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Dan Crandall
08
Project
Summary
TAH Project Reflection
Summary/Self-Evaluation (May 20, 2008)
Now that my formal work with
podcasting for the year is drawing to a close, I have decided to go
over my original project application and evaluate my progress to
date. For the record, I am not particularly happy with the end
results. My only hope is that the lessons that I have learned this
year will allow me to make significant improvements next year.
Project Application Points/Responses:
1. General overview of the proposed
project:
I created podcasts personally and
with student help this year for chapters six through thirteen. This
falls short of my initial goal of chapters four to sixteen (with a
possibility of reaching the final exam). I must ruefully admit that
my “overly simplistic” proposal from September/October ended up
being more than I could handle. There were complicating factors
(see chapter reflection pieces), but one fact is clear – I did not
create podcasts for all of the chapters initially proposed.
2. Clear Purpose and Objective:
The basic purpose and objectives
proposed initially were accomplished, although on a much smaller
level than anticipated. Differentiated learning was accomplished.
A convenient study method was provided. Students were involved in
new technology and computer skills, and student learning did seem to
be enhanced, especially for those few who participated in creating
the podcast reviews. Overall increases in comprehension and
retention were difficult to measure, as varying numbers of students
participated and/or used the podcasts. In retrospect, I can include
a survey sheet with every test to solicit student feedback on the
podcasts and their value (in the future).
3. Stakeholders: grade level, who will
benefit, who will participate in the project:
The stakeholders mentioned in the
project application did participate in the project, but on a limited
scale. I would estimate that in addition to myself and my
principal, that about half of the students in the grade (45-47)
participated in the podcasting work between chapters six and
thirteen. I was greatly surprised by student reluctance to
participate and discovered that I could not require student
participation without creating potentially serious issues with
students and parents. In the end, I allowed students to volunteer
or tried to incorporate podcasting into actual class reviews.
4. U.S. History Content Area:
U.S. History content area did
incorporate topics that began in the Colonial Era (later in that era
than anticipated) and ran to The Mexican War (1846-1848). I fell
short of my initial goal of chapter sixteen and the Civil War by
three chapters and twelve years.
5. Outline Describing Content:
See the original proposal, but
strike chapters four, five, and sixteen. Chapter Nine was merged
into Chapter Eight. As a result, all chapters in the original list
took on a new chapter designation (eleven became ten; twelve became
eleven and so on until chapter thirteen was reached).
6. Software to be used, internet
materials, contacts, etc:
All of the software, internet
materials, and contacts in the initial proposal were used. Many
turned out to be considerably more difficult to use than I thought
that they would be!
7. Level of Student Involvement:
As mentioned under point three,
approximately half of the class participated in the podcasting.
8. Evaluation Process (include students
when possible):
I still assigned grades, but had
to scale them back to a simple basis on participation. Student
interest and involvement did not allow me to create podcasting
competitions. Test results were compared between this year and last
year. The results were very marginally better this year than last
(overall). This is somewhat disappointing, but many factors come
into play (ranging from student ability levels and interest to time
constraints and technical difficulties).
9. Timeline: how you envision the
project being carried out between start up and conclusion
The project was carried out on a
chapter by chapter basis. However, it did not begin until early
December and it came to a close in the middle of May.
10. Comments or Questions:
I wish that I had spoken to a
teacher who did podcasting before attempting this! In addition, it
would have been wise for me to have attended formal podcasting
classes offered through my local BOCES. In this respect, I was much
too overconfident in my ability to master “simple” podcasting.
To access the chapter six and seven
podcasts
- go to
www.gstboces.org
- click on "school districts"
- select Elmira Heights Central School
District
- select Middle School
- select "Mr. Devine's Website" at the bottom
of the page
- select "Mr. Crandall's Podcasts"
- select "Resources" and go to the folders
list
- select "Mr. Crandall's Podcasts"
To access chapters eight through
thirteen podcasts
- follow the first four steps in the list
above
- select "Classrooms"
- select the second "Mr.
Crandall's Classroom"
- select podcasts on the main page menu
Merged Chapter Summaries/Reflections
Chapters Four and Five (late October to
Late November)
Podcasts were not, to my eternal
frustration, created for these chapters. The reasons were as
follows:
- M-Audio Podcasting software did
not arrive until late October
- The podcasting software
experienced software compatibility issues with the district’s
computer network. Our technology support person (only available two
days a week) took two weeks to resolve these issues and install the
software and equipment on a computer in the school computer lab
(part way into Chapter Five). I do not have the technical/computer
ability to resolve software compatibility issues.
- My principal, who has a tendency
to overload himself with work, was unable or unavailable to help
explore the podcasting software and equipment for over a week once
it was ready to go. When he was available, he did so quite
enthusiastically. Chasing him down and clearing a half hour in his
schedule proved to be quite a feat.
- I overloaded myself by
participating on four district and building level committees, TAH,
WSTCC, and by serving as the union representative for both the
Middle and Elementary Schools! I participated in at least 15
meetings and conferences and represented several employees in
disciplinary proceedings during November alone. In addition, I have
no free time in my own schedule to work with students in an isolated
setting. All podcasting work was done in my tenth period study hall
(in my room, with other students present) or in class.
