Education, Technology, and Fun

This is a video I made last year for my Modern European History class just after we studied the Industrial Revolution and the timing was such that it was right around Halloween — so this topic fit in nicely.

Jack the Ripper from Jennifer Brinson on Vimeo.

As the Model UN coach/advisor for Salisbury High School I am blessed to work with some of the brightest minds in our school. Kids who have a passion for international affairs, finding solutions, and discussing in a formal setting with their peers are part of our organization. We a relatively small school (10th -12th grades with approx. 475 students) with a relatively small Model UN team (approx. 25-30 students) and while we may be small – we try to be mighty. We bring together kids from varying backgrounds with varying skill sets and put them in 5 competitions each year. Our competition schedule begins in November with Wyomissing Area High School. We then go to KUMUNC at Kutztown University, NAIMUN hosted by Georgetown University (4 days), JHUMUNC hosted by Johns Hopkins University (4 days) and finally we finish our season at DeSales University. My students love every competition we enter and they thrive on the work done in the various committees and the new friends – from all over the world – that they meet.

Model UN students are given a country to represent and a committee on which to serve. Each committee is given two issues to examine and research. Students write position papers prior to the competition and must truly represent their country’s views on each issue. You can imagine that it is tough to represent China or Sudan when the issue before the committee is human rights. The views you speak on in committee may in stark contrast to the views that you personally hold dear. That is the way the game is played and the judging is done. There are formal rules to the debate and parliamentary procedure must be followed during the committee sessions so students learn proper discussion tactics. Of course, the goal of each committee is to ultimately write a resolution that is to be voted on by members and passed if it sustains a majority vote. Any Model “UNer” will tell you that this is not as easy as it sounds.

This past week our team traveled to Wyomissing High School, outside of Reading, PA and attended a training session that their coaches present for over 100 students. This training is an invaluable resource to first and second year players as they learn parliamentary procedure, current world issues, history of the actual United Nations, how to write a resolution, strategy to the game (and it is a game), and finally participate in a mini-mock UN conference. Wyomissing and a couple of other schools faced the challenge of having to justify to administrators why this training is not only important, but necessary. Teachers are being told that this type of day where students miss their traditional classes is detrimental to “test scores” that will come later in the year. This is nonsense. When are we going to realize that this type of learning, engagement, excitement, collaboration, communication, writing, listening, speaking, and problem-solving truly embraces 21st century skills. The kids who were fortunate enough to attend the training and further attend competitions later this year will benefit far beyond their years in school because they are developing skills that will be put to use as they proceed through their greatest challenge — life.

LifeSmarts at Salisbury High School simulated a toxic waste activity this past week with their classes. Each of the classes consists of 45 students and every few days they engage in a “pull out” activity where the three teachers split up the class and give small group an opportunity to engage in a team building, thought provoking activity. The most recent activity involved a team of students whose job it was to “save the planet” by transferring toxic waste from one point to another. Of course, there was a catch (or several). Ground rules of the “game”: 1. no one can touch the bucket of “waste”, 2. no one can put any part of their body inside of an approximately 8 foot in diameter circle (arm goes in – you finish the task with an arm behind your back, leg – you hop around, head – blindfolded) 3. only the tools provided (8 thin ropes and one bungy cord tied in a slip knot) can enter the circle and be use to touch the bucket, 4. the “waste” (plastic balls) must be dumped into the other bucket which was about 20 feet away 5. the bucket must be carried from Point A to Point B – no dragging allowed.

Once the rules were clear the kids were given 5 minutes to pre-plan their strategy and decide task assignments. They could not touch anything in that time. After the 5 minutes expired the teams were free to gather their tools and implement their plan. Most groups took several tries to figure out exactly how they wanted to accomplish their task and some had to be reminded to use ALL of their tools or to leave the bungy tied in the slip knot (it’s probably pre-tied for a reason right?). Of the three classes I was able to be part of – all three accomplished the task (with a spill here or there — oops – don’t tell OCHA).

