Repeat after me: Technology is my friend. Technology is my friend. Technology is my....
Yes, it's true, even if it let's you down. Think about it! Have your friends EVER let you down just a little? Maybe? Once in a while? Why should technology be any different just because we depend upon it for every little things these days?
We are not a 1:1 school when it comes to technology devices (with almost 1800 students this year and a projected enrollment of over 2000 for next year, our budget won't stretch that far!), but we have a lot of Chromebooks. I mean A LOT of Chromebooks. (Thirteen carts of 30-36 Chromebooks for checkout, plus our CTE department has their own carts.)
These carts are reserved, usually well in advance, for research, online projects, and....testing! Yes, our state has a lot of online testing for every subject throughout the year.
None of this is a problem until the server crashes (rarely) or the Internet connection is cut by construction workers (very rarely, but it happened twice at my last school in the same school year) or.....there is a district-wide issue with Google for all Chromebooks. Just Chromebooks. On a day when the entire Science Department is testing! (Our departments have assigned test days to prevent students from having 4 tests on the same day.)
Now what to do? If the library is available, one class can come use all of my desktops if the issue is reserved to the wireless devices. However, that only takes care of one class...when over 20 would need to use the computers! (But if it's already reserved, like today, it's not an option!)
So....when using technology, here are my suggestions:
1. Back-up plan #1: have a copy of the test you can display on the Smart board (if all technology is not down) and students can mark their answers on their own paper. This prevents you from needing to run last-minute copies. Your entire lesson plans aren't changed with this option although you will have to be hyper-vigilant for wandering eyes with some students.
2. Extra review day: immediately reserve devices for tomorrow (and the next day) in case everything is working by then. Spend the day with an extra intensive review session. Students will benefit from this. A few students who studied really diligently last night might be upset, but I doubt many students would complain if the test was postponed one day. Unfortunately, this will involve some tweaking of the next few days of lessons, but educators have to be flexible anyway!
3. Have a class set of paper tests locked away for every test. You don't have to rush to make copies, your plans don't change, and students write answers on their own paper. Don't forget to have modification copies for IEP/504/ELL students. This is probably your best option for preserving your lesson plans in case all technology has failed you. If you use plastic sleeve protectors, you know students won't write on them and the sleeve protectors are reusable.
The great thing is that technology rarely does fail in such a grand gesture as it did at our school today. For the most part, it does make teaching easier in many ways compared to how it was when I started in education in the early 1990s. So don't curse it when it crashes, but always have a back-up plan "just in case" and you'll be fine.
(And, of course, always hope tech services figures things out very, very quickly.)
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Cooperation or Collaboration? What's the Difference?
(This blog is based on a discussion at a Lunch and Learn Conference hosted by NC DPI on April 12, 2016 for Media Coordinators and Instructional Technology Facilitators.)
When you have students work with partners or teams, are you having them work on cooperative projects or collaborative learning? Are you aware of the difference between the directions of the two types of tasks?
Often we, as educators, talk about collaborative groups and cooperative grouping as if they are interchangeable. However, in truth, the two concepts have completely different project directions, task management, and outcomes. To explain the differences, I'm going to put forth a class project scenario in an imaginary, yet ideal, educational setting. We'll call this school "Paradise High."
First, let me describe our hypothetical class: this class is 100% successful, highly motivated, with great parental support. It is evenly balanced ethnically, racially, socioeconomically, and by gender. Students read for pleasure and return their library books on time each week to check out more. (Stop laughing. I can create my own idea of the perfect high school, can't I?)
Now, you have divided the class into absolutely perfect heterogeneous groups for a project. Each group has four students, two boys and two girls. (One gifted student, two average students, and one student who is ELL or has an IEP. ) They are all racially/ethnically balanced as well. (WOW, you say? This can only happen at Paradise High! Yep. Nothing ever happens exactly evenly in the real world, but just work with me here. It's a blog post.)
The project divides the tasks into four positions, and each position has specific areas of responsibility for research, writing, and presentation. Students will be graded on their individual work and the group will receive a grade on how well they put it all together. They will work on the project in class. Group One is Juan, Rebecca, Matthew, and Leah. They will do the following:
Juan: Research the history of chocolate, write a few paragraphs on it with citations, and share his findings through a group powerpoint
Rebecca: Identify the role chocolate played in Spanish colonialism, write a few paragraphs on it with citations, and share her findings through the group powerpoint.
Matthew: Learn of the effect of chocolate on Spanish cuisine, create at least 3 authentic dishes and write about the experiences of cooking those recipes, cite the sources, and share the information and pictures in the group powerpoint.
Leah: Learn about modern chocolate plantations and child laborers, write an opinion piece explaining whether or not chocolate should be imported into the US with citations for support for the information, and share the facts and opinion through the group powerpoint.
