Category: Collaborate

Perspectives on the CommonLit Reading Program

NISHA ACHARYA

Click here to read about the CommonLit Reading Program

Utilization of Technology

Marquice Pullen and Yidan Shao

Highly recommended for creating engaging presentations for students, Video Scribe is a software used to create automated animations. The video below highlights the use of Video Scribe, Davinci Resolve, Canva and Power Director that can all be used to engage your students in learning a variety of content.

HyperDoc Digital Documents

Zi Ye

A HyperDoc is a digital document—such as a Google Doc — where all components of a learning cycle have been pulled together within a single document. If students were to use this, they would be provided with hyperlinks to all of the resources they need to complete that learning cycle. Below is a lesson plan for elementary students which utilizes video, Jam Board, Pear Deck, NearPod, Seesaw, Flip Grid,

Family Celebrations

Focus Question: Why are Celebrations Important to Families?

Learning Objectives: Students will be able to examine, identify, compare, and contrast celebrations from a variety of cultures to understand that families celebrate for many reasons.

Discussion/Participation

Festival/Holiday is a special day that people celebrate. To celebrate is to do something special for a specific event or holiday. People celebrate festivals and holidays in different traditions. A tradition is a specific way of celebrating a festival or event, which is carried out in the same way over and over again every year.

• Video: Holidays All Around the World  
• Virtual Gallery using Jam Board: Holidays All Around the World

Exploration

Different holidays commemorate different things. Certain holiday memorials are special times or events. Other festivals are based on religious activities, and some are celebrated according to specific seasons or times of the year. When festivals occur, people celebrate or observe them in different ways. Some people may hold family gatherings, some may go to churches or temples, and some may go to parades, parties, etc. For example, “My mother and I make dumplings together every year in the New Year.” Under the guidance of the following questions, students can participate in the discussion:

• What holiday do you like to celebrate? why? Encourage students to provide specific details.
• What are the different ways to celebrate this holiday?
• What other traditions does your family have to celebrate this holiday?

Login Peardeck to read the slides and write responses.

Explanation

Introduce the celebration of Thanksgiving. This book shows how people celebrated Thanksgiving before and now. During the reading process, show the pictures to the students and explain the activities related to Thanksgiving. Discuss with the students whether their celebration is similar or different from the one in the book. We will learn some new vocabulary and sentence structure.

Utilitze

Introduce the “Family Celebration” writing template (two options). Students can share and write down what holidays they celebrate with their families and explain them using the sentence pattern assistance provided. Students can also draw pictures as a supplement.

• Writing Model A
• Writing Model B

Share

Students will share their writing and drawing on Seesaw. We will review everyone’s post together.

Follow Up

• What holidays do you celebrate with your family? What is your favorite holiday? Share with us on Flipgrid.
• Please provide your Feedback.

Extension

More activities about holidays and celebration:

Thanksgiving

Halloween

Christmas

Chinese New Year

Using Raspberry Pi in Classrooms

Lovell Quiroz

I used some of Freire’s reflections on dialogics to lay my philosophical foundation:

Human existence cannot be silent, nor can it be nourished by false words, but only by true words, with which men and women transform the world. To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn appears to the namers as a problem and requires of them a new naming. Human beings are not built in silence, but in word, in work, in action-reflection. (Freire, 2000, p.86).

My conclusion is that coding can be used as language tool to give voice to students ideas and world views.

Robinson (2017) recommends that we should develop our “imagination, creativity and innovation” in order to face the challenges of our generation. Our educational practices must renew themselves constantly in order to keep our civilization relevant and prevent its disappearance.

Modern children’s lives have changed on a number of measures, often for the better. They have an array of digital tools to creatively express themselves… Education must evolve with our societies, anticipating change rather than simply reacting to problems.  (Burns, T. and F. Gottschalk (eds.) (2019) 

What is my role as an educator is this challenging, ever-changing society? How can I accompany children in this process? I want to walk with them in this digital journey by providing tools that are accessible and affordable. My Raspberry Pi project seeks to provide that support.

