We spend a lot of time theorizing and thinking about how to motivate learners. But what about motivating instructional designers?Post from: The eLearning CoachMotivating The Instructional Designer

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 interest of improving my craft. Synopsis: The week before Winter Break is always a challenge (and a thrill) as kids’ minds are racing during the run-up to Christmas. Kindergarten had a fun & easy Kerpoof "Think Snow!" project, First Grade learned about website navigation & did some quick animal research, while Second, Third and Fourth graders explored basic programming principles with the fun and challenging "LightBot" programming activity. Please note: in our current "Day" rotation, Mondays are Day 3, which means my new lessons start on Thursday (Day 1). These "days" change over the course of the year due to holidays, etc. Week ending 12/21/12 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: Kids warmed up with some keyboarding fun (an activity of their choice) on the Kindergarten Symbaloo page. We then talked about the approaching winter season and some of our favorite winter activities like building snowmen, making snow angels, building snow forts/igloos, ice skating, etc. Kids then went to Kerpoof and used the "Make a Picture" activity (yellow square) to select a wintry background to which they added graphics and text. (The image above is an example I whipped up, not student work; I forgot to grab a sample or two off the Chromebooks before leaving Friday). Some searched for images (with help); all students entered and placed text, placed and sized images (we learned about perspective in the process). What I observed / inferred / connected: This was an easy activity for everyone with the exception of placing and manipulating text, which is always a challenge for our youngest learners with this site, but kids had no problem finding and using appropriate backgrounds. graphics and more. Kerpoof is one of our favorite resources because of its ease of use, variety of activities, engaging graphics and quality of printed output. The activities are well suited for learners of all ages, even middle schoolers (for the advanced video creation capabilities). What students can do at home: As always, check out the Kindergarten Symbaloo for fun activities and skill builders. If your child plays Keyboard Climber, encourage them to persist all the way "to the moon," and make a big deal about it when they get there. It’s definitely doable. Then be sure to tell them to let me know the next time they see me so I can give them a big "high-five." First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Kids warmed up with a keyboarding activity of their choice on the First Grade Symbaloo page. We talked about website navigation, advertising, hyperlinks, radio buttons and tabbed browsing. Students opened the KBears site from the First Grade Symbaloo page and selected an animal from a random set of cards I prepared using screenshots from the site. They then had to navigate the various parts of the page, including all photos, then locate and print the coloring page for their animal. What I observed / inferred / connected: It’s amazing what first graders already know about website navigation and advertising (and what to do with / how to avoid the latter). Clearly these kids spend a lot of time online. KBears is a terrific resource, particularly their Animals section, which is easy to navigate and filled with information. What students can do at home: Let your child show you around KBears, including other areas of the site. Check out the First Grade Symbaloo page for fun online activities! Second, Third & Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We introduced the concept of basic programming by having students "program" me to navigate my foam mats toward and ultimately to pick up "Gumdrop," our class mascot webkin that was on the floor behind the chair in the photo above. We used sheets of paper with "Forward," "Turn Left," "Turn Right," and "Pick Up" to represent movement. Once the "program" was written, I "ran" it, then a student volunteer did as well. (Hilarity ensued when the cards got out of order, with students crashing into the blocks or walking far off into another part of the classroom.) Students used the Symbaloo page for their grade to access the icon for "Light Bot," a simple yet powerful activity designed to players to properly sequence commands to accomplish an objective. ("Hard Fun," as Semour Papert might say.) What I observed / inferred / connected: The initial levels are pretty straightforward and can be accomplished without the use of  "functions" (a.k.a. subroutines) because there are enough open blocks in the "main method" section. Soon, however, students discover they are unable to complete each level unless they use at least one function. We explain the concept of functions (and even recursion) as things get more complex. I like Light Bot because it is simple to explain, use and debug. Some kids struggled, but most were successful and there was a lot of collaboration and excited high-fives. More than once I heard students say "I get it now!" which was GREAT to hear! What students can do at home: Playing Light Bot is fun as long as players continue to progress. Encourage them to experiment and remember to debug by removing one block at a time from the end of the sequence. They can also get creative with the path(s) they choose to make the robot follow. It’s a great introduction to programming!

The last few months have been so busy that I have not been taking the time to blog. I rather expect that there is a client or two who might be a little bit testy if they thought that *their*...

