One hundred and fifty two seventh grade social studies students (all of my students), ages 11 and 12, participated in a unit devoted to the 2000 United States Presidential election. The majority of students involved in this unit were of Caucasian descent with English as their first language. Fifty-five percent of the students involved in the unit were female and forty-five percent were male. I also have twenty-one students with specific learning disabilities: ten with attention deficit disorder (most are classified as ADHD which means attention deficit hyperactive disorder), five who are emotionally handicapped, five with sensory/motor skills disabilities, and one with hearing loss. I also have sixteen gifted students in my advanced classes. My students come from a variety of economic backgrounds and learning levels. Most live in middle to upper middleclass families. Their parents work in a variety of professions including law, medicine, engineering (Pratt and Whitney is located in our small community), small business, and even dairy and cattle farming. But home life can also be very challenging for about ten percent of my students. These are the students who are living just above the poverty level, have guardians instead of parents, or have had a major tragedy occur.
My school currently has an enrollment of 1450 students and has been classified an “A” level school by the state of Florida for the past two years. Only twenty-two secondary schools have been given this honor in the past two years. A school-wide program is in place that is designed to help students excel on the new Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test. Students review testing strategies and become better writers during a research period at the end of each school day. A student’s schedule might look something like this: Monday is math research day, Tuesday is science research day, Wednesday is social studies research day, and so on.
Students involved in this unit were placed into classes based on their Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test stanine scores. I teach three different kinds of classes: advanced, on-level, and inclusion. The two advanced classes (65 students) involved in this unit consist of students who have average stanine scores of 7, 8, or 9 on the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (these literacy scores are based on 9 being the highest). These two advanced classes also include gifted students. The gifted program at my school currently focuses on math, science, and language arts. The gifted program does not offer a social studies curriculum at the present time. The three on-level classes (87 students) involved in this unit consist of students who have average stanine scores of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 on the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test. Typical on-level classes throughout my school consist of students who score 4, 5, or 6 on the Florida Comprehensive Acheivement Test. I also have an inclusion class. My inclusion class includes specific learning disabled students and emotionally handicapped students and on-level students as well. I am team- teaching these students with an Exceptional Student Education (E.S.E.) teacher. The E.S.E. students have special needs and therefore have detailed Individual Education Plans (I.E.P.’s) developed by our Exceptional Student Education Program. These plans will be discussed in greater detail within my analysis pages. I also teach on an academic team of five teachers: math, science, reading, language arts, and social studies. All the academic classrooms are in close proximity to each other.
The range of abilities displayed by the students who participated in this unit varies greatly. My gifted and advanced students have reading levels as high as high school and college, while my specific learning disabled have reading levels as low as the third grade. Because of this, it is imperative that all types of learning styles be used across the curriculum and I have prided myself on being a hands-on teacher over the past eight years. I have always used interactive desk maps and globes and have assigned projects involving a variety of structures (maps, brochures, budgets, etc.). I have a four-tiered shelf in my classroom with boxes of glue, scissors, crayons, rulers, markers, construction paper, brochures, tour books, etc. I also have several forms of laminated desk maps, globes, laserdisc systems, geography board games, puzzles, a class library (books, magazines, encyclopedias- three sets), and three computers for internet and cd-rom research. Every marking period I assign one major hands-on project and it is great to see all the resources being used. I feel that hands-on projects give students more options.
I also use the internet as a major educational tool. My students have become involved in internet research, have experienced interactive websites, and have joined various internet learning communities. The internet lab (thirty stations) also helps students who do not have a computer at home become more familiar with computers.
I shape the use of these different learning styles around a seventh grade geography curriculum based on the Western Hemisphere, Florida’s Sunshine State Standards (which I wrote for our county), and the five themes of geography: Location, Place, Human-Environment Interaction, Movement, and Region. Florida’s Sunshine State Standards require me to teach subject matter that goes well beyond Western Hemisphere Geography, including major social studies themes.
When I heard about the first national online election in the United States, and that it also involved students, I knew it was going to be a special year. I have been very involved with internet education during the past four years and this was right up my alley. When I started researching the youth-e-vote website, where the national online mock election was to take place, I realized that the entire school population could be involved and not just my classes. I signed up as the registrar for my school and met with our media center personnel to work out a school-wide voting schedule. All social studies classes in the school were scheduled into the internet lab and would vote within a one week period. I also started developing a plan based around the premise that my 152 students would help the other 1300 students vote in the computer lab that week.
Before I assigned any writing, I wanted to motivate students and have an exciting start to the unit. I wanted them to be informed student assistants in the internet lab who were excited about helping other students with the major issues and who were excited about helping other students vote online. I started with some fun strategies. I used class money to buy campaign hats, U.S. flags, 3-D puzzles of the Capitol Building and Mt. Rushmore, and I also developed a “presidential library”. I wanted to create a fun and positive learning environment that promoted good citizenship. After all, my students had the opportunity to be school-wide leaders and set the tone for school-wide involvement. One fun strategy included wearing campaign hats and carrying U.S. flags and issues folders while assisting student voters in the computer lab (they were especially excited by this strategy. The purpose of this strategy was to lessen their fears about the big “eighth graders”). The easy part was using the fun strategies to motivate students. The hard part was using writing strategies to motivating students. But it was my hope that the fun strategies would bring more motivation and purpose to the research and writing processes.
My goal was to get students involved in the election process by getting them personally involved. The first big challenge to the writing process was getting students to understand the major election issues and where each candidate stood on those issues. It was imperative for my students to be well prepared if they were going to be in the internet lab assisting the entire school population on the issues. This meant that a lot of research and writing had to take place. The first two essay prompts were given with this in mind. I wanted them to become educated voters and determine whom they would vote for based on the issues they cared about most. I hoped this would create more motivation throughout the writing process. This kind of writing was going to take a lot of interpretation, analysis, reflection, and persuasion. Writing was to be the focus of the unit, and in order for good interpretation, analysis, reflection, and persuasion to take place, I had to offer students a variety of research options. Students were going to learn about the major issues through class discussion (based around issue folders), internet research (based around the youth-e-vote website), watching the news on television, reading newspapers, and interviewing parents and other family members.
As the research took shape, the learning grew and the writing came alive. Some of the most useful research came from websites such as webwhiteblue.com, which archives all presidential debates, and issues2000.com, which focuses on the major issues. After students completed detailed research work, I started the sequence of writing prompts and assignments. My instructional sequence was going to be simple: 1) A beginning prompt which would get students personally involved in the unit, 2) a follow up prompt requiring detailed analysis which would challenge students and make them experts on a specific issue, and 3) a concluding writing assignment which would be reflective of their involvement in the unit.
The learning goals for the first prompt were for students to choose three issues that affected them the most, understand where the major presidential candidates stood on these issues, and compare the differences in candidate beliefs. I thought that personal involvement would create enthusiasm, so I had them write an essay based on the following prompt: “ Choose three issues from the issues folder that affect you the most personally. Compare where each of the presidential candidates stand on these issues and explain why you would vote for a particular candidate based on these issues”.
The learning goals for the second prompt were for students to develop expertise on a specific issue. For this prompt, students had to interpret more detailed information. All of the major issues that students were studying for the first prompt were very involved and I found that the comprehension of these issues could be quite complicated. For example, the issue of education is far reaching and involves several smaller issues. Smaller issues in education can include education budgets, vouchers, community education programs, testing, etc. Sometimes the candidates closely agree on smaller issues and sometimes their beliefs on smaller issues vary greatly. I wanted my students to understand the smaller issues and realize that this is where there are many differences in beliefs. For the second prompt, students had to analyze several smaller issues and decide which of the smaller issues affected them the most personally. The assumption was that if my students mastered one major issue, then they would be more confident when their time came to cast a vote. If they had confidence, then they would be less intimidated by the details of other major issues (such as crime, abortion, etc). The second prompt stated: “ Choose one major issue of the 2000 presidential election and explain why you would vote for a candidate based on this one issue”. I also had students design campaign posters and buttons relating to the smaller issues in the hopes that it would make learning about the smaller issues more fun (another fun strategy).
The learning goals for the third writing assignment were for students to reflect upon and interpret everything they had learned from the first two prompts and then put this knowledge to use. I saw an excellent opportunity when President George W. Bush addressed Congress for the first time. I gave students the script to his speech and then asked them to analyze the speech. I wanted them to focus upon how President Bush was going to cover the issues they cared about most during the election. In order to analyze the speech in this way, students had to reflect upon everything they had learned and cared about during the election and then interpret how President Bush was going to deal with it. They analyzed the speech by answering questions that required short and long responses.
The first two writing prompts were evaluated through the Florida Writes! Guidelines. The Florida Writes! Guidelines are used as the main evaluation for student writing in Florida and involve a rubric. The rubric is used to determine how an essay should be graded based on a scale from one to six, with six representing the highest score. All teachers in Florida are encouraged to go through a software training program in order to become more familiar with the Florida Writes! rubric. This training program uses hundreds of example essays for training. In order to earn a perfect six on an essay, a student must show mastery of focus, organization, support, and conventions.
The third writing assignment was not a prompt, but a writing assignment based around the structure of the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (F.C.A.T.). The structure of this test includes multiple choice questions, short response questions, and long response questions based on readings. Short response answers are graded on a two-point scale, and long response answers are graded on a four-point scale. Teachers in our school have attended a variety of training classes in order to understand the F.C.A.T. rubrics and guidelines.
A. Cory
Cory is part of our school’s Exceptional Student Education Program (E.S.E.). Our E.S.E. program consists of two mainstream consultants and various county and state personnel. It is the job of the mainstream consultants to meet the needs of all E.S.E. students within our school. Before the beginning of each school year, Individual Education Plans (I.E.P.’s) are created for E.S.E. students. I.E.P. meetings are held and each plan is drafted within a group setting. People attending these meetings include mainstream consultants, county and/or state personnel, parents, teachers, guidance counselors and administrators. The goal of the I.E.P meeting is to meet the educational needs of the E.S.E. student.
Many students in the E.S.E. program have specific learning disabilities and also have varying degrees of proficiency in reading, writing, and mathematical skills. Cory has a specific learning disability, which requires modification in instruction. In elementary school, he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (A.D.H.D.). Because of this disorder, Cory’s reading and writing skills are currently at a fourth grade level. He also cannot write in cursive yet and has trouble focusing in class. Many students take medications to combat attention deficit problems, but Cory does not take medication. His parents have chosen not to treat him with medication and deal with his learning disability by emphasizing good study habits.
During Cory’s first I.E.P. meeting of the year, it was determined that he was ready to be mainstreamed into social studies and science classes for seventh grade despite his learning difficulties. This was an important decision for Cory because we knew little about him; he was new to our school. It is common practice for E.S.E. students at our school to be placed into social studies and science classes first. The mainstream consultants use social studies and science classes as a testing ground, especially if the teachers involved use a variety of teaching methods and hands-on experiences.
Since entering the mainstream, Cory has been monitored closely by his mainstream consultants and teachers. His mainstream consultants visit my team-planning period and we discuss his I.E.P. plan on a regular basis. We have determined that he is a hard working and respectful individual and that his focusing skills (our main concern) have greatly improved. Cory can now stay on task for twenty minutes or more. Because of this success, we have decided that he will most likely be mainstreamed for all his academic classes before he reaches high school. The team meetings have brought progress to Cory’s Individual Education Plan. At the meetings, his future language arts, reading, and math teachers (who are on my academic team of five teachers) evaluate his assignments from my class and will determine when he is ready to join their classes. Because of this I feel like I am fighting for Cory’s survival in the mainstream. I feel a great responsibility towards his parents, consultants, other teachers, and most important to his future.
