Final Reflection

SOMETIMES IT TAKES A GOOD FAIL TO KNOW WHERE YOU STAND

I was very excited about this opportunity because I had the chance to work with a colleague that I had not taught or collaborated with yet. He is known as an old-school teacher who is slowly, but surely, coming around to digital technology. Most of his lessons make use of the whiteboard, worksheets, textbooks and overhead projector. I admire his ethics, demeanor and presence in the classroom. I have much to learn from him and was excited to potentially teach him something new.

I was nervous to approach and suggest this collaboration, as I was worried I might be turned down. I was fortunate that he was gracious and willing to work with me for this assignment. I wanted to ensure that I was not creating more work for him, but helping to facilitate a new approach. During our first collaborative meeting we agreed to a three week plan, with three, one hour lessons. The subject matter was something I wanted him to choose, as I wanted our partnership to be comfortable and convenient for him. The topic of the lessons was the Canadian Government, focusing on social studies outcomes for grade five.

He was generous enough to share his resources and materials that he'd been using in previous years. Having never taught grade five, I was curious to investigate the material. The resources he shared with me were created in the 1990's when John Chretien was Prime Minister. I saw a chance to update some of the material, using technology. Our school has recently embraced Google Classrooms, especially used with the intermediate teachers. It was a great opportunity for me to have some practice creating Docs and navigating the platform. The other intermediate teachers heard about my partnership and asked if I could share my newly created resources on Canadian Government with them. Sharing documents through Google was very easy and I was excited to extend my collaboration through lesson sharing with additional colleagues. I shared my lesson plan with my collaboration partner to ensure that I was covering the material he wanted to be taught. He gave me the go-ahead so I created the assignments using Google Docs and shared them with him. He assured me that the lesson I had prepared would be appropriate in length and level for the class. I went into lesson one feeling excited and so prepared. Things didn't go as planned. We hit the wall of technology failure. I quickly realized that the sharing of the docs was a little more complex than I realized. I thought it was simple to send my documents to my colleague and he could share it with his Google classroom. All the children were meant to access the worksheets on their Chromebooks. It didn't go too smoothly.

JUMPING IN

I started the lesson with some simple instruction and definition work about the three levels of government, on the board and then showed them a fun video. I had prepared to move on to the shared document with them and have them work on it. I quickly realized that it hadn't been placed into the Google Classroom for the children to access it. My partner and I quickly realized we were over our heads with the tech piece and had to problem solve by asking a neighboring teacher to come in and show us how to properly share it with the class. For a while, everything was going well. As the children were working on the document, I realized that this group did not have experience copying and pasting. I was able to show them the keyboard shortcuts in order to gather their information. When the quicker students were finished with the first worksheet, I told them to move on to the second worksheet in the Google Classroom. We quickly hit another bump in the road, when we realized that the second worksheet was inaccessible to students because it also was not shared with them. After much confusion my colleague and I determined that somehow there was a problem in the format that I'd send the second assignment to him. He couldn't share it at all!

So, needless to say my first lesson was a bit bumpy. The children were quite patient and and we used it as an opportunity to teach them that adults are constantly learning. It was a great example that making mistakes while learning is part of the process. It has taught me that I need to do a dry run with a digital lesson beforehand. That is not something we had practiced and will be doing before the next lesson.

TAKE TWO

I approached the second lesson much differently. We had learned from the previous lesson that the technology piece for me and my colleague was not in the place we needed it to be. I came to the lesson with paper handouts of the worksheet, as well as hard copy prints that I could show on the overhead, in case the internet links did not work for any reason. I felt much more confident and prepared because I had a back-up plan in case the technology failed. The second lesson went quite well. We looked at the responsibilities of the different levels of government and who was in charge. The students were cooperative and curious in the assignment. I was able to show them a review video on the levels of government. The video was a great reminder of content, and also to introduce the topic to students that had been absent the week before. Because I was better organized, the frustration level and confidence in the room was much different than the week before.

I felt like the blend of using the technology and filling in the paper worksheet was great combination for this group. It challenged them to use the technology but didn't overwhelm them. My collaboration teacher said that the use of the Chromebooks to find the information added an extra sense of excitement and purpose for the students. He felt that even the simple research was much more fun for them because of the technology. Part of my Teacher-Librarian role is to show my colleagues and students our newly accessible World Book and EBSCO online databases. As I don't have a computer lab my Learning Commons, I was challenged on how to show everyone how easy it was to find the information. I sent out an email to try and spread the word, but without a quick tutorial, I felt it fell on deaf ears. Needless to say, I was excited to show my collaborative partner and students our online encyclopedia databases. The path to find the databases is quite simple thanks to our district IT department. During this lesson, my collaboration partner mentioned to me that he had no idea this resource was available! This fact alone pleased me immensely as I felt successful with my TL agenda! The students were engaged, asked questions and worked diligently. I definitely felt much more successful after lesson two!

As an extension to this collaboration, our final lesson together will be the students collecting contact information for the Prime Minister, Premier, and Mayor and writing a letter. My collaboration teacher wants to incorporate letter writing into his language arts lesson for the week. For my last lesson, the student's can take this newfound skill and apply it to writing a letter to a member of government. We felt it was a practical application of the study of levels of government and the rights of a democratic Canadian citizen. I am excited to see the kinds of topics and concerns the students want to write about. It will be interesting to see which students receive a response and share it out with the class or the school at large. 

In regards to utilizing the SAMR and CBAM models, I feel like I am still moving from Augmentation through Redefinition. Through the years ahead I will be exploring collaboration more deeply, on my way to refocusing. I currently felt comfortable to lead a lesson focusing on Augmentation, and felt it wasn’t too overwhelming for my collaboration teacher and his students. The further steps in the SAMR model will take some time for me to explore and become adept at. I hope as I evolve my practice, that I can continue to teach and learn from my colleagues.

SAMR model by Blanca Lemus

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/661408904193769474

 

Screenshots of the Concern-Based Adoption Model website

http://www.nationalacademies.org/rise/backg4a.htm