I’m a MOOCing with #IMMOOC

Campbell, Heather (seriousgiggles). "Have you read The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros? . . . " Instagram, 4 June 2016, https://www.instagram.com/p/BGQlqhqsTO5/.

“Change is an opportunity to do something amazing.” This simple sentence can have profound effects if taken to heart. Humans often fear change. We like the comfortable and the predictable, but if we are willing to embrace change and view it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle, then we can promote positive change that will benefit ourselves, our students, our schools, and our entire society.

As our world continues to change and evolve, we as educators must adapt. Our students are raised in a connected world with access to previously inconceivable amounts of information. In this reality, the acquisition of knowledge is no longer as important as the ability to process this information, to apply it to new and different situations, and to discern not only what is reliable, but also what is applicable. For many educators this requires a paradigm shift. Many of us attended schools where increasing factual knowledge was one of the primary goals. However, if we approach our students’ education with this goal, we have failed them.

 The Innovator's Mindset Book Cover. Digital image. The Principal of Change. 

George Couros, 25 Oct. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2016. 

This is one of the tenants of George Couros’ recent book The Innovator’s Mindset. I have followed George on Twitter (@gcouros) for a while now, which was one reason I wanted to hear him speak at ISTE in the summer of 2015 (my reflection of this conference includes many references to George). I agree with many things George says and The Innovator’s Mindset has been on my list of books to read for a while now. For all of these reasons, I was excited when I recently learned that George and Katie Martin (@KatieMTLC) are facilitating a MOOC based around The Innovator’s Mindset. I recently took part in my first MOOC and I’m excited to be a part of The Innovator’s Mindset MOOC (#IMMOOC) to learn from George, Katie, and all of the other participants.

I’ve been in the process of moving recently, so I’m a little late getting started with #IMMOOC, but I’m excited to get started and to learn about promoting a mindset that not only allows for, but embraces change.

BFG (Building Familiarity with Gilded) -- Lesson Ideas for the Gilded Age

Dahl, Roald, and Quentin Blake. The BFG. Digital image. The BFG. Wikipedia, 26 Oct. 2008. Web. 7 Sept. 2016.

Sometimes it’s interesting where our ideas come from. Recently, while reading Roald Dahl’s The BFG with my kids, we came across the term gilded. As we stopped to discuss this word and ensure everyone understood it’s meaning, the history teacher in me took over and I immediately began thinking of the Gilded Age and of ways to explain this period to students.

When introducing this era, I often start with the term gilded. This leads us into a discussion of why a term meaning covered in gold, or having an appearance that conceals something of little value, is used to describe a historical era. This often leads to some great predictions from students and gets them thinking about the time period we are going to study.

I have always felt it is important for students to understand that the Gilded Age was a time of change in the United States and that this change benefitted some at the expense of others. My approach to achieving this instructional goal varied over the years. Several times I had students create Animoto videos as a response to an essential question related to this era in history (This project was very similar to the activity I wrote about in Picture Perfect – Creating Animoto Videos to Illustrate Life During the Great Depression).

Riis, Jacob A. How the Other Half Lives. Digital image. How the Other Half Lives. Wikipedia, 19 Aug. 2007. Web. 7 Sept. 2016.

The Gilded Age also provides a great opportunity to work on image analysis. There are a number of excellent images from the Gilded Age for students to analyze. I enjoy using images and excerpts from Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives. Riis’ photographs take us into the lives of many ordinary people in the late 19^th century and really drive home the inequity of the era for students.

This is also a great era to work on analysis of political cartoons. I love using Thomas Nast’s cartoons to help illustrate key issues of the Gilded Age (Nast’s works are available through many different sources, including the Library of Congress). These cartoons are not only telling about the era, but they also provide an opportunity for students to practice analyzing political cartoons. There are many different effective approaches to teaching students how to analyze political cartoons; I often discuss the persuasive techniques common to political cartoons and use the Primary Source Analysis Tool for political cartoons from the Library of Congress. Through this process I want to stress to students that they need to look for symbols in the cartoon, see what action is taking place in the cartoon, examine any text (speech/thought bubbles, captions, labels, etc.), and then determine the message and/or opinion put forth in the cartoon.

As I was explaining the term gilded to my kids recently, I thought of another instructional strategy that allows students to demonstrate understanding of the changes and inequities of this era in history. I think it would be a great activity to have students illustrate how the term gilded represents this time period. Students could create drawings showing wealth and perceived progress covering up the exploitation and problems within American society. This allows students to demonstrate their understanding of the United States’ struggles with growth and the conflicts between wealth vs. poverty, urban vs. rural, industrial vs. artisan, reform vs. corruption, etc. Drawings are an excellent way to assess student understanding of key concepts.

