Transitioning from Teacher-Based to Teacher-Facilitated Learning with Technology (Ken Cooper)

This is in a series of posts by teachers in the TUSD Connect Fellowship for the 2016-2017 school year.  I hope you enjoy reading their reflections on the impact of technology in their classroom, specific tools and strategies that have made a positive impact on teaching and learning, and their goals moving forward.

For me this year technology has impacted my classroom by making me more efficient and taken off the load of having to be the source of information transfer to the students.  Technology has also improved quality of learning as well as the teaching process itself, making it easier to check understanding of ideas and concepts that were once too difficult to check in the traditional manner (verbally or with quizzes).

In the past, my use of technology had been limited to using Haiku as a discussion board and an avenue to take auto-graded multiple choice tests.  I had briefly dabbled in Google Classroom, but underutilized the potential it had.  By becoming involved with the Tech Fellowship, I have gained the confidence to try new tools that I would in all likelihood never have sought out and tried on my own. If it had not been for the Tech Fellowship, I feel the students in my class would have not have been exposed to the same learning environment.  I am truly glad that I took the chance to enter into this program.

Technology has put the learning into the hands of the students in the form of sites beyond that of the old standards of Google and Wikipedia.  Now students have immediate access to tools such as GoFormative, Quizizz, and Edpuzzle (click the links for sample lessons / assignments used).  These tools allow students to gain knowledge either on their own or through collaborative learning - providing students of different learning styles and preferences access to the material. In addition, I have used Haiku discussions in class allowing all students the ability to enter into a class discussion regardless of their public speaking comfort level. Lastly, Google Forms is an easy way to collect data from students on how they perceive the value and effectiveness of a lesson or concept, especially a new way of introducing a topic.

One specific lesson I'd like to share revolves around a hyperdoc my coach and I created about the most important Supreme Court cases that Earl Warren had a part in deciding. The hyperdoc walks you through the 5 tasks that students engaged in over the course of 3 class days.

The goal of this assignment was to expose the students to historic Supreme Court cases that have an impact on our lives as a whole, both through rights of the accused as well as free speech issues.  Students know of their rights but assume that these rights, lawyer, remaining silent, evidence obtained from illegal searches being inadmissible have always been the case.   

By organizing the assignment this way, students understand the time frame in which so many iconic Supreme Court decisions were rendered.  They are amazed that these rights they take for granted were argued and decided less than 60 years ago.
Resources:

• Blank Hyperdoc (embedded below)
• Hyperdoc - Student Sample 1, Student Sample 2
• Presentation - Student Sample 1, Student Sample 2

Looking Forward...

Next year I would like to start to emphasize and use hyperdocs more to create more long term assignments of more than just a day or two allowing deeper understanding of the impact both short and long term in the material covered in CP US History. I've already started to work on one with my coach about US Foreign Policy over time. It is still a work in progress (I'm prepping it for next year), but you can check out what I have so far here.

Looking Back

I cannot begin to state how effective this fellowship has been on my teaching.  I went from someone who would not use certain lessons that fellow teachers would use because I was unfamiliar with technology or a techno-phobe.  I was leary of using technology solely for the sake of using technology.  Students having their computers in class has gone from once or twice  a week, to nearly daily, such as having a pencil and paper.  The fact that I was willing to try technology to help my students to engage in their learning by the use of technology helped me to get over the fear of the use of technology for things other than attendance and grades. It also help me to see that the things that worked best in my classroom and worked best for my students were usually technology-based.

Ken Cooper is a US History teacher at Beckman High School as well as the ASB Director for the school. He enjoys teaching and the interactions both inside and outside of the classroom. Before coming to teach in Tustin Unified in 1996, he student taught at Troy High School in Fullerton and worked in Orange Unified.

Scaffolding Reading Comprehension in a Foreign Language Class

I wanted to share a lesson from one of my fellow's classes.  Helping students in Spanish 3 to get comfortable with reading their first novel that is fully in a foreign language requires a lot of support and scaffolding.  Not only do they need to understand grammar and vocabulary used throughout the novel, but they also must be able to piece everything together enough to comprehend the storyline. 

To facilitate this learning, we decided to utilize several instructional strategies (both with and without tech) that would allow students to process their reading.  As students worked through the novel, we tried to utilize different strategies (matching with each of the four goals below) to keep students on their toes and to keep things fresh.

