Blended Brags
Last Tuesday, Kevin Killeen, Christy Berry, and Diana Ayrula visited classrooms at Lincoln Middle School in Meriden in the morning and collaborated on classroom design in the afternoon. These math teachers were happy to see blended methods in action and utilized the planning time to revisit their first draft designs. Diana was nice enough to open up her classroom for this work, which was helpful in seeing a station rotation set up in a relatively small space. I'm looking forward to our science visit tomorrow!
Cool Tools
If you like using interact quiz tools (i.e. Kahoot, Socrative) in class, you should check out Quizalize. One feature of this tool that I particularly like is asynchronous quizzing. You can assign quizzes in class all at the same time, or assign quizzes for students to use as practice at home.
Newsela has teamed up with Rock the Vote to create Students Vote 2016. This tool provides a wealth of resources for teaching election-themed text sets at differentiated reading levels, as well as interactive and real-time voting on primary and election days.
Expii Solve is a weekly set of 5 challenge math problems ranging from middle school math, to AP-level. These problems require math skills, but also a healthy dose of logic and creativity. The founder, a professor at Carnegie Mellon, explains his philosophy behind the site here.
Open eBooks is a brand new initiative launched by the White House to increase student access to high quality books. Teachers and students at Title I schools and on military bases, as well as any special education teachers can register to provide access to the free library to their students. 10 major publishers have contributed content, and I'm sure that list will grow. Read more about Open eBooks here and watch Michelle Obama's introduction to the app here. #GoOpen
Professional Learning
My favorite article from this past week is Why Your Tech-Obsessed Conference Presentation Stinks—and How to Make It Better. As many of you know, I've had the opportunity to travel to quite a few of the biggest edtech conferences in the past year-- ISTE, iNACOL, FETC, and METC. One of my worries is just what this article highlights-- tech decisions are being made for show, not for actual impact on teaching and learning. Justin Taylor and I presented about just this issue at METC, and it is a relief to see that others are fighting the good fight!
Another article that spoke to me for various reasons was What WALL-E Teaches Us About Adaptive and Personalized Learning. My Disney fanaticism aside, the article's point about how adaptive technologies may make students and teachers cognitively "lazy" is an important warning about integrating digital content. It is often easy for students and teachers to sit back and let the software decide what should be learned when. However, this can "deskill" both students and teachers from making important decisions about their own learning or teaching.
Reflection is one of the Core Four Elements of blended learning, but can easily be overlooked. In How One Teacher Champions Student Reflection with Technology and Public Speaking, a teacher talks about how she uses Zaption (you might also consider Vialogues) to have her students reflect and guide the feedback on their presentations
Monday, February 29, 2016
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Blended in Action
On Tuesday Kevin Killeen, Diana Ayrula and I traveled to Lincoln Middle School in Meriden to see how they use Blended Learning strategies in their math classes. We observed and participated in 3 classes, two 7th grade and one 6th grade. The students were engaged in rotating stations throughout the periods which resulted in a total of 12 activities.
Students shared with us that they very much enjoyed working in stations. The activities included matching tasks, shared document work on Chromebooks, direct instruction with the teacher, watching instructional videos, sorting, practice on individual white boards, and book work. At the conclusion of the first class students were asked to evaluate their groups' work based on the 8 Common Core Standards of Practice which were posted on the wall. Not only did the students refer to the standards but they cited examples.
The second half of the day was spent in meaningful collaboration with Paul. We learned more about the software that will be available to us and completed some necessary steps before full implementation. Overall it was a great experience.
Students shared with us that they very much enjoyed working in stations. The activities included matching tasks, shared document work on Chromebooks, direct instruction with the teacher, watching instructional videos, sorting, practice on individual white boards, and book work. At the conclusion of the first class students were asked to evaluate their groups' work based on the 8 Common Core Standards of Practice which were posted on the wall. Not only did the students refer to the standards but they cited examples.
The second half of the day was spent in meaningful collaboration with Paul. We learned more about the software that will be available to us and completed some necessary steps before full implementation. Overall it was a great experience.
