Tier 1 Course Artifact: Interactive Résumé
Self Reflection
I have chosen my interactive résumé from the Tier 1 course Introduction to Online/Blended Teaching. The reason I chose this artifact is that it was basically my starting point in truly thinking about online/blended teaching. At this point, I had been teaching for Virtual High School for a few months, so I was in the right mindset to begin this journey with my teaching in a brick-and-mortar setting along with teaching online. This unique position allowed me the perspective to compare the two settings continuously along with being able to combine ideas and experiences into a more blended approach.
Through my experience as an online teacher, the things that I would do in order to help keep students on pace proved to be effective for many students, but not for all. There is a large problem that students have staying on pace. It is a challenge to get some to work consistently. Many still leave everything until the last moment, even with the strategies that I outlined in the interactive résumé.
Something that I did do in my course was to input 0% for assignments not completed in alignment with the pacing guide. The assignments were still open so that students could still do them for full credit, but this allowed students to know exactly what their "true" grade was at any moment. If I were to change this, I would definitely add that as another helpful technique in helping students see the importance and to help keep them closer to the pace of the course.
Students were able to work at their own pace in the online course and thus accessed the different activities as their own schedules allowed. Through the synchronous sessions, study halls and one-on-one feedback that I provided, I was able to individually help students with a variety of differing needs. This allowed students to see that there was a real person encouraging, monitoring and helping them at all times. Constant contact with various adult support figures at the different schools these students attended also helped keep students on task. Through the monitoring systems included in the Brainhoney platform, I was able to constantly know where students were in the course so that I could quickly intervene when I noticed a student getting behind in a course or struggling as evidenced by their grades.
One of the biggest challenges in online teaching that was not addressed in-depth in the online/blended courses was the topic of cheating. I found a large number of students who unfortunately felt like cheating was OK and that nobody would notice. When I believed that a student may have cheated I immediately contacted them personally with my concerns and allowed them to redo the assignment. If there were a second infraction, I contacted the student and the parent and allowed them to redo the assignment one time. After that students received 0s for any work that demonstrated the use of a translator or help from beyond the course. Once students realized that this was not OK, many learned the importance of doing the work for themselves, as evidenced by this email that I received. “Profe A, I would like to personally apologize for cheating in your class. It was a very dishonest, silly thing to do. I know that I am capable of using my own brain to complete the assignments, but I took the lazy road and decided to just use a translator. The whole purpose of this class is to teach us students Spanish, and I was just too careless to think on my own. I want to assure you that I will never cheat again, I am going to use my head from now on and ask for help when I need it. Again, I am sorry and this won't happen again. – T.L.”
Overall, I would not change this activity beyond what I've already mentioned, other than better memorization before I recorded! However, I have a lot more online teaching and creating experience at this point, so if I were to do it now again, it would reflect that increase in experience. Thankfully, my ideas at the time combined with more experience have proven to be good online teaching practice as I had a number of students successfully complete their online courses along with positive parent and administrative feedback for my teaching and communication skills with all community shareholders. And while the interactive résumé I wouldn't use specifically with students, I do see myself using the format to give information to students instead of just written emails, as well as the potential for students doing something similar for their own presentations.
Through my experience as an online teacher, the things that I would do in order to help keep students on pace proved to be effective for many students, but not for all. There is a large problem that students have staying on pace. It is a challenge to get some to work consistently. Many still leave everything until the last moment, even with the strategies that I outlined in the interactive résumé.
Something that I did do in my course was to input 0% for assignments not completed in alignment with the pacing guide. The assignments were still open so that students could still do them for full credit, but this allowed students to know exactly what their "true" grade was at any moment. If I were to change this, I would definitely add that as another helpful technique in helping students see the importance and to help keep them closer to the pace of the course.
