Pimp My Lesson Revisited

I so enjoyed Pimp My Lesson last week! We had some AWESOME ideas that we cultivated as a group. Please post a response to the following question on your own blog:

What did you gain from brainstorming with your peers about a lesson that you would like to rejuvenate? Have you tried out the changes in your lesson and if so, how did it go? How did technology usage improve your lesson, if at all? What was the biggest takeaway from Pimp My Lesson?

Please post by Friday, March 25th. Click on the blogs below to see your colleagues responses:

http://mira03blog.blogspot.com/

http://techscoutlondon.blogspot.com/

http://www.davislsmusic.org/#!blog/c1e90

http://catertolearning.blogspot.com/

www.mrsartzi.weebly.com

http://gilalevy3.wix.com/teacher

Pimp My Lesson

BEFORE PIMP MY LESSON
 

https://pixabay.com/en/bad-mark-student-mathematics-maths-624734/

AFTER PIMP MY LESSON

http://zbpurpleberry.deviantart.com/art/Teacher-Zane-561037944

Do you remember the TV show on MTV called Pimp My Ride in which a clunker was restored to a better state? Well, we will be taking that same concept and applying it to our least favorite lesson for an afternoon of Pimp My Lesson! Please come to the Broadcast Studio on Tuesday, March 8th, along with your most dreaded lesson plan or lesson idea and we will rejuvenate it! Just bring your fabulous self, a lesson that you don't particularly like, and an open mind! 

Tech Scout PD

I have the great pleasure of leading a group of teachers through the Tech Scout PD strand, one of which is participating a second time. The premise behind this professional development strand is to learn by doing. As a result, the strand consists of a series of challenges that encourage participants to innovate outside of their comfort zone. For our recent face to face event, the participants traveled back in time to the fourth grade. By doing so, they were able to get a sample of the experiences that fourth graders have when they participate in the technology exploratory. In addition to learning how to work as part of a team to accomplish a common goal, they must also agree on what that goal should look like by planning and designing a mutually inspiring creative outcome. Then, they have to pace themselves to accomplish their goal within the time allotted. Finally, they have to present their hard work to the participants outside of their design team. 

To say that this experience was fun, would not do it justice. It was so awesome to see the teams come together to bring their creative ideas and past experiences to inspire resiliency in problem-solving as a result of being committed to making something great. The Tech Scouts can continue to visit the Idea Lab with their own classes and inspire innovation within the core curriculum. As an additional incentive, each visit to the Idea Lab falls within the Take a Walk Challenge and is worth three points in earning their digital badges. 

#HourofCode

There are plenty of school sponsored events that bring together parents, teachers, and students. None, however, is quite like Hour of Code. We kicked off our 2015 all school Hour of Code this year by hosting a Parent Hour of Code. Students and teachers shouldn't have all the fun, right? One of my favorite moments was as I was giving a brief overview of what it means to participate in Hour of Code, one of the parents said, "I thought this was going to involve problem-solving skills". I replied, "It certainly will. You just wait and see". Sure enough, he happened to be the first parent to surpass level 6 in Anna and Elsa's drag and drop programming. Level 6 is not so easy. Everyone needed his help. For a few minutes, he became the center of our problem-solving efforts as he reworked what he had done two levels earlier to pass level 6. It was an aha moment in which we all recognized that problem-solving, persistence, and patience are key. Not to mention teamwork and the thoughtful energy as we shared information to benefit one another was the essence of our success too. If the amount of fun that I had is any indication of how much fun the others had, then I feel confident that it was a successful hour.

As the day progressed, we saw our littlest learners from mechina to kindergarten dabble in their own coding adventure. They had fun with the Foos and the Kodable apps. We weren't ready to go when the bell rang. Luckily, they were reminded that with parent supervision, they can do this at home too. Code.org is open for business all year long. 

While there were many highlights of the day, another favorite moment was when one hour of code participant was frustrated when their hour was over. About four hours later, I received a tweet with the certificate of completion from that participant. They went home and finished what they had started. Completion certainly adds to the feeling of accomplishment. 

Hour of Code incorporates so many useful skills in addition to those listed above. There is critical thinking, math, logic, but just as important, there is pride in feeling accomplished as new levels are mastered. A community that codes together, learns together.

