Juxtapose Your Lesson

I just came across a great simple tool I wanted to share! I've seen images showing how areas have changed over time with a side by side picture and slider in the middle. When you move the slider it shows how the area has changed. Here is an example of two iconic Chicago theaters. I always thought it was a great visual representation, but didn't know how to create them...until now! The website juxtapose.knightlab.com will allow you to choose online pictures and "juxtapose" them!

They can be created by the teachers or students. Here are some ways I could see it being used in the classroom.

1. The change of seasons on the landscape of the neighborhood.
2. The change of students from the first day of school to the last.
3. The progress made on a project students are working on.
4. Geographical changes of Earth.
5. The transformation of a space in the school.

The website is very easy to use. Simply, put in the web address for each picture along with the date it was taken. (Remember to use images that are free to use. Check out how here.)You can upload your own pictures to Flicker, Dropbox, or Google Drive and get a link from there. Click publish and use the embed code!

  

Here is one I created of a shopping center that was remodeled a few years ago in Berwyn. I can't wait to see this in action in the classroom!

How to Create Simple RSA Animate Videos

RSA Animate videos are creative whiteboard videos that illustrate an idea. They can be simple to very elaborate. Here are the steps I used with a 3rd grade class to help the students illustrate their writing. Check out the blog post "Influential People Unit with RSA Animate and Green Screen" to see their projects. You can also check out professional RSA animate .

What you need:

• Whiteboard
• Dry erase marker and eraser
• Storyboard graphic organizer
• iPad or device that records video
• iMovie

Step 1: Write your idea
First, complete the message you would like to illustrate. Edit and revise it, so you have a final draft to illustrate.

Step 2: Create a storyboard
Using a storyboard graphic organizer or app, plan out a picture for each sentence. We encouraged the students to number each sentence and match it to a picture or write each sentence below the blank box. Draw one picture per sentence. Depending on the length of sentences, you may need to adjust the pictures. For example, you may need two pictures for a long sentence or quickly draw a simple picture for a short sentence.

Step 3: Draw and record
Record each picture being drawn. We recorded using the time-lapse camera on the iPad. It was helpful to use a stand for the iPad, but you can hold it still as well. If you do not have an iPad, you can record with a computer and speed up the videos in iMovie. After erasing a picture, stop and read the sentence with the video. This ensures the timing of the video and audio match. Make adjustments as needed by adding more pictures or simplifying some drawings. After the drawings are finished, send the videos to the computer.

Student recording RSA Animate with iPad time-lapse camera

Step 4: Put the video together and add voice
Next, put the clips together in iMovie in the correct order. Select the "Record Voiceover" feature. Voiceover the images. We used a microphone to eliminate background noise, but that is optional.

Recording voiceover in iMovie

Step 5: Publish and share
Publish the video and share your message with the audience of your choice.

The great thing about RSA animate is that you don't have to be an artist. Since you are telling the story along with the pictures, the audience will understand the visuals with the audio.

Have fun enhancing your message with RSA animate!

Influential People Unit with RSA Animate and Green Screen

In Miss Carillo's 3rd grade bilingual class the students were working on opinion writing in their writing workshop. The goal was for students to choose an influential person, conduct research, write their paragraph with examples and evidence, and create a product that can be shared with an audience of their choice.  This lesson included several engaging qualities.

Engaging Qualities

• Choice- Students were able to choose their influential person. They also had a choice in how they wanted to present their information out to their audience.
• Sense of Audience- Students were challenged to think about the best audience for their presentation. All students shared with parents and teachers at the viewing party, but they were able to choose an authentic audience to share it with online. 
• Novelty & Authenticity- As part of their choice, they could have chosen using a green screen or creating an RSA animate. These were new to the students and many were excited to try these options. 

Process

Research
The students conducted research on a project board similar to the picture below. Miss Carrillo taught a mini lesson on finding reliable sources and encouraged them to use the research tool in google docs to find reliable sources. Once they choose their influential person, they began using the project board.

Writing
Once they had completed some research, Miss Carrillo modeled putting this together  into their paragraph. As students began writing, she followed the workshop model to support them. As the students finished revising and editing, they began to think about their final product.

Determining the Final Product
The students could create a final project of their choice to publish their information. Miss Carrillo created a "Choice Board" that allowed students to choose from several options to create their product.

The most popular choices were iMovie with greenscreen, RSA animate, and presenting their speech dressed as their person.

