Thursday, May 18, 2017

Twitter for Teachers

I was recently asked -- on twitter -- who to follow for a professional twitter account. The fact is, twitter is a great way to stay current and get ideas for the classroom. I know many teachers who rely on pinterest or Teachers Pay Teachers for their teaching inspiration, but twitter can also be a great resource.

The first thing to say is that I'm not talking about using twitter with the students. There are all sorts of legal and ethical issues that get involved there, so that's an entirely separate issue that will take more than a blog post to discuss. I'm talking about creating a place where you can find people who inspire you in your work. Technically, this is called a "professional learning network," or PLN. But really, it's just following the right accounts on twitter.

Which brings us back to the starting question: who should you follow? Ironically, that's a hard question to answer on twitter. There used to be something called "Follow Friday," where twitter users would tweet:
Then everyone who followed you would add these people to their followers, and twitter networks would grow.

It doesn't really work that way anymore. So I'm writing this post for two reasons: one, so that you, my reader, can give twitter a try and have some people to consider following, and two, so that any time anyone asks me for some follow recommendations, I can send them here.

So, first, how do you get started on twitter? Click below to get some tips.


And, finally, who should you follow? Personally, I like (and therefore recommend) the following as my "top ten":

  • George Couros (@gcouros) Educational innovator, author of The Innovator's Mindset, and general "big ideas" guy.
  • Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) Google guru -- lots of tips and tricks for Google Drive and related tools.
  • Eric Sheninger (@E_Sheninger) Former principal, educational leader. Ideas for innovation.
  • Dave Burgess (@burgessdave) Author of Teach Like a Pirate and energetic educator.
  • John Krownapple (@Jkrownapple) Cultural Proficiency and equity expert.
  • Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) Teacher, Google Certified Innovator, and author of Ditch That Textbook
  • Jeff Nelson (@JeffNelsonTLI) Educator and executive director of Teaching-Learning-Innovation.
  • Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby) High school, middle school, and college teacher and founder of #EdChat
  • Bill Ferriter (@plugusin) Raleigh educator and prolific tweet and blogger
  • Outlaw Innovation (@DrLOutlaw) Educator who tends to retweet some of the best ideas on twitter.
And a bonus: Consider following CCS Tech Camp for retweets of these and others, as well as insights and announcements from our own district. 

Badges to promote technology in Elementary schools



What are those?


 They're springing up all over our elementary schools. Some are on doorways, some are on the walls, some are in the data rooms, but wherever they are, they all mean the same thing:

Digital Learning is happening here.

So what are they? Badges. Teachers earn them by demonstrating that their students are learning using various digital tools: Skype, Plickers, Symbaloo, you name it -- the only limitation is the drive and enthusiasm of building staff.

And some have amazing enthusiasm! Look at all the badges Jhonatan Marin had at Howard Hall Elementary School back in February:



 And at Seabrook Elementary, teachers Suzanne Williams and Jamie Royster have filled their first sheet of badges, and started a second!

Now, obviously, this isn't restricted to Social Studies, but Social Studies is a great place to lead in innovation and digital integration: Skyping with students in other places, building Padlets for historical figures, creating oral history blogs, or any of the diverse other options, teaching history with the tools of the future is the best way to engage our students and involve them in thinking critically, creating content and understanding, collaborating with one another and global peers, or communicating across the county and around the world.

What an exciting time to be in the classroom!

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Learning Environments Reimagined

What a cool place for a club meeting:

I mean, how cool to just chill after school. Must be some kind of tech club, maybe coding, or webdesign, or something like that.

Except, it's actually a classroom. Cris Higginbotham, PFHS Social Studies teacher and two-time Tech Camp presenter, has been re-imagining her classroom over the last two years, and seems to have arrived at a format that really works.


She began when she first returned to our district, moving the desks from rows to groups. Then she started replacing desks with tables, finding ones that other teachers weren't using. Finally, she had a set of tables that matched, and, with her principal's support, she applied for two small grants to buy the last pieces: a couch, two armless chairs, two beanbag chairs, and a coffee table (the leather chair she already had). This became the central seating area in her classroom. She also has clipboards and lapdesks in boxes under the coffee table so students can be fully productive in this space.


A few simple rules make the whole space work: students aren't allowed to lounge across the couch, there is a maximum number of students allowed in the space (seven in some classes, nine in others -- you have to know your students!), and anyone who sits in the space one day must be the last person seated the following day. Note that the entire room is warm and welcoming, as well: small lamps supplement natural lighting, art work is on the walls, students can select non-standard chairs at the tables, etc. This is not just about chairs, it's about the entire emotional climate of the room.


That last point probably addresses the biggest question: doesn't this lead to more discipline issues? Quite the opposite. Students in "Ms. Higgie's" class work collaboratively and create a variety of learning products. As such, engagement is high and learning is strong. In such an environment, students are invested in the class and discipline issues are minor and easily managed.