This has nothing to do with technology, science, learning, teaching or anything else… I just had my 100th follower join my happy little family of people who read my blog. … Continue reading →

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: We are kicking off the new year in a big way in the STEMLAB! This was a week of firsts (some more significant than others) in every grade as we tried and applied new technologies and/or methods in every class. Kindergarteners worked with the web-based version of SMART Notebook; First graders used giant paper rulers the size (and shape) of their bodies to measure things in the classroom; and Second, Third and Fourth graders analyzed data by creating a Google Docs spreadsheet using a screencast (a video lesson I pre-recorded). Please note: in our current "Day" rotation, my new lessons start on Thursdays (Day 1). These "days" change over the course of the year due to holidays, etc. (This also means that as of this writing, three of my five classes have not seen these lessons yet.) Week ending 01/04/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: We warmed up with some keyboarding fun and an introduction to "Super Hyper Spider Typer," a longtime lab favorite (even though it is a bit challenging for some even on the ‘Easy’ setting; they were allowed to choose another keyboarding activity if they wanted.) We had a conversation about weather and seasons and they played a few online weather clothing games (here, and here.) Back together as a whole group I demonstrated the lesson, a simple drag-and drop activity utilizing the free SMART Notebook Express (it was more of a test of that software than the kids’ abilities.) Students had to dress the bear properly and add their name using the text tool. We then saved the files and I uploaded them to Google Docs. What I observed / inferred / connected: Super Hyper Spider Typer is a stretch skill-wise but still fun at this age level for many; boys seemed to like it the most. (I’ll do anything I can to encourage alphabet/keyboard awareness at this age.) The two online weather clothing games (here and here) were apparently unintentionally hilarious; kids were literally laughing out loud as they played (fine by me!) The SMART Notebook Express software functioned well enough but is extremely limited. Its primary value is as a tool to interact with an existing Notebook file. Creation capabilities are essentially non-existent. Perhaps a later release will include more functionality. It is good however to have a Chromebook-compatible SMART Notebook solution. What students can do at home: As always, check out the Kindergarten Symbaloo for fun activities and skill builders. Replicate the activity above but with real clothing, adding some silly items to get them thinking and keep it fun & interesting. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We warmed up with some keyboarding fun and an introduction to "Super Hyper Spider Typer," a longtime lab favorite (they were allowed to choose another keyboarding activity if they wanted.) I checked for prior knowledge about measuring with non-standard units by starting a conversation with a yardstick in my hand and then asking the kids if I could measure the TV with my shoe. Some said no but most said yes. I talked about estimated and actual measures and sent them off to play Curious George - How Tall? and the Fearless Flying Fleas Game. Back together as a whole group we watched the first four minutes of this great PBS Kids’ Sid the Science Kid lesson on Exploring Measurement. We brainstormed some things to measure and came up with estimates which we recorded on the SMART Board. Then we created give "paper body rulers" using bulletin board paper and crayons/washable markers and we set everyone loose to measure. Chaos ensued as teams of kids raced around the room measuring their assigned items and reporting their data to me, which we recorded and reviewed as a class. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson was a LOT more fun than I expected. The creation of the "paper body rulers" was fun but the racing around the room to get all the measurements was even better. Most importantly, the kids totally got the concept of proper non-standard unit measuring and correctly identified when it wasn’t being done right (overlaps, starting in the wrong position, etc.) Kids are pretty good at estimating as the majority of the items we measured were within one unit of accuracy. What students can do at home: This activity could easily be replicated with any number of objects. Challenge the kids to use different units and to think BIG. How many hockey sticks long is the car? The HOUSE? How many bicycles wide is the driveway? Record their estimates and compare them to the actuals and see how close they are for some simple math practice. Check out the First Grade Symbaloo page for fun online activities! Screencast in action - note the large yellow circle where the cursor is on the right. That’s a feature of Camtasia, the software I used to produce the screencast. More of the screencast in action. Note the video progress bar along the bottom. Screencasts were stored locally on these SD cards rather than accessed via the Internet to ensure smooth playback and minimal disruption to our wireless network. They are on our Schooltube Channel for viewing at home. Second, Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Given what we knew would be a challenging assignment, we skipped the keyboarding warmup and got right to work on the lesson. The goal was to create a simple spreadsheet in Google Docs to analyze data captured in the previous "Water Drops on a Penny" challenge. Students watched a screencast I made over winter recess that explained the process, created the spreadhseet, shared it with me, entered data, created formulas and did some basic formatting. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson was a watershed event for a few reasons. For one, all students were partially successful. Some finished the project outright (it was intended to be a two-session lesson.) Even those that did not get far did accomplish the basics - they created the spreadsheet, shared it with me, and entered at least some data. It was also significant because it was the first successful use of a screencast in my classroom. We’ve had screencasts before, but, we showed them to the entire class due to bandwidth issues. A few weeks ago it occurred to me that I could store the screencasts on SD cards plugged into each Chromebook, so, I picked up 25 512mb SD cards for $35 (total) on eBay. I simply copied the video file to each one and pre-inserted it into the Chromebooks before class. Playback was smooth and trouble-free. The system worked much better than I anticipated and now I know I can rely on this solution. That said, my screencasts leave a lot to be desired. They’re too long and I stumble over the words too often. I don’t use a script, but it gets easier after the fourteenth or fifteenth attempt… Finally, it was also significant because students were really in charge of their own learning. As I suspected from the beginning when I envisioned "flipping" my lessons in the first place, screencast-based lessons allowed students to work at their own pace and for the adults in the room to assist individually where needed. The room was basically silent as they worked; I prefer it to be noisy, but in this case, the silence really was golden. What students can do at home: Check out the grade-level Symblaoo pages for fun learning activities: Grade 2 | Grade 3 |Grade 4 Practice keyboarding with Typing Pal. Students should know their usernames and passwords by now (they are simpler than Google Docs.) If they are really adventurous, have them log into Google Docs (click here for the link) and show you their work. They can also watch the screencast and see if they can follow along (though they won’t have the data sheet; they can make up data but obviously won’t use that for any conclusions.) I would love, love, LOVE to hear that students worked on Google Docs at home! If your child does so, please have them tell me!