Chapter Six (Late November to Mid
December)
My initial plan to steadily work
on podcasting throughout the chapter fell through when student
interest was revealed to be surprisingly low. I was very surprised
by the lack of interest on the part of the advanced
placement/accelerated students. Equally surprising was the general
student lack of familiarity with podcasting. Few knew what a
podcast was and none of them had actually worked on them prior to my
attempts.
A further complication was lack of
student availability due to scheduling conflicts. We are a small
middle school and the seventh grade only runs one full and one
partial study hall each day. An A/B day rotation, combined with
student participation in band and chorus during study halls severely
limited the ability of students to come in for podcasting work –
even when they were interested. In the end, this complication put
an end to my hopes of having every student in the grade participate
in podcasting.
On December 4, 2007, I rushed my
pregnant wife to the hospital in the early morning hours. We
believed, for a short period of time, that we had lost our son. My
wife was confined to bed rest for a week as a result of having
“placenta previa.” This further delayed my efforts to attempt any
podcasting until the situation at home settled.
Finally, On December 13 (a snow
day), I came into school at 7:00 PM and personally created a podcast
overview of the entire chapter. The podcast ended up being
approximately 30 minutes long and I knew even as a created it that
it would be of limited value to seventh grade students. Following
my principal’s instructions, I saved the podcast and attempted to
send it to him – only to discover that it was too long to send in an
email. After two days of frantic scrambling, we discovered that the
recording had to be:
- exported as a WAV or MP3 file
- uploaded to a website that had a
storage capacity large enough to handle it (my principal’s
webpage)
- The podcast was only available for
students who were absent on the test day and had to make it up. We
were unable to resolve the technical difficulties until after the
chapter test was given.
I am not proud of this podcast and
certainly would prefer that it remain unavailable to the folks in
the TAH program. The volume setting is very
low (I did not properly adjust microphone volume before
recording) and you may have to turn your
volume to near maximum to hear anything.
Chapter Seven (December to January)
My greatest enemy in Chapter Seven
was student availability and interest in podcasting.
A small number of students did volunteer to
work, but none of them were available at the same time. Once
again, I personally created the podcast and
divided it into parts related to chapter sections to make the
podcasts more user friendly. Great
difficulties in making the podcasts available to students were
experienced again.
In the end, we discovered that my account on
the BOCES Teachers Toolbox website did not have
the storage capacity to handle the podcasts.
This time, the podcasts were uploaded to my principal’s website just
in time to be available for students review prior to the testing
date.
Chapter Eight (January)
I took a different approach with
Chapter Eight in an effort to spark interest in podcasting. Instead
of
trying to bring students in during study
halls, I made podcasting a class activity shortly before the chapter
test was given. A volunteer group from each
class created a podcast representing a portion of the chapter
(using conventional review guides). Some
groups made two podcasts on two separate parts of the
chapter.
By the end of the day, we created a full
podcast review that was done by the students. Both the
participants and the audience in class seemed
to enjoy the process and a large number of students reported
listening to the podcasts before the test. Test grades for this
particular chapter were very good. The podcasts were available on
my principal’s website once more while I began to create a new
website (still under construction in May 2008) under the BOCES
Teachers Toolbox Pro program that can handle the size of the
podcasts.
Chapter Nine (February)
Chapter Nine took another new
approach to podcasting. We attempted to create a “Jeopardy!”
podcast for each part of the chapter in class. Great fun was had by
all, but the microphone volume was low and some of the podcasts have
to be listened to with the volume all the way up. I did have to
supplement the student efforts with podcasts of my own when some of
the podcast did not record or when we did not have enough time in
class to create a podcast.
Once again, many students reported
listening to the podcasts and test results were very good.
Surprisingly, many of my advanced students remain very reluctant to
participate while the lower achieving/special ed students are the
most eager to participate. These podcasts were the first to appear
solely on my own webpage.
Chapters Ten to Thirteen (February to
May)
I can offer a single summary for
all of these podcasts as they were all created in the same manner.
I discovered that the Jeopardy review style was too difficult to
work well in the close confines of my room and with a short
microphone cord. Instead, I carefully arranged for students
available during the only full study hall to come in and record
podcasts together with me. The lower achieving/special ed students
were the most eager and available to work on podcasting. I was
happy to see that they enjoyed the podcasting and believe that this
was a great opportunity for differentiated learning for me.
Chapter Ten was created and posted
to my website on time (although I deleted it and uploaded it again
in May). Student availability and a number of events at the school
led to the late postings of chapters eleven and twelve, which were
of primary value to students who missed the initial testing date
(these were also deleted at one point and uploaded again). Chapter
Thirteen was available for review before the test.
Conclusion
Carol,
In retrospect, I wish that I had taken the amount of
time and technical knowledge that this requires into account. I
also feel that I should have foreseen a number of hurdles such as
student availability, schedule constraints, student willingness,
snow days, and the fact that we now have eight conference days in my
district. I’m hoping that all of these podcasts will be of some use
to students when they review for their final, but I had to end
podcasting in May as the year winds down and many activities
interfere.
Crandall 08
Reflection in Word
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