Buying In to the 21st Century Teaching Model

     Plans are in the works to expand the 21st century teaching and learning model similar to what we have in 2nd grade to another grade level wing in our building.  The administration is dedicated to removing walls and opening up the space for collaboration and and communication for teachers and students.  This is exciting news!  

      There is much more to creating 21st century learning than changing the physical environment, though.  I believe that there needs to be a buy in to the transformation of teaching that this entails as a result.  All team members need to be open and communicative on a much higher level than ever and, perhaps, what they are comfortable with.  Without a buy in from all members, the degree of success will be limited.  This reminds me of the three-legged stool.  If one leg is messing, the stool won't stand for long.  For some, this may take some time and encouragement from the other team members.  
     Our team is continuously working on the idea of a team of one, where everyone leads planning and discussions and contributes ideas freely.  We simply cannot sustain the workload and stress if we do everything ourselves.  However, this is no easy task.  There are some natural leaders who are accustomed to that role and feel comfortable in it.  There are others who more quiet and thoughtful and feel like they can't get a word in.  One idea to encourage the quieter members to lead was that the leaders waited for the quieter members to take the initiative.  This was not successful.  Another idea floating out there now is to assign a new "facilitator" each week to lead the planning meetings.  We'll see how this goes.
    One might wonder why the leaders simply don't talk to the quieter members.  This can be awkward and quite uncomfortable.  We work and exist side-by-side the entire day.  Those talks could lead to misinterpretation if not done tactfully.  That could make for a LONG year!  
     

iPads for 2nd Grade Math

I'm just beginning to transform math teaching and learning through the use of iPads in a 1:1 setting.  

I came across this resource while looking for a free and easy app for annotating PDFs.  I will be taking math worksheets and creating PDFs for the students to complete using an annotate app.

Another app I'll be using is Socrative for warm ups at the beginning of math and also for content review quizzes.

Team Dynamics

We are spending a lot of time as a team planning for each day.  Unfortunately, this doesn't leave us time to communicate about non-planning items.  Our team is not as cohesive as I hoped it would be at this point.  The three of us that are veterans of sorts for the grade level have taken a very active role in the planning process and in taking on responsibilities.  The two new teachers to the team are coming along a bit slower than I had anticipated.

Challenges to the team are initiative and sharing responsibilities equally.

• The veterans have a visible leading role in the presence of students.  We place ourselves at the front and center of students.  
• We step up and take charge of clean up, transitions and leading activities.
• We have set up shared documents and spreadsheets on Google apps to make signing up for responsibilities as easy as possible.
• After getting little improvement, we put the "to do list" on a hard copy.  This didn't improve things much.  
• We think we've given enough encouragement to share ideas and step in.  I'm not sure the cheerleader in me is working.
• Patience is turning into frustration for the veterans.

Yes, it's only been 9 days of school.  Yes, the veterans have a leg up because we know the curriculum.  

I'm beginning to realize that a leader needs to emerge.  Not as a task manager, but on a more personal level.  I'm willing to take it on, but I need a lot of guidance.  I'm not a manager of big people--only the little ones!  

Furniture!

We finally got all of the furniture for our space on the third day of school.  We spend two days with the students exploring each piece and coming up with rules of how to use it properly and take good care of it.
Most of the furniture is lightweight and is on wheels.  The idea here is for students and teachers to reconfigure the space and furniture throughout the day according to the particular needs at the time.
I prefer to have the furniture back in its "place" at the end of the day.  I think there should always be clear pathways to get from place to place.
The most popular pieces are the "rolling chairs" and the Hokki stools.  There's been a race to get these everyday!  We've decided to keep the rolling chairs at the desktop computers.  The desktops will get used most of the day and the counter there is a little high for the other chairs.  
The Hokki stools present an inherent challenge for kids to keep their feet planted on the floor; there's a need to pull both feet up onto the base.  But since the base is rounded, down the kids go!  A high probability of hurting oneself and others, so we've had to review that one a few times.
Also, we've noticed that during larger group instruction it's a challenge for students to maintain focus when they're preoccupied with finding a cool piece of furniture to sit on. We've gone to having kids on the floor for now until the newness of the furniture wears off.

Open House Tonight!

