Web Conference for Thursday, November 4

This conference was very helpful in the final stages of creating my paper. It was also a time to clear up last minute misconceptions about the order of the paper and the format of monthly logs. I was actually able to attend a conference for the first time in the last few weeks. It was very nice being able to chat with colleagues. Now, onto more work!

Web Conference for Sunday, Oct. 24

I tried attending a web conference on Sunday night. The conference ran into some major difficulties! My professor could not log in to host the conference. I was able to communicate with my professor through Google chat. I was also able to post to Facebook and our discussion board to let others know what had happened. During this past week, I did not have any questions for Dr. Abernathy so I was happy to help faciliate communication from other students.

Reflections about my group PSA

This project was very interesting! I enjoyed getting my students involved in creating a rap, using Audacity to record the rap, and using a video camera to create shots. The students really began to take over! I worked with some other very talented people in my group. We chose a topic very quickly and without any argument. Our first pre-production document was very vague. I think we all had ideas, but struggled to clearly share them on paper. We decided to shoot as much video as possible and delete parts later rather than not have enough to begin with. I believe we would have benefited from more discussion in this planning phase to clearly articulate what we wanted for shots and music. I gathered parent permission before shooting/recording anything my students did. Another group member forgot and had to gain that after the fact. That made it difficult to edit - not knowing whether we could use her video or not. Once those issues were resolved, 4 out of the 6 in our group worked well together to edit or comment on versions of the video. Our group had the problem of non-involvement by two members. They had ideas during the first week, but weren't heard from again. One member offered to edit video, but never posted or shared any video. Thankfully, another member or two stepped in to edit. It was very frustrating to try to rely on those two members when emails were not answered and nothing was shared. I think our group should have stayed at the original four members - those were the ones that truly participated.

Sept 19 Web Conference

The web conference tonight was a bit frustrating. I couldn't get into the conference for close to the first 20 minutes. Thankfully, I had a friend that was in the conference and sent me messages through GoogleTalk. I was able to send her my questions the same way. The conference was helpful once I was in. Dr. Abernathy was able to clarify several things concerning our Public Service Announcements and this week's assignment. Several of the questions from others concerned file extentions. I didn't have a problem with that this week so a good part of the overall conference didn't seem to apply to me. I was able to learn a few facts about file extenstions that I'll be able to use in the future as well as the names of programs to convert files. I hope to attend more conferences in the future that pertain to my internship hours and comprehensive exam.

I reviewed two video editing softwares. One was Jaycut and the other Windows Live Movie Maker (WLMM). These were both fairly easy to use. Jaycut is very similiar to previous versions of Movie Maker that I have used in the past. Both programs have the option of publishing to AVI.

WLMM is very easy to use for Microsoft 07 users. The menus are setup like Powerpoint so it's very easy to find what you need. The best feature, in my opinion, is the AutoMovie. For those that are beginners or just occasional movie makers, this feature will walk you through how to add titles, credits, transistions, and music. For those more advanced users, you can use all the menus across the top to add transistions, make cuts, add music, or anything else you need.

Both programs could be very easily used with my students. I would be limited to using Jaycut on most computers in my building. I know my freshmen students would love to use this for class projects. They would also like the fact that the video can be published directly to mobile devices. This program will allow publishing to PCs and YouTube at the click of a button. The video can be Flash, MPEG-4 or AVI. This will allow video to played in almost any video player available. I plan to use this or PhotoStory3 with my students to create an English project. Students will begin reading the Odyssey in the next couple of weeks. I hope to have students and the co-teacher find free video or images of the story to use in this project. Students (and the co-teacher) will have to load the video/images and create a script of the story in their own words. Students will be able to publish the works on YouTube. I know my students are very technology oriented and would be interested in creating a video instead of writing another paper.

This idea of visual learning is best described by Martin Scorsese. He states that "the visual image has taken over...the reality is that if one wants to reach younger people at an earlier age to shape their minds in a critical way, you really need to know how ideas and emotions are expressed visually." I believe that by having students create video that is relevant to them, I will be able to reach out and touch their lives.

Cruickshank, D. (2008). Martin Scorsese: Teaching Visual Literacy. Edutopia. Retrieved August 30, 2010, from http://www.edutopia.org/martin-scorese-teaching-visual-literacy

I chose to create a digital photo story about my inspiration in becoming a teacher for the deaf and hard of hearing. My inspiration is Dr. Buisson. He encouraged and supported those in the deaf education program while forcing out of our comfort zones.

