Culminating expereince
This is a for the sills and technologies that we have experienced in this class. Also a shout out to the curriculum hey Louis. Let me take you back to last week. My culminating experience activity had been going very well. I had completed the following.
culminating proposal draft ok’d
full day of Html training from the head programmer for the company who provides our curriculum
individual research on html, some great online resources are available.
one on one work with the head of my department
downloaded application needed for curriculum editing
I was able to make changes to files that I downloaded and then submit those changes and have them appear in my classes big big deal for iQ teachers
I talked to Louis and talked about plan and how I was going to represent this in the portfolio
Got up Early Wed July 28th got the coffee ready papers out opened some apps and
BooooooooM!!!!!
Yep computer crash............ ok no panic, reboot check messages, scratch head
what does Stop code 0000ffffffx000000x fffffffff000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 mean any way.
no worries reboot again Stop code 0000ffffffx000000x fffffffff000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGG that right revert right to Pirate speak. Shiver my timbers Ahhhh poop deck.
The bad news
My hard drive crashed ...............
I lost all my most recent Caribbean vacation pictures (not all? see good news below)
I lost weeks of work (only weeks see below under good news)
I had to complete my culminating experience on my lap top.
The good news
Actaully this is part bad and lots good news We have a back up that for some reason stopped backing up in early June. so good news saved most everything yeah! bad news lost a month and a half of work.
* Most of my grad work materials can be found in cloud storage, wohoo!
* I did not have to go Mad
* My wife though of attaching key board and mouse and monitor to my lap top increasing efficiency, once again I stayed relatively sane.
So owe a great deal to Louis and the MEIT curriculum for teaching me the skills to effectively deal with this potential disaster. Though to be completely fair they are the ones who are making me do all this work in the first place and without them I would probably be tending the garden or playing NCAA 11 right now.
So thanks a lot Louis!!!
Really I owe you most of my sanity!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Week 6 leadership
Here are some belated and quick thoughts about leadership. I am thankful this class was included in our curriculum. The topic was just a semester late but has helped salvage some of you departments transition to a grading and curriculum change that is taking place in the Waukesha school district. I really could have used it about 6 months ago when the change to criteria based grading was proposed to the iQ staff. I asked a bunch of questions and tried to get clarification you know the why, what when kinda stuff and then asked the why some more. I was not satisfied with the answers I received and made some people uncomfortable with my questions. During our class I came to realize just why we were all uncomfortable.
One the district had been working on the transitions for several years (just not iQ) the folks my questions upset the most were the ones new to iq or had worked mostly face to face and had been in the loop as it were. When I realized what was happening I asked for the supportive literature from the powers that be and read through them. They really were quite barren of facts or supportive information for the change but did at least give some vision for the change with some very basic guidance. Secondly I have no control at this point in the process so I can show some trust and move forward with the change.
The new skills I have learned in the culminating experience activity CED0599 give me unique skills to help facilitate the changes taking place with the iQ curriculum. I look forward to developing my role as a leader at iQ and in online education.
One the district had been working on the transitions for several years (just not iQ) the folks my questions upset the most were the ones new to iq or had worked mostly face to face and had been in the loop as it were. When I realized what was happening I asked for the supportive literature from the powers that be and read through them. They really were quite barren of facts or supportive information for the change but did at least give some vision for the change with some very basic guidance. Secondly I have no control at this point in the process so I can show some trust and move forward with the change.
The new skills I have learned in the culminating experience activity CED0599 give me unique skills to help facilitate the changes taking place with the iQ curriculum. I look forward to developing my role as a leader at iQ and in online education.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Week 5 565
Has Cable television ruined America? Well what do you think? Whether you are a radical Tea Party member a right wing conspiracy nut, a ultra conservative right winger, a centrist liberal an anarchist or non political you probably have noticed the polarization found in American politics. You can now glam on to a favorite boutique program on cable that will spout rhetoric you find appealing. Most people do not bother to listen to the other stations as their rhetoric is obviously false and in no way relevant. Sure even when there is absolutely nothing on all 200 hundred channels I still enjoy flipping along the stations and taking in a sentence here and a scene there. My intellect know I would be perfectly fine without all those options in fact I probably only watch about a dozen channels on a regular basis. There is some value in all the options. One unintended consequence however is the loss of a network devoted to finding an audience of or for the majority (at least the majority of 20=40 year old's or whatever the money spending demographic is) Now you find your niche with a few million fervent followers and preach to the choir.
