Best Works of the year with Tech-Now

Hello Everyone, this year has been of great changes and full of accomplishments. Living in Shanghai so far has been great, and as the end of my teaching graduation course approaches, I want to list here the best of my work developed so far, as a reference for the future and to whom it may help.

Mobile learning project - Reduce reuse recycle - PBL

Link Here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1eQ9iBaTvUXm-8DsHdm5AdvyhhqUFQ9brPl6uSlzSnSI

Wiki link: http://teachnowapril.pbworks.com/w/page/126592604/PBL-LuizZicarelli#view=page

Very proud of this project developed to collaborate with science teachers, totally infused with technology in many levels. Designed for 6th grade, cold be adapted for 5th or 7th grades depending on the technology resources and science concepts to be explored. First link is a presentation and the second link id the Wiki page with the description and rubric for evaluation of the project.

Student Centered Learning - Wiki Page

Link Here : http://teachnowapril.pbworks.com/w/page/126316646/Group%20Work%20-%20Activity%202%20-%20Claudia%2C%20Karen%20and%20Luiz

This was a group work, with Claudia Morales, and it was one of the best researches we have done during our collaboration. Detailed, well illustrated and it is of great use for me and hopefully for other teachers too!

Game-based learning - Math Class with drone!

Link to description here - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g_zT4IQ8nPiANEuQ-YkQcMZJn-9vBvUhb0oPD4UlaCU/edit

This was originally an idea from my former IT director Jack Kriss, that I helped execute and enhanced one year later, in collaboration with Ms. Murray 7th grade math teacher. Uses a Drone to teach Pythagoras theorem. Really cool!

Pre-Assessing to Differentiate

According to a number or research papers and articles, differentiation starts with pre-assessment. I couldn't agree more, as this tool identifies a number of characteristics from the students, regarding their existing knowledge, difficulties, even learning challenges they might have. 

Pre-assessments are also important due the fact that they can drive the teachers direction in that specific topic of the unit or subject, as well as to become important verification data for the post-assessment, after content is delivered and differentiation is implemented. 

Keeping the data organized in a format that you can insert more data and easily visualize the progress of your students is crucial (Gallavam, 2016), and provide grounds for us to implement all differentiation necessary for our classes, grouping students, applying different activities and bringing every student to minimal distance in knowledge (Pendergrass, 2014).

The graphic below shows how pre-assessment for differentiation can be used and implemented:

As I use this strategy, let's say that during my student's assessment there were 3 distinct groups identified. Here are examples of differentiated activities for my students:

Group 1 - 9 or 10 correct answers out of 10 questions; This group would receive a more challenging activity, covering the current topic being studied (e.g. Introduction to Excel, but adding the concept of formulas).

Group 2 - 6 to 8 correct answers out of 10 questions; This group would receive an extra time to execute the original activity described (e.g. Intro to excel, with cells concept, number formatting) and a glimpse of what is coming next, to keep their interest high.  

Group 3 - 5 or less correct answers out of 10 questions; This group would start with a fresh explanation on the concepts above, and the exercises would be executed in the I do, we do you do together, you o alone strategy. These students would be given more time as well, but if not enough, a homework or after school assignment will be given. 

At the end of the class, the same exit ticket on this topic will be given to all, and results will be compared and will serve as basis for the next class. This way I would see the progress and apply more resources and time to those in need, without leaving anyone behind. 

The main goal as always, is to keep the difference of knowledge and achievement among the students to the minimum, keep their interest to the subject high as well as their confidence and self esteem.

Assessing Project-Based Learning

Hey Everyone, this week I explored ways to assess students individual projects, so I developed this ICT MS project in HTML coding, that I intend to use with my students. The details are below, and feel free to ask any questions!

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Project-Based Learning Rubric - Creating a Webpage using HTML language

Project Description

Goals:

-To create a webpage using HTML language code learned during class;

-To demonstrate the ability to use the HTML code correctly;

-To demonstrate the ability to add visual elements to the HTML code that will be visible in the webpage.


Activities:

Each student will fill in a digital project form, to be delivered at the end of the project, with the following information:

Relevant theme;

Main characteristics of webpage;

External media elements used (files, pictures, videos, sounds, etc.);

Sources, references and copyright checks;

Weekly follow -up, with what was done, items added. Teacher will fill in feedback;

End of Project three questions:

What was easy to learn or do during this project?
What was hard to learn or do during this project?
What would I change?

Code Development - Use the online HTML code editor (http://htmlcodeeditor.com/) to construct and automatically preview your webpage results. The use of our class manual as reference for commands and how to use it is permitted, as well as collaboration (sharing ideas) between students, as long as work is developed and delivered individually.

Media elements Choice - Search online or use school´s available media library to use in your project. Remember, you can use images, videos, sounds, or any other elements mentioned in class, as long as you add the reference and/or source and it is allowed to use. Be digitally responsible.

