Today is the premiere of "Moneyball", the long anticipated movie starring Brad Pitt. Based on the book by the same name, this is a story of how the Oakland Athletics baseball team actively leveraged player statistics as business intelligence, and...

I found this Washington Post article in my LinkedIn news feed today and giggled at it a bit.  If I didn’t know any better, I’d think the author was a … Continue reading →

You can communicate a secondary message through a visual hierarchy of text, graphics and video on the screen. Find out how.Post from: The eLearning CoachHow To Create A Visual Hierarchy

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergartners got inspiration for a "Happy Spring" illustration by means of a video or two and then created original artwork; First Graders explored the characteristics of objects and properties of materials by testing different papers and their suitability for use in constructing a boat; Second, Third and Fourth graders returned to my old lab for a screencast lesson on the basics of Microsoft Word (and to sniff out nagging problems with usernames, passwords and file shares.) Week ending 03/22/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: Students were free to choose a "learning" activity as a warmup (as opposed to the activities that are pure entertainment) from t we gathered on the cubes by the SMART Board for a video-powered discussion of the origins of spring and the evidence we see (or should be seeing) outside. We first talked about WHY the seasons change. A great, short video from Discovery Streaming (which I can’t link to here) explained it very well in just over a minute. (It’s amazing what Kinders know about the Sun, the Earth’s rotation, etc. at such an early age.) Another video, also from Discovery, did a great job showing the signs of spring (we surely aren’t seeing many ourselves around Northfield), prompting discussion and the usual round of hands rocketing into the air as everyone had something to share. If there was only a way to let them all speak… Kids headed over to Kerpoof to construct a graphic illustration with custom text and appropriate graphics, choosing from a variety of backgrounds in the "Make a Picture" activity, which were then saved to .JPG format. What I observed / inferred / connected: We had many interesting discussions about suitable backgrounds. Who is to say a swimming pool isn’t an appropriate Spring image? Anyone from this area, unless the forecast goes up to 90 degrees next month (which, given the crazy weather we’ve been having, is absolutely not out of the question.) As usual, the students surprised me with their creativity and imagination, combining images in the most creative ways. What students can do at home: Kerpoof is waiting for you and your child to explore together. The interface is super simple, they’ll be creating (and amazing you) in no time! The Kindergarten Symbaloo page continues to grow. I expect to have all the tiles filled shortly! First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Following the excellent Assessment of Science and Technology Achievement Project’s "Watery Paper" lesson as a guide, we came up with a two-week lesson designed to get kids thinking about properties of materials and the engineering design process. In this first week of the activity, kids studied four paper samples (wax, construction, paper towel, oak tag) in the context of designing material for a boat (that needed to float for at least one minute with five pennies inside.) Working in teams, they compared the papers’ reactions to droplets of water, documenting their observations. They made predictions about which paper would be best to use for a boat and why they felt so. Finally they witnessed a full test of a very simple boat (larger paper samples laid into a tub of water) to see what happened when these samples sat for one minute and had pennies added on (until they sank). Armed with this new data, many students changed their "chosen" material (which will be used next week to create the actual boats for testing.) What I observed / inferred / connected: I am amazed by kids’ abilities to express themselves in writing at this age and can see the efforts of my colleagues to help make this so. Kids need to write! Most importantly, they need to write about things that matter to them or they are interested in. (I was constantly writing [and reading] as a child…) I was similarly amazed at the interactions between the students as they analyzed their results. In some cases, things did not go well. It’s clear we need to keep working on empathy and willingness to give others’ ideas a try (even though we may be convinced of our own ideas’ superiority). The way I put it to them: go with the other person’s idea sometimes - if you’re right and your idea is better, you’ll have proof; if not, you’ll have proof, too. Kids love anything having to do with water. (Nothing newsworthy there…) What students can do at home: This process is EASILY replicated at home using a variety of materials. Heck, use the bathtub and try out a whole slew of different materials! Then challenge your child to construct a boat out of the best material and test its ability to float and carry weight. Pennies are great ballast because they are easy to manipulate and kids relate to them. Heck you could even use other coins and work a money lesson into the mix… The First Grade Symbaloo is loaded with new content. Have fun! Second, Third & Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: We went back into my lab for a VERY basic lesson on Microsoft Word and file management. Students used the screencast above to create (and in some cases embellish) a very basic Word document and save it to their network folder. We also wanted to make sure all student network accounts (passwords, file saves, etc.) were functional; we fixed any issues we encountered. What I observed / inferred / connected: The vast majority of students had no issues whatsoever with their accounts or the task. The screencast’s ability to be rewound and replayed proved invaluable (as I knew it would) for struggling learners. "How do I…" (them) "It’s in the video, watch it again!" (me). Sure enough, they did, and they got it. I was amazed and very excited to see one of our special needs students be the only kid in the class to figure out they could run the screencast AND Word simultaneously in windowed mode (as opposed to full screen) so they could work while the video played. Brilliant! And he is a second grader! I made a really big deal about his discovery (he was very proud) and changed my lesson from then on out. What students can do at home: If you have Microsoft Word, encourage your child to spend time in the program writing … ANYTHING. Seriously, anything that interests them - that is the key - they will figure out the details (menus, functions, capabilities, etc.) faster than you or I can teach them when the context of the assignment is something they care about. Check out the Second Grade, Third Grade and Fourth Grade Symbaloo’s, I’m adding content to them all the time!

