Five Days to Focused Cornell Notes Pilot
Goal: To begin the pilot process.
Action Steps:
Secure teachers at the elementary, middle and high school levels to pilot the videos.
Meet with Piloting teachers.
Explain the Piloting process.
Be available for questions and feedback.
Reflection:
Choosing to pilot these videos meant added work for any teacher who I would be to convince to help me out. Teachers have to give surveys and grade Cornell notes. It is not an easy task and I was very worried that I would not find teachers who wanted to commit to doing the pilot process for me, but thankfully I was very wrong. I really believe it was my ability to inspire a shared vision in the people I approached that made them so willing to participate in the pilot process. The first teachers that I approached were the history teachers on the IB track at my school. When I did the initial training I did not train their students. They were very excited to use the videos as a tool to train their students in the process.
Next I sought help from one of my AVID coordinators whose school has AVID elementary and the intermediate AVID program. The teachers at this school already had a positive attitude about the videos because my videographer is also a teacher there and he had nothing but positive things to say about the videos to his team. They are very eager to start the piloting process and I should be meeting with them early in February.
Sometimes it comes down to being in the right place at the right time. I was having a difficult time trying to find a high school to pilot the videos. But as luck would have it, I was sitting across the table from a high school AVID coordinator at a tutor training and I overheard her talking to her tutor about the inadequate quality of her students' Focused Cornell Notes. She was saying that she wished they knew how to do them better and I just swooped in. I told her about the project, videos and my vision and she was sold. I met with her two days later and she and another teacher at their high school will be using the videos. It was just a lucky coincidence that I was sitting next to her!
So far the feedback I have been hearing from the piloting teachers is positive. I am excited to start getting the surveys and Focused Cornell notes back to start compiling my data.