Collaborating to Learn! Our webinar for the Illinois Principals Association and EdLeaders Network

By The CollabLab Team

Today the CollabLab team had the opportunity to present a webinar to the Illinois Principals Association / Ed Leaders Network: The Collab Lab at Elk Grove High School: Responsive and Sustained Teacher-Led Professional Learning.

Our purpose was to share with the participants how they can support sustained and responsive teacher-led professional learning in their buildings.  We did this by sharing how we started in peer observation groups and how we continue to evolve in the CollabLab today, centering our conversation around our motto of "Connect, Learn, Share."

Alongside us, our principal, Paul Kelly, supported us and collaborated with us on this presentation.  His focus was to help participants reflect upon professional learning in their own building and help guide them in creating possible action plans.  You can access a copy of this document here.

Throughout the webinar we connected with participants through the hashtag #elnpln.  Check out our conversations and connect with others.  You can access our PowerPoint here.  It contains links to all of the resources supported by the CollabLab.  Please let us know if you'd like to share your ideas or talk to us about professional learning in your school or ours!

A Day in the Life...

By: Rachel Barry

Funny that I should see this post on Twitter just after having conversations last week in the Collab Lab about the numerous "hats" we wear as teachers.  Throughout the average day, there are countless roles that we teachers take on.  Most of the time, this is very exciting and fun.  Every once in a while, it feels that we are balancing too many hats.  One of the reasons that I went into teaching is that no two days are the same.  I feel that I am constantly challenging myself to learn new things each day, which can sometimes mean taking on too much and feeling a bit overwhelmed with the number or roles we play.  Reading this post helped me realize that we all sometimes need to find a balance to wearing all of our hats.

Though I agree with the list presented in the We Are Teachers blog post, I feel that some didn't apply to me (as a high school teacher) and there were some roles that were left out.  Therefore, I decided write this blog to include some additional roles that I feel should be included in this list.

Facilitator
First and foremost, the focus of every day is student learning.  In a previous blog post, I discussed the transition of the teacher role from a dominator to that of a facilitator.  There is a time and a place for each instructional method, however, the role of facilitator is becoming more important to ensure active learning in the classroom.  Therefore, teachers also need to provide students with the resources and facilitate the learning process, instead of simply providing the singular method of direct instruction.

Learner
Teachers need to constantly be learning.  Many teachers take graduate classes to better use technology in the classroom, obtain an endorsement to teach additional classes, or to earn a degree to become an administrator.  At EGHS, many teachers also join in professional learning opportunities that we provide such as Peer Observation Groups or Teaming on Tuesdays.

Curriculum Writer
Teachers design the curricula for a class.  Maybe a teacher has a textbook that he/she follows, yet writes warm-ups, tests, quizzes, and other supplemental materials.  Maybe, if the teacher is like most at EGHS, they write their own digital curricula.  Regardless of the degree to which a teacher writes the curricula for a class, he or she must spend hours designing lesson plans of how to use the provided resources and what resources need to be created.  Then, the teacher must create these resources.

Coach/Sponsor
Many teachers are coaches or sponsors.  An additional stipend is usually provided for the additional time, however, some schools expect you to be involved in some capacity.  As a coach myself, I find this to be an added perk of the job, as I get to see a different side to my students and work with students that I don't teach in my classes.  

Mentor
In many school districts, there is a program in place for new teachers to be paired up with a more veteran teacher.  First this mentor helps with day-to-day things such as taking attendance electronically, where important locations are in the building, and the different roles of various staff members in the building.  Eventually, this role transitions to discussions of classroom instruction, best teaching practices, and observations.  

Life Coach
Many students at EGHS will be the first in their family to go to college.  Accordingly, these students don't always have someone to advise them on some of their major life decisions going forward.  Many planning periods are spent discussing future options with students (past and present) as well as writing letters of recommendation.

Friend
Teachers build relationships with their peers, and rely on them for more than just school-related things.  A school is a community, so when a fellow teacher is pregnant or getting married, we celebrate!  When a peer goes through a loss (family member, house, etc.), we are there to support one another.  I cannot express how fortunate I am to have the collaboration and friendships that I have built here at EGHS.  


I could probably go on with more roles that we teachers carry (some more humorous such as dress code enforcer, relationship mediator, official PDA reducer, etc.), but I think you see the point.  There are many hats worn in this profession.  There are many hats worn in all professions.  Sometimes as the end of a long day, it is helpful to reflect on all of the different roles I played that day.  Maybe I played them well, and maybe I need to work harder at a couple tomorrow.  After all, as a teacher, I am a life-long learner! 

