SHOUT with the Smithsonian Institution

Posted on by

Our SHOUT Science Team’s first goal was to help collect data for the Smithsonian’s global tree banding project.  We applied to the program, got our tree banding kit, and banded 5 trees around our school.  Today we uploaded our first data and pictures to the data collection web site. https://treebanding.si.edu/TreeData/Trees/324  We would like to band 5 more trees and then continue to collect data about tree growth until the end of the school year.  Next year we will continue the research.  Here is a link to our SHOUT Team wiki page. http://shoutteam.wikispaces.com/Tree+Banding+Project

 

 

The Start of Something Great

Posted on by

How much thought do you put into the beginning of your lessons?  Dr. Judy Willis teaches that in order for students to learn, information must pass through several filters that are easily closed by common classroom circumstances.  For example, when we begin class with an activity that students find stressful, like a difficult warm-up problem or a quiz, their minds can become closed.  Instead of processing and analyzing new information, the students will respond to the situation with a flight/fright/freeze reaction.  We can help new information pass through the brain’s filters by first engaging a student’s curiosity and then limiting the stress in the classroom environment.   Beginning class with a funny video, music, pictures, a story, or a review game can set the tone for learning by capturing the attention of your students and then helping them to feel relaxed and safe, the preconditions for processing new information effectively.

Some days, I feel the pressure of having to accomplish too many things in too short a time.  I find myself beginning class by rushing students to settle down and getting started quickly with activities that might put my students under some stress right from the start.  After watching a video by Judy Willis I was reminded of the brain based strategies that increase student motivation and success in the classroom.  Today I began with a SMART board activity that introduced the activities in a fun way.  Using SMART notebook software gets students involved in running the lesson and keeps the lesson on track so I can cover the material more effectively.  The initial preparation of the lesson leads to a more relaxed lesson for me and subsequently for the students.  I also included a cartoon that related to the lesson and we used a game to reinforce some of the concepts.  By remembering to keep the stress low I am hoping that students will be better able to learn the concepts.  Tomorrow I am giving a test.  Will it help my students if we begin class with a short, entertaining video clip?  If students are more relaxed before the test will they be able to think more clearly as they work?  I’m not sure if anything can turn a test into a stress free experience, but if it helps students, I’m willing to give it a try!

A New Learning Community

Posted on by

My colleague, Laura, and I have organized a new learning community at our school.  We want to help other teachers as they learn to integrate technology into their daily lessons and we also want to support each other as we try out new lessons using the student response systems we recently acquired.   We plan to meet twice per month.  For half an hour we will share things that we have tried in our classrooms and then for the other half hour we will help teachers as they try to find ways to adapt the techniques to their own lessons.  We have had one planning meeting and one meeting at which we focused on using SMART Notebook software.  We created a wiki, mmsti.wikispace.com, which stands for Milford Middle School Technology Integrators.  I stole that idea from the Keystone Technology Integrators, KTI, a group that got me started on the path of teaching and leading with technology.  We will post our meeting notes and ideas on the wiki as a resource bank for everyone to use after the meetings.  Would anyone be interested in joining our meetings via Skype or sharing in discussions on the wiki?  I could use the practice connecting and it would be a great way to make a small local community into a larger global community!  On Wednesday at 2:30 PM (EST) we will meet to teach some specifics about creating lessons with SMART Notebook software.

Integrating Technology – Jog the Web and the Element Social

Posted on by

 

 

 

 

 

How can you guide students to the best websites but still give them the freedom of doing their own independent research?  One tool that I find useful is called Jog The Web.  This tool allows me to point students to websites that I have chosen for our research.  I can write a description or a set of instructions for how to use each page.  The students can flip through the links then choose where to begin their research.  Another way to use this site is like a web quest.  Have the students complete a scavenger hunt by viewing the links in order.  The picture above is showing my Jog the Web page that the students use for their element research.

After conducting research, the students create a sandwich board poster that they wear at our “Element Social!”  They will walk the red carpet when they arrive and be interviewed (recorded with a Flip camera) about how they are helpful and/or harmful.  Then we take “class” and “family” portraits! They go into the photo booth (we use Photobooth on the mac) to take pictures with their compound buddies and then we vote for King Element and Queen Element.

Getting SMART about Lesson Planning!

