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 whipped up Valentines Day greetings for family members; First Graders got their "demolition" on during tests of mortar walls built last week; Second Graders finished the Engineering is Elementary storybook, "Michelle’s MVP Award" and are looking forward to getting their hands dirty by mixing up batches of homemade play-dough next week; Third and Fourth graders once again whipped up Google Docs magic by putting finishing touches on their "Paper Bridge Project" reflections. Please note: in our current "Day" rotation, my new lessons start on Friday (Day 1). These "days" change over the course of the year due to holidays, etc. Week ending 02/15/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: After a few minutes warming up with activities of their choice on the Kindergarten Symbaloo page, we gathered back on the cubes in front of the SMART Board for a discussion about computers as tools for creating things, particularly art. We talked about different types of programs (websites) and demonstrated Kerpoof.com, Crayola’s Digi-Color, ABCYa Paint Go, and Bomomo. We compared features and basic tasks and explored how each could be used to express feelings. Finally, we talked about the upcoming Valentines Day holiday, and students were free to choose the app/site they liked best to create something for a family member, and, off they went! What I observed / inferred / connected: Kindergarteners are dutiful duplicators, very highly influenced by suggestions and examples. Most kids chose Kerpoof.com and included features similar to my example. A few went with other tools like ABCYa Paint Go. All were successful/proficient. At first I thought giving them a choice was a good idea, but as the week went on, it seemed too much for some kids, as they spent time in each app, and came close to running out of class time. In the future, I’ll use fewer choices. What students can do at home: Rock out on the Kindergarten Symbaloo page! Let them impress you with your skills, but a word to the wise - tell them NO PRINTING (unless you OK it) otherwise you’ll be buying ink like milk and bread! 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 test the mortar walls they had constructed last week using a homemade "wrecking ball" I put together based on instructions in the material. Our design was a little different (it used traffic cones instead of chairs) but it worked perfectly as the students were all able to clearly see the action. We started the lesson however with video of wrecking ball, which was a huge hit, and got the kids thinking about force and energy in relation to how high the "ball" swung back before hitting the building. From there, we moved over to inspect the walls, looking for cracks, differences in color, etc. I introduced them to our wrecking ball with a quick demonstration of the relationship between "drop height" and force using small plastic jars filled with tiny rocks. They intuitively knew that a ball dropped at position "4″ on our scale (shown in the first picture above) would do more "damage" than one dropped at position "1." (We had fun making analogies to backyard swingsets and what it felt like to swing up "that high." Finally, we made predictions as to how much damage there would be to each wall, followed by recording our actual observations, which the students then used to determine which mortar was strongest. What I observed / inferred / connected: HOLY COW WAS THIS FUN!!! The activities fit together seamlessly, managed to get everyone involved (even though it was a whole-class lesson), and judging by the facial expressions of the kids (which I can’t show here), this was the most powerful lesson in the series. (Plus, we got to break stuff!) The kids chanted loudly as we counted the number of strikes until the walls completely failed. They were mesmerized! Better still, they followed the logic of the process (which did not always yield the expected result - that the Clay + Sand mixture would be strongest). It was the most fun I have had teaching in a very long time. We made multiple, major adjustments to the activities in "A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls, but only because we had no choice; the Engineering is Elementary units are designed for single self-contained classroom of up to 30 students. I have 100+ students, which I see (in five classes) once a week. So not only did we have to scale the materials UP, we had to scale the activities DOWN. There was no way I could have stored all the different wall samples the kids could have built. My colleagues on the First Grade team deserve all the credit for suggesting we build a single wall as a grade level. This made the wall creation manageable and allowed each class to have its own sections to test. The "Messy Area" of my classroom was truly that this past week as pieces of mortar and stone went all over the floor despite our best efforts to contain things. (I’m in debt to our fantastic custodial crew including Mr. Larry for doing such a great job cleaning up every night.) Despite these challenges, the lessons were successful, effectively building excitement with each passing week. (Audible gasps were commonly heard as students came into my room, giddy with excitement about what they’d be doing.) With one more activity to go - a visual reflection - we are about ready to wrap this up. It will have been six weeks since the kids touched a computer in my classroom! What students can do at home: Have them talk about the experience, how they made predictions, how those compared to the actuals, what they thought about the testing, anything at all. If you have any feedback, I’d love to hear it in the comments! Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: As a class, we finished reading the story, "Michelle’s MVP Award," setting the stage for next week’s play dough mixing. There is an unexpected, very satisfying twist at the end that made the story special. What I observed / inferred / connected: The kids did a great job listening attentively as I made my way through the story. Having the story graphics on the SMART Board helped, again. I tried not to be too over-dramatic but almost certainly failed in spots. After two weeks of reading, the kids are ready to get their hands dirty, and boy, will they! What students can do at home: Talk to your child about the story - the plot, characters, setting, anything - have them give you the highlights or attempt to retell the entire story. (I remember when my kids were in Second Grade, and it’s a great age where the sense of wonder and suspension of disbelief really take hold. Though it was realistic fiction, it was so very believable! Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Students were free to continue working on their Google Docs reflections entitled "Paper Bridges: an Engineering Design Project," sitting anywhere in the room that was comfortable. What I learned / observed / inferred: Once again, the kids did a great job sharing and supporting each other. I did virtually no instruction regarding features in Google Presentations; I merely indicated what I wanted them to do (apply formatting, change the appearance, insert images) and let them do it. As last week, the kids rose to the occasion. Here’s an example. 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!  