What was great about this day and this activity is watching the kids engage in learning several skills: collaboration, problem solving, discussion, evaluating various strategies, trial and error, and supporting their teammates. This was the use of gaming in the classroom that did not involve competition or technology, yet – held the kids’ attention and engaged them in the activity. Sometimes, it is the simple things that bring joy and fulfillment to the educational process.

Salisbury High Schools offers a mandatory course for all sophomores entitled LifeSmarts. It is a progressive team taught class instructed by Family and Consumer Science teacher Beth Barber, Technology teacher Michelle Cotugno, and Business Education teacher Geoff Laird. They are assigned approximately 45 kids per class period and the class is taught everyday for the course of one academic year. One of the units the team has designed is entitled Emerging Industries and it highlights three such industries, Geospatial Technology, Nanotechnology, and Biotechnology. In the past students have been required to complete a poster one of these industries answering 8-10 questions. Research and some creativity was necessary, but the team felt the project needed to reflect the underlying theme of the three industries. In other words, the project needed to reflect 21st century skills if it was to address 21st century industries. That’s where I come in…..

So we all know the familiar credit card commercial – here is a new take for educators: lesson plans = 10 hours per week, grading essays = 8 hours per week, paperwork = 5 hours per week – collaboration with colleagues = priceless.

As a first year Instructional Coach, I have a unique opportunity to schedule time with my colleagues and work together to create incredible, engaging, and powerful 21st century lessons and projects for our students. I had just such an opportunity this past Monday as I worked with a team and created an amazing educational product (more to come on the specifics in a future post). We are fortunate to work in a district that welcomes and challenges us to collaborate in these efforts, when so many districts have eliminated these opportunities because of budget restraints. I have attended numerous area/county meetings where representatives from various school districts continuously say, “We can’t get release time for our teachers because the district won’t pay for subs.” I can’t help but think, “How incredibly horrible and disheartening for those districts, their teachers, and ultimately their students. “ I am so thankful that Salisbury Township School District has not gone this direction.

How can we pull this off when other districts are so restrictive? There are a couple of key reasons. Our district has done a really good job at budget management. It does not always please us that we have 0% increases year after year in our budgets and we are not thrilled when it comes to contract negotiations that we hear the same song again and again (“We have no money – don’t expect big raises – and we will be asking you pay for your health care”), but the district does manage the dollars and cents of education. We also don’t rely on huge amounts of money from the state of Pennsylvania. We barely get enough to pay for a first year teacher. So, we don’t have the same sorts of issues that large districts that rely on huge amounts of state dollars have. For instance, Bethlehem Schools were forced to lay off over 40 teachers this past August for the current academic year because of the budget impasse in Harrisburg. The main reason our district agrees to collaborative time and release time for our teachers is quite simple: WE KNOW IT IS IMPORTANT.

Our administration, teachers, parents, and kids all know we produce the best educational product for our students when we allow our professionals to put their heads together and create plans that will be truly engaging and meaningful to our students. This collaborative time has no monetary value because it is for the good our children. No cost for a couple of substitutes could possibly compare to what our teachers and students gain from these wonderful experiences. In the 21st century we continually ask that our students collaborate on assignments and assessments: should we not give that same gift to our teachers? There are places to control the budget, no question, but encouraging and providing the resources for your educators to work as a collaborative learning community is a non-negotiable item.

When I interviewed for my previous position, that of social studies teacher, I was asked the question, “if you had the opportunity to design any course what would that course be?”  Well, that one caught me off-guard.  I thought and thought – being wary, of course, that I couldn’t take too much time to respond and I finally came up with, “well, I would design a course about kids.”  It was the case of my brain pulling on some knowledge that I had gained in graduate school, but hadn’t consciously paid attention to because as I said the words that continued the explanation, I truly had no idea where I was going – my brain was working in overdrive and my body was along for the ride.  Anyway, my explanation consisted of teaching kids about themselves, who they are, how they learn, what they perceive in their world and how to make  sense of it all.  Little did I know at the time (14 years ago), I was springing into the world of Multiple Intelligences and the principal who interviewed me was very happy with my answer (little did HE know).  

