No Shortcuts

Over the last few weeks, it has been brought to my attention that taking any type of shortcut when creating assessments, will often generate more work.  This is no fault of the teachers.  Time is always an issue, teachers are given resources with test generators, text books with sample questions, etc. that can be used to assess the students.  BUT do those questions actually tell us what the students don't understand or the misconceptions that they might have about the topic?

I'm curious how this blog post will turn out.  Am I for or against multiple choice questions?

When I was in the classroom I frequently used a test generator to create multiple choice questions. There may have also been that time when I selected Ch. 1 questions without really reading every question.  It wasn't until test day or while grading the test that I discovered questions that should not have been added to the test.

Then there are the online assessment tools (Quia, Socrative, Flubaroo) that make it very easy to grade and print off data about each question.  These saved me so many hours of grading and data at that time was formative.  The question is, did I use this data to change my teaching?

Present day, what do I think of multiple choice questions?  A very carefully written multiple choice question could give you the feedback on what the student knows or doesn't know, but you will never get rid of the probability that a student guessed.  Without some type of work written down, you are unable to follow the thought process of the student.  Short answer or constructed response questions are going to give you the most bang for your buck.

Student feedback is vital and without good questions/assessments you won't get good feedback.  This feedback is needed to change how and what you teach in class.

I guess I am not totally against multiple choice questions.  When used in moderation, they can provide good feedback.  In order to know exactly what the student does or does not know, you have to see the student work.  You have to see what it is that they know or don't know.

Once a Science Teacher...

Once a science teacher, always a science teacher.  Today, my family and I enjoyed our time visiting a field of sunflowers.  As we are walking through the field, I am noticing the bees bouncing from flower to flower with pollen covering their body.  I look close at the parts of the flower and recall the 12 years of teaching sexual reproduction of a flower.  With 8th graders, you can have a lot of fun with this topic.  I often wonder what stories my students would share with their parents or if this was one thing they preferred not to share?

All of this has me reflecting how important it is for students to make connections to what they are studying.  Many students come into the classroom with some prior experience, but then there are other students that the classroom is the first time for these experiences and connections.

Teachers work very hard to give students these opportunities.  In the last couple weeks, I have seen an increase in the number of students searching for background knowledge that helps them make a connection.  The Internet makes this very easy, but I would have to admit there still is nothing like the real thing.

I hope today's experience for my boys will never be forgotten;

• Running in between the rows of sunflowers, 
• having mud caked on the bottom of their feet, 
• seeing the bees flying from flower to flower, 
• seeing a caterpillar eating the leaf, 
• the thick stalk of a sunflower as you try to break it, 
• the yellow pollen on your hands,
• seeing the flowers facing in the same direction,
• and whatever a 5 year old and 2 year old soak up.

I'm glad my family and I will continue to give our children an experience that goes beyond the classroom and the Internet.

Week 1 - 1:1 Devices are out!

August 18th has been a day since last May that we has been marked on our calendar as the day the 1:1 devices would be handed out to all middle level students.  There are so many pieces to this puzzle that had to line up and unfortunately, we wouldn't know if all the pieces were in the correct place until the devices were out.  All the devices were tagged, bagged, boxed up, and delivered to each room slightly ahead of schedule.  Now we had to wait until Monday!

Monday arrived, the devices are out and..... speed bump.  Macbooks are connecting and working as planned.  The Chromebooks on the other hand were having some issues.  These issues were above my total understanding of what was not working, but in the end a fix was made by the end of the day.  The LPS staff felt the stress of things not working correctly, but in the end they stepped up and made the day work.  The students too dealt with the issues and worked on what they could do.  So in the end, the launch day didn't work out exactly like I had hoped, but it was a great day and Tuesday would be a great day to reset and begin watching great things happen.

Tuesday there were some on again off again network issues, but it was great seeing teachers showing their classroom Websites, establishing classroom procedures, and students asking how they can use their devices.  My favorite question from a student, "Can I use my computer to read a book during SSR?"

Thursday, I had the opportunity to visit a number of classrooms and it was great seeing the devices being used in a number of ways.  The students were using the devices in number of different ways for individual assignments.  I will have to say, the best quote came from a teacher.

Then on Friday, I was visiting with another teacher and she made a comment on how great it was seeing students helping other students troubleshoot and they are collaborating on a number of projects.

What will week 2 bring?  If my email is any indication, we have a number of teachers looking to modify a number of projects.  I can't wait to see what great things the staff and students create.

If I was still in the classroom...

There are many perks to this job and the one I like the most is getting into teacher's classrooms.  There are so many great things that I see, that I often say to myself, "If I was still in the classroom, I would definitely be doing this."

Awhile at the ISTE 2014 conference I had the opportunity to listen to Alan November's #1st5days presentation.  As I was reviewing my notes, I saw the idea of creating an intro video and sending it to the students and parents.  This is when I thought, "I would definitely do this if I was still in the classroom."

Since I couldn't do this in my classroom, I decided to send the idea out to my staff.  I sent this a couple examples, gave them some ideas on programs the could use, and a then how they would send it out to the parents/students.

