Individual Professional Growth Plan Reflection

Individual Professional Growth Plan Reflection

Bryan Whitney

September 3rd, 2015

About a year ago I decided to create a Moodle for each of my French 1, 2, 3, and 4 classes for my Individual Professional Growth Plan. My goal was to create a Moodle for each class in order to provide extra support for my students, give them more choices in pace and in delivery method, place, and time. I also wanted to incorporate technology in my teaching methods so that students have more opportunities to be engaged when learning French. 

It was a lot of work as each week I created presentations for each of my classes. I use these to organize my teaching and to help students to have visuals and clear directions. This is particularly useful for students that are primarily visual learners. It is extremely important in French 1 and 2 because they have a very limited ability with the French language, and I try to create as immersive of an environment as possible. This is also very important for students that need a lot of structure and who have difficulties focusing. Not only that, but by posting the link to the presentation on my Moodles students have a place to go to if they miss class and/or want to review what we went over in class. 

Using Google Apps For Education (GAFE) has been very useful for me as an educator. One of my favorite aspects of GAFE is that I can use Google Drive to sync my files with my work and home computer, as well as create links to my online resources. The beauty of having links to my files on my Google Drive versus just uploading files directly to Moodle is that I can then update my files without having to then upload the new version of the file to the Moodle. For example, if I create a worksheet for a project on my Google Drive I can then get the link to the worksheet, put the link on Moodle, and later on if I update or change the worksheet in any way it will automatically be updated when students click on the link on my Moodle. This has greatly cut down on confusion for myself and for my students because as long as I use links to my resources they will always see the newest version and not an old outdated version. 

Also, I am always working to make improvements based off of student feedback and my classroom experiences, so if I am able to make those changes quickly and on the fly I don't have to worry about trying to keep track of notes of how things went, and then trying to organize them at a later date. One little trick that has helped me is that I created a master Powerpoint with all of the main activities that I do. For each activity there are instructions (often in both French and English) and in the note sections I include notes for myself on how I am planning on doing those activities (if necessary). After, or even in the midst of the activity, I am able to quickly make changes to the Powerpoint so that the experience will be improved for my future classes. It has been a much better process than just trying to keep track of sticky notes, which tend to get out of hand for me.

Another thing about Google Apps that I have really enjoyed this last year is the ability to collaborate with other teachers without being in the exact same location at once. Since we are all so busy and lead hectic lives it can be difficult to get everyone all in one place, but by using shared files such as Google Docs or Google Presentation we can create and update resources together. This last spring I worked with several other French teachers here in Missoula to create resources for a blended learning unit based off of a short beginning reader for French 1 or French 2 students. We shared files and collaborated using Google Apps which streamlined and simplified the process for us. 

On my Moodles I have included Google Calendar, YouTube, Google Drive, Google Sites, Google Presentations, podcasts, screencasts, videos, Quizlet, and other applications. I found that Google Calendar wasn't quite as useful as I had first thought. I felt like it was quite a bit of extra work to have all four Google Calendars updated everyday, and wasn't really worth it. I decided to have all of the information available on my presentations, which are organized by class and day. I also have a weekly calendar in my classroom on one of my whiteboards, so the Google Calendar ended up being superfluous in my opinion.

I was very excited about the Moodle quizzes at first. The nice thing about them is that you can create several different types of questions: multiple choice, True/False, fill-in-the-blanks, short answer, and essay questions. Plus, many of them can be graded instantly by the computer. This can save on a lot of grading time. Also, students can have the opportunity to take a quiz or test multiple times and get the best grade for their efforts. The drawback of the quizzes is that Moodle can be very slow when creating new questions, so it took quite a bit longer than I really wanted it to. I also tried to import questions because I thought that would save some time, but I couldn't get that to work correctly. Another snag that I ran into at the beginning of this year is that we had to move our Moodles onto a new server and update it to the newest version of Moodle. Because of that I wasn't able to transfer the quiz questions that I made last year. There may be another solution that I just haven't figured out yet, but that was a frustrating beginning to my year. But, another thing that I discovered last year was GradeCam, which allows you to create personalized bubble sheets which can then be quickly scanned by your smartphone or webcam to then be instantly graded by the computer. This is great for quick formative assessments. I highly prefer it to the Moodle quizzes, at least at this point in the game.

