For anyone looking for my presentation at the 2012 Social Learning Summit on April 21, 2012.
Building Real-World Skills – Increasing Collaboration within the Classroom and Beyond
Thanks for everyone who joined me today at the session!
Looking for an opportunity to connect with leading educators on the use of social media and Web 2.0 in teaching and learning? Check out the free 2012 Social Learning Summit, an event held in partnership with Classroom 2.0 and the Discovery Educator Network, on Saturday, April 21st, 2012. The theme of the conference is the use of social media and Web 2.0 in teaching and learning.
For anyone interested in presenting, you have until April 7th to get your proposal in. You can find the call for presentations here.
This is the third post in a series devoted to integrating the instructional strategies discussed in Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement (Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock) into teaching and learning in a 1-to-1 iPad environment. While in no way a comprehensive list, these resources will hopefully give some ideas for how to integrate the strategies into instruction using the iPad.
Reinforcing Effort and Providing Feedback
This instructional strategy provided a bit of a challenge in identifying appropriate apps for the iPad, but I was able to find information on this site from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon, to help identify implementation strategies that fit.
Student attitudes and belief can have a strong impact on academic achievement. By recognizing student effort and providing constructive feedback, students are more aware of how hard work can turn into positive results. The applications listed below can help students and teachers identify expectations for effort and track progress as they work towards goals. Do you have any suggestions to share? Help me round out this Google Doc Spreadsheet and make sure to include your name next to any apps you add so that I can make sure to give you credit!
iEarnedThat by Kidoc, LLC ($1.99)
Created for parents to use with their children, this app also can be used to provide recognition as students work towards goals. iEarnedThat is an easy to use tool that can help students develop desirable behaviors by working towards tangible goals. Using a visual interactive puzzle, the app allows students to monitor their own progress and work towards achieving goals.
GradePad by Portage Interactive, LLC ($2.99)
GradePad is a performance assessment tool that teachers and students can use to assess behavior and performance using rubrics that have criteria and scales. Both individual and group rubrics can be created, allowing teachers to track students, or for students to track their own progress against project goals. Teachers can work with students to create a class effort rubric to help set a common expectation for classroom effort and achievement.
Teacher’s Assistant Pro by Lesson Portal, LLC ($6.99 or try Teacher’s Assistant Lite for free)
This app allows teachers to track student achievements and easily send actions to students (if they have email addresses) to provide recognition or feedback on progress. It includes the ability to send reports to parents, who can then use the information to provide recognition and feedback from home on their child’s accomplishments.
Outliner for iPad By CarbonFin ($4.99)
Students can use this app to create “effort logs” to help them track goals as they work on an assignment or project. This can help them evaluate their personal effort and identify how it relates to progress they are making in the classroom.
Check out last week’s post on Summarizing and Note Taking.
This is the second post in a series devoted to integrating the instructional strategies discussed in Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement (Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock) into teaching and learning in a 1-to-1 iPad environment. While in no way a comprehensive list, these resources will hopefully give some ideas for how to integrate the strategies into instruction using the iPad.
Summarizing and Note Taking
This category of instructional strategies can be defined as a way to “enhance students’ ability to synthesize information and organize it in a way that captures the main ideas and supporting details” (Classroom Instruction that Works, 2nd Edition.)
Students can utilize the power of technology to practice these strategies by providing opportunities to capture, organize, and reflect on important information. These apps can make it easier to provide students with opportunites to revise notes and use them for review, an important part of the learning process. Below is a list of iPad applications that can be used to support summarizing and note taking. These apps are great both for teacher modeling and student practice. Do you have any suggestions to share? Help me round out this Google Doc Spreadsheet and make sure to include your name next to any apps you add so that I can make sure to give you credit!
Evernote by Evernote (Free)
This popular app allows users to save notes across multiple sources in an easy to use space. You can clip full websites, articles, or selections of important information and tag the clips to help organize ideas. The use of tags allows users to more easily synthesize information from multiple sources. The app also allows users to share notes with others (teachers or fellow students), which allows teachers to evaluate student progress, share teacher-prepared notes as examples or create opportunities for collaboration and sharing in groups.
Note Taker HD by Software Garden ($4.99)
An easy to use app, Note Taker HD allows users to write notes and/or diagrams using a finger or stylus, as well as annotate over imported PDFs and images. These features allow students to both take notes from resources outside the iPad (paper-based articles and texts), or import digital information and annotate notes on top.
SoundNote by David Estes ($4.99)
SoundNote records audio while the user types or draws on the iPad, including a recall function that will allow users to play back a section of the audio clip that was being recorded when the note or drawing was written down. This could be a handy note for special needs students or auditory learners to help both with taking notes as well as mapping out ideas through spoken word.
Notability by Ginger Labs ($0.99)
This app integrates handwriting, PDF annotation, typing, and recording to allow students to organize and summarize information. Notes can be arranged by subject and category to allow students to easily move from one project/assignment to the next. The app includes three outline styles for a linear form of note taking, as well as the ability to insert images and annotate to create nonlinear formats, such as webbing and mapping.
