Are the Students Truly Understanding It? Are We? Part 2

This is part two of a three part look at what teaching is all about.

I think we live in one of the most exciting times when it comes to education. The students are changing in ways that challenge us to look at what we are doing in the classroom and make changes when needed. From outside the classroom we are being held accountable for what we are doing. Basically, we are being called to be a professional. Never before have we had so much learning available for us outside a classroom. In the past we had to take classes and read textbooks written by people that hadn’t been in the classroom for awhile. True, we’re still called to take classes. But now, as teachers, we can interact with professional learning communities online, take classes online, and share with other colleagues from around the globe our successes and failures so that we can improve what we do.

And what do we do? We educate kids. Our whole focus should be on the student. Without them we’re out of a job. In Part 1 of this article written last month I challenged you to think about whether your motivation was to just get through the curriculum, or educate the student. It’s an easy trap to fall into with all the pressures being brought to bear on the teaching profession today.

Another problem is that the way we were taught in school doesn’t work well with today’s digital students. Dave Warlick, a nationally renowned educational speaker, made some interesting statements in his Oct. 16th blog I’d like to quote: “I think that it’s part of the job. It is my job, as a teacher, to be able to teach today — to be skilled at using today’s information technologies within today’s information environments and apply pedagogies that reflect today’s information environments. We suffer from the myths of old world education, that you go to school so that you will be prepared for the next 30 or 35 years. But the teacher we are at graduation from college, is not necessarily the teacher we need to be five years later. Those days are long behind us — and I think that the job has become a whole lot more exciting as a result.”
He ended his blog with another statement that sums up what I’m talking about. And again I quote: “It’s part of the job of the teacher to continue to grow,” then we can get on with the far more interesting question, “What does the school and classroom look like where learning is what you see happening, not teaching — where learning stops being a job, and, instead, becomes a lifestyle.”

To help students learn, I need to focus on my learning. If I expect to be told what to do all the time, that is what I will expect out of my students. If I work on becoming a self-directed learner, I will help my students to do the same. These are the skills of the 21st century. Focusing on the learning, and not on the teaching, has helped me focus more on the individual student. With student centered learning it’s great to hear from the students and guide them like a coach in the learning process. It’s exciting to walk by each group of students and hear them discussing the focus question and helping each other to understand the material. They are now engaged in the learning process, not just checking out as I stand up there lecturing. Students today are interactive. Is their learning interactive or one sided? Do you follow the textbook, or do you look for a way that meets the needs of your students and how they learn? That is where we, as teachers, become the professional. We need to always be looking for the strategies that help our students learn.

The educational term being used today is differentiated instruction. This isn’t a bad thing. When you begin to operate this way you will get to know your students better. Have you ever asked them what they liked when it comes to teaching strategies? I work with fifth graders and they have no problem telling me. When I reflect on what they have said and use their feedback, I find a more motivated student. All of us understand the importance of motivation.

My goal as a teacher is to engage every student anytime there is learning taking place. What I have found is the more engaged they are the less I have to deal with discipline issues. My students work in pairs and groups most of the time. I will ask a question and then move around the room as they work on it. Sitting at my desk is rarely an option. There are times where they work on something by themselves, but I allow them to ask questions of their fellow classmates or myself when needed.

This hasn’t always been the way I’ve taught. I was a lecture type teacher for many years. I was never satisfied though, but didn’t know any other way. After all, that was how I was taught. I then took an on-line class on helping students to become self-directed learners. Then, as I read more about the expectations of the work world and 21st century skills it all began to come together. I will tell you it is a work in progress, and I haven’t arrived yet, but it is exciting. I’ve shared with other teachers and we are learning together. More teachers are joining us, one teacher at a time.

So now it’s time to make your choice. Jump in and begin the change. It’s a process that doesn’t happen overnight, but will happen. Get involved in some of the online educational forums. There’s plenty of support and help out there online.

In the next article I will be talking about formative and summative assessment and some of the tools available to help you get to know where each of your students is at any given time.

Are the Students Truly Understanding It? Are We?

This is part one of a three part look at what teaching is all about.

Everyday, as teachers, we work hard to have students learn material and acquire skills they will need in the future. Along the way, we attempt to see if they understand the material by asking questions of individual students, or giving them a quiz. This is called formative assessment. From this type of assessment we make decisions how to proceed with the material. In the end we may give a final test to measure their final understanding of the material. This final form of measurement is called summative assessment.