Posted on by

My colleague, Laura, and I are finding more and more ways to use the Smart Notebook software in our lessons.  I use the Airliner Slate which allows me to use my projector screen like a Smart board but Laura actually has a Smart board in her room. The nice thing about working with Laura is that she encourages me to try new things and we help each other solve problems with implementing technology.  She inspired me to try using the Smart Response clickers in new ways, not just for playing games.  Today I used my Smart technology in three different ways and was really happy with the results!

First, I put my objectives on a page and masked them with a large, same-color rectangle.  The students moved a white rectangle around the screen in order to reveal the four objectives and find out what our lesson would be.

One of the objectives was to review the answers to a homework page in the workbooks.  After a student led the review, each student wrote a question of their own about the content.  I used the instant question button to create blank questions and the students took turns reading their questions aloud.  We used student response clickers to answer the questions and then viewed the pie chart showing all of the students’ answers.  This activity generated great discussions about our misconceptions!

Finally, many students needed help with an essay question from our last test.  I created two activities to help them learn to organize their essays.  In one activity, students had to order the steps of creating a Bohr model of the atom.  In the other, they had to use a graphic organizer table to sort a set of statements by dragging them into the correct position.  In order to get more students engaged in the activity I uploaded the SMART Notebook file on my wiki and posted the link to Smart Notebook Express, http://express.smarttech.com.  The students had to first download the file to their computer then open the file using Smart Notebook Express.  Now all of the kids could try the activities on their own and check their own answers.  While it takes some time to prepare a lesson using this technology, the payoff was a classroom filled with engaged students.   Here is the Smart Notebook file that the students used today: Practice.  Download the file and then open it using Smart Notebook Express to see what they students were doing.

Integrating Technology: bubbl.us

Posted on by

Integrating technology really depends on your access to tools.  How many computers will be available on a given day?  Do you have access to a projector or interactive white board?  Will the students have calculators to use?  How many digital cameras can be rounded up for the class to use?

If there aren’t enough computers for each student that isn’t a problem.  Students enjoy working together on creative projects.  When working in groups, however, the activities you plan should have several parts so that students can all participate.

Here is an example:  In this lesson, students will learn the chemical symbols by reading an article about helpful elements (the 25 essential elements) and harmful elements.  As they encounter the names of elements in their reading they will look up the chemical symbols.  The information from the article and the chemical symbols will be organized using a concept mapping tool called Bubbl.us on the Internet.  In this example, one student may read the article out loud, one uses the periodic table to find the chemical symbols, and one types in the bubbles on the bubbl.us website.  Students trade roles every 5-10 minutes.

The technology in this case is not the main focus of the activity but is used as a tool to help the group organize what they are learning as they read.  The students will enjoy interacting with each other, searching for the symbols, and creatively organizing their knowledge.

Students can create free accounts on bubbl.us and can print their beautiful mind maps to use as study guides or to display in the room.  The maps can also be embedded on a wiki or can be exported as a jpeg file.

Alternative Lesson on Alternative Energy

Posted on by

This week I am trying a new way to teach my lesson on alternative energy.  In the past I had the students work with partners to research different energy resources.  They read articles, took notes, and made a presentation to share with the class.  After reviewing my notes from the H.E.A.T. workshop I attended last year, I decided to take a chance on a different kind of lesson.  This time the students are choosing the focus of their learning as well as the project they want to complete.  We began today with a poll question.  Using Edmodo.com students chose which of four problems was our greatest problem resulting from our use of energy.  We discussed some of the problems such as our dependence on foreign oil, acid rain, and climate change.  We then brainstormed ways an eighth grader could help make a difference.  Some talked about contacting legislators or helping to inform others about the issues.  Students wanted to make commercials or start a blog.  Others wanted to stage a protest or teach others how to conserve energy.   

While I need to be sure that the students learn the pros and cons of using different energy resources, I also want them to be engaged in the lesson and form a personal connection to the issues.  In addition to their reading I plan to show short video clips and use the response clickers to begin and end each class during the lesson.  I will try to help the students find ways to incorporate the content into their projects and use formative assessment to be sure they are getting the information they need. 

Before I began the lesson today I was very worried that I didn’t have a worksheet or a clear plan for where this was all going.  It felt very risky to run a lesson like this.  The enthusiasm and creativity that the students demonstrated, however, gave me confidence as we progressed through the poll, the brainstorming, and the group planning.  Each group of students will have a different learning experience but it seems as if they are already taking control of their learning and are eager to make a difference in the world.