In the team meetings, I focus upon Cory’s reading and writing abilities. When he first started writing in my class he did not understand the basic structure of an essay. I require an essay on every test and for every project. There can be as many as ten essays per marking period. The first essays that he wrote in my class had no structure whatsoever. He would ramble on about irrelevant information and therefore would be off topic. This kind of writing would be evaluated as a zero out of six rating on the Florida Writes! rubric scale. Therefore, the first task I had to face with Cory was to get him to understand the basic structure of an essay.
Students in my class have a big advantage over Cory because they went through an entire year of essay structure training. All the sixth grade teachers in our school introduce students to essay structure through power writing or power writing umbrellas and Cory did not have this training in his previous school. As soon as students enter my classroom, they know what a power writing umbrella is and they are very familiar with the basic structure of an essay. The theme behind the power writing umbrella is to teach students how to write an introduction paragraph, a body paragraph, and a concluding paragraph for an essay. It also teaches students how to back up each paragraph with detailed sentences. Since students enter my class already familiar with the power writing structure, I can take their training to the next level without worrying much about basic techniques. I can teach them unstructured methods and how to use creativity and subjectivity more often. I often use examples from the best essays to teach creative writing. I have found that good essay examples need to be repeated over and over throughout the entire year because creativity does not come easy to many seventh graders. Creativity is important. Creativity can make a difference and help students earn a perfect six on the Florida Writes! rubric scale.
The power writing umbrella really helped Cory. Since he came from a different school system, he was not familiar with our school’s writing philosophy. Once he understood the basic structure on as essay, he felt more confident and started to write with more ambition. In the beginning, Cory was very unfamiliar with interpretation, persuasiveness, and analysis because he did not know how to organize his thoughts into a convincing form of writing. After he learned the basic structure of an essay, he started to interpret information in a more organized and convincing manner. He also shared his opinions with more confidence. For example, in Cory’s first mock election essay he was able to share his personal beliefs and back them up with many forms of evidence. He used evidence such as abortion, boot camps, and guns. Developing this kind of structure was a major leap for Cory, but he still had a long way to go. He was not pulling specific examples from his issues folder and was basing much of his essay on personal opinion. This was good because he was getting personally involved like I had hoped, but he was not supporting his personal views with convincing evidence. The focus and structure was there, but the support and conventions were lacking. This meant that he was only achieving a three on the six point scale of the Florida Writes! rubric. My evaluation of Cory’s first essay reflected upon his support and conventions mistakes. He was attempting to use transition sentences such as “Second, lets talk about how he hates boot camps”, but conventionally he was not getting his point across in a clear way. I always tell my students to not talk about what you are going to say, just say it.
For the second essay, I tried to get Cory to use more specific examples and to use better conventions. My evaluation of this essay again reflected those concerns. He shared many opinions about boot camps in class and again was personally involved in the writing process. I therefore persuaded him to use the boot camp issue for his next essay. I was hoping that he would find some specific examples about boot camps and include them in his research folder. In his second essay, Cory had a greater focus on the evidence. He mentioned in his introduction that Al Gore believed in stopping crime before it starts with community programs and he realized that this philosophy differed from the stricter punishment beliefs of George W. Bush. This was an improvement, but Cory again failed to back up his points with persuasive examples. He mentioned drugs in his second paragraph and family values in his third paragraph, but again, did not back up those points with persuasive examples. His conventions still needed work, but I could see where he was trying to improve upon them. For example, in the second paragraph he stated “First how drugs are so bad for your health and to stop kids from taking them”. This sentence was more specific than the transition sentences from his first essay, but it still lacked clarity and was still based on opinion instead of persuasive examples.
I finally found the answer to Cory’s problems when I graded his final writing assignment for the mock presidential unit. The final assignment was good practice for him. This assignment taught him how to focus upon persuasive examples and use these examples in his writing. This is what F.C.A.T. training is about and this is what was lacking in his previous essays. Cory needed to become more familiar with F.C.A.T. training techniques. For example, when Cory was asked to discuss how George W. Bush was going to deal with crime, he found direct evidence from the reading and used it in his response. He talked about how president Bush encouraged and supported faith based groups, community groups, and charitable donations by all people. After seeing Cory’s campaign button and poster, I feel that he really understood the evidence that he wrote about from President Bush’s speech. I now plan to use repetitive F.C.A.T. training techniques with Cory and I am confident that his future essays will have several persuasive examples. Cory’s essays have improved from a two to a three on the Florida Writes! rubric scale.
B. Clare
Clare was also new to our school and unfamiliar with our school’s writing philosophy and this is why I chose her for this entry. Clare came from the United Kingdom and was placed into our gifted program. After evaluating her first writing assignments, I knew she had unlimited potential. I envisioned that she would learn power writing techniques quickly and would be able to successfully use creative essay examples as a guide for her own creativity. I was very excited about Clare’s progress. I knew that I was about to step into a fast and furious ride with her and I was right.
After my first lesson with power writing structures, Clare was very curious and was actually trying to challenge the power writing structure. She commented that it seemed to be “too organized” and lacked a certain kind of personality. I knew exactly where she was going. She felt that the power writing structures were boring, so I gave her a number of creative writing examples. The questions that she had about writing were challenging. She was very motivated and we were off to a good start.
In her first essay, Clare was very conservative with her creativeness and did not deviate much from the power writing structure that was so new to her. This essay was organized into the standard five-paragraph format with introduction, body, and concluding paragraphs. While evaluating this essay, I also noticed that she was an excellent writer. She was very good at using conventions, interpreting and analyzing information, and using persuasive examples to back up her points of view. In my evaluation of her essay, I encouraged her to use more creative techniques.
By her second essay, Clare was already combining the power writing structure with more creative ideas. She talked about personal experience with the Reading First Program in the United Kingdom. My main goals for the mock presidential election were for students to become more personally involved in the election and thus grow as individual learners. Clare’s second essay met these goals. She discovered that education was very important to her personally. She also compared the importance of education to a Pink Floyd song. Pink Floyd may not be the best example, but she was attempting to add creativity to the writing process based on the many examples that I had showed her. Because of this effort, I feel that Clare’s writing style was improving. She understood the message that I was trying to convey with creative writing samples. Clare’s main strength was how she used persuasive examples. She really put her research to use in the second essay and I reflected upon those strengths in my evaluations. For example, she talked about disadvantaged children and how George W. Bush would provide families with federal funding for charter schools or non-public schools, offered statistics when discussing the Reading First Program, and finally described Bush’s Troops to Teachers Program with great detail.
Clare’s strength in writing was seen at its best when I evaluated her final writing assignment for the mock presidential election unit. Throughout this assignment, Clare found specific examples from President Bush’s speech and put them to use with great expertise. The examples she chose from Bush’s speech were right on. When asked about Bush’s plans to improve student reading scores, she gave a perfect introduction, supported it with key details, and had a solid conclusion. She quoted President Bush, which was a nice touch, talked about how Bush was going to triple spending, and had a nice conclusion when she talked about Mrs. Bush and how she was going to tour the country in support of Reading First Programs. I don’t think I could have done a better job myself. Her responses were also direct and concise. This is why she earned an A+ on the last writing assignment of the unit.
When I compare Clare’s first two essays, I feel that she is making strides, but she still has a lot to learn about the creative writing process. When I look at her final writing assignment, I realize why she belongs in the gifted program. It is my hope that Clare will continue to improve and will become more of an individual learner through writing.
Once the mock election unit was in place, it gained momentum and the strategies came together nicely. My students, parents, and fellow colleagues were getting involved in the process. Teachers were requesting class sets of my issues folders not only for their classes, but also for themselves as voters. Parents were helping their children become more informed about the issues and were volunteering to help in the internet lab. One parent went to the county courthouse and ordered 1500 “I Voted” stickers, which was a nice touch. My principal called a special social studies meeting for all social studies teachers so we could focus on the school-wide election process. Newspapers were also calling. This was quickly turning into my dream unit.
The most important accomplishment of the unit was the progress of my students. My students were writing like I have never seen them write before. They were asking dozens of questions about the major issues and were writing with free will. They were also becoming experts on specific issues like I hoped they would. For example, after her first essay was done, Clare was convinced that she was going to vote for Al Gore. But after she starting researching the topic of education and became more personally involved, she found many reasons why she would rather vote for George W. Bush. After Cory learned the basic structure of an essay, he was excited about sharing his opinions. Cory loved talking about boot camps in class, especially since we have one in our community. He became personally involved and learned a great deal about major election issues. It was very satisfying to see students grow as individual learners through the writing process, and because of this evidence, I truly feel that my learning goals were met for this unit.
But Cory and Clare still have a long journey ahead of them. Cory needs a lot of practice with F.C.A.T. techniques. He needs to become better at convincing his readers and he also needs to use persuasive examples to back up his points of view. His interpretation and analysis of evidence must improve. He also needs to improve upon his use of conventions (spelling, grammar, transition words) and must start writing in cursive. I am determined to turn Cory into a better writer. A lot of people know he can improve and his parents and mainstream consultants expect him to be mainstreamed into all classes. Cory has come a long way, but still has a long way to go. He is currently earning a three out of six on the Florida Writes! rubric scale and it is my goal this year to get him into the four to five range.
Clare is just starting to use creativity within her writing process. Her support and conventions usage (spelling, grammar, transition words) are at the top of her class, but there are other students in her class who use creativity more effectively in their writings. She needs to focus more upon good creative writing samples and discover her own creative style. I realize that this is something that cannot be rushed or approached with haste. Clare is close to earning a perfect six on the Florida Writes! scale. She is currently earning solid fives on the Florida Writes! scale, but I hope that she can earn a six within the next year. All of my students have made goals for the Florida Writes! test this year. Some students have desires of reaching a 4.0 on the Florida Writes! test but Clare’s goal has been determined to be a 6.0. Clare and I decided on this goal together. My future objectives for Clare are to guide her with creative examples and work with her on improving the creative process, so she can get that six.
Cory and Clare researched issues they cared about and were motivated by these issues. This is what I hoped would happen when I first created the overall goals for the unit. Not every student was as motivated as Cory and Clare, but overall, students learned more than I thought they would. Many students went home and did personal research on their own computers. Many parents were interested in the unit and guided their children at home. I did not expect Clare to be talking about her personal involvement in a Reading First Program or Cory to have such strong beliefs against boot camps, especially since one of his relatives worked at one. Cory and Clare also had great fun creating the campaign posters and buttons that related to the content of their essays. I was pleasantly surprised at how students were interpreting and analyzing issues that many adults do not even understand. At one point, Clare started asking me a variety of questions about the Reading First Program and I felt as if I was teaching a college student. I had to think back to my college days when I was an intern at Hawaii’s State Capitol Building in order to answer her questions about how bills become laws and how the Reading First Program was originally created in the United States.
Not everything about the writing process was perfect. There were still many changes that needed to take place. If I use this unit again in four years, I will definitely make some changes. For example, I could see that many of my students wanted to be involved in the presidential election but they felt left out because they were too young to vote. I did not want my students to think that citizenship was only for adults. I wanted to prove that they had a crucial role to play in the upcoming election. At times this point was difficult to get across. Much of their lack in writing motivation stemmed from this belief. Next time I will develop lessons about student voting and will show the students how their online votes will be used as a testing ground. Since this was the first online election in U.S. history, it was difficult to prove that the voting results would be used by major media sources. There were no guarantees that the media would even use the voting results. In other words, I could not tell them that their results would be posted in Monday’s USA Today Newspaper. I needed more evidence to prove that their votes really meant something.
