Sunday, August 4, 2013

Day 1: Marijean's Notes

DAY ONE (July 23)
Workshop #1
Using the iPad for Assessment
Liz B. Davis
Director of Academic Technology Belmont Hill School Gr. 7-12

BLC Conference July 22-26, 2013 Park Plaza Hotel Boston MA
access her list of these sites via: http://bit.ly/lizbdavisblc13
Nearpod.com
Allows teachers to take control of the student iPads. Can push out only what you want to address during the lesson.
Can also show videos directly on their iPads.
Students can also hand-write the answers (ex. math calculations), saved as a JPEG, then teacher can share it with the rest of the class (as an example)

Works by teacher creating PDF docs that get uploaded to Nearpod. Then adding multiple choice Qs in-between these teacher created PDFs.
Socrative.com -
can add multiple choice or open-ended Qs; also can add images (can now add algebraic/calculus math formulas this way too). Rec to create quizzes on a laptop (easier) and send out on iPads
Has pre-made quizzes (ex. exit tickets) already in the program
It also has a Space Race. Teams (up to 10) can compete on how quickly they can answers a series of questions. (Can turn any quiz into one of these).

Explain Everything (iPad only @ $.2.99)
Great tool to provide feedback for writing. Allows teacher to record voice and write editorial comments. It saves this feedback as an exported QuickTime video file (or as a PDF if no voice element used). Can also send it to Dropbox or Notability or to YouTube or to the iPad's camera roll.
Same thing can be done by the students and they send their answers to the teacher.
It's time-consuming as a teacher to grade written work this way. It also needs a super quiet environment to record the voice feedback. Presenter recs. doing it for only one key writing piece/paper per term. (She would have to pre-read the essay. Think about/ prepare the verbal comments and then record the feedback.)

Goodle Forms
(Doesn't need an iPad)
Simple Jeopardy-style Q layout --

what is your name?
what is your answer?
It creates a spreadsheet showing which student/team answered the question first/ correctly/etc.
Also used for CR behavior
Checklist Grid (add names and then provide 3 categories --
Ex: class roster with radio buttons No HW Disruption Not prepared options

select only if applies to a specific student
Edmodo (similar to another app called Schoology) Sends out assignments with text messages or email (looks similar to a Facebook page)
let's you know who has completed assignments

iBooks
Can have students send the teacher their highlighting and notes (as an email) Look at notes, select (check) all of the notes from the chapter, and Share (via mail)
Have students make their own books using BookCreator app (vignettes). It can be shared online with parents and can be a summative portfolio piece.
ClassDojo
not as functional on the iPad (best on laptops)
set up CR (can have photos of each kid)
on the iPad it will select a student randomly
keeps a tally of have many times each student is answering/participating

iMovie
has templates on the iPad so students can create movie trailers really easily
students write out a story board and can drop video clips/images into the storyboard on the margin. (She used it for a book report presentation- a challenging skill for students how to summarize in short, concise phrases or soundbites

iStopmotion ($9.99 for iPad only $4.99 if purchase more than 20) Kids can use it for claymation vignettes too. (very time intensive)
ex. a PSA for anti-bullying curriculum
creates a overlay of the previous image an "onion skin" so you can offset and add each new image/photo based on exactly where the previous image was.

Maybe a free equivalent ... WeVideo in Chrome web browser
Definition of assessment = to sit beside (Latin) the learner; what are you learning?
Learning is a triangle of
Observations == Interpretation==Cognition==...

