Teacher: appreciated

A wise man once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." I've been thinking about that this week, and I thought it'd be good to give a shout out to the parents in my class that have made this week... nay, year great.


It is teacher appreciation week this week. Parents came in last Friday night and decorated my door.

The other day kids gave me lolly-pops, soda-pop, and popcorn. Then they gave me a "pop-quiz" with terrible puns and jokes. Pretty solid.

Pop Quiz

Other parents have sent in treats, lunch, and cards expressing their appreciation.

So I wanted to respond with my appreciation.

Thank you parents.  You sent me your kids. You trusted me to teach. You expected me to entertain and to educate. You hoped I could help. You dropped your kid off on the first day of school with the expectation that by the end of the year your child would be one year smarter.  One year more grown up. One year better. I don't take that expectation lightly. I hope I've lived up to it. I think I have.

I won an award this month. I had dinner at West Lake High and got a plaque and get my picture taken. The entire time I was there I was thinking, "why aren't my students here? They're the ones that did all the work. All I did was stear them in the right direction. I just came up with the idea... they made it awesome." And come to think of it... I didn't even come up with the idea. It was my wife that originally suggested to rename the stinkin' road.

I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago advising teachers to be more awesome. I guess that's easy to say when you have parents, students, a school, an administration, and other teachers that are awesome. I do awesome things with my students because they can handle it. I do awesome things with my students because parents support it. Thank you for that support.

You came to our stand-up comedy night. You came to our movie premier. You came to Parent Teacher Conferences, Book Fairs, Dads and Donuts, Stay and Play, and Ollie Otter Assemblies. You'll be at the 5K, Leaning Conference, and the Dance Festival. And you'll do it all again next year.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for your support. And thank you for letting your kid be in my class this year.

-Mr. Young

Chromecast: A need in EVERY Chromebook Classroom

After a conversation with someone in my district, and a bit of luck, I happened to procure a Chromecast for my classroom.

Dude. This thing is awesome.

The Chromecast is Google's version of an AppleTV, or Roku. Chromecast is built so you can stream content from your computer, phone, tablet, or other device to your HDTV. It doesn't have any apps or content on the device. It only can project the things you send to it from another device.

The Chromecast itself is not much bigger than a thumb drive, maybe about the size of your first thumb drive in 2004. It plugs directly into your HDMI, and gets power from either a USB on the back of your TV or projector, or it can also just be plugged into an electrical outlet.

Setup was pretty simple. You set the Chromecast up through your Chrome web browser on your computer, tablet, or phone. Chromecast allows you to cast any tab you have open in a browser to a TV or projector. It also allows you to project YouTube, Pandora, Netflix and other Chromecast enabled apps. I don't see much use for that in the classroom yet... but maybe I down the road. The projector in my classroom just happened to have an unused HDMI port, and a USB. Many projectors built after 2009 will have the same.

When I first contacted my district about using a Chromecast, they told me that the primary function of the device was for personal use, and they didn't see much of a classroom purpose. I kept hounding until I got one.
Why is it the best addition to a Chromebook Classroom that I've seen so far?

In the middle of a lesson, project, or discussion I can have a student cast the tab they have open onto the screen wirelessly from their seat. Once students install the Google Cast Extension, they can click a button and cast their screen. From the time I say "Billy, cast your screen," to the time that Billy's screen pops up on our projector is about 8-10 seconds. Is having Billy cast his screen from his seat somehow better than coming up and plugging in? I seem to think so.

Chromecast Extension

Here's the deal. When I first got Chromebooks, I went to Amazon and bought a $25 connector so that I could project the Chromebook to my projector. (My wired connections in the room are VGA, so I needed an adaptor. The HDMI isn't wired in my room, that's why the HDMI was available for the Chromecast) The $25 connector doesn't do a great job. The picture is jumpy, and grainy. With the Chromecast, the picture is HD, awesome, and oh yeah. The thing only costs $35 bucks. Totally worth it.