The biggest benefits for me and my students has been that the Moodles have helped keep me organized, and have made my resources more available to students outside of the four walls of my classroom. This year I feel much more prepared, and students have a place to go if they need to review what we went over in class, or if they missed out on class because of sickness or an activity. Because students miss class on a relatively regular basis it is very useful to have the Moodles up and running for them. This way we can all stay on the same page and my hope is that it will improve student learning and outcomes. I will definitely keep working with my class Moodles in the years to come.

Teaching as a Subversive Activity

Here’s a very interesting quote from “Teaching as a Subversive Activity” by Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner (1969). 

Pages 54-56:

“Now, if the “subject” is what is called “English”, the list of possible relevant problems is literally endless. For example, if one accepts the rather obvious fact that language is almost always produced by human beings for human purposes to share human meanings (the one exception to this is when two grammarians have a conversation), then the study of language is inseparable from the study of human situations. A language situation (i.e., a human situation) is any human event in which language is used to share meanings.

…in studying about how language works, one has available all the possible forms of human discourse to examine. So what do you think the focus of the “new English” is? Grammar. So help us.

Of course, we earlier alluded to this fact. But the question is, why is this so? Why have English teachers looked to grammarians for their opportunities? Why, of all the relevant and even critical language problems under the sun, have English teachers selected grammatical ones as the terrain for their students’ inquiries? In answering, one must try hard not to be libelous. But the fact is that many teachers of English are fearful of life and, incidentally, of children. They are pompous and precious, and are lovers of symmetry, categories, and proper labels. For them, the language of real human activity is too sloppy, emotional, uncertain, dangerous, and thus altogether too unsettling to study in the classroom. It was Kafka, we believe, who remarked that he could not understand why some people were so disdainful of “everyday” life since that was the only one they had. He must have had in mind the kind of English teacher we are describing.

Grammarians offer such teachers a respectable out. They give them a game to play, with rules and charts, and with boxes and arrows to draw. Grammar is not, of course, without its controversies, but they are of such a sterile and generally pointless nature that only one who is widely removed from relevant human concerns can derive much stimulation from them. Browning’s line that grammarians are dead from the waist down captures the sense of what we are trying to say about them.

What we are complaining about is the incredible fact that the exotic interests of these men have been put at the center of the “new English,” by teachers who are afraid to go where the feelings, perceptions, and questions of children would take them. You see, there simply aren’t any children who would have any possible reason- now or for the rest of their lives- to care about how a noun is defined, or what the transformational rules are for forming the passive voice, or how many allomorphs there are of the plural morpheme. And as long as we have English teachers who think there are, the “new English,” in its effects, will be virtually indistinguishable from the “old English.””

One of the things that I really love about teaching with Comprehensible Input and TPRS  is how we celebrate everyday life. Not only that, we take everyday words, objects, and actions and elevate them by using our imaginations and playfulness. It’s like how a child can find a million and one ways to play with a box.

It also made me think of how the impressionists and post-impressionists celebrated the quotidien. After that the surrealists look(ed) at surpassing everyday life and attempting to reach our dreams / a reality that is more real than what we perceive to be our everyday reality. I think that has something to do with what we’re trying to do in our classrooms (and hopefully our lives).

A little food for thought...

(This is not an apple)

Classroom New Year's Resolution: Quick Daily Assessments With GradeCam!

The new year is fast upon us, and having a little break gives me some time to reflect and think about goals for the coming year. I think that it's important to focus on only 1-3 goals, otherwise it just gets to be too much and none of them get done. So, when I think about if there's only one change that I can make, what would that change be?

