Action Research Project

http://www.edtechvision.org

2007-08-13T00:02:00.000-07:00

This blog has been moved to http://www.edtechvision.org

Done!

2007-07-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

Last fall we had a debate in Stager's class about what to do with students who proclaim they are done. Are we really ever done?

Well this is my final post for my Action Research Project. The final report can be read at http://students.pepperdine.edu/ccassine/arp.htm .

I have beginning my post OMET blog at http://www.edtechvision.org/. Come join me there.

Engagement and the Power of CHOICE

2007-06-04T13:00:00.001-07:00

The learning strategy that I have used this last term has been giving students opportunities to choose various aspects of their assignments. I have found that when students get to choose between two different ways to demonstrate their understanding, for example, creating a podcast or writing a letter, the student embraces the project and claims ownership of their work. Just the simple act of choosing empowers students and makes them feel like they have some control over how to best represent their learning.

The final project for the term will embrace choice and focus on the process of learning. Students will select available software and locate classmates and resources to help in learning a new software tool. Students will decide what they want to learn, locate print and online resources for instruction, keep a daily journal of their discoveries, capture screen shots or take photos of their process, and then finally share what they learned in class.

There is a lot of flexibility in choosing what to learn and students may learn the software with other classmates but ultimately it is the responsibility of each student to follow through and create this learning adventure for themselves. The documentation along the way is to demonstrate their understanding of the chosen software. Each student will be expected to SHARE one thing they learned about their chosen software during a class presentation.

Students are choosing to:

build and program in Lego robotics
edit music with Audacity
create original music in Acid Music
edit video in Adobe Premiere Elements
create animated movies in Macromedia Flash
edit photographs in Adobe Photoshop Elements

I have been pleased with the interactions of students during class. Students are experimenting, looking at books for ideas, asking questions, and learning by lots of trial and error. Who knew learning could be so fun?

Teaching skills with a purpose

2007-05-27T08:31:00.001-07:00

This week I spent some time in direct instruction with my students on specific PowerPoint skills (Word outlines, slide master, action buttons, and animations). Teaching these skills without a real purpose for using them would have been a waste of time.

One of the things that I have come to realize during this research project is that there must be a real purposeful reason to learn the skills and then opportunities to use them. There are other skills in PowerPoint that I don't cover - such as how to convert a slideshow to a webpage. We aren't going to be posting them online and that's not really how most people use PowerPoint - so why teach it?

I am looking back at my former scope and sequence of skills and re-evaluating some of the skills I used to teach. Yes it is nice to learn how to do a pivot table in Excel, or hanging indents in Word or automatic slide advance in PowerPoint - but if there is no real reason to learn it and use it - how can I think that the students will ever really "learn" this skill and retain the information?

Wouldn't it be better to teach them how to learn than trying to cram "everything" they should know about using a piece of software - one that will eventually change anyway?

PowerPoint slide master

2007-05-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

Many students come to my class feeling "comfortable" with PowerPoint so my goal is to teach them some news skills to keep the focus on content or make formatting and animating quicker, easier and consistent.

One of the ways that I do this is to teach my students how to create their own original design template by using the slide master. The preformatted design templates are overused and not very interesting - plus they usually don't match the topic. I teach students how to go to View / Master / Slide Master and design a template from scratch. I encourage students to choose background colors, designs or images that match their topic.

For example, one of my students in presenting a PowerPoint all about surfing so she found a cool wave photograph that we lightened and place as the background of her slides. Then she chose complimentary colors and fonts for the titles and body paragraphs. She included a navigation bar on the left of the slide and a small image near the title. This slide was saved as a design template and then could be applied to the PowerPoint slides (the one that was written in Word).

The student is now more than half done since all the text and slide formatting is completed. The next steps include changing the slide layouts, transitions and adding images/sounds/movies.

Animations for titles and body paragraphs can be added to the slide master as well as "actions" to link the navigation bar to individual slides.

I asked students to give opinions about the use of the slide master:

It makes it easier to format all the slides at once.
You can match your design to your topic.
It makes the show more professional looking - but I still like change some of the background designs for some slides.
I probably won't go search for design templates online anymore - I'll just make my own.
I used to spend a lot of time animating all of the text. Completing the animations in the slide master saves TONS of time.
I like using the slide master and Word outline together - it's so much easier.
I never knew that you could add action buttons or hyperlinks in PowerPoint to make the projects more interactive.

The "cool" factor of PowerPoint

2007-05-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

Students always seem to get excited when a teacher explains that they are going to use PowerPoint for a project. There is something about PowerPoint that is creative, entertaining and appealing to kids.

My concern has always been that all of the focus on the "fluff" of PowerPoint will lead to PowerPointlessness. PowerPoint is a presentation tool so why is the content and message seem to be lost in the production?

I have come up with a solution that counteracts the focus on formatting and not on content. I teach students how to write out all of the content for their PowerPoint slides in a Word outline and focus on the information before I allow them to open up the PowerPoint program.

Today I taught the students how to change to outline view and place all slide titles on Level 1 of the outline and all body content on Level 2 of an outline. Students spent several days researching their topic and writing out the information on the outline. Resources were cited right on the outline and the focus was clearly what information was to be conveyed in the presentation.

When the students completed the outline, they opened PowerPoint and then opened the Word outline IN PowerPoint - and presto - all the text was placed on the appropriate slides. The students reaction is the best part - they loved it. They were amazed that these two software pieces work together seamlessly.

In class we discussed the value of what we just accomplished. Students commented:

You can focus on the writing and not get distracted by playing with animations.
Its easier to keep your train of thought when working in outline view.
You can write the outline at home and then come to school to work on PowerPoint
You must set up the outline correctly otherwise this process doesn't work.
It was cool to see all the text on the correct slides.
I never knew this could be done before.
I love learning new shortcuts!

Teacher recommedations for on and off-task behaviors

2007-05-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

After observing and recording on-task behaviors, here are some of my initial adjustments or recommendations:

Group projects

Provide written instructions so all know expectations
Give each student to a role to fulfill
1-1 or 1-2 computing is ideal for sharing work - more than that does not give adequate time for students to participate
Have alternative tasks for those who finish early

Direct Instruction

Remove all distractions: headphones, open websites
Consider purchasing lab management software so all can easily view screen
Find out prior knowledge and do not demo skills already known
Keep direct instruction short and provide written instructions

Individual tasks

Provide written instructions
Remove all distractions: headphones, open websites
Stop class work time and encourage interaction and sharing
Intervene early with students who are stuck or off task

On task behavior documentation

2007-05-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

For my ARP I have been documenting students behaviors during direct instruction time, during group project work and then during individual tasks. Here are some of my observations so far:

Group

initially there is a lot of discussion
some students made the decisions, other members wait for instructions
students confered with each other about progress during writing of article
when students were formatting their newspaper page, students who were not actually controlling the computer were not as involved.
groups that only had 1 or 2 members formatting per page were more on task than higher numbers

Direct Instruction

teacher can view 3/4 of screens from her vantage point and see if all are following along with instruction
students are engaged when instruction is unfamiliar - opening word outline in PPT
If students perceive they already know the material - they seem to "check out"
Where students sit in room seems to have direct impact of how well they pay attention. Students in front right row and back row do not watch demonstrations on overhead screen.
Off task behaviors include trying to use headphones to listen to music or websites, viewing own screen instead of demo, not looking at teacher, talking to neighbor

Individual tasks

some students work well on their own
some students need interaction or clarification to understand the task
if students have clear understanding of task, or written directions to refer to, they usually are more productive than those who have to stop and ask for clarifications
the more confident the student is in their ability to complete the task at hand, the more on task behavior I observed
personality & overall school achievement has a lot to do with on-task behaviors

chart of behaviors will be posted soon.

New Student Newspaper

2007-05-07T12:20:00.000-07:00

My main focus this year is teaching technology skills with authentic projects that have real audiences. At the beginning of Cycle 3 I still had several skills to cover before the term was over, so I sat down with the students and asked them, "How can we learn these skills but at the same time find a real purpose and audience for our work".

