Comfort Zone

For fifteen years, I was a fourth grade teacher.  I came to understand the mind-set of nine and ten year olds and still appreciate their humor, sensitivity and intelligence.  I appreciated that I could have a meaningful conversation with these children who were quickly becoming young adults.  I enjoyed reading certain books with them and delighted in finding new titles as well.  I could probably teach fourth grade math in my sleep.  It is definitely my comfort zone.  As a teacher, I was confident in what I was doing, I had a fabulous teaching partner and I enjoyed my job.  So what pushed me to switch?

I came to realize last school year that I was too much in my comfort zone.  I needed to challenge myself to do something different, really different, to energize my teaching again.  In a nutshell, that was my reason for a big change to teaching First Grade.

How does this story relate to technology in any way?  Well, I made a huge decision to go outside my comfort zone and teach a new grade.  In doing so, I have found that I am open to trying lots of new things in the classroom now that I made that initial first jump.  I think using new technology in the classroom is very similar.  Once you take the first jump (and to make a difference in your teaching, I feel it HAS to be a jump, not a small step) it gets easier and easier to keep thinking about change and challenging yourself.  

As I was planning our Social Studies curriculum this week, I kept thinking about how the iPad could enhance the students’ learning.  They could teach each other things they are learning about the community, not only through a static research report, but through photos and videos.  Other students in the class might be more attentive to a photo or video presentation, therefore holding on to more that classmates are sharing with them.

We tried this with first looking at our school community this week.  After a brief class discussion of what is important to make a school community run smoothly, the students explored our campus and took pictures of what they thought was important.  It was interesting to see what children chose to photograph – people, buildings, artwork, projects in the hall, signs – most pairs took at least 20-30 photos in a 20 minute exploration of campus.

When they returned to the classroom, the real work began.  We had a brief guided exploration of Explain Everything and they were off!  Partnerships showed in a variety of ways what is important to them with their community.  All the projects are unique and very thoughtful.  Everyone had a voice and was able to express their thoughts and opinions.  We would not have had the same results if we just had a class discussion after a campus tour.  All the children were engaged and excited and learning.  What more could a teacher ask for?

Of course, the iPad will not be present in all of our projects and presentations.  We are still working out details on paper maps, clay figures and other “traditional” first grade work.  However, I am so glad that I decided to step outside my comfort zone and see what happened.  I have had to opportunity to try, fail at some things, and get back up to try again.  By taking that first jump, it’s easy to see how we can leap to the moon.

iPads en la Clase de Español

A couple of months ago, when we started thinking how we could use iPads in the Spanish room, we spent many hours looking for “the best Spanish app ever”. Soon we realized, that most of the Spanish apps for young students, were designed for very specific tasks, instead of inspiring creativity. Our Technology Coordinator, Jenni Voorhees, suggested using Book Creator and Drawing Box. Students were learning about “Animales del Oceano”, and we asked them to draw their favorite sea animals using Drawing Box, and use their pictures to create a book. After just four classes through the school year, MAGIC happened! The students started writing their own ideas in a second language! Foreign language teachers have often struggled to get their students to use the target language, especially in beginning stages; however, students were so engaged with the iPads, that they forgot they were writing in a second language! They wanted to express their ideas to make their own books! Not only did the iPads help them make “the  jump” from learning words to expressing themselves in Spanish, but they also promoted “teamwork” as students taught, collaborated and helped each other.

Weeks later, while learning about "Animales de la Granja" or farm animals, students worked with partners and described similarities and differences between two animals. This time, they used Sock Puppets, an app that allows you to choose two or three puppets, add a background, some extra-elements to set the stage, and record a conversation. Students take turns and switch the puppets while recording. Once the recording is finished, students can watch a video and listen to their recording with puppets’ voices. Sock Puppets is a great app to motivate your students to speak a second language while having a great time.

Another project that students enjoyed was La Ropa (clothing). Third graders had been learning clothing vocabulary for some time, but they were not using the vocabulary in conversations. During the EdTechTeacher iPad Summit, I had the pleasure to meet Beth Holland and asked her what her favorite open-ended app for a foreign language class was. She mentioned Fotobabble, which allows you to take pictures, embellish them (which students love!), and record audio. Students worked with a partner, decided what they were going to wear, added stickers and frames to their pictures, and recorded conversations describing what they were wearing. Again, magic happened, and we had very engaged third graders speaking Spanish without even thinking!

What I’ve learned: Foster creativity and collaboration, give clear guidelines, encourage using different tools (including the iPads), and get ready to see MAGIC in your Foreign Language classroom. Your students will teach you amazing things in a second language!

