Creating Community during Student Teaching

When I survived my student teaching experience in 1998, I remember it was a very lonely experience with little support from my supervisor or my cooperating teacher, who on the day I entered her class handed me the text and the ancillary materials and said, "The poetry unit starts tomorrow. If you need me I will be in the teacher's workroom."

Fast forward 15 years, and now as a University Supervisor at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, I have the privilege to work with student teachers and shape their teaching beliefs, practices, and experiences. The first priority was not to make their experience in anyway like mine. My goal with every student teacher is to make them feel as they are still connected to the University, but more importantly to expand their experience into a community at practice.

Community of Practice

Now in my 4th semester, I feel I am getting closer and closer to this community at practice. I have done this by using one of the first online file sharing programs - BOX.com. A new account affords 5GB of free online storage. But as an early integrator, they afforded me 50GB of online storage of files.  This community consists of teachers, professors, student teachers, and former student teachers new in the job market. I created the file structure and opened it to anyone interested in sharing resources. Of course I uploaded much of the content, but as time progresses, more and more are uploading their own resources. Within the file we can hold discussions on topics or files or pose questions to the group as a whole. Currently  over 43 collaborators have access to the resources. While most are in Pennsylvania, the news has reached New Mexico, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Below is the embedded file. I encourage you to join or simply visit. Feel free to upload your own resources or comment on the resources listed. Enjoy.

The Connected Educator and VoiceThread

As mentioned in previous post, I am using The Connected Educator in next semester's cohort of students in our Teaching and Learning with Technology. As I am planning the curriculum, the authors Sheryl Beach and Lani Hall have included a "Get Connected" section at the end of every chapter. At the end of chapter 2, they suggest readers to join their VoiceThread to discuss either by text or by audio about change in our schools. As you can see below, the numbers of participants are growing. Feel free to join in even if you don't have the book right now, but I highly suggest you do. 





VoiceThread is a sight worthy of discussion. It is real easy to sign up and use to create open and private discussions. Respondents can comment via text or audio very easily. To listen or read previous comments, you only have to hover over the profile pics around the discussion board. Try it out. Simply click on one of the respondents to the right and read or listen to the contribution to the discussion. 

Beyond simple voice and text discussions, VoiceThread has created a platform for discussing video and respondents and actually watch a video, pause it, and mark the actual video with comments and annotations all the while talking through their comments and explaining either visually or audibly. Check out this example.

I really like the sharing features. With invites, embedding, and social media integrations, it is really easy to garner more voices to the discussion. I plan to use this with my students to discuss a modified prompt about the chapter. Look for a post in the following weeks after my students have participated in their discussion, I will invite and share to hear what your voices think. Later in the semester I will use the video feature with my student teachers. 

Playing Around with Mozilla's Popcorn Maker

I sure I could have spent today's work session completing more productive tasks as the Spring semester quickly approaches, but I couldn't help but play with my "Welcome to SEDU 183" video I created and posted on YouTube. I have and do like the enhancements YouTube allows users to jazz up their productions. In fact you can see my experiment with that below. 

However, I do feel a little limited in the enhancement capabilities in that YouTube disallows most users to embed links to outside resources. Then across my TED TV feed comes this video introduction of Mozilla's Popcorn Maker, and I was stoked to try it out.



Here is my experiment that I thought was relatively easy to do. I love the layering ability. This online video enhancer allows users to embed and link images and web resources, articles to Wikipedia, and run a live Twitter feed. I am still playing but so far I like it. During our Teaching and Learning class I will be introducing this along with the YouTube enhancements. Happy teaching and learning!

SmarterCookie: A Great Source for Reflective Practice

I found this amazing site in my Twitter feed and had to blog about how I am going to use it with my student teachers (S/T) to promote deeper self-reflection and collaboration. 

 The Tool: Smartercookie is a video hosting site for teacher's to use to promote collaboration and reflection on lessons and teaching practices. Individual teachers can sign in for an individual account. For larger accounts they have great pricing and scaling plans for cohorts, schools, and districts. Registration was painless and the tutorials quickly sold me on the idea. With Smartercookie, I am able to upload 10 minute videos of my student teachers in direct practice. Moreover, it allows me to invite anyone I want through email to view and comment on the video. 

The Problem: I've been looking for a site to host the videos I record using my iPad while I am observing, but because of the file size I would have to use a pay service to host the videos. Currently I use BOX.com where I have 50GB of space. BOX.com is a file sharing site I use to share sources, pictures, evaluations, discussions, and limited video through community and private folders. Because of the data upload limit, I am only able to grab snippets of my student teachers in action, and student teachers are limited in their reflective practice.

