A Great Math Tool

Original Post 3/31/14

Ten Marks is a website that allows you to register your whole math class and assign work based on Core Curriculum Content State Standards.  For example I registered my entire math class, aligned with CCSS and each student was given a log-in name and password free.  Once the students are registered the teacher can pick a standard for each student, a small group of students, or the whole class to work on.  I envision giving the whole class the same assignments at first, but once I can see common deficiency areas I envision giving differentiated assignments   The website offers the students both hints as well as videos to help them through problems they are struggling with.  It records their responses and if the students earn enough points they earn a certificate or award that allows them game time.  Now if there were only a web-site like this for reading....

Seven Steps to Increase Student Responsibility and Parent Involvement

Original Post 4/14/13

Learning happens best when the student, teacher, and parent all play important roles in education.  Too often however it seems as though the teacher is playing a role that is too dominant in this process.  Teachers aren't sure how to engage parents more, parents aren't exactly sure what is happening in the classroom, and students don't have enough of a voice in their own learning.  This is my seven step plan to involve parents to so they have the opportunity to be a partner in the learning process and provide students with more of a voice in their own education.


Head Start Day
Planning
Students and parents are invited in to meet the teacher and see the classroom a few days before school starts.  Not every student will be able to attend, but the information will be sent to all via email, snail-mail, etc.  This meeting will be a little like an open house or back to school night, but it will involve both parents and students.  They will be invited into the classroom to hear about how the class will run, gather important information, take home books for the students to begin previewing.  In my class I am planning on providing students and parents with all the math assignments for the year.  As soon as the students go home they can begin learning. (see flipped learning for more information) If you are an administrator, would you consider having this Head Start Day as part of one of the in-service days teachers have before the students report to school?

Back to School Dinner
Planning
This was an idea @Joe_Mazza floated on Twitter and I loved it.  Since we have already had our first meeting, this will serve as a check in and problem solving session.  Students will not be in attendance in case the teacher or parent wanted to discuss a difficult situation involving the student.  Before Back to School Night I will send home information that I would like us to all sit down for dinner at Back to School Night.  I will be making a dish, with the help of my wife, and asking if anyone else would like to bring something as well.  We will keep track of it all using a Google Doc for parents to check in on so we don't have 6 families bringing brownies...although that doesn't sound too bad.  As we sit and eat I plan on having discussion topics posted on the SMART Board which are related to the subjects the students are learning about in school.  If your Back to School Night is an hour, think about how you could divide up that time between subjects.  For example, 20 minutes for Math, 20 for Language Arts, 20 for Science and Social Studies.  The parents would have each other to talk to and use as  resources.  The teacher would rotate from group to group answering questions.  These questions would be much more personal and the hope is that a sense of trust is built not only between the teacher and the parents, but among the the parents themselves.  Often times parents are better at solving problems at home than a teacher is, they walk the walk every day.


Student Led Conferences
Planning
Conferences are now approaching and usually the students are not present.  The teacher and parents sit down and discuss the performance of someone who is not even there.  Can you imagine your boss and your mom sitting down talking about your performance at work and you were not allowed to be there?

Student led conferences or SLC's allow the students to not only attend these meetings but have a voice.  With the help of the teacher, the student defines their strengths and weaknesses, sets SMART goals for themselves, and explains their plan for achieving their goals.  The parent is there to ask questions to the student about their presentation, but the student is the one presenting.  This provides the students with a remarkable sense of responsibility over their learning and will increase their initiative greatly.   This will allow the parents to have a touchstone throughout the year, "Remember when you said you wanted to be able to do X, and Y by the end of the year?  How is that going?"

Barbara Fidler and Jason Krieger from Central Junior High, in Euless, Texas, created this document to help me get started with my planning.


Standards Based Grading
Planning
I am guilty, guilty, guilty of mixing behaviors and performances on  report cards, and they really shouldn't be.  In the past I have counted completing homework as 20% of a grade, quizzes 20%, tests 50% and participation 10%.  How does completing homework equal mastery or understanding of a concept?  So if a student has all their homework done, and participates regularly, but has a 69 test and quiz average they will wind up with a 78, or a C+.  Students aren't really sure of what they know and dont' know, parents aren't really demanding their students improve because they were close to a B after all, and a teacher doesn't feel as though anything drastic has to be done, after all a C is average right?

With Standards Based Grading or SBG teachers would identify and grade the students on their ability to master a standard.  Their behaviors would and should be graded in a different section of the progress report or report card.  Often times behaviors are the reasons why students are not having the success they should be having and the behaviors need to be documented. This will show students  hard work really does pay off.


