Project+Brainstorming

Project Brainstorming:

Teachers observing other teachers How do we measure impact? Brainstorming for project...(tasha just needs to purge some things in her head...) How do we build Nagel PLC? Do any of us need to wear new hats or take on new roles to help progress?? Is LAB adequate for building teacher leadership capacity? What professional development model should we use? Should we start small or go BIG? (in terms of numbers, not plan) How do we use Eaker and DuFour Marzona and others to help guide our work? How do our tools match plans? How do we best pre-assess staff readiness, interest, expertise, knowledge base, etc??? How do we go with our thinking....the baby is coming ready or not!! What are natural next steps? How do we keep it about the learning?? Topics at Nagel for next year (not in any order): Literacy focus, Screeners, Stage 3 UbD, Research based strategies RTI implementation, Differentiation,Cultural Proficiency, outcome of Grade Scale committee work, master schedule change, adding Geometry to 8th grade, adding 6th grade Algebra, Role of IS How do we involve parents? What communication should take place with parents? Allowing people to have fun, to harness their passions, to work towards the betterment of Nagel Individual learning contracts Passions... Building Shared Learning---Adding to the collective wisdom How do we get teachers to become learners first and teachers second? Tribes - Seth Godin How do we free people up to have time to pursue their passions How would this change how team time is used? How do we help our teachers see that they can learn from everyone... not just other "math" teachers??? How do we help teachers see that the "content" is the learning (the pedagogy), not social studies, or science, etc... Do we keep this within the middle school or do we involve 6th grade? Needing to establish our goals our end outcomes... and if people want to go in the direction of squids, go for it...

What is the continuum? Where are people on it? What are people passionate about?

What is the problem?
 * Is it that people are teachers first and learners second?

We need to expand our presence on the Ning...


 * Here are my random thoughts:**

1. I think the first thing we need to establish is determining what "problem" or "opportunity" we want to address with our project. If we can nail this down first it might really help us to focus on project ideas. (I'm hoping, here!) 2. Do we want to address a "universal" problem (i.e. one that plagues all of Nagel, or all of teachers, for that matter) or do we want to narrow the "problem" to something more specific or a more specific group of people or a more specific area, i.e. assessment 3. Should we involve "others" as we think through our project. Some "others" might be achievers, Pat (since she went through this last year), other teachers not necessarily overly involved with anything at Nagel (since they might be the most difficult to "hook") or any "others" we can think of? 4. Do we want to spend some time looking at the projects other teams created to get our minds going? 5. Should we start a thread conversation on the Ning related to this?

__10 Dec. f2f Meeting__ 1. Started off by setting parameters for our project discussion. We grabbed the action steps as a model and are going to plan with them: Five Phases of Action Research Phase I - Problem Identification: Why do you want to do it? Is it an important and practical problem, something worth your time and effort, something that could be beneficial to you, your students and others? Is the problem stated clearly and in the form of a question? Is it broad enough to allow for a range of insights and findings? Is it narrow enough to be manageable within your timeframe and your daily work? Tasha referenced several comments she had heard lately (student voice, staff, etc.) about a lack of integration amongst core topics and SOAR time. Is this the problem, or a symptom of a larger problem? How do we integrate that into best practice and professional development? How do we get teachers to engage in quality self-reflection and transform that into action? We kicked around many suggestions (Marzano, National Boards, researching methodologies, etc.) Then we talked about Action Research--can we prove/disprove that our actions in the classroom are effective within house (using our own classes as guinea pigs) or official research? How do we get others to engage in this kind of activity without feeling threatened or passionless or whatever? Key Themes that we are looking at: Professional development, teachers as learners, 21st century learning, promoting passion, what does good teaching look like, the pedagogy of all the above, finding models of the above, is morphing CAT time a way to address this.**
 * 17 Dec. f2f: We Begin to Identify the Problem

Phase II - Plan of Action Will you develop and implement a new strategy or approach to address your question? If so, what will it be? Will you focus your study on existing practices? If so, which particular ones? What is an appropriate timeline for what you are trying to accomplish?