The Goal: Self-reflection in any field is positive, but in the practice of teaching I see it, as do many others, as a key component to growth. My goal is to enhance the quality of the student teacher's reflection. Comments on the back of lesson plans tend to be list and less specific on practice and pedagogy. By implementing the Smartercookie component, it will allow me to create a safe environment that is secure and supportive while at the same time being collaborative, and hopefully creating a richer more rewarding opportunity for reflection and growth.

The Plan: Most student teachers have two placements, so the plan is developmental. During the first placement, I intend to maintain my own account where I will upload observation videos of my student teachers. For each uploaded video, I will have the observed student teacher complete a Video Reflection Form (still in the creation stage) that I created using Google Drive. Typically I see a student once a week, so potentially the student will have at least 7 opportunities for reflection during the first experience. Smartercookie allows me to invite through email other student teachers to view and comment on the video. After the first observation, all student teachers in my cohort will have access and be required to view one other member's video. During the second placement, I will have the student teachers create their own Smartercookie accounts where they will upload two videos a week to reflect on and share with the cohort. 

Now some foreseeable problems to address. Depending on the size of the cohort, a S/T could potentially spend over two hours watching and commenting on other member videos. This is not practical and becomes detrimental to the process. So, I will assign weekly grouping strategies to minimize the time component: same grade, same subject, complementary subjects, demographic difference, or pedagogical demands. Another issue we may run into is recording devices. Smartercookie has simple integrations for Smartphones and iPad, but S/T data plans may be prohibitive. I do have access to a few flip camera that I can loan out, but to make this a consistent endeavor, I will need to make sure some type of video recorder is available within the classroom. 

The cohort forms at the end of January. Stay tuned for updates and student responses. 

Shifting Gears in 183: The Connected Educator, Flipping Lessons, and Blogging

I teach a wonderful course at Edinboro University titled Teaching and Learning with Technology. This course is an entry level education course for all aspiring Education majors. This class is held in a traditional computer lab, and my enrollment is between 25 and 28 students from all types of backgrounds. I took over this course when I joined the faculty here in Fall of 2011 as a temporary, full-time faculty member. With the Spring semester quickly approaching, I have been some new ideas to further push and develop my students.

The first major shift is the adoption of Sheryl Naussbaum-Beach's and Lani Ritter Hall's The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age. I read this book last semester and found it closely aligned to many of the tenants I am promoting within my classroom. Beach and Hall describe their book on The Connected Educator Blog as "a journey into what it means to be a learner first and an educator second." With chapter content dealing with new literacies for collaboration, the push for diversity, a developing learning theory connectivism, and a call to action for all educators, this book, although geared to teachers in practice, contains many foundational aspects that I aspire to seed within my students' learning and future teaching practices.

Another shift I am making is flipping more of the lessons so that the time in class can be spent in exploration, experimentation, and collaboration. I submitted an application and was accepted to join an online Flipped Classroom Training Program running from Jan 12th - Feb 17th. It is in this program where I will create 5 new flipped lessons and videos using the FIZZ lecture strategy developed by Dr. Lodge McCammon. I also plan to create a series of videos for my student teachers in the field of practice to support their continued growth and development - more on this later. 

The final shift is how I am using student blogs as a tool for collaboration and reflection. For three semesters I have used Blogger as a platform for student work and reflection. This past semester I really tried to promote the blog as a component of the students' personal learning network. Each student created their blog and then shared their blog with 5 other students within the class. Theoretically, each blog and each post would have an early audience of 5 people. The wrench in this was holding students accountable for their comments on other blogs. Early on the comments were constructive and consistent, but throughout the semester, these comments and the audience disappeared. So this semester I am implementing a digital weekly reporting form for students to complete and submit via the dropbox. As the semester develops, so will the audience requirements. 

Spread the News: The Teaching Channel is Amazing!

I am very excited to feature a great web resource to you. My wife found out about this when she was looking for resources for a faculty meeting. The Teaching Channel is a compendium of comprehensive and growing videos that are easily organized, saved, shared, and soon to be downloadable. Moreover, the videos are focused on Common Core and Best Practices. 


Here are the categories delineated by subject, grades, and topic. Notice the 140 videos all relating to the Common Core integrations. 



Not to mention they have some really teacher friendly tools like the Workspace. Here teacher, administrators, and coaches can schedule videos, save links, and connect to other educators. 