Monday, February 22, 2016
Blended Bulletin, Issue 21
Blended Brags
This last minute brag goes out to Susan Johnston after just wrapping up a planning meeting with her THIS morning! Susan will be beginning a rhetoric unit with her English classes, and wanted to innovate with her instructional design. In reflecting, she noted that her classes are running fine, but she wants there to be more engagement in learning, not just engagement in class because her students like her. So here is her thinking:
Susan is planning for a six-week unit broken down into three two-week cycles. During the first two weeks, students will be learning the requisite content-specific knowledge of rhetoric (i.e. pathos, ethos, logos, figurative language, etc.). In the next two weeks, students will continue to reinforce their knowledge of rhetoric, but also start to learn more about a particular social justice issue of their choice. In the final two weeks, students will be writing and delivering speeches on their issue, employing rhetorical techniques. In the first four weeks of learning and practicing, students will be in a station rotation, interacting with media demonstrating examples of rhetoric produced with Edpuzzle in one station and reinforcing their new learning in a teacher-led small group in a second station. I can't wait to see this in action!
Cool Tools
Flippedmath.com is a site that provides engaging and well-produced videos and lessons for teaching Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II, and Pre-calculus. The lessons in each subject are set up in a curricular sequence that would make a great supplement to classroom instruction. Thanks, Wendy Jackwin for the great suggestion!
Coming Soon: Amazon will be entering the OpenEd marketplace with their site Amazon Inspire. Rumors are that they will be using their marketplace software to allow users to post, rate, manage and discover OER. If this has anywhere near the impact Amazon had on the consumer industry, look out for big things in May! Read more about Amazon Inspire here.
Professional Learning
When we send our students home with assignments that involve technology, we often leave parents out of the loop. Find out how to remedy this in Flip This House: Tips for Bridging the Tech Gap Between School and Home.
In Educating an Original Thinker, the idea of teaching "rebels with a cause" is discussed in the context of student-centered learning.
Do You Know Me? The Voice of a Disgruntled Student in a Boring Class lets you into the heads of so many of our students who feel disconnected from school, but certainly aren't disconnected from learning.
This last minute brag goes out to Susan Johnston after just wrapping up a planning meeting with her THIS morning! Susan will be beginning a rhetoric unit with her English classes, and wanted to innovate with her instructional design. In reflecting, she noted that her classes are running fine, but she wants there to be more engagement in learning, not just engagement in class because her students like her. So here is her thinking:
Susan is planning for a six-week unit broken down into three two-week cycles. During the first two weeks, students will be learning the requisite content-specific knowledge of rhetoric (i.e. pathos, ethos, logos, figurative language, etc.). In the next two weeks, students will continue to reinforce their knowledge of rhetoric, but also start to learn more about a particular social justice issue of their choice. In the final two weeks, students will be writing and delivering speeches on their issue, employing rhetorical techniques. In the first four weeks of learning and practicing, students will be in a station rotation, interacting with media demonstrating examples of rhetoric produced with Edpuzzle in one station and reinforcing their new learning in a teacher-led small group in a second station. I can't wait to see this in action!
Cool Tools
Flippedmath.com is a site that provides engaging and well-produced videos and lessons for teaching Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II, and Pre-calculus. The lessons in each subject are set up in a curricular sequence that would make a great supplement to classroom instruction. Thanks, Wendy Jackwin for the great suggestion!
Coming Soon: Amazon will be entering the OpenEd marketplace with their site Amazon Inspire. Rumors are that they will be using their marketplace software to allow users to post, rate, manage and discover OER. If this has anywhere near the impact Amazon had on the consumer industry, look out for big things in May! Read more about Amazon Inspire here.
Professional Learning
When we send our students home with assignments that involve technology, we often leave parents out of the loop. Find out how to remedy this in Flip This House: Tips for Bridging the Tech Gap Between School and Home.
In Educating an Original Thinker, the idea of teaching "rebels with a cause" is discussed in the context of student-centered learning.
Do You Know Me? The Voice of a Disgruntled Student in a Boring Class lets you into the heads of so many of our students who feel disconnected from school, but certainly aren't disconnected from learning.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
JMA Math going Blended
After returning from the Hartford Public Schools District professional learning on Blended Learning, I applied a rigorous introductory lesson plan on surface area that contained Inquiry Based Learning, utilized three Station Rotations and had physical objects to work with and measure.
Upon reflection my initial feelings were mixed. Students struggled with the idea of being more independent. And from the perspective of order of the stations students who began at one station seemed more advantaged than another. By the end of the lesson, students had not solidified their understanding of the surface area of 3 dimensional objects.
I had adequate evidence of their work and in subsequent classes they readily began to approach their work more independently and more conceptually. I will continue the plan to make student centered learning a greater part of their experience.
Upon reflection my initial feelings were mixed. Students struggled with the idea of being more independent. And from the perspective of order of the stations students who began at one station seemed more advantaged than another. By the end of the lesson, students had not solidified their understanding of the surface area of 3 dimensional objects.
