The phrase "21st Century Learning" has been used a lot this past year in our school district. Some of us are still defining what that means. Some of us realize that we are, of course, already 21st century learners and want to bring that experience to our teaching as well.
In fact, the terms "learner" and "teacher" are not mutually exclusive. In the 21st century, you are not one or the other; you must be both. And you need not be in a school building - teaching and learning can take place any time, anywhere. This is all enhanced by technology, and the ways we use technology to both learn and teach.
Are you a 21st Century Teacher/Learner? Below are some indicators from a blog that I monitor. Although not all of them apply to the grades we teach, I wonder what we can add from the Hooksett School District.
1. You require your students to use a variety of sources for their
research projects...and they cite blogs, podcasts, and interviews
they've conducted via Skype.
2. Your students work on collaborative projects...with students in
Australia.
3. You give weekly class updates to parents...via your blog.
4. Your students participate in class...by tweeting their questions
and comments.
5. You ask your students to study and create reports on a
controversial topic...and you grade their video submissions.
6. You prepare substitutes with detailed directions...via Podcasts.
7. You ask your students to do a character/historical person
study...and they create mock social media profiles of their character.
8. Your students create a study guide...working together on a group
wiki.
9. You share lesson plans with your teacher friends...from around the
globe.
10. Your classroom budget is tight...but it doesn't matter because
there are so many free resources on the web you can use.
11. You realize the importance of professional development...and you
read blogs, join online communities, and tweet for self development.
12. You take your students on a field trip to the Great Wall of
China...and never leave your classroom.
13. Your students share stories of their summer vacation...through an
online photo repository.
14. You visit the Louvre with your students...and don't spend a dime.
15. You teach your students not to be bullies...or cyberbullies.
16. You make your students turn in their cell phones before class
starts...because you plan on using them in class.
17. You require your students to summarize a recent chapter...and
submit it to you via a text message.
18. You showcase your students' original work...to the world.
19. You have your morning coffee...while checking your RSS feed.
20. You are reading this.
21. You tweet this page, blog about it, "like" it, or email it to
someone else...
The post below is from Chris Lehmann's blog "Practical Theory: a View from the Classroom." Chris is the principal of Phildadelphia's Science Leadership Academy and believes problem-based and inquiry-driven learning can help students develop critical-thinking skills, be engaged, and experience deep learning.
Is Underhill School simply "good enough?" Can we be one of the transformative schools Chris talks about below? What would it take for that to happen? What would you, could you, contribute? Please comment!
"There are a lot of really good schools in the world - schools where kids
learn from teachers who care about them, where kids get into good
colleges and learn stuff and generally have a good experience with
teachers who care about them. There's nothing wrong
with those schools - they generally do right by kids, teachers like
teaching in them, and generally teaching and learning in these spaces
are enjoyable experiences.
But there's another level that schools can achieve. Schools can
transform. They can eclipse content and skills and become about
something more. They can be about realizing the best versions of
ourselves...
...I knew
I wasn't as good a person as the kids (students) thought I was, although I wanted
to be. So I tried to be. And while I think I always fall short of the
ideal, I think I'm a better person for the effort. The easiest place to
explain how I felt about this was, not surprisingly, the basketball
court. I was not a particularly good basketball player growing up. (I
know, this comes as a shock to everyone.) And when I started coaching, I
quickly realized that I had to learn like crazy to be worthy of a group
of young women who showed up to practice every morning at 6:30 am. I
had to be better. We could lose games because the other team was taller,
faster, more talented. We could lose games because our shots just
wouldn't fall. But I never wanted to lose a game because I wasn't good
enough - I wasn't worthy of the trust those girls put in me. The same
thing was (and is) true at SLA. I knew we'd be up against some pretty
long odds to succeed, and I knew we might not make it, but I wasn't o.k.
that the families and faculty that put their trust in our dream might
be let down because I wasn't good enough.
