What's happening in 6th grade?
Newsflash! I've jumped on the EdCamp bandwagon! I wish I had found out about these sooner. Last weekend, I attended my second EdCamp in three weeks! I attended EdCamp IHM at the end of October as well. This past Saturday, I woke up at 5am to drive ~2.5 hours with a teacher friend to EdCamp NJ in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Very glad I did! So refreshing to connect with so many like-minded educators! I warned my friend, a first time attendee, it may be overwhelming due to the sheer magnitude of people (from what I heard, between 800-1,000 teachers). Being from out of the area, it was definitely overwhelming After making some quick connections in the Cafe, my friend and I headed to our first session together: Gamification and Game Based Learning. While this wasn't exactly what I had been hoping for, I certainly pulled some nuggets from the session. I had been looking for some wisdom and experience from teachers who had tried Badging Systems in their classrooms. Instead, I came away with some great resources/reminders: iCivics to use in my 7th/8th Grade Classroom, distinguishing the difference between gamification vs. game based learning. My understanding is that gamification is using game elements in conjunction with regular classroom tasks such as XP Points or badges for example. Game based learning is the use of games to learn skills or principles such as MineCraft, board games, etc. Students can also create video/board games under the "umbrella" of game based learning. Next: Grading Practices. This was perhaps the most intriguing conversation of the day. The session was led by Dr. Joseph Trybulski, a middle school principal. He shared his own experiences within his own school in district of trying to adopt more fair and equitable grading practices and policies. For the most part, I was quiet for the majority of this session and absorbed what many experienced educators shared. Some big points I took away from this session:
Third Session: Creating a Reflective Classroom led by Dan Kaplan. This was not quite what I expected but definitely came away with some valuable tools! In short, there is tremendous value and growth potential in asking students to give feedback following your own instruction. I had the stereotypical reservations: My middle school students would tear me to shreds. What thoughtful constructive criticism could a student provide? I don't know where and when I would do this in my teaching. Came away with a great palette of tools to construct, then conduct an evaluation. This is going to be hard, but how could it not help me grow and become a better teacher? Two keys: Anonymity, eventually. Practice with students in giving feedback before letting the reins loose. Finally, attended a session I was already super passionate about: Personalized Learning Strategies led by Angela Reading, a very passionate special educator. I feel like she says everything I'm thinking when I don't always articulate it! And, as she says, she's very "progressive." So passionate about creating 21st learners empowered to be the best they can be using the plethora of technology now available out there. In this session, I was able to share some of my experiences in using hyperdocs/playlists and my newly implemented CYOA (Choose Your Own Assessment) style of assessing student learning in my classroom. Some tools mentioned that I use: Edpuzzle and Seesaw. I also brought up one of my favorite podcast episodes from Cult of Pedagogy: The Apollo Model, which models the type of differentiation and individualization I hope to attain in my classroom. This was an awesome trek to EdCampNJ! So glad we went! There was the added bonus of doing some site seeing on the way home! Princeton University is an incredibly beautiful campus! Wow. It was like stepping outside of time for a bit. While I never could have/would have attended such a school, I can certainly appreciate the history and beautiful architecture! Wikimedia Commons.
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Happy Thanksgiving! Blogging has really taken to the back burner since the beginning of this school year. I've wanted to many times, but there are just not enough minutes in a school day, regular day, week, month, etc! It's been a busy year. This is partly due to the usual workload I place on myself, but also due to the goals for this I've put in place for myself. Many goals were lofty, and I fell flat on my face, but others I have met! The good news is that I can now be reflective and make a plan for the next several months! For this blog, I will do a run down of the goals I set for myself and a self-evaluation of my progress:
Charging forward, failing forward, growing with my students, I'm moving ahead looking to continuing professional and personal growth this year. It's been a roller coaster ride, but I am so thankful for my vocation and my current teaching position. Thankful for supportive colleagues and an amazing professional learning network on Twitter, Voxer, and elsewhere! Stay tuned! There should be a few more posts coming your way in the next day or so! Right now, with blogging, my philosophy is: GET IT DOWN. GET IT OUT. Hence, rapid succession blog posting. Have a blessed Thanksgiving. It's contagious. Was only a matter of time. I have caught Flipgrid Fever! Wow. There are seemingly limitless applications for this tool! Very simply, we have decided to use Flipgrid to broadcast our morning announcements! It has garnered great reviews by our teachers in only ONE WEEK! Very Simply... Why should you consider using Flipgrid for Morning Announcements?
