INTRO+to+WIKI

==Welcome to the Tahquitz High School Professional Learning Community Wiki! This Wiki has been set up to literally give all stakeholders an opportunity to be on the same page with topics related to our PLC development as a staff. ==


 * //Background//**


 * The challenges we face in education today are as complex and multifaceted as our world has become. In our ever increasing //Flat World// comes a host of challenges that face schools and communities nation-wide. These unprecedented times have created a paradoxical dilemma as educators balance accountability measures (and consequences) and student disenfranchisement with the need for American public schools to step up efforts to equip our students with the critical skills needed in the 21st century.**


 * Undoubtedly, technology drives many of the changes we are encountering. Hence it begs the question: why have all of the technological advances that we have enjoyed as a society remained far removed from the classroom setting? And why, as we look at the necessary skills students need to remain competitive in this global economy, do we ignore the research and continue to do “business as usual”? Ironically, the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) was designed to ensure that no student – especially those in need of specific and tailored instruction – would fall through the cracks giving rise to a growing achievement gap. The standards movement gave rise to the notion of standardizing instruction and teaching students in “chunks.” Gardner’s research counters the notion that students should be taught in chunks due to a student’s specific learning modality. The research on multiple intelligences suggests that teachers teach in a frame that they learn best in, and, as a result, only reach a limited amount of students who may have that same learning style. Christenson et. al (2008) argues that most teachers, as a result of this context, spend 25% of their time preparing the lesson; 25% of their time giving the lesson and a remaining 25% of their instructional time testing students – thus leaving only 25% of their time aimed at individual students and their diverse needs.**


 * Wagner (2008) argues that students are lacking the ability to critically think because curriculum has been standardized in ways that prevent teachers and students from rigorous activity within and without the classroom. This trend which has been amplified under NCLB, has led to a generation of students who are learning (even in Advanced Placement courses) how to master exams – not curriculum. This lack of rigor supports students being strategic test takers when the answers are spelled out (i.e. A, B, C, and D etc… multiple choices) for them. Consequently, when students are asked to apply their knowledge with limited amounts of information to assess their ability to synthesize information and problem solve, U.S. students performed 35th out of 56 nations participating on an examination called the Programme for International Student Assessment (Wagner, 2008, pp. 93-94).**


 * With increasing demands on American students to perform, Wagner (2008) identified seven major competencies that students must have to compete globally and challenge our current frame and delivery of core:**


 * 1.** **Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving;**
 * 2.** **Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence;**
 * 3.** **Agility and Adaptability;**
 * 4.** **Initiative and Entrepreneurialism;**
 * 5.** **Effective Oral and Written Communication;**
 * 6.** **Accessing and Analyzing Information; and**
 * 7.** **Curiosity and Imagination.**


 * Examining the competencies aforementioned with the requirement of NCLB creates strategic tension for educators on the front line. The critical question must be asked and examined: How do we take what we know will equip our students and the traditional core and merge the two? The answer is clear: we must begin to remove the teaching function away from the teacher and shift it [dramatically] to the learner. The mechanism is also clear [yet not comfortable]: we must use technology to our advantage.**


 * //Wiki//**


 * Web 2.0 is upon us. With this technology comes an opportunity to shift the way we do business and bring student learning to the core of our approach. Students are intimately privy to the communication “system” of social networking utilized in sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Unlike Web 1.0, this new era allows for input from the consumer and the producer all within the same site. This technological breakthrough has created an entirely different language (just as text messaging did) and communicational norms. Best of all, most of these technologies are free and useful to the educational process. One example that has huge implications and possibilities is the use of the “Wiki” (__ Wikispaces.com __). This year at Tahquitz High School, we created five specific functions that the Wiki supports:**


 * 1.** **To support the development of our Professional Learning Community;**
 * 2.** **Make our processes and work open and transparent to the community and one another.**
 * 3.** **Equipping teachers with technology that could add more time and rigor within and without the classroom;**
 * 4.** **Allow students to create online portfolio’s and evidence of their learning; and**
 * 5.** **Demonstrate with evidence our focus on student learning for WASC.**


 * All of these tenets can be found and accessed at http://thshomewiki.wikispaces.com/ **