I've been learning a lot from other teachers around me, and particularly from Ben Slavic's TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) and CI (Comprehensible Input) Professional Learning Community. One of the gems that I've culled is assigning a student to be the quiz writer for the day. He or she then writes 10-12 True/False statements during the course of the class based on whatever our discussion may be. The nice thing about this is that it keeps students accountable to the content of our discussions, while also allowing the class to be flexible and not entirely tied down to any preconceived plan if so desired. Also, it's a great way to review content at the end of the class, and if it's done on a daily (or at least close to daily) basis it keeps both the students and me aware of how much they're understanding. 

So, how will it actually work in practice? First of all, I will explain to my class the purpose of this. Secondly, I will explain what the Quiz Writer will do and then pick a student to be the quiz writer for the day. The last 10 minutes or so of class I will collect the quiz from the Quiz Writer and do one of two things. Option number one is to have students get out a blank sheet of paper and write their names and the numbers 1-10 (or 1-8 if you want it to be a bit shorter) on it. Option number two is to use GradeCam. For this you need to set up an account (for quizzes of up to 10 questions it's entirely free, and their's a free trial period as well) for yourself, and create a class with your students' names. You can then print out multiple choice sheets (A through D) of 8-10 questions each. I will assign 2-3 students to pass out the sheets because their is one sheet for each student with their names on it. (You can print multiple sheets per page so that it uses less paper.) I would probably go with option number one as more of an informal assessment on Mondays and Tuesdays, and option number two for more formal assessments during block (Wed./Thur.) and Fridays. 

Once students have either a sheet of paper or the GradeCam sheets I will read aloud the 8-10 questions that the Quiz Writer has written. That way I can quickly correct any grammatical errors, and it also assures that students are paying attention to spoken French. I will read through each phrase three times. Once they are complete I will either have them trade with a partner, who will grade them, or just have them hand them in. I will then go through each phrase one at a time and ask the class whether it is true or false, and have them respond together. If it seems like they are unclear or if I hear some students who respond incorrectly I can either explain it to them or ask a student from the class to explain it and/or translate it. 

If I chose to use GradeCam then all I have to do is take the Quiz Writer's quiz and quickly enter in the answers into a new quiz in GradeCam. I can then take each of their sheets and, using my computer webcam I can put the sheet in front of the camera and it will instantly tabulate their grade! And, it doesn't end there. If you are using an electronic gradebook (as we do) you can then open up your electronic gradebook, create the new assignment, click on the first student, and then hit the F8 key. It will then instantly enter in the grades for you! It's a beautiful sight to see! Not only does this help take away some of the really boring and repetitive parts of teaching, but it also gives students (as well as myself and their parents) some very quick feedback on how they're doing. It's a fantastic idea that I am actually looking forward to implementing in the new year!

Just get on the bike and ride!

I went to a training yesterday, and this is an analogy that really stuck out to me. Think back to how you learned (or are presently learning) in school. When I think back to my foreign language classes in high school and at the university a lot of what I remember is trying to memorize an almost endless amount of vocabulary lists, conjugating verbs, and doing lots and lots of book exercises. Don't get me wrong, we also played games, had short conversations, read, watched videos, and other fun and interesting things, but it still seemed like the emphasis was on memorizing, practicing, and then regurgitating what we had (hopefully) taken in. Now, I don't think that my teachers and professors necessarily meant any harm by this, but you kind of have to wonder just how effective this method (or methods) is when each year fewer and fewer students continued in the program, and many felt unsuccessful. How many people have you heard say, "I just can't learn a foreign language."? Perhaps it's not them. Perhaps it's the method.

I truly believe that a lot of the problem here is that much of this learning has been focused on learning about the language, and not simply learning by using the language. Now we're getting to the analogy that I ran across yesterday. Imagine that you want to learn how to ride a bike. For some reason you never got around to it. So, one way is to go get a book about how to ride a bike. You go buy a book, read it from cover to cover, take notes, quiz yourself, and maybe even watch some videos of people riding bikes. You learn everything you can about how to ride a bike.