Cooperation or Collaboration?
If you said collaboration, I am afraid that you are incorrect. These students are actually working individually on a group outcome, the powerpoint; however, each student's part is done individually without input from the other members of the group. If one member's task is not complete or is shoddy, the entire project will not fall apart. They are cooperating on the group grade.
To truly have students collaborate, the students need to communicate with each other, share ideas, and actually work as a team to complete each part of the project. This is not the days of the "team leader," "parts manager," "writer," and other task labels handed out randomly or strategically by the teacher and called "collaboration." Now, students must truly work together or the project falls apart.
So now, the project changes:
Juan and Rebecca discover how the Spanish explorers "discovered" chocolate, and the students want to "bring it over" to the "Continent" by recreating the experience. Leah and Matthew learn how chocolate is grown on two types of plantations (with and without child labor) and exported to Spain to be used in the creation of Spanish cuisine. Together the group decides to produce a play on chocolate that does a "fast-forward" approach from the "discovery" to today, and they want to convince the class to make the decision to only use fair market chocolate when cooking spectacular recipes or snacking. This, my fellow educators is what makes a project collaboration!
When you have students work with partners or teams, are you having them work on cooperative projects or collaborative learning? Are you aware of the difference between the directions of the two types of tasks?
Often we, as educators, talk about collaborative groups and cooperative grouping as if they are interchangeable. However, in truth, the two concepts have completely different project directions, task management, and outcomes. To explain the differences, I'm going to put forth a class project scenario in an imaginary, yet ideal, educational setting. We'll call this school "Paradise High."
First, let me describe our hypothetical class: this class is 100% successful, highly motivated, with great parental support. It is evenly balanced ethnically, racially, socioeconomically, and by gender. Students read for pleasure and return their library books on time each week to check out more. (Stop laughing. I can create my own idea of the perfect high school, can't I?)
Now, you have divided the class into absolutely perfect heterogeneous groups for a project. Each group has four students, two boys and two girls. (One gifted student, two average students, and one student who is ELL or has an IEP. ) They are all racially/ethnically balanced as well. (WOW, you say? This can only happen at Paradise High! Yep. Nothing ever happens exactly evenly in the real world, but just work with me here. It's a blog post.)
The project divides the tasks into four positions, and each position has specific areas of responsibility for research, writing, and presentation. Students will be graded on their individual work and the group will receive a grade on how well they put it all together. They will work on the project in class. Group One is Juan, Rebecca, Matthew, and Leah. They will do the following:
Juan: Research the history of chocolate, write a few paragraphs on it with citations, and share his findings through a group powerpoint
Rebecca: Identify the role chocolate played in Spanish colonialism, write a few paragraphs on it with citations, and share her findings through the group powerpoint.
Matthew: Learn of the effect of chocolate on Spanish cuisine, create at least 3 authentic dishes and write about the experiences of cooking those recipes, cite the sources, and share the information and pictures in the group powerpoint.
Leah: Learn about modern chocolate plantations and child laborers, write an opinion piece explaining whether or not chocolate should be imported into the US with citations for support for the information, and share the facts and opinion through the group powerpoint.
Cooperation or Collaboration?
If you said collaboration, I am afraid that you are incorrect. These students are actually working individually on a group outcome, the powerpoint; however, each student's part is done individually without input from the other members of the group. If one member's task is not complete or is shoddy, the entire project will not fall apart. They are cooperating on the group grade.
To truly have students collaborate, the students need to communicate with each other, share ideas, and actually work as a team to complete each part of the project. This is not the days of the "team leader," "parts manager," "writer," and other task labels handed out randomly or strategically by the teacher and called "collaboration." Now, students must truly work together or the project falls apart.
So now, the project changes:
Juan and Rebecca discover how the Spanish explorers "discovered" chocolate, and the students want to "bring it over" to the "Continent" by recreating the experience. Leah and Matthew learn how chocolate is grown on two types of plantations (with and without child labor) and exported to Spain to be used in the creation of Spanish cuisine. Together the group decides to produce a play on chocolate that does a "fast-forward" approach from the "discovery" to today, and they want to convince the class to make the decision to only use fair market chocolate when cooking spectacular recipes or snacking. This, my fellow educators is what makes a project collaboration!
Monday, April 4, 2016
Improving Research-Based Writing at the Secondary Level
We all know students should "know" how to write a research paper by the time they are in high school. In the ideal world, students would start writing sentences in first grade, connecting sentences into small paragraphs in second grade, learn about transitions in third grade, and then begin writing simple introductions and conclusions in fourth and fifth grade. Why, then they would just work on elaborating and developing higher forms of writing in middle school so high school teachers could help them hone those skills in preparation for college!
