Celebrating the Solar Eclipse with a Digital Breakout Room, a guest post from Wendy Lentz

Monday, August 21, 2017 is shaping up to be an exciting day for parts of the United States.  The long awaited solar eclipse is upon us and offering excitement, opportunity, and challenge in the education community.  While some schools may still be enjoying summer vacation others will just be dipping their toes into a new school year.  My school district in Missouri will be just four days into the new year.  In anticipation of the big event I have created a digital breakout room (and shared it for you to use below) for my students to complete.  While breakout rooms can be used for any grade level or curricular area, this particular breakout is designed for grades 6-12.  With some additional adult support it could also be use with younger students perhaps in a home school environment or adults at an eclipse party.

As we prepare for this big event, I am keeping three primary objectives in mind, knowledge, safety, and experience.  I desire for my students to gain new knowledge in the science behind the event and in the known history of eclipses.  I also desire for them to be safe and understand what the dangers could be if they aren’t making smart choices. Finally, I want them to truly experience this phenomena with their eyes and their brains.  With all of these things in mind I knew this was an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up.  I imagine my school and most all schools in my area will be planning events for this day.  With that being said I am preparing to be flexible with implementation.  While the breakout could be done on the day of the eclipse I don’t want to chance kids missing the chance to complete the breakout.  We will complete the activity a couple days prior to allow for full participation.

So what is a breakout room?  Breakout rooms began gaining in popularity around the world in 2010.  The former first family was even spotted taking in a breakout room a few years ago in Hawaii. These rooms are physical spaces that challenge the participants to breakout or escape by solving problems, puzzles, codes, and riddles in order to unlock parts of the room leading to an eventual escape, hopefully.  The rooms are themed and typically carry a 60 minute time limit.  My family recently participated in a breakout room for my daughter’s thirteenth birthday.  It was intense and fun.  It was interesting to see how everyone in the group worked a little differently during the challenge and how proud we were when we solved a problem.  Meanwhile, one member of the group constantly begged for clues.  While I won’t name any names his relation to me rhymes with fusband.

My family escaped!

Watch as these newscasters experience a breakout room.

Where is the connection to the classroom?  As breakout rooms grew in popularity, teachers began incorporating the structure into their classrooms as a way to teach or review material while causing students to investigate, solve problems and to build teamwork skills through a highly engaging activity.  This kind of experiential learning and teaching is driven by how something is taught versus what is being taught.  These activities also offer students opportunities to build a resilience to failure and the courage to persevere through a challenging situation or problem.

As the use of breakout rooms in education has expanded, the structure of their implementation has also evolved.  Earliest rooms were designed and built by individual teachers.  In 2015, the website and blog breakoutedu.com began offering quality kits, templates, and breakout plans for teachers to purchase and use.  Recently, some teachers began using a digital version called digital breakout rooms.  These digital rooms offer students the same opportunities to solve puzzles, search for clues, and unlock a variety of locks without additional costs to the teacher.

Here is the link to the digital breakout room for the Solar Eclipse Breakout.  I have not included the answers on the site but I'd be happy to share them with you if needed.  I would highly encourage you to to complete the breakout on your own first to fully experience it; The Cult of Pedagogy would call this Dogfooding.  The base of the breakout is a Google site with embedded information and clues.  Encourage students to read carefully and closely.  Remind them to click on EVERYTHING and think creatively to unlock the locks in the google form.  If students don't enter a lock code correctly the line underneath will remain red, but when it turns blue the lock is unlocked!  Remember that you are just the facilitator.  It is natural for the students to reach a point of frustration when they are stuck. You can help guide them by continuing to offer questions to open their thinking.  Keep in mind that some of the information on the site has no purpose except to inform, these bits of information are called distractors.  When the students unlock all the locks they should submit the form and give the secret phrase to the teacher.  Plan to take photos of student successes and attempts then share with your school community!  I have also included some teacher tips including a 45 minute digital timer, tips for helping students when they are stuck, and a place for participants to leave feedback after the experience.  All of this can be found on a tab in the top right hand corner of the site.  Please keep in mind that the “Teacher Tips” tab is not connected to the breakout room in anyway but everything else on the site is fair game.  If you have questions feel free to email me at lentz-wendy@trojans.k12.mo.us or on Twitter @wendylentz.  Enjoy the eclipse!

Notes From METC

Last week I had the good fortune to attend the Midwest Educational Technology Community conference. The conference was a fantastic experience. I would encourage anyone who has a chance to attend future METC conferences to take advantage of the opportunity. This conference was especially enjoyable, as I had the opportunity to attend it with Wendy, who let me co-present with her.

A few notes, I'd like to remember from the conference.

-George Couros (Keynote): Couros was the perfect keynote for the conference. His presentation was engaging and energetic. I hope to channel his commitment to using educational technology to strengthen relationships and allow students to develop their voices.