I wanted to cover some desktop publishing features in Word, like: columns, section breaks, shading/borders, etc.. In the past the students have created a newsletter - but for no real audience. The students like the idea of creating a REAL newspaper that would be read by REAL students. The students chose to make a newspaper about our school to give to incoming students. I ran the idea past our admissions counselor and she loved the idea.

The students decided on an 8 page layout: Welcome, Academics (2), Activities (2), Sports (2) and General Information. They broke into groups, wrote articles, edited the documents with "track changes", decided on a layout template, added the stories/images, proofread again and printed the final version for the admission counselor to review.

The best part of the whole project is that I was really a “guide on the side” during the process. The students decided what they thought new students needed to know. I observed quite a few students showing other students how to format the newspaper a particular way. The whole project was very successful and I think the students showed a lot of enthusiasm for the assignment because I gave them choice in demonstrating their technical skills.

Cycle Three Plans

2007-05-04T16:35:00.000-07:00

During the next cycle I will continue to provide lessons where the students create authentic projects for authentic audiences – but students will have more choice during this cycle.

After reviewing the National Technology standards for students and my scope and sequence of skills, I determine that students still exposure to more desktop publishing skills (columns, section breaks, drop cap, customized borders) but also review some general paragraph formatting skills (indents, before/after spacing, styles, and outlines). My plan is to list these technology skills for the students and give them some options on how we can use them in a project and let them decide as a class how to demonstrate their understanding. Some of the options will be: a class newspaper, a basic website, Word tutorials, etc. By allowing students to choose the format of their project I am hoping to increase ownership and engagement in learning.

We have not covered any PowerPoint skills this semester so the final capstone project of the term will be an integrated PowerPoint and Excel project. Students will be given the opportunity to choose any educational topic that is of interest to them and one that they could teach their classmates about. First they will determine prior knowledge by designing an Excel survey about their topic. Once they have collected that information, students will design an interactive PowerPoint presentation on their chosen topic. Direct instruction of the following PowerPoint skills will be covered: opening a Word outline in PowerPoint, creating a slide master, custom animation, action buttons, and adding sound or video to PowerPoint. Each PowerPoint project from the class will be linked together on a main project so all students can view each other’s projects.

The final days of class instruction will incorporate a “Choose your own Techventure” time – where students can pick any type of technology that we have at school and work individually or in groups to explore the software tools.

Cycle Two Evaluation

2007-05-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

WHAT’S FOR LUNCH? – Cycle Two Evaluations 5/1/07

1. What year are you?

a. Freshmen – 11
b. Sophomore – 3
c. Junior – 2
d. Senior – 2

2. Which desktop publishing feature was the most beneficial to learn this term (multiple answers allowed)

a. Page border – 5
b. Word Art – 6
c. AutoShapes – 5
d. Text Boxes – 10
e. Diagram / Organizational Chart – 8
f. Insert Clip Art & Edit Picture – 6
g. Line / Arrow options 3
h. Shadow – 3
i. 3-D – 5
j. Font Effects – 5
k. Fill Color / Effects – 6
l. Align / rotate / flop – 6
m. Track Changes – 11
n. Other – 1 - Header / Footer & Indents

3. Which statement(s) best describe your opinion about the WHAT’S FOR LUNCH? project (multiple answers allowed)

a. I enjoyed taking photos of people’s lunch for data collection – 4
b. I enjoyed using Google shared spreadsheets for data collection – 4
c. I learned new desktop publishing features when I created my poster – 11
d. I learned how to record a podcast – 9
e. I learned the steps of a mail merge letter – 11

4. Please rate your understanding of the following Excel skills:

	I still have difficulty with this skill	I need some help with this skill	I am comfortable with this skill	I could teach another student this skill
Formatting the spreadsheet	0	1	11	6
Writing a formula	0	0	11	7
Creating a graph	0	2	9	7

5. What suggested do you have for how the WHAT’S FOR LUNCH? project could be improved in the future (be specific: lunch data collection, poster, mail merge, or podcast)

a. I thought it was pretty good to be honest
b. During the lunch data collection, it might give better data if people take a picture of variety of lunches from home, school, etc..
c. More time to collect data
d. I liked how we did it.
e. I don’t have any
f. None
g. Can’t think of anything, sorry
h. I think that the podcast was a very good idea for a project. It gets the work done while at the same time you can play around and add in sound bites and things like that. I enjoyed it a lot.
i. For the podcast, we could learn more specifically how to add songs, or edit in a way that doesn’t seem choppy when you listen to it.
j. Nothing that I can think of. It had been taught very well. Going online and using different search engines to find out the information required made it fun.
k. Maybe put something in the paper to let other kids know and also let parents know.
l. Instead of taking pictures of the lunches, there should be a log in which the lunch is written down. The pictures can be obtained from Google images.
m. I think we could have come up with a more interactive way to use the info.
n. The only improvement I can think of is that instead of looking at all of the lunches it should be focused on what is most popular. That way people would have a better understanding of they like and normally eat.
o. I ‘m not sure I think that the project went well and it was informative.
p. I think lunch data should come from one specified site; some data doesn’t match even though the data contains same food.

6 Evaluate how well your group worked together on the mad lib mail merge project.

	The statement is false	The statement is partly true	The statement is true
Everyone contributed to the writing of the mad lib	2	5	11
Everyone contributed when we went to the other groups to enter data	0	3	15
Everyone is our group understands how to do a mail merge	1	5	12

On a scale of 1-5 rate your teacher on the follow items:

	1 Poor	2 Just Ok	3 Good	4 Very Good	5 Excellent
Knowledge of technical skills	0	0	1	1	16
Availability for help	0	0	2	4	12
Feedback given to you about your progress	0	0	3	8	7
Ability to teach new skills	0	0	1	1	16
Friendliness	0	0	0	2	16
Motivates me to learn	0	0	5	6	8
TOTAL	0	0	12	22	75

8 An effort was made during this Unit to give more direct instruction for technology skills. Was this helpful? Did you feel you needed it in order to be successful?

a. Yes, this was helpful. I feel I can learn better when the information is direct and not done through a project.

b. It was very helpful to learn many technological skills. With all the skills that we learned we were able to organize the data and make attractive looking posters. It might even help me later on when I need to work with Excel or Word Art.

c. Yes, it did.

d. Yeah, it was – except I didn’t need much help but when I did – it was effective.

e. Yes, learning the technological skills is the reason I signed up to take the class.

f. This was sort of helpful because I have taken a course like this before. The best and most important thing I have learned so far is how to track changes in Word.

g. Yes, this was very helpful. It motivated me to do even better.

h. Yes, I do think it was needed.

i. Yes, to both questions.

j. Yes, it was helpful, and since this was all new, it helped me in order to be successful, that there were specific instructions on what to do.

k. Learning how to do a mail merge – it makes writing a letter a much faster process than before.

l. I thought it was helpful and it did benefit me.

m. Yes, it was needed.

n. I thought that most of the stuff we learned was fun and useful - the mail merge, for example. I told my mom about it and she was like “Oh, show me how to do that when we get home, that’s how I will do my thank you letters from now on”.

o. Since I did not have a lot of understanding of computer skills at the start – and I do now – I’d say it was helpful and necessary.

p. I think it this was helpful and it was necessary to be successful.

q. Yes, it was helpful, and those technology skills are used during this whole unit.

9. During the next cycle, you will be asked to create a PowerPoint presentation. What is your experience with PowerPoint?

	I have never done this before	I need a lot of help with this skill	I could do this skill with a little help	I am comfortable with this skill
Creating PowerPoint slides	0	0	2	16
Changing the slide design	0	0	4	14
Adding animations	2	0	6	10
Using the “master slide” template	3	4	7	4
Using and adding “action buttons”	4	2	7	6
Adding sounds or video	3	5	4	6

Mail Merge

2007-04-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

Today students finished their mail merge letters. Students had the choice to write a letter in support or against Oregon House Bill 2650 - the removal of junk food in public schools -or- a letter about reducing lunch waste and incorporating a lunch recycling program at schools.

