{KS} More than ABC & 123

Make a trailer about your learning beliefs.

While I'm not sure if this ended up looking or feeling like a trailer, here are my thoughts.

What I Believe About Learning

On a reflective note, if I were to go about this process again, I would have been more thorough in checking for picture quality and size. My apologies for the blurry images.

{KS} An update to prove I'm still here

I'm behind. Try as I might, I am in the abyss of reading, projecting, working, grading, attempting sleep, and cannot seem to catch up. This is real life. And consequently, the life I agreed to when I signed up for MALT, a program that was clearly very different from the others. One that I am thankful and excited to be a part of everyday.

But I'm behind.

Dewey (who alone one could spend forever and a day processing and mulling over), Smith, action research review, and so on and so forth.

How am I responding?

Quite well actually.

Why?

Perspective. Joy in what I am doing (yes, even when reading Dewey).  And I have a fall break next week.

Worth it? Absolutely.

{KS} AR Logic Model-Staff Development and Design Thinking

{KS} Topic 4: Action Research Ideas

The world of education is overflowing with research. Research that tells us how individuals learn best. Research that speaks to the importance of differentiation, personalization, applied meaning and realistic goals.

The world of Staff Development (SD) or Professional Development (PD) is overflowing with resources. However the majority of it fails to recognize the above research.

Recently I read Change by Design, by Tim Brown and was struck by the applicability of Design Theory to education, specifically SD and PD.

This year, I am working part time in the classroom teaching 8th grade Language Arts and part time as the Technology Coach/Mentor for my school site and district.

Facilitating PD/SD for a staff that I have worked with for 10 years is something I am excited about but am also being very careful about. Historically our staff, like most school staffs out there, have sat through pretty terrible or seemingly meaningless training. I want to avoid that. I want to identify the needs of the staff and plan PD/SD around those needs. This is where Design Theory comes into play. My Action Research will be to apply Design Theory principals to PD/SD.

In turn, it is my hope that teachers will not only have learned something, but will find themselves excited and feel supported as the PD they experience throughout the course of the year will be differentiated, personalized, meaningful and tied to their attainable goals.

{KS} Topic 3: AR Force Field Analysis

While there are many factors that can be considered forces for change and forces against change, the following Force Field Analysis identifies the major forces on both sides in relation to my Action Research topic. The change desired or proposal is to facilitate teacher training with the outcome: Teachers effective and efficient use of technology in their lesson/curriculum and communication. It is important to recognize the factors on both sides in order to honestly identify what needs to take place in order to achieve the desired outcome.

{KS} Topic 1: The place I spend my days

I work at a K-8 elementary charter school in Northern California. It is a small family friendly school that attracts families from the surrounding communities. The school has been recognized as a California Distinguished School and has always scored well on state testing. The combination of the academic successes and family friendly atmosphere has made it a highly sought after placement. Typically, each grade level has a waiting list of 10+ students hoping for an opening at their grade level. There are two classes per grade level, Kindergarten through 8th grade as well as a Transitional Kindergarten class, totaling approximately 420 students. The staff is comprised of 21 Certificated teachers including Special Ed and P.E., 6 Instructional Aides, school secretary/ administrative assistant and Principal. The nurse, speech pathologist, ELL teacher and psychologist are all employed part time to serve the needs of the site.

The school offers an after school program for homework help and intervention 2 days a week for one hour. The computer lab is open daily before school for student use.
Teachers meet weekly to collaborate with their grade level partner to ensure consistency. PLC teams, grades K-3, 4-5, and 6-8 meet two times per month to collaborate and discuss needs, intervention and enrichment based on student data. This year, the staff will be meeting once a month for staff development focused on 21st Century Skills and technology integration.

As of the end of September 2014, each student, grades 3-8 will be issued an iPad for their use. An iPad cart of 30 iPads will be shared between each grade level, 2-K.  Additionally, there will be 2 Mac laptop labs available for checkout for larger projects that cannot be completed on the iPads. Teachers each have a laptop and are varied in their technology comfort levels. Depending on their level of comfort, some teachers are more game for trying new programs and experimenting with different technologies than others. All, however, are willing to learn and use the hardware and resources provided with training.

Curriculum is primarily all digital grades 6-8 and is becoming more so in the lower grades as well. The school is a project based environment and therefore the technology has been essential for research and creation.  The computer lab and library are utilized 1-2 times a week per classroom teacher for whatever project or lesson they are working on.

For the most part, it is clear that teachers love their job and it spills over into their classrooms, apparent to students, fellow teachers, and parents.