AirSet part duex

Oh man… today was crazy. Somehow this project snowballed from a small class experiment and into a district survey of my ability to conduct online information. YIKES! The chair of the social studies department, as well as the principal of the school came in today to see how exactly what we were doing. I even had the district technology coordinator contact me and ask me to join the AirSet group. Luckily, everyone seems reall excited about the possibilities of using the program. I just hope that I can live up to their expectations. This basically means that assignments need to be nothing short of kickass!

I have to remember to tell the students that their work is being scrutinized by district officials. I wander how they will take it! Oy vey, I feel like I’ve bitten off a bit more than I can chew.

AirSet Project

Since the beginning of the semester, I thought about conducting an assignment in which the students wrote and contributed to an online blog forum. I spent a lot of time on the Internet searching for different programs, applications, websites, wikis etc., in order to find one suitable enough to use for the class. In order to maintain some semblance of order, the CT and I had to consult with the district tech guy. Fortunately for me, an English teacher down the hall stopped by one day and spoke about a project using AirSet.com to conduct student discussions. So after jumping through some administrative hoops with the tech guy, I decided to use this site.

The idea behind this project was to ask students to use a technology that is relatively safe, easy, and reliable to use. I would like my students to practice writing historical argumentation, as well as be able to discuss class issues with one another.

I had the laptops in class today for the first time. The CT and I had to spend a lot of time this morning going through each step in the process to ensure it was working. From the get go, several things went wrong:

1. There were only 15 laptops
2. One of the laptops was not charged
3. The main laptop had trouble booting up
4. Not really related to MY class, but the CT had TWO overhead projector bulbs blow out

We felt like there was a technology-sucking vortex that just would not allow us to fully utilize the tools we had available. Nevertheless, once class time started the students were quite agreeable. This was how the lesson looked:

1. Introduced the topic by explaining what I wanted from the class.
2. Handed the Internet Pledge which outlined my expectations for the way the class conducts online discussions.
3. Then, went over the actual project by handing out the paperwork. We went through the first two pages, but did not get to the rubric. Tomorrow I will actually go through the rubric.
4. Asked students to come up row by row to get the computers (they had to be in pairs.)
5. I asked one student if she wanted to be a guinea pig and take us through step by step in signing up for AirSet. She complied (this particular student needs some accommodations and really enjoys helping with handing out worksheets, grades etc.)
6. I set the students loose and asked them to contribute by using the first blog assignment as an example: “What happened Today in History.” I also provided a link to the History Channel. This modeling showed them how to upload comments, as well as have practice inserting hyperlinks and searching the web. Some students used other sites on the web and provided links.
7. Once I had the students signed up (and had showed students without email addresses how to get free ones) I pointed them towards a webquest assignment that was due. Here is where I lost them.
   • First, the directions on the webquest were not clear. I needed to spend more time explaining step-by-step directions.
   • Second, it was not clear how I wanted them to answer (blog? paper? upload to site?)
   • Therefore, I will need to readdress this particular portion tonight

Overall, the first legs of this project seem to be going off quite well. The bumps that I had to go through today helped to consider where I need to adjust the lesson tomorrow. The key ingredient in this particular assignment is patience. I need to remember that some students aren’t as tech savvy as I am (and there are others who waaay surpass me) and so need to provide time to hash out the details. I am very excited about the possibilities that this project holds. Hopefully the students do too. They expressed some misgivings today because the Internet was slow, and things broke down… but I think they will see the utility of the project as the six weeks progresses. However, if they don’t, that’s ok. This is a learning experience after all!

