The Best is Yet to Come

We've passed our second Mid-Quarter mark. Since I'm headed right for the holiday rush I'd like to take a step back and look at what we have accomplished in 2014. This year the second graders have collaborated in Google Docs to build background knowledge before reading a story. They created an online KWL chart too. They made an ebook for Language Arts. The class has learned how to navigate audiobooks on the Kindle and Evernote to record themselves reading. During calendar time they have picked up the skills of rotating and resizing an image. They can use qr codes to hear directions and play games. But the best skill they have honed is determination. They've waited with me when Notebook crashes or the building's internet goes down. They've toughed it out and they know the Smartboard isn't as smart as they are. Technology is an awesome tool but it is just that, a tool. It is not a substitute for pedagogy and planning.

I Like to Move It, Move It...

Have you heard that Halloween is on Friday? I think I was asked some form of this question about twelve times this last week. The kids were antsy. SO antsy! It was time for some movement. I taped a life size e on the floor and we practiced walking the steps. "Hit the ball, run around the bases," I said as I slipped on my sparkly gold handwriting shoes. It was a big hit.
How were these kids who just swooned over masking tape on a floor going to manage to learn anything from sitting at a computer for an hour. YouTube. I googled my favorite school singer, Shari Sloane and checked out some Jean Feldman tunes too. Ah yes, practicing letter sounds while doing karate moves is a great way to review with interleaving. Each of my modules has one of those brain breaks incorporated. Moving and learning are, to me, the perfect partners. 

Retaining Knowledge: Making it Stick

In the first chapter of Making in Stick, Peter C. Brown et al, stress that rereading text, highlighting and taking notes is not an effective way to learn. He states that delayed quizzes seem to have the most impact on knowedge retention. Then is Chapter 3 he cites a study of kids in a PE class who throw bean bags. The children who varied their practice did better than the ones who only practiced from 3 feet. How can I put this to use in my modules?
My plan is to use existing online games and then quizzes made in Google Drive.
A few hours of searching turned up a jackpot of early learning resources.
https://sites.google.com/site/onlineactivities4dibels/
While sketching out my modules I focus on varied repetition. Other sites that I like are:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/
http://www.tvokids.com/games/amazingspellingfleas
sumdog.com
http://www.tvokids.com/games/amazingspellingfleas

Have you found any great sites for literacy?

Hangry Henry and Summer School

My nephew is hangry. When I would pick him up from school everything was a chore. The sooner he was fed the better for everyone. Once fed he wanted to do anything but homework. He'd go outside and play for awhile, then it was time for dinner, stories and bedtime. When was he to get his homework done?
I've been teaching for a decade now, and more than before I hear "we just don't have time." I understand how demanding life is these days so I was struggling with how I could implement my module.Flipping the classroom works, only if your students have time to complete the work at home.
While researching another project I stumbled upon a list of "Use of Technology in Education and Learning" published by the U.S. Dept of Ed. The list mentions a school that uses online learning for credit recovery (summer school.) That is my answer. At the end of this school year I plan on sending my module to the kids that will be in my class the next year. Sure, not everyone will follow through but those who do will be a step ahead at the beginning of the year. This is also the answer to a question I frequently hear "what should I have my child do over the summer?" Now that I see another use for my module I am even more excited to start putting it together.
I should mention that Henry did get to attend Camp Invention this year for summer school and loved every minute of it. Is your module strictly for use on the job or during class time? If it is for outside of the workplace, how do you suggest people fit the time in?

TEDx: Your Brain n Technology

While working through my readings this week I kept thinking of a presentation I saw about a year ago "Your Brain on Technology" by Joe Du Fore. I found a TEDx talk he did on the same subject about a year before that. The readings discussed Congnitve Load and comparing pedagogy to digital pedagogy. I zeroed in on the part of the Tedx talk that talked about the brain making connections to other learners and learning and how connections help the brain grow.
I got to thinking of a discussion I was having with my sister about curriculum being pushed down and how many kids are missing out on just being Kindergarteners. I wonder how online schools educate Kindergarten kids? Do they miss out on finger painting and dancing like different animals? Do they get to negotiate with other kids about which one gets to play the waitress in the class play kitchen? Do they ever get to see their neighbor sneaking a taste of the Elmer's paste? If children miss out on early learning experiences like these, how different will their schema be? Will online modules of today be able to teach the online kindergartener in 20 years when she is working?

QR codes: Saving a Few Steps

So this is how I've been working smarter with the help of qr codes. One day last summer I read all 135 math worksheets for the year to my phone. I uploaded each to Sound Cloud and filed under the lesson number. Last year I'd email 5 links for the week to my struggling readers and they'd listen to the directions while completing their homework. It worked well but mostly because one particular student (I call him Tornado and if you are/were a teacher you know who I mean) took the job of finding the link very serious and it was the perfect outlet for his energy.
But my kiddos this year aren't quite as driven and I'd love to not have to remember to cut and paste those web links every week. Enter qr codes. This year each week as I am preparing my lesson plans, I grab the links, drop them in a qr creator and paste the link on my lesson folder. Next year, the qr code that links to the audio lesson will be ready to go for every lesson. My struggling readers take the ipod to the lesson folder, snap a pic of the code and the ultra wordy math lesson is read to them.
I also plan on using qr codes for game directions, sentence dictation, artist statements, book reports, lesson review and sight word bingo.
How does this fit with online learning? Using a qr code format is much more basic than logging a 6 year old into Blackboard. The next time I send home extra practice games, I can just send qr codes. All of my students have access to a Smartphone so I don't even need to send the technology home. If you haven't tried qr codes you should. How will you use them with your learners? Could it link to a google form that asks questions about a work setting?

Evaluation

This week while reading through a few discussion threads a common theme of evaluation came out. A few learners mentioned the lack of timely feedback, others being graded on the final product rather than the process. As I relate this to my young learners I immediately think of their favorite game "Teach Your Monster to Read." This game like most edutainment provides Assessment AS Learning. So if the student chooses the wrong consonant they have an immediate chance to learn from their mistake. One of my biggest challenges in my analog classroom is teaching sight words. The class practices with a variety of games but unless I am playing with them, they receive no feedback as to whether they read the word correctly or not. In my module I plan on creating games that provided immediate feedback to the learner so they can learn the word correctly.

Back to Schoolx2

Last week marked the beginning of two school years for me. In room 1-2 we have a new projector and Smartboard. Online I'll be learning about designing online modules and the trend in ILT.