Week 7 – The Home Stretch

I have to say that this week was kind of lonely without having the discussion board assignments to interact with my peers in class.  It’s amazing how connected you can feel online and how isolated you feel when off.  It’s weird.  Even though I doubt I’ll ever see my peers, I truly felt their absence his week.    Of course I could have spent some more time on the discussion boards and less time on my project, but when time is limited, one has to make some difficult decisions.

Click here to see if I am as close as I think I am.

My first pass at the project can be found by clicking on the image to the left. Please feel free to leave a comment or three on the website or right here on the blog.  And if you happen to have some advice regarding how to make plagiarism prevention a more central part of my project, I would love to hear your ideas.  Although I talk about it in the paper, I took a different approach to the assignment.  Instead of developing a module for an online course, I developed an online module for a traditional face to face course.

Creating the project was definitely a challenge – trying to find the best way of presenting the information and making it easy to navigate around the site was one challenge.  The other challenge has been the fact that the course I teach has very prescriptive rubrics that the students have to get used to using.  Tailoring them to meet Bloom’s taxonomy continues to be a challenge for me.  Good thing I still have a week and a lot of helpful feedback to get everything up to snuff.

Week 6

. . . started working on organizing the final project for the class this week.  I thought I would try creating it on a using google sites.  I like the thought of people finding their own way through the document instead of reading a paper top to bottom.  We’ll see how it goes.  I am still playing with the format, because I would like to leave space for comments for visitors.

Are we doing our kids a service if we keep them this safe?

I enjoyed reading the articles.  It definitely provided a lot of food for thought in the discussions this week.  I don’t think I need to rehash everything that was said in the discussions, but I do worry about the “safety issue” – and just how safe is too safe in the classroom?  I think it is especially poignant that the term cybercoaching is used.  The article pointed out the warm and fuzzy side of coaching, but I also remember the uncompromising task-masters (or mistresses) that worked you through thresholds that you didn’t think you could get past.  Athletes put their faith in their coaches that they will do what’s in the best interests of the individual, and therefore for the team.  Very often treating students with kid gloves can lead to a perceived lack of faith in their abilities and therefore less willingness to take responsible risks in their work.  I look back at this paragraph, and I look like a “tough love” kind of person.  I always thought I had a light touch . . .

Click on the monkey to check out the survey!

I also had the chance to work on the pre-module survey.  I was avoiding the survey, because by the time this course is administered, I will have worked with the students for some time.  So it wasn’t really a get to know you.  So I took it as an opportunity to prime the students on some of the concepts that the subject will cover, as well as explore some of their inclinations for study in the research portion of the class.  Just click on the monkey to see the survey.

Week 5. . . and the hits keep on coming!

It was a good to actually be in the same place for an entire week.  I actually feel like I was able to stay afloat in the discussions.  I was so engaged, I even did two activity charts for this weeks work:

Below is the taxonomy chart discussing activities from Boosting Student Learning via Social and Emotional Learning and New Media Literacy Skills (figure 1).

Figure 1. My first pass at the Taxonomy Chart

The discussions from this chart got me thinking a little more seriously about setting standards and how specific they should be, so I thought that I would submit some of my own standards as well to see how they would stand up.

The chart that I came up is posted below (figure 2). In it I look at three potential assignments for the online extension of my advanced theatre class.

In it I had so much trouble classifying the work that I had my activities spanning many levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.  I’m still struggling with getting the wording right, because so many of my assessment tasks engage students on more than one level of Bloom’s taxonomy.

Figure 2. Taxonomy chart for my activities

I could put the specific verbs in the chart, but I worry about that being too prescriptive.

But I’ve tried to deal with this in my discussion posts this week.

Just on a side note, I did enjoy reading the article discussing the case study in Senegal.  I couldn’t help but feel a little warm glow reading about Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).  It always does the heart proud when you read scholarly articles outside of the performing arts value  the skills we’ve been teaching for eons.

Come on 21st century schools.  I can’t wait!

Week 4 – Did that just happen?

