Evaluate 3.1.2

Being an educator requires continuous learning, improvement, introspection, and action.  Working with Ga Virtual, there are many ways for teachers to learn from their practice or to know what is working and what is not working.

Each month, teachers are evaluated by a Quality Assurance Specialist.  I appreciate these evaluations because they keep me focused.  Last November, I got an Evaluation the indicated I needed to be more attentive in the "Discussions" area of my course.

This was a wake-up call for me, and I worked hard to improve in that area.  I was excited to get an "Exceptional" rating in one of my subsequent Evaluations the following January! 

Another aspect of evaluation that teachers have is the end of semester survey given to students. Most often, I feel pleased with the evaluations but there are those semesters in which you are more distracted and students may notice! Below is an ePortfolio post that discusses an End of Course Survey. 

Lastly, Ga Virtual instructors are asked to complete an ePortfolio each year.  In this ePortfolio, we discuss the Professional Learning we participated in, how we differentiated our classroom, some of the best practices we used in our instruction, and how we analyzed Data to improve our students classroom experience.  Below are two additional ePortfolio pages where I look at some ways I differentiated my online classroom and how I use best teaching practices to help students learn.

*This post is the collaborative work between Alice Johnson, Heather McCormick and Cameron Wood.

Evaluate 3.1.1

This first image represents the question statistics from a quiz given in my GSE Advanced Algebra course:

I would use this data to inform how I would run my next synchronous session.  I would look at the questions that the least amount of students were successful on and review those types of questions.  For instance, only 18.18% of students got Random Question 23 correct - so that concept is one that definitely needs to be revisited with students!

These are the individual student grades for the students in the same course (from the same quiz above).

If time allowed, one idea to help those students who scored below 70% would be to "lock" their test until they went back and revisited specific content pages that covered this topic.  If the timeline was tight, that might not be the best plan but it is nice to know it can be done! When I am grading a quiz, I often categorize my feedback for students.  For those students who got a 70% and below I would include resources that they should go back and review and possibly even send an email home to let the parents know they need to do these things before taking the test for that unit.  For those students who scored 70%-85%, I would look at the specific questions they missed and give resources for those questions (i.e. if a student misses a question about factoring sum/difference of cubes, send them a link for that one idea).  If a student makes an 85% or above, then I would just give them some words of encouragement or include a fun stamp! 

*This post is the collaborative work between Alice Johnson, Heather McCormick and Cameron Wood

Evaluate 3.1.1

This first image represents the question statistics from a quiz given in my GSE Advanced Algebra course:

I would use this data to inform how I would run my next synchronous session.  I would look at the questions that the least amount of students were successful on and review those types of questions.  For instance, only 18.18% of students got Random Question 23 correct - so that concept is one that definitely needs to be revisited with students!

These are the individual student grades for the students in the same course (from the same quiz above).

If time allowed, one idea to help those students who scored below 70% would be to "lock" their test until they went back and revisited specific content pages that covered this topic.  If the timeline was tight, that might not be the best plan but it is nice to know it can be done! When I am grading a quiz, I often categorize my feedback for students.  For those students who got a 70% and below I would include resources that they should go back and review and possibly even send an email home to let the parents know they need to do these things before taking the test for that unit.  For those students who scored 70%-85%, I would look at the specific questions they missed and give resources for those questions (i.e. if a student misses a question about factoring sum/difference of cubes, send them a link for that one idea).  If a student makes an 85% or above, then I would just give them some words of encouragement or include a fun stamp! 

