Action Research Results

My Action Research is iPads in the art classroom: Helpful or Harmful? An investigation of the iPad as an educational tool to enriching previous practices. My research has shown that the iPad is a beneficial educational tool. I have compared assignments with and without the iPad. What I have found is that the more choice in the matter in using the iPad or not is most beneficial. The iPad creates differentiated learning, but students still want face to face time with their teacher. When trying to fit all needs of students the iPad offers another option of differentiated instruction. The iPad is best utilized as a tool in conjunction with a developed website for the class. The website houses the resources, rubrics and lessons, but the iPad is the convenient tool to access them. In my district there is a small percentage of students who do not have internet at home. There are many benefits I have noticed in the classroom. The benefits I have noticed are when using the iPad for looking at pictures you can enlarge the picture with details right at their desk. I have been able to do formative assessment with the students using surveys. Have them do interactive reviews using the drawing pad on their iPad. The iPad makes class time more efficient. I do believe that students should have the choice if they want to use the iPad for certain projects. Such projects are writing papers, taking notes, sketchbook assignment and so on. I have collected data on these topics and have found that students are all different and learn in different ways. In a sense the iPad is just another medium and tool for them to access. I enjoy that students have the right to choose how to create their work. After changing my classroom management and syllabus regarding the iPad I have had limited issues of misuse with the iPad. Having a one to one iPad initiative has been a blessing for the art classroom. The other interesting part is that every teacher uses the iPad differently. Once the teacher and the students get past the initial ground work of figuring out the iPad and multiple apps it does bring a new tool for learning. There also needs to be a detailed discipline plan for misuse of the iPad as a school policy. I do feel that the pros do out way the cons of the iPad as an educational tool. I will continue to research different aspects and apps, but I am so glad I chose this topic for my action research. Specific Questions: What are specific relationships and patterns emerging in your data analysis and reflection telling you about how the change you made is impacting desired changes you are seeking? The iPad has created more options for differentiated instruction, more efficiency, more detailed resource for images, array of different apps to be used, convenience of a learning device in your classroom and one to one iPad for each student, more email communication, development of an effective google site to support the use of the iPad, limited use as listening device to create more conversations and community. What are your results telling you about the concepts you are studying, and the relationships among concepts, how the strategies address the problem you are trying to understand? What strengths and limitations to these ideas did you discover through the implementation? The limitation is for some students the fact that the iPad can serve the purpose of a distracting tool. I have found that the distraction is much smaller than what I have seen last year. The benefits of the iPad for out weigh the downfalls as an educational tool. I have also found there needs to be a choice between using the iPad as a tool or other options. The iPad is not the ultimate learning tool. Part of investigating the iPad as an educational tool I have learned there are other tools that work best for certain assignments. I have also learned their are multiple tools that can be used for one project and students get the choice in using which tool fits best with each students personal learning styles. How will your learning change your practices of instruction, assessment, environment, and understanding of content knowledge in your discipline (I.D.E.A.)? The changes have already taken place. The iPad is being used frequently in my classroom as a resource for images, research, typing, picture taking, apps for drawing and a communicator (email and surveys). After doing this research it give me a better handle on what projects I like to use it for or give choices to my students if they would like to use the iPad or another device. At this point I can't imagine teaching without the iPad as effectively as I am now. What implications for future practice are you drawing from the results of your inquiry, including how results are leading to new questions and future directions for research? (This may be the springboard to your next area of inquiry.) My future practices will be fine tuning which apps work well for certain projects. I have already determined I will keep the iPad as a learning tool for certain projects and giving a choice of multiple learning tools for other projects. I would also keep the surveys that I give students to know how they learn best. The iPad is not always the top option for students to learn, for this reason I feel it is most beneficial to offer it as a choice among other devices depending on the project.