My students were to create a visual representation of the actual Preamble to the Constitution and they were to remix the Preamble in their own words and create a visual representation of the remix. Some groups created two separate versions and some create one that integrates the two. Both ways worked and several are demonstrated below. Students used go animate, xtranormal , and animoto to complete their task. It was interesting to see how they interpreted the Preamble, the images they used to demonstrate it, and the music they chose as well.

GoAnimate.com: Preamble Remix by beej79

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It’s free and fun!

Salisbury High School may be a small 500 student school located in the heart of the Lehigh Valley, but what we produce are motivated, intelligent, remarkably worldly students. Four of these such students formed a team called GUIDE (Globally Unified Individuals for Development and Ecology) and submitted an extremely well crafted and innovative application to the UNICEF sponsored Junior 8 (J8) competition. The team consisted of senior Melinda Lehman, juniors Brandon Aversano, Fatema Rajmohamed, and Olga Karounos and their conversations and deliberations over the course of the last month centered around Environmental Issues, HIV/AIDS, and Literacy Promotion. The team collaborated on not only the issues, but proposed potential solutions. GUIDE encompassed some of the best and brightest among Salisbury High School students and evolved from the students’ passion for global issues through their ethnic and cultural diversity and their involvement in extracurricular service and academic activities. Approximately two years ago Melinda returned to the United States after spending the past 12 years living in Tanzania where she became fluent in Swahili. Fatema is American born to Uganda and Kenyan parents, is Muslim in faith, and speaks fluent Gujrati. Brandon and Olga seem like the average all-American kids, but they do, in fact, bring a ethnic diversity to the table in their respective Jewish and Greek cultures as well. Both Brandon and Olga are also members of our award-winning Model United Nations team. Overall, this team was hard to beat, but alas an all International Baccalaureate team from North Miami, Florida beat them. Nonetheless, our remarkable team, from our little high school, managed to astound us all with a top 10 finish in the J8 competition. Teams from all over the United States compete to earn one spot to the G8 Summit in Sardinia, Italy, the competition is fierce, and our team could not have made us prouder in their efforts, their care for global issues, their drive to make a difference, and their abilities to write effectively, think collectively, and create an amazing product in the end. Congratulations GUIDE – you have made the entire Salisbury High School community very proud!

So, perhaps I should have saved some of what I wrote in my discussion response this week for this post – it would have made tremendous sense. Please indulge me as I may, at times, sound redundant to those of you who have read my discussion response this week.

The key to sound and effective project based learning and implementation is very simply to be sure everything that is involved and required for the project is clearly and concisely stated so that all students know exactly what they are getting into and what they will get out of it.

The planning process of any great project is intensive and demanding of our time as teachers. We are requiring our students to immerse themselves in a time intensive project, we at least owe them our own time in planning a quality project. It is critical that we begin with the end in mind and decide immediately what our learning and skill objectives are for our students and keep that in mind as we plan and design. What do we want our kids to learn? What is the best project vehicle to get them to that end?

In order to grab our students and their attention from the beginning – hit them over the head (figuratively, of course) with a profound and stimulating driving or essential question. I have found that the best EQs are short, open-ended, and always provocative.
*Was the Civil War civil?
*Is Freedom really Free?
*Is Justice always Just?
*Is the Glass Ceiling cracking?

And you probably guessed it – my EQs are generally a play on words.

I engage my students in discussion when we launch a project as to what the EQ really means, what it is really asking, and I play all sides of the coin with them. It frustrates them that they never know what angle I am going to take on answering or steering their answers to the EQ. This tactic keeps my students thinking and engaged.

When I launch a project with the information sheets and the descriptions, I also hand my students a rubric that tells them precisely what they will be expected to demonstrate and understand. The expectations are clearly stated so that the students can self-assess their project prior to the due date so that they can have an idea of what needs to be improved or what grade they can expect in the end. Using sites like rubistar4teachers.org allows teachers to customize and create rubrics with the standards provided and still have the ability to add their own standards to the assessment piece. It takes a tremendous amount of time to create a great rubric from scratch, rubistar certainly helps alleviate the time aspect from our already overwhelming schedules.

