Learning Team Reflection

Which 21st Century Learning dimensions and competencies did your learning team use as you worked on this task?

• Collaboration:  We not only made substantive decisions together, such as what activities we were going to implement, but our work was interdependent.  Winona and I could not have created and implemented the activities without each other.
• Knowledge Construction:  We both built our background knowledge on 21st Century Learning prior to working as team to implement 21st Century Learning in a classroom by watching different EdPuzzles on 21st Century Learning aspects and competencies.
• Use of Technology for Learning:  We designed a Google Slide, showcasing all of our efforts, in order to motivate and encourage others to bring the 21st Century competencies to life in their classrooms.
• Self-Regulation:  Even though we were given due dates along the way, we were responsible for making sure all of the requirements of this course were completed.
• Skilled Communication:  Through our Google Slide, we will be communicating to the Expo audience what we learned about ourselves and our students when it comes to 21st Century Learning though the use of evidence collected during the implementation of 21st Century Learning activities.

Do you see any applications for this in your instruction?
I think that when I return to the classroom, I would use aspects of the set-up of this class as a model for a long-term project.  Some aspects I would include are the check-in dates along the way to encourage the self-regulation, the knowledge construction at the beginning in order to prepare students for the final project, the collaboration of a team and the use of a particular audience to encourage the skilled communication.

Winona and I worked primarily with her Algebra class.  We did a lesson on Absolute Value functions as well as began a unit on exponents.  We also worked with her math 8 students on functions.  Please go to Winona's blog for our lesson plans.

My Journey Continues

As I reflect upon the past 9 weeks, what about myself was I most aware of as a learner?
I'm not sure I learn very well from reading other people's blogs.  I felt like there was a lot of redundancy between what I wrote in my posts and what other people wrote in theirs. This being said, I found myself saying the same things in my comments as I did in my original posts which made me feel like I was doing busy-work.  I also learned that I enjoy working at my own pace and choosing what specifically I want to learn about.  I feel I have control over what I am learning and am learning things that are important and relevant to me and where I am in my work as a 21st Century educator.

What insights about student learning have I gained as a result of implementing the 21st Century Learning Competencies?
I have learned that students can rise to the occasion.  What I mean by this is that students are capable of higher-level, rigorous work as long as the teacher is organized and holds them accountable for their learning along the way.  It is not enough to just tell students go "do this."  As teachers, we need to guide them through the process and be explicit about the expectations.  Students can "feel" when teachers don't believe they can do something so it is important that, as teachers, we believe in students' abilities to succeed at every level.  If we don't, we will not push them to be 21st Century Learners.

As I think about my future instruction, how might the 21st Century Learning Competencies be used as a guide to my teaching practice?
Since, the main reason I took this course was to better inform my knowledge of the six competencies and how to use them effectively within a lesson in order to better support teachers at my site with 21st Century Learning in the classroom, I see myself using the 21st Century Learning Competencies "Elevator Guide" when I meet with teachers to plan lessons.  We can look at the lesson through the 21st Century lens and see where the lesson is currently and if, by making some changes, we can take the lesson to a higher level in one or more of the competencies.

Nearpod - Allowing Students to Work at Their Own Pace

After giving the Quizizz Pre-Assessment on square and cube roots, Ms. Wilson and I decided the students needed a refresher on evaluating square and cube roots.  Since the students were all taught how to evaluate square and cube roots in Pre-Algebra last year we wanted to design something where students were encouraged to work at their own pace but collaborate if needed.  We decided to use Nearpod.  We focused just on square roots, which was enough content for one class period and an extra 30 minute extension period.

Link to Nearpod Activity
Link to Nearpod Data

When we planned this activity, we originally felt it fell under 3 of the 21st Century Learning competencies:

1. Collaboration:  Even though students had their own devices, we encouraged them more than once to ask questions of and discuss with their partners during class.  However, due to the headphones (so they could watch the videos embedded in Nearpod) students did not engage so this activity didn't really lend itself to collaboration like we originally thought.
2. Knowledge Construction:  Even though students were introduced to evaluating square roots the previous school year, it was obvious from our pre-assessment that they had not retained the knowledge.  Therefore, we wanted to go beyond just telling them what the perfect squares were.  We asked them questions like, "What is the difference between (-5)^2 and -5^2?", "How would your answer differ if you were asked to solve for the square root of 36 versus x^2=36?" and "Evaluate the square root of 75.  Explain how you got your answer." in order to encourage knowledge construction instead of just memorizing rules and tricks.
3. Use of Technology for Learning:  In this activity, technology supported students' knowledge construction because students were able to re-watch videos within the Nearpod and go to other websites if they still did not understand the content being presented. 

I do want to note a couple of glitches that we ran into while using Nearpod:

• We learned very quickly that we needed to run the Nearpod in "homework mode" if we wanted students to be able to move at their own pace rather than "live mode" even though they were not doing it for homework.
• Student work did not save between the initial class and the 30 minute extension class.  We sent an email to Nearpod asking them to troubleshoot this issue for the future.

Finally, some comments from the students regarding the use of Nearpod that they posted in Google Classroom:

• "This lesson was very helpful. It helped me with learning these exponents and equations quickly with ease. Also it was easy to get your attention when I needed help while normally its hard to get your attention."
•  "Honestly this is better than ed puzzle. It's more interactive for learning . It's cool."
• "I liked this activity because the videos explained the topic really well. It took a long time but it was good so it could help us understand more. I personally liked it better than the teacher standing at the front of the classroom. This is because we have to wait for EVERYONE to understand."

