Introduction

Understanding best practices as an educator is great. Implementing best practices in your class is even better, but to really make an impact, good ideas and methods need to be shared and expanded. This section is about expanding programs from the idea board of your singular classroom to the school or district. I will be walking through some ideas for how to deal with implementing a new program in a school or district by using my plans and experiences in doing just that at my school in Seoul, South Korea. 

Below is a link to a quick clip by Derek Sivers talking about leadership. He uses a video of a lone dancer on the grass hill at The Gorge Amphitheater overlooking the Columbia River to make a point about the idea of 'the leader'. 

Making change, as we see from the clip, is about getting others to legitimize your initial plan, otherwise you are the "lone nut". Your idea must be one that others want to follow. Which means we must understand the motivations of the learners. I will walk through some ways to organize a group, create meaning for the learners, and ultimately succeed in expanding your ideas past your singular classroom doors. 

Designing A Meaningful Learning Experience

Initiative

The technology integration initiative or educational technology change that I have chosen is to introduce a flipped classroom into the school. 

My presentation strategy is to use the idea that a flipped classroom increases the quality of life for teachers and students. 

Outline:

1. Overview -

    a. What is a flipped classroom?

    b. How will our school be implementing this idea?

    c. It will increase the quality of life for teachers and students

2. Less talking, more doing

    a. Online lecture versus in class lecture

    b. Teaching to the middle

    c. More time to teach one-on-one

3. Differentiation

    a. More ability to teach to each students’ needs

    b. Custom

4. Workflow and Organization

    a. Using calendars for organization

    b. Goal-oriented class

    c. Student submissions

5. Collaboration

    a. Sharing reduces work

    b. No more need for personal USB transfer

    c. Sharing creates positive environment

Overall experience

I envision my overall experience to be an immersion experience. I would have the instructors of the course view my presentation about a flipped classroom before coming to the training session. They would generate questions based on that presentation and be ready to have a hands-on display of a flipped classroom. 

We would start with a check for understanding discussion. The instructors would ask questions, then we would start to collaborate on building an activity for a lesson. We would have paper and pencils set-up in several groups. We will go to stations set-up for different phases of the activity so the instructors can see what working in groups can be like. This will generate ideas on how we can make this idea better. 

After finishing the exercise, we will share our ideas for how we will implement a flipped lesson and, eventually, and flipped classroom. By sharing in the experience of being a student in a flipped classroom, instructors can see the lessons from another perspective and potentially generate ideas for how it can be better. It will also set the groundwork for having a collaborative environment in the school and, hopefully, will transfer into any other changes that might come in the future. We will adopt the design method for this training session. 

One of the potential hazards of creating a hands-on training session for adults is that they might not actively participate because it feels too childish. The first idea for alleviating that concern is to make sure that my energy is up and I’m ready to go, so they can feed off the energy. I will also take the lead in the activities, so they do not have to feel forced. Secondly, we will make sure the activity is adult-oriented, so it will maintain interest. We can use pop-culture or current events to create a more meaningful experience for teachers. Finally, we will try and keep it brief. Teachers will need less time to understand this than a child, so I will make sure I consider my audience and not teach to children. 

Other issues will arise in the process, so instead of trying to sort out each one, I have built into the process that the learners are participating and offering feedback during the lesson, so they can feel the buy-in to be a part of this and we will generate great ideas of improvement in the process. This will better the lives of all of us.

Change Management Fundamentals

My school is planning to implement flipped classes this year. We will need to plan how we will implement this change in the school. I will lay out my plan on how we can successfully implement these changes.

Training

In order to have an honest dialogue and build support for a change, we will need to inform the teachers what flipping a classroom means. “Support for change efforts can come in two forms: information that provides reformers with a solid knowledge base to work from, [and] advocacy from those inside and outside the school.” (Campbell, 2012). The initial stage of training will simply be having the teachers do some learning about the method we plan to implement and why. Having a base of knowledge on the idea, teachers will be able to participate in the next stage more effectively. This stage will be the initial stage, and the teaching staff will be informed that this is a proposed idea. We will lay out the reasons why we want to try this, but leave the final decision to actually implement this method to the next stage. 

Brainstorming

“Restructuring can begin only with the initiation of honest dialogue at a school” (Campbell, 2012). After the teaching staff has been trained on what a flipped classroom is and how it works, we can have a dialogue about how to implement it, or if we want to implement it. Any good idea should be able to stand up to scrutiny, so an open discussion of the pros and cons of the method will be a positive step for implementation and create buy-in for the teachers and staff involved because they are a part of the process of change. This stage is where we as a groups can hash out our ideas on what we think needs to be solved and how. 