Finally, there was the realization that not everyone had this experience
in the classroom or in their school… that in so many places, kids were
happy to just do what was asked of them, teachers were willing to keep
recycling "good enough" lessons out every day, and administrators were
happy to see classes that were functional, never asking if the whole was
greater than the sum of its parts.
And so… here are some (by no means all) of my components of the
transformative school:
The school has goals beyond the accumulation of skills and content,
looking to educate "the whole child" in real, profound ways. At SLA,
this is what leads us to talk about "thoughtful, wise, passionate and
kind."
The whole must be greater than the sum of its parts. It's not
just about "great teachers" and "great kids," but rather about an entire
community that is better because it is together.
And the very important corollary to that - each part is made
better by the whole. (Or in other words, we are made better because we
have been together.)
Whatever values we want for the kids, we must want for
ourselves - if we wish to transform the lives of kids, we have to be
willing to be transformed ourselves. If we want kids to discover the
best versions of themselves, we must be willing to do so ourselves.
And when this happens, it should spread well beyond the walls
of the school so that the community can share in the transformation.
This doesn't happen by serendipity. There has to be systems
and structures that allow everyone access to these ideas. At SLA, those
are the core values, the essential questions, the individualized
learning plans, the capstones, Advisory and so many other systems,
structures and processes that we have put in place to make our school
about much more than a discrete set of classes. As so many kids have
said at the end of their tenure at SLA, "You did more than teach us a
way to learn, you taught us a way to live."
Know that you -- the school and all the members in it - are
always a work in progress, and the knowledge of how much growth is left
in front of you should be a profoundly humbling experience each and
every day.
Know that good ideas evolve over time… transformative schools
are evolutionary in nature. Schools that are healthy for all members
rarely go through hard 180 shifts in directions. They change over time,
often slowly, but always in ways that should make sense given the
mission of the school.
Never settle. Never think you are done. Never be o.k. with
just being a "good school." Never stop learning, growing and attempting
to be that best version of what you -- and the school -- can be. And
never underestimate how hard this is.
I don't know that SLA is a transformative school - I like to think that
on our best days we are. We certainly aspire to be. No matter what, it
is a worthy effort."
I spend a lot of time teaching students the difference between fiction and non-fiction. In the beginning, it's pretty clear which is which: the book with the rabbit all dressed up and dancing to a fiddle-playing frog is definitely FICTION. The book with the photographs and information about how to take care of pets is definitely NON-FICTION.
But as students get older, the line sometimes gets a bit blurred; is this book with the cartoon drawing of George Washington fiction or non-fiction? It doesn't have any "real" photographs but it does have facts. This book is a picture book about the Titanic and has facts, but it is written as if the person was the captain of the ship, and THAT can't be real!
This confusion can carry over as students move on to the internet to access information. Is just any website reliable? How can you tell?
We all want to help endangered animals, but what is fact and what is fiction here?
As students get older and begin viewing a plethora of information about politics, finances, academic subjects and life skills, it is more important than ever to teach them how to access, process, synthesize, analyze and apply this information. They need to be able to evaluate sources, locate reliable resources, consider the relevance of the information. They should know how current the resource is and how accurate the information is that it contains.
Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can publish on the
Web. That means it's up to them to determine which sites are reliable by
using the 5Ws (who? what? when? where? and why?) as evaluation criteria. Additional criteria includes:
Who is the author/publisher? Is that source clearly identified on
the site?
Can the author by contacted through an e-mail, phone
number, or a mailing address?
What are the author's credentials? Is he or she an expert in the
subject?
Is the site created or sponsored by a reputable organization? If
so, can it be confirmed that the organization is a credible, authoritative
source of information?
What information and resources does the
site provide?
What is the site's purpose: to persuade, inform, or entertain? Does
the site achieve its purpose?
Is the information on the site objective or biased? The site should
present several authoritative viewpoints on the subject and not just
one person's opinion.