I also realized along the way, that students and parents might not want to share their personal beliefs in their writing. I was concerned that parents would be hesitant to discuss some of the issues with their children and that some people might not want to share their voting philosophy. Next time, I will create some basic rules before starting the unit. One rule being: “If students or parents felt that they did not want to discuss or write about certain issues, then they did not have to”. Another rule would deal with a person’s right to not tell whom they voted for. I would also send home fliers to parents that would lay the groundwork for the mock presidential unit.
Fortunately, I did not have any problems with my first mock presidential unit. Most students were excited about the topics and wanted to be involved. Views were shared in an open forum. I also did not receive any concerned calls from parents, which was a relief. I found that parents became very involved and were happy about enlightening their children on the major issues. I actually received some positive phone calls from parents and had excellent discussions with parents about the mock election unit during parent/teacher conference.
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE AND THE FLORIDA 2000 ELECTION (Large Group Video Requirement)
In October, all 152 of my students participated in a mock presidential unit that made them feel a part of the 2000 presidential election, even though they were not old enough to vote. The American media was predicting that the 2000 presidential election was going to be a close one, but little did everyone know just how close it was going to be. In the days after the 2000 presidential election, there was much confusion. Media across the country had a very difficult time predicting the winner of the 2000 presidential race. The Florida electoral vote was undecided weeks after the election. In addition to this, I teach in Florida, and our state was the center of the controversy. The race in Florida was too close to call and there was great controversy surrounding the voting process in Palm Beach County, which is only thirty miles to the south of our school. I found that my students, parents, and fellow colleagues were deeply concerned about the Florida vote and I found it necessary to create a follow-up unit to my original Mock Presidential Election Unit. Since I ran the school-wide mock election, everyone seemed to be turning to me for answers. My students were curious about the controversy, and it was obvious that they wanted to learn more about the election controversy. I therefore set out to create a unit that would teach them how the Electoral College system works in the United States. I also wanted to teach my students about Florida’s role within the Electoral College System and how voting occurs in state of Florida because of the Florida electoral vote controversy that was surrounding the election.
Before I started the unit, I knew that students had learned a great deal about the election process through my mock presidential election unit. But I also knew that my students did not know very much about the U.S. Electoral College system and Florida’s role within this system. I did not cover the Electoral College during the mock election unit and my students were asking me many questions about it when the election controversy began. This follow-up unit was going to be important because the Florida electoral vote was affecting all Americans at the time and I felt that it was very important for my students to understand what was going on, especially because it was happening thirty miles to our south. I also realized that this particular election was a once in a lifetime occurrence because it was such a close race. I wanted my students to look back thirty or forty years from now and have the confidence that they understood what had happened.
Because the election was so close, the Electoral College and the Florida election process were being covered by every major television station and newspaper across the country. From the start, I knew that I would have an endless amount of resources at my disposal and that I could use these resources to teach my students. The election was a hot topic and I found that my students were adding to the resources. Every day they were bringing in newspaper articles, videotapes of news shows, and internet materials. As the unit developed I realized that getting the information for the unit was going to be easy, but organizing it correctly without creating any bias, was going to be a challenge.
During the Presidential Mock Election Unit, I created many fun strategies and realized that fun strategies helped motivate my students. I wanted to do the same with the Electoral College Unit. I remembered that the youth-e-vote website had a games page and that one of the games related to the Electoral College. During the presidential mock election my students did not have enough time to explore the entire youth-e-vote site because they were too busy assisting the entire student population with election issues and the online ballot. The Electoral College Game turned out to be a fun start to the Electoral College Unit. I reserved time in the internet lab for all my classes the day after the election and my students started playing the Electoral College Game based on the election night results. I was not prepared for how confusing the election night results would be. There were many toss-up states and the presidency was still undecided.
My students took all the information they learned from the internet lab and used it in the classroom. They printed out Electoral College Maps (all possible scenarios at the time) and worked more closely on them during math classes. They also created another Electoral College Map in my class using the more current statistics. The start of the Electoral College Unit was based around a lot of map work and statistical scenarios. I felt that my students should understand the Electoral College as a whole before we started discussing the Florida electoral vote controversy.
After students learned about the Electoral College and its purpose, I started focusing on Florida and all the new controversies surrounding the Florida electoral vote results. This is what my students really wanted to learn about. There was a buzz in the air over the Florida electoral vote controversy and this is why I chose it as the focus of my video. After election night, everyone knew that whoever won the Florida electoral vote would win the presidency. It was a very confusing, but exciting time. There were several controversial ballot issues taking place in Florida on the day I taped my classroom discussion video. These issues were being debated across the state and across the country. Palm Beach County was the center of the ballot controversy because they used a punch card ballot during the election. There were many concerns about the punch card ballot and I knew that these ballot controversies would be a good topic for my classroom discussion video. I tried to shape my classroom video discussion around the Palm Beach ballot controversies. The ballot concerns in Palm Beach County were three-fold and included: 1) that Pat Buchanan was second on the ballot instead of the gubernatorial candidate (Al Gore) and that this confused voters, 2) that voters were turned away at voting booths when they were confused about the punch card ballot, and 3) that there should be a re-vote or hand recount because of the ballot confusion.
In all, I taped four twenty-minute class discussion videos based upon the Florida electoral vote controversy. But in the end, I felt that the first class discussion video was the most telling. It was an innocent time and the views of my students were just starting to take shape at the time the first video was filmed. The other class discussion videos were a natural extension to the first class discussion video. They dealt with several new issues forming around the Florida electoral vote controversy, including topics such as the recount issue, the overseas ballot issue (which affected our own county courthouse), and partisan politics issues in the Florida Supreme Court. But none of the follow-up videos showed as much development within a twenty-minute period as the first one did.
II. Videotape Analysis
While taping the first class discussion video, I found that students cared more about the election than I had originally thought. In the video, I asked how many had stayed up until midnight the night of the election. I asked this question because I wanted to see how many students had given up on my extra credit assignment. (The assignment was hard to complete because of the closeness of the election. They had to circle states won by candidates and many states were undecided well into the night). To my surprise, the majority of students (in every class) had stayed up late the night of the election. Election night was over, but I knew that my students were still eager to learn more about the election. They were watching television with their families, listening to the radio, and even reading newspapers. They brought me several articles from home. At one point I had about a hundred different articles on my desk from local newspapers, USA Today, magazines, and the internet. In the video, Lisa (long black hair, purple and yellow striped shirt) stated that she had been watching the election controversy very closely on television, the radio, and had also been reading newspapers. It was obvious to me that the original mock election unit set a precedent for my students and parents. Some of my students were communicating with their parents at home before the election and asking for advice about candidate issues. Now almost all of my students were communicating with their families at home. The election controversy was getting attention and I felt that it was an excellent time for a classroom discussion video.
It was exactly two days after the election when I taped my first classroom discussion video (my white board was dated November 9th in the video and the election was November 7th). Everything was still innocent at the time and I knew that I had only one shot at getting initial reactions. The consensus over the ballot issues in Florida had just begun. I found that the opinions of my students and the country were just starting to take shape during the day of my videotaping. As the discussion started heating up in the video, I noticed that students were beginning to take sides and trends were developing. On the day of taping, Florida newspapers were focusing on voter complaints in Palm Beach County and a possible re-vote. In the video, it was originally my goal to introduce the ballot controversy in Palm Beach County and then ask for student opinions about the controversy. I wanted to get students involved by getting them to share their own beliefs about the ballot controversies. This objective worked with flying colors. As the conversation developed, the debate became more heated. To my surprise, my students were also backing up their opinions with solid evidence and not just personal opinions. They cleverly aligned themselves into two different sides of the re-vote issue. Their body language and the way they were reacting told me that they completely understood the issue at hand. Lisa (long black hair, purple and yellow striped shirt) and James (in the back corner with gray shirt and glasses) were leading the conversation with confidence. I did not expect this kind of reaction and I was not prepared for it. James (in the back corner with the gray shirt and glasses), Chris (orange shirt), Travis (dark hair next to white board) and Veronica (pink shirt) felt that there should not be a re-vote in Palm Beach County and they were very determined to prove their point. Lisa (long black hair, purple and yellow striped shirt), Holly (front row, curly long hair, dark shirt), Tracy (orange/pink/red striped shirt), and Sarah (white shirt, glasses, abortion issue), felt that there should be a re-vote and they were just as determined as the other students to prove their point. When the discussion first began, these two sides did not exist. But as the discussion took shape, it became obvious to me that a trend was developing. The Bush voters (James, Chris, Travis, Veronica) were satisfied with the vote totals because George W. Bush was currently in the lead. Since George W. Bush was in the lead, they did not want a re-vote. The Bush voters wanted the vote to stay as it was. The Gore voters (Lisa, Holly, Tracy, Sarah) were dissatisfied with the vote totals because Al Gore was behind in the vote total. Since Al Gore was behind, the Gore voters wanted a re-vote. It was then that I realized that the country was about to be split over party lines also. Later that night I was saddened by this revelation because I realized that this kind of division would be demoralizing for the country and the office of the presidency.
I was pleasantly surprised that all of the students involved in the classroom discussion video backed up their opinions with solid evidence and were therefore meeting the objectives that I had set for the unit. They often used newspapers and television shows as points of reference, and were actually teaching each other about the Electoral College and Florida’s election process. I found that I could throw in my opinions where necessary and then the students would continue on with their arguments. As the arguments developed, my students sought guidance in each other and were very good at re-emphasizing their points of view. For example, James (gray shirt and glasses in back corner), Travis (dark hair next to white board) and Veronica (pink shirt) were not going to bow to the arguments of the Gore voters. The Gore voters initiated the conversation and it didn’t take long for James, Travis, and Veronica to form counter arguments. They used several arguments to back up their belief that there should not be a re-vote. James (gray shirt and glasses in the back corner) stated that if Palm Beach County had a re-vote then it would set a standard for all Florida counties to have a re-vote and this would be wrong. He also thought that the Palm Beach voters should have been able to read and understand the ballot card. His views were well thought out and very thought provoking to me. Travis (dark hair next to white board) and Veronica (pink shirt) backed up James’ argument by saying that there were also volunteers at the voting booths to help voters read the punch cards and that the arrows pointing to the candidate names on the ballot cards were easy to understand. I especially liked the argument that James gave when he said “if the voters could not read this particular ballot card, then they should not be allowed to drive”. The Gore voters countered the arguments of James and Travis throughout the video. At one point the Gore voters were becoming desperate in their arguments. Lisa (yellow and purple striped shirt, long black hair) referred to her forty year-old mother as being “old” and stated that not even her mother could read the ballot cards. I do not believe that forty years of age is as old as Lisa was portraying. This is why I tried to help her argument by mentioning elderly voters and the trouble they had. I took my evidence from the front page of the local newspaper that day. In the article an elderly woman talked about her dissatisfaction with the voting process in Palm Beach County. Of course James was angered that I assisted Lisa and came back with his “if they can’t read the ballots correctly then they should not be driving” theory. I thought about his reaction several times after the video and from then on tried to remain overly unbiased throughout the unit.