Overall the site is very easy to manipulate and maneuver. Check it out: The Teaching Channel

Thinking about the 21st Century Book

As with the evolution of newspapers, the book as a form is in change. Digital books are here. With the emergence of the Ipad, Zoom, Kindle and many others, these devices are able to platform E-Books. According to Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak, "Millions of people now own Kindles. And Kindle owners read, a lot. When we have both editions [hardcopy and digital], we sell 6 Kindle books for every 10 physical books. This is year-to-date and includes only paid books - free Kindle books would make the number even higher. It's been an exciting 27 months." That was in January of last year. By July of last year, Amazon announced Kindle book sells surpassed their hardcover book sales. Naysayers dismissed this, and held on to the paperback with bulwark resolve. However, the tides continued to encroach, and Amazon duly reported in February that E-Book sales exceeded paperback sells.

Overall, my 9th grade advanced students are strong readers. Some by choice; some by habit, but pretty strong in general. Before I shared these statistics with them, I had them journal about their own experiences with books. First I had them create a list of adjectives (at least 10) describing an actual physical book and/or the experience of reading a book. Then I had them recall and write descriptively about a positive reading experience. I had them focus on who was present, where it took place, how they felt. Their responses were traditional and expected. Lists included parents, siblings, soft lights, hard books, bright pictures, beds, comfort. Titles were shared: A Hungry Caterpillar, Good Night Moon, Harry Potter, Jane Eyre. (She's an AVID reader!) However, every one of their lists excluded their experiences having anything to do with an E-book. Even though a few have books on digital devices.

I then showed them this video "A Next-Generation Digital Book" from TED Talks featuring Mike Matas from Push Pop Press

It was interesting to hear the students reaction towards this type of book. They immediately saw a connection between this and their textbooks.

"We wouldn't need book bags!" Jose shouted.

"Imagine biographies," I said.

"Then why would we need the History or Biography channels?" McKenna posed.

Kyle thought he would read more. That it looked like a video game, and "it looked a lot cooler than a raggy old book."

But as much as I played devil's advocate, they wouldn't or couldn't see the application in their fiction. They held their ground. Alyssa succinctly put it like this, "They would still our imagination." The class mostly agreed. Nevertheless, Kyle was ready to turn in every hard covered, paper backed, book he owned.

This conversation lead us into our discussion about technology development in Rand's Anthem. Here the World Council spent 100 years weighing and implementing the candle. What are their fears? What will they lose? What will they gain?

We brought the conversation back around to reading, books, technology, and change. I posed the same questions: What are your fears? What will we lose? What will we gain? Their responses were responsible, grand, even dismissive, for their entire technological life experience has been about change. This was just another development that they could quickly compartmentalize the use of: nonfiction - great; fiction - no way. As I read their exit slips, it seemed to me they were protecting those experiences they wrote about at the beginning of class. And for those avid readers, a more cautionary tone was evident - "No one is taking my book from me." - Sean

Ten things an Administrator can do to Make Me a Better Teacher

After serving in a variety of learning communities, I have compiled a list that if implemented by an administration in one institution at one time would make me the best teacher I could possibly be.  So here it is:

 The Top Ten things an Administrator can do to Make Me a Better Teacher

1.  Be a teacher! Don’t forget your roots. Your empathy of the demands of a classroom teacher is necessary for us to communicate fairly and effectively. More importantly, as a teacher you can share your expertise with me. I can learn from you because you have the privilege to see all of my colleagues in action. I am sure what they are doing and how they are doing it is relevant to the learning in my classroom.
2. Understand that the key to lowering your discipline workload is to be in my classroom and seeing what I am doing to stimulate and motivate my students. Maybe you can share some insight into that difficult child.
3. Ask to see my lesson plans not because you have to verify I am following the curriculum or checking a box, but because you earnestly care about the why and how I am teaching. Use them as conversation starters with me or other teachers. Give me feedback if you have a better way or a resource that will tweak my lesson and then follow up with me to see how the lesson idea or resource went. This will show me that you care and more importantly show me you are a resource that I can trust and use. Oh, and if I know you are doing this, then I will meet your expectations happily and readily.
4. Protect my instructional time, in fact, promote it. This shows me that you value what I am trying to do in my classroom and that you really do expect learning, exploration, and discovery to happen from bell to bell.
5. Create a mission statement that I am involved in and can believe in. Make sure everything we do as a school and that I do as a teacher is tied into those beliefs and ideas. Display it everywhere and on everything. Let it be central to every decision you make and it will be central to every decision I make.
6. Model good practice in every meeting and professional development opportunity you provide. As you model this, integrate technology effectively. This will show me that you expect the same and that we are a community of learners.
7. Control the clutter. Keep the entire email list to the staff limited. I shouldn’t have to filter my inbox because I know that everything that is sent to me is relevant to my classroom.  When it’s important I will know and read all of it, and you can hold me accountable to it.
8. Protect our students and me from solicitations that detract from our mission. This will tell me that what happens in this building is not for sale or sponsorship. That what we do here is highly important and unequivocally sacred.
9. Be healthy. You are my leader and resource. I need you in school and on your game. Moreover, send that healthy message throughout the school. Invite me to walk around the track with you after school, remove the soda and candy machines or replace them with healthy choices, and  create intramural games we can play after school. Ask me how I am feeling and share with me what you are doing to look and feel so great. This will make me healthier and happier knowing I have a support system in school and that you want me here and not using my sick days.
10. Acknowledge me. Tell me I am doing a good job when I am doing a good job. Show up in my classroom and ask me what my goals are today. Ask me to show my colleagues my lesson or that resource that you saw me use. Ask me to sit on a committee and tell me why you think I should. Tell me how it will make me grow or send me to a conference and expect me to share when I return. All this will show me that I am valued in this community. That I have contributed to its development and can grow and be stronger in it.

