Expanding the Boundaries of Teaching and Learning

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Expanding the Boundaries of Teaching and Learning

• Graduate Level Course
• Salem State College/Northeast Consortium for
  Staff Development
• NE 9994
• August 25, 2008

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Goals for Day 1-August 25, 2008

• Solve technological and logistical issues
• Construct cohort relationships
• Present course description and expectations
• Develop norms for course
• Begin to understand web literacy
• Identify current areas of need and areas of
  expertise
• Create personal web sites (if time)
• Discuss the need to transform classrooms and
  schools (if time)
• Evaluate Day 1 and Next Steps

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Thoughts

• Risk more than others think is safe.
• Care more than others think is wise.
• Dream more than others think is practical.
• Expect more than others think is possible.
• Unknown

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• The future belongs to a very different kind of
  mind - creators and empathizers, pattern
  recognizers, and meaning makers. These people -
  artists, inventors, designers, storytellers,
  caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers -
  will now reap societys richest rewards and share
  its greatest joys.
• Daniel Pink
  A Whole New Mind

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• You actually want to become really adaptable.
  You want constantly to acquire new skills,
  knowledge, and expertise that enable you
  constantly to be able to create value.Being
  adaptable in a flat world, knowing how to learn
  how to learn, will be one of the most important
  assets any worker can have, because job churn
  will come faster, because innovation will happen
  faster.
• Thomas Friedman
• The World is Flat

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T-Shirt Activity

• Take a newsprint and marker
• Make a t-shirt design that best describes you as
  a person and include what you did this summer
• Do not use words in your design.
• You have 25 minutes to complete the task.
• A pair will present at a time to the whole group

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Activity-The Talking Stick

• Take a few minutes to think about what you did
  both personally and professionally this summer.
  Be prepared to share with the entire cohort.

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Objectives of Course

• To educate teachers and administrators about the
  need to integrate 21st Century Skills into the
  classroom.
• To improve use of technology to achieve
  curricular goals.
• To give teachers additional strategies to
  transform their classrooms to a more
  student-centered, constructivist approach that
  integrates available technologies.
• To create a district where students are not only
  consumers of information, but producers as well.
  To create schools where students are empowered to
  construct their education, become expert managers
  of information, and build relationships within
  the classroom, and the school, but around the
  world.

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Goals of Course

• To develop a cohort of teachers and
  administrators who are willing to transform their
  classrooms and schools into 21st Century
  laboratories where students become knowledge
  generators and teachers become knowledge
  facilitators.
• To improve the use of technological applications
  and project based learning to achieve our goals.
• To create a district where students are not only
  consumers of information, but producers as well.
  To create schools where students are empowered to
  construct their education, become expert managers
  of information, and build relationships within
  the classroom, and the school, but around the
  world.

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Course Requirements

• 6 Graduate Course Credits or 135 PDPs
• Attendance and Participation
• Only 2 Absences are allowed to receive Graduate
  Credit or 135 PDP
• Participate in all discussions and activities
• Online coursework
• Complete three online courses from November
  Learning
• Webliteracy for Educators (Due by August 26)
• Blogging for Educators (Due by September 15)
• Advanced Webliteracy for Educators (Due by
  December 1)
• Attendance at a Technology Conference
• Dates (between June 1, 2008 and March 30, 2009
  and conference suggestions will be provided)

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Course Requirements (Continued)

• Required Readings
• The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman (2007).
• A Whole New Mind Why Right-Brainers Will Rule
  the Future, Daniel H. Pink (2006).
• Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, Will Richardson (2006).
• Empowering Students With Technology, Alan
  November (2001).
• Web Literacy for Educators, Alan November (2008).
• Complete all assignments and post them to your
  November Learning blog.

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Assignments

• All assignments should be posted on your blog by
  the due date indicated.
• Exception Web Based Courses
• Each assignment is worth 100 points unless
  otherwise noted.
• Assignment 1 Complete the online course,
  Webliteracy for Educators, from November
  Learning.
• Due August 26, 2008 (This assignment is worth
  5 of your grade).

