Amber — Page 48

What are you reading? Need some help? (An #ASCD resource)

January 18, 2015 by Amber Leave a Comment

I am a big reader. I love to read and have even gotten in trouble for reading in the shower. (TMI?) I read in the car, I read at volleyball practice, I read while waiting for small curly headed 4 year old to fall asleep.

Last year I took on the idea from Jessica Johnson, (@PrincipalJ) to record the books I was reading, both personally and professionally, into Goodreads. This went great, up until the fall, when there was an unfortunate missing YA book/fine/confusion disaster. Thankfully, this was resolved around Christmas and my library relationship was resumed. You can follow along with me on Goodreads here.

What’s harder for me to find at the library are the books I want to read for personal professional growth. Enter in ASCD. (I’m stewing over a professional organization post, stay tuned for that.) ASCD, as an administrator has been instrumental in making sure I am able to speak to, and have resources on, current educational topics and concerns. This infographic was recently shared with me, I hope you can find it beneficial as well! And if you’re reading something different, share with me so I can add it to my list!

Collaboration…who doesn’t have time?

January 14, 2015 by Amber 4 Comments

There is clearly not enough time in the day. I have a never ending to do list that seems to grow more than it shrinks. Recognizing that I don’t have enough time to do all the things that I have to do, much less what I want to do, I still feel like this post needed to shared.

Collaboration isn’t an option, it is now a necessity.

Knowing that we can get bogged down in our buildings, or in our classrooms, can make us feel like taking an extra step to communicate and collaborate with other teachers may push us over the edge. But sometimes? It can lead to the most organic of discoveries!

Last week, I was scrolling through Instagram, I came across a post from another educator friend talking about the website Popplet. Popplet is a visual mind mapping tool that students can use to organize facts and thoughts and learn to create relationships between them. I took a screenshot and sent it to two of my teachers whom I thought would enjoy teaching with it.

The next week, one of them, a second grade teacher, had her students use popplet to write word problems. They had to roll a dice and get three numbers. They then used those three numbers to create a math word problem and had to show different ways to solve it on a popplet.

The other, a fourth grade teacher, used it to illustrate all the different forms of numbers they had been studying. The students wrote one form of the number in the middle and then connected all of the different ways it could be written around it.

His comment? “You never know what a students doesn’t know until you ask them to create something.” It began very clear, and very easy, to see which students were struggling.

I couldn’t have required such an epiphany!!

The point here is that I didn’t pay to go to a conference. I didn’t sit through a webinar. I didn’t read a book. I simply saw a picture on a form of social media and shared it. Something that quick and easy allowed these teachers to add another tool in their toolbox to gather formative assessment data from their students. Sharing doesn’t require a tremendous amount of effort, you just have to do it!

Being gritty…what does that look like to 4th graders?

January 13, 2015 by Amber 22 Comments

This post is written for my 4th grade students that I meet with each week. We talk math, we talk leadership, and this week, we talked GRIT!

WWW,

I hope you enjoyed the video today! We had a great conversation about what having grit could LOOK like FOR 4th graders. Please remember to use your screen names below and share with me what you think it means for YOU to be GRITTY, :):

Mrs. Teamann

Demonstrating learning doesn’t have to look the same for every student…

January 11, 2015 by Amber Leave a Comment

This post was originally written for Classflow. After you’re done reading, check out this webinar and blog post to learn how ClassFlow can support various ways of demonstrating mastery, too!

As important as it is to have academic goals, learning outcomes, and a decisive idea of where your curriculum road is going, how do you determine that a student has actually learned the content you have taught? Whether it be a formative or summative assessment, or assessment of any kind, you’re typically talking about a number earned. A score on a paper, right?

As any teacher knows, just because a student failed a paper doesn’t mean they didn’t “learn” anything, and a passing paper doesn’t guarantee mastery either. This is one of the more persuading reasons to leverage the technology in your classroom to allow your students to demonstrate their learning. Differentiation takes on a whole new meaning when you allow your students to SHOW you what they have learned, utilizing technology.

A first grade class last week was walking through the halls, using paper and pencil to list the different states of matter of materials they saw in the hall. What if, using an iPad (or any other type of camera), the student took pictures and then created an animoto for each state they observed? Students could create a presentation in Google or Prezi, they could make trading cards using Big Huge Labs, or create any other tangible ‘product” that not only allows their choice to shine, but also combines creativity and even collaboration with others students in a digital artifact.

When I taught fourth grade, convincing my students that writing a lab summary report was exciting was next to impossible. However, once I allowed them to create and share in any means necessary, AND let them know it would be shared on our classroom blog, I had students lined up outside my door at 7:30 a.m. to go over their reports. We had videos, podcasts, hyperlinked animations and more. The ability to choose how they shared what they learned meant they cared about WHAT they learned. When I had them fill in a worksheet or a lab template, it became about me and the minimum of what I expected to see. There were things gleaned that I didn’t assess, that I was unaware of, misconceptions I wasn’t privy to. By allowing my students to choose how they were measured, the results went off the charts. I was blown away by how much they DID know, and the depth with which they were able to share it all.

How can you make this happen in your classroom? Start with one assignment, one concept, and allow students to choose how they can demonstrate mastery. (Younger students can be given options.) Provide tools that you are comfortable evaluating and that can be completed fully in a timely manner. If that overwhelms you, start smaller. Allow one student to choose. Build out from there.

By leveraging the thousands of different ways technology allows the multiple methods of demonstrating learning, you’re not only teaching your academic standards but truly preparing students for a life beyond a classroom.

multiplying-ly,

Amber

#aprincipalsday

January 7, 2015 by Amber Leave a Comment

Education Week has challenged school principals to share pictures of how they spend their day on Wednesday Jan. 7th. If you follow the hashtag #APrincipalsDay on Twitter and/or Instagram you will finally find out what happens behind the scenes.

Edweek Article

Our aim is to gather a wide variety of images from school leaders in remote, rural, suburban, urban, and even international settings to show the differences and similarities that principals share in their demanding, yet rewarding jobs.

Disclaimer: Due to the nature of the job of the principal you will not get a complete picture of the day in the life of a school principal. But you should get pictures of the best parts! I’ll edit this post at the close the day with some awesomeness!

pic snapN,

Amber