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I live in a region of the country where the steel industry is taking a serious beating.  One of the largest mills in the area just announced they’re laying off … Continue reading →

Once upon a time, equity analyst Howard Block, Ph.D. wrote a report entitled The e-Bang Theory: Education Industry Overview 1999 Illuminismo, Volume 2 (San Francisco: Banc of America Securities Equity Research, Montgomery Division, September 1999). This report is the one...

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 had another "first" this week in the K4STEMLAB as every class had some sort of hands-on STEM or other activity (meaning the Chromebooks were unused for the week.) Hands-on experiences are the key distinguishing element of my program this year. It is great to see the kids so excited about creating and reflecting on what they’re learning! Kindergarten students explored 2D/3D shapes using spaghetti and marshmallows; First Graders reflected on their "Designing Walls" STEM project experience with a "visual reflection" of the Engineering Design Process; Second Graders explored properties of solids and liquids in different mixtures, their first exposure to chemical engineering; Third and Fourth Graders brainstormed some Games in Education research questions (and got a sneak peek at "Minetest," a free Minecraft clone.) Week ending 02/22/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: Using dry spaghetti and mini-marshmallows, and following the inspiration of this blog post, students made as many two- and three-dimensional shapes as they could. We first started out on the SMART Board as we discussed different shapes (on this card) as I modeled the construction process. We had some fun estimating how many marshmallows it would take to make different shapes. The kids then scurried off to their tables and started creating on their own. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson was a lot more fun for everyone than I imagined! Almost without exception, kids were mesmerized by the construction process and how many shapes could be combined to form even more complex shapes & designs. Kids made every imaginable shape, creating, undoing and re-creating over and over. At then end of class, they got to eat five of the marshmallows. Pretty soon imaginations were running wild and we had kids making: swingsets; SpongeBob Squarepants; windmills; houses of many different types; people; animals; and more. Once again, the floor in our "Messy Area" was a disaster, littered with broken spaghetti and flattened-out marshmallows. What students can do at home: This project is easy and fun! Tip: let your marshmallows go stale - at least a few days, if not a week - they work a lot better stale (dried and hard) vs. fresh (soft and gooey.) Ask your child to identify these shapes all over the house - then recreate them with marshmallows and spaghetti. Have them count the marshmallows needed to make different shapes. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Having completed five weeks of work on the Engineering is Elementary lesson, "A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls," it was time for us to wrap things up. I reviewed the assessments that came with the kit but wasn’t satisfied; they were either a little too simple or they required too much writing. I decided I wanted some kind of visual reflection and talked to my colleague Mary Lou Best to get her input. She suggested having kids create an image showing what was happening in the project during each phase of the Engineering Design Process. I loved this idea and put together the template shown above. (The reverse side is a full page graphic of the Engineering Design Process.) We started the lesson by reviewing what we’d learned in the project (and revisiting the storybook, too.) I explained what the kids needed to do and sent them to their tables to get to work. What I observed / inferred / connected: This went well, better than I’d expected. Most kids needed some gentle reminders about what was happening at each phase of the process, but they ultimately got it, understanding the sequence, dependencies and achievements at each phase. It was so rewarding to watch! I’m convinced this will be an experience they will remember for a long time. I had originally wanted the students to create their reflections digitally but decided that added too much complexity for too little benefit and we went with paper. I’m glad I did. The kids really enjoyed the activity and the resulting reflections tell me all I need to know about what they retained from the project. What students can do at home: I will be sending the reflections home as soon as I make a copy. Discuss them with your child! Ask them to tell you what was happening in each of the phases of the Engineering Design Process. Ask them what it means to be a "materials engineer." Ask them what they liked best about the project, what they learned. Ask them anything! Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Week 2 of the EiE STEM unit "Improving a Play Dough Process," for us, involved an introduction to chemical engineering via play dough material testing. First, we passed out commercial Play Dough to all the students to let them handle and get the feel of the material, consider its properties, try to mold it into shape, etc. We also had on hand a batch of "bad" play dough I’d whipped together earlier for comparison purposes. Two volunteers came up to the front of the class and grabbed handfuls of the stuff (making some pretty funny faces along the way - if only I’d taken some photos!). We then contrasted the "good" and "bad" play dough to be clear on how we wanted the dough we made to feel and smell. We then moved on to mixing materials in accordance with the instructions. Each pair of students had to work through five different tests, recording their results along the way. We then had some time to reflect on what we’d seen and make some predictions about the mixtures that would work best with our final play dough. What I observed / inferred / connected: Student reactions were priceless as they mixed each of the materials. Shock, disbelief, surprise and amazement … I never expected such reactions! Several kids took it upon themselves to mash the stuff with their fingers, which is fine, but it was not part of the test (and added somewhat to the cleanup phase.) Lunch trays are awesome. I got these over the summer (ordered them without even knowing what I’d use them for) and they’ve been the single most helpful piece of classroom equipment in my lab! Lesson setup was an absolute PITA, and the results of the project were messy, messy, messy! Each team of students needed their own flour, salt, mixing bowls, etc., and this wasn’t even our actual play dough mixing! Switching classes after messy STEM projects is going to be a real challenge. I’ve often got only a few minutes between classes and I’m by myself. I could shave off some instructional time for cleanup but we’re hurting to get through everything timewise as it is. Fortunately the room setup is ideal and in a worst-case scenario we can actually "leave" the mess and work in another part of the room. The design work we did on the space over the summer is paying great dividends. What students can do at home: Ask your child about the project - what did they learn this week? Make some simple combinations of materials at home, have them predict what will happen, observe the results, then explain why! Third & Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We are kicking off a mutli-week survey/research project that I hope will engage the students while it paves the way for innovation in my classroom. Trying to come up with a topic that might interest our third and fourth graders, and that mattered at the same time, I decided "games in education" (particularly Minecraft) would be an excellent choice. So far it seems I was right. The learning goals for this unit are for the students to gather data using a Google Docs survey of their own creation, analyze the results, then form opinions based on the data. The resulting analysis will, hopefully, pave the way for us to use Minecraft (or the free program "Minetest") in my curriculum next year. We began the discussion with a conversation about standards and how as the "technology" teacher my job is a lot simpler than, say, a classroom teacher who has to teach at least four different subjects. We also talked about the curriculum approval process and how I could (as we did with the STEMLAB this year) "imagine" new teaching approaches, propose them, have them be approved, and then implement them in the classroom. We talked about Minecraft as a context for learning, and specifically "Minetest," the free Minecraft clone that we could theoretically deploy throughout the entire school. This certainly got everyone’s attention. We shifted the conversation over to the kinds of things students are learning outside my classroom, and we broke the class into teams that had to brainstorm as many possible topics as they could in about ten minutes. Their answers were recorded on paper (for ease of storage and later access). What I learned / observed / inferred: Despite what you might think, kids are pretty enthusiastic about the material they are learning in school. They energetically came up with concepts to write down, often competing with other groups to see who could think of more. The conversations withing the teams were interesting too as kids debated & validated ideas, sometimes consolidating. Our third and fourth graders really, really need to work on their spelling skills. (To be fair I told them spelling didn’t count, and it doesn’t, for a brainstorming list.) The results of these brainstorms are now scattered all over my basement floor, as I consolidate them and prepare for next week’s lesson … forming the questions we’ll be using in the actual survey. What students can do at home: Talk to your child about what they are learning. What do they enjoy? Why? Would they be more apt to enjoy learning if the learning environment was more collaborative and game-like, as in Minecraft? Or would that be a distraction? It’s an interesting premise I look forward to exploring with our students!

