Technology: Tool or Toy?

Technology has evolved since I first started teaching 33+ years ago. I was the person in the room who had the computer and students went to the computer lab to access technology. Cell phones today should really be called personal portable computers that also happen to have phone capability.  Cell phones can be used to access the internet to find any information instantly.  I see kids even as young as 2 using these tools fluently and successfully!  I hear people in the workplace, at coffee shops saying things such as   “Google it”, “IM me”, “”Ping me”, ” Let’s FactTime” among others.

With instant access to information, education faces a challenge. How do we as educators effectively use this tool and other tech tools such as laptops, ipads, effectively in classroom learning to optimize this tool?

This looming question has brought about some innovative answers. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math,  STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) , PBL (Project Based Learning) are forces behind the successful implementation of these academics using technology as a tool to further curious minds with collaboration and problem-solving, teamwork and communication skills. Educators across the country are diving into these learning structures with success. Students are discovering the importance of STEAM, STEM, PBL in their learning and loving the challenges these present.

I would like to remember when these purposeful activities or units aren’t running in the classroom environment, are we as educators using technology as a tool or toy? I ask this and I have been guilty myself, when  I let students use the laptops to play games when they had free time.  Ten minutes couldn’t hurt, could it?

Technology is so much more than a toy, especially in classrooms.  It is a tool when used to meet the needs of students on an individual or small group basis. Teachers who create customized lessons of reading passages, math skill races to memorize facts, blogging with others across the world, writing scripts for a presentation on shared documents.  These are purposeful examples of technology as a tool. Students understand the “why” behind the assigned lesson and its application to real-world experiences or skills. If my students can understand why they are learning their math facts and can see the increase of their facts which thereby support their work with multiplication problems, then technology is valuable.

Students are so tech-savvy today. They are on their cell phones, computers, tvs with tech games for hours. They have Instagram and other kids friendly apps and games.  As educators, it is up to us and I can proudly say to anyone who doubts this, we as teachers continue to use technology as a tool. There is plenty of time to use it as a toy outside the school day.

Less is More

If you haven’t figured it out from my earlier blog posts, I am a believer that “less is more”.  I have learned through the years as an educator, to try to minimize the amount of “Stuff” that I have. Having had many classroom transformations through the years and all of them of my own choosing, I discovered I couldn’t hang on to everything. I used to have two four-drawer filing cabinets, one two-drawer filing cabinet AND large chests filled with file folders and books and worksheets for every unit I taught. With every transformation, I learned to eliminate the “extra”. I used to hold onto everything thinking, “What if I need this in the future?”

With every classroom change I learned something valuable that I want to share now:

“It is all about the kids, not me”

Keeping all of the “stuff” year after year I now understand, was me hanging on to me. Let me explain.

All of the worksheets, units, transparencies, Google forms, cute posters, they were a reflection of me and my knowledge that I had to impart to my students.  I was the Leader, the Sage on the Stage. The students simply followed me on the learning journey. The key lies in that last sentence: The students followed me.  They didn’t lead with me or take me with them as they became passionate. I was the leader.

Sure in education today, even 33+ years ago and in between, I, as the teacher, am responsible for their safety and learning. There are times I have to monitor and take the leader role and I always will. But looking at teaching and more importantly, learning today, I realize I don’t need all the “stuff” I had so preciously held on to.

Letting go of much, in fact almost all of the old “stuff” I had was allowing me and giving myself the freedom and permission to let my students take hold of their learning. They could be the ones leading the way, learning as they go along with me right beside them, keeping what we needed in our explorations.

So in letting go and letting them lead, my room has transformed along with the learning journey. I keep only the absolute essentials in my room. My teacher’s closet is no longer in a shambles, filled to the brim. I keep my teacher’s guides and a few personal items but all are tucked away on what amounts to the inside of the teacher podium I now use which has replaced the huge and then smaller teacher desks.

When you walk into my room now you will see that less is more. There isn’t a teacher footprint, only student work and investigations, student questions and findings, student products and sharing.

I have given up more of myself in the room and given more to my students to lead.

Less is more.

Try it and see how it changes your perspective and increases your students’.

You’ll be amazed at what the future holds in your room today, for tomorrow.

Student Storage in a Flexible Seating Classroom

Storage

Have you seen the movie, “ET”? I love the scene when ET hides in the closet amid all the stuffed animals, acting as one of the stuffed toys. The closet is a fun mess!!!!

