Redefining Ready Scholarship: Student Perspectives

By: Kim Miklusak & Rachel Barry

District 214 has introduced a new scholarship opportunity for current seniors.  The District 214 Foundation is offering a $1,000 Redefining Ready Scholarship in a new and exciting format: a video!  For students to apply for this scholarship, they are to submit a 30-second video on how they found their career path and post it to Twitter with the hastag #redefiningready. 

We, Kim and Rachel, got involved in this project when the teacher of the Teacher Internship Class asked us to step in to show multiple apps for students to use to create these videos.  The apps included Adobe Voice, Explain Everything, Educreations, and ShowMe.  We showed students how the apps worked and what videos from the apps looked like and then discussed with them the pros and cons of each based on what they wanted to accomplish with their project.

Students were then given time over the next few weeks to work and explore the apps to see which would best tell their story.  Here are some finished student samples:

Patty's Student Example           Jasmine's Student Example

Here is what Jasmine had to say about the process:  

As soon as I heard about the #RedefiningReady Scholarship, I wasn't so sure, if I would want to record myself, because I am not a good speaker when it comes to recording myself, or me being recorded with a device. Then when I found out I have 2 of my classes that are giving us an opportunity to work on the Scholarship in class, I was starting to consider working on it. The next step was finding an app that I could use for the recording, which was not hard at all. I already had iMovie on my ipad for a previous class project. I then had to start writing a script and find pictures and music of what I wanted to say in the scholarship that shows that I am Redefining Ready. I changed my mind on what I wanted to talk about so many times! Once I got my script written out, I asked my brother to help me record myself [but he didn't, so] I had to figure out how to use voice over on imovie. It took me about 26 tries to get the right video that I wanted. i enjoyed making this Scholarship. I learned many new skills that I have never knew how to use them. I encourage all seniors this year and in the near future to take this opportunity.

More information about the scholarship can be found here.

Student Choice in Mathematics

By: Rachel Barry

Student choice is a great way to motivate students to learn, engage students in the course content, and allow students to take ownership in the classroom.  There are various ways to provide students with multiple modes of communicating their learning: PowerPoint presentation, storyboard, written essay, etc.  Technology fosters these modalities by providing students with the ability to record their thoughts, expand their knowledge through perusing online resources, and communicate with teachers and peers.

Sometimes providing student choice can be difficult as a teacher.  Aligning the curriculum with standards (whether ACT, PARCC, or College Board), unexpected days off, and students' prior knowledge all come into play when mapping out the scope and sequence of a course curriculum.  These constraints can eliminate the time it takes to effectively evaluate student learning through various modes of their choice.

When it becomes difficult to schedule big picture student choice options, I have tried to find smaller ways for students to take control of their learning in the classroom.  An good example of this is the topic of multiplying binomials.  Back when I was a student, I was only taught the FOIL method in grade school.   Now in teaching this topic myself, I have expanded the number of ways to solve these problems, geared towards the students learning style.  Not every student gets the FOIL Method, especially my visual learners, so I also show them the Box Method.  Our population also has a significant number of English Language Learners, who have previously learned the Long Distribution Method at their prior schools.  A couple years ago, I added another method, geared towards artistic students, that I learned from coworker called the Cresent Moon.  My students will watch these videos, try each method, and determine which way works best for them.

This is just one example of how education is evolving to include student choice.  By giving students various methods to approach problems, they are better equipped with critical thinking skills.  Every student learns differently, so I try to provide them with various paths to reach their understanding of the content .  I have found that students are more likely to pursue problems going forward when they have been able to try different approaches and determine which method works best for them.

My First Video!

By Mark Heintz

Last week, Christina Barnum taught a few teachers how to create videos for her Biology classes using the app Educreations.  It was another great example of how easy it is to make videos and the different ways to implement them in the classroom.  I have wanted for a few years now to create videos to help students learn the material. I keep seeing examples from my own students that reading at home or on their own is not the easiest way to learn history.

The book our district adopted is a challenge.  To be fair, I was on the textbook adoption committee and approved the book. But, I digress.  First, the books is at a college reading level.  Second, the book assumes the students have a great deal of back ground knowledge.  The book is great for students who know a lot of history, but almost all of my students are taking their first world history course. The students spend a lot of time outside of class trying to decode the text book.  No matter what pre-reading strategies are done in the classroom, it is still very hard for my students to comprehend the material.

