Leveraging Technology

I'm in the midst of taking (and teaching) a technology class in my district. It is centered around 21st Century Skills, and how to teach those to your kids. The skills we're discussing, and working on, are largely soft skills- collaboration, communication, critical thinking and problem solving. They connect with ISTE's Technology standards for students.

There are a myriad of issues to ensuring that teachers meet these standards. Ignoring glaring infrastructure issues for many districts, I think the biggest issue is a lack of understanding (by teachers) in how to use tech tools with kids. When you move along the gradient of teachers and tech, you have a high watermark of those familiar with a myriad of tools and how they can be used in the classroom. That is combined with a willingness to use those tools regularly with kids, helping them build fluency with the tools. On the other end of the spectrum are those that don't use the tech regularly (perhaps the Tech Lab once a week?!), and aren't fluent with the tools themselves. That, to me, is a big problem.

Teachers need a familiarity with the tools available to them. They need to have used them, seeing possible pitfalls along the path. Willingness to use the technology is certainly a part of this process- which is another issue altogether. But being willing does not necessarily mean that you will use the technology with your kids effectively. The issue of effectiveness, and how I can be more effective in my technology usage, is one that I'm wrestling with. I'm hoping that it will lead me to a significant change in how I plan to use computers and other tech tools.

Great Conversations... Take Time

We're in the midst of building knowledge about explorers. In particular, we're looking at European Explorers as this is the foundation for colonization (and ultimately government). We're aiming at the Social Studies History standard that there are eras in history. One of those eras is when Europeans encountered native people, colonized and brought about devastation. The end product is going to be a "something" that kids create where they evaluate information pertaining to these explorers.

Today was the second day of whole group class discussion on this topic. We need some sort of system to evaluate them. If you were going to choose between two cars, you'd probably look at a variety of factors- some that are good and some that are bad. As an adult we don't make that system clear and evident (usually). That was step one in this process: create a rubric. I asked them to create a 4, 3, 2, 1 rubric for the actions of explorers. They are familiar with the 4 through 1 scale as that is the same system we use for grading. Creating the rubric was relatively easy and painless in groups of 3-5. Moving into the whole class discussion... slightly different tone in the room.

The kids did a fantastic job. We started on the fringe- the 4s and the 1s, because those are the easiest things to work on. We can agree that killing the natives is a Level 1... it is the in-between descriptors that caused us the most trouble. We had some great ethics conversations, about slavery, about what should happen to natives, taking land, etc. Should putting natives as slaves be a 2 or a 1? It was difficult to grapple with, but important for my kids. I pulled sticks to get kids to share, called on volunteers as well as had them passing to someone else. It wasn't a conversation between 4 or 5 of the 25. It was beautiful to see.

Admittedly, as a teacher, the hardest part is allotting time to make this work. They need the time to grapple with the ideas, and the put them into a level. They need time to discuss with their peers, and to think. When it bogs down, the natural inclination is to punt and say "We'll finish later" or "I'll put in the rest." That wasn't my reaction this time. Instead, we sat in the uncomfortable-ness of not knowing. We argued our points back and forth, and we voted to solve problems. It was a beautiful thing, and incredibly worthwhile. It will make the project significantly easier, and promote much more buy in.

Snow Daze

My district has been out for the past 3 days. We were in on Tuesday, but that really was a struggle. Kids are way too excited to see snow flakes, and dislike the change in routine (2 hour late start... and a 60-90 minute or so early release). I am a creature of habit as well, and prefer the normal wake-up and schedule.

The past 3 days I've been hoping we don't go in. Why? I really dislike snow driving, going back to my east coast days, so staying inside was the preferred option. The only problem is that I don't get nearly as much done during this time. At school my to-do list is ever present, a stickynote on my desktop. Not as much at home. I opt to be lazy... even with the to-do list.

That being said, I am going to get going today. I finalized my conference schedule yesterday. I have some grading to do, and some things to enter into the electronic gradebook. No more of the daze that has been lingering. As much as I need rest I need to get some work done (and not leave it for the weekend or.... Monday).

The Take Home Bag

I would venture a guess that almost every teacher is familiar with the "take home bag." It is the bag of stuff you bring home with the hopes of working on it at home. Sometimes this gets done, and other times it is left in the bag. The bag is the burden of many teachers trying to give feedback to their kids, get stuff graded, and figure our where their kids are. I've virtually sworn this off.

For my first 2.5 years I brought everything home. 75 writing prompts? Yep, they go in the bag. "I'll grade a couple after dinner." Grading happened less than 1/3 of the time. Worse, the contents of the bag were the source of anguish as I felt like each passing day I was letting my kids down. A day more was a day further removed from the assignment, making feedback less and less relevant. At some point I just couldn't continue to do that as it was failing my kids, and was making me feel awful.

Opting to not grade isn't an option (nice double negative, right?!). Instead I've broken down my grading. I have 75 kids, since we swap kids in our grade level. I will do 10-15 at a time. During the week I strive for 10-15 a day, and then 2 or 3 sets of 10-15 on the weekend. For example, I have a pile of 70+ writing assessments. I went into the weekend with 35-45. It is easier to sit for 10 than 30+. I get tired as I keep going, and fatigue isn't good for scoring... so I take a break. It makes life a little easier, and works me towards getting kids feedback at a faster rate.

During the week this works too. We've got report cards coming up, which means 25 comments. How about 4-5 a day? 5 a day means that they are done in a week. It also means that each comment is fresh, and not at the end of your wits end. Your comments are more authentic, and likely of greater value instead of (alright 3 more to finish all of them... or, another 10..etc).

If you are bringing home the bag of papers every night this might be an option for you. Try it and let me know.

Selling Books

One of the things we've been working on are book reviews. Your typical book review for intermediate kids is somewhere between a summary and a piece of garbage. A piece of garbage you say? Yep. They really don't sell the story to kids, and kids aren't really excited about writing them. Beyond that the book review just becomes an exercise in jumping through hoops for the teacher. Call me crazy but I'm not so excited about that.

Instead we have been working on spicing up the book review. We've been working on book reviews like bloggers would write. An example is here. Kids were a bit reluctant to roll into it. They often go back to the standard retelling. Instead I have been prodding them into jumping right into the story... show, don't tell. They go through main parts of the story leaving out the finish. Afterwards they conclude with a paragraph about their expert opinion- why they liked it, and what the author did well (made characters believable, great description, etc... with examples!).

This has been a process. I can't say it has gone well throughout. It is easier to go to the old reliable than to try something new. That being said, they have really been coming along. The quality is improving as kids begin to build suspense into their writing, allowing the reader to feel the same suspense (or action) that is a part of the story. The best part has been seeing kids read them on the back wall where our book reviews are posted. Kids are looking for those books, and they almost never stay on the shelves... no surprise.