Reflections and Learning from 'Movies and Math'

I was delighted to attend several of Kathy Cassidy’s presentations at GETCA (Greater Edmonton Teacher's Convention), this past week. Through Twitter I have come to know her as grade one teacher who fearlessly and meaningfully integrates technology in her classroom.  She shared tips, tools, student blog posts, math movies, and apps that she uses in her own practice as a grade one teacher in Saskatchewan.  

Jo Boalar’s online course How to Learn Math and Sherry Parrish’s excellent book, Number Talks have made me eager to increase the math conversations in my online classroom, and Kathy’s sessions highlighted some new tools to make this happen. Here are some of them.

Free and Awesome Math Apps

What’s fabulous about these first three Apps is that they are available for both the computer and the ipad.  And best of all they are free. Play with them and see how they will support math learning in your classroom. Division one students will easily pick up how to use these Apps especially if they are modelled in day to day math discussions.

Number Pieces

Number Frames

Geo boards

Once students have completed an activity with any of these Apps, save their work by taking a screenshot. Not sure how to do this?  To create a screenshot of your iPad display, press the sleep/wake/power button (at the top-right of the device) and the Home button (below the screen) at the same time. There are many ways to to get a screenshot on the computer but one of my go-to tools is Greenshot. It's free and easy to use. Now to use these images to create a math movie.

Tools for Math Movies

ScreenChomp, Show Me, and Explain Everything are the tools that some of my students have used to create math videos. All of these are for the iPad, a tool which I know not everyone has in their classroom.

Young children can be challenged to speak and draw on the screen at the same time.When a student is using these applications - add all the images and the on screen drawings before creating the recording. Once everything is in place, students can press record and explain their thinking.   

ScreenChomp  Here is a short video explaining ScreenChomp. If you want to know more about this App check fellow blogger David Salmon's Post: Unleash Your Student's Knowledge with ScreenChomp.

Show Me - Getting ready to create a Show Me

Explain Everything  

Explain Everything is a tool with lots of options but not one that young students could easily use independently. The videos that my students have created with Explain Everything have been done with the one on one support of an adult.  

Inserting videos in a Google Form

I plan to have my students use these tools to demonstrate their understanding of math concepts by creating their own math videos. The next step will be to get them sharing their videos with others and having other students respond to the videos.

There are many ways to share our Math Movies. Check the recent Div1 Edtech post on blogs. However I want to try something new. I've discovered that you can now insert a video in a Google form. I am interested in giving it a try. In my online classroom I would post a video in a Google Form and use that as one way to capture student responses. Although the creator of the video would not see the responses I would gain insight into student thinking.

A Powerful Practice for Learning and for Assessment

Whether your students are in a classroom together or scattered across the globe imagine the power of students creating recordings of their math thinking and sharing their videos with others in a variety of ways. My goal is to have all of my students creating recordings and responding to each other as we continue to collaborate and grow in our math learning. I use simple sentence starters to guide students as they give responses:
'I heard you say...', 'When you said... I thought....', 'Did you try...? 'Can you tell me more about...', ' I learned ....', Now I understand...'.

When it comes to assessment, these math videos give me one more opportunity to listen to student voices and guide them in the next steps for learning. As students think, process, clarify, reflect, respond and rephrase there will be a lot of great learning happening. And that makes me happy!

Reflections On: Connected From The Start PART 2: Blogging

Connected From the Start

At this year's Greater Edmonton Teachers' Convention I went to see Kathy Cassidy's session called "Connected From the Start" which is also the name of her book, which covers the same topics. 

Like many teachers who use technology in class, Kathy uses a wide variety of technology devices and applications. It is important to note that her classroom has one-to-one iPads. Her session had three main sections: Skype, Blogging and Twitter. I am going to review each section in a separate blog post.

Part Two: Blogging

Like Kathy, I have blogged with my students for a number of years. Unlike her, I have used laptops, netbooks and Chromebooks, not iPads. I do not have one-to-one access but I do have regular access to technology.

Kathy's top choices for student blogs are: Edublogs, Kidblog and Easyblog. All have a financial cost to someone. I liked how she reminded participants that storage costs money and that is what you pay for.   

EduBlogs

She blogs with her students (using iPads) on the Edublog platform which uses Wordpress.  She pointed out that Wordpress can be somewhat cumbersome to someone new to blogging. It is also important to note that the free account does not have Student & Class Management options. The "Pro" account costs $39.95 USD a year. 

