Learning+Statements+Spring+2010

March 3, 2010 ** I am learning that the students have so much to teach me about technology, and I need to be open and ready to accept what they have to offer. ** When I took the students into the lab last week to begin their online writing assignments, they tackled the task like pros. They opened what needed to be opened; they assisted each other when necessary and essentially completed the lesson goals with ease. I’ll admit after the problems I had last term with students being rude and inconsiderate on discussion boards, I was a bit leery about what would happen this time. I feel that given the right forum to compose, they can rise to the occasion. I also asked them to contribute to a survey and this was done without question. They submitted their results quickly and competently and I was left with my mouth open and ten minutes left at the end of the block. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it didn’t happen. This learning is important to me because I can relax a little more and not be afraid to give the students a technological challenge. In the past, I would have had to spend an enormous amount of time ensuring that they could sign on properly and enter the required information properly. Now, I can just facilitate where needed and know that for the most part they are doing what they need to do...write a composition in Word, edit it and submit it to my Sharepoint inbox. This learning took place last week during one of my scheduled computer lab times. I watched the students at work and noticed how much they enjoyed being together as a class in the lab. “A change is as good as a break” they say and I think the change from the confines of the class and writing on paper was beneficial for them. They know how much I was disappointed in their discussion board responses last term and I hope that was sitting at the back of their minds when they were writing their compositions. The other thing is that the task had more specific parameters than “write a response to this current event article you’ve just read.” The task this time was to write non-stop for fifteen minutes on the topic I’d chosen for the day, proofread it and submit it to my inbox. Essentially, it was complete the tasks 1, 2, and 3. It’s onward and upward from here. My next big task is to have them pick up their edited work from my inbox and review my comments. After they learn this, the responsibility is on me to edit and/or mark their future pieces of work in timely manner because they are going to want them back right away. This will be a big challenge for me initially, but as soon as I jump the next hurdle of having them peer edit, the weight will be lifted off my shoulders. Of course that brings up a whole new issue...rather several issues. Students will have to learn how to peer edit online, submit their peer’s work to my inbox so I can have a quick review and then pick their own work up again. As I type this I realize I don’t really know how that is all going to pan out. The other glitch is that three of the girls in the class do not want to have their work peer reviewed because they are private individuals. I think I’ll need to simply have them edit each other’s work. Since the class is on fire and ready for a challenge, I’m going to need to be well prepared from now on. When it comes to the process of peer editing, submitting and retrieving documents, I will have to have that all ironed out before I bring them to the computer lab again. I don’t want the momentum to stop. I sense that they might get easily frustrated and shut down if I don’t have the answers to their questions or know how to deal with the glitches. On the other hand, I do have some tech whiz kids in the class who will hopefully rise to the occasion for me. I will also ask for assistance from Rick and the technology teacher at Minnekhada Middle. These are the program capacities that directly relate to my learning statement. 1. Participate in and help develop learning communities to support my teaching practice 2. Engage in a critical cycle of action-reflection to understand and develop my practice 3. Use, evaluate and integrate existing and emerging technologies into my practice 4.  Access, evaluate, use and participate in new media interactions in education March 17, 2010 ** I am learning that the definition of knowledge has become blurred due to the incredibly changeable source of information called the internet also ** ** I have to take a highly critical approach to theories that view the internet as ‘the best’ way for young people to learn in this day and age ** These days, if you want the answer to a question and you want it now, all you need to do is Google it. It’s quick, but is it accurate? The rise of Web 2.0 and social networking have allowed anyone to contribute their thoughts and ideas on the World Wide Wed. Of course, this has its benefits and its pitfalls. Often, students will naively think that the information they are gathering is the TRUTH. However, if it is not published in a book is it truly credible anymore? Who governs the sites like Wikipedia to ensure the information is accurate? We have to answer that indeed there are many people. Some are experts and some are not. Is this a problem of too many cooks stirring the broth? Knowledge, or more precisely, information is fluid - it is always changing. One day it’s this and the next day it’s that. I don’t believe in extremes in any areas of my life. Everything in moderation they say. Therefore, I oppose using the internet as the sole means of gathering facts, or fact finding. Nevertheless, I do use it in my classroom for getting a quick fact or an innovative way of presenting material. All the while, I let my students know that the internet is full of false information. The only way to know that the information is correct is to use a published book. As much as resource books are left on the shelves to gather dust these days, we must not lose sight of the fact that reference material is a necessity. Students need to see that we can trust some sources of information. Furthermore, we must instil in them the copyright standards and the evils of plagiarism Plagiarism is becoming an immense problem, especially with the middle school