Our district has been doing a lot of work with students in English/Language Arts (ELA) with non fiction reading and writing.  My community team has been working together to find … Continue reading →

Take a little time to grow and get involved in the online learning community. Here are three webinars that might interest you. UPDATED!Post from: The eLearning CoachWebinars In April 2010

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: This was what I consider an "off week" for students in Grades 2-3-4 as we worked through a "Part 2″ of (a.k.a. finished) the prior week’s lesson - in this case, a screencast on Google Spreadsheets. Kindergarten’s lesson was based on what I did with first grade the week before (with some modifications). But the big news this week is that in First Grade, we kicked off our first ever Engineering is Elementary STEM unit including a micro-field trip with a little "hands-on" exploration of brick walls and mortar. Please note: in our current "Day" rotation, my new lessons start on Thursdays (Day 1). These "days" change over the course of the year due to holidays, etc. (This also means that as of this writing, three of my five classes have not seen these lessons yet.) Week ending 01/11/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: Students warmed up with a few minutes of keyboarding fun using an activity of their choice from the Kindergarten Symbaloo page. Later, we assembled at the SMART Board to talk about the day’s lesson: non-standard measurement. As I explained the basic concepts, few believed me when I said I could measure my classroom TV with my shoe! I introduced the first two website activities above and sent them scampering back to their Chromebooks to try the activities for themselves. Afterwards, we returned to the SMART Board where we watched the Sid the Science Kid episode above. (side note: half the class looked right at me when the teacher says it’s okay to measure things with your shoe. I just smiled and said "Told ya!") With that context, five kids volunteered to be "traced" for the "paper body rulers" and the entire class got in on the fun coloring them in. Finally, we estimated how many lengths of various "rulers" would be needed to measure objects in the room. We then ran around and measured those objects, comparing our estimates to the actual values. It was awesome! What I observed / inferred / connected: Kids loved this lesson, especially the running around the room part. They enjoyed the estimating/guessing and seeing how close we were (or weren’t). This led to some rich conversations about why, measuring technique, what constitutes a good and bad guess, etc. All in all it was very engaging. The Sid the Science Kid episode is cute but I’ve got issues with it. First, the teacher measures using 2″ wide wooden blocks that clearly leave a gap between placements of the paper body ruler. Second, she has a poor little long-haired girl lie down on the bare FLOOR (!?!) for measuring purposes. (Maybe they don’t have "dust bunnies" in that school…) What students can do at home: This activity could easily be replicated with any number of objects. Challenge the kids to use different units and to think BIG. How many hockey sticks long is the car? The HOUSE? How many bicycles wide is the driveway? Record their estimates and compare them to the actuals and see how close they are for some simple math practice. As always, check out the Kindergarten Symbaloo for fun activities and skill builders. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Students warmed up on the Chromebooks with a keyboarding activity of their choice, then we gathered on the cubes in front of the SMART Board to introduce "A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls," the first Engineering is Elementary unit taught in my classroom. (Check out the unit overview and the unit summary.) I mentioned that we were starting something new and different called "STEM" and that we would be doing a lot of reading, exploring, experimenting and building - including making our own walls. They were very excited! We read the first three chapters of "Yi Min’s Great Wall," the storybook that presents the engineering design challenge at the center of the unit. It features