I was also caught off guard by some of the questions that students asked. Adam (blonde hair, white shirt) wanted to know more specifics about the ballot card. He wanted to know exactly what it looked like before he was going to offer his opinion. Since the controversy was only a day old, I had no real examples to show him. I saw a ballot card on television that morning and tried to explain it to him using the white board. About two days later, a copy of the original Palm Beach County ballot was printed in the newspaper and I immediately made a class set of the controversial ballot. From that day on, Adam became more involved in the class discussion. I think that he was one of many students who were waiting for more evidence before giving an opinion. Chris (orange shirt) was also trying to make a point about the ballots in Palm Beach County when he mentioned the history of the ballot cards. This line of thought was challenging to me. I was quickly realizing that I knew little about the Palm Beach County voting process. That night and many nights thereafter, I watched the newspapers and television shows carefully.
The main argument of the video became whether or not the Palm Beach County ballots were understood by the voting public. In the weeks following the video discussion, hand recounts, overseas ballots and partisan politics in the Florida Supreme Court took the center stage in the media and in my classroom discussion videos (in that order). The two sides that were drawn during my first classroom discussion video still remained over the following months, but the focus of the two sides changed to whether or not there should be a hand recount, thrown out overseas ballots, or partisan politics instead of whether or not there should be a re-vote. In other words, the two sides remained intact throughout the unit. The country was becoming deeply split over the various issues. Gore supporters were demanding hand recounts and Bush supporters were demanding that the original vote totals be honored. Gore supporters were demanding that overseas ballots be thrown out and Bush supporters were saying that they should not. This was the revelation that my students had given me just days after the election. As each controversial issue came up, I found it important to remain completely unbiased as a teacher even more. I knew that my students were going to argue over the issue and I wanted to set an example of how to conduct behavior. Every day I spent the first five to ten minutes of class discussing the hand recount issue. I tried to set a professional tone for my students. I talked about the history of our country and how many times our country has overcome controversies in the past. I mentioned the Revolutionary War, Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy/Nixon election, the space program, and several other American dilemmas. During those crucial weeks after the election, I focused more on how the problems were going to be solved instead of just being a referee to endless arguments amongst my students. It was obvious that my students were bringing many opinions from home and I felt it necessary to keep a professional tone because of this. I had many of my students write letters to the Gore and Bush campaigns and I noticed that this brought much needed relief to several of them. Because of the letters, I feel that they argued less amongst themselves and felt like their opinions were being heard. When the hand recount issue finally made it to the United States Supreme Court, I brought my students to the internet lab again and we researched the United States Supreme Court and how it had grown into the most respected institution in the country. This was to be the conclusion of the Electoral College Unit. It ended on the United States Supreme Court decision to honor the Florida Electoral Vote. In the end, my students understood why the issue was left up to the United States Supreme Court and I feel that all my students (Gore and Bush supporters) respected the Supreme Court decision.
III. Reflection
The learning goals of the Electoral College Unit were achieved through a variety of methods. For example, students learned about the Electoral College system while playing an interactive computer game and creating an Electoral Map of the United States with crayons. The game and map taught them how electoral votes were awarded to each state based on population. They could create statistical scenarios and thus learn about the electoral importance of even the smallest states. Students also learned how important the campaign process was. In the 2000 election, campaigning in every state, even the smallest states, was very important. I used the closeness of the 2000 presidential election and electoral maps to prove to my students how every state was important in the Electoral College System, especially when there is a close race.
Students also learned about the Electoral College and Florida’s election process through classroom discussions. The discussions focused on the controversies of the election and were the center of the unit. Every day new controversies arose over the election. Controversies over a one month period included re-vote issues, hand recount issues, how to hand recount issues (the dreaded chads), recount issues in other states besides Florida, racial discrimination, overseas ballot issues, and partisan politics in the Florida Supreme Court and United States Supreme Court. Students had an endless amount of resources to learn from since the media was focusing on the Electoral College. All of the controversies were covered during the four different classroom discussion videos and during brief classroom discussions. Learning goals for the unit were met thanks to an endless amount of resources. Students were always referring to television programs, radio programs, magazines, newspapers and family advice to support their points of view. I often had cable news stations turned on in my classroom in case a breaking story hit. New stories were coming up every day. During the weeks after election day, all the major networks were giving endless statistical scenarios on their news shows. The local newspapers (Palm Beach Post) were focusing on voter complaints and ballot issues. Students were videotaping news shows and cutting out newspaper articles for assignments and extra credit. As controversy over the election continued, students used television shows, radio programs, and newspaper articles to support their arguments more often. Lisa and James would come to class with newspaper articles and taped television shows, and Travis, Tracy, and the rest of the students would follow suit; just like they did in the classroom discussion video. Lisa and James set a precedent for other students to follow when they confidently shared their views on video and when they brought in newspaper articles and videos concerning the many controversies. Because of their leadership many other students became involved.
I did notice however, that only one-third of my class participated in the first class discussion video. Many sat back, coloring their maps, and silently witnessed the debate. If I had to do it again, I would not give them a map to color while a class discussion was taking place. Maybe they did not stay up late the night of the election. Maybe they were not following the election as closely as the others. Maybe they were camera shy. But one thing is certain, they learned a lot about the election controversy during the classroom discussions. If I had to do it over again, I would pay more attention to the class reaction as a whole and try to get everyone involved in the conversation. It is hard to organize thirty-three opinions at once, but I would rather see all student hands going up instead of just one-third or half.
Another concern was that the design of the Electoral College Unit was done completely at the spur of the moment. I literally developed the unit as the election controversy took place. The unit had good organization at the beginning with the Electoral College Game and maps, and at the end with the United States Supreme Court research. But in the middle of the unit, when all the classroom discussions took place, there was a lot of chaos. Every day students were challenging me with questions I could not answer. Questions such as “How long has Palm Beach County used ballot cards?”, “Why were overseas ballots filled in by party members?, and so on. If I had to do it over again, I would somehow create more organization to the unit. Since it was all done at the spur of the moment it was almost impossible to organize. I tried to create organization by setting aside five to ten minute discussion periods almost everyday, but I am not sure how well this worked. It kept students up to date, but I am not sure they understood the topics entirely. For example, when the overseas ballot issue became a hot topic, I do not think they really understood why it was a controversy in the first place. I did not have enough time to teach them every detail of every new issue. I had to set strict time frames for these brief update periods, because if I didn’t, the students would talk about the controversy for entire class periods and I had other objectives to cover in seventh grade social studies. I did set aside one class period per week for debating. It took a while for the student to get used to it, but it was the best I could do. If I had to do it over again I would like to organize the unit from beginning to end.
In the end, this unit brought great unity to the class. The one day per week that was set aside for class discussion was very effective. I was pleased with the way students backed up their opinions with solid evidence during class discussions. For example, in the first class discussion video, James said that a precedent would be set if Palm Beach County was allowed to re-vote. I felt that the class discussion periods were instilling a sense of individualism and confidence in many of my students and James was the perfect example of this. My students were learning how to become effective communicators. I was also happy to see that they were teaching each other throughout the class discussions. For example, when Travis and Veronica supported the views of James, they brought in new evidence and therefore were teaching each other more about the re-vote situation. Since the taping of the first video, other students have lead conversations. I now believe that more class discussions offer more opportunities for students to be involved. Even after the election this class has continued to have one class discussion day per week. The students really love having the opportunity to share their opinions and be heard. Since the election, we have had discussion days about the Alaskan Iditarod, The Bermuda Triangle, and the Foot and Mouth Disease in Europe.
I was also very pleased with the way I had acted as a moderator and a teacher. It was a fun way to teach. The students were doing a lot of the talking and I could reflect and add to their opinions as a teacher. The moderating was difficult at times because of the many strong opinions that they had, but at the same time, it was good to see so much student involvement.
Rainforest Researchers (Small Group Video Requirement)
The goals for this lesson were for students to acquire an in-depth understanding of rainforests by taking part in an interactive computer game called Rainforest Researchers. This game required detailed analysis and problem solving within a group setting. The main concept of the lesson was to teach students the importance of rainforests; more specifically that the destruction of rainforest land is a key social issue that is currently affecting the entire earth and its inhabitants. The process of the interactive computer game required students to work in groups of five. One student worked the computer program and was the leader, one student acted as a taxonomist (who examines the physical parts of trees), one student acted as a chemist (who understands the chemistry of trees), one student acted as an ecologist (who investigates the ecosystems of where certain trees grow), and one student acted as an ethnobotanist (who investigates the role of certain trees as medicine). As a group, students searched for a lost plant compound that cures cancer. Along their interactive journey, they watched informative videos, read about informative rainforest topics, read about their jobs and responsibilities, choose supplies for their trip, and ultimately made key analytical and problem solving decisions. The main goal of the game was to choose the appropriate conservation method that would prevent the destruction of a cancer curing plant. In the end, students were given four conservation methods to choose from. Before they choose the appropriate method they carefully analyzed everything that happened on their trip. They took into account everything they had watched on video, everything they read, all the notes they took, and all previous decisions made on the trip. They were given four types of conservation methods to choose from: 1) Plantations, 2) No touch zones, 3) Buffer zones, and 4) Local Management.
In the beginning of the game, each group watched a ten minute introduction tape that explained the goals of their mission. The importance of their mission was given tremendous focus in the introduction video. They were taught about the rapid rate of deforestation and the importance of conservation. The first step in the group interaction process was for each person in the group to explain their job to the rest of the group. For example, the taxonomist explained to the group that he/she must examine the physical parts of the trees (bark, leaves, etc.) and that any questions relating to the physical parts of a tree should be given to him/her. Each group also started out with a $40,000 budget. Along the trip each group had to use this money to purchase supplies and pay for any dangers that they encountered. Some dangers included an attack by monkeys and a raft flipping over. The purchasing of supplies was an important decision and each group had to come to a consensus on what supplies they should have bought. This is where I first witnessed group “tension”. They also earned extra money by answering questions correctly throughout the journey, and confided in each other before answering any questions. At the end of the game, the groups gathered all the information they had learned and took a test on the computer. The group with the highest budget total in the class won. I gave extra incentives to my students by offering rainforest ice cream to the winning group of each class.
The Rainforest Researchers lesson was part of a much larger Rainforest Interdisciplinary Unit that lasted one week and involved all the academic subjects on my academic team: math, science, social studies, language arts, and reading. In math, students worked on various math worksheets relating to rainforests and rainforest problems. In science, students became involved in various plant experiments, built a rainforest greenhouse in class (using plastic), and studied the five layers of the rainforest. In reading classes, students read a short story relating to rainforests, and in language arts classes students completed vocabulary and spelling assignments based on the same short story. The goals of the unit were designed by my academic team during our academic team planning periods.
The reason that I use the Rainforest Researchers lesson for the Rainforest Interdisciplinary Unit is because it is a very effective way to teach rainforest conservation methods to my students. Through the Rainforest Researchers program students truly become aware of rainforest destruction and are taught effective conservation techniques and theories. The Rainforest Researchers lesson also fits in perfectly with the human-environment interaction goals of my subject area and it takes a week to complete (which is convenient because the interdisciplinary unit also lasts a week).
While playing the interactive computer game, students needed at least four hours to complete a total of two missions. During the first mission students searched for a lost plant compound that cured cancer and came up with a conservation method by investigating the Aquilaria tree. In the video, students were just beginning their first mission. Before the video was taped, students watched a ten-minute introductory video explaining the goals of their first mission and the importance of their first mission. The introduction video taught students what trees they would be studying and what conservation methods they would be using. It also explained the dire situation of rainforest deforestation and backed it up with evidence such as current statistical data and many medicines that have been created from rainforest plants over the years.
