Week 7 Reflections

It is hard to believe that the course is almost over! For that matter, it is hard to believe that it is already November!!
Despite the fact that there were no required readings or discussions this week, it was a very busy week for this course. This project final project was definitely very extensive. I have to admit, that it probably didn't help that I didn't really get a good start on it until Wednesday evening.
In my mind, prior to our live meeting on Wedesday, I was still pretty confused as to what was expected for the project. I knew what course I was going to do it for, and I had an idea of what assessment tools I might want to use, but didn't really have anything written up, yet. The live meeting was definitely very helpful. Now I understand, from the student end, why the LiveLessons we do at Connections Academy are so useful!
Even with the early confusion, I am fairly pleased with how my project turned out. I am hoping to get some helpful feedback from others in the class this week, so I can make some improvements as needed.

Final Project

I think I'm ready to post my final project now. I ended up publishing it as a website with Google. I have created my project based on the pre-algebra course that I currently teach. Generally, the assessment tools I've used in my project are not ones that I had even thought of using before in the course, although I am definitely seeing the benefit of starting to incorporate them.
You will see on my site that I have used a pre-course survey, a wiki, a virtual gradebook, and a live conferencing software.
Here it is!!
Enjoy :-)

Week 6 Reflections

This week somehow seemed more relaxed than the last two. Maybe it wasn't that this week was relaxed, but that the past two were so busy!
In past weeks, I've tried to get the readings completed as early as possible (preferably by Monday evening), so I could try to get posts in on the discussion board early in the week. With some longer readings this week, I just knew that wasn't going to work so well. I instead ended up just taking my time. This really helped with my understanding of the material. Of course, this may have also had something to do with the quality and organization of the readings.
Another thing that I'm sure helped me out was printing out the readings. In earlier weeks, I was only printing out the shorter readings (not wanting to use all of the ink or paper for the longer ones). This week I decided I wasn't going to sit staring at the computer screen long enough to read everything. I was staring at a computer screen all day at work, and I didn't want to spend all evening that way, too! I know from past experience (and from more confirmation this week), that I have a better time digesting what I read when I'm looking at it on paper.
Anyway, in terms of specifics for this week, I did have some trouble with the precourse survey. I was finding it difficult to come up with relevant questions to ask to help with preparing for a math course. That is partly why I chose to create the survey for my PreCalculus class instead of PreAlgebra. For PreCalculus, I could come up with more thoughtful questions (and would probably get more thoughtful responses from the students). Despite the trouble with coming up with what to ask, the Survey Monkey website was pretty easy to use.

Precourse Survey

As part of Module 6, we were asked to create a precourse survey to help gather information from students to help personalize the course.
I have created my survey to go along with the PreCalculus course that I teach at Commonwealth Connections Academy.

Click Here to take survey

Bloom's Taxonomy

In module 5, we looked at the the article, Studying the First Amendment: Exploring Truth in Journalism, by Christine Casey. We were asked to categorize the activities according to Bloom's Taxonomy. Here is the table with the activites as I categorized them.

Week 5 Reflections

I have to say this week's assignment with Bloom's taxonomy was confusing. I wasn't exactly sure what we were expected to do. I read over Casey's case study several times trying to work things out. It just seemed to me that the article wasn't very organized (for example, there were 4 different activity 1s). The combination of the article not having much structure, and the fact that I haven't done anything with Bloom's Taxonomy since my Sophomore or Junior year of college did not help.
Despite the confusion, I did like the activity. It was one that really made you think. I guess that's the point of Bloom's Taxonomy. There were some good activities described in the article, they just need some clarification if they are to be used in the classroom. There were also some good discussions based on these activities.
I was glad to see that I wasn't the only one confused with the article and the assignment. Of course, the confusion did make it tough to get in posts on the discussion board. Most people posted thier ideas and work later in the week. Usually, I like to try to get posts in early. Then there is time for discussion during the week. I am sure many of us were feeling this crunch though.

Week 4 Reflections

This was definitely another busy week!
My work schedule was different this week. Our school has set up an after school tutoring program where we have teachers available to the students from 4pm-8pm, instead of the normal 8am-4pm. This week, I was one of those teachers.
As far as the group midterm project, that was definitely a new experience for me. I have to say, I was glad to trade topics with Shelley. Originally, I was going to be doing reflection assessment tools, and she was going to be doing course tracking tools. Being a math teacher, I'm not too familiar with reflection assessments. Shelley wasn't familiar with course tracking tools. I think the trade worked out well for both of us.
Towards the beginning of the week, I have to admit that I was a bit concerned. At that point, communication with the group was a bit slow (as far as what I was seeing). As we got further into the week, our communication did pick up, and we got everything pulled together.
I must say I am relieved to have the project completed. I've never done a group project online, and I have to say I was never a big fan of group projects when I was in school. I guess that's probably because then, I tended to be the one finishing things that others missed or were too lazy to do. In this case, it was different. Everyone in our group put forth the effort, and I think we came out with a good final product.

Assessment Toolbox

For the midterm project, I worked with Jake Sherman, Shelley Lee, and Brenda Vogds. Together, we compiled our assessment toolbox, each of us researching a different category of assessment tool.
Jake researched quiz and test builders. Shelley researched reflection assessment tools, Brenda researched peer-to-peer collaboration tools. I researched course tracking tools.
We compiled our work into a Google doc, which you can access here.

