Empowering Students with Technology

Today, I was working in a 3rd grade classroom where students were discovering and exploring Explain Everything. I have done planning and technology work with this teacher before and she isn't the most confident in her technology abilities, but today I think the lightbulb went off for her. She doesn't need to be the keeper of all knowledge when it comes to technology. If we empower our students to help one another, things work smoother and the students take ownership of their own learning.

I gave an overview of the toolbar and then gave students an assignment to create within Explain Everything. Before I turned them loose to create, I asked the students what they should do if they didn't remember how to do something. Of course, they responded they should raise their hand and ask me. I reminded them that I won't always be in their room but to look to their peers. It was amazing what happened when they started working. Students were asking each other for help and when one would ask me, I would direct them to another student that I knew had completed that task.

I did show one student how to change the privacy in settings in case the camera or the microphone was turned off in any app they were using. Her confidence and excitement for helping others became clear right away when three students came up to her in about five minutes asking for assistance with this task.  By the end of the session today, there was a class full of experts and the students even discovered things that I hadn't shown the class and were willing to share with their peers.

We need to get over the fear of not having all of the knowledge and letting the kids figure things out and help each other.  The teacher can then truly move into a facilitator role instead of the keeper of all knowledge.

Jumping Feet First Into Self-Paced Math

I have been feeling guilty about not posting to my blog but now I feel like I have so much to share about the great things happening in Nevada.  One huge endeavor some of our teachers have taken on this year is creating a self-paced environment in their classrooms.

Through this process, students progress at their own rate and are able to get individualized attention based on their needs.  Teachers put in countless hours this summer to align activities, lessons and assessments to the standards while still engaging students. They put great effort into not making these items drill and skill but rather a focus on students creating and applying their knowledge, as well as sharing these ideas with peers and the world.  Students can advance at their own pace and get their needs met by small group instruction with the teacher.

We have worked together to determine logistics, learn new technologies, and put all of the pieces into place to make self-paced math work.  Below is an example from one classroom this morning - the focus mini-lesson was on fractions and aligned to the grade level standards, but these 3rd/4th grade students were working on their own pacing guides based upon their needs.  This classroom looks like a well-oiled machine after a month of just jumping in feet first to self-paced math. Kudos to the teachers for taking on the unknown and putting the best interests of kids at the forefront of their teaching and learning.  I am lucky to work with some amazing educators and am grateful my own children get the chance to learn in self-paced learning environments.

Innovator's Mindset

Another takeaway I had from George Couros' Leading Innovative Change session (@gcouros) was the belief that the biggest game changer in education is teachers that thinks of themselves as innovators.  When looking at the definition of innovator, we see a person who introduces new methods, ideas, or practices.

At times, educators have a hard time grasping this, as their day is packed with teaching, grading, and meetings; however, if we look at any other professional practice, we know we need to stay on top of new methods, ideas, and practices. If we would go to a doctor who was treating his patients the same way he did fifty years ago, it would be medical malpractice; however, many of today's schools look the same as they did fifty years ago. Desks area aligned in rows with the teacher disseminating information with students regurgitating the answers. We need to move away from education malpractice.

Teachers are busy, I get that. So, how do we make those changes with the little time we have available? We need to take on an innovator's mindset. We can't continue doing the same things as we have always done and then try to add on something new. We don't have time to do it all, so we need to replace something old with something new.

At conferences and even district wide professional development, teachers are flooded with new practices and ideas. (Feeling the guilt, as I do this to our staff). As an educator, take one thing from a session/conference and implement it into your classroom. Start small and only tackle one new thing at a time. With this approach, having an innovator's mindset is doable.

Asking the Right Questions

Wow!  It has been awhile since I have taken the time to sit down and formally reflect on my blog....over three months to be exact.

This past week, I was at a conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and connected with an amazing speaker and educator, George Couros.  The focus of his presentation was leading innovative change in education.  I could blog about many of the topics he presented, but I'll start with one that really resonated with me.

"If you ask students to put away devices, you are losing students' trust and their way of learning." 

