Julie's ISTE Reflections

Guest Blogger: Julie Skalecki

Seeing 16,000+ driven educators converge in one place is a sight to behold in and of itself. Everyone I’ve come across is a passionate and motivated educator. I feel like I’m with “my people”-educators who want to lead, inspire, and bring the best learning experiences to their classrooms around the world. You can feel the positive energy in the air!

I learned quite a bit about project based learning (PBL) today. I fell in love with the concept of “Genius Hour” It is the ultimate, “What do you want to learn?” project. One student wanted to build a boat. He worked the whole school year and into the summer to finish with the help of his grandfather. It’s important to ask, What did you learn? Not, What did you do? at the completion. This student learned some important life lessons like appreciating your grandparents. His grandfather taught him the importance of stick to it and never giving up (a skill this student can use in any subject area or struggle he encounters in life). His grandfather told him the story that he missed out on being the team to land on the moon because he didn’t stick with it and was transferred to a different team (grandpa was a NASA scientist). Not only did this student learn important reading comprehension skills, math and science concepts and skills, but also life lessons of perseverance and appreciation. Students don’t need to all be doing the same work to master content area standards. Providing choice is a huge motivator for engagement and “buy-in”. One misconception about PBL is that it results in production of a physical nature. Not every PBL experience will require a trip to Lowes.

I also learned that in PBL I need to be OK with failing in front of the kids. I need to embrace that and tell them I’m probably going to screw this up, but we’ll learn together. I’ve already started dabbling with technologies in which I don’t have all the answers. Students are excited to help one another, including the teacher as we explore new avenues of learning. I’ve also asked them if they would be willing to be my “guinea pigs” because I want to try something I’ve never done. For many, that is enough to pique their interest.

We need to connect these learning experiences with content, by always starting with the standards. This was reassuring to me to hear as some schools here have NO standards-based report cards, which is not my reality (as lovely as that sounds at times). If my students need to do research, write, and present, why do I have to dictate what they write about? It doesn’t matter if they write about Bigfoot or WW2. How can I cover science with my language arts? What can we take to a deeper dive that will meet our standards. I can have students reflect at the end on how they showed evidence that they mastered that standard through the project for assessment purposes. One suggestion to help for assessment purposes is keeping a portfolio. GoEnnouce.com was mentioned as a digital way to do this.

Rubrics are another essential piece for assessment. It helps guide the students and references they key learning targets of the project. Rubistar was given as a digital resource to quickly and efficiently create rubrics.

I also explored teaching environmental sustainability with an amazing database called Model My Watershed. Students are able to learn about watershed science, explore their local watershed, evaluate local watershed conditions, design and test solutions to current watershed challenges, and engage in watershed activities/groups/causes in their neighborhood. The program has taken national data and framed it in a much easier format for students in grades 5 and up to work with.

One model called the Micro Site Storm Model (TR-55) is an interactive model, in which students can see the effects of soil type and land cover type on water run off, infiltration, and evapotranspiration. The other model mentioned above (Model My Watershed) allows students to observe the effects of different scenarios and adding conservation practices such as green roofs and porous paving to their local watershed to reduce impacts on the environment. This is real data in action. I can’t wait to try this out with my students!

I also learned about a $29 sensor that students can use to collect light, temperature, humidity, and pressure data using a low-cost BlueTooth (BT) environmental monitoring device. Students can use a mobile device to view their sensor data so they can enter it in the Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry portal where the data can be viewed, graphed, and analyzed.

These sensors can be used around the schoolyard, or as an extension, students can take them home to do readings. When doing readings, students write down data in a lab book and bring it back into the classroom to update data in the portal. This will definitely make learning come alive!

