I'm a new mom and a teacher, both of which are time consuming and rewarding. Saying that, I've been trying to find ways to squeeze as much out of my workday in terms of time as I can to make it so I have more time at home focused on family. I also want to find ways to give students better, more timely and more focused feedback. Now herein lies a conundrum: what can I use to do this? Should I stick with my tried and true homework grading method or should I try a new application of edtech? Which has the highest benefit to students and myself?
Tried and True
I can't take credit for my current system. I totally stole parts of it from my mentor teacher when I was a student teacher, old and current teaching team mates. Each table has a folder. One side is for students to turn in work, the other side is for returned work. In the folder are also their Plickers (plickers.com) which they use every day for feedback and attendance. Right now, I do a quick skim of their homework for completion, give them the appropriate stamp and then enter it into my paper gradebook. My paper gradebook is actually the seating chart, and I highlight any grade that isn't full credit. That way, I enter those grades into our online system and autofill full credit for every other student.
Pros: It's fast and efficient to do marking by seating chart. Students get feedback faster, and I have less of an issue of late work not getting marked as late. I also have two copies of grades (hard copy and digital) in case a student has an issue and needs to check in with me.
Cons: I have to go through and transfer information from one source to another, which means mistakes happen. Also, when a student submits late work, I have to mark it on the paper and then remember to transfer it to the digital gradebook. Basically, there's a larger margin of error with this method. Anything that has human input tends to have this.
A New Idea
Our school uses a multiple choice system called Gradecam. It's great for tests and we've just started using for quizzes, and there is a rubric option which we will be using for giving students point values for their short answer questions on tests to eliminate the human adding error I usually have. I'm pretty good, but I'm not perfect. I've seen some interesting applications of Gradecam to do lab notebooks and homework by giving students a laminated copy of the form, and I'm curious about this. The basic idea is you mark their score on the form with an Expo marker, scan it and give them their notebook back.
Pros: Grades get quickly entered into the digital gradebook, and you still have some separation based on like different parts of the criteria if you want if it's a rubric form. Data is nice. I like data. Plus, the lab notebook part sounds awesome.
Cons: There's a lot of work to set up, and I wonder if it would be a new assignment every time and how much planning would it take. Also, like making Plickers work, would I have to do a ton of paper set up as well? Like the laminated ones sounded fantastic, but how much work is that for me.
Online Homework
A few other options could be based around the concept of online assignments. One would be to buy a license through a company and have students complete all work through that. Another would be to have them upload those assignments to Google Classroom or Turnitin.com, both which have really strong submission softwares. It's becoming increasingly easy for kids to do work on their computers, and with an increase in touch screens on like everything (including this laptop), showing work is easier than ever.
Pros: Less paper is always good, for me and them. I already use Google Classroom for a ton of stuff, and Webassign has a database of problems that we could just pick through. I also had a few students submit their homework accidentally on Google Classroom early on, so they already have a concept of how to do it.
Cons: Programs like Webassign are costly, and I wouldn't want to make a ton more work or equity issues for students who might not have the ability to scan/photograph work and upload it. Kids are also so used to turning in hard copies, I feel like a few weird errors would come up that I couldn't foresee.
My Conclusion as of Right Now
As it stands, I'm sticking with tried and true. I am going to meet with some teachers that have used some of these methods to streamline work submission and get advice for next year. I might try a few things out, like making some online Google Form quizzes and see if that would be realistic to do. I also have made a form for students to create like "problem write ups," so that could be fun to play around with. Basically, we have a work in progress, but I like feeling inspired by this kind of stuff.
Because I am a weirdo.
Showing posts with label balance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label balance. Show all posts
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Monday, September 3, 2018
Going Back to School...Kind of
Here's the weird thing about this year: I'm currently over 39 weeks pregnant. Now, if you are doing any sort of math around pregnancy overall, that means that I am just about at full term. I'm actually past full term, I'm just almost at what is considered my due date. Now, I've done something with this pregnancy that not a lot of teachers do: I worked up until the last day before my leave started. Which means today is my last day working for a while. This is a truly bizarre feeling for me to have such a major shift in my identity because being a teacher is so much of who I am and what I think about all the time. Now, I'm going to have my own little offspring depending on me not to let them die and eventually I'll have to entrust another human with their education, but that's a longish way off.
The big thing is I have to trust my classroom to someone else. I got so lucky that my longterm sub is actually a skilled science teacher and has been a long term sub quite a few times at our school, but I still want to do my best to set him and my kids up with as much stuff as possible. Here's a couple things I did so that I could give my students all the support they might need.
