Just a Miner Blog

Over the last year and a half our school has been going under “Modernization”. As a result of the classroom upgrades, my classroom moved into a new and very large computer lab classroom in February. Very large as compared to the last computer lab which was housed in a portable. In addition to teaching computer classes in this lab I also teach Algebra. During the 2008-09 school year the students used their online version of the textbook to begin their homework insead of getting out a traditional paper book. We experimented with using the PowerPoint presentations as lectures during the second semester. Students were still taking notes “the old-fashioned way,” using pencil and paper.

I’m concerned with the amount of time it actually takes students to copy down notes and examples into their notebook. In my previous computer classroom the students had tables in the room to take notes on. During last semester, after moving into the new computer classroom, I noticed that students were constantly turning from the front of the room to look at the projection screen or whiteboard then back to where they were writing their notes. I did not feel that I had the students undivided attention. This may have always been the case. It was just a bit disconcerting to see the students’ heads constantly turning to get the notes/examples written in the notebooks. Realizing this I thought back to a traditional classroom setup with student desks lined up in columns. I wondered if the students were as divided in their attention then. From a couple of conversations with students this was confirmed.

Over the summer break I made a decision to try to alleviate this division in the students’ attention. The students should feel more involved and hopefully learn more by engaging in conversation with the class about the concepts and examples. The examples that are used in our text’s PowerPoint presentations are the same as the textbook. This saved me some considerable time. I did not have to create the PowerPoint presentation. These presentations are available from the publisher’s website for the students and parents to view.

So, this school year I’m not using the whiteboard to show examples on a daily basis. I’m using the PowerPoint presentations almost exclusively. Since the examples in the presentation are the same as in are shown in the textbook, students do not need to divide their attention between writing the examples down and conversing about the concepts. Any extra concepts, or concepts I wish to explain a little differently from the text, I just create my own presentation that I’ll post on the online gradebook for the students to download.

More importantly the online textbook gives the students the ability to type notes on the pages of the text. These notes consist of statements I instruct the students to put there, questions the students have from their pre-reading, statements other students said that explained the concept in a way that made the student taking the notes understand, etc. The notes students take are saved on the publisher’s website. Students access their textbook after logging in to the site. The notes students take are there for the entire time their login is active. The only downside of this is that once their login is no longer active the student loses access to their notes.

Students in my Algebra classes are not required to take notes using the online textbook. They may use pencil and paper if they choose. Not all students have a computer with internet access at home. This may be a time to talk about one laptop per student, but I’ll refrain. As I explained to the students during the first week of school and to the parents on Back-to-School night, I think there is a distinct advantage to not be constantly copying notes/examples while trying to listen to a teacher and classmates while trying to formulate questions to ask about the concept. I’m hoping that students will leave class with more questions answered about the algebraic concepts they are learning than in previous years.

So far this year I’ve noticed a reduction in homework questions with similar exam scores as in previous years. On a funny note, the only drawback to this online textbook is they have a highlighter in addition to the note taking ability. Some students do tend to play with the highlighter when they are supposed to be working on their homework. Although I wish this would not happen it is much better than students marking up a paper textbook. I only have six copies of the Algebra textbook in my room. All other teachers on my campus have a full class set of 36-37. The texts in my room are still in pristine shape after a year and a half. Students still have a paper notebook they bring to class. The notebook is used to try guided practice examples and their homework. Now student notebooks last 2-3 times as many days as before without the notes/examples in them.

I’m sure there are many ideas I have not stated here. Ideas both pro and con about doing away with pencil and paper note taking. I only have experience with the text my district uses. I’m sure other publishers have online texts with many of the same capabilities as the text we use. I do not wish to advertise one publisher over another, so I’ve not stated which text we use. Please comment and ask questions.

Many of the things I wished to accomplish this school year did not come to fruition: Google Apps usage by our students, podcasting in my classes, etc. I did accomplish finishing the classes I needed to earn my clear credential. There is something to be said about having a teaching position to be able to try these things in my classroom.

Teaching podcasting was something I wish would have happened. The necessary tools (headphones/microphones) was cut by the district. The purchase was denied even though I put in the purchase order before any School Improvement money was frozen. Now that I have moved into my new computer lab classroom I’ll may have the ability to start my students podcasting. The computers in the lab were purchased by the adult school that uses our middle school campus at night. The only use of the computer lab they have is for their adult ESL classes using language aquisition software. Amazingly there are now a set of 36 headphone/microphones in my classroom. I just need to ask the adult school if I can use them a few times per quarter.

