Monday, July 26, 2010

A Sincere Thanks and a BIG TIP

I wanted to be sure to thank all of you for a fabulous Summer Institute experience. I look forward to working with you throughout the fall and seeing how each of your questions reveal themselves and progress.

Don't forget to keep doing some research and planning as August moves forward. Also, take a look a the flow chart that Jan Gebhart (Inquiry panelist) gave you. It has tons of fantastic advice to keep you honest and make things easier.

BIG TIP: As you research, keep an MLA list of each of your resources AND keep the MLA listing as a heading to your notes from this resource specifically. List all page numbers with direct quotes for easy credit when you write your paper. Actually, I keep page numbers with each bullet in my notes so I can find it easily later.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Boil, Boil, Toil, and Trouble!

I have to admit, I love watching "process" at work. Today we worked at boiling our wonderings and ideas down to a more workable, sweet question. Although my work is not on the gallery walk, I boiled with Nancy during our afternoon session. Exhaustion left me searching for all the right words, but as is most often the case talking things out allowed us to get to a more workable question.

Here we go...
What impact will blogging have on student engagement with course material and resources?
(oh so sweet and yummy!)

Of course my husband put a tiny fly in the...well... syrup by suggesting this type of blog might not work as well for my purposes as another tool...Google Wave. Any thoughts?

Please feel free to "sticky" me in this forum as well as add your own questions...toils and troubles.

Commence boiling!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Framing my own question...

Here we are ready to start the final week of the Summer Institute. Much time has been spent learning about the process, callibrating, and digging deeper. Yet, we are only at the beginning of the inquiry process. Illuminating a "problem", strength, or passion. Wondering. Narrowing. Finally, we must frame these what-ifs within a question. What better way to start this process then in an open forum for all to see and wonder with me?

Illuminating my problem...
I feel increasingly behind as technology revs up and pulls away from my understanding. I am behind my contemporaries (at best) and not even in the same universe as my students. It is time to catch up. Beyond this issue, the use of traditional journaling in my college course is waning. My students reflect little and write even less. More and more I am seeing a replay of the same few students write, reflect, and respond during classtime. Although others are writing, it is certainly not expansive. What to do?

Wonderings...
Technology is its own literacy, full of writing components. Through this, my students may connect more with in-class learning, extend ideas, and be more willing to question. They may also be more willing to work with traditional literacies (in-class reading and writing) if technology is part of the mix. Also, this will help validate tools for other educators to use in their own classrooms.

Narrowing...
Podcasts. Digital stories. Blogging. And I am quite sure that is only the beginning. So much to use and so little knowledge on my part. Blogs seem to be the most accessible place for me to start and also have my students interface with me. E-mail worked well last year, but did not allow for the rest of the class to read and respond. A blog will open up the forum.

Question???...
How will weekly blogging increase student response and reflection in a college arts class?

Reflection...
Not perfect, but it's a start. This blog is my first bit of research. Is it manageable? Will people respond/question/reflect? Is it even a viable teaching tool? We'll see.

Please join me in my inquiry wanderings. Feel free to post your own work and thought process on your question. Ask for help. Bounce ideas. Share some of your own research, frustrations, and "AH HA!" moments. We will continue this into the fall as a follow-up forum to extend the institute as well as support all of our wanderings. Thank you for being my ginny pigs! :)