So That Is What It Was Like!

We learn from our past. This statement does not have to be about our personal past, though it can be. In terms of teaching children, it is more often learning from others. Looking at history and how cultures have treated each other, there are a myriad of lessons to learn from.  The first culture clash that I teach about is when the explorers met the natives. I have a few sources, like the excerpts from Columbus’s Journal, that help look at motives and ethical behavior of both natives and Europeans.

I have put together a Board on Discovery Education were I generally get my Social Studies videos. This time I found some images on Discovery that can highlight the natives that my students have learned about. From the board I was able to set the goal for watching the next video that I found on YouTube. The video shows a relatively recent encounter with a native tribe. While I have read about the first encounters with my students, to actually see how a native who has never seen someone with white skin reacts is remarkable. In this encounter, the Europeans were very aware of who they were meeting and how to treat them to have a successful meeting. They were wonderful models of respect, from what the video shows.

I am having students watch the video and think about what the natives must have been thinking. They will have a time stamped graphic organizer to go with the video.  I want them to get into the mindset of the natives so that they can better understand them. Only if they understand them will they be able to respect them.  The natives are speaking in the video, but there is no translation. Students will be able to interpret on their own to create an internal dialogue for these men.  The writing prompt is on the board for them to answer after the video.

The board made it so that a number of different materials will be available to students. I can set up log-ins for Discovery and assign them to the students. If they feel the need to re-watch parts of the video as they are thinking about what it is like to be that native, they would then have that freedom if they worked on this in the computer lab.

After this assignment we will be looking further at what happened in the past when Columbus and the following set of explorers came to North America. This writing prompt, when tied together with the following set of activities, will challenge students to see where there were breaks in ethical and respectful behavior. I want them to learn from this past, and see how they can make choices to improve.  

Click Here to see my When Worlds Meet board. 

History Has More Than One Side

After I watched a video interview with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay, found here, about Flat Classroom projects that they have developed, I was left thinking about student collaboration and taking steps towards improving teaching. Davis said that we grow as teachers “one day at a time… We can’t do everything, but we can do something.” While I find a project in which I am committing to communicating and planning with another classroom around the world intriguing, I know that I am not there yet. I need to feel that I can better facilitate my students working together in the classroom before we start global collaboration. Davis stated that “schools are moving to bricks and clicks.” I am enjoying this move. I love having my students in front of me, but there are so many parts of the world that we can peek into using technology.

So here is my something. Howard Gardner discusses our role as teachers to model respectful thinking. When we teach history, we should find multiple points of view, or “neutral” versions of what happened. (Gardner, 2008) This is not an easy task. What I learned as a child was heavily American centered. As my father has frequently told me, the winner gets to write the book. If the winner’s version is the only one you have read, where does the other side come from? Thankfully today’s text are not as one sided, efforts have been made to tell a more balanced version of history. There are other resources available as well to speak about history from more than the winner’s perspective.

I have an interesting switch in Social Studies just after the first quarter. The whole first quarter we spend learning about North American Natives and how they lived their lives. The students become attached to various tribes. It is almost like they are picking a favorite sports team. Then, just after they have become attached, we learn about how the European explorers came in. It then becomes a balancing act. The natives did not fare well when the two worlds met, but destruction of different groups of people were not the true intentions of the Europeans. In terms of history, this is one of the first lessons they are learning about how there are two sides to a story. We have many conversations that follow that center around what was right, fair, or ethical in these encounters. Were any of the sides respectful in how they were treating the other? What were their limitations in dealing with each other?

When I started teaching 5th grade, I found this great book that excited me. What I found was I Columbus : My Journal :1492-1493, this book is made up of translated excepts from Columbus’s journal of his first voyage to the Caribbean. The readings show what he was thinking at different stages in his journey. This journal of his motives help student understand why he was doing what he was doing. It also shows what he thought of the natives when he encountered them. He thought he was in Asia at the time, and this colored his thoughts on who he met. 

