I posted my course project plan today.  I have incorporated opportunities for using technology in the classroom as well as assignments to be done independently at home.  I believe that the use of technology and the ability to make decisions for their culminating activity will provide motivation.  However, in working with pre-teens motivation is a tenuous thing.  As I work through the process of assembling the course for presentation to the students, I will search for different websites to use that are engaging.

Students engagement is the latest buzzword around my school.  In a recent professional development session, the presenter discussed four levels of student engagement.  They were from lowest level to the highest: rebellious, submissive compliant, driven compliant, and fully engaged.  The rebellious student does not engage and is disruptive in the classroom.  The submissive compliant does what is expected but desires to be left alone.  This person has, in the past, been called a wallflower or "cipher in the snow".  The driven compliant student strives to do what is required to achieve a level of success in grades or to meet parent/teacher expectations.  The fully engaged student is "in the zone".  For these students the clock does not matter.  The statistics given for the ratios place the majority of the students in the compliant zones.  The presenter stated that full engagement was a rarity.

I located a site, http://www.cobbk12.org/sites/ALT/training/forms/cwt/Engagement.ppt which lists five levels of student engagement.  The additional level is just above rebellious and places students who are not disruptive, but offer no effort to participate in this category.

While I will not disagree with the statistics mentioned above, I will say that the computer based site, GetKahoot! is something that my students are wild about.  This site is new and the developers appear to be very interested in student engagement.  If you search me on Twitter(@PrimeFactors_LJ) you can see some evidence of GetKahoot in use.  My students ask me every day if we are going to Kahoot.  On the days and at the time that we are using this site, there is 100% engagement in the activity.  Teachers and students can both make quizzes and polls.  These are then presented in the classroom via projection.  Students use handheld devices to respond.  For quizzes, time and accuracy allow the students to amass points.  My 7th graders are very competitive!  I am sure that an administrator walking down the hall when we are Kahooting wonder if I have lost total control.  I do nothing but make an occasional comment as the game progresses.  If you have not tried this site, check it out.  I have proof it is engaging, at least in the middle school.

It has been too long between posts, but sometimes life gets in the way!

I had a frank discussion with my principal this week about flipping my classroom for the upcoming school year and preparing for Social Studies.  She was excited about the idea that someone would undertake flipping; she has shared may articles and evidence concerning flipping in the past.  Her comments about my choice of Social Studies were at the least disconcerting for me.  She cautioned me that she was unsure as what grade level I would be teaching next year and expressed concern about me putting so much time into the development of the class which I might not be able to use.  I do really understand and appreciate her concern.  But, I must forage ahead with this plan as I feel that I am too far along to go back now.

I have moved the site to CourseSites.  This free teaching site is, for me, more user friendly.  Now the real work begins!  Got to get that class moving. 

Snow Jam 2014? ClusterFlake?

Whatever it is called by the media, the past week has been challenging for those of us who are educators. High stakes testing will come to my county the third week of April.  Could we request snow for that week?  The test is coming sure as the night is followed by the day.

Missing students the last week of January for 3 days delayed plans.  My Professional Learning Community in 7th Grade Math worked to condense and streamline the curriculum, but now we have missed 3 more student days.  The missed days may have to be made up at the end of the school year, but the teaching days prior to the testing week are gone!

I suggest that students be given the opportunity to become responsible for their own education via the use of technology.  Students need to be educated using 21st century skills, so let's incorporate those same tools into the school and classroom.  I am totally in favor of increasing student engagement through the use of technology and educating students in an online environment.

This week in my Technology and Student Engagement course at UGA, we were asked to examine project-based learning and the assessment and evaluation tools.  We had two videos to watch and two articles to review.  The video which I most enjoyed concerned a high school geometry class and the culminating project for that class.

The project was designed for a high school geometry course.  The task was to design a 2050 high school on the site provided.  A complete site plan was provided to the students.  Students had to produce floor plans, a site plan, a building cost analysis, and a mock up of one room of their school.  The teacher located two local architects to assist her in guiding the students and evaluating the final products.  The students also presented their finished work.  Finally, the class took a walking field trip of their city, inspecting the architecture of many buildings and finishing their day at the office of the architects for the presentation of excellence in various areas.

The video demonstrated how much collaboration was involved between students, the architects, and the teacher.  This was not the first year of this project for the teacher.  Over the course of nine years she developed an extensive rubric which served as the guiding tool for the students.  This project was outstanding.

My favorite reading this week was by Diane McGrath, entitled Artifacts and Understanding, published in Learning & Leading with Technology, V 30 No. 5, and is an ISTE production.  Dr. McGrath listed several things that could be considered artifacts.  These included physical models, multimedia projects, Web sties, and robots.  The important thing about artifacts is that the students constructed the product while "constructing their own knowledge about important subject matter."  She stressed that these projects required extended time, often many weeks to a year, so that enough time was available to develop understanding and produce an excellent project.

When you get the time, please check out the video and the article.  It is time well spent as you employ project-based learning in your own classroom.