a relateable character in a far-away place, in this case, a young Chinese schoolgirl named Yi Min who wants to protect her school’s garden from a marauding, hungry rabbit. We talked about brick walls, how they are constructed, what problems they solve for us (walls are, after all, technology), where we see walls, what mortar is and does, and more. We took a micro-field trip to the elementary school vestibule to explore brick walls and mortar there. Kids ran their fingers on the mortar and felt small particles of dirt (sand) come off. We talked about why that is, what the mortar is made of, and how it holds the bricks in place. We then returned to the STEMLAB where we used Google Earth to show how far China is from the USA by "flying" from NCS to several places the kids might know - New York City; Walt Disney World; Los Angeles; and finally, Bejiing, China. Small mouths were agape as the Earth spun around for what seemed like forever until Bejiing appeared. We then wrapped up with an intro of the next week’s lesson and let the kids play on the Chromebooks for a few minutes before leaving. What I observed / inferred / connected: This was amazing fun, both watching Mrs. Best (shown above) read the story (and getting a chance to read it too!) The storybook was easy to follow and place emphasis where needed for dramatic effect. We stopped for questions periodically and had some great conversations along the way about gardens, caring for them, what types of things are grown in gardens, etc. We talked about earth materials for building, which might be better for walls than others, and which types we’ve seen around school and home. The Google Earth "Fly-to’s" were very popular and the kids really seemed to "get" the distance between New Jersey and China. "It’s on the other whole side of the world!" was one reaction. Overall, this was a very fun (and different) way to spend Computer Lab time and the kids really seemed to enjoy it. (When I mentioned we’d be building walls, they all actually started cheering!) What students can do at home: Talk about brick walls either in your home or nearby. Ask your child what they know about the walls, how they are formed, why they are created, etc. and let them astound you. Check out the First Grade Symbaloo page for fun online activities! Second, Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: As I said in the intro, this was an "off week" for students in Grades 2-3-4 because we worked through a "Part 2″ of (a.k.a. finished) the prior week’s lesson - in this case, a screencast on Google Spreadsheets. We also had the students complete a survey to share their thoughts about use of screencasts in my class. Only two of my five classes have completed it so far, so I won’t be sharing any data quite yet. What I observed / inferred / connected: Screencasting WORKS, even with our kludgy use of SD memory cards to hold the recordings. (Can’t wait until those are no longer needed.) My screencasting skills still need a lot of work. Most of all: I need to be more concise. Kids that needed extra help to complete this really seemed to struggle with the idea of working independently. Perhaps that’s because they are so used to having someone work with them? I need more time to digest this, and to see if additional screencasts can encourage them to develop self-help and troubleshooting skills. What students can do at home: Check out the grade-level Symblaoo pages for fun learning activities: Grade 2 | Grade 3 |Grade 4 Practice keyboarding with Typing Pal. Students should know their usernames and passwords by now (they are simpler than Google Docs.) If they are really adventurous, have them log into Google Docs (click here for the link) and show you their work. They can also watch the screencast and see if they can follow along (though they won’t have the data sheet; they can make up data but obviously won’t use that for any conclusions.) I would love, love, LOVE to hear that students worked on Google Docs at home! If your child does so, please have them tell me!

Judging by some of the reactions I have been getting to my Data Change Everything blogpost last night, I would say I've touched a bit of a nerve. Good. People get ready, there a change a comin'. Just a few...

