The Grade

This is a great question. I have always hated the grading system, and I feel that it is very much to blame for the end game mentality. We have taken the learning and knowledge as the reward out of the equation and replaced it with the grade as a reward. From kindergarten throughout the rest of our lives, we are graded, and usually with the standard a-f scale. As children we are rewarded by various means for good grades, which ironically I am in favor of, and we chastise and even punish poor marks. We as educators and as a society use grades as an indication of intelligence rather than it being an indication of hard work, discipline and follow through. Colleges use grades and SAT scores for acceptance/exclusion. Sometimes the scrutiny is s great that one B over 4 years of high school can be the determining factor of whether or not a student is accepted. This culture of grading, very similar to the more recent culture created by high stakes accountability and testing, has taken the emphasis off of learning and placed it on "achieving," which simply means getting a high score or good grade. There is no good measure of all that a student has learned that can be indicated on a multiple choice test.

One instance of a teacher taking the grade pressure off, is Paul Sparks. This year in our mentoring course (possibly in previous years as well), he said in the beginning that we all receive A's for the semester. Now I am free to enjoy what I am actually doing in there and actually have to time to reflect on my actions and assess my own learning with out the pressure of having to get a paper in on time or perform well on yet another multiple choice test. Because of his decision, I have approached his coursework very differently than in a traditional class. knowing that I am already at the highest level I am now asking what;s in it for me as far as a learning stretch.

This topic has also made me ask myself, how would I have approached his course if he had stated at the beginning, "You all will receive an F in my class regardless of how much or little you choose to do." If I am honest with myself, I would have to say that I would probably do nothing simply out of protest. Absent the grade, I would deprive myself of any of the valuable learning and personal gain I made.

"As learners, we are often focused on completing assessment activities successfully as opposed to acquiring the outcomes indicated by the course- why is this? Describe a learning experience where either you have combated this learner tendency or you felt a teacher handled this well."

ARP Technology

Until Virtcamp, I had never chatted, posted a blog, etc.- nothing other than sending an e-mail. Needless to say Virtcamp was an eyeopener. In playing around a little, I experimented with Moodle and Google. The ease of not only using all of the Google applications- Documents, Groups (especially), Calendar, chat- but also setting up and administering made it very appealing. I guess I chose it because it is free, easy and everyone trusts the Google name.

My teachers (learners) have responded with mixed enthusiasm and results. Those that were already familiar with the process and are comfortable with it have taken it and run. The others, and they include a group of new teachers that, as expected, are not all that comfortable with talking out loud in meetings let alone posting on a message board for their peers to see. All have been able to at least sign on, create a profile and read posts. None have said that it was too technologically challenging to do.


"For your ARP, how did you select the technologies that you are utilizing? How have your learners responded thus far?"

I can think back on countless courses, classes and lessons where no goal was stated, implied or anywhere even remotely present in the presentation. I often feel as though, either due to my own lack of inattention or the teacher's omission, that I have no idea what I am doing in a class. I often have these surreal ahha moments where it finally clicks, "So that what she meant." I have had those moments along the way with my Action Research. For the first two semesters I was wholly unclear on what I was actually doing. It was not until a conversation with Margaret in Orlando, that I began to formulate a clear picture in my head.

I so greatly appreciate an instructor that will say or post goals that say "By the end of this session/class/course, you will be able to/understand..." On the contrary, my district works with a major university as a part of our program improvement professional development. One of the instructors always clearly states the goals and objectives for the session. Then throughout the course of the day, we stray away and the goals are never met. I guess what is important, is having clearly articulated goals and then a cohesive plan to teaching those intended outcomes.

"Think back now to a learning experience you have recently had- were the goals explicitly stated? If not, here they still clear? Were you aware of them as a learner during the learning experience?"

The desired results were to make my students "feel" history. I wanted them to understand the concept of having someone else be in complete control of their spatial placement as well as their partnerships and personal property. I also wanted to expand this empathy to pages of history books, newspaper and documentary clips all across their lives. In addition, the effects of the scramble for Africa are lasting and still causing strife, civil war and countless atrocities even today. Explaining this helps students become aware of action and consequence, and open up the potential for countless dialogues and discussions, from personal to global and historical to present and future. I think sometimes we teach history in a very sterile and desensitized manner and students cannot be empathetic to what has happened. I always made clear to them that losing candy is nowhere near the same as losing ones life or liberty, but one lesson can be used to set up countless others in reference and application.


Using the same learning experience, what were your desired results? Why did you choose these results.

