The current system needs to be changed and the best way to do that is to train teachers in new styles of teaching and to give students a purpose for learning/participating outside of grading.
Two:
Students need to have some sense of being in charge of their own education. Teachers should provide choices and give students a lot of opportunities for self-reflection.
Three:
Students need to be challenged in order to learn. Teachers need to be able to adjust their plans based on student progress.
Overall…
I really enjoyed reading this book! I have learned so many things and reflecting on them here in my blog posts solidified my ability to take these ideas and use them in my online classroom so that my students can have a better experience. I would highly recommend reading this book!
Students learn a lot about being good people and building character at home and in young grades. But sometimes those topics get pushed to the side in High School because there is so much content to cover in each class already. However, Muir brings up the idea of using content-specific service learning to continue to develop students’ character while also keeping up with required class material.
I wanted to look more into the impact that service learning can have on students and the school environment as a whole. In my research I found an amazing blog post by Peter DeWitt, The Importance of Service Learning. One quote in particular stood out to me, “Service learning projects can be life changing for students. They learn empathy for others, and may even get the real life experience they need which will inspire them to find a career.” I think that the key here is the idea that service learning provides students with real life experience. I was fortunate to grow up with parents that took me to museums, volunteer work, and provided me with other experiences that prepared me for the future, but many students do not have that at home. That gap in the experiences of students at home follows them to their futures, unless we do something about it. Here are two awesome articles about the growing opportunity gap in our education system:
I learned so much this year, and I had the opportunity to present as well. Presenting for Michigan Virtual was an amazing chance to show teachers/advisers/principals the kinds of technology we use on a daily basis to make learning better for all. My co-presenters and I talked about building relationships and personalizing learning for all students using technology (slides can be found at Michigan Virtual). Other than presenting, 4 sessions really stood out to me.
Critique, Conferencing, and Feedback
In this session I learned a lot about how I can structure my feedback in order for my students to grow and learn from it. The structure mentioned that I liked the most is the SE2R structure. SE2R stands for Summarize, Explain, Redirect, and Resubmit. I think this one translates the best to the online classroom format as it can all be done virtually. I was already using some of these parts in my feedback before but now it is nice to have a clear picture of what every piece of feedback should look like going forward.
The other awesome thing I got from this session is this amazing video about the power of critique. I wish I had seen this before! The example features elementary children but I think the message can span across all grades.
Reach and Teach ALL
This was a great Google for Education session that walked through a ton of different tech tools for differentiation.
Differentiation by Readiness
Trivia games (Quizizz/kahoot challenge for asynchronous review), grouping and stations, review videos, picture notes/fill in the blank notes
SS: current events, timelines, Blabberize for historical figures
Desmos– created for math but can be blank for other subjects
Edit Google Drawings
You Can Do It! Visual Notetaking with Sketchnotes
In this session I learned about creating visual, flowing notes that allow me to write down the most essential points and not feel like I have to write down every little thing a presenter says. I have always liked the idea of doing this but it seemed so daunting until this presenter broke everything down into parts and showed us how it is okay to start with the basics and then add some elements in later when you have more time. I will definitely be using this strategy at future conferences!
Here is a quick Sketchnotes Basics:
Overall MACUL 19 was AMAZING and I hope I get to go again next year!
“Like and Wonders should be formative, and serve the purpose of improving the project, the class, the students, and the teacher.” -Trevor Muir, The Epic Classroom (page 173)
In this quote Muir talks about the self reflection system he uses in his classes where students talk about what they liked about the project and what they wonder could have gone better. I think this phrasing is perfect! It really encourages students to talk about what they didn’t like without blaming anyone specifically. This also encourages them to make changes for the future.
“I always want my students to be intrinsically motivated above all else… But there is a reality that extrinsic motivation has power as well, and the lure of a class period, or even 20 minutes of celebration can sometimes be enough motivation for students to fight to meet a deadline.” -Trevor Muir, The Epic Classroom (page 178)
I really like what the author is saying in this quote about how he motivates his students. I agree that sometimes extrinsic motivation is powerful and necessary. But, I am wondering if we can do more to foster intrinsic motivation in our students. So I found this awesome article about 27 Ways to Promote Intrinsic Motivation In The Classroom. Some of the top ones that I can see myself using in my online classroom are:
Spark curiosity in the subject matter
Ask students what motivates them for sports or other activities and then tap into those motivators
Your classroom, your way was the name of the survey I put out to all of my students to get them involved in a very important aspect of their learning – classroom environment!
I started thinking about environment after reading Chapter 5: Crafting an Epic Setting in the book The Epic Classroom by Trevor Muir. In this chapter he talks about the classroom setting being vital to the learning experience. Students and teachers are all used to the traditional rows of desks, but we need to push outside of the box and think about new ways that we can give students a more effective learning environment.
The first thing that came to mind for me was my teacher mentor during my senior year of college, Tom Hopper. His classroom set up is amazing! He has tables, standing desks, a couch, and my personal favorite… Fit desks!
I don’t have any pictures from his classroom but just to give you an idea of what Fit desks are I added a picture from Google below:
So, I thought about his awesome classroom setting and how much the students got out of it. But, the big question for me was how can this same idea translate into the virtual classroom?
Taking It Straight to the Students!
I got a few ideas together but then I thought, what if my students don’t like this idea? Then I remembered a section of the chapter I was reading talked about involving students in this process. “This is an opportunity to give students ownership of the setting of their story… they are owning another crucial piece of the learning.” -Trevor Muir The Epic Classroom pg 117.