Soaking in Some More Great Learning

After a whirlwind day one, a brain break, and some much needed sleep, I was pumped to begin Day 2 of the ISTE Conference.  Our group started the day by attending the keynote speaker.  What we didn’t know was that we would get to hear from two other leaders in education...one for literacy and one for computer science.  First up was Hadi Partovi, co-founder of Code.org.  Another team member and I are trained in Code.org and our district is beginning its implementation district wide next year.  It was amazing to listen to him speak on the importance of computer science beginning as early as elementary school.  He also announced that Code.org would be including Frozen and Star Wars in their lessons.  I know my kids are going to be so excited!  The second one was Lavar Burton of Reading Rainbow.  He shared some important messages.   If you want to reach kids today you need to be in the media/digital environment which is why his work with Reading Rainbow has brought us Skybrary.  “Skybrary is a carefully curated, ever expanding interactive library of digital books and video explorations designed to engage young readers and foster a love of learning.”  Lavar knows that technology when used appropriately in education allows students to take charge of their learning and get them prepared for the future.  This is the world we now live.  We can’t teach tomorrow’s kids with yesterday’s practices.

The rest of the day was filled with more great sessions and learning opportunities.  One quote that I loved from the day was “become comfortable with living in beta to model creativity.”  Today’s learning can be messy, and mistakes will happen.  But this is learning.  This is the mindshift I know needs to happen.  Teachers need to relinquish control and allow the children to explore and make mistakes.  

“Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value.” - Sir Ken Robinson

One other focus I had today was on assessment.  I attended a session titled Project-based Learning to Enhance Student Creativity Through Technology.  In this session, we learned about the ways to assess creativity.  Rubrics are your best bet when assessing PBL, creativity, and STEM.  ASCD’s Educational Leadership has a great article called “Assessing Creativity” that was shared with us.  This was a piece of I really wanted to gain insight on and the rubrics shared in the article and by the presenters were a perfect starting point.  

The last big takeaway for today revolved around the Design Thinking Process.   This process can be applied to all grade levels, the vocabulary may change but the pathway remains the same.  It’s the process we need to have our students follow and at the end, start over to improve their design.

http://zurb.com/word/design-process

“Kids should be allowed to break stuff more often.  That’s a consequence of exploration.  Exploration is what you do when you don’t know what you’re doing.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson

So Much Learning, So Little Time - ISTE Day 1

ISTE….. It’s amazing, it’s empowering, it’s overwhelming, and it’s motivating.  There is so much learning going on at this conference that it’s hard to even know where to begin.  But begin we did!

It’s been somewhat of a dream for me to be able to attend ISTE.  Here you meet and listen to the best of the best in the Ed tech fields.  Everyone is willing to share, collaborate, and help in anyway they can.  It's refreshing for me to attend a conference where I hear so much new apps, resources, and ideas.
For my first day takeaways, I want to share a tweet from Kevin Honeycutt.  “If MAKER, STEM and STEAM mean buying kits that kids assemble, what you're really doing are 3-D worksheets. #letkidsinvent #letkidslead”  This is the most important thing to note as we move our classroom teaching forward.  Mistakes are to be embraced and the students need to take ownership of their own learning.  When it comes to STEM or PBL, there are some key things that students should be able to do.  These items are completing a project, collecting and analyzing data, innovative thinking and inventiveness, engaging in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources and use of digital-age resources.  Some of our students who do not excel in testing, reading, levels, etc. will excel in these areas.
Some other key takeaways were that students need to be at the center of the learning and the teacher as a guide.  The teacher doesn't need to be the expert in the class. Students can research an answer, rely on each other or seek guidance.  While learning is happening we must be cognizant to not be asking what did you do but instead askwhat did you learn.
Relevancy is something I already knew was important but every session I attended really drove that home.  Other educators shared their experience about how adding relevancy to their lessons created more engagement and buy-in from the students.  Something as simple as inventing something that could solve a small problem in the classroom to fixing the water fountain in the hall that hasn't been working.  There are so many skills and standards met within these lessons that sometimes are not thought of.
The first day of ISTE was also a day of announcements.  ISTE itself launched their new standards.  I was quick to buy a copy and can't wait to delve in.  I did notice they added a standard on empowering students which is very exciting.  Google also announced that it has released its Expeditions app to Android and iOS is soon to come.  I loved having Google Expeditions visit my school and to be able to add this to our learning commons will be a huge benefit.  We are opening the doors to the world!

