5.6 Investing In Your PLN - Part III - Reflection
Joanne Glantz
ET735
My gem for the week was discovered in the readings of What Connected Educators Do Differently, (Whitaker, Zoul, & Casas, 2015). In the assignment to find five educators and resources, I found Garnet Hillman (@garnet_hillman). Garnet is an Instructional Coach in Deerfield, IL. She works with teachers to improve instructional practices and grading policies and has done extensive research and executed standards-based learning and grading to maximize student growth and achievement.
Our school district is in the process of changing our grading policies starting with the secondary schools. We have multiple teachers that have tested various rubrics implementing standards-based grading. Our process it moving forward with implementation across PLC’s this coming school year. Discovering Garnet was a added value.
Garnet hosts a Twitter Chat, #sblchat and archives the chats on her website http://garnethillman.com/. She uses the tool Storify as a curation device and has an awesome library of chat information. Garnet also Blogs extensively on the subject of standards-based learning and grading, making her writing available on her website along with her Twitter Feeds. Garnets site is not only an excellent example of a connected educators website, she is a valuable resource for our research as we move forward with a transformational change in our district's grading policies.
Another area of discovery for me was editing my interview with Tara Martin. This has become quite the project as I’m determined to make it as interactive as possible. My intention is to highlight key phrases that Tara makes and present them as inserted cards over her voice. There were some bandwidth issues when we did the recording so I’m learning extensive editing to glean out important conversation and hide bandwidth issues with appropriate key phrase cards. This is my first time using Adobe Premiere Pro CC and it is extremely powerful. I’m pleased with the final project and also the video editing skills I’m starting to develop.
I have definitely felt the difference this week in creating over reading and writing. Even when researching and writing a Blog there is a feeling of creation over writing. This experience is important as an educator to help facilitate student-centered learning with far more guidance and empathy.