Plan

Once we have an agreed upon set of ideas, we can begin the planning stage. We will plan our lessons with the ideas we agreed upon in mind and make sure we are all working together. Depending on the brainstorming, we might have a set of lessons we will flip this year, or we might flip certain classes, or even flip the entire school. We will have to plan according to those decisions. We might need to plan for online help, access for certain students, and new materials as well. 

Implementation

After the planning stage is completed, we will put the plan to the test. Implementing these ideas in the classroom environment and online. A flipped class, assuming that was agreed upon in the brainstorming stage, will need an online element, so we will have to help the students learn how to use the LMS or other online elements of the course. After the planning collaboration, all the teachers should be on the same page with these things. If they are having trouble, there will always be help from other teachers or the teacher trainer to help smooth the transition upon initial implementation. We must make sure to track any relevant data while implementing the new program as well, so we can use it in the next stage. 

Review

Collecting data throughout the process of implementation is important. Then “change leaders collect and analyze data in order to identify those who need help” (Roy, 2013). After collecting and analyzing the data we can take that information into the beginning of the stages again with brainstorming. Having a cyclical pattern will allow teachers and administrators to constantly review and adjust based on the data from this review stage. 

Teachers will also discuss the pros and cons of the in-class implementation and the online elements of the course. Collaboration at this stage brings more data to collect for brainstorming purposes later. After reviewing, we start the process over with the new data and ideas we learned from in the first cycle. 

Below is an infographic showing the process of change. 

View fullsize

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References

Campbell, L.M. (2012). Facilitating change in our schools. Creating the Future. Johns Hopkins School of Education. Retrieved from http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/future/creating_the_future/crfut_campbelll.cfm

Roy, P. (2013). School-based professional learning for implementing the common core. Learning Forward. Retrieved from http://learningforward.org/docs/default-source/commoncore/tplchange.pdf

UDL for Adult Learners: Intentional and Accessible Learning Experiences

One of the main tenets of andragogy is autonomy. Adult learners know how they learn and want to have choices. All three of the main tenets of UDL offer choices. What is UDL?

Multiple Means of Representation

Allowing adult learners different ways of gathering information offers the adult learner a choice of how they wish to see/hear/read the content based on what works best for them. They will chose the one that works best because they are self-motivated to gather the information the most effective way they can. I do this in my own learning frequently, when given a choice. I have always remembered and been able to transfer information when I have visual representation of content in context. I grew up being able to rattle off all of the battle strategies of Hannibal (still can 20 years later) from watching one documentary, but I had trouble contextualizing novels I was not interested in when I was in school. I am uniquely aware of the benefits of offering multiple means of representation for students without disabilities as much as we do for students with them. I am going to have a flipped lesson to teach what a flipped lesson is, so I will have video, audio, and text representations online. In the class setting, I would like something hands-on and interactive, like organizing a classroom with blocks or with the class itself to help teachers visualize and feel the lesson a little more.

Multiple Means of Action and Expression

I still struggle with this one in my own learning because I was in the traditional system for too long, I think. I am comfortable writing essays. I majored in English (lots of essays), and minored in History (essays) and philosophy (long essays). I do see the benefit of having a choice of how you express your knowledge of the content though. I have seen many students create wonderful things that show their knowledge of ideas or content without writing an essay or taking a quiz and those should be honored. For adults, it is even more important because of the shell adults have around them for fear of failure. Having a choice to show what they know in a way they feel comfortable with gives them confidence and allows for a successful learning environment. My particular lesson I am working on is not a mastery course, it is a training, so I will not be asking for much in the way of expression. They do not get graded, and they will not appreciate homework when they are trying to prepare for classes, but I will try and encourage them to use this method with their students and hope they will see the benefits of offering this sort of choice in their class. If I had a class that needed evidence of mastery, I would allow any type of submission they felt gives evidence of their knowledge of the subject. With adults, it is easier to allow them to work independently without them going way off course. Adults tend to need answers when they are lost, where as children can just go way off course sometimes without thinking they didn't get it. 