After the twenty-minute segment video was over, students continued their mission the next day. Those who finished ahead of the others were given the go ahead to start the second mission which dealt specifically with rainforest destruction. It took an average of two days for the groups to complete each mission. When the two missions were over, budget totals were reviewed, and the group with the highest budget total for each mission won. The winning groups received rainforest ice cream as an incentive reward at the end of the week.
Learning goals were definitely being achieved throughout the missions. It was very evident in the video that students were working together and learning about the rainforest. All students were actively engaged in conversation. After each member read their job responsibilities, they took a brief introduction quiz, and had to communicate in order to answer the questions correctly. Group 5 (four divas and a guy) asked me whether or not each person had to read their job responsibilities out loud to the group. My reply was no, that each member should be looking for quiz questions that involve their job responsibilities and notify their group when a question was being asked about their job responsibilities. Group 3 (beneath the white chalkboard) asked the same question, and I used the example of insects to help explain how they should share their expertise with other group members. Once all the groups understood how they were supposed to share their job responsibilities, it was smooth sailing from then on. All the groups consistently worked together during the rest of the mission. The most enjoyable part of the mission for the students appeared to be when they choose supplies for their trip. Choosing supplies obviously brought more reality to their mission. It was evident in the video that each group got off to a fun start. Their reactions proved that they wanted to understand more about the supplies and what was needed for their rainforest trip. For example, Group 5 (four guys and a diva) asked about the two different forms of mosquito protection. Group 3 (beneath the white chalkboard) asked about paddles and a boat motor. The choosing of supplies section is also where the first group tensions were arising. For example, Group 1 (directly to the left of the camera, all boys) had a lot of trouble agreeing on supplies. They fell behind the other groups and I was constantly trying to get them to move on. At one point I told them that they should never be in a band together because they would break up in a matter of two years. I knew this comment would motivate the group because one of my most competitive students was leading the group. It took a few minutes but they quickly caught up.
After the groups chose supplies, they had to read about the specifics of rainforest trees and conservation methods. This was the most difficult part of the mission. It required note taking, analysis and problem-solving techniques. I was pleased to see that all the groups were working together effectively at this point; especially because it was the hardest part of the mission. Learning goals were taking shape during this part of the mission. Group 4 (by the front door) was watching informative videos and was reading about the specifics of four different conservation methods. Group 4 (by the front door) was far ahead of the other groups because they understood the group design of the game from the very beginning. They were the most effective group when it came to sharing information. They did not waste any time and were eventually the winning group. Their leader was a good communicator and knew how to explain the rules of the game. It also helped that everyone respected the leaders decisions in this particular group. For example, every time I went to Group 4 to see how they were doing, I asked the leader questions about what was going on. Every answer she gave to me was a confident one and her group agreed on all the points she made; example, their water purifier choice.
I was very pleased with the design and execution of the lesson. I set up six computer stations and did a test run on all the stations the day before the lesson started. I was pleasantly surprised that all the stations worked efficiently during the lesson. The hardware was relatively new: the mouse, mouse pads, computers, computer monitors, keyboards, speakers, cd-rom players, etc. and I expected them to function properly. It is a great thing when computers function properly. When computers malfunction it sets the entire class back. Relying on computers can sometimes be a risky venture. I was also pleased with the organization of the lesson. The day before the lesson I assigned the groups and the job responsibilities for each member of each group. I also gave every student research books ahead of time so they would be more familiar with the game. I feel that this preliminary organization was the key to the success and completion of the lesson. On the first day of the lesson students were in organized into their groups and were ready to go. Everyone was starting together and everyone understood the overall goals of the lesson and the overall goals of their own job responsibilities. On the first day of the lesson, I could focus on teaching each group how the game worked, instead of wasting time organizing groups and group materials.
I knew that there were going to be many questions during the lesson, so I wrote an outline on the front chalkboard that explained the overall goals of the mission. I also included introduction directions for the computer operators on the front chalkboard. The beginning directions in the video go the lesson off to a confident and organized start. I anticipated that my students would need practice on working together and I was right. The first questions asked by students were about how they were supposed to share their job responsibilities with the other group members. I hoped that the introductory quiz would teach them how to work together and luckily I was right. As the groups chose their supplies many questions were starting to be asked. Group 3 (beneath the white chalkboard) caught me off guard when they asked if the boat had paddles. I actually had no idea and did not know how to respond. Group 6 (four divas and a guy) asked me which mosquito fighting supplies were better and again I did not know the answer. The only way to know the answers to these questions is to play the game dozens of times, which is something I had not done.
My teaching strategies definitely supported small-group learning. The six computer stations were designed around a group concept. Each station was given the appropriate research books, worksheets, and software. The worksheets completed by each group required the involvement of all group members. Each group was also receiving a group grade for their efforts. On the first page of the worksheet students were asked questions about each of the four job responsibilities (taxonomist, chemist, ecologist, ethnobotanist). The groups also had to choose a group name, supplies and take expert quizzes as a group. On the second page of the worksheet, students had to rank trees and choose the appropriate conservation methods based on their notes and all previous information learned. They also had to complete the entire second page of the worksheet as a group. I chose group strategies and interactive involvement for this lesson because I believed it was the most effective way for students to learn about the difficult concepts of rainforest deforestation. I also believed that they could teach each other something about analysis and problem-solving techniques in a short period of time. All of the groups successfully completed the lesson. In the video groups were moving along at a smooth and rapid pace. Because of this, I strongly believe that the teaching strategies that I used for the lesson were very effective.
Throughout many points in the video, students demonstrated an enhanced social understanding of rainforests. This was especially evident when students were choosing supplies for their trips. Students were asking questions about mosquito nets, boat motors, paddles, canteens and it was obvious that they were learning about how humans interacted the rainforest environment and what supplies humans needed in order to survive. When I asked Group 4 (by front door) why they chose the supplies they did, they immediately replied that they used the travel advice to help with their decisions. The travel advice page taught students many things about the rainforest, including what to expect from the harsh environment. Group 4 was learning how difficult it was to travel through the rainforest. For example, the travel advice page taught them that there is bacteria in the water and that this bacteria can cause diseases such as malaria. This was evident when they chose a water purifier. The travel advice page also taught them that their boat can flip over and they can lose all their food. This is why Group 4 chose more food for their trip. At one point I had Group 6 (four guys and a diva) read the travel areas section. Sydnee, from Group 6, read facts about the west coast “steep rocky cliffs and sandy beaches” and the east coast “mangrove swamps”. The travel areas page taught students about the geography of the rainforest region and what to expect while traveling through rough terrain. Group 6 (four guys and a diva) also asked me if the plant they were looking for actually cured cancer. This told me that they were learning about the importance of rainforest plants. Also that they realized many of the rainforest plants could contain cures to human diseases and if the rainforest was destroyed the human race would lose the cures to disease.
The first rainforest mission got off to an exciting start. There was a lot of interaction going on in the video and there were many questions being asked by students. All of the students were actively involved because each student had a specific job to do and therefore each student was an important part of the group. Their facial expressions and body language told me that effective learning was taking place and that they were also having fun. Every student in the class was talking and interacting in the video. They also loved picking group names (Four divas and a Guy, The Monkeys) and some of the questions they were asking were silly and light hearted. For example, Group 6 (four divas and a guy) questioned why I told them the day before that a taxonomist is a person who stuffs animals and whether or not I was bribing them.
I also feel that I challenged students with this lesson. Many of the questions I asked of students required a “why” reason. For example, I asked Group 4 (by the front door) why they specifically chose a water purifier and extra food. I also asked Group 6 (four divas and a guy) to evaluate alternative approaches, like which mosquito repellent they thought would be more effective. I found that throughout the lesson I was also answering questions and giving advice quite often. Students were given the opportunity to ask many questions and I expected this because the game was new to them. They were confused mostly over how their group was supposed to interact, how to choose supplies, and how to take the interactive tests and quizzes. I acted as an advisor and a teacher while answering their questions. Many of the answers I gave to students were in the form of a question. For example, “what do you think is the best method?” I do not want students to feel that giving the wrong answer is bad thing. In the video I tried to encourage students to come up with their own approaches. Many times in the video students were offering different opinions to their groups and I tried to encourage this kind of interaction.
Another way that I challenged students with this lesson was through the use of computers. Several of my students are intimidated by computers, and it is my goal for all of my students to leave my class at the end of year with computer confidence. After all, we are living in the age of the computer and it is a very important tool in the work force. It was my hope that my students would learn how to operate the interactive computer program by helping each other. They asked little questions about the operation of the software and this told me that they completely understood how to use the computer software and the computer itself.
If I had to do this lesson again there would be many things that I would do differently. The thing I dislike most about the video was my questioning technique. I have never used a microphone in class and if I could do it again, I would ask students more specific questions and have them read more examples from the lesson. I only had students read from the lesson a few times, and when I did, I found that it helped the viewer understand more about what was occurring within the lesson. I assumed that the viewer would understand what was going on and I was wrong. I would also ask more follow-up questions and allow more time for student responses. In the video it seemed as though I was overwhelmed with the number of groups I was facing and I was therefore constantly moving from one group to another.
I liked the organization of the lesson (the groups, the stations, the lesson itself) but many technical issues could have been organized better. My microphone was getting tangled. I am not rich, but I would prefer a cordless microphone next time. The clarity of the video could have been better and I would have liked to have seen more close-ups as well as wide angle shots. In my first video I had more close-ups and you could really get a feel for student reactions. Finally, I did not dub this videotape, because after I dubbed my first tape, I noticed a drop in clarity. I was satisfied with the clarity of this video based on the camera I was given, but the clarity still could have been better.
This lesson definitely set a precedent for my future teaching instruction. This is one of the first times I have ever used computer stations in my classroom and I absolutely loved it. With six computer stations I accommodated the needs of thirty students in a group setting. It was a very organized and very effective lesson. Before I started the lesson, I was not sure that all the computer stations would even fit in my room. I was also worried that something would go wrong with the software or hardware and that students would not understand the lesson. I will definitely use the six computer stations again in a group setting. I am currently looking for software programs that are comparable to the Rainforest Researchers software. Because of this lesson, I learned that group work software is a special kind of software. The program must be very organized in order to be effective and easy to use.
Professional Development Requirement (3 Major Accomplishments)
Curriculum Writing
There are three levels of curriculum writing that I have been involved in over the past five years. 1) interdisciplinary units for our academic team, 2) interdisciplinary units for our school, and 3) state standards for our school district.
Creating interdisciplinary units for my academic team has been completely voluntary. I have presented a variety of interdisciplinary units to fellow team members over the years. These units have included a Hawaii Unit, a Rain Forest Unit, a European Zookeepers Adventure Unit, and a World Expedition Unit.
This year, I presented two new interdisciplinary units, which were both used by my academic team. The first was a Mock Presidential Unit. I thought that my team members would like to be involved with this year’s presidential election and I was right. In my classes, students completed internet research involving candidate issues and then voted in the first ever national online election. For a week, the four other academic classes on my team were involved in the unit also. In language arts classes, students wrote an essay about past presidents. In reading classes, students read inauguration addresses of past presidents. In math classes, students completed a variety of statistical probabilities based on the closeness of this year’s election. And in science classes, students studied election issues that related to the environment.