I have used student illustrates to gauge understanding in the past, but I guess I had never thought of applying it to this topic. I like the idea of asking students to draw. This allows them to express their creativity and gives students who are better at expressing themselves in this way an opportunity to demonstrate understanding.

Back it Up -- Rethinking Back to School Lessons

The beginning of a new school year is exciting, but it can be a tough time for everyone. Students, teachers, parents, and many other people must adjust to new routines, new social situations, new expectations, new learning, and a general upheaval in daily life. I think most of us feel a certain level of anxiety as we adjust to these changes, but there are things educators can do to ease the transition back to school.

September - Back to Work - Back to School - Back to BOOKS. 1940. Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress), Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. In September - Back to Work - Back to School - Back to BOOKS. Accessed August 25, 2016. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3f05218/. 

We’ve all heard the importance of establishing rules and routines early in the year. Teacher prep programs often stress this and some of us were even given the advice to not smile until Thanksgiving. I understand the thinking behind these philosophies (well, maybe not the one about not smiling). It is difficult to regain control of a classroom once it’s lost and one of the biggest fears of new and veteran teachers alike is losing control of their classroom. This thinking leads many teachers to feel they have to immediately establish rules, expectations, and most importantly discipline in order to maintain an effective learning environment and to become a master of classroom management.

Unfortunately, the unintended consequence of this is establishing a very unwelcoming atmosphere for students. For many students, the beginning of the year is filled with “Do this” and “Don’t do that,” all while sitting still and listening for extended periods of time. I am not trying to downplay the importance of rules and expectations, but we need to put ourselves in the shoes of our students. How many students—already nervous, unsure, and anxious about the transition from summer to a new school year—go through an eight period day and feel like they are being threatened and intimidated eight times? The first day of school tends to be the same in most classes. Students come in, find a predetermined seating chart (usually alphabetical), go through roll call (possibly enduring eight different mispronunciations of their name), listen to rules, go through the syllabus, and maybe—if there’s time—some sort of ice breaker or “what I did this summer” activity. Imagine how we, as adults, would react to this. If we had to endure someone seemingly trying to establish an authoritarian environment where we appear to have no voice while talking at us for 40-60 minutes before releasing us to another individual who does the same thing, then most of us would not go back for day two.

Smith, Jessie Willcox. Back to School Again. C. 1928. Louisa Du Pont Copeland Memorial Fund, Delaware Art Museum. In Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies. Accessed August 25, 2016. http://www.rockwell-center.org/portfolio-items/smith-back-to-school-again/. 

As if this doesn’t already establish an uninviting environment, compare it to a student’s summer experiences and it’s no wonder many kids dread back-to-school time. I understand that not everyone has this experience at school and that summer can be a difficult time for many children, but we, as educators, need to be more conscious of how we welcome students into our classes. I often try to relate school experiences to what I see, or hope to see, for my own children. Looking back over the last few weeks of summer, my kids did a lot and learned a lot. We went to the State Fair where they learned about animals; experienced history in a one-room schoolhouse; walked through a trapper’s rendezvous and other historic demonstrations/displays; and explored exhibits and projects created by youth from around the state. We spent time at the lake swimming, canoeing, fishing, hiking, riding bikes, and learning to kayak and paddleboard. They created a cardboard puppet theater, puppets, and scripts for several performances. They built cardboard arcade games (inspired by Caine’s Arcade). And began working to earn badges on DIY.org. I know not all students have these types of experiences in summer, but many kids experience an amount of self-direction and freedom that results in a type of learning that is very different from school. Many of these kids are excited, nervous, and hopeful as they head back to school, but they are greeted with the experiences I described above and then asked to read the textbook and told how much homework they will have this year.

So, what can we as educators do about this? We still need to establish rules, procedures, and routines. We want students to know what we will study, how our class will be structured, and what our expectations are for them. I am certainly no expert and I definitely do not have all of the answers, but I think it is important that we recognize we do not have to do all of these things the first day. I think it is important that we establish a welcoming environment that helps ease student anxiety and provides an introduction to the year. I have experimented with different ways to open the school year, some of which I liked better than others, but I tried to make a point of allowing students to be involved (as opposed to passively listening to me go over rules, etc.), getting them moving (we can’t expect them to sit quietly in every class after moving on their own terms over the summer), providing a brief introduction of myself and my class, and helping them to get to know each other. Sometimes I included a brief intro to my expectations, but I often found that it worked better to teach expectations and procedures as situations arose over the first few weeks as opposed to laying out a long list of rules the first day.

