Learning is life. - Russ Goerend

Get Specific: A Love Story

2010-07-29T16:17:00.001-05:00

I took my girlfriend for a walk across our college campus on a warm November day. We walked in relative silence until we got to the park that butts up against the Cedar River. As we were walking, I kept one hand buried in my pocket protecting the reason for the walk.

I built up the courage and stopped her. I pulled her close to me and looked her in the eyes.

"I love you, Becky."

She told me the same.

"You make me a better man," I said, moving along mentally to the next part of my speech.

"How do you mean?" she asked. "Like what, specifically?"

I wasn't ready to get specific. I hadn't prepared for this. She just makes me better man, that's all. I'm better because of her. Not perfect, but the opposite of worse.

I hadn't prepared. So it came from the heart.

.....

President Obama gave a speech about education this morning. He used some magical words: reform, accountability, results. The kind of words people who have more time to think education than do education use.

I'm sure, if given the right materials or notice or warning, he'd be ready with a specific definition of what he means by reform, accountability, and results. I'd just like to see him challenged to come up with his definitions from the heart.

I understand that a speech is not the time for specifics. It's the traditional time for empty words that everyone can rally behind, because everyone has a different idea of what they mean.

A proposal is not the time for specifics, either.

What do you really want from us, Mr. President? In no uncertain terms. Get specific.

On an island

2010-07-07T14:49:00.000-05:00

<image>

</image>

We've got four cats. With cats come cat hair.

We've got one five-month-old son. With infants come drool.

In a perfect world, never the twain shall meet.

In our world, if he gets off the blanket we put on the carpet for him, he ends up with hand- and mouth-fulls of cat hair.

<analogy>

What's your blanket? What's your cat hair? Who's your baby?

</analogy>

ISTEunplugged session: Technology has been around forever. Is 1:1 enough?

2010-07-07T14:00:00.000-05:00

Matt and I led a session at ISTEunplugged on June 28. The recording of the Elluminate session is now up.

Thanks to Chris Ludwig, Ann Leaness, Liz Becker, Karl Fisch, and others for joining us "in studio" and for contributing so much to the session.

Title: Technology has been around forever. Is 1:1 enough?

Description: Many schools in Iowa are implementing 1:1 initiatives. Is placing a computer in every students' hand the end? What next? Bring your thoughts to this forum.
Presenter: Matt Townsley, Solon Community Schools, and Russ Goerend, Waukee Community Schools

Recording link: https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2010-06-28.0652.M.C460D235B14F6598E3CC02CAE42D45.vcr&sid=2008350

My ineptitude as a fantasy baseball owner as an analogy for my teaching

2010-07-07T13:31:00.002-05:00

Welcome to my inner geek.

I follow the advice of many fantasy baseball writers who say "Don't pay for saves." I don't draft top-tier closers. I don't trade for closers. I generally don't think about closers.

I took that thinking to an extreme this year.

<tangent>

I think the save is the second worst stat in baseball. Three reasons:

In a game a few seasons ago where team won 30-3, a save was awarded. 30-3. Save. 30-...yeah.
A pitcher can record a save by coming into a 3-run game and throwing 1 pitch to end the game.
A pitcher who comes into a 1-run game in the 8th inning can record a blown save by giving up a run, but if that pitcher holds the lead and someone else comes to finish the game in the 9th inning, that pitcher who pitched the 8th inning cannot record a save. So he can blow a save, without a chance to record a save.

</tangent>

So, when draft day rolled around, it's not that I was missing a list of closers to draft. It's that I chose to wait and wait and wait on closers to draft players I thought brought me more value.

I ended up punting saves. For the uninitiated, a typical fantasy baseball league has 10 categories -- 5 batting, 5 pitching. If the league has 12 teams, each team can get a max of 12 points in each category. So, if I have the most saves -- I don't -- I get 12 points. The team with the second-most saves gets 11 points and so on. Down to me. I have 1 point in the saves category. Punting is a strategy an owner gives up on one strategy in order to beef up his or her chances at dominating the other categories.

At first it worked out because instead of a closer I put relief pitchers who strike guys out into my lineup, and, as luck would have it, these guys ended up picking up wins and pitching really well, which helped me out in the four other categories besides saves.