During team meetings we discussed the major issues surrounding the unit and how to go about teaching the issues. For example, the language arts teacher took the research method used in my class for an essay assignment about past presidents. Students visited websites in the internet lab that dealt with past presidents and created research folders based on the websites. Students had already used to this style of research in my classes, so this assignment came easy to them. While working together with the reading teacher, I discovered a free e-book containing the inauguration addresses of past presidencies. We choose a few of the inauguration addresses and created a class set, which was read in reading classes. The reading teacher then discussed the importance of each address to its time period. For example, John F. Kennedy’s address was used and focus was put upon the importance of volunteerism when Kennedy stated: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. In math, newspaper polls and Electoral College statistics were used to develop statistical probabilities about who would win the election. Finally in science, students focused on several major environmental issues, including local issues like the Florida Everglades. Students used research folders from my class to compare these environmental issues to candidate beliefs.
The second interdisciplinary unit I presented this year dealt with the Alaskan Iditarod race. I have been covering this race with students for four years on the internet (live coverage) and I asked the other academic teachers if they wanted to be involved this year. They agreed to participate and it worked out great. In language arts classes, students created an Iditarod journal (from a musher’s point of view). In reading classes, students read “Black Star, Bright Dawn” a book about the Alaskan Iditarod. In math classes, students chose their own top five finishers and dealt with probabilities. And in science classes, students studied the veterinarian techniques used in taking care of Alaskan dogs during the Alaskan Iditarod race. We again discussed how to go about teaching the unit during team planning periods.
Because I had a reputation for promoting interdisciplinary units to my academic team, I was chosen to help develop interdisciplinary units for the school during the 1997-98 school year. A teacher at my school secured a large grant for a new greenhouse and I was asked to be involved in the writing of two interdisciplinary units for the new greenhouse.
The first interdisciplinary unit that we created was titled “The world’s most famous crops”. For this unit I created lessons relating to what students would be growing in the greenhouse and the surrounding raised gardens. The lessons were designed to teach students the history and spread of maize, potatoes, and sugar in the Americas. The lessons dealt with some very interesting topics such as the potato blight in Ireland, the population growth in Europe due of the potato, how sugarcane crops lead to the African slave trade, and the importance of corn to the European settlers in North America.
The second interdisciplinary unit that we created was titled “The Florida Greenhouse”. For this unit I developed lessons based around the history of crop growth in Florida and how crops affected population growth, the movement of people throughout Florida, Florida’s economy, and Florida politics. I focused on sugarcane production in the Florida Keys, the orange industry, the vegetable industry, and the creation of the first Florida railroad stretching from Jacksonville to the Florida Keys.
Since students were learning about the interdisciplinary units in all their academic classes, they experienced all aspects of a specific topic. They learned from a variety of angles and were thus given a well-rounded education on a specific topic. A stronger communication between the students and teachers was also created. Every academic class emphasized the same major points, only in different ways.
One of my assistant principals, who handles curriculum, noticed that I had developed many successful interdisciplinary units and therefore, during the 1996-97 school year, he asked me to take part in the formation of curriculum standards for the county. I gladly accepted and for the next two years I attended various county curriculum meetings. I met teachers from other elementary and secondary schools in my county and learned a great deal about my county’s school system during this period. I shared ideas and frustrations with social studies teachers from around the county and had the honor of working closely with my county’s director of curriculum.
It was an exciting time for curriculum writing in the state of Florida at the time I was given this assignment. The state education department in Tallahassee had just created new curriculum standards for the entire state. These standards would eventually be known as the “Sunshine State Standards”. I proudly represented all seventh grade social studies teachers across the county and it was my job to work with the sixth and eighth grade social studies representatives and form curriculum guidelines that best suited our county. Our framework was based around the first draft of Florida’s Sunshine State Standards. We listened to the needs of social studies teachers in the county and presented them at the curriculum meetings. The most difficult task was deciding which areas of the world each grade level would cover. Book purchases would eventually be made upon these decisions, so they were very important decisions to all social studies teachers in the county. We decided that sixth grade social studies classes would be geography classes covering the Eastern Hemisphere, seventh grade social studies classes would be geography classes covering the Western Hemisphere, and eighth grade social studies classes would be history classes covering American History. Over a two-year period we made several revisions to the guidelines and created a list of specific standards for each grade level required by the state. We also met with curriculum leaders from other counties, state curriculum personnel, and textbook makers (like Prentice Hal)l over the same two-year period. Writing curriculum for the county was one of the most important jobs I have had as a teacher. It impacted thousands of students across our county and dozens of teachers. I helped set a standard that challenged students and teachers.
Description of Accomplishment #2
Blue Ribbon Schools Program
After the completion of the county curriculum writing, my principal came to me with a new challenge. It was to be the biggest challenge I have ever had in my teaching career. He thought that I was doing a great job with curriculum writing and asked me to write an application for the Blue Ribbon Schools Program. This program is based in Washington D.C. and is designed to recognize the top public schools in the country. The Blue Ribbon Schools Award is one of the most prestigious awards that can be bestowed upon a public school in America. This award is given to less than two percent of all public schools in the country and represents the best of the best. Since my principal was just appointed Director of Curriculum for the county two months ago, I now look at the confidence he had in me to write this application with even more pride.
Since 1986, an average of only five Florida schools per year (out of thousands) have received this award. The application process was therefore very demanding. Over a six-month period I was the head of the Blue Ribbon School Committee at my school and was the primary writer of the application. Every week I interviewed different staff members throughout the school. I interviewed fellow teachers, students, mainstream consultants, county personnel, guidance counselors, parents, the PTA, volunteers, media center personal, front office staff, the bookkeeper, the data entry clerk, the custodial staff, the cafeteria staff, and the school deputy. I was learning every last detail about our school for the blue ribbon application process. I talked to fellow teachers about their curriculum, field trips, incentive trips, incentive rewards, grants, conferences, management techniques, and philosophies. I talked with the mainstream consultants and county employees who were involved in the Exceptional Student Education Program about the needs of students with specific learning disabilities. I talked to the guidance department about their peer tutoring program (students tutoring other students) and rainbows program (for children going through death and divorce). I talked to all the school improvement committees, many of which have parents as members, and the PTA about student and parent concerns and the future goals of the school. I talked with the media center personnel about our five, state of the art, computer labs throughout the school and their technology inventory: laserdisc programs, LCD monitors, the television studio, budget concerns, and library issues. I talked to the front office staff about our parent volunteer program, our phone system, and how they organize the administration building in general. I talked with the bookkeeper about money management and the data entry clerk about our new county computer network. This network is used for entering student grades, medical information, school information, etc. at the county level. I talked to the custodial staff about our state of the art cooling system, elevators, security, portables, and hiring practices. I talked to the cafeteria staff about our school menu and how they go about serving 1400 students. And finally, the school deputy about her Shark Patrol Club (students creating a safe campus) and classes she taught about crime and drugs.
Throughout a six-month period I kept constant contact with all four of the administrators in the building. Every time I saw them in the hallway, or passed their offices, I had questions. I learned about hiring practices for teachers and administrators, district meetings, school board meetings, principal meetings, organization of the budget and parent concerns from my principal. I learned about the overall goals of curriculum in the school, the greenhouse program, the million dollar home economics and technology laboratories, and all the details of testing from my assistant principal of curriculum. I had to make charts that showed school testing results from the California Achievement Test to the Florida Comprehensive Achievement and Florida Writes! tests and had to know how to interpret the results. I also learned how Florida graded their schools on a scale of “A” (highest) to “F” (lowest). I learned about the school’s code of conduct book and discipline program from my assistant principal of discipline. This included the in-school suspension program, the out-of-school suspension program, the point system for offenses and discipline files. I also learned about the school crisis plan (first in the county for intruders, fire, hurricane, etc.), facilities management, and attendance. From the final assistant principal, I learned about bus issues, attendance, discipline programs, and school clubs. I also learned about the percentage of students who participated in our twenty school clubs, what awards students had won over the years, and what county, state, and national competitions students attended and won.
I took all this information to the Blue Ribbon Committee meetings where we drafted ideas and goals. The committee consisted of our four administrators and three teachers. In the end the application that I wrote was 58 pages long and mostly in essay format. The two other teachers on the committee conducted interviews on several issues also and proof read the application. The administrators helped shape the overall goals of the application. Everyone on the committee was a volunteer.
The final step to the blue ribbon application process was to present all the ideas and questions to my state contact in Tallahassee. I did this by phone and over the six-month period I made several calls to Virginia, my contact. We got to know each other quite well. She had the answers to all my questions and I would take these answers back to the Blue Ribbon Committee and we would then reshape our application.
In January we were given very good news. The state accepted our application and we were told that being accepted at the state level was more difficult than being accepted at the national level. We were all excited and this accomplishment was announced during a January staff meeting at our school. I started designing a Blue Ribbon School Tour for the representatives in Washington D.C. because the Washington D.C. representatives personally visited nationally nominated schools.
What I did not know was that only 51% of all the schools nominated by the state were chosen by Washington D.C. In February, we found out that our school did not make the cut. Six schools were chosen in Florida and we were not one of them. The winners included the Christine McCauliffe Middle School in Cape Canaveral, an inner-city middle school in Tampa Bay, and an inner-city middle school in Miami. The competition was incredible and I was surprised and disappointed because of all the work that was done.
The Blue Ribbon Schools Award is given every other year to secondary public schools, so I had to wait two years for my next chance. This chance is now during the 2000-2001 school year. We have reformed the Blue Ribbon School Committee and are more determined than ever to win the award. Our school in on the verge of being an “A” school for three straight years (only 22 secondary schools in Florida have a chance at this feat) and because of this I feel that we have a greater chance to win this year. I also have Blue Ribbon School experience and therefore know what to expect. In the rejection letter we received in 1999, Washington D.C. included a rubric evaluating our application. The Blue Ribbon School Committee has currently been focusing on the weaknesses of the previous application. Many of the meetings will now focus upon these weaknesses. Winning the Blue Ribbon School Award would give a great boost to students, parents, staff, and the community. Our school has been working very hard over the past five years in order to get an “A” classification and this award would be the icing on the cake. It is a lot of pressure because we already have been turned down once, but we cannot give up. In the end, this award would represent the achievement of the students, staff, parents, and the entire community. The pride gained would go a long way.
Another honor given to me by my principal was to be the grant writing contact for the school. In college I worked at the Hawaii State Capitol as an intern and administrative assistant and gained a lot of experience in grant writing. The state representative I worked for was the only blind legislator in the country at the time (Terrance Tom) and was the chairman of the state’s Human Services Committee. In government, human services committees deal with the community in a variety of ways. Dozens of family programs such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters and Boy Scouts of America are funded through this committee. I attended several committee meetings, conferences, and in-service meetings in Hawaii’s Capitol Building that dealt with human services issues in the state of Hawaii. I listened to concerned service groups across the state who needed more funding for their programs. I learned how the funding was awarded and who made the key decisions on funding issues.
I have been the grant writing contact at my school for two years now and I work closely with the county grant writer. I have found in this short period of time that it is very difficult for our school to receive grants. Many grants are meant for underprivileged, older schools or low performing schools. It has been a challenging and awakening process.
Like any public school in America, our school has needs. I have recently developed a theory of how to approach the grant writing process for my particular school. I strongly feel that innovative teaching techniques will be rewarded. I have organized my grant writing around this theory. I look for innovative teaching ideas that will grab interest and then I start on the grant writing process with the help of the county grant writer. In the past year I have initiated two grants for our school’s greenhouse program and have won them both. One was a garden youth grant and the other was the Dutch Bulb Awards. Together, both grants brought around $2000 to our school’s greenhouse program. This year I have written grants involving a class set of e-book readers, an accelerated reader program, and materials relating to the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test. While writing these grants, I have worked with a mainstream consultant, two exceptional student education (E.S.E.) teachers, two reading teachers, and a social studies teacher. They are all very excited when I approached them on the grant writing process because they know that grants could add a lot of resources to their classrooms.