How do we organize? Here is the Morning Announcements Grid! Morning Announcements Weekly "Topic" The link to the Morning Announcements Grid has been shared with all teachers. (We have debated sharing this with parents as we become more experienced and comfortable with the media.) Within the grid, each topic is a certain week. Each day's announcements can be found within the topic, as seen above.
In our broadcast, we share morning prayer and any important announcements pertinent to the day! The broadcast is led by 7th and 8th Graders. We plan to introduce "Good News" announcements this week for students involved in sports, arts, competitions, etc. as a way for students to share their "Good News!" In the future, we plan to add a weather segment led by 4th graders as this is part of their curriculum. Great teacher and school collaboration opportunities! I'm sure the broadcast will grow and evolve as the year begins! Our broadcasts are filmed during the lunch period the day before. If there are any last minute announcements, either myself or one of our students will add a "reply" to the original video. Any limitations?
That's it - no other limitations thusfar... A phenomenal resource for schools to consider! Look forward to sharing more about this endeavor as it grows and changes throughout the year! Sorry to be so cliche... Going to use this space to share some personal/professional goals and initiatives I have set for myself this year. I have "bitten off a lot of the cookie" but it helps to hold myself accountable by "putting it all out there! It's going to be awesome!
Let's get to it: Personal Goals:
I share these goals so that there may be some degree of accountability... Now that they are out there, it's written and documented. These are my goals for the 2017-18 School Year! Bonus! Looking Ahead to Next Year... Gamification is on the horizon... Don't want to bite off more than I can chew this year, but look forward to researching more about badging systems in gamified classrooms. I think this will be easier to manage than XP systems, but hey - that's why this is in the works for next year!
The other day, I was talking about some of the changes in my classroom this year with an esteemed colleague of mine. She is a very experienced retired teacher and now works as an instructional aide to some of our middle school students with learning needs and also helps the teachers in carrying out differentiated instruction. She pointed out, "Wow. You are really making them think this year!" In years past, I may have been a little apprehensive of pushing all students to this point... in my naivety. Perhaps in some ways thinking that some students only needed the basic learning/understanding. Boy, was I wrong! It is in this thinking, STRETCHING, reaching beyond our comfort zone that we learn! We cannot learn new things unless we venture into the unknown! Unless we act upon what we know or are learning. If we do not challenge our students to think critically and respond critically to what they are learning, we are not preparing them to do so on their own in the future. All of our teaching and instruction should be oriented toward stretching their thinking!
No no! Not this type of stretching! This looks painful!
Just as we stretch before we exercise, stretching our thinking and brains allows us to push ourselves further as we warm up on our walk or jog! As we and students begin to think critically by analyzing, evaluating, and finding solutions, we are training our mind to work harder in the future.
Have you ever thought of it this way? If we only ever prepare our students to listen, memorize, and take tests, what are we preparing them for in the future? Umm... Their Driver's Test? The SAT? (Not really!) Maybe MAT and GRE? The Praxis Tests for our future "mini-me's"? No! I have very little else to look forward to in the future, if this is the case! We must challenge our students to stretch, create, and find solutions! In my Social Studies class, I plan to continue to encourage students to engage in current events in our community, state, country, and world! Beyond simple reflection and summarizing, what can THEY do about it? How can they respond to these events and local happenings? Is there a solution to a problem? A person or people to comfort or reach out to? This is stretching beyond traditional consumption of information. In this case, I hope that my students will take the information, think and DO SOMETHING about it. If they do this, they are stretching their minds much further than a traditional "once-and-done" assignment mentality. In the end, let's encourage our students to THINK, TO STRETCH beyond their comfort zone and DO SOMETHING about what they are learning! p.s. This reminds me of a popular song! See below!