Flipped Math Instruction
1+ Year
There is too much to discuss when it comes to how to flip your classroom.  If you need some background information you can visit Jon Bergman's Blog, where I wrote a guest post, or see what my colleagues Todd Nesloney, or Delia Bush do in their flipped classroom.  One of the largest benefits as an elementary teacher to flipping one subject, is that parents  can see exactly how a lesson was taught.  A video is posted online and when a student becomes stuck and wants help, the parent can quickly click on the video to gain a sense of understanding to help their student.

It also allows for students to be self paced.  If a student masters a concept, why should he or she be held back with other students who need more time?  In a flipped classroom, if a student demonstrates mastery they are allowed to fly ahead.  I have tried this before in 5th grade and did not have the greatest success because I did not institute a floor.  In math instruction especially you cannot allow students to spend weeks, or months learning one new skill.  At some point they need to move on.  Now that I have the floor intact I have a feeling many in my class will fly.  You can read more about this self-paced plan here.


Window into the Classroom
1 Year
With all the social media today many teachers have found a way to document the learning as it takes place in the classroom.  Teachers are using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flckr, and many more platforms to provide parents with a window into the classroom.  Parents need to see how learning takes place in the classroom, so they are able to continue the conversation at home.  If a parents asks, "What did you do in school today?" The students give very little in response.  But if a parents asks, "I saw you were working on in science today, can you tell me about it?"  The student will talk about it much more about their day.  It provides students with a much better chance to reflect on their own learning.   We created a private Twitter account where I take 3-4 pictures a day, and a picture of the homework board. Parents have been so appreciative to have this opportunity in my class this year.


Innovation Day
Scheduled June 12, 2013
This idea I got from Josh Stumpenhorts (@stumpteacher), Pernille Ripp (@pernilleripp), and Karl Fisch, (@KLS471).   The students are given a whole day to learn about one thing they are passionate about.  From the moment students enter school they are at the center of their own learning.  Students have written songs, learned about lift and created a plane, and even created to scale models of the Sears Tower.  I'm really excited about this idea and can't wait to get started.  You can read Josh's blog about his day here.

By implementing these seven ideas we will begin tearing down the walls that separate the students, teachers, and parents.  We will have a more transparent classroom and learning environment, connecting three major players in a student's education.

Students in the Driver's Seat of a Data Driven Classroom

Original Post 4/24/14

It has been a goal of mine this year to make our classroom more student-centered.  After students complete an assignment we often have a reflective piece called Two Stars and a Wish.  This requires the students to identify two things they did well and one thing they wish they did differently.  The students are great at this now, and reflect often on their own work and the work of their peers.

However, students rarely get to work with data.  Now that so many schools are become data-driven, shouldn't we allow students to have a part in this?  Since it is their data, and they are the drivers, I couldn't believe I had not done this before.  In our class once a week the students answer multiple choice reading comprehension questions and answer one short constructed response or SCR.  As a class we took these two specific assessment pieces and turned a Friday into Data-Day.   Here is how we did it.

Step 1:  Placing Student Work in Chronological Order

Students pulled out a year's worth of work, and placed it in chronological order.  This took longer than expected.  Even though all students were required to keep their work samples in a certain folder, some assignments were missing.  Part of the reason for this is some students did not complete assignments, forgot to hand them in, or students simply lost their work.  

20 Min

Step 2:  Students Record Data

We wanted to incorporate some math skills in this lesson.  Students were responsible for turning all their fraction scores into percents.  For example if they received an 18/20 they turned into 90%.  As the students worked out these problems some of the students said, "So this is how you get a grade."  Students then recorded this information onto one table.

20 Min

Step 3:  MS Excel

With a partner students entered their scores in MS Excel.  They then created a line graph based on that data and printed them out.  We worked with partners, because for 5th graders it is sometimes difficult to remember all the steps need to create a line graph in MS Excel, and when they have a partner students can work together to problems solve.

40 Min

Step 4:  Data Analysis

This was the most important part and not everyone was able to get to this step on Friday.  Once students printed out their graphs, they had to come up with five questions about their data.  At first students wanted to create questions like, "What was my high score? What was the range?  What was my average?"  While I was very happy to see them using math vocabulary words when forming their questions, they were a little off the mark in terms of why we were doing this activity.  We then worked together to create questions that could not be answered by using just the graph they created.  Examples like, "Why did I do so well on March 11?  Why did my score decrease from October to November?" were some examples of the great reflective questions the students created.  