Kidblog

I have used Kidblog over the past two years. Last year I used a free account, but that option is no longer available. They do have a one month free trial. The "Premium" account costs $36 USD year. Kathy felt the Kidblog platform is less complicated than the Wordpress-based EduBlogs platform. Div1 Edtech in EPSB posts on blogging:

• A Spring Blogging Activity With Kidglog
• Jump In and See What Happens!
• KidBlog: A Review (based on the now obsolete free version)
• Concrete Graphs, Photos and A Blog Post
• This is the blog post that doesn't end. Yes, it goes on and on my friend.

EasyBlog

Kathy also demoed EasyBlog which is available for iPads only. It is VERY slick! If you wanted to start blogging with students as young as kindergarten, then this is the platform to do it (if you have iPads)! There is no cost to teachers but all the data is lost at the end of each year (unlike EduBlogs or KidBlog). Parents can choose to purchase the data at the end of the year. If you want to do blogging in primary classroom with only one iPad Easyblog makes it... easy.

Other Blogging Platforms

Kathy mentioned ePals as another blogging platform teachers could try. That's how I cut my teeth on connecting my classroom globally and blogging with students almost a decade ago. I moved away from ePals when EPSB moved to GAFE. Since I have used it, ePals has been taken over by Cricket Media.There is no cost to ePals.

I often get emails asking for suggestions for free blogging platforms that are suitable for younger students. I usually suggest Blogger as we have it as a part of our GAFE suite in EPSB. I do not find Blogger the best choice for teachers wanting to start blogging with younger students but it is the best FREE option I can suggest. However, Seesaw has just launched a blogging platform that is available for use on iPads and Android tablets as well as via the web (from what I can tell). I have only done some preliminary research but I believe it is free. Check out Richard Byrne's blog post for more information. 

Parent Permission

Kathy shared that her division uses a form that informs parents and requests their consent for students working online. She also brings parents in to her grade one class and shows parents examples of what she wants to do with student work online. As a result, she has not had parents who have not provided consent. 

She uses blogging as well as Skype and Twitter as a way to show younger students how to be on-line and show what you learn. She does post pictures of students but she never links a student's name to their image. She reminds students and parents not to use full names (so no last names) when blogging. She will even delete parent comments* when the parent uses a full name/last name in connection with a student. (*The class will read the comment as a class and discuss why it has to be deleted. Then she contacts the parent and explains that is was shared in class and gently reminds them to not use identifying names when commenting in the future).

She provided some good options for those families who are concerned about their child's work being public. You could provide that child with a pseudonym and/or never post that child's image. This became a bit of a discussion during the session. 

I shared that one workaround I have used is that I have a form specific for my classroom when parents have been uncomfortable with signing the EPSB FOIP form. I explain to parents in person or via email that without the FOIP form signed their children will sit off camera for Google Hangouts as I cannot always control if the teacher on the other end will take pictures or video. Parents can provide specific written permission for allowing their child on screen for Google Hangouts. As well, I let them know their child will only be able to post to connections or classmates for Kidblog unless they provide written permission. 

Honouring Student Work

As someone who has blogged with students for a number of years I found this section of her talk reaffirming (which is sometimes as useful as learning new things). That said, when she shared one of her students blog posts (excuse the blurry photo) I was forced to stop and reflect on my practice. 

She had honoured the student's writing by letting the student's errors be posted as is but she added clarification for the audience in brackets. I have a tendency to require more "publish" ready posts. 

I think there is a fine line (and I do not think I have found it yet) when it comes to blogging, especially with younger students. I believe publishing work (of any kind) to the 'public' requires a certain set of standards that we do want to establish. At the same time, we do not want students to be so controlled by "perfect" writing expectations that we stifle their desire to write. Thanks for the food for thought, Kathy.

Reflections On: Connected From The Start PART 1: "Skype"

Connected From the Start

When I started using Google Apps For Education in the classroom, there were very few lower elementary educators who were sharing what they were doing with technology in the classroom. There were even fewer K-3 Canadian educators sharing. Kathy Cassidy was one of the few exceptions. So I was excited to have a chance to see this trailblazer at the 90th Annual Greater Edmonton Teachers' Convention. I went to see her session called "Connected From the Start" which is also the name of her book which covers the same topics.

It IS All Connected

Like many teachers who use technology in class, Kathy uses a wide variety of technology devices and applications. Her classroom has one-to-one iPads. Her session had three main sections: Skype, Blogging and Twitter. I am going to review each section in a separate blog post.

