Driving Questions, Projects, Showcasing...Oh My!

This week in our Teacher Leader Online Cohort we discussed Project Based Learning or PBL.  This is something that our county is currently looking to move towards. Some of the elementary schools in our county have been piloting PBL for the last couple years. I haven't been able to find any feedback on the study, but have been able to access the county PPT via our school principal and a fellow cohort member.  Looking at the county PPT slideshow, Barb Bailey, a fellow cohort member and colleague decided we needed a presentation geared towards teachers that would allow them to understand the meaning behind PBL and why we should use it. The Presentation can be seen here.

We have shared this presentation with our Principal and Assistant Principal and they both really appreciate that we took a concept so large and placed it into terms/visuals a teacher of any age can understand.

Now, these presentation of course can not be complete unless you are able to demonstrate what Project Based Learning can look like in your classroom. Thinking of my 23 little people running around my classroom, always getting their hands into something, asking me EVERY day before recess, DO I NEED A JACKET?!  It hit me like a Mac truck! Weather! I can develop a project for the students to complete to help each know what they should wear during the four seasons.

I began my work of developing something a little easier for the students to work with on the internet. I could have them research multiple topics of Winter, Spring,Summer, Fall on kadoole.co or googlejunior.com, but I wanted to ease them into internet research.  I came up with a plan to make a WebQuest type activity.  My students need to feel comfortable with their navigation skills first before I allow them to go onto the internet.  Many of the Internet Safety lessons from CommonMedia would need to be presented to these students.  This would be a project of group nature that would last at least a few weeks.  What better way to get your students back to asking provocative questions?

The entire lesson and WebQuest can be seen here.

Digital Citizenship

Photo shared from itensamericas.org

 

 

 DEFINITION of Digital Citizen: A person who uses the Internet regularly and effectively. 

 

A good digital citizen is one who knows what is right and wrong, exhibits intelligent technology behavior, and makes good choices when using technology. Much as we want our students to be good citizens in the real world, we want the same in the digital world. Characteristics of a good digital citizen include:

• Being confident and capable of using information communication technologies
• Using technology to participate in educational, cultural, and economic activities
• Developing and using critical thinking skills in cyberspace
• Using technology to relate to others in positive, meaningful ways
• Respecting the concepts of privacy and freedom of speech in a digital world
• Contributing to and actively promoting the values of digital citizenship

Ensuring students understand the importance of good digital citizenship and the potential impact of a negative footprint requires the work of parents and educators. Here are some tips that both students and educators can use to maintain their digital footprint:Think long term. What seems fun today could have long-term consequences. 

• Use privacy settings on your social network pages. Don't use public posting.
• Protect your friends' privacy as well as yours.
• Use the Golden Rule online - treat others the way you want to be treated. 

In order to teach students about the hazards of online, primary students need to first understand the 'Places to Go Safely' 

A few cohort members and myself designed a Google Slides lesson to teach students the importance of Being Safe on the internet. 

To view the lesson please click on this link here 

A Kahoot Game for review can be found at this link 

Global Community and Collaboration

PLN...    IOWA...    VA...     GHO...    3 Classes    ...    

AWESOME Collaboration

Ms. Stout's Kindergarten Class sharing their descriptions with Mrs. Kilgore and Mrs. Gjerde's Classes

When this class first started, I wasn't share how I was going to be able to collaborated with other teachers because I was the only Kindergarten teacher in the cohort. I normally don't let this bother me, but when the assignments need collaboration/group work and I can't do them on my own- I have high school flashbacks.  It's hard to get people you see all the time to collaborate, let alone trying to get someone in a different time zone. Well, I sent an email, shared an idea and BOOM! two weeks later my class was talking to 42 First Graders in Iowa. How amazing!

As Kindergarten and First Grade teachers, we knew that our students needed something that they could experience 100% at the same time.  Small children have a hard time waiting for results. Doing a Google Hangout ( GHO) allowed all of our students to see timely results right in front of their eyes. 

Our lesson involved lots of writing, drawing, listening and understanding of math curriculum words. In this lesson, two classrooms have each taken time to design a monster. These monsters will then be shared with each other using Google Hangout. The students in Class A will be using descriptive words and phrases to tell Class B about their monsters. They will describe the shape and the location of all body parts. Class B will then design the monster as Class A is giving them clues. At the end of the exchange, Class B will turn their monsters around to see if they designed Class A's monster correctly.  * If time allows Class B will describe a monster to class A.

My students Monster they shared with the other class

Our lesson can be viewed here for anyone to give it a try with their class. 

Google Hangouts and Kindergarteners...OH MY!

Tomorrow afternoon at 1:30 pm in Room K- Stout with over 20+ Kindergartners the computer will ring...

Who will be on the other end of the call???

The excitement is in the air for my classroom full of energetic five and six year olds. Through the EdTechTeam Teacher Leader Cohort I was able to connect with a teacher in Iowa.  We were will calling each other through Google Hangout and conducting a lesson that I have done with Pen Pals.  I'm excited to see how this will work out with technology involved. The students will not have to wait for snail mail! 

