10 Qualities of a Great Teacher

COMMENTARY
Attention, Gates Foundation -- 10 Qualities of a Great Teacher
By James D. Starkey

http://tinyurl.com/yc25w27

the punchline?
(1) has a sense of humor;
(2) is intuitive;
(3) knows the subject matter;
(4) listens well;
(5) is articulate;
(6) has an obsessive/compulsive side;
(7) can be subversive;
(8) is arrogant enough to be fearless;
(9) has a performer's instincts;
(10) is a real taskmaster.

Reading Reflection 6 - Instructions

After reading the two book excerpts, post in 300 words or less, your thoughts on what efforts you might pursue to make change in public education.

Blog post instructions / reminders
• Respond in your own course blog page.
• Title your response: Reading Reflection 6 - *replacewithmyname*: Change Agent
• Due: March 8, before class.

WEEK 7 (Mar. 1): Powerful Teaching

First, a brief summary of today's work:
1. Debriefed Ethnography experience, especially considering the use of peer feedback / peer assessment
2. Considered classroom use of Twitter
3. Continued thinking on implementing groupwork. Did Rainbow Logic task, to consider teaching new behaviors in the classroom.
4. Discipline groups designed a task to teach content through Problem Solving
5. We closed with some brief discussion on classroom management and discipline actions observed last week.

Homework - for Mar 8.

• Read Ch. 3 on the "Inquiry Method" of Postman & Weingartner's book Teaching as a Subversive Activity [download pdf here WebCT \ Course Content \ Required Readings]. You may also appreciate Ch. 1.
• Read pp. 63-83 on "Guidelines for Action (for Teachers)" of What's Worth Fighting for in Your School by Fullan & Hargreaves. [download pdf here or WebCT \ Course Content \ Required Readings]
• Complete assignment 5 Classroom Discipline, part C. Post to WebCT.
• Reading Response – write to your own blog
• Tweet – in particular, please share ideas or resources that speak to being an agent of change
• Answer question below

This week’s question: What stress reducing activity have you (re-) discovered in the past week? I relax by doing projects in, or better said on, the house. This weekend we did a lot of repotting and adding to our container gardens. Next weekend will be laying sod in a currently unused portion of the backyard.

Tips & Ideas for developing your Classroom Discipline strategies

Especially for Wallingford (because he teaches Physics, not cos he's saggin'). Enjoy Idol fans! -brian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYsvRL37FiE

Reading Reflection 5 - Instructions

In deference to discussion initiated by Tiffany, I invite you to post, in 300 words or less, whatever is on your mind after completing this weeks reading assignment.

Blog post instructions / reminders
• Respond in your own course blog page.
• Title your response: Reading Reflection 5 - I'm thinking...
• Due: March 1, before class.

Social Loafing

Don’t Be a Sucker or a Free Loader!

busywork

Good point Tiffany. You tweeted, "The busy work is KILLING ME SOFTLY!!! And you want quality work??"


I have three main thoughts about this. First is that, I think I would consider good teaching to be marked, in part, by minimal student death. OK - kidding. But I do mean that the feel of doing work for no real purpose, as I believe you refer above, is minimized.


Second, I know that I have intentions other than busy work for what I ask my students to complete outside of class. These intentions are usually of the type:
• explore, learn of something new, things that can be done alone;
• press for deeper levels of understanding or personal meaning, along the levels of Bloom's taxonomy; and
• prepare for the face-to-face interactions a classroom affords.


And third, please raise this issue when you consider the effectiveness of ways in which technological tools were used in this class, EDSS 530. I am exploring each of these tools, both for myself and encouraging each of you to do so. Share these thoughts with colleagues, and in class when we have opportunity to debrief all the technology-related efforts this semester.


An honest thank you for your tweet!

Peer Feedback - Ethnography.

Go to the "Ethnography Peer Feedback" link under the PAGES section on the right in order to complete this in-class task for today.

Remember to do this feedback for three different schools.

WEEK 6 (Feb. 22): While the teacher is away on furlough day...

Sorry, the students might not get to play as much as they hope. In place of our class meetings today, complete the sequence of activities below.

If I weren't furloughed, we would normally have presented ethnographies today. Keeping with that primary goal, I expect the following to be accomplished.

1. Ethnography
1.1. Of course, I intend that today can be used to complete details of the Ethnography and Executive Summary.
1.2 Groups: remember to each post the website address and one member post the Executive Summary to your WebCT assignment page.
1.3 Provide a link to your group's ethnography in our class Ning. Do this using the same structure used to post book chapters, in the "Groups" section. Title your post, "highschoolname - Lawler".