*This post is the collaborative work between Alice Johnson, Heather McCormick and Cameron Wood

Create 2.1.1

Web 2.0 tools have made online learning possible and exciting.  There are a plethora of tools available for student and teacher use, but at times that can be overwhelming! I have explored some essential Web 2.0 tools and organized them into three categories: presentation,

Presentation:

• Prezi: Prezi is a more exciting version of PowerPoint. Prezi gives students the opportunity to create a presentation that is more engaging and visually appealing.  One of my favorite features of Prezi is when you zoom in on a specific aspect of a presentation to go more in depth with that idea.  It really brings home the point in a visual manner!
• SlideShare: SlideShare may fall into two categories - not only is it a presentation tool but it is also a community/collaboration tool. SlideShare allows students to take their presentations made in PowerPoint or Keynote and export and share them.  It is like a hosting site for presentations

Community:

• Edmodo: Edmodo.com allows instructors and students to share a 'social media' space.  Students can upload and share work and comment on others work.  Instructors could pose questions to students and have an interactive conversation with them via edmodo.
• Twitter: While Twitter may be thought of as purely social (particularly for teens), instructors could use Twitter to engage students in a different manner.  At Ga Virtual we have had some "Twitter Meet-Ups" where an idea is posted and by using hashtags others can participate and share their thoughts.  As social media becomes more prevalent in all of our lives, it is nice to find ways to use it in the educational field! 

Video:

• Animoto: This is a great site that allows students to create and edit videos. Students can customize their editing features and choose music to go along with their video.  Students can work on their video from anywhere as animoto hosts your video in the cloud and can be used on mobile devices.
• Clipgenerator: Clipgenerator is a free website that allows students to customize their clips by adding music.  The videos can be shared via social media, websites or file sharing.

*This post is the collaborative work between Alice Johnson, Heather McCormick and Cameron Wood.

Create 1.1.3

In an online learning environment, the aesthetics of a site can be paramount to the actual instruction.  Most students want to look at engaging content, but are wary of being overwhelmed.  Font and color choice can play a huge role in how effective and engaging a site is.  Too much color and students can be distracted and overly excited, too little color and students will be bored.  In my own teaching practice, and during synchronous sessions I do my best to "color coordinate" as I teach.  So if I am working a problem, the problem might be written in black, while the solving process (subtracting 2 from both sides) is written in red so students can clearly see what is changing each time.

Here are some sites that I find to be visually pleasing, not overly distracting and helpful for students:
http://patrickjmt.com/
https://www.khanacademy.org/
https://www.purplemath.com/
http://www.regentsprep.org/regents/math/algebra/math-ALGEBRA.htm
http://www.gavirtuallearning.org/Resources/SharedLandingPage.aspx

Here are some sites I find to be too distracting, to have a very poor layout or to have too many advertisements:

http://www.coolmath.com/
www.sosmath.com/algebra/fraction/frac1/frac1.html
http://www.mathplanet.com/education/algebra-1/exploring-real-numbers/integers-and-rational-numbers
http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol7/order_operations.html
http://math2.org/

*This post is the collaborative work between Alice Johnson, Heather McCormick and Cameron Wood

Create 1.1.2

Content Maps are great for outlining a project.  I find that outlines help me to know where I want to end up and they give cohesive-ness to the entire project.  I like to create "bullet point" content maps that contain the key elements with any ideas I'd like to remember "bulleted" underneath the big idea.

One aspect of online learning that can really benefit from a Concept Map is development.  This is my 2nd year working on a development project as an SME and before we begin, we are asked to create "Project Plan's".  In this project plan we decide how many modules there will be and what standards will be covered,  what the assessments will be in that module, and we go ahead and write the Introduction Paragraph.  Making all of these decisions at the beginning helps to do the following:

• Organize standards to be sure each standard is met
• Ensure assessments are consistent and cohesive throughout the course
• Keep the language similar throughout the course 

Here is an example of my Project Plan Overview (for the first two modules) 

*This post is the collaborative work between Alice Johnson, Heather McCormick and Cameron Wood.

Create 1.1.1

I have been fortunate enough to always have pretty good time management and I do not enjoy procrastination.  In fact, I have often said "I must get my work done before I can play!" However, there are some pretty amazing tech tools that could help me be more efficient with my time or help those who struggle with completing tasks in a timely manner.

Remember the Milk is an IOS app that you can use to ask Siri to help you remember to do certain tasks.  You can them import those tasks onto your calendar for the day.  This app would be helpful for online teachers to remember to turn in their progress reports on time - you could set up a specific time/date to get it done!