It’s Digital Learning Month (and as I write this DLDay!) and I want to share my classroom activity.  I started my Weather project.  "i, Meteorologist" is supposed to come as … Continue reading →

For the past several weeks, my new lessons have been falling on Thursdays (i.e., Day 1). With the upcoming Dr. Martin Luther King holiday on January 21st, "Day 1″ will shift to Fridays. So, posting a recap on Saturday after having taught only one of five lessons seems, well, silly. To rectify this, I’m going to skip (hence the picture, oooh, I’m so clever, aren’t I?) my reflection / update for one week. This will allow me to complete (and therefore reflect on) four days worth of lessons. So, watch this space next weekend for an update on our usual adventures! Thanks!

I recently contributed an essay to the inaugural issue of the Journal of Applied Instructional Design. This is a new journal, sponsored by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, aimed at giving the ID scholar - practitioner greater voice....

Instructional designers will increasingly be asked to design information, not just learning content. Here's a model for info design.Post from: The eLearning CoachWe Design Information Too

Every educational technology professional knows the frustrations of getting buy in from the teaching staff in school as districts work hard to create 21st century learning environments for students.  I’ve … Continue reading →

The sun is setting on another Educon weekend, 2+ days (depending on your availability and inclination) of conversation, networking, questioning, observing, sharing and reflecting on life as an educator and the future of schools (among eleventy-billion other things). It was a great two days, filled with seeing (and in many cases actually talking to) old friends - and making many new ones. In years past I might have written blog posts about each of the sessions I attended, my takeaways, the ideas I’m going to implement in my classroom, etc., but, I lost my blogging mojo many months ago (if you see it, please tell it I’m looking for it, thanks.) Instead, I’ll share an awesome video that came to me by way of my dear friend and colleague Bernajean Porter. She was not at Educon, but, followed the conference from afar, and thought I’d like the video. She was wrong. I *LOVE* it. It captures so much of the essence of this past weekend - being inspired and inspiring others; taking action; laughter and love; and, most of all, the power of being awesome. So, enjoy this pep talk. And share it with others. They’ll be glad you did. Thanks, Bernajean. Miss you lots.

What goes into designing a screen for eLearning? Start with the functional screen areas first.Post from: The eLearning CoachConsiderations For Screen Design

