Fabulous Use Of Student Cell Phones in ANY Classroom:)

Well, after a fabulous vacation, we are back in the classroom fully energized and ready to continue to build an enthusiasm for learning within our students:)

Students love technology so what better place than that to start off the new year!  After all, the BYOD movement (Bring Your Own Device) is radically transforming the classroom to one where almost every student can access the internet through a wide variety of tools.  With this as the focus of this newsletter, we will explore a site that is building quite a strong following among educators and it is FREE!  That site is INFUSED LEARNING.

We will start off with a quick introduction through a video.   Immediate feedback to the teacher is crucial so that strugglers can be quickly identified and supported.  This site also allows different ways for students to demonstrate mastery.  Students may draw responses for example.  For English learners especially this choice opens up a chance to demonstrate grasp of a concept without being hampered by a language that they may not yet be very familiar with.  For classes not involving language development, being able to draw would allow these students to transfer knowledge from their home language to the teacher with ease (think math for example).  After all, a picture is worth 1,000 words they say.  For older students who are literate in their home languages, they may use a translation tool on the site.  For such students, this site permits them to earn the grades they deserve-grades based on actual content knowledge and not on full understanding of English. 

Here are some simple guidelines to get started:

1. Teachers need to set up a class.  Teachers can manually input all the names or use some tips from this site on using a Microsoft Excel template. 

2.  Types of assessments are varied.  We have the traditional such as True/False and Multiple Choice as well as short answer, sort and order, drawing, numeric, and likert scales.  Let us look at how to create a quiz for students first. 

3.  Interactive tools video lays out the process for using all of the interactives in any class setting.

4.  Quick assessments can now be easily interwoven throughout any lesson so teachers can keep a finger on the pulse with a snap.

I intend to kick the new year off with this since I believe that cell phones can serve a higher purpose.  After all, students will bring them so I might as well put them to good use:)

Happy New Year!

Denise, Marnie, and Cheryl

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Fun Opening Day Activities for Both Teacher and Students!

It is so difficult to believe that our summer vacation will be history in a matter of days.  Hopefully everyone has truly had enough time to regenerate his/her batteries:) 

The first day of school, teachers will have lots of excited students who, for the most part, are tired of summer and anxious to see their school friends again.  So, with such an enthusiastic crowd, what can teachers do to capitalize on this energy so that they can begin to know their students as people.

Here are some suggestions:

1.  Give students a multiple intelligences assessment.  Though assessment here is for middle school, it can be used from upper elementary through high school (just white out the grade level).  Once student complete the assessment, have the follow the scoring routine.  Students are always shocked by this new knowledge about their talents.  Then, calm the class down and start taking totals for each group.  With this data, the class will generate a graph with labels and numbers.  Once that is complete and some discussion has ensued, have them write a paragraph on how this information could be used by a teacher in creating projects for students.

2.  Since the students don't know each other, have them interview each other and then report out to the class on what they learned about their new classmate.  Students should take notes on the answers their partners provide to use when they share with the class what they learned about their new classmate.

3.  Students love social media (especially Facebook) so why not try having them create Facebook pages on themselves?  Of course, it would great if the teacher (with document camera) created one for her/himself to address questions along the way.  Then have them work on their own either with a partner if it is new for them.  Once everyone has finished, teachers can use document cameras to share a few of the student work with the class and then post all of them at the end.  Parents will love it for Back-To-School night.

4.  Here are 19 other icebreakers for the first day.  There is something for every grade level and all are crowd pleasers.  My favorite is FOOD FOR THOUGHT.  Students introduce themselves by first name and then select a food that starts with the same letter of their first names.  Example:  Hello, my name is Marsha and I eat mangos.  The next student gives his name and favorite food item and then must repeat what the other student said and so forth.

Have fun with students in the first few days.  Get to know them and them you.

Denise
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Common Core and Technology--a Powerful Duo!

For teachers, summer vacation is here--time to recharge their batteries:).  Some of them will be reading, others traveling, while others working.  Yet, over this short break, teachers might want to explore some new approaches to building lessons with technology woven throughout.  For such an approach to be successful, the teacher must first become an expert in using these tech tools.  To achieve this, time must be spent exploring the program or playing with it.  The teacher must become proficient in its use if the lesson is to proceed smoothly with minimal to no classroom behavior issues.

Active engagement is a key to academic success for students.  They must be involved throughout is activities that stimulate academic discussion, thinking, discovery, etc.  To assist students in this exciting journey of self-discovery, technology should be built into activities whenever possible.  If they are to become life-long learners, they must be allowed to stumble along the way, learn from their mistakes, make the needed corrections, and then move on with new confidence to handle similar situations on their own.

So how does technology fit in the picture here?  Think about those powerful mini-computers all the students carry in their backpacks everyday--cell phones!  Since most students from every socioeconomic group carries them, teachers might wish to consider bringing them into classroom instruction. 

How can they be used with little to no classroom instruction?  Establish clear rules for their use and even clearer consequences for breaking them (ex. third offense-take phone and hold til end of day OR call parents from confiscated phone about the infraction, etc.).  Once the class fully understands what IS and IS NOT acceptable use of cell phones, teachers can now proceed with educational apps which stimulate learning.

Here are apps that teachers enjoy using.  They can be used to administer quick assessments, take polls, chart class growth as well as individual student growth, inform parents of their child's progress, provide approved content related internet resources for students to work with in class or at home, provide students with subject related games to reinforce instruction, and more.

