#MACUL15

It took me a while to get excited for the 2015 edition of the MACUL Conference last week.

I've been to several during college for psychology (including presenting at two) and another for AmeriCorps last year in Lansing, and I've mostly enjoyed them every time. Conferences seem very relaxed for me--the way learning should be--and are excellent opportunities to meet other individuals who share my passions. MACUL was my first specifically about education, and was an chance to visit my favorite city on earth on a Friday.

However, I wasn't really thinking about it in the days prior; I had lessons to plan and papers to grade and another one to write. I was busy. It didn't really occur to me that I was excited to be there until I arrived.

My favorite part of the conference was the first session I went to called "Ideas for Creative Projects." The gentleman who was presenting was a "tech guy" from a school district in the Upper Peninsula who, thankfully, is not a Packers fan. He had all kinds of humorous quips throughout his presentation that made it engaging enough to sit through, but I was even more impressed with how much he was able to demonstrate in his short hour-long time slot. Whats more, he modeled how to use them and created several project examples on the spot. This guy was great.

My favorite tool he demonstrated was "ThingLink" because it is something I can really envision myself using in a history classroom. It's kind of like having students make an infograph or poster about something, but where you can actually click on parts of the image to take you to different links. He recommended using Soundcloud to create links to voice recordings about the topic. The best part was that it did not take much time at all to use.

This has been such a concern of mine throughout the year having just come from a school where most of the students could not type the amount of text in this post in less than 3 class periods, and often using a finger at a time. How could I trust students to take time messing around with digital projects? Well, ThingLink makes it easy to create the links so students can focus their time on the content rather than the technology. As we have often said in class, the goal is for the tech to be in the background--a seamless vehicle or medium through which students engage with the subject matter.

Other things I really liked at the conference was the Maker Space, which had ideas for hands on learning (including board games), and digital textbook project. Unfortunately, the latter is not fully completed yet, but the creators will be making something for high school this year. The project focuses on highlighting the voices of minorities, and looks very promising as a resource for my future classroom.

It may have taken a while for me to get excited for this conference, but I can't stop thinking about ways to apply what I've learned. I only went to a few sessions, though, so I'm even more excited by the ones I did NOT get to. The sheer number of people at the conference both attending and presenting is really encouraging as a new educator who constantly gets asked why I want to be a teacher or told "good luck" by people I respect and love. Educators who are passionate and willing to learn and improve can do anything. I'm starting to feel ready to become one.

Technology Teach-In

Twitter is my friend. 

I was extremely hesitant of the social network when it went live for the first time several years ago. However, I distinctly remember hearing a news report in which the Twitter creators were interviewed to talk about the upcoming launch. As the reporter (whose name and network now escape me) introduced them, he said that Twitter would revolutionize the internet and news industry. 

I thought that was a load of crap.

However, I was curious and probably getting a little bored of Facebook, so I reluctantly conformed with the bold revelation and signed up for my first Twitter account. Admittedly, it took a while for me to appreciate it; the first users in my circle of friends used it to post status updates similar to those on Facebook. Interaction with others didn't seem very social and the site as a whole just felt kind of dead and useless. Fast-forward several years later and Twitter has, indeed, revolutionized the internet and news industry. Furthermore, it has changed the way humans interact with each other and consume information, making for a more globalized and interdependent society.

That said, a lot of people still abuse the liberties of being able to talk to one another behind the protection of a keyboard. I have struggled with how to use the site in the classroom for this very reason; I simply cannot control all of what students see and say.

But then again, should I?

I believe in free speech as much as the next guy and truly appreciate the power of ideas--especially since I have the privilege of teaching how they have transformed human history. While I certainly think a lot (most?) ideas on the internet are stupid, who am I to censor my students when there are possibilities for learning and for students to engage with classroom material. So, instead, the question becomes whether or not Twitter is a useful platform for students to engage with academic content. Can Twitter's strengths (access to information, organization of ideas, global connectedness, and simplicity of infrastructure) outweigh the danger of students being able to access things we as educators might deem inappropriate?

Considering the biased phrasing above, I hope my answer is transparent.

One idea that I have been wrestling with for how to incorporate Twitter into the classroom involves using it in cooperation with other, more traditionally academic sites to create historical accounts in "real time." In other words, students would create their own primary source materials through their understanding from research.

