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Service Learningms. Schrader's Teaching Portfolio



Rex’s business bought my company’s first computer and software and let me work off the purchase over time. His name as my former boss directly or indirectly brought me all of my clients those first few years. If you had worked for Rex, you were qualified—no portfolio needed. Rex taught me how to earn accolades with grace. “Service-learning is a teaching method which combines community service with academic instruction as it focuses on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsibility. Service-learning programs involve students in organized community service that addresses local needs, while developing their academic skills, sense of civic responsibility.

  1. Service Learningms. Schrader's Teaching Portfolio Allocation
  2. Service Learningms. Schrader's Teaching Portfolio Login
  3. Service Learningms. Schrader's Teaching Portfolios
  4. Service Learningms. Schrader's Teaching Portfolio Assessment

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Service Learning Project


Description of the Project: For my Service Learning Project I worked with a high school Geometry teacher. My partner, Luke Boes, and I created different Case Analysis Artifacts for her based on standards she was given by the Board of Education. The Service Learning Project simulated the type of process we would both go through as educators in the future. Even though Luke and I are majoring in Elementary Education, this Service Learning Project enlightened us on the amount of time we put into coming up with and forming these artifacts. For Mrs. Kratzer we picked a Triangle Congruency lesson. The Google Document pasted below includes many variables we had to consider when formulating our Case Analysis Artifacts.
Google Forms

Service Learning Project (Luke Boes and Maria Ney)

Google Forms: Google Forms, specifically Google Docs; allows users to create, write, edit, and collaborate wherever. Luke Boes and I used Google Docs to communicate. We were able to come up with various options for Mrs. Kratzer to use.



Embed or screenshot of the artifacts:

  • What is this artifact? What tool did you use to create it?
    - I have chosen to make a Prezi for the topic Triangle Congruency. Within this presentation I define the three theorems Ms. Kratzer is required to explain to her high school students. These three theorems include the SSS Theorem, SAS Theorem, and the ASA Theorem. Within this Prezi I have included the definition of each theorem, pictures of their formation, and required them to make their own. By asking them to do a hands-on activity, students will be able to model their work using technological tools while evaluating their own comprehension of the given material.
  • How does this artifact relate to your case?
    - Triangle Congruency consists of three main theorems. These theorems are used to prove the relationship between two triangles. Whether that is seen in their sides or angles; one must use these as evidence of congruency. Prezi is a great tool for assessment. Many templates are provided for the user and they are allowed to manipulate with any part they choose. This requirement allows teachers to assess their students understanding while simulating a type of presentation.
Artifact 2: Screencast



Embed or screenshot of the artifacts:
- Using Edmodo, I took a video by Kristina O'Brien and formulated my own assessments in the given video. After doing so I required the students to fill out a worksheet to assess their comprehension of the given artifact. Without a doubt students will evaluate their understanding of the given material during and after the lesson is given. I am a visual learner so the Edmodo video, as a student, would have provided me with the necessary visual that I needed to understand the given lesson. If there was a specific part that I did not completely understand, the worksheet provided above will indicate which aspect of the lesson I need to confront my instructor about.