After conducting our own analysis of our school lunches and researching these two topics, students wrote their 1st drafts. Working in partners, the drafts were edited using "track changes" and finalized. Students looked up addresses for Oregon Senate leaders and editors of local newspapers. These addresses were inputed on a Google shared spreadsheet. The spreadsheet was exported for anyone to use.

I demonstrated the format of a full-block business letter. Students began the steps of the mail merge and added the appropriate "fields" in the letter. Using the mail merge helper allowed students to preview their letters before merging. The final letters were printed, signed, envelopes were addressed and mailed.

My goal in doing the letter campaign was to give students an authentic reason for learning how to write a formal business letter and to learn the steps of a mail merge letter. One student summed up his feelings, "I don't know if my letter will make any difference but at least they know how us teenagers feel".

Podcasting fun!

2007-04-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

Today was the first time in class that my students tried podcasting. Students had a choice of whether to write a mail-merge letter or create a podcast to share their views on Oregon House Bill 2650 (eliminating junk food from schools) or the topic of lunch waste. Three different groups chose podcasting - and after the looks and giggles today - I am sure a few of the other groups wished they had chosen to record their opinions too.

The podcast/mail-merge assignment is the final activity in the What's for Lunch? curriculum unit. Originally the students took photos of lunches for one week and analyzed the nutrition content, cost and waste using an Excel spreadhseet. Next, the students created a desktop publishing poster that was hung in the cafeteria and classroom. This final assignment is to have the students share their knowledge with people outside the classroom.

Students used Audacity to record their podcasts. Many times I observed them rerecording sections to make it just right. All of the groups imported short audio segments for the intro music to the podcast. All three groups were completely engaged during the class sessions and were having fun too!

Desktop Publishing

2007-04-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

Goal: To create a one page poster to educate or influence student’s decisions or attitudes towards lunch nutrition, cost effectiveness, or reducing lunch waste.

Skills:Use 8 of the following desktop publishing features on your poster

Page Border
Word Art
Auto Shapes
Text Boxes
Diagram / Organizational Chart
Insert Clip Art & Edit Picture
Line/Arrow options
Shadow
3-D
Font Effects
Fill Color / Effects
Align / Rotate / Flip

Message:
Look at your Lunch data. Pick one area that you feel that you could educate or influence others. For example, make a poster encouraging students to make healthy food choices, or suggest bringing a lunch from home to reduce lunch waste.

Observation:

I created a one-page reference page that showed students how to customize each of the skills listed above.
Students used the reference page often to learn make the poster.
There was a lot of interaction between the students about how they were customizing the features for their poster.
All 18 students completed the activity.
The posters were hung up around the school.

Excel Formula Quiz & Assessment

2007-04-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday the class took a quiz to check for comprehension of Excel vocabulary words and understanding of how to write an Excel formula. Out of 18 students - 2 students completely bombed the test and 3 others made some critical mistakes - but the other 13 did fine.

I decided to have one-on-one conferences to go over the quizzes and their last Excel project with each student. This is giving me the opportunity to re-teach some skills and check for understanding. The two students who bombed the test will retake it tommorrow. With the others I can point out what they are doing right and also how to correct mistakes.

My students scored "giving feedback" lowest on my teacher evaluation and I am making steps to correct this and make sure that learning and understanding are the focus of my classes - not grades.

QUIZ	% passed greater 70%	% failed less 70%	Class Average
Section One: Excel vocabulary terms	83.3%	16.6%	85%
Section Two: Writing formulas	50%	50%	62%
Total			77%

After the quiz I held individual conferences with the student to review the material. I collected these comments from the students during the conferences:

I mixed up the definitions of a formula and function.
I knew how to write the formula; I just wasn’t sure which cell references to use.
I don’t have any difficulty with basic functions.
Since the summary was separate from the data, I found it challenging to write the formulas.
I can get the formula to work on the computer with the help of the Insert Function button; I just have a harder time writing them out during a quiz.
The AutoSum functions make it easy to calculate totals and averages.
I chose the correct numbers for the formula – I just missed some of the punctuation on the formula and that wouldn’t happen if I was using the computer.
I didn’t study the vocabulary before the test.

Student Pre-Evaluation / Teacher Post - Evaluation

2007-04-06T17:45:00.000-07:00

Students were asked to self-evaluate their spreadsheet for Excel Assignment #1 using the following rubric. Students had an opportunity to make correction to their assignment after evaluating their work.

Please rate your SPREADSHEET for the following items:	Student Pre-Evaluation
	Poor	OK	Good	Very Good	Excellent
	Poor	OK	Good	Very Good	Excellent
There is a clear title that is centered across columns	0%	0%	10%	20%	70%
Labels are formatted in a way to make them noticeable	0%	10%	0%	20%	70%
Basic Formulas (sum, average) are calculated correctly	0%	0%	10%	0%	80%
Advanced Formulas (countif, sumif) are calculated correctly	0%	0%	10%	10%	70%
Spreadsheet is formatted in an attractive manner.	0%	0%	0%	40%	60%

Please rate your SPREADSHEET for the following items:	Teacher Post-Evaluation
	Poor	OK	Good	Very Good	Excellent
	Poor	OK	Good	Very Good	Excellent
There is a clear title that is centered across columns	0%	0%	0%	0.5%	94%
Labels are formatted in a way to make them noticeable	0%	0%	0%	33%	67%
Basic Formulas (sum, average) are calculated correctly	0%	0.5%	0.5%	0.5%	83%
Advanced Formulas (countif, sumif) are calculated correctly	0%	0%	0%	0%	100%
Spreadsheet is formatted in an attractive manner.	0%	0%	0%	0.5%	94%

Students were asked to self-evaluate their chart for Excel Assignment #1 using the following rubric. Students had an opportunity to make correction to their assignment after evaluating their work.

Please rate your CHART for the following items:	Student Pre-Evaluation
	Poor	OK	Good	Very Good	Excellent
	Poor	OK	Good	Very Good	Excellent
Chart has clear & specific title	0%	0%	10%	20%	70%
The chart type is appropriate for the data	0%	0%	0%	40%	60%
All appropriate data is included on the chart	0%	0%	10%	20%	70%
The chart contains labels or includes a legend	0%	0%	10%	20%	80%
The chart is formatted in an attractive manner.	0%	0%	10%	20%	70%

Please rate your CHART for the following items:	Teacher Post-Evaluation
	Poor	OK	Good	Very Good	Excellent
	Poor	OK	Good	Very Good	Excellent
Chart has clear & specific title	0%	0%	0.5%	72%	22%
The chart type is appropriate for the data	0%	0%	0%	0%	100%
All appropriate data is included on the chart	0%	0%	0.5%	0.5%	89%
The chart contains labels or includes a legend	0%	0%	0%	22%	78%
The chart is formatted in an attractive manner.	0%	0%	0%	0%	100%

Observing independent workers

2007-04-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

This week I have been observing which students can complete an Excel assignment either completely by themselves, with some direction from a friend, or who need extra help from the teacher. Here are the results:

Basic Functions

Independent skill mastery: 12
Working towards mastery: 4
Below skill mastery: 2

Advanced Functions

Independent skill mastery: 4
Working towards mastery: 11
Below skill mastery: 3

The assignment was to take the data on the Shared Google spreadsheet and analyze by using basic functions (sum and average) to calculate nutrition data (calories, fats, carbs), cost and lunch waste. Then the students needed to analyze the data according by the day of the week with advanced functions (countif, sumif). Finally, they graphed the results from one category.

I was a bit disappointed that some students were still having difficulties with basic functions. I realized one student had missed several days of class and probably is just guessing how to write formulas and the other one sits near the back of the room and I wonder how well they pay attention. Recently I have had to remove headphones from those computers to prevent "tuning out" or watching videos during class work time.

Google Shared Spreadsheets

2007-03-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

In class today, my students accessed a Google shared spreadsheet that I set up for our What's for lunch? data collection. Each day this week different students are taking photos of four lunches of their classmates. Today I partnered them up to help each other with the data entry.