Resource Website
A few years ago with the help of Google Sites, I sat down and created a website where students can look for contact information, tutorial videos from Khan Academy and practice problems all organized by unit of study. There is a ton of stuff on there, and I encourage students to explore it as much as they can because it always happens that I get panicked emails around finals week for what to study. It's on the website, believe me. I started expanding it to include materials I actually made and more things that are just fun, like advice from former students and fun physics videos from Youtube. I even have posted homework solutions up there.
Tutorial Videos
One resource I made specifically for this year are problem solving videos. Last year, I had students asking me over and over and over again to show them how to solve the same problems, and so I decided to make a few videos over the summer working through tricky problems so they could just watch them on their own time. Using Screencastomatic and my tablet, it became so easy to record that I kind of cant stop myself from keeping it going. I also left the videos unlisted so students need a link to see them, but some have already found them to be a useful study tool. Plus, this way they hear my voice so they still get a chance to get to know me, even if I can't get to know them yet.
Set Up Draft Assignments in Google Classroom
I think it's fair to say many teachers have control issues. Besides hoarding tendencies, this may be another common thread that unites most teacher personalities. If you don't have either, good for you. I have mad respect for you. But that's not me. So something I did for big projects and things I want students to do in Classroom, I created draft versions of the assignments with the point values I want for each assignment, the appropriate attachments and directions. All my sub has to do is post it to one section and copy it across the rest of the sections and he's set up to go.
Email on My Phone
I have never been the kind of person to have work email on my phone. I don't want to be reachable on weekends. However, having the ability to quickly respond via my phone is going to be necessary while on leave. While I don't want people to have access to me all the time, I don't want to feel cut off from the school community. I did, however, create an auto-response redirecting urgent emails to my sub.
Letters of Rec Over the Summer
The biggest job I had over the summer was to write letters of rec. Usually, during the fall I have appointments on appointments to meet with students to get the process going and my weekends are inundated with writing letter after letter to submit to colleges. This year, I knew writing this fall would be out of the question, but submitting the letters wouldn't be. I let students submit materials end of last school year and told them I would write 10 letters TOTAL for submission this fall. One student did get upset with me about that timeline and cutoff, but I only made it through the first 2 weeks of school before I had to go on leave, so it was actually a realistic issue in terms of time. I ended up writing the letters over a few days this summer, and I'll submit them as students get their requests through the system in order.
Hopefully, through all of this set up, I may stay somewhat connected to work and my students. Next step: labor!
The big thing is I have to trust my classroom to someone else. I got so lucky that my longterm sub is actually a skilled science teacher and has been a long term sub quite a few times at our school, but I still want to do my best to set him and my kids up with as much stuff as possible. Here's a couple things I did so that I could give my students all the support they might need.
Resource Website
A few years ago with the help of Google Sites, I sat down and created a website where students can look for contact information, tutorial videos from Khan Academy and practice problems all organized by unit of study. There is a ton of stuff on there, and I encourage students to explore it as much as they can because it always happens that I get panicked emails around finals week for what to study. It's on the website, believe me. I started expanding it to include materials I actually made and more things that are just fun, like advice from former students and fun physics videos from Youtube. I even have posted homework solutions up there.
Tutorial Videos
One resource I made specifically for this year are problem solving videos. Last year, I had students asking me over and over and over again to show them how to solve the same problems, and so I decided to make a few videos over the summer working through tricky problems so they could just watch them on their own time. Using Screencastomatic and my tablet, it became so easy to record that I kind of cant stop myself from keeping it going. I also left the videos unlisted so students need a link to see them, but some have already found them to be a useful study tool. Plus, this way they hear my voice so they still get a chance to get to know me, even if I can't get to know them yet.
Set Up Draft Assignments in Google Classroom
I think it's fair to say many teachers have control issues. Besides hoarding tendencies, this may be another common thread that unites most teacher personalities. If you don't have either, good for you. I have mad respect for you. But that's not me. So something I did for big projects and things I want students to do in Classroom, I created draft versions of the assignments with the point values I want for each assignment, the appropriate attachments and directions. All my sub has to do is post it to one section and copy it across the rest of the sections and he's set up to go.
Email on My Phone
I have never been the kind of person to have work email on my phone. I don't want to be reachable on weekends. However, having the ability to quickly respond via my phone is going to be necessary while on leave. While I don't want people to have access to me all the time, I don't want to feel cut off from the school community. I did, however, create an auto-response redirecting urgent emails to my sub.