We have a TV in the entry way of our school. My principal is going to get one for there, and now we have a teaching space that any student Chromebook can access for a meaningful discussion. I find getting kids out of the room is helpful at times, but we don't always have a space to present our finding. We end up going back to the room for the "meat and potatoes" part of the lesson. Now we can do that wherever there is an HDMI input.

So in review:

• If you have Chromebooks
• If you have an available HDMI input
• If you have $35

Buy one, get it set up, and let me know if you think its as awesome as I do. 

Stop being boring. Be awesome instead.

Some weeks are boring.

Next week is going to be awesome.

During the 2014 Winter Olympics my students sent tweets to Olympians through my twitter account. Students would write something, I would tweet it out, and then from the other side of the world, an athlete, my students' new favorite sports hero, would favorite the tweet, or retweet, or in some cases, retweet us back. Can you imagine how powerful that would be? Have you had anyone retweet you? Now imagine how much cooler that'd be if it were a gold medalist. And you're only 10. Nobody could tell my kids that they weren't cool. They walked around with a chip on their shoulder for a week. Yahoo Sports wrote an article about it. Our local NBC affiliate, KSL picked it up too.

@mrlewisyoung that poster is awesome. Please tell them thank you for me. Maybe I can stop by and check it out in person when I get home.
— Christopher Fogt (@christopherfogt) February 21, 2014

Sometimes bronze medal winners tweet you back.

Last spring my students drafted letters to the Saratoga Springs city council, and then my students wrote letters this year as well, petitioning the city to change the name of the road in front of our school to "The Otter Way." Our mascot is the Otter, and the school song is titled "The Otter Way." Perhaps we  otter lay off the bad puns... but we don't.

So back to this week.

KSL heard about our twitter thing, and letter writing, and loved it. They wanted to meet us. On Tuesday my class has been invited to go up and visit the local NBC affiliate TV and radio station. We're going to tour their facilities and play with a green screen. This was made possible partially by a bit of bad luck with a snowstorm that cancelled a snowshoeing trip earlier this winter.

Sometimes people are impressed by your awesomeness

On Wednesday the City Council is visiting our school, along with the mayor for a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new road, The Otter Way. The City Council was impressed by the kids' letters, and even though they couldn't rename the road in front of the school, they purchased the signage and installed the sign posts to name the private roads on our campus.

So here is my plea. To teachers, to students, to parents, or anyone else reading this: Do something awesome. Too often we talk about the things students can't do, websites we shouldn't visit, and things we shouldn't do. Focus on the great things you should do. Let your kids find their house using google maps. Then show them how to find the actual path pioneers made as they brought their wagons and handcarts across the plains.

Sometimes messing around turns into an awesome lesson

Let them play with the camera on the iPad or Chromebook, even the effects... and then show them how to use that same tool to take a picture of a rock. Or a bug. Or that the mirror effect can teach a killer symmetry lesson.

When you look for awesome things you can do, it makes the tools we have in the classroom so much more engaging. If your kids keep texting in class, use kahoot.it, or m.socrative.com to engage their phone back into your lesson. Use instagram and hashtags to have kids document a science lab. (High five, big sister!)

Be like the teacher here in Utah that had the students send letters to get the state tree changed to the quaking aspen. Now that's awesome.

Troll through Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter to find ideas on how to be awesome in your classroom. Come up with ideas, or have the kids come up with them. Then come back and tell us how it went.

Stop being boring.

Be awesome instead.

Using Google Presentations as a way to debrief a fourth grade math lesson

One of the first things I have students do with the Chromebooks, is learn how to create a Presentation in Google. I've found it incredibly useful tool to organize thoughts, and demonstrate learning.

On Thursday I gave the students the task to calculate the cost of college for four years. I put tuition of nine local public and private Universities and a very low cost of living estimate ($1000 per semester... like that's gonna happen...) in a spreadsheet and asked them to calculate the cost of a four-year degree. As I was about to pass out poster paper for students to demonstrate their learning a student blurted out, "Are we going to create a Presentation to show how much it costs?"