The goals for the novel & strategies to help meet each goal.

STEP 1: Prepping for Comprehension + Working with Vocab / Verb Tenses

Before reading the first couple pages, students read a summary passage that one of last year's students had written. Using GoFormative, they edited the passage for grammar, verb tense, and agreement. In addition to exposing them to new vocabulary and helping them build their skills around using the correct verb tense, reading the summaries helped to prepare their minds for what they would see next.

STEP 2: Reading & Annotating chapter (supported with TPR)

While students could have used Google Docs or Kami (PDF annotation) to read and annotate the novel, we wanted them to do this on a hard copy so they wouldn't have to be navigating between multiple screens for the upcoming activities.  In addition, because this is their first exposure to reading a novel completely in a new language, we wanted to keep the "comfort" of being able to read and annotate with pencil & highlighter.  After reading and annotating the first 4 pages of the novel individually, the students reviewed the events they had just read about through a TPR "Total Physical Response" activity, where Mr. Miranda guided the class in "acting out" what had happened.

STEP 3: Sequencing Key events together

Students then got in collaborative groups to put together a sequence map of the events in the novel. Utilizing Google Drawing's Explore feature, they were able to bring in images that helped to communicate what was happening in the story.  The goal of building the Google Drawing was to ensure students had a level of comprehension of the key events in the novel.

STEP 4: Writing about the key events in the chapter & Analyzing vocab / verb tenses

Lastly, they used Verso App to write their own summary, taking what they learned from the sequence map and putting it together in complete, comprehensible sentences, focusing on the vocabulary and appropriate verb tense. Once all students submitted their summary, they were assigned another student (Verso App keeps student names anonymous) to critique, evaluate, and make recommendations for how to improve their writing.  Because all posts in Verso are numbered, it was easy to give each student a number corresponding to a different post to evaluate.

One of the challenges is getting students to summarize in their own words and not just take key phrases from the novel.  To overcome this, we had to make the Verso response a "closed text" response (can't have the novel out).  Students could still access their Google Drawing sequence map to help with their writing.

alternate STEP 4: Speaking about the key events in the chapter

Using either Let's Recap or Adobe Spark, students summarize the key events in the chapter orally rather than in writing.  With Let's Recap, Mr. Miranda just saw their face via webcam, which allowed him to watch their pronunciation.  With Adobe Spark, students brought in images to aid in telling the story of the chapter.  You can see a sample Adobe Spark here.  The students recorded them in class, so there is background noise.  However, that does not take away from the goal of the activity.

Overall Reflection:
Students found most of the activities helpful (either "a little" or "a lot").  They were most uncomfortable with activities that forced them to speak (using Adobe Spark or Let's Recap), but that is a goal they are working towards and should get more comfortable over time. 

Improving Student Learning through Instant Feedback & Constant Communication (Tracy Dawson)

This is in a series of posts by teachers in the TUSD Connect Fellowship for the 2015-2016 school year. I hope you enjoy reading their reflections on the impact of technology in their classroom, specific tools and strategies that have made a positive impact on teaching and learning, and their goals moving forward.

Technology has transformed my classroom this year!

I have infused technology in my lessons in previous years but through this Technology Fellowship I have created a learning environment that is dynamic, effective, and efficient for my students all driven by the purposeful use of technology.  I teach Human Body Systems (HBS), AVID, and Biology CP and I have integrated technology into each of them in different ways.  

One of the major shifts this year in HBS is making my labs digital.  There is a lot that goes into digitizing a lab so the process has been quite an undertaking but the benefits make it completely worth the time invested.  I utilize Google Classroom in HBS (as well as in AVID and Biology).  The organization of Google Classroom and Google Drive has been a great way for my students to have a place to go to for all labs/handouts/links/announcements/etc.  It avoids students being confused on where to go to get the document or link and it allows for students to have a “homebase”.  In HBS, the students complete a lab about once a week and before digitizing my labs I was not completely satisfied with the way I was checking their progress or their understanding besides informal assessments and check-ins and Friday Quizzes (which at that point was a bit late).  I now can give every student real-time feedback as they are completing their lab through the great collaborative feature of Google Docs.  I have a running dialogue with my students about their lab and it is a place they can ask questions and I can clarify key points as well as checking in on their progress on the lab.  My HBS students are very comfortable with Google Classroom and Google Drive so I can ask them to take pictures of their dissections spur of the moment and they are able to digitally label them in a Google Drawing and upload them to Google Classroom so I can grade their dissections more thoroughly and they can have their labeled dissection to review. Here is an example of a labeled Digestive System from the Fetal Pig Dissection.  

