#214EdPrep: Nicole Reflects on Her Experiences

By: Nicole Holubec

Thanks to the District 214 Educator Prep Program I’ve gotten to experience so many great things. Ever since I was a little kid I knew I wanted to be a teacher. When I heard about the College Intro to Education course being offered at school I knew I had to join and be apart of it and that was one of the greatest decisions I had ever made because I’ve gotten the opportunity to meet so many new people and make new connections. 

In College Intro to Education I have learned the meaning behind what teaching is and I was able to create my own philosophy of teaching. I also got to take part in an internship which I am still currently in. Three days a week I get to go to Grove Jr. High and student teach. My rotations have been in 6th grade, Language Arts classes. 





I've taught lessons on annotations and have done “A Look Into High School” activity with my students. My annotations lesson is one that I actually have improved on. The first time I went through the lesson it was very simple, taking notes with paper and pen on an overhead projector, but the second time I taught it I changed things up and used technology. I created a Google Slides presentation for the students to take notes from, then a Nearpod activity to practice annotating, followed by a small quiz at the end to check for understanding. 

Besides going out on an internship, this class has given me many opportunities to work with different groups like Estudiantes Unidos, the Future Teachers Club from Devonshire Elementary, and first graders from Salt Creek Elementary. 

By working with these groups I’ve been able to get a first hand look into different ethnic and age groups which makes me more prepared for my future with the students I will have one day. Talking with these groups and hearing other students having the same passion that I do gave me even more motivation to continue in the field of education. 

Some of the greatest opportunities have also come my way thanks to the teachers in the Collab Lab. Ms. Ashida and Ms. Barry have come into my class, also along with Mrs. Miklusak and Mr. Heintz, and showed us different ways of teaching with and without technology and different styles of teaching. 

This collaboration with the Collab Lab led to an opportunity for me to present and take on the role of teaching the teachers at the EdCamp In-Service day at EGHS. 

Thanks to EdPrep I’ve gotten to grow as a person and as a future educator.

To learn more about the program, and the experiences of other EdPrep students, check out #214EdPrep on Twitter!

Motivating Students with Feedback

In April we enjoyed a joint In-service Day with staff from the Academy at Forest View. 

 
Prior to the In-service day we solicited feedback from staff to tailor the sessions that would be facilitated d by teachers from both schools.



We offered several sessions on formative assessment, including one offered by by Peter King and his student teachers from The Academy at Forest View. They shared a variety of  multi-purpose tools for teachers to provide feedback through engaging activities:

Quizziz

This is an assessment tool in game form.  Students compete against one another but are able to work at their own pace.  You can adjust settings for time, order of questions (random or set), due date, etc.  Students get to create an avatar, and they receive funny memes after each answer they select.  Teachers can pull from pre-made quizzes and share their own quizzes with other teachers.

Nearpod

Here is a teacher-led, student-engaged activity for the classroom.  You can import an already created presentation into Nearpod, and enhance it with interactive formative activities for students to answer a questions, watch a video, or draw a diagram.  Teachers can dictate which slide all devices are on, or you can set it into student-led mode.  Here, teachers are also able to share their presentations or pull from the public domain of already created Neared activities.

Plickers

This activity provides students with an interactive way to showcase their knowledge of multiple choice and true/false questions.  Students hold up their assigned QR code in the direction of their multiple choice answer (A, B, C, D, E), and the teacher scans the QR codes with his or her iPad.  Students are able to answer without feeling self-conscious, only seeing whether or not their answer was read by the iPad, while the data is immediate for the teacher to see who answers which questions correctly.

Kahoot

Here is a competitive, timed formative assessment method for multiple choice questions.  Students compete against their peers to answer prior to the buzzer, with the correct answers in quicker time get awarded more points.  The leaderboard is updated after each question.  Now, they have updated to allow for a Podium of top 3 winners, instead of just the sole winner.  This increases motivation with students to keep competing, even if they aren't in first place.  Lastly, they have added a feature called "Jumble", which is designed for questions that rearrange events, build a step-by-step order, or unscramble concepts.

Flippity

This website allows you to quickly turn a Google Sheet into a fun activity.  You can choose from creating notecards to a Jeopardy game, crossword puzzle, Bingo game, a Mad Lib, and many other engaging activities for students.

Upgrading your student engagement tools

by Kirsten Fletcher

We've all struggled with the best way to get all students to participate. Here are a few tricks to give all students a voice in your class. Nothing revolutionary here, but a few good reminders.

Getting them to speak:
Non-tech: 
At the beginning of the semester, I used ask students to write their name on an index card and write a semester goal on the back. Then, throughout the semester, I would shuffle the cards and pull one every time I wanted students to participate. Students rarely argued because they could see I had chosen them randomly. I never put them on the spot without some prep though. I typically used the cards after a think-pair-share when I knew that everyone had something to say. I used the cards to group students quickly too.