Ga Virtual has moved from Google to Microsoft and with that we have access to OneNote. OneNote is a great note-taking app that allows multiple users to compile ideas or research into one file.  An online instructor could use this to collaborate with others on News Items (copy and paste HTML codes), synchronous sessions and many other aspects of the online environment!

StayFocusd is a google extension that I think our students might find very helpful! We know that students often struggle with ignoring the plethora of online distractions and this google extension will block those for students during a certain time of day.  So if you a student decides to do his/her work between 5-7pm, then they can block Facebook, Twitter, etc for those hours.  We may need this for phones too!

List.ly is another cool collaborative tool that I could see Ga Virtual instructors using! You can create a list of extra resources for students and each instructor could add to it and comment on their favorites.  This list could be shared with students so then they have access to some excellent additional resources.

My last tool is a planner! I use a paper planner because writing things down is how I remember them.  If that is not your style, then I think using an online calendar is a great option as well.  As long as it is something you look at each day, scheduling really helps to get organized and get items done on the to do list!

*This post is the collaborative work between Alice Johnson, Heather McCormick and Cameron Wood.

Communicate 4.3.1

Synchronous sessions are of the utmost importance in the online environment.  It gives students a time to interact with their instructor and vice versa.  For my synchronous sessions, I usually like to start with questions students might have. I encourage students to send me their questions before hand so that I can have a "slide" prepared to review this topic.  Then I move on to what I want to cover that day.  I utilize an app called Air Sketch and my iPad to do problems.  Here is an example of a synchronous session.

Some items you can add to make your synchronous session more fun is a song when students come in.  I like to start the song about 2 minutes before students enter and then it gives me a "timeline" of when to begin.  I also like to post some sort of image welcoming students, giving them an idea of what topics will be covered, and asking them a random fact about themselves.

Having students share a fact about themselves helps to foster community with their classmates and myself! 

Communicate 4.2.3

Discussions serve many purposes in the online classroom, but most importantly they foster community amongst the students.  If the instructor does a good job of encouraging students to participate they can be effective.  In my course now, one discussion that I always enjoy is the "Uses of Math Discussion".  Essentially, students must explore a job that requires math and summarize the career, education needed and potential salary.  For high school students this is a very interesting discussion to read because their opinions can vary quite a bit on what seems like a "fun job" and a "boring job".  I also enjoy the responses from students who were surprised math was involved in certain fields.  

Some best practices to facilitate online forums are:

• PARTICIPATE! If students see their instructor participating and giving feedback they are more likely to do so.
• Give students some guidelines for discussion responses. Remind them that just saying "nice post" is not enough they need to give feedback and show they fully read their classmates post.
• Create good discussions that will actually require students to give feedback to one another.  

Communicate 4.2.2

When a student does not do their best on an assignment, I try to include information to help them.  In the feedback below, I've included links to Synchronous sessions that the student would find helpful:

Ming,
Here is a chat found in the Resources Newsletter that would have been helpful for this assignment:
2/29/16: Intro to Logarithms, Exponential Equations & Log Equations: http://gavirtualschool.adobeconnect.com/p8xkdc1kz1k/



I've never used Audio Feedback before, but I did try and record one and it was much easier than I thought it would be! Here is my audio feedback:

I love to use stickers when a student does well and needs no reinforcement of concepts. I think they are fun and encouraging! The stickers below have been shared with me by other GaVS teachers:

Communicate 4.2.1

In the course I teach, Advanced Algebra, I have quite a few assignments that students complete.

This is one of the assignment students complete: Rational Graphs and Radical Equations Handout

The standards it covers are:

Understand solving equations as a process of reasoning and explain the reasoning
MGSE9-12.A.REI.2 Solve simple rational and radical equations in one variable, and give examples showing how extraneous solutions may arise.

Represent and solve equations and inequalities graphically 
MGSE9-12.A.REI.11 Using graphs, tables, or successive approximations, show that the solution to the equation f(x) = g(x) is the x-value where the y-values of f(x) and g(x) are the same.