The greenhouse program has grown because of the grant process. Our garden program now has a fully functional greenhouse surrounded by four raised gardens. Students involved in the greenhouse program range from gifted students to students with specific learning disabilities. Much needed tools, supplies, seed, and curriculum have been purchased thanks to the grants. Teachers and parents have also been very happy with the grant process for our greenhouse program so far.
This year, I tried to focus upon reading grants because reading improvement is crucial to how the state of Florida will grade our school this year. Our school has been classified an “A” school by the state of Florida for the past two years and reading is our weakest area. In order to gain “A” school status for the third year in a row, our reading scores must show the most improvement. They have been the weakest scores. This year is also very important, because if we gain “A” school status for the third year in a row, we do not have to show improvement again. We will be classified an “A” school for an indefinite period of time, which will take a lot of pressure off of the students, parents, and staff.
So far the reading grant process I have undertaken has been a very difficult one. We have three “D” rated schools in our county as well as some “C” rated schools and these are the type of schools that are looked at first by grant committees. I worked very hard on my first reading grant this year only to find out that eight out of twenty schools in the county were offered the grant and our school was turned down. I worked very hard with a reading teacher on the grant and did a lot of research on our school’s accelerated reading program focusing on where the needs of the program were. I also worked with teachers and consultants who taught students with specific learning disabilities and found out what the needs of those students were. I found that our school needed more class sets of short stories, more access to computers, and the Star Reader Program. One of our reading teachers was disappointed that we did not have the same Star Reader Program. This software program is designed to evaluate the reading levels of students quickly and efficiently. Once a reading teacher knows a student’s reading level, they can then set appropriate reading goals for that student. The most important part of this software program is that it is effective and fast. It offers teachers an easy and quick way to evaluate our 1400 students and thus get to work right away on the improvement of student reading levels.
After the disappointment of our first reading grant attempt, the county grant writer and I took a different approach a few months ago. We applied for a county-wide grant that impacts all of the middle schools in the county. We took an approach that seemed to be fair for everyone in our county. This grant was a $20,000 grant compared to first grant, which was only for $5,000. We used the same basic approach, focusing upon class sets of short stories, increase in the book supply given to students, and the Star Reader Program. We are still waiting to hear whether or not our application was approved. The disappointing part is that our students just took the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test, so I am too late to help boost test scores for this year. But I still feel that if the grant is won, it will greatly affect the reading levels of the entire student population in the county. There are still important things to consider next year, like the continuing improvement of student reading levels. Through the grant process I have learned that continuing to improve upon student learning is very important. I have also learned that working closely with fellow teachers on the grant writing process is a necessity. Before I started to write the grants, I knew very little about our school’s accelerated reader program and greenhouse program. Thanks to my fellow teachers I now know quite a bit about these programs and can continue to help out these programs through the grant writing process.
When I look back at the overall response of my professional development portfolio, I see a lot of good memories. I see a lot of fun collaboration with fellow colleagues and I realize that I have matured most as a teacher through the professional development process. I have collaborated with colleagues on interdisciplinary units, county curriculum writing, the Blue Ribbon Schools Program, and grant writing. In every area I have worked with top experts who have taught me so much about my profession. I have learned about curriculum writing from my county’s director of curriculum writing, about my school from the perspective of everyone who works on the campus, including all the administrators, and about grant writing from my county’s top grant writer, a person who has secured several grants worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I look back at my professional development portfolio and realize that I have been very privileged and lucky. I have seen the inner workings of education in my county and it has been a very challenging and rewarding process. The people I have worked worth are the people who make a tremendous difference in the education of students in our county. Their goals are very high and working with them has given me a tremendous sense of pride accomplishment. I am still very young at age 32 and thanks to these people I have been able to see the wide spectrum of the education profession. I feel that this will help me decide where I want to go next in the field of education. I used to think that I wanted to be a guidance counselor and nothing else. But now I realize that any kind of advancement my profession is a positive move. If I advance, I have more opportunities to make a greater difference in the lives of students.
I also realized just how hard teachers work at their jobs and for little money. I saw amazing things happening when I collaborated with teachers. When I interviewed teachers for the Blue Ribbon Schools Application, I realized that teachers are heroes. I realized the endless amount of hours that my band teacher, chorus teacher, cheerleading coach, finesse coach, gifted teachers, exceptional student education teachers, and mainstream consultants put into their jobs. I was also touched by the guidance department programs. I knew little about these programs and got to see first hand how the programs can change the life of a student. Four students died in a car wreck this year and the rainbows program is such an important part of our school when tragedies strike.
When I collaborated with teachers on interdisciplinary units and grant writing I learned how involved teachers are in the curriculum aspects of their job. Some of the teachers I worked with have been teaching for thirty years. Learning about their philosophies, teaching strategies, and how they care about students was truly amazing. Some of them can take a simple journal article and turn it into a magical lesson. These are the teachers who instinctively know what kids can handle and how they learn at specific age levels.
Parent and Community Requirement (3 Major Accomplishments)
Description of Accomplishment #1
I serve on the technology committee, which is one of eight school improvement committees at my school. I have been on this committee for the past eight years (one year as chairman) and the goal of this committee is to improve technology education within our school. During a technology committee meeting three years ago, I presented an idea that would promote technology education in our school. I called my idea: “S’Cool Night”, an evening of technological reflection for our students, parents, staff, and community. The technology committee adopted the idea, and since then I have been a voluntary chairman of S’Cool Night for the past three years.
During the first year of its inception, S’Cool Night displays consisted of student designed websites, powerpoint slideshows, computer graphics and animation projects, aerodynamics projects (kites, race cars, etc.), and mathematical analysis projects (graphs, programming, etc.). S’Cool Night was very successful during its first year. The attendance was much higher than I anticipated and guests included the county superintendent, administrators from all around the community, teachers, and several hundred students and parents.
Because S’Cool Night was so popular in its first year, it naturally grew into something much larger during the second year of its existence. Teachers from disciplines other than technology wanted to be involved with S’Cool Night and wanted to display student work. Because there was more involvement, the second year required more setup time. I formed a Student Council committee consisting of ten students to help with the setup process. The goals of S’Cool Night were also rewritten. Technology was going to represent only twenty percent of all student displays instead of the original one hundred percent. S’Cool Night was being embraced by the entire staff and it was very exciting. The second annual S’Cool Night included a great variety of student displays such as poetry projects from reading classes, totem poles from art classes, Indian projects from social studies classes, and experimental projects from science classes. There was also a schedule created for student performances. These performances included poetry readings, a play put on by the drama club, a jazz band concert in the courtyard, and a finesse dance team number. It was amazing to see a simple idea grow into something very special to the school and community.
This year S’Cool Night is even bigger. I arranged to have it in the school cafeteria because the cafeteria is one of the largest rooms in the school and it also has a stage. I have two teacher assistants working under me (strictly voluntary), a Student Council Committee of fifteen students and a few parents, a janitorial staff who will be organizing the tables and stage area, and two media personnel who will be in charge of computers and LCD projectors. Every year S’Cool Night has grown and this year is no different.
One of the main goals I have for S’Cool Night this year includes getting more people from the community to attend. I have visited local grocery stores and businesses and have put up advertisement posters designed by Student Council (I am the Student Council advisor). I also visited the local two-dollar movie theatre last month and secured an advertising spot on their big screens for S’Cool Night. This theatre wants me to continue running the advertising spot with pictures of student projects and other school advertisements in the hopes that it will bring more families to their theatres. Of course, I had to sell them on this idea because the advertising space is free, but I still think it was a good business decision on their part. Next year, my goal is to get a free school space in three additional movie theatres. I also have a good relationship with the two local newspapers and they plan to do another article on S’Cool Night this year. Finally, a new local cable channel formed recently, and I researched how to advertise on this channel. I found that all advertisements on this channel can be submitted to the station through a website. It was a very easy process and S’Cool Night is currently being advertised on the billboard of this local cable television station. I now intend to use this billboard in the future. Based on my advertising goals, the attendance for this year’s S’Cool Night should dramatically increase.
This year, students are going to learn about S’Cool Night in a new and creative way also. I am creating a S’Cool Night commercial for our school’s new television show. The show is called “Shark Tales” (our school mascot is a shark). Students watch “Shark Tales” every morning during homeroom classes. The teacher who runs the Shark Tales show is also on the technology committee and we have worked together on many commercials this year in the school’s new television studio. These commercials are usually based around Student Council issues and involve a variety of student related issues. Usually my Student Council President and Vice President act in the commercials. Since S’Cool Night affects student learning and achievement on such a grand scale, we felt that a S’Cool Night commercial was a must this year. Students will also learn about S’Cool Night in the school newspaper, the school digest, and marquees and showcases located on school grounds.
Besides advertising, the goals of S’Cool Night also strive to establish more communication between parents and staff and to form stronger ties between the school and the community. The PTA has become involved. They are creating a talent show for S’Cool Night this year. Parent volunteers are signing up through the front office volunteer program, which is new this year and is run by our school secretary. I have also created a phone log for S’Cool Night in the hopes that it will increase the involvement of parents in their children’s education. Through S’Cool Night, parents are becoming partners in student learning and are helping connect the community to the school. S’Cool Night is becoming a great motivator for school pride. Displays this year will include winning science fair projects, academic competition awards, sports awards, and school awards, as well as the usual student work. Special community displays will be included for the first time this year. These displays will focus on our Adopt-A-Class program (which is run by city hall), our new parent volunteer program, our community tutoring programs (such as Sylvan Learning Centers and Junior Achievement), the district’s Character Counts Program, the local Y.M.C.A., and charity programs such as Walk America, The Salvation Army, and the local Caring Children Clothing Children Store. Fifteen hundred families at Hidden Oaks Middle School have donated generously to Student Council charity drives and the charity organizations are very grateful. Charity organizations now wish to make even stronger connections to the school during this special evening.
S’Cool Night also deals directly with student learning. The technology students who have developed technology projects, school websites, powerpoint slideshows, computer graphics projects, animation projects, aerodynamics projects, and mathematical analysis projects cannot wait for S’Cool Night. They use this night to show off their work. It is their one night of honor. This year there will be a technology section in the cafeteria and students who have displays in this area will be comparing projects and learning from each other.
Many academic awards will also be displayed at S’Cool Night and it is an opportunity for students, parents, staff members, and the community in general to reflect upon student accomplishments. It offers them the opportunity to see where education is headed today in our county. Because of this, S’Cool Night motivates parents and community members to donate money toward school education programs like Adopt-A-Class and local charities like the March of Dimes or the Salvation Army.
During my eight years of teaching, I have witnessed the many frustrations that parents go through. Keeping consistent and effective communication with teachers can be a difficult process for parents. Especially if the student is always missing assignments or is absent a lot. There is also a large amount of work and responsibility that is placed on students at our school. Students have five academic classes and two related arts classes and are expected to excel on the Florida Comprehensive Achievement tests. Add to this the peer pressure and other difficulties that teenagers face during their middle school years and parents can be caught in a very difficult situation. They can be overwhelmed by the middle school years. And what if these parents have three or four children? How do they keep up then?