Here are a few other ways technology impacted teaching and learning... with samples for you to look at!

• I embedded Quizlets into GoFormative for all three of my classes as formative assessments as well as review for the students.  Here is an example of a quizlet embedded into GoFormative for a Biochemistry review for my Biology CP class.  

• Google Drawings - The students created Google Drawings of concept maps for the Endocrine System as well as for the Insulin/Glucagon Feedback Loop in the Human Body.  Here is a Student Sample of the Insulin/Glucagon Feedback Loop.  In previous years, I had the students draw their concept maps and feedback loops on paper and I was not able to fully review them until they turned them in which was on the day of the quiz so it was too late to fix major misconceptions.  Having the students create them on Google Drawings allowed me to write comments on them as they were making them so misconceptions were dealt with right away.    

• I also used Quizizz, Socrative, Let’s Recap, and GoFormative to do concept checks and for the students to review for the quizzes and tests in our class.  Anatomy has a lot of terms that the students need to know and the spelling is important so the Quizlets I embedded into GoFormative were particularly helpful because they tested my students on definitions, spelling, and being able to label diagrams.

• I also utilized Google Forms (for reflections and to collect data), Padlet (get to know activity, summing up lessons, and reflections), and ThingLink (making a diagram of a cow eye more dynamic by adding “tags” to label each part, stating its function, and inserting videos).

• AVID - Digital Journals (student-teacher dialogue), Google Forms (grade reflections, submitting questions for Socratic Seminars).  All of these allowed me to actually read and provide timely feedback to each of my students which was more difficult and time consuming to do when they wrote their journals on paper.  Before I digitized the journals and reflections in AVID, it took me so long to read them and I felt that in the time it took for me to get my written feedback back to my students, part of the impact of the feedback was lost.  Now, I am able to give immediate feedback and it helped me in the beginning of the year to get to know my students very quickly.

• Biology - Collaborative labs on Google Docs, Google Forms (submitting lab data, reflecting on test/unit/grade in class), Google Slides (visual vocabulary), Google Drawing (Karyotype Activity), Quizizz, GoFormative, and Padlet.

I am very excited to continue to refine my use of technology in my classroom next year.  This summer, I plan to complete the certification and exams to become a Google Certified Teacher (Levels 1 and 2).  I am also planning on taking two technology courses online (“Flipping the Classroom” and “All Things Google”).  Finally, my new obsession, Twitter!  I will continue to connect with educators on Twitter to grow and develop my purposeful use of technology in the classroom.

I cannot begin to say how impactful this fellowship has been on my teaching practice.  I went from someone who would sometimes shy away from using certain things because I assumed the students wouldn’t have their devices (mostly in Bio) or not knowing if it was going to work well to now wanting to try every awesome idea that I come across!  Like most things in a teacher’s classroom, if it is set as an expectation from the beginning of the school year, then a teacher will have a lot less trouble during the year.  In my class, having your device everyday is like having a pencil and paper.  I also found the more willing and open I am to trying new things in my classroom, the more willing my students are.  There were times when I used a certain technology in my class and I thought “that was okay” but I can make it way better by tweaking a few things or using a different technology to accomplish the same goal in a more effective manner.  But the fact that I was not afraid to try the technology and my students were willing to engage in their learning through the use of a specific technology helped me to discover the things that worked best in my classroom and worked best for my students.

Tracy Dawson is a Human Body Systems, Biology, and AVID teacher at Beckman High School in Irvine, CA.  She is an innately curious person and considers herself a “lifelong learner”.  Tracy is a self-professed science and tech nerd and loves to be constantly adding to her “tech toolbelt” and enhancing her teaching and her students’ learning through the purposeful use of technology.  Tracy also serves as AVID Coordinator and a mentor teacher in the science department.  

Going Forward with GoFormative and Desmos (Hanalee Chung)

This is in a series of posts by teachers in the TUSD Connect Fellowship for the 2015-2016 school year. I hope you enjoy reading their reflections on the impact of technology in their classroom, specific tools and strategies that have made a positive impact on teaching and learning, and their goals moving forward.

