Making Progress at last

Last Wednesday was the second theory lesson and I began with a small piece of paper with 3 questions:

1. How's Canvas? Why?
2. How did you feel when you finished your homework this week?
3. What did you do for your directed study hours?

Answers were clear.
Many in the class were feeling confused about Canvas - difficulty navigation, or uploading files and a few other issues, which we clarified immediately.
Those who did homework felt good of course. Others were worried they couldn't get it done in time and were worried about what to do next.
The directed study responses became interesting. The whole point was to get students working together on their group work and begin their collaborations, and about half did other stuff,so we went back to what directed study entails.

It feels like a good way to get feedback and I think I might do this more often as it's easy and quick to do. It's not personal as there are no names required and I can react on the spot if there is something getting out of control.

We went through a few more things to put the class at their ease and already the response was a lot more positive. 

Next I got some feedback on how they felt about the groups I had allocated for the Shops and this was quite cool. One group had reconfigured some of the pairings to suit their skills better and who they knew better (not quite my intention but I'll have to see how that develops). I think a combination of what I say and what the group members need to function is a fair solution. Both groups displayed  clear automatic leader and follower sets, and the discussions from both seemed to be quite effective despite having to work in a crowded computer lab. In all, though they felt confident that they knew what was expected of them and they were happy with the set up and information given to them last week. I was interested to hear comments that this Shop felt to be easier to plan than their last one, even though there is more work and input expected in this course.

Perhaps the fact that they don't have to choose groups and and allocate all tasks, but can get on with it, coupled with the preparation we did last week about working together and solving problem, is paying off already.
I'd like to think so!

Next week I'm asking the same questions on the same format and I'll see what difference there is in general with the few changes and explanations. In all, I'd say a positive start to a new way of presenting this Shop Group Assignment.

As a result we went straight to Kahoot!

and it was a massive success! It's been quite  while since I used it in class myself and it was such a buzz to see them so enthusiastic!

Goals for next week are:
1. keep the reflection up to date
2. monitor the group progress and feeling moving forward
3. trouble shooting the spreadsheet progress as planned now that this is also clearer

the maze is amazing

Wow its nearly 4 weeks since our last class and I'm quite amazed at how much I've achieved - and not done as well. Its almost as if, for each task I complete, another 2 sprout into existence. As usual, some incredibly productive days were  balanced with some lazy ones, but ultimately I have produced an online activity I am proud of and which should translate quite easily into the new Learning Management System (Canvas) at work which I am about to use with my new class from Wednesday. That was the second great milestone for this month, 2 weeks ago I was told I'd be using it from Sept 6th and I was only for 15 % confident in its use, not close to ready to train my workmates and certainly had only the vaguest idea how to create what I could so clearly see in my head as my new student website! Roll on to today and the feedback from 2 of my colleagues has been positive for the online activity as well as for the student site. Marc as well, was very positive ans let me know he found it to be clearly set up and that the flow is logical. 

Hooray!

Feeling really satisfied - until this morning when a  new student mailed to let me know she found it to be a bit greek - I HOPE its because it's a completely new look and feel and she isn't clear on what the course is all about...yet....

I'm pretty sure I saw a few of these guys along the way during my journey to the other side of the amazing maze I've created, hopefully they have found their way out and I've left enough viewpoint for the students to get their bearings. The homepage should do that nicely. A few inconsistencies to tidy up and we shall see.

So, the Teaching Action Plan: building Canvas first was the right thing to do. I tried to have all my files ready and uploaded, then I tried to have all my thumbnails ready as well. That got me quite a long way but the more I made the more I had to do, to complete the vision. I think for me the process of creating a new site and activity is an organic one. One thing leads to another and the process of building shows me what is needed in the next step. At least I  know this and don't get too stressed anymore - I gave myself enough time to get it all together, which was great. The hardest thing was to start on my Teaching Goal of resetting the way in which I establish group work, which for some reason seemed to be a really big mental hurdle. I'd done a bit of hunting around and had a few likely things lined up ready to use, then at the last minute did another search and ended up with other ideas that seemed to be right, which I will use from tomorrow. It feels like what I know, what I have been reading and searching for, allowed me to cherry pick what felt right from the resources I found, so hopefully that bears fruit over the next few weeks.

The activities to help introduce and hopefully motivate solid group work next Trimester are pretty much outlined and set up in Canvas. A video, a questionnaire, an icebreaker for another angle on the personality test all contribute to that. The Shop assignment is is going to be a Google Shared file again, I just need to see if it will be a collaboration or I just set up sections (groups) and give access that way. Interesting discussion with Des about ownership - should the students own the responsibility for their submissions or should we create more access for ourselves so we can keep monitoring their progress - how often is too often? (I believe the students need to take the responsibility and that I should check once a week - more often and surely that becomes interference and not a trust you extend to them to work for themselves). How else will we give our students the beginnings of independence? I fully understand the need to guide and support, but we can't be mollycoddling and holding hands for everything they do.

The production plan has grown organically - it's now a study guide timeline on an editable calendar sheet and it shows what students are advised to do and when so they keep on top of things. I'm curious to see how successfully this more structured approach will be received and how much it will be acted upon. Need to build triggers into the lesson plan so I remember to monitor activity on a weekly basis ans set the tone of the coming week's work for them.

