technology integration

A Case for MI

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment

I am a huge proponent of honoring MI.  From my early beginnings in education, I recall my teachers allowing us to experience the learning process in a variety of ways.  I remember being able to draw, sing, write, act…the whole shebang.  Learning was fun for me because it honored the way that I learned best.  And in my own classroom, I am continuing the process.

When I think about what I want my students to “experience” when they walk through the doors of my classroom, I look to the multiple intelligences to guide my lesson planning.  The purpose for this is to make sure that each and every student (at some point in my class) has a chance to shine in an area that interests them most.  I’ve given MI surveys off and of throughout the years and the trend for middle schoolers seems to lean heavily on visual and kinesthetic with a nice mixture between intrapersonal and interpersonal learning.

Yesterday’s lesson focused on visual, kinesthetic, and interpersonal learning experiences.  But it also included higher order thinking along with reading and writing literacy.  While all this might sound impressive…I must begin by giving credit to TCI.  I am lucky in that both middle schools that I have worked for have had a complete set of TCI materials for 7th grade World History.  TCI materials are awesome.  They focus on a range of skills for students to get them engaged in the learning process.  But because I rarely take things “as is”…I had to put a twist on the TCI Skillbuilder: Contributions of the Chinese experiential lesson.

Instead of having the students take a placard and run around the room to find the corresponding placard, I took all of the placards put them in a PPT and uploaded it to our HaikuLMS class.  Students shared iPads to view the PPT which forced them to communicate and collaborate with their peers (interpersonal).  The iPads also allowed students to zoom in (kinesthetic) to the placards so that they could see the most minute details.  In table groups (interpersonal) my students had to use their deductive reasoning skills (higher order thinking) to try to figure out which Chinese achievement was being depicted in the placard (visual).  In the first column of their chart, students had to write 3-5 characteristics (Keys to Questioning/Keys to Learning) that stood out to them.  In the middle column, students had to write what they inferred the Chinese contribution to be and then support their inference with evidence.  Students could have done this one of two ways: they could explain how the 3-5 characteristics led them to that conclusion OR they could go back into the textbook and cite the evidence that supported their inference.

The conversations that I heard throughout the day were amazing.  Students argued about what they were seeing, they questioned their tablemate’s inferences, they referred back to the reading to support their point…I mean, wow.  I wish that I could have recorded their conversations because it was a pretty awesome to witness.  Because students had to support their inference with an explanation or evidence, this activity will carry-over to Monday.

Come Monday, my students will fill out a GoogleForm with their inferences and then will be able to see if they were “seeing” the same things as their peers in other classes.  From there, I will reveal the Chinese achievements to them and they will fill in details/contributions in the third column of their chart.  But the activity doesn’t end there.  In table groups, students will go back to our HaikuLMS class and respond to several prompts about a particular Chinese achievement.  All of the prompts are connected to one of the Keys to Questioning/Keys to Learning.  This is where the reading and writing literacy comes in to play…

Gunpowder Example – WikiProject

Each table will be responsible to post their group’s response for one particular Chinese achievement in the WikiProject.  By the end of the day, students will have seven group responses for each of the nine Chinese achievements.  Do I expect them to read all of the responses?  No.  But the students who plan to do Level 4 for the summative assessment will no doubt benefit from reading what their peer’s have written.

This activity spans three (maybe four days).  And for a course that is allotted only one semester (don’t get me started)…it’s totally worth it.  The amount of skills that students are practicing and the fact that I’m also able to honor several areas of MI make this activity worth it in the end.

In fact, yesterday one of my students who saw the chart immediately smiled and said, “Oh!  I like this activity!”  And that’s, my friends, why I teach.

EdPuzzle is No Puzzle to Use

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment

On Friday, I introduced my students to a new technology tool:  EdPuzzle.  It was first introduced to me several weeks ago at a Blended Learning workgroup.  Before EdPuzzle, I was keen on using Videonot.es which syncs to Drive, but since Videonot.es only allows the use of YouTube (which is blocked by my district)…the thought of annotating videos seemed out of my reach.