After teaching the class how to log in and access the spreadsheets - they began entering data. The student were completely engaged in the activity. They loved the fact that after everytime you entered a piece of data into the cell - the program automatically saved and updated everyone's page.

I observed:

Students helping each other insert rows in the spreadsheet
Students searching and finding nutrional data about food items
Comments like: "This is so cool", "this is amazing".
Students asking each other where they found their information.
Students actively working on the assignment for over 40 minutes.

The novelty of the shared spreadsheet engaged the students in the activity and they completed most of the data entry during the class period. One student commented that she was going to finish up from home (another benefit of Google).

I was pleasantly surprised with their enthusiasm.

Cycle Two begins - What's For Lunch?

2007-03-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

Today I began the second unit for my Action Research Project. The title is: What's the lunch? The idea is for the students to collect authentic data about what students at VCS eat for lunch and to use that data for further investigation with student projects.

The assignment for this week is:

Choose four different lunches to evaluate on your assigned day.
Take a photo of the lunch.
Write down specifics about the lunch: day of the week, description of item, service size and costs (if hot lunch).
Research the nutritional value of the lunch: calories, fats, and carbohydrates (g).
We will determine costs of lunches brought from home in class.
Log into Moodle or access the shared spreadsheet at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p_VM5beL2JAqn6doweazPfw to enter your data.

Before the students are asked to analyze the data in Excel, I will review basic formula writing with functions (sum, average, min, max, count) and then introduce 3 new functions (If, Countif, Sumif) with a skill lessons. This week I will observe students using Excel and use a rubric to determine whether the students can complete the first assignment by themselves, with assistance from a friend, or help needed from the teacher.

The lunch information will be entered into the shared spreadsheet and students will work with partners to analyze the nutritional content (calories, fat and carbohydrates), the cost of the lunch and evaluate the waste that is thrown away. Students will determine how to calculate the information in Excel and then individually make graphs that represent the data in a visual manner.

Next week, each student will design a one page poster related to the topic of nutrition, cost or waste. There will be specific formatting requirement for this project, but students can select the message and design.

Finally, students will choose one of two projects to share with the community. They have the choice to do these projects by themselves or with one partner. The first one is to write a letter to the editors of three newspapers explaining their opinion on one of the topics: nutrition, cost or waste. Students who choose this project will use “track changes” for peer evaluation and learn how to set up a mail merge for their letters.

The second option is to create a simple podcast voicing their opinion on one of the three topics: nutrition, cost or waste. The podcasts will be posted to the school Intranet website. Students who choose this project will use “track changes” for peer evaluation of their script and learn how to edit an audio recording with Audacity.

Students will continue to blog about their progress and write private journal entries to the teacher.

That's the plan!

MidPoint Evaluation

2007-03-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

What year are you?

Freshmen – 9
Sophomore – 3
Junior – 2
Senior – 2

Do you think the keyboarding practice this term has been helpful?

Yes – 9
Somewhat – 6
No – 1

Which skill in Microsoft Word was the most beneficial to learn this term? (multiple answers are allowed)

Font formatting – 0
Tables – 12
Borders – 7
Styles – 4
Indents – 7
Numbering – 4
Format Painter – 9
Paragraph spacing – 1
Other: Track Changes – 2

Which statement(s) best describe your opinion about conducting research for the career project (multiple answers allowed).

I learned a lot about career choices through my research – 11
I did not enjoy the career research – 1
The career research was easy – 5
Researching the career information was too difficult and the information was hard to understand – 0
I like using the pathfinders provided by the Librarian – 10
I would prefer to do my own research on careers and not use the pathfinders. – 2
I shared the information I researched during the Career Fair – 13
I did not share the information I researched during the Career Fair.
Other – 4:Learned some what about our careers, Didn’t help my decision in finding a job, It made me think about what I want to do with my careers in my future, The career research wasn’t too hard, or too easy

Evaluation how well your group worked together on the career project

This statement is …	False	Partly true	True
Everyone contributed to the research	0	2	14
Everyone contributed to the poster board or interactive project	2	0	14
Everyone contributed during the presentation at the Career Fair	2	5	9

6. Please rate your understanding of the following Excel Skills

	I still have difficulty with this skill	I need some help with this skill	I am comfortable with this skill	I could teach another student this skill
Formatting the spreadsheet	0	2	10	4
Writing a formula	0	1	10	5
Creating a graph	0	2	7	7

On a scale of 1-5 rate your teach on the following items:

	1 Poor	2 Just Ok	3 Good	4 Very Good	5 Excellent
Knowledge of technical skills	0	0	2	4	10
Availability for help	0	0	3	6	7
Feedback give to you about your progress	0	2	1	10	3
Ability to teach new skills	0	1	1	4	10
Friendliness	0	0	2	4	10
Motivates me to learn	0	0	5	6	5

8. What suggestions do you have for how this entire career project could be improved in the future?

Nothing
More time to do research and maybe more to the point topics... The topics assigned for this recent project were broad
The presentation seemed chaotic during lunch
I think that more sites should be available on the library thing
I think that it was done really well, but it could be better if we could choose somewhat what careers we wanted to research.
This could be improved by giving time for more research. if you have more information, then there would be more to put on the project and the presentation.
Maybe more interactive. Find other things for different groups to do.
No presentation to school. Most people didn't really care. Instead, present to classmates.
Research more careers than two. Get different information about each career. That’s about it. It was good.
Maybe have the groups have a little bit more time to actually put together the poster board. like you could have a "poster board day"
I think that we could have the same thing happen, basically, but spend more time on the report, the speech/ presenting part.
I thought it all worked out fairly well. Its not gonna be perfect as thats impossible for any ideas in school but you basically did it the best way we could and we all worked together and learned plenty of things and then were able to share those with the school (while giving out candy as well).
I think that maybe next year or whenever it is done again, that more research should be done on the different jobs. The that my group provided was not very exhaustive
It was pretty good.
It could be improved if the students gave more creative ideas. Everybody else are almost same; doing PowerPoint, poster board. But, there were some creative ones, like playing guitar, bring cookie, and tickets.

9. What recommendation do you have the teacher of how she could tech this unit differently in the future?

No, none what so ever
For me i did not need the Microsoft office help but maybe for some people, we could have touched on word, excel, and power point a little bit more.
Focus more on teaching the skills rather than so much emphasis on the project.
more progress reports
I don't really have any recommendations. The teacher did well.
This would be better if we had time to practice the presentation before and make a script or something so that we know what we should say to people who come to look at our project
You’re doing great, lots of vocal energy. Maybe a few field trips (educational) to learn about computers.
No detailed research on a couple specific topics, but instead, several more general topics, so we can discover more jobs without having to research a job we find out we don't like.
I think it was very well taught.
i don't have really any recommendations for you.
I think she taught it well, but could explain the project more accurately in the beginning.
About the same answer as #8. It wasn't "perfect" but I can't really think of another way it could have been done so good job!
Stress that more research should be done on the specific careers that a group chooses to cover.
I would like to learn the skills in a more linear format.
I think project was a good one. Maybe doing other project in the future will be good.

10. If students had the CHOICE to help the teacher choose a topic for future projects in Computer Applications, which of the following topics interests you the most? (multiple answers and suggestions encouraged)

Teen Issues (drinking, smoking, dating, etc.) - 12
Athletic topics (team stats, steroid use, sports promotions) - 7
Discovering new technologies (podcasting, video, blogs, Web 2.0 tools, IM, Free software, Lego Programming) - 4
Famous People (historical, political, music, etc..) - 4
Pop Culture of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s - 4
The History of … (music topic: Rock-n-Roll, historical event: famous war, Invention: TV, etc) - 8
Everyone gets to choose their own topics - 11

Resume

2007-03-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

Learning Activity

In order to give a personal touch to the Career Unit, I had the students make resumes this week. Initially the students looked at resume samples on the Internet and in our textbook to determine their purpose. Student then designed their own resume for homework. We spent one class period editing the content in small groups. Each student looked over their classmate's resume and make suggestions about word choice, content clarification, etc.. The next day the students used the “track changes” in Word to make suggestions for each other and then at the end either accepted or rejected the changes. Learning how to use the track changes feature in Word was a new skill for ALL of the students. I plan on using it throughout the semester.