However, I want to add a caveat to blogging about these topics separately. The magic in what Kathy (and other educators like her) does is that she does not just do ONE of these in her class, she does ALL of them and more. That's where the magic happens. Students are not simply bloggers, tweeters or Skypers, instead they see themselves as connected to the world throughout the day, across the curriculum. I know that can seem daunting to someone who has not tried any of these tools. However, I think people who only try one platform or only do blogging for one assignment will not be able to appreciate or experience the magic that happens when you open your classroom up to the world in multiple ways and vice versa. 

Part One: Skype (Google Hangout)

For those of us in EPSB, I would suggest using Google Hangouts rather than Skype (both are video chat platforms). However, the program used is not what is important here. It is how and why video conferencing is used in the elementary classroom (based on Kathy's presentation):

• Can't get an expert to come in class? Have them Skype in: Nurse? Geologist?
• Buddy reading  
• Mystery Skype (she did not recommend this for grade one)
• Mystery Number Skype
• Skype an Author

How To Connect With Others?

Kathy recommends checking Skype for Educators to find other teachers/classes/experts to connect with via Skype. She also encouraged people to use the Twitter hashtag #mysterySkype and Connected Classrooms community on Google+.

 

My Reflections

As I began to write this blog post I realized that we have not blogged here at Div1Edtech about Google Hangouts yet. I have used Google Hangouts a number of times. I find it an excellent, yet fairly simple way to make learning relevant for students. It is great of any age, any grade. Going to Kathy's session reminded me to pursue more opportunities for Hangouts this year. 

• Can't get an expert to come in class? Have them Skype in: Nurse? Geologist? This is sometimes easier said than done. However start with people you know. Kathy mentioned she uses her sister, a nurse. I will say that this is when being a "connected" educator comes in handy. It is amazing how many opportunities you can create for you class because of your Twitter or Google+ PLN. Note, developing these connections does not happen over night.

• Buddy reading. I love this idea! I think students would find it motivating. I have already lined up Mr. Reilly for a test run! Look for a blog post about how it goes. 

• Mystery Skype (she did not recommend this for grade one). As someone who has never taught grade one, I appreciate her opinion about grade ones' readiness for Mystery Skype. I have done it in grade two, and with guidance and structure, it is a worthwhile social studies activity.

• Mystery Number Skype. See her blog post Mystery Number Skype: Even A Six Year Old Can Do It for more ideas. 

• Skype an Author. Kathy shared a website: Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs (for free!). She mentioned that usually the authors can only Skype for ten minutes or so. I cannot wait to make use of this information!

Activity Review: Acrostic Poems (Read, Write, Think)

Acrostic Poem Generator Review

I really like Read, Write, Think's Acrostic Poem Generator. It is not 100% ideal for grade two but its positives out way the hurdles. 

Used As A Centre In Grade Two

We had been doing a focus on poetry in class. Students had done guided collaborative acrostic poems using Google Drawings. I wanted to move acrostic writing so that it could be an independent centre during literacy centres. Here is my mini-lead-up lesson:

1. Open Read Write Think's Acrostic Poem Generator on the Smartboard. Click "see answer" to the question What is an Acrostic Poem? and read the answer together. (I have a class website so I put the link to the activity there).
2. I told my students they would have a choice between two words: valentines and heart (can you tell we did this at the beginning of February?)
3. We reviewed they only put their first name on activities on the internet when the prompt for "your name" comes up.
4. Together we brainstormed eight keywords/ideas for Valentine's Day.
5. Then I showed the students my favourite feature - when you mouse over any of the letters in the title/topic of your acrostic, the program provides hint words.
6. Using the hint words and our brainstorm words (which are visible while you write the acrostic, too) we wrote a poem.
7. When we were finished, I modelled how to save it. 

Hiccups

During the first week of centres a few hiccups arose in my students ability to do this independently.

1. As they did not do their centres on the same day we did the model lesson, their braintorm list was full of spelling errors and therefore so were their poems. More importantly, however, my struggling students spent A LOT of time on the brainstorm part of the activity.
2. Saved final copies are PDF. Saved incomplete copies allow students to open and continue to work on their project. How is this a problem? Well, I noticed one student spelled their topic word HAERT and another spelled it HEEART (despite having the words on my website and on the whiteboard). However, we could not edit them as they had saved their poems as PDFs there were no working files saved to allow for editing.

Week Two Of Centres AKA Modifications

I do not believe in one-offs for most activities. I think its ideal to have students do an activity a number of times. Therefore, I wanted to add this acrostic activity in my centre rotation. To do so, however, I needed to make some changes. 

I followed much the same lesson plan as I did the first time I introduced the centre. I did another model lesson.