I thought I had a chance at showing that this idea of punting a category could really work. There are 12 possible points in each of 5 pitching categories, so I figured I'd be at or near the top of the other categories and my 1 point in saves wouldn't be that big of a deal.

The lesson I learned is one that I've been thinking about a lot lately: balance. I'm sitting in 8th place, within 5 or 6 points of 5th place, really in the thick of it. What could I have done differently to pick up those precious few points? If I would have drafted a couple of closers early in the draft, what contributors would I be missing now?

<analogy>

Is there anything in my teaching that I've been punting? Have I figured something will just take care of itself? Or maybe if I just ramp up what I'm doing in one area -- technology, perhaps? -- the other stuff -- teaching -- will take care of itself?

</analogy>

Data are not just numbers

2010-07-01T17:05:00.000-05:00

Keith Law is a baseball writer who used to work in the Blue Jays' front office. He hosts a weekly chat. Here is one of the questions from this morning and his answer:

Let's break this Q&A down.

Do you, dear reader, know who "Boesch" is? I know one of you (assuming Kax is reading) does, but it would genuinely surprise me if anyone else who reads me does. So who is he? It really doesn't matter. You're welcome to Google him for more information, but this is all the context you need: He's a major league baseball player who's been hitting the ball really well since being called up from the minors earlier this year.

Onto the answer and the reason I'm writing a post about it.

Think about data. Whether your school subscribes to IDM, DDDM, or just being "data-driven," have you taken the time to define what data is are? That will be one of the questions I push my PLC to answer this year. Data is a word we use, but I'm not sure we all agree on the definition. It could be that we do, but at this point, we don't know if we do. (I'm really hoping I can just bring up the question, find out everyone shares a common definition, and move on.)

Baseball is a data-driven business. What made me read Keith's answer twice was not the way he presented the data to back up his claim that Boesch is fluky, but the data he used to support his claim.

Data are not just numbers!

As someone who has studied the game well enough to have worked in the front office of a major league baseball team and now as a full-time writer for the Worldwide Leader in Sports™, Keith shows that his own professional opinion fits neatly in with the statistics he uses to assert his claim.

Just something to think about.

I'm more interested in your teaching than your technology

2010-07-01T15:06:00.008-05:00

"quality teaching trumps quality technology" - Matt Townsley

Matt and I led a session at ISTEunplugged on Monday morning. First ISTEunplugged session of the conference. ISTEunplugged is a spot carved out in a hallway with a Promethean board (turns out it's not exactly a touchscreen, who knew?), a computer, and a microphone. Kim Case came to run Elluminate so the session could be streamed live to the world. Matt and I sat on cubes and asked questions. 9 people generously donated their time to sit and converse with us.

Matt and I realized that we've got a bit of a traveling road show going with this gig. It started at the Iowa 1:1 Institute in April at the unconference room. We had been roaming the halls and decided to start a session. We just wanted to ask a simple question to start a conversation.

Is 1:1 enough?

That's the question we asked at the Iowa 1:1 Institute. It's the question we started with at ISTEunplugged. It's the question we'll put forth at the Iowa Technology and Education Connection (ITEC) conference next fall (if we're accepted :fingers crossed:).

We just can't get enough of this question.

It's not even that great of a question.

It's got an obvious answer.

Right?

Right??

So what's the answer?

Well, what's the rest of the question?

Is 1:1 enough...to change a teacher?

Is 1:1 enough...to change a classroom?

Is 1:1 enough...to change a school?

Is 1:1 enough...to engage/empower/enlighten students?

Is 1:1 enough...to get politicians off our backs?

Is 1:1 enough...to move education into the 21st century?

I started this post with a quote from Matt. He tweeted it out the last night we were at the conference. If you're looking for my takeaway from ISTE 2010, that's it. The few minutes I spent in the exhibit hall made my skin crawl. It was like a carnival. A scary, lonely carnival. So many screens and eduinfomercials and freebies for giving away access to my inbox.

Technology is not a silver bullet. It's a piece to the puzzle, but this is a puzzle that's not like most puzzles. Some pieces are more important than others.