Workshop #2
July 23, 2013
Mark Schulte from the Pulitzer Center

A Walk Around the World -- One journalist's 7-year journey retracing the steps of our ancestors out of Africa
Paul Salopek - a foreign correspondent who won 2 Pulizter prizes for scientific journalism
Use Mark to make a connection with Paul (blogs and Q&A sessions and possible Skype sessions)
Pulitzer Center (funds global reporting projects; 300+ projects funded since 2007)
puliztercenter.org (Education tabs; Gateways)
BG Info about the Pulitzer Center - goal for promote global empathy
  • Global news is on the "chopping block" in the US. There is a shrinking pool of
    reporters that are based around the world.
  • Americans are terrible at working with people from other cultures and thus they often
    get fired
  • Global empathy is being negatively affected.
  • Alisa Millers TED Talk re: US media consumption
  • July 2009 News Map (CNN and ABC) showing a map of where in the world the news
    stories came from that the Americans were exposed to in the news.
  • ex., American are exposed to a lot of fear/hate-based media from Arabic/Muslim
    countries.
    (side note rec. great author Anna Badhkam. Her latest book The World is a Carpet)

    OutofEdenWalk.com - Paul Salopek
    in response to his belief that we've been buried under "a tsumani of nano headlines. We've been moving too fast to listen"

    Food aid has caused nomadic cultures to become stationary. Their animals don't need to be eaten for food, so the herds increase in size and then overgrazing becomes a problem.
    They are losing their knowledge of how to survive in the wild and during times of famine.
    PS gives CR kids an invitation to "Let me be your reported in the field - your foreign correspondent."
    pulitzercenter.org/node/11012/education
    look for Unit Maps Who Am I? and How Did I Become the Person I am?
Project Zero (from Harvard's school of ed) used Edmoto to push out info/updates and curriculum connections to teachers
walktolearn.outofeden.com
for MS and HS students to follow Paul's journey
Workshop #3
Re-Imagining School with Julia Leong (julia.Leong@me.com)
(I left this session, just a discussion forum of what others schools are experiencing)
Small Shifts, Big Impact:: Closing the Gap to Empowered Learning
Shelly Paul (Woodward Academy) Sara Wilke (November Learning)
notes are being taken to be posted at: http: // bit.ly/ssbi13
http://bit.ly/ssbi13notes
The "small shifts" concept was inspired by the book Switch by Chip & Dan Heath "Change is a process, not an event."
Write a single statement of "destination" for your ideal learner. Where do you want your learns to be at the end of the year?
Think/Pair/Share: I want my students to be curious, creative individuals who understand and utilize the scientific method as they work collaboratively to solve problems.
Shift 1: Find the bright spots.
(To boost morale and broadcast your little accomplishments)
Focus on strengths rather than problems/struggles
Tweet the good things that are happening in your school. It amplifies it "like nobody's business". The moment in the classroom that shows that learning is happening.

Shift 2: Making Thinking Visible (from Project Zero Artful Thinking website) I see...
I think...
I wonder....

Use it to examine visuals and promote conversations between people.
Helps students to develop a global perspective and notice things outside of their
localized world view.
Use Flickr Creative Commons for images/photos that can be used for this activity (just give credit)
"Headlines" activity:
"Write a headline for ______ (fractions) that summarizes a key aspect you feel is significant and important." (Do this as both a pre- and post-lesson)

Shift 3: Shape the Path (multimodal and asynchronous communication) synchronous (real time) and asynchronous (delayed time)
Use of Facebook or Twitter or other digital modes to encourage conversations between people, student-student, student-teacher, etc.
Open up new opportunities to pursue what is interesting to the individual student Ex., a science blog created by a student (linking to her video of a live dogfish shark dissection, etc.)
This directly relates to Marzano's 6 steps to better vocabulary instruction Step #3: "Ask students to construct a picture/image of what the students understand the meaning of the word to be." (showed a page of MultiModal Lab Reports)
Peer Feedback forum to have students blog to discuss topics/ideas and to peer review.
Diigo - a centralized bookmarking site
Used by a Spanish teacher as students had to find examples of key concepts. They then shared this with each other thru diigo.