1. Open Read Write Think's Acrostic Poem Generator on the Smartboard.
2. I told them they would have a choice between two words: love and hockey.
3. We reviewed they only put their first name on activities on the internet when the prompt for "your name" comes up.

1. Together we brainstormed  keywords/ideas for hockey on chart paper. We did the same for love. These charts were then posted during centre time each day for students to reference. 
2. Then I reviewed the students my favourite feature - when you mouse over any of the letters in the title/topic of your acrostic, the program provides suggestions for words.
3. Using the hint words and our brainstorm words (which are visible while you write the acrostic, too) we wrote a hockey poem. 
   
4. When we were finished, I modelled how to save it as a RWT file only.  Students were told not to save it as a final copy.
   
5. All these steps and hints were written on chart paper and  then posted during centre time each day for students to reference.

Printing

During the second week, I had students who were finished their final copy, leave their Chromebooks logged on for me at lunch. I opened up their file (you have to go to the Acrostic Generator and open it from there) and saved it as a final and emailed it to myself. For those poems that needed edits, I had student make corrections at another time before I emailed the poems to myself. As most of the edits were minor, this was easy to do during class. Once I had all the PDFs, I simply printed them from my computer.

Pear Deck In Grade Two

Pear Deck

What is Pear Deck? In a nutshell: it takes slides, makes them interactive and gathers student responses in a visual way.

It should be noted that not all the "cool things" mentioned in the video are a part of a free account.

How I Used It: Social Studies

My first degree was in Classics with a minor in Anthropology. Despite a love of all things social studies myself, it can be a challenge to foster that love in students at times. I like to think I do a pretty good job of making social studies interesting and engaging. However, sometimes we just have to do some dry reading to learn. 

So this week in my class, it was time to learn about work done in Nunavut (natural resources, goods, services and so on). In the past I have had students create a Google Presentation as we read. However, we have done a lot of Google Presentations this year, so I was looking to switch it up. Plus, I want them to do a Presentation for their final product for this part of the unit.

I heard about Pear Deck about a year ago but have not tried in class yet. I was looking for something that would engage the students as we read and this program seemed to fit the bill.

Creating A Pear Deck (Free Account)

Creating a "deck" is creating simple slides, much like a PowerPoint or Google Presentation. Each slide has a place for you to write a question at the top. You can chose for students to answer with short answer text, with numbers, with multiple choice or in a paragraph.

You can add images, text boxes, videos or lists to your slide. I chose to scan and upload the pages from the textbook we'd be reading. 

It was simple and easy to use.

Use In Class

Traditionally I may have taught this type of lesson by having students do choral/shared reading as a class and then have a discussion after each paragraph. With Pear Deck, students did not have to put their hands up and wait to be called upon. All students could respond to the questions I asked about what we read.

Students had to log on to Pear Deck. It logs them in via their Google account. The first time they log in they will have to "allow" access. Then you provide them a code to access your presentation. This remains at the bottom of the projected display for those students who accidently close the tab and need to log back in.

While we were reading I kept the "show student responses" option off. Once we finished reading the passage, I turned it on and students began to answer. Their responses then showed up on the Smartboard. What I liked is that the answers showed up immediately and that motivated students to look for answers. What I did not like is that it would only show about three at a time and then you'd have to scroll to see newer answers. Not a big deal but it'd be nice if Pear Deck could make more effective use of the display real estate for that function. 

Students could submit a second (or even third) answer. Their first answer would show up as crossed out on the display and their second answer would show up above it. You are also informed of how many students have responded.

When the teacher navigates to the next slide the students' screen automatically change as well. 

Viewing Responses

While you are using the presentation, you can see how many students have responded. However, you cannot see who has typed what answer in the free version. 

After you have ended a session you CAN export responses. This provides you with a spreadsheet of what each student answered for each question (as they are logged in via Google, their usernames are attached to their answers). However if they changed their answer during the activity, it will only show their final answer.

Thoughts

I used the quick question function at the end of the activity. This is where you can add a question on the fly. I used a yes/no question and asked if students wanted to use Pear Deck again and 100% said yes.

It will be interesting to see if the novelty wears off, but my first experience was very positive. I can definitely see the appeal of getting a full subscription, but for use in grade two, I think the free version is sufficient. 

Be Proactive! Teach Your Students How To Problem Solve Technology Issues.

Create Independence 

One of the biggest roadblocks with using technology with students are the technology problems you encounter. Dealing with technology problems can be what the teacher spends time doing instead of working with students on academics. It can also be what deters people from using technology in the division one classroom. 

