WAP 4 - Students as Researchers

                                                     

 “Just because you know how to operate a hammer,
doesn’t mean you know how to build a house.”

So true...

After talking about research in terms of building web literacy, vetting information, and asking good questions, I wondered how I would design a lesson to begin exploring these topics with my preschoolers.  I knew I wanted to check out the Google Custom Search Engine, and began creating a lesson around that, when another opportunity organically presented itself.

So much more relevant...

The other day at lunch, two of my students were very excited to discover that they both had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sandwich keepers.   And, they remembered that the day before one of their classmates wore a T-shirt with a Ninja Turtle on it.

Which turtle is which?  I wondered out loud.  When nobody had an answer, I offered that I knew from when my nephew was a big fan, that there were four turtles and they were named Michelangelo, Rafael, Leonardo and Donatello.   But I could never remember which one wore which color.  Kids started to guess, but admitted they didn’t really know.

So how could we find out?  And then how would we know if we got the right answer?  Thus began a great opportunity to start using some of what we had talked about in tech class.

We could Google it or ask Alexa or Siri.  We could ask a grown up.  We could ask a kid.  We could watch one of the TMNT movies.  We could watch one of their tv shows.  We could read one of their books.  All good suggestions for gathering information.

But how would we know we got the right answer?  If we tried to ask another person, would it be better to ask a kid or a grown up?  What age group would have the best chance of being able to give us a correct answer?   If we googled it, would it be better to look at a web site that carries the show on its channel (like nick.com) or would it be better to look at a web site that was just regular people answering what they think (like quora.com)?

In the end, we found this great picture by googling images for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and then trying to check the veracity of the names at Nick.com.  Interestingly, the US site had only episodes to stream and games to play, while the UK site had a section to Meet the Characters, so that was much more useful.  Information there matched our picture, and we were confident we had our answer.

Hopefully this home-grown example got them thinking about how we go about finding answers to our questions, and how to determine the usefulness of what we find, and how to ask good questions to refine our results.

Addendum:
After embracing the Ninja Turtle diversion, I did go back and look at creating a custom search engine to find kid-friendly info about different animals.  My work in progress is here.

WAP 3 - Students as Scribes: SeeSaw

When I read the chapter for this week about having a class scribe, I thought it was a great idea. I got excited about all the possibilities this job afforded students for a deeper engagement in their learning by providing purpose and longevity to their efforts, and I loved reading about the success stories.

But, I wondered, how would we ever adapt the concept of class scribe to a preschool classroom with one quarter English-language learners, and some who could barely hold a pencil?  During our discussion online, however, when the idea was reframed as “anything that saves or collects information that we can go back to and use again” it made much more sense.  I decided to explore technology that would allow for journaling or log-keeping in a preschool-friendly way.

I investigated SeeSaw which is used by public elementary schools in my district and looked like a great platform to collect student learning in my environment. I signed up for a free teacher account and set up my class.  There were cute icons to choose from to represent each student, or I could  upload their photo.

Screenshot of Class List from my Android phone

We made a class video journal by asking each student one by one what they learned about how and why the leaves on trees change color in the fall.  It was very easy to add student work to a journal.  The big green Add button brings up a screen with all the choices for recording student work.

Ways to post student work

Adding to a journal from the ipad:  The student records his/her work, and adds it to his account.

I think some of my students could be self-sufficient with this technology, but certainly not all of them, and we only have an ipad or two to use in the classroom anyway.  I chose to invite them one at a time to sit with me for a minute during rest time and I helped them record their answers. They are collected in a class journal which the teacher can view in aggregate, and in each individual child’s journal, which they can access themselves.  Parents can be invited to view what their children have done and their contributions to class works, but I haven't tested that feature yet.

I will definitely keep playing around with SeeSaw to see what else I can do with it!

Methods of School

It was interesting to investigate the different approaches to schooling that were assigned reading this week. While there are aspects of each philosophy that I agree with, each has some cautions to be aware of in implementation. But as I read and thought through the pros and cons of each approach, I kept coming back to the same idea. The key to the efficacy of any of these philosophies is a dedicated teacher committed to the success of his or her students who is willing to meet each student where they are and give each student what he or she needs to be a successful learner. This is a tall order no matter which pedagogical umbrella you teach under.