PaperPort Notes by Nuance Communications (Free)
A combined note taking and document annotation app for the iPad, PaperPort Notes allows users to type or write freehand notes, use voice recognition to dictate notes (great for some special needs students), annotate over imported documents from the web, your Dropbox or Box.net accounts, or documents folder. You can also import files or snapshots from the web, copied contents from the iPad clipboard and images from the camera. Teachers and students can share summary frame templates via imported documents from the web, Dropbox, Box.net, or PaperPort Anywhere accounts.
iDesk – Diagrams, Graphs, Schemes & Ideas by Ten Touch Ltd. ($6.99 or try iDesk lite for free)
Popplet by Norton Inc. ($4.99 or try Popplet lite for free)
Check out last week’s post on Similarities and Differences.
Last month, I posted a list of 5 Free Digital Resources for Math Teachers. Since then, I have stumbled upon several more to add to the list. Let’s take a look at five more great resources to teach match in the digital classroom!
1. Gooru is a search engine with more than 2,600 standards-aligned resources, called study guides, in 5th-12th grade math and science. Composed of free open educational resources (OERs), the collection includes digital textbooks, animations, instructor videos and more. Gooru also will adapt to students’ learning needs by looking at topics studied and self-assessments to suggest resources that will help students master concepts.
2. Math Chimp is a collection of free online math games organized by the Common Core State Standards for 1st – 8th grade. You can search by the CCSS to see a list of appropriate digital resources, which includes a description and rating to help you determine which ones are best for your students.
3. WowMath.org - For high school math teachers and students, WowMath.org contains over 600 tutorials on algebra and calculus created by Brad Robb, a high school math teacher in California. You can also find the videos on his YouTube channel.
4. Brightstorm contains over 2,000 free videos from math teachers explains difficult concepts and working out sample problems. Topics include algebra, geometry, trigonometry, precalculus, and calculus. They also have the Brightstorm Math Homework Checker for students to check answers and a Questions and Answers Forum to communicate with others for help with math.
5. Interactivate is a site containing a variety of interactive, Java-based virtual math activities and lesson plans for students and teachers in grades 3-12. You can search through the activities by subject, topic, audience, or resource type, or narrow down by standards for several states or the Common Core. For iPad users, they have also created an app called Math Flyer.
Many schools work to integrate the instructional strategies discussed in Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement by Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock. Recently, I began compiling a list of iPad apps that correlate to the nine strategies outlined in the book, and this is the first post in a series devoted to each strategy. While in no way a comprehensive list, these resources will hopefully give some ideas for how to integrate the strategies into instruction using the iPad.
Identifying Similarities and Differences
According to the research, Marzano identifies four process to explain how to identify similarities and differences:
Popplet by Norton Inc. ($4.99 or try Popplet lite for free)
Draw Venn for iPad by Permeative Technologies Pvt Ltd ($0.99)
iCardSort By E-String Technologies Inc. ($5.99)
iCardSort is a brainstorming tool that helps you to visually organize ideas quickly and easily by placing ideas on virtual note cards. iCardSort allows you to group, order, and explore your similarities and differences among a group of items, ideas, or concepts.
WordConnex By Chilly Brr ($0.99)
For any elementary reading teachers out there looking for another resource to add to your bag of tricks, check out MeeGenius, a library of eBooks that students can access from just about any device. MeeGenius allows students to read along with a selected eBook to help emerging readers develop word recognition skills by seeing words highlighted while hearing them read aloud. There is a collection of free eBooks as well as some to purchase. Titles include classics, such as Pinocchio, Rapunzel, and The Three Little Pigs among others. This is a great resource both for teachers and parents of young readers.
I found this one on the Google Chrome Web Store, but it is also available for iPad, Android, and Google TV.
Google Earth is by no means a new resource in education, but it is a great one and I always love sharing ideas for how to integrate this tool into the classroom. Take a look at some of the great resources below to learn how to use GE to engage students with virtual explorations of our world!
To start, take a look at Google’s own site, Google Earth for Educators. This site has something for everyone, whether you are just getting started, are looking for new ideas, or want to see if you are qualified to apply for a Google Earth Pro Grant. Check out some Google Earth tutorials, connect with other teachers using Google Earth, or showcase your student work.
Real World Math – This is a great resource for math teachers looking for ideas of how to integrate Google Earth into the math curriculum. Find lesson ideas here, divided into five categories: Concepts, Project-Based Learning, Measurement, Exploratory, and Space.
Google Lit Trips – For reading/language arts teachers looking for a new resource to add to your bag of tricks, check out the Google Lit Trips website for some great ideas. The purpose of a Google Lit Trip is to create an engaging and relevant literary experience for students by allowing them to take the journey of a character from a famous piece of literature. There are some pre-made trips to explore on the website, or you can have your students create their own based on a piece of literature.
Google Earth for Earth Science – This site is a great resource for earth science teachers to get ideas for using GE in the classroom. It includes a 25 page manual for Earth Science teachers.
