Gaming in the Classroom and Pushing Further with Bb9

A big success that I had with technology integration in the classroom was with a game called Win the Whitehouse from iCivic.  After students had learned about the election process they had to apply their knowledge to try and win a presidential election.  They had to learn different components of how to campaign such as raising funds, giving speeches, and selecting TV and radio spots.  Students had to decide which states would be the most beneficial to make appearances in, and learned quickly how the Electoral College works.  My students were highly engaged in the game and the election process.  They not only played the game at school, but would go home and play it, for fun!  After attending a session at the One Conference, I heard another teacher also talk about the game and how she created BINGO cards for the game, with each square representing a different outcome they had to accomplish.  I'm very excited to try this idea next year.  

I am about to launch a new unit on Blackboard.  My students are well versed in Bb9 as a location to grab materials and content from as this is their second year using it.  I had my students last year as 4th graders, and again as 5th graders.  Last year I used Bb9 mostly at the Substitution level, with students going to Bb9 to grab a document to open in Notability.  This year I wanted to use more of the features available.  In science I have used Bb9 to link virtual investigations for students to get extra practice, or use when I have a substitute teacher.  I like the virtual investigations to reinforce concepts after the students have already completed the investigation hands-on, not replace them.  This week I will be using the adaptive release feature as students begin to learn about the Civil War.  To ensure that students are taking away the important concepts, to move on, students will have to answer a few questions about the content before moving onto to the next item.  I used the test feature to create the questions.  I like that students won't be able to move on with their  learning with misconceptions.  After all the students learn the general information about the Civil War, I will be using the group feature on Bb9 to assign multiple perspectives to different students.  I am hoping that the adaptive release feature goes smoothly on the student end.  

Delayed Launch...Instant Reward!

Where I left off last, I had made my first so-so attempt of a math unit on Blackboard, but I missed one crucial step: enrolling my students in the course.  In my defense, I only took the Blackboard 101 TDP course, and Wendy told me that enrolling students in a class was covered in the 102 class.  Anyways, Wendy helped me enroll my students in the class, and the next day I got the students going in Blackboard!

It was so awesome!  They were watching the videos I found IN SPANISH from Youtube (Dual Language teachers know that that is no small feat), and they were even starting to explore some of the activities.  

Was it perfect?  No, but the kids didn't mind.

Did everything work?  No, the kids couldn't figure out how to get 2 files to open (nor could I) and one activity didn't work because it required Flash.

Was my entire math unit all on Blackboard?  Definitely no, but it was a definitely a good start for using Blackboard as the Can Do part of my math as I am now using Must Do/Can Do.

Were the kids learning?  YES!  They were learning all about telling time and hearing it from a native Spanish speaker, which despite my fluency, is something that is HIGHLY important.

The best part about it?  The kids were all working independently, or in the case of my overly social group, interdependently.  I got to meet with 3 guided groups that day, and I even had time to show an advanced group a hack that involved app smashing to differentiate an activity to challenge themselves more.  (*I received no compensation from the ONE Conference Keynote Speaker for that reference)

It felt so great!  I went right back to work that night to try to fix some of the things that didn't work and tried to figure out more ways to build in more activities on Blackboard.

Model Tech Teachers - Learning Together

Model Tech Teaching with Perseverance and Collaboration

Well, my journey as a model tech teacher has been quite a trip, but I’m not traveling alone.  It’s only been 2 months of implementing a variety of apps and programs, and I can’t believe all that I have learned and accomplished.  Collaboration and perseverance are the keys to maintaining my sanity while integrating technology into instruction.  

Julie, our in-school tech support, has gone above and beyond to teach, coach, and support me through this process.  I’m thankful for her patience, as I take scrupulous notes on scraps of paper that I transfer to a color-coded notebook, a different color for each app, which I depend on when my memory fails.   

Julie and I set up my 20 student iPads with Google Classroom, as a whole group activity with my kindergarten students which was quite the challenge jumping from student to student, helping them enter their email addresses and passwords for the first time.  Then, I learned how to flip lessons for my hibernation unit by using videos in EdPuzzle and Airplay to demonstrate how to complete the activities.  