Recently I’ve run across a few different articles that reinforce my beliefs about the beginning of school and/or offer advice to establish a welcoming environment. George Couros posted 10 Easy Ways To Create an Amazing #ClassroomCulture This Year. These are tips that can be used throughout the year to make a difference in classroom environments. As George says, “Every year we should strive to make it the best year students have, and if we all did this, school would only progressively get better for our students.” Although What If High School Were More Like Kindergarten? does not focus directly on the beginning of the year, it does include ideas that impact classroom culture and it reinforces my thoughts that we need to allow everyone, regardless of age, the chance to be a kid once in a while. Along these same lines, I was alarmed, although not overly surprised, when I recently ran across The Decline of Play and Rise in Children's Mental Disorders. As I was going through the final editing of this post, I came across an article from The Atlantic that describes common back-to-school procedures in Finland. The ideas discussed in How Finland Starts the School Year are very similar to many of the thoughts I've discussed in this post and this article is definitely worth a read. Lastly, I saw a tweet this morning from Nathan Wear, High School Principal in Solon, Iowa, that illustrates students' feelings about school. I love the idea of asking students what they want and responses from students at Solon High School seem to reaffirm many of my thoughts about how we should be approaching school.

We asked kids on day 1, what do you want school to look, sound and feel like? #solonstrong #soloncsd pic.twitter.com/KrCdsuYFex

— Nathan Wear (@Nathan_Wear) August 25, 2016

There is no one right answer for how to begin the school year. Everyone’s unique situation and personality dictates how they can effectively welcome students to class. I’ve included a brief description of some of the different activities I have tried over the first few days below.

• Rather than assigning a seating chart, I have students pick the name of a U.S. President out of a hat. Students then read a brief (< 1 page) summary of the president focusing on things that are significant or unique about this President as a person or about their time in office. Students must then find the desk with a statement taped to it that describes the president they read about (I tape these on the desks before class starts). Each student then introduces himself or herself and tells the class one interesting thing about the president they read about. This provides us with a seating chart (that’s not alphabetical), gets students moving, introduces topics we will study, and allows students to introduce themselves to the class in a non-threatening manner.
• Who Am I? -- Introducing the Teacher through Primary Sources. This activity provides students a chance to work together and get to know me while introducing primary sources. It also helps us get to know each other as students determine what sources describe them.
• I have used excerpts from Stupid History: Tales of Stupidity, Strangeness, and Mythconceptions Throughout the Ages by Leland Gregory as a way to get students interested in history. Students can also share summaries of these stories with small groups or the whole class as a way to introduce themselves.
• I have used parts of TCI’s Getting Started and Getting to Know Each Other lesson. This helps introduce classroom expectations while allowing students to work together and analyze images.
• We’ve compared The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka to the traditional tale of The Three Little Pigs as a way to illustrate the importance of perspective and multiple points of view. I use this to introduce the idea that as we read a number of primary and secondary sources throughout the year it is important to keep in mind that different people may interpret the same event in different ways. It can be valuable for historians to look at these differences, but it is important to recognize that a single interpretation of the past is not always as valuable as examining multiple interpretations. This provides a fun activity that allows students to interact with each other and to think about children’s stories.
• I’ve used variations of the What is History and Why Do We Study It? lesson plan, particularly the portion on quotations. This helps establish some rationale for why it is important to study history while allowing students to develop their own thoughts on the topic. I like to have students do this in small groups so they get used to working with each other.
• Students describe their expectations for the year on Padlet. This provides student voice and allows us to discuss what students hope my class will be like.
• I have also used several versions of “Find Someone Who . . .” sheets or bingo sheets (get a bingo by finding someone who . . .) as a way to get students moving and getting to know each other.

I think the most important things we can do are to have fun with our students and to always keep in mind what is best for them. I know we all intend to do this, but as we begin planning for everything we need to fit in and how we can make things run smoothly, sometimes we veer a little off course. So we all need to make a conscious effort to put the best interests of students first all year long.

Finding Your Way - Using Google Maps in the Classroom

By Arambar (Own work (sculpture and photo)) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Last month I had the privilege of presenting at the Best Practices in Social Studies Institute. I really enjoyed this opportunity to work with social studies educators from all over the state of Iowa and to learn from presenters and participants. Although I'm no longer in the classroom, I still view myself as a social studies teacher at heart, so its always nice when I get the chance to work within this subject area.

