3 Rules to Practice for Good Digital Citizenship

With lowering the legal age on Facebook in the news, it is even more important that our students now learn how to practice good digital citizenship.  Although there does not seem to be “rules” out there in cyberspace, students need to be aware that there are.  We should have the same expectations of tolerance, manners, and civil discourse that we have in face to face conversations.  Bringing these tools into the classroom is an excellent opportunity to gets our students engaged in content and teach them civil discourse and proper communication skills in a digital world.

Good digital citizenship is no accident

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice!  The same thing goes for teaching students good digital citizenship skills.  I have found that teaching three fundamental rules and allowing students to practice digital citizenship, got my students off on the right foot.  Mary Beth Hertz’s blog entry at Edutopia.org points out that we as teachers need to pay as much attention to teaching digital citizenship as we do teaching them to become good classroom citizens. 

Three Fundamental Rules

When practicing good digital citizenship, I taught my students three fundamental rules:

1. Show Respect:   Many people, adults and children alike, feel a certain freedom when they are “hiding behind” a screen name or computer screen.  Some use this freedom to express their opinions more freely and some use it to lash out.   Students using screen names and avatars in online discussions should be taught that the rules of class discussion – respect, staying on topic, and clear communication- carry into the online world.  Before you enter into an online discussion tool like SCAN from TregoED , Collaborize Classroom, or Edmodo you should make your expectations clear.  You can find a great set of rules to teach students to “Interact with Tact” or practice the 10 Core Rules of Netiquette.  These lists of rules point out seemingly obvious things like  “politeness counts” and “avatars are people too” and explain how they apply  to digital discussions.
2.  Practice Civil Discourse:   Before they go online, give your students the “Dos and Don’ts of Online Student Conversation”, a set of guidelines focused on teaching students how to practice civil discourse.   This set of guidelines from Collaborize Classroom gives students some great pointers like “critique the content and not the person” and comment starters to use when they are engaged in debate online such as:

·         I respectfully disagree with Lawrence’s assertion….

·         I really appreciate Deborah’s insight into….

·         Thank you, Manuel, for sharing….

·         Great point, Angela! Have you considered…?

Great models for practicing civil discourse.

3.  Stay on Topic:  It is perhaps a reluctant teacher’s number one fear that students will say something inappropriate online.  When students have the opportunity to talk in class, you run the same risk.   Why would you expect anything different in online discussions?  Although students may be more tempted to speak out of line in an online discussion, you will also have a clear record of it.  No more, “he said, she said.”  I find pointing this out, monitoring the conversation and addressing students that stray, can help teach them this very important lesson.

There are lots of opportunities, platforms and guidelines to have students practice good digital citizenship in any content area, that are free, flexible and private- perfect practice rooms to get students started on a path of good digital citizenship.  How do you incorporate lessons in digital citizenship in your classroom?

3 Great Questions for Discussions Around Bullying

Remember when driving drunk was a minor offense?  It was legal to harass someone?  Moon someone??  There is no doubt that while many new laws have made our lives safer and more civilized, there are many people who think that the rush to legislate personal decisions (like helmet and seat belt laws) curtails our rights and should be left up to the individual.  Others think that clearer laws are necessary to keep up with the times. 

Recent headlines have turned this debate towards bullying, specifically cyberbullying.   This is a great opportunity to turn the question over to your students to help them develop respect for different points of view, think critically and speak and write persuasively.  This week Dharun Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail for webcam spying on his college roommate who killed himself in the aftermath.   There are many different perspectives on the outcome of this trial, and many thought that the charges did not fit the crime.    

Should more laws be written to deal specifically with cyberbullying?  Viewpoints range from “not every tragedy should lead to prison” to “privacy invasions last forever.”Why not have your students examine these different perspectives – legal, psychological, cultural- as they apply to bullying?  Room for Debate  is a discussion forum of the New York Times that can provide your students with great written essays from knowledgeable professionals reflecting these perspectives and more on Cyberbullying and a Student Suicide. 

Should offensive opinions and hurtful statements be protected by the First Amendment?  How about having students look at bullying through the lens of the First Amendment?  How do you distinguish between free speech and bullying?  Where is the line between free speech and harassment? Do state bullying mandates leave any wiggle room for common sense?  This Edweek article “Groups Urge Balance Between Censoring, Stopping Bullies”  can provide students with highlights of the recently published guidelines “Harassment, Bullying and Free Expression:  Guidelines for Free and Safe Public Schools."