-Google Administrator: This breakout session was led by tech coordinators from Orchard Farm. Even though I'm a principal in a GAFE school, I've never done anything on the administrator side of the system. From the training, I learned that the administrator console is very flexible. Various "buckets" can be created for users and administrators. Each bucket can be given different rights and restrictions. All users can be uploaded as a CSV file.  I appreciated the presenters promotion of "friction free" environments. They worked to make GAFE as headache free as possible for students, parents, and teachers. Setting up accounts for students under 13 did not become an insurmountable challenge. I also appreciated that various account administrators were given the ability to change student passwords without giving them any other responsibilities. I plan on taking advantage of the free GAFE administrator training soon. The presenters also praised several third party vendors (Bettercloud, Gaggle, Github) who assisted with management, monitoring, and filtering that followed students home with their district devices. Another good bit was the suggestion that a "sample student" account be created and enrolled in all classes. All administrators would have access to this account for viewing google classes without cluttering their in boxes with notifications. 

-Michelle Schmitz, Principal EPiC Elementary: Dr. Schmitz shared her experiences leading an elementary school with a STEM focus. The school's enrollment is comprised of students who applied.  Learning is personalized, project based, and standards based. The school operates with an extended school year. Schmitz shared that when the school opened some questioned if enough parents would enroll their children to keep the school open. Since that time the school has thrived. I especially appreciated Schmitz's commitment to honor the idea that learning is messy and her commitment to "flatten" school leadership by engaging and collaborating with teachers. Her school's map scores prove that learning and fun can coexist. I also appreciated her district superintendent's commitment to trying something new. The story of Epic's creation was a story of leadership collaborating with stakeholders to be innovative.  As a district level leader, I hope I will be willing to take risks for the sake of students.

-Professional Development: Kristen Swanson, an expert in professional learning, led this session. She drew on research from outside education to demonstrate that professionals learn best when they take control of their own professional learning. Two questions, she stated, should guide professional development: Why is this learning important? Who decides? Teachers will be empowered when they have voice and choice in their professional learning. Her presentation made me want to check out an EdCamp. The structure she recommended for teacher driven PD was curation, reflection, and contribution. I'll admit that her session made me realize how little room I had allowed for collaboration in my recent efforts to lead professional development. 

-Dark Side of One to One: Listening to the team from Poplar Bluff describe their struggles in implementing one to one was a fitting counter balance to Couros' keynote. Everything Couros said is true, but it is also true that many details must be managed to allow students to have those experiences. The presenters outlined many challenges they faced, from overestimating their wireless capabilities, to thinking through the logistics of deployment, to considering the policies that come into play with some of the choices students make with technology. If I ever end up in a position to lead a one to one initiative, I hope I remember their call to consider vision and manage details. I also hope I remember that microwaves in the teachers' lounge can interfere with wireless hubs in the classroom. 

-3D Printing: Much like the one to one session, the 3D printing session left me in a better position to consider 3D printing implementation. I posted my notes from this session here.

Overall, I'd say the conference fed my desire to empower students and teachers through technology, but I benefited a great deal from the calls to be patient (something I'm not great at) in collaborating to establish a clear vision for the use of technology and to mind all the details before committing district funds to major technology investments. I was also inspired and challenged by seeing how technology is being implemented in various districts. It's clear to me that communities who support technology will provide richer, more powerful experiences, to their students than communities who neglect this responsibility.

Notes on METC16 3D Printing Session

Before today I'd seen 3D printers, but my experience didn't extend beyond walking past and thinking, "Cool, I bet the students and teachers at my school would like to play with one of those." Today, at the METC conference, I spent three hours with educators experienced with 3D printing. Mostly to keep me from forgetting what I want to remember, but also to share what I learned with folks at home, I thought I'd post a few notes.

1.) Price: Makerbot got high reviews from presenters. For under $1,000 a school could be set up with a basic printer, software, and filament (all presenters agreed $50 worth of filament lasted much longer than they expected).

2.) Software: Each printer would require its own software to be installed on a designated computer. The program converts .stl files to instructions specific for the printer. There are a number of free resources students use to create .stl files. 123D Design and Tinkercad were two featured. We also looked an an iPad app that allowed you to draw with a finger and then push a 3D button, converting the drawing to an .stl file. Tinkercad is web based and seemed like a good fit for chromebook schools. By the end of the day I'd set up a Tinkercad account and started designing. One click converts the design to a .stl file that can be emailed to a computer with the appropriate software which saves the design to an SD card that inserts into a printer. The printer I saw wasn't connected to anything but an electrical outlet. From there it seemed pretty straight forward.

3.) Logistics: The presenters recommended limiting students to designing objects that were less than 50 cubic millimeters. At this size, depending on the design, most projects would take fortyfive minutes to print. More ambitious projects can be completed, but students would need to earn the right justify that much filament and print time.