Sara: “The amount of learning taking place is unbelievable. The passion that is being shared about students and the power of technology is unbelieveable. The biggest thing I have taken away is my role in a STEM, STEAM classroom: I supply the tools and then let my kids create. They are in charge of their learning.”

I'm so looking forward to two more days of great learning opportunities!

Let the Fund For Teachers Fellowship Journey Begin!

After weeks of anticipation, the time has finally we arrived.  On Saturday, June 25th, our team of five fellows left Wisconsin for Denver, Colorado.  We are beyond excited to attend the 2016 ISTE Conference.

We arrived early in hopes of checking out some educational experiences and locations that we had all heard, and in some cases, taught about.  It's one thing to teach on a topic but another to experience it first-hand and bring that into the classroom of students.  So after flying in bright and early, and renting a car, we set off for Colorado Springs, CO.  Upon arrival we immediately went to the Garden of the Gods.  The Garden of the Gods is a National Natural Landmark.  The park itself is over 1,300 acres and is made up of beautiful red rock formations.  

While touring the Visitor and Nature Center, we could explore the geology, plants, animals, and people.  There was so much great learning to be had and a few special items that we could take home with us to share.  

After our visit to the Garden of the Gods, we went to visit the Cave of the Winds.  “Discovered in 1881, Cave of the Winds has been a must-see Colorado Springs attraction for travelers for more than a century. We’re one of the premiere show caves in the United States – and, at 7,000 feet, we’re also one of the highest!”  The formations of stalactites and stalagmites, the variety of rocks, the view from 7,000 feet, and the information we collected was amazing.  The limestone in this cave dates back to 500 million years ago.  The area was once covered completely by water and when it receded and the caves filled with air, that’s when the formations were created.  Our vocabulary was expanded to include calcite, flowstone, speleology, and speleothem.  It’s also funny to learn that this cave was discovered by two kids.  Curiosity is an amazing thing.

On Sunday, we spent the day in the Rocky Mountains.  We drove up to Estes Park and from there into the Rocky Mountain National Park.

The journey took us up 12,000+ feet and gave us some absolutely breath-taking views.  The real takeaways came from learning about the ecosystem, animal life, and the Continental Divide.  The Alpine Tundra ecosystem is the one of their most fragile ecosystems.  It's located between elevations of 11,000 to 11, 500.   When exiting your car to explore, you see many signs that read "Repeated footsteps often destroy tundra plants, allowing exposed soil to blow away.  Recovery may take hundreds of years, so please use designated trails when exploring this unique area."  

As it said this an extreme environment with strong winds and cold temperatures.  But you can also see the lichens and flowers that can withstand these harsh conditions.  You can also see the "rocks out of place" that have been left by the glaciers and from this height, view the amazing formations carved out by these same glaciers millions of years ago.

We were lucky enough to see a few animals that call this habitat home; Bighorn Sheep, Marmot, and Elk.

While driving through, our team talked a bit about how we could use pictures we had taken of the breath-taking scenery and teach about tectonic plates, glaciers, and ecosystems.  With NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) being implemented next year, each grade level could have the opportunity to use our learning and pictures in their teaching.  

Our last stop was the Continental Divide.  

The "Great Divide separates drainage to the Atlantic from drainage to the Pacific.  It traverses America from Alaska almost to Cape Horn".  It goes along five U.S. States: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.  

The Atlantic Ocean drainage goes from "Cache La Poulre Creek into the Platte River which flows to the MIssouri, then to the Mississippi, thus reaching the Gulf of Mexico (part of the Atlantic Ocean)."  The Pacific Ocean drainage goes to “Beaver Creek into the Colorado River, which then flows through the Grand Canyon National Park and on to the Gulf of California (a part of the Pacific Ocean).”

Being able to experience these locations in person is going to add so much more passion to our teaching of these topics.  Pictures alone are great but can be found in texts and online, the experiences that we can share with our students are priceless.