20 Min

Step 5:  Student Responses

Students were given a week to analyze their work samples and to answer the reflective questions they created.    Students will have more time in class to this, but some of this work will be done for homework as well.  The students will be posting the answers to their questions on our kidblog site, an example can be viewed here.  Responses are due by Friday, April 26th.
Homework 1 week

I am hoping through this process students will be able to see the amazing gains they have made throughout the year, will identify areas they are still weak in, and create a plan to correct those areas of weakness.  By taking these steps we are allowing the students to look at their progress over a longer period of time, which I have never given them time to do.  

Connecting

Original Post 5/4/13

Recently, I had posted on Skype in the Classroom, that I was looking to connect my students with students from another country.  Aylin Silig, an educator from Turkey, answered my call.  We were both  excited about our students learning about another culture.

This biggest obstacle we had to overcome was the seven hour time difference.  In order for our classes to connect her students had to stay after school, while my students had to arrive an hour early.  I offered this opportunity to all our students, but I wasn't sure how many students would want to wake up an hour early, especially on a Monday.   In a class of 23 students, 21 climbed out of bed an hour early, on a Monday morning.  I was amazed.  Amazed at how much these students wanted to connect with others from another country, amazed by the parents who found a way to transport their children, amazed that this was actually happening.

Once our Skype was underway we exchanged questions and answers with our Turkish partners, we were so impressed by their ability to ask and answer questions in English.  The students in my class wrote blog posts about this experience, and an example can be found here.  Our classes talked for an hour and we had to stop sooner than we wanted because our school day was starting.  Within a week Aylin, had left comments on all my students' posts, my students were thrilled!

That afternoon I introduced Twitter to other teachers in my school and had set up a Google hangout where other educators from around the world to join us.  I learned about this type of platform by reading this post from Joe Mazza on Connected Principals.  I asked nine amazing educators to come and join us.   I thought if I invited nine I would at least have five join us that day.  I know how busy teahers can be, problems can pop up during the day that need to be dealt with after school, administrators can ask for just a few minutes of time, and working this hangout around family needs can be difficult.  With all that said I was thrilled to have eight connected educators join us.  Kristin Ziemke Fastabend, Adrew Thomasson, Yau-Jau Ku, Sandra Wozniak, Michael, Matera, Jason Bretzmann, and Cheryl Morris all told their story about how Twitter has changed them as educators.  I was honored to have such a respected group of connected educators share their story with my school.

The panel shared how at first, they thought Twitter was just for celebrity gossip, how they collaborate with each other from thousands of miles away, how they are able to learn new concepts 24/7, how Twitter is much more powerful than Google, and much more.  Because this hangout was taking place during a part of a faculty meeting I was not able to have them share their stories for as long as I originally wanted, or have them answer as many questions as I originally had planned.  I am grateful for their flexibility.

For the next few weeks I'll be hosting Twitter Tuesdays in my classroom where teachers can come and ask for help using Twitter.  I have already signed up three teachers while our Physical Education teacher already joined her first twitter chat.

These experiences taught me that we have a desire to connect with others that is stronger and more powerful than I originally thought.  21 fifth graders showed up an hour early on a Monday to connect with other students from a foreign country.  Educators from around the world gave up time from their family, friends and job to share their twitter story.  Not bad for a Monday.

Improving Summer Reading

Original Post 5/9/13

As I can see the finish line for the end of the year, I am beginning to think about summer reading.  In the past I have had some students who read lots of books and are eager to share what they read in the beginning of the year.  As an educator, I never seem to provide students with the platform the should have to take pride in all the work they did during the summer.  This is something I want to improve.  I also have students who do not read very much and one of their reasons is they don't know what books to choose at the library.  I wanted to develop a way to help these students as well.  Here is my three part plan:

Part 1:  Animoto Accounts

Before the last day of school I will set up Animoto accounts for all my new students.  I will not be able to teach them how to make the Animoto book trailers, but I will show them some examples and where they can go to watch how-to videos.  I am hoping this will give students who do read a sense of pride in their work.

Part 2:   Animoto Data-Base

This is the first year I have used Animoto in my classroom.  We do it so I can document a student has actually read a book, and as a way for students to to see if they are interested in a book another 5th-grader recommends.  Now that we seem to have solid collection of book-trailers some of my students are helping me to archive them in a Google Doc that can be seen here.  Now students over the summer can watch book trailers to find a book that might interest them.

Part 3:  Class Blog

Our class blog will be ready to go by the last day of school.  On the blog I will have a calendar with weekly topics for students to write about.  It will also allow students the opportunity to document what they have read, and a place where students can access the book trailer data-base.  I will leave some examples of former student's book trailers, and will allow former students to still access our blog.

Let's hope these changes make a difference in the reading students do over the summer.

