Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Net Day Speak Up

Last year I heard about Net Day Speak Up, but it was too late to do much about it. When I heard it was survey time again, I chose to get started.

My Reluctance
I am slightly uncomfortable with having students take surveys without previewing them first. Happily, I have two children in the school. They work as my guinea pigs. I have had students take surveys using the iSafe website and I really haven't been back there since. Too many questions dealing with predators and predator behaviors.

The Survey is Thorough
It took about 20-40 minutes for the students to complete the survey. The sixth through eighth grade survey has just shy of thirty questions. The survey from grade three to five has about 25 questions. I am not sure if the fourth graders will be able to complete the survey in one class period. Kindergarten through second can take an individual or group survey. I think I will do it as a group. It will be interesting to lead the discussion with the Net Day Speak Up lesson plan.

Notes to the Teachers and Parents
I've created a small document to solicit the help of the teachers and parents. It will serve as both directions to the survey and a promotion of what we've been doing. I don't do as good a job as I could informing the parents of all the work we do. In this letter, I'll be pointing them to our classwork on my wiki and our delicious links.

What Will I Gain?
I will have access to free, aggregated school results. After reviewing the data, I will better able to decide if this will be an activity I will repeat in future years. At the very least, I hope to be better prepared to lead the school body forward in years to come.



Image Citation:
"The surveying ladies..." liz_com1981's photostream. 18 Nov 2008. 8 Apr 2008.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2238/2398443150_429ef377fd.jpg?v=0

2 comments:

  1. Interesting. You'll have to let us know if this is worth doing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I will post again once I receive the access to the statistics. It's interesting to listen to the students as they discuss what different things mean on the survey and how they are making their choices.

    ReplyDelete