I would consider myself to be successful and well-formed product of the factory/industrialized style of education. I was prepared for college after a very traditional (lecture, regurgitate, and repeat) high school experience. Perhaps this was because my own college experience was very similar! Upon deeper reflection and being out of college for several years now, I realize that I've learned stuff, stuff, and more stuff. I had never actually learned how to learn! Before college, I learned how to listen, how to study notes that had been given to me, and to a much lesser extent... how to read to derive key meaning from a text. (Disclaimer: I have been blessed with teachers who have continued to inspire and motivate me to be the best I can in everything I do. They have inspired me to continue on this journey of learning through my adult years.) The following tweet perfectly encapsulates how I was prepared throughout much of my own education for the world and career ahead of me!
Thankfully, I heard this message relentlessly as a student, even if through more traditional learning and instructional methods. It is very easy to prepare students to be master "Trivia Crack"ers or Jeopardy players, but are we preparing our students to learn and discover in a world where all of this "trivia" is at their finger tips in the form of a phone or tablet... or watch?!? (Who knew?) That's up for debate and reflection depending on our own practices in our classrooms. I know I'm working toward moving away from forming "Trivia Crackers!!" In a generation in which the differentiation of assignments was even somehow standardized, I had very little exposure to exploring the creative realm. (For example, I can specifically remember in my Junior Year Honors' English Class, we were all assigned to create the same sock puppet video of a scene from MacBeth! Very fun and memorable, but this was not personalized in any way. Students had very little "wiggle room" to show their learning in their own preferred modes and methods. "Differing" from the norm of regular traditional direct instruction to create many of the same product is not differentiating curriculum.) We have the opportunity to open up a world of creativity and change mindsets of our students. Let's change our students' expectations from solely being consumers of the information we spew at them to curators, learners, explorers, researchers, creators, and so on! This will not be easy. It's going to require some work up front on our behalves. We are going to need to break from the traditional methods we grew up with in order to learn best practices in a 21st century classroom. We need to seek out best practices to encourage creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking among our learners. Many students will come into our classrooms expecting to consume and spit back information. This must change. You can do it. In my first four plus years of teaching, I have watched and marveled at picturesque Starbucks-like classrooms all over social media - Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and PINTEREST. I've never done "a reveal" but am giving it a shot this year! This is it: my work in progress toward a more student-centered choice-filled classroom as I venture into what seems "quasi-flexible seating" for this year I have heard many critics say "Isn't flexible seating for second grade?" (I teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grades!) My response is now somewhere along the lines of... (in a kinder more charitable tone) "Not unless older students' learning is done in passive, disengaged fashion in cemetery style seating!" Again, would never say this, but this is the realization I have come to! The goal is to create a classroom the students can collaborate, choose, be comfortable, and also... LEARN in. Disclaimer: My classroom is my "movement toward" the true "more traditional" flexible seating. In my class, I am presenting options for seating with many of the traditional desks I need to have in my room this year. That's okay! I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of options in seating I have been able to finagle! I believe the principle behind flexible seating is truly student-choice. This is my guiding principle! Here is my favorite place in the room! Love the bean bags. They're super comfy. :) The desks in the corner are NOT for "the difficult kids..." This is another place for students to choose to learn! Some students may choose to work with less distractions and hope this provides them the option! A view of some pods and rows. Again. Choice! Maybe you noticed... NO TEACHER DESK?!?! I am very excited to have shed this "paper and junk collector" from my classroom in order to create more instructional spaces for my students. I plan to use this table as a small group instruction table and double as my desk when there are no students in my room. Wait... What will I do when the students are in there?! Work with the students! Completely avoiding the temptation of sitting behind a desk when I could instead be working with students. #NODESK #FTW Psst... Inspired by Ed Casey and Dave Burgess, beginning school year with "What's in the box?" Want to engage students and build relationships right off the bat! Love this! My sister bought me an air plant. Just had to share. Bet she had no idea he would be so special in my classroom! :) Ha! That about does it for the "big reveal!" My classroom never looks the same in January as it does in August/September. I'm sure this year will be no different - although who knows! I'm super excited to dive into this blended learning adventure with more student choice built into classroom design.