Last year I tried a project with this. It was a huge project that spanned the whole 5^th grade as I had each of the three classes. I broke them into small groups of 2-3 students. Each group took a journal entry or two and told the story of that moment. I let them choose how they were going to tell the story. Each group learned more about their moment, and told the story to various degrees of success. Then I had a technology glitch. By allowing them so much freedom, I had projects coming in on all sorts of platforms. Some of them had recorded short movies, some had hand drawn comics, some had made Power Points, and some had chosen other forms. My plan had been to put it all in a Prezi. What I didn't realize is that when I pulled the Power Points into Prezi, it changed it to a Prezi and took out all the formatting the students had worked on. So, while the individual parts worked, the student groups worked, I couldn't make a cohesive end project.

Now I am back to the drawing board. I want the students to work together and talk out what was happening in this time. What were the interactions between cultures? Who was respectful? Who was ethical? Can it be said that all Europeans were wrong? Or that all Natives were right? (My answer is that it is not as simple as that, there were good and bad motives on both sides. Different groups and countries need to be looked at, and thought of on their own.)

The next project that they are working on in this unit is their own explorer with a Fakebook page to share what they learned. This technology was troublesome for some students, to the point that they had to do the work on paper in the end. Here is my plan moving forward. The students will collaborate on one Fakebook for Columbus based on his journal entries. We will share the page and access to it. This will have to be done on a rotating basis since there is not simultaneous access to the webpage. What I want them to do is rewrite what is happening from Columbus’s perspective. Since we have his words, this will not take a large amount of creativity. But, what did the other sailors think? What did the natives think when he came to shore, or traded with them? Students will need to step back and look at how others would have been effected by and perceived the events in their section. They will add comments from the other sides to tell a more complete story about what was happening. As an added bonus they will get practice time on Fakebook, so they will be able to complete their independent project.

In the end we can review what each class thought of different sections and how they think everyone around was effected. Did each class end up with the same thoughts? How or why are they different?

Perhaps at some future point in my career could I look using this to connect to another group somewhere else in the country, or around the world. Then I need to ask, would an outcropping of this project work for them too?   

Columbus, C., & Roop, P. (19911990). I, Columbus: my journal 1492-1493. New York: Avon.

Fakebook. (n.d.). . Retrieved July 28, 2014, from http://www.classtools.net/FB/home-page

Gardner, H. (2008). Five minds for the future (Pbk. ed.). Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press.

Juliani, A. J. (2013, February 28). Education Is My Life: Interview with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay. YouTube. Retrieved July 28, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vwq1RhFso8

Math Songs Rule!

Math is full of rules. If you do not follow the rules, then your answer is wrong. Students cannot "get creative" with how they solve all number problems. I will concede that sometime creativeness is needed in a math problem. The foundation of any lesson includes time for the teacher to teach the concept. When I am teaching a math concept, like finding coordinates on a grid, I will show them first. Showing coordinates generally involves a large grid on the smart board with marked points and me running and jumping. It is very active, and I must jump funny because the kids laugh at me. Then we will find coordinates together on the board, usually with matching papers for them to follow along with. Next, I will have them put their toe in the water and have them find some on their own. Generally at this point there needs to be a shorter repeat of the process.  

What step do I take next? This is where I look for another way to look at the math concept to help all students understand. Some of them may be able to do it on their own at this point, but it is tenacious knowledge. They need a firmer grasp to be able to go home and complete these problems in total independence. Now it is time to bring in another approach. Howard Gardner states that topics need to be approached in multiple ways for students to have a full understanding as they work on having a disciplined way of thinking about a topic, such as math. (2008)

To help my students with these rules, I use songs in math. I am presenting a SOS, Spotlight On Strategy, for song use in math. YouTube has been an outlet for creative teachers and other educators to share their math songs. I prefer the songs on YouTube because they offer many aspects to understanding the concept, where some other songs are only the lyrics. YouTube songs are often catchy and matched to current popular songs the students know. This helps make it acceptable to like the songs, and students will share the joy of learning with each other. They have repetition of the rules built into the songs. The images match the rules, and to tie it all together, there are examples of problem solving built into the lyrics. So, linking this to Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, the songs are reaching musical, visual, verbal, logical, and interpersonal learners. Clearly, songs reach a wider audience than just numbers on a board reaching the logical thinkers alone.

See my new Smore below, or follow the link for the full effect of what Smores look like. 