If only it were so easy.
Naturally high-stakes testing in the elementary and middle school classrooms have taken writing research-based papers out of the curriculum. During the 8-1/2 years I spent at an elementary school media center, the majority of research-based writing in all grades was done through media classes. Because students came on a 7, 8, or 10 day rotation (depending upon which school year you look at) even those had to be considered carefully since a student who was absent during one class might not come to a library class for an entire month. As I worked with teachers on collaboration projects, they wanted students to do posters and simple projects because they were shorter and easier to grade in a period of time already stuffed with mClass, iReady, Dibbels, EOGs, and so many other required paperwork-heavy things. I understood their frustration at being unable to dedicate the time necessary to a great project, and my schedule with their students was fixed with no "wiggle-room." (We did a large project connecting science with a research paper in fifth grade, but it had to be stretched out over months which made it less enjoyable than anyone wanted it to be. The Museum in the Schools project worked with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and culminated in the students becoming experts at the museum for a day.)
Middle school teachers have a lot of the same demands on their time.
This means when students get to high school, many of them have NEVER written an introductory paragraph nor a conclusion. They don't know how to transition between paragraphs in a paper. Some have never had to cite sources properly. A source card? An outline? What are those?
Is there any way to help students become better writers in the secondary classroom?
One possibility is to create a writer's workshop within the classroom. By setting up stations where students work on specific skills (taking notes for research, avoiding plagiarism, outlining, introductions, conclusions, transitions, using direct or indirect quotes, etc.), you can help students work on the skills they are lacking. Take a few days to have students rotate through the stations. Students must complete all the stations within those days. Have students self-assess or you assess their work at the end of each day.
Yes, I know. This will take some time on your part to set up the first year, but won't it be worth it if the final papers are much better?
Now, have students work in the stations where they need the most improvement. A student struggling with how to get started writing can stay at the introduction station and practice there. One who you know has had the habit of just copying and pasting can practice taking notes to avoid plagiarism. Another can organize notes into an outline. These are not skills that come naturally to any student. By setting up your class into these stations for a brief period of time, students build the skills for writing.
After they have practiced in the stations, come on down to the library for some research! I'll be more than happy to help your students, too!
For some great tips on creating a writer's workshop in a secondary classroom, see Shelby Scoffield's blog post on Edutopia, the inspiration for this week's Hungry Bookshelf!
If only it were so easy.
Naturally high-stakes testing in the elementary and middle school classrooms have taken writing research-based papers out of the curriculum. During the 8-1/2 years I spent at an elementary school media center, the majority of research-based writing in all grades was done through media classes. Because students came on a 7, 8, or 10 day rotation (depending upon which school year you look at) even those had to be considered carefully since a student who was absent during one class might not come to a library class for an entire month. As I worked with teachers on collaboration projects, they wanted students to do posters and simple projects because they were shorter and easier to grade in a period of time already stuffed with mClass, iReady, Dibbels, EOGs, and so many other required paperwork-heavy things. I understood their frustration at being unable to dedicate the time necessary to a great project, and my schedule with their students was fixed with no "wiggle-room." (We did a large project connecting science with a research paper in fifth grade, but it had to be stretched out over months which made it less enjoyable than anyone wanted it to be. The Museum in the Schools project worked with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and culminated in the students becoming experts at the museum for a day.)
Middle school teachers have a lot of the same demands on their time.
This means when students get to high school, many of them have NEVER written an introductory paragraph nor a conclusion. They don't know how to transition between paragraphs in a paper. Some have never had to cite sources properly. A source card? An outline? What are those?
Is there any way to help students become better writers in the secondary classroom?
One possibility is to create a writer's workshop within the classroom. By setting up stations where students work on specific skills (taking notes for research, avoiding plagiarism, outlining, introductions, conclusions, transitions, using direct or indirect quotes, etc.), you can help students work on the skills they are lacking. Take a few days to have students rotate through the stations. Students must complete all the stations within those days. Have students self-assess or you assess their work at the end of each day.
Yes, I know. This will take some time on your part to set up the first year, but won't it be worth it if the final papers are much better?
Now, have students work in the stations where they need the most improvement. A student struggling with how to get started writing can stay at the introduction station and practice there. One who you know has had the habit of just copying and pasting can practice taking notes to avoid plagiarism. Another can organize notes into an outline. These are not skills that come naturally to any student. By setting up your class into these stations for a brief period of time, students build the skills for writing.
After they have practiced in the stations, come on down to the library for some research! I'll be more than happy to help your students, too!
For some great tips on creating a writer's workshop in a secondary classroom, see Shelby Scoffield's blog post on Edutopia, the inspiration for this week's Hungry Bookshelf!
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