7 Reasons to Give Up Control to Your Students

by Mark Heintz

A few years ago I observed Linda Ashida changing the dynamic of her classroom by having students display all of the class materials through AirPlay. She relinquished control to the students and saw tremendous benefits.  Over the last year, I moved to a similar organization of the classroom and have seen the following:

1. Pacing. Students broadcasting over AirPlay changes the instruction pace to that of the student.  If a student displays any material from the class, they control the pace.  This way, I do not move too quickly through the information.  It forces me to have a student highlight the objective, open the reading, display the link, fill out the worksheet, or write the summary statement.  Having students display via AirPlay provides another layer of protection that further ensures all students are where they should be and are keeping up with the pace of the lesson.

2. Student examples.  Having students display everything over AirPlay provides live student examples of work.  Students become comfortable quickly with showing their work.  Providing their examples to the entire class provides instant feedback for their entire class!  What once was a one-on-one conversation, now benefits the whole class.  In a few minutes, I can evaluate several student's work in a timely fashion that benefits everyone.

3. A Safe Environment Focused on Learning.  If students display materials instead of the teacher, it rapidly creates an environment focused on the students' understanding of skills and content.  Students begin to feel comfortable sharing their work with the class.  They actually desire it, because it directly helps them get better at whatever you are working on.  Students know they can fail or be wrong at something because they will get the help they need to learn it.

4. Inclusion. A quiet student can have a loud presence through displaying via AirPlay.  An off task student can now be redirected through displaying the notes, writing down the summary, or displaying the materials to the entire class.  The student remains on task while displaying the information.

5. Students have all the materials.  When students display the course content, they have access to all of the materials.  As a teacher, I put up everything on Schoology.  For them to display everything, the course has to be logically laid out for each students to access the materials.  At the end of the lesson, they know where all of the learning materials were and often have them downloaded on their device.

6. Student Centered.  To have students display the materials, I plan on more student centered learning.  It forces me to create lessons that involve the students heavily and provides feedback to them constantly.  The lesson structure is developed with lots of checks for understanding that are centered around students displaying their work to the entire class.

7.  Freedom. Not being at my computer frees me to be with students. If I am not moving to the computer to change a PowerPoint, click on a link, pull up a reading, or anything else, I can be with the students.  I move around and see what they are doing instead of spending time at my desk. It minimizing my transitions as a teacher.  When students pull up the materials, I can be engaging students.

Student Feedback and Previewing

By Mark Heintz

The 2014-2015 school year focused on literacy and building background knowledge before learning.  In the past few weeks, I allocated considerable amount of class time dedicated to pre-reading.  The objective of the lesson was stated and the skills I hoped they acquire.

To start the lesson, I created a fact cube with words from the up coming reading.  I cut the nine squares and put the students into pairs.  I gave the students seven minutes to attempt the cube.  It was great to see them piece the puzzle together.  The students were so engaged! The students struggled, but I was able to guide them without telling them the answers.  When the students finished, they left the cube on their desks so they would have access to the definitions while reading.

Next, I had the students pick two of the words and predict what the reading will be about.  Here are two examples.  

It was so powerful!  The students received positive praise for their efforts.  When I picked these two students to display their work over AppleTV, they were taken aback by how right they were and the praise I gave them and their fellow students.  

The best part was there wasn't a wrong answer in this process.  The examples above show how students were able to predict what the reading was about.  Even if a student was wrong in their prediction, they were connecting the words and thinking in the process! The reading was short but dense.  As they read, they so much to fall back on because their learning had been activated and received feedback on their understandings of the definitions and predictions.  

Assigning Roles in Group Work

By: Rachel Barry

When you walk into my classroom, you will see the desks grouped into pods of four desks.  I promote collaboration amongst my students, when students are not taking a summative assessment because I believe that it is important for students to work together to solve problems as well as verbalize their thought processes.  I love when I hear students teaching one another how to start or work through a math problem.  Not only does it help the student in need, but it also reinforces the content knowledge with the student helper.  

Over the course of the year, I have instilled group expectations with my students both academically and behaviorally.  Students are aware of these expectations, however, as we are nearing the end of the school year, I have found that some students are becoming a bit lackadaisical with these expectations.  So today I am going to try something new -- providing students with specific roles within their group work.

Students will be working in their groups on this document.  I will then give each student a role within their groups: facilitator, recorder, checker, and reporter.  The facilitator will keep the group on task and moderate the discussion through this checklist.  All math work and additional notes will be made by the recorder.  The checker will go through the work and answers of the group to make sure that they are correct, and the reporter will report out their answers during the class discussion at the end of the period.  

Prior to beginning I will communicate to my students that I expect each student to fulfill the duties of the specific position.  I will also tell students that they will be evaluated on their efforts in that role.  Upon completion of the activity, students will complete this Google Form to self-assess their efforts, both group and individual.  

Schoology Checklists to Teach Writing

By Mark Heintz

A few weeks ago @MsRachelBarry posted how to create a Schoology checklist.  If you want to learn how to create a checklist or don't know what they are, you should read her post by clicking here.  The checklist feature is great for materials that students can easily self-assess or can be automatically graded with an assessment, such as a multiple choice, matching, ordering of events, or true false questions.  You can mandate students post assignments, view links, or take assessments in the order you want them to.  I have used checklists in varying ways, but recently I created a Schoology checklist to help teach writing.