1.  SOCRATIVE--For a quick overview, teachers should view the quick video.  This tool is one where quick quizzes on subject material just learned can be presented to students as a quiz which they can solve on their own or with partners.  The results can be tabulated on the teacher's phone and then presented to the class as a graph with each of the columns representing one of the 4 choices (for example).  If the majority of the students have the right answer, the teacher can proceed to the next level of the lesson.  If not, the teacher knows which material has to be retaught.  Since this might be an exit ticket, there is no grade so students are less anxious.  Quick quizzes build student self-confidence for the REAL exam:)

2.  EDMODO--An app that over 35 million students and teachers are using all over the world.  Some of its features are similar to SOCRATIVE, but there are some additional components that teachers will be impressed with.  After a teacher joins, s/he can join educational communities around the world in any subject area.  Within theses groups, teachers can ask for help in a given subject area OR assist someone asking for support.  Also, any quiz given is saved.  This comes in handy when students were absent.  Quizzes/tests can also be timed.  Adults have time limits in completing their job assignments so why shouldn't students? :)  Another teacher plus is that assignments can be differentiated with ease.  This allows a teacher to stay on the lesson's theme while allowing every student to complete assigned tasks on a level that they can handle. One awesome new feature is that common core standards based quickie quizzes for ELA and Math have been added.  Impressive!

3.  POLL EVERYWHERE--If a teacher would like immediate feedback on a concept taught, s/he would have students pull out their phones, and text their feedback to a number provided by the teacher.  Students could also have fellow students provide feedback on their presentations right after they have finished (no grade--just feedback).  This type of active involvement stimulates instruction and motivates students to want to learn (as well as demonstrate what they understand and how well).

Note:  With students all using cell phones, teachers may need to buy some power strips so students can keep their phones charged.  Small price to pay to maintain student excitement:)

Denise
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I will be addressing ways to keep a paperless classroom over the next 7 days:)

Great Tool For Virtual Projects--PADLET!!!

Here is a free new exciting instructional tool which will permit more originality on the part of both teachers and students than power points currently do.  This is not to say that power points are not viable instructional supports for teaching anymore, but rather that there are newer, more creative, more engaging ones on the market.

PADLET offers a new way for students to demonstrate understanding of a topic.  Further, it is very user friendly so even novices can create almost immediately with minimal assistance from teacher or fellow students.  Think of this tool as being a huge wall on which students lay out their ideas, visuals, videos, etc. for everyone to see on a class website.  Team projects become more animated when students plan out their boards with partners.  Changes or adjustments can easily be accomplished with just a few clicks so students are not wasting time worrying about the revision or editing process since everything is virtual and easy to reorder or rearrange or redo with minimal physical effort.  Here is one example of a gallery project.  Any subject teacher could use this feature with students.  Some teacher uses are also addressed here and kids love the interaction they develop.

For a very detailed view of the features of this tool, go to Mr. Byrne's video on using PADLET.

Have fun with it!

Denise
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Make English Language Learners Full Partners in Learning Process With Their Peers

In this day and age of education, our first and foremost goal as educators is to motivate students to be innovative in their approach to problem solving.  Students must take on more responsibility for their own learning if they are to be fully prepared to enter the rapidly emerging global workforce.  For this major leap to occur, our roles as teachers will shift more to one of instructional coaches or facilitators where we inspire students to discover within the power to solve real world problems with limited feedback from us. 

Where will the major instructional shift occur?  It will move from projects to Project Based Learning.  It will shift from group activities to team ones.  There will be little in the way of random groupings of students anymore.  Instead, student teams will incorporate students of varying academic and language abilities and their sole purpose will be to pool their skills to think-outside-the-box to solve real world problems in any of their subjects-mathematics, science, English, etc.  Every team member will be involved in solving the problem.

So, how will this transformation in learning appear in a classroom?  Below are some possibilities, but by no means are the only approaches.  We teachers are very creative individuals so feel free to weave in personal classroom success stories.

1.  Teach concepts and not memorization-if students don't fully understand the "big idea", they can't apply it to studies.  The inability to make those vital connections will limit their career options in life.

2.  Apply equal importance to acquisition of key skills and to knowledge building. Teach big ideas and how to apply outside the classroom.  Common core focuses heavily in this area as well.  Teaching ideas and not test items is not longer the focus.

3.  Make reflection part of any lesson.  Learning logs or journals here are especially helpful to English language learners.  With detailed notes written in ways they understand, they will continue to build not only a deeper understanding of content, but a richer knowledge of English.

4.  Find approaches you have used in class that accomplished the same.  Continue to fine-tune them.  Improve on them every time you use them.  Share with colleagues and collect feedback.

Build student self-confidence through out-of-the-box approaches:)

Denise

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Free EDUCATIONAL Videos on ALL Subjects and for ALL Grades!

Often times teachers look to activating prior knowledge before launching into a new lesson. This may be accomplished with classroom discusssion, anticipation guides, quickwrites/quickdraws, etc. Videos may also be used, but often times are not because it takes time to find just the right clip. A search for just the right film takes time, and teachers rarely have much of that to spare:)

Well, WATCH KNOW LEARN, may be the answer. All subjects are covered here and for ages 3-12. In fact, a US history teacher at my site was looking for visual information on the Trail of Tears (forced removal of the Cherokees from the east to Oklahoma) for the ELLs in the class. The images here vividly portray the plight of these people as they were forced off their ancestral lands by the American government. Such visuals even the weakest student can relate to. The visuals build that crucial background knowledge ELLs need to succeed in content classes.

Within this site, every discipline is covered and all videos are for schools/teachers/students/parents. Registration is free. Feel free to submit your own educational videos if they enhance instruction.

Hope you enjoy the site:)

Denise
ELL TEACHER PROS