Multiple Means of Engagement

This one differs the most from pedagogy, I think. When dealing with younger students engagement is external and the onus is on the instructor more to deliver the means of engagement; however, with adults the motivation is generally more internal and the onus is more on the student. Look at university, traditionally, the student has to deal with how it is done and figure it out. All of my professors could not care less if I had trouble understanding their lecture, they would offer me notes or some office time to help explain things, but they would not worry about trying to motivate me. My money and future career was supposed to do that for them. In this way, I think this is also the hardest, but possibly the most interesting of the three UDL principles to apply to andragogy. This is where the instructor can be more informal and break things down on why we are learning them in the grand scheme of things. This is also where an instructor can create a series of lessons that build to a final 'aha' moment. This is a much harder task to do with adults, which is why it would be hard. However, when done right can be very satisfying. This is where UbD is important because the instructor needs to know where s/he wants to end up and how to get the students there in an engaging way. Perhaps it is my English background, but I like the idea of building a story that leads to the end goal. Adults, like anyone, are engaged when there is some connection to the content, real of make-believe (see: movies). A story is an overarching tool for engagement that lends itself to additional methods of engagement because anything can happen in a story you create. Adult students can engage with the story because it offers authentic practice (if written correctly) and choice. I grew up reading the Choose Your Own Adventure books, and that can be a part of the story as well. 

Protocols: Tools for Meaningful Adult Learning Experiences

"Protocols can help bring teachers out of isolation" (Easton, 2009, p 2).

This is a pretty good example of what engagement means to me for adult learners. Many adults slowly slide into their caves throughout their lives. We get comfortable with the way things are going, for better or worse. Active engagement is when they come out of hiding, poke their heads around and are prepared for learning. Walking into their cave and pressing them on something is when the territorial instinct kicks in and you get push back. We, as facilitators, do not want to push against a wall, it will only thicken up in that instance. We want to draw them out and get them engaged. 

This is where a carrot, not a stick, is the answer. I do not mean we bribe learners into being interested, I mean we need to find something that interests them so they choose to come out on their own. Protocols can draw opinions and information out of someone when properly designed and implemented. It is not a trick, what we learn in andragogy plays in here. Adult learners want to learn something that will better their lives or earn them some credibility or recognition. If a protocol can trigger a response or emotion, then they will be more interested in coming out of the cave and being a part of the engagement. And we all know how the group dynamics can play in after that. If many people are getting involved, many more will feel piqued and get involved as well. 

I really like the idea of proposing something crazy from the start and getting them - 1) woken up and 2) considering an idea from a totally different world view or angle. For example, we propose a drastic change to the curriculum that will get people quickly interested because it effects their lives and they probably have an opinion on the matter. 

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Protocol for Flipped Classroom Planning

1. The protocol has been adapted from a protocol called Jigsaw Threads (Dunlap, p. 103-104).

2. The purpose of this protocol is to organize a few of the issues teachers might face when flipping a class and solving the problems before implementation of the new method of instruction.

3. The teachers will use the multipurpose meeting room at Cheongwon Elementary School. The room will need to have five table groups with five chairs at each table group. Each table group will need paper and pencils. 

4. I will split my team of teachers into five groups of five teachers and have them sit at the tables. Each team will receive a prompt explaining a problem other schools have had implementing a flipped class pre-made by myself. The group will decide who will be the notetaker and they will write the notes for the group. The group will read through their problem and how the school solved the problem, if they did. Then, each group will discuss how we can solve this problem. Questions to consider for the groups:

            Will we have the same problem?

            Would the solution from the other school work at our school?

            What problems does our school have that are different?

            Can we solve this problem another way?

After having a discussion for 20-30 minutes, the group should have a solution they think works the best. One member from the group will be the “expert” on their problem and solution (not the notetaker). I will stop the discussion and have the ‘expert’ of each group stand up with the notes from their group and move to another group, taking the place of the ‘expert’ from that group. They will bring the problem with them. The new groups will pick a new notetaker and, with one of the there sheets of paper, take more notes on the new problem. This will be a 10-20 minute discussion. First, the ‘expert’ will run down the problem and solution they decided on. The ‘expert’ will lead the discussion taking new ideas and telling them ideas they had already considered in the last group. After the time has ended, they can decide to keep the same solution or add a new solution. The ‘experts’ move again to a new group and begin the process over again until the ‘experts’ are back in their original group. They will have a few minutes to go over the new ideas they have acquired on their trip around the room, then they will propose the final solution to the head teacher and administration that they have come up with as they talked to everyone. This process should take approximately 2 hours. 

5. The desired outcome of this protocol is to allow each teacher to participate in coming up with solutions to common problems schools face when implementing a flipped classroom (e.g. Students not watching the lecture at home). This will allow each teacher to offer their opinions on the possible problems and solutions the school will face and be a part of the process of implementation. Each teacher needs to be a part of the process and feel included. 

