Draft MiddleWeb for NMSA

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LearnOnline
Establishing a Virtual Professional Development
Community
Presented for NMSA 2004 by Marsha Ratzel, Beverly
Maddox, Carolyn Faulkner-Beitzel
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Who we are. (Marsha)

• MiddleWeb is a collaborative community of
  educator-learners passionately committed to
  learning about, sharing and discovering those
  effective practices which will best serve middle
  school age children, their families and
  communities.
• Through engaging civil conversations, an
  ever-growing archive of email postings, and an
  extensive website, MiddleWeb supports the
  continuous growth of its members and of others
  with similar goals and interests.

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Goals for this Session

• Provide understanding about MiddleWeb and its
  structure for online community.
• Share ideas on the benefits of online community
  for professional development and school
  improvement.
• Offer ideas on how your school community can
  build or join an online community.

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A Virtual Community

• Over 500 middle level educators
• Almost 90 are public school teachers
• 30 from districts that have between
  95,000-250,00 students
• Rural, suburban urban evenly spread.
• Geographics
• Midwest 33, Northeast 28, Southeast 15,
  Southwest 17

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Our MiddleWeb Culture

• Helps embrace professional ideas.
• Members talk about their professional lives.
• Focus on students and making the school community
  a better place.

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MiddleWeb Relationships

• Reading, writing, and responding to email helps
  members to reflect and learn.

• Incredible mix of experienceand roles aids
  discussion.
• Teachers no longer locked into classrooms.
• Skilled moderators and revolving moderators.
• Permanent archived of past conversations.

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A Place to Share and Reflect

• The MiddleWeb community provides a safe place for
  educators to share problems and questions.
• The diverse roles, knowledge, and experiences of
  the membership provide insight, resources, and
  ideas.

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Expertise is Shared

• Provides access to veteran teachers in every
  area.
• 37 have 20 years experience.
• First year teachers benefit from experienced
  members.
• A place for first years to assemble and know they
  are not alone.

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Community Building

• Give and take nature builds community.
• MW members are primarily classroom teachers.
• But they are also
• staff developers, administrators, professors,
  and other staff members
• These diverse roles broaden viewpoints and
  balance perspectives.

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Keys to Success

• Clearly established guidelinesinfluence positive
  environment.
• Collaboration and the building of trust.
• Members take responsibility for keeping positive
  tone and helping each other.
• Moderator sends email off list if things need to
  be said privately.

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The Moderator

• A critical, essential role to success.
• Cheerleader, housekeeper, good cop, bad cop
• Prods the conversation.
• Injects humor when things get tense.
• Jack-of-trades to keep the list going.

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Why Do People Join MW?

• Relevance of staff development and conversations.

• It is immediate.
• Structural barriers are removed.
• Continuing follow-up.
• No flavor of the week.
• Room for authentic growth and continuing
  reflective practice.
• Community practices empathyand support for one
  another.

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Thats Who Middle Web Is

• Personal trials and triumphs are also a part of
  the community. Members feel that MiddleWeb is a
  family.

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Where did it all begin?

• 1996 - Edna McConnell Clark Foundation provides
  grant that started MiddleWeb
• MiddleWeb began as Internet vehicle to share
  Changing Schools content.
• 50 members, but grows quickly with archived
  discussions and teacher diaries.
• Resource for schools, educators, parents and
  advocates.

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Virtual Tour of MW
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The MiddleWeb Homepage
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Middle Grade News

• News stories of interest to middle grade
  educators.
• List is updated every two weeks.
• Articles cover a variety of subjects, grade
  levels, and interests.

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Of Particular Interest

• E-newsletter highlights articles and resources of
  interest to middle grades.
• Free subscription.
• Sent once a week to subscribers.

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Resource Library

• Catalogue of topics include
• Standards
• Reform
• First Days
• Assessment Evaluation
• Dynamic page that changes often.

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Hotlinks

• List of sites for educators parents
• Updated weekly
• Topics include
• Classroom Management
• Books for Middle Readers
• Cool Tools
• ESL Gold
• Study Guides Strategies

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Diaries and Blogs

• In the trenches reflections of real teachers
• Diaries from 2001-2004
• Links to teacher Blogs

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Listserv Subscription Service

• Ongoing conversations with middle level teachers
  via email.

• MWLIST
• Primary discussion list
• Average of 25 messages/day
• MWPROJECT
• In-depth Reading Writing Workshop
• Issues related to struggling adolescent reader

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MiddleWeb Offers Opportunity

• Professional Developmentand School Improvement

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The Listserv

• Allows for communication with a group of people
  that share a common interest.
• Provides a great online forum for the sharing of
  ideas on a particular topic.
• Moderator or team creates energy by providing
  content and thoughtful replies.
• Can be used to push out messages and information
  for an organization.
• Delivered in single emails or as a digest of
  messages once each day.

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Members Can Search Archives

• Access to topics and threads by month or through
  search engine.

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Threads from October 2003

• Q for people involved in hiring decisions
• Clicking for websites (www.tinyurl.com)
• Should neatness be a part of rubrics
• Prepositions and grammar
• Enriching math problems for students
• An alternative to retesting
• Blogging

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Threads from October 2004

• Grammar games, etc.
• Math workshop
• Teaching word problems
• Guidance and after school programs
• Blanking out on tests
• Advisor-Advisee Groups
• Essential questions Socratic Method?

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Discussion Boards

• Similar to listserv, but offers more organized
  approach to topics.
• Great for focused topics, action research, or
  special projects and events.
• Format allows for extending conversations over
  time.

Other tools such as polls messaging are
available.
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Blogs

• A place to reflect and compose your thoughts.
• Can be private or shared.
• Allows readers to comment on a topic.
• Perfect for professional development with staff.

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Creating a Virtual Community

• Develop a compelling reason for the effort.
• Clearly establish guidelines for professionalism
  and positive posts.
• Find the tool or platform that works best with
  purpose and server technology.
• Start with a small team committed to piloting the
  program.
• Cultivate and rotate leadership.
• Share content with wider audience.
• staff meetings, website, newsletters, committees

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Lets Review Why Go Online?

• Allows 24/7 access.
• Free or very low in cost.
• Supports professional development.
• Promotes reflective inquiry and learning through
  reading and writing.
• Provides improved support for teachers.
• Archives important topics and threads.
• Enhances school culture through building
  professional learning community.

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How Did We Do?
Our Goal was to

• Provide understanding about MiddleWeb and its
  structure for online community.
• Share ideas on the benefits of online community
  for professional development and school
  improvement.
• Offer ideas on how your school community can
  build or join an online community.

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Walking the Talk Conference
An inspired posting led this active online group
to bring our dream to life with the challenge
and opportunity to "walk the talk. June 26-30,
2004
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After almost ten years of sharing online, we
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Dreams and Vision

• Members share dreams and vision and provide
  support for making these a reality.

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Wrap Up

• Questions and Answers
• Need more information and resources?Go to
  www.middleweb.com