Admittedly, one other thing makes this work: the classroom is a "one-to-one" envrionment, with chromebooks for every student. That has been an ongoing project Cris has done through a series of DonorsChoose grants, each one for a small number of laptops until there were enough for all. Once every student has a screen, the need to have them all focused on the SMART Board is gone, but even before that, there are ways to make this -- or something like it -- work in any classroom. If you want to discuss ideas for this, or have questions, contact me. If I can't answer your questions, I'll get you in touch with Higgie herself!




Friday, May 5, 2017

A Tale of Two Notebooks

Take a look at these two student notebooks. Which looks like the student paid more attention to the day's lesson? Which one do you think is a "good student," and which one would you be more concerned about?

A.

B.



Now, which one better understands something about the Vietnam War?

GCMS 7th grade teacher, Emily Werner, taught her students how to "sketchnote." In sketchnoting, students draw out whatever image seems to them to capture the ideas being discussed in class. The emphasis is not on artistry and organization, but on capturing meaning: if the lecture is about locks on the Panama Canal, and I draw a sloppy padlock across a blue line, as long as I remember that represents locks on the Panama Canal, it doesn't matter that my classmate drew a beautifully illustrated key inserted into a perfectly crafted map of Panama.

So, actually, the second student more faithfully captured the idea of Sketchnoting. But one important concept in Sketchnoting is that there's no right way to do it -- if one student needs more words than another, that's fine. So neither is inherently better or worse: it all comes down to whether students can recall the information.

So here's the point:

I asked both students to explain Ngo Dinh Diem to me. If you can't make it out, he is mentioned on the first page of the written notes, in the red ink paragraph at the bottom. He is also labeled as the figure standing alone at the bottom left of notebook "B." For notebook B, the student said, "He seized power, so that's why he knocked down this guy here. And once he was in power, everything he did was against Communism, because that's all he thought about." For notebook A? That student said, "He wanted to be President."

So... which is the better notebook? I would argue the one that led the student to a deeper and stronger understanding of the material: Notebook B.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Word Walls for Middle School Social Studies

First, I must confess, I'm not a huge fan of vocabulary instruction. Ideally, vocabulary should grow out of instruction, as students encounter words they need to know in order to complete their learning. The world does not consist of ideal students in all cases, however, so we look for vocabulary that at least supports deeper, broader learning. The temptation, though, is to allow teaching vocabulary to become the instruction, so that instead of learning concepts and generalizations that students have created for themselves from guiding questions about, say, the Roman Empire, students simply learn a lot of words that in some way (that they may or may not be able to articulate) relate to the Roman Empire.

BUT.

Vocabulary can be an important part of learning, especially if students have a way to organize that vocabulary in a way that aligns with what they are learning. So, for example, Allan Kerrick at LNJMS organizes his word wall by the five strands of Social Studies, plus a column for academic vocabulary -- those terms that transcend the content of the unit and will be lasting recurring vocabulary.





Mr. Kerrick's word wall changes with each unit. As a way to go even further with this, Vickie Woodford at ACMS keeps her words to a bare minimum, allowing her word wall to be permanent and include every civilization she teaches. She adds the vocabulary as they study new civilizations, and students use the word wall to make comparisons among the civilizations, tying new learning to previous understandings about the religion, government, and culture of world civilizations. Students are able to review the entire course content at a glance and explain how each of these terms relates both to the civilization and to the other items in that same column.


Another innovative way to re-imagine the word wall comes from Cheryl Thomas at DBMS. She calls it the "Extending Our Thinking" board, and on it, she created eight boxes, using the expanded five strands (breaking "Economics and Financial Literacy" into its two components, for example.")


Throughout every unit, students are constantly challenged to identify a strand that most closely ties to each thing they are learning. Often, students reach different conclusions, so they must provide an explanation for their thinking, as well. For example, a student might identify "Factories" during the Industrial Revolution as part of the Economic strand, because it impacts production, but they might also place it under "Environmental Literacy" for how factories impacted the environment, or perhaps Financial Literacy (people experienced different financial challenges and opportunities), Geography (factories changed the human interaction with the environment), History (Factories were a major turning point!) or even Culture (factories allowed mass production which changed what goods were available for what classes of people). The point is not the "correct" identification of a term with a strand, but that the student's thinking reflects a strong understanding of both the concept and the broader strand.


As we approach the end of the year, this board becomes a great tool for a conceptual review: students can contribute whatever examples stand out for them of each strand or sub-strand, and after a year of practice, they are skilled at explaining their thinking so that both the Ms. Thomas and their peers know why those items are there. As Ms. Thomas says, this board can "show the students how historical events are more than just a date, but an event that affects every aspect of our society."




Inspired? Have your own unique way of taking Word Walls to the next level? Let us know in the comments!