30 Day Shackleton Strength

My 30 day Shackleton Strength is Enjoyment. Which strength did you choose to cultivate for 30 days? Enjoyment. What do you have to report after 15 days? These last 15 days I have changed my review to a group/game review with a prize of cookies for the winners. After giving the winners their cookies I did show the rest of the class that I did bring cookies for everyone. I try to check in with all my students, encourage their work. We play music and talk and laugh. I like art class to be an enjoyable experience. What have you done to be intentional about your strength? Bringing in candy and treats is something I don't usually do. I may even be breaking a new rule that occurred this year? I think the rule is that you can't sell candy...I hope. Either way for the time being the kids really enjoy getting a little something extra. That extra enjoyment maybe candy, free time on their iPads, a choice in decision making, etc. At home? I have really been trying to not bring work home so that my time at home is sacred. This may have been the most challenging since we have our art sale coming up Dec. 1st. When I am at home I try to focus only on family, laugh, love, and do some fun stuff. I am very excited to have a break and to celebrate with family for Thanksgiving. At school? I have a new coworker that I am very positive around and she is very positive. It is amazing what a good attitude vs a bad attitude can do to those that work around you. I am now in a much better fit working with this new art teacher and really a much better fit for our school and students. The collaboration has been outstanding and I feel that even though it is hard to find someone that is happy with a .42 position, I feel that we have found that person. To make things more enjoyable for her and I, I have offered to teach a class maybe not as enjoyable so that she can teach one that is more enjoyable. Everyone at school has been very have in the art department, me, staff, my students, art club and my SA's. How has it impacted you and those around you? I am doing more than I have every needed to do this year. The expectations have been challenging. With Masters right now, soccer coaching just ending, starting a new hire and then quitting after 1st qt, now a new 2nd quarter to the end of the year art teacher and having art club for the first time it has all been a lot for me to balance and juggle. I just remember to be positive and these are all good things for my spirit and the students. It has been a wonderful year so far.

Leadership Interview

I interviewed Jen Green who is both an English teacher and a Math teacher at Byron High School. o Who did you choose and why? I chose Jen because she has many years of experience, a family, a double license and is extremely helpful personally and professionally. o What surprised you? The credit that she gave her spouse. Her spouse is very flexible and appreciates the hard work she put in at school. Juggling school, kids, social and spouse can be hard. She is very grateful to have someone who understands the demands that school can put on a person. She also works very had to have her weekends be all about family. This surprised me that I struggle with the same balancing act. She has two children and they are older, whereas my son is almost three. Even though her children are older and she has been teaching longer I was surprised that we were kind of in the same boat. Life is busy and it will continue to be busy. o What did you connect with? I really connected with the three qualities that a good teacher possesses. Her three characteristics that she believes in are that the teacher is passionate, they love their job and are always bettering themselves and reflecting on their work. I wholeheartedly agree with these characteristics. At Byron I feel that we as staff and students have teachers that emulate these qualities. o What components of Leadership were evident (12 Virtues, Spiritual Dimensions, Growth Mindset, AGAPE) Jen definitely has the growth mindeset and the twelve virtues. What one quote from the interview stands out to you? Before I left for class my quote was "A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do," Walter Gagehot. This quote made perfect sense to me, especially when I asked her what she was most proud of. Jen was part of the math team that was awarded the Intell Award. They completely changed the way they taught math. Partially due to a low budget they had to create their own curriculum and change the way they were teaching math. The improvements were magnificent. o Any additional thoughts or reflections you had on the process- I learned that Jen has been in five different districts that give her a different perspective about many things. I myself have only been in one district, but I can see how being in different districts is beneficial. I also learned that she has been teaching for 19 years. It was nice to get to know her opinions and her little bit better than I already do. I really enjoyed this project and Ms. Green taking the time to let me interview her. * Disclaimer: I am an art teacher so in case Ms. Green reads this please don't get mad at me for any grammar or English mistakes!

iPads in the classroom vs Computers for writing papers, notes and power points.