What do you think should be done about bullying? 

How about having your students look at different student perspectives?   Common Sense Media provides the lesson “Taking Perspectives on Cyberbullying” featuring video clips of the Friday Night Lights TV show, providing a lesson plan complete with student worksheets and  video clips.  (caution:  may only be appropriate for older students due to clip content)

You can have students practice civil discourse on these issues practicing good digital citizenship using the SCAN tool at TregoED.  Just register and set up the free cyberbullying lesson for the private URL for your class.   Students will read the cyberbullying scenario and discuss the issues and possible solutions guided by the SCAN problem solving strategy (See the issues, clarify the issues, Ask what’s important and Now, what should be done?) from the built in different points of view.  SCAN is a great way to teach students civil discourse and empathy as they represent the point of view of parents, teachers, administrators and bullied student and collaborate on solutions.

The question remains, do we need to use the criminal justice system to battle cyberbullying or would teaching civility and respect be a more effective solution?  Either way, discussing the question can help students practice those attributes, while they learn to think critically, read and write on this relevant and authentic topic. 

Keep on Teaching: Great EOY Activities

My first principal (I broke in quite a few over the years) had a few tenets that he swore by.  One of them was “DON’T STOP TEACHING” (this was before capital letters were considered offensive).  At the end of each year, he had a (typed) memo that he gave us with a list of 35 things that you had to do to get your last paycheck:  inventory your room, collect books, turn in summer address, turn in your technology (which consisted of an overhead and filmstrip projector) and a host of other things.  Tucked in amongst those items at item # 17 was “DON’T STOP TEACHING.”  It was good advice, students were bored with busy work or erasing the marks out of their books.  I found giving them meaningful collaborative tasks (besides erasing the blackboard/whiteboard/hard drive), kept them learning and kept me sane!

 Now is a great time to break out some simple technology infused activities to jazz up your final days.  Here are somethings I have tried:

Vocab Videos:  Borrowing the idea from the Vocab Video site that features great videos done by students to illustrate SAT vocabulary words, I had my students make a short video for any of the vocabulary words we used all year.  Using the videos from site as a model, my understood the basic format expected.  They came up with great, creative work, using webcams, cell phones or whatever video equipment and Windows Movie Maker.   We shared them in class and have saved them to share with future classes.  A great review for them, appropriate for any subject area, and you can even have students vote on them using www.polleverywhere to award Oscars.  Your students will be engaged until the last bell of the last day!

Want to keep kids writing?

There are more than 59 different engaging tools at readwritethink.org.  You can have students make comic strips, do “Eye on Idioms,” write poetry, generate trading cards for characters, etc.  These simple and engaging tools even come with lesson plans!  They do not require registration, just send them to the site and they are off!

You could have students write a newspaper article/press release  about all they accomplished this year and use the very simple “newsclipping generator”  to turn it into a newspaper clipping.

How about keeping them reading?

You’ll find lots of great articles geared for kids interests at tweentribune.  Students will find highly engaging articles in their area of interest:  fashion, food, movies, animals, school, science, health, sports, technology, US or World.  Articles, geared to kids, range from teachers eating bugs (who would not want to read about that?) or elephants playing harmonicas.   Have them find an article in their interest area and write a blog entry on it.

Looking for some Math activities? 

Have them watch some of these Mathsnacks or develop their own?

 

Looking for more low tech?

Check out these Top 12 Effective End of the Year Activities from Teachhub.  You’ll find a great list of ideas to chose from. 

Of course, students love using social media type tools like the SCAN discussion tool at TregoED or CollaborizeClassroom.  You can engage your students in guided online discussions on issues that concern them – like locker searches, bullying or cell phones in school as they read write and think critically.
New blog:  Check out "Engaging Activities for the Home Stretch" for a few more suggestions and take a look at these great sites to keep students engaged in the final hours!

The bottom line is that getting students involved in engaging tech infused activities can “keep them learning” until the last bell has rung.  What has worked for you?

Can you prepare kids for testing AND teach them to think?

A friend of mine was substituting in a classroom yesterday with students taking a practice NJASK test.  The students were writing in response to an article about changing Pluto’s status from a planet to a dwarf planet.   She was left speechless after reading the students' responses.  They wrote things that were totally off the topic, drew ridiculous conclusions, and most did not answer the question, etc.  She noticed that the students were using an acronym to help them with the mechanics of writing.  The mechanics did not seem to be the problem.  She was really shocked at the student’s inability to come up with reasonable content in their writing.

