Forest+Hills+School+District+Team+2

Nagel Middle School Team

Project Page:


 * Assumptions:**
 * We will "walk the walk", be a shining example
 * We will collaborate with one another
 * We will take this journey together
 * We are going to make people feel uncomfortable (what about us?--what was our point here?)
 * We will work to find answers to these questions:
 * How do we get this to be part of the culture?
 * We will take time as a team to focus on this and make it a meaningful experience for us all
 * We will make PLP a priority...
 * We will be selfish and wrap our brains around this first... before sharing it with others
 * We will be open to any range of new ideas
 * We will not get twitterpated if things get rocky at the start

Hey guys: should we transfer the Z-drive to something like this so we can add del.i.cious and stuff like that???

Here are some things that we need to exploit: 1. del.i.cious 2. diigo 3. flock 4. Prezi.com 5. and this article they said was great: [|Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out] 6. Tree tags for firefox--very cool 7. [|scribd.com]--mass uploads so that we export to ning

__Notes for 15 Oct. f2f Meeting__ 1. We caught up and said hi; talked about swine flu vacs. 2. Ellie brought some really handy material to help us organize all of the jobs we have in front of us. We then went through and identified what we've done and what needs to be done. We're pretty good on our 'personal presence' and need to do more team stuff. 3. We took a look at digital footprints together. 4. Then we prioritized what we had in front of us. We agreed on a list of activities that we would do individually vs. things we'd do together. 5. We're going to focus quite a bit for now on digital citizenship so that we can define what is most important to us, it will help guide future discussion. We're going to read them all but pick a couple to bring to the next meeting and launch from. 6. We looked at the partnership for the 21st century skills and divided the 4 topics to investigate and bring back to the group jigsaw-style. 7. We're going to look at Rob's video together at the next meeting and discuss it then. 8. All this is going to go down next Thurs., 22 Oct. and weekly thereafter.

__Notes for 22 Oct. f2f Meeting__ 1. Tasha and Trisha were unable to attend, so we will now assign all the most onerous tasks to them. Details to follow. 2. Ellie recapped the team leaders tete-a-tete from yesterday. A big question: how is it going? How comfortable is it? Is it doing the job professionally? 3. Is it ironic that we all like meeting f2f to gain confidence before? No, it's just the way we are...a little bit digital, a little bit personal. 4. How can we expand our groups? We interact (digitally and personally) with people in our physical community, but what barriers exist to expanding our groups? 5. And then apply this concept to CAT teams and meetings. We are all over the place in terms of our CAT teams--what works? What doesn't? 6. For next week: we will watch the Rob video together then and discuss the articles that we read at that point, incorporating NING threads as well. Ellie is going to concoct a weekly 'points to ponder' type of list, kind of like the print-out from last time, to suggest topics of conversation. Also, Cary may be dropping by from time to time. Please make her feel welcome.

__Notes for the 5 Nov. f2f Meeting__ 1. We took a moment to get everyone on the same page. People have been in and out recently and we needed to get organized. 2. We then took a moment to look at tweetdeck and some ancillary stuff that Cary had sent Trisha in a notebook format. 3. We looked at google accounts and what we can use from that. 4. We took some time to discuss some of the blog posts that we enjoyed and responded together. 5. We agree that we need to structure our work for this more, and we are going to set out some goals now that we kind of know what is going on.

__Notes for the 12 Nov. f2f Meeting__ 1. We figured that, in light of our scatteredness, we would sit down and create individual goals for ourselves in the plp. 2. We took a look at Trisha's prezi presentation, which was cool but we were struggling with an aspect or two. Needs some exploration time. 3. Ellie talked about a book called Presentation Zen that was kind of like a meta-uber-overview of presentation stuffs. Here's a link to amazon for the book: [] 4. Then we looked at how we're using this stuff, to what degree, and where we seem to be heading. Tasha has made her own ning for Nagel and Trisha talked about us linking digo and del.i.cious. 5. We agreed we need to talk more about the articles we had looked at because we haven't hit them enough. We're going to continue to ning about this in the same spot we had been already.

