would. She decided the program is easy enough that she could guide kids through it, and, even though grading by herself might take longer, she could get it done. After all, next year she'd have a rubric ready to go at the beginning, and a better idea of what to expect.

I told her how much I liked the idea of having the kids offer feedback. I don' think enough teachers do that, and I know I didn't do it enough in the classroom.

One of the ideas that they shared with CFF coaches at boot camp was the idea that conversations can lead to being able to work with teachers. And here was the progress of that. While talking with her about the feedback, I remembered, and commented on her really unresponsive 7th period class. And we talked about how it was a problem, because without feedback, she wouldn't necessarily know where to go or what the class needed. And, you could never be sure if it was a matter of kids not wanting to talk, kids being shy about talking in front of the class, kids not getting it, or kids just being lazy. So I suggested a blogging project--where kids could think out and write out their answers before sharing.

She seemed to like the idea and asked how it would work. So, I told her about the other "blog" projects I'd done. I gave her the example of the Social Studies teacher who had the kids blog outside of class, and the English teacher who blogged in class (and I was honest about how horribly that went) and the other English teacher who blogged in class and assigned kids to respond to comments by other students. She seemed to like that there were a lot of ways to go with it.

She then said there were going to be starting Greek Myths soon, and she wanted to have them do something with writing their own "journey" story. I was tempted to say they could do a Photo Story, but decided she might be ready to be done with Photo Story for a least a little while. Instead, I suggested doing something like the 1001 Flat World Tales. Then, the students could work with a partner, write their story, have a partner leave comments for editing suggestions, read and make comments on their partners' stories, and edit.

She seemed to like both ideas. And, she really liked that I could offer to show her examples of each.

New Blog Project--Speak

I'm now working with the English teacher from earlier in the year. We tried to create a wiki project, but it didn't make it off the ground.

We're now doing a composite wiki/blog project. I would loved this to have been a ning project. I would also have liked to have looked into embedding a blog into a wiki. However, the ning project would require students to verify membership through a link in email for homework, and the teacher didn't want to bank on that happening in a timely fashion. And, I didn't want to risk not having this project up and ready to go--or having her think it wouldn't be--by saying "give me a day or two to figure out embedding a blog in a wiki."

So, we are using a wiki discussion board for the book Speak. This is very similar to the Kite Runner project, except with a different book. Also, it is planned out to be an 8 question project from the beginning.

We are using wikispaces instead of pbwiki. I liked pbwiki's format of putting comments directly on the page for this project, but pbwiki refused to acknowledge this teacher existed. So, rather than waste time trying to trouble shoot a problem I couldn't understand, I suggested wiki spaces. She ended up liking the ability to put multiple discussion threads on one page, so it worked out for the best.

I helped the teacher create a wiki. On the first day of the project we are going to have the students sign up for the wiki using mailinator addresses. Because of issues in the Science teacher's class, I suggested, and the English teacher agrees, she should tell the students that every time they forget their username/password, they will loose 10 points (it's a high point class, so that is not as bad as it sounds.)

She is going to have one wiki. The main page will be directions. Each class will have a page linked from the main page. The class's page will direct students to click on the discussion link at the top of the page, and to click on the appropriate discussion. From there, students will have to reply to the teacher's question.

She is working out what requirements she wants for the discussion. She wants to make sure every student gets responded to, and is considering having students assigned a classmate to respond to. However, she is also thinkking of just letting students respond to whoever they want. I suggested that, since she plans on doing 8 questions, she could try it both ways and see how each works. As long as she takes the time to fully explain any new rules for each question, she can try a variety of different methods. She might even find that method A works well with one class and fails in another.

We talked, as I did with the other English teacher, about how students don't really interact with one another in class. Even with open ended questions, those who want to respond or discuss, will only talk directly with the teacher. I'm hoping these projects will help teachers to help their students understand that they can learn from one another and that they can learn through debate, discussion, disagreement, and defending their own points of view.

One thing I seem to see is that some teachers, who are very competent, and very confident in what they teach, feel that they need to take a back seat to my opinion just because we are infusing technology into a lesson plan. In a way it's flattering that they value my opinion. For the most part, I try to redirect and ask leading questions to find out what they teacher's goal is for an assignment. After all, I could easily try to accomplish my own goals, but these aren't my classes. I hope that experience using the tech will show the teachers that they have every reason to be as confident because they are as competent.

Kite Runner Blog--Day One

I began the "blog" project with the English teacher yesterday (and didn't have time to blog about it). It quickly became a wiki project.

I had created a plan B--a pbwiki--just in case. First thing in the morning, I was very happy to see that the plan B wouldn't be needed, as the blog had been unblocked. I quickly checked to make sure, and it was unblocked.

I went to the lab first period. I explained the project to the kids--what we were doing, why, and how. That all went relatively well. I was having the students write their responses in Word originally. The idea was that, since the question was multi-part, they would be able to save as they went, just in case.

I walked the students through setting up google accounts using mailinator so that their names were recognizable for the teacher. There were a few bumps, but nothing I didn't expect.

And then, about five minutes after letting the students start, many started complaining that they couldn't post. Upon closer inspection I saw that even though the blog had been unblocked, the students were still blocked from posting comments. It was not something I had even considered.

