Research projects are underway in almost every English class in the school, which is quite a few considering that we have seven English teachers. I taught research skills and assisted with student research for approximately fifteen blocks this week. I will continue to do this next week as well. When working with these classes, I teach students how to use online catalogs for print and electronic books, how to search databases for articles and primary source documents, and how to find credible, reliable web sites. I also assist with teaching MLA documentation, bibliography and note cards, and essay organization.
For three of the research classes, students completed an SAS activity about plagiarism. This activity is fantastic. It includes a plagiarism quiz for which students can print results. The best part of the activity is that students see examples of an original text, a paraphrase or summary that is plagiarized, and a paraphrase or summary that is an acceptable use of the original. Students usually think they are avoiding plagiarism if they just change one or two words from an original source. This activity helps them see that this is not acceptable.
This week I also managed to squeeze in four one-on-one training sessions. I provided two Google Calendar/WebTop sessions, helped a teacher learn to use his new Mimio Teach device (which is awesome), and taught another teacher how to use her Intelliboard. I also spend about two hours troubleshooting problems with the Intelliboard and downloading and installing a software update for it. It's working well now, and the teacher is so excited. She used it the day after I showed her how. Her students are excited about using it as well. She's even moving her room around to accommodate more use of the board.
I've also finally found a teacher who is willing to work with me on the blended delivery project. We're going to use Edline so that students do not need to create new accounts anywhere. Teachers in my school have access to the new features in Edline such as the discussion board. I'm going to be working with an AP English class.
I think that I'm going to focus on blended delivery for my action research project as well. I have worked with Edmodo quite a bit this year, and I know of two teachers using it for different purposes. I'm also creating a group to assist with research/documentation issues. I think I'm going to analyze whether students take more ownership, become more independent, and participate more in a learning community when using a blended delivery/online discussion board component in their classes.
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