Community Reading Assignments
In discussing this with a colleague, it was mentioned that a neighboring school starts each week with an article that every student, teacher and administrator reads.   This seems like a pretty powerful practice to me, especially if teachers and students were using a critical thinking process that gave them a common vocabulary to discuss it.  What a great way to get kids reading, give adults connections, start conversations, develop critical thinking (and of course, raise those test scores)! 

SCANning Complex Situations
Having a set of common questions for all complex situations is a great way to get students in the habit of thinking and helping them develop content for their writing.   Who might have a point of view or opinion on the topic?  Who are the stakeholders?  What are some of the issues?  Which issues are most important?  What do you think should be done?  These higher order thinking questions are the basis for SCAN, the critical thinking strategy from TregoED.  (See the issues, Clarify the issues, Ask what’s important, and Now, what should be done?)  Getting kids reading informational text and SCANning is an excellent way to give kids practice for high stakes testing.  Giving them articles with relevance and of high interest is part of the equation.  Many of our students know how to write, they get the mechanics, but how do they learn “what to write?”  That takes some critical and creative thinking.

Technology Makes it Easy
How can teachers fit one more thing in the day?  Why not use social media and discussion platforms to deliver the articles and start the discussions?  Leveraging student enthusiasm for writing in social media platforms, complete with the ability to share and respond to others' writing is a great way to get students enthusiastically contributing.  The benefits are many – students are more engaged, writing for an audience of their peers is incentive for more careful writing, reading other students work gives them models to work from and it is great way to practice reading and writing short constructed responses

The SCAN Tool
Of course, using the SCAN tool at TregoED is the perfect way to get students practicing the steps of SCAN as the questions are built right into the discussion platform.  You just select a scenario (or attach an article), students pick a point of view and they enter the discussion with screen names and avatars.   Using a couple of SCAN sessions within your content area can give students a better understanding of the content area and familiarize them with the questions.    Each one of the steps progresses up the scale of higher order thinking and with student’s playing different roles they support their points of view with gusto!  SCAN has a library of lessons dealing with current events, social issues, history, and science.  These problem-based topics are perfect for getting students to look at other perspectives on hot issues while teaching them a critical thinking strategy. 

Collaborize Classroom
Collaborize Classroom also offers a discussion platform where it is easy to link and article and use the SCAN questions to start the conversation.  Bottom line, kids like to write in this kind of platform, share what they wrote and comment on each others' writing.  Practicing critical thinking with relevant informational text is a great way to get students prepared for those dreadful questions asked on high stakes testing without making them “practice taking the test!"  Technology can make it relatively painless!  A win-win!  

Do You Walk the Walk?

What do you get when you mix ISTE and NASA resources, a select group of educators from across the globe, and a challenge to create educational artifacts for teachers and students to learn about the Magnetospheric MultiScale Mission (MMS)?

You get educators walking the walk- incorporating web 2.0 tools and networking skills to build an international learning community – starting with a base camp at the Iste-Nasa Cyber Café Wiki and branching out to use Edistorm , Skype, google docs, Voice Thread and other tools  just to begin.  What a great learning experience to explore and utilize the capacity of some of these tools.  It increased my skills, exposed me to some great new tools and ways to use some old ones.  It also taught me the power of online collaboration with like and unlike minded educators.

 The results?  A series of showcases waiting to be unveiled on March 27^th at a synchronous celebration. 

Sneak Peak

I can share a little of ours now.  I had the pleasure of working with Jennifer Miller and her students in Dublin Texas and Tom Chambers a teacher of technology applications from Houston, Texas.   We put together the “Take the MMS Challenge” which features student research, application of the scientific method and culminating in students working as engineers, physicists, artists, or journalists to help others understand why the MMS mission is relevant in our everyday lives.

Our project can be found in this livebinder  with teacher guides, student activities, resources, web 2.0 tools and enrichment activities.  Feel free to get in there and “test pilot” the project or individual activities.  We would love your feedback!

Interested in introducing your kids to the mission, the Collaborize Classroom library has custom made questions in their library ready to go with links to some great videos and current events.  Great way to get kids reading informational text and writing for an audience!  Want to go further?  Try out the new SCAN lesson designed to get students to explore the relevance of the mission from different points of view.   “Space Exploration and You: SCAN The NASA MMS Mission” is a new free SCAN scenario designed to get kids thinking from different perspectives about the relevance of the mission. 