Some other Word formatting skills I taught the students to use on their resumes: Adding space before/after paragraph, customized borders around text and paragraphs, font effects such as shadow and small cap, paragraph shading and changing margins.

The final resumes were printed on parchment-type paper to take home. They looked great!

Data Collection
I had the students evaluate their first draft of their resume. The results were:

March 13th Pre-Assessment Question: What do you think of your resume at this point?
1. I didn't make a resume - 0 responses
2. It's OK - but still needs a lot of work - 4 responses
3. It's pretty good - maybe one or two adjustments - 11 responses
4. It's awesome - I don't need any revisions - 1 response
17 responses / one student absent

March 16th Post-Assessment Question: What do you think of your resume at this point?
1. I didn't make a resume - 0 responses
2. It's OK - but still needs a lot of work - 0 responses
3. It's pretty good - maybe one or two adjustments - 5 responses
4. It's awesome - I don't need any revisions - 5 response
10 responses /data will be updated on Monday when students return from school activity

Observation

All of the students made adjustments to their original resume (even the student who thought his was awesome!). The changes were in content, word choice, and formatting.
The students reaction when they saw the final resume printed on parchment-type paper was positive. One student remarked, "Wow, this looks professional" - and it did!!
Every student assessed their resume higher after the revisions.
All students used new formatting skills on their resumes.

Career Fair Today!!!!

2007-03-13T21:13:00.000-07:00

Today my Computer Applications students hosted a mini-career fair in the lobby of our school at lunch. It was fun, hectic and full of energy - basically - organized chaos. The class was split into 6 groups and each group researched how careers can be grouped into personality types.

Today, the groups presented their information to the student body. To entice students to stop by the kiosks we placed bowls of candy at each table. We also offered a raffle prize - so if someone stayed and listened to the presentation they would receive a raffle ticket to win "A future career organizational kit" (complete with jump drive, pencils/pens, scissors, and a cool pencil pouch!). We had a pretty good turn out. Lots of kids took the "personality test" to determine their category and visited the kiosks. Several teachers at my school stopped by to ask the students questions about what they learned. A student reporter from the school paper took pictures and interview students for an upcoming article. My ARP is focused on engaging students with authentic assignments. The students will participate in a survey this week to get their impressions of the activity. Overall I am pleased with their efforts.

View pictures of our event at http://www.flickr.com/photos/colettec/sets/72157594586847731/

Authenticity and Improvements

2007-03-07T18:58:00.000-08:00

As the students finish up their tri-fold displays this week, the thing that I see missing from their presentations is some interactions with real people in real careers. All of the information they have gathered is from books and online resources. Earlier in the unit, each student did interview someone about their job but that was before we chose which personality career they were going to focus on. I did hear two groups talk about interviewing a few people and showing their video for their interactive presentation - but that never happened. I did show the Artistic group videos from Unitedstreaming.com but they ended up not using them either.

I ended up being gone when the students were working on the career resumes and did not get a chance to teach some of the Word skills that I wanted them to use: paragraph format, indents and styles. We ran out of time and I cut the portfolio activity from the assignment.

If I do this unit again next semester, here are some of the things that I would change:

Invite guest speakers to class
Wait and have the students conduct the interview with someone in their field after they have chosen their topic.
Show some of the unitedstreaming videos earlier in the unit.
Have them use the "Best Jobs of the 21st Century" book for data for Excel project because some of the research took too long.
Walk them through the first Excel assignment and check for understanding as we go along.
I would wait and do this unit at the end of the semester when the students have more technology skills available to them.

Photo Gallery

2007-03-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

Working on Career Projects in class:

www.flickr.com

Engaged Students!!!

2007-02-24T17:46:00.000-08:00

Friday was the first class period where I truly felt all of the student were engaged in the career unit. Some of my observations:

Each student was working the entire period on one aspect of their project. Some were planning Powerpoints, some were making brochures, several were designing the look of the kiosk, several were looking for photos or video clips from unitedstreaming.com for their projects.
There was a lot of questions and interactions among group members like:

Does this look OK?
Let's each find good photos of the careers we researched.
I think we should videotape some people for our project.
Can you help me make a hyperlink on this slide?
You work on the brochure and I will design the poster board, ok?
What is the address of our wiki with all of our ideas?
We should have cookies or candy at our presenation to encourage people to come to our booth (love this one!)

At the end of the period, one freshmen remarked, "Wow, I got a lot done today. This is fun".

To me it has felt like it has taken a long time for the engagement to happen. Here are some of the reasons I think why:

It was a new semester of mixed age levels and it took a long time for the students to get comfortable talking with each other (perhaps because of the # of freshmen in class?)
The research component took longer than I expected and some of the students had a hard time figuring out what information was important to collect.
I should have waited and introduced the Excel component AFTER we started creating the kiosks. For many students, Excel was a new program and even though we completed a practice spreadsheet together, several were confused about how to set up their career data. I think their uneasiness about doing it "right" dimished their level of excitement about the project.
It might have been better to save this unit until later in the semester when the students had a higher degree of technical skills. At first they seemed lost of how to make their kiosk project interactive and "student friendly". After I showed them some samples of Powerpoint games and simple videos, the students seemed eager to try them.
The idea of presenting their career projects to other students might make some kids uncomfortable - resulting in less engagement.

I am planning a survey this week to gauge their reactions to the project so far.

Constructivist group work

2007-02-20T13:53:00.000-08:00

Today I (tried to) embrace a constructivist view of teaching Excel.

All last week students have been collecting information about their particular career. Last Friday, I demonstrated the basics of how to write a formula in Excel and setting up a spreadsheet.

I wrote up instructions for the assignment and placed it on Moodle:

As a group you will select data from your career research to analyze in Excel and graph the results.
Choose which data you are going to analyze in Excel (ie, national salary, Oregon salary, years of education, etc..).
Set up your spreadsheet with your data.Include a descriptive title and column labels.Choose several functions to analyze the data (SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, COUNT)
Format your spreadsheet in an attractive manner.Select one set of data to graph.Look up resources for making graphs (charts) in Excel. See: http://p6compapps.wikispaces.com/Excel
Choose a graph that best represents your data (line, pie, bar, etc)Be sure to include Chart Title, labels, and make full page.
Print one copy of chart and spreadsheet.
Turn in by Friday, February 23rd.

I gave the students 3 resources:

Excel wiki page: contains notes and directs students to pages in the textbook for help
Excel help menu
WINK tutorial showing how to make a graph in Excel

... and then I let them get together in their groups and plan how they were going to accomplish their goal (and I left them alone).

Observations:

Groups immediately started talking about their plan
Many groups divided up the task and each person is graphing one aspect.
Groups realized they did not have all the information they needed and I observed several going back to their sources to find facts
Many asked for clarification of how I wanted them to set up the spreadsheet - and I turned it around and told them to decide as a group.
I was suprised how many kids were working independently.
Two groups were very social and talking a lot (which included some chatter and some instructions.)
I observed two students going back to the book for specific instructions.
4-5 students were able to make their graph in one period - but several reported that they were missing data.

I will definitely need to check for understanding in a couple of days and plan more activities with graphs to make sure ALL students understand the steps.

If I was truly embracing a constructivist view I wouldn't give them any specific directions at all ... (baby steps .. baby steps)

Reviewing my Desired Goals

2007-02-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

I pulled out my UbD project plan to look over my Desired Goals of my career unit:

Oregon Department of Education career related learning standards:

Students will develop skills to assess personal characteristics, interests, abilities, and strengths.

Students will develop skills in identifying, evaluating, and using a variety of resources for exploring personal, educational, and career choices.

National Educational Technology standards for students:

NETS*S #3: Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, prepare publications, and produce other creative works.