Does the site provide thorough coverage of the topic? Does it
reference or link to other in-depth resources?
Is the information on the site well-written? Are there misspellings
or grammatical errors?
Does the site provide a "Works Cited" page or a bibliography? Can it be verified that the resources the author consulted are reliable, thorough,
and objective?
By introducing our students to these evaluation skills now, we can help them develop the ability to discern the difference between FICTION and NON-FICTION as they get older. The consequences of their decisions might affect us all.
Apps (short for Applications) are actually not that new. Whenever I need some technology explained "in Plain English" - I turn to the Common Craft page. Somehow, Lee Lefever makes complicated topics easier to understand.
From the Common Craft page: "We hear so much about apps today that it’s easy to think about them
being a fundamentally new phenomenon, but the truth is that we used apps
or “software applications” long before mobile phones. This video
explains what caused apps to evolve and what
new systems are in place that are making them so popular and useful
today."
I recently attended the NHSTE Workshop on Apps for Education. Wow! I had the chance to look at and explore a lot of wonderful apps that would enhance education here at Underhill School. I'd like to share some FREE ones with you here, but be aware I have not tried out every single one. If you find one here that you like, let us know through comments! If you have a great app that is not on this list, let me know and I will add it. More apps will follow in future blog postings!
Idea Sketch
A useful app for:
-brainstorming
-outlining/note
taking
-planning
-organizational
charts
Phonics Tic-Tac-Toe
This app is a game of identifying
vowels, syllables, letter sounds, digraphs, etc.
Audio Book
It is a recording app with
unique URL for sharing podcasts, narrating
Doodle Buddy
With this app, students can paint, draw, sketch;
import photos or use supplied backgrounds; other tools: stickers,
stencil, text box, paint brush, chalk, glitter, smudge; save to iPad’s
camera roll or send in an email
Screen Chomp
Use this app to explain the how/why of a
concept, create a screencast, teach other
students or assess student understanding. It is a recordable whiteboard,
can record using blank screen or import picture from Photos, email link
to video view - a unique URL is provided
http://www.techsmith.com/labs.html#screenchomp
QR Codes
Create your own QR codes and use them to link to audio
recordings, student created digital stories, websites, imagesand more
Students can design a postcard with
photos, stickers, voice message, then email it
http://www.billatkinson.com/aboutPhotoCard.html
Great app for sending a post card from a
place/landmark studied
Toontastic
This app allows students to create a quick 5-minute cartoon complete
with music, pre-made or creatable backgrounds, and characters. Students
narrate the cartoon. Toontastic provides a platform that lets students develop the set-up, conflict,
challenge, climax, and resolution of a story.
Stack the States (Lite is free)
The app asks trivia questions about a state, or asks you to identify the
shape of the state. If you answer correctly, you'll earn that state to
add to your platform. The goal is to stack as many states on the
platform as necessary to reach a goal line without the stack tipping
over. When you reach the goal, you are awarded a state to add to your
collection.
National Geographic Explorer
This is a robust classroom resource that
connects students to the world. It supports common core science and
language arts standards. Highly interactive content with videos, audio,
photos, and leveled text gives students an authentic learning experience
that engages while it teaches.
Scribble Press
Scribble Press allows kids to combine their own writing and artwork (or
clip art or imported images) into a book and even includes some "starter
books," which work sort of like Mad Libs, to help inspire them.
Miss Spell
This app will test the spelling ability of your students by offering up a
variety of words that the students need to decide whether they are
spelled correctly or not. Speed and accuracy score the best points as
you decipher the 20 words on offer for each level. American English is
the standard spelling format, and there are over 10,000 words tested.
Story Kit
Story Kit is the International Children's Digital
Library App. It allows students to create their own stories, complete with
pictures. Add text boxes, images and sound clips. Record sounds for stories, and add, reorder or delete pages. Add pictures by drawing
on the screen, taking a picture of something, or drawing something on
paper and taking a picture of it.
