Category Archives: differentiated instruction

Gary Stager is the Man…

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boxcat is here waiting to strike!I’m starting off today’s activities at Gary Stager‘s presentation Ten things to Do With a Laptop. I’ve listening to Gary a number of times at various conferences…never the headliner, but as a quiet featured speaker. Some of the time I don’t agree with him, but I continue to listen to what he says because after the show is over and I’m sitting quietly by myself I can hear my brain changing, shifting, and growing. Gary Stager pushes…he kicks you out of your box.

So what are 10 Things to Do with a Laptop? Well, here are two questions…What will the world be like for your students 20 years from now? Perhaps even more importantly, what is the world like for the children who have not yet entered your school?

There are three types of laptop schools:

  1. Pioneers…they want to shake things up.
  2. Marketeers…they want their school in the newspaper.
  3. Their neighbors…the school up the street is doing it so…

Top Ten List

  1. Write a Novel
    When students have laptops they write more and better. In addition, they can write for other forms of media like podcasts.
  2. What Your Knowledge
    Use sites such as Wikipedia because the information is current/instant.
  3. Answer Tough Questions
    For example, “Who should I vote for?“
  4. Make Sense Data
    Use software like Google Earth, GIS, Inspire Data, Tinkerplots, and Fathom
  5. Design a Video Game
    Use Microworlds…Gary is very into student programming.
  6. Build a Killer Robot
    Gary likes to use Legos to build and invent.
  7. Lose Weight
    Keeping track of exercise…that’s not the point, but using the tools kids have to solve problems.
  8. Direct a Blockbuster
    Make a movie…writing, editing, shortening is the process that matters.
  9. Compose a Symphony
    Using Finale Notepad or GarageBand.
  10. Change the World
    Can we aim any higher?

Thanks, Gary, for setting the bar high for using the tech that’s in our schools!

Universal Design with David Grapka

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This afternoon I’m participating in David Grapka’s workshop titled Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is Like Differentiated Instruction (DI) on Steroids!

Notes caveat: I didn’t really know anything about UDL before this workshop, so my notes probably reflect that! :)

What makes a UDL classroom? Having a welcoming environment. How do we advocate for all children? The way he modeled that is giving us his cell phone so we could text him questions!

“What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible”. Theodore Roethke

A vision of students today (scroll down) from Kansas State University. Look at their other videos too. What resonated with you most as an educator and consumer?

For the rookies on UDL: Center for Applied Special Technology is THE place to learn about UDL. These videos explain UDL. After each video, David asked us what resonated with us.

Books mentioned:

UDL principle: Creating environments that work well for students with disabilities makes the environments work for everyone. Teachers rethink goals, methods and assessments.

From my seatmate, Cathy: Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age.

Example – a curb cut started out as an accommodation for wheelchairs, but skateboarders use it, people with strollers, luggage, etc. It helps everyone.

The handouts have a PowerPoint that compares UDL and assistive technology.

RTI: Regular Teacher Involvement; a whole school initiative

Brain Research video – three networks for learning – recognition networks (what), strategic networks (how), affective networks (why). Everybody learns differently.

UDL curriculum: multiple means of representation, multiple means of expression, multiple means of engagement, flexible tools, teaching methods and assessment.

He played each video twice! It was great because you got something new the next time around.

There’s a serious disconnect between mandated state testing and new research on student learning and teaching. Tomorrow David is addressing this in his 4 p.m. session.

——

After the break we looked at TRECenter.org Practices. This is what David does in New York. These materials can help you design your own UDL lesson plans.

How is a UDL lesson different than any other lesson plan? What I noticed includes:

  • The planning pyramid has “all students will…” “most students will…” “some students will…” “some other students will”
  • The unit includes modifications for meeting academic diversity.

This is a template for a UDL lesson/unit plan.

We did an activity using these sites:

Finally, look at Balancing Your Work and Play.

Want to find more than your house in Google Earth?

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The last presentation that I gave at MACUL back in 2006 was a dud. I’ll admit it. I was trying to help empower educators with a sense that they could control their own professional development on a daily basis by networking via the Internet on forums, blogs, and what not. It ended up turning into a session that was more like “look at my nifty site, isn’t it great?!”Needless to say, the reviews were not great.

Google EarthWhich is why this year I’ve tried to focus my presentation on what teachers want. Specifically, little tools and tricks that they can take back and use in the classroom the very next week. Since Google Earth (GE) has become synonymous with the idea of a “digital globe” in the classroom, I thought other educators’ experiences with is. I haven’t talked with a teacher or administrator yet that hasn’t seen how powerful GE is. I hear about how great it was to find their houses, places of work, and their favorite restaurant. Some teachers even have their students mapping out and navigating their local community. However, Google’s digital globe is capable of so much more. So I decided to put together a presentation that would give teachers from every subject area a few simple ideas to get them started exploring how the application could be used in Science, Social Studies, Math, and Language Arts. There are even applications for using Google Earth in other areas of education like Music, Visual Arts, and more. It’s just a matter of knowing where to look, and how to use all of Google Earth’s bells and whistles.