To help the students at home understand the reading, I made my first video! It was on methods used by Europeans to imperialize between the years 1750-1900.  I used the software Screenflow.  It records your screen and can record you at the same time.  Using this software, I record myself while filming what is on screen.  I remember reading Paul Anderson's guide to video making who gave the advice of putting yourself in the video to make it more approachable.  I took his advice.

Overall, I learned a lot from my first video.  I spoke too fast and stumbled over words.  But, I love the idea.  The video is short and gets to the point. I made a few multiple choice questions to go with the video to have students self-assess their comprehension of their learning.   Now, I have the video forever. If a student is absent or is having difficulty understanding the material, they will be able to go back and re-watch it.  I have since made five videos in the past two days and am jonesing to make more. 

One last note.  Making the videos really was a self reflective process on what students need to know. I summarized the facts and story of history.  I feel like a true historian by pulling sources together to tell a story.  It is interesting to see what I leave out, include, and how I put the story together.  

Individualized ACT Math Prep

By Rachel Barry

In light of Illinois state testing this week, I decided to use this blog post to reflect on our ACT test prep course.  Four years ago, my coworker Ami Heng and I took over the math portion of the ACT prep course at our school.  We wanted to develop a course that was more individualized and technology-based for our students.  Our modes of providing resources to students have changed over time, as we originally had students using a Google Site on desktop computers and now students have a Schoology course on their own iPad, however, the process is very similar.  

Before I dive into our course, I would like to provide you with a little background information.  The ACT math test is based on eight pillars of topics in mathematics:

Ami and I read through numerous retired ACT tests to see which of these topics showed up the most often and analyzed data from prior junior classes to see which standards students struggled with the most.  Of the 126 standards, we chose to focus on a core of 62 standards.  As needed we have added some additional standards over the past couple years.

Our course is split into four days of math.  We paired the skills based on topic and number of standards under each category:

The BOA standards were covered in daily exit slips because students constantly struggle with word problems and the ACT is inconsistent with the types of questions asked in this category.

Each day, students would take a pre-assessment on a specific CRS band of skills, one question per standard.  Following the warm-up quiz, students would identify all of the topics that they got wrong.  This is where the individualization came into play; students would begin working on their own skills of weakness instead of going over topics that only some of the class needed help with.  

For each incorrect standard, there was a folder on Schoology.  In each folder, students would have four to five items, depending upon if there was a graphing calculator component to the standard.  Here is the folder for GRE 504: Midpoint of a Line Segment:

First, the students would watch a video, recorded using the Educreations app, talking them through the problem that they got wrong on the pre-assessment.  Then, they would watch a short lecture video on the topic (a notes sheet is provided).  The calculator video is optional, as it walks students through the steps to solve these types of problems using the graphing calculator.  Next, students download a set of 3-5 practice problems into their Notability app.  Upon completion, they type their answers into the Practice Quiz to see how they performed.  

This process would be repeated for all questions that they had answered incorrectly.  As mentioned before, the benefit to this model was that students were each addressing their individual weaknesses.  I observed increased engagement in students because the material was meaningful to them and their time was preserved.  With approximately every three new skills that a student masters, their ACT math score will go up a point.  With their weaknesses addressed in this course, students are provided with a targeted approach to success.

Another benefit is that the use of technology allows for students to continue to work on these topics outside of our meeting time.  I see Schoology notifications at all hours that tell me that students are working on this course.  Students can e-mail me outside of class if they are struggling with some of the practice problems.  Overall, I feel that students have been able to improve their scores with this individualized method of ACT prep.

Extending Learning Outside the Classroom

By Rachel Barry

When I was initially granted my 1:1 iPad pilot, I had hopes for my students to utilize the iPad beyond our 50-minute classroom.  Prior to my pilot, I would occasionally receive an e-mail from a student outside of class.  I would have to try to strategically type out answers (in words) to a math question, using terms and language they would hopefully understand.  Through the increase of technology, I have been able to provide my students with much more personalized, and hopefully more easily understood, responses.  

Through the use of the Educreations app, I am able to provide my students with "personalized tutoring".  By this, I mean that if they send me a problem or a screen-shot of their work, I am able to record a video talking them through the rest of the problem.  Students utilize this resource option when working on a review packet prior to a unit test, if they are absent from school, or simply when working on course material outside of class.  I then post any videos that I create to our Schoology course for all students to be able to access.

