The Recycled Teacher

      This week I spent a lot of time wrapping up the final project for Assessment In E-learning.  I tried to think like a 100% online teacher and not as a teacher in a blended classroom environment where I physically see the kids each day.   This type of thought means I had to be a lot more careful in planning out my unit on the constitution, taking into consideration details I don't worry about when I can verbally explain them to my students.  While technology does allow me to talk verbally to children, the asychronus environment means it might not be at the exact moment  students needs me.   After 34 years of teaching I am used to responding to students immediately.  I want to respond as quickly as I can in the online teaching environment.
       I am looking forward to reading the projects from everyone else in the class.  It will give me ideas on what tools to use online, and how to assess online.   The assessment class is set up so all the members learn from each other, and it is the part of the class I really enjoy.
      This class is my third class in a five class sequence in learning to teach online.  I will take the discussion class in the fall and then do a practicum.   I am one step closer to teaching 100% online.

        Judy Collins wrote a beautiful song called "Both Sides Now".  In one of the verses she talks about clouds and how beautiful they are. She sings "Bows and flows of angel hair and ice-cream castles in the air".   She continues with, "But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on everyone."   Her song brings to mind what I am thinking about learning and assessment.  Am I a constructivist or do I favor direct instruction?   I have been in education a long time and I have looked at education from both sides now(actually every side) .
       In this module we looked at two journalism classes, one planned by a constructivist and the other in the style of direct instruction.   As a graduate or undergraduate student I am a constructivist.   I read and write well and I love being in charge of my own learning.  I love the richness of the discussions and learn from members of the class.  We are all teachers in this online class.
    As a middle school teacher in Milwaukee Public Schools I see administrative support for both types of learning.  As part of a Saturday Academy I attended a session on "Understanding by Design."   In addition school leaders have encouraged descriptive feedback and peer assessment.   On the other hand, the district and state assessments and the low scores of Milwaukee's school children muddle the issue.  There is now a tendency to mandate direct instruction out of a purchased curriculum.    Maybe there is a middle ground where reading and writing is directly taught and become tools for future constructivists.   At any rate Milwaukee is under a storm cloud being cited as a failure under No Child Left Behind.
    Hope the storm cloud goes away soon, as I am busy applying constructivist theory to my final project, and really want to teach it this fall to my middle school students.

Bloom categories	Learning objective verbs	Activity
Knowledge (recall, list, define, identify, collect, label)	Recognize and Understand	The student will be able to recognize and understand the first amendment.
Comprehension (summarize, describe interpret, predict, discuss)	Seek and Analyzing  (could also go to Analysis if written differently) distinguish	Students will seek a truth in reporting by analyzing the same story as it is reported in various venues. (TV, Radio, Print, Film) Students will distinguish between private (more problematic) and public people.
Application (apply, demonstrate, illustrate, classify, experiment, discover)
Analysis (analyze, classify, connect, explain, infer)	investigate	Students will pick one story from the top 25-censored Media Stories of 2002-2003 and investigate the reasons that each may have been censored.
Synthesis (combine, integrate, plan, create, design, formulate)	Create	Students can create their individual guidelines for questionable language, subject matter and photographs.
Evaluation (assess, recommend, convince, compare, conclude, summarize)

     A former administrator told me once what gets assessed gets taught!  He was so right about that.  In this age of standardized assessment teachers are running a little scared and I think in lieu of shrinking budgets it is going to get worse before it gets better.
    In my district we are asked to state and/or post our objectives for all lessons.  I cope with this mandate by posting it using a word document projected on a screen.   Then I save and post the document in MOODLE should any one ever ask.   Administrators also partake in learning walks and ask individual students "What are you learning?" (They can usually answer this) and "How will you know if you have learned?"  Students have a harder time with this question.
       On one particular visit we were writing a persuasive essay, and all students had a rubric in front of them. To my dismay, the selected students still couldn't answer the question.  After that, I spent two or three minutes each day explaining  I don't pull their assessment or grades out of a hat.   I use rubrics, quizzes and observations to assess them. In other words I am always assessing them!   The next time some administrators took a learning walk, they asked the same question about assessment.   A young man with a big grin said, "I will use the rubric."   The only problem was there wasn't a rubric for that particular lesson.  That was my assessment. I will work harder to help students know the many ways they are assessed.
     This week the assessment in e-learning class practiced writing objectives with three parts; behavior, condition and criteria.   I think this much detail will be helpful to my students when I post my objective for each lesson.  We read a wonderful unit on journalism with interesting content.  However, just what the teacher wanted her students to do was a little vague. In addition, some of her objectives could be changed to help students think at a higher level on Bloom's Taxonomy.  Objective, activities, and questions were somewhat blended  contributing to the confusion. In all fairness to her she probably explained it in more detail in her on site presentation to the students.   The unit was an excellent example of how an on site lesson could be easily turned into an online lesson, but for the online student's sake the writing of the objectives, questions and activities should be separated and defined more succinctly.  Otherwise the teacher will bombarded with emails with questions from frustrated students.

  
 Pamela Gustafson (Gold shirt) and son Elliot Anderson(suit and yellow tie) Greet the President.

       This week I had to opportunity to hear the president speak and was lucky to shake his hand.  When I was telling, maybe bragging, to a woman in the airport, she said "I voted for him, but I am so disappointed"   Her assessment of Obama's  presidency is that it is not working.   I really haven't formulated a complete assessment of the Obama presidency, because I am still elated that the former president and his regime are gone.   And besides with an almost 50/50 split in this nation, there are at least two different rubrics (probably more) used to assess any president.  If I were looking at the president through the teacher lens only I would have to say I am disappointed he hasn't dismantled the testing that came with No Child Left Behind, and listened to his advisor Linda Darling-Hammond who advocates performance assessment in one of the readings for this module.  My rubric, when I do assess the president, will extend beyond educational issues. 
    A lot of politicians (including the president) rely on surveys or polls to assess their jobs and the "pulse" of the nation.   A survey is one of the online tools we studied this week.   Surveys and polls are great ways to get information quickly from our students and to assess what they are interested in.  Then teachers can design motivating lessons. Maybe, like politicians, we should use them more frequently to assess our student's attitudes and thought about the classroom.  I  used the survey tool in Moodle to assess student opinion over ancient Roman laws (fair or unfair) and then used the survey results, in bar graph form, to discuss the laws with the students.  Powerful tool creating almost as many opinions as the debates before the president's election!
   Reflection tools were another tool highlighted in this week's module.  These tools help students to write and reflect upon their learning, and the teacher looks for a more in depth understanding of  the content covered.  Rubrics guide the student's thinking and they can assess themselves before turning the paper or project over to their teacher.  They go beyond just checking the "pulse" of the students and try to find out what the student is thinking.
   Online quizzes also can also assess the "pulse" of the students and depending on the construction of the question, can also check in depth understanding.   Some of the required standardized tests do attempt to test at a higher level with well-designed multiple choice questions and some constructed response items.   But since they are only an annual event and a teacher has to wait 4 to 5 months to get the results, they are of very little use to the teaching/assessment cycle.  Can you imagine if a presidential candidate had to wait months to find out the results of their assessment ?   They sometimes know within 12 hours of an election their results.   Students deserve timely feedback too!
   During this module we were able to cover a lot of different assessment tools because each member of the class researched and summarized a tool.  While there was some overlap of information, it was an effective way to process a lot of information.   The president also jigsaws asking his advisors  and cabinet to find and summarize the information he needs to do his work!
   It was a good week and I have lots of ideas as to how I am going to use these assessment tools and the jigsaw technique in my classroom this fall.  I also will never forget meeting the president!