In fact, there are others with the same idea, as Norm Hoekstra will be presenting on Google Earth as well, and I know that GE will be talked about in other “Best of the Web” presentations throughout the conference. In case you can’t make any of them, or you’re interested in finding just more than where you live, try checking out Sundials around the world or find out how superdelegates will be voting using an interactive Google Earth map.

Image: ‘The Great Sushi Race3‘
www.flickr.com/photos/45581782@N00/103357578

Giggling and Poetry across the Atlantic

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Janine in the HatThere are no words that can properly describe the joy, giggles, and unbridled learning that takes place during a videoconference. You just have to experience it, and that’s exactly what I had the opportunity to do this morning. On my way to Advanced Googlology, I met Janine Lim in the hallway on the way to my session (fully decked out in her Cat in the Hat outfit) and couldn’t resist sitting in on her TWICE session. I’m glad I made the switch, because I got to see a videoconference between a fourth grade class from St. Joseph, MI and a Year 7 class in UK, Wales.

Kids in WalesIt was a special videoconference for the classroom in Wales as it was there very first experience with videoconferencing. The class from St. Joseph shared pictures from their lake-side town and included information about Michigan’s fruit-growing regions. They also performed several short poems for the kids in Wales. The classroom from Wales shared a very special song about rugby that they recently won a cultural competition with during an annual celebration.

The children then had time to ask questions of each other, share a few interesting facts about where they lived, and the Head Master in Wales even “crashed” the session so he could say hi to all of the kids in St. Joseph. Towards the end of the presentation questions were opened up to those of us sitting in on the session watching. Janine Lim asked the students in St. Joseph what they liked about videoconferencing (since they’ve done many of them). One of the students replied that they enjoyed being able to talk with other kids around the country and the world.

And that’s what videoconferencing is all about; showing learners the wider world. Talking about other places in textbooks and pointing out locations on a map will never garner the engagement or inspire like the live video and audio interaction that videoconferencing provides. Today those students will go home and be able to tell their parents “we learned from kids in the UK today” instead of just, we learned about kids in the UK today. A much more powerful learning experience was witnessed today, and I’m personally inspired to begin pursuing grants and/or money to startup videoconferencing in my district.

WebQuest and Moodle: The Perfect Pair!

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WebQuests have been around for a while and are recognized as effective, web-based activities that teachers should use.  Elizabeth Horner, Amy Boone, and Ryan Collins from Kenton City Schools (What state is high in the middle and round at both ends?) feel that they’re a perfect match for Moodle, the free, open-source content management system.

First we’ll talk about Moodle.  Moodle is a content management system that’s a free, open-source package that can be installed and run on OS X, Linux, and Windows.  Ryan recommends that for Windows users, they use the XAMPP package from Apache Friends.  This package installs the web server, PHP, and database applications that Moodle requires to run.  As far as installations go, it’s a pretty straightforward procedure.  Here’s a link to Kenton City Schools’ Moodle page.

Ryan shows us some of the behind the scenes Moodle administration controls.  There is a lot of flexibility in how an instructor can set up their course…what types of information is available, how much of it is available, and how information is arranged on the page.  Besides the look and feel of the course, instructors are able to add a ton of resources and activities.

Moodle makes it easy for less-than-technical-teachers to add content by providing an online editor.  It looks very much like MS Word or other word processors that most teachers already use.  Content can include web pages that teachers create or files which they would like to upload, like docs, pdf, ppt, etc.

To more easily meet Ohio’s research standards, teachers at Kenton City Schools use WebQuests.  They’re an organized activity that allows students to complete many types of online research and discovery.  Elizabeth shows us her Moodle course where she has created various activities including her WebQuest.  In order to set up the structure for the WebQuest, she is using various types of what Moodle calls Resources.  You may know that most WebQuest templates include the following components:

  • Introduction
  • Task
  • Resources
  • Process
  • Evaluation
  • Conclusion

Each of these components were set up as a separate resources…meaning that instead of all the components being on a single web page, they’re separated into individual links.  That’s a nice feature that allows students to access the component they need right away.

Moodle gives teachers a useful “place” to create and host their WebQuests.  It’s a breeze to create links, upload images, post information, etc.  The technical expertise required is minimal so teachers have the ability to fly on their own.  Thanks, Ohioans, for sharing your experiences with the rest of us!