I surveyed three mixed classes of 9-12 graders about if they prefer iPads, computers or paper for taking notes, writing papers or making power points. The three classes I surveyed were Design, Clay and Beyond 2 and Crafts class. I had thought about surveying Graphic Arts and Clay and Beyond 1, but I think I will save another survey for them for another time. Below I will post the results and then discuss the findings. https://docs.google.com/a/byron.k12.mn.us/forms/d/178skW7pHBXxFYArftDicESZwBit87yLoJm1FgPP9U8w/viewanalytics When note taking which do you prefer? I found this question to be very relevant when I would observe students during lecturing. I was subbing in another room and the students were taking notes off of a power point. One of the things I have surprised to see was that half the class was typing on their iPads and the other half was using pencil and paper. When you think of actually writing out notes it should help you retain the information. I believe the same could be true with typing. I bring this up because in some classes I have seen kids just take a picture of the slide on the screen that forces me to question if the students are retaining the information if the only process they use is snapping a picture? When I was in this classroom taking notes I talked with one of the students and he mentioned that our English department had external keyboards that could be plugged into the iPads. Having the keyboard sounded like it would be very useful and helpful. To go over question number one, When note taking which do you prefer, I was surprised to see the results of 67% prefer taking notes with paper and pencil. I had made an educated guess of 50% paper and pencil with the other 50% being the iPad. Taking a photo was 10%, which I am glad to see as a small percent. I think that taking a photo has it's educational tool in the sense of taking pictures of rubrics, lists, process, announcements, etc., but not for retaining information. I have also seen students take a photo and use that as their notes while working on another computer to create their work. The students are actually looking at two physical screens instead of need to flip from site to site. This works particularly well in Graphic Design when they maybe reading about instructions or tutorial for the assignment, but then have the computer to create the work. For these instances I am in full support of using the photo option. I was surprised to see such a low percent for using an external keyboard to type on the iPad with. External keyboards are not required at our school. I would need to investigate further the low percent of the external keyboard if it was due to it not being provided, less training in using it or if there are flaws to it's use. Typing on their iPad was at 17% which I expected it to be a little higher, but his is a sore subject for most students if the assignment is at any great length. I had asked about using the computer lab for note taking and I am not surprised to see 2%, because at our school that would probably be more of an inconvenience unless your class was in a computer lab. As an added note I have heard about apps that let you record audio for notes, which can be helpful for special needs students. When typing a paper which would you prefer? A whopping 86% preferred to write their paper in the computer lab. I think that typing on a computer is easiest for students. It may also have to do with how much bigger the screen is for reading and writing. I would also think that maybe the keyboard keys itself would be easier to type on. Typing in the iPad only got 9% of preference and the external keyboard at 5%. These two having such low percents makes me question the position of the computer, bigger keys, and bigger screen. Switching to making Power Points students responded with 43% like using keynote. Keynote has been around for a little longer than Google Slides. Keynote does not have the capability to have two people working on a project at the same time like Google Slide, but does allow for pictures and background design choices that Google Slide does not allow for. For Art I prefer to have my students use Keynote. For other classes that need less visual appeal Google Slide would work well. Students who chose Google Slide was 19%. Students who preferred making power point on the computer was at 38%. Lab space is limited at my school so I am glad that students feel just as comfortable or more comfortable using keynote than power point. Some of the comments listed about Power point vs Keynote is that on power point more than one person can work on it at a time. Some felt keynote was easier. From the comments I read I felt that the app worked well and does the job, but the students still liked the educational tool of a computer over the iPad. With the percents as close as they are together I will proceed by letting the students choose which fits their learning style best. Some of the students prefer the keynote layout to the power point layout. When typing a Paper which do you prefer? Pages on the iPad was at a low 3%. I have heard many complaints about trying to type on an iPad for an extended amount of time. Google documents on the computer 57% and I feel this is a higher percent because our school is very google based. The students have been trained on sharing documents with the teachers making it easier to keep track of both as the student and teacher of the students' work. Word rounded out at 33% and then the google doc. app was low at 7%. In efforts to try something new I did ask the question on the survey Would you prefer to do a video on your iPad than a power point? 50% would rather make a video and 40% would do the power point. I am finding that this information gives more options on differentiated instructions and giving my students more choice. The more choice I give my students the more buy in they will have for my assignments that they are given. I am so glad I did this survey. I feel that this will open my eyes to what my students want to get out of my teaching and their learning experience.

Leadership Goal

My leadership goal is to get google sites for all of my art classes this year and overall the art department classes 13 classes in total. We have some classes that rotate every other year and some that are offered every year. With new staff coming in and out of the high school I find it more important than every to have my sites up today or created and have rubrics for all my assignments. I reality I would be happy to have 80% of my assignments have a grid rubric to go with it. Our PLC's is working very hard on getting grid rubric assessments done at the high school level. I have been making grid rubrics for 2 years now. They come in very handy and takes a lot of the questions out of grading visual arts. It takes a lot of the subjective stereotypes in grading visual art out of the equation. I make my grids fairly assignment specific. With new staff in my department I have created a google site for her classes along with mine. I will be nice once they are all done because then we just need to update them, but it is also a great place to house assignments, description, picture examples, videos, reading, worksheet and so on. So, if a student is sick they can look at the site to see what we are working on. Here is a screen shot of the website and opened to a rubric pate.

So my plan is to have one for all of my classes which includes: 1. Crafts 1 2. Crafts 2 3. Clay and Beyond 1 4. Clay and Beyond 2 5. Drawing and Painting 1 6. Drawing and Painting 2 7. Design 8. Graphic Design 9. Floral Design 1 10.Floral Design 2 11.Studio 1 12.Studio 2 13. Empowerment Through Art I would say I have half of them started and just need updating with rubrics. I am excited to have the new staff at the high school helping make these rubrics and class curriculum on the sites. It is a lot to take on, but will be well worth it in the future years. Thus far I have creating and have in progress Crafts 1, Clay and Beyond 1, Drawing and Painting 1, Design, Graphic Design and Studio 1 at 80% finished or more. My next step is to update the above ones with missing rubrics and/or assignments and then also start on creating Clay and Beyond 2. By Quarter 3 I would like to work on sites for Floral Design 1 and Floral Design 2. Leaving just a few courses left before next year.

