Our latest MinecraftEDU project was a collaboration with our school science teacher. Over the past few years, as part of our joint weather unit, his classes would research the historical architecture of different geographical areas of the United States and how those buildings had been adapted to fit their local climate. In the past, students would build models to reflect what they had learned, but often would become too time- and material-intensive. This year, we decided instead to make virtual models in Minecraft!
Students were grouped into teams of three or four and assigned a different region of the US and a representative example of its local architecture. This is known as "vernacular." The regions and architectural styles were:
Students spent time carrying out research on their different areas, noting climate and geographical features. They also noted the features of their assigned house type and how those features were built to adapt to that climate. Several groups made great use of Instagrok! During the students' research, I began setting up the Minecraft environment where the students would build their virtual houses. I used the Edumicator's "Six Group Area" map, a template from the MinecraftEDU world library. I designated five of the six groups as building areas for the groups. In each area, I put a chest with various building materials in it. I figured that I would allow the students to pick the correct materials for their models. (Side note: I created this environment just days before MinecraftEDU version 1.7.10 build 20 became available, which would allow you to copy chests with materials in them...I had to manually fill each chest!) In the sixth area, I created a series of trapped chests that would give students extra building materials and also other items they could use to furnish their houses once they were complete. Later, the students took to calling this area "IKEA."
Once the students had completed their houses, I wanted to present their projects in a way that could be shared beyond their classmates. Since our computer labs use Macs, the students learned how to use the "screen record" feature of QuickTime to create screencasts of them leading tours through their houses. The students really enjoyed this part. Several groups recorded themselves over and over again to get their timing just right! Here is a playlist of their screencasts:
The students really enjoyed this activity. I was amazed at some of the creativity they displayed in deciding how to represent certain features of their houses within the Minecraft environment. I'm also curious...is anyone out there from the regions we researched? Were we pretty accurate?
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I've really started getting into flipping my lessons this year, especially in science and social studies. My schedule this year only leaves 30 minutes most days for either science or social studies, and I want to leave that time open for activities and discussions. I've kind of settled into a rhythm of how I do it, but I'm still looking for ways to perfect my technique.
Over the years, I've converted a lot of my social studies and science content lessons into PowerPoints and Google Slides presentations. So to flip them, I just recorded myself teaching those presentations. I experimented with a few screencasting apps like Screencast-O-Matic, Jing, and Explain Everything, but I've settled on Doceri as my recording app of choice. I like how you can transition in Doceri between slides and stay in annotation mode, as well as its simple interface with YouTube, where I end up posting much of my content. Here's an example of a lesson I taught using a "Doceri-fied" PowerPoint presentation:
To go along with the video, I print out and distribute guided notes to my students. I used to just ask them to take notes, but I noticed that they would key in on less important details, or not be able to keep up. These guided notes provide a frame to direct students' attention, and also use a fill-in-the-blank format to decrease the amount of writing they have to do. Here's the guided notes for this lesson:
These notes are formatted so they can be trimmed and taped on a page of a composition book. On the facing side, students are supposed to create some kind of reflection to better internalize their thinking about what they learned. Many of my students have created wonderful reflections and they have sparked some interesting discussions in class!
This system has worked so far this year. Like I said, I'm always looking for ways to enhance my technique. I'd like to make my presentations more dynamic and animated, so the students aren't just staring at the words on a page. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them...I'm still a novice flipper and any advice would be most welcome!
I had a long list of blog posts that I wanted to get caught up on this long weekend. But as I sit surrounded by family and great food, I feel such gratitude. So, while I am of course thankful for my family and friends and all they do, I thought I'd list out some things I'm thankful for professionally. • My third grade teacher, Mrs. Orzechowski. One of the most unforgettable teachers I have ever had. Even 30 years later, I still remember the humor and way she infused hands-on learning into her instruction. I’ll never forget how we built almost life-size cardboard dinosaur skeletons by scaling them up from those small wooden models! • Robin Levy, my first supervisor when I worked as a counselor at Harbor Hills Day Camp. She really was my first inspiration for teaching. She taught me so much about being proactive, about genuinely caring for and being with children, and making sure that each one is noticed and recognized for what they do well. • Penn State College of Communications and the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. While I didn’t exactly enter the field that I got my college degree in, I did gain a great amount of technical knowledge at Penn State that I have been able to utilize in my teaching career. That career was given a great start from some exceptional professors at Rutgers. I am especially thankful for my mentor, Lesley Mandel Morrow, who really took me under her wing and exposed me to some of the literacy concepts that I still incorporate today. • Conover Road School, where I taught third grade for the first two years of my career. To be honest, I wasn’t very successful in my first two years, and I was eventually not rehired. I am thankful for this time because it formed a mindset for me that I didn’t know everything, and that I could always improve my practice. Fourteen years later, I am still always working to get better. • My colleagues, both at Community Park and online at #5thchat. I tell everyone that I have learned more in a year of #5thchats than in I am especially thankful for my grade-level colleagues, who I am constantly picking up ideas from and learning from. • Finally, the administration, both at my school and in my district. In this age of school reform and obsession with test scores, they remain committed to supporting innovation and experimentation in the classroom. I feel very fortunate to have an administration that I know supports my efforts, and also tries to provide me as much as they can with the training and equipment necessary to achieve my goals. I am thankful for so much in my life, both professionally and personally. What are you thankful for?