A few thoughts on what we read...

Democratic School

Of all the things we read about this week, this school set-up gives me the most pause. As I think about the premise of a “one person, one vote” governing process in any of the contexts that I have been in involving students, I can envision nothing but anarchy. However, I am willing to imagine that in the hands of the right "staff members" (to use their terminology) who can subtly guide discussion and ask good questions and command respect, I see how the experience might be a valuable one for students who are not thriving in more traditional settings. We read “it’s the democratic meeting that allows the school to run: it takes a potentially lawless and chaotic setup and gives it structure.” But, I have to ask, who enforces that structure?

Flipped Classroom

The flipped classroom is an idea that I find very intriguing. So much of traditional class time can be spent making sure everyone is on the same page that those who come in ahead of the game are soon bored and their time is wasted and those who need extra help often don’t get it. That’s why it makes sense to me to assign prep work ahead of time to bring all students into class at relatively the same place. Then classwork during classtime can be more engaging and productive for all.

Teacher preparation is critical to the success of this approach. as well as the ability to differentiate instruction in response to different levels of success with the pre-work. Each classtime endeavor has to be able to go where it needs to depending on the level of preparation of the students.  This requires flexibility and discernment as to what concepts are being grasped and what ideas need to be revisited, which may be different for each student.

My daughter shared with me her experience with a flipped classroom in a computer science course she took in college. Students were assigned articles to read to become familiar with different computer programming languages, and then class time was spent watching the professor demo. My daughter liked the idea of having a known fixed quantity of outside-of-class work, but found the in-class portion frustrating, mostly because the professor’s demos did not really match up with the assigned readings. (In fact, she wondered if he had even actually read some of them.) Also, there were 150 students in her class, so differentiation was difficult in that context. Furthermore, this particular professor was not primarily an educator, but an IT professional with a side gig - more evidence for my premise that the ability of the teacher is what makes the philosophy work and that good preparation is crucial.

Montessori

I've always found the Montessori philosophy a bit paradoxical.  There is the freedom of choice children have in exploring activities, but then only using certain materials and supplies in pre-prescribed ways, which seems less free.  But I feel in the hands of a gifted teacher, the hands-on approaches that are the hallmark of a Montessori education are very effective. We read that “a teacher’s role within a Montessori classroom is to guide and consult students individually by letting each child create their own learning pathway.” Again, the teacher is key.

The drawback I have seen in many children who come to us from a Montessori background is a lack of tolerance for any kind of structure.  While I believe children should be able to learn through play and have the ability to pursue what interests them to construct their own learning, they should also learn to abide by some constraints and not bristle against every imposition of an authority figure.  There is structure in society at large and children should have a level of comfort with that.

WAP 2 - Students as Tutorial Designers: VoiceThread

Looking at technology available to help students create tutorials to teach each other turned out to be a very timely investigation that I could immediately put to use.

We had just done an activity in the classroom where we went on a “Shape Scavenger Hunt.” We reviewed what we knew about shapes, and then I paired the children (strategically, of course) and sent them off to find real life examples of their assigned shapes in the classroom. Each team was to put items they found made of their shape into a paper bag and then we would regroup and each team could share their findings with the class. The results were interesting…

Some of my teams did exactly what I asked and were very excited to share their bags. But some of the teams just took the opportunity to run around the room and scoop large quantities of items (think Legos, plastic food, and pattern blocks) willy-nilly into their bag, totally missing the point. How could I reframe the activity to engage everyone?

Thinking on what we have been learning about autonomy, mastery and purpose, I realized that perhaps the purpose of this activity may have not been compelling enough for some of my students. If they perceived that the purpose of the activity was merely to put stuff in a bag to make the teacher happy, I can see why misbehaving was a more exciting choice. But if the purpose of the activity was to ultimately make a tutorial and be the expert and teach other children what they know about shapes, we might have had a different outcome.

