TMS ERPD: Classroom Management
February 11, 2015
By Samantha Cleaver
Each morning, when Laura Rahn’s class of fourth grade students entered their classroom at Mountainview Elementary School in Loudoun County, VA, they got their laptops from the charging station, completed their daily math fluency practice, and checked EdModo for the day’s instructions. The laptops “didn’t replace me or become the full instruction for the day,” says Rahn, “they were an additional learning tool.”
If your school has yet to implement a laptop program like Rahn’s, it may be on the horizon. More and more classrooms are going one-to-one, says Bob Berry, vice president of business development with Troxell Communications, as districts invest in web-based learning platforms and devices.
“Education is going through a huge transformation,” agrees Verna Lalbeharie, Digital Learning Collaboration Co-lead with The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, “with this huge move towards personalized learning.” One-on-one teaching happens at the intersection of content, pedagogy, and technology, says Lalbeharie. You’re planning what and how students will learn, and how you’ll use the technology to help them get there. This year, whether you’re just opening your first shipment of tablets or setting up laptops for the tenth time, here are 10 ways to maximize your one-to-one classroom.
Take Sandbox TimeWhen working with a new technology, says Nancy Frey, professor of literacy at San Diego State University and co-author of Teaching with Tablets, “you have to give teachers some ‘sandbox time’ to play, to experiment, to find out what works and what doesn’t work.” Once you’re familiar with the technology, you’ll be able to incorporate it into good teaching and learning.
The key to a one-to-one classroom set-up is flexibility. Depending on the learning goal, you’ll want students to be able to work independently, in small groups, or with you. Set up your room to facilitate small group-work or with a seating arrangement, such as a U-shape, which will allow you to monitor as many screens as possible.
Alice Keeler, technology integration specialist at ACEL Charter School in Fresno, CA, swears by her classroom website. When her students enter the room, they immediately log on to the class website for the day’s instructions and assignments. “The [class] website is your universe,” she says, “every single thing goes one it, websites, notes, directions, videos.” As an added measure of safety, and to reduce distractions, all the websites her students access are linked through the class website.
Rahn started the year in her one-to-one classroom with a discussion about responsibility and then introduced blogging through KidBlog. The blog “jumpstarted the responsibility piece,” says Rahn. “The students realized that they had to understand, to be mature and appropriate, and demonstrate that they could use the devices.” The students used KidBlog throughout the curriculum. They posted and responded to language arts questions, wrote and solved each other’s math questions, and responded to history books. In addition to establishing expectations for blogging and communication, make sure to create procedures for charging and storing devices, as well as policies on when and how to use email, chat, and other social tools during class.
Tom Riddell, humanities teacher at Kent Technology Academy in Kent, WA, has found that teaching in a one-to-one classroom environment requires a philosophical shift. “A lot of time,” says Riddell, “the lesson will go in a completely different direction.” Riddell often finds himself putting aside the lesson plan in order to follow a student question or interest. “That shift is one of the most challenging for teachers to make,” says Lalbeharie, “the move from being the bearer of knowledge to the facilitator of student knowledge.” As you’re planning lessons, review the materials, websites, and online content with your students in mind. Then, plan to facilitate student discovery of information, rather than guide them through the content.
There’s no substitute for good planning, and that holds true in one-to-one classrooms. “Some people think a device is a magic bullet,” says Keeler, “but if you don’t plan you’ll amplify the problems that you do have.” Keeler plans everything down to the interactions that her students will have during the lesson. “I realized that I have to be pre-thinking the interactions of the students,” says Keeler. “I can’t just assign something, I need to predict how they’ll interact with the material.” To do this, Keeler creates a spreadsheet with the students in her class and keeps track of how they’ll interact during the lesson and react to the material.
The internet provides your students with access to up-to-date, high-quality content, but students should be creating their own content as well. Todd LaVogue, teacher and Microsoft Partners in Learning Innovative Educator Expert at Roosevelt Middle School in West Palm Beach, FL, encourages his students to be content creators. “Students need to switch from being content consumers and start becoming content creators,” says LaVogue. His students have used tablets to create videos demonstrating eighth grade math standards and rap songs about Mesopotamian History. To get your students creating content, talk to them about their favorite content to consume (videos, articles, slideshows) and start from there.
One-to-one provides an opportunity to differentiate everything, from ways of accessing content (e.g., video or online article) to ways of presenting information (e.g., Prezi, blog or digital poster). It also allows for various types of organization. Some students may use a calendar to organize their assignments, while others use sticky notes. “This aspect,” says Alice Barr, instructional technology integrator at Yarmouth High School in Yarmouth, ME, “puts students in charge of their learning.” Have your students work within and outside of their comfort zones and then reflect on how they’re using their devices to keep organized, manage their work, communicate and collaborate, and be creative.
