Virtual Class Visits & Professional Collaboration Across D214 Schools

By Linda Ashida

Live streaming isn't new, but the Collab Lab has recently been exploring innovative ways to use this technology to expand professional learning connections across schools.

In our first virtual professional learning adventure, we used Periscope and Google Hangout to connect with teachers at Riverside Brookfield High School to live stream from two classes at EG and then debrief with the teachers at both schools.  Even with a few tech glitches, that experience proved to be so valuable, energizing--and FUN!--that we couldn't stop thinking about the possibilities to use the same technologies to expand professional learning connections across our own District 214 schools.

That led to Round 2: Our first D214 Virtual Professional Learning adventure.

Seven teachers from three D214 schools connected with us at EGHS via Persicope to visit Mark Heintz' AP World History class.

Our colleagues connected to our Periscope broadcast, and, just like with Facebook Live, they were able to interact with each other, and me while I live streamed, to make comments and ask questions.

Mark's lesson offered examples to our virtual visitors of the varied ways he engages students in interpreting primary source documents to find evidence to support a claim, in order to later synthesize information from those complex texts. After working through the first document as a class, with Mark modeling how to interpret and note key evidence, the students worked in pairs to interpret a second document and respond to the prompt on the whiteboard tables.

As students collaborated with their peers, Mark circulated to offer support and feedback, and pause, when necessary to give clarification to the whole class.

After students responded to the prompt, with evidence from document 2, they rotated tables to read another group's response and offer feedback to their peers.

Students then returned to their tables to reflect on the peer feedback and make revisions.  They wrapped up the class by taking photos of their work to continue with new documents and synthesis writing the next day.

Mark's lesson included models of work, student-centered engagement in learning, ongoing feedback, peer assessment, self-assessment and revision. None of the work was graded. It was all part of the formative learning process to build students' reading and interpretation skills and lead to improved quality in their final summative writing assessment.

Following the live stream form Mark's classroom, we connected via Google Hangout with the visiting teachers from the other D214 schools to debrief the lesson, share feedback, and make connections in student learning across disciplines.
                                             

 

Once again we were energized by this kind of collaboration connecting us with colleagues across schools.  Not only did we share teaching strategies and learn from one another, but we also discussed possibilities for future collaboration across all of our schools.

In fact, we've already planned our next live stream from Kim Miklusak's AP English Language class, in which students will be engaging in a writer's workshop. Look for a new post on that soon!

And, based on feedback from the group that visited Mark's class, we have already modified the process. Participants suggested that more teachers would be inclined--and better able--to participate if the the class visit and debrief conversation were shortened and occurred during the same class period. Guided by this advice, we will live stream from Kim's 1st and 2nd hour classes for fifteen minutes and then debrief with our virtual visitors for 20 minutes in a Google Hangout. We will also look for ways to include more student voice in the process, whether it is asking questions directly to students during the class, or asking a few students to join us in the Google Hangout conversations.

We'd like to thank Matt Hamilton, Teri Buczinsky, Erik Hodges, Kate Glass, Jeff Vlk, Becky Kinnee and Carrie Mattingly for joining our Collab Lab tream in this first D214 Virtual Professional Learning experience and sharing their feedback and insight for future collaborations to support our students.

Do you have ideas or suggestions?  Would you like to join us?

We'd love to hear from you!

2 Schools Connect in Professional Learning w Google Hangout and Periscope

By Linda Ashida

Imagine collaborating with colleagues across schools, visiting their classrooms, and engaging in professional learning conversations before, during and after the class visits. It sounds great, right? Except when you consider the time and logistics necessary to make it happen.

Enter Google Hangout and Periscope!

The result?  Professional Learning conversations and class visits connecting two--or more--schools virtually.  That is just what we did this week in the Collab Lab!

The idea came about earlier in the year when Bridget Wilmot, the Instructional Technology Coordinator from Riverside Brookfield High School, visited EG.  She and I exchanged examples of the ways we facilitate professional learning in each of our schools. We discussed the culture of peer observation at EG, and that led to the idea to do a virtual peer observation connecting two small groups of teachers at each of our schools.

We decided to have our first virtual peer observation at EG, with two class visits during our second hour, followed by a post-observation conversation 3rd hour.  Prior to the observation, the two host teachers at EG completed a form they shared with the RBHS teachers to indicate the focus of their lessons, and to share a successful strategy and/or request for feedback

In order for all of us to meet each other and have a conversation prior to the classroom visits, we used Google Hangout.

 

From there we connected on Periscope to live stream from the classrooms.  Periscope, which functions much like Facebook Live, would allow our virtual visitors to comment and ask questions real-time. However, we ended up doing our live back-channel conversation via Google Hangout chat, since we were already connected, and that way, Rachel Barry could moderate the chat while I concentrated on the live streaming. Also, for this first visit we decided to create a private group, rather than stream publicly.

First, we went to Kim Miklusak's English class and, in a variation of a socratic seminar, we saw a student-led discussion on the novel Sula. Using guiding questions, students on the inside circle engaged in dialog, while students in the outside circle commented, offered feedback and asked questions via a Schoology discussion, which was projected on the large screen. In the photo below you can see me live streaming, and Rachel nearby monitoring and responding to the questions and comments from the RBHS teachers.

Below you can see an excerpt of the back-channel conversation with varied comments and questions from the RBHS teachers with Rachel's responses.

From Kim's class we went to Mark Heintz' World History class. Mark's students were engaged in a collaborative activity on Mercantilism, analyzing documents and finding evidence to support their claims. While the students discussed, Mark circulated from group to group to monitor the conversations, answer questions and offer feedback.

Check out this short video clip from Mark's class to give you a better of an idea of what the streaming, moderating and class discussion looked like.



Following the two class visits, about 10-15 minutes each, Kim and Mark enjoyed connecting again with the 4 teachers from RBHS, again via Google Hangout. They shared feedback and exchanged ideas that included lesson design and scaffolding, creating and curating digital curriculum materials, focusing on essential skills and giving formative feedback, integrating technology and non-tech methods to facilitate collaboration, and making connections across courses with literacy skills. Such a rich professional learning conversation! Furthermore, some of the participants, who used Periscope or Google Hangout for the first time, left with ideas for integrating th0se technologies in their own classrooms.

This was our first experience doing a virtual peer observation in this way, and for all of us it was a positive an energizing experience. We're looking forward to continued collaboration with RBHS and connecting again via Periscope to visit some of their classes.

We're also very excited about the possibilities to connect in a similar way with our colleagues across District 214.  We've already discussed some possibilities.  For example, imagine you are a teacher who teaches a singleton course and you don't have a PLC to collaborate with. You could connect with and observe the same class of a colleague in another school! Just as students benefit from seeing models and examples of work, so too can we benefit from seeing strategies in action, made even more possible via virtual class visits and conversations across schools.

Are you interested in connecting in this way?  Want to learn more or have an idea to share?  We'd love to hear from you!