Next up: Day 1 of the ISTE Conference!

We're Going on a Google Expedition!

Today students in grades first through fifth at my buildings experienced the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program.  Google Expeditions is still currently in Beta and staff are visiting schools around the globe in order to test with students.  If this is entirely new to you, here is a description from Google itself:

What is Expeditions?

Expeditions combines three things: software built with teachers for teachers, immersive virtual reality content, and devices that are available to any school.

The content

Expeditions are collections of virtual reality panoramas—360° photo spheres, 3D images and video, and ambient sounds—annotated with details, points of interest, and questions that make them easy to integrate into curriculum already used in schools. Partners like the American Museum of Natural History, the Planetary Society, David Attenborough with production company Alchemy VR, and many of the museums and other partners of the Google Cultural Institute are helping us to create custom educational content for Expeditions.

The app

Expeditions are accessed and viewed through an app that allows a teacher to choose a trip and lead a group of students through a virtual Expedition. Teachers are able to point out specific details within the panorama, pause trips to get the class’s attention, play ambient sounds to make the experience even more immersive, and let students freely explore on their own.

The hardware

While Expeditions can be used on devices already in the classroom, they come alive with Google Cardboard. Our Expeditions kit is a collection of all the hardware needed to go on Expeditions in full virtual reality—a tablet for the guide, VR viewers for each student, a speaker to provide ambient sounds and a durable box to transport, charge, and store it all. We know many schools don’t have great Internet service (or any at all) so we built Expeditions to work without it. The kit includes a router that allows Expeditions to run over its own local Wi-Fi network so there’s no buffering, dropped connections or lengthy loading times.

I was excited when I registered to have the opportunity for Google Expeditions to visit one of my buildings and even more excited when I heard a few months later that they would be in the area and my students would have this amazing opportunity.  

Many of the teachers were able to tie these virtual field trips to curriculum, like studying dying ecosystems, or on current extra-curricular projects, like our connection with South Africa.  Along with the virtual field trip comes so awesome talking points for teachers so that we were able to guide our students on their trip.  Students learn so much from opportunities like this that are extensions to their lessons rather than just lecture and slideshows.  They feel as if they are fully immersed in this location and really make some connections!

Places the students had opportunities to visit were:

• Taj Mahal
• Coliseum in Italy
• The Great Wall of China
• Petra
• Rio de Janeiro
• Machu Picchu
• Galapagos Islands
• Preserved Oceans around the globe
• Statue of Liberty
• Ellis Island
• National Parks in California
• Yellowstone National Park
• Kruger National Park in South Africa

The ability offer these virtual field trips to my students is amazing.  Students may not ever be able to experience these locations so I am doing what I can to get them there.  Virtual Reality offers this amazing opportunity for kids from the comfort of their own school or home.

The kids have already begun asking me when I am purchasing them for the building or where they can buy Google Cardboard on their own.  Right now there is a Google Cardboard app for iOS or Android and the actua Expeditions app we used has not yet been released to the public.  But its coming!

Check out the Animoto:

Fund for Teachers Fellow!

This year, a team of fellow teachers and myself wrote our second attempt at a Fund for Teachers grant to go to ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education).  We narrowed our focus and broadened our horizons with this grant so that our learning would not only impact our classroom areas but also impact our school.  

Brief Description of Fellowship: Participate in the International Society for Technology in Education conference in Denver, CO, to enrich the implementation of Next Generation Science Standards and increase student achievement.

We were beyond excited to learn that our grant proposal had been accepted for 2016.  It was sort of a funny story that day.  The five of us were on pins and needles all day.  I believe I must have refreshed my email on my phone every five minutes.  The post said that everyone would know by 3pm, so we waited.... and waited.  I even had our principal, who was out of the building at a meeting, texting me a few different times asking if we had heard anything.  By 3pm we had heard nothing and didn't know what to make of it.  One of the teachers and I happened to be co-teaching a STEM lesson with her class, and as the students were cleaning up we decided to see if they had posted the list on the Fund for Teacher's website.  After it finally popped up I opened the file and there on the first page was not only myself but another team teacher.  I'll admit I screamed a little which prompted the other teacher to scream as well.  I ran to each of the other classrooms to announce that we had received the grant! I sent a message to our principal who immediately responded with a "Wahoo!"  