Quizizz - Pre-Assessment Tool

When Winona Wilson and I sat down to discuss how we were going to incorporate 21st Century Learning into her Algebra class' upcoming unit on exponents, we knew we wanted to try some of the tools we had used within our Practitioner Badge course.  The first thing we talked about was how we thought the students had a lot of background knowledge on square and cube roots.  Since that was only a guess, we decided to create a pre-assessment using Quizizz.  We found that, overall, we were wrong about students having a lot of background knowledge on square and cube roots and could not just skip to the next concept.  Without the Quizizz's pre-assessment we would not have met the students needs.

Link to the Quizizz Pre-Assessment on Square and Cube Roots

Link to Pre-Assessment Data

This activity fell under the Use of Technology for Learning competency at the lowest level; students use technology during the activity.  The purpose of this activity was more for us as the teachers than the students themselves as it provided invaluable data as to what concepts we needed to address with the students in upcoming lessons.

A couple of notes about using Quizizz:

1. Students liked the program but as a pre-assessment ONLY.  Students felt pressure with the timer and seeing other's scores.
2. Some students liked seeing scores and other students didn't.

Padlet - Helping Algebra Students Understand Absolute Value Functions

I am currently not in the classroom, however, I was lucky enough to take the Practitioner Badge course with a teacher in my building, Winona Wilson.  That being said, we worked together to create 21st Century activities and lessons that were implemented in her 8th grade Algebra class.  I am grateful that I was able to work with someone currently in the classroom so I could actually see designed lessons and activities implemented.

One of the activities that was designed and implemented with 21st Century Learning in mind was the use of Padlet to help students to identify and understand what happens to the graph of the function y = a|x-h| + k when a, h or k are not zero.

For this activity students were given an absolute value equation, which they then had to graph using an electronic graphing tool in addition to the parent function y = |x|.  The students then copied their graph containing the two functions onto a Padlet post and described the transformation that occurred between the parent function and transformed function they were given.

This activity focused on the 21st Century Competencies of Use of Technology for Learning and Knowledge Construction.

• Technology supported students' knowledge construction in this activity because the electronic graphing tool allowed students to focus on the transformations that occurred between the parent function and function they were given instead of the actual graphing of the function.  When students are asked to graph both the parent and transformed function without the aide of an electronic graphing tool, there is a greater probability they will graph one or both of the functions incorrectly, which will make it challenging to describe the transformations that occur when a, h and k are not zero.  Furthermore, using Padlet allowed students to see a variety of transformed absolute value functions at once and see the transforming effects for different values of a, h and k without having to graph them all, electronically or by hand.
• The primary purpose of this activity was that students construct knowledge; how is the graph of y = |x| affected when transformed.  Instead of telling students what effect(s) a, h and k would have on the graph of the parent function y = |x|, they had to discover the patterns themselves. 

The link to the Padlet is http://padlet.com/wrwilson/ynk7s6u2uh2h.

"Middle Schoolers Can't Self-Regulate!"

As an Instructional Coach at a middle school I hear comments like my post title all the time.  However, middle schoolers can self-regulate, they need to be explicitly taught how to do so.  So often I see teachers assign long-term projects and basically tell their students to finish the project by a given date.  Sure, they provide guidelines and maybe even a rubric, but in the end, both the students and the teacher are frustrated and never want to engage in long-term projects again.  Why?  Students weren't explicitly taught how to self-regulate themselves during the work time of the project and have failed to finish.  All of this could be avoided if teachers explicitly taught students how to self-regulate as they would teach students content.  The fact of the matter is middle schoolers are middle schoolers, they are not adults, and self-regulation is a learned skill.  It can be challenging to teach middle schoolers how to self-regulate but it can and needs to be done.  Self- regulation is an important 21st Century Skill and students need to be able to self-regulate by the time they reach high school and beyond.  There are some things a teacher could easily implement when assigning a long-term project that will incorporate teaching students self-regulation.

1. Define the learning goals and the success criteria that indicate the student has met the learning goals at the beginning of the project.
2. Provide students with check-in dates along the way.
3. Give students specific feedback after each check-in date.
4. Require students to reflect on their progress at frequent intervals and think about next steps.

Use Of Technology FOR Learning - NOT Using Technology To Use Technology

What did I learn?
Almost immediately following my learning surrounding the use of technology for learning, I had the opportunity to visit two classrooms in which technology was being used but I had to question if it was for learning.  In both classrooms, the teachers were attempting to have students use Google Docs to give feedback to their peers on an essay.  In both classrooms, almost the entire period was spent trying to get the students logged on to Google and share their Doc with another student to edit.  While observing these classrooms and reflecting on the observations afterward with other observers, I kept thinking about the Use of Technology for Learning "elevator" guide and I was left with several questions/wonderings.

1. Was the technology being used FOR learning?  What I witnessed was more learning technology not learning or engaging with the content.
2. Did the technology support knowledge construction?  It could have, but in an entire period, it didn't, at least in terms of content knowledge construction.
3. Was the technology required for knowledge construction?  No, students could have easily given feedback on paper using a pen.
4. When is it appropriate for students to learn how to use certain technology without taking away from the learning of content?  I still have no good answer to this question.  It is important for students to use technology correctly and, in order to do, they need to be taught how BUT how can this be done without losing time for content?  After all, technology is a tool for 21st Century Learning not a necessity.

What changes might I implement based on my new knowledge?
If I were in the classroom, I would carefully evaluate what technology I was having students use and when.  I would be constantly asking myself questions such as is it necessary?, is it going to take too much time away from the content to teach students how to use the technology? do I have a good enough understanding of the technology I am asking my students to use in order to facilitate their knowledge construction?  These are the same questions I am asking of the teachers I currently work with.  If I was at a school that was one-to-one, these questions may not be necessary or may change as students would be using technology more consistently but that is not the current reality.