Students were able to work at their own pace in the online course and thus accessed the different activities as their own schedules allowed. Through the synchronous sessions, study halls and one-on-one feedback that I provided, I was able to individually help students with a variety of differing needs. This allowed students to see that there was a real person encouraging, monitoring and helping them at all times. Constant contact with various adult support figures at the different schools these students attended also helped keep students on task. Through the monitoring systems included in the Brainhoney platform, I was able to constantly know where students were in the course so that I could quickly intervene when I noticed a student getting behind in a course or struggling as evidenced by their grades.
One of the biggest challenges in online teaching that was not addressed in-depth in the online/blended courses was the topic of cheating. I found a large number of students who unfortunately felt like cheating was OK and that nobody would notice. When I believed that a student may have cheated I immediately contacted them personally with my concerns and allowed them to redo the assignment. If there were a second infraction, I contacted the student and the parent and allowed them to redo the assignment one time. After that students received 0s for any work that demonstrated the use of a translator or help from beyond the course. Once students realized that this was not OK, many learned the importance of doing the work for themselves, as evidenced by this email that I received. “Profe A, I would like to personally apologize for cheating in your class. It was a very dishonest, silly thing to do. I know that I am capable of using my own brain to complete the assignments, but I took the lazy road and decided to just use a translator. The whole purpose of this class is to teach us students Spanish, and I was just too careless to think on my own. I want to assure you that I will never cheat again, I am going to use my head from now on and ask for help when I need it. Again, I am sorry and this won't happen again. – T.L.”
Overall, I would not change this activity beyond what I've already mentioned, other than better memorization before I recorded! However, I have a lot more online teaching and creating experience at this point, so if I were to do it now again, it would reflect that increase in experience. Thankfully, my ideas at the time combined with more experience have proven to be good online teaching practice as I had a number of students successfully complete their online courses along with positive parent and administrative feedback for my teaching and communication skills with all community shareholders. And while the interactive résumé I wouldn't use specifically with students, I do see myself using the format to give information to students instead of just written emails, as well as the potential for students doing something similar for their own presentations.
Evidence of Application With Students: Spanish 1 - Synchronous Session
In this short example from a synchronous session one can see how students were able to be actively involved in the course. This was actually the very first synchronous session that I ever taught and as I moved through the year with more experience and practice, I was able to incorporate more and more interactive lessons into the sessions. Teaching students that a red X helped me to know if they were lost or didn't understand something. Students being able to use green checks for yes or comprehension, raising hands if they agreed, raising hands to be called on or to ask a question, also let me keep tabs on the individual participation in the session. Those not participating were easy to spot through the lack of visual participation cues and so I could randomly call on them in order to assess comprehension of the lesson. Parents occasionally sat in on sessions to see how their own children participated and often commented on how much the recordings of the sessions help keep their students involved even when they were not able to attend the sessions live. From an administrative viewpoint this was one other way to increase the amount of student-teacher interaction throughout school year for the duration of the course. So in general the addition of the synchronous session provided one more layer of support for students as they navigated their way through the online course.
Synchronous sessions were held for one hour weekly throughout the entire 18 weeks of each semester of Spanish 1. The recordings of the sessions for student use and review were available throughout the entire 36 weeks of the course and into the summer as some students wanted access to review for Spanish 2H in the fall.
Synchronous sessions were held for one hour weekly throughout the entire 18 weeks of each semester of Spanish 1. The recordings of the sessions for student use and review were available throughout the entire 36 weeks of the course and into the summer as some students wanted access to review for Spanish 2H in the fall.
Feedback From Shareholders
“Ms. Andrews, Thank you for teaching this class. I'm glad you will be able to do more of them. Your dedication in trying to get these students motivated and learning is great. Enjoy your summer. Anne L”
“Ms Andrews, I just want to thank YOU, too, for the wonderful year of Spanish via Virtual HS. You were a REALLY good teacher, despite the fact that I didn't REALLY meet you. Thanks SO much for everything! Beatriz C.”
“The thank you goes out to you for your responsiveness, helpfulness, great teaching and around great experience my son had in your virtual class. Thanks again. Joanna K.”
“It is so great that you will be at virtual,full time, although I am sure your current students at your "real school" will miss you. I am hoping that you will be teaching Spanish 2. Liam really benefited from your comments and help this year. Shari K.”