I added the students from Carmen’s class, my grade level colleague, to my Google Classroom to share the activities.  Carmen and I used a Google form to create a follow-up activity.  I gathered data from both assignments to monitor students’ progress and comprehension which I used to drive my instruction.  

Things don't always go as planned, and there were bumps in the road along the way, like how the answer choices in EdPuzzle quizzes randomly switch positions.  When you insert audio notes for non-readers to use to complete the quiz, they may not match, so Carmen recommended that I labeled answer choices A. and B.  

Another example is when I wanted to share a photo with my students of an anchor chart, but I was having trouble with this “simple” task.  I instantly thought of a work around.  I taught the students how to take their own picture of the anchor chart on their iPads to use for that activity.  

Sharing

Julie asked if a group of teachers and I would present at Waukesha One to share how EdPuzzle lessons can be modified for students from K5-5th grade.  Never would I have imagined that I would have something valuable to share about integrating technology.  However, it was a wonderful experience collaborating and sharing with my friends.  At Waukesha One, another colleague shared the SeeSaw app.  We requested it for Banting.  Students will be able to turn in work samples through this app, and I can return feedback as well as allow families to connect to monitor their child’s progress.  Also, creating this blog post is another first for me.
  

It has been a busy two months.  Finding time to plan and collaborate is always a challenge, and it takes me several tries to figure things out.  So why would I put myself through all this extra stress and anxiety?  Seeing the joy and excitement in my students’ faces, as they tried new things on their iPads, like creating their own addition books in BookCreator, was priceless.  

They were totally engaged and highly motivated.  Well worth the blood, sweat, and tears!    

Pushback and Evolution

I really care what my students think about their learning because I want them to be engaged and have fun with their lessons.  We have worked really hard at understanding how to use technology properly, and our first leap into a blended classroom was with flipped lessons.  Immediately, I loved it.  Although there was a great deal of planning on the front end, it freed me up to meet with small groups and to ensure that I was there for students who required extra assistance.  After a few weeks though, I realized that my students did not like the format nearly as much as I did, and they actually were pushing back.  Having taught elementary school prior to middle school, this was a big change for me.

From the students' feedback, I could tell there were some definite positives, and from formative assessments I could tell that there was definitely a transfer of knowledge.  I needed, however, to consider other blended formats which led me to the station model.  What a difference!  Not only am I seeing successful engagement, but I am also able to meet with small groups and target any skills the students need.  Students are helping one another be successful and we are working at having roles and responsibilities in our groups!  I am excited to continue to talk about this journey...

Failure to Launch...Blackboard

The Beginning

Last spring I took the Blackboard 101 TDP course, and most of the time I was thinking a combination

of 3 things:

1. How can first graders use this?

2. How can dual language students use this?

3. How the heck can I use this?

My head was swimming in a sea of content files, items, learning modules, and a vast array of other tech speak I was still not even near fluent in.  I suppose that's why it was a 101 course.

I made it through, and I made a unit about telling time.  It was really clunky, and I'm still not quite sure if it would've worked or not because I never let my kids use it.

This year, though, I was determined to give it a try.  Now that I'm in my fourth year of teaching I'm kind of ignoring Todd's constant "Be the tortoise" and thinking more along the lines of "Work smarter, not harder."  I wanted to build a Blackboard course little by little so that I could get things figured out and all uploaded to my Blackboard course so that NEXT year I'll have almost everything I want to teach all laid out for me already.  No more searching through my Google Drive to find that one worksheet on graphing that the kids somehow thought was interesting or poring over file folders and stacks of papers to find that one great worksheet in English that a colleague gave me that I colored over with White Out and wrote the Spanish translation on top of.

No.  Last year when we had to make all of those Language Workshop planners I was kind of begrudgingly doing them.  This year, though, my language workshop is all planned out for me already!  If I do the hard work THIS year, I won't have to do it next year and hopefully for years to come until we get another big change like Common Core again.

Well, I got my course built with a little help from Wendy Liska and my knowledge from Blackboard 101, and launch day came.  I had the kids all sit down and I talked them through logging onto the new Blackboard App.  Miraculously we got through it in only 15 minutes!  I was feeling great!  They'd have so much time to explore and use my new unit!  But...I missed one crucial step.

