Journal+for+Dec.+13-20

This week our team was able to have a collaboration day with the Northwood Middle School team. It was nice to get together to share some of our successes and frustrations. I felt better about my own skill level, after hearing some of the others talk about difficulties they were encountering. We got to see some technologies being used in others' classrooms, and ask questions about how to bring them into our own classes. We also began working with technologies to create or movies. I hope the district will allow us more collaboration days in the future. We were unable to compile our student needs assessment data yet, because of an unexpected problem. When we went to get our data from Survey Monkey we discovered there was a $25 fee. The district said it was too late for us to use grant money, so we had to pay for it ourselves. Unfortunately, the team member who set up the account was ill on Friday, so we will have to complete it this week. I didn't think the videos and reading for this week were as good as last weeks. The project based learning video was basically the same as last week's ideas, with less actual classroom application. The electricity lab videos were very dry, and mostly common sense. The cooperative/collaborative learning URL was information I am familiar with from past classes. I think most teachers use cooperative learning activities in their classrooms at least occasionally. The key to success with cooperative learning is planning, and spending time teaching the students how to work cooperatively. Without proper training, students will often flounder, frustrating both themselves and the teacher. When we return from winter break in January I hope to have a couple lessons using Prezi and Xtranormal. These were some things we worked on at our collaboration day, and I should have time to play with more over break. For now, I have to work on lesson plans for Monday and Tuesday. Happy Holidays! Mark