Don't you love that? When students come up with better ways to do things? Sometimes it can almost be irritating, but today I ran with it. I played it cool... or as cool as I can play things. (I don't typically play ANYthing cool. Just ask my wife). "Well, of course!" I answered back. "That's what I was thinking," I lied. I threw together a quick Presentation Template, and created a new folder titled "College Costs" in our Math folder. The Math folder was already shared, so the new folder was automatically shared with the whole class. Kids knew how to make a copy of the template, and to put their copy back into the folder so I, and everyone else in the class could see their work. Within 2-3 minutes of my exchange with that student everyone had the Presentation, and began working.

On each slide of their Presentation, I had them perform a different task. On one they calculated the cost of their dream college. On another they figured out the most expensive college in the state (Utah, we're looking at you...) and on another they shared how they calculated which was the best buy (Congratulations, Snow College!). Then I had them figure out how much they needed to save every year between now and then if they wanted to have enough money to pay for college. Most needed to put away over $3,000. We had a number of awesome conversations from this task. If students finished while the rest of the class was working, they went into other Presentations and made comments, or suggestions.

When they were done I split the class in half. Half of the students presented "Poster Session" style, while the rest of the class walked around listening to the students and watching their presentations. Then we switched.

Student Sample: I made a vanilla template. They added the theme, pictures and detail.

Using Google Presentations may have added some time to this lesson. I had the time, so it worked out. It was also worth the time, because students were accountable to one another, and spent that extra bit of time creating a product they were proud of. They really had to examine their math in order to create something they were ready to show their peers.

Exitticket and Mastery Connect: Free resources, but upgrades available.

Before my state adopted the CCSS I had to spend hours matching resources to the state core. Most publishers didn't match their books to the Utah state core. And why would they? Write a book that matches California's core, and Utah can figure it out.

But now I have more resources than I can sort through. I'm not just talking about math books. In fact, many of my favorite resources are free, or mostly free.

Formative Assessment
I need to know what students need tomorrow, within a week, and longer periods of time. Last week I talked about how I've been using Plickers to find out what kids know right now.

Someone at exittix.com messaged me, and told me about their software. Pretty useful stuff, and I approve. Like socrative and kahoot, this "web-based clicker system" runs pre-loaded assessments. The cool thing about exittix, is that you can monitor students as they take the assessment. The graphics are totally cool, too. Because that matters. The system seems to be created mainly for secondary schools, but I've had a lot of success with it in an elementary setting.

A neat thing about Exittix, is that it's expandable through their library of apps. For example, you can add badges for your students if gamifycation is your thing. You can add functionality that aligns your quizzes and exit tickets directly with the core. There is another option that will connect Exittix with systems like Powerschool, so your students' scores can be directly imported. If that's your thing.

I was also impressed with their customer service. I had a suggestion to add multi-user functionality so I emailed them. Within minutes I had an email response from an actual human that responded in a meaningful way. So that's awesome.

Mastery Connect is another pretty awesome system that allows you to record student responses quickly. The system is fully integrated with the CCSS. There is also a robust social network where teachers can share common assessments. You can search for assessments by grade level or domain. If you and your team are full subscribers, you can even compare student data from common assessments. This is something we've been doing for a long time, but MasteryConnect just does it faster.

Maybe one of the most gimmicky and fun things about Mastery Connect: You can use your webcam to grade a bubble sheet. Super cool.

Both resources off many of their functions for free. But just like those free apps on your phone, if you want everything the systems have to offer you have to pay. Mastery Connect is a little more pricy, at $6 a student. Exittix offers apps on a monthly basis. It might cost you between $60-$90 for a school year depending on which apps you purchase. I think the cost of both systems is worth it.

Georgia gets it
The Peach State hit a pedagogical home run with this website. A group of researchers and educators put together resources to develop meaningful mathematics tasks that correspond with the CCSS.

These resources are awesome, and free.

