Clif’s Notes on Education and Technology

100 Ways to Implement PBL

Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

What: Project-based learning (PBL) is an alternative to the traditional teaching method of lecture and listen. “If traditional education is classical, PBL is jazz. In a PBL classroom, teachers present problems that students must solve together in groups” (source). Project-based learning empowers students by giving them voice and choice over their learning. Implementing project-based learning drastically changes the culture of the classroom by engaging students through active learning experiences. 

How to: If PBL is so great  “then why do we still have so many schools falling into the test prep trap? Why do so many teachers feel like they cannot make the jump into PBL? Why haven’t we seen a nationwide movement towards PBL as a best and effective practice for all students?” (source). The answer is not ‘what’ but ‘how’. Even though, as educators, we know what we should do (implement active learning experiences like PBL), we are rarely truly taught how. Teachers may not feel comfortable knowing how to implement PBL in their classrooms. A.J. Juliani published a blog with 100 ways to implement PBL in the classroom broken down by grade and by subject area making implementing PBL simple. You can access the entire list of 100 ways by clicking here. 

Next Steps

Interested in learning more? Check out the websites below for great information. 

References:

All sourced information is hyperlinked as applicable above. 

TLDR (too long didn’t read):

A.J. Juliani published a blog with 100 ways to implement PBL in the classroom broken down by grade and by subject area making implementing PBL simple. You can access the entire list of 100 ways by clicking here. 

@hollandkaylah

Google Announces AI to detect Sign Langauge

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Google recently announced the development of software that will allow smartphones to detect and interpret sign language (source). The algorithms needed for a computer to interpret hand movements and deduct speech is quite complicated. Google has created this software and made it free and accessible to the public so developers can create programs (apps, etc) in order to allow this technology to be used by the public. “We’re excited to see what people come up with. For our part, we will continue our research to make the technology more robust and to stabilise tracking, increasing the number of gestures we can reliably detect,” a spokeswoman for Google told the BBC” (source). You can read the announcement from Google by clicking here and the article by BBC by clicking here. 

References:

All sourced information is hyperlinked as applicable above. 

@hollandkaylah

Creating Successful Students

Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash

What: I recently read an article about nine things successful people do differently. It discussed why we reach some of our goals and not others. The base of it is that we do not reach our goals because of who we are but instead because of what we do. I began to think of this in terms of my classroom and thought of several ways to help my students succeed in their goals by using the same suggestions. The following are a few of my thoughts. You can read the entire article by clicking here. 

Be Specific when setting a goal. Instead of saying you want the whole class to improve, state that you want all students to meet their above 80 mastery goals. State your specific goal out loud to the class. Allow the entire class to help others be successful in the collective goal. 

Chart the growth. You will be more successful if you know exactly how far you have to go – think of those fundraisers with the rising temperature gauge to demonstrate how much has been donated to date. After you state your goal, display the progress in your classroom so everyone is clear on what has been accomplished and how far they have left to go. Obviously, we do not want to embarrass students, so if your goal deals with your collective class think of a clever way to get around displaying names. Maybe allow students to create their own code name, or give every student an animal, shape, or food item to display their progress. 

Model grit. Making changes is hard and students need to see someone struggle and still continue. Show students how setting goals and succeeding in them is difficult but worth it in the end. Make the goals lengthy so students have to stick with it as a class. I truly believe grit is the absolute best quality students can have. 

Focus on the new. The article suggests that in order to be successful, we should focus on what we will do, not what we won’t do. The article suggests that focusing on statements like I will work out five times a week instead of I won’t be able to eat out anymore essentially replacing bad habits with good ones. In your classroom, you can focus on what we will do instead of listing our rules of don’ts. What if our classroom rules included things like “we will be kind”, “we will be respectful”, “we will show grit when facing problems”. This idea of focusing on the do’s instead of the don’ts was a gamechanger for the culture in my class. 

References:

All sourced information is hyperlinked as applicable above. 

TLDR (too long didn’t read):

I recently read an article about nine things successful people do differently. It discussed why we reach some of our goals and not others. The base of it is that we do not reach our goals because of who we are but instead because of what we do. I began to think of this in terms of my classroom and thought of several ways to help my students succeed in their goals by using the same suggestions. The following are a few of my thoughts. You can read the entire article by clicking here. 

@hollandkaylah

Authentic Problem-Solving

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What: Problem-solving is a current trend taking place in education but it is more than simply solving a problem. Authentic problem-solving allows students to take ownership of a real-world problem and through critical thinking experiences create an applicable solution. Dee Lanier, creator of Solve in Time, offers the following suggestions for creating authentic problem-solving opportunities in the classroom on the topic of climate change. 