Additional Google Earth Resources:
I made a decision this week to apply for the ISTE School Administration Education graduate certificate program at Johns Hopkins University. This is something that I have been considering for a couple of months now, and after taking part in a webinar last night to hear from a panel of program graduates, I went ahead and started the application process. This weekend will be spent putting together my 500 word essay on why I would be a good candidate for the program – fun times!
My reasons for wanting to take part in this program are twofold. First, I want to build my leadership skills and gain a stronger understanding of school administration. Second, and perhaps more importantly for me, I want to continue to grow my PLC and network with others who have the same strong desires to transform education with the assistance of technology. I love engaging in conversations with my peers to get other ideas and viewpoints on how to engage our students and enhance the learning experience. After last listening to last night’s panel, I think this program will give me a great opportunity on both fronts.
For anyone else out there looking to combine a love of educational technology and leadership, take a look at the program and see if it might be a good fit for you. You can find information on the ISTE website, from JHU’s COE website, or view this informational webinar.
Fingers crossed that I am accepted!
Over the past several years, classrooms around the world have invested millions of dollars purchasing learner response technology, or clickers as they are commonly referred. Of course, as a former Promethean employee, I am slightly biased towards their ActivExpression, ActiVote, and ActivEngage models, though there are multiple manufacturers of this kind of technology, including SMART Response, eInstruction, and Poll Everywhere, just to name a few. Clickers are available both as hardware devices and as software applications for laptop/desktop computers and mobile devices. With the ever-growing popularity of BYOD, iPads, and other mobile devices, you have a range of choice when it comes to clicker applications. Instead of rewriting an article about your choices for mobile devices, check out this post from Tony Vincent’s Learning in Hand blog.
As more classrooms begin to integrate clickers into regular instruction, it is important to see them beyond just a test grading device. Though they can be great at effortlessly grading your end -of-unit assessments so that you don’t have to trek home with loads of papers to grade, the true power of the devices lies elsewhere. What truly makes these a great addition in the classroom is their ability to encourage debate and discussion, provide anytime formative assessment throughout a lesson, and allow all students to have a voice in our classrooms. Over the past five years, several friends, coworkers, and amazing teachers have contributed the suggestions below for using student response devices outside of summative assessment.
I thought I would start if off with this video from the Ron Clark Academy, a charter school in Atlanta, where they share 10 ways that they use the Promethean ActivExpression.
1. Assessing Prior Knowledge – Instead of having students complete morning seat work (elementary) or bell work (middle and high) on paper, create quick 3-5 item question sets for them to complete as they enter the classroom. Use their responses to guide instruction during that day’s lesson.
2. KWL – At the beginning of a new unit of study, use the clickers to find out what the students already know about a given topic. Using the text entry feature, have them share what they know and then seed the results onto the screen. Instead of just hearing from the brave students in your class who always want to contribute, this gives everyone in the class a chance to share what they know. Don’t forget to use them again at the end of a unit to fill in the “L” portion of the chart.
3. Character analysis – If the clickers have a text entry feature, have the students share a word or short phrase to describe a character. Once the answers are in, break into small groups or facilitate a whole group discussion with the class and invite students to share details to back up whether they agree or disagree with their classmates responses.
4. Find out what your students are struggling with – Find out where you may need to give students more support by using the clickers to have students share which part of a lesson or project they are having trouble with. Use the information to group students and provide small group instruction to help them over rough spots.
5. Ticket out the door – Many teachers use this trick at the end of class to have students share something that they learned during the day’s lesson. Clickers are a great way of collecting student responses, and they can be easily brought back up the following day for a quick review before moving forward.
6. Discussion and debate – This is one of my favorite ways to use student response devices. We all know how important it is to get student’s attention at the beginning of a new lesson or unit of study, and one way to do this is through a thought provoking question. Ask students to choose a side on a debatable topic related to the curriculum content using the multiple choice or likert feature of the devices. The set a pair students up with someone who had a different opinion, set a timer, and have them practice their debate skills by explaining why they chose their answer. Pull the group back together for a quick class discussion. At the end of the unit, ask the same question again and again have a discussion to see how their opinions have changed and what facts you have learned that caused these changes.
7. Peer review – Are your students using rubrics to evaluate group projects and presentations? Use the clickers as a quick, easy, and anonymous way for your class to give feedback and constructive criticism for their peers.
8. Grouping students – About to start a new project-based learning unit? Use the clickers to gather information about student interests and use this to divide them into groups.
9. Conducting surveys – Teaching lessons on graphing? Use the clickers to poll your students and turn the resulting graph into a lesson. For elementary teachers, ask questions about favorite colors, when their birthday is, how they get to school, etc.
10. Confidence checking – The devices can be used to gauge your students’ confidence on a given lesson or topic. This can be helpful information when determining who may need some extra support and who might be ready for a challenge.
I am sure that we could add many more great ways to use these devices, but dinner is calling my name! Feel free to add your suggestions below in the comments section.