We'll see how it goes! I look forward to getting student feedback. Maybe they will have other ideas in creating a better learning space! T-19 days. 2017-18 School Year, Here we come! What a neat tool I learned from those who participated in EdCamp Voice! This is a versatile digital corkboard that can be used for many purposes. I have already integrated several "Padlets" into lessons in my first units in both 6th and 7th Grade Social Studies. This web app can take any traditional activity or assessment (e.g. entrance/exit slips and/or anchor charts, etc.) and transform it into a live collaborative document the students and teacher and track in real-time. One neat feature includes the ability to turn anonymity of responses on and off. Sometimes there are different assignments that may or may not require a student's name to be attached to it. By taking the student's name off the assignment, it can allow the student to respond more freely in some cases. Another neat feature is the ability to turn commenting on and off. Allowing students to collaborate and communicate with one another is always a benefit. Ideas of How to Use Padlet in the Classroom1.) Discussion Board: Present a uniform question to the class in which they will all respond to with their own thinking. For example, you may ask the class: What was the highlight of your summer? Summarize in a well-written paragraph. This enables students to share their thinking with an audience contrary to the traditional "write-in-a-journal-never-to-be-seen-again" type of written responses. The students are also able to read their classmates' responses and respond to one another if the teach allows this feature. Students can also model good writing for one another by sharing this common platform. 2.) Traditional KWL, "STW - See, Think, Wonder" Charts", etc. : There are many practices such as the KWL or STW in which teachers provide a graphic organizer or chart to the student and ask them to respond to various prompts. For example, on a KWL Chart, a student writes what they know about a topic and what they want to know about a topic before learning the given topic. Later on, the students go back and finish the chart by writing what they have learned. The only problem with completing this via paper and pencil is that the paper usually never sees the light of day after the students completes the assignment. Probably not even the teacher! The benefits of moving these traditional assignments to Padlet are that the documents become live and collaborative! The students again are able to share their thinking with the class and the teacher can allow students to comment on one another's work if that is the desired outcome. 3.) Curate Material: Finally, you can have the students curate all sorts of material using a Padlet board. For example, if the class is learning about Brazil, you may want to assign students a specific topic you would like to them to research. If a student is assigned "Brazilian Food," he or she may want to share links to recipes, Youtube Videos, or images of traditional Brazilian food for the class to see on the Padlet. The possibilities are endless with what topics you may have the students curate. This function works very similar to Google Keep except that is a bit easier to collaborate as a class using Padlet.
Padlet is a very versatile tool as the possibilities for how it can be used in classroom are plentiful. The key, again, is the ability to collaborate and communicate with peers using this digital platform. Enjoy! DisclaimerNot long ago, I was a teacher who didn't quite understand the potential of digital integration in the classroom. Until this past year, parts of my instruction included moving traditional paper guided notes which accompanied a PowerPoint to the Google Docs platform and calling this use of digital technology. No. No. NO!!! I wish I could step back in time one year or THREE YEARS and give myself a lesson. You cannot just take a paper worksheet or assignment, digitize it, and call it tech integration or use of tech in the classroom. Digital integration of technology in any classroom has all the potential in the world to take any traditional classroom to the next level! 3 C's of Learning in 21st Century ClassroomCommunication. Collaboration. Creativity. (Now, I realize that some sources use "different C's" but these are the C's I'm sticking with here!) To an extent, I would skim the surface of these "C's" in my classroom but pale in comparison to where could be in terms of unleashing the potential of my students. In a 21st century classroom, a teacher MUST move past the cookie-cutter-students classroom model and begin adopting innovative practices using the new technologies that are afforded to us unlike ever before. Today, information is a click away. Are we teaching students information that they can "Google?" Or, are we challenging students to communicate, collaborate, and be creative in the world around them using the vast number of digital tools and resources at their disposal? 1.) Communicate Many digital platforms allow us to provide voice to all students in our classrooms. Before, students who were more shy or hesitant to engage in classroom discussion maybe did not share great ideas because they were shy or less inclined to share with the pressure of their peers around them. Now, with technology, students have the ability to communicate with one another via a back channel that can be provided via digital platforms such as Padlet or Google Classroom. Digital tools also provide a brand new platform for students to communicate their thinking and ideas in a more authentic manner with the world around them through different sharing abilities. (To be discussed shortly!) 