The struggles and rewards of painting turtles

Each year #HourOfCode rolls around and I have a great time generating enthusiasm about coding with kids and teachers. But I was itchy to push coding activities further into our curriculum and truly align coding activities with our curriculum. I was so pleased when I found the middle school page at code.org and began reading about Project GUTS (Growing Up Thinking Scientifically).

Project GUTS has developed professional learning and student modules for teaching scientific concepts while building virtual models and simulations through code. There are three units which align with traditional middle school science curriculum: Earth Science, Life Science and Physical Science. I immediately reached out to my 7th grade Life Science team and we spent an afternoon playing with the lessons and learning our way around StarLogoNova.

It was very powerful to have time to watch the teachers struggle and conquer the coding themselves. They had rich conversations about what is like to learn something new and how it felt when some teachers got it and others didn't. From there we planned how we would want to organize the lessons with the students and how we could make accommodations for our English Language Learners and Special Education students. The lessons that have already been written by ProjectGUTS are excellent and have great unplugged activities to go along with the coding lessons which help drive home important computational thinking processes.

As the educational technology coach, I scheduled myself so that I could be in most classes as the teachers first introduced the unit and the project. We spent a lot of time initially building up why we would do coding in science and how it relates to work real scientists do. We also emphasized that these lessons were all building towards the opportunity for them to build their own scientific simulation.

I think the most striking thing I learned as we implemented the lessons with the students was that coding is one of the best self-corrective lessons out there. If you run the code and it doesn't work, you know you need to fix it - you don't have to wait to see what score you got or wait until the big game to see if you know how to shoot the ball - you just hit run code and see what happens. This is one of the most compelling parts of coding for students.

I also saw that many of our students struggle with open-ended assignments. When we did the first lesson "Painting Turtles," most of them were fine with getting the code to run and have five turtles moving in a circle leaving a trail behind. But when we told them to "mess it up" by trying out other commands and seeing what happened, some were at a loss. Where should I go? What should I try? There was a definite moment of panic as they realized there were no directions for this part.

The hesitation didn't last long though. It would only take one or two kids to find the dragons or add sound effects, and the rest of the students were off and running. Pretty soon students were all calling my name at once. Not to ask me how to do something but to show off what they had just done. It was wonderful to watch them turning their computers to get their classmates attention to show their rainbow cube patterns or what happens when you change the camera view. I especially loved the pleased smiles on kids' faces who had come into the class looking despondent or just resigned.

As the lessons progressed, the coding challenges got more difficult and complex. Students were now coding simple simulations where "turtles" (small colored blocks) reacted when they came into contact with other turtles. Next they needed to start creating traits of the turtles that would change as they gained or lost energy. As the coding got more difficult, students needed to be persistent, to try new approaches, and to ask for help as they needed it. One strategy that we found helpful was to build "starter" programs that contained the code the students needed but not in the right order, much like an English teacher might provide sentence starters for certain students.

On our culmination day last year, administrators and curriculum specialists came in to see the simulations students had built. It was powerful to see how complicated and varied students various simulations were. By providing open-ended challenges to the students, many went far beyond anything we could have thought of. And those students that found this coding challenging and new still created solid simulations and by their admission, learned a ton.

We are just re-launching this coding project this year. We are starting sooner after #HourOfCode and giving more space between lessons and finding more ways to let kids code to show what they know about science. I look forward to seeing what kinds of simulations the students create this year and how we can support all learners to embrace the challenges of coding and become computational thinkers.

Personalized Learning via Crowdsourcing

"That was the best homework assignment I've ever had." 

This is not what you usually hear from middle school students. In fact, sometimes we get excited if they remember there was homework. But this is what an 8th grader recently said to his science teacher. Why? What was it about this homework assignment that made it stand out above all others?

"I was doing something that was just right for me."

If you are like me, you are imagining that his teacher stayed up to all hours searching, curating and refining an individualized learning path for each of her 120 students. After all, sometimes when we hear the term "personalized learning" this is how it is described. Students coming to school and getting a series of assignments that are designed for their ability level and current achievement. These programs are very impressive and often require a major fiscal investment from the school. I think this can be a very powerful part of learning and look forward to working with teachers to develop some lessons and units this way.

So what had this teacher done instead?

https://flic.kr/p/7EbF92

She crowdsourced! Crowdsourcing is when a large group of people all contribute to the success of a project, often monetarily. Luckily this teacher didn't ask her students to donate money to a cause. What she did was ask each of them to go out and find a resources that taught them about a specific science concept. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't in place of her teaching. She had already done several lessons on this topic using a variety of instructional strategies. But she knew from formative assessments and her excellent teacher instinct that some students still weren't getting it. So she put it back on them.

"Find a video, a cartoon, a simulation, a website that explains this concept in a way that makes sense to you."

Brilliant! The students found loads of excellent materials and posted to her Google Classroom. She shared that students that never hand in homework, submitted cool resources. And, she now has loads of great resources for when she teaches this concept next year. And because students had found materials that applied to their learning styles and needs, they were able to learn a concept that they had found challenging.