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Assignments

• Assignment 2 Complete the online course,
  Blogging for Educators, from November Learning.
  Password and User Name will be given to
  participants in June.
• Due September 15, 2008 (This assignment is
  worth 5 of your grade).

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Assignments

• Assignment 3 Read or listen to The World is Flat
  and critically analyze the Partnership for 21st
  Century Skills Website (http//www.21stcentur
  yskills.org/ ). Answer the following question in
  detail as a blog post
• Your Superintendent/Principal has read The
  World is Flat and is deeply concerned that the
  district/school is graduating students who are
  not globally competitive. He/She has asked you to
  produce a draft list of recommendations for their
  consideration of what the district/school can do
  to prepare students for a 21st Century Global
  Society. Your memo is in two parts
• 1. What can the district/school do to take
  advantage of a Flat World?
• 2. How can the district prepare students to be
  successful in a Flat World?
• Due Post it to your blog by October 1, 2008
• (This assignment will count as 10 of final
  grade.)

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Assignments

• Assignment 4 All course participants will create
  a Weblog on November Learning and will be
  instructed on how to add to and maintain their
  sites during the second class sessions. In
  addition, participants will be shown how to
  develop an RSS (Really Simple Syndication). You
  will be expected to add, at a minimum, one blog
  post a week along the lines of but not limited to
  the following
• Reflections on reading
• Experiences at school
• Sharing of Lessons
• Interesting Websites or Blogs
• In addition, course participants should maintain
  an RSS with a minimum of 5 blogs (from outside
  the cohort) and plan on offering one comment per
  week on one of your classmates blogs.
• Due September 16, 2008 April 15, 2009 (This
  assignment will count as 20 of final grade. You
  will post to your blog each week for 30 weeks
  (including the assignment posts below.) Each post
  will be worth a maximum of 5 points for a total
  of 150 points for this component.)

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Assignments

• Assignment 5 Read A Whole New Mind and listen to
  the podcast interviews that Alan November did
  with the author, Daniel Pink. (Links on iTunes
  via November Learning Website http//novemberlearn
  ing.com/ ) Answer the following in a blog post
• Look at your school/classroom through the lens
  of how Pink describes the changes that are
  occurring. What do you need to change in your
  classroom and school to prepare your students for
  a right-brained world?
• Due October 15, 2008 (This assignment will count
  as 5 of final grade.)

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Assignments

• Assignment 6 Using one of the Google
  Applications or Wikispaces, design and implement
  a way to change how you would instruct your
  students/staff. Post your experience and example
  on your blog.
• Due November 15, 2008 (This assignment will
  count as 5 of final grade.)
• Assignment 7 Complete the online course,
  Advanced Webliteracy for Educators, from November
  Learning.
• Due December 1, 2008 (This assignment will
  count as 5 of final grade.)

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Assignments

• Assignment 8 Edit or create a Wikipedia entry,
  which must stay on Wikipedia for a minimum of 1
  week. Please link your edits to a blog post and
  reflect on the process. Also, answer this
  question on your blog post What do you think
  the significance of Wikipedia is in terms of
  helping our students understand how information
  and knowledge will be created in this century?
• Due December 15, 2008 (This assignment will
  count as 5 of final grade)

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Assignments

• Assignment 9 Design and implement an assignment
  where your own students/faculty are presenting to
  an authentic audience somewhere in the world and
  post it to your blog. Make sure to discuss in
  some detail how you would go about connecting
  your students to other classrooms or teachers and
  what that connection would facilitate.
• Due January 15, 2009 (This assignment will count
  as 5 of final grade.)