Book to Art Club

Last year as I was searching online for something other than what I found, I came across the Library as Incubators Project website. Started by three University of Wisconsin School of Library Information Studies students, Erinn Batykefer, Laura Damon-Moore, and Christina Jones, its mission is to demonstrate that libraries are a place to create and to connect. I was struck by the creativity behind this but most significantly, I was struck by the offshoot of this organization, which is the Book to Art Club. It puts a new spin on book clubs by encouraging these events not only to be a meaningful discussion but also a time in which book club members make something inspired by the book that they read. 

I knew we had to sign up and register our school as our own chapter within this larger book to art club movement. Our chapter can be found here. With an impressive list of books that have already been explored in a book to art club, our chapter was able to recycle an art project centered around the book Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead. There is a book to art club pinterest page with great ideas, which is where I discovered creating invisible ink for Liar and Spy. This time, however, we read Prairie Evers by Ellen Airgood and created our own book art out of old dictionary pages. 

I have no doubt that the third book in our book to art club will inspire us to create something great too. We are reading another Georgia book award nominee called Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie T. Lamana. I already have some ideas brewing for future masterpieces. As a place to create and to connect, our media center is proud to host our own book to art club chapter.

Organized Chaos

It is both a joy and a pleasure to watch the creativity unfold in a technology exploratory that focuses on programming and robotics. When people walk into our Lower School Idea Lab, at first glance, it can appear hectic with quite a bit of movement, not to mention an elevated volume. This, however, is part of the joy. Having the opportunity to make, move, and mingle can be very motivating. There is a process behind our organized chaos. To understand our genius at work, here is the breakdown of our process:

Step 1
Build a Design Team
As a class, we host a discussion about modern day design firms. We brainstorm about what we believe would be succesful traits among a strong design team. We spend a lot of time sharing characteristics of individuals that we believe would be beneficial to have on a design team. The consensus is that problem-solving skills are a must. Then, we come up with interview questions to ask potential design team members.

Step 2
Mix & Mingle
We put our interview skills to test and mingle with our peers to determine who we would match well with on a design team based on strengths and weaknesses. 

Step 3
Contact Cards
Using contact cards and the information we learned from mingling with one another, we create a list of six individuals that we believe we could work well with on a design project. We know we may work well with people we may not have anticipated. We approach this part of the process with an open mind. 



Step 4
Rotations
The design teams are formed as a result of our contact card exercise. It works like a charm every time! After learning the makeup of our design teams, we start our rotations. Rotations include working with the following technology tools:
Building a Robot with Hummingbird Robotics
Coding with Lego Robotics
Programming with Sphero
Digital Storytelling with Scratch
Virtual Reality with Google Cardboard
Constructing a Computer with Kano
Creating Electronic Circuits with LittleBits

Step 5 
Presentation Day
We present our creations. This is where we show what we have learned. We have rubrics that provide a framework for being able to articulate the process. This is a great opportunity for each of us to learn more about a tool other than the one that we just used in our rotations. We become experts for one another as we learn more and share our resources and knowledge. 

After presentation day is over, we rotate to a new technology tool and the learning process begins again. By having the freedom to explore, create, make, and connect, we build upon skills that will make a positive difference in real world problem solving scenarios. We learn to rely upon each other by respecting our different areas of expertise. We learn how to cultivate meaningful relationships that will help us accomplish what we set out to do. We learn to navigate in an environment that encourages us to be resourceful. We learn to be a part of our own strong design team. 

There's No Such Thing As An Expert

I read a quote this morning and although I won't restate it as eloquently here, the general idea is that when it comes to educational technology, no one is an expert. No one is an expert because technology is constantly changing. All. The. Time. As a result, it really does negate the naysayers when they talk about lacking experience in the use of technology. In a way, we all lack experience. So, the question is what separates the novice from the master? It's certainly not having all the knowledge. I'd say it is one thing: attitude.

I regularly check in with amazingly impressive teachers that I have the pleasure of working with and to be honest, I find myself smirking sometimes when I hear someone say they aren't the tech expert nor will they ever be. The truth is we are all right there with you. What separates the amazing from the great is simply attitude. There's one teacher in particular that inspires me. This person has been at our school a long, long time but to me, this teacher stands out for one simple reason: the attitude to embrace change. This teacher is my personal example of what we should all strive to be whether it is late in life or early on in our careers.

Be brave. Lean on each other. Share. Have humor. Be proud. Be the change.