Not so any more.

EdPuzzle is very easy to use.  It’s easy for students to sign-up and it’s overall use is intuitive.  I loved that my students were able to rewatch video clips before answering either an open-ended or multiple choice question.  The notion of rewatching video clips came in especially handy since the narrator of the clip I chose was British.  It didn’t occur to me that my students would struggle with his accent until I started receiving answers spelled phonetically (e.g. Sway as opposed to Sui…Tong as opposed to Tang).

EdPuzzle automatically grades multiple choice questions and gives students their scores which is actually misleading because the open-ended questions were not graded yet.  But that’s my only gripe about this awesome tool.

Grading the open-ended questions was a breeze because EdPuzzle gives you the option to grade all of the open-ended questions in one fell swoop.  All I had to do was click the red X or the green Check for each student answer.  In fact, I had all of the open-ended questions graded before my students left class.  Easy.

Because I teach history, I use a variety of primary and secondary sources:  print, picture, video, and music.  EdPuzzle is an easy way to have students take a step back when watching a video to really try to understand not only the contents presented, but taking a look at bias as well as using the video to corroborate other resources.

I love the fact that technology tools are constantly evolving to make learning more fun and meaningful for students.  It’s even better when the technology tool is designed for easy use by teachers as well.  EdPuzzle does not disappoint.

Back on Track

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment

Wow.  The past two weeks have taken the students and teachers of my district on a roller-coaster ride.  We were given various excuses as to what had happened and what was currently happening…but nowhere were we given a time-table as to when the technology issues would be fixed.    All we know is that our server was hacked and then to protect all data, we were effectively cut off from the outside world (Internet) for three days.  Then followed seven more days of intermittent Internet access.  It was weird.  Everything seemed to work well in the morning (as I planned my day) and throughout first period, but after that, it was anybody’s ball game.  Sometimes the Internet worked for 2nd period and 5th/6th.  But it rarely worked for 3rd or 4th period.  Did I mention that I teach World History all day?

Needless to say, all of my classes were off pace both with the district pacing and each other.  I couldn’t keep track of which class was where.  I had to extend due dates, completely drop some assignments, and bring out Plans B, C, and D (on occasion).  It was a mess.

And I wasn’t the only one affected.  My district rolled out a huge amount of Technology PD during Super Week, so there were quite a few teachers who were directly affected by this Internet blackout.  Teachers who were new to using technology, some of whom were already a bit skittish about using technology…were among the ones who were likely freaking out.  My colleagues who are a 1:1 iPad/Chromebook class (who are tech-savvy) were just as freaked out and frustrated.

But there was a light.

Last Friday as I was putting the final touches on an Internet-based assignment, the Internet shut down.  I mean, completely.  I couldn’t even access our internal attendance and email.  I watched the clock slowly tick towards the start of the school day and grew more frustrated by the second. I mean, COME ON!  I’m never going to finish this unit.  We’re going to be on Arabia for-EVER.  One of my colleagues poked her head in my classroom with a frantic look on her face.  I just shrugged my shoulders.  We’ve been here before.

The bell rang.  We finished the pledge of allegiance and morning announcements.  I had one student get out her iPad and try to log in to our HaikuLMS class.  I didn’t want to give up (yet).  She got in.  No, could it be?  Was the Internet back up and running?  I tried the site on my computer…lo and behold…it loaded.  I held my breath as I told my students to get their iPads.  I was hoping that we wouldn’t lose Internet-connectivity.

We didn’t.  The Internet worked all day.  For all classes.  Even 3rd and 4th period.  They couldn’t believe it.  After two weeks of frustrated efforts to log in…postponed due dates…eliminated activities, they were on.  And my students took off!  They didn’t waste any time…mostly because they didn’t know if the Internet was going to suddenly stop working.  It was a sight to behold.  For me, it was a huge relief.  Things were finally getting back on track.  We are still WAY behind on the pacing, but at least we’re moving forward.

Things are certainly looking up.  =)