Shift 4: Mind the Process
Learning Out Loud - teachers verbally discuss or use Google docs with various colors to id the various writers contributing to the doc.
Metacognition -overt
Wrong Turns (failure as an opportunity) FAIL = First Attempt, Iterate, Learn

Shift 5: Grow the Culture
...of learners that reach beyond the confines of the walls of the classroom.
Create a "Relatives Network" - any relative (parent, aunt, uncle, etc.) of the students who are willing to share their professional expertise with the school.
Change Leadership - empower students to become leaders of their own education
Workshop #4
Critical Processes and Decisions for Leadership
Alan November
Brainstorm session: What is the single most important leadership skill needed? Then peoples' responses guided the topics discussed in the rest of the session.
Alan believes that it's INFORMATION AND GLOBAL RELATIONSHIPS
Alan's wondering "Who's controlling the learning?"
Discussion Point 1: School leaders need to help colleagues learn how to shift
control back to the learner - to take responsibility for learning (from the Socratic method in Ancient Greece). Students from one-room schoolhouses have better performing students/higher schools than those in regular classroom settings.
We have taken control away from students.
Leadership also starts with vision. We should revisit models of education that are historic but have been rejected over time. Figure out where we came from.
Eric Mazur 80% who do well on tests cannot apply that knowledge in a novel setting. YouTube "Abridged Confessions of a Converted Learner"
He's a big believer in the Socratic process because adolescence and pre-adolescence is social . The power of the group beats the power of the individual. The Socratic process is key. The role of the teacher is to add the most interesting questions.
A classroom in Indonesia had students take a test individually and then immediately take it again a second time AS A TEAM OF FIVE. Collaborative learning! Students debated and argued and had to come to consensus and provide an answer. There was less work for the teacher and more learning for the students.
Add the two scores together for a grand total. Therefore it was critical that students help each other learn -- because they ALL benefit when everyone learns it.
Then they are asked to define a problem AFTER they have taken the test.
Discussion Point 2: Have a global network and call upon the perspectives and expertise of people from all around the world.
What is the contribution that students are being asked to bring to the learning process? Brought up HS students from Club Academia. They have 500+ videos about various topics they are trying to learn and understand. They feel like they challenge themselves, they don't have the teachers challenge them. It's self-generated learning.
Replace the term "technology" with "learning design" Stop worrying about technology. Instead what
Socrates never wrote. He believed that books are a one-way conversation. Also, memorization is important and books take that away (if written down, there's no need to memorize)
Discussion Point 3: With technology and the internet, info is available instantaneously so teachers no longer need to be "fonts of wisdom". Instead ....
Teachers have a new role -- which is to demonstrate how to learn. Show students how do you take in new info and process it to really learn or master it?
Administrators need have to be on board for this "subversive" new/ancient approach to education. (Socratic method)
Skilled leaders run interference for the people working for them. They take the heat for them. They support their teachers and allow them to practice their craft and to revolutionize their classrooms. (Alan doesn't think this is being taught in Admin Grad Schools)
Discussion Point 4: How do you deal with the emotional roller coaster of change? It's important to have balance in your life.
Take risks. Have teachers be willing to be a learner alongside their students. This means demonstrating how to cope with failure. (ex. Play a video game with a student and then go to a counselor to discuss the awkward feelings of loss-of-control, being a failure, etc.)
Discussion Point 5: Empower students to be better consumers of the Internet and the information on it.
Demos how to use Advanced Search Limiters
in the Google web browser type

site: edu "breast cancer"
site: gov "breast cancer"
Advanced Search - select time "within the last month"

Another example of professors in England who have prepared Powerpoints of Romeo and Juliet around different themes.
filetype:ppt site:ac.uk "Romeo and Juliet" love
filetype:ppt site:edu "Romeo and Juliet" love (these are from profs in the US)

Can then compare the two opinions and debate the value of the viewpoints. This is a VERY POWERFUL experience for the students. The teacher doesn't know this advanced info, They are FACILITATORS helping the students direct their own learning.