Stops and starts

I am finding it exceedingly difficult to maintain a sense of continuity with my classes.  The reason I say this is because every week we have had something that disrupts my presence in the classroom.  First, we have our weekly seminar down at UT from 1-4pm every Monday.  This is all fine and dandy, because despite what some of my colleagues think of it, I actually learn something every time (except for last week when I spent the entire 3 hour period working on AirSet for my students).   Leaving for UT in the middle of the day causes problems for me because I don’t get to see some of my students almost all week.  Because the school is on a block schedule, every other Monday is a “B Day.”  On B days I teach 3 out of the four classes I’ve taken over.  Now, leaving in the middle of the day means that I completely miss out on teaching the second two periods. This translates into putting more pressure than necessary on the CT; less involvement on my part; and a sense of transiency between teachers on the part of the students.  To the students, every day is a crapshoot, with them thinking “who is gonna be teaching today?”  I think this opens up an atmosphere that has the potential to detract from learning.

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The best moment of this week was on Tuesday (if I recall correctly).  We got a new student towards the end of January who had been having trouble with her previous history teacher.  He had called her some names in front of the class, prompting her quick removal and replacement into our class.  As I had already taken over when she came into the class, I think she identifies me as her primary teacher (which is pretty cool!)  Anyways, recognizing her previous negative experience with teachers, I have tried to make her feel as welcome as possible in the class, and have noticed that she consistently cooperates and participates.

One key moment last Tuesday cemented the fact that she enjoyed class.  Generally, when I check homework I walk around the class with a stamp so I can talk to the students and correct their work.  This takes a bit of time, but I know that students can’t pay attention for a full 90 minutes – and this gives me a way to interact one-on-one with the students.  Well, a couple of weeks ago I ran out of ink for the stamps I use.  On Tuesday, after going to TAKS camp for the day, this young lady came by the classroom and presented me with a brand new two-sided stamp.  I really appreciated the gesture, and made sure to tell her so.  Unfortunately, because of the multiple times I had to miss class week, I have been unable to use the stamp in her class to actually show that I cared.

Content v. Bells and Whistles

I had an epiphany the other day, and it’s really quite a shame that it’s taken me so long for this to really hit home. Every day is a constant battle between how to present a whole bunch of information that, to be honest, I don’t have a total grasp on myself. For example, today I taught three different classes the same lesson about Enlightened Absolutism. It’s been a real long time since I looked at this material, and so had to brush up a whole bunch. While I do know a little bit about this topic, it was quite difficult for me to get a proper hold on the details that I wanted to get across (most of my personal background being in African History). So while worrying about the fact that I didn’t exactly know what I was teaching, I was also worried about how I was teaching. For the most part, I lectured to the class, trying to incorporate some of the big ideas from previous classes.

Now, going through my head all day were a few main thoughts:

1. “Holy crap! I don’t know what I’m talking about!”
2. “Oh man, right as I am saying these words, the kids are totally bored.  All I’m doing is talking, and getting like three kids interested.  UTeach would be MAAAD.”
3. “How can I assign them to work in groups if I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
4. “I know I’m not supposed to lecture, but I’m all out of ‘constructivist’ ideas.”
5. “Is there another way for these kids to get this info?”
6. “Seriously, why do the only ideas I have somehow incorporate giant sticky notes and markers?…  wait… I know why.”

On top of all this, I am setting up a student blog site on airset.com , and have become totally engrossed in the minutiae. Yesterday I spent three hours trying to work out all the details, and as a result I wasn’t really able to study up on the aforementioned material of Enlightened Absolutism. So I’m discovering now that being creative and coming up with new ideas really needs to follow having a strong grasp of content. Revolutionary right? Not really. It just never seemed so real until now.

Moving on…

I worry about a couple of my students who consistently don’t show up to class. These kids basically have a 50% attendance rate, if that. One girl seems like all she cares about is dropping out, and today she told me that is going to A-Plus, the credit recovery center because, “I just don’t do any work in here.” Obviously she knows what she’s doing, and the CT says that she really is just biding her time before she drops out completely.

Alright… enough for now. Fortunately tomorrow we are talking about the American Revolution: something I know quite a bit about

New format I suppose…

This is just a post to try and make the organization of this site a bit better.  Instead of posting the the weekly “Classroom Responses” on the main page, they will be added in the “Classroom Responses” tab.

Super.