NETS*S #4: Students use telecommunication to collaborate, publish and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences

NETS*S #5: Students use technology tools to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of resources.

I decided to do a quick check of how I am doing on meeting some of these goals:

This past week my students did a great job of using technology tools to locate and collect information and a little bit of evaluation - but I think I will focus a blog topic on that.
Students will start to prepare some type of documentation and an interactive component of their Career kiosk this week.
We are using wikispaces for collaborative planning of the career projects. Maybe I could encourage the students to seek out resources by experts through email or listservs.
The students took a personality career survey and identified which traits matched particular careers. They also used the Librarians pathfinder to locate information on careers. I think they need to look outside of the Internet for more sources: interviews, primary documents, videos on unitedstreaming, etc.
I'm still a little unsure of how specific technology skills are developing. I need to find a better way to assess this in an authentic manner.
The groups are still a little uneasy around each other. I was hoping blogging would help the communication issues - I will encourage more communication on the wiki and Moodle.
I feel a little uneasy about the progress so far. Its going OK - but I don't yet see the "excitement" of making an authentic project yet. I think it will help when they start assembling the kiosk and making the interactive component. We'll see ...

Direct Instruction - Excel formulas

2007-02-16T17:14:00.000-08:00

For the career project, I want the students to collect authentic career data to place into Excel so they can organize, analyze, and graph the results of their research.

I quickly checked to see how many students had used Excel before and when I realized that more than 2/3 were not familiar with Excel, I took a class period to stop research and teach a basic lesson in how to write formulas in Excel.

I had the students take 5 minutes to set up a simple spreadsheet that included some data so I could introduce the following functions: SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, AND COUNT. I felt like these would be the most beneficial when they began analyzing their career data. I purposely decided NOT to use their career data for this lesson because I wanted that experience to be more authentic - but later on during the lesson - I questioned this decision.

I spent most of the period demonstrating how to write a formula in Excel as the students followed along and practiced on their own computers. Most students did a good job of following the directions and I only had to stop one or twice for clarification or demonstration. Students liked learning about some of the time-saving features, like AutoSum and the copy fill handle.

At one point during the lesson I felt like I had regressed back to my old teaching habits of being the "sage on the stage". I am conflicted - on one hand the students were unfamiliar with Excel and needed some instruction to be successful - and on the other hand - I felt like I through out my constructivist methodology by NOT using authentic data and allowing them to figure it out for themselves.

Next week when I have them set up their career spreadsheets I am definitely going to explain to them what resources they have to figure out how to analyze their data and stand back and let them flounder a bit in groups to see what they can do for themselves. I think back to Vygotsky and his Zone of Proximal Development. These kids are pretty bright - and I think I have given them some basic information that will help them in their analysis but I tried not to teach them everything they needed to know - and give them a chance to teach each other.

This "letting go" is a bit harder than I thought it would be.

Tapping other resources

2007-02-14T18:51:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful for my school Librarian who helped put together a pathfinder of links for my students to use as they begin their career research.

The class was divided into 6 groups - one group for each career personality trait: realistic, investigative, social, enterprising, artistic, and conventional (from John Holland). I had each student take a career self-assessment from http://eslmi03.esc.state.nc.us/soicc/planning/c1a.htm and then placed students into groups by one of their top personality groups. (Watching the interactions in the personality groups is a psychological study in itself!!).

One of my overall goals is from NETS*S Students use technology tools to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of resources. The Librarian directed the students to Internet sites that had currenty career information (see below) but also encouraged the students to use print and video resources (unitedstreaming.com). Giving the students a jumping off point encouraged them to start with authentic sources and prevented them from googling their career choice and coming up with lots of unwanted websites.

The next day the groups met together and each student shared with their group where they got some information, and briefly evaluated the site for accuracy and ease of use. It was great to see some kids who were floundering the first day actually take th advice of their classmates and use those sites.

I've encouraged each of the groups to explore 6-10 careers in their category and include careers that do and do not require a college education.

The initial research class periods went well and except for one group - everyone has already researched at least 6 careers - we are off to a good start.

Site	Description
America's Career InfoNet	A gateway site. Gives customized Occupation Profile reports; includes wage estimations. Gives links to sites about specific careers.
Bureau of Labor Statistics	Gateway site from the U.S. Dept. of Labor.
California Occupational Guides	Select the letter of your occupation.
CareerZone	Provides information on 900 occupations.
collegeboard.com	Careers section. Especially good at telling you what to expect & how to prepare.
Exploring Occupations: Careers	Information on over 200 careers. Especially good at supplying relevant career links. (Canadian)
Alberta Occupational Profiles	In depth information on specific careers. Note: salaries are in Canadian dollars. Search by title, interest, subject or industry.
Job Profiles.org	Delve into 9 groupings of careers to find your career choice.
JobStar Central	Supplies many links to specific career web sites.
Monster: Job Profiles	A not-so-usual list of jobs & their description
Occupational Employment Statistics	Employment and wage estimates for over 800 occupations. Click here for a PDF file of "Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2005" found on this page.
Occupational Outlook Handbook	In case you missed it earlier, here is the "gold standard" in occupation information.
Oregon Career Information System	Access this extensive database from Multnomah Co. Library. You'll need your public library barcode number for online use. Or go inside the Beaverton Library to use it.
The Riley Guide	Links to particular career sites. "A-Z Index" is the easiest way to find your particular career.Be sure to click on "Salary Guides and Guidance."
SchoolFinder: Career Categories	A Canadian site giving information about many careers. Be sure to click on topics in the orange tool bar!

Skills Assessment

2007-02-12T17:42:00.000-08:00

I attempted to use Moodle's quiz module for a short Word vocabulary test today. First of all I found out that the module is good for some questions but not for others. Its great for multiple choice and true/false - those are easy and it will even randomly place answers for each student - which is nice in a computer lab where everyone can see each other's screens. I tried using the short answer feature - that one didn't work as well. I had to go back and re-score about 8 tests that wrote something correct - but not my choice of word. I wanted to use matching for vocabulary - but the module makes you list the name number of words and definitions and I wanted extra definitions.

So, as an assessment tool, its OK but not great. I think in the future I might use it for a quick pop quiz just to check understanding. I do like the Journal module in Moodle. The students write a private message to me and I can respond back to them and I can give them a grade or not.

I am struggling with assessment a little in my implementation. I keep going back to my goals and asking myself "What does this look like and how do I know the students are meeting these goals?". Right now I am not sure if my assessments up to this point are accurately anwering that question.

Teaching skills and embracing a constructivist view

2007-02-08T16:48:00.000-08:00

Today I was feeling a little uneasy about giving up my formal sequence of lessons of "how to do <insert skill here>. I am trying to embrace more of a constructivist approach in my lessons and allow the students to discover the information as needed. My tendancy to teach them everything they need to know about, for example, indents - unfortunately, this showed up in my lesson today.

I have created a wiki to list the Word skills as we use them in projects, and give students references to pages of my former textbook to access for additional help but today I found myself going back to my old ways and conducting a lesson on "the 5 different types of indents". Why was I doing this? Was there a need to learn indents or did one of the activities require the students to learn what the indent markers on the Word screen??? NO! It was me and my controlling behavior that showed up instead. Its great to point out a few things to help students to make their lists, or citations easier to read - but I taught the skill just for the sake of teaching the skill - the exact thing I didn't want to do in this Unit.

So, part of this ARP is for me - to help me change my behavior and trust that when the students have a need to learn indents, I can take that time and turn it into a "teachable moment" and the students will be more engaged because they have a need to learn that skill.

Tables for organizing research

2007-02-06T16:30:00.000-08:00

Today's lesson had two goals:

Research John Holland's 6 personality traits for careers.
Introduce how to use TABLES to organize information.

Before I started the lesson, I asked students to log into Moodle and answer a one question survey about their previous knowledge of how to use tables. The results were:

I have never used tables before - 2 students
I've used tables before but don't know how to create or modify them - 4 students
I could figure out how to use tables with help - 3 students
I know how to create and modify tables - 8 students
Tables are awesome - I use them all the time - 0 students

This information was very helpful to me when I later started the demonstration because I focused my extra help on the students who were unfamiliar with tables.