Phase III - Data Collection What types of data should you try to collect in order to answer your question? How will you ensure that you have multiple perspectives? What resources exist and what information from others might be useful in helping you to frame your question, decide on types of data to collect, or to help you in interpreting your findings?

Phase IV - Analysis of Data What can you learn from the data? What patterns, insights, and new understandings can you find? What meaning do these patterns, insights, and new understandings have for your practice? for your students?

Phase V - Plan for Future Action What will you do differently in your classroom as a result of this study? What might you recommend to others? How will you write about what you have learned so that the findings will be useful to you and to others? CHANGE PROCESS (Gather and analyze data, explore solutions, assess readiness, create and communicate plan, implement, and monitor)

__14 Jan. f2f Meeting__. 1. Based on the elluminate meeting earlier this week, we really want to keep an eye on best practice, independent of tech. In other words, if teachers don't know what good practice is in general and why they're doing what they're doing, then tech lessons aren't going to be anything more than 'using a calculator' or 'we're making a wiki.' 2. We also want to get onto the project ning to help us focus our project. 3. We're hoping to have a private consultation with Sheryl about or project ... once we've got more details on that ironed out.

__21 Jan. f2f Meeting__

We started talking about a project based in our natural issues that are coming up at Nagel. For example: how can we assist in common assessment using this tech? Or professional development dealing with PLC's, shared learning, individual learning contracts, content as pedagogy, self-reflection, tribes, FUN, and passion.

__4 Feb. f2f__

We're narrowing our ideas for our project, and we're very interested in the idea that all of the good use of tech in the classroom is predicated on good teaching practices, period. So, if we're going to have good tech, we need to make sure we're starting with genuine pedagogy first. We may need to implement our project without even mentioning tech first! Focusing on student outcomes/skills, instead of teacher behavior/knowledge, might help refocus people on the proper way to approach things and not make teachers think they're under fire. What does learning look like in the 21st century/this moment in public schools? It needs to incorporate student needs, pedagogical needs, materials we have, etc. in a genuine way.

__25 Feb. f2f__ Big news! Our possible project idea is moving forward in the official channels, so we feel confident about planning. We are setting up an exploratory group (that would be us) to work on allowing students to bring their own tech into the school buildings. The idea is a pilot program next year staring in January for 7th grade only and see how it works--get the kinks worked out. This probably won't bring our students to a 1-to-1 point, but it sure will get more tech in the hands of the kids who need it without breaking the bank. Tasha wants to make sure that there is a scaled system of staff development so that it's not just 'ok, there it is,' but rather we are maximizing the possibilities. The possibility of Ashland credit for staff development as a carrot was discussed. We also want to go visit other schools who may be headed in this direction to see the nuts and bolts of implementation. We may want to encourage selfish learning for the semester before we implement (or the summer before) so that people are as prepared and focused as they can be when the rollout comes. Also, how do we train teachers (and even students) on some of the basic mechanical stuff of having different OS's in the same classroom? Balancing voluntary vs. mandatory PD is something we have to work out, as well as nuts'n'bolts issues vs. pedagogical/inspirational stuff. Differentiation could be key: make a list of Must Be Able To Do, Would Be Nice to Be Able To Do, and Other. We need to include: trouble shooting skills, 21st century skills, pedagogical skills. Approaching this as action research would be a great help; let the needs dictate what happens where we need to explore. It should be about personal discovery and the needs of the classroom as opposed to a top-down dictum. And if it is about the tech, as opposed to personal development, then it won't be effective/on target. Our project, then, is outlining the professional development for the next year, not necessarily the plan to introduce the tech itself.

__4 March f2f__ Yea! Now we have our project idea. Tasha suggested we need to do the following research: 1. What does the Nagel staff perceive is going on/ what do they need? 2. Can we/do we still need a Cheryl conversation? how about 25 March at 12? or the 23rd from 12-1:30? or the 24th from 12-1? 3. Can we convene the Achievers to hash some of this out? how about on the 16th of March at 12? 4. How about a pre-school meeting, 16 March from 6-9? 5. How about another pre-school meeting from 6-9 on 24 March?