I wish I had unlimited storage in my classroom, space where I could easily place everything I needed nice and neatly with no concern, everything would come tumbling out of I opened the door. My classroom closet is just like the ET closet: I am literally nervous to open it, knowing there could be any combination of posters and anchor charts, yardsticks, sweaters tumbling out. I choose to keep it closed.

Just like the closet, my students need easily accessible storage space. The kind of storage space that won’t spill open its contents when opened, the kind that can be moved around the room at any moment, the kind that looks nice and can suit multiple purposes. I don’t need another closet for supplies. I need functional, nice-looking, and easily accessible storage. Student storage. Teacher-supplies storage. Materials /projects storage.

When I transitioned to flexible seating, I paid as much attention to storage as I did the flexible seating options.

Cubbies were a must: cubbies with plenty of storage bins, multiple sizes, accessible yet easily closed off so as not to provide what I refer to as “visual pollution”.

I had the good fortune of working with a company named MeTEOR Education. If you can afford or are given funds to completely change your room, I strongly suggest MeTEOR. They are fantastic: professional, passionate, and they’ll support you every step of the way in your process!

I knew my classroom storage carts had to have all of the tasks I mentioned above. I needed extra storage space to accommodate new students’ materials and any new supplies or projects as the year went on. In the photo, you will see several movable carts. One is purple and one is blue, the other is apple green. These are on wheels with colored doors that close and lock. I have an additional two open-shelf storage carts. The closed carts hold 40 bins each. I use these for students’ personal supplies. Each bin is numbered. I house my homeroom’s bins in one cubby and the two other classes’ bins in the green and blue cart. Yes, I teach Math to three fifth-grade classes of 28-32 students in each room.

I use the carts ALL.THE.TIME.

Yes

The backs of the carts I’ll use to place posters, directional charts, student work. I’ll place carts back to back or in “L” shaped configurations for cozy corners or room separators (even in the middle of the room! Carts are terrific as physical desks to stand and work at!

Think carts when you remove desks and need storage. Think doors on the carts as they hide the “messiness” of supplies. My open carts house bins with labeled supplies. I’ll place them with the supplies facing away from the visual line-of-sight. The backs serve as bulletin boards for hanging charts and such. Many times I will leave the backs empty just to see the pretty colors! The less the visual clutter, the better!

The shelves you see here are ones in my third classroom transformation. My principal purchased two rolling carts with cubbies from one of the major library furniture companies: I believe it was DEMCO. I looked through the thick catalogs in the front office to find the ones I wanted.  Each cubby housed 0 slots with matching bins. You can see in the photo some students didn’t use their bins. I used those for extra storage of class community supplies, placed elsewhere in the room. Students learned to SIMPLIFY their materials! We don’t need 6 spirals and folders! What you see are the Math workbooks in their slots, a spiral, and possibly 2 folders. Pencil pouches were easier to store than the plastic boxes. Many students preferred simplifying their materials! They didn’t like having so many materials to keep track of. I agree with them! SImplify the class supply list whenever possible.

These storage carts are on wheels and we moved them many many times to suit our purposes: as dividers, as wall space on the back, as writing surfaces, as science experiment surfaces. Many purposes.

So think movable carts. Think multi-uses. Think functional as space dividers.

The possibilities are limitless!

Flexible Seating, Flexible teaching: Room Arrangement

I have had multiple versions of flexible seating in my classrooms over the past 10+ years and I LOVED every one of them! I truly did! Breaking away from the old 1950s (even earlier) teaching configuration to create cozy, inviting, relaxing come-in-and sit rooms, has made a world of difference for my students.

The students and I own the room: we move furniture as we need it; science experiments, art projects, small-group problem-solving, whole group work, listening centers, hands-on crafting and ideating….the reasons to change tales, chairs, desks, couches, are endless.

With so many changes possible at any given time, I learned to go with the flow of creativity and student-driven learning and excitement, to accept a fluid room. This wasn’t always the case…

I used to ask students to place the furniture “back where it belongs”, in other words, to a Homebase configuration the end of each day. I needed the grounding feeling at the conclusion of the day. I needed the reliability of predictability each morning when I walked into the room before the start of the school day. I wanted my students to see the “normalness” in their room each day. We gather for morning meetings, looking at the day’s schedule with expectations and announcements so no one was thrown off.

Looking at my need to move everything back into place has me thinking and pondering. Is this necessary? Does it matter more to me or to the students? There was only one way to find out: ask the change agents! The class!