The Four-door Model is a relatively quick and inexpensive way to develop online learning. Our interview continues.Post from: The eLearning CoachThe Four-door Model: Part 2

When I started this blog, I promised myself I’d try not to become too embroiled in the politics of education or anything else as I shared my reflections with the … Continue reading →

I am pleased to share the following good news. WICHE, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, announced today that WCET, the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies, has been awarded a $1,000,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation...

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 were all about following directions this week with a few fun websites and some Learning.com lessons; First Graders reflected on what it meant to have a good (or not so good) play date; Second Graders were all about the play dough as they mixed their own for the very first time; Third and Fourth Graders worked on their Games in Education research project questions using Google Docs. Week ending 03/01/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: This week’s lessons were all about following directions. I located some fun warmup activities to start everyone thinking about the importance of following directions and the games did not disappoint.  They are on the Kindergarten Symbaloo but I’ll link them here for convenience: Bob’s Tool Shed; Tina’s World; Wubbzy’s Garden; Dora the Explorer - Exploring Isa’s Garden. Students then headed to Learning.com’s EasyTech service where I’d queued up a few lessons: one on simple word processing and two on use of painting & drawing programs. As shown above, kids got positive reinforcement when they were right (and gentle reminders when they weren’t.) All were ultimately successful and learned some important aspects of painting and drawing application user interfaces in the process. What I observed / inferred / connected: This was an "easy day" in that the kids, while challenged by the activities at times, were largely self-directed. I love days like this because I can spend time with the kids that need help while others can scoot along and get through the assignment (and to play time) quickly. Learning.com’s EasyTech service is ideal thanks to its gentle learning curve and audible prompts. What students can do at home: I provided parents with Learning.com EasyTech access instructions at the start of the school year. If you need another copy, or help logging in, contact me! First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We started the lesson with a group share about play-dates, and in particular, we had the kids recall examples of good - and not so good - play dates. We unpacked what made a play date fun (or not) and reinforced the actions and behaviors (under our own control) that help (rather than hurt). Taking turns, letting the guest go first / choose the activity, being open to ideas and playing games in new ways all were discused. We also explored feelings that inevitably occur when things don’t go well on a play-date, and, that those things are natural - even best friends don’t get along 100% of the time. We then watched a fun, quick video, Crawford and Harriett Work Together. I stopped the video at times to ask questions, which worked well to break up the presentation and get the kids to think. After the video, I asked students to use ABCYa’s PaintGO to draw an illustration of a time they had a really GOOD (or not so good) play-date. While most created a single illustration, some (like the child above) chose to do both scenes on a two-part image. They illustrations needed to feature the student themselves and the other parties and sufficient detail as to be able to represent what was happening. Further, students had to explain what was in their illustration once it was completed. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson is one of our favorites because students relate so well to the topic at hand and express themselves so easily and vividly, with great details and vocabulary. The ABCYa’s PaintGO program makes it easy for them to express themselves. The Crawford video is short and sweet and the kids love watching it. What students can do at home: This lesson is easy to replicate at home - all you need is a prompt and ABCYa’s PaintGO! Have fun! Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Week 3 of the EiE STEM unit "Improving a Play Dough Process," involved creating the play dough we would be improving and coloring the following week. Using a set of steps (see above) we first made a bit of dough that wasn’t exactly right. We thought about what we’d learned last week about the order of mixing materials and determined that mixing the salt and water first was a better solution (bad pun). So we re-arranged the steps and made the dough. Some still needed to add flour, salt or water, but in the end, everyone came up with a bag of their very own (example shown above.) What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson set new standards for MESSY! Controlling the flour, salt and water proved to be too much for most students as quite a bit of material ended up where it shouldn’t have. Fortunately no kids got too filthy (0ther than hands that needed a good scrubbing). The play dough most kids made seemed mostly okay, but I am left wondering what we could have done differently to ensure more perfect batches. What students can do at home: Make some play dough! The steps shown above are the "approved" process! See how you do! Third & Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We continued working on our Games in Education Research Project by fleshing out the content areas we brainstormed last week. We used Google Presentations to add details to each of the areas, which will form the basis for the actual questions that will be presented in the surveys. What I learned / observed / inferred: Google Presentations is an ideal brainstorming tool, as long as kids follow directions! What students can do at home: Students should remember their Google Account login username and password and therefore should be able to log into Google Docs from home. Ask your child to show you what they know and prepare to be amazed!