There are hundreds of pages of tasks. These tasks are sorted by domains, linked to the core, and are classified according to the task purpose. I've used these for the past two years as launching points for new topics, practicing and solidifying procedures, and even task-based assessments. I don't subscribe to one program exclusively, but I probably use this resource more than any other.

Does Common Core force me to teach that weird number line?

Yeah. That makes sense. Get that 1 a little closer to the 2.

In the past few days I've seen a few posts about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) on Facebook, or other social media. The idea behind the posts is that the CCSS have forced teachers into teaching subtraction in a way that parents just don't understand. They claim that teachers are teaching kids to do this ridiculous number line. Kids have to convert the subtraction problem into an addition problem with an unknown variable, where kids count on from one addend to solve for the unknown variable.



So to solve the problem:

1000 - 123= x

Students would convert it to

123 + x = 1000

Sounds like Pre-Algebra.

Then they count on from 123.

123 + 7 = 130
130 + 70 = 200
200 + 800 = 1000

800 + 70 + 7 = 877

They show it in a number line, and it looks super confusing.

They also say a few of these gems.

1. This is what the CCSS is forcing our students to learn, and that teachers are no longer required to teach the standard algorithm. 
2. Someone is trying make them dumb, and trying to confuse parents
3. This is a new way of looking at math, why mess with something that isn't broken?

Here's my problem with that. None of this rhetoric is fact.

Let's take a look at what the actual CCSS says about what students should learn about Subtraction:

Fourth Grade; Number and Operations in Base Ten; Use place value understanding and properties of operation to perform multi-digit arithmetic

4. Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm. 

So... as a fourth grade teacher, I am required to be a). Familiar with the core, and b). get my kids to the point where they can add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm. The choice to teach using a number line to help kids get to the point where they are fluent with the conceptual idea of subtraction is a pedagogical decision left up to teachers. Some districts may encourage a style of teaching. Certain text books or curriculum may subscribe to different styles of teaching. The documents the Common Core was based on certainly encourage a conceptual understanding style of teaching. I have neither heard of nor experienced the idea that because I teach the Common Core, I should teach a certain way.

So is someone trying to make our students dumb, or trying to confuse parents? Believe this paranoia if you want. I know that I don't want a bunch of idiots running my city when I retire, so I'm working my tail off every year to make sure I send 35 kids into the world that can think for themselves.

But this is a new way of figuring out math though, right?

Hardly. Anytime I go to the store with my dad, he grumbles that nobody knows how to subtract these days. He always pays in cash. When the cashier gives him his change he gives them a lesson on how to give back correct change. It's incredibly embarrassing to be with the old guy that tries to give a math lesson at Home Depot, but it proves that this isn't a "new" way to look at subtraction. Let's look at our earlier example, but throw in a decimal, so it looks a little bit more like a real life scenario.

I buy something that costs $1.23. I pay with a $10.00 bill. The cashier hands me a wad of bills, and a handful of change. The cashier can quickly do the subtraction problem $10.00-$1.23=$8.77 without breaking a sweat.

Start with the pennies place...

$1.23 + $0.07 = $1.30

Then the dimes place...

$1.30 + $0.70 = $2.00

Then the one dollars place...

$2.00 + $8.00 = $10.00

The way the cashier should say it is, "$1.23 and $0.77 makes $2.00 and $8.00 makes $10.00.

This isn't new. My dad learned how to do a subtraction algorithm in his head like this in the 1960s while working at the Academy Theater. He didn't have a register or calculator, just had to do it in his head. So this isn't a new way of solving the problem invented by President Obama when he wrote the Common Core (sarcastic punctuation?). Many cashiers over the age of 50 count change out like this too. This isn't new.

So he could fluently add and subtract multi-digit numbers. Kinda like what I'm trying to get my kids to do.

So lay off the number line strategy. It is a solid way of looking at subtraction. It doesn't work with all of my students, but neither does the standard algorithm. The Common Core doesn't tell me how to teach. It just tells me what to teach. All the complaints I hear about the Common Core have nothing to do with the Common Core, they have more to do with the terrible curriculum teachers are using. ***THIS JUST IN*** Canned curriculum programs are terrible at writing math problems. Shocker of the century...



