Module+4+-+E-Profile+Assignment

In response to the Module 4 assignment requiring a plan for sharing information, a self-assessment as a result of the the Educational Rounds experience, and the setting of new goals within a reasonable time frame, I have developed this wiki called **Best of ABQ Intermediate - 2010**.

Plan
More than creating a slide show about Classroom Management, the Educational Rounds and ABQ Intermediate discussions, introduced me to many new and good ideas that I wanted to "capture" for use after the course is finished this week. Losing this type of valuable information has been a frustration for me in the past when I have taken online courses through UWO.

Reviewing and recording discussions and Educational Rounds from the ABQ learning management system has allowed me to select and organize "The Best of" the material, from my own perspective. (Begy, 2010) I will find this information valuable now and in future since it is permanently recorded, with further investigations made to enhance the recommendations of my classmates, in this wiki.

One of my personal and professional goals has been to use more technology and, following the recommendations of Will Richardson, this seemed a great opportunity to begin using technology on a personal basis before attempting to incorporate it into my own classroom routines.(Richardson, 2010)

In keeping with the English curriculum documents of the Ministry of Education, teachers are encouraged to use information and communication technology tools "     both for whole class instruction and for the design of curriculum units that contain varied approaches to learning to meet diverse student needs." (The Ontario Curriculum, 2007) However, since the English curriculum documents were revised and published in 2007, the use of open source software and the ability to connect with other educators via Twitter has brought new meaning to the Ministry's promise that teachers "     ... will find the various ICT tools useful in their teaching practice...." (The Ontario Curriculum, 2007)

At the same time that I am creating the wiki, I am also gaining confidence and learning to use technology for classroom use. This goal is particularly important for me in the upcoming school year as I want to update assignments using open source software to enhance the learning experiences of students in my two online classes, and also begin to use wikis or blogs in my regular classes. I have found two partner-colleagues who are willing to take this journey with me online and in my bricks and mortar school. As well, computer techs in my Board have offered their support when necessary.

Along with finding the time to learn and practise, just beginning has been a challenge in working towards this goal. This Module 4 assignment has provided me with a real reason to begin without taking much more time than I would have spent doing this in a more traditional way. I have taken the liberty of "differentiating" this assignment somewhat, another of the important lessons from the course materials, discussions, and Educational Rounds. (Begy, 2010)

In Module 4 we learned about various types of professional portfolios and the importance of keeping one or more of these. This wiki is an organic and electronic professional portfolio, providing me with a space to keep information that I find valuable, important, but dynamic at the same time. (Begy, 2010)

//Ensure that in your response, you reference appropriate current __literature__ in the field related to your topic/case, related Ministry and OCT guidelines available, and course content, discussion and readings.//
 * 1) //Now that you have had an opportunity to work through the case in a community of your peers and have developed and shared a 'product' that demonstrates the outcome of this learning, you are now asked to work individually to create a **plan** (1-2 pages) for how you will share this information at either the classroom level with your students, the school level with a colleague(s), the community level with parents or peers in a 'family of schools', or the systems level.//
 * 2) //Conduct a '**self assessment**' of your learning and write a brief reflection (1-2 pages) that highlights what you learned about yourself as a teacher and a learner through this process and which includes an assessment of your participation as a member of your group.//
 * 3) //Consider: As a result of the Educational Rounds, what **new goals** (1 page) can you set for yourself, how will you achieve them, and what is a reasonable time frame?//

Self Assessment
Assessment and Evaluation has been an important topic of study and discussion in the ABQ Intermediate (English) course. We read materials about various types of, and philosophies about, assessment and evaluation. We also learned about the importance of being a reflective practitioner, or, in other words, becoming a teaching professional capable of benefitting from self-assessment. (Begy, 2010)

If we come away with nothing more than understanding why "assessment for learning" is, for the most part, more important than "assessment of learning," then we each will improve our own assessment and evaluation practises considerably. In the Module 3 course materials we read that it sometimes important to "reconnect to ourselves as learners" and this has been the case for me. Interaction with course colleagues and the instructor, Jane Begy, has broadened my own understanding of differentiated instruction and assessment and evaluation. (Begy, 2010)

In Module 3 we also learned that self assessment and peer assessment help to ensure "authentic assessment." In my own case, I can see that when I struggled with myself and worked with peers, providing back and forth dialogue about our Classroom Management project, that I "learned", bringing the teaching-learning process full circle. At this stage in my life and career, "marks" matter little to me, but learning matters much. In a full adult life, there is little time to waste on things that don't help me become a more effective teacher or that don't help my students become better at learning. The materials suggested that many students feel the same way.