  1. “Start with empathy. One way to build their empathy in students is by exposing them to the harmful effects to people, wildlife, and their ecosystems. As discussed in Part 1, this can be done by taking trips to museums and nature parks, bringing in guest speakers either live or via video conference, or by taking them on virtual field trips across the globe using apps like Google Earth or Expeditions.
  2. Provide Choice. After exposing students to several causes and effects of the problem, one of the easiest ways to ensure relevancy of a topic is to allow student agency in what specific aspect of a problem they are most interested in exploring. Below is an example of a mind map that starts with the central topic of pollution and branches out to several other sub-topics that can be explored.
  3. Create Competition. Nothing seems to get students excited (about anything) more than a little team competition. Think about penny drives, can drives, running for a cause, etc. Galvanizing students to work together in smaller teams and try and outdo classmates in doing good for others is a healthy way to build students’ capacity for empathy. As an example, special thanks to Tony Vincent for sharing this challenge from National Geographic for Tackling Plastic! Registration is currently closed, but as you can see on National Geographic’s site, this is an annual competition that teachers can use to help build awareness around global issues and teach valuable research skills such as making the connection between plastics and climate change.” (Dee Lanier, 2019)

References:

All sourced information is hyperlinked as applicable above. 

TLDR (too long didn’t read):

Problem-solving is a current trend taking place in education but it is more than simply solving a problem. Authentic problem-solving allows students to take ownership of a real-world problem and through critical thinking experiences create an applicable solution. Dee Lanier, creator of Solve in Time, offers the following suggestions for creating authentic problem-solving opportunities in the classroom on the topic of climate change. 

@hollandkaylah

Time Saving Gmail Features

Photo by Kon Karampelas on Unsplash

What: I love using GSuite products but the one I use most often is Gmail. The following features are my favorite for saving time and making my day run as efficiently as possible. You can watch a step-by-step tutorial by Richard Byrne for most of these features by clicking here. 

  1. Schedule Send: I love this feature. I am an avid planner and send emails to students every Monday with notes for the work due during the upcoming week. However, I do not always have time to compose a message every Monday morning. Schedule send allows me to compose a message and schedule it to send it at a later time by simply composing my message (adding attachments, text, and recipients) and clicking the arrow next to the send button. I then choose a specific date and time to schedule my message to send. 
  2. Confidential mode: I often want to send messages to people but do not want them to forward the content or be able to print it (think confidential information like student IEPs, behavior plans, etc). Once a message is composed, click on the icon along the bottom of the message that looks like a lock with a clock in order to enable confidential mode. You will then be able to set the message to expire at a certain time and will not allow the recipient to forward, print, or download the message.  
  3. Canned responses: I often get the same message from students over and over again. Canned responses allow me to save time by not having to write the exact same response over and over. Simply click on settings, advanced, and choose to enable canned responses. Then compose a message, click the three dots in the lower right corner, choose canned responses, and save the draft as a template. Every time you receive an email you can open canned responses by clicking on the three dots in the lower right corner and choosing the desired draft as a response. 
  4. Smart Compose: I love the smart compose setting. If this feature is enabled, Google will auto-complete sentences for you as you type eliminating the need to fully type out every word. Simply open settings and ensure Smart Compose and Smart Compose Personalization are both set to on. 
  5. Preview Pane: I utilize the preview pane mode so that my email is split into three columns, labels on the far left, inbox in the middle, and individual emails open on the right column. This feature allows me to easily navigate between emails because they open instantly on the right. You can enable this feature by opening settings, choosing advanced, and ensuring preview pane is on. 
  6. Conversation Mode: I use conversation mode to keep my inbox organized. When conversation mode is turned on, email responses from the same email are grouped together. When conversation mode is off email responses appear as their own email. Meaning a group email with ten responses will be ten different emails in your inbox instead of combined into one group. To enable conversation mode, click on settings and ensure conversation mode is set to on. 

References:

All sourced information is hyperlinked as applicable above. 

TLDR (too long didn’t read):

I love using GSuite products but the one I use most often is Gmail. The following features are my favorite for saving time and making my day run as efficiently as possible. You can watch a step-by-step tutorial by Richard Byrne of most of these features by clicking here. 

@hollandkaylah

Combating Fake News

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

What: Today’s internet crazed culture is inundated with news. How do we know what is true and what is not? More importantly, how do we teach our students to sort through the fake news so they can make fully knowledgeable decisions? My suggestions below stem from an article by Nieman Labs (source) that can be adapted into the classroom. 

Flagged false: The article suggests that tagging fake news on social media with “rated false” made people less likely to accept the information as true. In the classroom, students can work in groups to research content within an article and determine as a group if the information is true or false. 