Today marked an important milestone in the class's Genius Hour journeys! Each student delivered an "elevator pitch" to introduce their topic to the class...and now to the world!
What is an elevator pitch? The students only get 30 seconds or so to introduce their topic, and "sell" us on it! The name comes from the idea that someone would only have the time it takes for an elevator to go from the lobby to the top floor to sell an investor on an idea. Being concise, enthusiastic, and clear are definite musts!
The students took turns by random draw delivering their pitches, while the rest of the class gave feedback. I adapted myfeedback rubric from one that I found on Joy Kirr's amazing LiveBinder (you can find a lot of other great Genius Hour resources there as well!).
Here are my students' first attempts at elevator pitches as a YouTube playlist. For many of these students, it's the first time presenting anything like this in front of a camera. I welcome your comments and suggestions...what else can I do to prepare my students to pitch their projects? Additionally, the students will be posting their individual pitches on their blogfolios. I encourage you to visit them as well!
I use Reading and Writing Workshop for my language arts instruction. In the Readers Workshop component, the students maintain logs of their reading both at home and at school. They are expected to analyze their logs periodically to recognize trends in their reading logs and to make resolutions to make their reading better. Over the years, I have tinkered with the style and form of the reading logs in my class. Each version always included several key components, including the title of the book, total time they read, and the total number of pages they read. In later versions, I would also have students write a short summary about what they read and also include their thoughts about the story so far. But there was always a problem getting students to consistently fill out the log. Students wouldn't record accurate times, or would leave sections blank to fill in later and then forget to fill them in. The biggest obstacle slowing students down was having to calculate their total number of pages and their total reading time every time they stopped reading. So, I decided to try something different this year. I created a Google Form with the usual information the kids provide (title of book, reading at home or school, time started/stopped, starting/ending page, and some thoughts about their reading), and printed out a QR code on a label that I stuck on a bookmark for each of them. On the receiving Google Sheet, I also added two columns with formulas that automatically calculate the total number of pages read and the total time read. This streamlined that part of the process, and made it something that they didn't have to worry about. My first iteration worked pretty well, but I needed to tweak it a little. Since all the students' data was being fed to one form, it was difficult to pull data on one particular student, and I didn't really feel like having to teach students how to use the Filter function each time they consulted their logs. So in my next version, I created individual named copies of the form for each of my students and used the new feature of Google Forms that allows you to send data to separate pages in one sheet. This created a single Google Sheet that has each student's individual reading log data on a separate page. I shared this with each of the students, so now they have access to their reading data in a format that's easier to read and analyze! In the past, if I wanted to check in to see if students were logging their reading time, I would have to conference with the individual student. Often, I'd have to wait while students rooted through their folders, or I'd turn page after page of blank logs. Now, I can see right away if a student hasn't logged their time in a while, so I can conference with them immediately. There are still kinks to work out, but it seems to be moving in the right direction!