Or Go HERE for the final product. 

Gardner, H. (2008). Five minds for the future (Pbk. ed.). Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press.

Theory of multiple intelligences. (2014, July 17). Wikipedia. Retrieved July 20, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences

What Does Creativity Look Like?

Do you value creativity? I am thinking about whether creativity is grown or stifled in our school system today.  I want my answer to be that things are changing. That creativity was stifled, but now we have seen the error of our ways and we are now fostering creativity. I want to see that because I value creativity so much. Then I read and listen to what the experts say creativity is and I don’t know that schools have come as far and I like to think they have.

I grew up with an artist for a mother. She had the whole garage in the first house that I can remember, and later, no matter where we lived, there was always an art studio of some form.  Her grown up art was what I measured myself against, and I generally came up wanting. So I drew a lot of tornadoes with her pricey art chalk. I couldn't mess up a tornado. I didn't want to mess up, or make something ugly. At that point I was only willing to venture out so far with what I tried. Fast forward a couple decades, I still can’t draw an eye or nose or mouth that I am happy with, but I have found that I have an inner artist that needs to be let out. So, I make things. I make scarves, shirts, take photographs, make beautiful learning activities and art crafts for little scouts.

In school, I find ways to develop these not-art creative outlets for my students. There is always a mix of students in 5^th grade. Those who are confident in their creativeness, those who have a set person/symbol that they repetitively draw, and those that give up before they start.  Just like there are students who struggle with reading, there are those who struggle with creative thought. Then there are those who are like I was as a child, the creativeness is there, but they are afraid of the failure.

They all need a few similar things in the school setting. They need a goal. Why are they being creative? They need guidelines. How will they know when they have been successful in their creativity? Then they need to know how it fits together, which may or may not tie very closely back to the goal. This comes in the setting up of the performance, the rubric for grading, and continual discussion while they are working so that they do not get lost in the creating and lose sight of their original goal.

So, when I zoom in and look at my classroom and think, “Is creativity valued and grown?” I know the answer is yes. I will even allow for a certain amount of logical creativity when students are answering questions that appear to have a correct answer (My Teacher Edition has THE ANSWER). I try to not be stuck to one answer, but rather be open to their thought process. Sometimes we agree, sometimes I learn, and sometimes they need to go back and reread the facts to see their errors.

What about the district as a whole? Again, I would have to say yes, creativity is growing. Common Core and standardize tests are important, but not viewed as the only thing. Teachers are being encouraged to give students learning opportunities that require them to create their own solutions.

Backing this up one step more to state and national levels, and then I take a pause. If I am to believe the news, and what I hear from teachers in other districts, at these levels creativity is not being nurtured. I would not say it is being squashed, but it is not being grown.  At these levels, standardize tests and benchmarks are the important numbers. Creativity is hard to put into a objective grading rubric, so it falls by the wayside.

The Common Core standards focus on language arts and mathematics, which is a trend the world over. Sir Ken Robinson tells us it has been true since the inception of public schooling and its rise with industrialization. These skills were valued in the workplace, so they drove education.  The standards do also address the remaining content areas, but there is always a hierarchy with language arts and math at the top. The work place is now changing. We do not live in a recently industrialized world any more. There are creative jobs for artist, dancers, game designers, and even professional skateboarders.

School leaders need to ask, “What kind of adult citizen will they be as a result of the learning they did in our schools?” When students are only focused on testing they learn to fear mistakes. Nothing is worse than being wrong. How helpful is that as adults? If you fear being wrong, you never want to be wrong, so you must be right, and you will hold on to your choices with a death grip. Well that is not good. Adults make mistakes, and we need to be able to learn from them and make better future choices. Schools need to take part in showing young children how to make mistakes that they learn from and then continue to grow.

There are a number of tools that can be used to make creativity in the classroom easier. For teaching students, videos found on Discoveryeducation.com and YouTube are good sources. They can open students up to information in new ways. YouTube can also have “How To” videos that can be helpful. Students are able to explore on their won with so many of the new educational websites. Some sites like FunBrain make learning so much fun the kids don’t even notice it. One of my favorite games of the year for Social Studies is found here: LawCraft. Students were creating laws to real world problems, and having the best time doing it.

