A Star is Born!

"It says here that there will soon be a severe teacher shortage!"
"Gee, I wonder why."

There once was a time when teachers were thought of as super humans. When someone would identify themselves as a teacher, they would be greeted with warm wishes and kind remarks regarding how wonderful teachers are and how well they make an impact on children. These days, though, people make snarky comments and present sympathetic looks when someone identifies themselves as a teacher. Why is this the case? Because it is thought that the United States is not producing "quality" teachers. (People clearly haven't met the professionals that are a product of the University of Montevallo.) So, the way I look at it, teachers can do one of two things: 1) Teachers can continue doing what they are doing, allowing people to think and speak negatively of the incredible career path they have chosen, thus allowing degradation of teaching to become the "norm;" or 2) teachers can take every action possible to make the world realize there ARE good teachers and they are worth celebrating! According to Marzano & Simms (2013), there are three categories of teachers:

1. Superstars- These teachers are considered "irreplaceable;" they're the best of the best; students BEG to get these as their teacher.
2. Backbones- These teachers are pretty great; they're overall quality is satisfactory.
3. Mediocres- These teachers, exemplified by this brief comical clip, are the ones who are easily replaced; they resist change (and quite frankly, they're the ones giving other teachers a bad reputation). 

In order for our country to stop the act of degrading teachers, an act that has become too common, we, as teachers and coaches, need to step up and SHOW that we are better than ever. It's time to get all of our teachers to the "superstar" level! The first step is motivating teachers to WANT to be better. It has been proven that students perform better when they are actively engaged, motivated, and have a desire to succeed. The same theory can be applied to teachers. Often times, though, teachers do not understand what it is they should approve on. This is where the self-assessment and reflective teaching come into play. A study conducted by S. Pennington (2015) showed that the practice of reflective teaching had a noticeable positive impact on teachers' practices in the classroom. By asking all teachers to participate in reflective teaching, teachers will be able to identify which areas they need to focus on for professional growth. This will allow the teachers to take ownership of their professional growth, which will hopefully make them perform better in the long run. Also, by engaging teachers in this reflective teaching, there is a greater possibility of them becoming teachers of High Skill and High Will. "These teachers are motivated and know what they need to do to improve. They are relatively easy to coach and often coach themselves" (Marzano & Simms, 2013, p. 215).

In the perfect world of coaching, all teachers would be Superstars of High Skill and High Will. (Finding a teacher like this, at times, feels as difficult as finding a unicorn!) Although that is seemingly unrealistic, I was lucky enough to coach one of these unicorn teachers. To keep anonymity, I will call this teacher "Unicorn." Unicorn is a fairly new teacher; this is actually her third year teaching. She excelled her first two years; so much so that the principal moved her to a new grade level in need of strong teachers. By changing grades, Unicorn noticed that what she had taught in a lower grade did not work with the older grade. That is when she came to me. I have been incorporating "teacher-initiated coaching" with Unicorn. After completing her self-assessment, she asked me to help her better engage students in mathematics. We decided to focus on incorporating gaming into mathematical instruction. Over the past few months, Unicorn has seen tremendous gains in her students' motivation, as well as gains in their understanding of the materials. Unicorn is a great example of what amazing things can happen when a teacher WANTS to continue to grow professionally. All she did was ask for help, and then BOOM...a star is born!


References

Marzano, R. J. & Simms, J. A. (2013). Coaching classroom instruction. Marzano Research: Bloomington, IN.

Pennington, S. E. (2015). Inquiry into teaching: Using reflective teaching to improve my practice. Networks, 17(1).