You may have answered yes to some or all of those questions. That's great. Maybe you were yelling "No!" at your screen. That's great too. Matt and I want you to come to the conversation. I want to find out why you feel that way. I want to know what it is that you're doing that we can learn from.

We want to know if it's you -- quality teacher providing quality instruction in the context of a 1:1 or 1:2 or 1:20 program -- that is enough.

Goal for 2010: be less "flexible"

2010-06-21T17:14:00.001-05:00

I was done with school three days before Becky, so it was just me and Hank the first couple days of summer. They were the first two days that it had just been me and him for the whole day since he was born.

Of course I was nervous. It would have been weird if I wasn't.

The first day was all about reacting. Henry would cry, I'd start thinking about why he might be crying. I'd realize he hadn't eaten in a few hours, so I'd pull the half-frozen bag of milk out of the fridge to start the de-thaw process. I'd have to ask Henry to wait for me while he was half-naked so I could re-load one of his gDiapers. Naps started after he was asleep. I ate a piece of leftover pizza for breakfast and a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and my stomach was growling when Becky got home around 4.

I decided that first night that I wasn't going to let that happen again.

The second day was all about preparation. I anticipated Henry's cries, knowing he had just eaten, so his diaper must be dirty. I was ready to put him down for a nap after the second time he ate. While he was napping, I made eggs for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. When I needed to change his diapers, I pulled out one of the pre-loaded diapers in the drawer. I even managed to do a load of laundry!

So what?

For starters, I had more fun on the first day. I sang songs to Henry while I was reacting. I felt a rush when I figured out why he was crying.

The second day went more smoothly but something was missing. I didn't have to have any time-killing conversations with him. I knew why he was crying and fixed the situation.

I've been thinking about the parallels between my two days at home with Henry and my time as the leader of my classroom.

It's not a one-or-the-other situation.

I do believe in over-preparedness. I believe we can be so prepared as to become inflexible.

I also believe that my definition of flexible can be a bit too liberal. I pride myself on flexibility, but I have claimed flexibility when the truth was closer to unprepared.

So how do I become less "flexible." I'm not sure yet. I think there are some environmental factors that come into play. This will be my 3rd year teaching and my 2nd year in this building. We'll go from fourteen sixth-grade Language Arts teachers in my building to four. I have a year with my curriculum, so I'll be closer to the refining stage -- which should last for a long time. For much of this year I've felt like a guy in a cave with no light, feeling my way through it all.

I've read that students rate flexibility high on their list of wants for their teachers. How do you define flexibility? How do you see yourself in that definition?

I've had an iPad for a week and I had a decision to make

2010-06-21T16:55:00.000-05:00

I just realized I made a decision, so I'm going to reflect on it.

I'm borrowing an iPad from my school for the summer (don't tell my principal, I'm not sure if she realizes it's for the whole summer). My wife's family and I just took a week-long vacation to Washington, D.C. and I brought it with (along with a Nook that I'm borrowing from school, too). The first few days were spent driving, then when we got to the house we stayed at in Maryland, we found that the WiFi we were promised was not working.

Before I go any further, and before you stop reading because you're thinking, "I've already read your thoughts on the iPad," you've already read my thoughts on the iPad as a primary device on a large-scale purchase for schools.

Back to the trip. Here's what I found out: the iPad is pretty worthless without Internet access. That's in my opinion. Becky loved it. Well, she loved the iPod game Scramble that she played on the iPad. The iPod game that we've had on our iPod for a year that she's never played. That game. So yes, the iPad is just a giant iPod Touch. Now, as I've said on Twitter, that can be seen as a compliment. I really like my iPod Touch. I can see how it would be great if my iPod Touch were bigger.

Here's where we get back to the decision I just made.

I just got back into the house from mowing the lawn. Becky volunteered to go weed the garden. Henry was laying on the floor working on rolling over. Without thinking, I grabbed my MacBook and laid on the floor next to him. I wanted to go through my Google Reader, mess around on Twitter, and write a blog post (not this one.) As soon as I got on the floor, my MacBook popped up a notification saying my battery was almost out. I went over to unplug my power cord to move it to the other side of the room and saw the iPad sitting there.

