Infusing High & Low Tech Strategies with Student Reflection and Feedback

In my previous post I discussed the beginning portion of my workshop with 2nd year teachers in our district (see the Tech Timeline post).  Here's a copy of the slides I put together via Haiku Deck (and then later hosted and tweaked on Google Presentation) on design thinking to help promote metacognition.  The ideas presented in the slides are from things I fused together from workshops done by Martin Moran on design thinking/project based learning (@martinmoran21) and Paul Solarz on Genius Hour/passion projects (@PaulSolarz).  Using what I gained from them, I co-taught a 4-day inquiry workshop for students in an 8th grade ELA intervention class.  Included in the slides are the steps the teacher and I took to deliver instruction that allowed for student inquiry and self-reflection and meaningful (and timely!) teacher feedback:

In a perfect world, it would be great to be able to do all of these steps.  However, you don't have to do all of this when it comes to just getting kids to stop and think. When I asked the teachers what strategy they can walk away with and implement immediately, the top-two take-aways for the 2nd year teachers seemed to be one low-tech reflection strategy and one high-tech: the "Where Was I, Where Am I, Where Am I Going" post-it activity and the "One Minute Video Reflection".   As I continue to share this information with teachers, I impress upon them that although this 4-day lesson went incredibly smooth, the format may not work for everyone.  Instead, I ask teachers to again consider any strategy that they can transfer into their instruction in a way that they see fit.  Here's a list of high and low tech related reflection strategies to use when students are completing mini-research/inquiry/PBL activities:

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My Brain on #ICE14

I've been at the 2014 ICE conference for the last three days... yeah, it's my first time here. I can seriously say that my brain has caught on fire at ICE.  I've had the privilege to surround myself with brilliant Illinois educators and listen to my techie, passionate, guru mentors delve deep into what it truly means to engage the learners of today. When I finally have a chance to decompress and dump my brain out on my colleagues, I'll post some ideas that I've gained over the last three days. For now I'll resort to a quick snapshot of my blog posts yet to come.  D68 educators be warned! You'll probably see another one of these appear on the wall in the PD Center!

Wed. @ ICE:  Do you have lessons you can sell tickets for?

I spent the day learning from #HashtagMan...the pirate himself, Dave Burgess (author of Teach Like a Pirate, @burgessdave).  I use Twitter, but I've never taken part in a Twitter chat and I'll say that the #tlap one will be the first one I try out!  This is my first year out of the classroom, and as an instructional coach I have the power to impact the lives of all of our students.  Yet, I couldn't help but feel that my heartstrings were being tugged on (or completely torn out of my body at some points) as Dave Burgess reminded us all to teach with a fiery passion.  Three remarks of his resonated with me...

If the students didn't have to be there, would you be teaching to an empty room?

Do you have lessons you can sell tickets for?

It's not supposed to be easy.  It's supposed to be worth it! 

A few take-aways...

• Twitter filters out all of the energy vampires
• It's okay to create a superhero or supervillain to teach your content
• Three words... the mullet ratio
• Wedding photographer resilience
• Can I... How can I.... How many ways can I....?
• Creative alchemy: Zombies vs. humans vs. pirates vs. ninjas
• It's hard to be passionate about... railroads
• Pulling a red bra out of a bag may get you fired, but the kids will never forget that learning experience!

Thurs. @ ICE: Aren't you glad that we benefit from people who can't stand to be bored?

Thursday kicked off with a brilliant keynote by Mike Muir (@mmuir) followed by a mishmosh of workshops.  Although some workshops highlighted very different tools or learning experiences, they all held a common thread: giving students and teachers access to plugged-in power to amplify their voice, choice, and empowered leadership.

A few take-aways...

• Scout-like badges for adults: Digital Badges for PD
• Feed-forward instead of feedback
• Oooh... that question was P.H.A.T!
• Genius hour will seriously blow your mind
• So long KWL... Hello KWHLAQ!
• The most incredible tech tool on team common core: SubText
• 1:1 is about more than just giving all kids a device, and it is SO beyond just having phones aka "pockets of excellence"

Fri. @ ICE: #BeMoreDog!

I've followed George Couros (@gcouros) on Twitter for awhile, read his blog posts, and have viewed his TEDtalk, but this was the first time I've gotten to hear him speak in public when he did Friday's keynote speech.  I told my boss, Greg Wolcott (@TeachLearn68), that this was the best keynote I've ever seen, but then was quickly reminded that I say that for just about every keynote I see, haha. Here's a re-cap of his best points:

A few take-aways...

• Transform yourself... aka: #BeMoreDog (you've got to watch the video above).
• Embrace connectivity... and take selfies with the Pope
• I'd take a video-gram on YouTube than receive a card any day
• Newsletter 4.0... we were ALL engaged in a NEWSLETTER! Wow!
• Disrupt your routine.  We can learn a lot from Taylor Swift "Trouble" remixes
• "The need to create never goes away," says our 12-year-old self
• Kids are sick of the cyber bully talk. We’re just saying “don’t be horrible” and instead we should be saying “hey kids you have the world at your fingertips - go do something amazing!"
• A Must-Do: the Innovation Day
• insert Justin Bieber joke here.

So how can I possibly wrap-up the last three days?  Learning... it's messy, and success is equally as messy. It’s all over the place. The biggest game changer in education has NOTHING to do with technology.  Rather, it all comes down to the educator's mindset. Think differently and grow.

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