Welcome!
You are about to experience a different manner of learning in a college classroom. Very different!
So unusual, it may well confuse you, even startle you, at first.
But you'll adjust; the vast majority of students do...and most move on to enjoy and learn from the process.
Like all college courses, you'll get exactly what you put into it. No more, no less.
As your instructor, I work very hard. I expect the same from you as a student.
Let's begin.
1. BSC CLASSES: I lecture infrequently, if at all. Instead, you can count on facing a series of demanding projects (modules) designed to bring you into contact with what must be learned in an active manner. You will be assigned to a team of two, three or four students with similar "majors". Most modules will be addressed on a team basis. With some exceptions, students will report to their teams each class, not me.
I will visit your team while in class and deal with issues, questions, concerns as they arise.
You are expected to attend every BSC class in the library as scheduled. Most of my students miss no more than one (1) class for the entire semester. Up to 50% of my students miss no classes at all.
Class attendance certainly counts while determining your final grade in ED 235. Be there, arrive on time, be prepared...and we'll have few problems.
By the way, if you find it necessary to miss a class (a rare event!) you certainly should email me, your team Captain, and your teammates, preferably before the scheduled class. This is common courtesy and a habit worth developing.
2. ON-LINE CLASSES: They are an integral feature of my instructional approach.
Part of each scheduled class and numerous whole classes will be conducted online. This is a given; don't enroll in this course if you are not prepared to function online in some fashion daily and throughout each week of the semester.
Basically, "online" usually refers to BSC's impressive Blackboard system of electronic communication, student to student and student to professor. But "online" also calls for routine functioning on the Internet (search engines, etc.) and an email system (up and running) and possibly even an instant messaging service at your disposal.
Why? Because we will have so much work to do in ED 235 that we'll need routine, regular contact outside of class.
BSC has spent millions to give us Blackboard; we're going to use it!
When you are on BB you are in class!
Prepare now.
You must register for BB. But first you might have to "activate" your BSC user account. This link will help you get this task done...
With the above accomplished, you can gain access to Blackboard.
This should be done immediately!
After logging in, you can reach where you need to go by:
A. Clicking on ED 235
B. Clicking Communication (left side)
C. "Hitting" Discussion Board. Voila!
On many occasions, the instructor will direct teams to post certain "constructions" or project solutions on BB. Students will interact with each other as they evaluate or critique what's up there.
Peer evaluation and interaction are mainstays of my courses. The process is always upbeat and positive.
3. BLACKBOARD LOG: The student is urged now to click on the link, "One More Thing" (found after Module 10 below) and study the CHECKOUT form that will be completed and submitted to the instructor at semester's end. Keep an accurate count of your BB participation starting now. Use the log provided.
An accurate BB log will contribute substantially to a high grade in ED 235.
4. LAPTOPS: By all means, if you have one at your disposal, bring it to each and every class in the library.
Several laptops per team will greatly facilitate the work to be done in class.
Don't have a wireless or any laptop that would work in the library? OK...we'll get by. You can use BSC's regular computers.
5. EMAIL: Count on it! As stated already, there will not be enough time in class to complete all assignments. Team members will find it necessary to communicate with each other frequently outside of class. Usually students choose email to accomplish this. Is your email system up and running?
6. TEXTBOOK: There is NO conventional hard-copy text to purchase for this course. However, various online full-text journal articles, pamphlets and essays will be assigned. Some of these will be downloaded from existing websites that the instructor will identify. Others will become readily available through BSC's Maxwell Library databases.
If you wish to explore these databases, go to: http://www.bridgew.edu/library/online.cfm
The student is required to have a Maxwell Library user account and password. These can be obtained by clicking on the library link off BSC's website. The student should note that the Maxwell Library makes available off-campus access. This is a wonderful service. Use it!
CAUTION: This off-campus link is easy to overlook. Look for it and use it. Otherwise, you will get nowhere!
