Cybercoaching--the Way We Should All Teach

This week we've been reading about cybercoaching, which I've really been looking forward to. My new job will entail a lot of coaching--F2F and cyber, so I enjoyed hearing what the experts had to say. I'm particularly taken with the idea of the regular checkins--that's an idea I plan to take with me for sure! Getting those regular checkins from your students allows you to make subtle adjustments along the way. I once attended a workshop from a teacher who had designed her biology class so that students could meet all curricular requirements, but could use different learning styles to do so. She had daily checkins with her students to see if they needed to move to a different "track." We should all strive to do that.

Bloom, Part Two

Microsoft Word - Assessment taxonomy - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Microsoft Word - Assessment taxonomy

Woo-hooo!!!! After help from many class members, the instructor, and Googling like a madwoman, I finally did it!! I figured out how to convert my Microsoft Word document to a PDF and get the whole thing loaded onto my blog!!! Yay for me!! And yay for this nifty application I found--Scribd. Solved my problem in just a few clicks. Dontcha love technology??

And for the real reason I'm posting...

This is a table showing just a few activities from a plan for a journalism class. Many of the activities fall at the lower thinking levels, and that's not a good thing in my book. I want my journalists to be able to analyze and evaluate!! But that's a post for a different blog. If this was a class I was designing, I would definitely rework some activities to not only make them applicable for online learning, like using discussion boards and web sites for content, but I would bump up the thinking levels by asking students to analyze multmedia sites for true and accurate reporting styles, for instance.

Final Project

I think I have a plan for my final project in this class. I'm going to continue in the development process from an assignment in another class and work towards creating an online staff development class on incorporating technology into the junior high classroom. The students would experience different Web 2.0 tools and develop assignments they could use in their classrooms the next day. What do you think?

Kathy

Bloom's Taxonomy

After reading up/reviewing Bloom's Taxonomy, I found this circle that really makes it understandable and usable. It is from Clark, B. (2002). Growing up gifted:Developing the potential of children at home and at school.Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall and was found at http://www.apa.org/ed/new_blooms.html. My first favorite part about the circle was the active verbs that match up with the various levels of thinking. However, when I came back to it I realized that the learning coach in me liked the outer circle the best. It's concrete, hands-on examples of how to use the various levels of thinking in the classroom.

Can you tell we've been talking about Bloom's in class this week? :) It's just as necessary in online classes as in F2F to move towards higher-level thinking. However, this circle has made me think of it more as a continuum than a timeline. Perhaps it's the master teacher who has developed the ability to move back and forth between the sections of the circle in order to teach and then re-teach a concept.

Team Assessment Project

One of the assignments this week was to work together with a group of people to create a toolbox of online assessment applications we might want to use. I enjoyed getting to see other people's perspectives on softwares, but it was most interesting seeing the interpersonal dynamics come into play. Everyone got their part of the assignment done in time, but everyone is not necessarily on the same time schedule. Overall, I think it was a valuable experience.

Online Discussions as a Form of Assessment

I've been thinking this week about all the different ways we assess our students, both F2F and online. In the Hyde/Clayton/Booth article we read this week one sentence in particular stood out to me. "Flexible delivery implies greater individualisation in learning and a stronger emphasis on a learner centred approach. (Hyde, Clayton, Booth, 2004.) I think it's fairly accepted among most educators that we want a learner-centered classroom and an individualized plan for our students. However, it has been my experience that skill-based instructors are often among the last to adopt this philosophy.

The trends that the researchers said emerged after they did their research are the ones I would assume--and hope!--would show up, especially the trend of "using different sources of evidence of knowledge and skills that underpin competency. (Hyde, Clayton, Booth, 2004.) Skill-based instructors have specific abilities that they are trying to develop in their students, much like content instructors have specific concepts that they're trying to teach. Having a flexible curriculum that correlates to desired indicators is valuable no matter what you teach.

I've done a lot of thinking about this graphic and how it relates to my new job. I have a sense that I will be spending a lot of time in this cycle; many teachers get stuck in step one and two, but never make it to three or four. My sense is that following all four steps in the cycle is how you get your students to the all-powerful AYP level.

I've learned a lot this week about technologies out there to help with this. Inspiration is da' BOMB and I've already used numerous times to plan out workshops for new teacher orientation. I'm playing around with Camtasia and Gliffy as well. I'm going to have quite the toolbox to impress my new boss this August! :)

Well, I'm finally learning Inspiration software. Why, oh why did I not know about this before? I've always concept mapped projects on paper to get my thoughts straight, but this beats pencil and paper hands down! I really appreciate being able to see my thoughts graphically represented--it serves as a great way to double check that I mean what I think I mean. I can see so many ways that concept mapping could be used in the classroom, both by teachers and by students. I will enjoy exploring this idea more in the upcoming months.