Simplify!

I am in the process of updating my online presence and have realized that I have little bits of my work posted in many different locations. Over the next few days, I will be relocating all of that information to this page. I will be including the original posted dates, so I am hoping that it doesn't update all my social media feeds each time I repost- but if it does, enjoy reading!

Assessment

The final course for the Ed Tech Team Online Teacher Leader Certificate was assessment. I am also about to embark on a semester course for my master's degree that it all about curriculum and assessment. Because I am pretty much addicted to learning, my puppy, Loki, and I spent about 6 hours yesterday virtually attending a "pd in your pjs" webinar event provided by Simple K12. When I first registered for the event, it hadn't really sunk in that 6 webinar sessions would be a lot on the last weekend before school started. I decided to go ahead and check it out as the sessions were designed around Chromebooks. Our school just adopted Chromebooks for grades 4-8. While I didn't gain much insight on the function and usability of the device, there were several guest presenters who shared a plethora of great digital assessment tools that I can't wait to try.

Authentic assessment is a very important concept for me and I am happy to be working at a school

that values that same philosophy. We are required to give the state and district accountability and growth assessments, but all other assessments are encouraged to help students develop the skills needed to become problem solvers and having a growth mindset. I feel it is important to connect all learning and assessment to real-world applications to ensure that the students truly have the skills and/or knowledge of the concept. It is also important to connect the learning to the outside world because if all my teaching happens from a book, when I put that book back on the shelf, all the learning sits on the shelf on with the book.

In the course, we were directed to explore add-ons and other formative assessment tools. Our school just purchased a Mastery Connect license which is connects with Socrative so I thought I’d give that tool a try. It was very easy to take a quiz from my math curriculum program and import the quiz. I did, however, struggle a bit with writing the math expressions in the spreadsheet. I will have to

explore more in the aspect of importing quizzes with images where I can use the g(Math) for Sheets add-on. I don’t have students yet, but I took the quiz a couple times so I could see what it looks like from the student side, as well as what it looks like live on the teacher side as data is populating live. I will also need to practice the grading options for open-ended questions. As I experimented with the tool, Socrative may not be the best tool for an open-ended math assessment that has one correct answer that isn’t a multiple choice response. Using a form quiz would probably be a better option for that type of assessment. I used the add-on g(Math) for Forms to create the mathematical equations for quiz. I could’ve used the asterisk for the dot in the multiplication problem, but it is important for students to see the math symbols that will actually occur on the high stakes assessments. I also tried Flubaroo for the first time. I had heard much about it, but had never actually used it. Looking for ways that I can use this in addition to Mastery Connect without duplicating my efforts.

I agree with Kohn’s (2014) confusion about “the number of educators who are adamantly opposed to standardized testing yet raise no objection to other practices that share important features with such testing... Here we find the same top-down control and one-size-fits-all mentality that animate standardized testing.” Formative assessment is so critical to really know where my students are in

their learning of concepts. In past, I have taken my students assertions that they “get it” at face value because of the amount of effort it takes to collect paper/pencil documentation of their understanding. I frequently used a hand signal (1-5 or thumbs up/down) to gain a quick check on where students felt they were with the concept. But now, technology makes it easy, efficient and engaging to assess students quickly to gain an affirmation that they have the skills needed to move on in the lesson.

Last year, I used Plickers and Kahoot on a pretty regular basis and the students absolutely loved those games. Plickers takes a little more time with a larger group of students unless they are grouped together in close proximity to me. Kahoot was definitely best for pre-assessing background knowledge and for reviews. Often the students would just click responses to be the fastest in hopes that it was the correct answer. It was also best used at the end of a class period because it was sometimes a challenge to get back on track after the fun. In addition to the tools available with Socrative and Mastery Connect, some other tools I am looking forward to working with this upcoming year are NearPod, Pear Deck, Tally and Roll & Reflect with QR code dice. My goal this year is to know exactly where my students are before we take the final unit tests. In a school that focuses on differentiation, I hope to use some of these digital tools to increase my efficiency of knowing where students are to better meet their needs and drive my instruction.

 Kohn, A. (2014). Why the Best Teachers Don’t Give Tests. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 August 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alfie-kohn/why-the-best-teachers-don_b_6077466.html

Flipped Learning

Flipped learning is becoming more and more prevalent in the education world. Knewton has created a fabulous infographic to describe the main components of flipped learning. Click here to view the infographic Flipped Learning: Turning Traditional Education on its Head

In my classroom, I have begun to experiment with the idea of flipped learning. While not all of my students have access to the internet at home, we are a 1-1 school so each student has a laptop assigned to them. This year we are moving to Chromebooks which will add another layer of learning to my teacher toolbox, but we have been using Google Apps for Education for about two years so I don’t feel like there will be too many significant changes on that front.

I flipped a significant amount of my lessons last year in both math and science and I am looking forward to applying the strategies I’ve been learning through the EdTechTeam Online courses to improve the practice. For the most part, I saw students who were more engaged and active as learners in the classroom. Flipping lessons also allowed me to differentiate for the diverse learning styles and levels that come with a multi-age, inclusion model school.

Flipping lessons didn’t only benefit my students. I gained energy and excitement to create the fun lessons I’d dreamed about creating in college, but had those dreams squashed by curricular prisons and drill and kill methods. Moving schools empowered me to take risks with my teaching and move through the teachable moments, even if it wasn’t covered in the textbook or a topic on the state assessment. Flipping lessons allows me to work smarter and more creative in my lesson planning which not only keeps my students engaged, I stay motivated and energized in an often soul crushing career.

One of the things my students will be doing when school starts in the fall is creating blogs to share their research. There are a lot of articles about whether student blogs should be public or highly moderated by the teacher. I attended a session at Google Apps for Education (GAFE) Summit last year and the facilitator had a great perspective about teaching students how to be digital citizens and how to react to negative comments online. I think it is definitely a skill that is lacking in modern world of social media and the number of people who hide behind a screen to flame others. I go back and forth and know it will be a point of conversation for my staff and maybe the district about the topic, but for now, I believe the students' blogs should be public. Click here to view the lesson plan document for a flipped lesson.

Project Based Learning

The school where I teach utilizes Project Based Learning (PBL) as a key component to how we teach. PBL is about the journey and the process and less focused on the actual product. Students have an opportunity to drive their learning using curiosity and interest in the subjects. The process allows students freedom to express their knowledge in creative ways and gives underachieving students a chance to excel.

I will again be working with a team of students to create and design a greenhouse for our school. I attacked the opportunity last year with force, but I think I need to step back and slow down a little. Here's a PBL unit I've designed to kick-off the year with students where they'll design and build mini biodomes. Students will observe changes and blog about their results and learning. 

PBL: Engineering Biodomes

Welcome!

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. This is a new adventure for me but I look forward to sharing the many adventures I encounter throughout my days as an educator. Please check back in the upcoming weeks.

All my best,
Amanda