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: Getting back on the blogging bandwagon this week … Kindergarten worked on sorting and counting, getting their first taste of Google Apps (!) in the process; First Grade made excellent progress on our Engineering is Elementary "Designing Walls" unit; Second Grade worked in Google Docs also (a basic writing exercise) while Third and Fourth grade were challenged to design yet another paper bridge structure, this time, with even more  complex requirements, including a lesson on the strength of corrugated paper. Please note: in our current "Day" rotation, Mondays are Day 2, which means my new lessons start on Friday (Day 1). These "days" change over the course of the year due to holidays, etc. Week ending 02/01/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: This week’s lesson was all about sorting and counting up to 20. We warmed up by counting some fish, then connecting some dots, and finally helping Curious George find missing numbers. The main part of the lesson involved a Google Presentation I created based on one I have used before with Kindergarten. It’s a simple sorting activity that gets them familiar with the user interface and has them enter text into boxes and also re-positioning objects on a slide page. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson worked a lot better than I expected. I feel as though there are too many steps needed to complete the tasks (I’m sensitive to how much information the kids can process and have made adjustments) but most everyone was able to fill in the template correctly on the first try, without assistance. So, maybe not. The warmup activities were a huge hit. I try really hard to find fun and engaging sites for the first part of each lesson and we definitely hit the mark this week (judging by reactions from the kids.) What students can do at home: These lessons are easily replicated with common household objects and paper/pencil. Check out the Kindergarten Symbaloo for fun activities and skill builders. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: In this week’s lesson as part of the Engineering is Elementary unit "A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls," students compared three different earth materials - sand, soil and clay flour, in sealed plastic bags - to determine their properties. They also got to see how those properties changed when water was added to each material. Finally, they spread each mixture onto ceramic tiles which were allowed to dry overnight and then "strength tested" the next morning. Click here for a video! It was a very messy lesson, one of the messiest yet in the new STEMLAB, but we were ready, thanks to generous donations of various supplies (including the gloves used by Mrs. Best in the video and awesome t-shirts that were perfect smocks for the kids.) We had to set aside extra time for cleanup, but everything went smoothly overall. What I observed / inferred / connected: This unit keeps getting better and better. The kids really enjoyed examining the samples (dry and wet) and using the ceramic tiles to create miniature test walls was very helpful. In every case, students thought the ‘mortar’ would hold - and their reactions during the tests were priceless. Due to time pressures, we had to take some liberties with the testing as described in the EiE unit guide, but were able to successfully show the students that each material was unique in terms of its adhesion properties. What students can do at home: Since it’s winter, it’s hard to encourage students to go outside and dig in the yard for materials to build and test their own walls, but that is exactly what I’d say to do. It would be great for the kids to source their own material, imagine and perform tests (on a miniature scale), experimenting with different mixtures to see which works best. That is the essence of this unit - how materials engineers combine materials to form new, effective materials for particular applications. Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Students logged onto their Chromebooks using their Google Accounts, then warmed up with some Typing Pal lessons (one second grader has finished the entire set of lessons, working at home!) Students then worked on a writing assignment they’d brought with them from class, entering the text and "sharing" the document with me for my review. What I observed / inferred / connected: Students are pretty adept at this point with the Google Apps login process and navigating the Chromebooks. This means that very soon I’m going to kick things up a notch and provide intentionally vague (but still scaffolded) lesson instructions to see how they manage. It is said that using technology to "retype" written material is one of the worst possible activities, but here’s the reality, at least for us: in Second grade, kids’ keyboarding skills are simply not good enough for them to type as fast as they think. Although we are working on this (see pic #1), it’s a slow process, especially since I only see these kids once a week for 42 minutes. Ideally, students (like the one I mentioned) are finding their way onto Typing Pal at home or doing other projects on the computer that require them to use the keyboard quite a bit (including chatting with friends). It’s not a perfect solution, but until we go 1:1 with laptops and keyboards are more common than journals or lined paper, this is how we’ve gotta play it. What students can do at home: Ideally, if they remember their Google Account credentials, they should be able to log in and review/continue working on any project they have started in my class. They’ll know what to do once they get in. If your child needs their credentials, have them see me in school, so we can provide them on a piece of paper (I don’t have access to their passwords at home.) I keep telling people that remembering usernames and passwords - for multiple systems - is a 21st century skill if there ever was one. Third & Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: This week’s lesson served two purposes: to challenge students once again to solve a problem using the Engineering Design Process and to provide material/context for next week’s lesson utilzing Google Presentations. I started the lesson by explaining that the students were once again going to "do the impossible" by building a bridge/structure: - capable of supporting a box of modelling clay at least 10″ off the table, - using only three pieces of 8.5″ x 11″ paper & two pieces of tape, and - the design had to allow another box of clay to pass underneath, like a boat crossing under a bridge. After a lot of trial and error, we gathered at the SMART Board to watch the clip shown above, demonstrating the power of corrugated materials. This was the "aha" moment that many students needed. It was also an opportunity for me to make the point that a single person - a Brooklyn printer and paper bag maker named Robert Gair, in this case - invented something that literally changed the world … and that any one of them could do the same. Once the bridges were constructed, we stacked boxes of clay onto each one until they collapsed. This was without a doubt the most popular part of the lesson! What I learned / observed / inferred: This lesson was too easy at first. Students were able to simply perch the clay boxes on two columns of paper without even using the third piece of paper as the ‘deck’. Worse, adding the corrugated deck would make the design LESS stable if their folds were too large. Still, most students were successful, and everyone understood the power of corrugated materials. We need more lessons where kids truly have to rely on each other and work together. While we had no real problems per se, there were many instances where "personalities" dominated, despite my best efforts to coach and support. We also should have some sort of system for changing partners so that kids get more chances to work with other people than their usual circle of friends. The average student does not know a piece of paper is 8.5″ x 11″ and I had to be sure to communicate this; most grasped the significance when I said their structure had to be at least 10″ off the table. Still, many students pressed on with designs that relied on folding the paper on the horizontal rather than the vertical axis, resulting in insufficient height. After some prodding, and encouraging them to "borrow" ideas from other tables, most got it. This is precisely the kind of hands-on problem solving and collaboration I am trying to foster in my program. What students can do at home: It’s easy enough to replicate this project with household materials, just have something durable that can be easily stacked on top and will not break when the tower collapses. Allow your child to experiment freely - and to predict what will happen and why. Encourage them to follow the Engineering Design Process and to use that language - it’s extremely important in my classroom this year!