Space Junk

Teaching, Learning,  iPads and Space Junk
Several educators have asked me:

“Can you help me figure out how iPads can fit into my classroom curriculum?”  

The back of my iPad

I was emailed this question again this week and it made me flip over my own iPad looking for this sticker which I stuck on during the first week of our iPad program...over a year and a
half ago.  I would now replace my thinking about "teaching"
with "learning" since I'm not sure I want to create a classroom environment in which I am teaching to or filling up my students with content (I know that sounds like a vocabulary issue).  I do know that I want to create a classroom environment in
which we all are sharing our ideas, articulating our thinking, creating in unique and individual manners, digging into persistence, demonstrating understanding... generally
growing a culture of learning.


So how do iPads fit into a class curriculum?  No one ever asks how they can fit paper and pencils... or blocks...or a protractor...into their curriculum.  As educators, we try to turn our classrooms into places of learning (places that provoke and promote great thinking, creating, collaborating, problem solving, etc).  We provide the tools, structures, and routines to hopefully allow students and teachers and sometimes even parents to go about that learning.  As a kindergarten teacher, I have many varied tools in my classroom for a variety of learning goals including paper, pencils, and blocks.  I also have iPads.

This is how I now describe the way iPads “fit” into my curriculum:

iPads are not The Sun of our learning galaxy, they are just one of the planets in its orbit.  In other words, I don't put iPads at the center of every activity that I can.  Now that I have iPads available, everything does not revolve around their use. The Sun in this analogy is my classroom culture of learning and there are many planets (tools) in its orbit. In fact, the thing at the center of our classroom "universe" at any given time is the learning goal that I have set.  The tools I choose for the activity would be the planets.  The iPad might be the tool I (or the students) choose or it might not be.  Actually, this is a great place to replace that original question with what I'll call The First Step.  iPads are a great tool for learning - if you're still wondering about that check out Great Teaching is about the Process and The Challenge is On - you just need to take The First Step.  I like to refer to Dr. Ruben Putendura’s SAMR model. (Who doesn’t?).

The First Step is often easiest if you think about Substitution.  In our kindergarten class we used handwriting apps for our substitution step.  If you have older students, online research or writing might be a good choice for The First Step.




Keep all your planets in orbit around the galaxy of learning.  Now that you’ve taken The First Step, you and your students should be more comfortable and confident using this tool and ready to pull it out when and how it makes sense.  Using the SAMR model, you will find that iPads allow students alternate ways to share their thinking, demonstrate understanding, and go out of this world with creativity.

Apps are the space junk.  Ok, so this last part of my space analogy is a little bit out there... The apps really don’t matter!  If the iPads are one of the planets orbiting The Sun (learning), then the apps are all The Space Junk flying around the planets.

For example, there are many art apps that teachers can choose from.  It doesn’t really matter which one I choose as long as it works in my classroom.  We like Brushes and Drawing Box, but another teacher might find they prefer Scribble Press or Draw Free.  It doesn't matter which app works for me as long as I have been intentional in my app selection.  Also, some Space Junk is bigger than others - apps which should be orbiting every classroom (Book Creator, Evernote).  Sometimes Space Junk falls out of orbit and burns up in the atmosphere, meaning that sometimes an app no longer works and you just have to delete it.  In the end, it's really not about the apps at all.

We are not teaching children how to use iPads.  We are  creating a classroom culture of learning. Sometimes iPads are the right tool.  Sometimes they are not the right tool.  Students might start with paper and pencil and move on to iPads.  iPads might be just one part of a larger or longer process.  iPads might be the right tools for some students and not for others.  As with any tool we pull out in our classrooms, we need to think about what makes sense for the children and their learning. 

Goal Setting...and Thanks

It's not New Year's (those ads start next week) but anytime is a good time to set goals.  Having something to aim for keeps one on the right path.  So what sort of goals could we, should we set for our 4th grade one to one iPAD program?  Since we first received approval, four words have seemed to capture the immediate possibility and potential of integrating this technology into our current curriculum:

Creativity, Collaboration, Independence, Assessment

Creativity
Creativity being the capacity to produce ideas, processes, or products that are novel and useful or valuable, I hope integrating the iPads can help both teachers and students express their creativity in new ways.   I hope we think of more diverse, meaningful, and innovative educational experiences. I hope these experiences present interesting problems our kids are eager to solve in their own ways.  I hope our students surprise us by putting their own spin on the goals and expectations we set while discovering new talents and passions.  

