EDL 600: Module 2 Discussion Post

React (based on your reading) to one of the two articles on Charter Schools issues that were provided as supplemental reading and discuss its connection to the readings about charter school policy.

When I read both of the articles, it made me more aware of how little I knew about charter schools, especially Why You Might Find a Charter School in a Mall because why would I find any school in a mall?  I read through the article multiple times and picked out a couple of statements that struck me as interesting because it was not necessarily what I had heard about charter schools.  

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/might-find-charter-school-mall/print/

As a current teacher in a private school who previously taught in public schools, I was not aware that a charter school fell under either of those categories.  I was under the impression that charter schools were not public, but not private, and that’s all I could articulate.  The article provided some clarification that charter schools do fall under the umbrella of a “public school” because they receive state funding.  Koran (2016) explained that “(Charter schools) are publicly funded schools that operate mostly autonomously” (p. 1).  I didn’t realize that charter schools received funding from the state, but it’s not as simple as that.  Is it ever?  Gownley and Schmieder-Ramirez in School Finance (2015) said that in 1999, Assembly Bill 1600 “gives charter schools the option of receiving funding directly from the state, instead of through their local school district” (p. 22).  Why is that legislation necessary though?  Why is getting funding from the school district so complicated that charter schools need an alternative?  

Another question that I had about charter schools was in regards to enrollment.  The only thing I knew about charter school enrollment was that there was some sort of lottery system in place.  In order to find some answers, I reviewed CCSA’s website and found that charter schools give “admission preference to pupils who reside within the former attendance area of that public school” (CCSA, 2012, p.1).  Then the admissions area is expanded and additional enrollment preference is given to students in the school district that the charter school is located.  Assuming that these two filters provide a high enough enrollment, when is the lottery system put into effect?  Does it take the place of the previously stated filter?

The enrollment question has been a big question for me for the last couple of years.  Previously, in Las Vegas there was an elementary school on our Air Force base (AFB), Lomie Heard, that was part of the Clark County School District (CCSD).  Only students that lived in military housing were able to attend due to zoning.  When Nellis AFB decided not to renew their contract with CCSD, they accepted a charter school’s bid to move onto the base.  Is the charter school able to ONLY accept students from military housing?  If it’s a lottery system, what if students from military housing aren’t chosen?  Are families that are not military able to attend the school?  Are families required to go through the typical military background checks if they are not military personnel?  Is that something that can be required?

Koran, M. (2016). Why You Might Find a Charter School in a Mall. Voice of San Diego.  Retrieved from http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/might-find-charter-school-mall/print/.

Townley, A & Schmieder-Ramirez, J. (2015). School Finance. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

CCSA. (2012). Charter School Conversions: Myth vs. Facts. California Charter Schools Association. Retrieved from http://www.ccsa.org/blog/fact_sheet_Charter_Conversion_Myths_Reality.pdf.

Pinterest

I'm just going to say it...it's a beautiful thing.  Pinterest is, I mean.  

It took me awhile to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon.  Then when I did, I was disorganized and confused.  And overwhelmed.  Definitely overwhelmed.  

I feel like I have finally gotten my Pinterest wings...as a teacher anyway.  

About a month before school ended, I started planning next year.  Don't we all?  Here's the thing though, this year was my first year at a new school in a new job with a new role I had never had before.  So I jumped in and floundered.  I made it work, but I wasn't in love with what I was doing.  I knew I could do better but the reality was that I was just trying to get by.  

For this coming year, I feel like I have a better grasp on exactly what I want to do with my students and how I want to approach it.  Granted, I'm fully willing to accept that once life starts, I may flounder yet again and need to just get by.  However, until then...I have Pinterest!  And I am pinning away!

Let me go ahead and give you just a very small sneak peak (because I'm just not done) into my plans and then I'll show you the board that goes with it!  Each month, I'm focusing on a skill or tool that will help my students with their homeroom assignments.  In order to learn the skill or tool, we will work on a whole class assignment that is linked to Catholic Identity (we're at a Catholic school soo....).  Once that assignment has been completed, the students will have a menu of choices of projects they would like to do.  

