MORE - MORE - MORE!

     As educators, it just seems like we are asked to do more and more with less and less. Expectations are high for teachers to meet the needs of the nation's children. The lense into the future is where k-12 educators live. They are in the trenches of creativity and innovation. We are ahead of the curve. Why? Because we get the learners first. Higher education needs to go into the k-12 classrooms in their cities and states and see first and how educators are using innovation and technology to teach the "new learner" The new learner has never existed before. They have never known a world without technology. They are "on" all the time and connected. They want to be given an outline of what they need to do with an outcome and then work their way into the answer. It is about the experiences. These learners don't want to be lectured to or hovered over by a teacher. They do want to know the teacher is there to help scaffolded them through struggles - the zone of proximal development. Millennials are many of the new educators and the iGeneration just started college. Who is next? Time will tell, but there is no time to lose and we have to think about the "more" differently - more positively.

Teach More

     If we think about teaching more, it sounds like it could be more work. But more is a big picture idea. It is how the world really is, not separated topics, like math and science. If you think about your content, ask yourself how can I teach more of the big ideas. How is my subject connected to real life. Some might call this project based learning, service learning or learning by design. It really is designed you know. We have to purposely create instruction for learners to experience why the heck it matters. If you don't get buy in for why it matters "to me" then you lose the learners of today. 
     For me, Edmodo online learning platform is more than a classroom for students. It is a fairyland of new ideas and resources for teachers in the Edmodo Spotlight. I have taken courses like the CTE Workshop Course created by teacher leader Christie Collins for Gamifying Instruction with Google that gave me training, experiences and, opportunities to apply learning and create artifacts all for free at my leisure. I used what I learned to integrate new ways for students to show mastery using technology.  During our mid-year break I discovered another learning opportunity in Edmodo Spotlight shared by Mariana Garcia, another amazing educator, the 5-day Photo Challenge to improve Your Skills This Winter Break. I took the challenge and was entertained over break and realized, students are taking pictures all the time. But are they the right pictures for a portfolio? I created a course in Edmodo using the 5 day challenge as a model for students to learn how to apply some basic photography concepts in portfolio development. This was a great activity to get back into the swing of learning after winter break. Students were engaged and finding out that selfies don't really meet the standards for quality photography. Since then, they are more aware of photos they take, apply principles and are beginning to create professional portfolios of their artifacts. Through this, I discovered KQED another Edmodo Spotlight resource for teach professional development. I love it, because it has courses for free chunked instruction in learning digital media literacy skills. 

Communicate/Collaborate More

     The 21st century skills for communication and collaboration are critical for educators and students. Edmodo can help apply these skills. Professional Learning Communities (PLC) are a way for learners to gather together to discuss, share, problem solve, analyze and create together. These can be done face-to-face or digitally. Edmodo can be used to network, create small groups, share resources and create resources. There is a new PLC button for all your connections in Edmodo so you can message and collaborate with each other. District PLC groups can be automatically generated. The site manager could create PLC small groups for grade levels and content to share resources, voice concerns, have discussions and do book studies to name just a few ideas. Small groups can be created for professional development training for the school or district. Teachers can use small groups within a course or project to put students together for activities or differentiated instruction. Co-teachers can be added to a small group for Special Education intervention and scaffolding. Google tools can be integrated into the small groups and activities for students to collaborate and create artifacts. Teachers can make connections with educators in other countries by learning about them through Spotlight or in the Topics are of discussion and build relationships of collaboration for themselves and for student projects.

Listen More

     When we think about listening more, it can be in discussions, which we are used to, but it can also be "listening" to a story such as A Day in the Life shared by Global Oneness, an Edmodo Spotlight publisher resource provider and still free. When we listen to people's stories from around the world it helps us to develop empathy. When students discuss these stories it helps them develop understanding and awareness. Hopefully igniting a desire to be a part of change in the world. Another publisher The World's Largest Lesson has many lessons available on Edmodo Spotlight to address poverty, sustainability and climate change. The world has many voices, but educators have to take a moment to listen and help students listen so that they can hear what part they can play in change. Edmodo helps to break the barriers of new learning opportunities. 

So What More Can I Do?