Innovation Day, Part 1, the Introduction

Original Post 5/15/13

About a month ago I stumbled across some posts on Twitter by Karl Lindgren-Streicher (@LS_Karl) about Innovation Day.  His students were working on these fantastically original projects and I wanted to learn more.  Innovation Day is a day where the students come to school and for the entire day they learn about one specific topic of their choosing, and then they create a product to demonstrate their learning.  The students are in control of the subject matter, not the teachers.  After reading more about Innovation Day from Josh Stumpenhorst and Pernille Ripp I knew this was something I wanted to do.

Pernille Ripp's Innovation Day

I informed the five other 5th grade classes in my building about Innovation Day and asked if they would like to join my class in this process and every teacher said yes.  I knew I worked with amazing educators, but I was still surprised that everyone in my grade level saw the value in this opportunity.

Next, I went to the specialists in my building (the Physical Education, Art, Music, and Library teachers) to let them know on this day the students would not be coming to see them because they would be doing research and creating projects.  I asked if we could use their rooms for the periods they were not there and again I was met with tremendous enthusiasm.  The Art teacher told me she would set up a station where the students could come in and out to gather supplies, and the Gym teacher said if it was a nice day I could have the entire Gym and he would keep the other classes outside.  Unbelievable support.

We scheduled our Innovation Day for June 11th or 12th, depending on the weather, and I felt the students needed about a month to think about how they are going to spend this day, and to organize themselves.  So yesterday, the 5th-grade met with Karl Lindgren-Streicher and his 9th grade class via Google Hangout.  Over 130 of us gathered in the cafeteria to listen and learn from Karl's class.  His class had already completed their Innovation Day and my class was just beginning this process, so we had some of his students talk to the 5th grade at my school about their experiences.  Karl's students answered four questions:

1) What was your project?
2) How did you choose it?
3) How did you ensure success on Innovation Day?
4) What is something you would do differently?

His students provided many helpful hints to our 5th-Graders and our students were amazed at the work these students from California were able to complete.

After the G+ Hangout I brought my students back tot my room.  I expected tremendous excitement and enthusiasm, like I had received from the other 5th-grade teachers and specialists.  However the room was eerily quiet.  I asked the students what they were thinking and a brave student raised her hand and said she was nervous because she had never been given such an open-ended question.  All the students around the room nodded their heads in agreement.  I began to think about it and I could begin to understand.  My students have been given the opportunity to learn about anything they want, and they are taking this very seriously.  I can't wait to see what they produce.

Innovation Day Part 2, the Set-Up

About a month ago my students were introduced to Innovation Day by Skyping with Karl Lindgren-Streicher.  Without having Karl as a resource and guide, I doubt this day would have been possible for my students.  After that Skype my students were eager to begin planning their Innovation Day projects.   My students then spent the next few days Brainstorming ideas.  They spoke to friends, to family members, former teachers, coaches, and music instructors.  The students were excited about the opportunity to formulate their own project about a topic they were passionate about.  They were required to make at least four different project proposals in the document below and then meet with a teacher to discuss which would be the best fit for them.  The students and teachers discussed materials, time-frames, strengths of the student, and why the topic was considered a passion for them.  We discussed what they expected the final outcome to look like and how they thought they would get there.  This template, again produced by Karl, was helpful for our students to stay organized and on task.

CMS -- Innovation Day Project Brainstorm by fritzky

Once the students had chosen their topic we used the chart below to keep students informed about what they should be doing during the days and weeks before Innovation Day. Because we are at the end of the school year it provided students with a structure that is sometimes lacking at the end of the year.  

Cms Innovation Day Schedule

The students then completed the final proposal document and it was sent home for parents to sign.  We needed to make sure parents were aware of what we were doing for several reasons.  First, we wanted them to further the discussion about what the students are learning.  The students were excited and we wanted the excitement to continue at home.  We also wanted to inform parents about what some students wanted to bring in from home. We tried to keep an open line of communication and we think it worked to our advantage.

CMS Final Project Proposal by fritzky

The day before our actual Innovation Day the students put together a schedule for how they would spend the entire day.  If you look at the document below, we tried to chunk it into 50 minute periods where the students checked in and determined if they were ahead of schedule or behind schedule.  This document also needed to be approved by the teacher.

Innovation Day Schedule by fritzky

Now that the students have prepared a plan, they are ready to start Innovation Day...let's see what happens.

Innovation Day Part 3 --> The Students Arrive

Original Post 7/11/13

The day finally arrived, Innovation Day.  You could feel the energy in the students, they were so excited to get started.  Students quickly divided up into their rooms based on their activities.  We have six 5th grade classrooms for the students to use and we organized them by category.  We had two rooms dedicated to technology.  Things like creating screencasts, coding video games and creating Prezis were in these two rooms. We had another room for larger construction projocts, a collaboration room where students worked together in groups of 2-3, an art room, and a quiet room where students could study and focus.  We had equal numbers of students in each room.