Technology has streamlined the teaching process and has made it easier to demonstrate concepts that were once too abstract to explain in the traditional manner (verbally and visually on a PPT or whiteboard). Technology has put the learning into the hands of the students as manipulatives, examples, and exploratory tools (GoFormative, Desmos, Socrative, and Quizalize) -- providing students of different learning styles and preferences the opportunity to see mathematics in a different manner.

In GoFormative, students are able to move at their own pace, and many of them enjoy receiving instant feedback; however, what was traditionally done on paper and needed time to grade and return, we can do it instantaneously on GoFormative. For instance, I uploaded a graph onto GF and had students graph their lines on the program. From there, I would grade their work using the colorful bar on the bottom of the screen. This can all be done simultaneously as the students are working.  You can check out the assignment shown below with the Teacher Share Code: KDXH246

  In Desmos, students were allowed to go at their own pace, and many students who were able to finish independently were given the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge/skill in a creative task that applied their new knowledge/skill. (student names have been changed to be anonymous)
  In this activity, students were taken through a series of slides that helped students “discover” the equation of a circle by guiding them and allowing them to experience the functions of the different parts of the equation -- facilitating their understanding of the different parts as well as the equation as a whole. Activity can be found here: https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/571e81a46c2f4c2e0be6f40f

Next year, I want to start incorporating more resources on Haiku (OfficeMix PPTs, videos from Sphere, which is our document camera recording software) that students can access before, during, and after the unit -- in a way, it would be great to start gradually flipping my classroom so that the instructional time can be used for in-depth, creative, and higher-order-thinking activities (rather than the distribution of information).

The Tech Fellowship provided me with the safety and confidence to try various technological tools and devices that I would not have normally explored on my own. In addition, because the fellowship was based on collaboration, it was great to receive input and learn about new tools online that I would have never come across. For instance, I would have not known about Quizizz, GoFormative, Quizalize, and OfficeMix if it had not been for the Tech Fellowship.

My name is Hanalee Chung.

I was born and raised in Guam for 14 years before moving to Rancho Cucamonga, California before my freshman year in high school.

I obtained my undergraduate degree at University of California, San Diego in Psychology.

I became interested in becoming a teacher when I volunteered as a math tutor for a research study that mapped brain waves of young learners. In order to explore my interest further, I interned as a Teaching Assistant at The Preuss School, a charter school located inside UCSD's campus.

I then went on to get my Secondary Teaching Credential in Math at University of California, Irvine.  I love coming to work everyday, and I have enjoyed improving my practice by being a fellow this year!

Evolving (Darin Hallstrom)

This is in a series of posts by teachers in the TUSD Connect Fellowship for the 2015-2016 school year. I hope you enjoy reading their reflections on the impact of technology in their classroom, specific tools and strategies that have made a positive impact on teaching and learning, and their goals moving forward.

When I first started teaching, I promised myself that I would be an innovator…and I have been.  But, this year, my growth has been exponential, and the impetus for that growth resides in my role as a fellow.  

Crystal Kirch, my DLC, will tell you that the word “purposeful” has driven our work this year.  For instance, I am not interested in blindly adding a tech factor to my lessons, or using technology just to be different and edgy and current.  The technology I have incorporated this year has aided my instruction – or I have not used it.  Rather, I have developed lessons solely because of the learning opportunities that the technology allows.  If an app will allow me to provide students with more immediate feedback, I’ll use it.  If a website will allow my students to collaborate more effectively, I will use it.  If software exists that will allow my students to learn with greater facility, I’ll use it.  These principles have guided me this year.  Fortunately, apps and websites and software DOES exist that will allow my students to learn and grow with greater ease, and incorporating them into my curriculum has been the most rewarding work I have completed.

A few examples…

Formative:

This is the website I use most often simply because it works so well for feedback.  I can immediately see the progress my students are making on writing assignments, and I can help them modify and improve their work before they submit.  The assignment below was an evidence-gathering activity used in conjunction with The Old Man and the Sea unit in my Freshman Transitional English class.  Timely feedback is critical in this class because most students are not as adept at writing as they should be.  It is incredibly beneficial to correct writing and grammar errors as they make them; doing so helps students learn to make modifications in their own grammar and syntax.  For example, my typical procedure for a Formative assignment is to 1) introduce the assignment, 2) model the assignment, and then 3) allow students time to start.  After 5 - 10 minutes, I’ll log in to “Live Results” on Formative and start reviewing students’ work.  It never fails:  Almost immediately, I will observe a “teachable moment” that I will bring to their attention.  I’ll project one or two students’ work on the screen and then commence the compliment/issue/problem. In the example below, for instance, I used the partially completed student examples to discuss the effective incorporation of quoted evidence into an argumentative literary analysis.

