Education Foundation Grant

I just applied for the Education Foundation Grant my credit union, Schools First, offers to educators in Southern California. I asked for productivity and creativity apps to install on the iPads we have at school. The problem with our iPads at school is that we have none of the wonderful productivity and creativity apps that are available through iTunes because they are not free. We have no budget to purchase these apps. So the apps I requested are Explain Everything ($2.99), Keynote (9.99), and iMovie (4.99). I asked for 45 licenses. I also asked for the cable and adapter to connect the iPad to my LCD projector, and I asked for Apple TV. I think that will cover everything I will need to help my students and myself.

I had to create a unit/lesson as part of my curriculum and explain how new program will integrate with the current lesson. I needed an Implementation Plan and an Evaluation Plan. It all reminded me of my Literature Review and my Final Project. I wish I could have explained what I have been studying, but there was a word limit. To describe my Evaluation Plan, I wanted to show them how important I feel it is to do a pre-assessment to gather data and then a post-assessment to analyze achievement. I also mentioned taking formative assessment measures to gauge whether my students were understanding the content.

I wanted to emphasize the importance of information literacy and using the new technology of the iPads in the classroom. I think my focusing on students and technology in this class inspired me to apply for this grant. It’s just a small grant ($1000), but every little bit helps. Since we received these iPads, they’ve just been sitting there. We don’t really know how to use them. That is part of what my Final Project is about. One of the reasons they’re not being used is those great productivity and creativity apps are not installed on our iPads, and we don’t know when or if they ever will be because of the cost.

I hope they choose my project. I checked out past years, and they seem to choose quite a few every year. I’ll now sometime in January!

SWOT

I attempted a SWOT analysis of my local public library, Huntington Beach Public Library. 

Strengths: 

The Children's Library

The library has four floors of books, an extensive reference center, computer center, genealogy center, new releases area, centrally-located reference desk, beautifully remodeled children’s library, and media center to borrow DVD’s and CD’s. The library has also offers e-readers such as Kindles as well as provides online access to “borrow” e-books. Just recently, the library began offering Google Chrome Books for borrowing. And, to keep up with technology trends, patrons can search the catalog via an app for iPhones and Android phones. The library’s community relations is shown through its theater, its connection to the park, and art gallery featuring the art of residents. There are many rooms that community members can rent for events including fitness programs, recitals, competitions, workshops, banquets, and weddings. Homework help is available to elementary and middle school students Mondays through Wednesdays, September through May, and free online tutors are available every day from the local high school Key Club. The library is very comfortable for patrons as there are plenty of tables, chairs, couches, and reading areas, and walls of floor-to-ceiling windows allow natural light to filter in.

Weaknesses:

The library’s hours can be considered a weakness. In the recent past, it was open on Sundays; however, because of budget cuts, it is now closed. Furthermore, the library opens at 1pm on Mondays. Another weakness is that the Reference desk is unstaffed on Saturday mornings until two hours after opening. Although its mission statement claims, “The Public Library is dedicated to free and equal access to information, knowledge, independent lifelong learning, cultural enrichment, and the joys of reading for our diverse community,” there is no obvious evidence of “our diverse community”: all signage, brochures, and fliers are written in English even though demographics show a very large Spanish-speaking population. Another weakness is the young adult area. It is just a small corner on the main floor and lacks a staff member devoted to that space while the children’s library is extensive and rich with activities.

Opportunities:

Changing ethnic demographic base offers opportunities to provide meaningful services to English language learners. Furthermore, because decreasing public school funding reduces programs for students and, in many cases, has eliminated school library programs all together, the library may provide more services to families with school-aged children and young adults. The current economic downturn with the subsequent lost jobs presents opportunities for the library to reach out to such people and offer resources for job hunting, developing skills, and resume writing. Another opportunity can be found in the rapidly changing world of computers and the Internet; patrons may need assistance and workshops to keep current with trends and develop information literacy skills. Also, as education shifts to Common Core State Standards, the public library could offer opportunities to help teachers with this change. In the OPAC, they could label books according to the new lexile/grade-level change.

Threats:

Reduced state and city budgets always threaten library funding including services to the public and collection development. While the library currently has favor and is supported by local government, in the wake of current economic difficulties, public attitudes regarding the library’s importance may wane, thus threatening public support and becoming apparent on ballot measures. In fact, one proposition in this past election (November, 2012), was about reducing funding for public services such as libraries. Furthermore, existing competition such as the large Barnes & Noble bookstores in local entertainment areas and people’s increasing interest in e-readers may draw patrons away from the library. Similarly, people’s increased reliance on Internet search engines such as Google may decrease patron’s use of the library, especially the reference area.

