Wicked Problem Project Solved

Wicked Problem 

An Educational Opportunity

Through this project I had an opportunity to take a topic that was disconnected and lacked student engagement and make it more connected and engaging for students, which allowed students to better master the concepts and make stronger connections with the subject matter. In the unit on plate tectonics, volcanoes and earthquakes I like students to be able to understand how the 3 concepts are related. I want them to be able to locate the major earth plate boundaries and what type of boundaries they are. I want them to be able to then see that the major earthquakes and volcanoes of the world are found on those boundaries along with the types of volcanoes and earthquakes. I also want them to see the other major Earth features that are found on plate boundaries. Using Technology Through the use of technology students can be transported to the plate boundaries and where they are actually located around the Earth. Students can actually "see" the volcanoes, locations of earthquakes and land formations relative to plate boundaries. Students work as pairs and used Google Earth to make a virtual tour of the plate boundaries, volcanoes, earthquakes and boundary features. Student tours included the types of boundaries, volcanoes and how the features are formed. Tours also includes the basic information on the major earthquakes that have occurred and how the features have formed. The use of the technology allowed several things for students. Looking at it through the NETS standards the project covered:

1. Students demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology systems. Use technology tools for individual and collaborative writing, communication, and publishing activities to create knowledge products for audiences inside and outside the classroom. 
2. Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.

TPACK Sweet Spot

This project hits right in the TPACK Sweet Spot with a balanced combination of pedagogy, content and technology.  The content is not only an Iowa Common Core State Standard and soon to be Next Generation Science Standard but the concepts of earthquakes and volcanoes fascinate many students.  Pedagogy was to provide students with basic background knowledge through podcasts, class discussion and 2 shirt class activities.  At this point students are ready to move on or up the Blooms Taxonomy triangle.  Students have been working toward understanding and applying basic information and through this project they will now work to analyze, evaluate and create.  They will collect data on the worlds largest volcanoes, strongest earthquakes and key land formations like Mt. Everest   They will analyze the data (information) they collect and evaluate how the volcanoes formed, why the earthquakes happened and land formations occurred   Students then create a video tour using Google Earth visiting the volcanoes  earthquake location and land formations describing interesting facts about them and how they were formed. 

The content and pedagogy interact very well in this project.  This project encompasses several different teaching methods.  This is a Project Based Learning activity that involved real world connections, collaboration and real world connections.  What excited me most if the high levels of engagement students will experience.  Rather than being the receptacles where knowledge is deposited, they are learning the content by exploring and inquiry.  I believe that the increased level of engagement will lead to higher student achievement.   They are going to be experiencing the problem differently than in past years and that will lead to better connections and understanding.  Instead of teacher directed learning this will be student led learning through inquiry, evaluation and creation. 

Implementation and Results

Implementation

Implementation of the project went very well.  With great background information given in class students dove into the research part and locating on Google Earth.  While we did encounter a few technical glitches along the way the project went smoothly.  Technical glitches included Google Earth crashes, students saving files to the wrong places and the entire district network crashing in the middle of class one day!  We had planned on the project taking 5 days but we should have planned more time.  We ended up taking a couple extra days to complete the project.  We had the students recording their videos using Camtasia.  Which works well but I was also having them render them to be MP4 files to upload to You Tube which seemed to take forever.  So I switched to having some kids try ScreenCast-O-Matic and this saved their students in MP4 format much quicker.  

Survey Results

Upon completion of the project I gave a survey to my classes.  The results showed the following:

By doing this project how would you rate your understanding of what causes earthquakes and volcanoes?

23% Very High

66% High 

8% Average

3% Low

0% Very Low

By doing this project how would you rate your understanding of the Earth's Plate Boundaries?

55% Very High

34 % High 

8% Average

3% Low

0% Very Low

Did you enjoy this project?

95% Yes

5% No

If you found this project frustrating, what frustrated you?

23% Learning New Technology

5% Research

44% Internet Issues

32% Nothing was Frustrating

If you had your choice of doing projects to learn or listening to leacture and taking notes to learn, what would you select?

91% Projects

7% Notes

2% Neither - I hate learning

I was very happy with the results of this survey and not surprised by the frustration results - I actually expected then to be higher!  Learning new technology and having to research and draw conclusions and evaluate can be frustrating   The best thing was I just kept telling frustrated students to not worry about deadlines and just focus on the learning and creating and we would finish the project when we finished.  I think a little frustration is warranted as that means they are challenged.

Next Years Project   

Changes I will make next year:

Instead of giving them the land formations I will have them select land formations.
or
I will present them with the problem of locating a business in a variety of locations and have them determine which one would be best considering the Earthquake and Volcano risk.

I will also not use Camtasia but rather ScreenCast O Matic.

I will also create a file in Google Earth with the locations stored in it for Special Education students to use so they don't have to find all the locations and focus on research and preparing their scripts.

Conclusion

I am very pleased with how the first year for this project went and I look forward to revising it and continuing with the project next year.

Professional Learning Plan

Professional Learning Plan - Review 

When I look back at my Professional Learning Plan that created in CEP810 I feel like I have come such a long way.

Looking Back at Goal #1: 
Goal 1 - To create a classroom with authentic use of technology that stretches learning, engages students and differentiates instruction for increased student achievement.

Thoughts Today: 
As I reflect on this goal I am very pleased with the progress. I started the school year with a definite plan of how technology in my classroom would look and it unfolded just like I had envisioned and planned. The flipped classroom is going very well and I have been using technology in many new ways to differentiate and stretch the learning of all students. In my analysis of how the first semester has gone I see a need to focus on differentiation for second semester. While second chance testing and differentiation after a summative assessment are going well, I am still not hitting the goal of differentiation of learning on more of a daily basis after formative assessments. This will be my focus second semester.

