Terri Greenwood
MA Cognate Project Proposal
As a resource specialist teacher working full-time in a public school setting, I have a tendency to feel that there just are not enough hours in the day! In addition to teaching classes, as a case manager, I am the point person for students, their families, and general education teachers. With 28 students on my caseload, I spend many hours each week communicating with teachers and parents about the progress of the students I provide services to. Students with more complex needs require more of my time than others, and there are some weeks when I spend an hour each day outside of class time working with one particular student and communicating with his/her caregivers. I set up a teacher webpage through blogspot last school year in an attempt to have more information readily accessible to families, but I have been very inconsistent about updating it because I am often so busy with my other duties. It has occurred to me that if I revamp my site and make a commitment to keep the information on my page up to date and relevant, I could save a great deal of time on the phone and emailing parents because much of the information related to homework from general education courses would be available there.
I have spent a great deal of time exploring options for my cognate project. I want to do something that is relevant to my current practice; I want to create a system of sharing information that will further assist my students and their families in fostering success at the junior high level. The transition from elementary to junior high school can be shocking and stressful for many students and their caregivers. Much of this stress comes from the transition from working with one general education teacher and one case manager to keeping track of assignments in six classes as well as communicating with the child’s case manager. I have begun studying pedagogical philosophies related to education technology, and I feel that by utilizing a new social medium (blogsopt) I can create a more efficient learning environment for my students and better meet the needs of the students on my caseload. I learned that increased communication and collaboration between teachers and parents fosters student success in school during my Level II coursework, and improving my teacher website should improve communication and collaboration from school to home.
I feel that improving my existing blogsopt to include up to date, accurate school-based information will reflect my background in special education as well as my newer gleanings from education technology courses. With the click of a mouse, parents and caregivers could have access to general education teachers’ homework assignments, links to other teacher web pages, school-based news (tutoring, English Language Acquisition Committee meetings, dances, school board meetings, long-term projects, and extracurricular programs, etc.), community-based news, and strategies for parents and caregivers to use at home to facilitate student success at school. By dedicating more time to my teacher resource, I hope that I can reduce the anxiety of parents trying to get homework information, thus reducing the time I spend corresponding with each parent individually. It is not that I do not want to communicate with parents individually, but I feel that it is more efficient if the information is available online so that parents do not have to wait for me to respond. Using blogsopt as the medium through which to communicate this information makes it available to everyone (since my page is linked to our school website), and anyone can add a comment to postings if I miss something. The public nature of my blogsopt incorporates a participatory element; students, teachers, and parents are welcome to add information to the site. Having information available online can also help students become more accountable for their work, since they can access the information at home in case of absence, etc.
Of course, this site will not ever be flawless; inevitably, I will miss assignments because reality is not perfect. I may become ill, or one of my colleagues may be out; this inhibits our ability to share information with one another. By improving my site I cannot promise that it will be perfect and ease all anxiety junior high workloads can create, but I can attempt to create a more accessible way for students and their families to access important information. This cognate project can also engage my students in contributing to the resource. In my study skills classes, we have planner time, during which students take out their planners and we review what each of their general education teachers’ homework assignments are. Currently, we use a white board with a huge grid on it to record the assignments. Of course, space is limited, so the information has to be erased and replaced with current information every few days. If we do this activity through my teacher computer and projector, the information does not have to be erased and students/parents can view past assignments in case of absences, missing work, etc. Not only will this provide a valuable resource, but if students can see the process of posting, they can learn a valuable tool that can help them share creative ideas and connect with others.