This week just flew by.  Between returning from a week-long field trip at the beginning of the week and waiting for the internet to return to Lusaka at the end of the week, I barely got to get started before it was week five.  In the meantime, I think I have earned the undisputed title of worst teammate ever for my efforts on the mid-term – apologies and kudos to Ellen and Linda who made all of the magic happen on the toolbox exercise.

Follow the link to the home page

The mid-term did let me explore  Museum Box – a fun little tool that I think will be very valuable as I continue to find new ways for my students to develop a portfolio. It really is a fun way for students to organize and display their thought processes.  I had a chance to play around with it a bit . . .Not the most insightful submission, but fun all the same.

I’m finding myself torn in the objective writing portion of the work right now.  I always thought my objectives were pretty sound, but my readings tell me I’m not specific enough.  But every time I write an objective in the manner that seems “right,” I find it too prescriptive.  In classes, I try to encourage students to find their own voice.  As long as they can support their thoughts, it’s okay.

I can’t help but think back to my student teaching days when I was administering a final essay on 1984, and a student asked the usual “How long does it have to be?”  My witty answer “As long as it needs to be.  If you can answer the question as a haiku, go for it.”  Of course one student did . . . and quite well, by the way (even managed textual reference).  My supervisor wanted me to fail her, but how could I if she was able to answer in an authentic way for her?

Any thoughts out there in the great cyberverse?

Belated Thoughts on Week 3

This is no excuse, but I was away on a theatre trip last week with a bunch of eager 11th graders.  7 days of travel, conferences, and theatre in London.  It is a crazy and wonderful life I lead.

It was a little grayer and a lot colder this time of year.

I thought I’d copy some of my thoughts as I went through the latest self-examination last week.  These were written Monday night, but I didn’t want to post them until I had my objective map ready.

I believe I am on the right track when it comes to assessment practices.  I feel that the nature of my subject lends itself easily to the multi-dimensionalities of instruction, as well as the whole-hearted focus on the process of creating which is revealed over time.

I find that I still struggle with clearly stated purposes.  I know exactly what I want my kids to explore/experience, but I don’t always have the goals explicitly stated – largely because I want kids to come to their own conclusions about what they are experiencing.

The last 2 prompts are the sticklers for me.  I have worked with many administrations that say all of the right things, but don’t back up what they assert.  I know that there are a la few administrators out there.  How do you go about the job of creating a working environment that does actively promote the conditions discussed in this slide show?  Without that strong support, it becomes hard to meet the needs of the students while working with the public trust.  Far too often, I feel that the discussion between public and teacher is often unidirectional. – 24 January, 2011

I also was able to download and play around with the inspiration and come up with hte beginnings of a section of a larger unit I am teaching in class.  This unit focuses on the ever elusive Epic Theatre.  The online portion of the class centers on exploring, synthesizing, and coming to their own definitions of Epic Theatre.

Exploring Epic Theatre

I am hoping that this link takes you to the pdf.  I thought there was going to be a picture.  Ah well. . . If it doesn’t work I’ll have to find some way of getting it out to you.

Thinking About Week 2

It was an interesting exercise taking the Teacher/Learner Centered Self-Assessment this week – using a very teacher-centered activity to reinforce the benefits of learner-centered strategies.  I know the spirit of the exercise was for self-evaluation, but these types of situations still bring out a sense of right and wrong answers, and it’s very easy to get lost in “solving the puzzle,” rather than focusing on what you really believe.

Luckily, I tend be a learning-centered teacher – kind of hard not to be when the thrust of your entire subject is developing an the critical individual within the ensemble. The one thing that jumped out as teacher centered was the statement of using assessment to monitor student learning.

Which leads me to my concern.  I know that we all have our students’ interest at heart, but I find it increasingly difficult to talk to parents about anything but achievement.  I teach in an IB world school.  For those of you who are not familiar with the term, it stands for International Baccaulaureate and it provides a broad, inquiry-based curriculum for schools.  In theory, it is a very forward thinking program.  Its rubrics do a very good job of providing students and teachers with very helpful information regarding where they stand, and we as teachers can do to help.  Unfortunately, parents don’t really care about that, and the school doesn’t really encourage using that feedback.  We are in the middle of report cards, and all there is no space for that kind of feedback – only an end result.