Looking Back at Goal #2: 
Goal 2 - To increase my knowledge and use of technology applications and resources that are available. To develop a full understanding of TPACK and how it may impact my school district in the coming years.

Thoughts Today: 
While I have always considered myself to be very technologically literate, I am mind boggled by all the additional things I have learned and picked up on since taking CEP810, 811 and 812. These courses really forced me to find the time to explore so many new technologies. Things like Merlot, Classroom 2.0, Glogster, Survey Monkey, Google Hangouts, Camtasia more in depth, Screen Castomatic, Audacity and more. It has been great to take things that I am learning and doing in these class and directly using them and applying them in my classes I teach.  Completing the STAIR Project and the WPP Project really pushed my creativity and methodology to a new level and the results have been increased engagement and student learning.  I have also spent more time reviewing TPACK and the revised version of Bloom's Taxonomy and how technology fits in with that picture.  As our school goes 1:1 and I lead professional development I am excited to present apps and technology to teachers that can reach the highest levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.  My major focus in planning professional development will be on pedagogy and technology guided by the TPACK model and content driven by Common Core State Standards.

Other Thoughts:
I also attended a one day workshop this fall on using Google and all its capabilities.  Through all these classes a side affect has been a large increase in my Professional Learning Network which has given me inspiration for classroom activities.

Professional Learning Network Before CEP810

Professional Learning Network After CEP812

Future:
Between now and next summer I plan to continue to increase my knowledge of available technologies by continuing to utilize the MACUL space, Classroom 2.0, Twitter and Merlot to interact with other professionals and find ideas and inspiration.  I also want to better utilized flipped classroom formative assessments to employ differentiation in my classroom.   I want to also keep my education blog better updated and maybe start a 3rd blog that is only about ways to use technology that I can push out to those who are attending my professional development workshops and a place where I can inspire other professionals.  I also enjoyed the STAIR Project and WPP Project and even though I am not in class anymore I intend to create another STAIR and I want to approach a unit from the WPP perspective second semester.

Group Leadership Project CEP 812

Group Leadership Project Educreations Tutorial Our group each made their own individual videos using a tool of their choosing and then the final video was assembled using Camtasia. I also used Camtasia to record my portion of the video. I have been using Camtasia for over a year to create my podcast for my students and love the capabilities. At first it might be a little complicated to use but once you get the basics it is a breeze to record audio, video and both. I have been using it more and more all the time. Great for combining video clips into one video for my students or for recording videos that are not iPad compatible and making them compatible. My initial plan was to teach people how to use Educreations by recording a video in Educreations. Great thought until I realized that recording in Educareations does not record all the buttons and tools of Educreations. So I went through the tutotial and took screenshots of all the steps and then made the video in Camtasia. I also learned more about recording audio and video in Camtasia. In doing a project like this again I am not sure I would do much differently. I might try and make sure that each person involved had the same program to utilize for making their video. There is a part of me that thinks a tutorial like this would be easier with one person but as the viewer of a tutorial I like the different commentators. I think the project went well and I had a great group to work with. They gave me some new ideas about how to use Educreations as well.

PART D - Findings and Implications

WPP Part D - Findings and Implications

Implementation:

The project launched Monday without a hitch.  The students took very well to locating land formations, earthquakes and volcanoes.  They were quick to get busy researching what caused all these formations as well.  They did very well dividing up duties with their partners as well.  Things seemed to get going well.  There were a couple issues the first day with students not saving their files to the correct locations on the school server but they were ironed out.  We have decided to extend the deadline for the project a couple days to make sure they are completing a quality project and not feeling rushed.

As I have been observing and working with students I have enjoyed listening to their conversations about plate boundaries, locations of countries and different types of volcanoes and earthquakes.  Just hearing what they are talking about and researching I am extremely confident that students are engaged and learning more than they ever had about Earth's plates and boundaries, earthquakes and volcanoes.  They are also working on public speaking skills with their narration, writing in their story boards, collaboration skills with their partners and geography!

Future Projects:

In the future I would approach this project the exact same way, lots and lots of preparation on my part.  When you read about projects vs. project based learning this project is really meeting the definition of project based learning and I know it is not a fluff project, there is authentic learning taking place.  People would benefit from knowing that projects like this require a great deal of prep and practice by the teacher.  You actually have to walk through he project as if you were the student and write the instructions as if they were meant for someone who had no idea how to use the technology.  Another key was that I made a sample tour to model the project for the students.   The sample I made for the kids was really key for inspiring kids to extended to high levels for their project.  This project will most definitely be repeated in the future.  One change that could be made would be to create a pre-made folder with all the tour locations in it so students didn't have to spend time locating them they would just need to research things about them, the plate boundaries that made that feature, etc.  This would save some time on the project and still meet the objectives of the project.

Pictures of Students Working:

Mobile Learning

Mobile Learning

Classroom 2.0 - I found this web site to be very interesting.  I really liked the groups I was able to join and I particularly liked the Google Apps in Education group.  There are several great discussions going on and lots of great tips and secrets to success.  Very easy to tweet out things that I find to my Professional Learning Network as well.  I am also adding people I found on Classroom 2.0 to my PLN on Twitter.  I really like this site and didn't even know it existed.  I am always looking for ways to connect to more educators and this will be a great resource.