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Assignments

• Assignment 10 Create a podcast and post it to
  your blog. You may either use an MP3 recorder,
  audacity/lame or record a Skype conversation with
  someone from around the world. This podcast can
  provide support to professional development,
  communicate with your community or support
  instruction. (Note You will be shown how to use
  these tools ahead of time.)
• Due February 15, 2009 (This assignment will
  count as 10 of final grade.)

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Assignments

• Assignment 11 Attend a technology conference
  sometime between June 1, 2008 and March 1, 2009.
  Write about the experience in your blog. In
  addition, make a 10 minute presentation on the
  workshops that you attended at a staff meeting in
  your school and in class. Explain how the
  information that you learned at the conference
  could impact your school or classroom. Here are
  some possible guiding questions
• What technology applications are currently being
  used that could transform classrooms?
• How can we connect our classrooms globally with
  other classrooms in other parts of the world?
• How should we rethink the way that teaching and
  learning occurs in our schools and classrooms?
• What will tomorrows classroom look like?
• Due March 9, 2009
• (This assignment will count as 5 of final
  grade.)

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Assignments

• Assignment 12 Prepare a 20-minute presentation
  that discusses a clear expansion of the
  boundaries of learning in your school/classroom
  where you didnt simply bolt technology on top of
  current practice but, instead, engaged students
  in work that can only be done with technology.
  Use at least one of the applications that you
  have learned in this course. Group projects are
  allowed if the practice is being implemented in
  each presenters class/school.
• Due April 6, 2009 (2nd to last class) (This
  assignment will count as 10 of final grade.)

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Assignments

• Assignment 13 Present at the Annual Reading
  Public Schools Staff Sharing Conference in April
  on a topic that you have learned and implemented
  in this course. Explain in your presentation how
  this application has changed the way you teach in
  your classroom or lead in your school. Post the
  presentation on your blog.
• Due April 17, 2009 _- Staff Sharing Conference
  (This assignment will count as 10 of final
  grade.)

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Final Grade

• Assessment These assignments will form the basis
  of your final grade for this module. Each
  assignment will be assessed based on the number
  of points possible. The assignments will be
  weighted according to the percentages listed in
  the parentheses next to the due dates for each
  assignment.
• Grades will be A, A-, B, B-, C, C, F or I
  (Incomplete)
• A and A- are for superior work

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Dates for Course

• (All sessions meet from 330-630 p.m. unless
  otherwise noted.)
• Monday, August 25th (830 a.m.-1130 a.m.)
• Monday, September 15
• Monday, September 29
• Monday, October 6
• Monday, October 20
• Monday, November 3
• Monday, December 1
• Monday, December 15
• Monday, January 5
• Monday, January 12
• Monday, January 26
• Monday, February 9
• Monday, February 23
• Monday, March 9
• Monday, March 23
• Monday, April 6
• Monday, April 13

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Resources for Course

• Email (reading.k12.ma.us)
• Google Groups
• Google Docs
• Itunes
• Del.icio.us
• Audacity.com
• Lame.com
• http//cianews.wikispaces.com/
• Other resources will be developed as we go
  through the course

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Types of Groups (May Change)

• Dyads or Triads (You choose)
• Like Groups
• Similar subject/position
• Mixed Groups
• Randomly selected
• Level Groups
• Similar levels/schools
• All groups are listed on
• http//cianews.wikispaces.com/DocumentsforCourse
  

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Think-Pair-Share

• Go to your email and sign up for the cianews
  wikispace.
• Spend five minutes to go onto the internet and
  discover what the term essential question
  means.
• Answer the following question
• What do you believe are the essential questions
  for this course?
• Pair up with someone that is not in your school
  or has a similar position and discuss your
  essential questions.
• Develop three essential questions that you will
  share with the group.
• Record your responses on
• http//cianews.wikispaces.com/EssentialQuestions
  forcourse

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Essential Questions for Course

• Why do we need to transform classrooms and
  schools?
• What does a 21st Century Classroom look like?
• How can we connect what we are learning to
  transform our classrooms and schools?
• How do we provide leadership and support to our
  colleagues to transform all classrooms and
  schools?

