Post-Reflection

Originally when I chose my teaching partner, I was looking for a few things in particular. First, I wanted an elementary teacher since I currently work in a middle school. Therefore, I have some experience in collaborating with teachers on a smaller scale at this level and wanted to expand my age range. Second, I wanted a teacher who would share past lessons and be willing to make some changes for the good of the students. With this, I was able to pair up Elizabeth with the understanding that she has not incorporated technology into her classroom and feels uncomfortable doing so. I was glad that she was honest about this up front so I was aware of her hesitations. This helped me consider her current position and gave me an idea of how to approach the situation.

After looking over all of her documents in reference to the animal research unit, I made a list of possible enhancements/additions to be made to the unit. These ideas were based off of the GLCEs that she already covered as well as additional GLCEs and some METS. A couple of these included computer work which made Elizabeth nervous. On top of my ideas, she came up with a few as well – some of which branched off of my ideas while others were new ideas altogether. After some discussion, we decided on which changes we would make. I was able to get some of the computer-related ideas included, but not all of them.

As the classroom teacher, she did have the ultimate vote over the LMS in deciding what was included in the unit. Elizabeth has had great success with this unit in the past and she is proud of how she has taught it. So I decided that I would rather add a few small changes to several of the lessons as opposed to reworking all of her ideas. My thought was that if this collaboration experience is successful, I may be able to include more critical thinking and technological ideas in future lessons.

I feel that this process is important when entering into any collaboration relationship so as to not make the teacher feel defensive of their previously used methods and lessons. As collaborative relationships grow, the LMS can begin making even more suggestions and teaching more lessons once that foundation has been established. If the LMS tries to do too much in the beginning it may deter that teacher, and maybe others, from future collaboration.

For us, the virtual planning of using email for a majority of our communication was our only option. We live 2 hours away from each other and have different schedules so meeting in person or even phone conversations would not have been as convenient as email. However, this did prevent us from having “conversations” which would be helpful in future collaborations. Since the LMS would likely be working in the school with the teacher they are collaborating with, hopefully there would be some face-to-face interaction throughout the planning period and thereafter. But due to scheduling issues, this email option may be a common method even within school buildings. Therefore, I am glad that I have experienced it in a long distance situation even though it would mostly be down the hall in a school setting.

The idea of the wiki was valuable; however, using it with my teacher partner was not as easy as I had thought. Since we discussed most of our ideas through email, we would make the necessary changes and have the other person review the final document. From here, I would post the document to the wiki in the agreed upon location. It would have been difficult for us to make suggestions on the wiki to each other without including a note of explanation for the other person. We felt that it would be easier for us to email attachments for review and make comments either within the document or within the body of the email before sending it back to the other partner. Therefore, a majority of the wiki editing/posting was done by me as a way to compile our final documents as opposed to using it as an editing site for our team.

Overall, this project was a great stepping-stone into collaborating with classroom teachers. I understand that I was able to select my own teaching partner with whom I already had a personal relationship with and that this is not always the case in the schools. Also, not all teachers will be interested in working with the LMS on units or lessons. While I did not encounter this particular situation, having some successful collaboration experience will help guide me in how to best approach this teacher(s) in my future career as an LMS.

Assessment

In response to the higher order critical thinking skills for our unit, I used the template found at http://www.med.wright.edu/aa/facdev/_Files/PDFfiles/QuestionTemplates.pdf to help generate ideas. Below are what I have decided to include and the category in which it fits:

• Write a story about what it would be like to spend a day with your animal. (inference)
• Would you want to have your animal as a pet? Why or why not? (evaluation)
• Pair up with a friend and compare/contrast your animals (comparison)
• Trivia/Bingo about animals and all about books (recall)

While I have not yet developed formal lesson plans for these ideas, I feel that they will fit in and be an appropriate mix of skills. These lessons will take the student away from simply researching and writing their information into sentences. They will allow the students to take that information that they have collected and use it further.

The story about spending a day with their animal will include facts like where they live and what they eat (research) but will be enhanced with their imagination and what they think it would be like to spend a day with this animal they have learned so much about. I have a rubric which will be used to evaluate the writing.

Along the same lines, the students will need to make a decision as to whether or not their animal would make a good pet. Of course, a yes or no answer will not be the end of it because they will then need to explain why or why not. Their reasoning for their decision will be based on what they have learned. I have a rubric which will be used to evaluate the writing.

Comparing and contrasting animals would get the students talking and sharing information about their animal. From here, they will need to decide what about their two animals is the same and what is different. This information will be written in a Venn diagram to help visualize the comparison. This lesson will not produce an actual grade but is meant to promote discussion among the students.

Creating a basic trivia/bingo game about the animals and “all about” books would be one of the culminating activities. The questions would come from what the students included in their book and PowerPoint slide so all students will have heard/seen the information about all of the animals. It can be planned like as a celebration for the finishing of the unit and the prizes can be something with animals (bookmarks, pencils, etc.)

In the beginning, during the general planning period, I asked Elizabeth how she has assessed her students in the past. Her response is as follows:

“I check their work on daily basis so that if someone is getting off track I get them right back on track. I collect their research each day to check for misspelled words, so as not to have to check all their papers in one night. It also allows me to check their progress. We’re all on the same step each day. In the past we gave letter grades. I’ll attach the note I sent home to parents. I would staple it to all of their research and then of course their final book. I have the parents come in one afternoon and they get in groups with the children and listen to a few students share their books and talk about how they did their research. It’s really cute and the students enjoy it and the parents are always impressed with the culminating project. This year we do not give letter grades. I will revise the letter at the end of the unit and can send you the new one if you’d like it.”

From the information Elizabeth shared with me, she did not have any formal grading assessments for this unit. Rather, she used a letter that was sent home to the parents at the start of the unit that listed what would be expected of each student. A graded letter would accompany the final project for the parents to view as well. Since this letter was directed towards the parents, I decided to also include something for the students to use as guidance throughout their work.

Using the letter that Elizabeth mentions, I created a checklist for the final book project. I also created checklists for the two new additions of the magazine feature article and the PowerPoint presentation. As we work on each project, the students will be given a checklist to help focus their work. These checklists are simple and easy for the students to use as they work through their projects.

For grading and evaluation purposes, I also created rubrics for each section of the unit. The numbers used on the rubrics correspond to the numbering system that Elizabeth’s school uses on their report cards. In the end, the numbers the students score on the multiple rubrics will be averaged in order to determine a final, overall score for this unit.

The parents will be informed of their student’s progress through the letter and rubrics. Several parents also choose to come into the classroom for the sharing day at the end of the unit where they can view their child reading their book and presenting their PowerPoint.

As for the principal, inviting them into the classroom for the final sharing day would be beneficial for all involved. The students who are already proud of their hard work would be excited to share their products with the principal. In return, the principal will be able to see how much these students have accomplished with their research and the different ways they were able to present their findings.

To help preserve and extend news of this unit, I plan to take pictures throughout the process at all of the different steps leading up to the final products. In the end, I may create my own “all-about” book about this animal research unit or present it in a similar format to help show parents, administrators, board members and the community what this second grade class accomplished.

Also, the local library is regularly looking for ideas for their showcases. I would contact the appropriate person to sign up for a time to display the books, articles and hopefully have a computer monitor or digital screen to loop the PowerPoint presentations for the patrons of the library to view.

Getting the word out and visually being able to see the final products of these students is essential for the community, administration and especially the students. Seeing their work on display for others to view will add to their confidence and pride in their future projects and encourage them to continue their hard work in school and beyond.