The choice was clear: iPad or MacBook. Not as a travel device. Not to edit some videos or even photos. To do exactly what Steve Jobs said makes the iPad "magical and revolutionary." And to do it in the exact place where Steve said the iPad is made to excel: in my home, in my living room.

But the problem --and I know this has the potential to be solved when the iPad gets the iOS4 update in the fall -- is that doing those two things that I do a hundred times per day (plus write a blog post, which I don't do enough) is really clunky on the iPad.

Here's I have found fun on the iPad: uni-tasking. I like the iPad for sitting in bed and reading an ebook. I like it for looking through pictures of Henry. Steve's right: looking at pictures on it is fun. That sounds like a stupid thing to say, but it really is fun. But as an ereader/photo viewer, it's too expensive. And too big. I'd really consider $300 for a 7" model.

I'm heading to ISTE this weekend. I'm going to take the iPad and my MacBook with me (with a spare battery.) I don't see myself bringing the iPad to any of the festivities. I have a smartphone. I have a MacBook. The iPad has neither created nor filled a need in my digital life. It does nothing better than my MacBook and it does nothing quicker than my smartphone. If I'm going to take notes at a session, I'd rather have my MacBook. If I'm going to send off a quick tweet, my Droid is quicker.

But that's me.

I am looking forward to taking the iPad to Arizona when my family celebrates my grandpa's 90th birthday. I think my mom would love the iPad. I think my dad will get a huge kick out of it. He's been looking at netbooks recently as a more portable sidekick to his 17" laptop. I think the iPad would be just about perfect for him.

Becky's 90-year-old aunt wants a computer to keep up with all of us. iPad!

Becky's brother may want to get his four-year-old daughter a computer sometime. iPad!

18-year-old going off to college? I could not recommend an iPad as their only computing device.

As for me, it'll be fun this summer, and I do like having it around. I have a feeling, though, that I won't have any qualms about giving it back when school starts.

I'm just happy to be in the conversation

2010-06-01T21:01:00.000-05:00

Matt posted the 5th episode of our podcast yesterday. Shawn Cornally of Think Thank Thunk fame -- Diff Eq if you're down -- stopped by and stole the show.

The title of this post is something I said during the taping of the podcast. It's true. I've found myself saying stuff like "I don't know" and "I'm just not sure" or "I'm looking to learn from you" during our podcasts. I like that our podcasts aren't focused on teaching something to our listeners. We're just looking to have a conversation.

I also really appreciate what Kate Nowak tweeted:

I agree with Kate about the format. I'm not saying that Matt and I are breaking any new ground or that I'm coming up with novel, useful ideas. But my brain hurts so good when we're done. I also really like the direction we've taken by having guests. Matt is a great host. I feel comfortable in the role of guy-who-talks-too-much-without-saying-much-of-anything.

If you've got an hour to spare, we'd love for you to listen and give us some feedback.

Motivated workshoppers; writers who want to write

2010-05-26T16:30:00.003-05:00

140 sixth through eighth graders converged on a rain-soaked college campus on a Friday morning a month ago for the Young Writers Conference at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa.

I led a session on...drumroll....classroom blogging. I'm starting to get typecast, but I don't mind. I've made peace with my niche for the time-being. I am proud of what our classroom blog has become this year, and I'm really excited with the vision I have for the future of it. The students have pushed me to find and push toward purpose with our blog.

So, the workshops.

I had around ten students for each of my three sessions. The sessions were 45 minutes long and each student had a laptop with Internet access. I used the "workshop model" when putting together the structure for the sessions.

We spent the first 10 minutes on an etherpad brainstorming on three questions (one at a time):

Why write?
Who do we write for?
How do we publish our writing?

First of all, the kids loved the etherpads [1, 2, 3]. Etherpad is one of those technologies that made me go "Whoa!" the first time I used it and it still has that effect on the people I introduce it to. Sitting back and letting the students figure out how not to write over each other and how to respond and build off each other's thoughts was great.

After the brainstorming on the etherpads, I gave students options for the rest of the workshop.