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Alternative Evaluation

• To provide professional growth for Reading
  teachers using an alternative approach to teacher
  evaluation. The purpose of the Alternative
  Evaluation is to differentiate the process for
  PTS teachers by allowing them to choose projects
  and activities that focus on their professional
  growth and align with the Reading Standards for
  Effective Teaching.
• This course qualifies as an alternative evaluation

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For Teachers Pursuing Alternative Evaluation

• Year 1 of Alternative Evaluation (Planning and
  Preparation Year)
• October 15-Evaluation Proposal due to the
  building principal (in lieu of annual goals)
• Prior to October 15th, the teacher should meet
  with the building principal to discuss the
  possibilities of pursuing an alternative
  evaluation.
• By November 1-Building Principal and Assistant
  Superintendent meet with teacher to review
  proposal
• By November 15-Notification to teacher on status
  of proposal
• June 1-Midcycle review of proposal by building
  principal
• Year 2 of Alternative Evaluation (Implementation
  Year)
• October 15-Status review of proposal by building
  principal (In lieu of annual goals)
• February 1-Status review of proposal by building
  principal
• Late April-Presentation at Annual PreK-12 Staff
  Sharing Conference
• May 1-Final Evaluation report due to building
  principal

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Type of Proposal

• Professional Growth Portfolio
• The professional growth portfolio is a means of
  collecting evidence and reflecting on a
  professional growth experience. Teachers select
  the areas in which they wish to enhance their
  skills. In this process the teacher will select
  learner-centered goals, develop professional
  goals and plans based on one or more standards/
  indicators of the Reading Standards for Effective
  Teaching, document progress in achieving these
  goals, and reflect on the learning experience and
  results of the goal setting.

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Preparing the Proposal

• Preparing the Proposal
• Complete the Alternative Evaluation Proposal
  Form. Indicate the alternative evaluation
  selected and the standard(s)/indicators(s) of
  focus from the Reading Standards for Effective
  Teaching. You will need to provide the following
  information
• Description of Project or Activities Including
  Timeline
• Describe the project or activities you will
  implement to achieve growth toward the
  standard(s)/indicators(s) you selected. Include
  a timeline showing when activities will be
  accomplished including the middle and end of year
  conferences with the evaluator.
• Describe how you have prepared or will prepare to
  complete this project.
• Outcomes
• How will the implementation of this proposal
  improve students learning and assist you to
  achieve professional growth in the selected
  Reading Standards for Effective Teaching?
• Evaluation
• What type of evidence or criteria (reflection
  journal, student work/ assessments, data,
  documents, etc.) will you use to evaluate your
  professional growth and improve student learning?

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Developing Norms for the Cohort

• According to a cohort participant, cohorts are
  created not born. They are successful when
  everyone works collaboratively and collectively
  on improving their own and others' learning
  experiences. It takes self-responsibility,
  patience, courage, humor, commitment,
  sensitivity, and a lot of hard work to create
  such an enriching learning experience for
  everybody. (Nesbit 2001, p. 3)

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Developing Norms for the Cohort

• Go to your level groups.
• If you do not know who is in your level groups,
  go to http//cianews.wikispaces.com/Documentsfor
  Course
• Go to http//www.calpro-online.org/ERIC/docs/pab
  00033.pdf
• Read the article in Groups of 4
• Based upon this article and your knowledge of
  effective classrooms, brainstorm 5 or less norms
  for the group.
• Place your norms on http//cianews.wikispaces.com/
  NormsfortheCohort

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My Personal Norms for this Course

• Start on time and finish on time
• Provide a safe environment for you to take risks
• Challenge you to think differently, but provide
  support
• Encourage risk taking
• Encourage dialogue
• Give timely feedback and support
• Know that I am not an expert
• Use the resources in this room to improve the
  course