7. INTERNET COMMENTS: You will be directed to check my BSC website weekends. Each Saturday, I will enter scheduling information, assignment changes, make comments and lecture on what you're reading and studying. Print what I offer. Have a copy for each class.
So it appears I do lecture after all! But my lectures are in written form on the Internet, not in a BSC classroom.
8. NOTEBOOK: You are requested to obtain a large, sturdy notebook to serve as a container for a "working" academic portfolio of sorts. This folder will serve as partial documentation, "proving" that you have completed course requirements. The following are to be placed in your notebook systematically as you work your way through the course:
**There will be additional required reading not designated as "key". The student is required to read each but placing a copy in her/his notebook will be optional.
Put virtually everything relating to the course in it (assignments completed, downloaded articles read and studied, Saturday "lectures", Blackboard log... everything!). But please do not put individual pages in "plastic". This simply would not be practical. There would be too many sheets (pages) to contend with.
Keep your notebook organized and reasonably "professional". It will be peer evaluated (your team) at the end of the semester. Your team and I must agree that it is "of reasonable quality". Otherwise, I will not give you course credit.
What about an electronic notebook?
OK...you can keep your notebook in electronic form if you wish. But keep it organized and expect me to review it at semester's end.
9. FIELD WORK: Field work, by definition, is "situated" directly in the real work world of teachers and students. Some students in the course are currently full-time teachers and may be able to use their particular classes and school for this. Other students must secure a field work setting and enlist the cooperation of relaxed, willing teachers in their academic specialty and teaching level.
Begin the process of contacting a school for field work ASAP. Don't let time drag. Field work is to be done early during the semester. Find and investigate school possibilities immediately. Thanks!
Field work will call for in-depth analyses of actual lessons and classes taught (if a full-time teacher) or observed (if not a current teacher). The instruction will be evaluated in light of theory and research studied in the course.
Field work must be fully documented. Details in class.
10. QUIZZES: Students will be quizzed on assigned material frequently. Testing is on a team basis on some occasions and on an individual basis on other occasions.
Students can request taking any team quiz individually at any time if they feel uncomfortable with team quizzes.
Additionally, the instructor will identify certain students for individual quizzing. Selection is usually random. Students will not be given long-term notice of this procedure. Be ready for anything.
The instructor will direct the team and individuals to contend with a WRITTEN quiz. This may be "open book" (where students can work from full-text articles, notebooks, etc.) or "closed book". In closed book quizzes, students will be given time to review requisite material before taking the quiz.
Completed quizzes will be sent to the instructor through email. The quiz will be graded within 24 hours and returned via email.
The grade for each quiz will be PASS or FAIL. Failed quizzes will be accompanied by comments and suggestions from the instructor. They must be retaken and passed.
But are team quizzes valid as assessment measures?
(Optional) Locate the full-text study identified below and read it. Perhaps it will aid you in making a judgement on the efficacy of team quizzes.
(Academic Search Premier) "Collaborative Exams: An Educationally Sound Practice?", Shindler, The Teaching Professor, August/September 2004
11. GRADING SYSTEM: You start off as a "Perfect 10", as in performing a flawless maneuver in gymnastics. Then as you and I work our way through the long semester, I gradually shave your grade...when I see "flaws" in your week-to-week and daily performance. The progression: A to A-. Then A- to B+. B+ to... That's how it goes.
Grading criteria? Class attendance, quiz performance, regular and routine Blackboard participation...and more. Act like you would if you just started a job you wanted to keep.
I will elaborate more as we go along.
12. "GETTING TO KNOW YOU" (From the King and I)
During the first month of the semester, I will interview each of you, one on one, while teams work on their projects during class.
If you bring in a small snapshot of you (your face) and give it to me so I can paste it on a 3"x5" index card I keep on you all semester, I will overlook your first "minor" transgression in the course...assuming, of course, you exhibit one!
Come on...a pic please! It'll help me associate name and face.
Many thanks!
13. MODULE PREVIEWS:
Module 1: Microsoft High
We begin with a look to the future...the direction which secondary education appears to be headed, ever so slowly.
