Capturing Scientific Discussions & Processes in STEM Lab

Students, grades 3-6,  in this elementary STEM lab took on a video and photo challenge to capture their discussions and plans from a recent Marshmallow Challenge. During the video challenge, they shared notes and final sketches that they used prior to building their structures. 

A conversation about Digital Citizenship was a requirement prior to this challenge. Students planned academic/professional conversation and displays for their videos. They put away name tags to protect their privacy when posting to their teacher's Youtube channel. The students used the preview feature, prior to posting videos to make sure that they did not share personal information and that the learning process was more of the focus. This took some teamwork and quite a few tries. 

Once the videos were captured and stored in the teacher Youtube channel, the links were shared on a Padlet wall. This online "wall" will allow for ongoing conversations and reflections with other students that visit STEM lab. This wall can also offer a quick way to share learning processes with homeroom teachers and students' families. The STEM teacher might use this as a place to assess the learning and to offer immediate feedback for students. 

During the photo challenge, students took pictures of their final sketch or the actual Marshmallow structure. From the camera roll on the iPad, they could select the file and put this to the Padlet wall for publishing and further discussion. 

By capturing scientific discussions and processes in STEM lab, the teacher and students now have an online record to share with others. Outside collaboration with other students and experts could be a future possibility!

Learning Objectives & Resources: 

Marshmallow Challenge: http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Instructions.html

Chromebooks: http://www.google.com/edu/chromebooks/

iPads: https://www.apple.com/education/ipad/in-the-classroom/

Youtube Webcam Capture (only available at school through teacher accounts, under teacher supervision): Go to the Youtube app in GAFE, click on the Upload button. In the Create Videos column, click on the Record button under Webcam capture.  

Padlet: http://padlet.com/

Power of Play in Education

ISTE 2014 Keynote Speaker, Kevin Carroll (@kckatalyst) shared a important message about the power of play! While listening to his life story of struggle, perseverance, and dreams, I reflected on my own journey of learning and growing. Some key take aways that I've put in to action since that day: 

1. Look Up! You might be amazed at what you will find.  

http://redballproject.com/cities/portland/

2. Strive to be Someone's CEO (Chief Encouraging Officer)

 http://youtu.be/GvIiGaVeyVI

3. Connect with Others through Play! 

"Play is serious business," Kevin Carroll shared, "I often like to quote Albert Einstein, who said, 'Play is the highest form of research'. "

My first year of teaching included 41 busy, active, and curious kindergarteners. I would watch them "in play" to determine how I could best help them with reading skills. What did they enjoy talking about? I would then search for books that they might like. I observed these students as they shared their snacks with a friend. How did they count? What strategies did they already know? Looking back on teaching kindergarten, I spent a lot of time allowing play in the classroom. What if Albert Einstein was correct about play, is this the kind of assessment that can keep our learning ignited?

I'm willing to give it a try!

Looking for STEM resources for Elementary Grades?

Here's a fantastic collection of STEM resources for an elementary teacher and their students to explore! Thank you to my fantastic Professional Learning Network for helping me collect these treasures. If there are some that you would add, please mention in the comment section below.


STEM Resources for Teachers:
Project & Lesson Ideas from an Elementary STEM lab
Educational Science Projects, Toys, and Ideas
Siemens Science Day
Engineering in Elementary


STEM in Action:
STEM in a Primary Classroom
100 +Apps with STEM focus

Book Resources:

Invent to Learn

Engineer Through the Year - Two projects each month to do, it follows the engineering model - the end of each project, they have all rubrics ready to go for each of these

Picture Perfect Science Books

The Blog Days of Summer #1 - Ready, Set, Go!

Have you found success in blogging? I am a struggling blogger and I'm not proud of it. I recently watched the movie, "Marley and Me" for the second time (yes, I sobbed just as much as the first time) and found that a particular scene reached out to me in regards to my blogging dilemma. One of the main characters had always imagined himself as a reporter, but somehow ended up being a columnist. His boss complimented him on the success of his column by saying, "you know what makes this work, you put yourself into the story."

Ready...Put Yourself into your Blog Posts - Write Like You Talk

Why take the time to blog? I started this blog back in December 2013 with the intention of wanting to share treasures of learning moments with others in my professional learning network and beyond. I have and will continue to benefit from so many that bravely put their stories out there, and I felt that it was time for me to be a contributor in this way. With that in mind, I have actually placed "The Blog Days of Summer" on to my calendar and I am going to make it happen. 

