Science teachers - I had a moment yesterday at our Campus Leadership meeting as I worked with our Science dept. head.  The 8th grade Science STAAR test has 46 questions based on 6th and 7th grade TEKS and only 14 questions from 8th grade. To help students keep information to review, try student portfolios so they can review their information from years past.  Students can keep work for those TEKS they will need to review.

Technology for First Days of School

Need a new idea to use technology the first days of school? Have students use a QR app to tell about themselves.  They print out the code.  Students walk around scanning each others code to read about their classmates.

Starting School with Technology

About this time every year when I was a teacher in the classroom I began to think about what that first week was going to look like.  How was I going to grab the attention of those students?  How was I going to make sure they understood what was accepted of them as a student in my class? Through the years of teaching, I grew to understand that every set of students that came through my portal was going to be different.  I had to be changing every year.  So if I was still in the classroom today, what might I be  planning for that first week of school?  I would probably want to make "brownie points" by using technology.  Here are some ideas:

1. 1.     .   Creating an avatar through Voki.com to introduce yourself to the students or to introduce the class.
2. 2.         PowToon.com would grab their attention to present your expectations of your class.
3. 3.   .       Create a movie with Movie Maker or another movie Web 2.0 to introduce yourself, give students an introduction to your class and to explain your classroom expectations.  Upload it to YouTube.  Show at the beginning of class.  Encourage your students to share with their parents.  You can then use it to show new students that come after the first day of school.
4. 4.       Polleverywhere.com is a great tool for icebreaker questions.  Your students can text in answers to questions either about how much they know about your subject or their interest.
5. 5.      Kidblog.org to create open communication. What does the student expect to learn from your class?  What do they fear the most about being in your class?

Ideas are endless.  Remember to check out your Symbaloo account or just get out there and search for ideas for Web 2.0 for that first.  Hook them fast and keep them hooked for the school year.

Digital Leadership: Increasing Student Engagement and Enhancing Learning

Digital leadership should be a mindset to transform school culture to prepare students for the real world.  Students want to be creative, collaborate and utilize technology to learn and connect to the world around them.  Using technology will help the students to find more connection and meaning to what they are leaning. For educators, it is a movement toward Education 3.0, a heutagogical approach to teaching and learning.  This approach moves students to be highly autonomous and self-determined. The emphasis is placed on development of learner capacity and capability with the goal of producing learners who are well-prepared for the complexities of today’s workplace.  Bottom line, it creates life-long learners. 

To create life-long learners, students need to have the ability to and be allowed to use the technology tools to apply what they have learned and to construct new knowledge.  The level of use needs to build on the pedagogical framework.  The center of the framework should be the student who is active in the process instead of the teacher being the active member. 

Eric Sheninger’s book reviews a frame work for digital tools in chapter 9. In the Monological Teaching form,the teacher is the expert of the subject.  He/she distributes the information to the student at the level determined to be relevant to the student.  The student learns what the teacher feels is important.  In the Dialogical Teaching form, the teacher chooses the subject matter for the student to work through to define and solve problems.  If the student does not have enough information, the teacher acts as a supervisor to help the student gain the information he/she needs. In Polyphonic Teaching form, the teacher and student jointly selects the subject matter. The idea is that knowledge is created through exchange of ideas and perception of many individuals.  

The use of technology expands the tools available for teachers and students, being able to connect to others around the world, to share ideas and to embrace learning from more than just the teacher. Blended learning is important part to make learning relevant to the students, increasing levels of student engagement, increasing retention and prepare them for the 21^st century. Students should be able to use Skype to connect to others outside the four walls they sit in daily.  Use Twitter hash-tags to share the ideas with others.  Classrooms should mobile learning devices (BYOD) to expand on the tools available for the students. Schools need to seek to move to 1:1 for computers.  Teachers should move to create learner-led environments to seed the life-long learner.

With the on-growth of technology, districts must be pro-active in establishing policies to make the programs a success.  Schools should address digital citizenship programs to guide students through the positives and negatives of the world-wide web.  Districts need to create a strong responsible use policy and insure it is followed.

These ideas will help prepare our students for what employers are looking for as job essentials – creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, global awareness, entrepreneurism along with having technological proficiency and being aware of a positive digital footprint. It will empower the students to take more control of their learning and be responsible for their learning.

Light Bulb: Now the Room is Brighter

Ever had a "light bulb" go off with a thought, wished a person would stop so you could ask questions or wish the instructor would get the move on because you got the "point".  I am sure we have all had those moments as well as our students.  Here is an idea for your classroom:  You will need small solo cups - red, yellow, green and white, a set of each color for your students.  Number the groups of cups (classroom management inventory, helps you keep up with the cups. Assign each student a set of cups to be responsible to take care of).  Each student will have a set at their desk.  You will need to teach the students how to use the cups which could be done by playing some simple games at the beginning of the school year.  You can also put a visual up on the wall to help promote the use of the cups.  Students will start with the green cup on the top of the stack representing they are ready to learn, they understand a concept or they finished with a task.  The yellow cup represents caution - slow down - might need some assistance - going to fast.  The red cup represents "stop", help is needed. The white cup represents "light bulb" just went on - "I know something about this", "I can see clearly now."  Demonstrate the use of the cups by giving the students situations that may occur in class. Example:  When students come into the classroom, they view that you are learning about "Exponents". The student places the green cup on top if he/she feels he has the understanding of exponents, Yellow cup if he is cautious about his knowledge and red if they are totally lost with just the word exponents.  During "bell work time", as they are given a mini-kick-off assignment, the "light bulb" goes off, the cup may change to white or other colors.  Help the students to feel comfortable about using the cups.   If a student has a green cup, allow them to give help to those with red or yellow cups.  If a white cup goes up, let them share what turned the light-bulb on - perhaps their "switch" will turn on other switches.

Classroom ideas are only limited by your imagination.  Any new idea takes time to develop its use.  Once or twice failures does not constitute throwing the idea out the window.  How many times do you think the Wright Bros failed before the plane took flight? How many tries did Eli Whitney do before the cotton gin was successful?  I am sure that after a great trip to a far away place and the cool cotton shirt you have worn over the summer, you are glad they did not give up after a few tries.