Final Product

GREEN SCREEN
For the students that chose greenscreen, we recorded the students reading their paragraph in front of a green screen. The students then found pictures that aligned with their story and merged the videos and pictures in iMovie. As we filmed and students read aloud, they realized areas that needed to be edited or revised. For example, a student asked, "I want to change this part. Can I fix my paper and record it again?" Of course! By creating this final product, she was naturally motivated to complete the writing process through revision and editing. This can be one of the hardest aspects of the writing process to motivate students to complete. Knowing that she had an audience gave her the motivation to write to the best of her ability.

RSA Animate
Several students chose RSA animation. After writing and editing their paragraph, they had to make their paragraph visual by planning out pictures for each sentence using a storyboard. This created critical thinking of the points they had made in their paragraph. As I help students, they translated their Spanish writing to English to share their idea with me. Then we were able to have great conversations about how to make the concepts in their writing visual. Once the storyboard was done, the students then had to draw their images on a whiteboard as it was recorded in time-lapse on the iPad. Once they had their visual story, all the time-lapsed videos were put into iMovie and they were able to voice-over the images with their writing. Check out this post to learn how we created the RSA videos.

Check out this playlist of all the projects! 

AH-HA Moments

The goal of this activity was to develop the students writing and give them an audience to share. However, it turned into so much more. I was working with one particular student on her RSA. She wrote her paragraph in Spanish and translated each sentence orally to me so I could help her. She had to come up with pictures for each sentence that told the story of her paragraph. She was able to purposefully practice, writing and speaking skills and show the depth of her understanding through pictures. If Miss Carrillo would have asked the students to write a paragraph, then orally translate it, draw a picture to represent each sentence and then read it aloud three times, most of the students wouldn't have been motivated to do it. However, they enhanced their writing skills, speaking skills, and knowledge of the content by doing all those things with a purpose. This activity gave those skills a purpose and added more depth to their learning. 

Personalized Learning in Action

Check out a few of my other posts on personalized learning: Personalized Learning: Before you Begin & Tools to Personalize Learning. 

I wanted to share how classrooms are moving on the continuum of personalized learning from a teacher-driven to a learner-driven classroom.  

Meagan Bushell and Kristen Fernandez had decided to start personalizing learning with standard MS-ESS2.1 - “Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s material and the flow of energy that drives the process.” So in the end, the students needed to model the rock cycle and explain the flow of energy within it.

To set this up, we brainstormed components that could be applied to any unit. 

Personalized Learning Components

• Inquiry
• Student Centered Activities
• Flexibility
• Accountability
• Self Assessment
• Choice in Final Assessment 

INQUIRY

Creating inquiry by getting students to ask questions about the topic is a great way to peak the student's interest in the topic. To create inquiry, Meagan and Kristen started with the Question Formulation Technique. The structure of QFT can be found HERE.  

First, they had the students gather in groups. They showed the class a picture prompt as the Q Focus. In groups, the students followed the rules of QFT to create questions from the focus image. Groups then turned the questions into open questions and added the important ones to a class Padlet. Together as a class, they sorted and prioritized the Padlet and came up with three questions to guide their learning. 

Final Questions:

1. What is the rock cycle?
2. What are the main types of rocks?
3. What are the processes that transfer energy in the rock cycle?

STUDENT CENTER ACTIVITIES

Once the guiding questions were created, Meagan and Kristen created a playlist of activities for the students to choose from to reach the standard. It included text, videos, interactive websites and a hands-on simulation. The students then reviewed the materials and determined what resources they would use to start learning. Here is where common core reading and writing standards are aligned. Power my Learning is a great site with “playlists” for a variety of concepts. In this case, the teachers chose to use our LMS, Schoology, to get resources to students. 

FLEXIBILITY

Students could choose to work cooperatively, independently, or with the teacher. Each teacher arranged their rooms to include independent workstations, collaborative areas, and space for small group instruction with the teacher. Each area was clearly labeled and students moved to areas of the room with a purpose. This gave the teachers the ability to pull students that needed extra support and the flexibility to change those groups. Depending on the group of students, they may need more structure at the cooperatively learning area by using Kagan structures or other collaborative activities.  

The teachers were also flexible with the time. Students that mastered the standard quickly were able to move on when they were ready while other students could take the time they needed to master the content. It is important to keep a pace in mind and the teachers were able to meet with the students and support them if they were going over the allotted time.  

ACCOUNTABILITY

Students were held accountable to the teacher and to themselves. At the end of each period, the students completed a google form that helped them reflect on their progress and plan their next step.