Students went to their rooms and got started.  I was impressed with how much work some students did before Innovation Day on their own.  One student wanted to make a model of the Statue of Liberty and he said he already built it at home once just to make sure he could it and it took him about three hours.  As I talked to him some more I realized he was worried if he would have enough time to research his project as well.  What occurred to me was this student actually gave himself homework.  He was so interested in the subject material, and so driven to be successful he did homework for three hours without a teacher telling him to.  As I walked around to other students I quickly realized he wasn't the only one.  Many students had already done research, drawings, sketches, rough drafts etc to help ensure their success on Innovation Day.

As we reached lunch it appeared most of the students were in good shape, some were a little behind, but with 30 minutes to clean up at the end I knew they could use some of that time to finish their project if they needed to.  After lunch the students got back to their projects but they were so excited about what they heard others had produced in other rooms, students were distracted.  They didn't have the same focus they did at the beginning of the day mostly because they wanted to see each other's work.  They were in awe of each other, and I really can't complain about that.

With about an hour left in the day a frenzy started to set in.  Some students were finishing early and were then able to help other students who were falling behind.  Student focus reached its zenith at this point and all but 4 students out of 129 finished their Innovation Day project by the end of the day.  Not only did they finish but what they produced was amazing.  

After we finished our Innovation Day we had the students complete a survey so we could better understand how they felt about it.  The teachers all agreed they wanted to do it again next year, but we still felt as though we needed to hear from the students first.  Below are the results of that survey.

Before conducting this survey, I was concerned that introducing the idea of Innovation Day about a month in advance may have given the students too much, and they might loose their focus.  After reading these surveys however, it seemed as though all the time was time well spent by the students, as they thought through their project ideas.  Next up, the presentation to parents.

Innovation Day Part 4 --> Here Come the Parents

Original Post 7/11/13

While planning for Innovation Day, we built into our schedule a night for the parents to come and see not only the work of their students , but the work of all the students throughout the grade level.   The presentation for the parents was scheduled from 7:00-8:00 and the students needed to arrive 20 minutes early to set up their projects.  This 20 minutes of preparation time is always awkward for parents and teachers.  It isn't enough time for the parents to really do anything else and if we allowed them to help their son or daughter set up it would be way too crowded in the rooms.   I discussed this problem with one of my colleagues, Dani Marangon, and she suggested we play a slide show of pictures she had taken of Innovation Day for the parents in the cafeteria as they waited to see the final product.   The photographs show the students at the early and middle stages of their work, but never a finished product.  We also then created a Parent Program created by the students and Dani.   I made a Google Form asking the kids to input their name, classroom, title of their project and a brief description.  Dani then copied and pasted this information into Microsoft Publisher to make it a bit more eye-appealing.  As the parents watched the slideshow they were able to look in their program and start different exhibits they wanted to see.

In the back of the cafeteria we set up eight computers with a survey already loaded on to it.  We asked the parents to stop by and answer a few questions before they left.  I also recruited our School Community Association President to help us steer parents back into the cafeteria after they had seen their son's or daughter's project.  The verbal feedback from the parents was tremendous; they really were impressed by the work the students were able to produce.  The mayor was so impressed he sent in Ice-Pops for the students the next day.  

I was a little nervous about the feedback I would receive on the survey though.  It is easy for parents who found Innovation Day to be a great idea to come and tell me.  Those who might not have had the same opinion would go to the survey.  We asked the parents four questions about the project and then asked them to comment on anything they really liked, or suggestions to improve it for next year.  Out of 129 students we had 63, almost half, of the parents answer the survey.  I am still trying to figure out a way to have more parents complete the survey next year.  If anyone has ideas, I'm all ears.  Below are the results of the four survey questions.

The question I was most interested in the parent response was: My student's motivation to create a great innovation day project was... .  Because this project was done at the end of the year, I was nervous that it would be difficult to motivate students to put forth their best effort.  It was great to see 97% of parents said their student were either highly, or extremely highly motivated to create an Innovation Day project.  

This is a project I look forward to working on and improving next year.  If anyone has any comments or suggestions on how we might improve I would love to hear from you.  

Again I would like to thank @pernilleripp and @stumpteacher for blogging about their experiences with Innovation Day so I could learn from them.  I would like to send out a big thanks to @kls4711 whose class Skyped with mine and provided me with a blue print to follow and build upon.  I consider myself lucky to have educators like these in my Personal Learning Network.