At this point what is resonating with me the loudest is that I feel much more focused into what the students will be going through. When I am honest with myself the symptoms of failed group work were visible much earlier and more often than I took the time or had the head to recognise. I hope in the future I'll take note of these signs more quickly - at the same time it takes time to refine new programmes and when you are working on a Trimester basis the challenge is balance. Now that the assessments and lesson plans are 95% complete there has been space to consider the problems I ave last time and really address them. Of course taking I've used it for my study as well thus forcing the issue, but realy I would have to as the timing is very good and I am pleased with the relationship between the online activity of completing the spreadsheet order, and making sure group work is meaningful and concludes positively.

This week's Goals:

1. Reflection for the MLT and where that is at

2. A summary of how the TPA Action plan is progressing

3. start implementing the action plan in class this week (make the lesson plans for that tomorrow)

Reflection on Action

In conversation about this week's progress it's coming to me that I am working backwards to find the way forward. This is fine because it was the act of looking back that gave me the idea to improve my group work so that our Shops can be planned more effectively by the students.

What has bothered me this week is the fact I am having difficulty figuring out how to consciously recognise any progress in my professional development.

As I was talking to Des (lecturer Diploma Culinary) this morning it came to me that conversation is where I articulate a lot of what is going on in my mind.

I know that I think better out loud and that through conversation a lot of good ideas come up. Then I go away and work them out, which is exactly how it went this week.

By spending time looking, talking and thinking about what, how and why I needed to change things, when I finally sat down to work on those changes, they really did flow fairly fluidly onto the screen.

This allowed me to achieve some of last week's goals
1.  I am finding activities to help introduce and hopefully motivate solid group work next Trimester. The Shop assignment is updated and I have completed both a production plan and a task list for the students to work from.
2. Adding milestones is kind of done - just need to add in the class dates - the lesson schedule will be confirmed this week which will help with that.I'll put into the class calendar as well so there is complete clarity.
3. the story board made way for Canvas, I spent a frustrating Sunday afternoon working on it - I don't enjoy learning new systems especially when I'm told it's so easy! I have such clear visions of what I want I get on my own way when I don't see how to achieve that straight away.However, by yesterday morning I was a whole lot happier about what I had accomplished. After a night's sleep I saw that it will be quite good. Now to work out how I want to do the group and individual collaboration files.

So what am I learning about my teaching practise? Looking further back at my action plan I realised a lot of points were covered by the end of the day's work, and that once I organise some good tactics to introduce improvements to group work. Above all I want to avoid this!:

I think then with this hindsight, part of my plan would be to be more mindful of the impact of our expectations on our students. While talking with Des I realised that a lot of the time as lecturers, we are 70% there in our heads and don't reflect enough on how it will look to the student - where do they start from and where will they end. I know I wrote about this in my reflections on the Special Topic and Research, but I still have more to do getting this to be a part of me so I think back in better detail and get the consequences in front of me ore effectively. This meta-cognition takes time and effort, unfortunately I don't always want to listen to those voices that tell me (they can be very quiet and I can be good at putting them aside until the consequences SCREAM at me - by which time I have to RUN!) to make improvements.

Time for some story boards - I seem to be avoiding it yet I am fairly sure it will help to keep my focus so off I pop!

Further into Action Land......

Well today I decided to work from home- it really is a privilege to be able to choose that for my non-teaching days. I thought I had a modest goal in deciding to concentrate on the shop assessment and then spend the afternoon working on my new Canvas course - we are shifting from BlackBoard to Canvas and we were just told that for our Faculty that will kick in wit the new Trimester starting on Sept 6th. So that really put the wind up me as I am supposed to support my peers with this new thing, and I'm not yet confident myself.
I haven't been into Canvas yet so will do that next week. Instead I re-worked our Daily Observations into 2 parts - one lecturer version into Excel so we can keep tabs on professional practice. It's more work for us but there is no other way - at least this one will do the adding for us! The other one is a tweaked version of what the students currently have to write for their weekly reflections; better sample text and I've taken the scoring back - it was a nice idea but students aren't ready. Comes to mind I still need to see that we are marking what is written not what is produced! That's been the rub the whole time and it bears proper thought to be effective. So with all of that what am I learning about my own practice? I think the iceberg is shrinking!

I really have to keep the direction I want to take in front of me. I went all the way back to the Course Descriptor and Learning Outcomes to start a fresh and I'll need to take another look on Friday to see if I kept to that - it's so easy to put in what you WANT to put in as assessment criteria! Alignment is so important, it pays for me to keep looking at what is to be assessed. David Boud on reflective writing and Ken Bain on successful teaching both remind me of that need. There is definitely more now,  on the product quality than I had before - hopefully I am also formulating in such a way that the students will write what  am looking for! I needed to have more of "explain how" esp in the second shop. This time I want the Artisan (1st Shop) to have a lot more milestones and guesswork removed, and the second shop for Proficiency, to be more independent.  
I'm learning also that I really can get something substantial done when I put my mind to it, I'm very pleased with how far I got today.
Looking at my action plan though, a lot of attention needs to be given to the actual process by which to facilitate the group work. I plan on making the philosophy behind group collaboration more clear so the students have a more vested interest. Fink's resources may also help me to work out an enticing way to  encourage better teamwork. I think already taking on leadership and having tasks allocated will take out a lot of the guesswork. Students just need to rock up, get their task, start on them and then check on each other for progress. Hopefully that will allow them to focus more quickly on the task which is to produce goods!
Here's a video link to what we do:
Baking at Manukau 2016

Goals for this week:
1. work out a strategy to introduce group work
2. make a milestone map with dates and meeting  times that can be used and checked off - that should be a part of the Canvas calendar too so it pops up to the students 
3. work on the excel sheet story board so I can get started on that in the weekend!

I feel as if I have finally put some of those words into action and that if words are wind, words are getting me underway!