Students and Re - engagement

Re-Engagement of Students

This time of year many students will start to come forth who have not done much in class up until this point. As teachers we are faced with the choice of setting limits and maintaining strict guidelines or coming up with differentiated paths for these students. The excuses the students include for their lack of progress or participation range from the serious issues such as losses and illness to students simply stating that they mismanaged their time.

To decide how to handle each student I base my decision on the following criteria:

1) Reason given

2) Amount of Engagement in class prior to situation

3) Level of work prior to situation

4) Students receptivity to plan and time lines I develop for make ups.

As a teacher as I understand when I undertake developing a differentiated path for our students, to get them caught up in class, that it will mean more work for myself. What makes this worth my time is that I know that ultimately they will be learning and understanding the material in order to pass. As long as I feel that they are being educated I will allow students to have extended deadlines for assignments or tests. I insist that they still complete all the work and take the exams to demonstrate their knowledge. The goal for me is that I give them the opportunity to learn and a chance to grow in their knowledge of the subject.

The rule I do have as I work with these students is that if I give them extended deadlines or schedules that they follow through in their new commitments. I do not allow extensions beyond the established deadlines. If they do not jump on the initial opportunity presented I will not work with them further extensions.

The decision to work with students on extended time lines and differentiated paths is up to the individual teacher and the type of class. I hope my post today on the decision making process I apply when deciding to make these type of decisions will help other teachers as they are faced with similar dilemmas.

Engaging your students in Discussion Questions

Engaging your students in Discussion Questions

Do you ever feel that a large majority of your students do the bare minimum when engaging in their online class discussions? I have noticed that as I move into the second part of the semester that the participation in my discussion questions really drops. To fight this, I have come up with two strategies I would like to share with you. I will not pretend that it works for all of the students but I am able to successfully engage a small percentage by applying the following techniques.

The first technique I use to engage "my bare minimum students" is to go back to the their original posting of their introductory bio before responding to one of their posted discussion questions. I look for any fact I can pull out and creatively apply when reading and subsequently responding to their latest discussion posting. For example, if the student had indicated they were going to veterinary school and the discussion topic they responded to was about fractures...I could say something like the following:

"Steve, great posting here on compound fractures and the standard treatment options for a geriatric patient. I know you mentioned that you are starting your veterinary program at Community College of Denver in the fall so I was wondering if you knew how a veterinarian would set a compound fracture. Is the procedure similar for humans and felines? Class....does anyone know the answer to this?"

The key is to let the student know that I remember him as an individual. This often leads to the students feeling more connected and engaged. They realize that I am looking closely at their work as an individual and what they contribut to class is important.

Another key strategy is to ask the group to answer a question like I did in the last sentence above. Students that may have had a pet or a family member that had a broken limb may join this discussion. I try to ask a question to the student as well as to the entire class when responding to a discussion question posting.

These two strategies have both helped me to keep many of the students from disengaging in the second half of the semester. I hope using one or both of these strategies helps you "catch" a few of those students who are doing the bare minimum in your class as well!

Thank you,

Jennifer Harr, RN, MSN

Email organization

Hi all!

Now that we have central emails with D2L you may feel like your inbox is quite a busy location. Do not let this area get you stressed out......the best way to keep your self organized and happy to enter into your email is to stay on top of your emails and use file folders.

If you have not started to organize your emails in folders yet I would highly suggest it. I read, respond, and then file each email as I get it. I have the following sorts of files:

Class Files (one for each class)

Health Science File

CCCS File

D2L File

Student Training tips

Teacher Training tips

Personal

I find that if a question ever arises I can easily access the information I need by having it filed. There is also the piece of mind you get from looking at an empty inbox!

I hope you find this helpful.

Thank you,

Jennifer Harr, RN, MSN

How to send Group Emails using BCC option

How to send Group Emails using BCC option

Hi everyone!

I try to send my students emails once a week. I use the BCC option so that the students feel that my message is just to them and I am being FERPA safe. (Not to mention it makes my life easier....I am always looking for shortcuts. :))

Here is how I use BCC in the grade book:

When I post their weekly discussion grades in the grade book I then will then take the following steps while I am in the grade book ....

1)Click on the names of all the students that got the full week's points.

2)Click on the email ICON and their names will then populate in the TO slot.

3) Copy and past those names into the BCC.

4) Then erase all of the names from the TO slot.

4) Then I type in jenny.grade into the TO slot.

5) This email them will be delivered to the student with only their name in the address bar. They will assume you just sent this message to them and perhaps you had sent the same message to several students.

An example message I may send would be the following:

"Way to GO! You received the full 15 points for you discussion participation this week. Thank you for your valued contributions to our online classroom!"

I also do this with any students who have not participated or submitted any type of work. With BCC you maintain their privacy but can contact several students at one time.

I hope you find this tip helpful and if you need me to make a short video of it please just let m know!

Thank you,

Jennifer Harr, RN, MSN

Organzing grading of discussion questions

Organizing grading of discussion questions

If you are like me you have your students posting and responding to peers all of the time. I used to struggle with a way to stay organized on grading and responding to postings. I did not want to have to leave the DQ area and then go to the grading area. To stay on top of it I print out an excel of all of my students and set up the grading rubric right in the excel. That way I can just stay in the discussion area and just mark the students grade on my printed out excel grade book. On days the grades are due I just go into the grade book and I put in the grades. (Another use I have for this grade book is that I also can put in little notes on the student so that I always have access to that information without digging. If you have a short term memory like mine this proves a great place to put down vacations, issues, and requests from students.) To make the excel grade book...you can download your student information directly

Bottom line: I love technology but when it comes to grading discussion questions I tend to use the old fashioned handwritten grade book. I hope you find this helpful! :) If you want some tips on how to format your grade book or working with Excel let me know. I will can post tips on Excel here as well!

Thank you,

Jennifer Harr, RN, MSN

Dual Monitors

Dual Monitors!

If you work online all the time....you may want to look into getting a second monitor. I hesitated going this route but I have to tell you it has really made my life so much easier. You can be grading papers and entering in the grade at the same time in the grade book. Or answer an email while looking right at quiz the student has a question about. :)

A second monitor will cost you from $125 to 350$ depending on the size. I have a 24 inch Samsung. To hook it up to your existing laptop is very easy. It opens up a whole new world of productivity!

I hope you find this type helpful!

Thank you,

Jennifer Harr, Rn, MSN

Welcome Videos to your students

Jing is a fabulous site that is EASY and FREE to use to make short videos. Please view the one below I made for my students this semester.

http://www.screencast.com/t/ZjcwZmIz

Sending this to all of my students the first day of classes has made my first weeks of much easier since the sheer number of questions from my students has decreased significantly. Another bonus? This increases our online learner engagement levels by providing them the tools and expectations right up front as well as voice/face of their educator. :)

Want to learn how to do this? Reply to this post! :)