Originally posted on History Tech:I waded into the shallow end of the Google Apps / GAFE / Chromebook pool last summer. In November, I dove off the high board as…

Picking up a thread from yesterday... I continue to believe that the most immediate opportunity for demonstrating the value of learning analytics in institutions and enterprises comes from mining existing pools of data in creative and thoughtful ways. But Stephen...

I am the most evil science teacher in the history of science teachers. I’ve assigned HOMEWORK over Spring Break!! *gasp* I discovered CK-12 several months ago as an app on … Continue reading →

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: it was week of historic firsts for the NCS K4STEMLAB! Kindergarteners and First graders literally had their hands full this week with full-on STEM projects while Second graders just started their own multi-week STEM journey. Third and Fourth graders got some "independent" work done while literally lounging around in our learner-centered, flexible-space classroom. Please note: in our current "Day" rotation, Mondays are Day 2, which means my new lessons start on Friday (Day 1). These "days" change over the course of the year due to holidays, etc. Week ending 02/08/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: This week’ s lesson was stolen borrowed adapted from the STEM Mom Gummy Worm Measuring Activity which I loved the moment I saw it. Children learned subtraction using manipulatives while practicing measuring skills… and they got to enjoy a tasty treat  too! Students were asked to first measure the unstretched Gummy Worm and record the result (in MM) on their worksheet. Then they were to carefully stretch the gummy worm as far as it would go (without breaking) and record that measurement. Finally they would use the cube manipulatives to line up cubes equal to the larger of the two measurements, then "take away" cubes equal to the smaller number. What’s left is the difference, which they recorded on their worksheet, and then they got to eat the gummy worm! Each student got to measure and record data twice. Kids also got to color in a worm worksheet at the end of the lesson. What I observed / inferred / connected: Kindergarteners are just learning about subtraction now, so this was a little early for the lesson (I’ll try it later in the year next time) but the kids largely understood what to do. Since they worked in pairs, took turns, and did everything twice, by the end of class just about everyone was able to perform the tasks successfully. Many students are still working on their letter formation skills; the guides on the bottom of the worksheets were helpful. This was a fun but also difficult lesson for me. On Day 1, Mrs. Vicente jumped in and took the lead at the beginning, teaching the kids how to subtract using the manipulatives. Encouraged, I took the lead on Day 2 with Mr. Battistini’s class but my explanation wasn’t nearly as fluid as Andrea’s. As a result, the kids struggled. I was better the next day with Mrs. Kern’s kids but when I saw Ms. Serago demonstrate the tasks everything got a lot clearer. By the time Ms. Brady’s students came in on Thursday, everything was running smoothly. I knew what worked and what didn’t. This lesson will be a hit next year, right from the start! What students can do at home: The STEM Mom Gummy Worm Measuring Activity is easily replicable at home with ordinary objects and a pape table for data collection. Try it Check out the Kindergarten Symbaloo for fun activities and skill builders. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: In this week’s lesson as part of the Engineering is Elementary unit "A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls," students had to determine which mortar "base" - clay, sand, or soil - was the strongest and then mix some mortar up to construct a stone wall. We began by showing video of mortar tests we conducted last week using ceramic tiles (like this). Students then used a clay flour base and added either soil or sand to the mixture, which was then used to construct a small stone wall using red slate rocks placed on a piece of plywood (fortunately I had some left over from the construction of my Z-Rack this past summer.) We then washed up, gathered on the foam cubes in front of the SMART Board, and reflected on what we’d learned. What I observed / inferred / connected: By FAR our most ambitious STEMLAB lesson yet, this activity required a major amount of organization, preparation and cleanup, and would not have been possible without the generosity of several generous parents who provided necessary materials. (I’d also like to thank Mrs. Bushay and Mrs. McGowan who helped me inventory everything we had and determine what we needed to ask for, and Mrs. Pilli for donating the old t-shirts the kids used as smocks.) Students loved, loved, LOVED this lesson! The mixing of materials, the placing of the rocks, the teamwork, everything about it was a hit. One child in particular, during our reflection at the end of class, couldn’t contain himself and blurted out, "THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME CREATIVE!" (I’m going to remember that for a long, long time.) Thanks to some creative planning by the first grade team, we were able to divide up the work to be performed so that everyone contributed to the process and got to try every task. It wasn’t easy, and it was messy, with mortar literally spilled all over the room, on kids’ hands, on tools we used in the classroom, and oh yes, on the rock wall itself. Oddly enough, first graders don’t have an innate knowledge of masonry, so, our