Interpret functions that arise in applications in terms of the context
MGSE9-12.F.IF.4 Using tables, graphs, and verbal descriptions, interpret the key characteristics of a function which models the relationship between two quantities. Sketch a graph showing key features including: intercepts; interval where the function is increasing, decreasing, positive, or negative; relative maximums and minimums; symmetries; end behavior; and periodicity.

MGSE9-12.F.IF.5 Relate the domain of a function to its graph and, where applicable, to the quantitative relationship it describes. For example, if the function h(n) gives the number of person-hours it takes to assemble n engines in a factory, then the positive integers would be an appropriate domain for the function.

Analyze functions using different representations
MGSE9-12.F.IF.7d Graph rational functions, identifying zeros and asymptotes when suitable factorizations are available, and showing end behavior.


Here is an example of student work: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B60QLjf8TJQ9TTgxTXptUWpkN0E/view?usp=sharing

Finally, here is the feedback I left for the student. A few things I include:

• how many points they earned on a question they got wrong.  Instead of just saying you got 4/5 correct I try to give partial credit.
• an explanation of the correct answer or how to get to the correct answer.
• positive encouragemenyt

Communicate 4.2.1

Here is a rubric I created for a Development project last year. I worked as the SME for the GSE Algebra course.

Communicate 4.1.1

Effective communication practices correlate to thorough feedback because if an instructor is clear in the beginning on their expectations, then their feedback will mirror those expectations.  For instance, I require students to upload their work for any "handout" assignments and I communicate this during my Welcome Session.  However, every year I have students who do not follow instructions so I can refer them back to the Welcome Session and ask that they complete the assignment as requested.  I like to see their work so that I can give them thorough feedback on their understanding.

Authentic feedback is crucial for online learners because it is one of the main forms of interaction with the instructor.  If a student does poorly on a quiz, I want to include resources that will help them review the topics missed.  If a student does well on a quiz, I want him/her to know that I noticed (individually) and encourage the student to continue to do well.

An instructor can enrich a student's online experience by giving them feedback tailored to that student. If you notice a student continually missed a specific concept, then tell that student you will review that concept at the next help session and personally invite the student to attend.  If I notice a student fails the first or second quiz of the semester, I always write them a personal email stating that they still have plenty of time to turn it around, and here are the ways to do it! 

Communication 3.2.2

Differentiation in an online classroom is important and I want to reach as many students as possible.

For the visual learners, I try to create an infographic that contains vital information.  Here is an example of that:

I also will make short videos for students to review specific topics so that I know they might find challenging. I will either post these as a News Item or put them in my Resources Newsletter. Here is an example of a video:

Another method of differentiation I include is to allow students to complete the project from their module to replace their test score. This helps students to communicate their understanding in a different method.

Communicate 3.2.1

Effective communication with stakeholders is essential to the online learning environment.  One method of communication I utilize is a "Resources Newsletter" - this Smore holds a plethora of information for students.  I house old help sessions organized by Module along with resources I've made and that I have found on the internet.  This method of communication is mostly for students but it is helpful to tell parents about it too so they know that their student has the means of finding answers for their questions.

At times, a phone call is the best way to contact a stake holder - usually after I call (and especially if I do not get a response) I will follow up with an email to the parent and student.  Either way, it is an easy way to document the call to follow up with an email and just re-state everything that was said over the phone.  This way the student and parent can refer back to any advice I offer and I have the call documented.

Email is a vital aspect of online learning and usually the main method of communication.  Stakeholders should get "Course Update" emails as often as needed. Here is an example of one I sent this week to my summer school class.

Communicate 3.1.2

I use News Items to share important information with students, such as remediation opportunities or extra help sessions.  I also use News Items to remind students of important policies to follow.

Here is an example of a News Item used to give students some extra help on an assignment.



Here is a video I made on inverses of exponential functions, particularly those with "e"!

Communicate 3.1.1

This is an example Bulletin Board that I use at the end of the semester. I usually post this during week 16-17 (of an 18 week course) so that students know what to expect during the last (and vital) week of class.