Recs. the book: Stratosphere by Michael Fullen
Workshop #5
Apps for the Classroom
Rosa and Elizabeth Ruvalcaba
The How To (the technical stuff that students know)
The Why (what the teacher can provide. Puts things in context)
showed 2 videos
iDoctor - med school student who developed the app to speed up the process and allows doctors to have more time to spend w/ patients.
iStanford app. Puts a map and GPS technology to help students get oriented to a new campus. Ex., Where my classroom? available washing machines? etc.
Apps are constantly being created and a very responsive to feedback about bugs or "can it do _____?" queries from users.
WikiNodes helpful for visual / graphic-org types. The Wiki articles are laid out on a mind map format.
Wolfram Alpha accesses same research papers as $$$$ university databases Barefoot World Atlas
Zite Pinterest
WhatWasThere FieldTrip AlasApp.com ???? ?????
customizable news app from various newspapers in the world theme-based organization tool for notes/webpages/photos/lessons with helpful graphics. It also suggests other things based on your history.
historical images and info about buildings/historical site in a city

....
apps that track when other apps are available FREE 

Friday, July 26, 2013

New Apps/Tools to Try!

Please add to the list:


  • Barefoot World Atlas
  • Field Trip
  • Flipboard
  • HootSuite
  • Instagrok
  • Padlet
  • Paper 53
  • Phonto
  • Picasa
  • Pinterest
  • Tweetdeck
  • Twitter
  • What was There
  • WikiNodes
  • Wolfram Alpha
  • Zite

UNCEF USFund: Nick Leisey


UNICEF and Global Citizenship: Building Learning Communities

Nick Leisey, fellow for GC
Works with schools and local foundations, domestic efforts. The US committee. Fundraising, awareness, fee into UNICEF. Program and community engagement, promotion of awareness of what the fund does, some on global issues, global competencies.
UNICEF started as an emergency fund, not an education fund.

Mission of UNICEF -190 countries around the world.
Flagship publication each year - state of the world
The US has not ratified the CRC!  (Rights of children) once a country has ratified it, the UN can send people to work.
UNICEF provides immunization for half the world's children! Also involved in WASH. (Water& sanitation) it is an enormous issue in developing countries.
They teach nutrition to families, and on child protection (32 billion dollars are earned in trafficking each year!!!) All 50 states have child trafficking problems.

Provocative Topic: Too bad you're thirsty. Too bad you don't have enough clean water.

Believe in Zero
In 1990, 33000 children died each day for preventable causes
In 2010, 21,000
Today, 19,000

PSA about Believe in Zero can be found on YouTube.  Funds are: Public Policy and Advocacy; TAP project (water); END trafficking; Trick or Treat (created by Children!); George Harrison Fund(Bangladesh); Eliminate (tetanus)

Meaning of Global Citizenship Wordle: one of them was ACTION.  The UN-usf has a definition. They have 8 global fellows in the US.

Film: how the UN teaches GCompetency.
teachunicef.org - lesson plans, issues, videos and more.

Alan November First Five Days

Conversation with a student on "What is school about?" The answer: School is a place where you have to be good at being taught, but not good at learning.

The importance of finding out how your students learn in the first five days of school.

As a history teacher, he requested them to find a picture that shows American History as they see it. Tells them to google American History sites:edu to find more appropriate images. While they search, he watches to see how they find information, the lifeblood of learning for the year.  Gather all the tools into one image to show the classroom community: google sites, docs, image collector, Pinterest, google maps (a wonderful tool). Put a pin on a google map of your image, then attach a picture to the pin. Dipity is a timeline tool that allows you to put content on the site, telling you when the images were placed. Ask the kids where the image took place, to learn what they know how to do.

The FFD should be embedded in critical thinking. Day 1 or 2 every kid needs to learn Diigo, for archiving information. (A perfect tool, single most important one for organizing info from the Internet.)  you an highlight in Diigo and it will stay highlighted. The kids sign up under the teacher's account, then the teacher has all the things the kids have done when they are not in class. Teachers can sign up for the Education Edition, which is even better. It has a video tutorial.  WATCH IT.