If you're going to criticize the Common Core, that's cool. But know what is in there before you do. Go read it, and turn down the volume. Because when we amplify everything, we hear nothing.

Sometimes technology gets in the way, and why that's not a bad thing.

So the other day a commentator asked about how free digital class response systems such as Plickers, Socrative, or even Kahoot (an awesome Japanese gameshow version of Socrative) are better than a piece of card-stock in a sheet protector with a whiteboard marker.

I think that's a super valuable question. "What is this tech bringing to my classroom?" Sometimes the answer is "very little." Sometimes the answer is: "something that I couldn't have even imagined doing before."

These questions and many more have been addressed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, in a model he calls the SAMR model. Here are a few places you can read about SAMR: A blog post about SAMR; Dr. Puentedrua's own blog, or a simple 120 second YouTube video explaining the basics. Essentially the answers to the question "what is this bringing to my classroom?" can be answered in a continuum.

Substitution- Old tech is replaced by new tech, same task is performed with no benefit.
Augmentation- New tech does old job, but does it faster, better, or more efficient.
Modification- Technology allows for more interactive tasks and assignments. (ex: kids commenting on a google doc)
Redefinition- A new and previously unimaginable task through the use of new technology

The SAMR model (http://jennyluca.wikispaces.com/TPACK+and+SAMR)

The contributor was asking how these response systems improved the whiteboard response system he uses, I've used, and my high school Chemistry teacher used. How are clickers a step up from the slate boards my grandmother used while teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in the 1940s?

The new tech does the exact same old job, but does it faster, with more color, and compiles the data more efficiently. I've only augmented the pedagogy of the past, not redefined it. So the guy had a point; this new technology isn't earth shattering. The practice isn't even new. I'd classify this technology as "augmentation" on the SAMR continuum. It is approaching "modification" depending on how I use it. If I put the bar graph up on the board so students get immediate feedback and see how they stack up to their peers, then I believe I have achieved modification. That pedagogy, however may not be best practice... all the time.

Every time I implement a new technology into my fourth grade classroom I ask myself how the technology is going to support the learning objective. Ultimately, I believe that technology should enhance learning, and not get in the way. Is this technology helping me be more efficient (Augmentation), or is it helping give the task context that would not have been available without the technology (Modification and approaching Redefinition)

But sometimes it gets in the way.

Like last week, I was trying to have kids annotate PDFs instead of hard copies of a graphic organizer using a Chrome Web Store App called PDFzen. (technology objective: learn how to use a PDF annotating software) Instead of giving kids the 35 minutes they had to do a pre-write activity (writing objective: do a pre-write), they only got about 10 minutes. The other 25 minutes were dedicated to me modeling how to use the software, and then dealing with technical issues as they tried to annotate their own document. Using the technology took away from the writing objective of that lesson.

But it wasn't a waste of time.

Teaching them to use the software was inconvenient, the first time. After the first time, most of them get it, and the technology no longer gets in the way. The technology can now serve the pedagogy. Now that the kids know how to use the software, I can use it for the rest of the year.

Sometimes tech gets in the way of the lesson objective. But if I use the tech in the future, regularly, and repeatedly, the benefit of the technology can eventually overcome that initial cost. Do we as teachers forget about that initial cost? Are we ever frightened away from using technology in the classroom because it gets in the way the first time?

Turning things in on the cloud: Google Drive organization in the digital classroom

The first time I sat in the computer lab and had kids share writing assignments with me I was so excited. I was going to be able to see all of their assignments as they worked on them. This was going to be awesome.

And it was.

Until my phone blew up.

Please don't blow up my phone, kids.

34 new and unread emails. Each time a student created a new document and shared it with me I got another email saying what I already knew by looking in my Drive. I needed to fix that.

At least I'm not a secondary teacher. Can you imagine? Over 200 emails per assignment. Good grief. Multiply that by the number of assignments, and sections of classes... ugh. It becomes unmanageable pretty quickly.