Data Analysis and California Distinguished School

Congratulations to my school! We have been given the opportunity to apply for California Distinguished School for the second time! This is what the website states: “Honors some of California's most exemplary and inspiring public schools. Schools selected for the Distinguished School Award demonstrate significant gains in narrowing the achievement gap.” (http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/sr/cs/)

Of course, I have to be involved in the writing of the application! I’m so excited! I am working with my principal and two other colleagues. Our district is so supportive that they are even providing us with substitutes for 3 days to write the application. It’s due on December 10^th! We were notified on November 8^th!

Already, my colleagues and I met at a local restaurant on the day after Thanksgiving to brainstorm and create an outline. Today, all four of us met to discuss our next plan of attack. We chose our three days to be out of the classroom. We reread the requirements and made a list of the data we need to collect. The application requires both quantitative and qualitative data to provide evidence of narrowing the achievement gap through our programs.

The quantitative data we are focusing on are the reports we create every year that shows demographic data, the reports that show discipline data and attendance data, the GPA data, the free and reduced school lunch data, the frequency of online gradebook logins from students and parents, and sports and extracurricular attendance data. We are also looking at the class sizes and number of classes we have for ELD as well as the rates of EL reclassification.

I think we need to spend some more time thinking about the kind of qualitative data we collect. Today, I interviewed the teacher in charge of Homework Club to gather some data. I would like to see some kind of student survey or questionnaire, but I don’t know if we have enough time to do that. Perhaps we could work in some classroom observations.

Relating back to this course, the reason we have so many great programs supporting student learning is because we have studied our data to identify students’ needs and have adjusted our curriculum and school focus to make our school a great place for kids. I am glad we are being recognized for that, and I am honored to be part of the writing team!

OBPE

OBPE stands for outcome-based planning and evaluation. When I first began reading this book, I thought, “Backwards planning!” One of the ways I design curricular units and lesson plans in my 8^th grade English classroom is by backwards planning. I start with a goal I have for my students. That would be the outcome. All my planning, then, is structured to lead to that goal or outcome. Along the way, I evaluate whether I am meeting my needs, my students’ needs, and whether the path I’m on will truly accomplish the goal. For example, perhaps, based on some formative assessment strategy, I find that students are struggling with a certain aspect of the topic. I cannot just continue on that path; I need to rethink and restructure the activities in which I have them engage.

The authors of Dynamic Youth Services through Outcome-Based Planning and Evaluation (Dresang, Gross, & Edmonds Holt, 2006) emphasize how planning and evaluation are inseparable functions. I agree. We cannot plan for future outcomes without evaluating what is occurring currently. On page 117, they describe formative evaluation: “Instant evaluation is one kind of formative evaluation. It can shape and form the planning process even when it is still under way…so evaluation is embedded throughout the process and can modify any part of the process as it occurs.” Again, this is exactly what I would do with what teachers call “formative assessment.” When we gather data through formative assessment, we can modify or adjust what is being taught and how it is being taught in order to achieve the goal. It is a way of ensuring that students’ needs are being met without waiting until it is too late.

On the other hand, summative evaluations occur at the end of something. It is important for comparing data to that gathered at the beginning of the process and it provides data about the extent to which the desired outcomes have been reached (118). In my classroom case, we gather summative data in the form of benchmark exams. The results of this assessment provide our departments with how well the students have learned the material.

In the past, there was a lot of time devoted to analyzing the data of the benchmarks. The thought was we would go back and review or reteach the material with which the students struggled. As you can imagine, this didn’t always work. In fact, it rarely worked. Recently, while we still administer the benchmarks, less emphasis has been placed on the actual data and more emphasis has been placed on identifying the needs for future situations as well as developing lessons and activities that might help lessen the gap.

Therefore, it is important to engage in both formative and summative evaluations. Their purposes are slightly different, but they provide data important to stakeholders and affect change.

Update on the UCI Pathways Project

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the second all-day workshop for this project due to my bereavement leave. However, my friend and colleague gave me an update, and there are two issues that greatly concern me.