students that I teach. I feed it is misunderstood by young people and the lack of understanding leads to ignorance about publisher’s rights. Before I have the students use the internet for research, I teach them how to take proper notes and cite wherever necessary. Of course it takes time and practice, which is something that is loath to any young person. “Why can’t I just cut and paste?” they ask. “If I change the words around then it’s my information, isn’t it?” My husband even had a parent upset with him because Randy gave his son an incomplete on an assignment that was taken directly from the internet. “He gave you a bibliography, so it’s technically not plagiarizing,” was the parent’s plea. WHAT!! I would really like to pursue the “Bid Idea” of //knowledge// and how it is changing faster than we can get a handle on. The other area that I would like to focus more energy on is why we need to know people’s individual, intimate thoughts and feelings. Personal boundaries are becoming a thing of the past...eradicated. What is this doing to our society? It’s a fascinating and ultimately mind-boggling topic to pursue. These are the program capacities that directly relate to my learning statement. 1. Participate in and help develop learning communities to support my teaching practice 2. Engage in a critical cycle of action-reflection to understand and develop my practice 3. Use, evaluate and integrate existing and emerging technologies into my practice 4. Access, evaluate, use and participate in new media interactions in education  March 24, 2010 ** I am learning that sometimes I must simply go back to the drawing board and revisit what my goal is for this current field study. **   <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">To be honest with you, I have kind of lost track of what my pedagogical wondering is. I feel that this term and LTT in general has been so disjointed that I have lost focus. I have gotten my students in the lab to do the writing that I wanted them to do, but the editing process is not turning out as I would like it. I believe this has a large part to do with the fact that I don’t really know how to guide them through the process of editing a document in Word. So, I revisited my proposal as a means of grounding myself. I spent time dwelling in the big question and then it hit me. Instead of trying to pull shreds of data from an obscure research paper that I don’t have the rights to view anyway, why not just put my question into Google and see who else has tackled the task of peer editing. I was fortunate to come up with a gem of a research article. It is entitled, “How Does Peer Editing Improve Students’ Quality of Writing.” <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">This paper let me know that my field study is indeed worthwhile. It brought me back on track and focused my thinking around the original purpose for my field study – to improve students’ quality of writing. I realize that there are some things I have done well, and other’s I have fallen short on doing. At this point in time, I can’t go back and re-teach editing skills, but I can provide my class with materials that might assist them with their last free write and editing task. Over spring break, I will search for some proofreading worksheets that have relevant themes. Hopefully I can find some that will simply ask the students to correct all capitalization, mechanical and grammatical errors as I’m finding that these are being overlooked far too often. I can also provide the students with peer editing checklists to have beside their computers when editing each other’s work. The checklist will prompt the students to look for such things as word choice or paragraphs. The implications for this learning are that I have to put new processes into place in order for peer editing to be successful with my learners. They have told me through their lack of enthusiasm and mediocre editing practices that they are lacking the skills necessary to be good editors. They need more teacher preparation in order to be ready to edit. I also need to put more enthusiasm into it in order for them to become engaged in the process. “Whether or not the students are ready to edit their peers’ writing and to learn cooperatively depends on whether the teacher has equipped them with the necessary skills to write, edit and provided them with the scaffolding to carry out the tasks at hand.” (Siew, 2009) If I were to pursue peer editing, I would take the kids back to the classroom and ease them through the editing process. I would create a writing sample in front of them and guide them through the task of proofreading for mechanics, grammar, structure, content etc. Then I would have them write and practice editing their own work. After several tries at this, students would begin to collaborate on editing. They could discuss their strengths and weaknesses and begin to see who could help with specific types of editing. Soon the “experts” would appear and I could start to cluster groups. I would have them do many peer edits before even thinking of going back to use the computers. When the group confirmed their confidence with peer editing, we would go back to the lab and write personal stories. We would most likely use a wiki so the text could easily be revised and changed. This relates to the following capacities for learning: 1.   Participate in and help develop learning communities to support my teaching practice 2.   Engage in a critical cycle of action-reflection to understand and develop my practice 3.   Use, evaluate and integrate existing and emerging technologies into my practice 4.   Access, evaluate, use and participate in new media interactions in education <span style="font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif'; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%; msolist: Ignore;">5. Draw on educational theories, research and philosophies, to inform my use of technologies to support teaching and learning <span style="font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif'; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Simmons, Jay (2003). “Responders are taught, not born.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 46 (8), 684-693. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Hewitt, B. L. (2000). “Characteristics of interactive oral and computer-mediated peer group talk and its influence on revision.” Computers and Composition, 17. 265-288. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Daniels, H. (2005). “The English Teacher's Red Pen.” Voices from the Middle, 13(2), 46 -47. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Melby-Mauer, J. (2003). Using e-mail assignments and online correction in ESL instruction TESOL Journal, 12(2). 37-8. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">VanDeWeghe, R. (2004). "Awesome, Dude!" Responding Helpfully to Peer Writing. English Journal, 94(1), 95-99. Abrams, S. (2001). Using journals with reluctant writers: building portfolios for middle and high school students. Corwin Press. April 13, 2010 ** ISTE Goal -Rubric for Student Learning and Creativity **** – promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes. ** ** ISTE Goal ** - facilitate and support student’s use of collaborative tools to reflect on and clarify their own thinking, planning, and creativity. Although this has been a difficult learning statement to write, I think I finally have a handle on the areas in which I have developed and in turn my students have developed throughout this field study. I began the study at the developing stage for this standard as written above. I believe this to be true because I was able to facilitate the use of **Microsoft Word** **2007** both as a work processing and as a revising tool. Furthermore, my goal was to have students analyze their own and fellow students’ writing in attempts to better themselves as writers. Further benefits to the peer editing process on computers were that students would be engaged in cooperative learning which would enhance their networking and interactive skills. The very nature of the “Free Writing” tasks requires that the students produce a piece of impromptu writing on a subject that is based on their own experiences. To use the working in the above goal: students must “clarify their own thinking” plan a way in which to start the ball rolling and let the creative juices flow. What eventually develops from their ‘stream of consciousness’ is raw creativity. The self-editing and peer editing was meant to hone and refine the personal writing. As the term went on, students were asked to write for longer periods of time and to submit their writing to the Sharepoint Inbox for marking. As this was all new to them it immediately engaged the learners. I can’t say that they remained completely engrossed in the revision process, nor did they become proficient editors. Nevertheless, I continued to have them compose impromptu pieces on the computer “reflect upon and clarify their own thinking” behind the personal stories they wrote. The amount of time I gave them to assess and correct their writing was one block of class time. As my students are differentiated learners and some are pulled out for assistance in other subject areas, I gave them the freedom to pick up where they left off next class. The computer as a collaborative tool both helped and hindered my growth toward this ISTE goal. Initially, I was annoyed that the students’ documents were getting lost and the editing changes were not being saved properly. I found it hard to explain to the class that I was experiencing a learning curve as well when it came to Sharepoint. In the end, the fact that the students had to physically move to their partner’s computer station to edit wasn’t such a bad thing. It almost seemed that their partner’s computer was an extension of themselves and they felt a deeper connection to that person while editing. Furthermore, it allowed the students to talk with each other, albeit briefly, about what they’d noticed with regard to their stories. Those who were faster editors (not necessarily better editors) assisted others who needed it. So, in some cases there were two sets of eyes on one paper. I believe I have quite a long way to go before I get to the transformative stage of this Learning and Creativity goal. In the future, I would really like to focus on the “articulating and sharing of their thinking with others” which was definitely lacking in my current study. The resources that have helped me reach this goal are the research papers by Siew and Stemper. These researchers have enlightened me to the fact that I need to scaffold the learning of my students more through both constructivist methods and hands on tools for editing. April 21, 2010 ** I am learning that critical evaluation of the creative writing and editing process was necessary before further pursuing the peer editing and revising using technology. ** I learned that this study was a jumping off point for me. There were disappointments but there was so much learning that took place as well. Before I send the students back into the lab to write and peer edit each other’s work, there are a series of things I need to do. I need to re-teach the process of editing and revising work using a sample of writing that I’ve created or another student’s sample. It’s important that the editing is done in context so students see how and why they need to revise their work. I also need to allow student choice over the topic of writing. In my mind, that means offer two or three ideas and let them choose from those. When we eventually do go back to the lab, I will __not__ have them do free writes as a form of creative writing. The very nature of a free write is that it is uncensored, stream of consciousness writing. It can be edited, but often the way it is written tells a great deal about the individual’s character and state of mind at the time of writing. To edit such a piece is akin to alter a child’s artwork to fit into a prescribed mould or frame. I can see now why there was so much resistance to the editing process. I can hear the class saying, “But you said we just write what comes to our head.” I’m not sure yet what style of writing I would have them use, but it would probably be similar to short stories, or events in their lives. With regard to the type of technology they use to create their piece of writing, I may have them try out the Microsoft Word tool for editing that was written about in the Perry and Smithmier (2005) article. Again, this would probably take the whole term to set up and have them feel comfortable using it. The benefits are that I can see who exactly has peer edited whose work and I would expect the comments to be thoughtful and worthwhile. If I feel my students are not ready for that challenge yet, I might have them create a Wiki where their writing could be constantly revised and edited. The revisions are automatically saved and I am able to see who made the changes along the way. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I would like my students to feel a sense of accomplishment through successful peer editing. As I addressed in my last study, my class is a diverse groups of individuals with various strengths and weaknesses. I can utilize these differentiated needs by having students become specialized editors. Perhaps certain individuals are great spellers, while others are great at spotting where new paragraphs should begin. Other’s might have memorized the rules for capitalization and placement of commas and be itching to assist other’s with this. In other words, student’s can share their successes with each other and assist each other in a constructivist setting. How amazing it would be to be known as the “rad speller” or the “ace organizer” or the “crazy cool content developer.” I can just see it now. The students’ self esteem would rise immensely. With this new found confidence perhaps they would be willing to challenge themselves to improve in other areas that are lacking. Through this constructivist style of learning, they are developing their skills as writers and peer editors. They can even deepen this learning through peer conferencing. Calkins (1983) found that when children learn to have focused conversations about their writing they learn valuable information about how their writing is received by others. This helps them to focus their thoughts and improve in specific areas. Proper peer conferencing is yet another skill that must be taught over several lessons. The children need to learn how to develop suitable questions, ask for and receive feedback. It requires commitment and discipline on the part of all participants, but the payoffs are tremendous. The implications of this learning for my teaching practice are many. I would be giving students the opportunity to learn a life skill. I would be changing the whole way in which they view their writing as well. It is not something to put down and be done with...rather, it is a work in progress. I would hope that instead of dreading the editing and revision process, they would look forward to discussing and improving upon what they wrote. The shift would be away from me decrying, “THOU SHALT EDIT” to facilitating the peer editing process. I see the writing and editing and revising process as a whole. I don’t think you do children a service by separating them. Therefore, after careful processing of all the data from my field study, talking with my peers, reading online blogs and studying research papers, I feel this would be a yearlong project. I would like to go back to the drawing board and start by teaching the all the steps of writing: prewriting, writing, proofreading, editing, revising, and so on. If I incorporate technology into this process, so much the better. My goal would be to have students take a topic and be self directed learners from start to finish. It seems like a lofty goal, but if it was something that we built upon little by little, I believe it could be achieved. These are the program capacities that directly relate to my learning statement. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif'; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%; msolist: Ignore;">1. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif'; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Participate in and help develop learning communities to support my teaching practice <span style="font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif'; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%; msolist: Ignore;">2. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif'; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Engage in a critical cycle of action-reflection to understand and develop my practice <span style="font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif'; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%; msolist: Ignore;">3. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif'; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Use, evaluate and integrate existing and emerging technologies into my practice <span style="font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif'; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%; msolist: Ignore;">4. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif'; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Draw on educational theories, research and philosophies to inform my use of technologies to support teaching and learning. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif'; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Access, evaluate, use and participate in new media interactions in education
 * __ Learning Statements  __**
 * What I am learning about the teaching and learning process? **
 * What did I learn? **
 * Why is this learning important to me? **
 * How did I learn it? **
 * What are the implications of this learning for my teaching practice? **
 * How might I build upon this learning in my future planning? **
 * Which program capacities does this learning relate to? **
 * What I am learning about technology? **
 * What I am learning about myself? **
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Why is this important to me? **
 * What are the implications of this learning for my teaching practice? **
 * How might I build upon this learning in my future planning? **
 * Which program capacities does this learning relate to? **
 * __ Other articles to consider at a later:  __**
 * What I am learning about teaching and learning? **
 * What did I learn? **
 * What are the implications of this learning for my teaching practice? **
 * How might I build upon this learning in my future planning? **
 * Which program capacities does this learning relate to? **