It does make it less stressful listening to just the intelligent and well informed even if it is totally biased and one sided. Most of you probably already realize this but it bears repeating. You are really not opened minded people even those of you who are more open minded than most. Your brain filters information, it actually uses different synapses to process information that agrees with your world outlook than those messages that do not agree with your hard wired brain.
I think the internet while having this great capacity to spread knowledge to the entire world also has the ability to limit an individual world view as we search for similar voices and information that resonates with our views.
ok so this was off topic and tangential to say the least but with a rap up paper and a culminating blog coming this week I did not want to be to repetitive.
thanks for reading the blog.
It does make it less stressful listening to just the intelligent and well informed even if it is totally biased and one sided. Most of you probably already realize this but it bears repeating. You are really not opened minded people even those of you who are more open minded than most. Your brain filters information, it actually uses different synapses to process information that agrees with your world outlook than those messages that do not agree with your hard wired brain.
I think the internet while having this great capacity to spread knowledge to the entire world also has the ability to limit an individual world view as we search for similar voices and information that resonates with our views.
ok so this was off topic and tangential to say the least but with a rap up paper and a culminating blog coming this week I did not want to be to repetitive.
thanks for reading the blog.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Week 4 blog
I often refer to iQ Academy as a start-up company. This description helps when discussing the staff interactions. Most of the staff are from the initial start up and are heavily invested in the school. They are considered risk takers in the district. They demonstrate a passion and common goal. Meeting over the years have been productive.
Last year we hired a new Principal, a teacher with great technical skills and a high degree of motivation. The new principal does have a totally different style than the last principal and there has been several speed bumps in the transition. Though I personally functioned better under the leadership of the last principal the current principal is the right person for the present circumstances. Cuts to staff, slow growth in enrollment etc.
The morale is low at the moment because of the loss of some very passionate qualified teachers. Many feel the best in online education is yet to come and are still hopeful toward the future.
We have a celebration acknowledgment section each staff meeting. I have noticed the number of personal and professional celebration sharing has decreased significantly this year.
We need to make sure we encourage teachers to be involved with the needs assessments, development of changes and there implementation. We are currently working on a mandated change and it is not going well at all.
From my experience as a educator I would say that a positive and productive climate can make all the difference. I have been in situations where there was staff participation and mutual respect. This environment encouraged and maintained an open invitation for faculty involvement. I have also been a part of schools that have used the top down approach, and my experience it has been less effective or beneficial.
Usually in a top down deployment you will not have as much buy-in and you may develop individual or group resistances. I found even if the change was successfully implemented the staff did not feel the same way about the process.
Teachers that feel they are being supported and are a part of the change process are going to be more motivated and experience a greater degree of satisfaction. This could ultimately determine the success of the proposed change.
In principal at IQ we do have a methodology in place for a continuous improvement plan. It is called Summer Academy and supporting that is the establishment of Professional Learning something that start with a C I believe( it is not cheese). PLC's. ah that is right communities.
We do have discussion and set SMART goals and review them each year. But this Summer Academy takes place in July. So some of the same dedicated folks attend each year. They supply a small stipend which comes to 5$ an hour so here we see those informal leaders we have discussed previously coming together. (due to contract dispute I fear this year's SA will not be well attended)
While the summer academy is helpful it needs to be carried through throughout the school year and it has been my experience that this happens some years and some years more pressing issues interfere with the follow through. More time needs to be found for PLC's and follow through on established SMART Goals. I also find it very interesting how teachers are expected to develop curriculum, continue their own education, meet in teams and oh yeah almost forgot Teach and be responsive to individual students and their families. Within a Calendar school year. Obviously this doesn't happen within the school day most of it happens outside the school day, just something to reflect on. Interesting model we are working with.
Last year we hired a new Principal, a teacher with great technical skills and a high degree of motivation. The new principal does have a totally different style than the last principal and there has been several speed bumps in the transition. Though I personally functioned better under the leadership of the last principal the current principal is the right person for the present circumstances. Cuts to staff, slow growth in enrollment etc.