The Lesson:

I asked students look google "john holland" + career and see what information is listed. The students quickly found out that John Holland was a researcher who organized careers by personality traits: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, conventional. Students bookmarked several sites for further investigation.

I introduced the idea of using a table in Word to organize information. Students created a 8x3 table as I demonstrated how to merge & split cells, make cells larger or smaller, and add columns or rows.

The students then used the information from the various sources to write a description of each personality trait and list some careers in that category.

Observation:

All students were actively engaged in the research of personality traits.
Most students access 2-3 websites for their information.
Those students who were not familiar with tables asked for some specific assistance but most of the students did not have any difficulty creating the tables.
I only observed two students copying and pasting information from the websites to their document - even though I asked them to put the information into their own words.

CMS: Using Moodle

2007-02-05T16:16:00.000-08:00

I unveiled the launch of Moodle today with my Computer Applications students. After a few problems of email authentification, all of my students can now access the site. My goal for using Moodle is to create a space where I can communicate with my students and also encourage communication between students.

Since I am new to Moodle, I am slowly rolling out different modules. I started with a discussion forum to encourage communication between students (a get to know each other activity) and asked them to update their profile with a photo. Since my class is mixed grades 9-12 - having photos should help everyone learn names and hopefully overcome the territorial behavior associated with my computer students (they sit at the same computer everyday!).

The overall reaction was positive to the site. Accessing the forums and blog areas wasn't difficult for anyone (thank you MySpace) and all student were actively engaged in the activity.

Direct Instruction - Word skills

2007-02-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

Today's lesson had two goals:

Students wrote a survey to ask a parent, teacher, or adult friend about their career.
Skills focus: Word formatting, numbering, indents, and styles.

Using the career questionaire as the topic, I asked students to brainstorm and write questions they could ask a parent, teacher, or adult friend about their career. I used this lesson to teach some specific skills in Word:

How to write their name of the paper: View / header and footer / type name and assignment name
Quickly review keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+S=save, Ctrl+Z=Undo, Ctrl+B=Bold
Using the "gutter" to select one line or a paragraph
Identifying the indent markers when you choose number formatting
Purpose of styles, how to apply and modify them.
Using line spacing for questionaire.

I ran out of time. On Monday I will follow up with customizing numbering styles and how to use the indent markers.

Since this format of teaching Word skills is new to me I feel that I need to make sure the students have reference information to refer to when I introduce a new concept. I have decided to add a page to our Career wiki for specific skills (ie: definitions, how to's) and add additional resources for more assistance. I will direct student to the wiki when I introduce a skill and I will base future vocabulary quizzes on this material @ http://p6compapps.wikispaces.com/Word

Career Theme - concept maps

2007-02-01T16:07:00.000-08:00

The six week unit for my ARP will be focused on exploring careers. To introduce the topic I asked the students if money or education was not an issue, what three careers would they want to do in the future (thanks Melissa for the idea!). It was fun to go around the room and hear the results. I found it revealing and it already gave me insights into the personalities of the students in my class. Originally I had planned to have the students make concept maps (using Inspiration) to detail the various positive and negative attributes associated with careers - but since the mood was so light-hearted and fun I changed the assignment.

I asked each student to make a concept map the answered the question: The "best" career would include ... what? Students then brainstormed attributes like: I would be in charge, I would help people, I would make lots of money. I allowed students time to format their concept map with images if they wanted. They printed a copy to turn in.

My plan is to save these concept maps and use them at the end of the unit to see if they still agree with these statements after they have spent 5 weeks exploring careers. Once again, I found the activity revealing and has helped me get a better sense of who these students are.

Cycle One begins - new students

2007-01-31T10:41:00.000-08:00

The new semester has begun and I will be conducting my Action Research Project with the Computer Application students at my school.

The class consists of 19 students: 2 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, and 13 freshmen. This is a unique cross-section of students for this class - I have never had so many freshmen in the class before and the class is smaller than usual. Overall, there are 12 boys and 7 girls.

I will be conducting a survey next week of their computer skills but by the results of the assignment given when I was absent, these students already have good formatting skills in Word.

The assignment was a way to introduce themselves.

The Word document title was: I Am The One Who ...
Then then created a bulleted list of attributes about themselves, such as: has blond hair, who plays soccer, who loves to read Harry Potter, etc..
The end states: I am ... "name".

The students formatted the document with different fonts, colors, sizes. The end results were very creative and revealing about their personalities. It was a great way to introduce each other.

Since the make up of this group is pretty unique, I feel that I need to spend some extra time developing camaraderie among the students. They are going to be doing group projects so I will spend some time working on class environment and communication among the students. I have introduced Moodle to the students and have posted some fun discussion boards to encourage postings and discussions.

Observation - Take this project seriously ...

2007-01-18T08:56:00.000-08:00

The Problem:
Whenever I need to tell a student to "take their project seriously - this isn't entertainment" I know that the student IS NOT engaged in an authentic project. Too often I see my students "having fun" with their assignments. To me this means that they are bored with the assignment and as a way to entertain themselves they add silly or humerous aspects to their projects as a way to engage their friends to look at their projects.

The Assignment:

The students could choose between two concepts for their final project in Computer Applications class:

One was to create an original business and make a business plan and use PowerPoint to describe the various aspects of the business. The technical skills included: Using the slide master to create an original template, integrating Word outlines and PowerPoint, using a variety of layouts to include charts, diagrams, and text, and basic animations. The content focus was to write in a persuasive way to accuarate describe the business and engage the reader to explore the various aspects of the business.
The other project choice was to create a PowerPoint to review course material from another class to help students prepare for their final exams. The technical skills included: Using the slide master to create an original template, integrating Word outlines and PowerPoint, using a variety of layouts to include charts, diagrams, and text, and basic animations. The content focus was on explaining (and/or testing) content material in a clear and accurate manner.

Students were encouraged to make the PowerPoint presentations engaging and interactive by using "action buttons" in the presentation so that the view was actively engaged in moving through the project instead of passively sitting back and watching the presentations.

The Results:
Students who chose the course review project seemed to take the assignment more seriously than the students who "made up" the business plan. Their projects were focused on the content material and their goal was to make a presentation that would actually help a classmate review for the upcoming final exam. Many also included short quizzes that asked the student to choose the correct answer.

Two of the students who made the business plan had to change their original idea because the business they chose wasn't appropriate for the project.

While most of the students liked their business topics and were engaged in their PowerPoint topic, I felt that several students thought the assingment was silly and did not seem engaged in their project. It wasn't until the end of the assignment and students went around to each other's computers to view the projects that some students commented that some projects were better than others because they had a purpose or were well made.

One student in particular engaged many students in his project because of the high-interest topic (a travel business that focused on James Bond movies) and the visual "eye candy" of his presenations (music, video and photos from the movies).

Conclusion:
This outcome of these projects has shown me that students NEED an authentic audience in projects otherwise the students don't see the purpose or value in what they are doing. Even though the assignment was a simulation - it still felt "fake" - and the some of the students were not engaged in the project or they were engaged but the quality of the project was poor.

The challenge is to create open-ended projects that are authentic, but still at the same time meet the technology goals of the class.

Observation - Lecturing vs. Doing

2007-01-11T15:28:00.000-08:00

The Problem:
It is getting to the end of the term and I am running out of time. I still have several skills that I want the students to be able to do for their final projects but I haven't had time to cover yet. This quarter is one week shorter than the first and Food Drive and holiday events have cut into my class time. I normally give students an opportunity to practice several PowerPoint skills before they are required to use them on their final projects but I am short on time. What to do ....?

The Solution:
I am not completely happy with my solution but I have decided to have my students make a PowerPoint presentation about "How to make an effective PowerPoint presenation". This will give me opportunity to "teach" some skills ABOUT PowerPoint and the students will include this information in their projects. They will also get a chance to PRACTICE some of the skills in the project at the same time.

