Bigger than my stomach

I have a bad habit.  Or maybe not so much of a habit as an estimation-impairment.  OK, that’s not really the best way to describe it.  It’s like, well, sometimes, my parents, seeing me as a child loading my plate with tons of food that they knew I’d never finish, would comment that my “eyes were bigger than my stomach.”  I would try to prove them wrong, but to no avail.  They were right, I had no idea how much was really appropriate for my hunger and the size of my body.

I still do that–but not with food.  I get so excited about having a baby that I fail to think about how much work it’s going to be and get swamped with unpreparedness.  Or I am so excited to try a new lesson idea or activity failing to understand how much work it is actually going to take and spend hours rushing to finish everything in time.  (I do it the other way around too, like panicking about how hard it is going to be to drive to Milwaukee to see a show at the Pabst–where is it, where will we park, how long will it take, etc–when in actuality it’s easy as pie.  Or taking the baby to the apple orchard (all that talk two weeks ago made me want to go so badly ) with us this year and having a great time despite my panic and apprehension before leaving.)

This week was one of those times.  I never felt that it would be easy, but I have been thinking about my ‘hypothetical’ evaluation pretty consistently over the past month or so for two reasons: this class; my own classes at SEHS.  I am trying to integrate Moodle into my classes even as I write this, and therefore am trying to plan this evaluation in concert with what how I want this to work.  I have a lot of ownership here, so I figured that three questions I want answered should be no sweat.  And I guess they wouldn’t have been if I only had three questions, but I don’t.  I have a hundred questions.  I’ve never done this before.  I’ve got no background.  I’ve got no history. I don’t know where this is going to go or if it’s going to work.  Patrick saw right what I was doing, and asked if I “want there what [I] have here” at CTER.  Yes I do!  I love what we have here, and I want to emulate it as much as I can, but I have only been doing this for 8 months now, though never once in the exact capacity that I am doing with my students.  I’d like to think I’m pretty good at synthesizing information, but there’s no question that I have no place thinking that I know how to do this well.

So, thinking of the three questions that could really nail the marrow of what I want to happen in my classes was hard.  I came up with the following:

1. How has an authentic audience of peers and a greater focus on writing in class affected student writing?

Really, thinking back over the summer classes, I have wanted to make sure that I use technology only that will help enhance learning for my students.  I think that Moodle is one of those tools.  I’ve written about this a hundred times I’m sure, but I am constantly trying to find a way for my kids to get their writing out to more than just me.  When kids don’t like writing anyway, asking them to do a bunch of it for a one ma audience is hardly motivating.  I’m sure that my teaching style would be VERY different if I only had one student per class a day.  (yes, I’d love it, but I think the point I am trying to make is that I would not be nearly as worried about making mistakes and having everything polished off, as long as I had a decent relationship with the student.)  Anyway, asking students to post their work, never knowing who from their class is going to read it should have a positive effect on their motivations.

2. How has Moodle affected students’ ability to work, think, and discuss independently; does it prepare students to apply their knowledge to the classroom?

My pre-AP students are not very responsible right now.  Printers are breaking left and right, computers are getting viruses on a daily basis, and folders are being left on kitchen tables at an alarming rate.  I need my kids to get past that for a lot of reasons, and I think that this could be a good way to do it.  Everything is there–no loops, no surprises.  The kids will have plenty of advance notice that assignments are due, and they will have plenty of individual time to do them.  I want to see how much of a difference this makes on their levels of responsibility.  Also I want to see if they can learn to apply their knowledge to their writing that they do in class–this is just bonus goodness.

3. Have the occasional foibles of technology been offset by the advantages for students and teachers?

As Jennifer has already experienced, and I am dealing with a bit, there are plenty of issues when using high tech in junior and senior high schools.  It’s a new way of working and therefore will cause some problems as all new programs do.  But, once the kinks are ironed out and the results are in, will it even matter that 3 students took 4 months to get their accounts on Moodle?  Hopefully not.