Just sayin’… A4: Choose your chats carefully, can be very addictive #satchat pic.twitter.com/8uI9ZU2R2Z — Graham Andre’ (@grahamandre) May 2, 2015

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I am attending a Summit later this week. The University Professional and Continuing Educational Association and the Association for Continuing Higher Education are co-hosting a sold out invitational meeting to consider the Future of Online Learning. Many dozens of learning...

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 an ‘easy’ week with Kindergarteners reflecting on play-dates (and social skills) with a graphic reflection; Week ending 03/08/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: We warmed up with some keyboarding activities on the Kindergarten Symbaloo. With inspiration from Crawford the Cat’s wonderful social skills series of videos, we talked about the importance of including everyone in playtime, and shared some experiences along those lines: who was involved? What happened? How was the situation resolved? As usual the kids were literally bursting with stories to share. We channeled that energy into an illustration using ABCYa’s PaintGo application (example above). Students were to illustrate a situation they encountered and what they did about it, using as much detail as possible. Images were then saved to Google Docs. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson went about as well as I expected except that some kids had trouble thinking of a time when they felt left out (or someone get left out), which is pretty awesome! What students can do at home: Use ABCYa’s PaintGo to recount a similar story or event - press them to include details and to use the painting application’s full set of drawing tools. Check out the entire series of Crawford the Cat videos on YouTube or their website. These are very popular with the kids! First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: After warming up with some keyboarding activities, students completed a couple of Learning.com EasyTech lessons on graphic design. What I observed / inferred / connected: Students love EasyTech - and I do, too - the gentle learning curve is just right for kids and they provide excellent instruction. They get a solid foundation we can build on in our projects. What students can do at home: We provided login credentials for Learning.com at the start of the year - contact me if you need them! The beauty of this tool is that kids can work AHEAD (and beyond their grade level) to build skills. Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We wrapped up the EiE STEM unit "Improving a Play Dough Process," by adding food coloring to our Play Dough and refining the mixture with additional flour, salt & water. What I observed / inferred / connected: This was a lot harder than I expected! Getting the mixtures right required a lot of trial and error. The food coloring was messy to work with. The final products were … interesting, to say the least! What students can do at home: Have you made any play dough at home yet? Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: As part of our exploration of Games in Education, and to evaluate a cool new service we may be subscribing to soon, we had students check out Sumdog, an extremely versatile, individualized, international, competition-based collection of math fact games. Students log in with their username and password (I created and manage their accounts) and then choose activities in which they compete against players from all over the world. Some of the games are simplistic and rely almost solely on math skills; others are extremely complex and require excellent math as well as reasoning and deductive skills. (My personal favorite is the activity that presents a math fact to solve and then asks students to place the answer as a puzzle piece. It’s crazy!) What I learned / observed / inferred: I love Sumdog so far. Setting up the students was a breeze. I can easily tailor the lesson content (material, difficulty). I also love how they present the math facts in creative ways, often with variables, really forcing kids to think. The variety of games is excellent. Playing against others is also fun, especially when they are competing against each other. This website has single-handedly validated my theory that well-designed games can increase interest in practicing math facts. Now, what we need is a study to determine if there are statistically significant differences in math skill development vs. ‘traditional’ practice methods. Hmmmm, action research… What students can do at home: The login for Sumdog requires students to use this link: http://www.sumdog.com/sch/ncsnj and the username and password they were provided at school. Encourage them to log on and play!

share, share alike!   50 of the Best Google Chrome Extensions by TeachThought Staff Google Chrome is, increasingly, where it’s at.As of April 2014, Google Chrome become the de facto … Continue reading →

Before committing to a stock photo service, scope out the best one for your money. Check these criteria first.Post from: The eLearning CoachStock Photo Sites: How To Choose The Best One