Poll Everywhere - I have been using Poll Everywhere for a couple years.  I really like how easy it is to use and kids love to be able to use their cell phones to text the answers.  I actually stopped using Poll Everywhere last year when I really got hooked on Google Forms for formative quizzes and became more vested into using Moodle.  I gave a Poll Everywhere survey over cancer the other day in class and the kids loved using that format.  While I still think intend to keep with Google Forms and Moodle I really need to tap the capabilities of using Poll Everywhere for other things.  I can see this as a bell ringer activity or a way to get to know kids better through different types of questions.  There is always a concern about students who do not have cell phones to text which is why I like that the survey can be given with a web link so I could poll students giving them a web link they can access on their iPads.

PART C - Implementation

My Wicked Problem Project is progressing well although I will not implement with students until next week.  You can listen to an update on my project in my podcast.  

Link to my WPP Part C Implementation Podcast.

Data Visualization

Data Visualization

For the data visualization lab I tried out several of the website that were listed on Karl Drude's wikispace. I had wanted to try out Glogster and this gave me a good reason. I made a Glogster out of several videos on mitosis that I like students to watch. It is nice to put all the links together in one place and have the videos easily accessible rather than multiple links for them to click on. I know I will be using this in the next week in class. I can see lots of uses for Glogster and I like that there is a teacher friendly way to manage classes and students. I have used word clouds before but I have always used Wordle and so I decided to give Tagxedo a try. I really like how I just copied the link to my blog spot into Tagxedo and it created a word cloud from my blog - very cool. I like to use these to introduce topics to students. I give them the word cloud and have them write sentences inferring main ideas. I think you can infer alot about me by seeing the word cloud from my blog postings. I also checked out other sites like Gapminder. I was very impressed with the infographs that were available on the site. I love using infographics and need to realize I can utilize them for many things I teach. I would love to have students create a Glogster during 2nd semester. When we study genetic diseases they would look up statistics about certain genetic diseases and create a glogster on a genetic disease and include and graph of data about the disease. I also had no idea Google had that much public data graphed. Those will definitely be great to use when we talk about population and Earth's carrying capacity in Biology class and I can also pass them on to our social studies department.

PART B - Storyboard and Script

Storyboard and Script for Group Project on Educreations

Our group has had two video conferences on the project where I feel we have all contributed equally.  We each have a part that we will record using Educreations that will then be put into the final video tutorial  using Camtasia.  Right now we have one person that will splice the four pieces together in Camtasia.  Our plan is to video conference again and screen share while the editing is being done so we can all put the final product together.  I have already created a few lessons and we will use one of them to hook people into our presentation.   I will then be explaining what Educreations is and how to use it.  I will demonstrate the use of Educreations using Educreations to record it.  So I will essentially be creating a lesson on Educreations on how to use Educreations :)  Then one person will explain how Educreations could be useful in Project Based Learning and one person will explain how to use Educreations for a flipped classroom.

I think we will end up with a fabulous tutorial on how to use Educreations and ways it can be used.

PART A - Brainstorm Session

Group Leadership Project Part A - Brainstorm Session

Click HERE for the link to our group web conference/brainstorming session.

Our group began by emailing back and forth and agreeing upon a date, time and technology to facilitate our meeting.  We selected Google Hangout to use for our meeting.  Our group chose Google Hangout for our web conference.  Two of us have used Google Hangouts before in   previous classes.  I find Google Hangouts to be very easy to use. Using a web conference for group projects is perfect.  You get to live chat, while exploring web sites and working on documents.  You can also share your screen so everyone can see who is doing or finding what. I really didn't find any disadvantages.  I really can't see how you could find anything wrong with this level of collaboration.  

As a group we brainstormed some different technologies to teach about and we settled on Educreations.   We have a Google Doc that we put the notes from our brainstorming session.  This document also has our plans and dates for completion.  We are actually going to use Educreations to teach how to use Educreations.  We will each create a tutorial in Educreations that showcases different features and uses of Educreations.  We will be showcasing the following 4 areas: 

1.  How to use it

2.  How to use for student assessment

3.  Podcasting and Flipping your classroom using Educreations

4.  Making Tutorials for Students and Teachers

We also created a timeline for completing things:

1.  Storyboard by November 21st using Google Presentations for the storyboard - we want to get done before the holiday

2.  One person in our group will have students use the app

3.  Finish and Submit by November 30th

I think we developed a great plan for an effective tutorial for Educreations.

Web-Conferencing

CEP812 Group Web Conference

Click HERE to view our web conference.

Our group chose Google Hangout for our web conference.  Two of us have used Google Hangouts before in   previous classes.  I find Google Hangouts to be very easy to use.  I had never recorded a web conference prior to this and that turned out to he easy to do as well.  We were also able to easily share our screens so that we could look at websites and we had a Google Doc open that we were contributing to at the same time as well.  I felt this was very easy to use and I could see possibilities in the classroom.  This could be used to connect students to students from around the United States of World.  Students could also web conference with professionals in fields that we are studying.  I have been wanting to have my students Skype with other students for a long time but I am having trouble making connections with other students or professionals.  It just never seems to work out.  I was working on a connection with a classroom in Australia until we realized with the time difference and different school schedules it wasn't going to work out.  Fortunately the school year is young and I hope to make these connections happen this school year.  Last year my students did attend a webinar with Reed Timmer from the televisions show Storm Chasers but I want them to have more personal conversations with professionals or other students.

We really didn't have any surprising or awkward moments.  Minus my dogs poking their heads in but I think that was before we started recording and a couple of us were trying to eat dinner at the same time :)
We had thrown Skype out there as a option for our meeting but we really didn't debate any other software possibilities as we felt this was our best option.  In the future we will be using Google Hangouts as well.  Ease of use and great connections make this a good choice.

