MST PORTAL - Promoting Open, Reflective Teaching & Learning

At Educon in Philadephia, the MST PORTAL initiative was shared. To continue the conversation, share your thoughts on one of the following questions.

• What are your ideas regarding job-embedded models of Promoting Open, Reflective Teaching And Learning?
• Think about what you are most passionate about in your job. How can you build upon your professional interests to transform yourself as a teacher leader in your setting to start to make change happen or increase and improve what you’ve already started for other educators?

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I’ve been working with a small group of 4^th graders as they work on creating a video to share their concerns regarding winter shipping on the St. Lawrence River. After learning about the Slick of 76, they have concerns that shipping in the winter may increase the chance of an accident which could cause fuel oil to spill into the river. They are assisting the Save the River organization by urging Seaway officials to follow criteria recommended by the NYS DEC before the opening date is set in the spring.

As part of their research, students gathered information about the effect on the environment from spills. Mr. Dehm, a grandfather of one of the students who owns property in the Thousand Islands, came to Klem South to share information about the actual spill in 1976. This past summer he was replacing some boards on his dock and discovered oil still coating the underside from the spill more than 30 years ago. He happened to save a few of the boards and brought them in for the kids to see. He also shared old photographs he had taken of the clean-up effort as well as recent pictures taken this fall where oil is still present on some of the rocks. Mr. Dehm also shared a navigation map and talked about the changing water levels in the river. After this visit, students were even more convinced that action needs to be taken to protect the water, shoreline, and wildlife. They also had new questions that they needed to find answers to.

The next person the students were able to talk with via iChat was Todd Woody, a senior editor for Fortune Magazine and author of the Green Wombat blog. Not only did students gather information about the spill in San Francisco Bay, but they also worked on their communication skills in a real-world context. Todd provided insight into the environmental impact of the spill, the nature of his job as an editor and writer, his interest in the endangered wombat, and concerns about global warming.

Students also sent an email to the NYS DEC requesting specific information regarding winter shipping. As a result, they were able to talk, via speakerphone, with Rodger Klindt, a fisheries biologist who works on the St Lawrence River and is familiar with the seaway issues. Students’ ideas about the possibility of ice increasing the chance of an accident were confirmed and they also discovered new information about the changing water levels throughout the season. In the winter the water levels are generally lower. A lower water level results in swifter river currents. Add ice, lower water, and swifter currents to the mix and navigation can become tricky. A slight mistake can cause an accident. This valuable information to use in their video was recorded on a laptop using Audacity.

Through these connections, both in person and remotely, students were able to learn from others outside of our classroom and local community. Next it is their turn to share their work with a wider audience. Check back in a few weeks for the finished video.

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As I was preparing a lesson on natural disasters for 3^rd grade, I discovered an Advocate page on the Red Cross site asking people to write to their Senators to support legislation to establish a National Commission on Children and Disasters. Rather than writing typical form letters, I had each class create a simple, yet meaningful, video message to support this legislation.

The process was fairly simple. With support from the homeroom teacher, the students brainstormed ideas, illustrated the main points, wrote elaboration sentences, and practiced speaking their parts. I scanned the images and imported them to Microsoft Photo Story 3. I used ccMixter, a site featuring community music licensed under Creative Commons, for background music and then recorded student voices over the images. Once completed, the videos were posted on TeacherTube. For the final step, the students drafted, revised, and edited an email letter to be sent to NYS members of Congress with links to the posted videos.
Download Video by Mrs. Erbland’s Class

Download Video by Mrs. McDonnell’s Class

Download Video by Mrs. Pennock’s Class

What other ideas do you have to help us continue to provide experiences for our students to share their work with audiences beyond the classroom teachers?

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This morning I met with Jim Schwartz, a professor in the Childhood Education Department at SJFC, to reflect on our goals for the partnership we have established between his pre-service class and the MST PORTAL at Klem South Elementary.

The goals for Jim are to have his students experience inquiry-based teaching and learning prior to their student teaching placements as well as to provide more authentic conversations regarding planning, student assessment, instructional best practices, and the reflective nature of teaching.

Here in the MST PORTAL we are looking to continue to promote open, reflective teaching and learning through shared conversations and experiences with professionals outside of our school via scheduled videoconferencing chats, streaming lessons/presentations, and face-to-face gatherings. Our continued goal is to expand the number of teachers taking advantage of the job-embedded professional development opportunities made possible because of this unique partnership. Whether teachers want to learn more about inquiry-based mathematics (especially with our new math series), the Backward Design process, using technology to support student learning, or simply to gather the collective ideas of 20 eager pre-service teachers to help plan a lesson or unit, these experiences can happen within the school day, side-by-side with another teacher(s) for guidance and support, and as an integrated part of classroom planning and instruction.

In February, Jim’s students will be exploring Understanding by Design and the Six Facets of Understanding including discussing what “counts” as evidence of understanding. To follow up on this work, we have a videoconference scheduled on March 6th to examine and discuss student work samples. If you’d like to join the conversation and perhaps share samples of student work (math problem-solving would be great), just let me know.

For our next videoconference on April 3rd, we are seeking interested teachers to collaborate with the pre-service teachers on the initial development of a math/science inquiry-based lesson. As part of their class requirements at SJFC, the pre-service teachers will work on the development of a webquest to support the content of the lesson. This activity will be inquiry-based, provide distinct roles for students, and may provide a hands-on component. Once completed, teachers will be able to implement the webquest with their students (either the entire class or with a small group) and then reflect on the experience and effectiveness of student learning.

If you have any comments on our progress to-date with this partnership or ideas to share, please comment.

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Where were you at midnight to celebrate the New Year? I was jamming away with Guitar Hero 3 for XBox 360. I even donned a pink bandanna headband to put me in the mood to ROCK. Missed the ball dropping and everything, but it was worth it. When my fingers were numb, I knew I had to stop.

Yes, it’s 2008, but as educators we typically ring in the New Year in September. January 1, 2008 means we have only about 6 months left to work with our current group of students before sending them off. What could you do in the next six months that would have the greatest impact on student learning? Thinking ahead, what you accomplish in the next six months may not directly impact your group of students this year, but rather potentially transform your teaching for next year. Are you planning on participating in our Collegial Circle to explore the K12 Online Conference? Are you interested in learning more about problem-based and/or project-based learning? Is your interest mathematics and changing your practice to become more inquiry-based? Want to learn more about Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, del.icio.us, Twitter, and Flickr? Share your thoughts and ideas on ways to ROCK on into June.

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