We had a successful Open House tonight.  How do I know?  We still had families in the Studio a half hour after the time was up!
Some reflections from tonight:

• Parents wanted to know who the "homeroom" teacher was.  This was one item we neglected to put in the parent folder.  I understand parents' need to have a contact person.  I would recommend a brief note stating who the base-group teacher is along with contact info.  
• Students and parents were super excited to use the iPads that we just unpacked earlier in the day.  We even had some parents helping other parents navigate their way around the iPad.  We put a Parent Survey on Google Forms and had parents complete contact info, volunteer sign up, allergies, technology items at home, and technology comfort level.
• Great vibe of excited kids and parents.  We had several 2nd grade "graduates" that stopped by to see the space too.
• Lots of questions by parents asking how it was all going to work.  So happy to hear their interest and glad they felt comfortable asking those questions.
• Lots of running children!  With no furniture in the space, it was the natural thing for any 7- to 8-year-old to do :)

The Dream Team

Here we all are!  We are fortunate to have two teacher candidates this year (fancy name for student teacher).

Ready Fire Aim

I had the pleasure of listening to Earl Bakken (co-founder of Medtronic) speak today at our district convocation.  He has a wonderful sense of humor and an inspiring story to tell of how it all began for him tracing back to his childhood.
He says that the "secret" to his success has been the philosophy of "Ready, Fire, Aim."  This struck a chord with me because it seems to be what is taking shape as we are planning (more like revolutionizing) everything from our space to our roles and responsibilities as teachers.  I think we need to jump in with both feet, give it a go, and refine our decisions later based on the degree of success or failure.  
I think this idea will help us make quicker decisions.

T in the Road

We did some planning for the first week of school yesterday.  Up until now, we've been moving pretty smoothly with making decisions.  However, they've been rather simple things such as where to put things, how to organize things, etc.  
The topic of morning meetings came up, and this is where we came to the 'T' in the road and had to decide right or left.  The issue is complex:

• students are divided into 4 groups for specialists and lunch because that the is our building's rotation schedule and to have a point person for parent phone calls
• we are using these same 4 groups in our space for Monday-Thursday morning meetings (Friday is the whole lot of us); we are calling these our base groups
• there are 5 teachers who will use the space full-time: 4 "classroom" teachers and 1 EL teacher.  All 5 teachers want to be viewed as the teachers equally and share the responsibilities equally.
• 2 classroom teachers (one of them is me) want to lead our base groups for the first few weeks of school to establish a safe and comfortable feeling for students.  After those first weeks, the 5 of us will rotate amongst all 4 base groups.
• The other 3 teachers want to rotate through morning meetings right away.  

It's a conflict between what we know and trust as a teacher from the years of doing things the traditional way between completely changing things to fit in with our new vision and 21st century learning.  

"Classroom" Design for the 21st Century

We've abandoned the word, classroom, for our new space.  The new name for our space is the Learning Studio.  Within the studio are small and large spaces.  The photo album below has images of the Studio from August 15 to August 24.  

What was in the old space?

• computer lab
• library
• media staff office
• EL staff office
• guided reading library
• classroom (which was formerly the computer lab)
• classroom (which was part of the library)

What is in the new space?

• messy work area with a sink
• recording studio/quiet work area
• glass-enclosed space for ???  
• flexible teaching and learning spaces
• TBD - our students will tell us what they want

Where is the library?

• part of it is in a storage room
• part of it is in the band room
• students and teachers will still have access to books

Where is the computer lab?

• Studio will have @30 desktops and 15 iPads
• Other classrooms will share laptop carts

Twitter in 2nd Grade

We've recently launched our very own Twitter feed for our classroom.  We will tweet every day with something random from the classroom.  We're inviting parents to use it at Open House, and we've got the feed on our website.  Our students will create the tweets later on in the year.

9 Reasons to Use Twitter in School

How Twitter Changed My Life from MinXuan Lee

Google Search Stories

Very COOL! This turns a Google search into a YouTube video.  Now I just need to find a way to use it in the classroom or for PD . . .

https://searchstories-intl.appspot.com/en-us/

Twitter 101

A concise overview of Twitter by Jason Buck.

http://prezi.com/ciubteuuk3vi/twitter-101/

QR Codes in the Classroom

Here is a great presentation by Karen Ogen on how to use QR codes in the classroom.