Set... Schedule a Time and Space for Blogging 

Why should teachers blog? To answer this, I need to think back to a time before the "blog" was invented.  Miss Williams, my 6th grade teacher, allowed two boa constrictors to slither around the classroom, she sat on a bean bag chair while teaching, and drove a bright green VW van. My mother worried that I wasn't learning all that I should in that classroom, but I was inspired and challenged daily. Mostly, I remember listening to her read the stories that she had written, herself. I thought that she was the most incredible writer in the world! I wanted to be just like her! This is where I first learned about the power of voice and word choice for creative writing. We even took time to write our titles and names of our stories in fancy calligraphy. Teacher blogs can serve students in many ways from academic modeling to developing a powerful home/school connection. It is especially powerful when teachers and students join together in a class blog space.  For some examples of teacher blogs check out Top 20 Teacher Blogs shared by Scholastic. 

Go... Find a Purpose and Audience and Start Blogging

The JOY of Learning!

Think back to your most powerful learning moment from elementary school.  Was there a struggle involved? Were you following someone's lead or did you discover something yourself? Who was there to share this experience with? 

I had the pleasure of watching some joyful learning moments in a kindergarten class. Students were reading stories together that they had created themselves, using the Story Buddy app. Some of them had also created a book through iBook Author, that was available online and in a hardback book that included orginal art work. The joy found within their expressive voices when sharing about their creating experiences, along with the facts about owls and other birds (the topic of the book), was rich and powerful. 

The teacher explained that the app was new, and some of the students had modeled how to use this with the whole group. Minutes later, the students huddled up into small groups, or with a partner of their choice to explore and work. Laughter and silliness along with productivity and facts created a contagious medley of learning within this class. There was a struggle and even some tears as a student or two communicated their opinions and expectations to their teammates. The teacher guided these moments with questions, and gave options for students. 

I found it difficult to leave this classroom, it was a fun and exciting place to learn. The kindergarten students have inspired me to try out Story Buddy, and I imagine that I'll pay more attention when I see or hear an owl. 

Educators Growing in Idaho with Professional Learning Networks

Idaho Google Summit

EdCamp Idaho

It's happening! Teachers, Instructional Coaches, Content Supervisors, Technology Managers, Teacher Librarians and more are collaborating formally and informally all over Idaho! Check out two upcoming opportunities to meet with other educators; learn about rich and powerful tools, strategies, and discover research that will help you to facilitate student centered learning in your classroom. 

If you just can't wait and want to start communicating with Idaho Educators and educators beyond our state's borders, check out the weekly Twitter Chat at #IDedchat on Wednesdays from 7-8 p.m. MST. Check out last week's chat that featured Idaho Core State Standards: Storify provided by @averyteach

If you know about other local or nearby events, please share the information in the comments section, below.  

School, Bells, Action!

When you get a chance, walk down the hallways of a school and peer into the classrooms. What do you see? Are students all facing the same way? Is the classroom set up in the same way that a movie theater is?

What happens when the bell rings and it is time for recess? Do the students race to get out of their classroom? Why?

How can teachers provide students a learning space that allows both physical and mental action? Take a look at this learning space from Clark Hall at Gahanna Lincoln High School in Columbus, Ohio.

We can create our learning spaces to allow for movement, activity, and student engagement both physically and mentally.

Check out the following resources for further research and ideas about creating classrooms that allow for student action:

Rationales, Strategies, & Resources for Movement in the Classroom

Learning Spaces Toolkit

Pillars of Digital Leadership Series: Rethinking Learning Spaces and Environments

Using Tech Tours for a Meaningful Homework Experience

My 5th graders had a favorite poem that they liked to recite, most of the students had learned this in second grade and they still had it memorized:

Homework! Oh, Homework!
I hate you! You stink!
I wish I could wash you
away in the sink,
if only a bomb
would explode you to bits.
Homework! Oh, homework!
You're giving me fits.
I'd rather take baths
with a man-eating shark,
or wrestle a lion
alone in the dark,
eat spinach and liver,
pet ten porcupines,
than tackle the homework,
my teacher assigns.
Homework! Oh, homework!
you're last on my list,
I simply can't see
why you even exist,
if you just disappeared
it would tickle me pink.
Homework! Oh, homework!
I hate you! You stink!
— "Homework! Oh, Homework!" by Jack Prelutsky

I made sure to share the "Why?" for homework with my students. I included some research such as this:
Brain research studies conducted by Hermann Ebbinghaus on memory produced the forgetting curve
that showed that approximately 70% of learned material that has no previous association
or meaning for the student is forgotten within three days. (Wolfe, 2001)

We talked about the importance of sharing our learning with others, and talked about how our families could be an awesome audience for this! This is when we came up with the idea of "Tech Tours." Students would take their families on a tour, each night, to a variety of online resources that they had contributed to such as IXL Math, Discovery Education Student Center, Kidblog, and our class Edmodo page. I helped students out by writing up some guiding questions for families to use when taking these "Tech Tours."  It was important to remind families and the learners that these were spaces that we were in the process of learning, rather than places to be assessed for final grades.