Opening your classroom to everything online learning has to offer is exciting, and overwhelming. Districts used to block a lot of content, which kicked out some quality content along with the inappropriate content. Now, it’s about managing the online content that students can access. It’s all a balance of safety and learning, according to Lightspeed Systems, “letting good content, resources, and connections in, while blocking the bad.”
Going one-to-one allows you to flip the classroom experience for students, says Berry, and change how students spend their time at home and at school. For example, you can record a math lesson or think-aloud that students watch for homework while they spend class time practicing problems until you’re sure they understand.
Ultimately, one-to-one classrooms provide the opportunity to expand your reach as a teacher. “The device gives you the ability to do something different,” says Keeler, “and reach kids you couldn’t reach before.”
Five Don'ts for the One to One Classroom
As you’re implementing your one-to-one classroom, take our expert advice and avoid these mistakes.
- Don’t Assume Expertise
“Assuming that kids are digital natives,” says Keeler, “gives teachers a cop-out that they don’t have to worry about the tech, you do.” In every lesson, think about where your kids currently use the technology, as well as what will be new for them. For example, “kids do well with social media,” says Barr, “but they might not do as well organizing or going through the writing process.” - Don’t Send Your Students in First
Digital learning provides students with access to a constant stream of good information. It also immerses them in a world of content that they may not be able to evaluate. “You can’t parachute technology in and expect everything to turn out okay,” says LaVogue, “anything that’s going to be awesome and worthwhile will take more time.” Take the time to teach your students how to use the technology, evaluate web content, and demonstrate good digital citizenship. - Don’t Worry About Being One-to-One 100% of the Time
Just because you have 30 tablets and 30 students doesn’t mean that everyone has to have a device in their hands all the time. “We don’t want to turn a tablet into a digital shut-up sheet,” says Frey. Frey warns against increasing independent work so much that you lose the benefit of having the kids in class together. - Don’t Rely on Technology
It’s such a given that it’s a cliché: the computers break, the server goes down, the space bar doesn’t work. Whatever the technology glitch, make sure that you have a back-up plan for each lesson that doesn’t rely on electronics. - Don’t Lose Your Strengths
Using digital technology and one-to-one is a new way of teaching, but it shouldn’t replace what you already do well. “This is a new approach,” says Scott Drossos, senior vice president of Pearson’s One-to-One Learning Group, “but it’s not at the expense of the things you’re doing well.” Feel free to structure your day with some non-tech time for the read aloud that defines your morning, or the active math games that your students will remember for years to come.
CWT Data: Focus on the Learner September 2014-January 2015
3 Simple Ways To Earn Your Students’ Respect
by Michael Linsin
You can’t teach your students to respect you.
Oh sure, you can try. Many teachers do. They harp on it, do read alouds about it, and even role-play it.
But in the end, students can’t be persuaded or talked into respecting you. No, in this day and age, respect must be earned.
But here’s the good news: Your students are looking for someone to believe in. They’re looking for a leader to look up to and to fill their sails with inspiration.
So when you step forward with a combination of strength, compassion, and integrity . . .
You’ll have their respect within a week.
Here’s how:
1. Your word must be golden.
If you say it, you must follow through with it. Saying one thing and doing another is the single greatest reason why teachers struggle with disrespect, particularly when it comes to enforcing behavior standards.
You must be the one person your students can trust unequivocally. Many students don't respect teachers simply because they've never met one who didn't lie to them—which, fair or not, is how they see it if you don't do what you say.
Unless your word is golden, you'll be just another wishy-washy lightweight, short on influence, weak in authority, and easy to dismiss with a wave of the hand or a roll of the eyes.
2. You must be the same teacher yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Your students won’t respect you if you’re moody and unpredictable. Snapping at them one day and behaving as sweet as summer squash on another is confusing and disorienting to students.
Seek instead to be the same pleasant and reliable teacher every day. Having spot on classroom management is the key here. It makes keeping your cool, being likeable, and building rapport naturally easy, and is the best antidote for stress and irritability.
3. You must never take misbehavior personally.
When you allow students to get under your skin, it’s hard not to fall into hurtful methods like yelling, lecturing, arguing, and sarcasm—which in turn causes students to view you as a peer-equal they can backtalk, challenge, and wrest control from.
To earn their respect, and avoid angry and resentful behaviors, keep your emotional distance when responding to unwanted behavior. Matter-of-factly, even robotically,enforce your consequences every single time a rule is broken.
Letting your classroom management plan do the dirty work for you allows you to keep your influential relationships with students intact and your teaching persona positive and gentle-hearted.
Quiet Strength
Sadly, you can no longer expect students to arrive in your classroom with a healthy respect for teachers already impressed upon their heart.
Those days are long since past . . . sigh.