All of our hard work and research paid off.  We were finally getting the opportunity to go to one of the greatest edtech conferences around to learn how we can effectively implement the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) with technology and STEM.  Each of us is fully aware of what this opportunity can bring to our building as we embark on a new adventure.

Below is part of our Purpose and Rationale

As elementary teachers we are tasked with the job of introducing our students to technology and teaching them how to be problem solvers and higher-order thinkers. Our collaborative team’s goal is to build our understanding of how to teach these skills through project-based learning, implementation of the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards), STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) activities, and technology integration. One of our focuses has been on the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) model. This model was developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura and offers a shift in the traditional thinking of technology use. Our team plans to move from the substitution level of SAMR, completing the same tasks on a computer, to the redefinition level, allowing for new tasks with technology and acquisition of skills that were otherwise considered inconceivable. Attending the ISTE (International Society of Technology in Education) conference will give us the needed resources and knowledge-base to fuse the NGSS and the district's STEM initiative with project-based learning and effective technology integration. 

Our suburban elementary school currently houses 368 students with 73% of our student population living in poverty. Ethnic diversity is greater in our building than in the district in every disaggregated group (ELL, SWD, Hispanic, and SES). Students from poverty struggle to retain content each year as their working memory is tied up with worries about basic needs. Project-based learning is more likely to "stick" as a meaningful learning opportunity than a paper and pencil task. The ease of differentiation that project-based learning brings will significantly benefit our students in their use of technology and ability to think critically and problem solve. Students are changing and learn differently than in the past, so our teaching needs to change. We need to revitalize our classrooms for tomorrow’s students. The thinking skills that we can help students acquire will be an asset when they transition to middle school, high school and eventually the workforce. We are passionate about moving student learning forward and creating lessons and projects that prepare our students for the real world. We have already begun creating engaging learning experiences, and we want to keep this trend moving forward. Our kids need this to succeed but we can’t just know it, we need to implement it. We will model for our colleagues how to move from a teacher-centered to a student-centered learning environment. We have seen first-hand how students become more engaged in STEM related activities and we want to see this passion increased in their education. 

Our team needs to see the possibilities for our students so that we continue to see wins in the classroom. Students need to feel that the work they do is making a difference in the world. Their world needs to expand beyond the classroom walls. There is research to support the value of authentic learning. When students are engaged in real-world scenarios and challenges, they find relevance in the work and become engaged in learning. Through the expertise we gain by attending the ISTE conference we can redefine our students’ current learning experiences and get them eager to learn. Our team consists of four classroom educators from grades three through five, and a technology innovation specialist, all of whom are driven to make a change. Together we want to gain professional knowledge with others who have already impacted education. We should be embracing purposeful technology use, and teaching students to create, think, and communicate with it. The ISTE conference is the place where we can see, hear, touch, and learn the ways to best make this shift happen. According to Cheryl Lemke’s article The Change Agents, “As educators, we should be using technology as a critical design factor, in combination with research on how people best learn, to establish new and different environments for student-centered learning” (Lemke, 2009, p.54). We know attending this conference will allow us to be the change agents in our school.

After our fellowship is complete, our team plans to return and debrief.  Our goals are to present to staff our biggest take-aways from the conference, meet collaboratively with grade levels to help plan for the coming year, and to plan and implement a STEM parent night so that we can showcase what our kids have been doing, as well as show parents the power of STEM activities.  We are truly honored and eager to begin this amazing journey.  

We thank Fund for Teachers from the bottom of our hearts that they saw the passion we have for helping our students reach amazing heights and chose us to be 2016 Fellows.

Look What We Can Do in the Innovation Commons!

