Formative Feedback

This week I asked my university students to provide feedback on our class now that we have reached the mid-point in the semester. My purpose in this formative assessment process is to refine and improve my teaching methods, and create a better learning environment for my students.  I also want to model the importance of reflective practice for them.

 I created a Google Form that looked like this:

 I wanted students to be able to anonymously  provide their input without the fear that might surround potential handwriting recognition. 

I asked my student to identify:

2 positive things they appreciate or enjoy most about the class,

and

2 areas or ways in which I can help them be more successful in class. 

I didn't realize how vulnerable I would feel about this process until the first few responses began trickling in. Putting yourself 'out there' can be a difficult thing to do. Criticism, even when it's constructive can sting.  It is in my nature to initially become defensive; to make excuses.  But the real beauty in this process is the opportunity for change and self-growth.  I am already a better teacher because of it.  I will set a timer in class, so that my students know that I value their time as well.  I will provide a more comprehensive exam review.  And I will continue to share brain breaks with my students on a daily basis, because they love them, and they need them--even though they cut into my instruction time.  

To see myself through my students' eyes has been humbling, and heart-warming experience.  To have my students identify me as an, "enthusiastic, passionate, understanding, positive, caring, upbeat, happy, experienced, sweet, relate-able, credible, welcoming, engaging" teacher is everything I want to be for them.  I want those traits in the next generation of teachers. 

I entered all of the students' responses (22 out of 33) in Class Dojo and will share the results with the interactive pie graph tomorrow in class.  Here is a snapshot of what the overview looks like:

6 word memoirs

I recently participated in the first call-back day for the NIWP/Doceo Core Summer Institute I took this summer. It was such a powerful reminder of the importance of community!  I really love the diversity of my cohort, and was surprised at how easy it was to fall back into our familiar community.  One of my favorite takeaways from the day was an activity called the 6-word memoir. I've found myself thinking in 6-word phrases on multiple occasions since then.  The basic idea is to create a personal narrative using only 6 words.  You can view a YouTube video containing several examples of the idea here.  This is a national project that has been picked up by classrooms and individuals of all ages around the world. You can see more amazing examples on this website. Our class used a Google Slide document, with every member creating at least one page (with a background photo and text) in the group project. Here is one of the pages that I created following a road trip the day before:

Welcome home, worth the long drive.

Here's another that reflects my overall thinking of the moment:

No really, you can do anything.

Want to give it a try?  What is your  six-word memoir today? Click here to leave your memoir.

Creating Artist Statements Using Google Forms

One of the best things about my being on sabbatical this year is the opportunity to volunteer in my son's 4th grade classroom.  As a classroom teacher myself, it has been the very rare occasion that I have been able to be a part of his school day.  This year I will be teaching an art lesson in his classroom once a month. He and I are both very excited about this arrangement!

Our first adventure in art was a relief Leaf-Printmaking lesson that focused on the elements of texture, value and color. I was inspired by one of my favorite art sites: deepspacesparkle. Students choose a variety of leaves, and then printed them onto black paper with white ink using rollers and deckles. 

After the printing process was complete, students choose either warm or cool color acrylic paints to sponge in the background. 

The most innovative aspect of the lesson for me was the opportunity to try out using Google Forms to have the students create artist statements for their artwork.  I learned about the process here.  After creating this template,

I brought it up on each of the classrooms' five desktop computers.  As students finished their art, and cleaned up their workspace, they sat down at the computers and began to reflect on their work. 

The beautiful thing about using Google Forms is the spreadsheet that is automatically generated as students complete the form.  Instead of typing out each students work, I simply had to cut and paste their responses into a blank table.  After editing for spelling and conventions, I was able to print out & cut apart each artist statement.  This entire process took me less than 30 minutes from the time they walked out the door at the end of the day. 

Classroom Websites

This week I've been working on a couple of websites, one for my classroom and one for a presentation for my local school district.  I really wanted to become familiar with the format and functionality of a variety of different free options, so I explored Weebly, Wix, and Goggle Sites.  I have learned a lot through this experience and have pretty strong feelings about what I'd recommend.  I started building my classroom website through Weebly, and love how it turned out.  You can see it here. Right now it has a bunch of numbers as the URL, because I have not upgraded to include a personal web address, although for $4 dollars a month, I will likely build that into my school budget when I return to the classroom.  Weebly is intuitive to use, and its drag and drop features make it easy to build a beautiful, professional looking website. There are hundreds of templates to choose from, and the customization possibilities are endless.

For an iPad PD course, I started with the Google Sites option, because (up until this experience) I love most of what the GAFE system has to offer.  This website builder, is not as user friendly as Weebly, but I am not one to give up easily.  After all was said and done, I made the ugliest webpage ever! I am proud of the content the site contains, but aesthetically speaking, it leaves a lot to be desired.  You can see that website here. I was in too deep.....with the presentation too near by the time I decided I wanted to ditch Sites.  The old, perfectionist me would've stayed up way too late for way too many nights and re-built it.  But this is a new era, with a new, more realistic (or maybe slightly overworked) me, where I am letting it go, and moving on.

I do know where I'm headed next though....for my next website project, I will be trying out Wix.  It is very similar to Weebly with it's drag and drop features, and it's simple designs end up looking sleek and sophisticated rather than the archaic and blocky look of Sites.