This past Fall, our Upper School (grades 6-8) Division Head decided to incorporate some Web 2.0 tools into her administrative repertoire. Rather than passing out the thick 3-ring binder with paperwork at our August division meeting, she created a series of Google Docs which she updates monthly. Before each Division Meeting she sends us an iGoogle tab with the Google Docs front and center, and features widgets on the tab that teachers might find useful and interesting (Spanish Word of the Day, This Day in History, NASA Image of the Day, etc.)

She has also been asking us to bring our laptops to each division meeting, where we have been taking the first 10-15 minutes of meeting time to leave comments on a blog she set up for the division, in part to address inevitable technical issues on the spot, and partly as a way to ensure that everyone contributes. Several colleagues immediately balked, asking “why are we taking valuable time away from our meetings to type our thoughts instead of talking face-to-face with the people here in the same room?!” She persisted.

This month she posted a series of questions on the blog ahead of time about some Fall professional development events we’ve participated in. She asked us to leave comments on the post PRIOR to our division meeting. Here’s a comment I just noticed this evening:

“I must confess that my initial reaction to the blog requirement was not especially favorable because I couldn’t quite see the advantages of pecking away at my keyboard instead of sharing oral comments in a face-to-face setting. Upon further reflection, however, I realized that this served a need for which I have long advocated: some sort of a public forum for colleagues to share their thoughts about guest speakers and large-scale meetings. For example, I was disappointed in certain features of J’s presentation (e.g. she rushed through the more nitty-gritty material in the second half of the talk and she passed out 22 pages of hard copy to each individual while espousing sustainability at all levels.) On the other hand, I am encouraged to hear through the blog that many of you felt inspired and well informed by what she shared (which has modified my own reaction to the presentation.)”

And here’s another:

“I think this is a great process (the blogging) because it frees up time for other things in meetings. I will defer to the teachers about what those things should be, but it seems like a good use of time to prethink and communicate with each other and not rehash all this in a meeting setting.”

Alas, yet another example of one of the most important personality traits an administrator ought to possess which I sorely lack…patience with the process.

(image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/soulphoto/365740316/)

http://k12online.wm.edu/its_elementary/player.html

http://k12online.wm.edu/GradeOneClassroom.wmv

Doug and Richard are also using classroom documentation to make the process of learning more visible in their classrooms. The ways in which they do this, however, is slightly different in each classroom. Janet posts a daily journal entry to her class website daily. Richard (on the right) posts a month’s worth of daily journals at the end of each month. Doug (on the left) digs into a few individual classroom projects each year, and documents the entire project in great detail. Click below to see an example of Richard’s Monthly Journal and Doug’s recent Earthmover Project:

Richard’s Monthly Journal (.pdf)

Doug Earthmover Project (.pdf)

For Janet, documenting learning in her classroom on a daily basis became an important goal, and she asked for help in getting started. What began as a 1-2 hour process last fall has now been whittled down to a 20 minute/day committment on her part. The steps include taking digital photos, transferring them to her laptop, dragging them into a template she’s created in Keynote, typing up the description and student quotes, saving as a .pdf and uploading the file onto her classroom web page. Here are a few examples:

In honor of Halloween, I asked the 1st graders to write & illustrate simple spooky stories. I then used my iRiver to record them reading their stories. The unintended consequence of this rather pedestrian assignment was that it gave the adults a window into the kids’ thinking process as they try to sound out and spell words. I put all of the pieces together into an iMovie, which we then posted on our website for parents to enjoy. Here’s the link:

Download

http://room12.edublogs.org/

1. Banyan Room

2. Maple Room

3. Huckleberry Room

Over Spring Break, our Director of Facilities discovered that a neighborhood duck had decided to build her nest right under the Middle School play structure. Being the tech-savvy school that we are, of course, we had to create a blog for our own feathered mom-to-be. I used the comments section of the first post to track the fascinating flurry of emails that went back and forth between our faculty members today as we discussed how to integrate the duck into our classroom conversations. To see our duck’s blog, point your browser to: http://duckdiaries.edublogs.org/

This year I’m fortunate to serve on our school’s Curriculum Task Force, which is charged with the responsibility of spearheading a formal K-8 curriculum review. Our committee has made the decision to purchase Rubicon Atlas as our curriculum mapping tool and we will officially roll out the curriculum mapping process in September ‘06 with the intention of making this process our year-long professional development thread. This means that full faculty meetings, department meetings and individual grade level time will be devoted to the process of writing down what we teach, why we teach it and how it relates to what our colleagues are teaching.

In preparation for this process, our Head of School asked the members of our Art Department to act as our official curriculum mapping guinea pigs as we experiment with what a formal review process would look like. Just before vacation I attended a presentation given by members of the Art Department, who crafted an amazingly thoughtful, comprehensive and reflective portrayal of what occurs at each grade level at our school, how the art experience builds on recurring themes and motifs in kindergarten through eighth grade, and how art in general is assessed at our school.

The art teachers stressed that students at every grade level learn about the major elements and principles of art, and how to talk about art in general. They showed slides describing the specific curriculum at each grade level, showcased a sample project from that grade, described the project in detail, and demonstrated how the projects use 3 recurring categories of inspiration:

• 1. Inspiration by art from around the world
  2. Inspiration by art history past/present
  3. Inspiration by integrating with classroom curriculum

The presentation was very illuminating and gave a real sense of what an 8th grader will have had as an art experience upon graduation. I am so glad that this department went first! (I have posted some screen shots below.)

Projects ranged from

1. 2nd Grade Mexican insect art
2. 3rd grade projects closely tied to classroom themes, including Japanese arts & crafts, creating a Japanese zen rock garden with an outdoor installation and African arts & crafts
3. 4th grade handmade/bound classroom portfolios
4. 6th grade ceremonial vessels based on Chinese bronze vessels
5. 8th grade focus on Service Learning Week with Keith Haring-inspired screen printing

Big thanks to Mike Hetherington at mhetherington.net for his crystal-clear how-to instructions on how to set up a learnerblog site for students.

But I think one of the biggest points we managed to drive home had to do with how teachers only typically provide parents with a tiny glimpse into their classrooms and the students’ learning process. The rare times parents come to the classroom to see student work it is for the final product — the PowerPoint speech, the Winter Concert, Spring Art Show, Portfolio Day, etc. Rarely are parents exposed to the process of learning, and rarely are students and teachers asked to reflect about what they are learning as they are learning it.

I used an example from my own life as the parent of preschool-aged twins. One of my sons brought home yet another painting from school several weeks ago. When he showed it to me, I thought “that’s nice, honey” and planned to add it to the growing pile of preschool art we already have.

Later in the week, however, the teacher stopped me in the hallway to tell me how excited my son had been about their recent experimentation with color mixing, and upon learning that blue+yellow=green and red+blue=purple, he asked “but how is black made?” The class proceeded to experiment with paints until they came up with black, and his artwork was the end result of the discussion. Suddenly that “nothing” painting became a treasure to me. A glimpse into his development.

A quick note on the back of the painting, a typed caption, or better yet, an audio recording or digital photos and transcription of the class discussion would have allowed parent, teacher and even student to understand the process of learning so much more deeply.