What is this formative and summative assessment about, you may ask? Giving final tests have been around forever (summative assessment). Asking questions of the students isn’t new either (formative assessment). But what have you done with the answers the students gave? Did they help in guiding where you were going with the material? Did it help you assess the success of your teaching strategies? Let’s look a little deeper at this.

What is your motivation in teaching the curriculum, or skills, that you, as a teacher, are expected to present within your subject matter or grade level? Is your motivation to get through the material and hopefully the students will get it, or is it to teach for mastery? If I’m feeling overwhelmed by the amount of material I have to teach in a year, I’m going to teach in a way that gets me through the material. Is this what we are called to do? Do you know, at any point in time, where each individual student is in their comprehension of the subject matter or skills? What is your motivation for giving worksheets or answering questions on paper? Is it to just get a grade or practice the skill? Or should there be more? I know these are heavy questions, but we, as professionals, should be asking them each time we teach. Today’s 21st century teacher is being called upon to raise the bar, but do we know how?

If you notice, I haven’t mentioned No Child Left Behind, until now. As frustrated as we get with the way this concept is being carried out, the idea isn’t bad. How many students have been dropped through the cracks over the years because of how we approached teaching? How many times have we been frustrated because students act like they have never seen the material, even though we know the previous teacher had taught it? It is time we start looking at out teaching strategies and ask ourselves if this is working. We need to be willing to talk with other teachers about what we are doing in the classroom and sharing among ourselves what has worked and what hasn’t. From this dialogue we can make adjustments to our strategies so that all students can be successful in some way.

Now, I know I haven’t addressed formative and summative assessment. I haven’t dealt with the many questions I brought up and the motivation behind our teaching. This first part was to get you thinking. In the next part I will address these questions. So think about it.

Are Games for the Classroom?

There’s no question about it, kids today are into digital games. You have the Xbox, Wii, and Playstation 3. In mobile gaming there’s the PSP, Gameboy, iPod, and DS. Online there are many strategy games available. Also online are virtual reality games such as Runescape, Active Worlds, Club Penguin, Whyville, Piratesonline, and more. In the virtual reality games kids interact with others from around the world on a daily basis. If you think this is for a few, check out the numbers. At any time of the day there are 150,000-200,000 on Runescape. In Whyville, a virtual world for the tweens, similar numbers and higher exist. With this much popularity, how can we as educators tap into it?

Let’s remind ourselves that the expectations of the 21st century call for skills such as collaboration and problem solving. Isn’t that what they are doing on these virtual reality games?

Now how about just plain old every day gaming. Do the Xboxes and Gameboys hold the kids attention. They sure do, as we all know by watching them. Again, how can we tap into this?

Our own personal experience teaches us that when our interest level goes up, so does our learning curve and retention of what we learned. Last school year, I began to look for online games that students could use to practice different skills. What I found was overwhelming. There are far more educational games online that are free then there used to be. Because there were so many, it was easier to go shopping. Choose what skill you want them to practice or learn and then go looking for a game that meets that skill. I was no longer overwhelmed. Next, make sure you play the game to see if it meets your expectations. Another idea would be to have a group of students try it and give you feedback. Students would much rather play these games than do a worksheet. I know this because they’ve told me so.

Has this been successful? Let me ask you this? How many times have you had a student ask you for another worksheet because it was so much fun? I have students go to the computer on their own to play these games. I’ve had several parents tell me that their kids come home and go online to my website to play these games. I didn’t even assign them, what have I done! What’s happened is I hit upon their interest level. Today, students would much rather do anything on the computer than with pencil and paper. That even includes taking a test, but we’ll talk about that another time.

So how do you get started? First, you need a website. It can be as simple as a site made by iWeb (a Mac application). There are many simple web applications out there. See your school IT person to help you. Have it set up on your school website so student’s can find it easily. This is where you are going to setup your links to your games. It’s much easier for students to click on a link, than to type in a web address. Make sure to keep it organized. Divide it up by subject such as Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, or Science. Then, within those sections divide it into smaller categories like for math: multiplication, geometry, or measurement. The reason for the organization is that as you get into games you will find that your links will multiply and become very confusing. It’s much easier to start organized than to go back and reorganize.