Reflection:
1) What have you learned about integrating technology into K-12 classrooms from this service learning project?
- Through this service learning project, I have learned that it is important to keep in mind variables such as length of the lesson, the potential special needs of the students, technology accessibility, etc. In my own experience, as a student, I found that technology can fail to work on given days. It's important to have a back up plan if this were to happen in the middle of a lesson. Luke and I created four completely different options for Mrs. Kratzer and her Triangle Congruency lesson. It was an arduous process but each artifact was well equipped in terms of meeting the expectations of a lesson plan. I also realized that it is important to know whether the students are comprehending the given lesson. If this is not the case then instructors need to have an alternate option for those that need more assistance.
2) The goal for all students that complete W200 is to meet the following objective: Given certain goals and limitations, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of various technologies to make appropriate selections for instructional purposes. Future teachers should be able to decide which technology integration options are best suited for a particular teaching/learning situation and be able to explain reasons behind those decisions.' How do you think the service learning project helped you achieve these objectives?
- In my Service Learning Project, I made a Prezi Presentation. I was asked to simulate how an A student would produce a presentation on Triangle Congruency. For some the process of making the presentation would force them to understand the lesson because they would be presenting the information themselves. Though like anything, children are different-- therefore each learn differently. Using a visual option like the Instructional Video would be more beneficial for some children because they learn better by example. As a student that has completed W200 I feel more comfortable coming up with various options that are formulated according to the individual student.
3) Based on your service learning project experience, how has this experience impacted your thoughts on how technology should be used in your subject area?
- W200 has given me a lot of resources to work with in my future lesson plans. Unfortunately, the teacher I worked with was a high school educator so it's difficult to tell say how much of this process will be similar in my own future. Though, overall, I believe technology is a great way to engage students and alleviate the stress of making lesson plans. The future generation will continue to come up with new devices, apps, etc. so it's important to know how to utilize these various upcoming resources to the full extent. I enjoyed making artifacts for the high school geometry class. It has helped me keep in mind all the variables that go into making lessons.
4) Based on your service-learning project experience, how has this experience impacted your confidence in using technology in your future classroom?
- Before entering W200, I was very new to modern day technology. As stated in my Technology Evaluation-- I was very comfortable with basic technology like my cellphone, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc. Now, I can comfortable enough to say that I can use other resources such as Prezi, Popplet, Smore, Piktochart, etc. It was a nice transition to go from a paper calendar to a digital calendar like Google Calendar. It's important for educators and students to know that technology isn't as scary as it might seem. I wouldn't have understood or been driven to try to understand these other resources if I hadn't been 'forced' to do so.
5) What difficulties did you encounter in the service-learning project? And how did you overcome the challenges you faced?
- I would say that the most difficult part of the service learning project would have to be the communication between me and my partner. As a student taking 18 credit hours, working a part-time job, etc. it is difficult to make time to work on projects as big as this. A lot of times I tend to underestimate the amount of time and effort it takes to finish assignments. This makes it hard to balance my life out as it is moving fast.
6) If you were to improve your current service-learning artifacts, what would you do differently?
- If I were to improve my currently service-learning I would work on the quality. My screencast for example could have done in a better way. It was hard to motivate myself to do the best that I can do when I had so many other things to complete.
7) What are your suggestions to improve the service-learning project for future W200 classes?
- The service learning project not only improved my confidence in my ability to come up with options for specific lesson but it also showed me the importance of communication. I enjoyed working with my partner and with my high school teacher, Mrs. Kratzer. They were very understanding and helpful when I had questions.
The part I would like to improve for this service learning project is the amount of resources we had to come up with when brainstorming for options and the fact that we had to create 2 artifacts each. If I were to assign this project to my own students, I would have suggested that the two students who worked together-- in my case me and Luke-- make one or two solid artifacts together. It was weird coming up with all these options together but not even creating them together.

Moodleated is the word that comes to mind. I feel moodleated. Both directions of the double entendre work, whether out of cerebral exhaustion I feel torn apart, or out of some sense of accomplishment that I am finally figuring out something that is supposed to be intuitive, my mood is elated.

Moodle is like that friend that you are friends with because of some circumstance rather than an Anne-of-Green-Gables kindred spiritedness. Your mothers are friends, and so you will be too. But this friend doesn’t “get” you. You let out a little sarcasm and this friend corrects you, taking the verbal irony literally and thinking you’re stupid. Or she offers to place the order and instead of coming back with the yummy organic blueberry bar or health-conscious oat bar you requested, she brings back the deceptive danish, hailed as a delectable but consistently a step closer to cardboard than any ediblicious yummy should be. And the coffee is decaf.

But your friend is a friend, and friends come through in the end. No good relationship comes without a little work.

I sit here now with some sense of accomplishment. My Moodle friend is finally showing her colours. I still haven’t figured out how to do a splash page or what it is supposed to look like, in spite of our Wimba session – very helpful – and spending a day and a half trying to download Dreamweaver and and another half day watching tutorials from DW live services. And SCORM and AICC continue to elude me. But I did find the little drop-down tab that gives me theme options, grossly overlooked in any attempt previous (apparently too many forests for my trees), and my class isn’t stock-pile blue anymore. Small victories.