Some uses I could foresee using in 2nd grade:

• link to podcast of student book reviews
• link to podcast of student explaining artwork
• scavenger hunt for open house or beginning of school year

Potential challenge:  how to check out iPods or iPads at Open House to families for scavenger hunt

Web Tools for Teachers by Type

Here is a very complete list of web tools.  I love how Tim Wilhelmus categorized them in this Livebinder.  My goal is to put together something like this for teachers and students, but at a lower scale.  I'm not sure how 2nd graders can navigate a Livebinder, so I will probably look for a different format for them.

Web Tools for Teachers by Type

Livebinder of Everything Screencasting

Many thanks to Brett Clark for putting this list of screencasting tools together.  According to Clark, it is a work in progress and will be added to based on suggestions from others.

Tools for Flipping the Classroom

He used Livebinder as a virtual filing cabinet.

Wonders of the World - Flipped Style by Google

The World Wonders Project is a valuable resource for students and scholars who can now virtually discover some of the most famous sites on earth. The project offers an innovative way to teach history and geography to students of primary and secondary schools all over the world.

TubeChop - Chop YouTube Videos

Cool tool to chop and share a section of a YouTube video.  The current sharing function on YouTube let's you start at any section of the video, but it doesn't have the option to enter a stop section.  

TubeChop - Chop YouTube Videos

The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture

I love this graphic because it presents the video lectures so commonly associated with flipped classroom as part of the larger picture of teaching and learning and includes a variety of technology-enhanced examples for demonstrating each section.

Source: http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/tag/blooms-taxonomy/

Bloom's Taxonomy - Flipped

Some versions of Bloom's that are making the circuit in the talk surrounding the Flipped Classroom.

Bloom's version (circa 1950's) Here the focus is on lower-order thinking skills.  One has to learn and remember the concepts before they can be applied.

Lorin Anderson's version circa 1990's (former student of Bloom's)  A shift from the use of nouns to verbs and inversion of the pyramid.  Less time spent on lower-order thinking skills.

My favorite version of the new Bloom's (pretty and kid-friendly!):

Sources:  

http://strobertwiki.wikispaces.com/Bloom's+Taxonomy

http://jenniferbrokofsky.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/turning-blooms-and-my-thinking-upside-down/

The Life and Death of Flipped Classroom? But I just got started!

I just came across this article from a Tweet by Kristin Daniels (tech integration specialist @ Stillwater).  The title gave me a bit of a pause, so naturally I had to read it.

The article is written by Troy Cockrum, host of EdReach's show, Flipped Learning.

He makes the following points:

• "There are so many different iterations, it is difficult to pin down what is and what is not Flipped Learning."
• Flipped Learning "is now more accurately the flip of Bloom's Taxonomy (rather than the flip of homework and lecture as commonly thought)
• "It is not what defines me or my class."
• "It is not the only method/technique/tool that I use."
• "But, most importantly, Flipped Learning causes me to re-evaluate every lesson I do to see if there is a better way."

So, Mr.Cockrum doesn't believe the Flipped Classroom has died, but the definition of flipped learning is evolving.

Scavenger Hunt

I like this teacher's idea of creating a scavenger hunt for students to learn about technology tools.  She used Mentormob and created a step-by-step playlist to introduce her students to Edmodo.

Create your own Playlist on MentorMob!

Studyegg: Build quizzes right into your videos

A fantastic find from Rob Warneke - Byron Schools who flips high school math.


Add quizzes to your own videos or those of others, like Khan Academy shown here.


Check it out!

Gamification: Classroom Game Design

Inspiring talk on using technology and gamification for learning and engagement.

Screencast Tools for Me

These are the tools that I found most useful (and free or cheap) for my needs.  I've created a pack on Zootool to store these favorites and to add to as I come across more.