Now what?

Needless to say, it was a wonderful experience to walk the walk and integrate all of these tools to successfully make a professional learning community that spanned across the globe.  I am wondering how educators create these wonderful communities of learning for their students but do not create the same for their colleagues? 

Teachers Value Increases with Technology

I heard a story the other day about a man who slipped a disk when he was young and had extensive surgery resulting in a six inch scar and a six month recovery period (and a whole year out of PE!).  Ten or so years later, he slipped another disk.  This time the surgery was not as extensive, the scar not as long and the recovery period was shortened to a week or so.  Recently a friend of his had the same surgery.  This time it was out-patient, a half-inch incision and back to work two days later.  We all know that there have been great advances in medicine through the wonders of technology, but even more amazing was all three surgeries were by the same doctor.   Of course, we expect our doctors to keep up with all the latest techniques and technology – or be the target of malpractice suits.

The gentleman telling the story (and main character) was Jon Landis, a former educator and Development Executive with Apple Inc. at the recent NJAET conference.  Although I may not have gotten all the details of his story perfect, I did get the point.  His point was that technology has drastically changed the way that we all work and learn.  Teaching is no different.  Technology is not replacing us but making us more valuable.  We cannot stay in the classroom and ignore the communication revolution that is all around us.
Landis pointed out that "your value as a teacher is no longer your ability to deliver content, content is free, content is ubiquitous, content is good."  We may have been replaced as content providers,  however, our job is even more important now.  Students need to be able to digest content, not just spit it back out.  We need to help our students understand the context, take it apart, and reassemble it into relevant connections and original thought.  No easy task.

He is right, of course, content is ubiquitous.  One need only look at the various free offerings from Kahn Academy (over 3000 videos to “Watch. Practice. Learn almost anything for free.”) or through iTunes U (with a growing library of courses and the ability to create your own) to see the overwhelming amount of content our students hold in the palm of their hand.  Class time, then, needs to become the time that students “play” with the content, contextualize, collaborate, apply and synthesize.
This is where having a good grasp on strategies to get our students thinking critically and creatively comes in to play.  We need to become the problem person, not the answer person.  Our classes need to be creative, with hands-on activities and engaging discourse.  I have found that online discussion platforms strengthen engaging discourse by democratizing conversations, allowing every student an equal opportunity to contribute.  These discussions can engage students in powerful ways, providing rich introductions or extensions to course content.

There is great power in using TED talks and activities to get students thinking about further applications and connections to course content.  Integrating tools such as SCAN (with the built in critical thinking strategy and representing different perspectives) and Collaborize Classroom  (with a full library of higher level thinking activities and interactive discussions) gives our students the opportunity to take an active role in their learning and provides teachers with a simple to implement lesson upgrade.

The bottom line is that, we, as teachers need to embrace the technology (As Landis stated “the internet is not a fad”) and adjust accordingly.  Just like our students, we need the time to “play” with all of the great content we receive on good teaching, time to practice, collaborate, and upgrade our lessons.  Start with some simple tools, one lesson or unit, one homework assignment, but get started.

Find the time to upgrade your lessons for the 21st Century

Over the last few weeks, I have heard some great ideas for making my lessons more effective in the classroom.  I am not resistant to change and technology integration, but like most, I don’t always have time for all of the logistics.  Guess what, I just found the time!
This is my lucky month.  No excuses!  I have an extra day!  Inspired by Heidi Hayes Jacobs (at FETC) I am going to take one small step and upgrade just one lesson for the 21^st Century. Why not ask your principal if you could leap over one faculty meeting and spend the time upgrading the content, skills and assessments to bring it into 21^st Century ?  Surely you have one lesson that could use an overhaul!   Technology can provide ideas, content, tools to help you do just that.

Looking for some ideas?  Visit www.curriculum21.com  for a comprehensive library of lessons that reflect upgrades in content, delivery, and assessments.

Upgrade your content by linking to videos from youtube or schooltube to give students a visual introduction to lessons.  Use Google News to search for current events on specific topics.  Visit the Library of Congress site to find primary documents.  There are many new ways to upgrade your content.  Did you know that Wikipedia is now considered as reliable as Encyclopedia Britannica?

