Am I done? I think so...but I could just add one more thing. That is were I am right now. I think I am done...but in the middle of the night I think of things to add, or things to double check. I am probably not done....there is probably a big piece I have forgotten all about. I need to go back and look at my check off list...again. I don't think I will really feel done, until after the presentation.
The overall process...? I enjoy the creativity, I enjoy building the website, I even enjoy the knit-picky-graphics stuff. The time and pressure was the only part I didn't enjoy. I wonder how the process would be different during a regular semester. The doubling up on classes was brutal. Even though we were out of school, the pace seemed grueling. There are time when I wish I knew earlier in the year what the capstone project was all about, but I am glad I didn't know how much work was entailed, I might have chickened out. I think that I was able to show my daughter a good example of grit and perseverance, but it was tough. I hope she remember this when she is faced with similar tasks. It won't always be fun, but you buckle down and get it done. It was hard to give up summer and really focus. But I am possibly more proud of the outcome and accomplishment knowing it was so difficult. I also love my cohort even more this summer session. Everyone is so tired. There was a lot of laughter and humorous commiserating that made the whole thing much more tolerable. I will not miss the work, but I will miss cohort 11. That being said, I am really, really looking forward to Thursday. Our first real day of summer.
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Critical friends is a PBL protocol in which you review PBL projects and offer "I likes" and "I wonders". At my school, my teachers wanted to change the name to "Not-so Critical Friends" because they think the word Critical it too.... critical.
In looking for feedback on my capstone projects, I would like to keep the "Critical" aspect in the title. I really trust my cohort and know that the feedback they give is to make my project better. Their critical feedback is how I can gauge how the message is coming across to various readers. Miscommunication is a multi-million dollar issue. Companies pay focus groups to give feedback on ad campaigns, studios pay screeners to preview movies before they are released. Critical feedback is how we improve. I don't have all of my pages done at this point, but at this point I am struggling with the set up of the Learn More page. It seems very awkward. When I look at the checklist, the Learn More pages seems to be include 1. where did you get the idea 2. favorite tools 3. a bit about standards 4. an infographic and 5. table of contents of where to find things. Setting this page up right will be very important. I think it will set the organizational page for the rest of the site. I really think that the "Table of Contents" aspect is key. I am struggling for a way to CLEANLY organized all of the required info within the limits of the template. I am hoping my critical friends can help me come up with an attractive solution. A few years back we were asked to revisit our mission statement. I was a 2nd grade teacher at the time, I assumed that this task was handed down from the powers that be. The leadership team came up with several long and wordy versions that encompassed everything and the kitchen sink. My principal at the time wanted to make it meaningful to the students. So he let the kids vote on their favorite mission statement. They also got a prize if they could memorize it. Here is what the kids came up with.
Canyon Oaks Mission Statement: Canyon Oaks students will acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to help them develop a lifetime love of learning. A little vague...but easy to memorize. I have mixed feelings about this mission statement. Is it specific? No. Do I want to spend hours hashing out a perfect mission statement? No. Do people use or refer to mission statements? Not at my school. I think to create a really good, meaningful mission statement takes a lot of thought, a lot of stakeholders' opinions and a lot of time. Even though this should be the message that drives our school, we are too busy driving to stop and re-write the map. The part of this vague mission statement that I like is that it essentially includes everything...indirectly. I can infer that students need good technology & communication skills to succeed in the real world. I can infer that the knowledge is the common core standards and the 6 C's. What I don't like about the mission statement is "to help them develop a lifetime love of learning." I am a lover of the learning as well. However, we need to strive for more than a love of learning. I can love algebra and really suck at it. There needs to be some reference to success in college and careers. However, I think this mission statement pre-dates "College & Career" readiness buzz words. I also think that technology plays a crucial part in college and career readiness, which means it should be a directly stated part of our mission statement. I guess we will be going back to the drawing board soon.
“Every student deserves a great teacher, not by chance, but by design.” Douglas Fischer, Nancy Frey and John Hattie
My audience will be other teachers. Firstly because they have a huge impact on their students. And secondly, as an academic specialist I work with not only teachers from my school, but teachers and academic specialist from other schools as well. I am hoping that I can present a compelling argument to increase the amount of student talk that occurs in the classroom. This is not always popular with teachers. I hope to present the research and lessons in multiple ways to encourage more classroom talk. Great teachers are always looking for ways to get even better. After reviewing several LIL sites, I have noticed that the Learn More page is packed with information. The learn more page is where the content and lessons will go. I have noticed that it is easy for this page to looked scattered. I think figuring out a clean and concise layout will help the reader follow the message. I plan on using my prototype mind map, as seen below, to keep me focused. I can imagine that it might be easy to get lost in the Capstone template. I might get bogged down checking links and embedding videos and lose the message. I want to keep a printed copy of my prototype map nearby to refer to in case I get lost in the weeds. I will need to use the how-to button to show the discussion guidelines and talk talk tasks that help set up an environment rich in academic conversations. These two elements need to come before jumping into the lessons, so I will have to find a way to note that at the top of the page. I can add an infographic on the Learn More page and examples of student work. The Lessons page needs to include how to adapt the Think-pair-share strategy to fit each content area along with technology that helps increase student talk. My goal is to present a simple strategy, think-pair-share, but show the power of using it intentionally and more frequently. I am sure there are 157 other strategies to increase student academic talk, some specific to each content area. But from what I know about teachers, they are more likely to use ONE strategy that can be used with any age, any subject, and at anytime that will get results. I hope that I can convey this through my capstone. Always learning, always improving. Those are two major life goals that happen to be a central focus of my Touro program. I enjoy learning new innovative ways to improve my teaching practice. I want my capstone project to be useful to me personally, and to the staff at my school, and possibly beyond my school. I am constantly thinking about how my capstone will be viewed by teachers at my site. What would they find useful? How would they receive my message? Will they find my content useful?
I think that my amazing Cohort 11 friends are an invaluable resource. Kelly wrote a blog titled "The message is in the receiver." This has struck a chord with me. It doesn't matter what your intended message is, if the receiver interprets the message in a different way....your message missed the mark. Cohort 11 is comprised of many different points of view. Each member of our team is a receiver. They might interpret my message in many different ways. Feedback from my team will allow me to adjust my message so that is conveys my intended meaning. As an individual, I can get lost in minute details. Having my team read, question, edit and react to my capstone is something that I can't possibly do on my own. I have never felt anything but support from our cohort. The comments I have received on my blog posts have be thoughtful, positive and supportive. The edits and comments on my research paper saved me hours of works. I hope that I have had the same impact on the other members of my cohort. I think that providing thoughtful feedback to blogs is a great way to support my team members. If I have questions about their project or post, I included them. When I read projects or blog post, I am the receiver of their message. My questions and comments can help them tune their project and make sure the message I am receiving is the one they're intending. I don't know if your cohort has seen the need for formalized "norms", we must be following our own norms of positive, thoughtful and timely support. Together we make our projects better. |