2. Learn about other SD schools
2.1. Read/View ethnographies of at least three other schools.
2.2. Complete a peer evaluation for three ethnographies. A rubric is provided using the Google Survey (next newer post on the blog, above). I will provide each group with a collection of responses to their presentation.

3. Designing Groupwork
3.1. Contribute to an asynchronous class discussion of Chs. 4-5 of Designing Groupwork. Visit this page to contribute as instructed. << It seems fully acceptable to duplicate your "Reading Response 4" here. >>

4. Teaching Among the Digital Natives
4.1. Determine the web-presence you will have during your Clinical Practice for this semester. Begin enough of a mock-up to share with fellow students during our next class, Mar 1. Post a link in your class blog. Title this posting: CP2 Website.

5. Classroom Discipline - assignment planning
5.1. Read instructions for the course assignment, 5 Classroom Discipline. (Find the assignment on WebCT.) Plan for completion of Part A. prior to our next gathering, Mar 1.

Homework - for Mar 1.
• Read Cohen, Ch. 6-8
• Re-read Baldwin on Classroom Management, especially the Compassionate Discipline model.
• Assignment 5 Classroom Discipline, Part A.
• Reading Response – write on your own blog
• Tweet
• Answer question below

This week’s question: What is the most surprising thing you have seen in a classroom this semester? (This could be positive or not so positive.) For me it is how I see kids dressed, in what I would name "80's punk, sagging-style".

students have different learning styles (?)

hogwash! says Daniel Willingham.



Learn more about this viewpoint at http://tinyurl.com/kkc58h
Read an interview at http://tinyurl.com/ovnxcl

Reading Reflection 4 - Instructions

From the Groupwork chapters read, select one section (like Delegate Authority) to respond to, preferably something that particularly caught your attention. Please summarize the section, connect it to your discipline and thoughts on teaching your discipline, and wonder aloud about the new challenges it poses for you.

Please limit your reply to approximately 300 words.

Blog post instructions / reminders
• Respond in your own course blog page.
• Title your response: Reading Reflection 4 - Groupwork ch. 4-5
• Due: February 22, before class.

WEEK 5 (Feb. 15): Groupwork, Problem Solving, & More School Reform

The first portion of class today involved reviewing the content of Chapters 1-3 of Cohen’s Designing Groupwork for Heterogeneous Classrooms, especially the arguments for why use groups as a teaching strategy.

The remainder of the morning was for ethnography groups to work on their project.

After lunch, we viewed a video describing reform efforts at several schools and districts circa 2005. The first two schools I asked you to consider what you learned and what you wonder about the experience of each constituent group, students, teachers, community. The last episode was about a school district, which we viewed through the 6 lenses proposed by the CA reform document Second to None.

We concluded the day with a problem-solving task—build the tallest, stable structure with toothpicks and marshmallows. The two important learnings are (1) that problem solving can be taught (Jerome Bruner), and (2) that content can be taught through problem solving activity. In today’s example, the physics principles of structure and stability were explored.

Homework – for Feb 22.
1. Read Cohen, Ch. 4-5
2. Ethnography
3. Reading Response – write on your own blog
4. Tweet – Special instruction: share the particular reform and the website for the
    school you posted to your blog (or another one) in a tweet. I want you to use the
    tinyurl tool to share the website address.

5. Answer question below

This week’s question: Consider something you learned outside of school with little or no help from a teacher (programming your DVR, gaming, sports, knitting, etc.). What was it? What distinguished this learning from your learning inside school? What might school teachers learn from this?

Reading Reflection 3 - Instructions

A simple request for your third reading reflection:

For each of the 3 chapters of the Cohen text book Designing Groupwork for Heterogeneous Classrooms:
• summarize the content in 2-4 sentences
• connect the content to another reading, experience, or curiosity in 1-2 sentences

And close with the next thing you would like to know or are wondering about, related to designing groupwork for heterogeneous classrooms.

Blog post instructions / reminders
• Respond in your own course blog page.
• Title your response: Reading Reflection 3 - Groupwork ch. 1-3
• Due: February 15, before class.

WEEK 4 (Feb. 8): Digital Na(t)ïves & Studying Schools

Today I hoped we would focus primarily on 3 items,
• introducing strategies to support groupwork
• debriefing our efforts to modernize our technological lives
• transitioning from secondary school reform visions of the 1990's to practices of today, via thinking about the study of schooling via ethnography

We began with the Broken Circle activity which is meant to bring out two key behaviors that make a group successful: Pay attention to what other group members need, and No one is done until everyone is done.