I showed them our classroom blog and gave them the option of reading my students' writing and leaving comments for them.

I showed them the Comments4Kids wiki and told them they could choose to read other students' writing and leave them some comments.

Lastly, I showed them how they could post to a posterous blog I had set up for the day.

Then I turned on some soft music and let them get after it.

*****

I remarked to Becky when I got home that it sure would be nice to teach 10 motivated writers, each of whom had a laptop. The workshop was easy. The kids wanted to be there. They're interested in writing, so they jumped at the chance to read and respond to the writing of their peers.

I was left wondering what I can do to get that kind of motivation from my students.

Are all students going to be motivated for every subject? What can they do to meet us halfway? Is halfway the right goal? What can I do to motivate students who don't like to write?

Let them have choice!

2010-05-21T09:32:00.000-05:00

What happens when you give students choice?

You get sixth grade boys forming a group to write a play.

I've given the students the final two weeks of the school year to write whatever they want. Throughout the period I pull groups to do mini-lessons on different writing skills, mainly from Nancie Atwell's Lessons That Change Writers.

It's amazing to watch this writing time from my viewpoint. The first few days were almost eerily silent. They were pre-writing! The next few days were not silent. Students were finding each other to revise and bounce ideas. It was very natural.

Give them choice!

Is your classroom worth blogging about?

2010-05-21T07:22:00.000-05:00

This morning I tweeted:

Christoper Rogers replied:

It got me thinking, is what they're doing worth blogging about?

I'm not talking about what they're doing being cool enough or digital enough or innovative enough for me to post it to my blog.

I mean the question as a means of personal accountability.

If I opened my room up to the whole world, what would they see?

Current Conversation: Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap

2010-05-19T17:47:00.002-05:00

My building's Comprehensive School Improvement Plan team has been studying Rick and Becky DuFour's book Learning By Doing this school year. Imagine my excitement, then, when I was asked to participate in a Voicethread conversation with the DuFours about differentiation and systemic interventions.

Differentiation is something I struggle with. I buy in 100% that I need to formatively assess my students, analyze that data, then meet my students where they are instructionally. I struggle with knowing how to do that, though.

The idea of systemic interventions is music to my ears. As a rookie teacher, working as teams -- moving from "my students" to "our students"-- is at the top of my list for improving student learning. Systemic interventions is not about passing the buck, it's about gathering the knowledge and skills of all my colleagues and figuring out together the best way to help students.

If any of this is ringing true to you, or if this sounds like a conversation you'd be interested in having, join us.

Embarrassing disclaimer: I'm being financially compensated to participate in the conversation, but it is something I was planning on digging into before I was asked to.

Also -- and this has nothing to do with financial compensation -- this "Current Conversation" title has me thinking that it might make a good feature on the blog. I've been sagging lately in posting and having something regular to post about -- conversations I've been having -- might be a spark. We'll see.

Start the conversation

2010-05-04T15:16:00.001-05:00

This one goes out to my vocal "offline PLN" advocates Matt Townsley and Jerrid Kruse and to all the other folks out there who have ruminated the lack of #edchat-style conversations happening offline.

After school yesterday I went into the math-teacher-across-the-hall's room to grade some essays. We're grading buddies. I sat down to grade and told her I was doing something that I'm against philosophically. I was giving students points for turning in their rough drafts and revision note cards. I'm a believer that if you take those parts of the writing process seriously, it will show in your final draft. We talked about that idea for a bit, then got back to work.

A few minutes later, she asked a philosophical question about grading, prefacing it with, "I like asking you these kinds of things..."

Success! She doesn't like asking "these kinds of things" because I know the answers. She likes asking because I ask those kinds of questions.

If we're not having the kind of head-in-the-clouds, philosophical conversations with our colleagues that we do online, we only have ourselves to blame. If we're not having those kinds of conversations, it's because we're not starting them.

.....

Well, she just came in asking if I'm coming over to grade. I am. Looking forward to a great conversation, too.

Make it memorable

2010-04-28T21:12:00.000-05:00

I'm the youngest guy on my softball team. Most of the guys are 5ish years older than me, but a couple are in their lower 40s. Note: we're good. And yes, I take a bit of pride in playing on a good softball team.