The institute offers two days of free professional development for K-12 social studies teachers. More than 220 Iowa teachers took advantage of this opportunity to further their learning around best practices in social studies instruction. I attended sessions on Teaching 21st Century Skills in Social Studies Classrooms, Student Relevance & Engagement with IPTV Digital Resources, Geography and Literacy Connections, National History Day and Primary Sources, and Population Connection: Hands-On Activities for the People and the Planet. Additionally, there was a review of the state of social studies in Iowa, including a Call to Action and a review of the process and progress of writing new social studies state standards. Closing remarks were delivered by the Iowa Secretary of State, Paul Pate.

I planned to present a session related to technology and mapping in social studies classrooms. After considering that attending teachers may fall anywhere within the K-12 range, may or may not have background with mapping technologies, and that I had a limited amount of time to present, I chose to focus on tools related to Google Maps rather than more in-depth tools like those available through Esri or their ArcGIS platform.

I feel that many educators are aware of Google Maps, but they may not recognize its educational potential. For this reason, I wanted to share some of the tools within and/or powered by Google Maps and ways to effectively integrate these tools into instruction. I spent much of my presentation demonstrating the capabilities and uses of these mapping tools, but I also created the slides below partly to guide my presentation, but also as a reference for teachers to refer to later.

I had to adjust some of my plans and ended up doing more demonstration and less participant use of tools due to spotty Wifi access, but I still felt that my session went very well. Participants were engaged in the content and most seemed to learn something they could apply to their instructional practices.

I was impressed with my experience at the Best Practices in Social Studies Institute. There were a number of valuable sessions and it is always good to get a chance to collaborate with other teachers. I hope to attend this event again in the future and I would encourage social studies educators in the state of Iowa to take advantage of this free learning opportunity.

Moove to a MOOC for Moore Learning

This month I jumped into a new medium to further my professional learning. I've been hearing about MOOCs for several years, but had never taken part in one. Until now.

For those that may be unfamiliar with MOOCs, this refers to a Massive Open Online Course.
Basically, this means it is a free online learning opportunity that is open to anyone who would like to be a part of it. Some colleges and universities have jumped on the MOOC bandwagon while others are produced by individuals, groups, or organizations. Although there is some debate about the effectiveness of MOOCs (driven largely by low completion rates), they seem to offer a good opportunity for free online learning.

Recently I enrolled in the #EdTech30 Course to further my professional learning related to educational technology. I was not sure what to expect, but so far this course has been a good experience. I have learned a few new tech tools and I've taken the time to stop and explore a few other tools I knew of, but had not really played around with.

Today I was going through the portion of this course that deals with blogging. The instructor (Seth Dimbert) provided an explanation of blogs and a few tools for creating blogs. One of the things I like about learning through a structured course is that it forces us to stop and think about things. In this case, I know what blogging is, I know some reasons to blog, I know some of the tools that can be used for blogging, but its been a while since I stopped and really thought about it.

As I begin to reflect on blogging, my first thought is that I need to post more often. I often come up with ideas for posts or even begin writing, but don't get it published. This is partly due to a busy schedule, partly due to procrastination, and partly due to the fact that thinking through topics and beginning to write about them accomplishes one of the purposes of blogging, even if the post is never finished. I believe that one of the primary benefits of a blog is that it allows us to reflect on a topic and to think about it in different ways. Ideally we will put these thoughts out there for others and our posts will result in a discussion, but the process of thinking about a post helps us to reflect, even if that post never makes to the world. This was one of the primary reasons I began this blog back in 2013 (To Blog or Not to Blog. . .). I wanted an opportunity to reflect upon my lessons and experiences in the classroom and to share my thoughts, ideas, and resources with other teachers.

Although I have not done much blogging with students, I think it affords them many of the same benefits. As educators we strive to become reflective practitioners, we should aim to instill this same practice in our students. Blogging offers students the opportunity to contemplate their learning and experiences while giving them voice. As teachers we need to consider the best medium for this practice. In some cases a full-featured, public blog makes sense, other times it might be better to use a simpler, closed environment that is not accessible to the entire world. It is also important to consider the structure of the blogging experience. Will topics be chosen by the teacher, by students, or some of each? Will posts be more informative or more reflective? Will students or the public be able to comment on blogs? Will you monitor posts and/or comments?