Movin' On Up in the Gaming World

Every year teachers in my district (and I assume every other district in Alabama) must logon to Educate Alabama, complete the self-assessment, and determine which teaching standard(s) they are going to focus on while growing professionally throughout the year. One of the teachers I  mentor decided she wanted to focus on "Content Knowledge Standard 1.2: Activates learners' prior knowledge, experience, and interests and uses this information to plan content and to help individual students attain learning goals." In my opinion, one of the best ways to activate students' prior knowledge and experiences is through the use of technology. For the most part children are surrounded by technology from the time they are born and grow accustom to relying on it on a daily basis. So, it only makes sense to provide these tools in the classrooms.
Our district, as shown in the video, Huntsville City Schools Digital Initiative, adopted a 1:1 digital initiative in 2012. All students in grades K-2 were provided with iPads to use in the classrooms; while students in grades 3-12 were provided with laptops. Our district took a giant step in activating students' prior knowledge and experience by purchasing these technological tools. So, the teacher and I decided I would help her use these technological tools provided to activate students' interests. The first thing that came to mind when thinking of this topic was using academic games in the classroom. Just as a majority of children these days are surrounded by technology, many children have prior knowledge of and interests in gaming. The "outline" of our coaching stages is detailed below.

Not Using (0) to Beginning (1): Before I expected the teacher to begin incorporating digital gaming into her classroom, I had to help her understand the research behind this idea that gaming could be beneficial in the classroom when incorporated properly (Marzano & Simms, 2013).

 I asked the teacher to read the article, Using Gaming to Motivate Today's Technology-Dependent Students to see how technological gaming, specifically, could engage her students. "According to Lenhart, Kahne, Middaugh, Macgill, Evans, and Vitak (2008), the number one source for entertainment of 12-17 year-old students was video games. Their study on American teenagers showed that 97% of teens play video games, with 50% of them playing at least once a day. K-12 students do not want to read books or do homework assignments; they just want to play their video games" (as cited in Petkov & Rogers, 2011).
Gaming does not only motivate and engage students, though. The research below indicates how technologically-based games can actually effect student achievement.

• According to Spaniel (2015), "a well-designed video game can improve learning between 7 and 40 percent over a lecture."
• Shin, Sutherland, Norris, and Soloway (2012) determined that game technology positively impacts elementary students' learning in arithmetic. The student showed that students who were provided with technology-based games outperformed students of similar abilities who were provided with paper-based games.
• Chee, Mehrota, and Liu (2013) created a web-based game, Statecraft X, to explore the effectiveness of game-based citizenship education in today's technological era. Their findings imply the exposure and implementation of their game helped students form deeper understandings of citizenship and governance.
• Katmada, Mavridis, and Tsiatsos (2014) reported that Digital Game-Based Learning (which combines digital game-based activities and educational content) is an effective instructional method for the current generation because their abilities and interests are greatly impacted by the technological world.

It is evident that research backs the use of gaming in the classroom. However, a teacher must be able to incorporate these games effectively in order for them to deem beneficial to her students. She cannot simply allow students to play free-choice games whenever they choose. There must be a set time and reason for students to be playing the games. For example, if students were practicing with fractions and decimals, the teacher may require students to play the game Puppy Pull, because these skills are actually practiced within the game. In the past, as I have shown to the teacher, I have created Padlet pages for each skill I am teaching. On that page is a variety of games students may choose from (because not all students enjoy the same games) which all provide practice on the specific skill being taught. Here is an example of a Math Padlet I created to encourage my students to play games to help them practice geometry skills.

Beginning (1) to Developing (2): The teacher must execute the gaming strategies without errors or omissions (Marzano, et al., 2013). I gave the teacher a list of educational gaming websites that could be beneficial to her instruction. Some of the sites are listed below.

• http://roomrecess.com/ 
• http://topsites.primarygames.com/ 
• http://www.funbrain.com/ 
• http://www.cookie.com/
• https://www.mangahigh.com/en-us/ 

Developing (2) to Applying (3): The teacher must monitor her students' responses to the gaming sites by watching to see if the incorporation of the gaming sites is producing the desired effect of students attaining learning goals (Marzano, et al., 2013).  The teacher must gather evidence to determine whether or not the gaming is benefiting her students. If the sites are not helping, she may be incorporating them in an ineffective way, or the games may not be academically appropriate for the grade level. "The Applying (3) level is the minimum goal that teachers should aim to achieve when working on their growth-goal areas" (Marzano, et al., 2013, p. 155). Hopefully I can help the teacher move even further through the growth stages by helping her create her own educational games using sites such as Zondle. With this gaming site, the teacher can create her own educational games to meet the needs of all of her students individually. 