4.) Purpose and professional development: There is no doubt that the printers are awesome, but any school contemplating investing in one should first consider goals. I learned about a free resource, Thingiverse, which has a catalogue of .stl files submitted by users, but the presenters strongly encouraged using 3D printers to make students creators, not consumers, of designs. With one week and one thousand dollars any school could have kids printing designs from thingiverse, but I'm not sure what skills that would build into students, and I think the new would wear off quickly. Tinkercad is fairly simple (they called it "training wheels"), but designing is a discipline. I'm not afraid to build an airplane in mid flight occasionally, but it would be best to have a teacher fluent with the design program students would use before trying to implement.


Sidenote: One of the coolest things I saw today, was a remarkably "low tech" homemade 3D printer, cobbled together out of 2X4's, drawer slides, and window parts. It reflected magnified light from a data projector into a beaker of some kind of "goo" which solidified when exposed to light. I'm not sure "bootleg" is a term that should be thrown around here, but the goo seemed to have mysterious origins. I didn't get the impression I could find it in a middle school science supply catalogue.

It was pretty cool though.

DIY 3D Printer

Implementing Chromebooks and Sharing Leadership

This semester the students at our school recieved Google accounts and began using Chromebooks for the first time. I know many schools have been implementing technology on a larger scale for a much longer period of time than ours, but a new wireless network and a cart of Chromebooks created a buzz of excitement for our kids.  It was exciting for me as well, as an expansion of technology was an important part of my vision for the school. 

For me the process of implementing Chromebooks was a great opportunity to learn to share leadership. We went through five steps along the way, and collaboration produced better outcomes at each. 

1.) Selection of devices: As an iPad fan, Chromebooks weren't my first choice, but it became clear to me the staff who were most committed to implementing technology were more interested in Chromebooks. 

2.) Budgeting: No new money was available for purchasing the devices. Our staff worked together to figure out what we could do without to purchase devices from our building's budget. 

3.) Policy: I'm not the most patient person, and I would have been content to copy another district's policy and replace the name at the top with ours. In fact I did this. However, our tech committee worked together to write an AUP that was consistent with our board's policy. 

4.) Professional development: Here is another place I had to let go. While I had a clear vision for iPads in classrooms, I was not the most knowledgeble person on staff when it came to GAFE. A teacher led the training, and that training has made its way into classrooms. 

5.) Putting devices in students hands: As the accounts were set up, teachers took control over account settings. One question we had to decide was should all teachers have access to student passwords or just the account administrator? The teachers wanted to be able to help students when they forgot their passwords and that's what we did. I wanted to be more involved in setting up accounts, but it turned out I didn't have to. The first time the devices were used in a class, I was at the board office in a meeting. 

Our students have a richer learning environment because of the devices. Our staff has a stronger culture because of the collaboration.

Best Way To Prepare Students For Online Science MAP Tests? Do Labs.

Practice tests are now available for the new computer delivered MAP test for fifth and eighth grade science students.

I'll be the first to admit that I was skeptical about the influence of computer based testing for science. I was worried that computer scored questions would result in more "recall" questions. However, after taking the practice test, I was pleased to see that the majority of the questions evaluated the ability of the taker to think scientifically. Many questions require students to set up data tables, or graph data using the information presented within the four corners of the screen.

Science teachers will give their students a better chance to excel if they give their students some screen time with the practice tests. Students need to know that "tab" won't move the cursor between fields and they need a chance to work the "drag and drop" feature. Some time in Excel or Google Sheets won't hurt either. That said, putting kids behind a computer screen won't be the best way to prepare them for the test. The best way to prepare students for the test will be to get them in a lab.

If you want students to be able to fill out data tables and chart the data in graphs, give them opportunities that will allow them to design experiments and communicate the results of the experiments.

Not only will it prepare them for the new tests, it will also give them a chance to enjoy science.

A Review of Three Online Textbooks

Our school began using online textbooks in our social studies classes this year. Students benefit from the marriage of content and technology. Educators have many options when it comes to online texts. Here, I examine the cost, content, assessments, and ease of enrollment of three.

mheonline: Discovering Our Past

Our students have been using this text a great deal this year. The content, including multi-media extras, is high quality. The aligned assessments are easily shared between student and instructor. Educators set up student accounts through a straightforward process. Once students are given their username and passwords they begin learning immediately. Unless a school purchases a traditional textbook and uses it for over a decade, the cost of the online resource is more affordable. 

ck12.org

If I were a homeschool educator I would use ck12 exclusively for mathematics and science instruction based on quality, price, and flexibility. The same factors make it an attractive option for schools as well. My daughter and I have been exploring the middle school physical science resources. The content aligns to standards, and while modules require a bit of construction from instructors, assigning readings, quizzes, and discussion questions is not difficult. Ck12 is free, and students with email addresses create their own accounts. 