The idea is still very much a work in progress, but in my head it looks a little something like this:

• The project is ongoing throughout a week-long unit. It does not necessarily need to take up the whole time, or even quite as long. It could be done in a single class period if all of the time was devoted to it.
• Students would begin by gathering information. They could each be assigned a different person from a given historical era (i.e. American Civil Rights) to research.
• The amount of time allotted for research would depend on what the teacher wants to assess. I would create research questions to guide students' searches. The assessment would be students tweeting from the perspective of their designated person to show what that individual might have been thinking and experiencing in "real time." Hence, they would essentially be creating primary sources.
• Students would also interact with one another by tweeting replies, favoriting, and retweeting each other. They could track interactions through the use of hashtags to organize information. This could be made competitive if students had a minimum that they must interact with each other and the person with whom the most people interacted won. I could be persuaded to designate some kind of prize.

Clearly, there are a lot of moving parts including the most basic of factors such as time. If I am to use this lesson for my own educational purposes, I may need to reduce the length and involvement of the project to be able to complete it in a single class period. Still, I think the idea warrants consideration and I am very interested to know what my other teaching interns and colleagues would think about the practicality of doing something like this (or using Twitter in the classroom at all).

#Thanksforreading

I am the Batman

Just Kidding. I'm just a man who loves helping people. What're ya gonna do?

SPEAKING OF helping people, I just read a pretty interesting blog post from and edublogger site called "The Educator's Room". My first impression of this site was that it looked very professional and somewhat similar to a news or essay site like "The Atlantic" (of which I am a big fan). The central feature of the site is a series of rotating headlines from the previous few days. These have different authors depending on the topics, but most that I have browsed have experience either teacher, working with a specific tool, or both. This echoes the "newspaper" feel of the site. There are some ads and graphics on the sidebars, so it hardly even looks like a blog at all. I was obviously pretty impressed.

One of the blog posts I clicked on spoke about the differences between accommodation and modification in teaching. This post stood out to me because of these educational buzzwords; with all the practice we have had lesson planning, I hoped this might glean a little more perspective on ways in which teachers can plan to help students. The author, Teresa, has worked as a caseworker for several years before she became a special education teacher. She also has a son with autism, so she is well versed on both the parent and teaching sides of accommodation and modification. Teresa explains the difference quite succinctly in saying, "Accommodations level the playing field, while modifications change the field you're playing on." In other words, accommodations are slight changes made or additional strategies given to instruction to help specific students' needs. This hit a familiar chord in terms of the word "scaffolding," which we hear quite often in discussions about planning and the like. Accommodations may include using additional tools or aides to make the content more accessible for a given student, but the grading remains the same for all students. In contrast, modifications to instruction may merely help certain students experience the same curriculum but in a different way that suits their needs. This includes changing the vocabulary on assignments, lowering the reading levels of texts, or even changing the criteria by which an assignment is graded. This is a very different type of "scaffold," if I understand it correctly.

Though this blog post was short in length, I appreciated the clarity with which it defined and explained these two terms. It was a refreshing change of writing style compared to the often verbose stylings of some of the authors we are assigned in this program. As I was reading, a few questions came to mind in regards to some of these other pieces. I wrote a comment (first one! hooray!) to ask as much:

"Teresa, Thank you for the post. I am a masters student studying history education at the University of Michigan. In my classes, we talk a lot about scaffolding and differentiating, as you might expect. I was wondering what you think of these terms...How do they compare to "accommodation" and "modification"? Do you frequently use these terms when discussing your practice, and if so, how so? I am just beginning to get more guided and detailed practice planning lessons and assessments. To what extent you consider the accommodations and modifications for individual students when you plan lessons? Thank you!"

I have not heard back from Teresa at the time of original posting. Updates shall follow.

In any case, I hope to learn more about practical ways to scaffold learning (whatever that ends up meaning). It always sounds nice to talk about ways our practice can apply to students of all skills, abilities, dispositions, and backgrounds, but it is far more difficult to actually plan for these differences in advance and intentionally implement elements of practice that allow all students to succeed. In fact, I'm not fully convinced it is always possible--but I keep hoping and trying to learn. So far, the most important piece of successfully scaffolding seems to be getting to know the students and building trust with them so that they continuously give you their best even when your instruction isn't perfect (or perfectly tailored to them).

It would also help if I WAS the Batman. A kid can dream.

Macbook High School

My field placement at Ann Arbor's Skyline High School has been every bit of eye opening to the possibilities of public schooling I forgot existed since graduating from Birmingham's Seaholm High School six years ago. In many ways, the two schools are very similar. However, technology has changed quite a bit in just over half a decade. Having spent the past year in Detroit, at one of the lowest performing schools in the state, Skyline has indeed been quite the contrast and, occasionally, surprise. Not the least of which has been the computer inventory available to all students. I'm told they have some kind of deal with Apple.