Collaboration
Since collaboration and teamwork are and will continue to be essential skills out in the real world, I hope integrating the iPads can inspire true collaboration beyond us sticking students with a partner or a group.  I hope they realize they need each other to learn and enjoy learning from their peers.  I hope they have deeper experiences of multiple brains processing the same information and mulling over the same problem.  I hope they push each other to try new things. I hope they become each other’s most important teachers.  

Independence
My goal as a teacher is to be fondly remembered, but not needed.  I love to develop explorations and set up challenges, but I don’t want students to follow me to get to the “right” solution. I hope integrating iPads will help me do less leading and more guiding.  Teach people to fish and all of that.   I hope the iPads help us all feel comfortable enough to let go a little, to worry less, to explore more.  I hope students think of solutions I didn’t or couldn’t.  I hope they can take ever greater responsibility for their education and feel like powerful partners in our learning community.

Assessment
We are having some great conversations about meaningful assessment these days.  I hope integrating iPads shows us more about students, how they learn, and what they can do.  I hope their strengths become even more visible, to themselves and to the adults in their lives.   I hope our classroom can document our processes more dynamically and share more thinking.  I hope we teachers embrace more diverse ways to demonstrate competence as we move from a culture of "assessment of learning" to a culture of "assessment for learning".  I hope there are more opportunities to individualize and differentiate.  I hope in the end assessment means less about students meeting my expectations and more about them exceeding their own.   

Of course, creativity, collaboration, independence, and thoughtful assessment were already valued and happening throughout our school and in our classrooms before the iPads showed up.   However, these are the type of goals that can always be improved upon and reached to a greater degree.  Of course, the iPads will not do any of these things on their own.  However, in the hands of inspired teachers and motivated students they can become a powerful tool.   

Since returning from several recent conferences on iPads and learning and the brain, our faculty has been on fire with new ideas and new attitudes towards both teaching craft and student experience.  This Thanksgiving I am grateful to work in a dynamic educational environment with amazing people who are committed to elevating their own practices. In the process, they are both challenging and supporting me in my goal to become a better teacher. I am thankful to be having these experiences and conversations and to try many (or a few) new things. Pedagogy will continue to lead.  Technology will appropriately follow.  And may we all be a little further along in June.  

Just back from a great iPad conference, now what?

I am in my first year of using iPads in a fourth grade classroom and have just returned from the very energizing, exciting, and information-filled Leveraging Learning 2012. It is all a bit overwhelming actually. I found most of the speakers' messages seemed to revolve around the idea that it is time to change the way you teach: make learning student centered, not teacher centered. However, the school year is moving along at its usual rapid pace and I do not want to wait to experiment while I reflect on all of the big ideas (mass customized learning, SAMR model, 21st century learning, and many others). Therefore I have decided to follow the advice of one of the most inspiring presenters, Jennie Mageira. She suggested:

1. Make lots of mistakes: pick one thing you learned here and do it. She talked about how everyone who presents at iPad conferences usually has made lots of mistakes on their journey. They make it look smooth and like they know just the right ways to create wonderful learning experiences for their students, but what they do not tell you about is all of the times that their plans did not work. That was actually really great to hear.

 2. Foster teacher leadership: as you do that one new thing, write about it, tell what it is like to be at the beginning of the journey.

 3. When in doubt, ask a student: set up a student "Genius Bar", they can figure it out. She has several students play with a new app that she is thinking of using. Once they have had some time with it she has them go out to the other students in her classroom and teach them how to use it. This is allowing her students to take charge of their own learning. When my students have been working on the iPads I have noticed how quickly they figure out who can help them solve any problems that they encounter. They quickly figure out that it is usually not the teacher, more often it is a classmate.

So, as I return to my classroom, I will be busy trying my first experiment based on what I learned at the conference: to provide students feedback on their handwritten pieces by using several different apps (docAS lite and showbie). Nothing very revolutionary, but it feels like a good first step.

Documentation!

We're thinking about replacing the word “assessment” with the word “documentation.”  As one of my fellow teachers (thank you Monica!) often says... there can be good assessment and there can be bad assessment.  Assessment (as in testing) is generally one-sided: teachers give assessments to students to test understanding of specific material in order to provide data for our school grading environments.  Let's call this type of classroom culture the Assessment Culture.

Assessment Culture classrooms let students get really good at two things:

1. Figuring out what the teachers want and producing that 

2.  Memorizing algorithms and facts to spit out on tests

It's time for a new classroom culture - we should try to create a classroom that has a culture of thinking, creating, and learning.  A great place to start is by allowing time for reflection on all parts of a student's (and teacher's) learning process.  Let's call this type of classroom culture the Documentation Culture.  Of course, there's still room to collect data for assessment purposes through documentation.