Letters of Rec Over the Summer
The biggest job I had over the summer was to write letters of rec. Usually, during the fall I have appointments on appointments to meet with students to get the process going and my weekends are inundated with writing letter after letter to submit to colleges. This year, I knew writing this fall would be out of the question, but submitting the letters wouldn't be. I let students submit materials end of last school year and told them I would write 10 letters TOTAL for submission this fall. One student did get upset with me about that timeline and cutoff, but I only made it through the first 2 weeks of school before I had to go on leave, so it was actually a realistic issue in terms of time. I ended up writing the letters over a few days this summer, and I'll submit them as students get their requests through the system in order.
Hopefully, through all of this set up, I may stay somewhat connected to work and my students. Next step: labor!
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Second Year Teaching
As you can see by my crazy consistent posting, teaching as a second year teacher has been tough. And, being the loving and generous author I am, I want to walk you through why it is so tough subject by subject.
All New Kids
Ok, this one sounds like a no brainer, but as a 1st year teacher, you find tricks that work with your group of quiz. Talking out of turn? Participation points. Oodles of latework? Ironclad latework policy second semester. Basically, everything you came up with is tailored to that group of students and their needs and idiosyncrasies. In my case, I had a sweet but chatty group of freshmen, so a lot of the management tools I had to use were based around talking out of turn. This year, I have some personalities. While they are still talkative, they are not quite as sweet about it. There is a great deal more time spent dealing with negative interactions or trying to dissuade really inappropriate language and conversations. This is a very different challenge and requires a different skill set.
There's a flip side to this, of course. In some cases, your following class benefits from your previous knowledge. You'll find you can explain certain things way better if you were able to teach the same lessons both years. However, many teachers I have known have had the most change in curriculum the first two years. Even if you feel you have a strong set of lessons and activities, things happen. Materials can run out, maybe your students are more or less advanced or maybe you just do not like how it addressed the standards previously and need to tweak it. No matter what, changes are tough and you'll have a lot of them.
People Expect More of You
Especially if you don't change schools, you have proven that you can be a contributing part of the community. Mainly, you survived. And in some cases, this means you will find yourself in a leadership position, whether you feel ready or not. In some ways, this can be fantastic. You can really see how a school works and gain some great experience. In some ways, this can be exhausting. Seeing how a school works makes you realize how many moving parts there really are. It makes your really respect all the administration do.
Also, expectations of abilities of teachers increases greatly. I relate it to how the expectations jump for students from middle school to high school, even if they really don't mature that much over the summer. You will be expected to be just better overall, and in many ways, you will be. You'll find tricks to grade more efficiently, you'll get better at doing things on time, you'll be better about contacting families and managing a classroom, but you by no means will be perfect or meet the expectations of others sometimes.
People also expect you to know more things. I have now been part of a few research projects, so if you need a good interview, you know who to look for. Answer: it may not be me. While I do have some knowledge, it's very narrow and specific. And yet, people love to study second year teachers. Maybe it's a sophomore situation. You are just starting to know how much you don't know.
You Expect More of You
I am my own hardest critic. Whenever I have observations or evaluations, I see everything going wrong in the space and none of what is going right. I tell myself that these things that are happening should not be issues any more. My brain says "YOU HAVE DONE THIS BE PERFECT" and yet, I can't. There's only so much 'can' in my body and sometimes, I run out. I think this leads well into the fact that I have way less patience now with students and with myself.
You Have Way Less Patience
Yeah, remember how tired you were last year? Multiply that by two. You will have all of the baggage of prior students as well as current and almost no way to handle it constructively. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but that's what it feels like a lot of the time. I have not learned how to let some things slide, or I feel bad because I am letting more slide or mad because I take work home mentally and physically. I feel like I had this youthful exuberance last year like YAY I'M A REAL TEACHER and now I sometimes just feel old and frustrated. I'm also a bit of an idiot and made like three major life changing decisions in the span of the last six months (marriage, moving, job) and so I am really, really in my bones tired. I don't know if anyone but my dad and my fiance really can see how tired I am. I think I thought it would go away this year, and in some ways it has been less severe, but then I had to go and add on more stuff to do. So this may be less about being a second year teacher, and more about just being me.
While all of this looks like a bunch of sadness and complaining, I do think I have improved but I just needed to vent. I think I just needed this moment. Positives to follow.
All New Kids
Ok, this one sounds like a no brainer, but as a 1st year teacher, you find tricks that work with your group of quiz. Talking out of turn? Participation points. Oodles of latework? Ironclad latework policy second semester. Basically, everything you came up with is tailored to that group of students and their needs and idiosyncrasies. In my case, I had a sweet but chatty group of freshmen, so a lot of the management tools I had to use were based around talking out of turn. This year, I have some personalities. While they are still talkative, they are not quite as sweet about it. There is a great deal more time spent dealing with negative interactions or trying to dissuade really inappropriate language and conversations. This is a very different challenge and requires a different skill set.
