Tag: Technology

Make it fun

What makes one professional development opportunity great, while another may be bland and boring?  Some of the best PD that I’ve had felt that way because the presenter somehow made things fun.  In your classroom, the students are the audience, and while making sure they are having fun is not your primary goal, we all know they are going to pay a lot more attention if the activities that we are doing are more fun.  What are some ways we can incorporate fun into our classrooms?

Kevin Jarret - https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/7070563247
Kevin Jarret – https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/7070563247
Scott West
Scott West
  • STICKERS – I am continually amazed by what a fifth or sixth grader will do for a sticker (haven’t you noticed the Ham & Cheese stickers that end up on our students foreheads?). Want some more participation?  Pull our the foil stars, ask a question, and give out a star for good answers, or to integrate tech, give a foil star to the best response or question on Today’s Meet (see the post on Getting ALL our students to participate in the classroom).
  • Make it silly – before students hand in a paper, have them do something silly, make a sound like a pirate, do a little dance, etc. Adding a little silliness will up the fun factor by at least 10% (and even more important – if you are being silly with them, they will be even more engaged!).
  • In a content area, retell a story and make your students the stars of the story (think about last week’s post on titled Put your students into your materials).

When kids walk out of this building, the fun they want is pretty much on demand.  Between social media, streaming video and music, video games, and more, our students have tons of ways to do something fun.  If we want them to be as engaged in our room as they are with their Minecraft world, we have to be willing to bring in some of the fun.

Matt Miller: https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14562457739/in/album-72157645530010989/
Matt Miller: https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14562457739/in/album-72157645530010989/

Think of some lesson you have done in the past that was a bust (even the best of us have had one!).  How could you add some fun and silliness to help the students be more engaged?  What things have you included that were fun and did help students remain engaged?  Share some of your ideas in the comments section below.

Preparing our Students for the Great Unknown

lennon-quote-with-photoWhen you were in 6th grade, what did you want to be?  When you talk to our students, what jobs do they want to have some day?  The amazing thing is that some of the jobs that my classmates are in did not exist when I was in 6th grade.  How many jobs that our students will end up doing don’t even exist yet?  In a previous post I shared the following quote from Thomas Friedman:

“Today’s workers need to approach the workplace much like athletes preparing for the Olympics, with one difference. They have to prepare like someone who is training for the Olympics but doesn’t know what sport they are going to enter.”

Matt Miller - http://ditchthattextbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/jobs-that-didnt-exist.jpg
Matt Miller – http://ditchthattextbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/jobs-that-didnt-exist.jpg

A quick search of the top jobs for 2015 lists things like computer systems analyst, software/app developer, information security analyst, and IT manager.  These are all relatively new jobs.  A couple weeks ago, I talked about the importance of being able to learn, unlearn, and relearn.  What does this look like when we don’t even know what jobs may exist when our students enter the job market?

To me, there are a few skills that will always be valuable.  These are the skills that are most important for our students to learn.  Here is a list that Matt Miller shared of a few skills that will help our students be better prepared for the real world when they get there:

  • Adding value
  • Creating content online
  • Continuously listening and watching for new ideas
  • Glamorizing hard work
  • Turning wasted time into productive time
  • Cultivating relationships
  • Being financially responsible
  • Staying on the cutting edge
  • Maintaining a balance between professionalism and being a real person
  • Becoming a twenty-four-hour worker

Some of these may be hard to visualize in practice in the school building.  If you’re looking for further description on any of these skills, let me know and I can share a more detailed explanation.Peanuts-happy

Are there any skills that you feel are left off of the list above?  What would you add?  Share in the comments below!

Getting ALL our students to participate in the classroom

This photo was titles "Boring Lecture, 1940s" https://www.flickr.com/photos/dukeyearlook/2076633334/in/photostream/
This photo is titled “Boring Lecture, 1940s”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dukeyearlook/2076633334/in/photostream/

This summer the entire HSE administrative staff participated in a 2 day workshop titled “Undoing Racism.”  For two days all of the central office administrators, principals, assistant principals, and deans sat in a large circle talking about some pretty heavy topics.  Several times things came to mind about the discussion, but I found it hard at times to share that thinking with everyone in the room.  I didn’t want to be judged.  My own insecurities prevented me from actively participating in the discussion at times.

In your classroom, there are students who are actively engaged in your lessons, who have ideas that could be beneficial to all in the room, but for whatever reason they are afraid to speak up.  Using a backchannel during your class (especially a lesson that is heavy on direct instruction, or possibly during a video in class) could serve a couple of purposes.  A backchannel could allow students to share thinking while they are receiving information, it allows more students the opportunity to share their responses (those times when you can’t call on all the hands that go up – just have them all enter share their response in your backchannel), and a backchannel could even be used for a quick check formative assessment to see where kids are in the middle of a lesson (ask a question, tell kids to type in an answer but wait for your instruction to post, and then have them all post at one time).

When we provide more students the opportunities to share in the classroom, we are building bridges to the world instead of placing them in a silo. https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14749002232/in/album-72157645530010989/
When we provide more students the opportunities to share in the classroom, we are building bridges to the world instead of placing them in a silo.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14749002232/in/album-72157645530010989/

Sites such as TodaysMeet.com can allow us to set up a place for our students to go where their voices can be heard, but they don’t have to worry about being singled out or having everyone watch them.  Everyone gets to have a voice.  And it only takes a moment to set up a room (that you can leave open for the entire school year).

Have you tried a backchannel in your classroom?  What went well?  What were some of the struggles?  If you’ve never tried it before, start small.  Have students pose questions or connections while watching a video so that you can more easily monitor the discussion.

Technology to Make Life Easier

Last week I talked about how living in a digital world makes it easier to connect with people all over the world, or in your own backyard.  In addition to allowing us to communicate so easily, technology can make us all more efficient.  While there are times that technology might seem to make life more difficult, there are so many benefits that it’s hard to ignore.

Its easier to go down a hill

Here are just a few ways that tech can help us transform teaching and learning:

-Field trips – instead of spending weeks planning and preparing for a field trip (think scheduling the trip, collecting money, permission slips, scheduling buses, etc.) you can create a field trip experience during a class period without leaving the room. Skype or Google Hangouts can let you chat with people almost anywhere in the world.

-Grading – instead of sitting at your desk with a stack of papers, you can use online methods to assess your students. In the case of simple assignments, they can be auto-graded through apps and websites.  Something more complicated can be assessed and returned to students anytime of the day.

-Materials – no more digging through file cabinets, folders, or binders. Now you can do a quick keyword search in Office 365 or Google Drive to find the document you need.

-New ideas – you don’t have to spend hours flipping through books to find new ideas, now a quick search on Google or communication through social media could come up with new ideas in a matter of minutes.

To understand their world we must be willing

Those of you who know me well know that I am pretty “techy.”  If any of the ideas above sound like something you’d like to learn more about, let me know.  I can help you find resources to use the digital world to allow yourself to be more efficient.

What tech have you used to make life easier in your classroom?  Share some ideas in the comments below so that others can learn from you!