National Parent Involvement Day

 

Today is National Parent Involvement Day and my school celebrated by encouraging students to get their parents involved in their education. Students were asked to tell family members what they love about going to school online and give tours of their classrooms. Recently, our LMS added a Parent Portal that will give parents and guardians access to many useful tools to help their students succeed. It gives them an inbox that receives messages teachers specify for parents and access full classroom content. It also allows parents to see midterm and quarter grades, upcoming events, and how many credits their student still needs to graduate. I am hoping this new tool helps parents become more involved and aware of their childrens’ progress in school. As every teacher knows, parental involvement is essential in a child’s education. Other ways I try to get parents involved: newsletters home, personal phone calls, and field trips. Tomorrow I will be attending a field trip to a local art museum and I hope to meet many of my students and parents!

Remembering to Make a Difference

I have spent the last two days filling up my brain with new knowledge about teaching. I learned about motivating students, new technology I can use, how to involve parents and guardians, and various other techniques to improve my teaching strategies. I am excited to implement new multimedia into my classroom and to increase attendance of my live lessons. I am excited to try new ways of motivating students to make the right choices in their education despite their many barriers. I am excited to work even more closely with my inclusion teacher in a more effective way that helps us be a team. However, I took home more than just helpful tools this week. I was reminded of a philosophy that sometimes gets pushed to the backs of our minds. As teachers, we are here to change lives, to teach students more than simply our subject matter. Our first keynote speaker, Steve Gilliland told a story about the 5 people in his life who have made the biggest difference, one being his 6^th grade teacher. I remember the teachers who impacted my life and who made me want to do the same. Sometimes as teachers we get sucked in to our daily tasks. For me its grading, making PowerPoints, and trying to reach out to those reluctant students I have in my classroom. And sometimes they get lumped together and its call after call and answering machine after answering machine that I am speaking to. But Steve’s story reminded me that I want to be the teacher that students tell stories about later in life, long after they are no longer students. I want remind students that they CAN do it, and that someone believes in them. Though I have been learning about new tech programs and approaches I can use in my classroom, the fact is that none of this matters without remembering to make a difference. I can craft the most wonderful lessons and creative projects but at the end of the day I must always remember my purpose. I am a teacher and I am here to change lives. Every moment of extra time I take to learn about a student and talk on the phone about things that don’t always have to be about art class, every time I stop to appreciate a student’s work, or commend a student on working through a personal challenge, these are the moments that matter. My goal now as I move into the end of the first quarter of our school year is to marry my new knowledge of practical skills with my enduring passion for teaching to make my students successful not only in my class but in life.

Motivating Students and Other Online Challenges

Danger of failing letter sent home to failing students

I spent today contacting many of my students who have fallen behind or have failed to start my class. It is the 6^th week of the semester but I still have a number of students who have yet to complete any assignments or attend class. How is this possible? One of the biggest challenges of teaching online is motivating reluctant learners. Unlike a traditional classroom where students can be motivated to work by looking their teacher in the eye every day, my students can hide from me. I contact these students through email, phone calls, and most recently letters in the mail. I sent a “danger of failing” letter out to all my students who had not started working about a week ago and since then, many have begun to complete work. However, I still have some stragglers. It is a myth that art teachers do not need to motivate their students to do work because it is a “fun subject”. There will always be students who don’t enjoy my class, but in an online setting students seem more likely to disengage in their learning entirely. I’ve already talked before about how online learning requires more self-motivation from the student than traditional learning, and this fact is extremely clear when looking at reluctant learners. I continue to find new ways to engage these students and I feel it is something I’ll always struggle with.

My mom reminded me of another challenge I face in my online classroom with her question: How can you make sure the work students turn in they actually did themselves since you don't always see them working?

This question is an issue that has inspired a policy at my particular online school. I am required to proctor students about their completed work once every 9 weeks. When I call students about their work, I ask them about their ideas and how they created their artwork. I embrace these moments as a time to really measure and learn what students are retaining and putting into practice. It is also a time where it is easy to tell if a student did not actually make this artwork. Many students who turn in plagiarized work in my classroom are easily caught. With tools like Google Image Search, I can upload the image a student submitted and search for others like it online. I also look for similarities in style between different projects done by the same student. It is easy to see if a student who was struggling is suddenly creating work far beyond their previous skills. Though authenticity will continue to be a challenge, I feel comfortable that my students are being held accountable for what they submit.

Communicating With Students (pt. 2)

Art 1 Newsletter

E-mails/Messages: Every week I send all of my students a message informing them of the current project and general announcements. You’d think e-mail would be my main source of communication with students in an online setting, and while I do use it a lot I do not consider it to be the most effective way of communicating. I start every day by checking my messages and answering any questions I have from students. Many questions are difficult to answer or explain in plain text so I also answer some of them over the phone. E-mail is actually my least reliable method when it comes to motivating students, however it is very useful for sending out reminders. 

Phone calls: Talking with students on the phone was something I needed to get used to in the beginning, and for some students it is still uncomfortable to receive a call from their teacher. I speak on the phone with each of my 180 students at least once every 9 weeks, but I speak with many of them far more often. Phone calls serve many purposes such as updating a student about their grade, helping them one-on-one with an assignment, proctoring them (discussing specific work to prove its authenticity), and encouraging them to log on and do assignments. With distance learning, it can be more difficult to motivate a student because they don’t see you eye to eye wondering where their assignments are. Phone calls serve as my main method of motivating students because I become more than just text on the screen when I call them personally to talk about how they are doing. I find that students are incredibly honest with me when I speak with them on the phone. They share many things with me that are school related and not. When I call a student they know I am focusing on their success and with many of them, persistence pays off. I find that the struggling students I have succeed at higher rates with consistent phone communication from me. However, I still have a group of students who do not answer my calls and I spend a lot of time speaking to answering machines. This can be frustrating, but when I have quality conversations with students I feel like those are my moments to shine as a teacher. Today I spoke with a student about her future, her plans after school, and gave her suggestions about how to choose a college. Though I don’t see my students’ faces every day I am still able to get to know them and establish a healthy rapport.

Parent Newsletter: I recently sent my first classroom newsletter home to update parents and students about the second grading period. Because it is an online school, there is not a large amount of papers that go home so I wanted to communicate with parents in a way that didn’t involve the computer. I do not have access to reliable email accounts for parents either, so a letter seemed to be the most effective way of getting in touch. I am hoping to communicate to parents that I am approachable and excited to help their child succeed. I included a parent activity in the newsletter that requires them to work with their child and also to contact me. I have yet to see if this activity will be successful but I am aiming to engage the parents and guardians in their students’ learning.