Enter VoiceThread.   Of the applications we looked at in class, I thought that VoiceThread might provide a way to achieve that goal. I asked one of the students who embraced the shape hunt activity if she would be willing to tell what she knew about ovals so we could make a lesson for the class. Of course she was!

I took a picture of ovals found in the classroom, uploaded it to the application and prepared her to narrate. To format her tutorial, I asked her to introduce herself and her shape, and then describe her shape, and tell what examples she found in the classroom. We recorded her voice and I outlined the shapes she found (using the color of her choice). Interestingly, when she listed the ovals found in the classroom, she only said the names of the four items she had actually found herself and put in the bag.  She did not name the ones I added later to flesh out the picture. Talk about ownership!

VoiceThread was very straightforward to use, and I can easily add slides and comments to this presentation to cover more shapes. I don’t think my students would be able to create content yet on their own, but they can certainly do the prep work and have me push the buttons to record their learning.

For this project I used only the audio comments, since I was publishing to a blog and was worried about confidentiality.  For classroom-only use, I might try using the video comments, but expect the kids would then be more interested in looking at the speaker rather than the picture being discussed, so for this project, video would probably be a big distraction. The only annoying thing so far is that the box that introduces the current comment blocks the picture for while before it fades.  Next time I'll lead into the commentary with some dead air to give it time to disappear.

I am excited to show this tutorial to the class and have the rest of the children add to it.

[Transcript: Hello. My name is Nessa. I’m going to tell you about ovals. It has a big bump and a line. I found them at school. I found a leaf, scissors, a fish and a grape.]

WAP 1 - Teacher Admin: Todoist

The problem I am excited to be solving with this week’s Weekly App Practical is the problem of organizing the many compartments of my life for greater productivity! Now that school has started, I have many activities to juggle - work, school, ministry, family demands, household management, etc. Each comes with its own set of ToDo’s, some recurring and some one-time only, and some overlapping. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I sit down and make ToDo lists hoping to capture all that is swirling around in my head, and then to check things off when I finish.

Sometimes it makes sense for me to make a list of things to do for a certain project, but sometimes it makes sense to make a list of things to accomplish on a particular day. As a result, I have lots of lists in lots of places. I have had some success in streamlining the process by making lists in Google Keep, but that just felt like the “million dollar pencil” solution - a nice place to keep everything but really still just a bunch of lists. I also have tried to put everything in Google Calendar, but that just seemed like a chronology of unconnected deadlines (though color-coding did help sort them). And what about the things you have to do that don’t have a date associated with them. I am hoping to find an app that will cross reference these two approaches for me so I can make lists in the compartments of my life and have them show up on calendars - pulling out ToDo list for any given day.

Turns out, many in our class are looking for similar solutions, so last week I gathered some apps to check out. I investigated Remember the Milk (which looked promising), and Chipper (which seemed more specific to students). I also had some experience using Trello for project management, and wondered if that was a tool that could be applied to my problem. I also knew my son (a software engineering student) used Todoist. Comparing those two, I thought Trello might be more suited to large projects with many collaborators, and Todoist would be better suited to one person with lots of ToDo’s. A conversation with my son confirmed this notion, since he has used both extensively. Easy access to his experience made Todoist a more appealing option than Remember the Milk, since they looked similar to me. My choice was made!

I installed Todoist, and found it might be just what I’m looking for. I was able to set up “projects” for different areas of my life, and for short term projects as well. Within each project I can add tasks and assign one-time or recurring due dates.

I really like the inbox feature where you can quickly capture a task you need to remember in a holding area, and then later on assign it to a project or give it a due date.

Todoist can also set up tasks with sub-tasks within a project, a feature that allowed me to capture my grocery needs real-time and sort the items by where I shop for them!

You can view your tasks either by project or by what’s due today or within the next 7 days.

And you can set it up to send you email reminders.
The clincher was when I was able to set up 2-way integration with my Google Calendar.
I look forward to using Todoist this fall to keep me organized!