Third level of FFD: the creative.  To document how a piece is created.

Site:ac.uk file type:ppt "American Revolution."  assignment: find the differences in pov from American sites.  Site:edu file type:ppt "American Revolution"

Day 5 - present a Skype debate with British kids about questions you cook up, and tell them it's going up on YouTube, it will be public.

QUESTION?

Does affluence cause complacency?
What if we asked one of the local UNICEF fellows to come and talk to our kids? Or at least tried?

Provocative Learning - Ewan McIntosh

The amount of choice human beings need is quite high.
Design Thinking begins with immersion, then synthesis, then ideation, prototyping (the you tube video we saw this morning), and feedback.  We want the kids to come up with the questions.

After inquiry, making up the question, then you write what you know.  Keep a sense of wonder among the kids. Developing questions with post it's then organize the questions, modeling higher order questioning.  Two categories: fact based (Googleable) and Not Googleable. The process of coming up with questions is fast, and kids share what they have Googled with their classmates.
The Ungoogleable: discourse, discussion.

Question: what is the difference between Design Thinking and Project Based Learning?

Ewan: you'll never be done learning.

How do you set this up? How do you keep the momentum going?
You have to have provocative questions, and you have to know what skills (from the curriculum map) you want the kids to have down by the end of the unit.

Generative topics rules of thumb:
(See photo)
Humor is provocative.
Ideas: "Shut Up.  You're a girl." The provocation for the suffrage movement in history.

Many ideas for planing curriculum at www.NoTosh.com/lab.  Also graphic organizers to do it; their ideas of design thinking.

Thinking needs time and colleagues to help with ideas. Tom's book is about coming up with these questions.



Why do we call it one to one in our classrooms?


Heard Alan November speak about the concept of one to one in our classrooms.  Why do we call it one to one?  Calling it 1:1 is about one person to one device.  It should be called one to world because it should not be about the device but about what the device allows us to do.  The device allows you to connect to the world. Language is important because it sets the thinking and how we see the use of technology in our classrooms.

One to one takes you down shortsighted path  of research, etc. 
There are many losses of going to one to one....plagiarism goes up, everyone playing games, more distraction.
1 to 1 makes it about the device and not the world
What makes best case....what we call it. 1. One To world creates empathy, 1 to 1 doesn't.

Keynote Friday

Kathy Kassidy, from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan!
Authentic learning, from other children (in New Zealand) rather than from a book- an audience around the world, a global community.
Reading blogs, reading tweets: will this change the ability of children to hang onto their attention to read a whole book?
Instead of live visitors, experts, etc., or in addition to them, invite them to come in by Skype.
Photo galleries are a way for kids to record their learning.

Tom Barrett of NoTosh, on Being Curious

George's (his son's) questions tracked and recorded for six months. Like: can computers keep secrets?
"I used to think, but now I know" comes from things that have challenged us.
Other questions: if a pea had a brain, how big would it be? Why do old men scratch their beards when they,re thinking? What is the crumbliest thing in the world? Would you rather show your bottoms to the whole world, or eat a scorpion?
He much of the world can six year olds explain? Know? We need to maintain that constant gaze through apt he child's eyes.  KEEP QUESTIONING THE WORLD AROUND YOU- NEVER STOP- I want to put this up in my classroom.

Catlin Tucker: Disruption: Now What?
new Realities:
1. What we create is alive.  Using Googledocs keeps the learning current. Kids get real time feedback.
2. Information is everywhere.  Kids don't need to amass huge amounts of knowledge; they need to know how to find out, how to evaluate information. Crowdsourcing as a facet of learning.