Bigger news and justification for the title of this page: I made a test. It contains authentic questions and is essentially an authentic test. Most of the questions are from tests I have used before, following a format I use fairly consistently. Others also follow my pattern but are newly created. Everything has either an answer or criteria, though the rubric would be something the students typically have in class and I have not included it online. The writing rubric I use for this level of class is akin to the ministry performance standards for grade 9 writing, p. 378-381, as they will be integrated into English 10 from here. There is a variety of question types spanning several of the units dealt with in a semester. I could use this test. But I don’t know if I would use it beyond “for practice”; it’s too open to cheating (“learning” for formative; “cheating” for summative) and Gibbs and Simpson (2005) have me thinking about how students respond to assessment. Many don’t look at the feedback anyway, but then we know that. I do think there is a responsibility for us teachers to at least create the opportunity for feedback and I love the instantness of automated marking when that’s an option. At least then we’re hitting the ball into the students’ park. They can’t very well play ball without a ball.

So Moodle is my new friend. We’ve been for coffee a few times and a few day trips. She’s quirky. I’ve had a tough time getting to know her. It’s not really a natural friendship, but everyone else who knows her seems to think she’s really got it going on, so I presented her with my project. She seemed open to it. We started simple: a few discussion forums, my profile…. I gave her a picture for my profile and she posted it, but when I gave her a different one, she posted it while still showing me the old picture. We fought about it and then she let on that it was really just a joke – nice to see she’s got a sense of humour; now we just have to get hers and mine to mesh. (Really, I need to be increasingly detailed and observant and improve my mental dexterity.)

With the simple stuff down, I figured out what “labels” are, how to install a wiki (still lacking confidence in their actual use), how to time-release and hide (simple, really). I was ready for some simple assessment integration. With a plethora of vocabulary tests on my flash drive, I drew from a poetry terms test. Moodle doesn’t seem to get along with Word. She’ll accept Word’s work from me, but not direct from him. Seems petty – school-yard spat back in elementary school? I don’t know, but with Word already a good friend of mine, it looks like I’ll have to be their mediator if Moodle stays on.

The poetry test I couldn’t just upload or copy and paste, but using Moodle’s own text box and editing toolbar, I was able to create a word bank in a table that I later figured I don’t actually need. Moodle went ahead and created a drop down menu for answer options anyway – a nice feature – so when I used this same info in my Final Exam Practice Test, I ditched the word bank for its redundancy. I left it in the Poetry Terms quiz for now, but will likely edit that out before launching the course “for real.” I also broke up the poetry terms for simplicity in reading the test from the students’ perspective, though pedagogically, the longer list wold give me greater confidence that they chose wisely rather than randomly. At any rate, I created the quiz, tested it, am happy with the randomization of choices and reasonably happy with the instant feedback system.

The instant feedback system is one of Moodle’s quirks. She has multiple boxes for feedback and I have yet to know without trial and error testing which will display when and where. So I have a lot of going back and forth to see what her reaction will be to different information. As with most computer programs, she is particular to modes of organization. Just as I can’t leave a coffee cup on the counter and expect her to clean it, nor can I put a “Good Job!” in not-quite-the-right box and expect it to display. I’d say she’s a bit passive-aggressive: she has an issue, but won’t tell me what it is. She’ll just make me suffer. But then I wonder what she’d say about me. We’re working on this.

For my first “Short Answers” test question, the answer portion stumped me in terms of the feedback Moodle gave. I definitely don’t want her spreading rumours that someone got something right and then my having to break it to that poor soul that s/he still has work to do. Likewise, students who have poured their heart and soul into a gold-medal answer don’t deserve to be shot down in a blazing strip of pink. Moodle seems to believe short answers have a right and wrong with no room for error, whereas I believe in shades of gray and the flexibility of language to take different and equally acceptable forms. Given it’s a language class we’re working on, I found a way to get Moodle to agree to post a feedback note from me along with her evaluation reminding my students that I will evaluate their work. She also agreed to partially accept answers and flag them with a not-too-shocking corn yellow as partially right if I tell her * is the right answer.