Succesful Learning Experiences

I am still not used to calling them learning experiences, but rather just lessons. One of my favorite was a World History lesson about the scramble for Africa at the turn of the 20th Century. My students were just not getting the concept imperialism. I made a giant grid on the floor of my classroom with masking tape that represented the continent of Africa. I chose 8 leaders from fictitous European countries and sent them out of the room tasked with equitably dividing up the grid with out actually seeing it. The rest of students were now African tribes people standing comfortably within their plot on the grid. They all named their tribe, created a motto and a symbol(most made flags). I gave them goods (candy) to trade with one another, but they were not allowed to eat any of it. Once all trades had been completed and every student had the candy they most wanted, I brought the European leaders back in, gave them a roll of different colored tape and told them to redraw the boundaries of Africa according to their conversation. I also added that they were allowed to do with the candy their native residents had accumulated as they please, and then the battle was on. In the end, like in real history, the European leaders walked away with fistfulls of candy while the natives had none. They were also now placed in different groups with students that they did not necessarily get along with (another part of my evil plan). I then gave the assignment of explaining what had happened and how it related to the real scramble 100+ years ago. The embittered natives were slightly bribed with the promise of retuened candy upon successful submission of a paper that identified who the fictitious leaders represented and who the natives were. Out of 67 students 100% of them turned in the paper on time and came in the next day filled with questions and ready for a very lively debate on the topic.
I feel that they got it and were inspired to follow up on their learning because most had been slighted by the lost candy, a the others felt a sense of guilt for taking what was not theirs (although that did not stop them from eating it without sharing). The personal impact as well as making the book come alive and history "feeling" real was very powerful. It also made teaching WWI and WWII more effective because the students could relate back to one f teh major causes.

"Think back to a successful learning experience you have designed - what made it successful? What was your role in creating that success?"

This was the easiest blog for me to write (I have been struggling with them to date), because of the whole philosophy of Understanding By Design- begin with the end in mind. This doctrine has become almost my entire educational philosophy and those that I work closely are actually getting sick of me and it. I have made it useful in drafting ESLR's, planning STAR test prep and especially my Action Research project. By forcing the question on myself, "what will it look like when it's done?" I have had to plan beyond just the current what's due this time. I know what the ultimate goal of my ARP is to have an effective communication system in place to help teachers better collaborate. I have also been able to share with the teachers I am working with, what I am doing and how my work and goal effects them, hopefully for the better in the end. Knowing what I want in the end makes it much easier to step towards it. It has not however removed all of the pesky roadblocks that are in my way, nor has it made the project any less frustrating or removed any of the requisite work that I must put in to complete it. It has rather given me a destination and now I am writing out the map to get there.

What theory, discussion and/or application from this course most impacts your ongoing action research project?

Some of the classroom curriculum, direct instruction and benchmark assessments are reviewed by cohorts of teachers on campus. The teachers either follow a walk through protocol or a data dissemination protocol and then debrief with some very rich conversation and insightful ideas. The goals of the meetings/discussions is to make all teachers aware of what is going on in other's classrooms and to improve teaching practices campus wide. As with a lot of what goes on in education, there is a lot of talk, and intended action, but little real implementation, follow up or follow through.





In your current professional environment, how are educational experiences or programs assessed? Is the evidence collected from the assessment used to inform change? Why or why not do you think this occurs?

Action Research Poopooed

My action research learners are all teachers and they are good at being bad students. I honestly believe that they are genuinely interested in what I am trying to do, and not to help me out. They are willing to discuss and contribute ideas to make it better, but they have not been willing to invest the time daily, to try something different that could potentially improver both their practice and student achievement as well. While they continually say that it takes too much time to sit down an enter what they taught in their last class for others teachers to read they will not trust me that in the end it will actually save them time. I think this is the case, because they are trained in doing it the old way simply not ready for change. It was illustrated in an article that we read in the first smester, where change was represented as a guitar. One could pull a string, and it would bend. When the force was released, the string snapped back to its original position and no permanent change occurred. Real institutional change happens when one moves to the next string up. I just have to figure how to begin playing at a higher note.





Blog: In your ARP, are your learners engaged in their learning? Why or why not?

JIT Learning

When I think of were I have learned the most or made the biggest stretches in my learning, it has not been from reading a book and discussing or even blogging reflectively. My biggest gains have come from assignment with little explanation or boundaries- just a desired outcome with a few parameters. There was no how to or where to find, just do and its due on the 10th. The lessons from Virtcamp and Stagers class (Margaret's Data assignment in Orlando too) are good examples. I/we made our assignments missions, where we sought information, worked our way through problems, and found a way to get it done. I feel that this design is most effective for me, because I can trust the outcomes. You are not relying on some study or outcome data. You can actually feel the learning, and the sense of knowing that you did it- plus what you learned and created is yours to keep and it's authentic. This course has for me been a very effective confidence building exercise, because I know that I can do it, and that translates into my personal and professional career for an added bonus.

Blog: From your experience in OMET thus far, what design practice has resonated with you the most? Why