“You have made her night. The fourth test submitted correctly with no issues. She was stressing out pretty bad but when I told her you submitted the test manually there was this huge sigh and you could tell she was happy. I know I have said this in the past but again I would like to say thank you for all your help and support with Madison. She has had a very busy year with her advance courses plus taking on this extra online course because of the Clark county cut backs and them cutting the Spanish 1 class for the junior high 8th grade after taking conversational Spanish in the 7th grade. If the counselor did not find this high school online course there would have been that year between 7th and 9th grade and basically would be starting all over in 9th grade. Madison has been a trooper with all the work she does and also is in competitive Soccer that she excels in. I don't know how she does it but she does with a smile on her face everyday. Chris M.”
“Thank you again for your flexibility, patience and understanding! John S."
Hi Carmen. I received this email from a parent. Thank you for being so great with our students.
"Good morning Mr. Butler, my name is John XXXXX, I am currently a PE/Health teacher at XXXXXX middle school (15 years). I am emailing you today to discuss one of your current teachers at VHS, Ms. Carmen Andrews. After going through all my past communications (probably over 75 personal emails), and cleaning out my email folder, I feel compelled to tell somebody how amazing she has been with my two boys who are enrolled in her Spanish 1 class. My boys are in 6th and 7th grade and without her personal attention and dedication, would have failed the first semester and had to drop the class the second semester. She was on top of their progress every step of the way helping them individually and appeared to always have time for a question or concern. I honestly feel that she genuinely cares that my children are learning the information and not just going through the motions. In my 15 years I have seen teachers come and go, both good and bad, and without a doubt Ms. Andrews is a great one!"
Michael T. Butler, Assistant Principal
Virtual High School
“Ms Andrews, I just want to thank YOU, too, for the wonderful year of Spanish via Virtual HS. You were a REALLY good teacher, despite the fact that I didn't REALLY meet you. Thanks SO much for everything! Beatriz C.”
“The thank you goes out to you for your responsiveness, helpfulness, great teaching and around great experience my son had in your virtual class. Thanks again. Joanna K.”
“It is so great that you will be at virtual,full time, although I am sure your current students at your "real school" will miss you. I am hoping that you will be teaching Spanish 2. Liam really benefited from your comments and help this year. Shari K.”
“You have made her night. The fourth test submitted correctly with no issues. She was stressing out pretty bad but when I told her you submitted the test manually there was this huge sigh and you could tell she was happy. I know I have said this in the past but again I would like to say thank you for all your help and support with Madison. She has had a very busy year with her advance courses plus taking on this extra online course because of the Clark county cut backs and them cutting the Spanish 1 class for the junior high 8th grade after taking conversational Spanish in the 7th grade. If the counselor did not find this high school online course there would have been that year between 7th and 9th grade and basically would be starting all over in 9th grade. Madison has been a trooper with all the work she does and also is in competitive Soccer that she excels in. I don't know how she does it but she does with a smile on her face everyday. Chris M.”
“Thank you again for your flexibility, patience and understanding! John S."
Hi Carmen. I received this email from a parent. Thank you for being so great with our students.
"Good morning Mr. Butler, my name is John XXXXX, I am currently a PE/Health teacher at XXXXXX middle school (15 years). I am emailing you today to discuss one of your current teachers at VHS, Ms. Carmen Andrews. After going through all my past communications (probably over 75 personal emails), and cleaning out my email folder, I feel compelled to tell somebody how amazing she has been with my two boys who are enrolled in her Spanish 1 class. My boys are in 6th and 7th grade and without her personal attention and dedication, would have failed the first semester and had to drop the class the second semester. She was on top of their progress every step of the way helping them individually and appeared to always have time for a question or concern. I honestly feel that she genuinely cares that my children are learning the information and not just going through the motions. In my 15 years I have seen teachers come and go, both good and bad, and without a doubt Ms. Andrews is a great one!"
Michael T. Butler, Assistant Principal
Virtual High School