I quickly shifted the plan. In order to have the students have accountability, I had to give them user names, and therefore passwords, for the wiki. I didn't do this in the best possible way. I had the kids come up one at a time to pick them.

By the end of class, all of the students had user names, but no time to sign in and post. School was canceled today, so the English teacher and I have yet to decide what to do as our next step.

The later classes went much more smoothly. I started the class by having students write down user name/password. I then sent them to the blog to begin working on their answers in Word. It took about five minutes to sign up all of the students. At that point, I stopped class, sent everyone to the wiki, and was able to trouble-shoot specific sign ins as they became issues. Everyone was able to post twice successfully.

I was a little disappointed to be using the wiki. Students were not able to reply directly to one another's comments, so they had to just put another student's name in their comment. However, this did address privacy issues.

My original thought, that students would not see the value, and would therefore do the bare minimum of two comments and not focus on engaging conversation, were right. I think, even had some been inclined to try for better conversation, the peer pressure would have probably prevented them from doing so. However, I am still inclined to think that, with continued exposure, positive feedback, interaction with the teacher, and access to resources, the students could start finding a project like this interesting.

PodCasting

Received an email this afternoon from an AP teacher interested in creating podcasts of lectures.

That gave me the push I needed to finally figure out how to convert an audacity file into an mp3. That was not nearly as daunting as I had anticipated. The needed file was already installed, so I didn't have to have the tech guy install it. Once I had located the file I was able to export as an mp3.

I then created a gcast account. I know there are other programs out there, but that is the one I am most familiar with, so it is the one I will be using. I found it to be very easy to use.

I now just need to find a time to meet with the teacher to go over how to use audacity and gcast, and to discuss whether to embed the podcast in a wiki or a blog.

Kite Runner Blog Project--set up

We've hammered out the last of the details to go with the Kite Runner blog project.

Unfortunately, I now have to make sure that at least the four blogs being used are unblocked by tomorrow. I had forgotten that students cannot access blogs. I find that fact frustrating, yet understandable (our current fair use policy is in the process of being re-written). I've come up with plan B and am working on a plan C. Hopefully neither is needed.

We hammered out the details of the initial project. Each student has to respond to the teacher and at least one other student. The question is a multi-parter, so the initial response has to be five sentences. "Additional discussion is encouraged."

I'm going to walk the kids through signing up with google. Then, I will remind them that all in school conduct/behavioral rules (including language and bullying) rules apply. Then I will remind them to post twice (using a mock entry that I will mock respond to). After that, I will strongly encourage students to write their response in Word (where it can be saved often). Then, I will direct them to the blog in question.

The English teacher has said she wants to have at least one more blog entry for this project. She's taking a wait and see approach before deciding if this is a two entry project, a once a week entry project, etc. We discussed having students blog in the lab again, or having them responsible for blogging within a given time frame.

I agree with her decision to not decide until she sees how tomorrow goes. I hope it goes well. I anticipate the mechanics going well, and I hope that the students are able to generate engaging discourse.

Kite Runner Blog Project

So excited, another project.

Before break, I had a teacher ask me a question about the online course I facilitate. While I was in her room helping her, we somehow got on the topic of blogging.

She didn't know what it was, exactly. So I explained it and showed her a few examples. Her kids were in the room, so I did a quick, informal survey of how many blogged or read blogs. Not many hands. But quite a few when I asked about myspace.

After so follow up conversation, she decided she wants to do a blog for the kids for their current book, The Kite Runner.

We're going to use blogger because it is what I'm most familiar with. I tried to encourage her to use a ning, but she really seemed more comfortable with blogger. That being the case, I didn't want to scare her off by pushing ning. So, we're going with blogger. That is probably easier all around since I'm more familiar with it. It also tells me I ought to set up a ning so teachers see that as a viable option in the future.

On Wednesday we'll be in the computer lab. I'm going to walk her kids through setting up a google account (most probably don't have one). The current plan is to have an initial start up question already on the blog so that the kids can start commenting right away.

The project has a fairly simple structure. She will maintain four blogs (one for each class). That is logistically easier for her to keep track of since the students will have a requirement for commenting at least x number of times per post. We also talked about having her participate in the discussions in the comments, and she seemed to like the idea. After all, a teacher doesn't start a conversation in class and then leave.

I asked her if the kids tend to interact with each othe in class discussions. They don't. She told me it is mostly her asking a question and then one student responding, and no one responding to that student. I'm hoping this project will create more dynamic discussions. I predict that at first, students will be annoyed with the posting requirements and try to get all two or three out of the way at the same time. But, since this will be an on-going assignment throughout the book, I'm hoping that the conversations will have a bit more back and forth as the book progresses. That will be most likely to happen with more engaging questions.

We haven't talked about assessing the project yet. I'm a fan of rubistar, though, and will most likely suggest that.

One of the other important parts of the project will be online citizenship. I don't think I'll use those words. I'll just point out to students that all school rules about language, conduct, bullying, etc., apply online. And, with the teacher involved in the discussion, she will most likely be able to redirect if things get too off topic.