Peter Pappas »
19 February 2013 »
In Ed Tech, How To, PD, Social Web, Teachers, Web 2.0 »
I critiqued the "top-down vision of innovation in schools" in a post Innovations in Teaching and Learning: Top Down or Bottom Up?
Want to find out more about instructional innovation in action? That won't cost you a thing either. Just jump on my Twitter feed and you find superb teachers willing to share their latest student projects. And that free flow of information contrasts with a second "top-down" approach to innovation in schools - the professional learning committee. Imagine being told that, "teachers will now attend PLC meetings.. and don't forget to fill out the PLC report form and turn it in to your administrator." No one at the top seems to notice that teachers who want to network have already created their own "bottom-up" support systems via the social web.
PLCs for singleton teachers?
A recent post by high school physics teacher Casey Rutherford, describes how he used Google+ Hangouts (free video conferencing) to create his own PLC. A Physics PLC: Collaboration at a Distance. Casey writes:
This year my school district, like many others, implemented PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) as the driving force behind how we collaborate to help students learn. The directive was that all teachers should meet in a PLC weekly for approximately 30 minutes. This sounds, and can be, great, but I had a problem. …. For 7 years I had been the only physics teacher. ...
Enter Twitter. I’ve been on Twitter almost two years now, and I have learned more on Twitter in these two years than the previous six, which included a masters degree. Among other things I have managed to build a pretty awesome PLN (Personal Learning Network) that includes a couple hundred incredible physics and math teachers from around the country.
Casey posted a tweet with a link to Google doc soliciting members for his online PLC:
My name is Casey Rutherford. I am entering teaching for the 8th year, my 7th teaching physics, and my first using Modeling Instruction. I have a relatively odd request.
My school is implementing PLCs, certainly a worthy task. The problem is that at this point there is not a logical person with whom I would form a PLC. Thus my request. I am wondering if any of you would like to form an online PLC with me, working together approximately 30 minutes/week to compare student work. My thought is that we can do a lot with formative assessments, using photos of student whiteboards to form the basis for our conversations. I am, however, open to other ideas as well. ...
What follows is Casey's step-by-step description of how his team used a G+ Hangout to manage their PLC sessions. It includes details about managing the Hangout, using it to analyze student work, and building meaningful collegial relationships. It's a very helpful post for anyone looking for practical information on using G+ Hangouts.
Hat tip to Marshall Memo for leading me to Casey's piece.
Screenshot credit / Casey Rutherford
Tags: Google, PLC, Science, STEM, Twitter
CCSS offers an incentive for teachers to use historic documents to build literacy skills in a content area while empowering students to be the historian in the classroom. But document-based (DBQ) instruction in this context requires four key elements to be successful:
1. The right documents.
2. Knowing how to look at them.
3. Letting students discover their own patterns, then ask students to describe, compare and defend what they found.
4. Basing the task on enduring questions, the kind that students might actually want to answer.
My new multi-touch iBook – “Workers Win the War: Toil and Sacrifice on the US Homefront” – embodies that approach. Here’s how.
Tags: Common Core, Comparing, Critical thinking, Curriculum, ebook, Engagement, Essential questions, Higher-order thinking, iBook, iBooks Author, Innovation, Motivation, Relevance, Rigor, US History, Visual Literacy
Here’s a TEDx video – The Future Will Not Be Multiple Choice – that showcases the power of a PBL / design-based approach to learning. While you watch it, try to think of a meaningful career that looks like filling out a worksheet.
Tags: Creativity, Critical thinking, Curriculum, Design, Engagement, Essential questions, Google, Higher-order thinking, Innovation, Motivation, PBL, Reform, Relevance, Rigor, Test prep
Two years ago, three junior high teachers were thinking about how to better motivate their social studies students. They decided one way to get kids more excited about learning was to get rid of their traditional textbooks. Here’s a guest post on how these teachers teamed with their school and district leadership to create their own textbook.
