Socrative Backchannel Idea

Thanks to the blog Socrative Garden and someone in our DLC (I'm sorry I forgot who it was...so I can't give you credit!) I decided to use Socrative as a backchannel in my classroom.  The first time I tried it, I used it during lecture mode.  I was walking my students through the timeline of the Vietnam War.  Students could use the backchannel to ask questions, make comments, etc. and I would periodically stop and address the common threads that emerged.  As usual I was surprised by their insight, but also in what they didn't know or were curious about.  With such a wide range of learners, it is a constant struggle to really get inside their brain and understand their understanding.  The backchannel was like a visual of their thought process.  I was able to correct a student who though when I was saying "Agent Orange" that I was saying "Asian Orange."  (I was amused by that one).  But also I was able to provide some acceleration to some of my more advanced learners...who had the opportunity to ask more advanced questions.  Often they answered each other's questions which of course made me happy!  I highly recommend this practice and plan to continue to use it.  Check out the picture below from my report afterwards.  Their grammar is terrible (which curdles my teacher soul) but it I also want their responses to be quick and informal, so I'll live with it.

Directions to set up: set up a "room" in Socrative.  Have students log in to your room.  Once they are in, select "quick question" and then "short answer."  I really stressed the necessity for productive questioning and responses...middle schoolers are prone to the nonsense.  I feel like they were so much more awake during notes with this process.  The picture doesn't show it, but students used emojis in a lot of their responses...I'm not sure how I feel about the emojis yet...thoughts?

Blending the Virtual & the Physical

I have always prided myself on creating an active classroom.  When we study European Exploration, we build ships and race them...when we study World War I, we flip the desks over and fight from the trenches.   Since my shift into 1:1 technology, I have not always found the perfect marriage between those physical activities that 7th graders love and the freedom that ipads allow.   I've often found myself wondering if the new ipad lessons I create are really that much more engaging/better than some of my old lessons.

Recently, I feel like I hit on a balance.  My task was to teach 7th graders the competing ideologies of the Cold War: US capitalistic democracy vs. Soviet communism.  Admittedly it is always something I dread...mostly because government and economic system are not always concrete enough for a lot of my learners.  I knew I wanted to use ipads, but I also have done a really cool Berlin Wall simulation in the past.  Which do I choose?  Which would illustrate the differences better?  I decide to blend it.  I set up a QR code scavenger hunt with 12 stations.  Six stations focused on the U.S. perspective and system and six stations were dedicated to the Soviets.  I set the opposing stations on opposite sides of the classroom and hung a giant "wall" (butcher paper strikes again) dividing the two sides.  Students used their ipads to visit a variety of sources and multimedia sites.  They had different responses or prompts at each station.  Half way through they switched to the other side.  Beyond that, I also treated the students differently on each side.  Students on the American side could choose which station to visit.  Students on the Soviet side had more structure imposed on them and less choice.

In the end, the blending of both virtual resources and the physical division in the room, really illustrated the concepts I needed students to grasp.  They enjoyed the lesson and were highly engaged, but more importantly the incorporation of concrete physical differences with visual/audio/written resources allowed me to target all of my learners.

As usual I forgot to take pictures.... :(

Recent Ipadding in Social Studies

We've been busy, busy in recent weeks utilizing the ipads in new ways!  The hstry timeline project went beyond all my expectations.

Check out a student example here: https://www.hstry.co/timelines/the-road-to-secession-486cdb9d-f668-45eb-bf24-fb25f04884a7

Students were so successful utilizing multimedia sources and were much more engaged in finding their own information than they could ever be with a straight lecture.  More and more, the ipads allow me to become the facilitator.  You know the old adage where students should be working harder than the teacher?  Well that finally feels possible when I don't have to be the sole source of information or the only provider of resources.

After the hstry timeline project, we also used the ipads to do some research on the 2016 Presidential candidates.  Students researched the five leading candidates and compared them to historic governors of South Carolina.  It allowed them to practice skills that hopefully they will utilize as voting citizens of our country.  I won't lie....I learned a few new things about some of the Presidential hopefuls!  (This lesson feels especially timely...considering our focus on "authentic assessment").  I wish I had some pictures of the students researching and displaying their knowledge (they used the faces of the candidates to demonstrate the parallels to the governors), but like usual I failed to record the moment.
Next up...Cold War QR code scavenger hunt.  Students will engage in the differences between the two ideologies in conflict.  I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

Orchard's Class

Vision & Goals for This Year:

My goal for this year is to create innovative web users.  Last year, I feel like I did a great job of fostering creative and collaborative lessons. I found it natural to differentiate on ipad classroom assignments.  Yet, students still depend on my direction too much.  I want them to become the directors of their own learning and boost their research skills.  I want to get students past the first 10 results on a google search.  I want to teach them to be able to teach each other.

I'm off to a great start.  The hstry.co timeline assignment really allowed students to assume research roles.  Additionally they collaborated to curate a really innovative multimedia presentation.  They learned to edit appropriately.  I was very impressed.  Additionally, I saw the payoff of taking instructional time to teach them to use google search tools appropriately.  They were digging up stuff that I had never seen before.  It fit into my vision of not being the gatekeeper anymore.  They are their own keymasters (Ghostbusters reference for the win!)