You may ask, where do I find these games? Google in advanced search the words: free educational games. Other good places to go are www.gamequarium.com>, or http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/interactive.htm>. From there you will find many more sites.
In math there are two great interactive sites where students can challenge each other and they are located at: www.enlvm.usu.edu/ma/nav/index.jsp> or www.illuminations.nctm.org/Activities.aspx>.

Now you are ready to begin. To integrate this into your classroom you need to decide the frequency of use. To begin, you need to introduce all the students to the game or games you want them to practice skills on. Don’t leave it wide open for them at the beginning. So schedule a time in the lab, or if you have 1 to 1 or 2 to 1 use the computers in your room. Walk around and see how they are doing, just like you would do if they had worksheets. The difference will be the excitement. Remember, this is about student centered learning which is 21st century teaching.

I know that if you take the time to do this you will find it very rewarding and once again, your students will thank you.

iPods are for Education

So you think an iPod is just a great music player. Think again. The iPod is becoming another tool that makes learning exciting and rewarding for today’s digital students. An iPod can be used for audio, video, photos, and podcasting. This shouldn’t surprise you. But how about lesson plans, notes, reference material, quizzes, portable harddrive, interactive content, and RSS feeds? Let’s take a closer look at the many uses mentioned in the first list. When we talk audio it isn’t just music. There are audio clips of famous historical speeches, animal sounds, Children's Story Podcast where well known stories are read, poetry, and many classical books available to listen to. In video, you can choose any united streaming video and have it converted into a movie that’s viewable on an iPod. Now students would be able to review a movie that the whole class had already seen. You can also download videos from Teachertube.com and Youtube.com, convert them, and use them on iPods. There are many free educational podcasts available through the iTunes Store for students to listen to. Now, how about the surprises that were mentioned above. Imagine, if you will, a student looking up a word in their iPod dictionary, or reading a classic ebook, or looking up information in their encyclopedia. All of this is possible, and more, when it comes to reference material. Apple has collected lesson plans that are designed for iPod use. You can also take notes and view them on your iPod. As a teacher, you could write up your own notes for the students and sync them to their iPods. Quizzes can be taken on the iPods. Apple has created an application called iQuiz where you can make your own quizzes that students can take. Also, QuizzlerPro.com has a quiz maker that can be used for iPods, computers, or handhelds. These applications do cost, but are available. Interactive content is another tool that excites students. Now you can go to www.mogopop.com>, and create your own material that can be downloaded onto an iPod. The best part about it is that it is free. There is also content already there that can be downloaded. At this point, I would hope you can see just some of the many possibilities that an iPod has for use within a classroom. A great place to begin your research on educational uses for the iPod is at Tony Vincent’s site located on the web at: www.learninginhand.com>. Then click on iPods and be supercharged.

Musings of a Technology Integration Project

In my past articles I’ve talked about the amount of time a project can take due to the fact the students are always trying to improve on it. This is a great skill to learn, but another skill would be deadlines. The length of time students can take on a project, if allowed, can be very frustrating. After working with these types of projects for several years I’ve come to the realization that I, as the teacher, need to help the students micromanage their time better. As an example, when doing a PowerPoint project I would have them get the written work put on the slides first, before they could go on to the fun stuff. This worked well except they then spent too long getting the rest of it finished. Even when they had a deadline, they couldn’t get the project completed due to their poor time management skills. As I look back I believe I needed to set better deadlines and hold them accountable. What do I mean by this? Again, using the PowerPoint project as my example, I needed to break the project up into smaller sections and set a deadline and consequence for each section when not reached. Ideas for breaking it up would be text, background (pictures or colors), pictures within the slide to go with the text, transitions (slide to slide or within the slide), and finally the speech to go with the presentation. Each of these sections would have a deadline as to when it must be completed and I would grade them as to where they were on each section. This would be a completed/ not completed grade that is part of the overall rubric. This could be done with any technology integration project. Just think about the different sections within the project and divide them up. If you are off in your timing, add a day. In other words, when you check everyone on the due date and find they’ve all been focused, yet it’s not completed, tell them that you miscalculated and they have only one more day on that section. This way it forces them to make some final decisions and still get that section completed. If students have done this type of project before, ask them how they think the project should be divided up and scheduled. You may overrule some of their suggestions, but it gives them some input into time management. Project oriented teaching can be very rewarding and many skills can be learned simultaneously. But by helping with the time management and student accountability, you will take most of the frustration out of any project you do. So think about this, plan for next year, and enjoy the summer.