Copy the final code to a text file, and then save under your network folder.

Change the file extension from “txt” to “html”, then test it, opening the file with a browser (Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox or Safari). There could be differences displaying the webpage in different browsers, that´s normal and it is OK. Choose the one that suits you best.

Present your work, with an introduction about your theme, and what your webpage shows. Demonstrate your work, finishing with your reflection answers. Choose your technology to present.


Duration of the project: 4 weeks - 2 Classes of 50 minutes a week. Last class reserved for presentations.


Tools and resources involved: html editor, html class manual, online file repository, internet for research.

Assessment Rubric

The file with the complete rubric is here: 

Full Rubric


Monitoring and Feedback Strategies:

Observation - while students are developing their projects in the classroom, check their behavior and interaction and take notes.

Keep rubric visible for students during the project development.

Q & A - After each class, promote a discussion so students can ask questions to the teacher and each other. This can serve as a thermometer for the teacher and source of information for feedback.

Feedback - every week, give them feedback on their project sheets, with guiding questions and praising their efforts.

Presentation and Grade feedback - The last class of the project will be for presentations. After all those presentations the teacher gives a final feedback on their forms, with reference to their grades based on rubric. Final grade goes into the LMS.

Formative Assessments - Using, Changing and Modifying Strategies

This week we are exploring formative assessments and how we can design, implement, collect data and modify our strategies to improve learning experiences for our students.

As there are many strategies used by teachers around the world, for all student levels, and thanks to my cohort colleagues sharp opinions and practices shared in our discussion forum, I had a rich material to explore and conclude that every teacher could use at least one strategy to assess their class and students to improve learning.

Two of the most used strategies, the pre-assessment and the exit ticket are widely used among teachers in many schools that use formative assessment strategies to evaluate student's progress. These tools are as easy to find examples as to use, and as you get used to it you can improve your methods and add more formative tools to your daily routine, and finally becoming part of your evaluation process.

There are some arguments about whether using formative assessment is part of the process of the curriculum building or if curriculum must incorporate formative assessment. In my opinion, both situations occur considering a learning environment as a dynamic ecosystem.

The more teachers apply formative assessments, the better will be the next version of the curriculum mapping, even the current one can be enhanced. Also, the more teachers collaborate on sharing their results with the teaching community, in their school, district, city or world-wide, the better their practice will be and the all in favor of the students.



Also, keeping track of our students responses and practices change plays a big role in this method of evaluation, and this part only has so many important elements and outcomes that I will mention below only the three most important to me:

1 - It's important to have a consistent tool/database to keep track of your student data and teaching changes, either Google Docs, integrated or not to a Learning Management System, Webassign, GoFormative or any other tool, but keep your data accurate and updated, it will be useful for you, your students and your school.

2 - Ask for professional development. If you need to learn one of those techniques or learn about a new tech tool that will help to implement formative assessment, get trained. Make it a personal goal if your school cannot provide guidance or funds. It throws light in the corners and then you can see the whole picture.

3 - Collaborate and share with your peers. The most valuable lesson of all times, from my teaching training cohort and school colleagues is how brilliant they are and how better we can all be, if each one of us collaborate and contribute to each other's success. Priceless.

Finally, I say that to myself and everyone: don't be afraid of change. Teaching is one of the most beautiful professions in the world, but it needs evolution as society evolves and new skills are needed. Therefore teachers like us need to be on the verge of innovation, with technology, encouraging critical thinking, curiosity and creativity.



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References:
Black, P. J. and Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education, 5(1): 7–73.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Google Scholar]
Bennett, R.E. (January 25 2011). Formative assessment: a critical review. Retrieved July 20 2018 from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0969594X.2010.513678?scroll=top&needAccess=true
Wisconsin Department of Public Education (January 2017). The Formative Assessment Process. Retrieved July 20 2018 from https://dpi.wi.gov/strategic-assessment/cycles-assessment/formative/-resources-professional-development

Classroom Rules and Procedures - Praising and Reinforcing Behavior

Classroom Rules and Procedures - Praising and Reinforcing Behavior

This week I will explore an important aspect for a successful classroom management and key ability to any teacher: the importance of reinforcing classroom rules and procedures.

In my opinion, teachers and students need to have a two-way trust, and that starts with clear and well-communicated classroom rules and procedures, learning goals and evaluation criteria, setting academic and behavior expectations at the beginning of the school year, and praised and reinforced as necessary.

For example, let´s watch the video below:

The teacher is clear with his procedures and classroom rules, interacting with students and bringing out their best behavior while demonstrating some of the methods.

Now let´s watch the video below and compare the techniques:

In both scenarios the teachers have pre conceived  ideas on how they will manage theirs students. The difference is how effective the teacher applies it and how they are willing to adapt while facing a misbehaving student. 