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 a smorgasbord kind of week with a variety of activities, sometimes even within the same grade. Kindergarten students learned the basics of hardware input & output while First Graders explored how to go places safely online. Second Graders either finished their Play Dough projects or worked with math facts on Sumdog.com while Third & Fourth graders did a mix of Sumdog.com and work on their Games in Education project survey questions. Week ending 03/15/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: After selecting a keyboarding warmup activity from the Kindergarten Symbaloo, students gathered on the cubes in front of the SMART Board for a discussion/presentation and some SMART Notebook hands-on fun. My presentation took the students through some basic hardware concepts, which I expressed using a variety of easily understandable (and often intentionally silly) examples. INPUT = telling the computer what to do, PROCESS = the computer thinking about what you told it to do, and then doing it, STORAGE = the computer putting information away for when it needs it later, and OUTPUT = the computer ‘giving’ you what you asked for. We do this using visuals representing each of the main devices associated with these functions. We then accessed a SMART Notebook file I’ve used for the past few years that has some very basic interactivity designed to assess if the students understand the information in the previous discussion. Everyone gets a turn, the action is lively, students help each other, it’s generally a fun time for everyone. What I observed / inferred / connected: I’ve been doing this lesson (or a variation of it) for as long as I can remember. It’s important because it gets kids thinking - wondering - how computers actually work. I have in the past used real hardware, passed out among the students … which is great for hands-on learning but a bit challenging when it comes to classroom management. I’ve also wanted to implement some sort of "human computer" using kids to act out each of the parts of the process but wasn’t able to make that happen this year. What students can do at home: Ask your child about the four concepts - input, process, output and storage - and see what they remember from our discussion. Spend some time on the Kindergarten Symbaloo - there are many new activities to choose from. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: After a few minutes warming up with a keyboarding activity of their choice from the First Grade Symbaloo, students returned to the cubes by the SMART Board for a discussion about online safety based on the Common Sense Media lesson "Going Places Safely." We began with a discussion about taking trips with our parents and things we do to stay safe - stay close, don’t talk to strangers, only go places we should, etc. We likened visiting places online to browsing the Internet - and reiterated the need to use common sense in both situations. We watched the well-produced, lively and brief movie clip featuring "Jeremiah" and the things he does to stay safe online: 1) Ask your parents before you go online, 2) only talk to people you know, and 3) stick to websites just right for you. We then shared our favorite websites and what we did on them - from games to art to famous places to websites for television shows - comparing and contrasting them, discussing why they are enjoyable, etc. Finally, students had to create an illustration of a favorite website and what they do there, who they interact with, how that impacts the fun (and learning.) What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson went about as I expected, except that students were really motivated for some reason during the sharing portion of the lesson. Everyone had something to share. Everyone also had a favorite website they wanted to tell everyone about. The illustration part of the lesson also went easier than I expected as the students had no problem coming up with fairly detailed drawings (and they had no problem offering explanations). We also talked about Internet Favorites (and how to use them) and the importance of having a parent around when you are online. What students can do at home: Have a conversation with your child about online safety and be sure you are both comfortable with what to do - and not to d0 - when surfing the web! Check out the First Grade Symbaloo for many new learning activities. Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: After a keyboarding warmup (Typing Pal), students in some classes finished their play dough projects and others worked on math facts with Sumdog. Those working on play dough added food coloring and flour or water to improve their mixtures. It was something of a debacle; play dough is not supposed to look like the photo above. :/ Sumdog continues to appeal as kids are playing the games a lot AT HOME which makes me VERY happy! What I observed / inferred / connected: I clearly need some help with the play dough lesson! I am a terrible cook and this was clearly cooking (just without heat). I’m going to have to find another recipe or get some help from people who have done this successfully! I have to be honest, it’s been very humbling. What students can do at home: I’ve already heard (from students and parents alike) that kitchens all over town are full of students making play dough. First, I apologize for the mess! Second, sorry to say, but, this is awesome, and it’s precisely what I’d hoped to achieve with our program this year. I want kids to be so enthusiastic about what we do in my class that they go home and try it on their own! Check out the Second Grade Symbaloo to see the many new activities we’ve recently added. Third & Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: After a keyboarding warmup (Typing Pal), students continued working on our Games in Education research questions, or, if they were done, worked on math facts with Sumdog. What I learned / observed / inferred: It’s been great to see kids’ reactions to their survey questions being included in our final instrument. I did my best to leave them as-is, only correcting the most egregious of grammatical and usage errors. I want this to be their work… What students can do at home: Check out the Third Grade and Fourth Grade Symbaloo’s as I’ve added a great deal of new content!

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!