So, why did students respond so well to this activity? My thought is that it is personalized learning, just with a different definition than we've become accustomed to. In this case, instead of a student being handed a series of assignments that someone else (or something else) has decided are right for him or her, he or she gets to be the one to say what learning resource meets his or her needs and interests.  Students have the opportunity to create a meaningful learning experience and own their own learning. This reminds me of what has been termed the "IKEA effect." Mike Norton, Daniel Mochon and Dan Ariely found that when participants in their study put together furniture, they placed it at a higher value than similar furniture that was store-assembled.

So much of what students do in school happens to them. They walk into class and wait to see what the teacher asks them to do, they go home and work on homework the teacher assigned, they take tests when the teacher says. Students today are hungry for the opportunity to contribute, they way they do when they build their own levels on Geometry Dash, or code mods in Minecraft or post their photography on Instagram. Crowdsourcing is a way to shift this dynamic. Now students have a chance to contribute to the learning plan. Someone is asking them what they think and how they want to learn.

Give it a try. Not everyday, every topic, of course. We know, as teachers, that we offer expertise and wisdom that our students don't yet have, but why not give them a chance to contribute to their learning plan?

You've done mystery location, now what?

I've had the lucky opportunity to plan and coordinate Mystery Location calls for all of our sixth grade social studies teachers in my school. It is so fun to help arrange their line ups and to co-teach the lessons as often as I can. I love watching the students try to solve the puzzle of where the other school can be from and the level of collaboration that is necessary for success. If you haven't done a Mystery Location call yet - definitely try it out. You'll be hooked. Want to know more? Check out Who Doesn't Love a Mystery?

Because of our success with sixth grade social studies, I had a few other teachers approach me and ask what kinds of global connections they could make. We also had a lot of fun with some Mystery Calls and wanted an excuse to call those same classes back. So I poked around and read about Mystery Number.

Mystery Number follows the same premise as a Mystery Location call. This time each class picks a number. The range of numbers can match the level of students. For very young classes you might limit it to 0 through 20. For our self-contained Special Education class we did whole numbers between 1 and 100. This year we are hoping to do 1 through 100 but to the hundredths decimal place.

Once each class has picked their number, each side asks a yes or no question. We tried questions like "Is the number even?" "Is the number prime?" "Is the number greater than 50?" We practiced the day ahead by having small groups pick numbers and ask each other questions. It was a great way to review academic vocabulary like even/odd, greater than/less than, and prime. Some of our students even tried using multiples and factors which was excellent. I'm looking forward to the questions our decimals class will ask.

Our students found it very helpful to have number charts that they could mark up. The classroom teacher I worked with had clear folders that we could slide the number chart into and then mark up with dry erase markers. This was definitely ideal.

I also found it helpful to have one class ask questions until they guessed and then switch and have the other class ask until they guessed. When we do Mystery Location we always alternate questions but with Mystery Number that transition seemed harder for the students. Play around with it to find a format that works for your students.

There are several reasons to try out a Mystery Number call. First of all, it is so important for students to have the ability to reach beyond their classroom. There is something about communicating with a class in a different part of the country that slowly opens their eyes to the world beyond them. Mystery call have sparked political, social, cultural, and economic conversations in our classes. Secondly, it is an authentic opportunity to put into practice something they've been learning. Suddenly there is a reason to know which numbers are prime beyond that "it will be on the test." Now knowing which numbers are prime helps you narrow down your choices, plan your next question and accurately answer questions from the other class. Thirdly, Mystery Calls give all students a place in the classroom. Students that I've never seen speak up in class have a chance to get in front of the web cam and ask a question to a class across state boundaries. Students that are careful note takers become invaluable because their number chart is the reference point. Each time I do a call there is a least one student who surprises the classroom teachers with their interest and level of participation. So, give Mystery Number a try. And if you are looking for a partner class please leave a comment below so we can get in touch!

Storytime with StoryKit

Sometimes the simplest apps can make the most powerful lessons.

A few weeks ago, I was brainstorming a lesson with a 7th grade Life Science teacher at my school. She had a unit on symbiosis coming up and she wanted to assess the students in a new way. We bounced around a lot of ideas: green screens, music videos, cartooning sites but what we landed on was StoryKit. StoryKit is a free app from the folks at the International Children's Digital Library (which is a great resource in itself if you aren't already familiar with it!).

StoryKit lets you create a digital book. For images, you can draw your own, import from the web or use your camera roll. You can simply add text with a text box. You can arrange and format the images and text as you like. A great feature of StoryKit is that you can add audio. Just click and record yourself reading the story out loud. You can even record word by word or sentence by sentence! This was just what we were looking for, a tool that let's the students' creativity shine without too many features or distractions in the creation. And... and.... what if we planned on reading the stories to an 2nd grade class at a nearby elementary school?

My job was to introduce the tool which was easy because StoryKit is so intuitive. I just walked the kids through the features and made a silly story as a sample. Students literally had no technical questions or problems. If there weren't sure how to do something, they quickly figured it out or asked a friend. It was seamless.

Their stories were fantastic. The teacher assigned a symbiotic relationship to each group of students. The task for the group was to write a children's story that told a story about that relationship. She made a model first to show them and reinforced Language Arts skills by using the same story graph that their Language Arts teacher had used with them earlier. Kids came up with adorable ideas and clever plot twists to demonstrate what they knew about symbiosis. And the best stories would go in person to an elementary school to read to a class. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Sloth and Algae Reunite
Lola and Charlie
Sandy and Randy's Adventure: Lost at Sea

I might have loved these stories, but the 2nd graders loved them even more. We had a great morning where the 7th graders first had to explain the four types of symbiotic relationships in 2nd grade terms (smiley faces did the trick) and then read their stories in small groups. The 2nd graders learned so much - they could identify the type of relationship in every story. And the 7th graders learned so much - how to explain what they know in a compelling, interesting and memorable way.