Integration of disciplines was an important topic in Module 2 and this helped me realize how "integrated" English and literacy are within every subject discipline. It is unlikely that I will ever teach at an elementary school, but it has provided me with continuing reassurance that my own personal interest in literacy, and subject-specific literacy, is something that I should continue. Module 2 also helped me learn more about Expectations-Based Planning, but also lead to some frustration in not actually being able to successfully use the process--UbD--as outlined in our course materials.

Module 1 introduced us to theories of how adolescents learn, and learn differently from each other. The most important part of this module and the interactions with my peers, were the ideas and suggestions about how to create a positive and welcoming classroom environment. Most important still was the message that even in a "perfect" classroom, not every student will find it easy or possible to do his/her best all of the time, nor will every teacher. The daily process of teaching and learning is, much like this wiki, organic and dynamic. In Module 4 we came back to the importance of collaborative, experiential, and problem-based learning. This surprised me at first (I might have switched Modules 1 and 4 myself), but on reflection I could see how this made sense to our own growth and learning, by establishing a solid base and understanding related to these "methods."

In reviewing the Educational Rounds products, one group created a wiki to work together as a group. This was a good use of a wiki's ability to allow long-distance collaboration over a project. However, it seemed that the wiki was little more than text transferred onto a computer screen. I was anxious to learn more about how to use new media and technologies in this wiki. I also wished to capture my classmates' ideas and recommendations in a reflective way, so this wiki allowed me to "collaborate" at the same time as producing an individual project!

Our studies in the ABQ Intermediate course have encouraged us to incorporate differentiation into our teaching practise and to consider portfolios. A wiki seemed a great way to do both. With media and technology changing so quickly, "Media Studies" strands in the various English courses would indicate that teachers should have a working familiarity with new media and technologies to begin incorporating, instructing, and encouraging students to do the same. (The Ontario Curriculum, 2007)

My own group's ER product--a PowerPoint presentation about Classroom Management--was too large to submit via the regular OWL channels. Solving this problem became part of my own personal and professional learning as I asked members of my personal learning network (PLN) on Twitter to help me find a solution that would allow others in the course to view the PowerPoint outside the channel provided by the OWL learning management system. This is a problem I have encountered in the past in the classroom and in my professional practise with strict limits on file size placed on e-mail attachments and large file sizes actually causing the school servers to crash (generally every year). Therefore, it was great to find a simple solution using cloud technology and a program called Slideshare. The Classroom Management powerpoint assignment is now embedded as a "widget", still residing somewhere in the "clouds" but accessible through this wiki. I learned how to use this widget, and others, in the Avon Maitland DSB summer technology workshops this year. This resonance of learning was a benefit to me since in previous years I have "lost" valuable training information when I didn't use it right away, in keeping with the adage "Use it or lose it!"

Goals
As I mentioned above, the creation of this wiki is both a demonstration of my goal and my timeline for achieving this goal of using more 21st century technology in the classroom, with a focus on problem-based learning. I will be instituting this technology in my two online classes this fall (BAF3M and BAT4M), with a strong desire to bring my classes scheduled for my bricks and mortar school online in the second semester which starts in February (BAF3M and BOH4M).

I will build on my own experiences this summer in this course, in the OTF Summer Institute on Accounting held in Oakville in July, and in the teacher workshops presented by Diana Doctor and Doris Hood, computer techs in the Avon Maitland DSB in June and July. New tools that I hope to use regularly myself and with students are blogs, wikis, and Prezi. I am still considering how and if I will use GoogleDocs for collaboration with and between students.

As well, I have developed my own PLN (personal learning network) over the past number of months using Twitter. I learned how to use cloud technology with two programs--Slideshare and MozyHome--suggested by the educators who are part of my PLN. As I develop my own skills with 21st century technology, I will be signing up in August to lead a workshop at the upcoming OBEA (Ontario Business Educators' Association) fall conference in November related to what I have learned and applied to my own teaching practise.

As I am updating this wiki after my original submission of it, I can see that there are other ethical and academic concerns related to classroom management and on-time submission of assignments as this relates to traditional instructional and assessment and evaluation practises. The learning continues.