I had adequate evidence of their work and in subsequent classes they readily began to approach their work more independently and more conceptually. I will continue the plan to make student centered learning a greater part of their experience.
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Blended Bulletin, Issue 20
Blended Brags
Kim Childress used a station rotation model in her recent lesson on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Students rotated between three stations. At the first station, students read and discussed with the teacher the "I Have a Dream" speech. At the second station, students collaborated to create a timeline of important events in Dr. King's life and discuss key events. At the third station, students independently listened to Dr. King speak in a video, and then demonstrated their understanding of his message in an Edmodo quiz. Well done!
Cool Tools
With Math, I Can is a collection of resources and an advocacy site that hopes to address the problem of students declaring at a young age, "I can't do math." Several groups have joined together with Amazon to apply Growth Mindset to mathematics instruction.
The Blended Learning Universe (BLU) is finally back up and running! The new site has an improved search engine to connect users with blended learning schools, and even lets schools create profiles to detail their blended learning experiences. The Christensen Institute, the creators of the site, are billing it as the social network of blended learning schools.
Rewordify is a free site that many teachers are already using, but one that more of you will be interested in. The site's purpose is to reword text passages and websites to allow for greater readability. It is really helpful for ELLs and students with lower reading abilities.
Limnu is an interactive and collaborative blackboard. Its simplicity makes it super user-friendly and fun to use.
Khan Academy has a whole course in College Financial Literacy that will help students understand their options for paying for college, as well as how to fill out applications for FAFSA, scholarships, and loans.
New updates for Google Forms make this app even better!
OneVote offers a collection of online tools and resources for the 2016 presidential election. And boy, if there were ever a chance to engage students with civics, this election seems to be it!
Professional Learning
If you are interested in becoming more familiar with Google Apps, you can earn an app as a Google Certified Educator in the process. Check out Google's new training page.
While we normally talk about what conditions need to be in place for students to experience deeper learning, The 4 conditions that support deeper learning discusses the conditions that need to be in place for teachers.
The Connecticut Association for School Librarians is hosting an "Unconference" in Danbury on April 2. Unconferences or Edcamps are opportunities for professional development that rely on the knowledge of the masses and respond to the needs of the people attending. The sessions are created organically by like-minded educators. Check out the flyer for this event. Thanks, Susan Johnston, for the suggestion!
CREC is also hosting an unconference/edcamp on March 12 in New Britain. More information can be found on this flyer. Thanks, Michelle Puhlick, for the info!
If anyone out there is on Pinterest (and I know you are!), you may know that this social media app has a TON of resources for teachers! Here is a link to some helpful resources in staying organized as you sift through teaching resources on Pinterest.
Kim Childress used a station rotation model in her recent lesson on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Students rotated between three stations. At the first station, students read and discussed with the teacher the "I Have a Dream" speech. At the second station, students collaborated to create a timeline of important events in Dr. King's life and discuss key events. At the third station, students independently listened to Dr. King speak in a video, and then demonstrated their understanding of his message in an Edmodo quiz. Well done!
Cool Tools
With Math, I Can is a collection of resources and an advocacy site that hopes to address the problem of students declaring at a young age, "I can't do math." Several groups have joined together with Amazon to apply Growth Mindset to mathematics instruction.
The Blended Learning Universe (BLU) is finally back up and running! The new site has an improved search engine to connect users with blended learning schools, and even lets schools create profiles to detail their blended learning experiences. The Christensen Institute, the creators of the site, are billing it as the social network of blended learning schools.
Rewordify is a free site that many teachers are already using, but one that more of you will be interested in. The site's purpose is to reword text passages and websites to allow for greater readability. It is really helpful for ELLs and students with lower reading abilities.
Limnu is an interactive and collaborative blackboard. Its simplicity makes it super user-friendly and fun to use.
Khan Academy has a whole course in College Financial Literacy that will help students understand their options for paying for college, as well as how to fill out applications for FAFSA, scholarships, and loans.
New updates for Google Forms make this app even better!
OneVote offers a collection of online tools and resources for the 2016 presidential election. And boy, if there were ever a chance to engage students with civics, this election seems to be it!
Professional Learning
If you are interested in becoming more familiar with Google Apps, you can earn an app as a Google Certified Educator in the process. Check out Google's new training page.
While we normally talk about what conditions need to be in place for students to experience deeper learning, The 4 conditions that support deeper learning discusses the conditions that need to be in place for teachers.
The Connecticut Association for School Librarians is hosting an "Unconference" in Danbury on April 2. Unconferences or Edcamps are opportunities for professional development that rely on the knowledge of the masses and respond to the needs of the people attending. The sessions are created organically by like-minded educators. Check out the flyer for this event. Thanks, Susan Johnston, for the suggestion!
