Eavesdropping in on the Biology OER Team

Biology teachers from Channel Islands and Camarillo got together again to reflect back and plan forward for OER this school year. 

As the second semester quickly approaches, the OUHSD OER team in Biology got together once again.  The two schools, Channel Islands High School and Camarillo High School, have continued to use the OER textbook for the first semester that they created together over the summer.  They have also since received a class set of Chromebook carts to help support their efforts.

The team worked with Corene Duarte, the learning design coach (LDC) for Science in OUHSD.  She had them all share three success thus far and three frustrations.  What I was hearing from teachers for their successes was very exciting and encouraging.  They were pleased with how moving to OER had forced them to focus more on the standards themselves and not just looking at the textbook.  They also said that it really made them get familiar with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) which they only had limited experience working with in the past.

Some of what I overheard included:

"It has forced me to focus on teaching the necessary content--not just what's next in the textbook"

This is great to hear.  OER has helped teachers focus on the standards and the content and not just following what the textbook says to do next.  I would argue that this makes teachers take more ownership of what is being taught.  

"(OER) shook things up so you have to do it differently"

I think this is great.  Not only on a personal level so that you don't get stuck in a rut of just doing the same thing over and over, but also it is forcing teaching to look at what it is that they want students doing with the material.  There is a need to shift from our old standards and way of doing things to a more student-centered way and with higher level thinking and inquiry.  The shift to OER opens up a door to start to make that shift. 

"Getting them onto computers wasn't as hard as I thought it would be."

"Amazing how much they didn't know"

"Students started to say 'thank you'"

These are all great for me as the Ed Tech Coordinator.  Teachers that might have normally been hesitant to use technology with their students found it to be much easier than they first thought.  It was especially helpful that they had each other for support.  The second quote was referencing how much time students spend on devices, they still need proper instruction on the academic use of technology.  The last quote came from a teacher that was sharing that her students wouldn't normally care that much about an assignment but were asking for help on the tech side (like keyboard shortcuts for example) and when given the answer were saying "thank you"... a sign that they were finding the information valuable. 

"The best discussion I had with my students was where I messed up"

I love this because it goes with the whole Growth Mindset philosophy of failing forward.  We as educators don't have to always have all of the answers or be the expert on everything.  One teacher shared that she skipped part of an assignment that she later realized was a critical piece of the activity.  The students worked through it and found out that the teacher didn't have the answer key.  They didn't know if they had solved the answer correctly or not and this leads to some great conversations.  

"Scientists don't have an answer key"

This piggybacks the previous quote.  It's very simple but very true.  So much of science is doing science.  Not just trying to find the "right" answer.  

The Biology OER team works on a unit for semester 2. 

OER in World History

The week following the OER work done by the Biology team, the World History teachers got together to curate their own materials to use as a textbook replacement.  A lot was learned during the preceding week and the team was ready to go.  The World History folks were in a slightly different position because they had something that the Bio teachers didn't have...time.  They were putting materials together that would be used as supplementals throughout the 2017-18 school year.

The other benefit of having the World History team curating together is that it forced them to take a look at the new History Framework.  The pacing guide is complete with guided questions for inquiry which is an exciting new feature.

New pacing guide which includes guiding questions and will have OER resources to support those subject areas. 

World History teachers from three schools worked collaboratively on creating a new pacing guide with guiding questions and curated materials that best support those. 

Biology OER- Days 3-5

The last few days have been very productive.  The team has been working hard on curating the right materials and have even created a FlexBook using the very handy tool from CK-12.  They even printed out an early version to work from and go back and evaluate each resource.  A majority of Day 5 have been looking closely at each reading and deciding if it's appropriate for the grade level, standards-based, and scientifically accurate.

Lots of great discussions and debates on the materials being used in their new curriculum.  

 Teachers working hard to find the right resources. 

Early textbook version 2.0 for Biology. 

Biology OER- Day 2

On Day 2 we dove right into the pacing guide and layed out our scope and sequence.  The teachers began going into the OER materials to see what was out there for the first semester topics. The essential readings were all put together for the first three units.  Great progress in one day.  The next steps will be to look at other supplemental materials, labs, hands-on activities, videos, etc. to go along with them.  We're feeling good about our selves.  Still a lot of work to be done...

Biology OER- Day 1

On our first day of OER work this summer teachers from Camarillo and Channel Islands got together along with district admin and coaches to begin the work ftowards textbook replacement.  We had three teachers from Channel Islands, two from Camarillo, our new learning design coach (LDC) for Science, our new Director of Instructional Support Services, and myself, the Ed Tech Coordinator.

We spent some time covering exactly what OER is and the vocabulary of free vs. open.  We dove into Google Docs and Google Classroom where our materials will be stored and distributed to students.  We also spent some time looking at the NGSS standards.  We then spent most of our time clicking around and exploring what materials are already out there.  We are relying heavily on the work completed by Grossmont Union High School District in the San Diego area.  Some of our team made a visit down there in April to see what they have done with OER.  They also have been working with the Biology curriculum.

Day 1 we set the groundwork for our upcoming project.  It was great to get all of the ideas and opinion of the various participants.  I look forward to our upcoming work together. 

OER in Biology

Biology teachers from Camarillo and Channel Islands High Schools got together along with district coaches and admin to begin the work of curating a Biology curriculum to replace the current textbook.  These two schools have been chosen because they are moving to a three course model where freshman will now take Biology.  For the one year, they will have both 9th and 10th graders taking the course.  Instead of purchasing a bunch of textbooks for the one year, they will experiment with using Open Educational Resources (OER) materials that they have curated.

#GoOpen (an OER campaign) is a nation-wide movement that has been endorsed by 20 states.   Schools are moving towards free and openly licensed digital resources to take the place of expensive textbooks.  Districts assemble teams of teachers and other stakeholders to look over and gather resources from various open source websites.  The materials are put into some digital form for students and teachers to access.  They can also be printed out if necessary.

OER also allows for districts to customize the materials that they use so that they better fit what teachers want to be taught.  It also can be updated at any time, ensuring that you have the most current information in your text.  As is often asked, "Who is the current president in your Social Studies textbook?" or "Is Pluto still a planet in your Science text?".

The OER materials will be printed out into a reader that can be taken home by the students.  Teachers will also be recieving a cart of Chromebooks so that students can access the materials digitally while in class.  All of the materials will be housed in Google Drive and distributed to students using Google Classroom

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