One way to help mitigate this issue is to teach students how to problem solve technology issues. It also helps teach them an important life skill - confidence with how to troubleshoot technology problems. 

Disclaimer

Like much of my teaching, many of these ideas are ones I learned from other educators and adapted for my own use. 

Whole Class Instruction 

Turn It Off And On Again

Sometimes when a piece of technology is not working the fastest and most effective way to problem solve is to turn it off and then on again. This used to be a hassle with desktop computers and laptops, however if you are using a Chromebook, it does not take that long. If you are using a device that has a variety of browsers, sometimes changing what browser you are using will help. Simply closing the browser and opening it again can also help. These are simple steps students should learn to do independently.

Two Before Me/Three Before Me 

When I am doing a whole class activity, I teach my students early in the year to ask others for help before me. I teach them they need to ask two people before asking me for help. I shorten it to "Two Before Me" when reminding students of the expectation. I have also seen "Three Before Me" for those who like rhyming rules. 

Encouraging students to seek peer assistance is useful for many reasons. It helps eliminate dealing with small issues that often result from students not attending to instructions. "What page are we on?", "What do I do next?", "How do I get to that website?". I use it throughout the day, but it is especially helpful when technology is used.  It also helps to create an environment of  collaboration and that "we are all in this together".

Hands Off The Keyboard!

The danger of having students getting help from their peers is often their peers DO instead of help. While this might help solve the issue at hand, it often does not assist the student who needed help in developing independence. So I inform students that when they are helping someone, only the person who is getting help can use the Chromebook. "You can help but you can't do it for them".  

Experts 

Often you will have a few students who are your technology experts in class. Why not explicitly identify them? When we are doing a technology task, especially if it is new, I will ask if any students feel they are able to help others. Who are the experts? I put the word "experts" on the board and have students sign up underneath. Students who are experts have to be willing to help others and be interrupted. I leave the list "open" and students who feel they understand enough to be an expert as the activity progresses can add their name. 

Sometimes I will pull a small group aside and train experts for activities that students will not have had experience with. I have seen some classrooms where these experts are permanently posted. 

Centres 

As a division one teacher, I use centres a lot. Anyone who has used centres knows that in order for them to be effective, students need to be independent. Using technology can enhance and complicate centres. The more variety of technology in your class, the more challenging this becomes. But not impossible.

Posters and Explicit Instructions 

I teach my students that when I am working with a group at centre time, I am not to be interrupted unless it is an emergency (the 3 Bs: bathroom, bleeding, barfing). A technology problem is not an emergency. So when I introduce a new centre, in addition to teaching the centre, I create a poster to remind students of the expectations for the centre. It also includes problem solving steps if the centre involves technology. If it is just one person's technology that is not working? Well, they could share with someone else. If no one's technology is working then they can read a book, use whiteboards to practice spelling and so on, depending on the main intent of the centre. It's a good idea to review the poster (expectations/problem solving) over the course of the year. 

Splitters 

As mentioned above, I tell students that if their computers/tablet/whatever will not work, that they should share with someone else. This was difficult to do when headphones are used. Students can share a device without headphones, but then the sound is distracting to others. So I had an "a ha" moment when I was shopping one day. Splitters. They are inexpensive and make sharing easier. They work with computers and tablets.

Your Tips and Tricks?

Please leave your tips and tricks in the comments. 

I Co-Taught... With Myself!

A Little Bit Of Background

A few years ago I started making short math videos and uploading them to YouTube. The point of these were three-fold. First of all, I used them as sets to my lessons. I was able to use school manipulatives, and Alberta curriculum terms to tailor the video to my students' needs. Second of all, by having the sets as a video, I was able to provide students with opportunities to review the material if they wanted or needed to. Finally, I was able to share these videos with parents to help them better understand what math looks like in the grade two classroom of today.

Then last year I was in need of more differentiation in my literacy centres (long story, see this post) so I started creating making words videos. This year I decided to introduce this centre earlier in the year. As a result, I created a new video that would be the model for the centre. I like to teach whole class lessons and do whole class practising of centres to build independence when possible.

The Ah-Ha Moment

The majority of my teacher made videos have been short or made for students to use independently. This was the first time that I had a longer instructional video playing for a whole class activity. The video was a recording of what I would normally be modelling on the Smartboard for the Making Words lesson. This freed me up to walk around, observe, intervene and praise more frequently and effectively than if I had been doing the lesson "live". I basically was co-teaching, with myself. It was great and I believe it could be a very powerful strategy if used thoughfully. 

Now I just need to find some time to make more videos!