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.

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. 

Weekly Evaluation Form for Field Students

11/26 - 11/30 - Weekly Observation Form

I am using this form and feedback to support practicum student teachers in the field. Using Google Drive and its form function, I can easily create and embed forms. I use the data from this form to direct support in areas the students need specific work and focus. I also email this form directly to the Co-Operating teachers. Thank you for your feedback.

Communication and Collaboration with Google Forms

I do not know why this took me so long to make this connection, but in time all things seem to come together. As a university supervisor with 19 field and student teachers spread across a wide variety of rural, suburban, and metropolitan placements, I am always looking for ways to facilitate communication and collaboration between all stakeholders. 

View My Supervising Travels in a larger map

But to my point of this post. The forms feature in Google Drive is an excellent way to collect authentic data on my students in the field. I try to visit each student every week and with additional support when needed, but with 19 students currently in the field, it is quite a task. So any opportunity I can gather direct feedback from the cooperating teacher and the student, I am all for it.


Once the form is created on Google Drive, you can embed the form or email it to the intended audience. Once it is completed by  the recipient, the data is driven directly into an editable, malleable, spreadsheet that I can use to support my students. 

I really like the options Google provides in the question format.  Scales, short and long answer responses, checkboxes, multiple choice, and more, the options are duly sufficient to collect the data that you want. 


The ubiquity of the templates are a nice touch too. No longer a boring white and and black form, Google gives you 97 options for jazz up your collection of data. Simply select and apply. 

Now, I created the form first and then Google generated the spreadsheet. You can choose the reverse by creating a spreadsheet with your questions as the fields and then you can generate the form and then edit the style of questions. I found it easier to deal with the form first; however, if I do this, Google recommends to the creator to not change the spreadsheet in any manner because it may, and it did for me, render the form useless

 

Here are a few of the questions I asked. You can see the spreadsheet is very clear. I can track data overtime on a particular student. Notice in column J I ask "Where do you think they need the most immediate work?". This question is really telling and allows me to direct literature, videos, and other target resources immediately to the student. I do this by using an online file sharing program The Box where I share a folder with a community and a folder directly with the student. 

I hope this has been helpful. If you would like to discuss this further please feel free to contact me. 

S/T Cohort - Let's Share

This semester I think we will try the Google calendar share feature. This will allow me to see your teaching schedule and arrange my supervising visits accordingly. You will have to obtain a GMail account first. So, please watch the video below on how to create a Google calendar. Then proceed further down for more information - thanks.




Now you are ready to share it with me at balddaddieteach@gmail.com. The only permission I need is See all Events. I don't need authoring rights. Here is how  you share.



Ok. Now we are ready to rock-n-roll with creating events. Check this video out.