What I learned from this lesson:

1. The simplest apps are often the best
2. Having a real audience for school work results in better school work
3. Asking students to explain what they know in simple terms demonstrates whether they know or understand an idea
4. 7th graders are their best selves for 2nd graders
5. Kids learn when we tell and share stories

And guess what app the 2nd graders asked to use next time they could use iPads?

3D Printing in Social Studies

People who know me know I've been talking about 3D printing for years. I get giddy when I think about how accessible 3D printing has become and that my children are growing up in a world where they can print their own tools, toys and trinkets. Therefore I was over the moon when my director purchased a 3D printer for us to bring into the schools where we work.

I had one teacher who was interested right away. A sixth grade social studies teacher had been going through our technology professional development program, Teacher Leadership Program, and was looking for a project he could dig into. Together we developed an idea to have his students design a coin about one of the first five presidents (a topic directly from our state standards). Each class would vote on the best design and then we would print the best ones.

There was a serious buzz in the room when I brought the 3D printer in. We have a Makerbot Replicator Mini which is compact and light-weight, so I carried it into the room myself. Students were full of comments and questions:

• "It's smaller than I thought it be."
• "How much did it cost?"
• "How long does it take to print?"
• "I want one!"

First I reviewed some key aspects of the software we were going to use to design the coin. We decided to use 3D Tin by Lagoa. This software allows students to log in with a Google account and since our school has Google accounts, this was perfect. 3D Tin has some great starter tutorials as well so students were encouraged to watch several of these before getting started. Students took to the software well and taught each other many of the less intuitive aspects of the program. 

Designing in 3D is definitely easier for some students than others. Some got frustrated quickly while others drew complicated objects while I was still getting some students logged in. Showing students how to return to a home view or rotate objects were two key techniques.

What I loved about this lesson was that students got more creative due to some of the limits of the program. They drew images using small blocks (like one might in Minecraft). They got more symbolic than they might have been given other projects where they could copy and paste images or long passages of text. I also loved how they inspired each other. One students would figure out how to draw, say, the Washington Monument, and suddenly you'd see others working on a drawing of the Capitol. Our English Language Learners did fabulously with this lesson. Since most of the modeling is visual, they had no problem creating great images for their coins.

I also loved all the natural curiosity the 3D printer brought out. Students started showing up before school and during lunch to watch it print or to ask questions about how it worked. Some students that aren't your typical high achieving or tech-geeky students were the best at finding creative ways to make their 3D model or to help out with the printing process. My heart is always lifted by lessons that draw new students into the learning process.

5 reasons we are playing MinecraftEdu at our school

We are finally doing it! Playing MinecraftEdu in school! Like many things in my life, I can't remember when I first heard about Minecraft. I think I just began absorbing thoughts about it when reading game based learning articles or hearing educational technology gurus giving talks. I know I introduced my kids to it about three years ago when they were 5 and 8 and our home has never been the same. They quickly surpassed my skill with building, exploring and creating. I quickly learned that this was a powerful game that empowered kids and gave them a world to shape unlike any other. (I also quickly learned to set the timer when they were playing so that their little eyes didn't turn into grass blocks). And while I loved watching them play, I wasn't sure how to bring it into the classroom.

Just in case you haven't hear of Minecraft or seen it being played, it is a virtual world where students can use virtual blocks to build stuff. In many ways, it is like playing with building blocks, plastic animals, and dolls in your basement, except because it is digital, you have endless choices of blocks, plastic animals and dolls. And the animals and dolls move. And you can fly. And you can dig underground. And a hundred other things that you can't do in your basement with blocks, animals and dolls. (For a more detailed description, check our "What is Minecraft All About?" by MineMum)

While I was holding back from a school implementation and just watching my kids play, loads of other educators took the plunge. As Minecraft rose in popularity in the lives of my children and their friends, it also was embraced by innovative teachers that came up with brilliant ways to teach content using Minecraft. Therefore, when I signed up for a MOOC this fall on teaching with MinecraftEdu, I realized that there were tons of materials to support me and that teachers far more talented than I had already created wonderful lesson plans that the teachers and students at my school could try. For some great stuff check out: EduCrew YouTube Tutorial Series, Joel Levin's lesson plan on EduCade, and the MinecraftEDU Wiki.

But just because the resources are there and other teachers are doing it, isn't enough of a reason to start. So, why did I decide that our kids should be playing MinecraftEdu in school?

1. It is active. Sometimes when I am visiting classrooms, I realize that students are spending a lot of time listening or passively completing worksheets. When you see students playing Minecraft, they are busy. They are leaning forward, they are intent, they are engaged in the actions they are taking. Using a game like MinecraftEdu in the classroom takes students out of the" sit back and soak it in" mode and into a create, experiment and take risks mode.