References

Chee, Y. S., Mehrota, S., & Liu, Q. (2013). Effective game based citizenship education in the age of new media. The Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 11 (1). Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?q=gamebased+learning+in+elementary+school+pr=on&id=EJ1012864

Huntsville AL Chamber, (2012). Huntsville City Schools Digital Initiative. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KGmpx8_MiY 

Katmada, A., Mavridis, A., & Tsiatsos, T. (2014). Implementing a game for supporting learning in mathematics. The Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 12(3), 230-242.

Marzano, R. J., & Simms, J. A. (2013). Coaching classroom instruction. Marzano Research LaboratoryL Bloomington, IN.

Petkov, M., & Rogers, G. E. (2011). Using gaming to motivate today's technology-dependent students. Journal of sTEm Teacher Education, 48(1). Retrieved from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JSTE/v48n1/petkov.html 

Shin, N.,  Sutherland, L. M., Norris, C. A., & Soloway, E. (2012). Effects of game technology on elementary student learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(4), 540-560. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01197.x

Spaniel, D. (2015). Hacking the gaming experience: The (non-virtual) reality of cybersecurity video gamification. Educause Review. Retrieved from http://er.educause.edu/blogs/2015/10/hacking-the-gaming-experience 

Attitude Reflects Leadership, Captain

According to Marzano & Simms (2013), "The term coach generally means helping someone move from where he or she is to where he or she needs or wants to be" (p. 4). When I first hear the word coach, I immediately think of sports, mainly football. The coach is the leader of the team; the person who holds the team together. The coach makes the important decisions for the team; and the coach is the person who is reprimanded whenever the team does not produce the expected outcomes at games. In order for any athletic program to be successful, a good coach must be present. Simultaneously, though, "The key variables that will determine long-term progress are the people being coached" (Marzano et. al, 2013, p. 9). You can have the greatest coach in the world, but without a team of players who are willing to put in the time and work, you have nothing. The same goes for teaching: the product of a good teacher is possible only when that teachers WANTS to be a good teacher. This does not necessarily happen automatically; sometimes a coach is needed to enhance the skills of the teacher. Technically a teacher's university could be considered his or her first educational coach. We can consider the university to be the college football coach. It is the university's responsibility to provide the necessary resources for that future teacher to be successful. At times, though, teachers need additional coaching once they have secured a teaching job. They can be provided with an educational coach or mentor (we can think of this person as the professional football coach) to further enhance their skills. Just as it is important for a football coach to maintain the players' trust, and provide the players with constructive feedback, similarly, the aspects of effective educational coaching include trust, feedback, and choice. Personally, I believe trust is the most important aspect of effective educational coaching.

"Attitude reflects leadership, captain." -Remember the Titans

"Trust is an important aspect of effective coaching relationships...One factor affecting the levels of relational trust in a school is the quality of teacher-teacher and teacher-principal relationships" (Marzano et.al, 2013, p. 10). According to Peshawaria (2013), "A team with high trust will similarly produce results faster and at lower cost. It is clear that trust is one of the keys to organizational or group performance" (pp. 10). If you want your players, or teachers, to perform well, you must instill within them a sense of trust. In order to have a quality relationship between a coach and teachers (or between a football coach and his players), there must be a presence of mutual trust and respect. People will not respect someone they cannot trust. In order to earn the trust of teachers, Tschannen-Moran (2010) offered several suggestions: "Demonstrate goodwill and genuine concern for the well-being of teachers" (as cited in Morzano et. al, 2013, p. 10). Just as with students, it is easier for teachers to trust an educational coach once they know that coach's goal is to help make them successful instead of bring them down. If educational coaches prove they have the same goal as the teachers, which should be to create a successful, safe environment in which all students are provided with the tools necessary to learn, then teachers will be more willing to trust the knowledge the coaches have to share.

"A student will not care what you know until they first know that you care."

References

Marzano, R. J., & Simms, J. A. (2013).  Coaching classroom instruction. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research.