Google Apps is another story. I don’t think my district IT department quite understands this web app at all. First they do not realize that one can sign up for this with their present email address. My district IT department thinks this is Google’s way of getting everyone to use Gmail. The latest roadblock thrown up against using Google Apps in the classroom is the Chat feature of Google apps. Correct me if I’m wrong, and I don’t think I am, the feature can be disabled. I know this because I have done it on the test site I set up for my school. Maybe the budget crunch will force the district to look at alternative ways to deliver Office-like applications at no cost. I can’t imagine how much my district spends on licenses for Office.

I do get to work with my IT department with bringing an Online Gradebooks to the rest of the middle school teachers in the district. This should give me the opportunity to show them that all web apps are not evil. Nor are they prone to virus/worm attacks as they say they are guarding us against. The district is moving to an online SIS in the 2010-2011 school year. I can’t imagine how this keeps them up at night with nighmares of network crippling attacks. Or bad dreams about not have absolute control over the servers the info is stored on. Eventually they will come around and I’ll get them to allow teaching staff to use web 2.0 tools. Maybe even before web 3.0 tools become commonplace in other classrooms around the world.

Earlier the semester I had one of my Algebra classes compile their notes on a deki/wiki (pjhs.wik.is).  I view the students work on this as a great success even though I did not follow through after a few weeks. Now at the end of the semester the students are studying and taking their final exam. I wish I would have had the follow through to have the students’ notes for the whole semester on the wiki instead of just the first few weeks of notes.

The use of a wiki for an Mathematics class works well for student generated notes. Granted this class is a bit more motiviated overall about learning than your typical 8th grade class. This helped get having the students share their notes on the wiki.

Next school year I intend on having each of my math classes involved in compiling notes on this deki or a wiki that I have on a domain I control. The students at our school have access to an online book, so the worked-out examples are there to see. The notes I want the students to take and put on the wiki are not  the worked-out examples that were shown in class or in the text but what was said/discussed in class that made those examples make sense to them. This did not always happen and is something I’ll emphasize to the students next year.

The next goal is to get the district to upgrade their web servers so we do not have to register domains outside of the district, incurring extra costs, to get the web tools we want to use.

The issue that motivated this post has seemingly been resolved. Yet,these were the thoughts I had at the time. I still believe in the central issue of the district administration supporting teachers instead of dictating what teachers can collaborate on and taking credit for their ideas. Hence, the post is here.

Collaboration is a key component of a Professional Learning Community (PLC). Introducing SnapGrades to the staff at my school and delivering training for a second middle school staff in our district is teacher collaboration at its best. Word of mouth among students, parents, school administration, and teachers has lead our district to find funding to pay for licenses to access this online gradebook for all middle school teachers in the district. While we have gained the program, we have lost teacher control in managing the program.

This is not the district trying to collaborate with their teaching staff; this is a control grab by the district. Taking control away from the teachers states quite clearly that the district office does not trust in their schools’ teaching staff. Instead of allowing teachers to collaborate with each other by introducing the use of an online gradebook and delivering the training to colleagues the district is just taking over. This negates one of the integral parts of why the use of an online gradebook has become so accepted by teachers in the district: teachers collaborating with one another.  Now that the use of an online gradebook is going “district-wide,” the district sees fit to take control of the administration of the online gradebook and the training of staff. Stating as their reason, “Now that SnapGrades is going district wide (all junior high schools) it is the responsibility of the district technology department to supervise and support software use.” This is not software to be loaded and therefore does not need district Tech support. This is a online gradebook, in essence a website. The technological support is delivered by the website’s staff. That is why we pay license fees. The district technology department is not staffed with teachers. The staff of that district department has never used a gradebook. Therefore, they do not have the knowledge or expertise to deliver effective training in the setup or use of a gradebook’s administrative or individual teacher-gradebook.

The end of the dismissal email I received stated, “Thanks again for helping me help other schools move ahead with increased parent communication around student grades and homework!” I believe it is the district office’s duty to help the teachers collaborate within their PLC. It is not their duty to take an idea that has been shown to work, through teacher collaboration, and dismiss the teachers that brought it to their attention. By working to bring it to the level of success this has had the teachers that brought it this far should retain control. Not sharing trust in the teaching staff to support each other through collaboration is a dangerous precedent to set. Allowing the teachers to run with what they started will show that trust that is needed for a working relationship between district office and teaching staff. When a teacher has the next good idea they may not be so willing to share it with staff at other school or even their own fearing that the responsibility to support and breath life into their idea will be taken from them.

What we are left with is having the district IT department give their “training.” Then the teachers who will be running the administrative side of the website at the schools will get together and work amongst ourselves to train, brainstorm, and troubleshoot. The IT rep will be invited, of course. It would be much easier if we as teachers had the district’s support to develop our ideas/programs. What we have is a top down system where the district must show control over programs that recieve district money. The funds are appreciated, but the  control taken by the district of these ideas/programs is not.