This year has been so much fun purchasing and rolling out all the wonderful MakerSpace and STEM activities that I have added to the Innovation Commons.  What I have discovered is that the kids need very little direction and just dive into their creation and investigation.  Most recently I ahve been working with Kindergarten and 4th graders.  The biggest take away for the teachers has been they notice zero behavior issues during this time because the students are so engaged.

Here are some of the great things I have added and a little about them:

Snap Circuits - "Snap Circuits® makes learning electronics easy and fun! Just follow the colorful pictures in our manual and build exciting projects, such as FM radios, digital voice recorders, AM radios, burglar alarms, doorbells, and much."
I started with the Snap Circuits Jr and it became so popular that I ordered a larger kit, as well as the Rover and Green Energies Kits.  For students to really begin understanding the working circuits in an explorative way is very important.  They really feel the ownership of making something work.

Contraptions & Structures


Students love using contraptions and structures by Keva.  They design, build, and engineer buildings and marble ramps.    "Young thinkers can build unbelievable ball track structures with this simple stacking plank system. Create ramps, funnels, chutes and crazy contraptions like the "Black Hole" and "Bounce Plate." Then find out if the ball rolls as expected. Fostering unlimited creativity and experimentation, KEVA planks build an early understanding of proportion and balance, while teaching basic principles of physics and engineering." Many view this as such a creative outlet that it's their go to center.  

Other purchases that I have made that the students find amazing:

Osmo

Tiggly

Sphero and BB-8

Dash & Dot

Lego WeDo 2.0

Little Bits

Magformers

Ozobots

K'Nex

Currently my Kindergarten students are working on creating a city for Bee-Bot to be able to drive through.  If you aren't familiar with Bee-Bot, he is a programmable robot for the younger students.  They give him directions by pushing the arrow buttons on his back.  Once they have put in the correct sequence, they hit start and Bee-Bot will move how they have programmed him.  We've used him to teach programming but also to practice shapes, letters, sight words, and numbers.

They are learning about communities and each child chose a different type of building in the community they wanted to build.

The most important thing that needs to happen with the many STEAM activities is the discussion.  Whether it's collaboratively with peers as they work to solve problems or you as the teacher asking them to share what it is they are doing and how are they making it happen.  Discourse is important.  Here is document shared by my district that I have found very helpful.

P is for Penguin

First graders at Jefferson were able to speak virtually with the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, CA. They learned about the African Penguin from one of the academy’s experts and got to see the Penguins that live there live!

These first grade students have been learning about penguins over the past couple weeks. They received a penguin (stuffed) in the mail asking for the class to take care of him. They immediately began researching and designing a penguin habitat to determine if we can keep the penguins at Jefferson. During this virtual lesson, the students were able to ask and answer questions. The teachers and I were so impressed with the students because they had some fabulous questions to ask our virtual expert! They learned some great information as we continue on in our penguin unit. This was one of the best virtual lessons I've ever conducted. The interactiveness and the level that the presenter was able to talk at completely benefited our students. Each student was completely engaged as they listened, answered, and even demonstrated penguin habits like waddling and swimming. The greatest moment was when one of the students, who really didn't speak at all in kindergarten, stood up and asked a question of the presenter. Such an amazing experience!

The types of connections that can be made through video conferencing tools like Skype, Google Hangouts, Adobe Connect, Cisco Jabber, and more help to expand the learning environment by offering students a virtual window to a real world outside of their community. Content for these can be chosen to align with your curriculum to help enrich it and make it more relevant. With virtual connections, you can eliminate time and distance. You are able to tap into others expertise. Students become more engaged and the relevancy helps content to stick with them. There are many places that you can use to leverage these connections. Places like NASA and Yellowstone National Park have staff dedicated to educational presentations and experiences. These types of connections allow you to create new experiences for the students that may never have otherwise been possible. This is using technology to redefine the learning experience of our students. Think about who you could bring into your classroom; marine biologists, professors, authors, scientists, archaeologists. The sky's the limit. For more information, talk to your Innovation Specialist or look for classes to be posted in My Learning Plan.