They had to reflect on how close they are to mastery of the standards and how well they worked in their chosen instructional group. 

The second accountability piece was evidence of mastery. Before they could move on, the students had to correctly answer a set of questions in Quia. If they didn’t get 100%, they were able to go back and relearn the material before beginning the assessment activity. Have this done in a site like Quia, enable the students to complete this independently.

ASSESSING the STANDARD

In the final assessment, the students were given a variety of choices. They needed to complete a “Rock Cycle Dice” Simulation, then create a “My Life as a Rock” story. This was done in a variety of ways. Some students chose Keynote, iMovie, posters, or coded an Ozobot robot. 

          Student project in progress using the Ozobot to represent the rock cycle.

AH-HA MOMENTS

It was amazing to see some students learn the material and understand the standards in a few lessons. Meagan and I had a conversation about how one student could be doing so much more and with a personalized learning structure now he can! It makes room for true enrichment activities for those who need it and allows more time for others. Behavior issues also diminished in the classrooms using personalized learning. As a teacher, you have to be ready with materials for your students to move on. Personalized learning takes a little more planning on the front of a unit, but its worth it!

Personalized Learning: Before you Begin

As a science teacher, I implemented various pieces of personalized learning. My students worked on self-paced activities using blendspace, they participated in Genius Hour and were provided with a variety of choices in their learning.  As a coach, I have recently taken a huge interest in creating a culture of personalized learning. The more research I do, the more definitions I find and variety of ways it is done and at multiple levels of personalization. 

As this begins to spread across my district, I wanted to share a few things I have learned.

Before dipping a toe into personalized learning, remember these three things.

1. There is not one right way to personalize learning for your students. 
2. You need to have an open mindset. Whether you call it growth mindset, innovators mindset, etc, you have to be open to the students taking control of their own learning. 
3. There will be levels of failure from you and from the students. How you respond to these failures will determine the success. 

The School Improvement Network has a great video called "The Four Key Elements to Personalized Learning."  

Key elements:

1. Flexibility- Give the students the time, space, and resources to be successful. Some students may need to sit on the floor or spread across several tables. Some students may finish three lessons in one class while others make take three days. Based on the learning objective, give them as many resources as possible. Allow group collaboration, individual work, or working with the teacher.   

2. Student-centered approach- The students should be given voice and choice. Teachers have objectives that need to be hit, but students can learn them in a variety of ways.  Give them many options and allow them to choose their learning path. The path and outcome will look different for each student. Be careful not to overprescribe and micromanage what students do and how they do it.  In the end, allow them to show their learning in a unique creation. Meet them where they are and get them to mastery in the best way for them.

3. Mastery- The objective is to master the standard at least at a proficient level. Again, this will look different for each student and take varying amounts of time. 

4. Effective teaching- The teacher is now able to support the individual needs of all students. This is the time to pull small groups, sit down with students one-on-one and rotate through the class to support different students. 

The Teachers Role

You become the facilitator, which can be uncomfortable for some teachers. Some teachers wonder  “What am I supposed to do?” Now you have time to have individual and small group conversations. Sit down with students and review their work as they are working. Listen to student conversations. 

Here are few questions to use as prompt.

1. What goal are you working on?

2. What activities do you plan to do to reach that goal?

2. How is this activity helping you reach that goal?

3. Where are you at in the process of reaching that goal?

Check out my other posts on personalized learning: Personalized Learning in Action & Tools to Personalize Learning.

#D100BloggerPD "Move Your Bus" Reflection- Ch. 15-17

Happy Monday, everyone! Hopefully, you are enjoying some time in your personal life on this President's Day.

Welcome to the next installment of #D100Blogger PD for "Move Your Bus," by Ron Clark. If you have missed the previous posts from my wonderful D100 colleagues, check out #D100bloggerpd on twitter or find the list of posts on Literacy Loving Gals blog here.

I have really enjoyed this book since it caused me to do so much reflection about myself and my district. So here it goes with some of my thoughts from Ch. 15 Stay in your lane, Ch. 16 Change the conversation to change the culture, and Ch. 17 Allow the runners to reap the rewards.

CHAPTER 15: STAY IN YOUR LANE

I think most runners and even joggers could relate to this chapter. Ron makes the point that runners often start to meddle with others jobs, or spend too much time helping others along to point that it is a detriment to themselves. Not only will this stop the runner, but it can slow the whole bus. He just wants to shout, "Stay in your lane!" 