But earning your students’ respect isn’t so difficult. It doesn’t take lengthy lessons, how-dare-you lectures, or impassioned speeches. It doesn’t take a domineering personality or a Navy admiral’s stature.
And it’s not something you have to demand from your students.
Respect is earned through the honor of your word, the steadiness of your temperament, and the gentle, quiet strength of your convictions.
CWT Data: Instructional Practices-September 2014-January 2015
2. Invent the Quiz • Write 10 higher-order text questions related to the content. Pick 2 and answer them in half a page.
3. The 411 • Describe the author’s objective.
4. Opinion Chart • List opinions about the content in one half of a T-chart, and support your opinions in the right column.
5. So What? Journal • Identify the main idea of the lesson. Why is it important?
6. Rate Understanding
7. Clickers (Response System)
8. Teacher Observation Checklist
9. Explaining • Explain the main idea using an analogy.
10. Evaluate • What is the author’s main point? What are the arguments for and against this idea?
11. Describe • What are the important characteristics or features of the main concept or idea of the reading?
12. Define • Pick out an important word or phrase that the author introduces. What does this word or phrase mean?
13. Compare & Contrast • Identify the theory or idea the author is advancing. Then identify an opposite theory. What are the similarities and differences between these ideas?
14. Question Stems • I believe that because . • I am confused by . To Check for Understanding
15. Mind Map • Create a mind map that represents a concept using a diagram-making tool (like Gliffy). Provide your teacher / classmates with the link to your mind map.
16. Intrigue Journal • List the five most interesting, controversial, or resonant ideas you found in the readings. Include page #s and a short rationale (100 words) for your selection. 17. Advertisement • Create an ad, with visuals and text, for the newly learned concept.
18. 5 Words • What 5 words would you use to describe ? Explain and justify your choices. 19. Muddy Moment • What frustrates and confuses you about the text? Why?
20. Collage • Create a collage around the lesson’s themes. Explain your choices in one paragraph.
21. Letter • Explain in a letter to your best friend.
22. Talk Show Panel • Have a cast of experts debate the finer points of .
23. Study Guide • What are the main topics, supporting details, important person’s contributions, terms, and definitions?
24. Illustration • Draw a picture that illustrates a relationship between terms in the text. Explain in one paragraph your visual representation.
25. KWL Chart • What do you know, what do you want to know, and what have you learned? 26. Sticky Notes Annotation • Use sticky notes to describe key passages that are notable or that you have questions about.
27. 3-2-1 • 3 things you found out, 2 interesting things, and 1 question you still have.
28. Outline • Represent the organization of by outlining it.
29. Anticipation Guide • Establish a purpose for reading and create post-reading reflections and discussion.
30. Simile • What we learned today is like .
31. The Minute Paper • In 1 minute, describe the most meaningful thing you've learned.
32. Interview You • You're the guest expert on 60 Minutes. Answer: 1) What are component parts of ? 2) Why does this topic matter?
33. Double Entry Notebook • Create a two-column table. Use the left column to write down 5–8 important quotations. Use the right column to record reactions to the quotations.
34. Comic Book • Use a comic book creation tool like Bitstrips to represent understanding. 35. Tagxedo • What are key words that express the main ideas? Be ready to discuss and explain.
36. Classroom TED Talk
37. Podcast • Play the part of a content expert and discuss content- related issues on a podcast, using the free Easypodcast.
38. Create a Multimedia Poster
39. Twitter Post • Define in under 140 characters.
40. Explain Your Solution • Describe how you solved and academic solution step- by-step. 41. Dramatic Interpretation • Dramatize a critical scene from a complex narrative.
42. Ballad • Summarize a narrative that employs a poem or song structure that using short stanzas.
43. Pamphlet • Describe the key features of in a visually and textually compelling pamphlet. 44. Study Guide • Create a study guide that outlines main ideas.
45. Bio Poem • To describe a character or a person, write a poem that includes: Line 1) First Name Line 2) 3–4 adjectives that describe the person Line 3) Important relationship Line 4) 2–3 things, people, or ideas that the person loved Line 5) 3 feelings the person experienced Line 6) 3 fears the person experienced Line 7) Accomplishments Line 8) 2–3 things the person wanted to see happen or wanted to experience Line 9) His or her residence Line 10) Last name
46. Sketch • Visually represent new knowledge.
47. Top 10 List • What are the most important takeaways, written with humor?
48. Color Cards • Red = Stop, I need help. • Green = Keep going, I understand. • Yellow = I’m a little confused.
49. Quickwrite • Without stopping, write what most confuses you.
50. Conference • A short, focused discussion between the teacher and student.
51. Debrief • Reflect immediately after an activity.
52. Exit Slip • Have students reflect on lessons learned during class.
53. Misconception Check • Given a common misconception about a topic, students explain why they agree or disagree with it.