Incorporate the 4C’s – creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication.
Is brainstorming part of your lesson?  Use wallwisher, linoit, or edistorm – simple post it note tools.  Students can see each other’s postings, reflect and comment on them.  Media and other resources can be attached to postings.

Do you hold class discussions?  Get kids started with a prompt in a discussion tool, like Collaborize Classroom  including visuals, informational text, etc to start the discussion at home.  Collaborize Classroom, a free discussion platform has a whole library of high quality questions that can be copied to your classroom site with the push of a button.

Are you looking for problem or challenge based learning?  Use the SCAN tool at TregoED to teach students a problem solving strategy based on the acronym SCAN.  Use the free problem based scenarios to have your students participate in a session practicing true collaboration.  Lessons are easy to set up and students just log in with a screen name (no registration, passwords, etc.)

No matter what you chose to upgrade, technology can decrease your workload, increase student engagement and give them opportunities to practice 21^st century skills within the content.

Take advantage of of leap day!  Take the time to take the first step.  (And while you’re at it, why not ask your principal to take the leap and let you use the time at another faculty meeting sharing your successes?)

Making Black History Month Relevant to Teens

Want to make your black history month studies more relevant to your students? Get them to think historically by getting them to “walk a mile in someone else's shoes.” 

Check out these great resources to get your kids talking about the Little Rock Nine- nine black students their age who were among the first to step foot in white schools after sixty years of “separate but equal” laws.

Start the discussion

Check out this Collaborize Classroom topic from the TregoED library “Put Yourself in the Shoes of the Little Rock Nine” which uses an interview with Melba Beals – as she describes her point of view as one of the Little Rock Nine students.

Follow it up with the free lesson:  “Desegregating Schools:  A Historical Perspective” from the SCAN library at TregoED.  Students will discuss the issues of desegregation through the eyes of Linda Brown, parents, community members and local police as they work to resolve the problems that occurred when the schools had to desegregate with “all deliberate speed.”

More Resources: 

Primary documents:

African American History Month resources

NY Times historical front pages

Children’s nonfiction titles:

Primary Source books, articles, etc.  

Online curriculum:

 Choices in Little Rock

Background information:

 On the Front Lines with the Little Rock Nine

Relevance and rigor:  the key to keeping kids engaged and thinking!

Celebrating Digital Learning Together

Students in Mrs. Portland’s class in Pottsville Area High School, recently celebrated Digital Learning day by joining in a classroom discussion with students hundreds of miles away at Mt. Olive High School in NJ.  Digital Learning Day, organized the Alliance for Excellent Education, is a “nationwide celebration of innovative teaching and learning through digital media and technology that engages students and provides them with a rich, personalized educational experience.”  On Digital Learning Day thousands of teachers and nearly two million students joined in encouraging digital learning by trying something new and showcasing their success.

Classroom Discussions in the Cloud
Students used the SCAN tool, designed by TregoED to promote critical thinking on complex issues, to examine the issue of cell phones in schools from four different perspectives.  As they played the roles of teachers, administrators, students and parents they brought out the issues, benefits and drawbacks, of using cell phones in school and collaborated on ideas to develop a working policy or plan to resolve those issues.  As students used screen names and avatars, they could not differentiate their classmates from their peers at the other high school.   Unlike a regular classroom discussion where some students may overshadow others, online discussions include all participants in the discussion.  The SCAN tool walks students through a problem solving process in an engaging Facebook-like platform.  

Many issues were brought out during the discussion including the use of smart phones for research and emergencies, as well as the distractions that they could cause in the classroom. Students made many suggestions that would allow for their use, and take care of the problems they might cause. 

Putting 21st Century Skills into Practice
This inter-school collaboration was a great example of using digital learning to strengthen the learning experience.  As all students were thoughtfully engaged in the discussion of the potential impact and pitfalls of the beloved cell phone in the classroom, they were also practicing using the 21^st Century Skills of communication, problem solving, collaboration and good digital citizenship. 

Online Discussions Defrost Brain Freeze

Do simple writing prompts freeze the minds of your students?  How do you use technology to help students flesh out their essays?  How can you help them get out of the "I don't know what to write, so I will write the same thought in 16 different ways?

Writing is often assessed for focus, organization, development of ideas, voice and conventions.   We found that most of our students were familiar with the writing process, but did not know how to develop their ideas into meaningful and detailed prose, a skill required in state testing.  How do we help our students develop ideas and voice when faced with a simple prompt?