Well, consider Edmodo for teaching, collaborating and listening more...differently:)

Power Lifting - The Heavy Load for Athletics Programs

“Straight from the horse’s mouth” 

What Coach Instructors Think At An Inner City School

Athletic programs across the country are facing challenges like never before. Finding cutbacks are causing loss of programs and a need for external support from the community and fund raising. Students are “couch potato laden” because of technology and health issues related to inactivity. Students are facing big health concerns at younger and younger ages with diabetes, high cholesterol and other medical concerns. Mental and emotional problems are rearing ugly faces with suicides up in the early teen years. Physical Education programs can be a “dumping ground” for schools with regular classroom sizes exceed capacity due to teacher shortages and funding cuts. Some physical education classes may have over 100 students making it a challenge to do effective instruction with limited resources and classroom management obstacles. These classes might possibly just be a holding tank until the bell rings. Physical education classes are the training ground for future athletes and they are struggling. Here are the thoughts from coaches at an inner city school.

1. What are problems/challenges that our athletics programs face?

·         Lack of participation for most sports

·         Principals not hiring teachers that also coach sports (so, low number of qualified coaches)

·         Parental involvement

·         Transportation home after practice

·         Snacks and pregame meals to provide athletes who stay to participate

·         Adequate facilities

·         Student and parent commitment

·         Community involvement

2. How does it affect student education?

·         There is data to show students who participate in athletics are more motivated and perform better in academics.

·         Behavior improves and referrals decrease when students participate in athletics.

·         Students are more motivated who participate in athletics.

·         Students who are not participating in athletics but normally do don’t care about their academics

·         It’s a vicious cycle of participation and motivation

·         Athletes become a family which is important for students who don’t have one or don’t have support or push from parents to be successful in school

. What are ideas for solutions?

·         Provide an activity bus for after practice to take kiddos home

·         Create a full-time athletic director position at each school to fund raise for snack and meals

·         Create corporate sponsorships (it's a full-time job)

·         Get the principal at each site to understand the more teachers that coach sports the easier it will be to reach the students academically

·         Partner with the community to help with facilities

·         More encouragement from school and parents

·         If more teachers and administrators attend athletic events and support the students, the students will feel like someone cares and maybe the support and enthusiasm will catch on with the parents and community and student body.

           The thing to remember is education is a circle of relationships that support or hinder student success. The athletics programs are necessary for students to be healthy; they supply motivation, stamina, foster teamwork, problem solving, grit and perseverance.  These programs might be the anchor or turning point for many inner city students to graduate and pursue careers or college. 

The Global Ready Graduate

Since the beginning of time, people have shared traditions, cultural nuances and family recipes. Communities were relatively small and as information was, transmitted people had time to adapt to changes in society, trends and technologies. Hurdles had to be overcome such as the idea that the world was flat. In the 20th century, technological advances began to cause change of attitudes and beliefs in modern society. We went from eating together, too fast and faster food service with modernizations in refrigeration and communication. Still, there was time to adapt to change. We had time to reroute societal norms and expectations for the integration of technology into our lives. In 1989, the World Wide Web was born, a place where people would begin sharing information around the world 7/24/365. The advance and use of technology has caused a knowledge revolution. In particular, through the mobility of Smart phones we carry the world in our pocket. We are living in a “Star Trek” world to “go boldly where no man has gone before”.

Teacher adventurers are taking students to new worlds, recrafting ideas for teaching and web applications to help students collaborate and create artifacts of understanding. Collaboration is now part of global classroom instruction. I find teachers across the world who want to work together on projects via Edmodo and ePals.

Last year, my students in the U.S. collaborated with classrooms in Greece to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis. Before the project, my students were virtually oblivious to refugee hardships. We used an open Google Slide presentation to share a little bit about ourselves, find stories about refugees and share a summary, and finally find ways to volunteer and document it on the collaborative slide. There is a large time gap, but on occasion, students were able to use the chat tool to communicate with each other. This project helped students practice digital citizenship using technology respectfully and responsibly as they worked together. At the end of the project, my students understood effective ways to work with someone in another time zone. Now they value freedom more while understanding the incredible hardships young people their age must go through on a daily basis.

On Global Collaboration Day, my students hosted an event to discuss their Senior Capstone work and after their session was over, they visited a 2nd grade classroom via Google Hangout. This was their first experience with Hangout and it was amazing. After GCD, they started using Google Hangout to keep their classmates engaged in their group projects. If a student were not at school, the other classmates would ring them up to work on the project via Hangout.

This year students are creating presentations about Disaster Management with students in India and sharing their work via Edmodo. As the world continues to have increasingly more devastating crisis caused by disasters students are learning the importance of preparedness. The project bridges the gap between two worlds of population differences and disaster likenesses. Our school is in Central Oklahoma where earthquakes were virtually unheard of ten years ago. Last year we had more earthquakes than California and the largest number in the lower 48 states. While the devastation is nothing compared to earthquakes in other parts of the world, it is something that students must now be aware of so they can be prepared for emergencies. Students use http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ to compare the populations of the world in comparison to disasters. This is current and applicable information that interests and empowers the millennial learner.