I'm going to cut myself off before this post becomes merely a list of questions, but you get the point that there are a lot of considerations before having students blog. I am certainly no expert on this topic, however, there are many people out there that are much more experienced with blogging than I am and I would encourage you to seek out their hints, tips, and advice for student and professional blogging. One good starting point is Pernille Ripp's 14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging.

Despite the potential pitfalls and numerous details that need to be thought through, I think blogging has a lot of value for students and teachers and I would encourage everyone to give it a try.

Scare Them into Learning on a "Crazy" Day

This morning I came across Patti Grayson’s post on MiddleWeb about The5 Craziest Times of the School Year. I certainly agree with Patti that each of these times presents a challenge. Students are excited, making it difficult to keep the focus on learning. However, as difficult as these days can be for teachers, they are important for students. The level of excitement that makes educators want to run for cover is one of the things that makes school enjoyable for students.

As I read Patti’s post I began thinking about ways we as teachers can channel student enthusiasm on these days into something productive. With Halloween lurking in the not too distant shadows, my thoughts turned to ways of focusing student energy on a day when they are thinking about costumes and treats rather than the historical significance of a topic we may be studying. Why not embrace their want of a Halloween party rather than trying to fight it? It seems like students might enjoy (and learn something from) a history-themed Halloween party.

Why not have students dress up as people from the past? Or in a costume they think a historical figure might have worn? Or as zombies representing the reanimated corpses of historical figures? Any of these options could be preceded by a small amount of research to establish background information on the individual they will portray. This requires students to learn about their character and justify why they dressed the way they did. Each student could be required to come to the party with a few prepared talking points that exemplify their person.

Alternatively, the party could be set around a specific time period, event, or issue. This would require students to be familiar with course content. Student research could focus on differing opinions related to the topic and how people might have discussed it at a get-together. Students could also research games and snacks that partygoers might have enjoyed during this time in history.

Any of these options could incorporate a number of other fun activities. A teacher could decide to divide the class into committees to decorate the room, develop games, come up with treats, etc. Each committee could ensure that everything adheres to the theme of the party. If a teacher is feeling very adventurous, he or she could even allow students to carve pumpkins that reflect the historical content being studied.

Sometimes we as teachers get so into our content that we forget to embrace the opportunities to make learning enjoyable. School needs to be a place where students feel they are allowed to enjoy themselves, without being shut down on days that might be important or exciting to them. When “crazy” days arise, find a way to use the energy to your advantage.

Happy Constitution Day!!

As History teachers are well aware, September 17 is designated as Constitution Day.  This became a day of federal observance in 2004 following passage of a clause proposed by Senator Robert Byrd to commemorate the signing of the United States Constitution. Senator Byrd envisioned this as an opportunity for all Americans to learn more about our founding document. Additionally, this clause requires all schools that receive federal funding to teach about the Constitution.

The Constitution is a regular topic within our classes. However, federal mandate dictates that we offer further instruction on this document on September 17. I have heard teachers bemoan the fact that they must take a day out of their regular instruction to teach the Constitution or complain that this is a way to indoctrinate our young to certain political beliefs. These isolated complaints aside, most teachers I know are supportive of this day and use this break from their regular instruction in a productive manner to help students better understand and recognize the significance of our founding document and resulting system of government.

This day offers teachers and their students another opportunity to explore this amazing document. I know I am preaching to the choir, but it is amazing that the Founding Fathers were able to construct a framework that was (and still is) acceptable to the diverse wants and needs of our nation. This document is exceptional for the way it pulled the early American states together, giving the people and the states a voice in the federal government, but I think it is even more astonishing that the Founders were able to craft a document that has been able to adapt to a changing world. Over the last 228 years this framework has allowed our nation to deal with expansion, division, oppression, innovation, war, crises, and much more.

Constitution Day offers us a great opportunity to expose our students to the wonder of our founding. I encourage all teachers to seize this chance to allow your students to explore the Constitution (what a great opportunity to integrate a primary source!) and to allow them to see why this document has endured through the years and become a model for the world. Below are a few of the thousands of resources available for teachers and students to use on Constitution Day:

• National Constitution Center - includes an interactive Constitution, Constitution Hall Pass videos, Constitution Day Live Blog (answering questions about the Constitution), lesson plans, Preamble kit, Which Founder are You Quiz, naturalization test, and more
• National Archives  - includes information, activities, a teaching unit, and more
• Discovery Education - includes live events, lessons, and resources
• iCivics - includes a number of great activities, lessons, and games
• TCI Lesson Plan (History Alive!)
• Civics Renewal Network - includes lessons, activities, games, and the Preamble Challenge