Mid-year Review

Hey there! It's Tuesdays with Swindy coming to you on a What up Wednesday this week with a reposting of an excellent article by Diane Ravitch, "The Real Lessons of PISA." She looks at the success of education in China and Finland through a lense that is much more clearly focused than our own country's seems to be with regard to viewing these results (see "Waiting for Superman," increased emphasis on testing and data, etc.).

The excerpt that drove a key point home for me, which I'll be heavily retweeting and spreading to my PLN, is the way Finland approaches student learning:

"Its education system is modeled on American progressive ideas. It is student-centered. It has a broad (and non-directive) national curriculum. Its teachers are drawn from the top 10 percent of university graduates. They are highly educated and well prepared. Students never take a high-stakes test; their teachers make their own tests. The only test they take that counts is the one required to enter university."

Another passage that strikes a chord with me is the approach Shanghai takes to it's troubled schools. Instead of punishment, it is one of collaboration:

"Interestingly, the authorities in Shanghai boast not about their testing routines, but about their consistent and effective support for struggling teachers and schools. When a school is in trouble in Shanghai, authorities say they pair it with a high-performing school."

Please read Diane Ravitch's article; it is exactly what I'd like to share this week.

Now on to some business of reflection...

It is the mid-year point for we three Academic Integration Coaches. Since we exist in a data-driven system, we were asked to compile the data of what we've done to improve tech integration in our district this year. We spent a day in reflection and data compilation, and below is our mid-year report. Now, we've got to get back to work! See you next week!

The Professional Development
Instructed 539 teachers in 35 after-school flex sessions from August through November (that total climbs to 615 teachers in 39 sessions if July is included), with 25 remaining flex sessions still scheduled for this year. Breakdown by session and date is below.

We average 15.8 people that actually attend each tech- integration flex session (compare that to the district average).

Received strong feedback on these sessions on mlp.com, with the average rating from teachers who evaluated our overall sessions being between 4 and 5 out of 5. Check it out -- our sessions rank very high.

Used a Help Request form so that anyone in the district can easily contact us.

Spent considerable time each week to stay current on trends in education and technology through blogs, PLNs, list-serves, webinars, and conversations.

Conducted on-site help during lunch periods with faculty at all elementary schools except York Ave and Bridle Path.

Have worked in every building in the district except the Alternative School, so far.

Maintained a list of upcoming and prior flex sessions on our website.
Published all agendas, notes, and links for CFF-approved flex sessions on the NP Tech Tools Wiki

Published regular blog entries:
http://swindiculous.blogspot.com/
http://mrcstat.blogspot.com/
http://wmckfarm.blogspot.com/

Podcasted weekly Tech Tip of the Week

Followed up via email with every person we’ve worked with this year.

Tech Integration Flex Sessions this year and number of participants
(Date, Session Title, Number of Attendees):
12/6 – Empowered – 13, 12/2 – Everything – 12,11/29 – Twitter – 15,11/17 – Wiki – 18,11/13 – Schoolwires – 13,11/10 - PowerPoint – 10,11/9 – Excel – 14 ,11/1 – Wiki Online – 24,11/1 – DE Streaming Online – 5,10/26 – Video – 15,10/19 – Schoolwires – 9,10/13 – Google – 14,10/13 – Word & Outlook – 13,10/7 – PowerPoint – 14,10/5 – Schoolwires – 12,10/1 – DE Streaming online – 2,9/30 – Everything – 15,9/29 – Moodle – 9,9/28 – Excel – 14,9/27 – PLN – 19,9/21 – Social Bookmarking – 15,9/15 – Schoolwires – 17,9/1 – DE Streaming Online – 15,8/26 – Word & Outlook – 22,8/26 – Excel – 20,8/26 – Word & Outlook – 26,8/23 – Blogging – 19,8/19 – Word & Outlook – 14,8/18 – Word & Outlook – 15,8/18 – Word & Outlook – 20,8/16 – Paperless – 21,8/16 – Web Quest – 20,8/12 – Word & Outlook – 16,8/11 – Word & Outlook – 20,8/4 – Word & Outlook – 19,7/28 – Word & Outlook – 16,7/21 – Word & Outlook – 21,7/14 – Word & Outlook – 21,7/7 – Word & Outlook – 18

The Work Log
Our work log spreadsheet (not included in this blog post) separates the data we collected from our meeting requests. We had approximately 168 meetings in three months. This does not account for some repeat visits to provide support at the last moment. The topics covered each month are as follows:
blogging/ collaborative writing
digital media (videotaping, podcasting, digital cameras)
google apps
promethean/ Smart board
schoolwires/moodle
web 2.0 tools
wikispaces
other: Microsoft 07 and other school based software including Gradebook, ELMO and SRS systems
Open school meetings/training

Of the 168 meetings conducted 70 were at the elementary schools, 14 were at the middle schools, 4 were at the ESC and 79 were held at the high school.

The Success Stories
For all of the training and meeting requests, we also wanted to highlight how it is actually being implemented with classrooms.

1. We receive so many requests for help with Wikispaces, that every teacher wants one almost instead of a Schoolwires webpage. The great thing about this is that students and teachers alike can be the ones generating content for their class Wiki.
a. A wiki used in a 5th grade class to replace a less-than-stellar unit in the textbook to learn collaboratively about Explorers (Explorers Wiki). Being in this classroom when the students are working on this project is an amazing experience.
b. A wiki used by 7th Grade Reading Teachers at Pennbrook (Pennbrook Fever). There are 500+ students discussing literature online.

2. Numerous teachers are using Google Docs to have students submit assignments, cutting down on the usage of paper in the district. We still do have a long way to go, but we’ve gotten a great start as a result of our “Going Paperless” session.

3. The NP Tech Tools Wiki is a listing of resources gathered by the AIC’s through involvement in online professional learning and development. We continue to update these resources for any teacher to access.

4. More teachers are willing to take on a student-centered approach to their classroom. In continued meetings with one high school teacher, her instruction is focused on what her students can be doing to actively learn. She is using Edmodo and Google Docs to facilitate this approach to her classroom.

5. Five Teachers at Inglewood Elementary have class blogs set up on http://www.kidblog.org/. Their students are excited about blogging their assignments, but they are also communicating with other students by way of comments on their posts. They are excited about writing and publishing for their classmates to see.

6. Two of Walton Farm's 6th Grade teachers have started an after-school club to allow kids to create a news program for the school. They are writing scripts, performing, filming, and then editing their video. The club meets one day per week, but one teacher has students coming in 3 other days to work on their videos.

7. Pennbrook's tech aide recently praised our team for getting a reading classroom up and running with Wikispaces and a set of classroom laptops.

In terms of vision, these are the kinds of classrooms, activities, and environments we want to create. Kids are being creative, they are being engaged, they are excited about learning. This change in attitude(for both student and teacher) is easily observed from classroom to classroom. The innovation has been facilitated by the AIC’s through careful planning and implementation alongside of teachers in the use of classroom technology.


Jason Christiansen, Scott Swindells, Wendy McKenzie
The Academic Integration Coaches