 Improving Student Writing
Studies show that students’ writing improves when they have an audience and purpose, an interest or passion, and time to think about it.  Unfortunately, when it comes to high stakes testing, students don’t feel like they are given the time or information to develop the content.  We give them a process or strategy to deal with writing and mechanics, why not also give them a process to help them build a framework for developing their ideas?  Giving students practice and a set of questions can help improve their writing by helping them learn how to elaborate and incubate ideas from a writing prompt.  Using online discussion tools can help provide students with an engaging and motivational tool to practice this thinking process.

SCAN Online

Similar to Glogster, Voicethread, MovieMaker, PhotoStory and any number of other great Web 2.0 tools, the SCAN tool provides a communication interface for students to share, review and respond to each other’s work.   However, what elevates SCAN above all of the other tools is that students do not use SCAN after their research or thinking is complete.  SCAN actually provides a process to help students see other perspectives and develop a depth of understanding of the issues.  Exploring other perspectives and considering them in their writing can help students develop writing that is thoughtful and insightful.

 

Giving Kids Perspective

Using the SCAN online tool, students take on the part of a perspective provided in a scenario that they will represent by identifying and clarifying issues, assessing what is important and communicating what they think should be done.  This built-in process helps students collaborate to resolve the issues and present real solutions.  These same four steps (See the issues, Clarify the Issues, Assess what’s important, and Now, Name your next steps) can be used by students to help them develop a thoughtful essay when given a simple writing prompt. Simply going through these four steps in the pre-write, can help students avoid the “I don’t know what to write so I write the same thought over and over in different ways” problem.  We have found that using the SCAN tool can help our students assimilate this simple strategy to organize their thinking when faced with a simple writing prompt.

For resources to help students use the SCAN process in writing go to http://www.tregoed.org/teachers/students.html.

To see a short video on how the SCAN tool works go to http://www.tregoed.org/teachers/new-to-scan.html. 

Great discussions can lead to great writing!

Do you talk about race in the classroom?  Will students shy away from participating?  Using online discussion tools can help get all of your students involved in the conversation.  Modeling and practicing the rules of netiquette can make your students comfortable and feel validated.

Check out this lesson from the Collaborize Classroom library:
“Read this article with teen responses to the question “Has Martin Luther King’s dream been realized?"  Select one student’s answer and state whether you agree or disagree with their perspective.  If so, what strong points did he or she make? What could you add to his or her argument?
If you disagree, explain why. Identify areas of his explanation that were underdeveloped. What concerns do you have about this topic that he/she did not address?  After posting your response, read your classmates’ opinions and post a substantive reply to a student with an opposing viewpoint. Ask questions, present counterarguments and compliment strong points made.”

This assignment is a great prerequisite to writing a thoughtful essay.  Reading other student's answers can help jumpstart your student’s thinking.  Having students answer these questions in a free, private Collaborize Classroom will get them thinking and engaged.  Follow up with the “Dr. King’s Dream” SCAN lesson to increase their content knowledge.  You can improve your student’s essay writing by providing topics that are engaging and relevant, giving them time to think and access to resources.  Online discussion tools can get students involved in discussions to get them thinking and writing.

Discussing Discussions

As an old dog, always looking for a new trick, technology has taken on a large role in my professional development.  Beyond the faculty room and my colleagues, workshops, blogs, classroom, and webinars, this year I have discovered the discussion group to be one of the most valuable tools in my professional development tool box.  While I shied away from being involved in the original discussion groups on listservs, email groups that focused on one subject area, I have discovered that there are many online discussion groups full of great educators with all kinds of expertise, just waiting to give you advice and support at the click of the mouse.   Most recently, educators in the Teaching Writing Forum on the English Companion Ning had a great discussion centered on Problem Based Research.  All it took was a simple question – Have you done this?  How does it work? - to let the learning begin.  The input on this conversation ranged from great idea starters, mechanics, critical thinking strategies, to assessment.  Beyond the discussion forum, groups form around common interests and you can sort them by most active, etc.  What a great way to share ideas and resources!  In this community alone, there are 46 groups ranging from “Free to Educators” to “Collaborative Projects.”   Some of the other communities where I have found supportive, creative, active, and practical groups are the ISTE Community Ning, edweb.net, and LinkedIn.   Check them out!  Find a group and get in on the action.  You will find the feedback and creativity of these collaborative groups to be invaluable in professional growth as you do not have to reinvent the wheel.  Why not take advantage of the free advice of your colleagues and share some of your own?  Hmmmm...maybe I should start a discussion group on discussion groups!  What's your favorite?

