Schools Closed, Educators Connect

For my fellow Chicagoland friends, you have felt the frustration with the Snow & Cold days we've had this winter...

Apple Academy February 2013 Graduates

Berwyn South School District 100 hosts site visits every few weeks, and we had an exciting visit planned for Noblesville School District in Indiana today. I was particularly excited for this visit, because my fellow Apple Academy graduate +Andrew Swickheimer and I recently reconnected via Twitter to talk about our upcoming conferences we are planning, iEngage-Berwyn and iPadpalooza Indiana. Andy was hoping to bring his amazing 5th grade iPad pilot team out to some Apple Distinguished Schools/Programs in IL. So, they packed their bags and took the 4 hour trip to the Chicago Suburbs. They visited Gurnee School District 56 and Aptakisic School District yesterday; then they ventured closer to Berwyn and got a hotel room so they were close for their Berwyn visit today. At 6:00 last night I received the dreaded text... "School is closed tomorrow due to the extreme temperatures."

Nooooo.... I wanted to yell, we have a site visit! Hiawatha Elementary and Heritage Middle School were ready to host visitors and our IN group was already HERE! We thought quickly on our feet, and tried to get a small Berwyn group to join the Nobelsville team for at least an hour discussion since they drove all this way. Several texts and a few phone calls later, Superintendent Dr. Stan Fields, Instructional Coach +Jordan Garrett, Principal +Marilyn McManus and 4th grade teacher +Christina Betz committed to meeting, even though school was closed.

Before we could get through the introductions, we realized we were ALL on Twitter... Seconds later a Today's Meet was started to share our Twitter handles and other links we talked about during the discussions. (What like-minded educators!) We focused the conversations around the 5 categories of an Apple Distinguished Program- Visionary Leadership, Innovative Teaching and Learning, Compelling Evidence of Success, Ongoing Professional Learning, and Flexible Learning Environment. Teachers and coaches from both districts scurried down notes and kept asking, "Wait, what app was that? Oh, we're doing that too. My students are Appsmashing... we use Blendspace to help differentiate our classroom learning outcomes..."

An hour later, we wrapped up the discussion... everyone stood up and started chatting even more! What conferences are you going to next? What did you learn on your other site visits? How are you integrating instructional coaches? It was "district to district love at first site." (Ha, it's still February!)

Instructional Coaches from Nobelsville, IN and
Berwyn South, IL sharing ideas

The point that I'm trying to make is that no matter where we are located, or what our demographics look like (Nobelsville & Berwyn South couldn't be more different on paper), we are all in this teaching and learning world together. We are all trying to integrate the technology into our curriculums, differentiate our teaching, meet the needs of our students, engage our school communities, offer time for professional learning, mold our teaching to match the standards, etc. Let's do this together, let's connect, let's share. Whether you crawl out of your home on a -30 day, attend a conference, or connect with your PLN virtually, continue to learn from each other because your students, OUR students everywhere deserve it.
 

Nobelsville, IN & Berwyn South, IL teachers, coaches, and
admins connect on one of the coldest days this year

Blendspace & Math in a 1:1 Classroom

I observed an above the line math lesson with Ms. F, 5th grade teacher, this morning. I WISH every student in the world could experience this learning environment. Engagement was 100%, technology was being used to ENHANCE the learning, and the teacher was acting as a facilitator or a coach guiding students through the learning.

I walked in the room with students working quietly at their tables, eying up and down between the laptop screen and a dry erase board or spiral notebook. During the observation I noticed the following resources in use: Envision Math Quizes, Keynote, Photo Booth, iMovie, Khan Academy, IXL, and Blendspace. Students were learning about Order of Operations. The goals of the lesson were to understand how to use a variable in an equation and to solve an equation using order of operations.

Blendspace is a website where the teacher posts all his/her resources into one place with directions included as they move about at their own pace. Students login with their student Google Apps account. As the 5th graders watched the Order of Operations Khan Academy video, they were commenting within Blendspace. (All comments were MATH related, see picture.)

There were 15 activities included in the Blendspace. One of the activities included students working through practice problems in a Keynote Ms. F created (goal 2). Students worked a problem on their dry erase board or notebook, took a picture of their work using Photo Booth, and added the picture into the Keynote. A student told me they will turn in the Keynote (via eChalk) to their teacher when their done, and Ms. F will correct it/provide feedback.

Another activity within the Blendspace was for students to record themselves in iMovie walking through a problem with variables. Students had to explain their steps in answering the problem using Order of Operations. This explaining piece demonstrates the student's work flow and forces them to talk though the problem. 

Ms F. spent a lot of time curating all her resources in Blendspace, but as the students work at their own pace, she is using her time to help her students. She's not taking ANY time to talk about the directions, how or where to turn something in, etc. She's not explaining Order of Operations again and again to the whole class. Students have taken learning into their own hands in 5F. They are being accountable for their work, and they LOVE learning math this way. I'd like to close by saying Ms. F is in her 1st year teaching; she is AMAZING and as her mentor, I'm so proud of her. Oh, and one more thing. Ms. F learned about Blendspace from a D100 4th grade teacher, Mrs. S on our iLearn Institute Day 2 weeks ago!