Intake more content: The article states findings that suggest the more tweets people choose to read, the greater intent to read more news in the future. They also found that the more tweets people read allowed their assessments of news stories and journalists to become more credible. In the classroom, we need to instruct students on how and where to find information. Students need to be taught how to look at information and decide for themselves if it is factual or not. The more students are exposed to content about a topic the more likely they will be able to create a knowledgeable opinion. 

Lazy thinking: The article discovered that fake news is driven by lazy thinking. In the classroom, we need to teach research grit in order for students to spend time looking through reputable sources instead of choosing the first option that appears on Google and believing it as true. 

Conclusion: Basically, the amount of fake news in our culture is large but students can be taught how to decipher what is fake from what is true by looking for content already flagged as false and by not taking the lazy route and looking at numerous options detailing the topic in question. If you are interested in this topic, the book News Literacy: the keys to combating fake news is an excellent read. 

Next Steps

Interested in learning more? Check out the websites below for great information. 

References:

All sourced information is hyperlinked as applicable above. 

TLDR (too long didn’t read):

Today’s internet crazed culture is inundated with news. How do we know what is true and what is not? More importantly, how do we teach our students to sort through the fake news so they can make fully knowledgeable decisions? My suggestions below stem from an article by Nieman Labs (source) that can be adapted into the classroom. 

@hollandkaylah

Eliminating the “one size fits all” Assessment

Photo by Ben Mullins on Unsplash

As a student, I always hated tests. I studied for hours and never felt prepared. I often tested poorly even though I could have talked to the teacher for hours about the topic. Traditional assessments did not allow me to show what I truly knew about a topic. Many students still feel the same way about tests and assessments. The following suggestions offer a different way for students to showcase their knowledge about a given topic instead of performing poorly on a “one size fits all” assessment (source). 

Brain dumps allow students to complete a brain dump of information in an “everything I knew about this topic but wasn’t asked” question. This allows students to tell you everything they knew, studied, and prepared but wasn’t covered on the assessment. 

Add a nailed it/not sure box to questions on the assessment (for younger students this could be emojis). Adding these boxes allows students to reflect and give feedback on their answers and allows the teacher to see how confident they are in their answers in order to determine what should be covered again. 

Create an explain your answer question so that students can be more focused in their response and will alleviate any confusion for poorly worded questions. 

Have students create their own assessment. By creating assessments, students begin to see how difficult it is and can appreciate the assessment in order to become better test takers. 

Give students a choice between taking an assessment and another way of showcasing their knowledge on a given topic (write an essay, compose a song or poem, create a piece of art, etc). Allow students to use their passions and abilities to show the amount of knowledge on a given topic. 

References:

All sourced information is hyperlinked as applicable above. 

TLDR (too long didn’t read):

As a student, I always hated tests. I studied for hours and never felt prepared. I often tested poorly even though I could have talked to the teacher for hours about the topic. Traditional assessments did not allow me to show what I truly knew about a topic. Many students still feel the same way about tests and assessments. The following suggestions offer a different way for students to showcase their knowledge about a given topic instead of performing poorly on a “one size fits all” assessment (source). 

@hollandkaylah

Creating Authentic Classroom Connections

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

Classroom isolation is a real issue in today’s growing cultural economy. However, connecting your classroom with other global classrooms in an authentic experience seems daunting but it doesn’t have to be. The following suggestions make connecting outside the four walls of your classroom easy and provide authentic learning experiences with the added bonus of creating cultural conversations and problem solving opportunities. 

Have students participate in a Global Learning Project. In October of 2019, the global learning project was Climate Change. Students on six continents and in over 100 countries participated in both synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities. 

Connect students as pen pals through PenPal Schools. PenPal Schools provides an easy and safe way to connect students virtually to students all over the world. Teachers can choose topics and are connected to other classrooms instantly. My students could not wait to log on and connect with their pen pals. 

Connect through video using Flipgrid, a video response tool connecting students asynchronously. I have personally used Fligrid to connect students from North Carolina to students in France, Argentina, and Haiti. Students in both countries love being able to communicate with students in other countries. 

Connect with another class in your own school for a cross grade project. There are teachers and students doing amazing things in your own school. Connect with other disciplines or with other grade levels to create connections with your students.

Next Steps

Interested in learning more? Check out the websites below for great information. 

References:

All sourced information is hyperlinked as applicable above. 

TLDR (too long didn’t read):

Classroom isolation is a real issue in today’s growing cultural economy. However, connecting your classroom with other global classrooms in an authentic experience seems daunting but it doesn’t have to be. The following suggestions make connecting outside the four walls of your classroom easy and provide authentic learning experiences with the added bonus of creating cultural conversations and problem solving opportunities. 

@hollandkaylah