Speaking of quirks, cloze tests are definitely quirky in Moodle. Using her own website for tips, after using the pattern suggested and failing to create a question properly, I cut and paste code straight from the article’s examples. Parts of it worked, parts of it didn’t. Examining closely, I couldn’t see the coding difference between the examples that worked and the examples that didn’t. This took awhile to work through and in the end, really, I just took the one that worked and substituted in my information and then cut and pasted that down, editing the word changes right in the copied code. We continued to fight over formatting. I can’t figure out why if I tell Moodle to make text 8pt Trebuchet, it doesn’t all come out the same. Maybe it goes back to copying that code over from the example and the text from Word, but I’d think in the end, highlighting it all to convert to the same font at the same size, it would all come out the same. We’re still not seeing eye to eye on this one and I can’t tell if I did something wrong or if she’s just being fussy. I also don’t know what she’s doing with the feedback and history on the cloze test. It looks like she’s giving hints and/or the right answer before I’ve even answered the question on my test runs. Maybe this is why the cloze isn’t a part of our assignment for creating assessment. I redesigned it some, but she continues to give out answers. I’m not going to let her get to me though. I’m sure there’s a trick. Lucky me: not all friends come with manuals, but Moodle does! (Which is an indication to me that she’s not so intuitive as people say! How intuitive can she be if someone has to write a 284 page book all about her? Sounds a bit narcissistic, but at least I’m not alone.)

With the Battle of the Cloze left on cyberhill, I tackled the essay. I had already created one without any problem but wanted and needed another. I embedded a picture into one of my short answer questions easily enough. I had uploaded the picture during playtime & it could serve the purpose as well as any other, so in it went. I wanted to incorporate another picture – learning gets stronger with repetition – and found one suitable to represent citizenship. I’m afraid of copyright infringement, so for now, I always try to just use my own media. I don’t know what the difference was between the two photos; they were both taken with the same camera and I don’t think either was edited, but the second one came up huge! With some advice from a Moodle discussion, I figured out how to resize in Microsoft Office Picture Manager and posted again. It’s better. Then, taking care of the text for the essay, I thought all was good, but in running through a preview of the test, I noticed the second essay text box doesn’t display the toolbar. It remains as such at this time, though I will try to play with it… I’ve tried. Suggestions to specify number of questions per page doesn’t seem to register, nor does it change the presence of absence of a toolbar. Continued hmmms….

Service Learningms. Schrader's Teaching Portfolio Allocation

Other elements of test writing in Moodle: it did take me a few moments to figure out just how to start, and there was a place where I had to determine some type of language use (html, moodle, other). I don’t recall what I chose and it doesn’t seem to care anymore when I try to create additional quizzes. I didn’t enjoy making multiple choice questions; they are labour-intensive for what they are, though they are good for rote information and instant feedback systems. Randomization is easy, as is organizing a set pattern, and I like Moodle’s time allowance and time release functions. I like that she’ll hold onto an activity and not give it away like the answers to a cloze test before the date I tell her, and she says she’ll close it off at a set time as well. She’s also got some great sensibility in allowing multiple attempts – or not – and flexibility in recording scores (highest, average, etc.). Now, I’m awaiting feedback from helpful colleagues (great idea!) who will get a perspective on my quiz that I can’t get (bias and access, computer history issues).

So all in all, we’re getting along. Every three-year-old is expected to throw sand every now and then, but that doesn’t have to mean we all leave the park and go home.

References

Service learningms. schrader

Cole, J., & Foster, H. (2008). Using Moodle: Teaching with the popular open source course management system. O’Reilly Media: California.

Service Learningms. Schrader's Teaching Portfolio Login

Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 1. Retrieved from http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/aso/learningandteaching/gibbs%20article.doc

Moodle. http://moodle.org/

Service Learningms. Schrader's Teaching Portfolios

Montgomery, L.M. (2009). Anne of Green Gables.

Service Learningms. Schrader's Teaching Portfolio Assessment

Learningms.

Schrader, V. (2010). ELL: Continuing the conversation. MET Moodle site. http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/course/view.php?id=179