2. Kids become the experts. In every classroom, there is a student who is a phenomenal Minecraft player who is not a phenomenal student. When you introduce Minecraft in these classrooms, this student comes alive. They are able to explain how to play to other students, they suggest new lesson plans to the teacher, they take on leadership roles in the classroom. I believe that when students are able to be experts in the classroom, they become better learners. They come into class believing they are valued there and are more open to learning.

3. Tinkering. In Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager's Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering and Engineering in the Classroom, they define tinkering as "a way of controlling the environment and a vehicle for intellectual development" and advocate that "children should engage in tinkering and making because they are powerful ways to learn." This becomes evident when watching students play MinecraftEDU. Instead of finding the only right answer to put in the blank, MinecraftEdu has lots of right answers. In the Genetics lesson I watched, there were hundreds of choices for students, from what color to dye your sheep to what shape your fence was to how you named your sheep and your ranch. When we can tinker, experiment and take risks, we learn by doing.

4. Content connections. I work in a school that has to meet state standards on testing. We can not afford to ignore our required curriculum or assume it will be taught another year, in another course. Minecraft is so open-ended that you can easily teach your content while letting the students play. Teachers and students can and should be able to tell what new content or skills they learned while using Minecraft in schools. The math, science, social students, world language, language arts standards can should be carefully considered and directly relate to the Minecraft activity the students do.

5. Simulated worlds. The lesson I watched gave students a way to apply what they were learning about genetics. They could certainly never actually breed sheep and complete Punnett squares, but in Minecraft, they could simulate this in a class period. Student generated questions arise during simulations that can lead to deeper understanding of the content being taught. For instance, in every class I observed, some student noticed that pink and purple sheep made pinkish-purplish sheep. This lead to a spontaneous lesson on partial dominance, which never came up during the direct instruction part of the lesson.

I would be interested to collect more quantitative data on Minecraft in the classroom and I wouldn't want to see students playing every day or all day, I do believe that Minecraft should be added to the learning toolbox as a innovative, creative way to get students to interact with content in a meaningful way.

#STUTECH2015 Letting Students Take the Lead

On Saturday, January 31st, I got to watch as two of my students presented at an international, student-led virtual conference about technology in education. The Student Technology Conference 2015 included presentations and participants from around the world. I first learned about the conference from an update via The Learning Revolution and Steve Hargadon and knew that it would be a great opportunity for some of the students I get to work with.

I pitched the idea to a class of seventh-graders back in October. The two seventh-grade girls took me up on it, authored and presented a session called "Is Google Drive For You?" These seventh-grade students gave their presentation in both English and Spanish. Attendees from the Philippines, Ukraine, the Bahamas and many cities in the United States were very impressed with the girls' knowledge about Google Drive. Watch a recording of their presentation to see for yourself!

These sweet girls would meet with me during their lunch. Neither had access to a computer or the Internet outside of school. So, during lunch time, they selected a topic for the conference, wrote a proposal for a session and finally, prepared their presentation. They wanted to present about Google Drive because they feel that this technology has had the biggest impact on their learning in school. I am so lucky that in my school division, all secondary students have access to a school Google Drive account. Jenny and Mikaela created their presentation in Google Drive using the Google Slide feature. This allowed them to revise and edit in real time. It also gave them an example of the usefulness of Google Drive for their presentation!

Not many kids are willing to come to school on a cold, wintry Saturday morning, but these girls were excited to share what they know with the world. Jenny and Mikaela used a product called Blackboard Collaborate to web conference with attendees from around the world. The girls logged in, tested their video feed and microphone, uploaded their slides and began their presentation. It was exciting to watch students and teachers log in from around the world. Jenny and Mikaela were able to explain how Google Drive has impacted them as well as answer questions from participants about how Google Drive works. The session was very well received and and the girls are planning on presenting at the conference again next year!

Participation in this conference was one of the highlights of my year. It was so amazing to watch these girls develop their presentation, work on it diligently, argue over how to say "PowerPoint" in Spanish, and edit and revise their presentation. But the most rewarding part was seeing their response to the enthusiastic attendees of their presentation. Both girls were bursting with pride as they read through the comments in the chat of the presentation and saw that teachers and students around the world learned from them.

If you didn't get a chance to participate in #STUTECH2015, be sure to sign up for The Learning Revolution emails and watch for an opportunity to participate next year. Whether you have students that present or you just join the sessions to learn from the students, you won't regret it.

Reading Along with the Global Read Aloud (Part I)

I was so excited this year when all four 6th grade Language Arts teachers agreed to give the Global Read Aloud a chance! It wasn't a hard sell since One for the Murphy's by Lynda Mullaly Hunt is a fantastic text. But I was nervous. I hadn't ever participated in the Global Read Aloud before and now four classroom teachers were depending on me to lead them through this new experience.

Not heard of the Global Read Aloud? It is a great global project where Pernille Ripp (GRA creator) chooses a few books that would appeal to students K-8 (and even older) and teachers agree to read one of the books (or collection of books) over a set period of time. Then, teachers can connect with each other through Skype, Twitter, Edmodo, Padlet, Kidblog, or whatever tool seems best suited for the teacher and the learners. Part of the magic of the project is that teachers can decided how involved to get. They can just read the book or they can host Twitter slow chats while Skyping their Kidblog posts! Ok, that last example might be a little much.