wall looked a little … unconventional. Some students stacked rocks directly on top of each other, resulting in unstable structures that had to be redone. By the time it was over, though, we had our wall - built with alternating sections of clay+soil and clay+sand mortars. A great deal of flexibility and out-of-the-box thinking was necessary to adapt this lesson, which is designed (and we have materials for) a class of 30 students. We have 100+ students and we only meet once a week for 42 minutes. And, my classroom is used for four other grades’ worth of classes. All these factors were addressed by the modifications we made to the activities, mostly as suggested by the first grade teachers. All in all, it worked very well. What students can do at home: Ask your child what they learned from this experience. What mortar is best and why? Does adding sand or soil strengthen or weaken clay? What do materials engineers do? Did they feel like materials engineers during the lesson? What was their favorite part? I’d love to hear from you in the comments! Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: This week marked the start of the Engineering is Elementary unit, "A Work in Process: Improving a Play Dough Process." In this unit, students are read (I get to read!) a short story with an engineering design challenge they have to solve themselves. The story is about Michelle, a young girl from Canada with Down’s Syndrome that plays recreational hockey with her older brother, Tim. They need to raise money for their team’s trip to see the Toronto Maple Leafs, so they decide to have a booth at  their school fundraiser making and selling homemade play dough. Along the way, the students learn about chemical engineering concepts as they improve the play dough that is created. What I observed / inferred / connected: We only got through the first three chapters of the story, but it was great fun, as I really enjoyed both the "story" and the "telling" aspects of reading to the class.  My delivery needs a lot of work, and I need practice remembering my position in the book as I read, but overall, the kids seemed to get the key points (as they did in First Grade when I read their EiE story). In several of my classes, students asked about Down Syndrome, leading to some very rich and powerful discussions about what it means to be different and how we all struggle with different things. (In the story, Michelle is a terrific artist but is less confident about her athletic skills. Her sports-minded brother Tim, a star player on the hockey team, isn’t very artistic.) Though I wasn’t expecting the questions, I was prepared, and my explanation for one class earned me praise from several other teachers in the room, which made me feel pretty good. There are many themes in this story that make it easy for the kids to relate to: the age of the characters, the activity they are involved in, hints of bullying (and appropriate responses to/children’s thoughts about it), the roles of adults in various leadership positions, particularly those who work in engineering. I really, really enjoy these stories. They are very well done. What students can do at home: Since we are covering the story in class, the best thing to do at home is to talk about the characters, the problems they’ve encountered, what your child thinks about them, how they would have reacted, etc. We will finish the story in next week’s class. Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: In keeping with our week of firsts, we, for the first time, had students independently (with minimal direction from me, but with the help of other students if needed): - Choose a place in the room to sit - Log onto their Chromebooks - Start a keyboarding activity of their choice - Locate their Google Document presentation from last week to revise/edit/improve it. Though it was not technically very demanding - students have been logging into their devices independently since the start of school - this was the first time they were asked to work essentially by themselves for the entire period - and, we able to sit anywhere in the room they wished. What I learned / observed / inferred: Students are ready for this responsibility. We need to  reinforce proper Chromebook carrying techniques, but overall, in both grades, students appreciated and enjoyed the opportunity to work by themselves for the day. Without my telling them to do so, students in every class took it upon themselves to explore Google Presentations and learn new features, inserting royalty-free images, adding styles and themes, transitions, and other features. The best part - they taught each other how to do it. What students can do at home: See if your student remembers their Google Docs username and password, and, if so, have them log in here: http://docs.google.com/a/ncs-tech.org to show you the work they’ve done so far. Let them show you how to create a document, how to share it, revise & edit, insert images and graphics, etc. You will be amazed by their skills, I predict!

Imagine the contributions instructional designers would make to society if they ruled the world.Post from: The eLearning CoachIf Instructional Designers Ran The World

Regardless of where you learned your craft, whether you have a graduate degree or not, whatever the market sector where you work - there are certain things that people working in instructional design settings do that make themselves unique from,...

In my attempt to remain sane through this 8 week weather project, I’ve used a lot of Google products to keep everything in order.  Its all been flowing along nicely … Continue reading →