In this situation I find very effective to follow an intervention plan, with multiple alternatives for good and challenging behaviors. Below is an example of behavior strategies chart:

For example, let´s exercise the strategies above portraying a real situation. 

Example 1 - A middle school math classroom: the class is about to start and the teacher is finishing welcoming the last students entering the room. One of the students is David, a 12 years old boy that is very active and popular, and enjoys very much a side-conversation while the teacher is giving the instructions for today´s class. 

The teacher notices he is talking to Carl, his buddy, and tries to control it by asking for the attention of the whole class for his explanation:

Teacher: - 1,2,3 eyes on me!

Students: - 1,2 eyes on you!

Teacher: - very good everybody, let´s start our day by reviewing our notes from last class.

At this point David is controlled, but the teacher needs to guarantee he got his attention and engagement. 

Teacher: - Hey David, could you remind us where we stopped last class?

If the student responds well to the request, even partially, the teacher should praise his efforts and move on to the construction of the theme, giving chances to others to participate and moving on with the class.

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Example 2 - A HS english class: Meryl is a brilliant student that has great writing skills and enjoys receiving a lot of attention about her work and participation. Unfortunately this might be disruptive at times, so the teacher tries to contain her impetus.

Teacher:  - Good morning class let´s see who read the assigned chapters from last class. Can anyone point out what happens with the main characters?

(Meryl raises her hand, along with two other students)

Teacher: - Very well, let´s stat with Chuck, then Meryl then Anna. Each will describe one important fact. Remember, everyone is allowed to participate and all opinions are welcomed.

Again the positive feedback was given, and also used to control disruption. Note that even a great student can be disruptive and harmful for the class, as his action could block other students to express themselves, which can lead to a conflict. It is very important for the teacher to reinforce rules and procedures whenever possible and as quick as possible.

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Positive feedback is always useful for the students, and should be given without moderation, specially for students that are early identified with potential to disruptive behavior. The more these students receive the teacher's appraisal and figure out that a good behavior is valued and rewarded, the better the whole class will progress with their learning and the easier it will be to enforce expectations and procedures. 

It is also important to check the effectiveness of the strategies. Some of the challenging students might take longer to respond  and cope with rules and procedures, reason why there should be always enough opportunities for the teacher to understand the student and work in different approaches. Speaking with other teachers, division counselors, administrators and parents is always valuable to find the right connection to the student. 

Another important element to sustain classroom strategies, rules, procedures and expectations is to take notes about what happens ins the classroom, specially if there is an event of disruption. I would keep short notes for every student, after class then reflect from time to time on these notes, and use them to adapt instruction if time permits. 

Also, these notes are important for report card season, the main opportunity to bring parents on-board. Parents participation is key for student commitment, specially for those with difficulties. They should be always included if an important decision is taken, and their lack of commitment if happen, should then be minimized by the school professionals, always thinking about the educational experience of the student, after all, this is the reason why we all teach!

High Performance Learning Environments - Academic and Behavior Expectations, Norms and Procedures

Hello everyone!

This week we are exploring resources on how setting high expectations for our students can influence their achievements, being academic or behavior, and how norms and procedures can help teachers and students reach excellence in the classroom.

In these 3 videos below, we can find different classroom situations with different approaches and techniques to ensure engagement and clearly communicate expectations towards the students, and I have added my considerations about how the way teachers set their academic and behavior expectations, with the use of clear norms and procedures, can help students achieve great results.

Roller Coaster Physics: STEM in Action

Link to the video: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-stem-strategies?fd=1#

This class shows very important elements for a successful learning environment. From the project starts, where the teacher outlines the main characteristics of the roller coaster, to the simulation using different learning tools and resources, the teacher makes clear statements that translate into high expectations in academics. Using the right terminology when labeling their sketches (like clothoid loops, kinetic energy, centripetal force, friction) is a good example of enforcing academic expectations for the science they learned. She also emphasizes behavior expectations through collaboration and other strategies, but she is specially effective when she uses chimes. Students will discuss their findings, debate their attempts, successes and failures, all together to achieve greater results. 

As the project moves on, students assume other specific roles, to ensure the success of the groups project. One member needs to be the recorder, which will be responsible for taking notes, about the materials used and the modifications made. There are specific rules and limited resources that each group need to control. So another one of the members becomes the accountant, that will control the costs for their project, keeping it under budget. The relation to real world problems brings more  meaning to their learning.

Speaking in resources,  she deliberately limits the amount of materials, and will release more alternatives as their problem solving skills develop, and the inquiry grows. Also, during this skills developing process, she is always making meaningful questions regarding their choices and decisions, becoming a continuous formative assessment for her. This allows her to identify low-performance students and make adjustments.