Next we reviewed the key online structures for our class--listed below--and discussed pros cons of technology, asked questions about getting some things done, shared online possibilities and resources, and generally debriefed our technology experiences the past week.
• WebCT - course base station, assignments, grades
• Class Blog - weekly review, reading reflection assignments, and "other"
• Own blog (for the class) - where you will keep Reading Reflections, your class journal
• Twitter #ed530 - the backstory discussion forum for our course
• Class Ning page - not really sure yet what this is, other than a place to share and discuss

Before lunch, you began considering the course assignment to complete an ethnographic analysis of your CP II placement. You posted the web address of an interesting school and a brief comment stating what element of reform this school had undertaken on your class blog, as well has reviewed some of the Second to None attributes evident at your CP II school. The afternoon was dedicated to beginning and planning for your ethnography work.

Homework for next week, Feb. 15 follows:
1. Read chapters 1-3 in the Cohen book.
2. Complete Reading Response 3
3. Remember to respond to the question below using the comment feature
4. Reminder, last week I asked that you add a photo to your class blog and your Twitter account.
5. Tweet: send out a random thought or experience that connects with our class; use #ed530

Week 4 Question: What was the best book you had to read in high school? Mine was Brave New World, in 9th grade. The classism of this utopia resonated for me then in ways that modern versions of power and privilege continue to trouble my soul.

Reading Reflection 2 - Instructions

The response for your second reading reflection will be of the 3-2-1 type.

Recall, the 6 Components for Comprehensive Reform posed by the CA Department of Education in the 1992 vision for a new California high school in the document Second to None:

1. Creating Curricular Paths to Success;

2. Developing Powerful Teaching and Learning;

3. Establishing a Comprehensive Accountability and Assessment System;

4. Providing Comprehensive Support for All Students;

5. Restructuring the School; and

6. Creating New Professional Roles.

As you respond to the prompts below, please connect each practice with one (or more) of these 6 Components.

3 – Of the variety of practices you learned about at BPHS, identify 3 that you think had the most impact on the school. Of course, please say a little bit why you think this may be true.

2 – Identify 2 practices at your CP 1 high school that match the vision in the Second to None document. Describe the affordances and constraints each of these practices seem to have had on the school environment.

1 – Identify 1 practice suggested in the Rethinking High School text that you predict will no longer be in practice at the school. Why?

Blog post instructions / reminders
• Respond in your own course blog page.
• Title your response: Reading Reflection 2 - BPHS
• Body of post: answer the questions above in approximately 300 words.
• Due: February 8, before class.

How to Post your Chapter to our Class Ning Page

OK - here are some instructions. Better late than never. Thank you to those groups who have been exploring the class Ning home page - I see your first efforts to post. Now, you've got to go back and do some refining. ;)

1. Go to the our class Ning.
2. Click on the Groups tab. (that link is a shortcut)
3. Take a moment to notice the formatting, naming protocols, and structure of the example "Rethinking High Schools Ch1 Heil". Be sure to click on the link and explore this "presentation". You will find many directions in there, including naming conventions. In essence, the remainder of my instructions guide you through duplicating this example.
4. Go back to the Groups page an "+ Add a Group". Name it "Rethinking High School ChX Lawler". Use my name, not yours. In the Description box, put the names of the 4 group members. You may "skip" the Invite page that comes next.
5. Click "Edit" to edit the first "Text Box". Rename this with the number and brief title of your chapter. Embed or provide the link to your chapter presentations. Also embed or provide the link to your assessment--that each student must complete for each chapter. You are invited to add any text that will help the user, or clarify how you intend for them to check out your work. Please organize this thoughtfully.
6. That should be it! Notice the Discussion Forum needs no set up. Here is where each student will provide authentic feedback on 2 chapters.

I predict I may update this post in about one day, trying to clarify the instructions in response to questions that arise.

School & Tech Survey

After completing the survey, be sure to click the submit bottom at the end of the post.

WEEK 3 (Feb. 1): Online digestion of text Rethinking Schools

Today is primarily about taking in all there is to know about Best Practices High School. As you go about this work, you will find yourself learning as much new about the Web 2.0 technologies I have pressed us into checking out.

Our second class meeting is taking place entirely beyond the walls of UNIV 443 (although that is where I am parked). Your group should accomplish by noon the posting of your chapter presentations by noon. At this moment, I don't know how this will take place - yet! Thank you for your patience with this.

Let me remind yo that each of your chapters should have an online assessment. The purposes are to press your audience to thoughtfully engage in your presentation, for you to get feedback ("formative assessment data") as to the effectiveness of your presentation, AND to explore options to do this assessment online.

To restate the week's online classwork: Complete Part II of Assignment #2: Web-Based Jigsaw on Text Rethinking High Schools. Go to the "Assignments" section of WebCT and report that you completed the 2 parts of this assignment with a simple note, like "done with Chapters 8 & 9!".