So I put out a survey with my ideas, and the space for students to suggest other ideas:
The ideas I included were:
Padlet to share personal (school appropriate) artwork
Student feature in the announcements each week with things that students send to me (birthdays, sports/clubs/academic achievements)
Non-graded discussion board for each unit for students to chat about topics in the course/help each other prepare for the tests
Book/tv/movie recommendation lists that students can add to
Sessions during or after school that we can meet as a group to discuss class topics
I hope to implement at least one of these ideas in each of my classes (right now the student feature suggestion is the most popular) and I will do a follow up blog post about how they turn out!
After reading this chapter my first thought was wow, I want to be in his class!
The main thing that stood out to me in this chapter was how he contacted people right here to find refugees from the areas in Africa that they were currently studying in class. Most teachers would have used the textbook, maybe found a video or shown “The Lost Boys of Sudan” documentary and the students would have remembered everything for a short time (enough to get through the test right?) but they wouldn’t be making lasting memories like in Trevor Muir’s class.
“I felt that the student hearing from an actual person who has been on the journey of a refugee would be a worthy experience… I was right.” -Trevor Muir
I don’t know if this was one of the refugees living in MI that Muir reached out to but this chapter reminded me of this awesome Ted Talk:
Overall my takeaway from this chapter was that creating experiences that students will remember forever is key to them actually learning and not just memorizing information.
I am SO excited to read this book and participate in a book study with Andrea McKay and the awesome group of iEducators. The next few blog posts will be about what I took away from each chapter of this truly epic book.
Chapter 1: The Power of Story
“This outdated system that does not reflect the 21st century creates a lack of engagement in students.” -Trevor Muir
I would love to quote this whole chapter because I found myself highlighting nearly every line. But the quote above is what really stood out to me the most in this chapter. Muir talks about how the school system reflects the last time that an overall update was made – back when schools were training a future workforce for jobs that consisted mostly of factory jobs. And while those jobs are still around and important, this education system does not reflect the trend of more and more job providers wanting candidates that can demonstrate a high level of critical thinking and creativity. One of the main purposes for education is to prepare young people for their future careers. The field of careers has been changing with the times, but the education system has not. And I think it is about time we catch up!
One of the biggest barriers to student success is engagement – and in this chapter Muir explains how the power of the story can be applied to help boost student engagement in the classroom. I have found this to be extremely helpful because social studies is often the subject that most students think is boring. Now that we have discussed the problem, I am very excited to read the rest of the book and see how the story-telling-solution can be applied in a real life classroom!
My favorite professional development event, round 2! During COM 2017 I learned a whole lot, but generally I was a little overwhelmed with the whole experience because I was still pretty new to teaching in the online environment. So this year I was really excited to go back with a better understanding of my knowledge and what I wanted to learn more about.
Keynote
In the online and blended learning world technology is obviously very important. So, that is why Liz Kolb’s keynote presentation that started off day 1 was mind-blowing to me.
She started out with telling us about this awesome new tool she started using in her classes that turned assignments into game quests like in video games that a lot of our students play. And then she dropped the “It didn’t work” bomb on us. She went so full into technology that the learning was starting to get lost.
That is when she presented her key point, Learning First, Technology Second. Her point was that technology is great when it can enhance learning, but sometimes using the next cool thing all the time can just get in the way. We need to be selective about the technology tools we use and ask ourselves daily, is this the best way for students to learn this material?
Communication Impressions… And the Teenage Brain
This was a really awesome part of the Social Studies Department meeting where we looked at examples of message from students and talked about responding to them in a positive and professional way. We talked about how different students respond to comments/situations differently and how we can best meet all of our students needs to leave everyone with a positive experience. This was great to take on the role of other types of students (I was always the annoying over-achiever type in High School) and imagine how certain words/phrases would effect them.
Overall, amazing discussion with amazing coworkers!
My Experience
This year I got to present a Spark Session about one of my current obsessions – Piktochart!
I presented on how teachers can use Piktochart to answer frequently asked questions, share expectations, and connect with students on a deeper level. I think that the presentations went really great (even though they were so short) because a lot of people had great questions/suggestions at the end about how they can implement my ideas and examples in their own classrooms, virtual and face-to-face.
I also got to present 10 Tech Tools in 10 Minutes to the Social Studies department! It was awesome to have the opportunity to share with my coworkers some of the awesome tech tools I had discovered over the past year. Check out the presentation below:
And I got presented with the Social Studies Team Award for Creativity and Innovation 2018. How awesome is that?
Overall, Collaboration of the Minds 2018 was one AMAZING experience and I hope I get to go again next year!
I’m not talking about actual camping, I’m talking about an awesome day of professional development!
This was my first opportunity to experience Michigan Virtual’s Day Camp and I have to say…. It was amazing! I learned so much and left very inspired to continue making my classroom the best possible place for my students.
Keynote
So first off, the keynote was Michael Bonner! You might have seen him on Ellen, because he is a very passionate and inspiring teacher.
The biggest thing I learned from this keynote is the power of self reflection and that it is okay to stop and say, this isn’t working. I realized that it is okay to try new teaching techniques (even the ones that scare me a little) and it is okay if they don’t go amazingly well. The important thing is that I see what is working and what isn’t and am constantly attempting to improve my craft.
Thinking Prompts
The other big thing I took away from this awesome day of professional development is the idea of including thinking prompts in my classes more. I have started adding thinking prompts to my announcements as well as having some some prompts ready to respond to student’s discussion posts that will help further their thinking.
Here is an example of a thinking prompt I added in my Personal Finance class announcements:
These are just two of the things that I learned from Day Camp, because everything I learned would take 50 blog posts! Overall it was an amazing opportunity and I am so glad that I got to experience it.
