Señora Cummins' Reflections

This morning I began learning more about Open.  (If you're unfamiliar with this term, it's the idea that there are resources that can be used that are open instead of restricted access).  I like the podcast Teaching in Higher Ed and when I saw that Tannis Morgan spoke about open resources I decided to listen.  It was a great podcast.  It was a few years old so I don't think the information was as current as I can find elsewhere, but it was a great place for me to start. Tannis Morgan posed the question:  What is your purpose to migrate towards open?  That gave me pause.  I teach Spanish 1411, 1412, 2311, 2312 and am currently teaching a brand new class that is an elective for our Upward Bound summer academy:  Enhancing Leadership through Technology.  In the near future I hope to build a SPAN 1300 which is conversational Spanish. Up to now, my Spanish classes have used Cengage's Plazas curriculum because it was what was chosen by the Spanish p...

I hadn't heard of OER (Open Educational Resources) until I received an email from someone recommending I attend a webinar about using OER for Spanish classes.  I attended the webinar but felt like this concept of sharing resources was too out there for me.   If you aren't familiar with this concept, the idea is that resources are shared.  Instead of requiring students to purchase a textbook (or digital curriculum access) I link resources from my Canvas class.  They can access these materials for free.  Instead of requiring them to "pay to do their homework" (quotation from a student who wasn't a fan of purchasing access to digital curriculum) they can access the materials on my Canvas page for free. I tend to be cautious when I hear about new things.  I had the following concerns:  who ensures the validity of these resources?  What if I link to a resource and it's taken down the next day?  What would the students use to learn the concept...

I'm about to launch 2 new classes.  They are very different and I've enjoyed working on both. One of the biggest lessons I've learned with online classes is each instructor does them differently which can cause lots of confusion for students as well as for me. Last semester I had the system in my online Spanish classes that required my students to do quizzes, spoken assignments and tests in Canvas but everything else was on the Cengage website.  Students missed quizzes and spoken assignments because they weren't going to Canvas.  I realized how confusing this navigation issue was and did as much on my end as I could to help them. However, when I searched for a new curriculum I was very interested in finding an online site that would let me use the tests in the curriculum site so I wasn't copying everything into Canvas.  (In hindsight I bet Cengage had that capability, but the rep showed me how to move everything to Canvas so it's what I did--causing lots of extr...

Hooray!  This wacky semester of having to work from home is over!  I submitted all my grades and can now look back on the semester with the relief that I survived it. Challenges this semester (before Spring Break): 2 of my sections switched to Hybrid.  I didn't really think through what Hybrid teaching was.  No one gave me a book or even a word of warning.  I asked a colleague for advice and he gave me some great tips.  I took the time to make "prep quizzes" in Canvas for each new concept that was assigned before each class.  They were very short quizzes that assessed if the students did the learning activity before class.  Not a huge success, but a good starting point. I naively thought that when I explained to the students that the expectation was to do assigned work before class they would do it as opposed to just listening to me explain each concept.  Many did, others didn't.  Even more didn't do the assigned practice activities (hom...

I took the time yesterday to map out exactly what it is that the curriculum plans for me to teach in 1411, 1412, 2311 and 2312.  Whew.  It a lot of information.  According to the state of Texas, I need to be teaching students to speak, listen, read and write at different levels of proficiency dependent upon their level. I explored the idea that 1411 could be considered a survey class--expose them to lots of ideas but expect mastery on a few.  Unfortunately, that's not how Spanish instruction is structured with the curriculum I chose.  They have to learn what's taught in 1411 during 1411 or they won't be prepared for 1412. So, what next?  I think assessments are the next thing to address.  The assessment breakdown I inherited when I began teaching this class was 0% homework, 10% participation, 10% attendance, 10% oral proficiency exam, 20% quizzes, 30% tests (3 per semester, all 10% a piece) and 20% final exam.  It was fun to teach that way.  ...

Yesterday Dr Lock, our dean of eLearning, sent us a set of questions to guide us as we reflect on this semester.  I love taking a moment to "tie a bow" on experiences.  When something ends I typically feel sad.  Taking time to reflect on lessons learned as well as celebrations helps me move on. I won't include all of the questions;  I'll only include those that I want to share or reflect on today. If you've taught an online class before, what was different between those sections and the courses you had to transition to remote learning because of the pandemic? Students were prepared for the expectations of an online class before because I took the time to prepare them.  Unfortunately, I felt so rushed to get the classes online that I didn't take the steps to teach students how to learn in an online environment.  Also, many didn't want to be online.  Providing that level of information probably would have overwhelmed them.   ...

http://go.bubbl.us/a47d3e/76e0?/Spanish-big-picture-of-concepts I took the time to make a concept map of my new textbook,  (If it doesn't open to the site, you may need to copy and paste into your browser.) Puntos de Partida 11th ed.  I was using Cengage before and I'm so pleased with my new scope and sequence.  In the concept map I've linked above you can see pretty much everything I'll teach from 1411-2312.  The colors follow the rainbow. Even though this took a while to do it was worth the time.  I have a broader understanding now of the overall flow of the classes.  I've already started planning 1411 Online for June but I'planning to teach 2311 in the fall.  Taking the time to see how the parts fit together was helpful.

