EdcampKC Reflection

The following post was written jointly by Britt (5th grade teacher) and Jon (6th grade teacher).

What is an Edcamp?
The current state of professional development in education is stale and lifeless. Teachers dread the ordeal and enter with their brains set to autopilot. Interest is remarkably low and differentiation is rare. Edcamps are different. Using the Edcamp model teachers can take control of their professional learning. For a brief explanation of the Edcamp model please take a moment and read this post from Edutopia - Introduction to Edcamp: A New Conference Model Built on Collaboration.

What did we learn?
The most immediate lesson learned at EdcampKC is that there is a better way to do professional development.  Because of that better way, we learned things that are pertinent to our needs.  

For me - Britt Pumphrey, teaching 5th grade - I learned about some new ways to have my students record their voices.  I plan to use audioboo.fm to have students record their thinking.  I love simple voice recording tools because it is the best way I have found to do formative assessments to see what each student has learned.  

My - Jonathan Ferrell, teaching 6th grade - biggest take away was what I learned during the student blogging session. During that presentation teachers shared how they used blogs to enhanced student learning. I was able to glean ideas for my own classroom and make connections with other teachers who are blogging. As a result my students have been able to connect with a classroom in Iowa and share their learning experiences with a broader audience.


Could this work at the district level to breathe life into PD?
Sitting in the Maximizing Your PLN session facilitated by @kevcreutz I learned that professional development can be beneficial even when it’s not something I have a significant need to learn about.  There were some key elements that are often missing in common professional development.  For one, the use of Google Docs with the presence of smart phones and laptops allowed EVERYONE to be involved.  Second, the integration of the Google Doc that had guiding questions for discussion with live, face-to-face discussion made the time more lively and personal.  Third, the use of a Twitter hashtag allows for a global backchannel where people from everywhere can join in on the topic.  

So how can these things help out professional development at a normal school in the Kansas City area?  

• A backchannel should be standard.  Whether it’s Titan Pad, Google Docs, Wallwisher, Todaysmeet, or Twitter a backchannel is an easy way to document the progress of profession development as well as involve everyone.  The backchannel discussion drives engagement through the roof and provides a richer learning experience.
• Topics should be pertinent, timely, and hashed out with discussion that is guided by facilitating questions.
• Teachers must be involved in the planning and preparation. When teachers merely show up and are told where to go and what to do their buy-in is minimal. But, when teachers are active participants and there is a measure of choice as to the topics engagement will increase and learning will take place.

A special thanks to Kyle Pace (@kylepace) for orchestrating EdcampKC. We appreciated being able to join in the event and learn from everyone who attended.

Also, this is the Google Doc where we took notes during the unconference.

The Fun Theory

Maybe you have seen these videos, maybe not. I couldn't help but think about the classroom while I watched all four videos at Volkswagon's site. Watch this one;




How have you applied this theory, consciously or otherwise, in the classroom?




How have you applied this theory, consciously or otherwise, in the classroom?



Thanks for sharing.

Class on the News Again

Fortunately this time I was able to avoid the camera. I am loving how much this has meant for my students.

On the News

Check out my 5th grade class on our local news. Monday morning NBC is coming!


 

From EdCampKC

Check out our G-Doc summary of our day at Ed Camp KC.

Edmodo in the 6th Grade Classroom

Edmodo is a free social learning tool designed for education. This website provides a platform for  teachers to easily post notes, share links, and host conversations among their students. In my sixth grade classroom we have been using Edmodo extensively throughout the first two months of school.


The students have enjoyed using Edmodo because they can easily interact with each other on the site. I have enjoyed using the tool because my students are engaged with and discussing what we are learning in class. Edmodo provides a private and secure place for these conversations.


The initial learning curve for Edmodo is very low. My students were able to pick up how to use the site and were customizing it to their liking in only a few minutes.


We have used Edmodo a couple of different ways so far this year:

• Hosting classroom discussions. I will post an initial question and my students will dive into the laptops and hammer out their thoughts. As a student posts a reply it instantly updates on the site. This type of conversation has been effective at eliciting responses from all students.
• Quick classroom polls. We study five different ancient civilizations in sixth grade and after introducing each civilization the students voted in a poll on Edmodo about which one they were most interested in learning more about.
• Home to school connection. When students use their out of school time to learn more about the topics we are exploring in class they can use Edmodo to share what they have learned with the other students.

Edmodo is an enjoyable and effective educational tool that enhances learning in my classroom. To learn more about Edmodo I would encourage you to follow them on Twitter and subscribe to their blog.

ICDL and Kidblog

ICDL
This week I came across the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) while looking for ebooks for our iPod Touches. We used it this week when we were working with some students on the different ways to read a book. You can, of course, read the words. But it is also important to remember that you can read the pictures. Using this site, each student told the story by only looking at the pictures (the text was in Farsi) and then we compared it to the English. It was a quick activity that helped the students with inferential thinking as well as developing strategies for reading books.

Other uses for ICDL could include having students actually write the story by only looking at the pictures. Students could also record their reading as well as their thinking using Audacity or any other recording application as they read one of the many online books. The site is also a good general resource for multicultural books for any level of classroom.

Kidblog.org
I am excited about Kid Blog for a lot of reasons. After just one week in school, I am most excited about the fact that I can moderate student comments and posts from an iPod touch while they are working. I am going to use some posts to simply have students record their learning from an activity or week at school by having them leave comments and then respond to each other. The fact that I can moderate their comments immediately - and before any other students see the comments - is what is so intriguing. It is also nice that students don't have to have email addresses and I can manage the private vs. public visibility of each blog. Also, as I was circulating from student to student, I was able to check in on the progress of every student by accessing their drafts. As they were typing their blogs, Kid Blog was automatically saving their drafts for moderation, this allowed me to keep up on the general progress of the class as well as the progress of the student across the room.

I also could have written about team teaching, iPod touches, Doodle Buddy or Brushes (iPod apps), the Daily 5 for literacy, or about my aching feet and back and my tired eyes. Maybe next time.