Turn Them Loose and Let Them Blog

Blogging continues to be one of my (Jamie's) favorite ways to integrate technology into my English classroom.   This year I am exploring using blogs to provide my students with the opportunity to write about a topic of personal interest.  There is much research out there to support allowing students to choose freely.  In the words of Lucy Calkins, “Choice matters. Not a little, but a lot.”  

What do you like to do in your free time?
 What type of books do you like to read?
What kind of foods do you like to eat?

To kick off blogging this year, we did a lot of brainstorming about personal interests.  I started with a simple stick figure.  Students were asked questions, and then they were given a few minutes to respond with corresponding thoughts/ideas on their stick man/woman.

The center represents things we love the most.

A few days later, we drew a heart map in our journals to provide us with a space to write all the things we are passionate about.  This activity is taken from Nancy Atwell’s Lesson that Change Writers.

When I felt my students had cultivated enough ideas, we began discussing blogs.  In our book Literacy Lessons for a Digital World, Meg and I suggest having your students view the Common Craft video on blogging to introduce any blogging lesson.  The video provides a clear explanation of what a blog is and how it is used.  Before blogging, I also shared mentor text.  My mentor text was of course a blog.  I showed them our JMLiteracy blog. We discussed my interest in ed-tech, and why I would choose that topic to blog about with Mrs. Knapik.  Modeling for your students is a key component to good teaching.  By showing my students that I am a blogger, I am showing kids that I practice what I “preach”. 

My students were then assigned the task of drafting their first blog post.  Their goal was to write an introductory post about themselves and their blog topic.  We took our blog post through the writing process, and then we published to our classroom blog.   The kids were really excited because they knew their audience was beyond the scope of just the teacher’s eyes.

Wait!  It gets even more exciting.  After posting, I took blogging one step further.  I collaborated with another English teacher in my building to provide an audience for my students’ blogs.  Mrs. Horrigan’s sixth graders read my seventh graders’ blog posts and left comments on their blogs.  When my students saw that comments were left on their blogs by other students, the bar was further raised.  My students immediately began comparing who got more comments, and I used this as a teachable moment.  Why did some posts get read more than others?  We went through the blogging checklist (scroll to bottom of this link to download checklist), and we discussed the characteristics of the blogs with the most traffic.

Take a look at a few of my students introductory blog posts and feel free to leave a comment.

Fashion Blog
DIY Blog
Reading Blog
Free Time Blog
Nature Blog

QR Codes Transform Our Math Classroom

If you have read our blog before, you will remember when Jamie wrote her exciting post on engaging with QR codes at the Henry Ford Museum.  This year I (Meg) am teaching sixth grade math again, and we are piloting one-to-one iPads.  Having a brand new device in my classroom was both exciting and challenging at the beginning of the school year.  Some of my favorite web-based activities were difficult to do on the iPad.  For example, I could no longer have my students create a visual math glossary using tables in Google Docs like they did in the past because the Google Doc iPad app does not allow users to create tables or insert images.  Instead, I needed to look through a new lens when I was designing tech-related activities since the capabilities of the iPad are vastly different than those of a netbook, our previous one-to-one device.

Math Super Stars QR Code Bulletin Board

One unique capability an iPad offers is the ability to scan QR, or "Quick Response", codes.  I definitely wanted to harness the potential of this tool in some way in my math classroom.  One of the most common uses for QR codes in the classroom is to use them in conjunction with book trailers.  Students (or teachers) create book trailers, and then a QR code is created and taped onto a book so that when it is scanned the person can view a book trailer for that particular book.  As a math teacher, this idea wouldn't work for my every day use.  However I loved the idea of using QR codes to connect to student-created work.  I also found that my "Math Super Stars" wall was still empty after the first month of school since the students were doing less work on paper than they used to.  My idea started to form...

Close Up View of QR Codes on My
Math Super Stars Bulletin Board

My students had some experience using the  Educreations iPad app to make math video tutorials to explain their thinking.  Sometimes they would do this in relation to correcting an error made on a formative assessment, and other times I would specifically assign they use the app to explain their strategy for solving a real-world problem related to our learning objectives.  Once I figured out that each Educreations video had a unique hyperlink, I know my QR code dreams could become a reality.  I launched my Math Super Stars bulletin board with a brand new purpose: students whose videos not only showed correct problem solving but also included clear explanations rich with math vocabulary would be featured on the Math Super Stars board.  In the past month, this board has become a way to showcase and honor exemplary problem solving, and it is also a useful resource for students that is always accessible in my classroom.  Before summative assessments, I now have students who choose to spend time during advisory scanning these QR codes as a means of clarifying their understanding in review for the summative assessment.  I know I have just scratched the surface of the potential QR codes have in my classroom, but I would say my first experiment has been a success!

