One thing that I learned as a result of my Kenan Fellowship that will change how I teach this year is how to be more data literate.  Previously, all of my knowledge of the subject focused on student-learning data.  I now appreciate the other types of data (demographic, student perception, and process) and hope to use them to take my classroom experience to a new level.

As a result of taking and viewing/using other types of data, I hope that I can foster better relationships with my students.  I have realized through my teaching experience that positive relationships can be one of the only things motivating some students to do necessary coursework.  I have had several students in my class who have failed the same class before.  When I ask them “what happened?” I often get, “well I did not like the teacher so I decided I wasn’t going to do anything.”  As misguided as this thought process is, it is one that seems to occur often.  For me, getting them to “like me” is not as important as getting them to know that I care about them, I want the best for them, and I will do whatever I can to help them. Hopefully, collecting will help me get these ideas across to students.

I also hope collecting this data helps improve/maintain a positive perception of my classes.  I teach a new computer science course at my school and I want to see it thrive.  Right now, I have 45 students, which is huge for a computer science course in comparison to other schools.  I want it to stay that way.  I plan to collect and use data to get feedback on what works, what does not, and what changes to make along the way.  I also want to gauge the way students communicate to other students about my class in conversation.  If there are negatives that I can change, I obviously want to change them.

I learned a lot through my summer Kenan Fellows experience, but I think the data literacy information will change my class the most. I have been focused on creating a more positive classroom/school environment the past few years and that is probably why I found it so helpful. It should help my evaluation too!