The first full month (Sept) of school, we are going to be working on Digital Citizenship.  I haven't come up with the Catholic Identity assignment yet, but I'm thinking something to do with the 10 Commandments.  But I need to teach my students about all the pieces that fall under the umbrella of Digital Citizenship.  I need to figure out what the bulletin board will look like.  I need to have ideas for the menu.  

ENTER PINTEREST!

For me, I just knew that I had to be selective about what I pinned because I would get overwhelmed and never look at it again if I pinned too much.  I needed to be realistic about my pinning choices. These are for 5th-8th graders...they will not appreciate the ADORABLE ideas for primary students.  I also needed to be realistic for me.  I am not going to spend 10 hours crafting.  I'll be lucky if I max out at 2 hours.  However, if I can make it in Google...I will spend hours doing that!  

So now I have my guidelines, I have my framework, and I have my Pinterest.  I'm ready to go!

EDL 680: Module 2 Discussion Post

Wagner's Learning Walks - in what ways do/don't they add valuable insight into what's happening in classrooms?

Wagner's Learning Walks overall seem to be more beneficial than not.  The concept of getting an overall glimpse, a summary, of what is happening in a school is so powerful.  The Learning Walks essentially take you into multiple classes for about 10-15 minutes.  Wagner points out that when goes on a Learning Walk, "rather than look only at what teachers are doing, (he tries) to assess what students are being asked to do: the specific skills and knowledge that students are expected to master and the level of intellectual challenge in the lesson.  What the teacher does is the means by which the students learn - not the end" (Wagner, 2008, p. 52).

I think one of the most valuable insights that a Learning Walk provides is the patterns of positive and negative, in both teaching patterns and student behavior patterns.  Often times building and district administrators will join Wagner on the Learning Walks.  So this is a perfect opportunity to see what is happening in a school that is having a positive impact on the students.  Are the students actively engaged?  Are the teachers challenging the students?  It's also helpful to see some of the practices in school that are not helping the students.  Is the focus the standardized test?  Are teachers "lecturing" and not engaging?  But knowing what is happening is the first step to figuring out what changes need to be made.  So regardless of what is being seen, it's positive.

The Learning Walks don't only provide valuable insight.  Some things to keep in mind are that they are not 100% accurate.  You are only seeing a sampling of the not only the teachers, but the lessons as well.  Additionally, noting what is seen in the Learning Walks doesn't identify the root cause of any concerns.  For example, Wagner talks about the fact that the majority of teachers come to school genuinely wanting to make a difference.  Perhaps, rather than blaming the teachers, we should look at "the quality of teachers' preparation, continuing professional development, and supervision (it's) very low in our nation's schools" (Wagner, 2008, p. 52).

What does Wagner like to see in classrooms?

When I first started taking my notes for this question, my answer consisted mainly of Wagner wanting to see students answering open ended questions, are the teachers asking follow up questions, who is answering the questions - the teachers or the students - and are only select students answering or is everyone engaged.  However, I went back and reread a section that hit me as more what I would want to focus on when looking at what was happening in classrooms.  Wagner talks analyzing how are we preparing our most academically well-prepared students?  "Are they learning how to think critically, solve problems, work collaboratively, take initiative, communicate effectively, access and analyze information, be curious and imaginative" (Wagner, 2008, p. 46).  

Discuss how these two additional articles connect to the ideas Wagner puts forth about what learning should look like?

When I read Eric Sheninge's article "It's Not a Technology Issue" I was struck when he noted schools' lack of willingness to adapt and/or evolve to a digital world.  Wagner initially states that our current school system is obsolete.  When you are looking at why a school system is obsolete, why anything is obsolete really, it comes down to the lack of adaptation.  Technology can be an incredibly powerful tool to be one way that we can start adapting education to our current world.  "Even with the proliferation of technology across all facets of society, we still see schools moving at a snail's pace (if at all) to adapt, or better yet evolve, to a digital world.  In my opinion, sheer ignorance is to blame.  From this ignorance a plethora of excuses arise" (Sheninger, 2015, Huffpost).  