Yes, we are interested in the road ahead and what must be accomplished today to teach effectively and function in the global economy.
Module 2: East Anywhere Secondary Schools, Circa 2000
Enter. Look around. Visit a class or two. Sit toward the rear and observe the students closely...very closely. At any given time, about how many of them in any average class - including most "college preps" - are honestly engaged intellectually with the lesson at hand?
Bet half weren't! Who's kidding who?
Module 3: Core Theory
A serious study of contemporary learning processes and motivation should be as important to any teacher as a corresponding course of physiology is to any physician.
Be clear...our attention is to be directed to the psychological phenomena of learning and motivation...not the more immediate practice of teaching. It stands to reason: solid knowledge of learning and motivation should drive educational reform and how teachers teach.
But does it in practice?
Module 4: Constructivism
Recent decades have served as a backdrop for fundamental change in the manner many theorists and researchers have come to think of effective teaching and learning in classroom settings.
Thorndike-ian "Old Core" views, examined in the previous module, appear to be yielding reluctantly to on-rushing constructivist ideology and methodology.
Module 4 moves this constructivist-centered "New Core" front and center and will put it squarely to the teacher: "It may be time for you to rethink what you do in your classroom".
Let's see what happens.
Module 5: Field Work
With preliminary study of the two core topics of ED 235, human learning and motivation, behind us, we immediately turn attention to a complex field work assignment that now looms large.
Welcome to #5, the field work module!
Module 6: Standards
Currently, state-mandated standards strongly influence how teachers put together lessons, teach them, and then measure what had been achieved.
Here, the novice education student is encouraged to seek deeper understanding of what's involved in the standards movement and what is to be expected upon entering the full-time teaching force.
Module 7: Where Am I Going?
Nurses, attorneys, jockeys...teachers, too: all true professionals strive to arrive at and agree upon day-to-day procedures and strategies in their respective fields. All true professionals respond to a pressing need to know and do what works and to stay abreast of colleagues on the "cutting edge."
Tentative and subject to argument, best practices ideally spring from research and clinical practice.
In pursuit of "best practices", it is not practical to study all aspects of this highly complex enterprise called teaching in a single course. Too much.
Instead, in ED 235 we have and will continue to "pick our spots", to develop a relatively small set of "best practices". Formative assessment, designed to foster student self-regulation and metacognitive growth, is showcased in this module and the next.
Module 8: Where Am I Now?
The Chappuis' three-question model for enhancing metacognitive development and self-sufficiency within students continues in this module and next. The fact that three of the ten modules in this ED 235 course deal squarely with Chappuis' approach toward showing teachers how to implement successful formative assessment procedures in their classrooms signifies the value this instructor puts on her materials.
Module 9: How Can I Close the Gap?
Module 9 completes the Chappuis trilogy.
Have you enjoyed your contact with "cutting-edge" teaching?
Can you see why she presents to education students a superior approach toward classroom instruction, a model locked onto research-supported formative assessment practices, a general strategy for promoting not only academic achievement in the short term but also metacognitive level and habits of self-direction in the longer view?
If you don't, whats wrong with you?
Module 10: And Then There Were...
Two truck-sized spotlights beaming toward the evening sky, limousines pulling to the curb, a red carpet, top hats and long gowns, a string quartet playing deliciously in the lobby...
The glittering marquee explaining it all...for it is Module 10 Opening Night and...
There is palpable excitement and anticipation in the air!
Hip-hip-hooray! Module 10 is now officially underway! You thought you'd never make it, didn't you?
Teams (students) continue to interact with other teams on Blackboard, offering pointed yet helpful critiques and plentiful feedback on the Chappuis scripts from modules of not long ago.
This final module is to center on students' discussions of their field work observations, from the assignment launched in Module 5.
| MODULE 1 | MODULE 2 | MODULE 3 | MODULE 4 |
| MODULE 5 | MODULE 6 | MODULE 7 | MODULE 8 |
| MODULE 9 | MODULE 10 | ONE MORE THING |