PART B - Application of TPACK

TPACK and Google Earth Tour

Pedagogy

I am excited that this assignment will encompass many different teaching methods.  It will be a Project Based Learning activity which will involve real world connections, collaboration and high levels of engagement.  Students will be making real world connections as they get to actually "see" the plate boundaries and how they effect the Earth and United States.  They will actually get to connect plate boundaries to earthquakes and volcanoes and see how they are tied together.  Students will be working in partners to create their virtual tour so they will be collaborating as well as taking the tours that their other classmates create.  What I like most will be the high levels of engagement.  Instead of me just showing them locations on a map in my classroom or on Google Earth they will actually be using Google Earth to explore plate boundaries, earthquakes, volcanoes and other Earths formations.  This higher level of engagement should correlate to increased levels of students achievement.

Technology

Students love Google Earth. Why? So they can zoom in on their houses or friends houses. Zoom in on their schools or other locations but they really do not understand the full capabilities.  Students will be making a tour on Google Earth and be able to experience the full capabilities of Google Earth.  They will use technology to record their voice.  Using Google Earth allows students higher levels of engagement, it creates inquiry as instead of my giving them a list of the volcano and earthquake locations they will have to find them.  Instead of me telling them why they are there they will need to figure that out so there will be some problem solving involved. Using Google Earth to make a tour will create higher levels of engagement, inquiry and problem solving.  

Content

The subject matter of plate tectonics, earthquakes and volcanoes is one students usually have an interest in.  They find the idea of earthquakes and volcanoes fascinating but also something that is hard to grasp due to not being able to demonstrate or show them.  They are concepts that they feel disconnected from due to never having experience with them.  Ultimately creating the tour in Google Earth will connect them to the earthquake hot spots around the world and past major events.  It will take them to the active volcanoes on the Earth and past major volcanic activity.  It will also expose them to other major land features created by plate boundaries.  The student will virtually get to visit locations and see how they are ties to plate boundaries.  On the tour they create they will tell something about each location so they will need to research about those locations.  They will also explain how the earthquake or volcanoes are connected to the plate  boundary in that area, type of plate boundary and type of earthquake or volcano.  

TPACK

I feel that this unit provides a great combination of Pedagogy, Technology and Content so as to hit the TPACK sweet spot.  This activity provides 21st century learning focused on essential learning's and skills supported by technology.  

PART A - Description of Need or Opportunity

Wicked Problem Project

An Educational Opportunity

Through this project I have an opportunity to take a topic that was disconnected and lacked student engagement and make it more connected and engaging for students, which I think will allow students to better master the concept and make stronger connections with the subject matter.  

In the unit on plate tectonics, volcanoes and earthquakes I like students to be able to understand how the 3 concepts are related.  I want them to be able to located the major earth plate boundaries and what type of boundaries they are.  I want them to be able to then see that the major earthquakes and volcanoes of the world are found on those boundaries along with what types of volcanoes and earthquakes.  I also want them to see the other major Earth features that are found on plate boundaries.  

Using Technology

My plan is to have students work as partners and use Google Earth to make a virtual tour of the plate boundaries, volcanoes, earthquakes and boundary features.  Student tours will include the types of boundaries, volcanoes and how the features are formed.  It will also include the basic information on the major earthquakes that have occurred and how the features have formed. The use of the technology allows several things for students.  Looking at it through the NETS standards the assignment covers this:

1. Students demonstrate a sound understanding of 
   the nature and operation of technology systems.
2. Use technology tools for 
   individual and collaborative writing, communication, and publishing activities to 
   create knowledge products for audiences inside and outside the classroom.
3. Students 
   use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of 
   sources. Discuss basic issues related to responsible use of technology and 
   information.

This project requires no cost and I believe it will have a huge impact on student learning rather than the prior way of teaching this lesson with lecture and coloring of maps.

Logistics

Logistically there shouldn't be any issues with technology.  While I would love to be able to use the iPads in my classroom for this activity we will actually utilize one of the 3 computer labs in the school.  I will need to book these a couple weeks in advance as sometimes they can fill up.  Since the tour they create on Google Earth will include voice narration from the students I will need to make sure I have microphones on hand.  I know our technology department has several microphones so I will need to touch base with them about their use.  I will also need to make sure that all our computers are upgraded to Google Earth 5.  Our technology department is usually on top of those things but I will need to double check.  

Research

Since I have never created a Google Tour or had students create one the idea did require some research.  I actually got the idea from a fellow colleague who I met in this program.  

I first searched how to make a Google Earth Tour.  http://www.google.com/earth/outreach/tutorials/kmltours.html

I also did some research to see how other educators were using Google Earth Tour.

• This teacher has some great resources and guide for students in making their tours.  I like her recording sheet or planning sheet.  I will want to create one of those for my students,  She has a rubric as well that I might be able to adapt to my assignment.  http://misshendleysclass.pbworks.com/w/page/50940324/Google%20Tours
• Here I found a great assignment sheet with directions that I could also adapt.  www.olc.edu/~smannel/gis/.../_files/.../asg_Google_Earth.doc
• This website also has a great assignment sheet and scavenger hunt to get students familiar with Google Earth.  http://lmsdgoogle.wikispaces.com/file/view/Google+Earth+project_guide.pdf

Implementation

I plan to implement the entire project during this course.

Success

Indicators of a successful project will be in the students finished projects that have meet all standards for the project and beyond.  Other indicators of success will be results of the unit assessment.  Scores on the unit assessment should be higher than last year and their should be less students who need to take advantage of second change testing. 

CEP811 Final Reflections

Final Reflections on CEP 811

When I really sit down and think back over the course I am actually surprised at how much I learned and changed the past few weeks.  I think I was so immersed in actually doing all the assignments I didn't realize how much I was growing as a person, instructional leader and technology leader.  