I really enjoyed to watch this class, as a DI team manager it gave me lots of ideas to apply to my future teams!

3rd. Grade Chinese Math Class

In this video, class management techniques are very effective, as the teacher controls the students very well. Even though I could not understand the language, I could notice that the students responded to her voice command very well, and she asked constantly for student participation. She uses gestures, with her voice, and students also respond to attention commands with gestures. While explaining the math concept, she would move from one student to another permitting more than one student to participate. 

The Chinese method to teach math is based on repetition and memorization, and that is also clear in the video, where she counts with the students, and uses her fingers to help them counting, while they repeat the times table.

In my opinion, the teacher is very effective in class management, but I could not identify guidelines for academic expectations. In one moment the students seem to exceed her expectations when over-counting her, but I could not find any other evidence. On the other hand, there is a very clear sense of behavior, and seems that all students are meeting the expectations. Except for one blonde boy in the back, that seems to be not paying attention, but she does not address this issue in the video. 

Whole Brain Teaching

During this geography class, the teacher uses Whole Brain Teaching techniques, to engage and set expectations to her students in a very clear way. She uses gestures to emphasize information, displayed in the screen by the overhead projector. Students follow instructions, and use peer instruction, repeating what was taught in the class by the teacher. This helps students with difficulties understand the content and meet academic expectations. 

She uses the same strategy for class rules and behavior expectations. Using gestures and verbal repetitions, students seem to engage and understand clearly, and class participation is pleasant.

I liked it very much. It seems to me that students feel included, accepted and welcomed. The teacher when applying the techniques seem to have full control of the environment, but I would like to see a couple of minutes of a previous moment of this technique, showing a not so evolved class to compare with this one that seems to be very advanced. 

Summary

After watching the videos and read the complimentary documentation, I would try to enforce the following in order to maximize my students outcomes, already putting in context I will be teaching 6-8 grade ICT:

• Everybody is welcomed, and will be noticed, valued and respected and part of our classroom and community;
• Collaborate! Give your inputs and listen to your peers. They might have the missing part of the puzzle;
• Got a question? Ask! You can ask you teacher, your peers, or research using your online resources, but don´t leave with a question unanswered;
• Clear evaluation rubrics, open buy-in code of conduct, allowing students to participate and be co-responsible for it. 
•  When developing a project, specially with multiple attempts, documentation is the key, so make sure to take notes, and share them with your peers. 

Thanks! See you next week.

Creating an Inclusive, Diverse and Safe Classroom Environment

I am a strong believer that to build and establish a positive and safe classroom environment teachers need to address two or tree things tho theirs students:

First and foremost, know your students. In international schools, it is common to find one small world in every classroom, with a rich and multicultural background and different life experiences, so is mandatory that teachers know where their students come from, their likes and dislikes, families. This should be enough to get started, but still only the first step. In order to build strong relationships with each other, there must be an exchange of experience and information. Teachers need to get students to know them as well, and as the interactions move on, students will provide valuable information about themselves, which leads to the second pillar of this post. 

Create a safe environment for everyone. By knowing the students, teachers can plan and design the classes and the classroom accordingly. A place where everyone feels safe, respected, represented and 
encouraged to participate. All the information students provide (and of course, the teacher must keep on record) is essential for this. After all, they will spend as much time as home, if not more, at school, in classrooms. There are numerous strategies that teachers can adopt, but I have identified myself with these two:

• Give them voice: students need to feel they count, they are relevant for the learning experience. Allowing them time to reflect and speak up can build up self esteem, create alliances among peers, encourage others to speak. Then respecting their opinions and building content around it will be the climax for the students, making students take ownership of their learning.

• Use anti-bias materials and avoid and challenge bullying behavior: In an effort to build up respect, compassion and empathy for their peers and themselves, teachers should emphasize the importance of this subjects through their practices. Creating a clear set of rules and a classroom contract, for example, with expectations and consequences aligned to schools policies, but with focus on growth, not punishment, is the ideal tool to provide structure and build a safe environment for students.

The third pillar I would like to mention is communication. Teachers and students should have enough trust in each other to communicate properly, and through many channels. In fact as many channels as possible. There should be specific channels for bureaucratic interaction (assignments, requests) but teachers should make themselves available as much as possible. There will be students that need more attention and those that need more time to trust, but teachers should take the initiative and approach them, make themselves available, maybe even give an extra incentive in order to solidify a good trust relationship. It is extremely important that students feel they can count on their teachers to externalize their struggles, being emotional, on merely instructional. 

There are hundreds of other good practices and strategies to build a positive and healthy classroom environment, that values the students diversity and learning styles, but they all converge to the same objective: putting the students on the center of their learning experience, with the best environment and resources as possible, so they can develop and discover themselves as learners, and be happy with it.