Working the Flipped Classroom and Inspired by NPR

Well here it is. It is quirky and weird to see myself. Anyway, I did become very familiar with iMovie and annotations in YouTube:) So it is about 8 minutes of me discussing the new project. After reading chapter 5 from Personal Learning Connections I felt the authors call to action, but I wasn't sure if everyone is quite on board yet. So, inspired by NPR's This I Believe series. I decided to take our video part of the course and turn it into a visual essay and incorporate it into our final exam. So watch the video. After watching, please visit the following links and listen to at least 3 essays. Then in the comment section of this blog please leave questions, comments, fears, ideas, constructive criticisms, and just plain encouragement for my risk taking.

SITE LINKS - Please listen to at least 3 essays from these links

Feel free to explore the rest of the site also.

http://thisibelieve.org/?s=education&post_type=essay&submit=Search This is the search on Education. That produced over 6,000 essays.

http://thisibelieve.org/?s=education+and+knowledge&post_type=essay&submit=Search This is the search on Education and Knowledge that produced over 1,000 essays.

 

Rituals and Routines in Cooperative Learning

Type in "Rituals and Routines in the Classroom" into Google and the first 20 resources on this day were all geared towards early childhood education. Early in a student's development weeks are spent inside the classroom creating and practicing routines and rituals to create order and student comfort. As our students grow older their natural development is towards autonomy and individuality. As teachers we support this growth by permitting and creating opportunities for autonomy and as such our expectations rise incrementally as our students mature. 

In today's classroom I still see the need for rituals and routines. Certainly we don't need 10th graders lining up at the door before dismissal for lunch, but we must not ignore the value of rituals and routines. When a second grader lines up at the classroom door, he/she knows how to behave, what to expect, and how to perform. This creates community. When someone is out of established norms, community members are very quick to redirect that behavior or share what they are supposed to be doing. 

In this series of posts, I will share some ideas you may want to use to promote rituals and routines that will make your classroom more student-centered. I will look at Cooperative Learning, Lecture and Listening, and Classroom Closure.  

Cooperative Learning - By the time our students come to us in the later grades, we as teachers expect or take for granted that our students already know how to work with others. But this is an area where teachers must clarify the routines and behaviors associated with working with others. The collaboration rituals could be used with turn and talk opportunities or large group extension projects.

Situating the Task - I believe the way we deliver information like a group activity, the delivery of the task can and should be ritualized. Doing so situates the activities familiarity, and students begin to recall expectations and behaviors even before they enter the group. 

• Getting your Attention: Use the repetition of language, music, or noise. Using statements like, "Ok ladies and gentlemen we are going to get close", or "Let's get our group learn on", or "Let's discover what the group thinks." You can do the same with using the same song, a bell, or even a video. 
•  The key is to use the same process over and over. Soon you will see the appropriate behaviors that are expected as you introduce the task. 
• Before you Group: Explain to them clearly and slowly why this particular activity is appropriate for group work. Students who may not see value in a group activity may benefit from the reasoning. Identify what they as individuals will be doing inside the group. Finally be very clear on what the group is to produce or how they are to arrive at an outcome. 
• While you are in Group: Explain to them what group work looks like: facing each other, eye contact, and body language. Tell them to introduce themselves to each other even if they know each other. Again, if it is ritual behaviors will accompany. 

Of course providing all the other great components like appropriate time, measured benchmarks, and resources for referral and redirection are just as important in the process. The point of this post is to push the idea of repetition and routine to ready (situate) the task and the learning. Here are a few links to other Collaborative ideas and sites to help you generate those great learning opportunities. 

Getting Started wtih Group Work from Harvard Education

Berkley Edu chimes in from the book Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross

Jigsaw in 10 Easy Steps

Best Practices: Cooperative Language from Regina Public Schools in Canada

Feel free to leave your own ideas and thoughts in the comment section. Happy learning.