Software, like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, can help students take ideas and make them look appealing. If they know they want a bacon picture to make a math game, but don’t know how to draw it, they can use the software to find the image and set it up with the graphics that they need. Prezi takes this a step further with the ability to move and interact with the presentation. There are super online sites to help with this as well.  I love the comics that students can make on makebeliefscomix Here again they can have ideas, but not need to make a person that they are happy with. The graphics are all built in. They just need to supply the ideas to make it work. The wide world of the internet alone, with its ability to access information with a few key strokes, opens up student’s confidence in their creativity just by being a resource for questions I haven’t thought of yet. Way to be my support team Google!

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?. (2007, January 6). YouTube. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

New Math

          This coming school year we are switching to a new math program. This new program should be more closely aligned with the PA Common Core. Regardless, it is always goo to look for some fresh ideas on how to approach the topics. Chapter one covers both multiplication and place value. The two really do go hand in hand. If a student does not understand place value, they are likely to be all over the place with their multiplication.
          I wanted a little bit of everything to add to these topics. Extra worksheets are a good fall back so that you can have extra practice or already thought up examples. Some times I find my mind spinning trying to put together new number sequences when I really want to focus on the skill and the issue the student is having. Online games are great as a rotating station, in computer lab, or even for fun practice at home. At the end of the day, my computers are filled with kids playing an educational game or working on their typing skills. To wrap it up, I wanted some new songs. Even if the songs I found were completely cheesy, the students love them. I found a mixture of useful and silly tension easing songs for this round.
          Below are clips in Educlipper, kind of like educational Pinterest, of the goodies that I found.




If you would like to start your own clips go to https://educlipper.net/ 

Sell It!

           Students in 5^th grade are still developing their writing skills. They are not disciplined at this point. Nay, I would say that they are in the infancy of their writing skills as they still try to open their work with “I’m going to tell you about…” Howard Gardner points out that “students are drawing on common sense, common experiences, or common technology and examples. If no single discipline is being applied, then clearly interdisciplinary thinking cannot be at work.”(p55, 2008) This media–infused presentation draws their attention to not just persuasive writing that is around them, but other elements that are working together to send one message. The message they need to send is, “You Want to Buy This!” This presentation gives them “a taste- a “threshold experience” …. of what it is like to think in a disciplined manner.” (Gardner, 2008, p. 58)The students are being given a taste of what it is like to market their idea to others. The whole learning experience that this presentation is just part of includes building a model, writing to persuade, and then putting it together in a brochure, is modeling synthesize that goes on in a business to bring an idea to buyers.

To be successful persuasive readers and writers, students need to see persuasive efforts around them. The Prezi has two images that are the focus of the presentation. The presentation moves around the images to focus on different parts. Throughout this, there is text to explain what elements they should focus on in different parts, short movies that go into deeper depths about elements, and voiceovers to draw attention to elements that they might miss otherwise. These devices that highlight elements of brochures are examples of how disciplined thinkers look at the parts.  For example, white space is very important. It is even present every day in a student’s life as the margin of a paper. But, do they think about this white space as it relates to aiding a reader’s ability to understand what is there? My experience is that they do not respect this area. They would rather fill it with doddles. The video shows how a lack of white space makes you feel.

Making a brochure not only needs the students to write persuasively, but they also need to be able to match images to the feeling or image they want buys to have. This is a complex thought that involves art and understanding others. Follow this link to look at how highly paid marketers can miss the mark some times. My students will need to think as a scientist, a writer, a company, and a consumer. In discussing this with other teachers, they are surprised that even though we are surrounded by this type of selling constantly, students do not naturally have good examples pop into their minds. This presentation will draw their attention to the details, so they can be more successful in their selling attempts. The brochure and goal of selling to pretend buyers at the mini convention will give them “a motivating goal” to focus their synthesis. (Gardner, 2008, p. 58)

Gardner, H. (2008). Five minds for the future (Pbk. ed.). Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press.

Grieser, S. (n.d.). 15 Legendary Marketing Fails. Unbounce Latest Posts RSS. Retrieved July 9, 2014, from http://unbounce.com/funny/legendary-marketing-fails/