Slaughter's Innovative Moment
Malden February PD Event- Teachers Teaching Teachers
SeeSaw
SeeSaw is a simple way for students to document their learning and share with their parents in "real time" using digital tools!
Seesaw allows students take photos and annotate, record video or voice, take notes, and share links with the class. There are so many possibilities for incorporation. I have already heard some teachers discussing using it for a daily journal.
Thank you Misty Thomas for sharing!
EdPuzzle
A concern for many teachers when it comes flipping their class or expecting students to watch a video for a class is that many times the student does not watch the whole video or they skip through the video. With EDpuzzle teachers can choose a video, cut it down to the part that is most important, then add comments, questions, or even their voice to the video to make the video interactive.
The real magic in EDpuzzle is the behind the scenes classroom environment. The teacher can build a class, and assign the videos created to the students. The site keeps track of how much the student watched, when, and much more. It will even score the quiz for you. Whether you flip your classroom in the traditional sense, use the video as a bell ringer, or at the end of the class to prepare for the next lesson, you will be able to keep track of how much they are engaged. With the features of EDPuzzle, teachers can feel more at ease assigning videos to their classroom, students will be more engaged, students will have a basis for content ahead of time, and there will be more time for discussion in class.
The picture at the side shows the available channels you can pull videos from to create your EDpuzzle lessons. You can search by keyword and find great EDPuzzles that are already created, and you can assign.
Resources:
EDpuzzle Student and Teacher Directions
Thank you Michelle Smart for presenting!
Something to Talk About
Blogging
Wunderlist
Google Hangouts- Let's Flatten the Walls of Our Classroom
Some opportunities to use Google Hangouts-
- Interview or virtual field trip: Interview an author, an expert, etc. There are so many people out there willing to do a Google Hangout.
- Book Club: with another classroom in your school, town, a different state, or across the globe. Have students brainstorm questions and send them to the cooperating class ahead of time. Take turns asking questions or discussing. Possibly look at the Socratic Discussion Method to take it even deeper.
- Mystery Hangout: Play 20 questions with another classroom to determine a mystery location, number, etc.
- Global Projects: Work on projects with another group. Send data and information through other Google Apps. Meet and "hangout" to discuss the data.
Schedule a Hangout with Google Calendar
- Go to Google Calendar and Create and event.
- Choose time and date for the event.
- Click Add Video Call
- On the right-hand side add the email addresses for the people you wish to join.
- Don't forget that you can attach documents such as questions to this event as well. This will make it quick and simple for them to access documents without having to look for them.
- Save
The day of the meeting you and your partner go to the Google Calendar and Click Join.
Nearpod
You can create from scratch or use already created presentations:
- Present Content
- Create built in quizzes with content
- Allow students to free draw to represent learning
- Poll the audience
- Add Website Content or videos
James DeBerry presented on this topic! A big thank you to him!
Curriculum Writing
Understanding By Design, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
Understanding by Design is basically reverse engineering or backward design. You are considering the finished product and working backward to ensure that you have thought out what has to take place to get the desired end.
We need to know where we are heading before we begin the journey and due to the ever lacking vital resource of time and how much time, it takes to allow the creative process that students need to take place. We need to make sure that we get there in the smoothest way.
Move from content focus to results focus!
Stages of Design:
Stage 1: What is the larger purpose or what do I need my students to learn? -Identify what you want your students to be able to do at the end of the lesson or unit. Think about where your students are and what skills or knowledge they will have to understand to reach that ultimate goal. Thinking about the standards and goals is how you build the essential questions for your unit and ultimately develop your lessons.
Stage 2: How do I want them to show they learned? - What do you want the end product to be? Think about what skills will match up to that primary objective. Do they need to work on writing, critical thinking, creativity, how to collaborate, or do they need to work on communicating information learned? Students should not have a one-time test at the end of a unit. There should be ongoing inquiry and rethinking through things like exit slips, informal assessments like discussion, or quizzes.
Stage 3: What learning and teaching experiences will promote success in stage 2 and ultimately stage 1?
- Will you use whole group, small group, partners?
- Will it be synchronous (Live) or asynchronous (Different Times)? Can you use technology to develop the 4C's?
- What materials or resources would be best used to meet the learning goals? (videos, online platforms, concrete items, post-it notes, social media)
- What digital tools have you seen that may engage them, make it more exciting for you to teach and them to learn, or will help meet the goals better?- See what will make you reach out of the box because it may stretch their thinking as well. Also, look for things that will help you get real-time data and will help you gauge your lesson effectiveness. Immediate feedback is vital to understanding. Keep feedback in mind in your digital tool selection. Will it meet your students needs?
Stop and reflect on the design- Think about how the lesson went, how the students did, what could be tweaked, and did the digital tool help or should you look for something else.
As always start small, take one unit at a time and work the details out.