Week 3 Reflections

I would have to say that this has been a busy and kind of crazy week. It was a busy week at work, which made things seem even crazier for class. Despite the business of the week, I have found it an interesting one.
Even though the Bonk article was from 2004, it did bring to light the growing number of technologies that we have available to use in education. There were some items in that list (especially massive online gaming), that I had never thought of as a tool for education or assessment.
I have to admit that I wasn't really sure what was expected for the concept map. I am hoping that what I came up with is the right kind of idea. Once I came up with a plan, I did enjoy working on it. The Inspiration software was easy to use. It's a shame the free trial is only for 30 days! But I guess that is how they get you to buy these kinds of things. I remember someone mentioning a free website where you can create concept maps, but now can't find what it was, or who it was that mentioned it. If you happen to know, let me know :-)
I also have to admit that I started out a little concerned about the midterm assignment. I haven't really done any kind of group project for an online class before, so it will definitely be something new for me. Also, I ended up with the topic of "Reflective Assessment Tools." Being a math teacher, I have to admit that I haven't really done much with reflective assessments before. Thanks to our work in Module 2, I do feel a little more comfortable with the topic than I otherwise might have.

Concept Map: Graphing Functions

This is the concept map that I created for our module 3 assignment. I have to admit that I wasn't quite sure exactly what direction to go in terms of the topic for this assignment. I decided to go with something that has been a current topic for my PreCalculus class: Graphing Functions. As you can see in my map, I've determined that, in the online environment in which I am teaching, the interactive whiteboard in my LiveLesson room would be a good tool to assess students understanding of the topic. There, I could give students access to the whiteboard so they can show me how to graph the functions.

Nine Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning

Much of what is included in the Nine Principles applies to me. I would have to say that there are two of the principles that stood out to me more than the others.
The first was that "assessment of student learning begins with educational values." One of the main ideas for this principle was that assessment should be used to improve student learning. I already do use this idea in my teaching. In my school's curriculum, we have short daily quizzes. These quizzes do not have much effect on student grades, but are a great tool for watching what topics are problem areas for students. If it is a topic that is a problem across the board, I can set up extra lessons to help the whole class. If it is a problem area for individual students, I can meet with that student for some extra tutoring to help them understand the lesson.
The other principle that stood out to me was that "assessment fosters wider improvement when representatives from across the educational community are involved." This idea is one of the cornerstones of the school where I work. Along with teachers working with the students, we work with the parents, or "Learning Coaches." Between the teachers, administators, and guidance counselors, we have a very tight community where we work together for the benefit of our students.
As I mentioned, many ideas in the Nine Principles apply to me, but these two were the ones that really stand out.

Week 2 Reflections

I have to admit, this is the first time I've really done anything with blogging. Prior to this week, I never even thought of it being a tool to use for assessment. I've always thought of it as being more of a means or extension of social networking. I guess that comes from seeing blogs on sites such as MySpace.
After looking at the blogs of classmates, and following the class discussions this week, my eyes have certainly been opened to new possibilities. I'm now seeing that blogs can be a great tool for the use of teachers and students.
Teachers can collaborate and critique ideas, whether or not they have the opportunity to discuss things face to face.
Blogs can give students the opportunity to work cooperatively in an online environment. In this same venue, they can give students the opportunity to receive peer review and feedback on thier thoughts or work.
At this point, it may be a challenge figuring out exactly how I could use a blog for my math students. Perhaps some kind of project. Maybe even some kind of challenge problem, where they could work together off of each others comments to work things out.... I'll have to think about some ideas to try....

Introductions

In our first week for this class, we interviewed and introduced fellow students. Here is my introduction, as presented by Jake Sherman:


Karen is in her 5th year of teaching, and is starting her 3rd year teaching PreAlgebra, PreCalculus, and Honors Calculus at a cyber school in Enola. Enola is a relatively small town and suburb of Harrisburg Pennsylvania. The school Karen is teaching at has students from all over the state of Pennsylvania. The enrollment is about 2,900 students for grades K-12.
Karen is kept busy with her "kids" a dog, rabbit, 3 guinea pigs, 2 birds, a turtle, a fish tank, and 2 horses. She spends a lot of time with her horses Manny a 19 year old Quarter Horse and Ezzy a 9 year old Morgan Horse. Karen does small gaming (barrel racing, pole bending, et.) with Ezzy. In addition to horseback riding and caring for her animals Karen enjoys reading and some computer games.
When asked if she was a Steelers fan and Pirates fan Karen said that she cheers for the Steelers and the Phillies, and because the town she lives in is centrally located in the state it is ok to cheer for one team from each city.
Also given the choice of chocolate, vanilla, swirl or strawberry Karen would choose swirl or strawberry.

Assessment: Teacher-centered or Learner-centered?

As part of this week's readings and assignments, I completed this survey, looking at if I have a teacher-centered or learner-centered outlook on learning. Based on the survey results, I lean towards learner-centered.
I would have to agree with this result. Students are the most important part of a class. The whole point is for the students to learn, and the instructor needs to think about what will help those students learn the most. Not all students learn in the same way. Some learn from discussions and peer feedback. Others learn through hands on activities. Although it is the most common classroom format, students don't always benefit from sitting and listening to a teacher lecture. In order to be most effective, instructors need to be aware of this, and vary thier lessons to suit the needs of thier students.
Another piece of any course is assessment. The most prominent form of assessment is seen in tests and quizzes. Unfortunately, these don't give the whole picture. Some students don't do well in testing situations. I am a math teacher in a cyber school. Many of our tests are multiple choice (Not my decision, but what I work with). There have been plenty of opportunities where I see that students get a question wrong on a test because they missed one negative sign in a problem. Does this mean that they don't understand the material? Does that mean they should receive a failing grade on the test? In my mind, the answer is no. You can't just look at one piece of the puzzle. You have to look at all of the pieces to see the entire picture.