Peshawaria, R. (2013). Trust: The currency of leadership. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/rajeevpeshawaria/2013/09/22/trust-the-currency-of-leadership/#1eee4f4324f5

ClassDojo and PBIS

The most important thing I learned this mini-semester is the importance of instructional design. Quite honestly, I had never heard of instructional design before this course. Of course I had sat through many professional development trainings (what teacher hasn’t?!); but I never understood what made some of the trainings amazing and some of them incredibly boring and meaningless. Now I know that the beneficial trainings I have been a part of must have had a solid instructional design; whereas with the meaningless trainings lacked good instructional design. Instructional design is the roadmap to a successful lesson or training. A presenter/educator may know where their destination is; but that is not beneficial if they do now know exactly how they are going to get there.

In my opinion, good instructional design is similar to a good classroom lesson. Are there lesson goals/objectives posted and made known to the audience? Does the lesson properly cover the goals/objectives? Has the teacher/trainer provided activities that are related to the goals/objectives? Are the students/participants actively engaged? Were the goals/objectives successfully accomplished by the participants? If the answer to each of these questions is “yes!” then I believe the lesson/training has met the requirements for good instructional design.

The number one thing I want to make sure I include in my future trainings is good, meaningful learning activities. “The two key issues for all activities are: (1) that they must be directly related to the objectives and (2) that they provide the trainees with feedback or information about their performance” (Piskurich, 2015, p. 175). Activities, as long as they are meaningful, are a good way to keep attendants engaged and focused.

I will be conducting a training on the basics of, and how to set up and use ClassDojo. This training will be provided to the teachers of Hampton Cove Elementary School. Hampton Cove is a PBIS school this year; so using ClassDojo to supplement PBIS is a schoolwide expectation for the year. My training will start with a presentation. I will introduce ClassDojo and personally demonstrate how to set up and use the ClassDojo program. I will provide details about the “cool” features of the program and give them any tips and tricks I have discovered throughout my years of implementing it in my classroom.

Next, I will walk the teachers through the process of actually setting up their accounts and classes on ClassDojo. These steps will also be displayed on a PowerPoint presentation for the teachers to reference throughout the school year. This presentation and other resources will be placed on the ClassDojo Padlet page I created specifically for this training.  

Once all the classes are set up, the teachers will partner up and take turns acting as students and teachers. The “student” will have various cards depicting a real-life incident that could occur during the school year. The teacher will identify what positive behavior is being demonstrated and award the necessary point type.

So Many Activities!

 Of all the trainings I have attended as a teacher over the past four years, the ones that did not seem to be a complete waste of time provided me with useful information and activities that would help me incorporate this knowledge into my classroom. Activities are extremely important in a training; not only do they break up the boring lecture, but they also bring actual meaning to what the trainee is learning.

When thinking of the training I am going to conduct, I have tried to think of some activities that will be beneficial to the teachers I am training. I have thought of a variety of different, yet meaningful, activities to keep the teachers involved and motivated. I am conducting a training on the set up and implementation of ClassDojo. ClassDojo is a digital classroom management tool which provides instantaneous behavioral feedback to students, when used regularly and effectively. The best thing about ClassDojo is how easy it is to access; it can be used on any iOS and Android device, Kindle Fires, and the Internet! VIDEOThe teachers I am training are part of a Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS) school; and the principal wants all of them to use ClassDojo as a supplemental tool to support the implementation of PBIS throughout the school year. 

During my training, the various activities I want to incorporate include a demonstration in which “trainees observe the performance of a task or procedure as conducted by an expert, either live or on tape (Piskurich, 2015, p. 219); a practice exercise where “trainees are asked to practice performing a task” (Pirkurich, 2015, p. 220); and a simulation-style role play in which “trainees enact a situation in order to try out new skills or apply what has been learned. A training environment [will be] set up to allow the trainees to practice a task under conditions as close to those on the job as possible” (Piskurich, 2015, p. 221). The details of these activities are detailed below.