Our school is a Low SES inner city mid-high school and one thing they have in common with other young people in the world is hunger. Many of these students have never seen how a seed becomes a plant and supplies a harvest of fruits or vegetables. I have received donations from the community for wood ships and building materials for a community garden. The cafeteria saves boxes to lay down under the wood chips to prevent grass from growing and build a base for the gardens. Students are learning about recycling materials, composting and increasing the value of soil for planting. We have had small harvests of cucumbers, tomatoes, greens and peanuts that students were able to eat. This was the first time many had eaten a cucumber and did not know this is where pickles come from. Students are learning citizenship and community responsibility by building the garden and picking up trash on campus. This has given them pride in our school. Students share their work with other schools via Edmodo and support each other through posting comments.

Teaching students to be contributing and responsible citizens is a challenge. The Y-generation and millennial learners are looking for value and how everything is connected to them. My mission statement is to engage learners so the will want to be enlightened and become empowered and effective members of society. Continually using new Web tools and applications, presenting global learning experiences and challenging students to become contributing citizens through project based learning opportunities gives them the tools to be Global Ready Graduates. 

Engaging the Millennial Learner

My students call me Chef Carrie because I came with 25 years experience in the hospitality field and I am a Certified Executive Pastry Chef. I wear my chef clothes as a uniform to school to model industry for my students. They like having a chef as a teacher. I earned both a bachelors and masters in education and became National Board Certified because just as excellence and certification is important in industry, it is important to understand the science of teaching to be the most effective teacher. I teach Family and Consumer Science to 8-12th grade students at an inner city school. Our student population demographics include 92% free and reduced meals, 52% Special Ed and, 20% ESL. I love teaching learners of all ages because I want to see others feel success. I had my own cafe and other business ventures and I look at my classroom as a business. I want to see gross profit = student success. My dad was an engineer, so it is no surprise that I love the application of technology to create my own artifacts, learning experiences and student artifacts. Application is everything, otherwise what is the point? My Friday 5 is Engaging the Millennial Learner. This will help other educators with tools to spark student interest and provide unique assessment of learning experiences.

1. Adobe Spark is a free website or mobile app used to create social graphics, web stories, and animated videos. I taught my students about self belief, self talk and self fulfilling prophecies. This included a video from Stuart Smalley and the Olympian Carlin Isles. Students were able to view examples of how real and imaginary people gave themselves vision. My students use Adobe Spark to create a social media poster to inspire themselves. Millennial learners tend to be self involved and this is a great way for them to create something motivational and all about them.

2.Tackk is a free website or mobile app used to create sites for blogs, about me, school projects, chats, small business, instagram or a blank canvas. I have created short lessons like Communication-The Selfie. This can be used for student eportfolios, entrepreneurship projects, blogs - endless possibilities to create artifacts about them and provide evidence of understanding.

3.Sketchpad is a free website to create original works of art. It helps engage students multiple intelligences: language, spacial, logic, kinesthetic, social and self. There are tools to write, paint, insert text and images to help generate a unique work of art that can be downloaded and included in eportfolios, traditional portfolios and class displays.

4.Thinglink is a free website and mobile app to generate an interactive photo. You load a photo and then click on the photo to add links to content. I use this to include in lessons for a fun, colorful and engaging way to use technology for a scavenger hunt of sorts. This Thinglink Unique U was included in a lesson about self image and bullying. Students can construct their own Thinglinks to represent their learning or create their own presentation for the class that can be posted to Edmodo classrooms for peer reviews.

5.Read Write Think has 58 interactive ways to engage students in reading, writing and thinking. One of my favorite is the Timeline resource. Students can use this to organize and sequence timelines about their lives and classroom knowledge. Text and photos are used to put events in chronological order. Artifacts can be saved and completed on another day or downloaded to include in portfolios. The timelines can also be turned in digitally for paperless classrooms.

Perhaps you noticed engaging words like create, generate, original - words from the higher level learning in Bloom’s Taxonomy. Technology by itself does not increase student learning. Teachers have been using pencil and paper for a long time. However, the application of technology can help students develop problem solving skills, inspire creativity, provide evidence of learning and engage students so that they will be enlightened, empowered and effective members of society. I believe these resources are very powerful for engaging the millennial learner by making learning all about them and providing experiences using multiple intelligences in and outside the 21st century classroom.