So I found a way to fix the problem on my own, and now I've seen a few other fixes and Google Ad-ons that can accomplish the same thing.

I created a shared folder and shared it with my students. I could do this easily because I had created a group with my students contact information in it. Creating and sharing a folder one-by-one would be a little ridiculous. Once a folder was shared, anything I put into that folder was automatically shared with the student. No email, no notification, no mess. The same was true the other way around. If a kid wanted to turn something in all they do is put it in the folder, and I don't get 34 emails.

Then I created folders within that folder for each subject. Then I created folders within each subject folder for specific assignments. This Inception approach to organization can get confusing at first. Had I rolled the system out all at once at the beginning it probably would have exploded like my phone. These folders were also great because students were able to collaborate with each other on documents.

There were times when I didn't want to have kids sharing work. Certain writing assignments needed to just be shared with me. Sometimes students need to collaborate on assignments, and other times they don't need to. I needed a folder that was just shared with the student, not with an entire group.

I didn't want to go through, create a folder for each student, and then share that folder with the student. So I had the kids do the work. They created the folder and shared it with me. Sure, it exploded my phone again, but only once. I called these folders my "Turn in folders." Each kid has one.

There are Add-ons that can do all that for you. If I were a secondary teacher, I would definitely look into using gClassFolders, or Doctopus.  I only have 34 students (that's right, Billy is fictional) so it only takes me part of Ocean's Eleven to set up a group in my contacts. I do this right at the beginning of the year so that I can email students and share documents with them quickly. I may play with the Add-ons next year, but so far I've been okay without them. If I had 200 students like my sister that teaches High School Biology, then I wouldn't waste my time creating the folders and contacts on my own.



Today I tried to use an"Inbox" and "Outbox." Inside their "Turn in folder" they have a folder to turn things in, and after I've graded their assignment I switch it over to their outbox.

Billy's Inbox and Outbox

I use class numbers to alphabetize assignments quickly too. Each student has a number, and that way I can organize the assignments by title and find out who has and who has not turned it in.

Plickers: Free is better than $3000 for a clicker system

Do yourself a favor and download the app Plickers on your phone.

Plickers is a way to employ a student response system without dropping a huge sum on a system of student response system like this.

Plickers uses the camera on my iPhone to scan codes that look like this:

Each kid has a card with this icon on it. Each card broadcasts to the camera two bits of information: identifying information, and the option the student has chosen. This card shows that student 1 has chosen option B. 

It takes me about 30 seconds to scan the room, and the app collects each students' response. Today I was using this app during my math instruction. I asked a couple of questions before starting on a task. I asked the students about the value of a base 10 rod if a 100s square was worth 1. (We're talking about decimals). I put four answers on the board, and asked them to choose. 

Looks like about 9 kids still don't get it...

The app scans the cards, and gives me information about who understands, and who doesn't. It shows a class roster and highlights each student that got the question wrong. So, as they go about doing their independent work, I have 9 kids I'm going to target.

This cost me nothing for the app, and the cost of printing the papers they hold up. I printed mine on cardstock... fancy, right? I didn't laminate them though... who has time for that?

The system does not have a way to export the data. What you see is what you get. So this is not a great formal evaluator. Plickers helps answer the question: who needs help right now? Sure it is limited by the multiple guess format. I can absolutely get more from looking at a students' work than using this system. But as far as on the fly formative assessment as I'm sending them off, or we're changing gears... I haven't found a system for cheaper that tells me what this tells me. 

The other day my principal came in while I was using it. He talked about how engaged the students were. I would ask a question, and then we'd talk about why we could get rid of the wrong answers. I would get the conversation going, and get those that picked the wrong answers try to defend their stance. This brought out some awesome conversations where kids were forming theories, defending their theories, and using evidence from others to support their claims. pretty higher level thinking, for fourth graders. 