How do we create a classroom culture that includes documentation?  To start, teachers need to have handy a variety of tools, habits, and practices that will allow all members of a classroom community to document.  (And not just documentation of finished work, but documentation of their learning from start to desired learning outcome and all the problem solving, chaos, and mistakes that happen along the way)  Students and Teachers should practice the skills that accompany documentation: observing, recording, interpreting, sharing, building explanations, growing as learners.  Think of it as visible listening.

 iPads are a great tool for documentation and not just because there are so many great apps.  The great thing about iPads is that they provide an instant and easy way to routinely document - using the camera, audio, and video.

Here are some ways to create a classroom culture of documentation.

 

Evernote: start by setting up a folder for each student and keeping your iPad handy.  Use Evernote to photograph, record, or take notes on your students' learning. Take photos in the middle of a lesson or record a collaborative conversation.  Allow students to record their thinking or brainstorming as they approach a project.  Think about how powerful it would be to document the earliest stages of student planning for a project - to have records of how a student might approach a challenge.  Don’t collect pictures of just their finished products.  My kindergarten students share the responsibility of documenting their work for their folders.  They are starting to recognize good thinking and ask to have it documented (and can even do the legwork for me using the camera).

Camera Roll:  The Camera Roll is one of our favorites - the unsung hero! Students take pictures of their work or of their partner’s work.  In my classroom, the students either put their name card or themselves in the photo so that I can identify it later (and perhaps add it to their Evernote folder or ask them to explain their thinking). 

Audio features: We use Book Creator, Notes (iPad 3), video camera, and Evernote so that students can articulate their thinking without the constraints of writing mechanics or reticence over sharing with a peer or the teacher. 

Reflection Journals:  Using Book Creator or Paper 53 set up a weekly time to allow students the opportunity to reflect.  Artistic expression, digital art included, is a form of reasoning called visual thinking.  These journals are a place for that thinking and reflecting to take place. To make these reflection journals something that will really push students’ thinking and advance their understanding, students shouldn't just be asked to reflect and then handed iPads while the teachers wait for the thinking to flow freely.  Teachers need to think carefully about what they want the students to reflect upon.  We reflect on: Stories we either read aloud or share orally, themes or connections we make during storytime, the meaning of a poem the class had shared, a shared experience we have had as a class community. The wonderful thing about doing this on an iPad is that you can fit in the weekly reflection time without having to allow for time consuming set up.

 

Explain Everything:  The (not so) new champ for making thinking and learning visible is Explain Everything.  This app should be on every student iPad.  Ask students to explain a lesson or demonstrate their understanding of a topic or process.  Students can use pictures, drawings, and movement to create films which they can narrate.  They can create a film that retells a class field trip using photos and their own narrative.  A small group of students could use this app to "teach” a math challenge or to make a problem solving video.

There are many other apps and ways that documentation can be accomplished with ipads - this is just a starting point.  teachers need to think about how assessment can and should be a part of your classroom culture of thinking.  Teach your students to recognize what their own thinking looks like.  open them up to understanding/refining their own learning. 

Flying to China

Since our 4th grade Ancient and Modern China curriculum was implemented, a "flight to China" component has often been included.  Google Earth is a tool many teachers were familiar with, and both the Smartboard and netbooks have been effective in using it to explore the geographic landscape.  I am not that familiar with the program and all of its capabilities, but I have a new Nike approach to teaching with technology ("Just Do It").  So I showed my trusty Powerpoint on why we study geography and ended with two exploration questions for them to use while they looked at China on Google Earth with their iPads:  "What barriers do you see that would have made traveling to China in ancient times difficult?"  and "Where was China the most vulnerable?" 

It worked well (with only one kid who kept looking for his house instead.).  They explored the boundaries, found the Himalayas, determined darker blue water was deeper, found the bulk of people and cities along the Eastern coast, decided the north was a good place to attack from (Who said attack? This is a Quaker school!), and figured that was where we would find the Great Wall.  Good times! Now what?   

We have a bunch of other activities in landform development and mapmaking coming up, but I would like to keep using this app too.  One plan is to use it while making our 3-D plaster terrain maps.  They can use it to determine where to place the mountains, valleys, and other features. The variety of community pictures of the places we study is very cool.  I have found tours of Mt. Everest and other peaks. What other things are there "tours" of?  Any other ideas about how to integrate Google Earth into our geography study?