Demonstration:

o   I will personally demonstrate how to set up and use the ClassDojo program.

o   I will also provide a video using Camtasia including important information about the setup of ClassDojo and the tools it has available to teachers. Camtasia is a tool that enables you to turn a screen recording into a finalized video. It could be very beneficial in creating tutorials for teachers or students; and I can also see how it would be beneficial in a “flipped classroom” (“learners are given pre-class assignments dealing with the cognitive content of the course that require completion before the class itself” (Piskurich, 2015, p. 453).  In my case, the teachers may access this video after the training and throughout the schoolyear as a reminder on how to use the program. I feel this could be a great reference tools for the teachers. I oftentimes wish I had recorded certain trainings because I forget all the interesting details provided. With this program, the teacher will have this information at their fingertips.

Practice Exercise:

o   The teachers will create a ClassDojo account and setup their classes after watching my demonstration.

Simulation-Style Role Play:

o   The teachers will take turns acting as students and teachers. The “student” will have various cards depicting a real-life incident that could occur during the schoolyear. (ex: The boy sitting next to me lost his pencil so I gave him one of mine.) The teacher will identify what positive behavior (PBIS only focuses on positive behavior) being demonstrated and award the necessary point type.

Hopefully the teachers will find these activities useful and engaging! 

Reference: Piskurich, G. M. (2015). Rapid instructional design: Learning ID fast and right (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Trainee-Centered Activities

Instructor-Led Classrooms are probably the most common setting for professional trainings. According to Piskurich (2015), classroom training should be used when:

ü  “Interaction with the trainer or other participants is important

ü  Guided discussion will lead to more learning

ü  Questions will come up that need immediate answers

ü  You have qualified facilitators in the right numbers to match the training load

ü  The trainees can afford to be away from their jobs for long periods of time

ü  The facilitators will do the traveling instead of the trainees

ü  Individualization is not critical

ü  You want more control over the training outcome” (p. 111).

What happens, though, when the facilitator has nothing planned but lecture and discussion? I’m sure we have all been to trainings like this…the facilitator lectures and provides information on the topic and then asks you to “Think-Pair-Share” with a neighbor. With this strategy, participants are given a set amount of time to think about their response, and then they are given time to discuss their thoughts with a partner or group before they are asked to share their thoughts with the entire group. Although this can be beneficial if implemented properly, we all know that those “Think-Pair-Share” conversations actually turn into…random tangents completely unrelated to the topic, or a discussion on what to have for lunch. 

In order to avoid these unrelated conversations, the facilitator needs to provide trainee-centered activities throughout the training. “The two key issues for all activities are: (1) that they must directly related to the objectives and (2) that they provide the trainees with feedback or information about their  performance” (Piskurich, 2015, p. 175). Although I have never conducted an actual training to educators, I have taught countless numbers of lessons to students. In these lessons, I provided plenty of “trainee-centered activities” to keep my students focused on the objectives and engaged in the learning. Since all of my students have laptops (Huntsville City Schools implemented a 1-1 digital curriculum in the fall of 2012), a majority of the activities I use to keep the interest of my students incorporate technology.

My favorite way to start a lesson is to activate my students’ prior knowledge of the topic. This way I can see what aspects of the material I need to focus on more, and what aspects can be breezed over. The best tools, in my opinion, for this are Kahoot and Quizizz. These are both digital “quizzes” in which students independently answer questions provided. While completing the quizzes, students are racing against their classmates to answer the questions quickly and accurately. Kahoot displays the questions and leaderboard on the teacher’s ActivBoard, while Quizizz displays the same information on the students’ devices. To try Quizizz in action from the students’ perspective, go to http://quizizz.com/join/ and type in code 932071. (I will announce the ULTIMATE winner at a later date! J)

Another tool I use during my lessons is a web strategy to foster creative thinking and cooperative learning. I use Today’s Meet in an activity similar to “Think-Pair-Share.” The students are provided with a topic, given a set time limit to think about the topic on their own, and then are given time to virtually discuss the topic with their group. (Today’s Meet allows you to create different groups and assign students to each group.) Since I am the administrator of the groups, I can see each conversation and can hold each student accountable for his/her discussion. Students know I can see what they are discussing which prevents any unrelated side conversations from happening. Also, the administrator can set the time frame allotted for the Today’s Meet conversation. By setting the time frame to just one hour (or whatever fits within the school day), this prevents students from obtaining access to this conversing tool after school hours. (Since cyberbullying is such an issue these days, the ability to control these conversations is a powerful tool for teachers.) A quick tutorial on Today’s Meet is displayed below.