I failed to enroll my students in my class.  I ended up getting the kids on one of the apps that they would've used as part of the Blackboard unit, and I scrubbed the rest of the day's math plans for another day.

Stay tuned for my follow-up to this about what happened when I actually did launch Blackboard and how things went.

Sometimes you just need them to step away from the ipad

The answer was in their data

As we embarked in our second unit, we discussed how to incorporate the use of technology into science. We realized, as we had the first printouts of tables, that data and technology go hand in hand. This increased their learning and engagement.

We merged their data into the Numbers Application. Here students were able to see the data come to life. As they entered the numbers the dots appeared in the graph. If this was not great news already, they were able to predict future data points and analyze their results to a deeper level.

Sometimes it is best to go back to a quick poster

As we discussed what how our students would present all of there findings, we had a hard time using another application on their ipads. We wanted the focus to maintain with their Numbers work, yet wanted them to tie in all of the pieces. They had been in addition posting research notes in a different page in Numbers. 

This is were sometimes you have to step back and admit that creating a paper copy is what makes most sense. They were engaged in putting their presentations together and were able to provide great feedback to other students. We really were able to see the use of technology and paper. 

As we reflected, we realized that there was still one area to address as the year progresses. The area of design. Surprisingly, we realized this during the creation of the posters. We believe this was primarily because the templates we provide students with are already designed. Now that we have introduced many programs and apps, it is time to begin to discuss lessons about: font color, font size, headings, font style, contrast, etc.

Consider What Students Need -- It May Not Be What They Want!

Every teacher and parent knows one universal truth:

One role adults play in children's lives is directing them toward that which they need, even if it isn't necessarily what they want.

That is the kind of thing that you can say to almost anybody that is responsible for children and they will nod in agreement.

This week  I had several conversations with educators who shared that something they were trying out in their classroom wasn't exactly what their students wanted to happen. With my lens in technology, you can be sure that these issues revolved around pushback from students in using tech for teaching and learning.  I believe that we should take our students opinions and ideas into consideration when developing our learning environments and plans.  However, my challenge to these teachers, and to all of us is to ask two simple questions:

• Why are the students pushing back on this practice?
• Are they getting something they need, even if they don't want it right now?

I'll use an example of one of my former students.  I did a lot of project-based learning in my English classroom, and we used technology quite often (NO, not every day! And that is okay!).  She was adamant that my teaching style and use of technology did not fit her learning style, that she learned more in other classes, and that she hated having to use technology in her classes.

I spoke with her regularly about what I could do better, what I could change, how I could better meet her needs as a student. I asked her why it was not working, and I even made some of those suggested changes. But I did not back off of my students taking greater ownership of and responsibility for their learning. I also did not back off of my belief that learning to use the tools we had available gave my students a voice beyond the footprint of my classroom walls, and taught my students how to use technology to be creative, collaborative, productive, and efficient.

In her senior year (when she was no longer in my classes) we were talking and she shared with me the underlying issue to why she complained so often (and loudly) about my class. In summary, she was frustrated in my class because I changed the routine of school. She was really good at playing the game at school. She sat attentively. She showed up on time. She took the notes and completed the homework. She answered questions when asked. 

Her frustration with my class was that those things alone were not enough to get her the results she wanted -- an A in my class.  She was good at writing papers and taking tests. When she had to learn how to use iMovie to make a movie trailer in class (it was much harder then), that stretched her skills.  When she had to moderate her group book discussion and record it for a podcast, that was a new skill that she had never developed before. When she had to write reflections as she read a novel on the class blog, and then comment on other people's reflections by challenging their thinking, that intellectual discourse in a public venue was new and uncomfortable. As she said, "Your class was really hard. I actually had to think about doing what I was doing before I did the work."

The lesson I took from that student is that sometimes our students push back on what is happening in class, and we need to listen and consider what they are really saying. And sometimes we need to weigh that against what they are getting from the activity, use of the tool, or instructional method we are using. 

When the instructional benefit to students is essential your students' success or growth, sometimes we have to offer students what they need, even if it isn't exactly what they want.