6. I think the biggest challenge will be engaging the teachers in the protocol at first. It will feel awkward or forced or even excessive. However, once the ball gets rolling then Newtonian physics takes over and the ball remains moving until something or someone stops it. it might make things difficult at first because I have little experience in this as well. If I have planned properly and prepared for that, I should be fine. 

Another issue is time. I have laid out a time limit, but this time might be too long or too short for the process to work effectively. In order to overcome that potential problem, I will have to be able to adapt for it. If the groups are slowing down and not engaged in the process after a certain amount of time, I will have to adjust the time at each stage to make it more effective time management. If the teachers are not into it, I do not want to drag it our longer than it needs to go. Anyone implementing any protocol probable has to be prepared to adjust mid-stream to balance the engagement of the teachers with the plan’s ultimate goal of finding solutions to these problems. 

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                                                         References

Dunlap, J. (n.d.). Protocols for online discussions. Retrieved from http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/CUOnline/FacultyResources/additionalResources/Handbook/Documents/DiscussionProtocols.pdf

Easton, L.B. (2009 Feb/Mar). Protocols: a facilitator's best friend. Tools for Schools. Vol. 12 No. 3. Retrieved from http://www.sd71.bc.ca/resources/plc/7%20PROTOCOLS%20Norms%20Examples/1%20Protocol%20TOOLS%20.pdf

Professional Learning Communities

Do heroic teachers solve anything?

Teachers can be heroes to many, certainly teachers seem larger than life to many students. However, if we plan to solve the ills that plague education, is the solution to hire more hero teachers? Can we count on every employee to go above and beyond on their own motivation? 

The solution is clearly not to put all the responsibility on the shoulders of a few teachers who go above and beyond. However, we can learn from those teachers. We can spread those methods. In order to spread ideas and share, we need communities. The very same thing we are a part of in our everyday lives outside the classroom. A community. We are not all police officers or firemen. We can all help in different ways, though. They teach us how to stay safe and we can teach their children, or cook their food. We share the responsibility of the group by creating a community we call society. Why do we insist on battling the problems of education alone? Educators are in this together. We should help each other because the goal of our jobs is not to gain glory, otherwise you would not be a teacher. It is not to get rich, otherwise you would not be a teacher. It is to educate the future generations to play a role in the society when they enter into it, whether it's a job or a leader of a movement for change. To make sure there is collaboration and support for teachers schools and/or districts can create professional learning communities (PLC) to share ideas and experiences to spread best practices throughout the school. Below is my proposal for an online PLC at my school to aid in the transition to a flipped class model. 

Proposal for Wikispaces PLC

Unlike simply collaborating amongst teachers a professional learning community (PLC) is a system of collaboration for the purpose of professional development. “The powerful collaboration that characterizes professional learning communities is a systematic process in which teachers work together to analyze and improve their classroom practice” (DuFour, 2004). How can Cheongwon Elementary School utilize a PLC for improving the school by way of teacher collaboration? We can build an online PLC with wikispaces (https://www.wikispaces.com). 

Wikispaces is a wiki builder that can facilitate a PLC by letting teachers post ideas, videos, and many other kinds of media for the sake of sharing ideas. It will be a fully collaborative online setting where teachers can share their ideas about what works and what does not. They can share their ideas and collaborate on new ones. They will also be building the technological know-how to help their students with 21st century problems as well. “The Maryland Electronic Learning Community (MELC) is an example of a teacher development and support group built upon the notion of formal training in technology integration and linked with continuing collaboration and support” (Fulton, 1999). Continued collaboration benefits the school because the teachers are building a better set of tools for teaching and the students benefit because they are getting the best solutions for their learning needs because the teachers are helping each other. 

It will work in the same way that wikipedia works, but on a smaller scale and not public. Teachers will create an entry for a method of instruction, content idea, or other teaching related topic. They will add the relevant information and how they have used it. There, teachers will be able to edit and add their own experience with the same technique. Teachers can comment and collaborate around these ideas being specific about their use of it. Eventually, there will be a wealth of information on the wiki for new teachers to pull from and, as they use it, they will continue to add to it. There are many examples of using a wiki in this way. From UNC, “The third-grade team uses their wiki to post links to teacher and student sites for upcoming topics. Members of the PLC explore the links on their own time, and each teacher chooses which sites to use in the coming days and weeks” (Linton, n.d.). This will be larger than a typical once in awhile PLC meeting within a school because it will be on-going and asynchronous. Teachers will be able to add or pull from it anytime of day and night. They will be able to add to it right after a class while the experience is fresh in their memories, instead of waiting until the meeting and taking notes.