Homework can be meaningful when students are sharing about something that they have discovered, created, or experienced when learning.

Wolfe, P. (2001) Brain Matters. Association for Curriculum and Development.

Alexandria, VA.

A Space and a Place for Creating Interactive Lessons: Ed.Ted.Com!

TED Talks have been part of my Professional Learning Resources for sometime, however, I recently found an extension of TED that can be a powerful tool in any classroom! Check out ed.ted.com for creating interactive lessons and presentations!

Here's a quick sample lesson for Digital Citizenship, http://ed.ted.com/on/qyAkbpnM. If you arrive at ed.ted.com with your resources and ideas ready to go, you should be able to craft a lesson in about five minutes! The template style and prompts help to make this user friendly. 

When finished with your lesson, you are offered many ways to share: 

I love how this Web 2.0 tool will allow anyone with Internet access, and the ed.ted.com link, to view and participate with the lessons!

Dare to Dream and Discover, then Share!

Martin Luther King Jr.'s powerful "I Have a Dream..." speech was filled with hope and challenges. Equality, freedom, and respect were resounding themes of his speech and they still resonate with us today. 

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Martin Luther King Jr. 

May we always take courage to learn from history, discover how to make the world a better place, and then share it out! 

Classroom Management Tips for Integrating Digital Resources

Integrating digital resources in a K-12 classroom environment comes with its own set of responsibilities of modeling, setting clear expectations, and purposeful publishing.

Be a "Connected Educator"
Teachers can model positive digital citizenship by sharing what they have contributed online for educational purposes. They might show blogs that they have written, projects that they've posted, or social media spaces where they have shared in a professional learning conversation.

 Check out the Discovery Education Network to get begin your first steps at being a "Connected Educator!"

Empower Students to Have Ownership in Their Learning
Invite students to research digital resources that will contribute to the learning objectives. Students can create guidelines and tips on how to use the particular Web 2.0 tool, and then present these to the rest of the students. This encourages a classroom culture of teamwork, and will guide students into using tools for learning purposes.

A teacher might find photos or videos of students using digital resources for learning purposes, as a way of modeling appropriate use of the tools in their own classroom. The following photo shows how students are using videochats to participate in The Global Read Aloud project. What digital resources do you notice here? Does it look like all of the students are invested in the learning? Why or Why Not?

Encourage Tech Tours: Students Share with Families through Digital Resources
Encourage students to take their families on Tech Tours to the online learning spaces that they are contributing in. This might be a tour to a classroom blog, learning management space (Schoology or Edmodo), Discovery Education Student Center, or a multi-media project that has been shared on SchoolTube or Youtube.
 Take a look at the Common Sense Media page, Creating with Digital Media!

Learning How to Improve in Curating Resources

If you looked into my closet, on any given day, you would see a different view. Some days very tidy and organized (you can see the floor), and other times scattered and random. This also explains how I curate the valuable resources that I find online and beyond. I would love to improve on how to curate, and I am thankful for many that model this for me.

The teacher librarians in my district have done an incredible job of putting together a monthly medley of resources, using a free Web 2.0 tool, https://www.smore.com/, titled "Tech 101: Fast and Easy Tips to Make You Look Like a Tech Genius."  Check out the following monthly flyers:

November Tech 101 - I'm getting ready to dig into https://narrable.com/ after reviewing this.

December Tech 101 - This encouraged me to play more with Pikochart and I created a summary of some of our key tools and objectives at our district.

What is Your Definition of Assessment?

The question, "What is your definition of assessment?" came up on two Twitter chats (#IDedchat and #denchat) that I participated in this week. My answer was something like, "an opportunity for the learner to demonstrate what they know about a topic/subject." As the conversation in the chats moved into more specific definitions of formative vs. summative assessment and how teachers should implement these both, a couple of key points really stood out to me.

I'm thankful for my ever growing and wise Professional Learning Community that share treasures with me each week. Special thanks this week to @shareski and @ajpoggio for reminding us that assessment is something that learners should be part of. We all need to feel ownership in the process of our learning, and we should have a voice in how we would like to share this information with others. 