Have any of you used QR codes with success in your classrooms?  We would love to hear your ideas, too!

A New Twist on an Old Favorite: Traveling Concept Maps

The other night I was watching a video lesson from Teaching Channel with my grad school class.  Our class is called "Supervision of Learning Environments", and the purpose in watching this video was for us to determine whether or not this particular teacher revised her teaching strategy after a lesson was not quite as successful as she had hoped.  Sarah Wessling, the teacher in the video (who is stellar, by the way!), certainly did adapt her plan for the class, and I loved her new idea so much that I adapted the idea for my sixth grade math class!

Sarah had her students use what she called "traveling concept webs" in her high school English class to have the students generate ideas related to The Crucible and connect them to modern day themes.  I have used concept maps before, but never had I had them "travel".  I love the collaborative aspect to this idea, and I envisioned this as useful way for my students to review for their chapter one summative assessment.
Plus, I always love integrating literacy into math...cha-ching!

Each of my six small groups of students had a piece of butcher paper with a math topic in a center circle, forming the hub of the web.  The six topics on our concept webs were Number Lines, Prime Factorization, GCF, LCM, Squares & Square Roots, Cubes & Cubed Roots.  Each group had three minutes to add supporting details to the web related to the definition of the concept, helpful strategies, and example problems using a variety of methods.  Once the timer sounded to end the three minutes, the students rotated one group clockwise (It was also great to have the kids up and moving a bit).  This time the directions were slightly different.  The students needed to first read everything that was already on the concept map, correcting anything they felt was not accurate.  After doing so, they could then continue adding new information.  Once again the timer sounded after three minutes, and the students rotated.  The third time around, the students were directed to read and correct any information, and they were issued an additional challenge to create a more difficult example than the ones previously listed.  The final three minute buzzer sounded, and students returned to their seats.  The activity culminated in a gallery walk where the students had the opportunity to quietly look at all six concept webs.  On post-it notes, students wrote and posted questions remaining on each topic's concept web.  These questions not only were formative in nature, allowing me to see where there were still some misconceptions and confusion, but they were also wonderful collaborative conversation starters.  I had the students lead the follow up discussion themselves, answering each other's questions using appropriate math vocabulary and our class experiences as support for their answers.  I was truly impressed with how articulate many of my students were, and I always love seeing them help each other learn.  So two thumbs up for this activity!  I'm keeping traveling concept maps in my arsenal of secret weapons for use in the future as well.  :)

What Do We Have to Fear?

Blogging Challenge Day 30 (Last Day!)

What would you do (as a teacher) if you weren't afraid?

Jamie- If I weren't afraid, I would probably leave my job as a classroom teacher to start my own

educational consulting business.  I'd also like to be a full time writer.  What stops me?  My students! 

I love being in the classroom surround by the enthusiasm only kids can possess.  I love to see the light bulbs go off when they truly understand a concept.  I love nurturing them as readers and writers. I love to challenge them to do their best.  I like helping them down the path of becoming an adult.  It is a great privilege and honor to have the opportunity to touch the lives of our future.   Teaching brings me the greatest joy, and I am afraid to walk away from it to follow my other dreams.  Perhaps the right opportunity will present itself one day.  Right now, being in the classroom is where I belong!

Meg- If I weren't afraid of meeting deadlines, the impending PARCC test, and the opinions of
parents, I would definitely spend all day every day examining all of the *cool* real-life math that is out there.  Now this doesn't mean that I don't do real-life math.  It just means that I definitely follow more of a guided path based on the CCSS and the collaborative plans the other math teachers and I create together.  I also would never be afraid to try a new project with my students because I wouldn't be afraid of running out of time.  Time always seems to be the biggest issue when a risk I take in the classroom goes sour.  I have just "wasted" precious time that I cannot get back.  I try to keep my adventurous, creative spirit in mind as I plan to allow for some of my risk-taking and plain old FUN real life math to wiggle its way into my classroom.  I just had to make sure I am balancing it with all of the other standards I am actually "supposed" to be doing as well.  :)

Our Evolution as Teachers

Blogging Challenge Day 29

How have you changed as an educator since you first started?