As a newbie to the Global Read Aloud, I wasn't sure what techniques would be the most effective or which technologies would have the biggest impact. Here are a few things we tried and how they went.

Mystery Skype

We launched the Global Read Aloud with Mystery Skype sessions with four different schools (not familiar with Mystery Skype? Read more here: Who Doesn't Love a Mystery?). Students had already done some Mystery Skyping in their social studies class so they were excited to do it again and to meet other students that would be reading the book along with them.

Edmodo

Next we created Edmodo accounts for all of the students to post reflections about the text and to share their thoughts with schools in TX, OK, NC and LA. Edmodo was a struggle for us. Our students had trouble logging on and remembering their login information. And sometimes, they got a little too silly in Edmodo and forgot that it was a space for educational conversation and not just socializing. I think we'll try Edmodo again later in the year with some adjustments for our Special Education students and English Language Learners. I was proud of the students that took it seriously though and like the following activities that we tried:

• Reading the "blurb" on the back of the book, do you think this book will have internal or external conflicts? Explain your answer.
• After reading a few chapters, what kinds of conflicts have there been so far in the book, external or internal. Explain your answer.
• List character traits of a character without saying which character you are describing. (Other students then guessed which character.)

Even though we struggled with the management aspect of Edmodo, I was thrilled that students had a chance to interact with each other, engage in meaningful writing and see the writing of their peers (especially important for our Special Education students and English Language Learners).

Powerpoint

I know, PowerPoint? Yes, PowerPoint. The teachers and I made PowerPoints for each chapter that contained key images from the novel. The purpose of these PowerPoints were two-fold. (1) We chose images of vocabulary we weren't sure our students were familiar with. This might have been home-made lasagna, scenes from Wicked, or Elvis impersonators.  (2) By projecting these images during the read aloud, students began to anticipate and predict aspects of the text. Teachers shared that this led to more engaged and meaningful reading. So, yes, PowerPoint. *grin*

Twitter

One of our highlights was when I tweeted drawings the students had done based on figurative language (by the way, if you are looking for an excellent text full of figurative language, One for the Murphy's is a great find). I would post the student's drawing along with the phrase it was based on and mentioned Lynda Mullaly Hunt. And she replied!!! Right away!!! I took a screenshot of the exchange and shared it with the students the next day. One of the boys' whose picture had gotten a reply could barely contain himself. He stood up, backed away from his chair and said "I need a minute." They were so excited that the ACTUAL AUTHOR had seen their work. This was a huge moment for these sixth graders.

Skype conclusion

The other most memorable moment of the Global Read Aloud for me was when we had concluding Skype calls with our partner classrooms. Students in both classes wrote letters as the main character or wrote epilogues or characters sketches. During the Skype call, students from each class went up to the microphone and camera and shared their work. Seeing our students who struggle to be successful in their own school, in a new-to-them language, proudly reading their writing to students in Texas and hearing compliments from the other class was momentous. I know that those students will remember that moment for a long time.

So, if you haven't joined the Global Read Aloud yet, please consider doing so for next year. It will move you beyond the walls of your classroom and school and give your students a multitude of opportunities to engage in authentic writing. If you aren't sure which technologies suit you, just try a few.

If you are an experienced Global Read Aloud participant, please share your own successes (and challenges). I'd love to learn more as I hope to get more classrooms engaged next year and beyond!

Drones in School?

My job is so much fun. In the past few weeks I have had the pleasure of watching a group of seventh graders figure out how to operate a drone. Yes, a drone. Last year an amazing teacher at our school had her class writing grants for different science-based change projects. One class was working on raising awareness about and reducing light pollution. They wrote a grant to purchase a drone so that they could take pictures over our city to compare light pollution on different days. But now that project is over.... so.....

The students in my Student Technology Assistance Team (STAT) found the drone and learned how to make it work. They figured out how to set up the wireless network and connect a device (phone, iPad) to it. They figured out how to fly it and how take pictures and videos as they flew it. It wasn't a smooth process. We had trouble remembering to charge the battery, we had a few crash landings, we might have tried to put it together backwards. *grin* But overall, these seven students now know more about drones than any of their teachers.

Which brings me to our next project. The other day the STAT kids shared what they knew with 30 teachers from across my school division. They prepared their presentation and wrote a script explaining what a drone is and how they might be used in society. Then they modeled how to fly the drone. But we all know modeling isn't enough when teaching. So, next, they let the teachers try out the drone for themselves. Teachers had a blast trying out the drone and loved being taught by students.

But now what? We have this really cool drone, we know how to fly it, we know how to take pictures with it. Some teachers know about it. But how can it be used from here? Our students have come up with a ton of lesson ideas which I think are really cool. I'd love to hear more ideas or if you think these ideas are even plausible.

World Language or Beginner English Language Learner classes

• Use target language to give directions to the pilot
• Ex: Arriba!
• Use target language to describe what is being seen

Math

• Take aerial shots to study perimeters or other geometry concepts
• Comparing how things look from the side, from above, etc.
• Make a giant graph, drive the drone to specific points
• Teach the concepts of X, Y and Z

Civics/Social Studies

• Debate about privacy rights
• Take aerial shots to compare to historical maps
• Practice map skills (north, south, east, west)

Science

• Understand lift and flight design
• Aerial shots of erosion, watersheds, etc.

