Inquiry and Reflection

Field Study Proposal

Name: Jenny Hughes

Date: October 11th, 2014

 

Inquiry Question:

How can I use technology to learn how to co-plan, co-assess, and co-teach a multi-age and multi-curriculum course?

 

Subquestions:

• How do I co-plan with a part time teacher?

• How do I co-assess a multi-curriculum course?

• How do I make sure each lesson has an “access point” for each student?

• How do I plan units for a multi-age and cross-curricular course and ensure that we address all of the “big ideas”?

• How can I use technology to collect and organize evidence during my field study?

• Can I develop an “online desk” that I can continue to use throughout my career?

• Can I teach my students how to use Google drive?

• Will it be easier to have the kids share their completed work on the drive or still print it out and keep it in their binders?

• Will this be something I can still use even if I have a team-teacher who is not on board with technology?

 

Why is this a topic of interest and significance for you:

Last spring when I was thinking about how to present my field study I wasn’t sure what to do. I had used Prezi as my baseline portfolio and I didn’t like the idea of using PowerPoint. My dad, who is 60, can use PowerPoint. I just felt like I needed to keep everything I was working on together, not just separate documents. I ended up making a website. I like being able to reflect of where I was or what I was thinking and see the growth in a visual way.  The reason why I want to use technology for all aspects of developing, creating, co-planning, and co-assessing is because…why not? I have been around just long enough to have a few big binders of course curriculum materials. I hate them and rarely use them. I have since put most of that stuff online or found the digital equivalences.  I really like the idea of being able to access an “online” unit/course plan mapped out on a calendar that flows with the online assignment “binder.”  I just don’t see why I would not try to make an effort to use technology to my advantage and make all the cumbersome aspects of teaching obsolete. I don’t like photocopying, lugging around huge teacher binders, hand scribing and creating a hardcopy of my marks to then spend time updating them online. My goal for the remained of this diploma program is to develop an online professional “desk” with all the tools at my reach.

 

Educational purposes and rationale:

I teach at Sea to Sky Alternative School in Squamish. My days are spent with the most sensitive young people who have lived through diverse and sometimes traumatic experiences.  I want to model personal growth, the joy of learning, and perseverance to my students.

 

Our school has students from grade nine through to grade twelve, and we also have a number of Adult Dogwood students who attend our school. This year I am with the junior group all day, every day, all year. That means I am teaching English. Social Studies, Planning, Art, Foods, PE, Math and Science. I team-teach with two different teachers and we have created half-day sessions.  The “Humanities” courses together for half of the day, and the “Math and Science” courses the other half. The junior group is a mix of grade 9 and 10 students and there couldn’t be more of a gap between their academic skill levels, mental health, maturity, time away from school, economic status, or family/community support. 

                    

Readings & Resources: Academic Articles- from SFU EBSCO:

• Co-Teaching With Strategy Instruction- Greg Conderman and Laura R. Heidi

• Co-Teaching in a Teacher Education Classroom: Collaboration, Compromise, and Creativity- Kevin J. Graziano & Lori A. Navarrete

• Promoting Health and Emotional Well-being in Your Classroom- Page, Randy M., Page, Tana S. 2015

• Beyond Inclusion: A Mindset, An Attitude, A Repertoire of Strategies- Randy Cranston, Faye Brownlie,

• Practical Strategies for Challenging Collaborations- Sharon Cramer, Jan Stiver

• 10 Tips for Using Co-Planning Time More Efficiently- Wendy W. Murawski

• Case Studies in Co-Teaching in the Content Areas: Successes, Failures, and Challenges- MARGO A. MASTROPIERI, THOMAS E. SCRUGGS, JANET GRAETZ, JENNIFER NORLAND,WALENA GARDIZI, AND KIMBERLY MCDUFFIE

 

Technology resources:

• Google Drive

• 30 Day Challenge-daily videos

• Awesome note app

• Google Calendar (shared with Josie)

• icalendar (and Google calendar sync)

• My sd48schools Google account

 

Other Resources:

• Cory Hartling- A teacher at my school and a good friend. He also happens to be the “tech” guy at our school. It’s not really a role, but he is just the most knowledgeable with technology hiccups. He is always on the pulse of new apps, websites, or organizational programs. I have one collaboration day a month and I plan on checking in with him then.

 

Capacities: My field study is all about exploring new ways to plan, assess, and track the personalized learning and development of my junior group.

 

• EXPLORE, DEVELOP, and IMPLEMENT: Teaching and assessment practices to support the learning of all students.

 

• SITUATE: The student at the center in co-learning, co-planning, and co- teaching pedagogical pathways.

 

Themes: Below are themes that I feel are integrated into my field study.  I am using existing technology, but learning how to use it in a way that changes and improves my teaching practice. I am always striving to keep myself and y students working with purpose and being present in new learning’s.

 

• Using existing and emerging educational technologies to enhance teaching and learning.

 

• Moving toward collaboration, purpose, focus and engagement.

 

Inquiry activities and Strategies for documentation:

These are items that I need to learn, create, develop, represent and reflect upon in my professional website.

 

• Google Drive shared Junior Humanities folder

• Assignments folder- like an online binder that both Josie and I can access and edit.

• Tracking Excel Document- This will also be a shared document that compartmentalizes courses, is a log for daily write/discussion assessment, and formative feedback.  

• Google Mail

• Parental email conversation log- in Google mail we will have shared folders designated for each student that contains the evidence of any parent/teacher emails.

 

Support system:

• Josie Moore- She is the teacher partner I chose to start this with because she is new to the school, open minded in regards to technology, and has similar level tech-skills.

• Ryan Massey + Cory Hartling- All of our staff meetings use Google Drive and Google Hangouts. This is because our Principal has moved to Pemberton for the year and it’s a very easy way to share/document.  Ryan and Cory have also just finished their Master’s and they are switched on to “change” to work better not harder.

•  SFU colleagues and mentors- Teacher’s who are currently teaching and taking the same course as myself. These are the people I need to be collaborating and talking with!

 

Representing / Sharing Strategies:

1.     Screen shots from my awesomenote app on my phone.

2.    Screenshots from my Google drive. (Maybe I can embed it into my website?)

3.    Screenshots or embed my Google Calendar into my website.

4.    When presenting I could also log into my Google Drive and show the different things I had to learn to be able to use it as a tool.

5.    I have my reflective journal on my website already and will continue to add to it.

6.   Screen shot my different shared folders and add to journal post.

7.    Reflection and evidence from teaching the students how to use Google Drive and document how that evolves.

8.   All of the above will be included into my website, represented in a beautiful way, and easy to update!