RSA #3

Link to article

Online learning in the past ten years has exploded in popularity. Many colleges and universities are offering online classes and degree programs. With this change in classroom environment teachers have to change their pedagogy. “When instructors begin to use technology in education, they experience  a whole new set of physical, emotional, and psychological issues along with the educational issues” (Palloff, Pratt, 2007). Instructors had to become more flexible with students and also be able to work with technology issues when they arise. Not only is a challenge for the instructor it is a challenge for the students as well. Online classes fit the introverted student well because they tend not to be out spoken in a face-to-face class. There are some characteristics that online learners should have if they want to be successful. These include but are not limited to, self-motivated, have the ability to communicate through words, have access to the classroom tools (computer and internet), feel quality learning can take place outside of a face-to-face classroom.  Although, sometimes there can be problems it is proven that online learning can be as successful as face-to-face classroom learning.

In the article titled The Importance of Interaction for Academic Success in Online Courses with Hearing, Deaf, and Hard-of-Hearing Students they did a study on academic achievement of students in face-to-face classes compared to online classes. The most interesting part to the article I think is when they talk about how the hearing impaired students liked the online classes better and achieved better grades. “This “slower” pace also allows these students to participate more fully because they can take the time to reflect and construct their own ideas and respond to those of peers” (Long, Marchetti, Fasse, 2011).

 Online classrooms are here and are not going to go away. If teachers and students are willing to learn new technologies and be flexible with one another the online classroom can only get better. Both of the readings were similar in their beliefs for online learning.  They both talked about how different people can be successful not only in a traditional classroom but also in an online classroom.   

References

Palloff, R., Pratt, K., (2007). Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom. (2nd ed). San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Gray L. Long, C. M. (2011). The Importance of Interaction for Academic Success in Online Courses with Hearing, Deaf, and Hard-of Hearing Students . The International Review of Research in Open and Distant Learning, 1-20.
 

RSA #2

Link to article

According to Dufour “ One of the most effective strategies for bringing district goals to life is to insist that all schools create goals that are specifically linked to district goals” (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many, 2010). How do we do that? We use SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for Strategic, Measurable, Attainable, Results oriented, and Time bound. If it doesn’t have these characteristics it isn’t a SMART goal. If we want our goals to be successful we need to link the school goals to the district goals. To make the final tie, we need to link the school collaborating team goals to the school goals. Goals can be effective if everyone is on the same page when the school goals are aligned to the district goals, and the team goals are aligned to the school goals.

SMART goals have been used by other companies and organizations for a long time and now are coming into education. This is an effective approach when schools are writing goals. In the article SMART Goals, SMART Schools, a school wrote SMART goals to increase kindergarten writing skills for upper and lower case letters. They saw an overwhelming increase of over 60% in students work. They contribute it to the hard work of the teachers and the administration to agreeing and sticking to the Strategic, Measurable, Attainable, Results oriented, and Time bound (SMART) goals that they wrote. O’Neill writes, “SMART goals help us test the effectiveness of our instructional process and programs” (O’Neil, 2000).

Looking at the results from that one case study in the article from O’Neill and reading the text book Learning by Doing you can see that using SMART goals can really be effective. If everyone is on board, and goals are written well using the characteristics of the SMART acronym great things can happen.   

References:

DuFour R., DuFour R., Eaker R., Many T. (2010). Learning by Doing: A Hand Book for Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.

O'Neill, J. (2000). SMART Goals, SMART Schools. Educational Leadership, 46-50

RSA #1 - Online Professional Learning Community

Link to formative assessment article

As educators, one of the most important things that we have to do in our classrooms is monitor student learning. We do that using formative and summative assessments. I teach very hands on project based classes that require my students to design and create some sort of printed piece. I use formative assessments all the time while the students are working on their projects. Richard DuFour writes “Frequent monitoring of each student’s learning is an essential element of effective teaching, and no teacher should be absolved from that task” (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker & Many, 2010). The reason I use formative assessments so frequently is the skills the students learn in my class build upon one another and we need to make sure they understand them in order, or they may become lost.

According to Larry Ainsworth and Donald Viegut “teachers refer to classroom formative assessments as assessments for learning” (Ainsworth and Viegut, 2006). If formative assessments are used regularly teachers will be able to (1) better understand what student’s already know, (2) what modifications or changes need to be made, (3) create individual lessons or activities, (4) let the students know where they stand currently in the process. The formative assessment can and should be used by all teachers no matter what subject is being taught.

The readings in both books were very similar. The authors both said that formative assessments are very important and should be done frequently to monitor student learning.

References:

DuFour R., DuFour R., Eaker R., Many T. (2010). Learning by Doing: A Hand Book for Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.

Ainsworth L., Viegut D. (2006). Common Formative Assessments: How to Connect Standards-based Instruction and Assessment. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.  

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