Teacher Connection Update December
Teacher Connections restarted back in September and the last 4 months have raised some very interesting discussions as well as opportunities for QA teachers to locate mentors, local teaching buddies, join collaborative projects and source prospective co-questing classes. The December meetings were small but very engaging as many Southern Hemisphere schools are now preparing for end of the year and retiring their QA classes and US counterparts were getting back in the swing after Thanksgiving celebrations.
Ma Hongliang (Michael1975) professor from Xi’an, China, an active member of the teacher community and strong advocate for Quest Atlantis, has embarked on a mission to translate QA research articles and possibly a unit in the program in order to expedite QA’s uptake in Chinese classrooms.
We heard from some members who had recently implemented QA units. Teachers like Karen Mann (Kazzm) working in an Australian High School who, having completed the Plague Unit twice (both old and new) offered praise for the strengthened curriculum outcomes in the new version. We heard from Judy Tyler (judyler), having just completed the Taiga unit working with a Illinois middle school science class, who shared her excitement about the learning gains made by students and the in-depth teaching and learning surrounding this unit. Cheryl Hill (libbycat50) reported on how excited her elementary/primary students have been about their new co-questing. Cheryl’s school in Australia is collaborating with Martha Eaton’s (meaton) whole grade 4 in a school in North Carolina to complete curriculum activities with remote buddies. The students have been emailing, blogging, videoconferencing and talking in preparation and even though the school year ends in a few weeks for the Aussie group, they have requested their teacher support them in further collaborations over the holiday break. We hope to hear from some of these teachers as guest bloggers right here in the very near future. They certainly have stories that you will want to hear.
In light of each of the teacher reports we discussed how integral teaching is to the success of QA and how important quality planning, preparation, scaffolding and feedback are to student engagement and learning gains. The teachers mentioned here are masters of these skills but we need to know more about the ways teachers enhance the program. That’s why we have 2 research projects happening in the Mesa Verde and Plague units to see in more detail how and in what ways contexts and teaching impact the value of these units. Special teacher connections will be held in December and January for these global projects so watch out for those announcements.
We also heard back from our new buoys who have been developing local teacher training programs. Mary-Ellen Davis (soulstar) in Virginia Beach had run her first face-to-face training and a highly praised VSTE conference presentation while Jesus De Leon (MrD) and Janine McGrath (Mcgrath4th) were preparing to start their first blended teacher training program for Seminole County in Florida. This distributed leadership has become vital to QA’s scalability and we are eternally grateful to all our buoys about the globe who voluntarily give their time, expertise and high standards of professionalism to the program.
Some initial discussions also took place in the UK connection and later over twitter to develop strategies to attract more schools in the UK. We are looking to the local expertise of colleagues Drew Buddie (wellfan) and Dale Jones (djones ) and the MirandaNet educational community to bring leading UK schools and districts into QA.
To know more about these events and the projects that QA teachers are currently engaging in, come join the Quest Atlantis Teaching Wiki where you too can take up a leadership role in our burgeoning community.
We host the Teacher Connections in 3 time zones traveling about the globe in QA’s Teacherville and over Skype.
The next Teacher Connections will happen Thursday January 7th in your timezone!
- Asia-Pacific Teacher Connection 7.00pm – 8.30 pm Sydney **(09.00 am GMT, 9pm Auckland, 5pm Singapore, 5pm Perth, 5pm Kuala Lumpur, 5pm Beijing, 6pm Tokyo, 2.30pm New Delhi)
- Europe and Africa Teacher Connection 18.00 GMT (London 8pm, 9pm Johannesburg, 9pm Zagreb, 10pm Ankara, 12pm noon Los Angeles, 3pm NYC, 7am Friday, Sydney)
- Americas Teacher Connection 5.00 pm PDT/Los Angeles (01.00am GMT, 8pm NYC, 8pm Raleigh, 8pm Santiago, 5pm Vancouver, 12 midday Friday, Sydney)
Hi Bron,
Yes, this certainly has been a big year for QA and there is fantastic work being done by some extremely talented and dedicated teachers around the world.
New South Wales is very slowly, but surely gaining new schools who are embracing QA. A primary school which began this term will be enthusiastically continuing next year and a local high school will be working on mathematical questing with students in need of support.
Well done to all QA teachers. I am certainly looking forward to working and meeting with you again next year in person or in teacher connections.