Digital writing conferences with GAFE

Have you ever been to one of those Brazilian restaurants where they bring out tons of meat? They have these things on the table that help the servers know whether or not to bring out meat. The idea is, green means go, bring it on. Red means stop, leave us alone. If you put it down on its side, bring me a check. This is a great way to tell the well-meaning servers, "now isn't a great time for the bacon-wrapped garlic sirloin. Come back after I've finished this grilled pineapple." Without having to actually say it.

I needed a similar system to find out when my kids needed support in their writing, and when they just needed to be left alone to write. 

So I created a system using Google Drive. When students create a document, the last word of the document corresponds with how much help they need. If they're drafting, and need to be left alone, the last word would be "Drafting." If they need a peer to edit their document, the last word would be "peer edit," or "editing." This way at a glance I can see what students need. No problem. 

Looks like Billy could use some feedback

In less than 15 minutes I can scan through my students' documents and leave meaningful comments specific to what each student needs. I also only conference with students that are ready and need feedback. With analog conferencing I conferenced with students according to my schedule. I had no idea where a student was in the project when I called them back. With this system, I have a decent idea where just about every student is at any time. 

Now I'm not the annoying restaurant worker constantly interrupting the conversation, but I'm the tactful server that arrives just at the right time. 

Oh, how do they get the documents to me in the first place? More on that later. 

Adapting literature circles to use Chromebooks in a digital learning community

During my literacy instruction, I have Chromebooks in my classroom at a ratio of 1:1. I've been able to do some pretty awesome things during this time.

So one of the things I did before Chromebooks, was literature circles. There are many different ways literature circles are run. In the past three years I've learned that the just because we both say "literature circle" does not mean we are talking about the same thing. So, I'll give you a quick rundown of what I mean by "literature circle."

Before Chromebooks:
I gave a group of six students six different jobs to complete while reading a reading group assignment. Each job was connected to a different reading strategy, and corresponded to graphic organizers that I had printed up at the beginning of the year. We may have read a bit together, depending on the students' level and need. Then they'd complete their assignment independently (or with a little help, again depending on the students' level and need). Then, when they were completed with their assignment, they would join me and share their assignment with the group. After everyone had shared, they'd get a new job, and a new reading assignment. The next day, or the following day they would meet again.

With Chromebooks:
Now students read the same books, and complete the same assignments. I have modified the task with the Chromebooks, and I'm super excited about it.

I've created a simple shared document that all of the students in a group can access. (I've used folders to organize that, more on that on another post). The students complete their assignment in the digital graphic organizer instead of the reams and reams of paper I used to use.

Here's what the graphic organizers look like. Keep in mind this is a working document, and I haven't solidified these jobs just yet. Feel free to copy it, steal it, modify it, and even pass it off as your own. I just ask that if you like it or hate it, you give feedback in the comments or Google+. I'd love to hear what could be improved on.

Why this is awesome:
1. So I didn't expect to see some of these results. Before students would do (or wouldn't do) their jobs and come back and share. Nobody was terribly interested in how anybody else did their jobs. Now everybody cares what picture somebody else drew. Now everybody already knows what Billy wrote, and wants to talk a little about it. And if they are that excited about it, they've already had a conversation about it in the comments. They come back totally excited to share something that their whole group has already seen. Also, because their group is going to see what they type, they do their best work. I've been amazed at how excited they've gotten over this activity.

2. I can look at the folder and know exactly where each group is.

My Google Drive Reading Groups Folder

When they group is done, they change the title to tell me if they'r ready or not. I just pulled this up. Looks like I'm going to meet with the group reading Socks, and You be the Detective. Magic Pickle and Dear Mr. Henshaw both need a little more time to finish up.

More than that, I can open up these four documents and watch as they answer the questions. If there is a student that needs support, I can go to that group and find out how much progress the student has made.

I can be in 10 different places at once. Even when I'm meeting with a group, I can flip through my tabs really quickly to see how each group is doing, if they need help, or a little motivation.