Collins et al., (1991) highlight that coaching helps to connect the most important elements of the learning process. When we coach, we are responsible for carefully choosing the tasks that we want our students to perform, scaffolding and evaluating in order to properly diagnose the problems that they encounter in the process.

As a teacher in the 21^st century, I face a lot of challenges. I have to deal with educational practices that fail to place the learner in control of her education (OECD, 2015). I have seen how my students have suffered from a lack of engagement, especially in science and social studies classes because it is not relevant to them.

One of the most important takeaways from this publication is the fact that learning must be contextualized and placed properly or “situated”  (OECD, 2013). What is more, learning needs to be relevant beyond the boundaries of the classroom. Sometimes I wonder if my children are applying what I teach them in their real lives.

Reflecting on my own teaching practice, I hardly think about how much my own experiences interfere with my teaching (Martinez & Stager, 2019).  Sometimes I am afraid of losing control of the projects. What if the children take the activities to a level that will be hard to manage for all of us. Will I be able to provide answers to all of their questions? I also must admit that my fears and insecurities have made me relegate the learner to a passive role.

Am I giving my children the opportunities and skills that they to excel ( Winthrop & McGivney, 2018)? I am starting to incorporate my reflection into my practice in order to become a more reflective practitioner. I want my reflections to talk back to me. I wonder if I am providing the skillset that my children need to tackle the challenges of their generation?

What is the Raspberry Pi? The Raspberry Pi, sometimes referred to as the Pi, is a small, low-cost computer invented in the U.K. by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It provides an easy-to-use tool to help us learn to code in Python (the Pi part of its name came from the focus on using it to code in Python). About the size of a deck of cards, it isn’t as powerful as a laptop or desktop computer; its computing power is more similar to that of a smartphone. But what it lacks in processing power, it makes up for in its many features: ❂ Its readiness for programming in Python ❂ The many ways you can use it ❂ Its small size and cost The Pi, with its companion memory card, is preloaded with all the software you need to jump into programming in Python. Type in commands, and see what happens. Enter a program found on the Internet or in a magazine, run it, and see how it works. The Pi is made for us to learn to code by playing with it, using it, and interacting with it.

The Raspberry Pi is capable of doing all the things one would expect from a computer – everything from browsing the Internet and playing games, to watching movies and listening to music. But the Raspberry Pi is much more than a modern computer. With a Raspberry Pi we can get into the heart of a computer. We get to set up our own operating system, and can connect wires and circuits directly to the pins on its board. It was designed to teach young people how to program in languages like Scratch and Python, and all the major programming languages are included with the official operating system. The world needs programmers more than ever, and the Raspberry Pi has ignited a love of computer science and technology in a new generation. People of all ages use the Raspberry Pi to create exciting projects: everything from retro games consoles to internet connected weather stations.

The Raspberry Pi is perhaps the most inspiring computer available today. Although most of the computing devices being used (including phones, tablets, and game consoles) are designed to stop people from tinkering with them, the Raspberry Pi is exactly the opposite. From the moment we see its shiny green circuit board, it invites us to prod it, play with it, and create with it. It comes with the tools we need to start creating our own software (or programming), and we can connect our own electronic inventions to it. It’s cheap enough that if we break it, it won’t break the bank, so we can experiment with confidence.

References

Burns, T. and F. Gottschalk (eds.) (2019), Educating 21st Century Children: Emotional Well-being in the Digital Age, Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b7f33425-en.

CanaKit. https://www.canakit.com 

Collins, A., & And Others. (1991). Cognitive Apprenticeship: Making Things Visible. American Educator: The Professional Journal of the American Federation of Teachers, 15(3), 6–11.

Halfacre, G. (2018). The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide 2018: How to use your new computer. Raspberry Pi Press.

Heitz, R. (2016). Hello Raspberry Pi! Greenwich, Connecticut: Manning.

McManus, S., & Cook, M. (2017). Raspberry Pi For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) (3rd ed.). For Dummies.

Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. (2019). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom. (2nd ed.). Torrance, CA: Constructing Modern Knowledge Press. OECD (2015), Schooling Redesigned: Towards Innovative Learning Systems, Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264245914-en. Source: https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/schooling-redesigned_9789264245914-en

OECD (2013). Innovative learning environments. Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264203488-en 

Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary ed.). New York: Continuum.

Robinson, K. (2017). Out of our minds: The power of being creative. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. 

Raspberry Pi Foundation. https://www.raspberrypi.orgWinthrop, R., Barton, A., & McGivney, E. (2018). Leapfrogging inequality: Remaking education to help young people thrive. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

Mixed Reality in History and Science Classrooms

Raynesha Carver, Robert Padilla Obeso, Hassan Payano, and Maria Payano

Coming soon…

Utilizing Makey Makey

Xueyi Luo and Yiqi Xie

Makey Makey was used in a Pre-K online music language class with four and five year old students. The teachers used Makey Makey to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to build student engagement before students learned how to play the song “Little Star” by using the “fruit notes.”

Students learned how to create a music sheet so that they could play a song with a music sheet independently using the name of fruits. By the end of the lesson students were able to use vocabulary related to fruits including banana, grape, orange, kiwi, apple, and lemon. 

Virtual Battle Space Coding Program

Shaun Callahan

Coming soon…

Gizmos Learning Simulation

Iraklis Dimoulas

Coming soon…

Virtual Reality in the Classroom

Shanna Silien

Virtual Reality Games

It is well known that virtual reality applications have a powerful effect on children. It can provoke a response to virtual experiences that is homogeneous feedback to actual experiences. The educational possibilities of virtual reality apps and games for children are limitless. This is a wonderful opportunity for children to socialize with other children. This is also another way family can get together and explore the VR world.

Discovery Virtual Reality

1. I had the opportunity to go to different adventures such as going under the ocean and observed different sea life. 
2. Another adventurous VR experience I had was visiting outer space and learning about the planets and Big Bang. This is a wonderful experience, I learned different facts I didn’t realize beforehand.
3. The negative side to this adventure was I did not enjoy exploring the ocean and sea life as much as the space experience. I discovered after a few minutes  under water I grew flustered. The students seem to like this adventure more.

In Cell Virtual Reality

Completing this VR experience especially if you are into biology. The first thing you are sitting in a ship and we travel into the cells inside the body. You have to collect the protein and and view how a virus occurs. Each level is different and you feel like you are inside your own body. It feels like you are on a roller coaster and while you are on this ride you have to collect your protein so you don’t get a virus. You get to explore different cells and learn what each part of your cells are called. It’s an exciting game and great for students in the older age group. It was an exciting game I couldn’t stop playing. Make sure you get your proteins!

Pirate Phonics Virtual Reality

This a wonderful way for students to explore the phonemic sounds. This was used in a first grade classroom and the students were pleased to participate in this activity. Ths students were able recall this throughout the day. Allowing them to work on this after working on it in the classroom. Some students were able to use this at home( with their own VR set. Yes it’s not a game necessarily but it is an a supplementary activity that the students can do independently.

Spell Bound Virtual Reality

A group of developers at Reality Hack:MIT XR worked together in designing a way to use the immersive environment in an augmented, virtual reality, this was created to assist children with dyslexia and dysgraphia.

Conclusion

1. VR games are great supporters for all students in different grade levels.
2. Students will continue to learn as they immerse themselves in these educational games.
3. The possibility, to make students with learning disabilities discontinue their negative feelings about learning since it can be difficult for them.
4. Everyone can explore different experiences, this is the innovative way of learning.

Using Google Tour Creator in a History Classroom

Jeannie Hurley

Jeannie and her 8th grade students used Google Tour Creator to create a conversation-provoking walk through the Progressive Era, getting to know the Faces of Reform.

Click the link below to take a tour through the Progressive Era Reform movements.

https://poly.google.com/u/0/view/eAG8UPKnQSQ