I was very excited to see some of the videos that the teachers were going to send.  Here are a few examples:

My Summer School Example:

Wendy Danner's Introduction

Comment from parent: "THAT was AWESome!!!!!!  Makes me want to come to class!"

Laura Smith's Introduction

Gina Lange's Introduction

I thought all of these videos turned out great and I an guarantee connections were made or the stress of the parents may have decrease a little knowing they have a teacher opening the doors to their classroom.  

Fun idea and I can't wait to see more ideas as the year progresses.

LPS New Teachers

The start of year 15 and I had the honor of working with the new teachers of LPS.  This time of year is one of my favorite times.  Every year that I've been at LPS I've had the opportunity to work with the new teachers.  Even my first year of teaching I was asked to train our new teachers on how to use the grade book program. Every year after that, I worked with this new teacher group in some format.  It is a point in which I get to observe the new energy coming to LPS.

This year the task was a little different, but turned out to be a great adventure.  We decided to take our ML teachers on a 4 stop ML building tour, with a theme/question for each building.  The teachers discussed in small groups while touring the building each question and then we returned back to a larger group to discuss the highlights.  Our conversations were great, and it was confirmed LPS hires the best.

Our Questions:

Topic 1 - Traditional Learning vs Modern Learning

• What is the difference between the 2 types of learning?
• What type of learning do you primarily see happening in your classroom?

Topic 2 - Self Learner

• What does it mean to be a self-learner?
• What are you doing to be a self-learner?
• What can you do to encourage your students to be self-learners?

Topic 3 - Creative learning spaces

• What does “creative learning space” mean to you?
• As you look or think about your classroom, what can you do to make your classroom a creative learning space?

Topic 4 - Evidence of learning

• What does evidence of learning look like?
• What are you going to do show that learning is taking place in your classroom?

Topic 5 - 1:1 In your classroom

• How do you plan on using the 1:1 devices in the first week?
• What are some of your procedures going to be with the 1:1?

The new teachers had great discussions on each of these topics. I definitely look forward to seeing them put their thoughts to action.

Another great start with new teachers!

Take 2

I publicly announced at the Liberty LEADs Conference that I would begin blogging in 5 days.  Well I didn't make the 5 day challenge, but I am within the week, so that has to count.

So I get on my Blogger account and noticed the last time I blogged was over a year ago.  This of course was when I was still a science teacher.  So right now it appears, I also need to come up with a new name for my blog and possibly a new URL.  I almost let that stop me from writing my first blog for this year, but knew that was something that should not stop me.  I'll worry about the name later.  Feel free to send me any suggestions you might have.

Last week's Liberty Leads Conference was an eye opener for me and for many of my co-works.  I would say what has discussed at this conference has come up in conversation at nearly every meeting I've been in.  Which is awesome, because I was worried how their message would spread to others in the district.

I left the conference with many thoughts, but there are a couple topics that keep coming to my mind;  The power of Twitter/Social Media, Traditional Learning Vs. Modern Learning.

I've had a Twitter account for a number of years, but it tends to only be used when I go to conferences or some evenings when I have exhausted all my other social media avenues.  Twitter is definitely overwhelming and somewhat intimidating.  The amount of information that comes at me is overwhelming.  I am now have accepted that I will probably miss something, but I have also learned the power of hashtags.  I also get stuck when it comes to tweeting that, no one cares what I have to say or other tweets sound much more intelligent than what I would post.  In my head, I often think, "I could tweet that."  I just need to get in the habit of tweeting.

It's a little things, but a tweet that I posted during the conference was retweeted a number of times.

It showed me that my PLN is started to go beyond the a small group of co-workers.  I look forward to building my PLN throughout the year and who knows maybe more Tweets will be retweeted.

The other thing that got my attention what the power of Twitter.  Check out these stats from the #lpsleads during the Liberty Leads Conference.

We had 223 users posting to Twitter about the conference, but look at how many potential people were reached 395,344.  I don't have a map of this, but I can almost guess that this group of people extends from the West coast to the East coast with some of these people being International as well.  With the power of Twitter your conference is never confined to the conference location, it is now an International Conference!

Now this finally brings everything together.  What impact could Twitter have in the classroom? One would think that your classroom would now be open to the world.  Now your students have a global learning experience rather than what just occurs within the 4 walls.  I am excited to work with teachers through this experience.  Guaranteed to be some challenges, but I am confident it can be done.

The year is off to a great start!  The energy is starting to build with the start of a new year.  I look forward to riding this wave that I hope continues throughout the entire school year!

Why do I keep getting phone books?

Who still uses phone books?  I only have 2 phone books in my house and they are currently taped together and used as a booster seat when we have guests with kids.  I can't recall the last time I used a phone book to look up a number. So when a phone book arrives in my driveway I always ask why am I still getting one?

So why do I bring up this random topic?  I recently read an article "50 Activities Replaced by Technology" by Katie Lepi and I reflected back to many of these 50 items.  How many of these 50 items have been replaced by technology or when have you never used?