Amplification of a Transportation Unit & a Survey

In a unit on Transportation, our Kindergarteners read a large picture book “On the Move!” by Donna Latham

Students got so interested into learning about different ways people around the globe got around. They were even ready to take a trip to Venice, Italy to ride in a Vaporetto.

Since our 5 & 6 year olds have gotten pretty good at using PicCollage on the iPads, their teacher Arlene Yegelwel, wanted to personalize another collaborative classroom eBook.

She took the time to find over 20 public domain images of transportation methods they had discussed in class on Wikimedia Commons and sent them in one email to each iPad.

Student’s workflow fluency looked like this:

• opened the PicCollage app
• chose one image of the different transportation methods
• decided how they could best place an image of themselves onto the picture
• asked a buddy to take an image of them acting out a particular position on the iPad
• edited the image by clipping the background
• resized the image to make it fit the ration of the transportation image
• rotated the image
• saved the image
• emailed the image to their teacher

Mrs. Yegelwel, downloaded the images from the e-mail and then  imported them into the BookCreator App. She sat with each students to document their comment for the image.

As a class, they also reviewed all the different parts of a book, such as title page, dedication page and credit page. We also had a short, age appropriate discussion about copyright and how we cannot just TAKE (steal) any images we find on the web. We talked to them about some photographers who release their images into public domain, which meant we could use them. So there was a special Thank You crafted to thank these photographers

We could have stopped here, but the global component (transportation AROUND THE WORLD) begged to amplify what had largely taken place in the classroom only.

We decided to involve students in crafting their own survey. Below you will find our collaborative efforts in formulating the title, description, questions and different checkboxes.

Please take a moment to fill out the form for them. We will continue to accept responses until next Friday (May 24, 2013) to then tabulate and interpret the results.

We also discussed how would we let people know about our survey? What if we stood in our school’s parking lot and shouted it out? How many people would hear us? Where would these people be geographically be from?

I showed them my Twitter account and demonstrated how I was going to give a “shout out” for our survey.

We then sat back and literally watched the first responses to our survey “fall into” the spread sheet.  Please imagine the wows, the oohs and the aahhs for each one, especially when the first ones from Europe started falling in. Mrs. Yegelwel pulled in the globe and showed location. We also explained why most of our responses seemed to come from the US and Canada. We quickly looked up what time it was in Australia and they “shockingly” realized that Australians were deep asleep while they were in school.

I am asking myself the following questions.

What are students learning BEYOND the reading of the original book in their classroom? How did we amplify skills and literacies, because we took “the extra step” of connecting the students to a global network? What transformative (not possible without the amplification) teaching & learning took place?

• Geography skills (We are looking up each location  on a globe. We are learning about states, countries, continents, urban, suburban, etc.)
• Math skills (We are using real authentic data. The results will be counted, sorted, organized and graphed)
• Thinking skills (Why are most people in the US using a car/van to get to work? Why do most people in Japan use scooters?)
• Global skills (They realize that we can talk TO the world, not just ABOUT the world)
• Network skills (What are networks? How does Twitter work?)

Connected From The Start: Global Learning in Primary Grades

Kathy Cassidy was so kind to extend a copy of her new book Connect from the Start: Global Learning in Primary Grades to me. Globally connected learning is a passion of mine, as regular readers of Langwitches can attest to. I was eager to read Kathy’s book, which is grounded in authentic experiences from her 1st grade classroom.

From the first chapter on, the voice of “having been there herself”, guides the reader through the worries of “How am I going to have the time?” and “I don’t know anything about technology” to the reassuring “I can do this!”. I have met Kathy in person, as both of us presented at Alan November’s Building Learning Communities Conference in Boston. The same quiet, reassuring, “speaking from experience” voice comes through in her book. You will not find her ranting and raving to teachers about how they are not doing this, nor doing that, but instead shares:

• Why Connect
• Connecting with Skype
• Why we Use Blogs to Connect
• How to Blog with Primary Students
• Using Blogs as Digital Portfolios
• Connecting with Twitter
• Other Ways to Connect
• Open Your Classroom to the World

Each chapter will not only give you the pedagogical reasoning behind using the selected tools, building of skills and literacies, but includes short tech explanations, embedded video examples and links to more in depth blog posts and articles.

The first person, I thought of immediately who NEEDED to read this book was my daughter, who recently graduated with a degree in elementary education. Connected from the Start should be required reading for all new teachers, better yet, for all pre-service teachers. The book inspires, guides and gives practical how to get started advice. Although Kathy is a first grade teacher, I believe the book is relevant for all grade levels. Yes… including middle and high school. Teachers who have imagination and the desire to perfect their teaching craft will be able to tweak lessons learned to connect to their own curriculum, subject area and grade level.

