I wear a couple of hats at my school. The title "Learning Specialist" is a fancy term that means I fill both Special Education Teacher role as well as the Reading Specialist role in my school. I manage a caseload of several students with IEP's as well as teach these students. I serve on our school's SST committee. And I teach reading to students identified as needing remedial reading services by not meeting standards on our statewide achievement testing as mandated by "No Child Left Behind". Although many of our students pass these tests, often teachers complete checklists to refer students who aren't learning as quickly as they'd like to see them learning in a larger classroom setting.
Because teacher's have to schedule their days quickly as the year begins, and I have to teach my reading classes during the same times that they are addressing these standards, scheduling has always taken a great deal of consideration on my part. I have to ensure that I meet the time requirements, and I don't push into their "specials" classes, lunch time or their foreign language classes. In years past, I have spent hours and days worrying about how to best meet everyone's needs. I would have numerous emails opened in several tabs across my browser. This year, I took advantage of the Google Forms application to solve this problem. It's my new favorite thing in the whole wide world.
It presents itself as an easy to answer questionnaire in the form of an email. I have several types of questions, including multiple choice, fill in the blank and short essay styles. The teachers answered the questions, and the spreadsheet automatically filled their answers in the correct spots. It's the easiest scheduling I've ever done. I can't believe how much time I've saved already. Here is how the spreadsheet looks:
As I gather information for my action research project, I anticipate having to gather lots of data on parent involvement. Google forms looks like an excellent tool to help me do that. Before I can make any decisions on programs to implement, I will need to see what other school systems have done to encourage parents to get involved. Middle school parents are not as involved as they were in elementary school. Finding out why is going to take more than just a few questions from a few parents to get a true representation of what prevents them from being involved. I will need to create questionnaires and interest forms and tabulate what I find and I will need forms that tabulate to help keep track of the responses I receive.
ReplyDeleteCreating my own data from other data could be a confusing situation if not handled in an organized manner. Google forms sounds like the best way to accomplish what I need to accomplish.
I also plan to get students involved and make it a learning process for them as well. They could benefit from creating forms to help gather student information about parent involvement and what ideas they can contribute to getting their parents and the parents of their friends involved.
And I can’t forget the classroom. Google forms would also work as an excellent assignment for my Journalism students. They could learn to create forms and take surveys of their classmates and calculate the date, which we would then publish in the class or school newspaper.
Hi Amille,
ReplyDeleteI always think I have a busy day until I read a post like yours. How incredibly you’re juggling so many tasks at once! What a fantastic way you are using this tool to first of all save you a boatload of time and to also keep your students’ best interests in mind by making sure their day goes smoothly. It’s also a great way to gather your information and have it stored for easy reference.
I’m just beginning to use Google forms and I can already see the huge possibilities ahead. I remember that “aha” moment I had when I first saw the Google docs back in the very first class. I felt like I had been in the dark ages prior to that. I was thinking about using google forms as a questionnaire for when my classes first begin as a way to gather information about students’ photographic backgrounds/experience and what photography fields interest them the most. I was also wondering as I read your post about the feedback you received from the other staff about this new form and it’s convenience. Have you noticed whether or not other faculty are adopting this tool and modifying it for their own classes? Anyway I appreciate that you shared this information and I have much more reason to check it out for my needs as well. Take care and best of luck in your AR project and the rest of the year. I’ll be following along as I see your new posts.