My students just completed their first math assessment of the year on Wednesday. As I evaluated them that night, I thought back to how much I've evolved in this whole business of grading. When I was a newer teacher, I gave a lot more unit tests, and I didn't give a whole lot of thought to what I was doing when I graded them. It was a simple process of establishing how many potential points each question was worth, and then calculating the number of points a particular student received. It was really easy, especially with multiple choice and fill-in-the blank questions. I do remember struggling with assigning a point value to the more constructed-response questions...should I make them 3 points? 5 points? What if a student gives a correct answer but doesn't explain it? What if the student has a less pertinent response but words it well? Should spelling count? I began to realize how arbitrary this was...I could shift a students' grade by making some things worth more than others. This was no more apparent to me than in math instruction. My district uses Everyday Math for mathematics instruction...in the upper grades, each unit ends with a unit assessment. For the longest time, I would score these assessments like any other test. I would assign a certain point value to each question and the students would receive a percentage grade based on how many correct responses they gave. As I thought more about it, I began to struggle with several things. First, EDM written are broken into a summative piece and a formative piece. It didn't seem fair to me to lump their performance on things that they should already know together with things they had just learned. So, I started giving two percentage grades; one for the summative piece that I told students and parents to pay more attention to, and one for the formative piece, which I told students not to stress so much about. Second, as with any constructivist math program worth its salt, EDM's assessment components often called upon students to explain their mathematical thinking in more extended responses. How many points should I assign to those? How do I score partial responses? The issue of how many points to assign also led to another issue. I noticed that students (and parents) would fixate solely on that percentage grade I wrote at the top of the paper. "I got a hundred!" was the cry of many a student, as though they won the lottery. I began to notice that no one was really talking about what learning was going on...only that the grade denoted that some learning was happening. If their grade was high, they had "learned!" To take the focus off the grade, I started just writing scores as a fraction...instead of a 90%, for example, I would write 18/20 or something like that. This really didn't do anything, as students could pretty easily figure out what their percentage grade would be. This also didn't change the fact that in the end, a different distribution of points could significantly change a students' score. Finally, towards the middle of last year, I decided to make a change. Everyday Math provides a "progress checklist" with each unit that has a list of the skills that are addressed and assessed in that unit. Instead of giving an overall grade, you could mark if a student had made "adequate progress" in each area or not and add your comments. I had always known that they were there, but I always had dismissed them as "too much work." I knew that my current system of grading wasn't working for me, so I decided to give them another try. While it isn't perfect, I think it's a vast improvement. EDM gives the teacher the option to mark "A" for "making adequate progress" and "N" for "not making adequate progress." I've also added a "P" for "partial progress," which is helpful when a skill has mulitple components to it (for example, a student can recognize divisibility for 2, 3, 5, and 10 but still makes some mistakes with divisibility by 6 and 9). With the help of Conditional Formatting in Google Sheets, I can get a quick snapshot of my class's performance on particular skills, which gives me insight into which things I should reteach or reinforce, and I can also both see and communicate more easily the areas of strength and weakness for my students. I took another step this year. In the past, I would maybe go over the assessment (if there was time) and just hand them back to the students. But this year, taking a page from the incomparable Paul Solarz's playbook, I now sit with each student and give them individualized feedback on their assessments and discuss with them the areas of strength I see and the places we are going to focus on as we continue. The students really appreciate the individualized attention and they are also starting to become more reflective of their work in the process. I want to continue giving feedback to my students in this way. I admit that it's a bit of a learning process for me as much as for my students but I know that if the ultimate goal is for my students to be reflective of their learning and be willing to work on improving the skills that need strengthening, then this is a great way to do it. How do you give feedback in your classrooms?
Every year, I tell myself, "I'm going to stay within my time limit this year!" And every year, I run out of time. For those of you who missed it, or if you'd like to see it again (with a little more time to process), here is my Back-to-School night Presentation. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments section or contact me directly! It was great to see everyone!
One of the most important jobs for the students in the first few weeks of school is to work towards creating a set of norms for the classroom. Norms are a set of expected behaviors for the class...one could think of them as rules, except rules tend to be established by the teacher, while norms are generally worked towards and agreed upon by the class as a whole. They are an agreement by the classroom community (both teacher and students) about how we will treat one another.
Our process for creating norms began in the first week of school. One of our first activities was for the students to reflect on their previous school experiences and to create a map of their classroom from last year. On this map they had to place three symbols: one that represented something that was fun or enjoyable; one that represented something that was difficult or unpleasant; and one that represented something that they would like to get better at in fifth grade. Once the maps were completed, students would gather in pairs to discuss their maps and talk about their symbols, with these conversations eventually turning to their hopes and dreams for this coming year. Towards the end of the first week of school, we had a class meeting to brainstorm what kind of class the students wanted to make this year an "awesome" year.
A classroom map, tagged using ThingLink
The next step was to start thinking of what we all needed to in order to make the ideas on the list of hopes and dreams a reality. The students gathered together in groups to generate a list of ideas and then to narrow that list down to no more than five main ideas. After the small groups generated their lists, we came together again as a class and recorded each group's list of five ideas. After all the ideas were recorded, we took the next few days critically examining that list to see if certain ideas kept repeating or to see if anything was missing. Out of this discussion we were able to hammer out the following five norms:
Creating these norms was a great success for the class, but we weren't finished yet! As the second week of school came to a close, the students once again broke into small groups and rotated in a "carousel" among the five norms and wrote down ways and examples of how we could demonstrate them in class. As we begin the third week of school, we are now in the process of "practicing" these norms in our class, and seeing how they affect our behaviors. It's important to note that these norms are living thing in our class, and that the job for upholding them lies with all of us, not just me. We came to the realization today that our number one challenge with these norms will be "helping each other learn and stay on track." We spent Closing Circle on Monday discussing strategies for how we might make that norm work better for us. We will continue to practice the norms this week and then, if all goes according to plan, begin to live them and become responsible for them in Week 4! I'm extremely proud of the work the students have done with this vital aspect of our classroom, and I'm looking forward to seeing these norms create a positive and caring classroom environment!