An example of building a technological base comes from North Carolina. “Teachers, university faculty, prospective teachers, and graduate students learn technological skills in the context of developing the modules” (Fulton, 1999). The very process of using a wiki can help teachers understand the technology and communication methods students understand and are using. This helps teachers feel more confident in their use of technology in the classroom. 

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References

DuFour, R. (2004, May). What is a professional learning community? Educational Leadership. ASCD. Vol. 61 No. 8. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may04/vol61/num08/What-Is-a-Professional-Learning-Community¢.aspx

Fulton, K. P. (1999, May). Collaborative online continuing education: Professional development through learning communities. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/professional-development-through-learning-communities

Linton, J. (n.d.). Building and maintaining an online professional learning community. K-12 Teaching and Learning from the UNC School of Education. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/7012

Flipping a Classroom 101

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At Cheongwon Elementary School, we have decided it would be too much of a time and energy burden to fully flip the classes all at once. This would also create problems for the students that are not prepared or parents who do not want sudden change. The preferred method that was decided upon was to use the gamification method of building knowledge lesson by lesson until a fully flipped unit later in the year. 

Lesson 1: Discussion Post Homework

The first lesson will be to introduce the students to our LMS (Schoology) and what it is capable of. We have already created accounts and given out the student login information. The students should be versed in logging into the LMS. This will be their first flip class related assignment, to post a response to the LMS.  

In our first discussion post, we will keep it simple. It should be a question or questions that do not need research to answer. For example: What did you do over vacation? Adjust the question to the level of the students. Later, we will be injecting much more critical thinking into the discussion requirements of our students, but for now the goal is not to get great answers to the questions, the goal is to make sure the students know how to use the discussion within the LMS and to make sure we, the teachers, know how to grade the posts. 

Make sure to enable grading and create a category for the first few posts that is weighted at zero, because this is a training exercise. Once we start using the posts for homework, we will categorize them as homework, but for now it will be weighted as zero. 

Lesson 2: LMS Quiz

The second level we will be creating in the curriculum is to have the students take an online quiz. This will be the following week from the previous discussion post homework. 

Our first quiz, much like the discussion previously, is going to be created for the sole purpose of showing the students how to take an online quiz and make sure they understand how it is done. Create a practice quiz for their vocabulary words for the current reading lesson. This should be from 8-10 words, so there can be up to 10 questions on the quiz. Make sure to play around with the settings and try many varying question types. Include pictures, but do not add links just yet. We should keep everything within the LMS for now, until the students are comfortable with the system. Much like the discussion, make sure the category is weighted as zero, this is just practice for the students to get used to the system we will be delivering our flipped lesson within later. 

Lesson 3: An Assignment

The third week we will be slowly introducing the flipped classroom to the students will involve submitting an assignment. You might be asking, why is an assignment third and not first, isn't that a more common thing to do? Yes and no. In a normal class, it is much more normal, but in a flipped class, we will be reducing the amount of assignments the students will be responsible for bringing into school (or submitting online) because we will be working on their practice in class with teacher guidance. Also, this is a harder lesson to learn for the students than the last two, so it is more logical to learn after the other two when they are starting to get comfortable with the LMS. 

I'm sure you are starting to see a pattern here, but I will reiterate that this assignment will be created for the sole purpose of allowing the students practice turning in an assignment. This will be one week after the previous level as well. We will be allowing paper and/or digital submissions. If the file is submitted physically, it will still be able to be added as a grade, just go into the gradebook instead of using the sidebar. This assignment should be very simple, relative to your students' level, so the hardest part is actually viewing and submitting the assignment. 

Tips on uploading a document - Make sure you view your document after submitting because I have had formatting issues when uploading MS Word documents. I have been using Google Docs and that has been better, though not fool proof either. The students probably do not have printers, or many of them will not, so avoid PDFs because they will not be able to edit the file at home and digitally submit it (Unless you have access to an Adobe PDF editor). There are ways of changing that, but we are not going to be able to send a list of software parents must download, so we will create assignments under the assumption that they do not have any special software.

Once we have finished this three week plan for teaching the first few skills needed for a flipped classroom, it is time to start adding these to regularly scheduled lesson plans and graded work for class. Just make sure you are talking with any teachers you share grade levels with to make sure each teacher is going at the same pace. Later we will be planning full lessons that are flipped once the students are comfortable with each element.