j=take it outside, and more, and use it for things outside of our topics

__18 Nov. f2f Meeting__ 1. This was a low-key day with STW still in the building, so Tasha wasn't here. Tasha--check out the following notes; we made some decisions that will be important prior to the 1 dec. elluminate session. 2. Ellie had a graphic organizer that got us rolling: how to contribute more/better on our sites. We're going to follow that. 3. We decided we were going to focus on the 21st century enGage materials (the one with the four purple boxes). We're going to really respond in the big conversation with the larger group--you can find it here: http://plpohio.ning.com/forum/topics/21st-century-skills-engauge We need to do this prior to 1 dec. 4. Ellie then started a good conversation about transforming the students' learning by questioning our practice: why are we including this tech in our classes? Are we just doing fancy versions of worksheets, or are we utilizing the unique nature of the tech to do things we could do any other way? How can we model this, for students and teachers? And how do we push this? How do we know what success in this area looks like?

__1 Dec. Elluminate Meeting notes__: 1. After intros, etc. Will introduced us to evernote, which was pretty cool. online, searchable notebook. 2. We then saw Zoho suite. tons of apps for kids to cloud on. including video import, etc. 3. Zotero is a research and notetaking tool. 4. after some discussion, we outlined our projects. they are going to be based on our nagel team, so we need to find a common goal. between now and the next elluminate session we should be kicking ideas around and discussing, but NOT deciding yet because there's more details to come. be transparent with our conversations. late feb-early apr. is when we should have our ideas set. 5. our HW is to go to the group rooms that they have set up, pick and choose which groups you want to join, but have a diversity amongst the team members.

DISCUSSION F2F: 1) Adult Learners....how do we tap into them?? 2) Passion 3) Change Theory 4) It is not about the tool, but it is...what is the catalyst?? (examples...calculators...when were they embraced??)

__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?

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?

__11 Jan. Elluminate Session__ http://plpohio.ning.com/group/teamproject/ http://plpnetwork.com/project-resources-research/ http://plp-master.wikispaces.com/E-3+Curriculum

Steps 1. The problem or question. What is the problem (or opportunity) you wish to address with your project? Describe what you wish to change, for example, aspects of content (e.g. test scores), process (e.g. ability to collaborate), climate (e.g. morale), or tech use (e.g. embedded use of technology in instruction). Be as specific as possible in describing what you want to change.

2. Objectives and Assessment Develop objectives and authentic assessments for determining what you want learners (adults or students) to be able to know and do after the project and how you will determine they have indeed mastered the objectives your project laid out.

3. Networked Design Then think about how you will design your project so participants can share, connect, collaborate, or move to some type of collective action.

4. Set the Context What have others done (at your institution or elsewhere) to address this problem? Do some research as a team to see what others have done. Get ideas. Divi up different research roles to individual team members.

5. Proposal How will you plan to solve the problem or answer the question? Describe what you will do to address the problem/opportunity described earlier. Are you doing anything differently than others have attempted? Why or why not? Why do you propose that your approach will succeed better than prior attempts or will work better with your students or faculty?

6. Evaluation How will you determine the success and effectiveness of your solution and the impact of your project? Do you plan to determine pre and post results? How will you know that the behavior of your students/faculty has changed/improved? Note: You may not be able to obtain your results by the end of your year. However, you should have a plan in place to evaluate your project and report on the results. The idea is to develop a solid plan to share with others. If you implement this year or next is entirely up to you. When possible make this an action research project.

7. Timeline How will your project progress? Indicate the dates of project initiation and completion for each step of your design, implementation, and evaluation.

8. Documentation How will you document your progress along the way? Will you share in your team group room in NING? Will you create a collaborative blog? A wiki? A Google Doc? Choose one and then everyone will use the document to make the process transparent.

During this next PLP phase-(until our next E sessions) ask questions, explore ideas, research and plan. You may not know what you do not know. Or at the least be prepared to revise, revise, revise. Be transparent in your planning and experimenting. Ask the community for help. Use the PLN you are starting to develop or will develop over this next phase.

Your team should be in high gear in terms of project plans late February.

Your team will develop a learning showcase for our PLP Culminating meeting where your team shares your project and the results of your project plan.

The big goal is to take what you have learned and apply it to changed classroom practice (we cover instruction in the E-3 session) or a scaling type project spreading what you know with faculty.

The PPT is attached below from our E-2 Session