Verso:

A terrific app for collaboration.  The assignment below was a collaborative effort involving three or four students per group.  Immediately after submission, students were able to evaluate the work of their peers anonymously (each was color-coded only when viewed in class) and determine superior and exemplary models.  The comments students offered were carefully contemplated as well.  It was extremely meaningful for students to have their opinions taken into consideration in the evaluation process.

Newsela:

I am routinely looking for insightful, relevant articles for my students to read, and this website provides them.  In addition, the fact that the reading level can be adjusted is incredibly helpful.  For example, I will adjust the reading level for my English 1 Transitional class to account for their language facility.  I do not automatically adjust the level to the lowest level either.  Instead, the lexile is adjusted based on the complexity of the article and the purpose (annotation, comprehension, etc.) The good news is that the articles do not get “dumbed down;” the content and message remain the same.   

Kami/Google Classroom:

After an entire year of searching for an effective annotation tool for text and poetry, Crystal introduced me to Kami.  Kami is an app you can find in the Chrome Web Store; it gets connected to your Google Drive so you can open PDF files with it in order to annotate. The annotations can be highlights, underlines, strikethroughs, text boxes, comments, or drawings.It has a terrific, easy-to-use interface that my students adapted to almost immediately.  It syncs perfectly with Google Classroom, making it both easy to use and easy to grade.

PearDeck:

I really enjoy PearDeck; it may replicate my style of teaching better than any other app I have tried. A significant part of that feeling comes from the fact that the teacher can control the pace of the lesson on PearDeck.  I can control the slides and the flow of the questions.  Therefore, when we are completing an activity like the one below for example, where the students need to consider possible symbols and metaphors in The Great Gatsby before casting a vote, this opportunity becomes essential.  Why?  The one drawback to many apps is what I call the “behind-the-screen” factor:  Too many students simply put up the screen and disappear.  I want my students collaborating and talking and communicating and sharing.  PearDeck allows me the control to encourage discussions rather than simply having kids “disappear” to complete an assisgnment before the end of the period.  I can delay the next slide or I can push it through, based on the level of discourse in the room.

How do you want to continue to grow next year?  What are your goals and plans for progressing from where you are now?

I am definitely going to continue my growth next year.  Although I am a little worried that my time will not be as well-managed without a set weekly appointment to discuss technology, I am bound and determined to keep innovating.  I can keep myself motivated and focused on change.  In addition, I have forged new relationships with other teachers - in and out of my department - who are enjoying similar levels of innovation and experience with apps and websites and new tech-based teaching styles.  It is gratifying to collaborate with others - even if they are completing a math lesson as I plan a poetic deconstruction.

My plan for next year is two-fold:  I will continue to find apps and websites that supplement my teaching style and my objectives, and I will continue to utilize those tech aids I discovered and implemented this year.

What impact has the Tech Fellowship had on your teaching practice?

I sincerely cannot overestimate the impact that the Tech Fellowship has had on my instructional practice this school year.  The weekly appointments, the regular check-ups, the opportunity to keep a journal, the reflective requirement … all of it has combined to provide me with a lifetime of technology assistance in just one year.  Best of all, however, has been the guidance and support provided by Crystal Kirch.  She is the consummate professional:  approachable, knowledgeable and capable. I am often amazed at her willingness to assist.  Best of all, she does so with a steady focus on student achievement.  Working with her, I am often reminded of one of my favorite quotes:  “If you are too comfortable, you will never change.”  Crystal respectfully makes you just uncomfortable enough to want to change.  With great facility and endless expertise, she demonstrates that there is a better way for kids to learn, and she provides the support and patience and time necessary to make that change happen.  Honestly, this has been one of the best years in my 25-year teaching career, and I owe a tremendous amount of that credit to her influence.

My name is Darin Hallstrom. I have worked as a public school instructor for 25 years.  I love my job.  I work very hard to make lessons meaningful and purposeful for my junior Honors and freshman Transitional students at Beckman High School.  My room is always open; please feel free to come by and watch my amazing students learn and grow.

Follow me @DarinHallstrom