In scenario two, you decide to just go get a bike, and ask a friend who already knows how to ride a bike to help you out. Your friend encourages you and shows you how it's done. Perhaps you even start with some training wheels so you can begin to get the feel for it without having to fall too much. But, eventually you take those training wheels off and you ride just a little bit by yourself (with a push from your friend), and you fall down. You get up, wipe yourself off, and try again. This time you go a little bit further before you fall down, but once again you get back up and get back on your bike.

Just imagine that you have two people. One person tries out the first option for a year, and the other person tries out the second option for a year. You could even extrapolate this out to four years or more. At the end of that time period you had both of them get on a bike and show you what they had learned. What do you think the results would be? Who do you think would be better able to ride a bike?

Unfortunately, a lot of the learning that has taken place in our schools is more about learning about things, instead of actually learning by doing. I think this is particularly poignant in foreign language teaching. I have even been guilty of teaching in this way as well. I have tried to teach my students to think about the language, which oftentimes just gets in the way of actually being able to use the language. Now, perhaps at a more advanced level it may be appropriate to teach about the language (or maybe not- how many of you really have to think about how English works at a conscious  level to be able to use the language well?), but considering the small amount of time that we have with students as it is, teaching about the language is of limited value if I really want them to be able to learn to use the language. It's time to turn over a new leaf!!! It's time to just get on the bike and ride!

Comprehensible Input and Personalization

Ben Slavic teaching some of his students French

1. Is it comprehensible?
2. Is it personalized?

According to Ben Slavic's book, "TPRS in a Year", these are the two main questions we should ask ourselves as foreign language teachers if we truly want our students to acquire the language we are teaching them. Acquiring the language, as I understand it, is about much more than memorization. In fact, there are those who would argue that rote memorization isn't actually all that useful in the long-term. We all know those students (and I have certainly been one of them) who simply memorize what they need to know for the next quiz or test and then promptly forget it because they know that we're just going to move onto something new, which they will then memorize, regurgitate for the quiz, then forget. It's an ugly process with rather limited results.

As I see it acquiring the language is about absorbing the language at such a deep level that it becomes a part of your being in the world. You've taken it in to such a point that you don't have to stop to think about it. It has become a reflex. It has simply become a part of who you are.

Acquiring the language, even if only a small part of the language, is ultimately my goal for my students. Because of limited time it is necessary to focus on the most important words and structures in the language. This takes lots and lots of repetition, and patience. Fortunately, we don't actually need an enormous vocabulary to be able to understand a large percentage of what we come into contact with, and with a little creativity we can communicate quite a bit with even a small amount of vocabulary and language structures.

Interestingly enough the 100 most common high frequency words in a language make up about 50% of what we read. Even the top 25 words make up about a third of what we read (Fry,
Kress, and Fountoukidis, 2004). By focusing on the most common vocabulary and really getting that vocabulary down there is an amazing amount that we can understand and do.

So, one major thing that we need to do is to focus on the most used words in the language and make sure our students have them down really really well if we want them to be able to understand what we are trying to communicate so that the language we use is comprehensible to them.

As an aside, I've also been looking into "Immediate Immersion", which is a TPRS based curriculum created by Scott Benedict that was recommended to me by a colleague of mine who has had a lot of success with it so far this year in her Spanish classes. During the first year the teacher primarily focuses on the 100 most common words. During the second year you then focus on the top 200, and so on and so forth. Of course, students come into contact with much more than that, but they aren't expected to have the other vocabulary down like they do with the 100 words that are being focused on that year. To me this seems like a sensible and humane way of teaching a foreign language so that truly all students can be successful- not just the ones that are gifted in that area.

Incremental Improvement

 

 While I love those "Aha! That's genius!" moments (which I am most certainly always open to), it's constantly focusing on making small, incremental improvements which lead to big growth in the long-term. Those small changes may not seem like much at first, but over the long-term they can be completely transformative. 