CREC is also hosting an unconference/edcamp on March 12 in New Britain. More information can be found on this flyer. Thanks, Michelle Puhlick, for the info!
If anyone out there is on Pinterest (and I know you are!), you may know that this social media app has a TON of resources for teachers! Here is a link to some helpful resources in staying organized as you sift through teaching resources on Pinterest.
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Blended Bulletin, Issue 19
Blended Brags
Last week, I had the opportunity to commandeer one of Justin Taylor's and his student teacher Kevin Krantz's planning periods to plan for blended learning. Though Justin has been using blended learning instructional practices and station rotation in his teaching, he felt he needed to improve something in his DBQ process. So here is what we did:
We started by diagramming the current practice. As you see in the image below, the DBQ process takes place of 5 class periods. Justin uses a mix of whole class instruction and discussion, small group stations, and independent and small group practice.
Edutopia recently updated their Big List of Educational Grants and Resources. If you have a big idea that just lacks funding, check the list out to see if you can apply for anything! Thanks to Natalie and Kelly from Education Elements for the suggestion!
PBLU is a website with ready-made projects for those of you who may be interested in trying Project-Based Learning. Each project comes equipped with all the resources you may need, even down to the rubrics! Thanks to Natalie and Kelly for the suggestion!
School Retool has issued the Shadow a Student Challenge for the week of Feb. 29-Mar. 4. The challenge is intended for school administrators to strap on a backpack for a day and experience school from the students' perspective, and the challenge website has resources to help make this possible. Teachers may consider taking the challenge during their off-period.
Soundtrap is a new tool for student creation of sound files, either music or podcast. Student work created through the program is stored on the cloud, which is helpful considering the large size of many sound files. Additionally, students can also remotely collaborate on the same project, much like WeVideo allows for collaboration on video projects. This is a freemium product, so look at the Basic personal subscription, which is free.
Professional Learning
In Teaching: Just Like Performing Magic, Teller, the silent half of Penn and Teller, shares how engagement, or the romance of a subject, should not be overlooked.
Finding common ground with students is an important step towards student-centered learning, even if it means connecting over a favorite TV show as described in The Walking Dead helped me bring Jordan's reading skills back to life.
Last week, I had the opportunity to commandeer one of Justin Taylor's and his student teacher Kevin Krantz's planning periods to plan for blended learning. Though Justin has been using blended learning instructional practices and station rotation in his teaching, he felt he needed to improve something in his DBQ process. So here is what we did:
We started by diagramming the current practice. As you see in the image below, the DBQ process takes place of 5 class periods. Justin uses a mix of whole class instruction and discussion, small group stations, and independent and small group practice.
Justin and Kevin then identified the problem as such: strategy instruction and practice of new skills is not engaging and takes too long, impacting the time students have to analyze the documents. We then brainstormed solutions to this problem and revised the diagram to reflect two simple changes and an area we would continue to think about improving.
Finally, I made it look pretty so that we have a tool to share for the common good! You can click the image to see a larger version.
If this planning approach sounds like something you would be interested in, please let me know!
Cool Tools
Edutopia recently updated their Big List of Educational Grants and Resources. If you have a big idea that just lacks funding, check the list out to see if you can apply for anything! Thanks to Natalie and Kelly from Education Elements for the suggestion!
PBLU is a website with ready-made projects for those of you who may be interested in trying Project-Based Learning. Each project comes equipped with all the resources you may need, even down to the rubrics! Thanks to Natalie and Kelly for the suggestion!
School Retool has issued the Shadow a Student Challenge for the week of Feb. 29-Mar. 4. The challenge is intended for school administrators to strap on a backpack for a day and experience school from the students' perspective, and the challenge website has resources to help make this possible. Teachers may consider taking the challenge during their off-period.
Soundtrap is a new tool for student creation of sound files, either music or podcast. Student work created through the program is stored on the cloud, which is helpful considering the large size of many sound files. Additionally, students can also remotely collaborate on the same project, much like WeVideo allows for collaboration on video projects. This is a freemium product, so look at the Basic personal subscription, which is free.
Professional Learning
In Teaching: Just Like Performing Magic, Teller, the silent half of Penn and Teller, shares how engagement, or the romance of a subject, should not be overlooked.
Finding common ground with students is an important step towards student-centered learning, even if it means connecting over a favorite TV show as described in The Walking Dead helped me bring Jordan's reading skills back to life.
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