USHistory.org

USHistory.org is another free resource. The content is well designed and written at a lexile appropriate for middle school school students. The source documents in each chapter provide opportunities for students to read more challenging texts. There are no assessments provided, but most teachers would find it easy to use a platform such as Edmodo to write and assign questions. No registration is required. While there are some advertisements in the sidebars, they are not distracting. 

Thoughts on the SBAC Digital Library

I decided to update this blog post after recently exploring the library. Many resources have been added since I attended the training. I do still believe that some educators will be disappointed in the Digital Library if they confuse it for the SBAC interim assessments that have not been released yet. 

I also wanted to share screen casts of what it looks like to search the library for resources. Flash player is required.

Digital Library Resources For Mathematics

Digital Library Resources For English Language Arts 

Original Post

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium maintains an online bank of resources, the Digital Library, to support teachers as they prepare students for the SBAC exams. Today, June 30th, I attended a workshop on the Digital Library.

A few observations:

1.) The digital library is not an assessment bank. According to our trainer, SBAC interim assessments will be available in December or January.

2.) The resource is primarily designed to model formative assessment practices. Animated vignettes of teaching practices, rubrics, model lesson plans for performance events, and information on techniques such exit slips and quiz, quiz trade are available. General instructional strategies make up more of the library than content specific, grade level resources.

3.) The library is designed for easy use. Users can filter resources by grade level and subject area.

4.) The resources in the library are high quality. An intensive vetting process was used to select resources.

5.) Perhaps, due to intensive vetting the amount of content is limited at this time.

For example:

A filtered search for resources designed to support seventh grade instruction for Reading Informational Texts Standard 4 (vocabulary in context) provided one resource, a video of quiz, quiz trade protocol from a fourth grade classroom.

A filtered search for resources designed to support seventh grade instruction for Mathematics G.B.4 (circumference) returned no results.

It is important to note that content is still being uploaded. Two resources were uploaded during the training.

So how should the Digital Library be used? It depends.

While some model lesson plans include reproducible assessments, teachers looking for digital or reproducible classroom activities for students will most likely be frustrated. However, the more time I spent in the library, the more material I found that would help classroom teachers in lesson design.  For example, a resource titled "Flustered by Fractions," included a clip from American Choppers and instructions on how to use the clip in a lesson.

For administrators the digital library could be a resource to supplement professional development on formative assessment. It could also serve as resource for curriculum writers looking for models endorsed by SBAC.

I would be interested in hearing how others plan to use this tool.

Three Tips For Schools Making First iPad Purchases

Last year our school implemented iPad minis in the classroom for the first time. Due to the talents of our teachers, the devices helped create a rich learning environment. Another post reflects on reasons why the devices became effective learning tools.  This post details the process we went through to get devices to the classroom.

Below are three tips for educators buying school iPads for the first time.
1.) Device Purchases:
 Work with Apple directly. You will get the best value if you purchase devices in ten packs. To do this you must enroll in the volume purchase program for educators. This process is not too cumbersome but it takes some time, so start early.
2.) App Purchases:
Plan your app purchases. The time spent enrolling in the volume purchasing program will pay off in purchasing apps. Schools enrolled in the program can purchase apps for a reduced rate when purchasing more than twenty apps. The best way to do this is to purchase a voucher card. The physical card will come in the mail and has a code. When you redeem the code online, Apple emails a spread sheet with individual redemption codes for each app purchase. Our school set up an Apple ID, which is not tied to a credit card (a good practice for many reasons).  All of our student devices used the same apple ID to load the apps.
3.) Questions:
Don't be afraid to call your apple representative with questions. Once you've made contact with the representative for your area, be sure to save the direct phone number. Calling the Apple's toll free number will always put you in contact with friendly folks, but they will most likely have to transfer you to the representative who works only with schools to help you.

Why I'm glad we had iPad minis for a year BEFORE having WiFi.

This fall, thanks to the support of our community, our school will have WiFi for the first time. Our students will have a richer learning environment, which is exciting. But it is also a time to stop and consider the following questions:

Why do we have WiFi?
What are the learning goals?

It's possible our students will be better prepared for these opportunities thanks to the work of their teachers in implementing iPad minis last year in classrooms without WiFi. When the minis were introduced to the school,  a blog post was tweeted to parents explaining the goals for the devices. As the year progressed the vision laid out became a reality. Students honed their skills in presenting knowledge creatively using apps such as iMovie, Doceri, and Keynote When the wireless routers come on, and the hot spots go live, the devices will certainly be used for research, but because the school had a year to practice in spots that were cold, the students will see connectivity as a way to collaborate and create, not just consume.