Tags: Beth Williams, Common Core, DIY, iBook, iBooks Author, Innovation, iPad, Jeffrey Taylor, Joe Welch, Larry Dorenkamp, MacBook, North Hills JHS, Rich Texter, Textbook, US History, Writing
With the 2013 inauguration nearly upon us, it’s interesting to look at the Official Souvenir program of President McKinley’s inauguration in 1901. Especially interesting is the two-page prediction of the Presidential Inauguration of 2001. The unnamed writer was caught up in visions of Manifest Destiny and technology – mechanical bands, a president from the state of Ontario, a flying parade of aerialautos, altering the flow of the Gulf Stream to effect climate chance, and an expanded US with 118 states and 91 territories extending into South America. Quite a contrast to the program ad claiming to provide “Fresh Air – No Cinders! No Smoke!” for rail cars of 1901. Here are some excerpts from the program
Tags: Amusements, Inauguration, Innovation, Manifest Destiny, Motivation, Theodore Roosevelt, US History, William McKinley
Publishing is an effective tool for getting students engaged and writing. The new book, Publishing with PowerPoint, walks the reader through a process of self-publishing that can be used in any classroom. PowerPoint is an effective book design software – it’s already on your computer and everyone know how to use it. Students find it easy to use PowerPoint templates and position a wide range of text and images on a PPT slide. Powerpoint slides can be quickly grouped and rearranged into book pages. Finally, converting PowerPoint slides into pdfs for publishing can be done with the “Save As” function. The teacher with a limited budget can print just one copy for the classroom. Parents can order their own copies online.
Tags: Createspace, Creativity, Critical thinking, Engagement, Higher-order thinking, Lulu, MaryAnn McAlpin, Motivation, Parents, Pat Martin, PowerPoint, Print, Suzanne Meyer, Writing
We focused on getting started with using iBooks Author (iBA) in the classroom. Our discussion includes iBA workflow specifics, tips for getting started, project ideas and how to use iTunes to share student work with an authentic audience beyond the classroom. Listen and learn more about how to create and publish your own ebook. Includes links to more iBA resources.
Tags: David Carpenter, ebook, Ed Tech Co-Op, Essential questions, iBook, iBooks Author, Innovation, Mark Hofer, Parents, PBL, Podcast, Relevance, Writing
I had a great time recording a podcast with Mark Hofer and David Carpenter for their series Ed Tech Co-Op.
Mark led off by asking me to reflect back on my some of the driving themes in my career. I confessed that as a novice teacher, I mimicked my experience as a high school student and taught primarily via lecture mixed with an occasional “guess what the teacher is thinking” whole-group discussion.
But I recalled an “aha” moment after repeated visits to the art class in the classroom next door. I realized that if the art teacher taught art, the way I taught history, his students would be sitting there watching him paint.
Tags: Artist, Bloom, David Carpenter, Ed Tech Co-Op, Higher-order thinking, Information landscape, Mark Hofer, Podcast, Summarizing, US History
There’s a great new free iBook that I highly recommend as a source for project based learning and team building activities for middle school students through adults. “Innovation Challenges – Mind Workouts for Teams” is available – free at iTunes.
It tells the story of a great program at Saint Louis University, designed to promote creativity, innovation, and the entrepreneurial mindset through novel challenges. The book is a detailed how to for 22 challenges – team supplies, facilitator supplies, tips, learning outcomes and variations. It’s a treasure trove lavishly illustrated with photos and videos. Challenges run the gamut from STEM to marketing and sustainability. The iBook also details how to replicate the competition at your institution.
Tags: Creativity, Critical thinking, ebook, Engagement, Higher-order thinking, Innovation, Innovation Challenge, Motivation, PBL, Saint Louis University, STEM
Discussion boards and post suggest that there are file compatibilty issues between iBA 2.0 and 1.0. Users are reporting that iba files created in iBA 1.0 are being abused when opened in iBA 2.0. What’s your story?
Tags: Apple, ebook, iBook, iBooks Author
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