The organization of the project completion is also critical to the students’ success. Our kids are making so many decisions when it comes to a project and their overall school life, we can provide great aid to them simply by laying out how the various components should be prioritized. For instance, the discussion, research, storyboard, script, slides completion, and final details should be laid out for the kids so that they can move forward in the proper sequence. This can be detailed for the kids through google calendar or a wiki site with an embedded calendar so the kids can see the timeline of how to complete their project.

Students should be accountable for certain roles and tasks as they complete their projects. Some students are team leaders, organizers, researchers, technicians, writers and the like and should take on the roles that fit them best. Each student should be accountable for an equitable amount/quality of work and this should be checked by the group and the teacher be it through initialing various components or written accounts of what each member did. As the project progresses reasonable, yet specific checkpoints should be established so that each group must realize the completion of various components to keep them on track for future goals within the project. Prior to the final due date students should be required to sefl-assess their work according to the given rubric so that they have a clear understanding of where they stand or what improvements may be necessary to secure a higher grade.

Management tools for project design are certainly numerous and available via Web 2.0 tools. The basics of the organizational principles can certainly be handled through a well thought out and developed wiki with an embeddable calendar that has specific target dates listed. Various components of the project completion can also be made available for review in terms of quality and completion via slideshare, animoto, google docs, or any Web 2.0 tool that the teacher can access and check on student progress. Overall, integrating technology into the project design and completion provides many advantages to both the teacher and the student, but the technology does not replace solid project design, management, and implementation.

The connection between the NETS and student abilities in the areas of communication, collaboration and publishing are not only obvious, but natural. The 21st century demands that our students are able to do all of the standards on the NETS. But, first and foremost, students must be able to communicate, collaborate, and publish (write or produce) as they enter post-secondary education and the workforce.

Communication skills among our students are, by now, so natural and implemented almost without thought. Be it the use of email or texting our kids have fine tuned the art of instant communication. Our jobs as teachers is to not only introduce them new forms of communication that will enhance the NETS, but also to ensure that their communication is such that it develops their written and spoken language. We can introduce them to sites like elluminate, mogulus, ustream, and cover it live and encourage their communication not only with their friends and families, but across the planet as well. It is our job to teach them the function of these tools and to instill in our students quality writing and speaking skills that will last them a lifetime. We can also use sites like taking it global, iearn, and epals and encourage their written skills still further. This group of sites will allow for communication around the globe and thus collaborations as well.

Collaboration, be it through any of the applications above, or through an array of wikis, discussion boards, slideshare, diigo, google docs, and ning has become a crucial component of a child’s education in the 21st century. Creating an educational environment that embraces teamwork and cooperation serves to enhance the NETS including specifically, individual accountability and personal responsibility, information fluency, and the utilization of multiple resources. Using the applications above like taking it global, iearn, and epals can also enhance collaboration across the globe as students from all corners work together to solve problems and produce quality work. As our students move forward in the education and work world they must come to accept the ability to collaborate as easily as they now communicate with one another.

Publishing used to be an onerous task as writing a piece and being publish in a way that invites and encourages multiple readers of various backgrounds was difficult to accomplish. With advent of the incredible technology at our finger tips we can not only write, but create art, slideshows, movies, and other create outlets that are accessible to millions around the world in moments. In order to produce works that are worthy of a wide audience, however, our students must engage in thinking critically about what it is they are creating. Their work must demonstrate creativity, innovation, and be true to the body of research that they use. Students can publish anything as simple as a blog or wiki or it can be along a more creative vein through the use xtranormal, animoto, and you tube. Our students can create their own productions with or without the use of cameras and other costly equipment. The potential and ease of publication is astounding in the 21st century, but we have a responsibility to be sure our kids publish quality and legitimate works that embrace the qualities of good digital citizenship.

Communication, collaboration, and publishing have all been greatly enhance by the use of technology. All three demand that our students have fine tuned the NETS if it is to be done well. Our students must have a solid understanding of technological operations and concepts and generally must be intuitive about manipulating the various applications at their disposal. The world is at their footsteps to engage and interact with on any level they desire. Students merely need to step forward and take the leap into instant, innovative, and incredible opportunity that awaits them.