- George Couros

In my role, obviously I encourage integrating technology into the content areas and it burns me when I hear comments from educators or see posters in schools that say something to the effect of no technology allowed in this classroom. Technology is an extension of our students these days; the worst technology device a kindergartener knows is an iPad 2. They have always had technology as part of their lives. They use devices to connect, to create, to communicate, and believe it or not even to learn.

When teachers direct them to disconnect, in essence they are taking away a huge part of the way they know how to learn. Students do know how to think and communicate without their devices, but why would we want to limit them to only the tools and people in the four walls of the classroom? Parents trust that as educators we are going to allow their students to use the tools so they can learn. Students need to be empowered to use the tools to connect, collaborate, think critically, create, and solve real world problems.

I had a teacher ask me if we could disable Google during tests because kids were looking up the answers to their tests. If kids are Googling the answer, we as educators are asking the wrong questions! As the sign in my office reads....

Amazing Race Secondary PD

Our high school is 1:1 Macbooks and our middle school is 1:1 Chromebooks, so I wanted to create a race that both schools could participate in together.  The majority of teams were made up of one high school teacher, one middle school teacher, and one associate or student teacher.

The tasks for the secondary staff are below: 

Task 1: Slide into Learning (this one separated the men from the boys)

Create a shared Google Slide presentation per team. Each slide has specifications:

Slide 1: Create and list your team name, members of your team

Slide 2: Tell which each member of your team is an expert on.  Each member will contribute a link to their expertise.

Slide 3: Create 1 shared Google Maps Engine Lite map for your team.  Each team member drops a pin on their favorite vacation location.  Each pin must include the Place name, Team Member’s name and a short description about the vacation.  After all pins are dropped, take a screenshot and insert the picture into the slide.

When all 3 slides are complete, show to your Clue Master for your next clue.

Task 2: Twitter-ific

Your team has a few tasks at this location.  

1. Take a picture of your team.  Tweet it out with your Amazing Race Team name and the district hashtag.
2. Favorite a tweet
3. Retweet another person’s tweet

After each task, show your Clue Master.  Once all three are completed, your Clue Master will give you your next clue.

Task 3:  Standards

In this task, you will be shown three pieces of student work.  You will need to determine the ISTE/Iowa Core 21st century standards addressed in each one.  

Once you have answered correctly for each one, you will be given your next clue from your Clue Master.

Task 4: Detour

For the detour, you need to decide between two tasks.  When one task is complete, show your Clue Master for your next clue.

1. Create a video with the green screen in either iMovie or WeVideo.  Upload to Youtube (you can keep it private).

OR

2. Create a house in Google Sketchup with a roof and two windows.

Task 5: Hangout and Display it All

In this task, you will need to install Google Hangouts. Then, connect with your clue master via video on hangouts and display your video conversation. Once your video conversation is displayed, your clue master will give you your next clue.

Task 6: Roadblock

For the road block, only one of you will be allowed to complete it. The rest of the team may not help, but can encourage the designated teammate. You must decide who will perform this task before seeing the task.

Complete five levels of Hour of Code for your grade span.  When you have completed the first five levels, show your Clue Master for your next clue.

Task 7: Screencastify

For this task, each member of the team needs to download the Chrome app Screencastify.

Each member creates a screencast that shows off one skill you performed or learned today.

Insert them into the Google Slide created during task 1 and share with the district technology integration specialist.  

See your Clue Master for details on your checkpoint.

Checkpoint!

Great Work!  You have reached your checkpoint.  At this time, you will share something you learned during today’s session OR how you could use the Amazing Race game in your classroom via Google Moderator.   You can vote for others’ too and the most popular rise to the top.

Amazing Race Elementary iPad PD

I wrote about the planning of our Amazing Race Professional Development.  I have already had a few requests for the actual tasks, so I will start with my elementary iPad Amazing Race.



Task 1: Virtual Field Trip

Login to Discovery Ed Science through ourAEA’s online resources.  Find a virtual field trip you could use for your grade level in the next nine weeks. When you find one and bookmark it, show your Clue Master for your next clue.

Task 2: AirDrop your Video

For this task, you will need to decide your Amazing Race team name.  One of you will then record a short video (under 30 seconds) of the rest of the team members explaining why you chose that name. Then AirDrop the video to all of your team members.  