Physical Education

• Aerial shots of students playing sports for analysis

Technology

• How does it work?

English

• Write pro/con debates about the use of drones

Art

• Aerial shots to draw from
• To teach perspective

Messing around with Green Screens

We been having a fun time these last few weeks messing around with green screen technology. It has been a lot of fun and we've learned a lot. (And it gave me a reason to clean out our "studio" - yea!).

If you've never tried green screen before, there are lots of ways to do it. In fact, when we do it, it isn't even a green screen, it is a blue one! The first step is to have a blue curtain or to paint a wall blue. In the past, I've even taped a blue sheet up to a wall and got pretty good results.

Next you add some code to Windows Movie Maker. If you aren't a computer programmer or if coding sounds intimidating to you, don't worry. I found the instructions here: http://www.wikihow.com/Chroma-Key-in-Windows-Movie-Maker super easy to follow. You do need to have the older version of Movie Maker though, the one for Windows 7 doesn't seem to work.

Once you add the Chroma Key, all the rest is a matter of editing in Movie Maker. The directions above take you through the rest of the steps. I've also written them out here: Greenscreen Directions if you are interested.

So besides feeling like a rock star when you figure out how this works, watching to kids videotape and edit is really fantastic!

The class I worked with had prepared skits ahead of time and came in "the studio" ready to film. I had a camera and tripod set up, but they did the rest. The filmed, transfered files from the camera to the computer and followed the directions for editing in Movie Maker.

They loved, loved, loved filming. Their skits were clever and creative and they could have recorded and re-recorded themselves all day. Gotta love 6th graders. TIP: tell students they only get 1 take!

The also loved, loved, loved finding images for their background. We found that color pictures worked best and that anyone that wore a blue shirt in front of the blue curtain disappeared when we applied the green screen! TIP: make sure students wear clothes that are a different color than your background!

Now, when it came to the editing, it definitely required more attention to detail and not all the kids were up for that. But, there were a few kids in each group that shined at this part. Maybe they hadn't been the ham in the skit or the director that remembered all the props, but when it came to understanding the editing process, they were experts. It was really interesting to notice how hard this part was for many students. It made me continue to think deeply about how we can offer more technology process opportunities for students in schools. More students need to be good at this step, understanding how the program works and that they can conquer it.

There is nothing like watching kids create a video that they've created start to finish. Greenscreen is no small undertaking but the outcomes are worth it!

I'd love to hear how others have used greenscreen and their ideas and tips about it!

Vokis Can Bring out Student Creativity

(this piece was also posted at: Voki Guest Blogger/)

I still remember the first time I was introduced to Voki, I was at a tech conference. The presenter was showing a number of different fun, new, tools, but Voki stole the day. Honestly, I can't remember the next 20 minutes of the presentation because I was so busy having fun playing with Voki, recording myself, giving myself new outfits, sending emails back to my boss saying things like "Vokis are so much fun!" I was immersed in learning the new tool and practicing my digital literacy and fluency. It is the same for our students.

Voki opens up a world of hands-on creativity for your students.

Show any classroom of students Voki, and you will immediately see them trying it out in a myriad of ways. I had the pleasure of joining a student tech club after school one day and I did a quick demo of Voki. The teacher and I had a plan that they would use their Vokis to introduce themselves to me (a visitor for the day) and then we would share what each student did. It was a nice plan, and the students would have done it. But we quickly realized, we had set the bar way too low, these kids had more ideas about what they wanted to do!

Voki lets you have your Voki speak in several languages.

Some students immediately started playing with the language feature of Voki. While this tech club is in a richly diverse school, where many languages are heard every day, these students still had a great time listening to phrases spoken in languages they had never heard before.

Voki allows you to re-record until you like how it sounds.

Some students probably practiced what they wanted to say 5-7 times before they saved their Voki. This repeated practice is fantastic for English Language Learners and other students working on their oral language skills. Asking a student to re-read passages can be tiresome, but ask them to make a Voki and they will repeat the passage until they like how it sounds, over and over again.

Voki lets students play around with identity.

Let's face it, not all students are pleased with their self-image. I've seen students change their avatar dozens of times to find a "look" that they want to project. Don't overlook the importance of this! As students travel the weary path of adolescence and pre-adolescence, they crave opportunites to try on different looks and personas. Using Voki to do this is a safe and fun way to change your hair color, add an earring or see how a British accent sounds. Letting students play with these avatars as they complete a content-based assignment is as developmentally appropriate as free play in Kindergarten.

Voki is a great way to discuss Digital Citizenship.

Our students might not need our guidance when it comes to figuring out how to make a Voki, but they do still need our guidance about what makes a good and appropriate Voki. Voki is a fun way to get students talking about what make a quality presentation. If the assignment is to have an Abraham Lincoln Voki talk about three of the most important parts of his presidency, showing him with sunglasses on isn't the best way to convey your message. Likewise, students should never use Voki to share too much information about themselves or to embarrass others. It is imperative that we have these conversations with students and why not do it with a tool they love!

