Semester in Motion

As my niece said in a Facebook posting yesterday "Has anyone seen my motivation?  I already checked under the sofa cushions and it's not there."

Somehow we've past the halfway point of the semester and I'm behind in almost everything (except reading - I always manage to get the readings done).

So here we are - students as designers, eh? 

In some ways, students are almost always designers. When they write a research paper, do a PowerPoint, make a speech – they’ve designed it.  While there are times the design is more tightly controlled than others (a formal research paper has many controls), they are still the ones designing the content – what words they choose, which parts they emphasize, how they shape their thesis, sentence structure.

Word choice is actual a huge design tool.  English has so many shades of meaning in the language.  When we have exchange students, we always have them keep a notebook for vocabulary as they learn it.  They inevitably end up with a whole page of “smile, smirk, grin, leer, sneer” words and when you would use each one.  

Review

          I was thinking about students as designers.  I was also seeing teachers starting to try to come up with creative ways to review.  Why not combine the two?  Have the students suggest authentic problems for the areas of review.

1)   It ensures that they can see real-world applications for the information

2)   It ensures the teacher knows they can see those applications

3)   It gives them more ownership of the review process

Students as designers

Let's start with looking at the statement "students as designers" literally.  How often do we ask them to produce a PowerPoint, or another document?  How often do we really help them become better designers of those documents?  I'm not talking about correcting grammar or punctuation, I'm talking about design.  Are we sharing the principles graphic design, or just looking at content?  If we are teaching that PowerPoint is a tool, shouldn’t we teaching them the right way to use it?  Too often I see kids who create a collage for a background, don’t fade the pictures and put huge blocks of fancy text in a bright color over top so you can see it.  It’s hard to read and visually distracting.  That’s without getting in to the “what about folks who are colorblind” discussion.  The whole “modeling” part is left out when it comes to this aspect of an assignment.  Just as we embed and scaffold learning to use the affordances of the software within the context of the lesson, we should scaffold and embed learning the fundamentals of graphic design.

Reverse Engineering

As I think I mentioned before, part of the advantage to not currently being a teacher is that I can decide to write a lesson on whatever topic I want to - assuming that I can find SOLs that it fits with.  That's what I did with my telecommunications lesson, although I had to make some alterations to make it work with SOLs.   This is really not a rational way to write lesson plans - on the other hand, it's good practice writing SSCC & ACTS lessons. 

I also have had to go find teachers and ask them if, next year, I might be able to borrow their classes to do the lesson.  Fortunately, they all seem interested and willing.

Patriot Pals

I decided to head up a club here at the school this year.  (It’s similar to Best Buddies – pairs up regular ed kids and special ed kids for social stuff)  Don’t ask me why I thought it was a good idea.  Actually, I never thought it was – but my daughter was President of Best Buddies at the middle school and she insisted we do the same thing here.   Given the nature of the club and the fact that my 14 year old daughter wants me to sponsor it, I could hardly say no. 

It suddenly occurred to me that if I can come up with a fun, authentic problem, I might be able to add some technology education into the meetings.  We usually do a craft – maybe instead we could solve a mystery or do a scavenger hunt.  Hmmm……..

ARRRGHHHH!!!!!!

So, after spending hours in the car over the weekend planning this database lesson plan, I came home and asked my husband how to do one thing in the database I couldn't easily figure out.  Turns out it is non-trivial.  In fact, I have to start from scratch.  Anyone have any ideas they didn't use?

Figurative Language

I took the mystery database idea and adapted it for an English teacher to use for figurative language.  The premise was that she had left some candy she was going to share with the class in the staff lunch room, and when she went back, there was an unsigned note saying "I've got them", but no name.  On the back of the note was a rough draft of a descriptive essay.  Database includes teacher names, kind of figurative language they really like, kind they don't and their favorite color.  Students analyze the essay to determine what their is the most of and what is completely missing.  When it turns out it could be one of two teachers, the teacher added "oh, the ink was  ___" which is the favorite color of one of possibilities.  She then sends a kid to that teacher's room (pre-planned) who turns over a bag of candy.  Then she has the kids write a new descriptive paragraph that would make a different teacher be the answer......

Still waiting to hear from admin on the tardy project.

Database Thoughts

OK, I think I have an idea for a database project that the kids would really like.  I just will need to get administration on board.

When we are having problems with tardies, we will have hall sweeps and anyone late to class will get detention - sometimes a double detention.  Sometimes they announce them, sometimes they don't.  Usually if they are going to do double, they'll announce it.

So - how effective is this?  Does it help to do the double?  Does it help more or less when they announce it?  Two weeks later, how much "backsliding" has occurred?

If I keep track of the extra variables (announced, unannounced, double or single), and get the detention logs from the office, I could put that into a database and have the students determine what is the most effective way of dealing with the tardies, then have them write a report explaining this to the principal.

Encouraging Technology Use

One thing that the TRT at our school does is give a “Techie Award” at the monthly faculty meetings.   Teachers can nominate themselves or other teachers , but mostly the other TA and I note good lessons that are occurring in our labs (or ask teachers about lessons they are doing on the laptop cart).  At the faculty meeting, the TRT reads the nominations (which include a short description of how technology was used in the lesson) and gives an award.  It’s a Styrofoam block spray painted & covered in glitter with a spray-painted CD stuck in it – the CD has the teacher name and date on it (I’ll have to post a picture).  It’s really cheesy, but it’s amazing how teachers will really vie for it.  I’ve had teachers explain a lesson to me and ask if I think they’ll get nominated. 

Like many things, though, it can be feast or famine – sometime there are two or three really good ones in a month and it’s tough to decide, other months we are scrambling to find four people to nominate.  One of the best things about it is not just that it encourages technology use, but gives teachers who might be hesitant about using it ideas and examples of effective use.

Teacher as Designer

I’ve frequently heard people talk about designing lesson plans, but the idea that the designing aspect is one of the primary functions of a teacher was new to me.  It makes sense, though – the better designed a lesson the less often a teacher will have to scrap it and start over (granted this will still happen occasionally when a teacher misjudges a classes ability or when a good question or outside circumstances warrant  a divergence).  I took an on-line class in the spring and our final project was designing a unit that used different types of technology.  Designing a project where students can use the technology because it makes the most sense to do so rather than ‘because that’s the assignment’, is trickier than it appears at first glance. 

As a computer lab assistant, I see people coming in to do all sorts of projects. Some are extremely well-designed - the English teacher who had her students (in groups) write a research an issue affecting Africa, then create a PowerPoint as if they were an international aid organization seeking funding for problem – including solutions that didn’t work and the solution they were proposing (when they presented it, there were several teachers and administrators there as judges and the winning group got a pizza party).  Some are very poorly designed – the Foreign Language teacher who gave all the students the same topic for a PowerPoint and allowed the students to just cut and paste the text from the suggested websites (and what were they learning?).  The difference in the student attitude towards well-designed projects as opposed to poorly-designed ones is generally very striking.

Reflection on First Class

I learned about the mason.gmu.edu server.  I know that I'm going to have to install the SSH program on my computer and laptop at home.  I also need to remember that unless I can figure out a way to do it from school that I have to do anything with the server from home or when I'm at class. 

I'll add more to this later, but I prefer to spend a little time digesting so that I can be more coherent.