The Monster Exchange goes down in T minus 24 hours.... let the countdown begin.  

EdTeachTeam Online Cohort

Well hello again blogger world! It's been a couple crazy years and I haven't had the time to blog as much as I used to back in Grad School.  Well hold on to your knickers because I've gone back to school again.  Don't they always say that Teachers teach their students to love learning? What better way then to go back to school yourself!

I ready to learn....bring on the Honey Comb! 

Check Out My Tools... My 2.0 Tools ;)

Designing Lessons Using the Correct Affordances Can Make All the Difference 

In Summer of 2013, I took an online class in which I had to design a lesson plan for my school or class to implement BUT I could only use web 1.0 tools.  Now, I have to say that when we normally think about the internet and sharing on the internet...what comes to mind? Facebook, Blogging, Twitter, Google Docs, etc. I was unable to use any of those kinds of internet based structures.  

My Plan was this... 

Educational Purpose of Project:  In this project, students are able to have a hands on learning experience to be published authors. The Newsletter Connection provides students with an opportunity to publish their written work.  Students will be motivated to improve and utilize their writing skills in order to have their work published in the school’s electronic newsletter.  Students will submit their work to an online website set up by the school to allow other schools around the world to vote for which articles, poems, songs, etc. to make the next issue.  There will be a two weeks timeline to submit work and two weeks for voting to take place.  Students are able to reflect upon 

their work by reading the comments submitted by the voters. 

I took what I had at the time to produce this lesson and make it happen... NVU ( a web design software program..Cheap version of Dreamweaver) was being used. 

Description of Project Plan:  Newsletter Connection is a project for students to submit work to an online website for other schools to comment and vote for the best work to be published in the schools newsletter. For example, if I wish to have my students at a local elementary school make a newsletter for the schools I would create a profile for my school and select a topic for the students to write about.

Example: Flint Hill Elementary students will now have the opportunity to be published authors! Fifth grade language arts classes will be responsible for establishing the quarterly theme, reading the submitted work and selecting appropriate samples, contacting the authors if changes need to be made, and organizing the published pieces on the newsletter.  All students K-6 are eligible to submit work connecting to the given theme.  Submissions will be collected for a month and then displayed for a month.  Each quarter the cycle will repeat.

            Teachers at a school that wishes to implement this type of project must set up an account to the Newsletter Connection Website.  After submitting a form to the website a confirmation email will be sent back to the teacher letting them know they are all set up to participate and a name for them to use when submitting their entries (flinthill k-6). There will be a strict timeline that all classes must follow.   Students will then be able to submit their work based on the topic that is set up by the school.  Other schools that are signed up on this website will be able to vote for your submission.  The voters are also able to leave positive and constructive feedback to each entry.

            Once the submissions are voted upon and the voting has ended, the website will let the teacher know which articles have won.  The teacher will then be able to place the winning articles into a template to publish or allow a news team at their school to conduct this activity.

            This activity could go on multiple times during the year, either monthly or quarterly. 

Now... step to WEB 2.0 TOOLS..

I could take this design make it into a newsletter that is collaborated on using wikispaces, blogger, google sites... You NAME it I could make my school newsletter by allowing my students to use the tools that allow them to collaborate, communicate and design together or apart. 

With the upgrading of the internet tools, I could take my design to allow people around the world to view our school newsletter, add videos, announcements daily- the skys the limit. 

EdTech.. Digital Classroom

Video in the Classroom...yepp, you read that correctly. Students- Your KINDERGARTENERS!- are using video cameras in the classroom.  Yes!

In addition to being fun and motivating, video projects teach students to plan, organize, write, communicate, collaborate, and analyze.  A successful video project has undergone a process of researching, scripting, organizing, filming, editing, and publishing. Students also have the opportunity to apply artistic and dramatic skills to their academic work.

With the proliferation of webcams, phone camera, flip cams, digital recorders and editing tools already installed on computers, video has exploded in the media lives of students.  Many of them spend as much time, if not more, watching YouTube as opposed to television. As I learned at the Google Summit in Charlottesville, some colleges even include video submissions as part of their application process. As this media further matures, students may need to be able to express themselves as effectively through moving imagery as with the written word.

And you thought, Kindergarten Teachers had troubles getting a student to hold a pencil correctly?!?! 

But as I have learned in my Graduate studies, using video could be as simple as recording a student oral presentation for future review, or as elaborate as producing an original short film or PSA. Depending on the complexity of the project, consider the steps needed to ensure that your students create thoughtful final products that demonstrate their knowledge rather than pieces full of flash but potentially lacking in substance. 

Remember with little ones- a video project does not have to only include actual footage captured by a video camera. Still images can be combined to create an animated slide show or to enhance existing footage that the students took. Many audio tools on programs such as iMovie, or Windows Movie Maker allow students to create a narration to accompany the imagery or add a sound track. Most editing software also includes the ability to add titles or captions to both video as well as image files.

Not every student is the next Ron Howard, but little minds are surely creative...