Check out the book, A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades. by Ken O'Connor. You can also ask questions about philosophy, procedures, policies, and practices of grading by visiting "The Grade Doctor." 

Tips for Evaluating Websites

Digital Citizenship is an ongoing topic that I've had an opportunity to share with teachers, parents, and students in my district. Each week, we highlight a Digital Learning Tip through our District's webpage in the "What's Happening?" section.
This is the Digital Learning Tip #6:

Evaluating Websites

The Internet is filled with answers to our questions! Some of these answers come from reliable, evidence-backed research and some are just myths. How do we help our children find websites that are trustworthy? Encourage your child to do a some detective work with you and ask the following questions, shared with us from www.commonsensemedia.com :

1. Who is the author of the website? Look to see if the site is credible by looking at their title, expertise, and background.
2. What is the source of the information? Do you recognize any connection to a well-known organization or news source?
3. How does this information compare to other information? It is important to seek out answers from a variety of sites, so that you can do a compare/contrast of the information.
4. When was this information last updated?
5. Are advertisers trying to target you on this website? Children might need help to look for ways that advertisers are trying to persuade them. Help your children interpret what the ads are saying.

For more information about finding reliable websites for research and discovery, check out the Family Tip Sheet - Research and Evaluation.

Here’s a link that will take you to a list of websites for children that Common Sense Media has evaluated and ranked: Kids’ Websites Reviews

Website that I Would Not Want to Live Without...Discovery Education

One of the main reasons that I appreciate Discovery Education's website, www.discoveryeducation.com, is that true learning is modeled and valued. I have been using this website for many years, and I am amazed to find new features every time that I log in. I believe that this is the most powerful K-12 instructional tool, and I'll list some reasons for this:

• Common Core Library
• Offers Model Lessons and Curates Resources that align with each standard
• Here's a great explanation of how this is Transforming Teaching and Learning
• Discovery Education Network for Teachers (DEN)
• A place for teachers to collaborate, create, and learn together through blogs, events, meet-ups, and video chats
• Every Month, DE offers a Community Calendar of Events, check out January's events!
• Streaming Plus Library 
• Allows for narrow searches that will find resources to reach all learning styles and interests
• Board Builder
• This is now available for teachers and students!
• An virtual poster board that allows for up to 5 of your own media files to be uploaded
• You can learn more about how to use Board Builder with students, by attending an upcoming January 21st webinar.
• Virtual Field Trips and Webinars
• These are always available in an archived section, as well. 
• Check out this Kyle Schutt's Scoopit - http://www.scoop.it/t/devfts

When I started to reach out to other educators through the Discovery Education Network, my world did get rounder! In fact, it is through these friendships that I found the encouragement and inspiration to seek out a Master's Degree in Educational Technology. This led me to a new adventure of coaching and inspiring teachers to remember to be lifelong learners that use critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication with their colleagues and students!

Truly grateful for the DEN!

Using Google Forms to Reduce Paper Piles

Permission slips, student information & inventory sheets, welcome packets, instruction sheets, newsletters, assessments and more can stack up in no time when teachers have 20+ students! Teachers have been seen carrying multiple bags and even lugging small suitcases to and from work to help manage these stacks of papers.

Using Google forms is a paperless option and can be accessed using any device that gets you to the Internet. The analytics and data sorting that is available with Google forms that automatically go on to a Google sheet is an invaluable organizational tool for any teacher.

I curated this incredible resource "Innovative Ways to Use Google Forms" http://goo.gl/7W5Idu from Molly Schroeder (@followmolly). She included treasures for teachers, administrators, and students! This will serve as a great reference tool for beginning or experienced Google Forms users. 

Jumping in! Starting off with a 20 Day Blog Challenge

My incredibly talented  friend, Kelly Hines at http://kellyhines.wordpress.com, posted the following 20 Day Blogging Challenge. (If you'd like to join us, head over to her website and sign up) I've been inspired by so many people, like Kelly, that are working to bring people together while learning. It can be intimidating to publish something for all to see, but I'm jumping in. 2014 has officially kicked off and just following it my 1st blog post.

Day 1: One of my all time favorite teaching books is - "Oh the Places You'll Go !" By Dr. Seuss
I've used this with all ages of learners from preschool to adults! There are so many one-liners that students can make connections with! Recently, I found a great infographic that includes some of these in a list of 30 Dr. Seuss Quotes That Can Change Your Life (http://www.mamiverse.com/dr-seuss-quotes-19331/)

Here is another resource  for teachers that include lesson plans and ideas for this book: http://www.seussville.com/activities/OTP_ClassroomDiscussion_0.pdf