I am currently reading the book entitled Supporting Learning with Technology: Essentials of Classroom Practice by Joy Egbert. This book is very readable and full of helpful suggestions for classroom teachers who are incorporating technology into their classrooms.

This week I will discuss the topics from Chapters 1 & 2 which I have found beneficial.

In Chapter 1 there is a section called Guidlines for Using Educational Technology.  Ms. Egbert gives three simple guidelines: 1) Understand the realities of technology, 2) Examine equity and access for your students, and 3) Consider student differences.

1. Understand the realities of technology--Learning to use technology will not be a smooth and seamless process.  Expect a time for learning.  This requires time and patience.  She reminds us that students love the "bells and whistles" which technology affords, but that as teachers we can keep this under control by ensuring that our content is rich and rigorous.
2. Examine equity and access for your students--Ms. Egbert reminds us of some potential spots where inequity can occur (girls and students with disabilities).  Also having a limited amount of computers in the room for student use.  I saw this problem this week and circumvented it by a simple rule.  If you were male, you must select a female to follow you on the computer.  If you were female, a male had to be selected.  I made sure that my students with disabilities were involved in this process.  Also, my school permits students to use their own technology.  This freed computer time and students volunteered, without encouragement or even my suggestion, shared their technology with a neighbor.  Students wanted to help their peers with the assignments I gave.  I count this a huge success!
3. Consider student differences--Making consideration for particular learning preferences was central to this topic.  I opened a discussion for my students with the prompt "What about technology?" and while the due date has not yet passed, the resounding cry from students is for me to continue.  They cite "not having to carry large books and binders" and "easy and fun" as just a few reasons for me to continue.

Chapter 2 covers learning content while using technology.  Early in the chapter Ms. Egbert addressed the challenges of teachers incorporating technology into content lessons.  She reminded me that many of the challenges present in the traditional classroom are also present in a technology filled class.  As in chapter one she acknowledged the time and effort it takes to learn new technologies and reminded me to use the school media specialist as a resource.

More for the book in future posts.

This has been a busy week in my classroom.  After attending the UGA Digital Technology conference last weekend and hearing Cat Flippen discuss "Failing Up", I took her words to heart.  I have put technology into my classroom at full tilt!

My county subscribes to My Big Campus and encourages us (the teachers) to use it to its fullest capacity.  I will be the first to admit that while I have employed this site more this year, I am still learning and have not risked using it for online assignments.  That has all changed and I am proud of what I did.

I began by having students respond to simply posts which I then had to figure out how to score.  Scoring was so simple that I am ashamed that I did not try it soon.  I then used a multiple choice summation strategy which we call ticket out the door.  The are several advantages to using multiple choice responses: students get immediate feedback and I have only to add the grades into the grade book program.

I also asked all classes to respond to a discussion post which asked them to talk about why they wanted technology in the classroom.  If I had reservations about sticking my neck out and appearing to be in the "learning along with you" mode, the responses of the students removed all fear.  They want to use their technology and enjoy the freedom afforded by using their own devices.  My students have discovered many things about how to navigate the site on their phones.  This was somewhat challenging, but the students found the answer quickly!  I am so proud of them.

Some teachers to whom I have spoken are worried about students misuse of their devices.  As we all know, students will do what we allow.  I had only one known incident and handled that according to my school's policies.  I also contact that student's parent - and happily received complete support.

If you are in doubt about incorporating technology into your classroom, please consider the students.  They want to use technology and my students are more than willing to be patient while I make mistakes trying to incorporate technology into their lessons.  I can't let up.  During dismissal on Friday I overheard a discussion going on in the line.  The students were praising the new techno-friendly environment in my classroom and expressed the hope that I would have more of the same on the following week.  They threw down a gauntlet to me and I will not let them down!

Written February 2, 2014 but somehow this did not get posted properly.

Friday and Saturday of this week just ending proved to be very informative and inspiring!  I  experienced Tena Crews or U of SC. She was a dynamic keynote speaker on Friday evening. She opened the 1st Digital Conference at the University of Georgia.

Dr, Lloyd Rieber spoke on his first MOOC  -  Statistics in Education for Mere Mortals. His presentation left me wanting to take his course;  I have taken several stat courses in my time but I think there is much I can learn from his class.

On Saturday I met and devoured the lively and knowledgeable Cat Flippen. She was entertaining and left me wanting to put more and better uses of technology into my classroom. She wore her Google glass and talked about daring to try, taking moon shots and so much more. She is a Twitter user in the biggest sense of the word and had the entire audience Tweeting and learning to employ Twitter as a learning tool. She was tireless in her 4 presentations and early morning keynote.  Don't be afraid to fail up!

Dr. Gary Shattuck discussed and challenged his session to bring our classrooms into the 21st Century and all that school leaders can do to assist the teachers in their buildings.

Rick Willard discussed and exposed his session to flip the classroom. There are many apps which were introduced to assist us and make learning the responsibility of the students. His presentation showed the apps with the intent of helping us to engage our students.

When the conference was over a large group of us and our guest, Cat Flippen, enjoyed a meal together and shared some more fun and learning. I wish all of you could have been there. I encourage you to improve you usage of technology and engage you students is learning in the modern world.