Ripped from the Headlines

How do we keep our lessons relevant and rigorous?  Use information ripped from the headlines and a critical thinking strategy. 

Some of the best lessons are ones that apply the skills we are teaching to relevant scenarios.  Just looking at the headlines for today, I can see at least 10 engaging complex situations that students could use to practice their problem solving skills.  Current events can and should be used to increase our student’s exposure to informational text across the disciplines, as required in the common core.

 Today’s headlines include obvious connections with science, social studies and language arts curricula.  Quick discussions in science can come from posing questions that will apply scientific principals and environmental issues to the news – Should we have a bear hunt to control populations? Should parents opt out of children’s vaccinations?   Should raw milk be legal?  Who is responsible for paying for flood damage?  Should fracking be allowed? 

In social studies, current events can be used to look at current laws, cultural diversity, and society -What are the criminal charges resulting from a suicide in connection with cyberbullying?  Should Egypt ban the drinking of alcohol, bikinis and mixed bathing for tourists? Should local police in Arizona help enforce immigration laws? Should we change marriage licensing laws to take advantage of wedding tourism?  What can be done to decrease the amount of homeless children? Should people be able to bet from their computers or cell phones? Each of these news items give perspectives on complex issues that ask our students to think beyond just facts. 

 Language arts teachers are given the daunting task of keeping our students engaged in reading and writing everyday.  All of these current events can be used in the language arts classroom to increase reading and comprehension of informational texts.  Using the SCAN critical thinking strategy rather than the usual: who, what, where, when, how, and why, students will not only gain a deeper understanding of the problem but they can take their thinking one step further and propose their own solutions.

Using the SCAN strategy is easy (SCAN-See the issues, Clarify the issues, Ask yourself what’s important, and Now, what should be done?).  You can provide a simple, relevant lesson by having students read the article,highlight or research perspectives (from the article or other sources), brainstorm the issues, clarify the issues, determine what is most important and propose what should be done.   

Check out this great article about a school policy on cell phones.  The article includes points of view from board members, the board attorney, students and parents.  There are also some great opinions expressed in the comment section! 

To use SCAN with “no tech,” have students read a hard copy of the article, put them in groups to represent a point of view and discuss the issues. They can record their issues on paper or on poster sheets.   Jigsaw students so that each point of view is represented in a group and have them clarify their issues, determine which issues are most important by voting with dots from different color markers on the issue lists. Have students work together to determine what action should be taken.  A simple article is the basis of a simple lesson that includes active reading, critical thinking, collaboration, and relevant content! 

Go high tech and have students discuss the issues online through the SCAN online tool.  The lesson is free through this month.  Simply go to www.tregoed.org, (register-it’s free), and set up the lesson through your dashboard, print out a student worksheet, give students the url and they will be guided through the SCAN process online!

Either way, combining current events and critical thinking is a simple way to bring rigor and relevance to your classroom!

Online Discussions: Trick or Treat?

I love Halloween!  There is something about wearing a costume that is fun and liberating!  Who does not love to pretend to be someone or something else for a night?  I guess that is the appeal for many when they choose to represent themselves as someone else online. 

We often hear of the negative aspects of children using online discussion formats.  Hiding behind screen names is often the impetus behind cyber-bullying, etc.  However, using screen names and avatars in online discussions may also be the impetus for our students to get engaged in class discussions.  Guiding conversations, monitoring input and documenting transcripts of discussions can provide the supervision you need to eliminate the risks of using this format with your students.

Classroom discussions are usually dominated by a few “alpha” students who are eager to participate.  We can all envision those students, hands stretched high, waving fingers, literally or figuratively saying “ooo, ooo, pick me, pick me.”  How do you get that student who is desperately trying to NOT make eye contact with you or anyone else in the classroom involved in the conversation?  Social media may be the answer. 

I have seen web 2.0 tools such as collaborizeclassroom.com, wallwisher.com and the SCAN tool at TregoED  transform students from reluctant participants to vigorous commentators.  Online tools offer students a platform that they are familiar and comfortable with and give students a voice that is heard with equal merit to the rest.

Properly supervised, social media can help us get all kids in on the conversation and allow them to practice the skills they need to carry over to those times when their conversations are not monitored.  My experience has been that the benefits of online classroom discussion outweigh the risks.  What has your experience been?