Although I am not a professional training facilitator, I have been in countless trainings in which I was miserable the entire time. I feel like this has helped me in deciding what aspects of instructional design are important when planning a training. I definitely do not want my trainees to be bored and miserable while I am facilitating! Hopefully some of the tools described above can help with this issue and provide an engaging training to everyone involved.

Reference: Piskurich, G. M. (2015). Rapid instructional design: Learning ID fast and right (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Why is instructional design important?

As an educator (I’m sure those of you reading this can relate) I have been required to sit through countless hours of professional development and trainings. I sometimes walked away from PD feeling refreshed and excited to begin implementing new things into my classroom. For example, this past year I was blessed with the opportunity to be a part of a math training conducted by Alex Kajitani, the Rappin’ Mathematician. He kept me engaged the ENTIRE day! I left that training feeling excited about getting back to my students and implementing new instructional techniques in my math lessons. I even bought one of his rap CDs in hopes of getting my kids just as excited about math as I was. (It worked.) My day with Alex Kajitani was definitely an example of an incredible, meaningful PD. Below is one of the Rappin' Mathematician's songs...this is just a taste on how exciting he is! I wish all presenters had this much enthusiasm!

Other times (unfortunately more often than not) I left PD wondering why I had been forced to waste so many hours of my life on something that was not beneficial at all. For example, my first year of teaching I was required to attend training on the new digital curriculum. Digital curriculum?! I love technology! I thought that training would be a blast! WRONG. We spent a majority of the morning discussing the biographies of the people who wrote the curriculum. (I wish I was kidding.) That is so amazing that these people were willing to work together to provide me and other teachers a digital curriculum, but I quite honestly did not care to hear about their childhoods and marriages. What does that have to do with a digital curriculum?  A person's time is very important, especially a teacher's time; there are plenty of things I would rather do (prepare lessons, get my classroom pretty, TEACH) than sit through a meaningless training.

So what was it that made me love the first training I mentioned and despise the second training mentioned? The answer is simple…instructional design. The first example of training had a meaningful instructional design incorporated; while the second training seemed to be thrown together at the last minute. GOOD instructional design is the most important aspect of any lesson or training.

Clearly instructional design is important…so what is it? According to Piskurich (2015), “Instructional design is a way to plan your training program from the moment you have the idea for it until the moment you complete your revisions of your first effort and get ready to run the program again. It is a working model that you can use to manage the concepts and tasks that are part of a successful training process” (p. 4). Instructional design is the roadmap to a successful lesson or training. A presenter may know where their destination is; but that is not beneficial if they do not know exactly how they are going to get there.

In my opinion, the most important aspect of the instructional design is the analysis, “what needs to be taught and what does not need to be taught in [the] training program” (Piskurich, 2015, p. 63). The facilitator needs to ensure the training provides information that is beneficial to the audience. People do not want to sit through a training in which the information is irrelevant! The analysis portion of the instructional design could help the facilitator know what the audience is expecting to learn from the training. This information could help the facilitator plan exactly what type of information and resources to provide that would deem beneficial to the attendees. A quick way of gathering this feedback is through the use of a performance gap assessment, which can be as complex as the attached example, or as simple as two questions, as stated by Piskurich (2015), “1. What performances do we need to change? 2. What behaviors in the organization do we need to change to change those performances?” (p.26), could be the difference in a successful and unsuccessful training.

Personally, I would love all future presenters, facilitators, and instructors to use an instructional design process within their trainings and lessons. It would be a better use of everyone’s time, money, and resources if things were planned out and executed properly. J

Reference: Piskurich, G. M. (2015). Rapid instructional design: Learning ID fast and right (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.