When I was in high school, we had to reserve a computer lab weeks in advance or go to the library and share computers with other classmates. I think we may have had a laptop cart, but it obviously was not memorable. Skyline has no fewer than half a dozen carts of 30+ Macbook computers that teachers can sign up for on a Google doc online as late as the day of (if any are still available). My mentor teacher reserves a cart at least once a week for various projects and classroom activities. Today, she has the world history students finishing a PowerPoint presentation about Hinduism and Buddhism, and the US history students are analyzing primary sources and arguing for one side or another in a debate about workers rights in the progressive era.

But wait, there's more!

Skyline also uses Power School to input and display grades and attendance records online. Students and parents frequently check this resource from home, which has already led to several discussions with students pinpointing what they need to improve on and how they can. My mentor teacher also employs a texting service through which she reminds students and parents about upcoming assignments or special notes. All teachers are equipped with overhead projectors and laptops of their own, as well as a high-tech audio system that plays over the overhead speakers. They can reserve an "ELMO" wand that uses a camera to display paper on the LCD projector (my MT uses this often). Students also have access to computer labs and a comprehensive digital library in the media center. The possibilities are seemingly endless to a teaching novice like myself!

The results of my technology investigation were not altogether shocking given the obvious affluence and prestige of the Ann Arbor Public Schools. However, the discussion we had in class on October 2nd was a bit enlightening to just how fortunate Skyline is. I have not too quickly forgotten my own past experiences, but seeing technology used in the classroom is now just commonplace at this point in my placement. Yet the responses of many of my classmates suggest that I am the exception to the rule. Many observed that using technology at their schools, even when available, is simply not practical. This is very unfortunate to hear because many of the tools they described are not cheap. Schools should invest in technology, but with advancements coming every few months (weeks? minutes?) it is often not a practical use of the budget for struggling districts. Maybe Apple would help them out in exchange for some free advertising...

Posted from my Macbook Pro.

Tech Tools Not In Use

While our ED504 class meets only every so often, we have already seen two different presentations on technology tools and their potential applications to the classroom. I am somewhat ashamed to admit, albeit in hindsight, that I did not give these tools a proper consideration before determining they were of no use to me. Maybe it was the result of being in class from 5-8 after a long day of teaching at the end of a long week of being a student and the anticipation of the weekend looming. Perhaps it was that I was missing my beloved Tigers get, though unexpectedly to me at the time, obliterated by the pesky Orioles of Baltimore. I now reflect that, perhaps as my curriculum maps take shape in the future, I will find ways to use these tools. I briefly describe them here.

The first tool that was presented was the website "padlet." My classmates began their presentation with an introductory video that served as a tutorial for using the website. Immediately, I compared the tool to a blog with a lot of fancy bells and whistles. It reminded me somewhat of Blendspace, as well. Teachers can upload materials, links, or use it as a forum for students to post responses. I think that using this tool, instead of others that do similar things, is really dependent on personal preference. If a teacher regularly uses or wants to use these activities and resources in his or her class, then padlet is a fine vehicle for doing so. So far I am simply not one of those teachers. If I want students to respond to a poll, I'll send them a Google Form. If I want them to see some resources, I'll organize them into a slide so that I don't have to reserve technology for them to use themselves. If I want to post links, I'll share a Google Doc with them or make it available on my teacher site. I think that giving students access to something like padlet invites too many opportunities for distraction and inappropriate responses. Padlet, at first glance, was not for me.

The second tool demonstrated by my peers was "audacity." I have some familiarity with the program from my days attempting to become an amateur DJ. That week really flew by, and I haven't used the tool since. I'm assuming a lot has changed with its capabilities and user-friendliness, but my first glance from using the tool in class does not support my assumption. It's interface is still, to me, both busy and boring at the same time. I don't know how else to describe it. I also don't like that I would need to download it on to my computer, which is already pressed for space. But I'm just one guy. Our practice with it was admittedly entertaining, and my classmates raised some excellent points for how it could be used in a classroom. Most interesting to me was the possibility of recording a lesson for students who are absent. An audio file would certainly take up much less space than a video of a lesson, so there is some intrigue to that. I have only ever known teachers to compile a packet of missed work, so that was my own inclination. However, audacity may have its place in that regard. I will keep an open mind.

I don't know whether I will ever find myself in a position where I want to use these tools, but at least I now know they exist. I use technology every day, but my tendencies in the classroom are to put up images and directions on a slide to enhance discussion. I have liked many other uses of technology I have seen used in this program and the class, specifically, and I think it is highly likely I employ some of those. Specifically, many professors have used polls for do-nows and been able to quickly evaluate and discuss the responses. I have really enjoyed these. Maybe I am just a simple man, or perhaps I am resistant to doing things differently than I learned them, but I was not initially persuaded to put these other tech tools to use.

"Wait, People Gonna SEE This?!"