We have a new guy on our team this season and I heard a conversation between the new guy, age 32, and our 39-year-old shortstop.

Shortstop: Did I hear you're a Valley grade?

New guy: Yup. Class of '97.

SS: Nice. So back when we were good [at baseball]. I graduated in '91.

NG: I started in centerfield on our state title team in '95.

SS: Man, I remember when North came to play us my senior year. We were #2 and they were #7. All the papers expected them to beat us though.

He went on to retell the story of that game for us inning by inning like he played it last night.

It just got me thinking. Am I creating any opportunities for my students to create memories they will relive 20 years from now?

I don't know if that's a good goal to have, but it sure sounded like he learned something worth remembering that night.

Standard 8 Artifacts and Reflection [Portfolio]

2010-04-28T15:58:00.001-05:00

Iowa Teaching Standard 8 states:

Fulfills professional responsibilities established by the school district.

An email with a parent regarding student work is an example of how I have collaborated with students, families, colleagues, and communities to enhance student learning.

Another artifact of collaboration with students, parents, educators, and the globe is the Comments4Kids cooperative. Students interact with each others' blog posts and leave comments for other students around the world. [student link] [comments4kids link]

Standard 7 Artifacts and Reflection [Portfolio]

2010-04-28T15:31:00.000-05:00

Iowa Teaching Standard 7 states:

Engages in professional growth.

The time I spend reflecting and conversing both here on this blog [link] and on Twitter [link] are artifacts of my reflective nature. I also maintain ongoing professional conversations in leadership teams in our building and with hallway conversations colleagues that I wish I had recorded.

I have also been privileged to present sessions at three conferences this school year. [link] The sessions centered on using free digital tools in the Language Arts classroom.

I'm done totaling my rubrics

2010-04-27T21:20:00.001-05:00

Update: Jennifer Borgioli did me a huge favor and analyzed my rubric. My head is still spinning from her analysis.

.....

I use rubrics to assess writing assignments. I stress to the students that they are checklists; what's on the rubric is a list of minimums. I want them to take what's on there and blow me away with their creativity.

I know some folks aren't into rubrics -- I'm looking at you, Joe Bower -- but they work as an easy way for me to give specific feedback at this point. This summer I'm going to look into a way to use Diigo as an "invisible ink" to give contextual feedback. I'm pretty pumped about that system, but it's just too late in the year to go through the setup now.

The one fundamental change I can make with rubrics, though is to do away with the total. Taking the categories and adding them up actually makes the score less informative.

Instead, I'll put each category in as a separate assignment, weighted evenly, in PowerSchool that way I can quickly see which students struggled on which categories and add notes that reference that specific skill that was assessed in the rubric.

Eventually, I'd like sit down at the beginning of the quarter, decide what skills will be assessed and put them in the grade book as separate assignments. Then, each time each skill is assessed, that one assignment can be updated. That's just my current vision of standards-based grading in the Language Arts classroom.

If the idea is for grades to be informative, leaving a rubric broken into parts is one small step I can make toward that goal.

I'm interested in your thoughts on this. Will what I'm proposing make any difference? Do you use rubrics? How do you put them in the grade book?

I think I thought of an analogy for Wikipedia as a source

2010-04-27T14:01:00.000-05:00

I had students who cited "the Internet" as a source on a Social Studies project.

I had others who cited "Google." Getting closer, though still way off.

Then I had someone cite "Wikipedia." Still not there.

Yet another cited "Wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient Greek."

I talked to them today about why I don't consider a Wikipedia entry a source, and along the way I came up with an analogy that I think really works. It clicked for my students, at least.

When we started the project, we brought a cart of books on Greece to our classroom These were our sources. (We also had encyclopedias and laptops, but they don't fit as neatly into the analogy.) I asked my students to give a thumbs-up if they considered the following things to be sources they could cite in a paper:

All the information in the world: thumbs-down
The school: thumbs-down
The library: thumbs-down
The cart of books on Greece from the library: thumbs-down
A specific book from the cart: thumbs-up

Here are the analogies and I'm interested in whether or not you agree:

All the information in the world :: The Internet
The school :: Google
The library :: Wikipedia
The cart of books :: Wikipedia Entry
A specific book from the cart :: Reference on a Wikipedia Entry

These analogies aren't meant to be exact matches (they are analogies) and the one that really sticks out to me as needing revision is The school :: Google, but the point I wanted to make to them was that a Wikipedia entry is just a summary of a collection of sources. It's a jumping off point to sources.