To give you an image of incremental change which leads to big results, today I took my dog Archer into the vet for a check-up. His last visit was a few months ago. I had realized that he was getting bigger, but it was hard for me to really tell just how much, since I would see him everyday. In my eyes he's still my little puppy dog. But, lo and behold, he's gone from weighing about 32 pounds in June to 53 pounds today! My little puppy isn't quite so little! (I suppose that's why it's getting more difficult to lift him up. At least I can be pretty sure that it's not because I'm getting weaker...) Now, what you choose to focus on incremental improvement may or may not be a puppy, I think an analogy can be found there. (While tempting, I'm NOT going to refer to my students as puppies. Scout's honor. Of course, by saying that I'm NOT going to refer to my students as puppies I suppose the argument could be made that I am to some extent. It's sort of like saying, "Don't think about a pink elephant." You're going to do it either way. In fact, as teachers we're told to always frame things in the affirmative, because if you tell someone not to do something they're going to focus on what you told them not to do. Sigh... I hope you like tangents...)

One major way for me to keep track of those small improvements is through my use of presentations in my classes. First of all, I use them so that my teaching is image-rich and it helps students (and myself) to have a very clear idea of where we're at in the lesson, particularly since I use little to no English in the classroom. But, it's not just about helping myself and my students to keep organized and aware of expectations.

One of the major factors of using presentations (for me anyway) is that I can easily move activities around and/or modify them on the fly, or at least soon thereafter. While I love the idea of keeping notes on what went well, what didn't go so well, and what I can improve on in the future, it's difficult to have a good system for that. That's where my presentations come in. When students are working independently or in groups I can easily freeze my projector and then go right on over to my computer and change around my presentation as needed. Oftentimes it's during the moment or not long after that I come up with ideas for improvement. Even if it's something that I don't have time for right now I can easily add a slide and quickly type in those ideas to flesh out further on in the future. 

Also, if there are things that didn't go so smoothly, or if I find that there are certain pieces of information that need further review I can fairly quickly make those changes for future classes, if not for the current class. While these changes may be small in the moment, they will cumulatively create more momentum and success in the future. It may not seem dramatic at first, but after years of constant incremental improvement you can make great gains! Just stick with it and focus on the next step!

The Joy of Moodle Quizzes!

One of the most amazing things about Moodle (our online content manager) that I'm really getting into this year is the ability to create quizzes that are (mostly) graded by the computer. Using Moodle I can make quizzes that have all of the multiple choice, true/false, matching, and short answers automatically graded by the program. I then only need to grade essay questions or other questions that require a more complicated response. This is a lifesaver for me because one of the things that I really hate to do is grade the very repetitive and mostly mindless grading that those types of questions require. (Of course, I also believe in using projects, presentations, and other sorts of products for summative assessment. In fact, I find them to be quite fun, interesting, and useful. But, I do believe there is value in more traditional forms of assessment such as quizzes.)

Not only does it make my job more enjoyable, but it gives students instant feedback on how they did on the quiz. They don't have to wait even a day to know. They can find out right away! Now there's feedback for you. Also, I have the option to give them multiple tries to improve their score. Each time they take the quiz the question and answer order is shuffled so it won't look exactly the same as before. This is fantastic because then both they and I can see not only what they need to improve upon, but also exactly what they have improved. I think it's very rewarding to see students say, "Oh, now I get it! That's what that was about!" Plus, I can easily create practice quizzes that they can do as many times as they like so they will know that they are prepared when they do the real thing.

Another fantastic aspect of it is that I can compare how all of my students did on each question without having to flip through a whole bunch of papers. It makes it much easier to see if there are particular questions that a good number of students are (or aren't) understanding, and I can modify my teaching to address that in the future. Moodle does a great job of letting me know how students are doing in essentially real time.

Also, once I get a class set of headsets I will be able to record my voice that students will then be required to respond to. You can even have them record their own voices as the response! It is definitely a time consuming process to get everything going, but I think it well really be helpful for both me and my students in the future.