Recently, Dave Theune spoke to our class about a successful teaching practice he has recently begun using in his classroom to increase student performance. The secret: make them perform. It seems almost too obvious, but the reality is that most student performance is measured by a rather unconventional type of "performance", in which the only audience is the teacher or machine that judges the answers. This hardly necessitates the students perform anything. Theune is part english teacher, part drama teacher, so the idea came quite naturally to him. In recent years, he has invited parents to come into the classroom and witness their children demonstrate what they have learned. The response, he says, has been overwhelmingly positive.

On the surface, there are some concerns with introducing a perhaps "less academic" type of performance into the classroom. Teachers have been using papers and tests for years, seemingly for a reason. But one of Theune's secret is that he still uses those type of "traditional" academic assessment. He distinguishes his practice by merely creating a tangible audience to whom the student must present their work. For example, one of the events open to parents is a reading of the students' essays for one of his english classes. It is a simple addition to the practice of writing the paper, but now students know someone else will be hearing what they have to say. Perhaps they value the opinions of their parents more than that of the ominous red pen, but Theune has seen vast improvement in student motivation and quality of work when this element is added.

Shortly after he spoke to our ED504 class, I filmed myself teaching for ED511. After I checked to make sure no students had any objections to being recorded, I started rolling the camera. A group of football players, who rarely seem to prioritize world history and would much rather put their heads on the desk, sits at the front of the classroom. I placed the camera, merely for convenience and sound quality, right in front of them on the teacher's desk. When the camera came on, one student in the group shot up in his seat and immediately asked, "Wait, people gonna SEE this? Like, your professor gonna know what I did today in class?" I stifled a chuckle and replied, "I guess they will. Is that alright?" The student, who's teammates had now also taken an interest in my answer, said, "I just gotta be really good today, then. Can you cut the first part where I had my head down?"

When students have an audience, they want to do well. While my evidence is merely anecdotal, Theune reiterated this claim vehemently. He says he has only had a handful of students in three years of this practice who have chosen NOT to perform (the option is given explicitly to all). Teenagers, if I remember correctly, seem to like attention. It makes sense that my trio of tired jocks volunteered infinitely more answers the day I was filming than they otherwise have (which would be, for maths sake, approximately five to zero). It also makes sense that I have tried to make this blog post a good one because my peers will be reading this (hi, friends). Classroom performance doesn't require a stage or a spotlight, but sometimes students do.

Line?

Practice Makes Perfect

For the "connections across disciplines" assignment, my world history classmates have created a lesson plan that emphasizes the "doing" in learning while simultaneously fostering the construction of knowledge about a relevant topic. The purpose of their lesson, which occurs over two days of class including a homework assignment, was to help students "formulate an opinion." However, this is done in a different language. I was fascinated reading this for two reasons. First, it is extremely in line with much we have learned of the student-centered pedagogical approach, and employs a very constructivist style of teaching and learning. These are the frameworks that I have most appreciated and agreed with throughout this program. Secondly, their use of a student debate around the topic of using technology in the classroom is so unlike anything I would have done as a student in my own high school spanish classes.

Even though I am not still a practicing spanish student or speaker, I can tell that this group put a lot of thought into making their content-specific lesson one that could easily be applied in another classroom like my own. Much that we have read so far for this program has reiterated the need for history teachers to allow students to construct their own analysis and interpretation of an historical event. This same approach is used for the world languages lesson plan. Students are asked to articulate their opinion, which requires knowledge about the topic and the language they are studying. This is far more interesting than students merely receiving information about a topic; here they have to apply what they have learned to their own lives, if only hypothetically.

I also really like this lesson because it is so different from anything I would have been asked to do as a student when I took spanish. In my experience, world language instruction was limited to conjugating verbs and memorizing short topical lists of vocabulary. We rarely did any kind of cultural analysis, which meant that spanish felt all the more foreign. Here, students are exposed to the social and cultural norms that ultimately influence the language they study. 

My classmates were extremely thoughtful in their planning, as evidenced by their narration of the process and the justification of their decisions of what to include in the lesson. I especially like that students have some choice in the articles they read to research the topic. Otherwise, I worry about students with lower levels of comprehension ability being able to contribute and ultimately take away knowledge from this assignment. Obviously this is meant to challenge students at all levels, so that aspect of the lesson is great for making it self-differentiating. They also then allow students to reflect on the process at the end of the debate. This is helpful because students can self-assess where their skills are but, more importantly, how they think about and view the issue behind the debate. Technology is presumably pretty relevant for them so they would hopefully have something useful to say about how it felt having to negotiate their own beliefs with the side of the argument they were given. 

To my classmates: buen trabajo!