Interconnectedness with other communities

Blog Assignment: As a teacher leader post a reflection on your interconnectedness with a member of another “community.” (school, RB2, PRB1, discipline, conference, other) Who was this collaboration with? For this assignment I am going to give a shout out to Technology in the Classroom (http://thompson19.blogspot.com/) blogged by Monica Thompson. I found that there has been many comments back and forth from my community Rochester Blended 2 and her Pelican Rapids Community. What was most powerful for you? Taking the conversations deeper than the blog itself. I found I was having conversations about eportfolios and different sites that can be used to create eportfolios, which is a small part of my action research. It is fun to share what your school has done and tried and getting to learn the same from others. I feel we can ask questions of each other and come up with some great answers together. What was most difficult? I have been very busy with obstacles at work and have not had my post in on time for other to view and comment. I feel this can occur on both sides and is best to just remember to check in and comment when available. I follow 3 blogs and I understand that life is happening outside of these blogs. I also, sometimes needs for data and research before I can add to my blog. What are some of the benefits to this relationship? This is one more person I can bounce ideas off of. It was fun to see her in person at the last conference. It is nice to put faces to these blogs. Yes, there are pictures on the blogs, but it is so much nicer to meet them in person. When you do meet them for the first time, it is like your catching up with a friend or an acquaintance. What role does your attitude have on the outcome? If I am not dedicated to posting my blogs and commenting on others it will not work. Both sides will loose interest in each other.

Packaging tape people time lapse video, but Deija Watson (student) (Not quite finished, but this is what she has so far!)

http://youtu.be/TE7qoPeZNj4

More and more technology

It has been a long time since I posted, so I am sorry for that. Some of the things I have been noticing and plan on getting data on are: 1. The use of iPads for typing papers/ notes 2. iPhone for time lapse video 3. iPad for snapshots of rubrics 1. The use of iPads for typing papers/ notes. I have found that 50% of the class preferred to go to the library and work on a computer, rather than using their iPads. iPads do need computers to print, so if there are projects that you would like in paper form you will want to keep some computers around. As I talk to other districts more and more computer labs are going away. We have 5 computer labs in our school, which is very helpful because there are certain things you can do better or certain programs that are only available on a computer. I mention this because of the new program Creative Suites 6 we got this year to help develop our Graphic Design (illustrator/Photoshop), Technology (dreamweaver), yearbook (photoshop) and other programs in the package that can help all classes. When trying to get students ready for college programs like the above will help prepare students more than an app on their iPad. Sorry, I got off topic, back to papers and notes. I stopped into a neighboring class that was taking notes and 50% of the students were taking notes on their iPads and the others paper and pencil. I have seen some kids just take a picture of notes before and it makes me wonder if the student is really retaining that information with just a snapshot. I can understand taking a snapshot of a rubric and using it as a reference that we have already discussed together in class. I talked to some of the kids and told me that the English department has a class pack of keyboards that can be used with the iPads and the kids can check them out. I plan on sending a survey to both the English teachers and students regarding if they prefer the iPad alone for typing papers, keyboard or the computers in the library. I would also like to know their input about the app Pages. This I will try to send out next week, but may not be answered by the teachers until the following week because we have finals next week. 2. In my clay and beyond class we are making packaging tape sculptures. The groups needs to wrap each other with syran wrap and then packaging tape, cut the tape off (with a nurses scissors, so no one gets cut) and then tape it back up. I also give them the option of stuffing the package with the paper to add color. One of my students really likes technology and told me she was making a time lapse video of the entire project!! I was so excited to see her doing this technology on her own. Not only is she going to show me the video she is going to let me post it on here when it is done. Should be done by early next week because she is adding music and words to it explaining everything, how amazing. I fee like it is Christmas, what a gift:) She is also going to show me how she did it. Maybe I will have her make a video of how to use the app, so that I can incorporate that as part of the project. I will post it as soon as I get it, I am pretty excited! I love when I see the students doing their own creating both in art and technology. They think of think of things I do not always think of. 3. iPads for snapshots of rubrics has saved me a lot of paper and it doesn't get lost. The rubric is right there on their camera role. They can sue the rubric to do self checks to make sure they are doing everything they need to do. I will have more hard data next week and hopefully a time lapse video of our last clay and beyond project.