Since I am a firm believer in students owning their learning, I believe they should help decide how the furniture should be arranged the end of/start of each day (unless I had a specific need that overrode their thoughts). If they wanted the sameness each morning upon first glance at the start of the day then we would make sure this was so. If they didn’t care, we wouldn’t waste our time rearranging the furniture, rather leave it as we last used it the day prior.

So ask yourself and your students, their thoughts on room arrangement the end of and start of the next morning. You might be surprised and learn something new from them as learners and persons.

When I did, this took my own pressure off of me and gave them another opportunity to express their student voices and student choices. Will you be “Open” to their choices and desires? It is well worth the discussion.

      

 

Student Voice & Choice: Collaborative vs Cooperative work

Listening to another person isn’t easy especially when we are asked to work with someone who may not have the same opinions or viewpoints as us. Being asked by the teacher to work in small groups, towards an end goal involving multiple required tasks, isn’t easy.

We ask our students to work together on many occasions. We must equip them with the necessary social skills to work successfully with others. There is a difference between cooperative groups and collaborative groups in learning environments. Let’s look at them:

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning tasks are usually teacher-structured with students given assigned specific tasks to complete, specific reading materials to read and activities to complete. Teachers observe and intervene when necessary and teachers again assess completed work at the end of the assignment when the students turn in their work. In other words, cooperative learning it teacher-driven. There isn’t much, if any, student voice or choice.  Cooperative learning activities are beneficial because they can:

• help students learn information quickly with the help of others.
• encourage students to work together to achieve a common goal.
• promote excitement in learning
• promote support of each other to complete an assigned task
• encourage time-on-task behavior

To be successful with cooperative learning, it is important students understand their particular role in the group project. Task Managers, Time Keepers, Artist, Historian, Visualizer, Materials Manager, and whatever other roles or titles are given for the task, for each student, it is important to outline for every student the responsibilities and time frame for the group start and completion date. There is also individual and group accountability built into the process and product. Cooperative learning usually has some kind of rubrics to self assess and group assess the work and productivity throughout and upon completion of the work. There is an assessment of the product as well by the teacher and students.

Cooperative Learning works great in classrooms for all ages of learners. Kindergartens can learn to cooperate with each other on tasks with specific jobs, up to high school seniors working on a presentation in AP History about the effect of past and future battles and lessons learned throughout. Specific responsibility placed on individuals to collectively achieve a common goal is a value and communication skill needed to work with others in any environment. When our boss asks a group of people to work together on specific tasks based on strengths to reach a common goal, communication is critical. Cooperative learning used wisely in K-12 settings with fluid teacher support, will help students learn the value of timelines and strengths to achieve a common goal.

Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning gives students the responsibility to work individually on a task while being responsible for a common goal with others in a group. Students are expected to self-manage their tasks and time use as they have to report to their group on their progress, along with the others working on the same goal. In collaborative learning, there is an expectation students will understand through conversation and processing, the strengths of their group members thus assigning specific tasks to each member by these strengths. The process is student-directed, not teacher-directed. It is the group’s responsibility to give deadlines to each other and hold each other accountable for task completion.  Students assess their own individual and group performance. The teacher does not monitor the group’s progress; only provides support when asked by the group and at these points usually acts as a facilitator and not the administrator.

The activity or challenge question (think inquiry-based learning) is open-ended than cooperative learning. Students are expected to explore the question and attempt to solve the problem using their choice of materials, research, and learning processes. The learning is much less structured with students deciding their path of exploration. The teacher is a facilitator to listen to and support the processes in each group.

Benefits of collaborative learning include:

• development of self-directed learning
• development of student strengths
• development of communication skills
• development of problem-solving

Whether you choose cooperative or collaborative learning for any educational task, preparation is important.

Remember these points to help set the class up for success:

A. Classroom environment

The physical classroom space should have spaces for whole-group learning and exploration, small-group teamwork, technology access, hands-on exploration and manipulation center, and independent workspace.

B. Classroom Workspace norms

It is important to discuss and model positive communication examples for each area. Voice level, movement, sharing materials, storing materials, how to disagree; all are needed to help students understand how to effectively communicate and problem-solve. Place expectations (developed by the class) on charts and displayed at each area. Groups should go over the norms whenever they walk into an area to ensure everyone understands and is agreed to the working rules.

