Wheatland Middle School Teacher Quest Miken Harnish Wheatland Middle School Wheatland, WY Mikenh@platte1.k12.wy.us

INTRODUCTION Isn’t it amazing how schools can be so different from state to state, or even town to town? Each school district is striving for excellence, but each uses different programs to meet their goals. It can be confusing, especially for those teachers who are new to teaching or new to a district. You have been selected by the superintendant and the principal of your school to become a resource for other teachers and parents about certain programs the district has adopted. The principal in each building also wants to have a set of materials that will help new teachers become familiar with the educational direction of the district and the school.

These links will guide you through this WebQuest. 1. The Task 2. The Research Process 2. The Compilation Process 3. The Evaluation 4. The Conclusion 5. References

Your task is to: Become familiar with the programs used in secondary education in PCSD #1 and……. Generate documents to share basic information about these programs with colleagues or parents….. WITHOUT spending an insane amount of time!

RESEARCH PROCESS First, you need to get a three ring binder with 10 -12 dividers or 10 -12 hanging files with tabs. Explore these sites to get an overview of what will be in each folder and create labels for your binder or folder. PAWS http://www.k12.wy.us/ Professional Learning Communities (PLC) http://www.solution-tree.com/Public/Main.aspx Measurement of Academic Progress (MAP) http://www.nwea.org/ Assessment for Learning http://www.assessmentinst.com/ Marzano Research Laboratories http://www.marzanoresearch.com/site/ Response to Intervention http://www.rti4success.org/ Progress Monitoring http://www.interventioncentral.org/ Project CRISS http://www.projectcriss.com/ SpringBoard http://professionals.collegeboard.com

THE COMPILATION PROCESS Now that you have previewed some of the educational programs used across our school district, it is time to meet with your principal and/or PLC team to expand the information to include programs unique to your building. You now need to decide on a one page format that you can use to summarize the information from each website. Some things you may want to include on your summary page: Your name and contact information Your “Top Stops” on each web-site Where you got the information and additional resources on this topic A graphic that is tied to the program A place for people to jot down notes as you are sharing information If a login is needed to access the information 3. The last step is to select the best information from each website and compose the one sheet summaries. 4. Print two copies of each sheet for your file or binder so you always have one ready to share. Save the electronic copy to two locations.

EVALUATION Criteria Beginning 1 Developing 2 Accomplished 3 Exemplary 4 Score Programs Selected The 9 basic programs are not covered A formatted page was generated for each of the 9 programs Quality information for each of the 9 basic programs plus one additional school specific program A through representation of the districts programs Web sites selected Links are mundane or not functional Some links contain clear information The links selected provide direct access to one source of information Each summary page is a compilation of the best information from multiple pages or sites School Specific Choices No school programs were presented. There may have been a school initiative mentioned but it was not supported A summary sheet was generated from one school specific program. Summary sheets were generated for many school programs Page Format The pages show no evidence of planning There are some elements of cohesiveness across the pages The format is organized and easy to follow. Information is organized , creative, and visually appealing Completed product Not enough to consider completed Pages are in place but there are several obvious errors Pages are completed and presentable Extra details , this is an item the principal is proud to share with new teachers

CONCLUSION By completing this activity you have accomplished several things. First you took time that you normally wouldn’t have taken to collect research that is vital to how you do your job. Secondly, Your efforts have not only increased your knowledge, it has the potential to help others as well. This is just one type of WebQuest called a compilation. Do you think this was the best choice for the task? What other teaching topics would lend themselves to a WebQuest format

References Dodge, B. (2007). Webquest.org. Retrieved from http://webquest.org/index.php Thank you to Joel McDaniel for facilitating this class. I realize that one reference is not professionally acceptable, but it all came back to this site.