Bluster
Players match synonyms, prefixes, or rhyming words in
this interactive vocabulary game with single player or team mode
Counting Bills and Coins
This is a great app with five different activities that are customizable
by skill level. Kids can do simple activities with just beginner
knowledge of currency, all the way up to more complex word problems
making change at a cash register.
Here are some recommended websites that also review and list educational apps:
Digital Wish's
Apps Center for Education Helps Teachers Identify Android Apps for the K-12
Classroom! Funded by a grant from the Motorola
Mobility Foundation, Digital Wish has just launched the Digital Wish Apps
Center, the newest tool designed to help teachers find the best educational
applications designed for the Android. operating system. http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/apps_center
TCEA-Recommended
iPad Apps
This Google
spreadsheet is publically available and contains hundreds of apps listed by
over 50 different categories – the matrix is color-coded to easily identify
FREE resources and prices are listed for those with a cost. http://tinyurl.com/TCEA-iPad-Apps-Matrix
From
eSchoolNews ~ 10 of the best apps for education
As iPhones, iPads,
and iPod touches become more integrated in classrooms, educators, and students
are looking for new ways to apply them to the learning process. Applications on
all of these devices can help automate current classroom processes or present
new ways to learn that previously had been unexplored. In this collection,
eSchoolNews’ Assistant Editor, Jenna Zwang assembled a list of education “apps”
for Apple devices of note, five are free, and the other five range in price
from $0.99 to $9.99. http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/01/07/10-of-the-best-apps-for-education
The Best
Education Apps at FETC (Florida Education Technology Conference)
Mobile learning was a
cornerstone of the FETC conference in Orlando last month (Feb. 2012) and the
buzz culminated with the conference's closing session: An App Shootout where
ed-tech pros Gail Lovely, Hall Davidson, and Jenna Linskens shared some of
their favorite apps for Apple devices. This link includes 11 apps shared by
Jenna and links to the two Google spreadsheets compiled during the “shootout”,
one list from the panelists (37 apps) and one from the audience (over 50
additional apps)! http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/02/06/the-best-education-apps-at-fetc.aspx
Top 20
Must-Have Educational iPhone & iPad Apps Used By Real Teachers in the
Classroom
From the Appolicous Advisor, educators share their lists of the best education apps for elementary,
middle school, junior high, and high school. http://tinyurl.com/Top-20-Must-Have-Apps
"Google can bring back a hundred thousand
answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one." The Guardian
(London)
goo·gle/ˈgo͞ogəl/
Verb:
Use an Internet search engine,
particularly Google.com: "she spent the afternoon googling aimlessly".
Search for the name of (someone) on
the Internet to find out information about them.
It has become a verb of common use in our popular lexicon "to google". And I'll admit it...I've googled, too (I "googled" google for the screenshot above). But it is no accident that the first definition uses the phrase "googling aimlessly" as an example. Google is great when you have plenty of time and want to wander through endless websites looking for exactly the correct result. However, as you can see by the number of "hits", you would have to wander through 16,430,000,000websites to truly know if you have gotten the information you want.
If you were really looking for the meaning of the math term "GOOGOL", you might have to dig deeper. If you got lucky (and spelled it correctly), you could find the following:
Of course, it might still be a bit confusing:
Any good librarian will direct students and staff to the best resource for the information they need. Sometimes that is a particular website; sometimes it is a dictionary; sometimes it is a book. But the best resource, the most reliable resource, the QUICKEST resource - is someone who already knows where to find the correct answer. Ask your librarian.
...you'll love some of these new websites. They are like a WORDLE (words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies
of occurrence
within the body of text), but inside a shape! This is a simple tool that
automatically fills a shape with any words you like. Enter some
words separated by commas in the text box and press the 'Enter' key. You
can also choose fonts or change the
colors.