 

Grades Getting in the Way

Posted on by

I just handed back our first unit test for the year.  Leading up to this test we did many activities that helped the students master the learning targets for this unit and several quizzes to help them know what they needed to focus on.  Things were going well and I was very confident that the students would do a good job on the test.  I am very pleased to say that overall the students did a great job!  What bothers me isn’t their scores at all.  It is the way the atmosphere in the room changes when an assessment is handed back.  Everyone feels uncomfortable including me!  The students who didn’t do as well as they liked feel angry.  The students who did very well don’t want to make other students feel bad and so they also feel uncomfortable.  And I don’t like the feeling of trying to justify having had to grade the kids.  “I understand that you know what you did wrong but I can’t just change the grade on your paper.” 

 

My question is how can I get the students to focus more on learning and less on the grade.  In our school we use standards based grading which is supposed to help shift the focus to the learning.  We give students feedback and allow them multiple opportunities to show mastery of each learning target.  The feedback that matters most to the students, however, is not the kind that shows them where they are in the learning but the grade they received on the assessment.  Although we changed the terminology from “A through F” to “Advanced through Insufficient Progress,” students still look at the grade as a judgment for or against them.  I tell them to focus on the learning and the grades will follow.   Meanwhile I’ll keep going back to any target where they are not proficient and helping them learn the targets.  A grade of “not proficient” should really be “not proficient yet.”  

 

I don’t see the grade as a final judgement but a marker along the path towards their success.  Now I just need to help my students stick to the path and keep moving onward.

Letting Technology Teach and the Teacher Build Connections

Posted on by

This week I am working on differentiation in my science classes.  The classes are getting larger and there are more needs to be met.  I think technology can be part of the solution.  My main goal is to have all of the students reach proficiency on some basic learning targets such as using the lab equipment correctly and writing detailed observations and inferences.  Some students need extra help with these targets but others are ready to move ahead.  What I tried is listing various activities on the board for students to do in any order and at their own pace.  Two of the activities involved remediating the learning targets that some students haven’t yet met.  Students who are proficient could choose from the other activities. 

Once activity was to watch a short video on a laptop computer.  The students watched and made notes in small groups or individually.  Other students worked on some critical thinking questions that applied what they had learned in the previous lesson.   Another group made measurements in the lab and recorded their data on a website called Edit Grid.  They got feedback from looking at the data entered by other students and could see if they were on the right track.  I worked with small groups who needed extra help with the learning targets, gave them a quick assessment, then allowed them to move on to the other activities. 

Most of the students were engaged and moved from one activity to another but some seemed distracted.  It wasn’t a perfect fix but I was able to help students who needed the one-on-one help while letting the others learn new skills independently.  With all of the great websites and videos available, I think I can shift my role from one of providing content to one of helping kids form connections to what they are learning.  With Edit Grid I was able to go back and see how the students did with their measurements without having to walk around and look in every lab notebook. 

I would love to have feedback about this lesson and see what others are trying as far as differentiating with large classes!  Please feel free to leave a comment!

Holding On

Posted on by

(This is the tree I see when I look out my classroom window.)

“Hold on to what is good
even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe
even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do
even if it is a long way from here.” – from a Pueblo Verse

Lately, when I read what others write about education and education reform I feel a sense of confusion.   It doesn’t seem to relate to what I see at school.   Everyone has opinions and ideas for what needs to be changed.  But none of it mirrors my experiences as a teacher. 

So I remind myself to “hold on to what is good.”  What is good about public education?   Maybe it is too simple to make the news…Talking with a student about their interests and helping them discover their own power to learn and grow.  Adults and children working together to create something meaningful and good.  Connecting.  And I try to “hold on to what I believe.”  Like the tree which stands by itself, there is only one thing that I need to focus on,  the student in front of me right now.  What will be best for that student today?  Each young person is unique, interesting, and has something to share.  When we value them individually students gain the confidence to reach out for success.  That is all that really matters.  “What we must do” seems overwhelming sometimes, but we know we cannot give up.  The end result we work for may be a long way from here but each day we can take another step. 

Politicians and journalists discuss education reform. But inside our schools teachers are working hard to make improvements and to meet the personal goals that they have set for themselves as educators.  Simple goals like getting to know each student individually, being alert for bullying in the hallways and cafeteria, helping each student make a personal connection to the curriculum, and finding new ways to motivate reluctant learners.   This is the kind of reform that I hear teachers discussing every day.  As I begin an exciting and promising school year with another amazing group of 8th graders, I will tune out the critics in the media and hold on to what I believe.