George Couros is a fantastic bloggers and author and always provides educators points to really ponder. His article, "Connecting Professional Learning and Leadership" just seemed to drive home the point that Wagner discussed regarding professional development.  As I stated above, Wagner said "the quality of teachers' preparation, continuing professional development, and supervision (it's) very low in our nation's schools" (Wagner, 2008, p. 52).  Couros' article discussed the problems of providing professional development to a small group of teachers.  This particular approach was met with success with the small group.  There was a good variety of choice, the teachers could do the PD on their own time, and there was an incentive at the end to complete the PD.  The downfall came when the PD ended and there was no ripple effect.  The teachers that went through the PD weren't expected to continue to share the wealth of knowledge.  Professional development for all teachers is critical.  We must be life long learners in order to continue to grow and improve.  Couros said it perfectly, "what if you adopt the idea that if you teach someone to fish you could also teach them to lead others to fish as well?" (Couros, 2016, The Principal of Change).

Meme's In Education

from Flickr account - Meme Binge

Memes have become a thing.  There's no turning back.  And in all reality, do we want to?  They are funny, they help us (ok, maybe just me) laugh at situations that maybe aren't the most wonderful, and they are easy to make (thanks to wonderful advances in technology and photo editing and random meme generating websites).  In fact, my go to Happy Birthday posting on FB generally includes a meme...because that's just funnier than "Happy Birthday!!!"  (and yes, I add 3 exclamation points because I'm that happy that my friend is another year older).

Anyway, the point of this post, is there a place in education for memes?  I mean a place besides in the teacher's lounge.  And meme's other than the ones with an owl at the beginning of the school year vs the end of the school year and the "Hey Girl" memes.  Really.  Really...do meme's have a place in education for the sake of the students?

Recently I tried them in my K-8 technology class...another tale for another time with another blogger (hoping to have a guest blogger come share about that - +Kiersten Baschnagel).  The middle school kids nailed it.  Well...let me retract that...most of the middle school kids nailed it.  Some still didn't quite understand how the humor of a meme worked.  I took it down to 5th grade and most seemed to be able to create a meme with little trouble, although the joke was a little more basic.  When I tried 4th grade, I only had a handful of kids that could come up with a joke that was applicable to the picture.

This got me thinking...what is it about memes that makes them funny?  What skill do the students need to have in order to create a quality meme?  Is this a teachable skill?  Is it a skill that they can use in other areas?  Do they need to be witty?  Do they need a dry sense of humor?  Do they need to know the background story of the picture?

I admit, I don't know or I can't articulate exactly what it is that makes memes funny, especially because when I do, I can think of other memes that don't fit that definition.

What makes memes funny?
What skill(s) do you need to create them?
And is there a place for them in education?

Video Capture

Have you heard of flipping your classroom or your lessons?

I mean yes, there are lots of definitions of flipping.

Flipping your lid: get angry
Bottle flipping: "fun" past time to challenge your bottle flipping skills
House flipping: remodeling a house to make it look nice

You get the idea.

Well, you can flip a lesson or a classroom as well.  Basically, you find a way (very often a video) to show students the lesson/content at home and then they come to school to work through questions, practice problems, small group lessons, etc with support from the teacher.  What once was the lesson is now the homework and what was the homework is now the classwork.  It's "flipped".

Like I said, very often video is the format used to capture the lesson from the teacher so that students can watch it at home.  However, I have come to rely on video capture for so much...and I not flipping my lessons.  It can be used for so much more!

And guess what...I have a poster session on it at #ISTE17!  I'm so excited about it!

Once I have my full presentation, I'll happily post it.  However, I thought I'd give you an intro to how you can use video in your classroom.

One of my favorite ways to use video or rather have students use video is to present.  Now some students really have an issue with hearing their voice.  However, typically, if you reassure them that it will not be presented to the class, they are good.  I would recommend selecting a handful that are willing to actually present to the class though.  I'll get into that in a minute.

