Classroom Connections

Collaboration is right up my alley. I absolutely love working with others, sharing ideas, and collaborating to create the best lessons possible for students. But, to be very honest, the thought of collaborating outside the boundaries of my school district made my knees a bit weak. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting. I'm not sure what I was fearful of. Questions raced through my mind. Who will I connect with? How will I make this work in my role as a Differentiation Specialist? Will I have enough time to coordinate this? Will I be imposing on another teacher? How will this fit into the curriculum and what I am teaching? Pushing those nagging questions to the wayside, I tried to focus on the excitement of connecting with another teacher and class, the amazing opportunities and possibilities such a connection creates for my students, and the life lessons about collaboration my students and I would walk away with at the end of this experience. I was psyched and ready to reach outside my district.

As it turned out, my first-grade students and I had a great experience connecting virtually with another class of first graders from a town about 15 minutes away. The experience did consume a lot of our time, but I believe the experience was meaningful enough to justify the time spent.


For my classroom connection, I connected with a risk-taking first-year teacher. We decided we would try to do virtual Math Talks using Flipgrid. It was easy enough to set up.  To begin, we planned to have kids make introductions to teach them to use Flipgrid as a tool. I was surprised at how quickly the first graders learned to use the tool. They had to log in with a QR code, choose the right grid, create a video based on the prompt, take a selfie, and submit. That seemed like a lot, but they did it with relative ease.

Once students were familiar with using the tool, we dove into the actual Which One Doesn’t Belong? math talk. Both classes of students were excited and engaged when creating and listening to the videos. They were interested in hearing each others’ ideas, and they learned from one another. Students picked up and began to use math vocabulary they hadn’t used before. Students learned to accept ideas other than their own if the reasoning was well justified.

One difficulty for me is that our first graders have 10 iPads per class, and I have to check iPads out from a shared cart. Each time students worked on this project, I had to reserve the iPads, find a time right before I was going to use them to go pick them up, and return the iPads immediately afterward. Because of this, I had just a few students at a time working on the Flipgrid activity while other students were working on another activity. This was a bit of a challenge because the kids using Flipgrid were still novices at using it and needed technical support. Luckily, students not using Flipgrid were able to work fairly independently.


This experience was beneficial for my students and me. I was able to make a connection with a like-minded educator from another school district. We were able to collaborate and share ideas to design a meaningful experience for our students. We shared our ideas about math talks and suggestions for the types of math talks we could have our students engage in. We even discussed the talk moves our students use in class to promote active listening. Our students benefit by learning to listen to and value the ideas of others - especially those that may be different from them. It also challenged students to think outside the box, use math vocabulary, and gain experience in justifying their math thinking to students beyond the walls of their classroom. Students were on the edge of their seats anxiously awaiting to hear feedback from their partner students. Talk about engagement. The audience was authentic, and they were excited to hear from and learn from each other.

This experience pushed me outside of my comfort zone. All of my fears were calmed.  Connecting with another educator was easy, and other educators are excited to make connections for their students as well. In fact, through this process, I found many other ways - Seesaw Blogs, ePals, and #EPICpals - just to name a few - to connect with educators that want to provide students a collaborative experience. While it did take some instructional time, my students learned so much during the process. The first graders learned how to think critically, to justify their reasoning, to use math vocabulary, and to provide meaningful feedback for peers. Providing students an authentic audience raised the level of student engagement and excitement about learning. What better use of class time could there be?


I look forward to continuing this Math Talk relationship for my first graders, and I'm looking for ways to collaborate with other teachers at other grade levels. I want my students at other grade levels to experience the same excitement about learning that they can get by connecting and collaborating with students outside of their school.

Teaching Without Tech - A Silent Discussion

This week I was excited to try the Big Paper - Building a Silent Discussion (Links to an external site.) strategy.  I am teaching a 3rd/4th-grade math class this year.  The class is made up of all 3rd graders that are learning 3rd and 4th-grade math curriculum.  The group enjoys a good discussion, so I thought this was the perfect strategy for them.