What do you think? Am I way off? Spot on?

Standard 6 Artifacts and Reflection [Portfolio]

2010-04-26T20:42:00.000-05:00

Iowa Teaching Standard 6 states:

Demonstrates competence in classroom management

By establishing clear expectations with my students at the beginning of the year, my classes were able to produce videos showing tutorials of those expectations. [link]

I created tutorials for our blog in the Help Center [link] to model the learning I do outside the classroom.

I prepare substitute teacher lesson plans that help keep class running smoothly in my absence.

Standard 5 Artifacts and Reflection [Portfolio]

2010-04-26T20:13:00.000-05:00

Iowa Teaching Standard 5 states:

Uses a variety of methods to monitor student learning.

Along with traditional exit cards and other anecdotal forms of formatively assessing my students, I use my skills-based journaling to monitor their learning. [link]

To communicate my expectations to both parents and students, I post writing rubrics on our class blog. An example of this is the Opinion Essay rubric. [link]

Standard 4 Artifacts and Reflection [Portfolio]

2010-04-26T19:33:00.000-05:00

Iowa Teaching Standard 4 states:

Uses strategies to deliver instruction that meets the multiple learning needs of students.

I have shown my flexibility and responsiveness in adjusting instruction to meet student needs by creating a revision policy for writing that was eventually adopted by the Language Arts team. [link] This policy helps students develop a mindset of continuing their learning even after an assignment's due date.

I work to connect students' prior knowledge, life experiences, and interests in the instructional process. One example of this is a brainstorm of tutorials my students could create. Some of these ideas came to fruition as videos students posted to our blog. [link]

Standard 3 Artifacts and Reflection [Portfolio]

2010-04-26T18:43:00.001-05:00

Iowa Teaching Standard 3 states:

Demonstrates competence in planning and preparing for instruction.

Our classroom blog [link] has given me the opportunity to engage my students in conversations around their writing. The writing they have composed maintains a longer life-span on the blog because students comment and respond to comments on their posts long after they are due. They continue to analyze their writing after the final draft has been turned in.

Along with students posting essays on the blog, we have "open threads" from time-to-time where students converse in the comments of a blog post about a topic determined during class time. It's a way for students to extend the classroom discussion. [link]

To help students monitor class time, I often project the Online Stopwatch onto our whiteboard. [link]

Standard 2 Artifacts and Reflection [Portfolio]

2010-04-26T16:11:00.003-05:00

Iowa Teaching Standard 2 states:

Demonstrates competence in content knowledge appropriate to the teaching position.

This is a picture of a note a veteran teacher left me after observing my classroom. In it, she noted the engagement of the students in their learning and the variety of activities used in the class period. She also referenced the graphic organizer that was used.

Along with the note from an observing teacher, the skills-based journaling referenced in my reflection for Standard 1 is an artifact of Standard 2. [link] The data gathered through their journaling aids in making appropriate instructional decisions.

On April 1, 2010, I led a session at the Iowa Middle Level Educators conference in Des Moines. The session was titled "Our Students Won't Research the Way We Did." I have posted the slides I used for the session on my blog and embedded them here. [link]

Standard 1 Artifacts and Reflection [Portfolio]

2010-04-26T16:00:00.000-05:00

Iowa Teaching Standard 1 states:

Demonstrates ability to enhance academic performance and support for implementation of the school district's student achievement goals.

I have used what I call a skills-based journaling system to provide timely feedback to students on the reading skills we are covering. [link] This system has made it easy for me to differentiate by giving me at-a-glance information on which students have shown mastery of which concepts and which students need reteaching.

I have also maintained our classroom blog to communicate with students, parents, and our world-wide community. Students use the blog to publish essays to an authentic audience. I use the blog to publish announcements and updates on assignments. [link]