Last Friday, it became official: the end of the school year became real for me because I actually left the building at 2:46 pm instead of the usual 4:00.  I … Continue reading →

The University Professional Continuing Education Association and the Association for Continuing Higher Education recently convened a summit of education leaders to talk about the phenomenon of online learning, described in summit literature as "the biggest thing to ever hit higher...

In the market for a Learning Management System? Tom Werner, an expert in these technologies, guides the way.Post from: The eLearning CoachLearning Management Systems: Expert Advice

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergarteners sharpened their money skills with a variety of interactive activities.  First Graders learned about their home addresses and used Bing Maps to check out their neighborhood. Second Graders went on an "Energy Walk" scavenger hunt, while Third Graders started their first STEM unit, which will soon have them designing & testing parachutes. Fourth graders were introduced to databases and took a survey to "create" the database they’ll be using Microsoft Access to retrieve data next week. Week ending 04/05/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: Kids warmed up with an activity of their choice from the Kindergarten Symbaloo. We distinguished between "learning," "fun," and "fun learning" activities, and they all made good choices. After a few minutes, we returned to the cubes by the SMART Board and introduced some neat websites I’d found to build money skills. Kids did two of the three activities pictured above (the third one was pretty advanced for Kinders but I saw more than a couple kids giving it a go.) Finally, after reviewing a bit of prior knowledge, we jumped into a SMART Notebook exercise, running via SMART Notebook Express on the Chromebooks, which worked well. When they finished we saved the files to the Chromebook’s hard drive for later uploading to Google Docs. What I observed / inferred / connected: I have mixed feelings about this lesson. On the one hand, I really need to find more authentic, developmentally-appropriate activities involving money for these kids. On the other, they really enjoyed what we did, and though I don’t have any pre/post testing data, my sense is the activities helped. Also, finding interactives featuring real coin images is a challenge but necessary; I think cartoon equivalents aren’t quite up to snuff. All that aside, we probably won’t be doing this lesson in the future as I am told the Common Core doesn’t delve into Money for Kidners. Guess we’ll be tackling it in First Grade. What students can do at home: Check out the Kindergarten Symbaloo as time permits of course but I’d much rather the kids played with real money. It’s easy enough to create a "store" with household objects. You could also involve your child when purchasing items in stores. Ask them to identify the coins you need to make an amount. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We had a conversation about the importance of remembering your number and street before diving into Bing Maps to look up home addresses. First we looked up our school, noting the details we could observe (Where is the playground? Were we looking at live video or a photo? What season was it when the pictures were taken? How do you know?) We talked about the components of an address (number, street, city, state, zip code) before handing out handwritten (thank you Mrs. Jarrett) cards with each student’s home address. We talked about common abbreviations (St., Rd., etc.) and set them loose. They gleefully entered their addresses, with some help, and marveled at the "Birds Eye View" made possible by Bing Maps. Kids then explored the areas around their houses, in some cases, finding that friends lived much closer than they knew! What I observed / inferred / connected: Having slips of paper with home addresses greatly facilitated this lesson, but many struggled with spelling, inserting extra spaces, incorrect ZIP codes, etc. It was to be expected and I was ready, guiding students that needed it and pointing out corrections until they were successful. Once they had everything figured out, the Fun Factor increased exponentially, at least from the sounds I heard in the room. What students can do at home: Check out the First Grade Symbaloo for some fun interactives and then check out Bing Maps if you haven’t already. Be sure to click the box at the top that says "Birds Eye View" and zoom in for the best visuals. Look up relatives’ locations, famous landmarks, big cities and more! Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: After spending some time warming up with Typing Pal, we had a quick discussion about energy, its uses, origins, and what it means to us in our daily lives. Memories of being without power back in June were fresh for everyone, leading to some rich discussions about how reliant we are on power (and creative solutions to lack thereof). We then divided the class into two groups and set off to find as many energy using devices in the school as we could. (I led one group and the classroom teacher led the other.) We walked (nearly) silently through the school, hands shooting up the moment something was noticed, resulting in me adding the item to our list. (The activity was so exciting and fast-paced that I neglected to take any photos, sadly.) We returned to my classroom to compare what we’d found. Finally we closed with a discussion (see p.7 of this PDF) about strategies during power outages. What I observed / inferred / connected: This was great fun and very informative as everyone had a much better understanding of the "designed world" we live in and our reliance on energy. The kinesthetic benefits of getting out of the classroom were immediately evident; everyone was engaged, involved and vested in the outcome. Comparing notes at the end was the most fun as each team got to "see" things they’d missed. The discussions that followed around energy usage were just fantastic. We had a blast! What students can do at home: An energy walk is easy to do, so challenge your child to do one and document their findings! Have them check out the Second Grade Symbaloo for learning activities, too. Third Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Third Grade kicked off their first Engineering is Elementary project, an aerospace engineering lesson called "Paulo’s Parachute Mission." We are starting with the storybook. This unit’s main character is Paulo, a boy from Brazil, who moves to a new city after his parents (both Aerospace Engineers) accept new jobs. The story is rich and Paulo’s character is easy to relate to; the situations he gets into and his reactions to them are natural and understandable. In typical EiE fashion, this "realistic fiction" story works perfectly, setting the stage for the engineering design challenge that lies ahead. We spent the entire class period reading together as a class. What I learned / observed / inferred: Whole-class reading in third grade is different than any other; it’s still extremely enjoyable, and the students follow along better than I thought they would. (It’s a very long time to be sitting still, especially in my class, where they are accustomed to working with the laptops and moving around.) I am working extra hard to make the story entertaining. So far, it seems to be working! The "during reading" questions (asked by the classroom teacher while I take responsibility for reading the main story) are EXCELLENT and really bring students into the conversation. They are well-timed, thought-provoking and clearly focused. Kids love answering them! It’s so fun to watch. What students can do at home: Since we are still just reading the story, ask your child about Paulo and what’s happening in his life. See what they recall from the story about a) his move b) his disability c) his family d) his new friend, Lucas. We will finish up next week! Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: Databases can be dry, boring, hard to imagine or envision - and difficult to explain to elementary kids. So, I purposely designed a lesson that gets their interest by making them the focus, by way of a Google Survey that asks them questions about themselves. We began the lesson with a working definition of databases and some questions. Has anyone ever used a database before, as far as they know? When I ask them if they’ve ever used a password to get onto a gaming website, or gone shopping online, they all instantly relate. To drive the point home, we head over to Amazon.com and go shopping for an item suggested by a student. We search broadly at first (i.e., "Kindle") and then gradually refine our search with additional terms, watching as the search result number dwindles with each additional parameter. This is something kids can relate to as many have done it; what better way to show the power of a database? What better way, indeed, than to have them query a database about THEMSELVES as a fourth grade class at NCS. I built a quick survey asking some basic questions (age, interests, etc.) which they all answer. I take this information, combine everything into a single database, convert it to Microsoft Access, and next week, students will be answering questions like: how many boys in the 4th grade make their bed in the morning, eat breakfast and enjoy baseball? While this may seem a trivial exercise, my past experience with this lesson is that kids LOVE interrogating a database like this, generating amazing insights into behaviors and traits they’d never thought about. What I observed / inferred / connected: There wasn’t much to observe / infer / connect here, other than a great discussion about databases in our daily life. Kids spent the remaining class time answering the survey and then had some free time to brush up on their math skills with Sumdog. The real heavy lifting is next week! What students can do at home: Ask your child about databases - see what they recall from our discussion. Discuss where you and your child encounter them in daily life. You may be amazed by the conversation!

So, as I was ripping down all the ancient posters of various sorts in my classroom the last couple of days of school, I wondered if it were possible for … Continue reading →

Just imagine how online learning might evolve if we ever-so-engaged online learning professionals inscribed the following "commandments" somewhere on one of our personal digital tablets: Thou shall provide prospective students with respectful responses to expressions of interest. Listen before you...