It has been about three weeks since we finished the Taiga unit, and I have noticed a significant increase in the quality of my student’s thinking and writing. They recently turned in a formal lab report (which all of them turned in, quite amazing in itself), but when they got back their grades, the majority of them wanted to fix and return them to me. The idea of mastery learning has really been ingrained and I believe it is because we spent six weeks working on and revising quests until they were correct…..another amazing unknown benefit of Quest Atlantis.
Our 4th grade teachers and students are off to a great start for our first year. I am so very grateful to have a safe, nurturing MUVE for students to develop their 21st century skills.
It was so much fun to share Quest Atlantis with fellow Virginians at VSTE this month. I’d love to see our participation as a state grow. I am currently working on developing a mixed model for next year’s PD offerings here in Virginia Beach.
December notes on QA in my classroom— My setup is a little different in that I don’t use a lab for Quest Atlantis. Four days per week, I have learning centers in my classroom and one of those is computer center (where I have six computers capable of running active worlds software). So kids are on at different times during the week. Since the computers are in the class, some kids get on the moment they finish other work. At lunch time, I have a signup sheet for those wanting to come back to the classroom and do missions instead of recess and I have at least six kids every lunch period. The point in describing this set up is to show that kids are all at different point, some on the same parts of the mission, but most not. I don’t have a group focus on the project but rather an changing individual focus, which can be more difficult as far as knowing where everyone is, but also more fun in the different reactions and conversations that arise. During the week, as kids either triumph or struggle with the missions, I hear different versions of the same path: going to the graveyard, talking to Tim, or trying to understand the difference of opinion from the conversation in the tavern. So my knowledge grows as I talk and listen in on the progress and problems.
Here are a couple of observations:
(1) At first, my kids tended to write short, incomplete responses, often not reading the instructions carefully. Of course I respond with a Revise click, then as the student returns to do a more thorough job, excellent teachable moments happen. Because the student is motivated to move forward and get to the next part of the quest, the student is also motivated to revise and look more closely at the instructions and question specifics. I find myself creating a list of kids to watch and make sure they get back to their revisions.
(2) A cool thing – as my kids work on other subjects in class, I see the influence of the QA habits. When working on a Weekly Reader assignment yesterday (in the Anything Center) they were asked to discuss a science topic and write a paragraph about the material. When kids asked me if they had to do that part, I just said, “well, it’s just like in QA. Write a few really good sentences that get your idea across as though you were responding to a mission.” It works. Kids sort of got into their QA role and did the writing on an outside assignment not related to QA. This is an excellent example of the transfer of skills. — Terry Smith, Hannibal, MO
We finished our training a couple of weeks ago and most folk are off and running. It was interesting training adults as my students were often far more tech savvy and were proficient gamers. My students would eagerly jump in with both feet, whereas adults were wary to tread through unknown territory. Kids are happy to use trial and error, whereas our adults want to get it “right”. The teachers posted very reflective comments on a r discussion board during the training, and went away with a set of strategies to use with their students when they begin questing. First hand experiences certainly help us to connect with our students when they perceive us as co-questers.
We have a very enthusiastic group of middle school teachers forging ahead, and one elementary school that has brought two more teachers into the QA fold. The QA word is trickling through our schools, and more teachers are pricking up their ears and asking about it.
I’m a teacher in the UK. I am interested in using Quest Atlantis. What are the costs?
Graham, currently, we have grant funding from the MacArthur Foundation to support bringing on up to 10-15 teachers at schools, so there is no cost. I’d be happy to provide you with more information about the program. We do have an online training beginning in a few weeks, and we’d be delighted to have you join us! We do ask for at least 2 teachers at a school, so you may want to check to see if there is another educator at your school or a nearby school to attend the training with you.
Feel free to email me at ds9@indiana.edu with any questions about the program or the training.
Donna Stevens
ds9@indiana.edu
Hi Bron,
Yes, this certainly has been a big year for QA and there is fantastic work being done by some extremely talented and dedicated teachers around the world.
New South Wales is very slowly, but surely gaining new schools who are embracing QA. A primary school which began this term will be enthusiastically continuing next year and a local high school will be working on mathematical questing with students in need of support.
Well done to all QA teachers. I am certainly looking forward to working and meeting with you again next year in person or in teacher connections.