The activity I learned the most from was the creation of my STAIR on Light and Mirrors.  While I have a flipped classroom this actually makes me look at an entire lesson that incorporates many different instructional strategies.  The unit included graphic organizers, note taking  formative quizzes with immediate feedback, scaffolding and videos.  It was all incorporated into this stand alone resource that my students actually used in class last week.  I really like how the unit taught the different types of mirrors and then had students apply the mirror rules.  I really learned more about power point and how to effectively create a kiosk presentation.  I am excited to create more STAIR type units even though it is very time consuming. 

I also found the comparison of my Coaster Physics lesson plan to the UDL Checklist to be quite effective.  It was amazing how many little things I could do to a lesson plan/assignment that could improve the effectiveness.  Just simply underlining key terms in the instructions and providing checkpoints throughout the activity made it more effective. Although this was lengthy I think it was worth it and gave me some good ideas to help those that struggle reading and with big projects.  

I also think I will be using Merlot in the future.  I had never even heard of this website but I found a great array of resources that will be useful in my class.  Until this course I thought Merlot was just a good wine!  

Before this course I knew alot about technology but now I actually feel like I know how to integrate technology with proven instructional strategies and pedagogy.  My new goals don't just focus on technology but the entire TPACK package.  

I would like to create more STAIR units. 

Contribute more lessons to Merlot.
I also want to focus on scaffolding better in all my lessons. 

While at times the class has been overwhelming - looking back on it now I have really grown.

Gaming - Online Learning Experience

Upon exploring the Michigan Merit Curriculum's Online Learning Experience Guideline document I found some Educational Gaming experiences that I would like to share with my Biology students.  When we study ecology we discuss populations and liming factors for populations.  We not only talk about plants and animals but we discuss human populations and what limits the human population.  I reviewed two educational games in the guidelines,  Food Force and Darfur is Dying.

I felt that both of these educational games could help teach about limiting factors and world population growth during our biology unit on Ecology and Human Population.  Both gaming experiences were very engaging for students.  Darfur is Dying provides a role playing experience.  What I would really like to create is a cross-curricular unit between science and social studies that could be centered around the Darfur is Dying game.   Food Force is a game that is tied to Facebook which would make it difficult to play in schools.  Most schools, that I am aware of, block Facebook.  There are many other good resources on the website that connects to the game Food Force but students would need instructions and as a teacher I would need to decide how to best utilize those resources.

I didn't feel that either of the games presented a technological difficulty for students unless the games don't work on an iPad. As the guidelines indicated, I felt the games were integrating, helped develop life-long skills and required teacher involvement in different ways.  In Darfur is Dying the teacher could serve as a facilitator and guide but with Food Force the teacher would need to serve a more active role.

The Online Learning Experience Guide outlines the Core Principles of Online Learning and focusing just on Darfur is Dying I believe it met many of the Core Principles especially the following:

• Be organized in a coherent, sequential manner 
• Include the principles of Universal Design for Learning 
• (http://www.cast.org/research/udl/index.html ) by providing multiple approaches to meet the needs of diverse learners 
• Be relevant and address many learning styles 
• Include asynchronous and/or synchronous interaction between teacher and student, and student-to-student 

I was interested in the concept of Educational Gaming and think my students would enjoy and learn from integrating these into the curriculum and a possible cross-curricular unit with social studies.

Video Intro. and Podcasting

Podcasting

Podcasting is pretty much second nature for me since I flipped my Biology courses a year ago.  I use Camtasia to create most of my podcasts and then they are uploaded to the Webster City Biology App on iTunes.  This year I am also flipping my General Science courses.  There is now also a Webster City General Science App as well.  You can check them out on iTunes.  I have also used Educreations and Screencastomatic to create podcast as well.  Below are links to several of my podcasts and the iTunes sites.

Biology Podcasts iTunes
General Science Podcasts iTunes
Memmer Science Channel on You Tube
Podcasts in Wiki Space


My Introduction Video

In My Funny Technology Story I tell the story of the crash of 30 iPads.  While it wasn't funny at the time we do laugh alot about it now.

Wiki and Wikipedia

I had actually never added anything to Wikipedia let alone create an article on Wikipedia   I was surprised to discover that my school did not have an article on Wikipedia as well.  I actually found the entire process for creating an  article on Wikipedia to be very complicated and not user friendly.  I really found myself asking why anyone would want to do this at all.  Never the less I created an article space for my school.  

I have been using wiki spaces for a while in my professional life.  I have a site for my science classes where I post additional study resources and videos for my classes.  I have another site that I use when I am presenting at other districts.  I just used this site last week when I was presenting at professional development in another district.  I also created a wiki space for another presentation I did last week at the Iowa Technology in Education Conference.   My students all know about the wiki space.  If someone attended one of my presentations last week they were using the wiki space during the presentation.    I have never actually had students contribute to a wiki space for a class assignment but will be in just a couple weeks.  When we begin our cell unit I will have a new wiki space on the cell and as a review of the parts of the cell students will be required to add something to the wiki space about each major cell part.

http://memmeritec.wikispaces.com/

http://melissamemmer.wikispaces.com/

http://memmerscience.wikispaces.com/

I also had a chance to contribute to the Idea Exchange wiki space.  I added the idea of using Educreations an app for the iPad.  Edureations allows the user to create video lessons using their iPad or the internet. It is great for teachers to create video lessons for a flipped classroom or students to create videos and teach their fellow classmates concepts. The app uses an interactive whiteboard to record your voice and and handwriting. Students can replay the lessons on any browser or on the iPad. Lessons can be embedded into blogs and websites.