There are times, when I remember thinking, "Man, I just want to teach and not worry about all these other things!" Now, I think back and in some cases, I really didn't need to be worried about some of those other things. Teachers never have enough time, so it is important to guard your time to focus on your responsibilities. It takes focus, focus, focus. He also reminds us that it takes loyalty, patience, and faith as well. 

Some runners even fall into the trap of doing the work for others to keep the bus moving. This will only cause more work for you and the others will get the benefits. One thing I have to keep in mind is that something may not be done the way I would have done it, or would like it done, but that is ok and I need to keep MY focus.

Now don't confuse mentoring and helping others with doing the work for them. Especially in education, mentoring and sharing is a huge part of our responsibility, but don't drag the unwilling by the hand to catch up with the bus.    

Remember to stay in that straight line from point A to point B with your eyes on the road ahead. Focus on your job and do it well!

via GIPHY

CHAPTER 16: CHANGE THE CONVERSATION TO CHANGE THE CULTURE

We have all been sucked into negative conversations or maybe even started them. I can admit that of course I have, too. It is human nature. Ron offers a simple solution to participating in negative conversation....JUST STOP. When we participate in negative conversations, it just causes us to "one-up" each other and the negativity spreads. In the best schools with the best teachers and the best students there is always going to be something to complain about, so just stop.

He refers to negativity as digging potholes. Instead of being a sponge and allowing others to carry on negative conversations with you, he offers three suggestions: ask a question, tell a positive story, or just walk away. Ron suggests saying, "How can we make this better?" or "Can I tell you something positive about my day?" The person that is being negative will definitely get the hint.  At the very least, they will stop talking negatively to you and who knows, maybe they will even start to look at the positive side and turn others around.

I have been fortunate to have several excellent leaders in my career. One of the reasons they are so great is that they are able to stay positive and impact the culture amidst negative energy.When a teacher thinks it just can't get any worse, I have seen them bring everything into perspective and keep the bus moving along without opening the emergency exit. I realize that these positive reactions are one of the reasons why they are in a leadership position.

  Ch 17: ALLOW THE RUNNERS TO REAP THE REWARDS

This chapter was brief and to the point, a good point. If you are not the one working the hardest, don't take the rewards from the ones that are. What is fair isn't equal to everyone. The people that are working the hardest should be rewarded for that. He reminds leaders to recognize those runners. There is no faster way to take the wind out of a runners sail, then to reward someone who is not working as hard. If you want the rewards, work hard for it. Step up your game and you efforts will be noticed. I have seen people act out of jealousy and start negative conversations instead of being happy for those that are working the hardest. Those negative conversations are only slowing the bus. You want everyone around you working at their best, so be happy when they are recognized for it.

These chapters really hit on some deep issues within any organization. I am walking away with some goals for myself. I plan to stay more focused on my goals, turn around negative conversations, and be motivated to work harder if others receive the rewards I want. If everyone did this, think of the awesome possibilities for the bus as a whole!  

Join the wonderful Leah O'Donnell at Responsive Literacy on Wednesday the 17th as she reviews Ch. 18 Exude a sense of urgency and Ch. 19 Find solutions. Also don't forget to check out #D100bloggerPD for all the "Move Your Bus" reflections and so many other books, too!  

The February Funk

Welcome February! I don't know about you, but this seems to the month I run out of steam. We are fully back in the swing of things from winter break and spring break is still too far ahead.

 

Well, instead of just wishing for a snow day...and regretting it in June...try one of these tricks for that extra motivation!

Request the help of a coach

That is why we are here! You can come as a blank slate with an open mind or with a project in mind. Maybe there is a project that you always thought would be great someday, but who has the time. A coach can help pull you and your students out of boredom.  

Take a break 

Break up class with a brain break. GoNoodle is great site for all ages and all you have to do is click and play!  It may just be the simple silly solution to bring you up. 

Try a new app or website with your class

Stick around is an app for all ages and subjects from the wonderful Tony Vincent. Teachers and students can make puzzles based on content to share with each other. Don't have iPads, try Power my Learning. This site supports personalized learning with playlists of games and activities for many different content areas. 

        

Make a new connection

My PLN motivates me everyday! Connect with amazing educators on Twitter, Instragram or Facebook. Try a new twitter chat or find a new blog. There are also many awesome blogs listed on the home page of this blog. 

Try a new project with your students

May I suggest Genius Hour! Research shows productivity goes up when people are given time to explore their own passion. Give this opportunity to your students and see where it takes them! 

I hope one of these tips spark that extra motivation in you! 

Now go get 'em!