I used this strategy to get students engaged in a silent conversation about critiquing sample constructed math responses.  I prepared by making copies of 4 different sample constructed responses and glued each onto a large-ish sheet of butcher paper.  To begin the activity, I clearly explained the rules.  Each table group used one color marker.  In total silence, they read the response and spent several minutes writing feedback or asking questions.  Then we rotated to the next table where they repeated the process with a new sample.  This time they read the sample, read the responses already left by the previous group and added their responses as well.  This happened again and again until every group had visited all 4 samples.  

                           

Then, it was time to talk.  Students discussed which sample they thought was the strongest and which was the weakest and why.  They asked questions, critiqued the samples and provided evidence to justify their critique.  I was amazed at how well the strategy worked.  Check out these images (Links to an external site.)of the students at work during Big Paper. 

                      

Prep was fairly quick.  The strategy worked very well for the learning objective.  Students were highly engaged and focused.  I would definitely use this strategy again.  I envision it would work just as well with a small group - students would just do it as individuals or maybe use one sample that everyone provides feedback for at the same time.  I didn't encounter any stumbling blocks using this discussion strategy.  When I asked the kids about the activity, they liked looking at samples and evaluating them.  They L O V E D that I let them write with markers (that seemed to be the highlight of the strategy for them).  They DID NOT like that they had to be SILENT during the entire activity until the end when we had our reflective discussion.  But, to be honest, I L O V E D that part (that was the highlight of the strategy for me). I enjoyed seeing them be contemplative before actually speaking.  Once we did have the oral discussion, their comments were so much more on topic and detailed compared to usual.  This one is a keeper.  After experiencing success with this strategy, I look forward to trying out some of the other strategies from Jennifer Gonzalez's Cult of Pedagogy website and podcast as well.

The Good With the Bad

There are a few ethical issues surrounding web-based digital collaboration in schools.  I see this as an especially sensitive issue in elementary schools - where young children are often unaware of the consequences of their actions.  The "Amazing Mind Reader Reveals His Gift" video reminds me that "Big Brother" really is watching us. Young kids - between 5 and 10 - at elementary schools are already creating that digital tattoo.  It has already been a concern among parents that their child(ren) is creating that digital footprint.  We have had an instance in which a parent has declined a 1:1 device at our school for this very reason.  This one family did not want either of their children creating content on the web that might later limit their future options.  Once content is out on the web, it is out there.  The concern is that younger students may make mistakes or use poor judgment as they are learning to use a digital device.  Is it right for that concent to follow a child for the rest of their life?  Could that error in judgment at a young age come back to haunt a child somewhere down the road when a prospective employer searches his or her name on Google?  That digital tattoo follows them forever. 

While we try to teach students about digital citizenship, that is a long and on-going process.  Let's face it, based on the comments or posts I see online, there are some adults that need a refresher course in digital citizenship.  While this is a concern, we need to overcome that concern.  The reality is that today's students are going to have the jobs of the future which will require them to collaborate with others virtually.  It is imperative that they learn the skills they need to be able to do just that.  Learning to do their fair share of the job in a timely manner, being responsible for responding to tasks, and being respectful in providing feedback and suggestions are all part of daily life in the digital age that we live in.

Other students may display a lack of respect for the work of others.  Another issue we have run into at the elementary school, is students altering the work of classmates on a collaborative assignment.  I have had students erase or "revise" the work of others while working on a collaborative assignment.  Students may think it is funny or a joke, but other students become very upset thinking their hard work is gone.  Luckily, using Google's revision history, we were able to restore the work that was altered.  But this is an ethical issue.  Should students who have displayed poor judgment in a case such as this continue to be allowed to use the technology?  Technology is a powerful tool.  Giving young kids such a powerful tool is a huge responsibility.  We need to impress upon them just how big a responsibility it is, and we need to teach them to use the tools for good.