My tabs during literature circle instruction

3. This can be an ongoing use of the Chromebooks. When students are finished, they look through their peers' work and leave meaningful comments, or at least... comments. This is a use of the Chromebooks that isn't just one neat flashy activity. This can be something that is done regularly.

Modified extended day allows for both 1:1 and 2:1 instruction

I teach fourth grade. My district has a weird/awesome daily schedule. Half of my class shows up at 8, the rest of them show up at 9:15. That gives me an hour and fifteen minutes to start my day off with "small group time." I generally teach literacy during this block of time. At 2:15 the kids that showed up at 8 go home, and I have another block of small group time with the group that showed up at 9:15. So I end my day the same way I started it, small group literacy.

During small group time I have enough Chromebooks to to 1:1. During the rest of the day I have enough for 2:1. I'm a fan of the model.

Our weird/awesome daily schedule

With this model I have a small group everyday to start and end the day. There is research that shows that a 2:1 model is best, and there is research that supports a 1:1 model. I see the benefit with both models. During my day, I get the best of both worlds.

Why I ditched my kidney table; and I'm not going back

In a meeting I heard someone tell about somebody telling about someone else saying something... ugh... I hate being that guy... but I totally became him.

Anyway, the idea was brought up that teachers are no longer the Google in the classroom. Google is (or kidtopia, if you're nervous about 9 year olds searching the web). The idea is pretty strong. I'm not the source of all knowledge in my classroom anymore; each kid shares or has their own window into all knowledge if they know how to use it.

A piece of furniture that has been present in most of the elementary classrooms I've been into as a teacher is a kidney table. They existed while I was in school, I'm sure... but I didn't notice. I wasn't going to be a teacher. I stepped into my room and of course had one in the back. I used them for my first 4 years every day. I'd sit in the back, the 6 kids in my class would sit around me as I would listen to them read, and I'd be the center of attention.

Then we got the Chromebooks.

It was a pain in the neck for me to get out from behind the kidney table to see what was on each kid's screen. It got slightly annoying for them to turn their computer around so I could see error messages or the text on their screen. At my school there just happens to be a surplus of rectangle tables.

So I switched.

I have the students sit family style at the table, with me at the head... but I don't have to stay there. Kids are right next to each other, or facing each other. They're closer together and in a more collaborative setup. I'm no longer the center of attention, the computer is. I can wheel a chair next to each student, see what's on their screen, and see what they see. At first the change was just for my convenience. The pedagogical benefits however, showed up pretty quickly.

A time of the day that used to be mainly instructive in nature, and not very collaborative is now just as instructive and incredibly more collaborative. A big part of the effectiveness of my switch also came at a time when I was drastically switching my reading groups. (More on how my reading groups have shifted later...)

I think the switch symbolizes that idea that I'm not the google anymore. I'm not the all-knowing source of knowledge. Kids can ask me questions, and I have quite a bit of knowledge in there. But when my kids really wonder something they answer it with wikipedia, wolfram alpha, or google. I'm not the center of attention anymore.

Chromebook Cart

I was awarded a grant from my district to purchase a set of Chromebook carts so that I can be 2:1 part of the day, and 1:1 for another part. This blog is a place for me to dump some of the ideas and insights I've had.

The first thing I've that shocked me in having technology on my students' desks every day all day is how much of everything I do is changed.

I view myself as a pretty with-it teacher, that does a pretty good job at differentiating instruction. I had a beautiful plan about how I was going to have these Chromebooks modify instruction to something that was previously unimaginable. I had a great plan going into developing a 2:1 and 1:1 classroom. I knew what I was doing. I had research questions and enough experience to know what I should generally expect.

I was wrong.

On so many levels. I had no idea how many facets of my teaching game having that many machines in my room would change. Over the next few days I'm going to talk about different challenges I faced, questions that came up, and a few of the solutions I found as I developed as a teacher.

Topics I plan to write about:

Furniture: Why I ditched my kidney table, and why I'm not going back

Management: I didn't realize how little control I had

Grade book: How do kids turn things in? What does that look like?

Going paperless: PDFs and quizzes