Has anyone out there done any parent education on newer means of assessment?  I’m finding this a challenge with in my community?

 

Looking Back at Week 1

How many discussion entries are there?

Remind me never to be on vacation for the first week of a new online course.  I always get a little excited the first time I log into a new class at learn@uwstout and see what’s happening.  Opening up the course late in the week and finding over 250 postings to read was kind of overwhelming, particularly since there was so much good stuff going on in the interviews.  I felt like the little kid picked last for the kickball team (not that I ever had that experience, mind you. . .)

Making things more challenging was the fact that I couldn’t even get my e-mail to work.  Thankfully, I was able to make contact with some of my classmates, and was able to get to know one a little better.  Of course she had already been interviewed, so I wasn’t able to add much to what was already there.  Regardless, here is the whole transcript of the interview I had with Stephanie:

Part 1:

How long has your son been in the U.S.?  Is this a recent event?  Logan has been in the US four years this past December.  We traveled to Colombia in November 2006 and brought him home in December 2006.  He was 6 months old when we brought him home.  Living in Colombia gave me a brand new perspective on Americans for sure.

I notice the Seuss quote.  How are you planning on celebrating his birthday?  It’s coming up, y’know. Nothing like reading some of his books with my son.  I love his books.  They are fabulous.  I can’t to this day figure out why my mom disliked them so much.

How are you planning on using this course in your work?  Is this a one off or are you part of a larger program? I am taking this as part of the online learning certificate and as an elective for the Master’s in Career and Technical Education program.  When I’m done my goal is to teach business technology courses online at the associate degree level.

How does Silence of the Lambs fit on with your other selections?  It really doesn’t at all.  I’m not sue what it is about that movie that I find so captivating and totally haunting, but I love it.  Normally I watch movies as a way to relax and escape.  That wasn’t the case with this one.  As with most things the book was far superior to the movie.

Part 2:

How has your perspective of the US changed since your trip to Colombia?  I now have a better understanding of why people in other countries percieve Americans and over induldgent and arrogant.  In Colombia I saw many people who were very proud of the work they were doing and for such little money.  They are happy with the little things. The work ethic was incredible, and it did not seem as though the people felt entitled like so many do here.  Plus the American way seems to be a strive for instant gratification.  In Colombia daily life moves much slower than it does here.  People there undertand that it ok for things to take time.  In general people are just kinder to other people.  There is still the sense of it being proper to help people out.  In Colombia when I was at the airport with my son waiting to come home and had all of the luggage and a little baby people would run up to help, hold the doors and make sure I wasn’t struggling.  When we got to Atlanta, no one would even help me get the luggage off of the carosel. Even though they could see my hands were full, I was alone and my baby was crying strapped to my front in the sling….I think they just have their priorities a little more in line there than we do here…you know…Colombia is considered one of the happiest places on earth

http://curioustimes.blogspot.com/2006/07/happiest-people-on-earth.html

Is your son still a Spanish speaker?  If you like I have some great Seuss translations you

Dr. Seuss en Espanol!

can share with him. . .  My daughter doesn’t speak it anymore, but she still loves to hear the language.  It still gives her comfort.  He is not.  Unfortunately I took French in college and in high school.  I know some very basic Spanish which I have taught him, but unfortunately I am not fluent.  I’m hoping we can learn together as he gets older.  I’d love it if you would share the Suess translations…he still enjoyes the sound of the music and the Spanish language on the CDs I brought home from Colombia.  Your daughter was a Spanish speaker?  Did she hear it while you were in Peru?  Do you speak Spanish?

Thanks Stephanie for sharing a little bit of yourself, and an additional thanks to Ted who checked in to make sure I was still out there in cyberspace.

The Buhagiar Article:

Reading the article from Buhagiar was a good review for me – It confirmed the things that I was already doing in my class as well as reminded me of the things I still need to work on (particularly the record-keeping aspect of assessment).  I’m hoping that as we get further into the course I can find a reliable and accessible system for record-keeping as well as find more interesting ways of giving and receiving feedback during the creative process.  In the performing arts, so much relies on personal, face to face interaction. The challenge is to find the tools that will try to maintain that vibrant energy as much as possible.