Math and Learning from Students

I have been struggling this year as a math and science teacher to implement technology as much as possible.  I decided to reevaluate the technology use and find ways to use technology WELL instead of using technology OFTEN.  The reason I say this is I can find a lot of ways to substitute the technology into my instruction for both math and science, but I want create opportunities that lets me learn more about students' understanding, thinking and learning.

Jennie Magiera and Anita Huffman are both guiding forces in my implementation and I look to them often, especially since they both have used technology in the math classroom.  I have followed their sage advice and have set my courses up in Schoology for easy workflow with students.  I have also used Doceri app for students to screencast their thinking with problem solving.  This week, I had students show how to use the partial sums and column addition algorithms.  I LOVE being able to see my students work and solve problems, as well as having the feature of "comments" on the video they upload to give them quick feedback.  In the video below you can see the students makes a mistake but then corrects it!

One area of focus a team of math teachers at my school has been working around is CCSS Standards of Mathematical Practice 1.  The big idea of "does this make sense" and did I explain the "why" problem solving is missing from a majority of students work currently.  I create a rubric to help assess what students are submitting.  But I believe I need to model more explicitly for them these two big ideas.

I am hoping that with modeling, the rubric and more practice my students will continue to grow with their problem solving skills. As I work in each unit of the math curriculum I am finding new ways to implement technology tools in a thoughtful way.

It's in the Way that You use It: ClassDojo

Eric Clapton's song, "It's in the way that you use it" always makes me think of technology use. Although I am sure it wasn't written with that intent, creative interpretation here, I guess. Yet, when I thought of ClassDojo I only saw the negative ways it was shared in classroom and I viewed it as an excuse to not build relationships, to assign points, openly share the "winners and losers" in the classroom.  Which is not the way I work or want my classroom to work.  But I never allowed myself to imagine it being used in other ways.  My teaching partner, Sherly Chavarria, asked me my opinion in which I shared similar to what you read above.  But she had already started to see the tool in a new and different way.  She agreed that she didn't want to use it as a public board of behavior, but valued other areas of the tool and highlighted some of those to me.

I'll admit I was reluctant, but I trust Sherly's judgement and I gave ClassDojo a second look.  What I found is ClassDojo is a system like any other, it can be used for good or for evil, its in the way that you use it.  Jennie Magiera and I have often shared with others how tools considered evil can be used for good ranging from social media to Jennie's instructional videos.  What it comes down to is people see a tool as one thing, but it can be re-imagined into a variety of tools and uses.  I can now see ways ClassDojo can work for me.

Here are some aspects I am excited about:

• Data: The system shows me by class, by student and offers daily or a variety of over time looks at student positive and negative points.  I can see the value of this with students, parents and administrators in conversation as well as data for Special Education services around behaviors.
• Access: Students and parents can log in and see a private view of student information.
  
• Download reports: Download any of the individual or class reports and now they can be shared easily through email.
• Add and delete indicators: I wanted a way to track "behaviors" but also wanted to personalize the items for transitions in hallways, homework completion and other school specific things like our schools Eagle Coins to recognize students.  All easy to add.  If there were indicators I disagree with or don't want they were just as easy to delete.
• Import feature: I see two classrooms of students, I can easily import all my new indicators across classes, great for teachers wanting the same standard but assigned to multiple class lists of students. 
• Mobile: ClassDojo can now be used on a mobile device and you do not need an internet connection to use it.

As always nothing is perfect! As I start to use it this list my grow, but now there is one feature I would love to see added to the ClassDojo features.

What I would ask to be added:

• Multiple Teacher Access: I share my classroom with Special Education co-teachers, I have student teachers in the past, having access for all teachers to one class would be amazing.

Like any tool, its all in the way that you use it. 

Mystery Skype

Students were able to mystery skype with another science classroom in Huron, Ohio.  The students did well at their task, speaking, locating the class and using social media to connect with students in another classroom.  This was the first mystery skype we have done this year and it was successful for the following reasons:

• Using Langwitches Blog for great assessment and planning information
• Assigning jobs to students: questioners, answerers, greeter, partners: edmodo and map teams
• Practicing with questions that would be given in the "real" skype
• Practicing finding mystery locations with our questions

Silvia Tolisano's website host great ideas for digital learning, but her Skype resources were really helpful for me to execute a plan for my students and make sure the call was meaningful to our digital learning.  After we assigned jobs, read over the class questions, it was time to practice!  This step was really helpful for the students to practice both answering questions, using the questions, and working with a partner to narrow down the location of the classroom.  Two teachers skyped in from down the hall and created a "mystery" location for the students to work on.  The students teamed up as partners, one person had the skitch app open to the U.S. map and used the annotation tool to cross of states that were not the mystery location based on the questions and answers.  We also practiced answering the questions the class would ask us the following day.  (Sending the questions between teachers before hand is extremely helpful!) The partners on edmodo were able to share what the team was doing on the class backchannel.  This teamwork allowed students to work together and also share ideas if another team was not on the right track via edmodo.

When we skyped with the class on the actual mystery skype, the plan and practice the day before paid off.  The students were able to work comfortably with the map and edmodo and also had practice at being "on screen" for the Skype call.  They were able to locate the state after all the questioned were asked and they felt successful in the task.  After the skype we used edmodo again to backchannel our learning and ideas.  These became the tweets we composed to share our mystery Skype with a larger audience.

We are looking forward to connecting with other classrooms around the country through Skype! 

Learning Together

Last week, I had the opportunity to present at the Chicago Public Schools iPad Academy about how my students are using Mental Note as multimedia science journals to teachers using or hoping to use iPads in the classroom.  The developer was nice enough to offer the participants a free app code to use and try the application after I showed the ways my students were able to use the application in the science class and also my goals for the future use of the application.  I was happy to share how I was using the app and how it was changing the way my students were developing their science knowledge.   I was able to share my ideas and get ideas from teachers as we had an informal discussion about the app and possibilities.

Or, how could this just be better?

What I learned at the conference though goes beyond presenting and seeing presentations. I was reminded, that for me, the deepest learning and best idea generation happens in a social setting of conversation.  After the conference, I evaluated all of my avenues of learning: twitter, reading blogs, reading books, going to conferences and trainings and I realized that the learning is similar to our classrooms in the way that it is mostly a one-way street.  The information or ideas are presented by others in a variety of formats and I make a decision to learn from it or to ignore it, much of the same way our students make the choice in our classrooms to participate in the learning or not.  The most beneficial and most engaging learning I experienced was through conversation about a range of ideas with other teachers who pushed beyond the conventional and pushed the thinking of those in the room. Some of these teachers are the same people I am learning from online, yet it was so much richer because it wasn't my consumption of their ideas and learning, but a collaboration and a conversation.  


This has created a focus for me to attempt to create the same culture in my classroom for the next school year and have students build their knowledge together and in conversation.  As well as a push to use technology to not only create records of their ideas and learning but to use it as a platform to start conversations and to generate new ideas.

After leaving this great event and reflecting on all the great teachers and ideas, I was saddened that the conversation was over...for now. Yet we have the technology to change this for both ourselves and the students we serve.  I am excited to try to continue the conversation with some of Chicago's most amazing teachers and have our students join in!