The morale is low at the moment because of the loss of some very passionate qualified teachers. Many feel the best in online education is yet to come and are still hopeful toward the future.
We have a celebration acknowledgment section each staff meeting. I have noticed the number of personal and professional celebration sharing has decreased significantly this year.
We need to make sure we encourage teachers to be involved with the needs assessments, development of changes and there implementation. We are currently working on a mandated change and it is not going well at all.
From my experience as a educator I would say that a positive and productive climate can make all the difference. I have been in situations where there was staff participation and mutual respect. This environment encouraged and maintained an open invitation for faculty involvement. I have also been a part of schools that have used the top down approach, and my experience it has been less effective or beneficial.
Usually in a top down deployment you will not have as much buy-in and you may develop individual or group resistances. I found even if the change was successfully implemented the staff did not feel the same way about the process.
Teachers that feel they are being supported and are a part of the change process are going to be more motivated and experience a greater degree of satisfaction. This could ultimately determine the success of the proposed change.
In principal at IQ we do have a methodology in place for a continuous improvement plan. It is called Summer Academy and supporting that is the establishment of Professional Learning something that start with a C I believe( it is not cheese). PLC's. ah that is right communities.
We do have discussion and set SMART goals and review them each year. But this Summer Academy takes place in July. So some of the same dedicated folks attend each year. They supply a small stipend which comes to 5$ an hour so here we see those informal leaders we have discussed previously coming together. (due to contract dispute I fear this year's SA will not be well attended)
While the summer academy is helpful it needs to be carried through throughout the school year and it has been my experience that this happens some years and some years more pressing issues interfere with the follow through. More time needs to be found for PLC's and follow through on established SMART Goals. I also find it very interesting how teachers are expected to develop curriculum, continue their own education, meet in teams and oh yeah almost forgot Teach and be responsive to individual students and their families. Within a Calendar school year. Obviously this doesn't happen within the school day most of it happens outside the school day, just something to reflect on. Interesting model we are working with.
Friday, June 4, 2010
So this week I am writing down my ideas I though through while cutting the grass yesterday. I have found it very productive to cut the grass this year. I get some exercise (walk behind mower) I find it almost enjoyable and I tend to think creatively while mowing. I came up with several new story pieces for two of my books I am currently working on I also invented a back pack snorkel air reserve system for holding reserve air for short dives to the bottom.
This week I was thinking about how changes in my school specifically the rewrite to curriculum and the criteria based grading we are planning to implement. WE started by looking at standards, this led us to creating our own as we had some rather big difficulties with the ones the district wrote over the last several years. We then scrapped that as our department head went in a more general direction of looking at the 21st century skills direction. That work is all on hold now.
We developed a more long term goal of implementing the criteria based grading and curriculum writing which is now in jeopardy as well. In yesterday's meeting a very emotional Principal informed the staff of the cuts that had to be made to staffing for the upcoming school year. It is said to see highly professional motivated and passionate people let go or reassigned when there contribution is truly needed. Well we then split up into departments, mine is unfortunately only 3 people instead of 5 as was the case the last several years, though fortunately I am still one of the 3. I will have 7 preps next year and they have increased the student total to 600 students for the year. This will obviously impact our implementation plans as well as my teaching.
Sympathy please, I will teach 6th grade science, 7th grade science, Environmental, Chemistry, Anatomy and physiology, AP biology, AP chemistry.
I understand that as I have described our operation as a start up company we all have to pitch in to make sure we get established and weather the difficult times yet I feel a real disappointment that the numbers of students and preps may adversely effect the educational outcome. Frankly I am also disappointed as I will less time to improve my classes using some of what I have learned in this program.
This week I was thinking about how changes in my school specifically the rewrite to curriculum and the criteria based grading we are planning to implement. WE started by looking at standards, this led us to creating our own as we had some rather big difficulties with the ones the district wrote over the last several years. We then scrapped that as our department head went in a more general direction of looking at the 21st century skills direction. That work is all on hold now.