I teach a comparative essay in world history.  It is a very specific essay that addresses students ability to compare two concepts or processes using historical content.  Students struggle with writing and struggle more with writing in an academic sense.  Furthermore, teaching writing often comes with varying skill levels and the checklist allows for more individualized learning to take place.   Here is the prompt I used for this checklist:

For the first step, I had the students sort historical terms into either the Haitian, French, or Latin American Revolution.

When finished, the students submit their worksheet to Schoology. After submitting the worksheet, a quiz comprised of a matching question assessed the same information on the worksheet.  This is learning that the students could assess on their own through the quiz.  Here is a sample of the quiz:  

After students pass the quiz, they move on to grouping the information into either a method or an outcome of the revolutionary process.  The first two steps can sometimes be accomplished without my help.  Some of the higher skilled students can move onto to the harder concepts and work on the skills they need to at their own pace.  At the same time, I can have students who do not understand the content, stay at the own level and get the help they need. Furthermore, students cannot move on to higher level skills without laying the ground work needed to be a good writer.  It is a failsafe way to ensure students can be successful.  When students know the content and do the first steps, it helps students become successful.  Here is a sample of the grouping worksheet and quiz.  

After they pass the quiz, students have to check in with me, the teacher, before they can move on to the next step.  The next step is when students come up with possible groupings for methods and outcomes.  There is not one correct answer, therefore it cannot easily be assessed with a multiple choice assessment.  So, I have the students write their possible groupings in a short essay question in Schoology.  I check the students' work and approve of it before they can move.

Students move on to evaluating and writing of the essay.  I have the students read through several thesis statements to see if they contain all of the components needed to be considered a good thesis.  I then have the students submit their work and take a matching quiz in Schoology to assess their evaluative skills.  

Worksheet

Schoology Thesis Quiz

The last stage in the process is writing comparative statements.   Students will evaluate pre-generated comparative statements.  After reading the statement, they will fix the statement by rewriting it in the correct manner.  They will post their statements in Schoology for me to evaluate.  At the end of the lesson, the students will have a portfolio of student work and samples to look back upon for future essays.  

When completed, the students will be able to write the essay on their own.  This is in the early stages of the essay writing process.  The students will have seen several parts of the essay and have done the planning stages of the essay.  If everything goes well, the students will be successful when they write the essay. 

Transition of Teacher Role

By Rachel Barry

In a current graduate school class, I am discussing the role of the teacher in building student leadership in the classroom.  As education is becoming more student-centered, the role of the teacher is transitioning from that of a dominator to a facilitator.  The traditional classroom has the teacher providing students with content information, which is typically seen in a lecture or rote learning practice.  With the increase of technology, however, many teachers have been exploring differing teaching styles to increase student engagement and ownership in the classroom.  

Here is a diagram from my graduate school coursework, which provides an outline of various teaching styles and how they affect student motivation, goals, and ownership.

As I reflect on these four main teaching approaches, I see that I have employed each at some point in time.  Yes, through this diagram, we see that ultimately the teacher as facilitator seems to be the most effective avenue for students to positively take control of their educational experiences.  Students collaborate in taking responsibility of classroom procedures, they internalize the accountability of their work, and they feel a sense of ownership in the classroom.  

Turning theory into practice, however, can sometimes not be as easy as it seems.  There are always external obstacles to overcome such as standardized testing or snow/cold days.  These don't have to change the approach we teachers take in the classroom, however, we may have to tap into some of the other approaches, at times, in order to accommodate certain time crunches.  Also, each classroom of students is different, and each individual has distinct needs.  With the Millennial generation, I have found that some students are more engaged in their learning through newer methods, while some students still prefer the more traditional methods.  We are in a time of transition, where some of our students have come from self-directed classrooms and others have not.  We as teachers need to be accommodating to all of our students needs, and thus one approach may not work for all students.

Personally, I build my classroom over time to reach my facilitator role because I know that this is a new style of learning for many of my students and also so that all of my students are on the same page.  I have built my curriculum to transition my students to something new each unit, until I have reached my ideal classroom.  I allow Unit 1 for students to become accustomed to using the iPad in the classroom through accessing and submitting course materials to Schoology, writing on .pdfs in Notability, and taking formative assessments on the iPad.  In Unit 2, I transition students to watching Educreations videos to access mini lectures for course content.  By Unit 3, I begin to establish my goal of an individualized learning model, where students are able to move through the course material at a differentiated pace.  I then become more of a facilitator as students move through a self-directed curriculum.

Ultimately, you need to determine which teacher role works best for your students and for you.  

References: 

Shindler, J. (2010). Transformative classroom management: Positive strategies to engage all students and promote a psychology of success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.