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When teaching, decide whether the learning standard would best be accomplished through cooperative or collaborative learning, develop the physical environment to best meet the needs of the task and learners, and instruct your students in the proper ways to interact and the students should reap the benefits from the learning activity.

Cooperative vs Collaborative:  Both have their place in teaching depending on the results you wish to achieve.

Student Seating: Choice and Comfort

Are your students comfortable and engaged in their learning? Do they sit where they want as long as they are on task? Are they working with others in small groups, huddled together?

My students have learned from many class discussions and creations of class expectation anchor charts, how to work in comfy chairs with their choice of work partners and they are loving it.

Students move furniture around as they need to, owning the classroom’s physical space. They are comfy and enjoy the room and I do too.

This didn’t happen overnight and the need to repeat expectations and sometimes move students to other areas of the room when many attempts to stay on task didn’t work, still makes for a successful learning environment that the students and I love walking into and working with.

A flexible seating environment gives students greater voice and choice in their learning seating and location and work partners. As long as clear expectations are given, along with patience, students can and most often succeed and thrive in this type of environment.

The room becomes “ours” not “the teacher’s” even when I have to move students for independent work or testing, small group teacher time, or specific seating arrangements for a specific task; those times are not every day and all day. Our flexible seating classroom is almost every day, all day. Student voice and choice make a huge difference in their commitment to learning.

If you would love to know more or have questions and want support, I can be reached in my blog.

Let’s continue our conversation!

Kelly

Students Today: Who are they and how do we reach them in our classrooms?

Students today: What kind of learner are they?

According to NEA Today, the current generation of kids, born in the mid-1990s to early 2000s, are the generation referred to as Generation Z. These students are concerned about the environment, want to go to college but are nervous about the costs,  and they have never known a non-digital world. They are private individuals, entrepreneurial, and they multi-task. This group of learners will face problems we haven’t yet seen in jobs we have yet to see. Collaboration is critical. Soft skills are important. Engagement is paramount.

Knowing these traits are in our learners, we need to adjust our instruction to meet these needs. Teaching traditionally with “sit and get” type learning, desks or chairs in rows, will not work.  So you wonder what does teaching and the classroom look like?

Here are some tips to keep in mind as you prepare to teach:

• Engaging activities: Whenever possible, use real-world problems or situations to solve or improve. Area and Perimeter in Math can be taught while designing and making beds for pets at the local animal shelter. Students will become engaged with this task while they learn to write letters or speak to the shelter asking for specific information about the animals housed. ELA speaking, reading, and writing standards are taught right along with the math.
• Provide multiple ways to demonstrate mastery of a topic or skill: Students should be given opportunities to express their learning. Slide shows, written plays, commercials, blogs provide avenues students can channel their interests to show what they know.
• Reflection: It is critical students are given specific and regular-scheduled times to reflect on their learning. This is one of the best ways to cement learning. Journal entries, entrance and exit tickets, conferences all provide ways to show learning which gives the student and the teacher chances to support or enrich the learning.

Student voice and choice empower learners to be in charge of and take greater ownership in their learning.  With this generation of tech-savvy, environment caring people, hands-on educational opportunities whenever you can provide them in the classroom will give generation Z experiences they will not only enjoy but will remember.

How to make micro-progressions

What exactly is a “micro-progression?” you may ask.

A micro-progression is a new student advocacy tool my instructional coach picked up from a session at CCIRA. This tool allows students to self-evaluate and improve their written responses in any subject area. Let me explain.

My building is using this tool in Math and Literacy. It can be incorporated into any subject, really.  To start, have students write a short written response to any question you may ask. Give them 5 minutes, or so, to write their responses. Collect.

As a team or grade level, look through your set of written responses. Other team members will do the same. Each classroom teacher then picks their lowest quality written response and their highest quality written response. As a group, look at the lowest response from each group. Determine which response is the lowest. Lay this on the table. Then determine from the group, which is the best quality., This is the other end of the spectrum. Then discuss the other papers in the group, deciding which paper would be the second lowest, the one next to this but a bit better, and so on. Move along the continuum until you have the highest level of writing. You should now have a continuum, or progression of quality writing, or a micro-progression.

Document in writing the lowest paper (score a 0) and copy the response, leaving the name out. Then determine which paper along the line would be a score of a “1”, then a “2”, a “3” and a “4” (or whatever the scoring system is you use).

Write the responses on a document, with the qualifiers for each “level”, clearly defined.