The reason to have students record their presentations is so that you don't have to take up class time for multiple days (ex. science period for 4 days) while students present their project and you grade the rubric.  If students are recording their presentation, they are still explaining their thought process, they are still explaining what they created or found, and they are still able to show you everything you have asked to see but now take away the fear of public speaking, take away the in class time factor, take away not being able to "redo" a presentation, take away having to rearrange if someone is sick, take away not being able to grade at home (with a glass of wine perhaps), etc.  The videos provide you and your students with some flexibility.

Here is a sample that one of my students created at the beginning of the year regarding whether or not Mother Teresa should have been canonized.  I asked them a question, gave them some resources, and asked them to create a presentation using any "powerpoint" style program they wanted and then to record over it explaining their thinking.  This student chose to use Adobe Spark on their iPad.  What do you think?

Here is a copy presentation with of the rest of the videos for your Google Drive:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cowNXnDZpa3pJbHOt4lzIPJJJ7eH-Fas_vImmq9U-JU/copy?usp=sharing

Do you use video in your classroom?  What do you do?  Please share...always on the hunt for new and better ways to do anything in the classroom.  Thank you!

Picture Writing

It's the end of the year.  And even if it wasn't, this is a great idea for all grade levels.  At least I think.

I am using this as a "What To Do When Your Work Is Done" task.  Granted if it was the beginning of the year, I would probably do some lessons and practice brainstorming and work together as a class. However, it's not...so I'm not.  My students are finishing their assignments as quickly as they possibly can and then want to play computer games.  Can you see my face?  I'm sure you can because I'm sure you're making that same face.  Like, "Yea, right, sure kiddo.  You do that.  NO."

With writing, especially writing prompts, students can either do many many posts or they can go in depth in less posts.  I tell them it's about quality, not quantity.  But what about the kids that don't love to write?  Or doesn't love your writing prompt?  It is possible that you/I/we have a student that doesn't love to go on vacation/play with puppies/want to give advice to the incoming "insert grade level" or any variety of topics that are possible to write about.

Brilliant idea...CHOICE!  I love choice.  Controlled choice.  Selective choice.  Here are a variety of things to choose from.  BUT...I am not that creative to come up with that many choices.  I admit it. Creativity is NOT my strong suit.  I'm more of a spreadsheet and data and organizing girl.  I need help when it comes to creativity and lots of choices.  So I go to friends and I go to...THE INTERNET!

And look what I found when I was looking for Middle School writing prompts!?!?!?

Visual Prompts

You can search by genre, by grade level, or by topic.  The images vary between asking for a story, a point of view, creating a campaign or a new item, there's fiction and non-fiction, future and past, and so much more.  I love these images and the questions/statements that go with them.  I especially love that I didn't have to create them!

The images (the one above specifically) stirred intense conversations as well as really great writing that showed just how my students opinions and beliefs are being shaped by their families, their friends, and society.

We know that a picture is worth 1000 words, but do we need a 1000 words?  Do we need less or do we need more?  I guess it depends on the message.  And these images are fantastic at asking students to share their message on their interests!

When NOT In Rome...

use @DoInk Green Screen app to get yourself there!

Recently, our 6th graders read Julius Caesar. In years past, the 6th graders were able to put on a production of the play. This year our Literature teacher was new the to school (as was I and a number of other teachers) and she decided to have the kids break into groups and film select scenes instead of acting out the whole play.

Here's a quick clip of some students practicing: https://instagram.com/p/BRbTYv1jyQi/

When the Lit teacher came to me asking if the students could film and edit in my class (technology), I also suggested adding a little green screen action. My walls are painted green after all. We didn't know exactly how it would work out but she was on board!

The groups were given a choice if they wanted to film and use the green screen or not. Then they all went about filming. The groups that wanted to use the Green Screen were given either my iPad or one from another teachers classroom. They took different approaches.  One group edited their video first and then put it into Do Ink, adding their images of Rome in last. Another group put each of their video pieces into Do Ink, added their images of Rome and then edited everything.

The point was...it didn't matter what they ended up doing.  They enjoyed being able to act out what they read.  And those that added the green screen were able to search and visualize what it would have the scenery would have looked like if they really had done the play.