Teacher Effectiveness Survey - Formulating Neutral Questions

Source

Our Lunch N' Learn was designed toward analyzing data received from students after they completed our "Teacher Effectiveness Survey".  Some teachers have inquired as to "What makes a good question?"

To answer this, I asked our high school stats teacher, Mr. Martinson, to provide some examples as to what makes a valid question.  In his course work, students are instructed to always collect valid data and analyze it. He sheds some light on specific examples that could be included on a survey.


- Questions should be neutral, meaning they don't encourage a particular response. 

Example: 

Neutral:   How does today's lesson compare to yesterday"s? 

Leading:  Didn't you like today's lesson better than yesterday"s?

Neutral: How does the use of technology affect your learning?

Leading: Many students feel technology helps them engage in their learning. How do you feel about technology?

- Avoid terms all students may not understand. 

  example: use the terms tests, quizzes, instead of formal assessment.

 

- Questions should have as many good options as bad options. 

  example: strongly disagree,disagree,agree, strongly agree

- People will often pick the middle if given an odd number of option (if providing an even number of options you can avoid this)

- Make sure every possible response has a place and that options are 

mutually exclusive (response should fall in one category, not more than one)

Cover Your App Denmark Tech U

Explain Everything For Connections In Algebra I Lab

Combined with our paper and pencil graphing results from a "bouncy ball lab", Explain Everything became the best tool for comparing and contrasting the connections between two events.  As educators we really saw how the students were forced to explain the graphs and the results from it.  There was no "hiding in their notebook", and students really enjoyed creating their results.

See how the students explained the experiment.

Today, students will record voices on each slide and upload/share it to their Google Drive.  They will also share it with their instructor.

Three Act Math

Today, Mr. Mihalski and Mrs. Gulan provided the challenge of a Three Act math problem.  In preparation for this, I filmed the actual activity and used Camtasia to place the (Dan Meyer) timer and video together.  The students used iPads to review, investigate, and discuss the problem at their own pace.  The great thing about this was that it was messy.  Questioning and not giving was the theme by the teachers so that the students did the work!  It also begins to give students (even though they don't know it) the skill of explaining mathematical reasoning which will be an important skill when the Common Core State Standards SMARTER balanced assessment takes place in the future.

Once the video was created, I presented it to the teachers in the format of an email.
Below are the directions that the math teachers and I developed.  The questions are anticipated questions that we thought the students might come up with.  The math teachers determined the math that transpired from the footage, while the technology integration specialist delivered the video for classroom use.

Act 1: Show this video Students may need a slow version

Act 2: Allow students think time...take on questions.

  Questions that may be asked. 

     1.  How many steps are there?

      1a. How are the steps to be numbered?  Where is zero?

      2.  Do both teachers start on the same step?

      3.  Is Mr. Mihalski taking two steps at a time?

      4.  Do we want to know the step or the time that they will meet?

      5.   Is Mr. Mihalski really wearing two different shoes?

This will be messy.  Avoid telling the students the answers.  However, it may require some input from you.

Act 3: Watch the answer.

*I realize the time in the videos is inaccurate.  While it will be changed for next time, it gave students a great opportunity to use their BYOD and retime the action.  

For the students to view the video footage, I created a classroom blog with the teacher.  This gave the teacher a digital presence on the web.  See the students in action:

TED app For Choice Learning

TED

St. Louis Arch and App Digital Resource You Can Think Of...

"Being Less Helpful" (credit Mr. Meyer) rings loud and clear in today's learning activity.  I did guide the students with six questions that needed answers, but failed at giving them everything.

Check That.

They have everything: access to the knowledge of the world (iPad/internet), previous days learning factoring of quadratic equations, the value of the Quadratic Formula, 150 applications on the iPad, a mind to question, and each other!

What More Can A Person Ask For?  Besides a really fast car!

Watch the learning experience unfold through the video that was taken!

Tools that students used to solve and create:

• Safari
• Graphing Calculator App
• Pic Collage App
• Skitch App
• Whiteboard App
• Paper and Pencil
• Whiteboards

I love this stuff!

The entire 24 video playlist is below, but won't work on an iPad.  Get the direct link to the playlist!

Explain Everything Used After Direct Instruction

I have found the Explain Everything app to be a great resource for students to process immediately after they learn a skill.  If I would ask them to explain it in their notes, they wouldn't.  However, putting it on a digital medium boosts the interest and creativity level.

We upload them to our classroom Dropbox account, and I assess.



We've used Explain Everything for other things such as here, here, and here.

Skitch App To Label Dissection of Worm

Our students recently dissected a worm and used the Skitch app to label all the parts.  There was something about the color that the students liked in the app.  As you can see, students utilized it to the fullest.  These pictures were posted to the students' professional portfolios.

Writing Letters Using Apps

Our students needed to write a letter to a disgruntled customer.

Introduction To Concept - Students Doing Work

I believe this lesson typifies how my classroom instruction has changed in the last year.  Our scope and sequence called for an introduction to parabolas.  If an iPad with searchability features and creation apps didn't exist, our students would have been stuck with their textbook and me for information about this topic.

Instead, multiple tools were used to obtain detailed questions on parabolas.  This provided students a great opportunity to become self directed learners, questioners, and creators all in a 45 minute class period.

My role revolved around questioning students so that they discovered the answer on their own, they discovered what tech tool would be the best to use to find the information, and they decided how they wanted to create a product that proved they knew the information.

The multiple videos are below in sequential order.



Graphing Calculator App


Pic Collage and Whiteboard App



Dictionary App (with audio) & Searching for features of parabola


What student knows...


Picture of vertex after search


Notes and Skitch App


Phoster App


Photo Mess Whiteboard


Creating


Summarizing through blogging and labeling

Explain Everything Completed Projects

If you follow the blog regularly, the past two days have been spent reviewing concepts from our math Chapter 6. Our students used the Explain Everything App which is detailed here.

Below are links to the public Dropbox links that students uploaded.  The whole process has been engaging for students and revealing for the teaching.  Students truly can "do more work" and it is totally worth the time!

• Student 1
• Student 2
• Student 3
• Student 4
• Student 5
• Student 6
• Student 7
• Student 8
• Student 9
• Student 10

My plan is to have students copy the public link of their production from the Dropbox app and send it to their parents in an email.

Formal Assessment Using Creative Apps

Over the last two days we have been completing many tasks to help with the relationship between Pi, diameter, and circumference.  Day 1  Day 2

Some assessment happened today.  See what we did!

Opened class with a small discussion and a video

Google Docs and Form For Voting On Best T-Shirt Design

Students spent one class period designing a t-shirt which gave some background before attacking a theme problem in math.  In order to vote on the best designed t-shirt, a process was set up.



Student Link For Information

Creative App Carousel Day

Students have a problem:
How can they stress responsible digital citizenship to a specific audience in a creative way?

Today we allowed students to explore eight suggested creative apps for use in their upcoming presentation on responsible digital citizenship.

See The Specific Activity

A major reflection piece in this activity was to rate the apps that they were exploring. I used a Google form to acquire their opinion.  See The Form!

View the day's activities below:




We also introduced them to six Web 2.0 tools.

Think.Question.Create.

This is our entire overall focus for our year!