Voki can be used in any classroom:

Science: Make a Voki to explain the outcomes of a lab. (I've seen students do this for their Science Fair presentations!)
Social Studies: Choose a Voki of an historical figure and have them give three important facts about their lives.
English: Make a Voki that represents a character from a novel. Have them "saying" the theme of the novel.
Math: There is a lot of vocabulary in Math. Have a Voki provide definitions for key terms.
World Language: Provide a description of a person in the target language, see if the students can make a matching Voki.
Physical Education/Health: Let a Voki give facts about staying fit and healthy.

To get the most out of Vokis, make sure you give your students time to play when making their Vokis, you'll be surprised with the results!

Look! We got Nooks!

More and more eReaders are becoming the go-to devices for readers everywhere. We love the ability to carry 50 books at time with us on the airplane, to never lose our place because our bookmark fell out and to search names of characters to find when they were first introduced. That is why I was so excited when the English Language Arts department at the school where I worked decided to buy Nooks!

We decided to launch the Nooks in a 6th grade co-taught classroom. A number of the students in the class have Individualized Education Programs and many do not think of themselves as readers. Our goals were to get the students more excited about reading and to choose books that closely match students' lexiles (reading levels).

Our first day in the class, the reaction was more than positive. Students loved the layout of the device and had fun discovering all the features available to them. We all love to personalize our devices and Nooks are no different. Students learned (and taught each other) how to change the background image, adjust the font size to suit them and even adjust the orientation to the style they liked best. The ability to make a book their own was a new experience, and it makes a difference, having a book that you can change and modify increases student ownership in the device and increases their interest in reading the text.

Beyond the personalization of Nooks, students were able to practice a number of different during reading strategies. Students can highlight passages that they find significant, much the way readers in a book club will underline sections they want to share of come back to. Students can also use the embedded dictionary to look up words they don't know. For reluctant readers, the ability to find out the definition of new words without asking the teacher or physically using a dictionary (and thus showing the whole class you don't know the word) is a gift. Watching the students read on their Nooks, you can see them smoothly using all these techniques and empowering themselves to be better readers.

As this first class tests out the Nooks and we see the progress they are making, we look forward to expanding the use of the Nooks to more classes and for more novels. Students will be able to check out eBooks from the school library and the public library. We will be able to load novels that specifically match individual student lexile levels and increase their access to non-fiction texts. As we move forward, these devices will continue to give students access to relevant devices, literacy skills and personalized details which increases their interest and engagement with a wide variety of texts.

The Next Generation of Presentation Tool

The other day I had the fantastic fun of working with two math teachers and their Algebra and Geometry classes to kick-off their year-long personalized learning textbook project. These two brilliant teachers have crafted an innovative way to both present information in their math classes and have students create meaningful products that show what they’ve learned.

First I’ll focus on the presentation tool. I can take zero credit for finding this tool or realizing its potential. That all came from Mr. and Mrs. Math. In fact, the first time Mrs. Math showed me Nearpod, I didn’t really get it. But now I do!

Nearpod lets you create a presentation on your teacher laptop that is highly visual and interactive, both features we’ve come to expect from 21^st century presentation software and apps. But Nearpod takes it to the next level by giving you the ability to send your presentation out to a classroom full of iPads. As you swipe your screen, students’ screens change too. No more squinting at the SMART board, no more craning your neck around the tall kid in the front row, no more turning off all the lights so kids can see the screen. With Nearpod, the presentation is right in front of them, on the iPad screen.

Even better than each student having the presentation showing right in front of them, is the interactive capability of Nearpod. Today when I presented, I put an interactive slide after each content slide I made. In other words, first I talked about using technology appropriately in school, then I asked a polling question where the students decided whether or not a behavior was appropriate or not.  I loved being able to do this all in one device and app! And, once each student had entered a response, I could share the results out to the students. Immediately they could see how their answer compared to the class much like the “clickers” many other classrooms are using.

(Quick math aside: students immediately asked and questioned the use of percentages to display the results – we had a quick, relevant, engaging math lesson on percentages, yea!)

Nearpod also has interactive tools like open-ended text questions, allowing you to ask deeper and more probing questions. As students answer these, you can see each response next to each student’s name. And, if there is a particularly poignant response, you can share that response (anonymously) out to the class. What a quick and easy way for students to see models of the kinds of responses they could craft.

Math teachers will particularly like the ability for students to draw as an assessment. Teachers can upload an image, say, of a graph, and each student can draw over that graph, say, calculating slope. As they submit you see a tiny screen shot next to each student’s name. And, again, you have the ability to choose one of those drawings and share it out to the class. Because it is anonymous when you share, you can easily share common mistakes as well as exemplars. Students really liked this feature. They liked being able to draw their answer (and personalize it with color, etc.) and they liked seeing what their peers did. Let’s face it, in a middle school class, they are so much more interested in what their peers are doing than in what the teacher does!

I think the best part of Nearpod was when students said this after the lesson:

“Can we do that again?”

In terms of explicit instruction and the I do, We do, You do, model, Nearpod rocks the house. I’m really excited about exploring its possibilities for the times when you need to do whole group instruction because it feels so much more collaborative, interactive and personalized that even the most amazingly fantastic Prezi.

More coming on what we did next, and how these students are going to build their own interactive textbooks!

"Ask yourself, would you do this offline?

This isn't the tagline from a digital safety website, this is a submission for a new laptop background from a 6th grader at my school. Each 6th grade submission was full of great advice like this. Reading these submissions was so satisfying because it was clear that kids now understand a great deal about what is and what isn't okay to do when online.