We developed a more long term goal of implementing the criteria based grading and curriculum writing which is now in jeopardy as well. In yesterday's meeting a very emotional Principal informed the staff of the cuts that had to be made to staffing for the upcoming school year. It is said to see highly professional motivated and passionate people let go or reassigned when there contribution is truly needed. Well we then split up into departments, mine is unfortunately only 3 people instead of 5 as was the case the last several years, though fortunately I am still one of the 3. I will have 7 preps next year and they have increased the student total to 600 students for the year. This will obviously impact our implementation plans as well as my teaching.
Sympathy please, I will teach 6th grade science, 7th grade science, Environmental, Chemistry, Anatomy and physiology, AP biology, AP chemistry.
I understand that as I have described our operation as a start up company we all have to pitch in to make sure we get established and weather the difficult times yet I feel a real disappointment that the numbers of students and preps may adversely effect the educational outcome. Frankly I am also disappointed as I will less time to improve my classes using some of what I have learned in this program.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Hi Folks, Jason Thanks for the reminder to post to my Blog. Last Thursday I spent time thinking of what I was going to blog about as I was leaving for the weekend. I even included it in my to do list. I went so far as to create a memory of submitting the blog entry. I would have sworn I did even when Louis sent a note reminded folks to post I pretty much ignored it as it did not pertain to me.
Each summer the Waukesha school District host a Summer Academy in which a large portion is given to a data dive and time to set up school wide Smart goals. It will be interesting to see how this summer goes as the teachers union and district are stuck in a contentious contract dispute.
I wondered how difficult it would be to find data like we are given during the summer. I made two email inquiries and a check of the Waukesha website and I had all the data I could possible use. I had taken some time to analyze the WKCE testing and such and we as a school had set a goal to increase our students % of passing classes. As a new school we did not have a bunch of history or data to compare but we could compare our students to the face-to-face students of the Wuakesha school district. We have made great progress in supporting our students to achieve greater percentage of classes passed. It will be interesting to see how this translates to test scores. We may have to look directly at areas of need in the future.
Each summer the Waukesha school District host a Summer Academy in which a large portion is given to a data dive and time to set up school wide Smart goals. It will be interesting to see how this summer goes as the teachers union and district are stuck in a contentious contract dispute.
I wondered how difficult it would be to find data like we are given during the summer. I made two email inquiries and a check of the Waukesha website and I had all the data I could possible use. I had taken some time to analyze the WKCE testing and such and we as a school had set a goal to increase our students % of passing classes. As a new school we did not have a bunch of history or data to compare but we could compare our students to the face-to-face students of the Wuakesha school district. We have made great progress in supporting our students to achieve greater percentage of classes passed. It will be interesting to see how this translates to test scores. We may have to look directly at areas of need in the future.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Blog 1 Leadership and planning 565
Here we are a well over a year from the start looking at the skill and characteristics of good leadership. When I first saw this on the class list frankly it looked out of place. I was taking this course work to improve my online teaching skills. Along the way I have learned how to better communicate and organize my online classroom. I have investigated and explored many helpful online tools. I have learned much about the inner workings of a the computer and how to better use the connectivity of the internet to meet my students learning needs. I could not see how this class would fit in with all the rest.
After working with my cohorts for the better part of two years I do understand how a class on leadership fits in and why it is placed here at the end of the experience. I am not a leader within my district or department but I have read the blogs and have been utterly impressed by the leadership being displayed by many members of this cohort in their home districts.
Many have be driving forces in acquiring and using new proven technologies in their classrooms and at their schools. They have also show initiative in experimenting and implementing more cutting edge technologies as well. I here their passion in their writing and applaud their efforts. It makes sense that after acquiring some skills in this area while not experts in the field we can certainly serve as advocates for proper and productive use of technologies in the classrooms of today and with enrollment of others more of the learning of tomorrow.
After working with my cohorts for the better part of two years I do understand how a class on leadership fits in and why it is placed here at the end of the experience. I am not a leader within my district or department but I have read the blogs and have been utterly impressed by the leadership being displayed by many members of this cohort in their home districts.
Many have be driving forces in acquiring and using new proven technologies in their classrooms and at their schools. They have also show initiative in experimenting and implementing more cutting edge technologies as well. I here their passion in their writing and applaud their efforts. It makes sense that after acquiring some skills in this area while not experts in the field we can certainly serve as advocates for proper and productive use of technologies in the classrooms of today and with enrollment of others more of the learning of tomorrow.
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