Thursday, April 30, 2015

Faculty Meeting Recipe- Data + "3 Rs" + Socrative

The following faculty meeting recipe was used to look at a wide array of data associated with a mid-year school wide survey during a one hour faculty meeting. It was implemented with the intention to collectively celebrate successes, challenge assumptions, and find solutions to issues raised by mid-year student feedback to a variety of questions.  

Necessary Ingredients:
  • Fantastic educators
  • School wide Data (We are using Panorama this year)
  • Socrative (Pre-heat by starting a short answer "Quick Question")
Step 1- Give educators access to student survey results ahead of time. 

Step 2- Have educators go to Socrative and login to the room as "Student"

Step 3- Present the first "R"- Revel. Have each educator put into Socrative a result that they are proud of and one way they believe they contribute to that positive result.

Step 4- Once everyone has participated in step 3, go into Socrative and "start vote". This awesome feature allows participants to read others short answers and vote for one they believe best "answers" the question.

Step 5- Display voting results. Discuss as needed.

Step 6- (Optional) Admin displays data that they "Revel" from mid-year teacher surveys.

Step 7- Initiate a new short answer "quick question" in Socrative for second "R": Reexamine- Ask participants to examine data and find one result that surprises and explain why it surprises. Repeat steps 4-7

Step 8- (Optional) Admin displays data that they identified as necessary to "Reexamine" from mid-year teacher surveys.

Step 9- Initiate a new short answer "quick question" in Socrative for third "R": Remedy- Ask participants to examine data and find one result that is unacceptable and share one idea to change it.

Step 10- Not optional: Admin displays feedback they received as feedback from teacher surveys that they see as unacceptable, and share one idea to change it.


Monday, April 27, 2015

Unexpected Lessons From My Bammy! Nomination

Seth Godin said:
People are real, but the crowd disappoints
Every crowd, sooner or later, will let you down.
The crowd contains a shoplifter, or a heckler, or an anonymous boor who leaves a snarky comment.
The crowd loses interest, the crowd denigrates the work, the crowd isn't serious.
Worst of all, sometimes the crowd turns into a mob, out of control and bloodthirsty.
But people, people are real.
People will look you in the eye.
People will keep their promises. People can grow, can change, can be generous.
When in doubt, ignore the crowd (and forgive them). When possible, look for people instead.
via: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/04/people-are-real-but-the-crowd-disappoints.html 

Given the feedback to date on my Bammy! Award nomination, I have learned the truth in Seth's post, and would add:
  • People will sign their name.
  • People will give you honest feedback.
  • People will tell you where you can improve.
I was going to write about the"heckler" and the "anonymous boor", but I am taking Mr. Godin's advice instead and writing only about those who matter-- the people who will: look you in the eye, keep their promises, help you grow, change, be generous, AND who will sign their name, give honest feedback, and help you improve.

My sincere thanks go out to all the people! Thanks for letting me know you.