With tech:
I now use Team Shake instead of the index cards, but it's basically the same thing. I refer to Team Shake as my "favorite app" and the students groan whenever I open it because they know they need to be prepared to contribute. This app costs $0.99, but it is worth the investment. Once I input my class rosters, I can randomly call on any student in the room. I usually project it on the screen so students can see that it's random. They also know that I'm not only going to call on the kids whose hands are always us, so they take the practice activities seriously just in case. Team Shake is also great for instantaneous grouping students and forming teams.

Randomly group students for classroom activities

Randomly select students to participate

Getting them to apply concepts: 
Non-tech:
My go-to activity for applying a new concept in writing is to ask students to write anonymously on paper or index cards.  Then I collect their writing samples and put a few up on the ELMO or read them so we can identify strengths and weaknesses. While this can be effective, it can also be time-consuming and I tend to lose the students in the shuffling of paperwork.

With tech:
Now, after I teach or review a tricky concept, I often ask my students to log into Socrative to write a sentence applying the new grammar, vocabulary, etc. When asking an open-ended question in Socrative, I choose to make answers anonymous. I project the answers and correct errors in front of the class, but no one knows whose work I am correcting. I find that students take greater risks when their work is anonymous and the discussion is richer. Often, the same mistakes are repeated multiple times, so I can quickly identify common misconceptions. By doing this activity in Socrative instead of on paper, I can give feedback after every question so students can correct their errors before the next question. There are also many other uses for the Socrative app, as outlined by this blog post by Rachel Barry.

Choose Short Answer to allow students
to write anonymous responses.

Display student responses for
immediate feedback.

Comprehension checks:
Non-tech:
For comprehension checks or skills practice, I used to pass out a set of mini white boards, markers, and erasers. I would then project a powerpoint or call out a question and have students write the answers. While this was somewhat effective, it was difficult to give meaningful feedback because students couldn't always see others' boards clearly.

With tech:
Today I do this same type of activity with Nearpod. The advantage of Nearpod is that it functions like an interactive powerpoint. I can frontload the activity with a few slides to review the concept I want to practice. Then I add "Draw it" slides where students can write their own answers. It is not anonymous, so it is best to do this once students are comfortable with one another. I project the teacher view as students work so that I can quickly flip through their answers and make corrections if necessary. If there is a good class rapport, students tend to get creative with their answers.

Students write original responses with
targeted grammar.

Teacher projects students' responses
for class discussion.

Nearpod also allows for multiple choice quizzes and other activities. After the activity, it is possible to print out results or run reports to get a clear picture of student understanding.

Results of Nearpod activities can be emailed to the teacher.

There are, of course, many other ways to engage students and allow their voices to be heard. See this blog post from Mark Heintz on Schoology discussions for more ideas.

Blended Teaching and Learning Strategies in a 1:1 Classroom

Today the CollabLab welcomes guest bloggers Amanda Baran and Dawn Ferencz.  Amanda, a Special Education teacher at Elk Grove, can be reached @MrsABaran.  Dawn, an English teacher at Elk Grove, can be reached @Dawn_Ferencz.

Hello colleagues!  We are (fairly) new users to the iPad this year with our 1:1 pilot for junior students in Prep American Lit & Comp.  When asked to discuss how we utilize iPads in the classroom, we were happy to share.  

For us, a mix of technology and more traditional teaching and learning strategies in the classroom seem to work best, especially with struggling learners.  Below is an outline of a lesson we did earlier this year that utilized traditional, hands-on, and technological devices to support learning and provide our students with a “Day in the Life of a Puritan” experience (prior to our reading of The Crucible).

First, students reviewed the basics of Puritan living with a standard PowerPoint we created to highlight key elements.  Students too notes (using good ol' fashioned pen and paper) about the main ideas regarding Puritan life including naming, clothing, church ideals, free time, meals, homes, and punishments.

 

Next, we had several volunteers from each class dress up in clothing from the time period (long,dark outfits, hats for men, handkerchiefs for women, etc.), practice certain free time duties (knitting and tending to the animals and farm), partake in a common meal (bread, cheese, dried meat), and get arrested (thank to class guests Sean Berens & Rip) and receive a typical punishment (the stocks).

  

Once any student who wanted to had a turn partaking in the activities, students were assessed on what they learned.  They were able to use the notes they took from the PowerPoint, what they saw and did in class, and anything they remembered from our discussion to create a Pic Collage (iPad app) showcasing pictures and descriptions of what they learned about the Puritans.     

The combination of reinforcing the material with a PowerPoint, hands-on experiences, and technology allowed us to reach all students.  With varied learning styles, we tried to ensure that each student had the opportunity to understand, process, and show that they comprehended the day’s lesson.

We find that most days our lessons consist of one activity that utilizes the iPad and at least one or more that do not.  For example, we may read an act from The Crucible in class and then have the students respond to a discussion question online using their iPads.  Or we run a presentation via the Nearpod application that asks for responses from students while presenting information (answer a question, draw a picture, vote on a response, etc.) and then review what we have learned using a whole-class discussion face-to-face.  We were nervous about the wide array of applications and how we were going to turn ours into a virtual classroom, but the truth is that a combination of technology and traditional, non-technological methods of teaching work best for our classes.
  

For us, a little goes a long way; we like to strike a balance in class and always have a back-up plan depending on students’ needs that day