One of the reasons I decided to begin blogging here is to give myself a space to wrestle with how to teach.  I'm currently in the process of building 2 new online classes.  I've taught Spanish 1411 and 1412 online, both once.  They were both a great first effort but now I'm looking to make improvements for 2.0. When I built 1411 online a year ago I had no training and no real guidance.  I had taught the curriculum as an adjunct for 2 semesters and decided to give it a go online.  I worked hard.  I made lots of teaching videos (none with closed captioning) and selected tons of assignments from the curriculum.  I sought out people and asked lots of questions.  I was advised to think of this as my Beta model, meaning to launch it but be ready for lots of ways to improve it.  I'm not really a "Beta model" kind of gal.  I'm more of a perfectionist, but I launched it anyway.    Now I see the logic behind the Beta mindset in online te...

In early March I read  Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone  and it opened my eyes to the fact that as an instructor I can (and should) do more.  I inherited the idea that there should be this division between students and professors.  Us and them.  They should look up to us in our ivory tower and respect us as the givers of knowledge.  I've only taught in higher ed for a few years but I'm seeing that this attitude is outdated and creates missed opportunities for learning and connections between instructors and students.  Where did this idea come from?   Upon personal reflection, I decided for me, this stems from the way I was raised.  I was raised by older parents who place a high value order.  There's a stratification of roles and everyone needs to behave appropriately to their station.  Children should be seen and not heard.  The younger obey the older.  Put on your best face in front of strangers.  Practical applic...

This semester when we moved online due to the corona virus I realized that taking tests online at home wasn't ideal.  Instead of giving final exams to all of my classes I chose to assign student projects. Wow.  Students loved it.  They were able to create and personalize their learning.  Instead of worrying about a student cheating on a test (which I knew the temptation would be very high with a very high stakes test at home with no proctor) and introduced the projects as "show and tell" in Spanish.  They made "All about me" projects and I was so impressed with their creativity and their depth of application of the knowledge from this semester. As an instructor I can see ways to improve this project in the future:  my rubrics weren't quite perfect, my directions could be more specific, I could let students know this project is coming a bit sooner so they can plan for it, etc.  But overall this was a home run.   I've been reading The Teaching ...

http://go.bubbl.us/a4438a/5d73?/Plan-for-Enhancing-Leadership-through-Technology-class I found a great site that lets me make concept maps.  I'm in the process of planning a new class I'm teaching the summer.  I'm going to teach students leadership and technology.  I'm still figuring out exactly how those things will intersect throughout the class, but I went from sticky notes to typing them into a graphic organizer.

Favorite phrases: "Horse feathers!"  My dad doesn't cuss, ever.  But when he gets really frustrated he says this phrase.  The other day I saw that it's a title of a Marx Brothers movie. "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."  I'm not a perfectionist by nature, but I hold myself to a very high standard.  I've had to learn that there are things in life that demand perfection but many things are really OK if they're good enough. "Life ain't fair and the world is mean."  This is in a song by Sturgill Simpson and we say it to our sons regularly.  When our sons complains (oftentimes legitimately) that something isn't fair, my husband plays the song on his phone.  Our Christian faith is important to us and we remind our sons that the bible teaches that on this side of heavy things are broken.  Once we get to heaven the bible promises that there will be no more tears, no more sadness, no more pain and no more ____ (...

I read yesterday that to remember something there are 3 phases:  acquisition, storage and retrieval.  For something to be "caught", one has to pay attention to it.  For it to move on down the chain, one has to connect it to something else. In my mind, this is like organizing items in a closet.  First, I start off with the item.  It's in my hand and I'm looking at it.  Next, I find a place on the shelf with like items.  Lastly, when I need it, I remember where it is, I go to the shelf and I get it. Here's the craft of teaching:  guiding students to make those connections so they don't "drop" the new information, but instead they put it on shelves in their brains.  This doesn't happen effortlessly.  One way to do that is with content maps.  I love thinking maps and graphic organizers.  I'm a visual thinker so organizing thoughts in graphic organizers is a natural process for me. However, I haven't found (or really looked) f...