This mode of communication came in great use last Thursday, when we were out of school due to inclement weather, along with many Chicago area schools.  Kim Miklusak reflected on our students' remote learning in a blog post that you can view here.  Many students at our school utilized this day to continue their learning through accessing course work in Schoology, webinars with teachers, or communicating with teachers and peers through Twitter.  Personally, I was amazed and proud of how many of my students were working on their math problems from home and e-mailing me with questions!  My students were able to continue working through the course material and were not halted because they were confused by a problem.  Instead, they would send me an e-mail asking for help on a video, I would record an explanation, and they would be able to continue working.  Here is a sample video from the Cold Day, where I show a student how to set up a problem.

Please feel free to stop down in the Collab Lab if you would like any help recording videos!

Combining technology and AP standards

Today the CollabLab welcomes guest blogger Kirsten Fletcher, a French teacher at Elk Grove.  She can be reached @MmeFletch

One of the standards for the new AP French test requires students to listen to authentic texts. While searching for comprehensible texts this summer during an AP conference, I came across a project created by an elementary teacher in France called “Photo de classe."

This project contains several videos interviewing elementary students on a variety of topics: their families, immigration, languages they speak, racism and what it means to be “French.” In addition, each student created their own video talking about themselves. It seemed to me this fit in perfectly with the AP theme “Quête de soi,” or Personal and Public Identities.

So the question became, how to use this amazing resource in class? We began by listening to the videos posted on the site. Since it is authentic language (not created for Americans), students were exposed to grammatical structures and vocabulary that they would not otherwise have seen. After watching parts in class, students went home and watched videos to see what individual French students had to say about themselves. The next day, they summarized what they had seen in small groups. We brainstormed what elements we had seen in the videos that we could use to talk about ourselves.

Then I assigned a video self-portrait. We took the elements that we had determined constituted “identity” and students had to include many of them in their project. First, they made a PicCollage as a starting point for their self-portrait. Then, they wrote out their presentation in a Google Doc and gave me permission to edit. After revising based on my suggestions, they recorded their 2 minute self-portraits. I gave them the option to use apps such as ShowMe, Educreations and Explain Everything. I also graded them based on the AP rubric, so they had to pay attention to vocabulary, grammar, formal register, sentence structure, and organization.

So far, the videos have turned out to be amazing. I’m thinking about posting them in some kind of public format just like the teacher whose classroom we observed did.

Student sample 1: http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=tuyZw2q

Student sample 2: http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=KiPkoN6

Interactive Whiteboards and Student-made Videos: A Review

Today the CollabLab welcomes guest blogger Quinn Loch, a Science teacher at Elk Grove HS.  He can be reached @Mr_Loch_EGHS

Interactive whiteboards on the iPad provide a way for you to record your voice and writing so they can be watched later. This can be great for providing notes to your students both inside and outside of class. Conversely, students can also use interactive whiteboards to explain and share their understanding of a topic related to your content. This provides a unique way for students to retain information and concepts--we all know the best way to remember something is to teach/explain it to someone!

Lots of options are available, and there is no “perfect” option. Below is my list of pros and cons for the more popular interactive whiteboards available on the App Store. By no means is this a complete list. Your best bet is to try them out yourself.

Explain Everything ($2.99)

Pros:

- Very powerful – Lots of export and import features

- Lets you edit videos during and after being made – great for when you make mistakes!

Cons:

- Takes a long time to encode a video (Encoding is done on the iPad.  A 3 minute video may take 5 minutes to encode)

- Not free

ShowMe (Free)

Pros:

- Easy to share videos – Great for student made videos

- Very easy to use

- Mp4 versions of your videos can be downloaded from their website

Cons:

- Cannot zoom in while writing/recording

- Videos can’t be sent directly to YouTube

Educreations (Free + In App Purchases)

Pros:

- Lots of shared videos from other teachers

- Very easy to use

Cons:

- Lots of features require a “Pro” account. (Unlimited number of videos, video file exporting)

- Can’t record a multipage document

- Can’t zoom in while writing/recording

bContext (Free + In App Purchases)

Pros:

- Lets you move between multi-page documents without breaking up the recording

Cons:

- $0.99 per video to mp4 (however videos can be downloaded after being uploaded to YouTube for free)

- Posts to YouTube can take very long (videos are encoded on their end, not on the iPad)

In my opinion, Explain Everything is the best overall option and is worth the money. Otherwise, I think ShowMe is the best free option. The reason I point out the ability to convert to mp4 is that having the raw video file gives you freedom to post it in lots of places and is more “futureproof” in the sense that it’s not associated with an app/service that might not be around forever.

I have used Explain Everything for my video notes, ShowMe for student created videos, and bContext for making video keys for ACT benchmarks.

Ultimately it all comes down to personal preference and your end goal. I hope some of this information helps! Thanks for reading!