I struggled with this project due to a lack of pictures. Most of my career utilized sign language and does not lend itself to pictures. When I read the interview questions from this week's readings, I felt called to honor Dr. B for all the work he put into teaching me. I could probably spend hours describing individual times when Dr. B encouraged or challenged me. It was hard to try to summarize my thoughts while ensuring that the narration flowed with the pictures.

I did enjoy using PhotoStory3. I found the program very easy to use and fun to play with. I think that for a free download, it edited the photos, transistions, and movement very well. I did run into some issues with trying to record, but was able to figure it out by accident.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience of doing this project!

Updated Action Research Plan

I have made a small change to the plan. The site now reflects that change. You can click the link in the previous post to see the Action Research Plan with changes in red.

Action Research Plan

My action research plan can be found at the following link:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1rD8HezBMbZwEBtSGeCqmQTnEZH-5Bva_a3fJEaqFGdc


The posted plan is a draft. It will be updated as plans are reviewed and finalized with my site supervisor.

Action Research week 2

This week's readings have focused on the 9 different areas that action research could take place. I was drawn to the areas of individual teacher and student. I work in the Special Education field and am typically focused on small populations of students. I like to know how programs and interventions affect those students and ways that I could make improvements. I have also moved several times within my 6 years of teaching. I have been able to participate in several different new teacher supports. I am always looking for ways to support other new teachers and bring new, innovative ideas to those teaching around me.

Action research needs to have a clear purpose and stated significance. The overall goal of any research is to improve student performance. Dana suggests that your question be "clear, concise, and specific; one whose answer you do not already know; free of judgmental language; phrased as an open-ended rather than dichotomous question; and "doable"."

Several quotes really seemed to strike me this week from Nancy Fichtman Dana's book Leading with Passion and Knowledge. See below:


"Principals who keep teachers invigorated keep learning vibrant and alive for students each school day."

"It is people, not programs, that determine the quality of a school. (Whitaker, 2003)"

"Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart" from The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner

"...the most productive administrator inquiries focus in some way on the adult and/or student learning occurring in your building."

"...allow your wondering to change and evolve over time as you engage in inquiry."

Reference:
Dana, N. (2009) Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher. Corwin. Thousand Oaks, California.

Action Research

Action research is a systematic and intentional study of one's own practices. You begin with a "wondering" or problem. Next, you collect data and read relevant literature. This will allow you to gain new insights to the problem. You can make changes based on new understanding and share the results with others. This process is reminds me of try, try again. As a leader, you implement a strategy to find the solution for the problem or question. If that first strategy does not work, then you try again using the new data and research you have done to guide the use of a new strategy.

As a teacher, I have used this process unknowingly. I constantly watched my students while presenting a lesson. I watched for the "lightbulb" moment. If it came, I knew I had succeeded in passing knowledge to my students. If I did not see the lightbulb, I would try a new strategy. This is a very simplistic way of looking at action research. I did not use a systematic approach at the time. Now I would keep data (formal or informal) about what strategies work to relay the knowledge to students as well as how many times did I need to present the information. I would also take note of educational research concerning presentation of material and best practices for the classroom. I would use this new information to improve my teaching practices.

As a leader in the building (teacher leader, principal, or technology leader) I would focus on the same process. The "problems" might seem bigger and more complicated, but the process would be the same. I would use the current data available to implement a strategy. I would begin collecting new data, researching literature, and discussing with peers (reflection) the information/results. The new information would be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the first strategy and guide improvements.


Ways to Use a Blog:
One way for the principal to reach out to other professionals or community members would be through a blog. Principals could choose to blog about thoughts during the day and share this with a closed group of colleagues. Another form of the blog could be a more formal address to community stakeholders that also requests comments. Teachers can use the blog to reach students, parents, other community members, and colleagues. It can be used to showcase student work or teacher/school accomplishments. Schools can benefit from the more informal setting of a blog to reach a wider number of people. Professionals can use the blog to reach other colleagues around the world. This can be a place for reflection, questioning, and encouragment. Leaders can share projects and research while gaining feedback from others. The possibilities are only limited by the person writing the blog.