There's a flip side to this, of course. In some cases, your following class benefits from your previous knowledge. You'll find you can explain certain things way better if you were able to teach the same lessons both years. However, many teachers I have known have had the most change in curriculum the first two years. Even if you feel you have a strong set of lessons and activities, things happen. Materials can run out, maybe your students are more or less advanced or maybe you just do not like how it addressed the standards previously and need to tweak it. No matter what, changes are tough and you'll have a lot of them.
People Expect More of You
Especially if you don't change schools, you have proven that you can be a contributing part of the community. Mainly, you survived. And in some cases, this means you will find yourself in a leadership position, whether you feel ready or not. In some ways, this can be fantastic. You can really see how a school works and gain some great experience. In some ways, this can be exhausting. Seeing how a school works makes you realize how many moving parts there really are. It makes your really respect all the administration do.
Also, expectations of abilities of teachers increases greatly. I relate it to how the expectations jump for students from middle school to high school, even if they really don't mature that much over the summer. You will be expected to be just better overall, and in many ways, you will be. You'll find tricks to grade more efficiently, you'll get better at doing things on time, you'll be better about contacting families and managing a classroom, but you by no means will be perfect or meet the expectations of others sometimes.
People also expect you to know more things. I have now been part of a few research projects, so if you need a good interview, you know who to look for. Answer: it may not be me. While I do have some knowledge, it's very narrow and specific. And yet, people love to study second year teachers. Maybe it's a sophomore situation. You are just starting to know how much you don't know.
You Expect More of You
I am my own hardest critic. Whenever I have observations or evaluations, I see everything going wrong in the space and none of what is going right. I tell myself that these things that are happening should not be issues any more. My brain says "YOU HAVE DONE THIS BE PERFECT" and yet, I can't. There's only so much 'can' in my body and sometimes, I run out. I think this leads well into the fact that I have way less patience now with students and with myself.
You Have Way Less Patience
Yeah, remember how tired you were last year? Multiply that by two. You will have all of the baggage of prior students as well as current and almost no way to handle it constructively. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but that's what it feels like a lot of the time. I have not learned how to let some things slide, or I feel bad because I am letting more slide or mad because I take work home mentally and physically. I feel like I had this youthful exuberance last year like YAY I'M A REAL TEACHER and now I sometimes just feel old and frustrated. I'm also a bit of an idiot and made like three major life changing decisions in the span of the last six months (marriage, moving, job) and so I am really, really in my bones tired. I don't know if anyone but my dad and my fiance really can see how tired I am. I think I thought it would go away this year, and in some ways it has been less severe, but then I had to go and add on more stuff to do. So this may be less about being a second year teacher, and more about just being me.
While all of this looks like a bunch of sadness and complaining, I do think I have improved but I just needed to vent. I think I just needed this moment. Positives to follow.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
L is for...
Day 20-
So here's how it went down.
A student was having issues with her vision so, as I was the extra special extra adult, I had the pleasure to take her down to Wellness, or as I knew it when I was young, the nurse's office. The Wellness Center is a great deal more than what my nurse's office was, with different amazing resources for the students, and it's located in the basement of the school, and can be rather difficult to find. As I walked this girl down, she became increasingly nervous and I'm convinced she thought I was taking her off to be murdered. I did what I do best, and asked her about herself and her life. It seemed to help, and we made it to Wellness in one piece. I had a couple other errands to run, and I asked this girl if I could leave and do so, and if she was going to be ok. She looked at me and said, "No. Stay." How can I say no to that, so I stayed as long as I could. When it looked like it was almost her turn, I said I would meet her when she was done with her exam. She nodded, and I went to take care of my next job, which was discussing with a counselor why a girl had be dropped from the system again. Survey says: no idea, but she's back in. I have a few theories, and only two have to do with gremlins.
I arrive back in the classroom and as I walk in, there are shouts and students milling around. They had been using the meter sticks as weapons, and not as the measuring tools that they were meant to be. They lost the privilege to use them for the day and were set down to bookwork. Scared the crap out of me. But I understand where the teacher was coming from. This part I've dissected over and over again, so not going to go too far into it.
I get a call that the girl is done, and I run down to meet her. She seems more comfortable with nurse, who is one of my new favorite people, and we walked up back to the classroom. She said the three words I enjoy hearing, but never know how to respond to. "I love you." I nearly cried. That's how today went.
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