UDL to Update Assignment

Recently I was asked to analyze a student assignment using the principles of UDL (Universal Design for Learning).  The three principles of UDL are that student assignments and lessons will provide:
Multiple Means of Representation
Multiple Means of Action and Expression
Multiple Means of Engagement.
After learning the key principles of UDL and comparing an assignment to the UDL checklist, I was able to make some key improvements to the assignment that lend themselves to all learners.

Features of the Lesson
The lesson is available auditory using the text-to-speech feature on the iPad.
There is a large quantity of background information taught through different forms.
There are options for students who are not capable of using the technology
There are options for students who are not advanced enough to use the technology.
This assignment provides scaffolding as students practice before they actually complete the assignment.
The students have ample choices in design of their roller coaster.

Barriers of the Lesson
One of the major barriers was that the lesson did not provide enough step-by-step instructions or checklists.
Key terms and words need to be underlined.
There are not choices in their final product for the lesson.
There are not visuals involved in the directions.

I really enjoyed viewing this lesson through the UDL checklist but also found some of the UDL checklist items were not applicable to an individual assignment and were more geared to overall classroom management.  The UDL checklist did make me see how this assignment could be improved in providing easier steps and instructions, correlation to background concepts and allowing choices in students final products.

UDL Checklist for Coaster Physics

Coaster Physics Assignment

Merlot Lesson Evaluation

Upon recently joining Merlot for my grad class at Michigan State University (CEP 811) I have also been asked to evaluate a resource I found on Merlot.  I selected a biology resource that I thought would be beneficial for my own high school biology students.  I selected a lesson on Mendelian Genetics.

Quality of Content
During our biology unit on genetics there are 4 key learning targets.  Two of those relate directly to this lesson.  Learning Target #1 says: I can explain how traits are passed on through generations and Learning Target #2 says: I can explain complex patterns of inheritance.  This activity lends itself well to helping teach those learning targets for an area that can be somewhat difficult for students.  The understanding of basic genetic inheritance patters is essential before students can learn the more complex forms of inheritance.  

Potential Effectiveness
Stage of Learning Process: Upon gaining some background knowledge through podcast lecture and direction instruction this lesson will serve well to demonstrate the curriculum, allow further exploration and to practice using the curriculum. 

Learning Objectives:  After completing this activity students should be able to effectively complete a monohybrid, dihybrid and sex-linked genetic crosses.  Students will understand how traits are passed on from one generation to the other and the probability those traits will be passed on.  Students will also understand how certain traits are more common in men or women and how they are passed on.

Characteristics of the Target Learner:
The main target learner would be a 10th grader in biology.
Other learners may include;
Advanced biology class students doing review at the beginning of an advanced genetic unit.
Alternative school students doing an online unit.
Special education students reviewing before an assessment


Overall Effectiveness:
The materials offered with this lesson enhance the curriculum, make it more engaging for students and improve my ability to teach the learning targets.  The lesson can be easily integrated into the current curriculum and actually replace outdated pedagogy by being more engaging.  The lesson also provides immediate feedback so students know whether they are developing an understanding.  The lesson provides formative assessment for students so they have timely feedback.  For students it also provides them with additional tutorials if they are not understanding.  The lesson could be used in variety of ways.  It could be used as a lesson for the whole class, for re-teaching and it could be a stand alone lesson for those students at our alternative school setting.  While the lesson does not have learning goals listed I feel those would come from me as our classroom learning targets that I listed above. 


Ease of Use
I found the lesson very easy to use for students and teachers.  All sections were well labeled, menus were easy to follow and all buttons and text were laid out efficiently.  Proceeding through the lesson I never felt trapped or lost.  If a student answers a questions wrong it immediately takes them to the tutorial and then they are given a chance to answer the question again.  If a student gets the answer right it gives them a brief explanation of why their answer was correct.  I believe the lesson is very flexible in that students can go back to previous lessons if they feel it will help them, they can also pull up the tutorials at any point to help them answer questions.  They do not have to wait to get the answer wrong in order to see the tutorial.  The software would require no technical documentation or support but a brief initial overview of how to use the program would be required.  I would also recommend some sort of way that students could record their answers or findings so there was documentation of the lesson completition.  I think the software would be attrractice to students since it is interactive and students are engaged by technology.

I was also pleased to discover that the lesson was compatible with iPads. I have a classroom set of 30 iPads and our district is planning to become 1:1 with iPads in the coming year, therefor I am always looking for iPad compatible software and lessons.


 

Concluding Post: A Line of Classroom and/or School Improvement

Dear Department Heads and Administrators of Mid-Town High School,

It was a pleasure to spend the day meeting with you and hearing your visions for the future of your school and district.  I think there are many ways in which Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) could help make your visions for your district a reality.  Below I will summarize some of the key points from our conversations and ways a partnership could take Mid-Town High School into the future. 

Culture Change

One of the most significant things that will happen in a PLC school is a culture change.  Through the PLC model a community of collaboration is born.  As we spoke about yesterday the climate at Mid-Town is one of teacher isolation.  Teachers of same subjects all teach in isolation.  They do not come together to share ideas, discuss teaching content or process or analyze data.  The research shows that when teacher isolation is the norm, pedagogy is based on the “transmission of knowledge” and “lower teacher expectations of student achievement”.  The greatest gains in student achievement are seen in districts with strong PLC’s.  Districts that center on teacher learning connected to student learning have a “common vision that all students are capable of increased achievement”.  As I shared yesterday my own experiences are ones of profound culture change.  When I was teaching science and we began our PLC journey all the science teachers very much taught in isolation.  We began first by developing norms and protocols for team meetings.  We also decided that we would focus our meetings on the 4 essential questions for a PLC. 

1) What is it we want all kids to know? 

2) How will we know if they learned it? 

3) What will we do if they don’t know it 

4) What will we do if they already know it?