Glue/staple/adhere these onto a long sheet of paper, either vertical or horizontal.

Laminate. Hang in classroom.

Students look at the continuum, when they need to evaluate their writing: where along the continuum do they fall for their first piece of writing? As you continue this, refer them to the micro-progression chart, letting them know they have to improve their written response to the next level up for themselves…for their next written piece. Revise the chart periodically as you see fit and as time dictates another revision.

I have students write a “glow and grow” on their paper: 1 way to improve for the next assignment. and what did they write that was terrific!

This is very powerful!

Here are some photos of students in action at the micro-progression chart. They can’t argue with what constitutes a “4” or a “2” or why they scored a “1”.

Students are placing their papers up to the micro-progression; determining where they fall.

A wonderful tool and opportunity for students to grow themselves with their accountability!

Happy writing and happy accountability!

Classroom Reflections

This new room comes with many challenges.

• How to instill the sense of responsibility with new furniture
• How to keep students engaged with such an inviting atmosphere
• How to use the room effectively

Students were absolutely amazed and thrilled with their new learning environment! They wondered why every other classroom wasn’t as “cool” as ours! They wondered why they couldn’t move around as freely in other classrooms as they do in my room. They wondered why my room got the “new lighting” when other rooms didn’t.

These presented some new situation I hadn’t thought through entirely.

Flexible seating /high impact learning environments can look different from a traditional classroom (or not). My classroom operates differently in its function and the philosophy behind it. It was my responsibility to help students understand the differences and that it is OK to experience a variety of learning environments. No matter the “look” or function of a classroom, the most important factor was the commitment by the students, in their own learning.

Understanding this, the students and I set about the task of making this room “ours”. We had to decide many things, including:

• bulletin board space
• storage for their items, since we no longer have desks (how many drawers inside each storage cubby do they get? Storage for my teacher materials (I minimized to bare essentials, as my teacher desk is gone.) Storage for shared class materials
• Movement of furniture: anchor piece-large couch-and everything else
• Common classroom supplies (pencils, markers, paper and such)

We came upon class decisions for these things and more. We set up the room to our likes and moved in! With things out of sight and boards filled up with minimum items (less “visual pollution”, as I call it), the room looked lived in and still attractive and clean. Some of the photos in the previous entry reflect our lived- in space.

NEW FURNITURE: How To Take Care of It

It never fails: Year after year there are spills, marker marks on tables, nicks and dings on furniture, table tops, walls. With so much money invested in my room, I knew this should be prevented at all costs.

I was smart: when the furniture colors and fabrics were selected, bleach-able/wipe-able surfaces were top priority! Disinfectant wipes are my mainstay. Students know they are to tell me if they accidentally make a mark on the table. couch, chair, wall. I can clean up stray marks easily and quickly. Students can relax a bit more and they aren’t damaging the furniture as they did when I had cheaper furniture in my room the previous three years. They take pride and ownership in everything. If they do (and they do!) sit incorrectly on the couch or a chair, they know they have to find a new spot to sit. Everyone respects this. It has only been five months but the room still looks pristine and has that “new furniture” smell to it! I believe this will continue for the entire year and beyond. Top quality furniture, even if it is only a few key pieces, makes for a definite psychological improvement.

 

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

I believe, and students will agree, the new learning environment promotes engagement and learning. It may seem, when someone first walks in, students sitting casually or working together at a table, or around the coffee table or TV station, learning isn’t occurring. It is the complete opposite. Walking into my classroom; students own the room. They love sitting in comfortable chairs, knowing the furniture and they will move during the next 60+ minutes. They won’t sit still and listen to me lecturing. They will engage in work, activities, share with each other, develop a product, work on math problems, research a problem for Science, gather as groups to develop a chart or project, and much more.  ALL four corners of the room are what I call “Fair learning game”.  There is no “front” of the room. I sit and work wherever the students and their needs are. I share the same furniture as them. My “teacher desk” is a podium for the laptop, which, with the document camera, is wireless. Even my podium is movable.  Movement + ownership together= student and teacher ownership and engagement.

Simply put: we love coming into this, our classroom, every day. Students still compete for their favorite spots!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Glimpses

The transformation is complete in my room! New furniture and lights, even a rug!     New laptops for the students, new computer cart, new technology for me as well! We are into our fourth month of school and everything is holding up and looks terrific. I have a homeroom class of 30 students and at times can have 32+ in the room. Still with this many students, it doesn’t feel like 32+.