Jamie-The longer I teach the more I understand the middle school student.  I've done a lot of reading about the development of the brain and the role hormones play.  I think middle school teachers sometimes forget how young middle school students really are in 6th-8th grades.  Seriously, they've only been on this planet for 12-14 years--they're babies!  With that said, I think that I have become more understanding and more patient.  This age group needs a lot of help with executive functioning skills.  So, I spend a great deal of time in my classroom talking them through how to break down assignments, how to write their homework down, and how to advocate for themselves when they need assistants.  I take nothing for granted!  Secondly, I have really embraced the whole concept of formative and summative assessments.  I take the time to use formative assessments to gauge if I need to slow down or continue forward.  When I first started teaching, I was more focused on getting through the curriculum versus whether or not my students were really learning anything.  I am sure there are other things that have changed, but I feel these two things are the most important and have impacted my teaching the most.
Meg- Can you say formative assessment?!  I have truly evolved in my teaching practice over the course of my nine year career.  Without a doubt, the number one way in which I have changed is by really focusing on creating effective formative assessments and providing timely, specific, and targeted feedback to my students.  I love the analogy of formative assessment being like taking a trip to the doctor as opposed to having an autopsy done after it is "too late".  I tell my kids all the time that the formative assessments allow me to take their learning "temperature" so I can diagnose their learning problems and address any confusion as early as possible.  If I don't utilize formative assessment effectively to inform my instruction and interventions, the students will fail their summative assessments (and then it's "too late" for them!).  I also think more deeply about the types of feedback with which I provide my students so they will really be able to improve and grow.  Take a look at this chapter from Susan Brookhart's book How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students for some clear examples and ideas of providing timely and effective feedback to students.

Finally, when in doubt, look to Rick Wormelli for advice on utilizing formative and summative assessments.  The video below provides a basic explanation of how to meaningfully use formative and summative assessments in a differentiated classroom.

Technology in the Driver's Seat?

Blogging Challenge Day 28

Should technology drive curriculum, or vice versa?

Meg and Jamie:  Technology is a tool.  It should definitely not drive curriculum.  That is like asking if a pens, pencils, and paper should drive curriculum--absolutely not!  With that said, we believe that you cannot ignore the fact that technology has changed the way kids learn.  We live in a world where information is at our fingertips.  The presence of technology in education should make us ask new questions about our curriculum.  We love this quote from Will Richardson found in a book titled 21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn, " We now officially live in a world where even twelve-year-olds can create their own global classrooms around the things about which they are most passionate."  Richardson continues by asking:

• What should classrooms be when we connect with other teachers and learners around the world?
• What is the best role for teachers when knowledge is distributed widely in these networks?
• And, most importantly, how do we reframe our own personal learning experiences as educators and as people in light of all these shifts?

Will Richardson Skyping with our LIT505 class

These questions can be great guides for educators as they contemplate how to best integrate technology into their classrooms in meaningful ways.  In fact we were lucky enough to Skype with Will Richardson this summer during the grad class we co-teach at Judson University.  We love how he helped us to convey the message that educators need to be thinking about how technology has changed the learner as well as how it has changed our occupation.

Take a few minutes (4 minutes and 53 seconds, to be exact) to watch the video below from Edutopia about technology integration.

Time to Rejuvenate

Blogging Challenge Day 27

What role do weekends and holidays play in your teaching?

Meg- For me, weekends and holidays are a chance to play catch-up.  I grade all those papers that I wasn't able to squeeze into the work week, I create resources to use with my students in the upcoming week, and I take some time to reflect on my recent successes and failures in the classroom so I can continue to work towards making my class the best place possible for student learning.  The weekends and holidays also provide me a much-needed chance to spend time with my husband, catch up with friends, exercise, and SLEEP!  Waking up at 5:22 AM (fun fact: I always set my alarm for even times that do not end in a zero) definitely takes a toll on me, and getting a good 8-9 hours of sleep for a couple nights makes me sane again.  I have found that I am a better teacher when I have a healthy work-life balance.  My patience lasts longer and I am more creative.  With that being said, I am off to the gym on this lovely Saturday morning to jump start my day!

Jamie-I have just returned home from a beautiful fall day spent watching my niece play softball. So, weekends are definitely set aside for family.  I try to reserve a set amount of time for work on the weekends.  If I work (grade papers) on Saturday, then Sunday is an off day or vice versa.  If I don't take time off, I have less patience for my students when I return to work on Monday.  There are times on the weekends, before my husband wakes, early in the morning where you'll catch me reading educational blog sites, perusing new tech tools, and/or looking at websites connected to my teaching.  It is also a time for catching up with my reading.  I have to be a role model for my students on Monday morning for Reading Weekend Update.  So, I have to get some reading done in my independent reading book.  In fact, I just finished Doll Bones by Holly Black this morning.  It was so good!  My students could hardly wait for me to finish because they want it next.  The waiting list for this book is long.  Think I might need to buy another copy!  After typing this blog, I am headed outside to enjoy a glass of iced tea and The Book Whisper by Donalyn Miller.  This is a must read for reading and/or English teachers.  I am loving it, and I am only on page 50.