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Some Quotes to Think About

• "It is not the strongest species that survive,
  nor the most intelligent, but the ones most
  responsive to change" Charles Darwin
• "The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be
  those who cannot read and write, but those who
  cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." -- Alvin
  Toffler
• "Sometimes traveling to a new place leads to
  great transformation" --Fortune Cookie
• In times of change, learners inherit the Earth,
  while the learned find themselves beautifully
  equipped to deal with a world that no longer
  exists Eric Hoffer
• "The kind of questioning, collaborative, active,
  lateral rather than hierarchical pedagogy that
  participatory media both forces and enables is
  not the kind of change that takes place quickly
  or at all in public schools."
• -- Howard Rheingold
• "For any given organization, the important
  questions are 'When will the change happen?" and
  "What will change?" The only two answers we can
  rule out are never, and nothing."
• --Clay Shirky

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Web Literacy

• Go to http//cianews.wikispaces.com/WebLiteracyA
  ctivity
• IP Addresses
• Web browsers search these numbers for access to a
  website
• Example 212.58.240.33
• Domain Names
• Example cnn.com
• Component 1-Created by the owner of the site
• Example cnn
• Component 2-Top Level Domain
• Designated for certain groups or categories
• .com commercial
• .gov government
• .k12 K-12 Education
• .edu Universities
• .org Organization

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Web Literacy

• Third Component-Country Code
• .us United States
• .cn China
• .za South Africa
• .mx Mexico
• URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
• Another name for web address
• Most begin with www (World Wide Web)
• Go back to http//cianews.wikispaces.com/WebLiter
  acyActivity

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How to Validate Information on the Web

• Use Get REAL Acronym
• Read the URL
• Do you recognize the domain name?
• What is the extension in the domain name?
• Are you on a personal page?
• Look for a name
• Look for a
• Look for a
• Look for the words users, people, or members

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Examine the Content

• Is the information on the Web site useful for the
  topic?
• Are additional resources and links provided?
• Do the links work?
• Is the site current?
• Do you know when the site was last updated?
• Do you think the information is accurate?
• Does the information contradict information you
  have found elsewhere?
• Go back to http//cianews.wikispaces.com/WebLiter
  acyActivity

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Ask about the author

• Is the authors name provided?
• Is there a contact person or an address provided?
• Is there biographical information provided about
  the author?
• Does the author seem knowledgeable? Is he or she
  an expert in the field?
• What kinds of results do you see when you do a
  search on the authors name?

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Web Literacy

• Using your knowledge of web literacy, investigate
  the following
• You are a student in an astronomy class and you
  are curious as to why Pluto is no longer a
  planet.
• Using the web find out why Pluto is no longer a
  planet. Cite your web sources.
• http//www.edutopia.org/student-web-research-techn
  ology-literacy

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Carousel Brainstorm

• Get into your like groups
• If you do not know who is in your like groups,
  go to http//cianews.wikispaces.com/Documentsfor
  Course
• Each group should go to a chart
• Brainstorm questions that you would like answered
  under each topic in your color marker.
• If you are an expert in this topic, place a
  post it with your name.
• For the sheet marked other, identify other
  areas that you would like to learn about in this
  course other than the ones listed.
• For the sheet marked expert identify areas that
  you feel you are comfortable presenting to the
  group.

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Next Time

• Continue Web Literacy
• Why transform schools?
• Develop blogs and rss
• Assignment 2 Complete the online course,
  Blogging for Educators, from November Learning.
  Password and User Name will be given to
  participants in June.
• Due September 15, 2008 (This assignment is
  worth 5 of your grade).
• Refreshments (Google Docs)

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3-2-1

• Go to your email
• Identify three things that you learned today
• List two questions that you have about todays
  class that you would like to know more about.
• Name one idea that you have to improve todays
  class.
• Send your response in an email to
  jdoherty_at_reading.k12.ma.us

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Have a great start to the school year!