"Mr. Ullman, when are we gonna start..." This is a common question I get in the first few days of school. In my classroom, the academics are eased in slowly over the first few weeks of school. This is not to say that there isn't any learning, though. Quite to the contrary, the lessons that we learn in these first few days together are some of the most important ones of the entire school year! I call it "going slow to go fast." If we take the time now to learn these important things, then we can spend the rest of the year moving at a brisk pace. So what do we do? Here are some of the most important things that go on in the first few weeks of school: Building a Community It's important that my students learn about each other, not just as faces in a room, but as people with interests, skills, and hopes for the year. They learn early on that we are a team, and that while a team doesn't have to be all best friends, they will all respect each other and help each other work towards a common goal. For example, one of the first activities we do on the first day of school is creating "extended name tags." The students create a name tag that includes not only their names, but illustrations in each corner that represent things they enjoy doing or someone who taught them something. The conversations that arise from sharing these name tags help the students learn a lot about each other! Establishing Classroom Norms When the students enter the room for the first time, they notice a poster titled "Classroom Norms." They also quickly notice that it's blank! This is not to say that my class has no rules, but that we will take the time to establish them as a class together. We spend a lot of time in the first few days reflecting on what about school has worked for them in the past and what has not. The students create maps of last years' classrooms that include symbols indicating these things. As the students share these maps with each other, they talk about the ways that they want their classroom to be. We gather as a whole class and discuss what their hopes and dreams are for the school year, or, how I put it this year, "how can we make this year your best school year ever?" After initial surface suggestions such as " I want a classroom where we write a lot," or, "I hope we get to use a lot of technology," the suggestions become more profound: "I want a classroom where it's OK to be different," and "I want a classroom where we help each other." The results of this discussion will help us construct three to five classroom "norms" that we will all be accountable for. Promoting Empowerment in the Classroom When I want to get my class's attention, I call out, "Give me five!" The students learn the "five" refers to: -Eyes on the speaker -Mouths quiet -Ears listening to the speaker -Bodies ready to listen (still, hands empty) -Brains engaged on what the speaker is saying We practice this a lot in the first few days of school. But soon after making my students familiar with "Give me five," I give them the power to use it, too! This is one of the ways in which I begin to give them control in the classroom. I tell the students that it is their classroom, and that they will have a say in how it is run. As the first week goes on, students become more comfortable with this, calling out "Give me five!" to ask for help from (or offer help to) the class, or to point out an idea they've had, or to remind the class of something. I anticipate working in more content in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, we have been learning a lot in these first few days that will be lessons for the rest of the year. Going slow to go fast is an investment that will pay dividends as the year continues. As the class becomes a community and is able to hold itself accountable to norms that they establish for themselves, we will be able to do so much more. I am looking forward to seeing what develops!
I remember the "feng shui" fad from years ago every year when I start to set up my classroom. I got into my classroom for the first time yesterday, and as always, spent the first 10 to 20 minutes just looking at the room and trying to think about the best way to utilize the space. Part of me wants to just set things up the way they were last year; it worked well enough. But I'm really trying to have my classroom reflect the kind of teaching that I want to do, and that's kind of changed in the last few years. I'm in the process of moving toward a much more student-centered classroom that could possibly involve 1:1 technology as well. So, I started tweaking. One of the problems I have is that I can't really form a picture of what something looks like in my head unless I actually physically construct it. So I started shifting desks around. This year's class is going to be significantly smaller than last year's...I have 16 incoming students, where last year I had 22. Having a class almost 30% smaller frees up a lot of space! It's also a nice number to divide into even groups. I briefly toyed with the idea of having two large groups of eight desks, but I didn't like the amount of empty space it created. That might be something to go back to later, however. In the end, I settled on four groups of four desks each around the large meeting rug in the center of my room. I intend to do the majority of my whole-class instruction with my students on that rug, and then having them break off from there. So that's where I'm at right now. I'm hoping to get the layout set soon so that I can focus on getting my students' materials ready for the start of school, which is in less than a month. I actually got some great ideas from the most recent #5thchat PLN and I'm hoping that some other teachers will read this blog and share some of their classroom designs as well! I'm looking forward to hearing from you! Moving the desks around took up the majority of my time in the classroom. One item that I started looking at that I will need to revisit is the other furniture in the room...I have several IKEA storage units, a few carts on wheels, computer tables, etc. In the past, most of it was simply pushed to the edges of the classroom to create the maximum amount of room. But the more I thought about it, the more I realize that my students invariably love to work on the floor, and many of them like to create little nooks for themselves, especially when they read...so much so, in fact, that several of my students took to sitting in my closet area during independent reading time! So now, I'm thinking of ways that I could create more of these nooks for students to use...not just in reading time, but also as places to use for small-group discussion or peer editing sessions. |
Author5th grade teacher in Princeton, NJ. Passionate about education, technology, and the New York Giants! Archives
October 2017
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