Zootool website

Time to clean the messy desk

I truly LOVE exploring new tools, websites, blog, articles, etc. on the web for ideas and inspiration.  But I find myself in need of one dedicated place to store everything.  I've used Delicious for tagging, but I don't care for the layout and organization. My must-haves for a visual bookmarking tool to organize my content are:

• it has to look pretty :)  i.e. clean, clutter-free
• free
• shareable
• easy to add/edit (browser extensions)

I came across an article about "edu-pinning" using Pinterest, but I have to stay away from Pinterest because it's a black hole.  Don't get me wrong, I love it, but I find myself wandering far off topic in a hurry.

I came across this list of tools.  

Access article here

Zootool looks pretty cool.  I'm also checking out Scoop.it! 

Making Screencasts -- Where to Begin?

I've spent the better part of the last 6 weeks researching, exploring and creating screencasts as part of my Master's project and to begin the transformation of my classroom to a blended teaching and learning model.
One of my "go to" sites for tech resources is through Edina Public Schools.  Molly Shroeder is a true ninja.  She is Edina's tech integration specialist, and she's also a certified Google Apps trainer and teacher.
Here's a great place to begin learning about screencasting.

Edina Screencasting Ecademy

Mentormob--a new favorite!

In the pen.io post below you might have noticed the extra practice portion of the mathcast was accessed through mentormob.
This is an awesome way to organize articles, videos, images, anything into a single "playlist."  Perfect for the flipped classroom and to organize personal and professional resources.  I'm thinking of creating playlists for links I would normally keep in Delicious.
After creating the pen.io page for the mathcast, it dawned on me that I could also include the screencast and quiz in the mentormob playlist too.  Then students could access everything at mentormob instead of pen.io.
However, I still like the clean look of pen.io.  

Access to screencasts with pen.io

I want my students to have fast and easy access to the screencasts, along with the companion quiz and extra practice links.  I've put them on a page of my website.
Here's the look of the table on the Matchcasts webpage within my classroom website.  Students click on the mathcast, then come back and click on the quiz, then come back and click on the links for extra practice.  

Pen.io creates a micro webpage for one stop access in a visually pleasing way.  Here is the new link on my classroom webpage.

A lot less distracting for 2nd graders!  My thought is to create a separate page for each mathcast module.  Here's my first attempt.  Pen.io is incredibly easy to create.  You plop the embed code and url's right in the body of the text.  The result is a crisp, clean look that is ad- and distraction-free.

My Mathcasts for 2nd Grade

I created the mathcasts (math screencasts) primarily for my Master's project.  But I was committed only to doing a project that I would find immediately useful in my classroom.  


Here is how I envision their use in my classroom:

• They will primarily be viewed at school and not at the students' homes.  WHY?  It's about equity and access.  Many of my families don't have home computers and internet access.
• Students that are at or above proficiency will watch the videos before meeting with  me in a small group.  That way, they'll have a head start on the vocabulary and the basics of the lesson.  This will give us more time to go deeper into the content and give the students more time for active, self-directed learning activities.
• If a student is sick, they can watch the video at home or before/after school to get caught up on what was missed.
• Sometimes it doesn't sink in the first time.  These students can watch the videos for further reinforcement and for more practice.

Here is one of my videos.  

The flipped classroom is not just video

I'm trying to wrap my head around what I want to call this flipped classroom for my particular needs.  


I believe in more of a blended approach to delivering content that combines some flipped instruction along with learning centers and, yes, some direct instruction.  


In preparing the math videos, I keep recalling the rich conversations I had with my students as they explain to me and to their classmates how they solved a math problem, what strategies they used.  That doesn't happen if I only teach via video.

Here is a video done with a kick-butt ninja tool called  

Jackie Gerstein makes a valid point that it's "not all about watching videos as homework."

Why do my own screencasts?

Katie Gimbar's take on making my own screencasts rather than using those by others (such as Khan Academy) really resonated with me.  She says that using videos from others "doesn't result in any change in how you teach within your classroom."  The endgame for me is to TRANSFORM the way I teach that will result in personalized, active learning for my students.

First Post!

Welcome to my new blog!  


Why did I start this blog?


I am wrapping up my Master's of Education project on flipped math for second grade.  I would not have been able to accomplish this task without the public sharing of resources, tips and tricks from others who have already been in the trenches with this innovative teaching style.


To that end, I want to pay it forward.  My hope is that other teachers will learn from my experiences, borrow ideas, and find some inspiration in what I've done and what I'm doing.