The Result:
At first the students seemed to like the idea that they were making their own tutorial about how to use PowerPoint. They like learning how to make screenshot to show examples of what they were writing about. But after 5 days of repeating the same thing over and over again, I could tell that some of the student were getting bored with the material. I am guilty of trying to cram too many concepts into one lesson. I should have just chosen 2-3 unique skills (ie: varying slide layouts, using the slide master, and features of custom animation) and let the students "discover" many of the other skills on their own.

I fall into the habit too often that if I don't teach it to them - they won't discover the information. I really need to embrace the constructivist point of view and create an environment where my students can discover and explore various elements of technology skills and provide them with guidance and resources to uncover the information. My mantra needs to be "guide on the side" not "sage on the stage".

Gathering Evidence: SurveyMonkey.com

2007-01-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

The Problem:
I want to survey the students about their opinions and attitudes about the current Computer Applications course, but I don't want to feel that they can't be honest with their answers if I can tell who wrote what. I was thinking of asking another teacher to help administer a survey or interview specific students.

The Solution:
Wendy suggested using an online survey. She recommended a website called SurveyMonkey.com. I created a free account with SurveyMonkey that allowed me to make a 10 question survey and assess to the results. My questions included:

What year are you?
Do you think the keyboarding practice this term has been helpful?
Which WORD assignment was he most beneficial?
Describe your overall impressions of the assignments from the Office 2003 TEXTBOOK.
Describe your overall impressions of the group projects.
Which EXCEL skills did you find the most beneficial?
On a scale of 1-5 rate your teacher on the following items: knowledge of curriculum, being prepared for class, available for help, willingness to assist you when asked, feedback given to you about your progress, ability to teach new skills, friendliness, and overall impression.
What suggestions do you have for the types of lessons for this class in the future?
What recommendations do you have for the teacher of how she could teach this class differently in the future?
Would you recommend this class to another student? Why or why not?

The Results:
The students seem to like the online survey and all 17 students who were present that day answered all the questions.

The general feedback that I received was:

There was mixed reviews about the assignments from the textbook. Some liked the step by step instructions - others thought they were boring.
Most students like working in the group projects.
Students recommended skipping some of the easier skills and focus on the harder skills, more projects - but many were happy with the content of the skills.
The teacher evaluation revealed that students wanted more feedback on their progress but that the teacher knew her material well.
Students recommended the class for others to take and the overall rating of the class was good.

I like using SurveyMonkey for the evaluation. I felt like the students were honest (it seemed that only 1 student was unhappy with the class!) but at the same time the survey wasn't too long or cumbersome for them to fill out. Almost every student wrote a comment when given the opportunity to do so.

Observation - Review Assignments

2007-01-02T10:54:00.000-08:00

Activity:

Today students are working on written review questions to prepare for a Unit Test in Excel. Students were given 12 questions to answer and a 3 page Excel Review packet to refer to. Students typed their answers to the questions in Word. Minimal instructions were given.

Observation:

For the most part, students began on the assignment right away.
There were two Korean students who needed more encouragement to get started and stay on task (and stop talking).
There was minimal interaction between students, except for the occasional student who asked their friend for help with the answers. Towards the end of the period there was a few more students seeking assistance from classmates.
Most of the answers to the questions were located on the review packet and involved basic recall and locating the answer.
Only two of the questions required synthesis of understanding.
Only two students asked for clarification of questions from the teacher (21 students present today). There was little interaction between students and the teacher.
The first student finished in 17 minutes.
When students finished the assignment, several surfed the Internet, some visited with each other, two went to the restroom, and one student worked on homework for another class.
All but 7 students finished the assignment during the 45 minute period.

Results:

The average class score for the assignment was 91%.

19 out of 21 students turned in the assignment. (The 2 exchange students did not complete the assignment on time and when they eventually did show it to me - it was incomplete and did not show understanding of the concepts)

Observation - Class Survey Planning

2006-12-07T18:00:00.000-08:00

Thursday: Data Collection & Charts - authentic audience

Objective: Students will design a survey to gather information about their classmates. This information will then be graphed and placed on the school Intranet website.

Day 1 Procedures:

Students were broken into groups according to grade level. They discussed which information they are interested in gathering.
Once they chose a topic, they opened Excel and decided a format for gathering their data.
Students printed off data gathering spreadsheets.
Students have until Monday to collect data from theirclassmates (minimum: 30 responses)

Day 1: Observations

# of Groups: 2 freshmen, 1 sophomore, 1 junior, 3 senior (2 absent)
The students immediately were engaged in the activity.
It did not take long for the groups to decided on a topic.
Several commented they liked the idea of publishing their results on the Valiant Pride Intranet site.
In two of the groups, it seemed like several of the students were engaged and one student wasn't as involved in the planning of the survey.
Three groups needed direction in setting up of their data spreadsheets.
All students left with data sheets for the surveys by the end of the period.

Observation - Book Assignment

2006-12-05T17:49:00.000-08:00

Tuesday's assignment: Exercise 17 - Creating Charts in Excel pg. 401 1-8 & pg. 406 4-8

Observation: After giving direct instruction on Monday about how to use the chart wizard I wanted to observe students completing an assignment from the textbook.

Some students do a good job on book instructions - they like following the "recipe" of what to do next.
It feels like their goal is to finish the assignment - not on learning.
Several students who did not understand how to complete the tasks automatically asked me for help instead of referring to the procedures page.
Other students asked clarification from their classmates on the directions.
Most students did not have trouble with the formatting of the charts once they understood some of the vocabulary: Series 1, chart area, value axis, major gridlines.
I observed some students taking over the controls of their classmate's computer and doing a procedure for them instead of instructing them how to do it.
When two students finished early, the began browsing the Internet.
Several students did not complete the assignment during the class period.

Observation - Direct Instruction

2006-12-04T13:42:00.000-08:00

Today I filmed myself instructing my students in my Computer Applications course. The intent was to get a "before" snapshot of direct instruction.

Lesson objective: Students will understand what is an Excel chart and understand the importance of choosing the best chart to represent the data. Students will learn the 4 steps of the chart wizard. Student will learn how to customize an Excel chart

Text: Learning Microsoft Office 2003, (c) 2004 Pearson Education, Inc. Exercise 17, Pages 397-402.

Procedures: I asked the students to open an Excel assignment that we worked on the day before. This assignment contained data from an in-class survey. I taught the students how to choose adjacent and non-adjacent cells for an Excel chart. I explain they needed to include both labels and values. After selecting the data, the students opened the chart wizard. Step One: Choose the Chart. We discussed the importance of choosing the appropriate chart for the data (ie, data over time might want a line graph, pie graphs are good for comparisions to the whole, etc). Step Two: Select the data series. We discussed ways to change the selected data. Step Three: Chart Options. The chart options correlate to the type of chart. We discussed picking a specific and appropriate chart title, labels for x & y axis, legends, data labels, etc. Step Four: Choose the Chart Location - either as an embedded chart or on its own sheet. I then instructed the students how to change the features (fonts, colors, alignment, etc) of the chart. At the end, each student went around to each other's computers to view the various charts.

Reflection: For most of the students, using the chart wizard was a new procedure. For the most part, students followed the direct instructions and created a successful chart by the end of the class. Here are some specific observations:

The students chose appropriate charts (mostly pie, bar & column)
3 students did not understand the initial instructions and I had to assist them in choosing the correct data.
Think/Pair/Share: When I asked the students to discuss information with their neighbor, 3 sets of students did not follow the instructions.
Most of the students were on task and several asked for clarification on chart options.
Dustin seemed familiar with the procedures and worked ahead when we got to the chart wizard.
Scott was distracted and several times opened his Internet browser to look at pictures from the school dance.

Overall, I felt the lesson was fine. The class period consisted of me giving lots of instructions and only a little bit of student interaction. The students were on task but not all were actively engaged in the activity. Some students did not follow along with the demonstration and as a result, made mistakes that needed correction. I referred to the book but most of the instruction was oral.