I also wholeheartedly agree with Dean Shareski, who in the foreword points out the best part of the book is yet to come:

After you finish reading it, unlike many authors, you’ll not be finished learning with Kathy. As I mentioned before, she’s very gracious and willing to help. Yes, she’s a full time classroom teacher, but it doesn’t stop her from reaching out and sharing with whomever reaches out to her.  She continues to blog, tweet and post questions and ideas that engage her and other in her learning network.

This book is not just talking about WHAT teachers could be doing with their students (even the younger ones), but Kathy models every day how to work, learn and expand her own learning network, which in return will benefit and connect her students.

Press Release:

Making the Connection: Pioneers of the “New World” and “Digital World”

Fifth grade students are getting ready to read the book “Jamestown” by Gail Garwoski.

A stirring story of survival set against the backdrop of the founding of the first permanent English settlement in the New World.
In 1606, King James I granted a charter to a group of London businessmen known as the Virginia Company to establish an English settlement in North America. In 1607, 104 men set sail aboard three tiny ships on a voyage to a new land. What they found became the first permanent English settlement in the New World-Jamestown.
Among the brave adventurers who made the journey was a young boy named Samuel Collier, the page of famed Captain John Smith.

How could we move away from assigning the traditional reading of the book (chapter by chapter), then writing a book report and possibly give an oral presentation in front of the class? How could we tie the lessons, delivery, supported skills and objectives NOT only to curriculum, but also to our Learning Target (based on and adapted from www.galileo.org )

We are looking to move towards competency in five categories:

• Learning Environment
  • Learning is engaging
  • Students are self-directed
  • physical environment conducive to learning
  • resources meet learning needs
  • learning is social and interconnected
• Assessment
  • comprehensive
  • using a variety of techniques and resources
  • authentic learning experience designed, developed and evaluated
  • criteria are established for assessment
• Role of Teacher
  • teacher as a learner
  • teachers as a cognitive coach and guide
  • teacher has strong instructional repertoire
• Amplification
  • classroom is open & public
  • Teacher actively connects to larger global audience
• Task
  • authentic
  • produces deep meaning

With that in mind, we had a brainstorming session with our 10 year olds. What did they know about the early settlers? What did they want to know?

What do we know?

We started with the traditional KWL concept and upgraded to KWHLAQ.

Could we compare pioneers and explorers who came to the Americas, the “New World” (with respect to the population who called these lands home and “their world” for thousands of years before the European came to “discover” it) and the “Digital World”. What were dangers for the early settlers? What are dangers for cyber citizens? Were there double standards for the old and new world? Are there double standards for the analog vs digital world?

By now, students are pretty independent in creating collaborative Google Docs to share with teachers and  their classmates to take notes. The concept of the Official Scribe from Alan November’s Digital Learning Farm is embedded and works naturally for our students.

Below is the screenshot of the initial brainstorming session.

In our shared Google Doc, we gave students a prompt to expressed their initial thoughts about being an explorer in the Digital World and how it compared to being one in 1600s in Jamestown.

We were not sure, if all student understood. 5th grade teacher, Shelly Zavon, wrote a reflection after our first meeting with the students. I especially like her blunt honesty,  that NOT EVERYTHING, not every class or lesson goes as planned nor well. We had to go back to the drawing board, we need to keep meeting every week to debrief after a lesson and tweak for future ones

I am hoping that the Jamestown project will come together soon. The idea is good; I just need to find a way to help the students dig deeper and start thinking on a higher level. For some reason, the students don’t like to be challenged to go to the next level. They want to do everything quickly and get to the fun part, which hopefully in this case will result in a music video.
With both of these projects, the students have had to move to a more advanced level of critical thinking (and accountability). I know this has been good for them, but is has been a grueling process for us teachers. I keep thinking, “learning is messy” and as Dory said in Finding Nemo, “Keep on swimming, swimming, swimming.”

How can we make the learning about Jamestown authentic? How do we connect the learning of the past and make it relevant to their present and future?

It just happened that Google Glass shared a new video with the request for applications to becoming a GOOGLE EXPLORER!

Two ideas came to mind:

1. What if we were to ask our students to create a video with the same requirements as above (minus the last three points) to apply to become an Explorer , not for Google Glass, but for Jamestown. What would you do to become an explorer and leave for Jamestown?
2. What if we were to ask our students to time travel with a device like Google Glass and take a video or pictures and they narrate/document what they are witnessing.

It really is about imagination. Can we crowdsource imagination? Did this topic spark an idea for you? How could we help our students dig deeper? How do we make it authentic for them? Please take a moment to not only read this post, but to contribute to all of our learning. Thank you in advance.