Web 2.0, The New Culture of Social Community

Quoting from an article written by Susan McLester in the April edition of Technology & Learning: “Web 2.0 has essentially transformed the Internet from an e-commerce and Web page publishing venue to a planet-wide networked community where every citizen is invited to create content.” Let’s look at what it is. First, let’s look at three skills: publishing, broadcasting, and movie production. In the past if you wanted to publish a book or article you would have to send it to a publisher and wait to see whether they would publish it. Newspapers and magazines were written by their own hired staff of writers. Only a small group of people compared to the whole population could accomplish this. The only way to broadcast was to work for, or own your own radio studio. Movie production could only be done by a production company with the equipment and know how. Now enters Web 2.0 onto the scene. Anyone with a computer can publish on the internet in blogs or online newsletters. Likewise, you can produce a broadcast by making a podcast using programs like Garageband or Audacity. If you have a video movie camera you can edit your own movie and upload it to the internet for all to see. All of this can be accomplished with a computer and open source (free) software on the internet. It can then be uploaded onto the web for everyone to participate in. You ask, what do I mean by: participate in? Social networking sites like MySpace, YouTube, and Yahoo! Groups have allowed our digital natives to collaborate and share information and thoughts on anything instantly. Instead of just being a passive reader and watcher of what someone says or does, everyone can be an active participant on what goes up on the web. With new open source online tools like Jumpcut, Eyespot, Toufee, Picnik, and more everyone can participate. But wait, there’s more. New hosting sites such as Revver.com, Spymac.com, and uthTv.com have opened a whole new support network for this community. What does this mean to us as educators? No problem, we just block all the sites. After all, it’s our job to protect them from the evils of the internet. I agree, we need to protect them from the evils of the internet, but are the above mentioned sites evil? Is having a social community on the internet wrong or dangerous, or is it something we don’t fully understand? By blocking all the sites are we making ourselves irrelevant in the eyes of the digital native? Shouldn’t we be teaching them how to safely handle the internet, and then participate in it with them? About a month ago I got involved in an online social network called Runescape. My children had been involved in it for awhile and I had been watching. Runescape is a place where you become a virtual person in a virtual medieval world where you can fish, hunt, build houses, and on and on. You can be a free participant, or for $5 a month become a member with more privileges. Last month Runescape topped one million members. This doesn’t count far more that aren’t members. As I participate in this world, I watch as the young people are constantly helping each other, talking to one another, and problem solving. These are skills we want them to learn. Shouldn’t we be integrating these communities into our classrooms, instead of blocking them? We could spark discussion about many academic topics where the student becomes not only the learner but the teacher, too. Think about it.

Communication is Changing

Times have changed, and the internet is changing the way we do many things. In the past, to be an author, you had to submit an article to a publisher and hope to get approval. Today, you set up a blog account and then keyboard away. This allows anyone and everyone to read what you have to say. This is certainly a radical change from the past, for anyone can become a writer.

Visual media used to be solely the product of movie producers and large corporations. Today, a person can take their digital video camera and film their project. They can then load it into their computer and use an inexpensive program, such as iMovie, to edit their film and add effects. For more extensive changes there are other applications available for use at a higher cost, but still within the everyday person's budget. Upon completion, they can take their movie and upload it to YouTube.com for everyone to view.

So what does this mean to education?

In the past, a student wrote an assignment for the teacher to look at and grade. No one else would see it, so the whole goal would be for a grade. Making movies was unheard of. Becoming a published author was reserved for only those lucky enough to catch someone's attention and interest that had the power to publish.

Now all that has changed and is available to everyone. Classblogmeister.com, gaggle.net, or epals.com provide safe places for teachers and students to go and speak their mind and yet allow it to be under the teacher's control. If we, as teachers, continue to do writing the old way it doesn't reach today's students. This isn't how the real world works. If our goal is to get students to become better writers and get excited about writing, we need to provide real world experiences for them.

Your students will thank you, as mine have.