As a Science Department if we kept the focus of our team meetings on these 4 essential questions we were centered on student learning and achievement.  Once the norms, protocols and goals of a community are established the community will then need to build the capacity to be able to trust and share.

Capacity

Building trust is essential, as this builds the capacity for honest conversations.  When we discussed the book Teachers in Professional Communities one of the key points was the idea between congenial and collegial cultures.  When a district first begins adapting a PLC culture the climate will be congenial.  The relationships will be “amiable and compatible” and free from risk taking and conflict.  On the surface this will look good.  Everyone is getting along, everyone agrees and there will be sense that PLC work is easy.  But in the congenial culture teachers are comfortable “sharing stories, making reassurances, and placing blame on outside forces” but at this point no real work is being done.  The deep issues of content, process and pedagogy are not being addressed.  Everyone is walking a fine line because no one wants to cross that line and create conflict or controversy.  Once a trust is established within the community the group can become collegial.  This will look vastly different than any other school culture.  Collegial culture will “provide a forum for reflection and honest feedback, for challenge and disagreement, and for accepting responsibility without assigning blame”.  As a community of Biology teachers we began as a congenial group.  Placed blame on the middle school for not preparing students properly, everyone always got along, everyone always agreed on content and life was good.  So for a while things were wonderful but student achievement was stagnant.  As we spent more time together talking about our students and classrooms a trust was established and with achievement still stagnant things within our community were going to have to change.  As a community we believed that all students were capable of achieving at high levels but to analyze why some weren’t on a deeper level was going to require conflict.  In our situation there was one teacher with consistently lower student scores and we were going to need to analyze why that was and what she could be doing different.  We began a process of each teacher bringing one piece of student work to our meetings so that we could compare how we were grading this work, expectations that we were presenting and how we were teaching that concept.  We also began by each bringing one idea for each unit to our meetings and selecting the ones that we thought would be most effective.  We also began writing all assessments during our PLC time as a team.  Prior to this one teacher would write the assessment for the unit and we would all use it.  One teacher would establish the assignments and projects for a unit and we would all tweak them to our classrooms or styles.  We were now “working together to develop practices that served all students well” and students achievement was increased.  When we first began our PLC journey many teachers viewed it as a way to “lighten the load”.  We could share work, divide up tasks and this would result in less work for everyone, which it did – but this was not the point of PLC.  We were not connecting teaching to learning and student achievement did not increase.  It took time for our PLC to evolve and raise achievement.  Eventually we became a community that gathered data, pursued new knowledge and ideas and saw classroom challenges as fuel for community discussion and team problem solving. 

Challenges – Fault Lines

Once you have begun to establish a more collegial culture within your communities and school you can begin to navigate the “fault lines”.  Many teachers want their classrooms to remain private.  Remaining private “protects against exposure and censure in cultures that have not developed forums for honest talk”.  That is why it is key to develop a collegial culture.  Many teachers will shy away from the PLC process because they want to hold onto control.  Teachers will feel like sharing their ideas, assessments, data and pedagogy will cause them to lose control of what is theirs.  When a teacher open ups their classroom to the public for “critique and collaboration” they are demonstrating great bravery.  Communities will need to also develop a balance between the process of and subject specific content and process.  It is easy to get caught up in either the process or content and most often it is content without really discussing the process that wins out.  There has to be a balance between the content and the process used to teach it.  Sharing content can be very easy and communities will gravitate toward that but actual process sharing is more difficult.  When communities share process they are opening those classroom doors and looking at how each individual teacher is teaching, this can be scary and will require that strong capacity building.  One example form my Biology team was when we gave students a sample test essay question and had students respond.  Our community of Biology teachers then brought those answers together, mixed them up and began evaluating them. Through this process we could see students’ misconceptions but also how different teachers were using different terminology.  We also graded them as a group.  This opened up discussion about how we were interpreting the grading rubric.  I recently worked with a group of general science teachers on a chemistry unit about balancing equations.  Each teacher brought samples of student work to class, some correct and some incorrect.  The teacher community reviewed the examples and why students were making those mistakes.  Each teacher also reviewed how they were teaching balancing equations.  There was one teacher who was using a different process that led the community to discuss what was best practice for teaching the content.  There is a feeling sometimes among administrators that professional development has to be done from an outside source because “the best practices are out there, in professional learning communities this belief is replaced by the conviction that the best practices are in here”.  Schools just need to build communities so those best practices can be shared.  PLC’s offer real professional development directly related to the teaching and learning take place in your school and can completely replace the lifeless professional development that had little impact on teaching and learning. 

Administration

As we discussed true teacher learning communities have to be “horizontal and not vertical” so that administrator involvement is minimal.  Teachers need to develop into leaders in their communities and with administrator involvement this will not be possible.  As hard as administrators might try when they attend community meetings they are perceived as being evaluators, bosses, in charge and intimidating.  For teachers to take charge of their own learning and PLC they need to be the leaders of their community without interference from administration.  Teachers will emerge as instructional leaders and take ownership of their community which will make it more successful. 

As we discussed yesterday I believe that subject alike PLC teams with meeting time built into the school day will be most effective.  This will take some creative and outside the box thinking about scheduling but it can be done.  This may involve a lot of hand scheduling.  Most computer scheduling programs being used today don’t account for teacher communities so administration and guidance will have to be prepared to roll up their sleeves and get dirty creating a schedule that allows for teacher communities. 