First, people realized that there is an entire school in our district not participating! I will call that school, “C.” Will this intentional lack of participation affect the project’s research? Why is school C not participating? Well, according to those who know, the principal there, Dr. BC, has written a book about how to teach with the new Common Core State Standards. Ok, I have more issues with this. Dr. BC is a bully who has made it clear that he does not like his English teachers to teach with novels. Pause here to reflect on that…Also, when we compare his school’s rate of students passing AP exams to other schools in our district, more students pass the AP exams in other schools relatively to the students in school C. There are more students in Honors classes and AP classes in school C than other schools, but by percentage, other schools have higher rates of passing those exams. Does he think his school, teachers, and students would not benefit from this project? Furthermore, while the project does have a strong Common Core component, it isn’t the absolute primary focus. So, to exclude his teachers from the project because he has written a book about teaching with Common Core doesn’t make any sense. Also, teachers who are part of this project are gaining so many good ideas (so many that I cannot even begin to explain it), and these are strategies we are currently practicing in our classrooms. But those C teachers have no idea. Does Dr. BC believe his teachers are going to have better practice and strategies by reading his book? Isn’t that hypocritical? Students learn by doing, by being actively engaged. As teachers, we are the students in this project and we are learning by doing, not learning by reading a book. Anyway, the ultimate gatekeeper here, Dr. BC, is keeping the gate locked.

Second, there are teachers who are complaining about doing what the university professors are telling us to do in our classrooms! What?! We signed agreements! We consented! There can be no complaining or refusal. We are to do exactly what they tell us to do. The issue is a lesson plan they gave us in October. It is to introduce the Reader and Writer’s Toolkit through reading the short story by Avi, “What Do Fish Have To Do With Anything?” It’s a great story, but to read through the story and stop at every stopping point to teach the reader/writer tool takes a very long time. I know, because I have done what I was told to do, and I’m not even finished with it. And that’s ok, but there are teachers who are refusing to do it because it doesn’t fit in with their curriculum at this time. Ok, well then, make it fit. Besides, these tools/strategies we are learning how to use fit every reading situation at any time and can only benefit students from here on out.

I’m just really disappointed with my district. Here we have this amazing opportunity to learn new strategies and be part of this project, but an entire school is not participating and teachers are complaining. My friend said the university professor had to strongly remind the teachers that they are part of this project and they need to do the lessons provided them. Imagine being admonished like that! I’m embarrassed.

Thinking about my Final Project

In preparation for my Final Project, I have chosen to do Option A, which is a research proposal. I am not doing Option B because I think that would be much more difficult to accomplish considering I am not directly involved with a library at this time. I also think Option A fits the research I conducted for my Literature Review better, and I can summarize my findings for the Literature Review component. When I was doing the Literature Review and reading so many research studies and reports, I kept thinking of ideas how I would do my own research.

When I consider the significance of my research to the field, I think that if I actually conducted this research, it would be a really good study. It would be a study I would want to read if I were researching. Why is this research important? iPads are such a new component to using technology in the classroom and we, as educators (teachers and librarians), need to identify how to use them to their highest potential. As a classroom teacher, I don’t want to just hand my students an iPad and play drill and kill games. Furthermore, as we transition into Common Core Standards, this is a great moment in education to really get a handle on how we can use it.

My plan for data collection and analysis—well, I’m leaning toward qualitative methods, but perhaps a mixed method approach would work best. I know my school administration loves hard data in the form of numbers, so having a quantitative aspect would be powerful. Therefore, I think I’ll have some kind of pre- and post- test or assessment, a survey, observations, and interviews.

My participants would be my students. I know that creates other certain issues, but that is who I have to work with.

Advocacy and Participatory Worldview

Creswell (2009) on page 9, describes this wordview: “An advocacy/participatory worldview holds that research inquiry needs to be intertwined with politics and a political agenda. Thus, the research contains an action agenda for reform that may change the lives of the participants, the institutions in which individuals work or live, and the researcher’s life. Moreover, specific issues need to be addressed that speak to important social issues of the day, issues such as empowerment, inequality, oppression, domination, suppression, and alienation.”

I would position myself with this worldview. When I read about the social constructivist worldview, I thought I would position myself with that one, since “social constructivists hold assumptions that individuals seek understanding of the world in which they live and work” and “the researcher’s intent is to make sense of (or interpret) the meanings others have about the world” (8). However, after reading further, I think there needs to be more of a reason why one would do research. For me, I want the research to contribute to something more than understanding, and the advocacy/participatory worldview is just that.

In my case, the action agenda for reform involves kids. I am a teacher, and I am always interested in anything to do with kids and learning, especially my age group, which is middle school. I feel like there is so much out there about the elementary age group and not as much concerning middle school kids. So, while the social constructivist worldview would seek to understand middle school kids in education, the advocacy/participatory worldview would seek to understand that age group in education AND advocate for changes within the system of institutionalized education.