3. Social media should be leveraged for learning.  This makes parents and other teachers anxious.  We have unprecedented ability to connect with others outside the classroom. If we teach them how to use it, they will use it richly. Story about Shakespeare sonnet, and learning/ asking all the questions she would have taught them anyway.
4. One student's contributions cannot replace creativity of the group. There is more than one source of information in the room. Take conversations online, where kids jump in who wouldn't necessarily add to a verbal conversation.
5. Our audience is global. It enriches creativity and quality if kids have a digital portfolio that they share with the world.  So many ways to record learning!

Alec Couros: Identity Matters
He has 38000 followers on Twitter.

Encourages students to create a digital identity!
Digital Dualism - augments reality
Context Collapse - snap chat, the U C Davis cop who pepper sprayed protestors.  You are always on ?Candid Camera
Positive digital identity - the difference between private and public identity
Social media is what humans crave as needs- to share, create, connect

Amy on the fly
History for music lovers on you tube.  What is the point of making something if you're not going to share it? What you get in return: connections, feedback, recognition. "Dare to make and share." French Revolution by Lady Gaga. A student wrote the lyrics.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Google Power Search

From MK:



What does this look like for 5th grade? What about scaffolding up to 6th? 7th? 8th?

Creating Student Learning Networks - Kristin Ziemke

Fast-paced and powerful. Lots of things we could easily weave in to what we are already doing (i.e reviving 5th grade blogs)
Big takeaways:

  • Kids are more engaged when they make personal connections and get feedback from people OTHER than teacher (authors, app developers, parents, friends,  etc)
  • Use of Twitter in a safe and controlled way gives kids access to experts and current issues they are concerned about
  • Using social media tools models positive examples of digital citizenship
Kristin Ziemke: http://www.kristinziemke.com/blc13.html

Jen's notes:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s46/sh/aa949e79-0539-40c5-9645-15a73f30c104/c744e8f9ab86cddc32eb8c7b82239c46

A walk around the world with Mark Schulte

We could get together and develop a list of things we want to do with Mark and with Paul, and with Project Zero, who will be inviting classes in the fall. This is a totally exciting project, and so rich that it is hard to navigate through all the organizations that are involved!

A Walk Around the World

One of the most AMAZING projects I have ever heard about! We must make some connections and bring this back to MCDS!

Day 2 - Keynote - Dr. David Weinberger

Jen's notes:
What a fantastic keynote!
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s46/sh/81b1b36c-a8b2-463e-b818-215b6f9ff62d/b3744df2d6bfb55d6a0cf8cda330dd3f

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Advanced Searching for Inquiry - Mike Gorman

Lots of great nuggets here for searching and for how we can scaffold our media literacy/info literacy in Upper School!

Jen's notes:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s46/sh/caa1554b-d2f6-4d48-b83a-37aa53ad1db1/65ac74d7006be1138bc037204cca7867

Good Leadership is...

Critical Processes and Decisions for Leadership -- Alan November

Leaders need to:
  • help colleagues SHIFT CONTROL back to the learner
  • run INTERFERENCE for faculty to try new things
  • help people develop a global network
  • teach teachers to demonstrate HOW they learn
  • be willing to MODEL FAILURE
What do YOU think? 

iPads for Assessment


Using iPads for Assessment  --  Liz B Davis

Lots of great and easy ways to use these apps for formative or summative assessment.
Which ones will we try?

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s46/sh/74fb5096-a017-4075-93cc-66e2896401a8/ffb48c59894d208c571b8fc6bb2223ee

Learn Like a Kid

Learn Like a Kid -- 24/7 Learning Networks w/ Mobile Devices -- Lainie Rowell

Check out her TEdEd talk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkBg52TTAUY

And her website:
http://lainierowell.com/Portfolio/Lainie_Rowell.html

Here are my notes from her session
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s46/sh/de6a28b3-fb88-4ac5-9f0e-48d6a21650ca/76180ed701047a405262609b29ef855c

Day 1 - Keynote - Yong Zhao

Keynote address by Dr. Yong Zhao--funny, fast-paced and thought provoking statistics!
What are your take aways from this speech?