I made an error in the assignment instructions posted to WebCT. I asked you to provide authentic feedback to 2 groups in one bullet, and then 3 peers in the next. My correction: Please provide this feedback to at least 2 distinct chapters (that is, at least 2 distinct groups).

Homework for next week, Feb. 8 follows:

1. Read the paper about Ethnography, found in the WebCT "Required Readings" folder.
2. Find another interesting school, online, written about in another book, or ? (maybe begin here). Learn enough about it to share & answer questions about its interesting features.
3. One & two will be followed by this week's Reading Reflection, for which more careful instructions will be posted in this blog.
4. Complete the survey in the Feb 1. post titled "School & Tech Survey".
5. Add a photo to your class blog and your Twitter account. 
6. Reminder, send out one tweet this week, the next random thought or experience that connects with our class.

REMINDER: I will leave you with a question at the end of each weekly blog post to build community and to ensure you have read the blog. Answer by leaving a brief "comment" just below (not on your own blog).

This week's question: What impact do you think networked and inexpensive "laptops", like Apple's iPad, will have on the classroom experience--teachers and/or students--in the next 5 years?

Reading Reflection 1 - Instructions

For your first reading reflection, I would like you to return to chapter one of Rethinking High School. In this reflection, think in terms of what resonated with you and expand on why that was so.
Also, what didn't seem like a great measure of reform?
What Second to None 'components of reform' did you find in the chapter?
What idea or concept from the chapter would you like to investigate further?

Blog post instructions
Respond in your own course blog page.

Title your response: Reading Reflection 1 - Rethinking High School
Body of post: answer the questions above in approximately 300 words.
Due: Ideally, before the next class begins. As we all get accustomed to this online interaction--sooner the better, but definitely by February 8.

WEEK 2 (Jan 25): Re-Welcome to EDSS 530

Welcome again to our—the Day Cohort—EDSS 530 course. You have found what will be the blog for the class. It is here where you will find the most up-to-date information regarding the course, due dates, assignments in progress, reflection topics, and maybe even a cheesy joke or two.

Not only is this the first time you have taken this course, it is also the first time that I will be teaching it with such an intentional effort to interact in ways the digital native might, so I hope that we will go on this educational journey together!!

In our first class meeting, it was my intent to give a sense of the direction of the course, the goals, and how we may interact in some new ways. It is my hope that you feel this course is a place for you to learn much about your role as a teaching professional—to embrace a defining characteristic of today: change, to be flexible, and to develop a professional learning agenda.

Shortly after each meeting, I will try to summarize some thoughts and key things to remember from class that day. You will see a second blog with the weekly “Reading Response” assignment.

A quick review of Day 1 topics:

• Course introductions through Second to None - video & discussion
• Course introductions through syllabus
• Introduction of Best Practices High School and the “jigsaw” assignment
• Use of Technology in this course – Lawler’s course blog, own gmail account, own blog, Twitter, ning homepage “CSUSM Educators” (GoogleDocs, iGoogle, RSS, Embedit, Delicious.com, Skype, drop.io/edss530, Facebook, etc.)
• Brief Introduction of Ethnography Assignment

To restate the week's homework: Complete Assignment #2: Web-Based Jigsaw on Text Rethinking High Schools. Part I should be completed by noon on Monday, Feb 1. I suggest beginning Part II Monday afternoon, certainly to be completed prior to class Feb 8. Also, you must complete this week's Reading Reflection, for which more careful instructions will be posted above. Recall that this gets written to your own course blog. Finally, send out one tweet this week, the next thought that connects with our class.

I will also leave you with a question at the end of each weekly blog post to build community and to ensure you have read the blog. Answer by leaving a brief "comment" just below (not on your own blog).

This week's question: What is your fast food guilty pleasure? (What do you eat that you know you probably shouldn't but do anyway... like a Chalupa from Taco Bell... "Not that there's anything wrong with that." ;)

Instructions to create your course blog

So, here is my very simple, and very first start at a blog. I will use this as my "one to many" dissemination tool for our course. It is where you should come regularly to stay up to date on our course. Visit at least weekly, within a couple days after class.


You will also create your own blog for the course. This will be, in essence, your journal for the course.


To set up your own blog, go back to the WebCT shell for our course, and look inside the "Assignments" folder. There you will find instructions to create your own blog. Please download and follow these instructions!


UPDATE - I got Embedit" to work for me now that I'm at home.

First day - WOO HOO!

Welcome everyone.

I wish I could say how excited I am to begin this course!

more on rethinking schooling

Video ethnography of an LA high school

Digital Ethnography: New Ways of Knowing Ourselves and Our Culture

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Digital Ethnography: New Ways of Knowing Ourselves and Our Culture

View more documents from Russ Nelson.