2.) Collaboration Students now have the ability to collaborate asynchronously or synchronously on any assignment. With tools like the Google Apps which allow sharing and other tools which promote sharing across platforms and users, students are able to work together in pairs or groups on an assignment unlike ever before. This collaboration extends beyond completing a poster together or even working together on a Google Slides Presentation to share objective information about a given topic. I'm still discovering what exactly this means but... I know that the end goal of my tech integration should be in building students who learn to collaborate well with one another while diving deeper in their journey of life-long learning all while creating then sharing their work with the world! 3.) Creativity Last, but certainly not least - Creativity! According to this article from Business Weekly, by 2020, creativity will be the third most desired quality by employers in those whom they hire in the workplace. Employers are not looking for people who will regurgitate what they learned in history class - my class... Unfortunately! Employers are and will be looking for people who are creative, out of the box, and innovative thinkers! How else will businesses succeed and reach those to whom they are marketing except through the efforts of creative marking, innovation, and vision!? How does this pertain to the classroom? We must provide an avenue and outlet for our students to be creative by allowing them to - yes - have more freedom and choice. Students are often motivated when they have a stake in choice how an assignment is completed. But wait! How will the entire curriculum be taught if much of the time is student-centered? How will I ensure that my 6th graders can identify the difference between a butte and a mesa? How will I make sure my 7th and 8th graders know and can apply the present-day ramifications of each constitutional amendment? Hold up! Does this really matter if the totality of our students only ever have one way to show their learning and thinking? (A chapter test!) We should certainly be covering the curriculum as we are expected, but as 21st century educators, we are called to engage and enhance our students' learning experiences unlike teachers have even been able to do before. These chapter tests will mean nothing in future work places... Except that the students will be able to say that at one point they were able to memorize and regurgitate information on an exam! (Disclaimer: Yes - there is a place for this and I hope to reflect on it another time. Tests should never be the sole assessment tools a teacher uses, even in high school!) We need to prepare our students to be creative and make decisions by working through the creative process. After all, in the real world, employees will be expected to create and solve often without 100 guidelines as provided in a teacher-created rubric. Let go. Let them create. Nevertheless, how can we foster creativity? Introduce different multimedia resources. Allow student choice of pace, path, and medium! Allow the students to show their learning in a way that they feel most comfortable. Unleash the potential! In conclusion: Break the mold. Break from tradition. Use these new tech tools in new innovative ways. Be creative yourself as a facilitator of learning! Let go and let your kids!
Hello all! Just finished participating in my first Ed Camp Voice, or Ed Camp in general. What an awesome community of educators from around the country. This was a neat free self-paced teacher collaborative event over the Voxer app. I was able to catch all the material and collaboration I wanted while still doing the daily routine, going for walks, or going in the pool. Highly encourage you to join Ed Camp Voice next year! (Wish it was around more than once per year!) I came upon this event on Twitter and suggested the topic of Blended Learning for one of the groups. Surprisingly enough, I was asked to "moderate" this discussion. I'm so glad I did as I gained a ton of wisdom, knowledge, and resources - probably more than the participants! Very thankful. I digress... After this EdCampVoice experience, I am excited and ready to "dive into" blended learning after dabbling in it a little this year. (As per the stages of implementation in Blended in Action, I worked through the Pre-Pilot stage with one class at the end of the year.) I have listened to several podcasts, read blogs, am reading Blended in Action, and connected with teachers on Twitter and am convinced that blended learning is the future of education.
For many years, teachers have been hearing the need to always differentiate instruction in the classroom. This has been the "buzzword" since I was in college and likely long before. Some have mastered differentiation before the dawn of digital edtech in the more recent years, while others, like myself, have held more tightly to the traditional direct instruction model in their classrooms while still trekking through the new edtech options available - and not using to their potential. There is the old adage among teachers that "a teacher teaches the way that they were taught..." This is so true! I had some great history teachers (whom I enjoyed!) who lectured with PowerPoints... And you can guess what a lot of my instruction looks like today. We are called to break the mold in this era of exploding digital technology. (All while taking it in stride and using all tools prudently and effectively!) |
About MeLouie here! 5th Grade Teacher. Level 2 Google Educator. Love all things Google. 1:1 Chromebooks. Archives
June 2020
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