Once everyone has the video, show your Clue Master for your next clue.

Task 3: Twitter-ific

Your team has a few tasks at this location.  

1. Take a picture of your team with Photobooth.  Tweet it out with your Amazing Race Team name and the district hashtag.
2. Favorite a tweet
3. Retweet another person’s tweet

After each task, show your Clue Master.  Once all three are completed, your Clue Master will give you your next clue.

Task 4: Detour

1. Create a digital story on one of your iPads.  Team members may want to search for images and airdrop them to the production iPad.

OR

2. Each of you need to drop a pin on your favorite vacation spot in Google Earth.  Include your name and short description about your vacation.

Task 5:  Standards

In this task, you will be shown three pieces of student work.  You will need to determine the ISTE/Iowa Core 21st century standards addressed in each one.  

Once you have answered correctly for each one, you will be given your next clue from your Clue Master.

Task 6: Roadblock

For the road block, only one of you will be allowed to complete it. The rest of the team may not help, but can encourage the designated teammate. You must decide who will perform this task before seeing the task.

Complete five levels of Hour of Code for your grade span.  When you have completed the first five levels, show your Clue Master for your next clue.

Task 7: Hangout and Reflect

In this task, you will need to install Google Hangouts (Hangouts in the app store) on one of your iPads.  

Then, connect with the clue master via video on hangouts and display your video conversation with Reflector.

Once you have reflected, your clue master will give you your next clue.

Task 8: Stay Put!

In this task, you will need to get into an app on your iPad and turn on Guided Access.  Once you have Guided Access turned on, you will show your Clue Master for checkpoint information.

Checkpoint!

You have reached your checkpoint.  At this time, you can discover apps on your iPad until the rest of the teams arrive!  

Great work on learning some new things about the iPads!

Amazing Race Tech PD

For one of our ninety minute technology professional development sessions, I created an Amazing Race style game. @angelancheatham and @jessica_branch presented a poster session at ISTE14 about giving professional development a makeover and this was one of their ideas. 

There is a lot of preparation and organization to creating the races, but it was well worth it by having actively engaged learners who are collaborating and growing with each other.  In preparing for these races, here is the checklist I used to get organized.

• Determine 8 tasks that you want the staff to engage in or learn
• Determine locations for each station and get permission from classroom teachers to use their room
• Make list of equipment needed in the location
• Ask 7 other people to be "Clue Masters" that will be stationed at each pit stop
• Create and print clue sheets to move from one pit stop to another
• Create and print task sheets for each pit stop
• Share tasks with clue masters.
• Determine teams - (worked great in pairs or groups of three)
• Purchase yellow envelopes
• Stuff and label clue envelopes - Give yourself plenty of time for this
• Create and print station instructions/keys for clue masters 
• Create introduction iMovie
• Create Google Form for team reflections
• Secure prizes for winning team(s) - I purchased gift cards
• Give Clue Masters the task cards, materials needed for their station (including answer keys), and clue envelopes
• Day of the Race - set up each station

To make an Amazing Race work for our district, which is 1:1 Macbooks at the high school, 1:1 Chromebooks at the middle school, and some iPads at the elementary, I had to create multiple races which added to the planning.

The day of the race (for secondary staff) followed this format:

1.  I presented an introductory iMovie that explained the race and the teams.

2.  Staff started with me with their first task

• Task 1: Create a shared Google Slide presentation per team. Each slide had specifications such as adding a team name, inserting an image, external links and using Google Maps engine lite

3. When they were done with their first task, they received their first clue to the location of their next pitstop. These clues were stuffed into the yellow envelopes. Here are a few examples of clues that moved the staff from pit stop to pit stop:

                       

         

4.  They moved from pitstop to pit stop until they arrived at their checkpoint.  Along the way, staff had a roadblock in which only one member could participate.  They also had a detour in which they had a choice between two tasks.

5.  At the end of the race, I awarded prizes to the team that finished the race first.  Then, teachers reflected on the learning experience through a Google Form.

If you have any ideas to make this better or would like some more of my resources or task ideas, please let me know.