I was thrilled that my school elected to spend 4-5 lessons of an advisory period on digital citizenship. Digital citizenship has become more and more important to me as I've watched my own children experiment and explore digital media and as I see more and more teachers using Web 2.0 and social media tools in the classroom.

I am a tech geek so I am excited about the digital world our children and our students can explore. The possibilities for young people to impact the world and to leave a positive digital footprint are unlimited. But we also know that there are many misteps along the way as well. Many a student will upload a silly-to-the-point-of-gross YouTube video of themselves or leave a comment that they think is funny but is actually hurtful. So we need a chance in school to get them thinking and reflecting about what online posting is all about. These 4-5 lessons were a great start.

We wanted a curriculum that was developmentally appropriate and that would loop each year, exposing all students to important topics each year of middle school. Sixth graders would study Internet scams and cyberbullying. Seventh graders would consider copyright and fair use issues in a unit called "Yours, Mine or Ours?" Eighth graders would delve into the murky world of social media and discuss what staying safe online really means. We were able to adapt all of our lessons from Common Sense Media, an organization devoted to educating and advocating for sensible use of today's media.

Common Sense Media's K-12 curriculum was the perfect starting point for our lessons. They had great activities and resources for the kinds of topics we wanted to pursue. We adapted the lessons to fit our time and format and then referred teachers to the website if they needed more ideas or information. Teachers appreciated having the lesson materials and kids liked the updated and relevant activities.

But what I really loved about our units were that each one ended with an authentic assessment. The 6th graders were asked to design a laptop background. The top winners across the school will actually become the background of our school computers next year!

The 7th graders produced "Creator's Checklists" - a list of items students should consider when creating with digital content. Again, the best examples will be used to make a creator's checklist that will become part of the published student agendas for the next school year. That's right, the best checklists will actually be printed in the student calendar/resource that every students carries around every day, all year long!

And finally, our 8th graders were asked to make Public Service Announcements (PSAs) about staying safe online. Now, I have to say that asking 8th graders to take on a task like this in the spring was a major challenge. I am looking forward to moving this digital citizenship unit into the fall for next year when I think we'll get much better responses. *smile*

I am really proud that the staff and the administration at my school understood that we needed a systematic approach to teaching digital citizenship at our school:

• lessons that every student were exposed to,
• tasks that were engaging, relevant and authentic, and 
• materials that any teacher could use and that any students could understand. 

If these desktop background submissions are any indication, our kids have learned a lot about how to be digital citizens now!

Website of the Week: ZooBurst

Easily create your own 3D pop-up book, great for lots of uses. The site is free, but requires an email address for registration.

The books are super easy to create, can include a mix of pictures and text. Pictures can be imported from your computer so you can use your own pictures or download pictures from the internet. When you create a book the owner can specify the privacy settings. See the Zooburst gallery for some interesting examples.

I have already had teachers try this format for Science presentations on how the sun creates energy, I could also see using it to:
1) Tell a fractured fairy tale in Language Arts
2) Detail the life of a famous figure from History
3) Give a tour of a cultural region in a World Language class
4) Have English Language Learners tell a story using new vocabulary words.

Games + Global + Math = Excited Students!

My school just had the wonderful opportunity to participate in World Maths Day. World Maths Day is part of the World Education Games which is "an annual global online challenge to get all students (4-18 years of age) excited about learning, and to give the top students in all schools an opportunity to see how they measure up against the best in the world."

Basically, for free, you can enroll your students at http://www.worldeducationgames.com/. Then the fun begins. Students log on and play one minute games with other students in their age group from around the world.

As students play, they see an avatar and the name of the country of the student they are playing. As students answer questions correctly, a bar moves across the screen showing their success. Students can also watch as their competitor's bar moves across the screen. Each game is only a minute so students stay motivated as they try to keep up with their competitors.

After one day of play, I got the following email from a math teacher:

OH MY GOODNESS! The kids are SO hyped about World Math Games!

Yesterday another teacher said to me.

If we could play World Maths Games everyday, my kids would know their math facts perfectly.

When I went into a classroom to watch students play during the live event (which runs from March 5th to March 6th), it didn't look (or sound) like a typical math class. Kids were partially standing at their computers, talking excitedly across the room, and were deeply focused on achievement. I have written before about the power of games to engage students (see Videos Games Could Save Schools and Running to Get to Math Class) and these games were no different.

While I had been attracted to the World Maths Game for its potential for students to make global connections, I was fascinated by the different ways students were engaged with the games. One student really want to compete against her peers. She would call out "One, two, three" and students would all start a game together. They loved competing against the other students in the room. Others were intrigued by where other students were from. I heard many students commenting on the countries of their opponents and occasionally a student would just call out the name of a country. Other students really wanted to know how they measured up to students around the world and continually check the Hall of Fame board set up in the game.

Despite a snow day on the second day of the event, World Maths Day was a huge success for our school. Over 52,000 correct math questions were answered, over 400 students participated, and hundreds of students had fun doing math. I look forward to expanding our involvement in the games next year, including fundraising for the UNICEF School-in-a-box program. Until then I will continue to look for opportunties for students where they:

• experience success
• have fun while learning
• make global connections