Your PLC Future

Mid-Town schools are good but you want them to be great!  As we discussed yesterday you are concerned about static student achievement scores and teachers who teach the same subjects but seem to not be aligned with content, process and assessment.  I believe your first step is to develop subject-alike PLC teams that weekly.  After the teacher community process takes hold you may be able to develop students into smaller learning communities and teacher cross-curricular learning communities.  Developing teaching communities will be a major step in changing the culture or your district and holds a “promise of transforming teaching and learning for both educators and students”.  It was a pleasure meeting with all of you and I look forward to working with the Mid-Town High School in the future.

Warmest Regards,

Melissa Hocking

PLC Education Consultant

Resources:

Ann Lieberman & Lynne Miller. (2008). Teachers in Professional Communities: Improving Teaching and Learning.  New York: Teachers College Press.

Richard DuFour, Robert Eaker & Rebecca DuFour. (2008). Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work: New Insights for Improving Schools. Solution Tree.

Cycle Three: Schools as "Embryonic Communities"

Several years ago our district began on the Professional Learning Community journey.  While this journey started as a 9^th grade transition intervention it soon bloomed into a district wide initiative that is now just part of the “way we do things around here” philosophy.  In an effort to reduce 9^th grade failure rates we began a system of breaking the 9^th graders down into smaller teams that all shared a common set of teachers who met 3 times a week to discuss curriculum, analyze data and conference with students and parents.  The success of the PLC model reduced the 9^th grade failure rate from 35% to now less than 5%, with a 0% failure rate still being the goal.  Soon the PLC model would extend beyond what we call 9^th grade teaming so that every teacher was a member of a PLC with time to meet built into the school day.  Becoming a PLC school is not something that happens overnight.  There has to be a large culture shift within a school.  Teams have to establish norms and protocols, and teachers have to learn how to function as a collaborative group.  Teachers are used to having a closed door policy.  Many educators have the attitude that “this is my classroom, I do what I want, I teach my curriculum and this is my data” and to function as a PLC school an individual or groups of individuals cannot have this attitude.  On the website All Things PLC there are many great articles about PLC’s, how to start PLCs, change the culture and how PLC’s are successful.  PLC’s don’t just have to be within one district they can be between schools districts.  Upon the success of PLC’s within our own district, a regional PLC began between 5 schools and their biology departments.  The biology teachers from 5 schools would meet and study the Iowa Common Core against our own curriculum, exchange ideas and resources and analyze test data.  We were a regional PLC. 

I think the part about PLC’s that directly influenced success rates, is that we were looking at the students as individuals and trying to ensure the success of each individual student.  With a team of teachers watching over a smaller group of 9^th graders we were able to see issues with individual students earlier on and intervene.  We were more focused on the success of each student rather than just class averages.  One example is South Elementary School in Missouri which has also found success with PLC’s. The same things that derived from PLC’s in South Elementary happened in our school as well.  Our focus became about the learning, not the teaching.  As South Elementary discovered “In a PLC school, teachers work together by writing common assessments, planning curriculum, and sharing teaching duties. Teachers often refer to students as “our” students instead of “my” students, reinforcing the collective atmosphere. Teachers work together to identify at-risk students, and teams problem-solve to intervene for each student. “   

A PLC can then lead to the undoing of the “factory system school” as Dewey calls it.  On our journey as a PLC school this is where I see my classroom and our district at now.  Through our PLC system we have taken the focus off the classroom as a whole and put the focus on each individual student.  As Dewey points out in his book, The School and Society, schools will only be successful “by being true to the growth of all individuals”.  PLC’s help by focusing on the growth of each individual student.  As schools go deeper into the PLC process they will discover that the teacher and student need to be a partner in the learning process.  In Dewey’s book The Child and the Curriculum he promotes “an educational structure that strikes a balance between delivering knowledge while also taking into account the interests and experiences of the student”.  Through PLC work teachers begin to look at students as individuals and how to make each one successful.  Teachers believe that if they can function as a community of teachers than their classrooms can function as a community as well.  Now if we can fertilize the communities with a little technology this whole concept of “embryonic communities” begins to really take shape.  When I think about Dewey, I think he would have loved the concept of Wikipedia and Google and 1:1 initiatives in schools.  As a teacher, if I can stop being the vessel of all knowledge then there is more time to be attentive to each students interests and needs.  I can begin to differentiate instruction based on students’ interests and academic level and I can help my students to build a community culture.  This is where technology and the flipped classroom allow for the classroom Dewey, and I, envision.    

In the article, Building Community in Schools, it is written that, "People are bonded to each other as a result of their mutual bindings to shared values, traditions, ideas, and ideals" and “that we might better understand, design, and run schools as social rather than formal organizations and, in particular, as communities”.  When I think of my classroom I want it to be a community with an attitude of, “All for One and One for All”.  A place where it is acceptable to fail if you try again until you succeed, where we value our individual interests and learn from each other, where the goal is learning and we will all help each other to learn.   At the high school level this is difficult because they are part of the “factory system” and we are trying to change the factory when they are only a couple years from exiting.  As students experience the culture at a younger age it will be easier to continue that culture at the secondary level.   Good school reform is finally here.  While Dewey’s book is from the early 1900’s he had ideas that were never implemented the way they should have been and his ideas are exactly what needs to be happen to education in the year 2012 and beyond.  Sometimes I think things weren’t implemented or changed because teachers are not trusted, but if a schools begins with PLC’s, builds a collaborative culture for teachers, allows teachers to be leaders, the snowball effect will be school reform that ends the “factory system” of education and finally creates schools that resemble real life.  

Resources:

Culture Making - One of the major things that has to happen to create a community in schools is to change culture.  Culture change can be very difficult and can not just come from administrators but from colleagues.  

Changing the Culture of Schools - In this article it talks about how PLC's can bring about the necessary culture change.

All Things PLC - Everything there is to know about PLC's

Coalition for Community Schools - Great FAQ about community schools