 * As a developing Professional Learning Community, we knew that we needed to create an avenue to force our practices out into the open such that all stakeholders could be involved in the process of student learning. The Wiki allowed us to create an individual page for every PLC on campus. As a result, all minutes from every meeting that has occurred are logged and kept on their specific page. Moreover, every staff member (classified and certificated) has access to the content produced on those pages. This promotes ongoing continuous improvement from all members of the PLC by creating a blank page that all can contribute to regardless of where they are at.**


 * The SMART goal process has been greatly enhanced as a result of the Wiki. It allows all participants to be heard as well as lifts time constraints that a typical one hour late start Wednesday does not allow. As a leadership team, we knew the Wiki would allow us to air our processes to our staff and community and shape the focus for the process itself, as well as demonstrate explicitly what our three year vision is and focus for the year. The feedback from the community has been extraordinary.**


 * Staff use of the Wiki technology is beginning to take shape in unprecedented ways by creating a myriad of opportunities for teachers to expose students to rigor. One such way is through the use of discussion boards. At the secondary level, pacing is lightning fast and as a result, students and teachers alike are not able to explore certain subjects at a deeper level. The Wiki allows for teachers to post prompts online related to the standards based lesson given in class that day. Students are then able to access the prompt, site from outside resources (that they generate), and respond to other student postings. This effectively allows the students freedom and ownership over their learning and navigation of the material. Ergo, students are able to demonstrate their knowledge of the standard by engaging in their learning the way they learn best (multiple intelligences). The capacity to lead and guide asynchronous discussions is applicable to the Wiki as well. Some teachers are actually posting their assessments on line, creating additional time in the classroom to rigorously engage topics of interests for students. One of our U.S. History teachers actually created an additional 14 hours of instructional time by posting assessments online.**


 * Students have responded to the use of the Wiki with an innovative and creative spirit. Not only do students have the ability to create an online evidence file(s) of their learning, they also have a medium to demonstrate their proficiency in the critical competencies outlined by Wagner (2008). They not only share with the teacher but other students (from the same school or anywhere in the world) as well. Our CTE program engages in dialogues with other schools throughout Riverside County creating online stores and projects collectively. In addition, group process can be created on the Wiki beyond classroom hours and allow students to share with one another helpful links and useful information that will create the best product possible. Because the Wiki allows for multiple communicators, the documents created can be updated in real time by all involved without ever needing to be in a physical classroom. This has proved beneficial in my adjunct work at Azusa Pacific University where students and I work collectively through the use of the Wiki to organize and produce their Case Study.**


 * A final application that has helped us this year with the use of the Wiki is supporting our ongoing Focus on Learning WASC process. As eluded to above, the Wiki gives us the opportunity to demonstrate everything we do to our community of partners. We wanted to be able to the take the WASC process and make it a part of how we do business as a PLC versus a blitzkrieg approach during an evaluation year. What has emerged on our Wiki is an ongoing story of how we have developed as a team over the past year. All of our systems, procedures and processes are a mouse click away from any visiting team member or community stakeholder. And because our Wiki is uploaded daily, the WASC evidence file builds naturally and becomes an extension of what we normally do, as opposed to last minute efforts to find ways to demonstrate our commitments.**


 * //We Monitor What We Value//**


 * Perhaps the greatest benefit in the use of the Wiki is that it allows anyone in our community to view and contribute to our goal of continuous improvement. Notably at the high school level, it is difficult to gain insights into other departments and areas of focus due to logistics and the number of students we serve. Time is limited and therefore more focused on linear activities that often times are not viewed in a global context. The Wiki creates the time and place for this to occur.**


 * As we get closer to 2014, a heightened sense of urgency is being created as accountability measures are increasing. Within this context, we cannot forget that our students are becoming more and more apathetic towards school and the delivery of traditional core. If we can embrace technology in the classroom with the same level of acceptance that we have in our personal lives, we may be able to create a “Both/And” proposition when it comes to the delivery of standards and maintaining and building student interest. The Wiki might just be the vehicle to bring these two extremes to the middle. More impactful, it is not another task that a teacher has to accomplish or make part of their daily nomenclature. Indeed, it is a process oriented technology that empowers the student to take the teacher role aimed at their preferred mode of learning.**