It is true that our academic team improves the communication between parents and teachers. My academic team creates a monthly newsletter, meets with parents as a team, and makes parent phone calls during team planning periods. But not even the structure of an academic team can prevent communication breakdowns between parents and teachers. Teachers have different teaching styles and assign homework and classwork in different ways. Many times I see parents at the parent/teacher conferences trying to organize their child’s situation by taking several notes.
This is why I started a school Website Club last year. Students in this club create websites for teachers and the websites are linked to our main school website. I started this club to improve parent/teacher communication within the school. In the process, I learned that building websites can be very simple if you use the Microsoft Frontpage Program. So far, my website club has created twenty-five teacher sites and the number is growing. This year, my Website Club has also taken website building to a new level. They have created animations, interactive study guides, short videos, music backgrounds and many other innovations. S’Cool Night is going to be very special this year because my Website Club members will be comparing their websites and at the same time impressing the community.
Last year, I built my own class website and used it as a teaching example for the Website Club. I tell my students and parents that it is my “virtual classroom”. By this, I mean that just about everything you need to know for my class is in my virtual classroom. My virtual classroom is visited by most of my students and parents and has also become my main form of communication with students and parents. On the main page there are a series of links relating to my class. Students in our school are graded on four major categories in every class: Tests, Classwork/Projects, Homework, and Exams. Therefore I created a link for each of these categories on my main web page.
When students and parents visit my test web page, they are linked to every study guide for the year. I have approximately five tests per marking period, which comes out to twenty major tests per year. Students and parents can print out any study guide for the year from this page. The test web page also offers interactive study guides to help students study for tests and test dates.
When students and parents visit the classwork page, they are linked to all the internet classwork assignments for the year. This year, the links on the classwork page include links to the following websites: youth-e-vote.com (the mock presidential election site), olympics.com (Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics), epals.com (Europe email accounts), adventureonline.com (we track expeditions across the globe), iditarod.com (we cover the Iditarod live), nationalgeographic.com (national geography bee preparation) and several links to hurricane sites. Students and parents can explore the websites together before we start the different units of study.
When students and parents visit the project page, they are linked to all the project guidelines for the year. These guidelines outline the requirements of projects. For example, what is needed, what stores to visit if necessary, what the goals are for the project, and the project format.
When students and parents visit the homework page, they are linked to all the homework assignments for the year. These assignments are organized by region. The regions that students study are as follows: United States and Canada, Latin America, and Europe. Every marking period I assign five major homework assignments. During the first two marking periods students are assigned U.S. and Canada homework. During the third marking period students are assigned Latin America homework. During the fourth marking period students are assigned Europe homework. The homework web page also explains that homework is always assigned on Mondays and is due on Fridays. Most of the homework I assign comes from the textbook, but there are several homework assignments relating to projects, extra credit, current events, map skills, etc. and these assignments are explained on the homework web page also.
Students and parents love my virtual classroom. It answers almost any question that a student or parent could have about my class. They can find out what is covered on a test, what the guidelines are for projects and classwork assignments, and what the homework is and when it is due.
I try to promote my virtual classroom as much as possible. During the first week of school I give the virtual classroom address to parents during open house. I also give my virtual classroom address to parents when I meet with them at parent/teacher conferences or talk with them on the phone. For students, I have a sign promoting the virtual classroom that hangs in my class all year round and I put the web address in the monthly team newsletter. I have received a tremendous amount of praise for having the virtual classroom from students and parents. Because of the virtual classroom, I hardly ever have miscommunication with students or parents. My students and parents know what is expected out of my class and have the ability to work ahead if necessary. I now focus on getting students and parents to work together, instead of wasting time talking to parents about miscommunications.
The Website Club has now built over twenty-five websites for teachers. This has definitely affected student learning. It has been incredible to see how my eight club members have learned from each other. They each came to the club with different talents and have learned a lot from each other in the past two years. One student is very good with operating system software and has built a network of computers in my classroom. In the process he taught the other members of the club how to create a network (even me). This network gave students the ability to share information from one computer to another, which created better communication among students and sped up the production process. Another student is very good with animation programs, and he taught the other members how to create animations using a variety of software programs. Finally, two of the students are very good with programming and taught the other members how to create interactive study guides using the V-basic program. These eight members have come together as a group and have become excellent website builders. They now understand all the components involved in building a good website. They are so good that two of the students have received work outside of school and are currently building websites for a lawyer’s office and a local surf shop (http://www.surfcentralshop.com). Of course their parents are elated about this.
Student Council
For the past five years I have been the Student Council Advisor at my school. The council that I run is rather large. There are approximately fifty homeroom classes in our school and each homeroom class has a Student Council Representative. Each representative is chosen by their classmates. This year I have a very active council. Many students have been in the club for three years and are very familiar with the council agendas. These agendas deal with a variety of school related issues and also create ties between the school and the community.
I am on a first name basis with many of the local charity leaders in our community. My council runs school charity drives for The American Red Cross, Toys for Tots, March of Dimes Walk America, The Salvation Army, and a local store called “Caring Children Clothing Children”. Council officers, who are chosen by the council, are well known by their homeroom classes. This year my council officers have acted in several commercials on the school’s new television show “Shark Tales”. We have created commercials to promote a cleaner campus, charity drives, dances, and other school-wide events.
I spend a lot of my personal time with charity drives. Every year my council starts off with a hurricane supply drive. I purchase hundreds of small boxes from the Red Cross and council members fill the boxes with three types of supplies: 1) sixth grade homeroom classes bring in school supplies (erasers, pens, pencils, small rulers, paper pads), 2) seventh grades homeroom classes bring in small health items (toothpaste, tooth brushes, hand soap, tissues, wipe cloths, band-aids), and 3) eighth grade classes bring in personal and recreational items (yo-yos, jacks, small dolls, hair clips, harmonicas, jump rope, balloons, whistles, kazoos). In a typical year, our council ends up filling about two to three hundred small boxes. These boxes are then given to the Red Cross for hurricane emergencies. It is an excellent program and the students love to be involved in it.
A few months before Christmas, my council runs a clothing drive and toy drive. In a typical year the council will load about one hundred garbage bags of clothes into vans, which are owned by the local Caring Children Clothing Children Store. The clothing drive is my pride and joy because I helped start this program with an elderly couple from the community. One of their daughters was in a car accident and she had trouble raising her children after the accident. They came to me with the clothing store idea and we started with nothing. Together we created an incredible clothing store that clothes hundreds of needy families in our community. It has been going strong for five years now and our school is a major contributor to the inventory. The store is always sending me plaques and certificates of appreciation. I love those people.
The one E.S.O.L. (English Speakers of Other Languages) teacher we have on campus works with my council during the toy drive. She takes dozens of toys to needy families in poor Hispanic areas of Indiantown, a small town in our county. The toy donations come from the many families in our school. During a good year, the council will wrap approximately one hundred toys for this cause. Every year, Mrs. Nieves (the E.S.O.L. teacher) breaks down crying when she comes to the December Student Council meeting to get the toys.
My council ends the year with two final charity drives. These drives require the most involvement. The March of Dimes/Walk America drive lasts for three weeks in the spring. My council officers visit homerooms in the morning and sell March of Dimes sneakers and stickers for a dollar each. This year, council members voted to give pizza parties to the winning homeroom classes. This idea worked and it was our best year yet; the school raised close to $4,000 for the March of Dimes!
The final charity drive of the year is the Salvation Army Canned Food Drive. This year, the council helped design a special commercial starring our student council vice president. We dressed her as a Campbell’s Soup can and had a quartet of singers sing the Campbell’s Soup theme song during the commercial. This idea was also very effective and we had cans coming in by the dozens. Last year, we placed third in the county and the Salvation Army awarded our council with a plaque. This year it is our goal to win first place in the county. The Campbell’s Soup girl is visiting homeroom classes with Salvation Army trash bins in the hopes that this will be our most successful canned food drive to date.
My council members have been well educated. They have learned a great deal about local charities and how these charities function within the community. Over the past five years, my council members have had relationships with some of the top charity leaders in our community. They have been active community members and have gained an inner sense of pride. It shines in their faces when they load garbage bags of clothes into vans, when Mrs. Nieves picks up her toys and cries, when the Salvation Army comes to meetings and praises them with plaques, and when they learn how they helped babies with birth defects. They are embraced by community leaders and represent the fifteen hundred generous families in our school, and they are very proud of it. It is my hope that they will use this knowledge and experience to become active members of their communities as adults.
My council members have also attended Student Council camps held in Florida and mentoring programs developed by the high school council. They are also members of the Florida Association of Student Councils. They are taught how to successfully represent their homeroom classes as community members. They are the voice of thirty to forty students and accept this responsibility with tremendous pride. The Historian plays a crucial role in educating the council. This Student Council officer reflects upon past councils and teaches students what it takes to be a successful council. The Historian sets standards for council members and educates them by way of discussions that deal with past council mistakes and triumphs. This is especially helpful when the council members run the charity drives. The council members look at past statistics, collection methods, and advertising methods. This information is very useful when planning future charity drives.
When I look back at the overall response to my parents and community portfolio, I see activities that are in a constant state of improvement. S’Cool Night, my virtual classroom, and Student Council currently take up a lot of my voluntary time. Reflecting upon these activities has made me realize that much has been accomplished in the past five years and that there is still a long way to go.
I have seen S’Cool Night start from a simple idea and grow into something that students, parents, and the community love to participate in. This evening represents student progress and accomplishment and is a link between the students and the community. S’Cool Night gives me a sense of pride and is a great event for the students and community. I love to see students sitting at their displays showing off their accomplishments to parents and the community. When I see the look in their eyes, I realize that I work in the greatest profession. I am still very motivated to improve upon S’Cool Night and next year I plan to make a more organized performance schedule that includes all major sports and clubs on more than one stage. The entire school is still not involved in S’Cool Night and it is my goal to get the entire school involved. I feel that because S’Cool Night brings such a sense of pride and accomplishment, it should be experienced by everyone.
I have also seen my virtual classroom turn into a much needed tool for students and parents. Students and parents are excited about my virtual classroom. They are amazed that everything relating to my class can be accessed on the internet. I sense a feeling of relief when they realize that answers to most of their questions can be received with the click of a mouse. The internet has also sped up the my process of lesson planning. Social studies is a subject that is constantly dealing with current events. It is hard to keep up. When my students have the internet at their fingertips things are much easier. Especially when dealing with current events. There are so many websites out there with so much information. These websites help create and expand my lessons in a quick way. I no longer have to turmoil over creating current event lessons. Not only does the internet make lesson planning easier, but it is a fun way for students to learn. Since I love computers, the internet it is a fun way for me to teach also. The internet motivates me to be a better teacher. During this school year the internet brought a new Olympics unit and presidential mock election unit to my class. It also brings a sense of comfort to my students and parents. I can only wonder what it will bring to my class next year.
Finally, I have seen my Student Council grow into the finest Student Council I have had in five years. I feel that this improvement came with experience. Many of the current council members have been in the club for three years and have used this experience to improve upon the goals of the council. Every year the charity drives have grown. Every year the council has come up with new and innovative ways to get the message out. The council members are now well known by community leaders and I would not be surprised if many of them end up working in local charity organizations as adults. This year’s council has also set the tone for future councils. S’Cool Night and my virtual classroom have been innovative ways to improve upon communication between the school and community, but the council has improved upon the communication between the school and community in a more emotional way. The council has been very giving to charity organizations and has touched the community. S’Cool Night and my virtual classroom may taper off some day, but the bond created between the council and the community will be very hard to break.