Week 3 CEDO 565

This week we looked at several things.  One of the things we looked at is being able to approach the problems that we face as part of the ever changing dynamics of being a teacher.  Being reminded to not dwell on the past and "how it used to be" instead of dealing with the realities that we have can be best seen in the presentation "Who moved my cheese?"
Who Move My Cheese {Time To Escape The Rat Race} by ewonwhynes

This presentation really shows that in many cases, people don't do well with change, but those who are the most successful do not dwell on the past and attempt to find the next way to be successful.

The next thing that we looked at was a short video that explained that when leading, you need to think of the organization (or organism) as a whole while thinking of the solution to a problem.  Even the most elegant solution is worthless if it diminishes the organizations ability to function (or organism).  Below is this video embedded.

Week 2 CEDO 565 Using Data to Improve Schools

This week we were talking about using data to drive instruction so that student achievement would improve.  To gather this data, we need to use assessments.  For a classroom, both formal and informal assessments are able to be used to help address the needs of our students.  One of the formal assessments that we can use to help classroom teachers is the MAP test.  The data generated from this test shows us specific weaknesses and strengths of our students so that we can address these within our instruction and creation of groups in the class.  To find out how a school is doing, only formal assessments are able to get enough non biased data to be able to assess the schools performance.  In MPS, we use the MAP tests and the WKCE test.   These tests gather data on the reading and mathematics abilities of our students and the knowledge of science and social studies of 8th graders.  For a teacher to access the data from these tests, he or she needs to have a login and password for  NWEA or use WINSS to be able to see test data from the WKCE.  The nice thing about WINSS is that there is more data than just academic data on the WINSS system.  Using this data, administrators and teacher leaders are able to address problem trends that might be developing in the school in order to be proactive for the good of the school community.

Teachers as Leaders

This week we were looking at how teachers can be effective leaders in whichever situation that they find themselves in.  One of the things that was used was a "framework" of leadership.



This framework really showed how different people lead (either well or poorly). I was impressed by the was I could easily understand these concepts. I was somewhat unfamiliar with the way "political" was used in this framework initially, but now am more confident in this version of the word. I am also able to see where my leadership strengths lie and where I need to improve.

Really...

Really, I'm working on my grad school stuff.  (now if I only had access to google sites. :-C )

Creating a Professional Portfolio

These last few weeks I have been attempting to create a professional portfolio.  The main problem that I have been finding is to attempt to try to find artifacts that would best show my growth within the MEIT program.  I wish my original blog had not been deleted, since I had done my best to use the blog as the beginning of my portfolio from the earliest classes.  Se la vie, I will be able to find the artifacts in my Google Docs.  I have been impressed with some of the sites of my classmates.  They are incredibly gifted.  There is a reason that I find that I learn more when I listen to them as well as the professor that is leading the class.

SMART Goals, Vision Statements and Mission Statements

One of the things we did this week was to talk about creating SMART goals.  Specifically, this means that we need to start with our planning for activities with the end results in mind.  SMART is an acronym that stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.  If a teacher is keeping these key words in mind while planning lessons or activities he/she would be able to make sure that the activities don't attempt to do too many things in too short of a time.

Vision and Mission Statements are important in order to keep the teacher remembering what is important to them.  In the day to day running of a classroom, sometimes the big picture is lost among the plethora of concerns that come up or are places upon us.  On the whole, a vision statement states what the major goals of the teacher are.  For example, my main goal as a teacher is to do whatever I need to do in order to help my students find success while still be an ethical and moral person.  A mission statement is something that gives a brief explanations of some of the steps that he/she is going to do in order to get closer to reaching or to reach the major goals he/she has within the next three to five years.

I have a feeling that creating the Vision and Mission Statements will be something I can do since I know what my goals are.  I just need to put them down "on paper".  Being able to modify a Google Site in order to be able to present my ideas effectively.  For the most part, the Google Sites are nicely customize-able, but sometimes they need tons of work to look good.

The standards that I am using as a basis for my portfolio are the National Educational Technology Standards. I chose these partially due to the fact that they are straightforward, and they align with my goals.  I took a look at the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards for Science, but gauged them as too unwieldy and bulky to use as the basis for my portfolio.  My portfolio (such as it is so far) can be found here.

Beginnings of a Professional Portfolio

This week we were assigned to start looking at what we would need to consider and have in a professional portfolio.  This seems like an immense challenge that I hope to be able to be worthy of.  With the limitations that teaching, coaching, attempting to raise two kids and take care of a disabled wife, while dealing with some new health problems that have sneaked up on me, I am finding that even the best time management plans are not worth the paper they are diagrammed upon.  Something is going to have to give, but I am hoping that it is not going to negatively effect my family or my schooling or my ability to perform my jobs.  However, I have a feeling that I will be able to direct my professional development to best meet my goals if I place these goals someplace visible where I can remind myself of what I want to achieve.

Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin

I understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am concerned about the cap on enrollment.  If students who could benefit from an online mode of education are not allowed to pursue their education in this way, how is the cap helping?  As a public school teacher, I might have some reservations for private schools getting public funding, but a public online charter school should be able to get funds as easily as other public schools and easier than private schools.


I understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am excited about the fact that parents are not expected to have a DPI license in order to teach their children.  Parents are their first teachers.  If they are not encouraged to support the education of their kids, apathy will soon grow and then you will have some of the problems you find in some of the brick and mortar schools.

Collaborative Groups

I believe the biggest benefit of collaborative groups is that everyone in the group is able to learn from the ideas and thoughts of the other group members.  In other words, collaborative groups can create something greater than the sum of all the group parts could do separately.  Even in the worst of all collaborative groups, all of the students are able to take something away from the experience even if it is "I don't ever want to work with that person again."

Authentic Assessments

While working on this module I had both success and difficulty while doing something new involving authentic assessments.  I found success in the fact that I was able to figure out how to create an assessment that meets the standards that my students are expected to meet as well as well possibly prepare them for future challenges while in the traditional or blended setting.  My difficulties that I found were to be able to differentiate and create an authentic assessment for the pure online class without causing myself a migraine with the logistics and attempting to pay for all the shipping I would need to do.  I guess I am used to classes where I am the sole source of supplies.  If in an online setting students were able to provide their own material for labs and experiments, I am sure this would be a stress that is greatly reduced.

Facilitating an online discussion

This week we were able to choose a topic that we are going to facilitate a small group.  The topic I chose was that of at risk students.  This topic is very important to me since I teach in a district where most of the students I teach might be labeled as at-risk at one time or another in their career .  Hopefully, I will be able to get some more ideas about how to reach some of these kids in order to be able to help attempt to reduce the rate of the students that I teach from dropping out of school.  Even if it means that I make the impression that they will be able to come to me when they are having difficulty, I want to do what I need in order to be able to help the kids of Milwaukee.

This week we were asked to identify synchronous and asynchronous online learning tools that would be appropriate for my targeted online learners.  


There are many different ways that a course could be created as an asynchronous learning environment.  Wiki's, blogs, web pages and applications such as Facebook all have their places for online learning environments.  The applications that I would probably use if I were to create an asynchronous learning environment would be PBWorks, and Google Sites.  PBWorks is a amazingly customizable learning environment that allows for bilateral communication as well as electronic submission and grading of classwork.  Google Sites is nice in the fact that the instructor can not only create a nice site that explains student work and allows for students to submit their work, but due to many customizations of the Google Sites, the administrator can give or limit many of the permissions that students would have on the site.


For synchronized online learning experiences, I have mainly found applications that would be best suited for small groups.  Skype and other free  web conferencing applications like it that I have used, are best suited for small groups of up to 4.  If you go much beyond this number, the amount of lag makes the conference impossible to continue effectively.  The best large group synchronous online learning environment that I have experienced is Elluminate/Blackboard.  I have been part of an online learning experience of over 20 members with little to no audio or video lag.  The ability to use a whiteboard or share desktops truly enhance the learning experience of the students.  For the instructor, having the ability to limit the ability of students to disrupt the class when student input is not needed is a great feature.  Some of the other larger scale online learning environments that I have read about but have not experienced are Red5, Wowza, and offerings from Adobe in the form of Flash Media Server.   

Some Student Work with Web 2.0 Tools

Here is a VoiceThread my students did about Plate Tectonics.

CeDO 550 Week 1

These are some problems I had navigating the course management system and utilizing the discussion boards.  I have been exhausted this week with attempting to do he work I need to do at my school, help my 2 kids at home, work my second job and attempt to keep the house clean since my wife herniated a vertebrae in her neck.  Due to this, I was confused by our new class site and how the work was going to be assigned.  When I checked out the assignments page and the submissions page, I hadn't realized that we needed to click the link in order to get the description of the work.  I am very glad that the contact number for our professor was listed on our class site. Between the phone call and re-watching the recorded session of our "Class 0", I was able to get my work done.  Hopefully I won't have the same problems next week.  

Being SMART with technology

   One thing that we were asked to think about how we would use the applications we have been introduced to over the last year.  Specifically, we were asked to consider the following:

Specific - what exactly will you do?
Measurable - how will you be able to prove it was done?
Attainable - Will you have the resources and time, what might you have to do to make it occur?
Realistic - Make sure it is doable, you certainly can add something to a lesson plan or work item, you caanot get to the moon?
Timely - Assign a timeline - when will this be done by?

Overall, each of these considerations is important to be able to help students be successful in their learning even if you are not using modern technologies to deliver your content.  It is always important for the educator to plan for student activities and learning experiences with the learning expectations in mind.  A salesman that had tried to train me as a salesman once told me, "You only can plan to succeed, if you succeed to plan."  This is as true for education as it is for sales.  If you do not plan with the outcomes you want in mind, there is no way that you will be able to reach them.  This is especially important when attempting to integrate technology into the presentation of information in a classroom.  When attempting to get students to use a new technology, the educator needs to be able teach the students the appropriate way to use the technology.  There is also the fact that the educator needs to be able have enough time to be able to learn the technologies and have enough time to teach the appropriate use of the technologies to the students.  If the teacher fails to plan appropriately, they are doomed to fail in their attempt to integrate the technologies appropriately.