Cultural Coding Challenge

Computer science is a growing field. The more technology advances, the more jobs and opportunities will become available in the computer science industry. However, there is a wide gender gap in the number of people filling those computer science positions. According to The National Center for Women and Information Technology, girls comprise only 19% of all computer science AP test-takers, and only 18% of all undergraduate computer and information science degrees are earned by women. Technology is used by the vast majority of society, yet if much of half of our population aren’t engaged in the creation process, then we are missing out on many potential innovations.

In a recent global collaboration project that my 4th grade class participated in, we explored this issue while learning more about computer science and coding. We partnered with an all-girls coding college in Mexico City called Laboratoria. Our classes connected initially by doing a Mystery Skype with one another. Once we figured out the location of each class, then each class issued the other a coding challenge. The challenge was straightforward and simple enough: create something using a coding or computer science program that would tell about your state or country’s heritage and culture.

In small groups of three or four, my students created presentations using the coding program Scratch. Most of my students hadn’t had much experience using Scratch, but it was intuitive enough that they were able to figure it out as they went. The few students in my class with experience using Scratch were also great resources for the other students. They created their programs on Kansas symbols and important landmarks and history of the United States. We were able to take content that we had previously learned and apply it in a new way while exploring more about coding.

When each class was done creating their coding projects, we connected via Skype again and each small group presented their projects to the other class through the screen-sharing feature on Skype. The students in both classes loved seeing the creations that the partner class had made. The experience was also a great way for my students to learn about issues such as gender equality and global educational access, as well as have discussions about why it is important for more girls to go into computer science-related fields. Below I have linked my class’ Scratch coding projects and the websites that the Laboratoria students created. We look forward to doing this project again in the future!

Here is link to my class’ Scratch coding projects. Mr. Flory’s class’ coding projects

Here are the links to the websites created by the Laboratoria students.

Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4, Group 5, Group 6, Group 7

Digital storytelling

Whenever you read a good book, you often feel the urge to talk about it or retell your favorite parts. In education, teachers do a fine job of having students retell what they have read. Students get in pairs or small groups and talk about various aspects of the book, make connections, inferences, etc. For teachers looking to add more technology into their students’ retelling, there are a number of ways they can accomplish this.

This past year, my class did a read aloud of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. We partnered with another 4th grade class who was also reading this book at the same time. After every handful of chapters, our classes would retell a scene from the chapters that we had just read and then share them with the other class via Skype. For the first quarter of the book, we used Legos to build scenes from that section. In small groups, students decided on a scene from a specific set of chapters that we had read and then visually depicted the scene with Legos. We then Skyped with our partner class and each small group took turns holding their Lego scene up to the camera, while the other class tried to guess what scene or part of the book they were representing. After each successful guess, the group that created the scene would explain in more detail what the scene was about and why they choose to portray that part of the book.

For the next section of the book, my students created human comics to retell a specific part of the book. In small groups, students reenacted a scene from specific chapters by positioning their bodies as characters and/or props while another classmate took their photo. The students then saved the photo to their student Google Drive and uploaded the picture to a class Slideshow that I had created and shared with the class. Once they had their picture uploaded, students then added text in speech and thought bubbles, as well as another other picture props they needed for the scene. When we connected with the other class, I shared my computer screen through Skype so that the other class could see our Slideshow. Each group would come up to the camera in turn and explain about their scene to the other class. Here is a link to view our Human Comic Slideshow.

Our last digital storytelling activity we did with the Harry Potter book was with green screen. Small groups of students chose a scene from our next few chapters of the book. Using a green screen and the DoInk app on the Ipad, students posed in front of the green screen as the characters would act during that part of the book. Next, they searched for a background picture that would work in that scene, before uploading it and adding the layer of their green screen photo. Once they saved that layer picture, students uploaded it in a Google Slideshow I created and shared with the class. Once again, students could then add text and picture props to add more to their scenes. When we Skyped with our partner class, I shared my screen and students explained more about their scene. Here is a link to view our Harry Potter green screen scenes.

Adding technology to our story retelling and giving students a choice in what scene and how they would retell it was liberating for them. They were so excited to recreate parts of the book and to be able to share it with an authentic audience. I look forward to doing this activity again with another book and partner class in the future!

Mannequin Book Challenge

Every so often, there is a social phenomenon or fad that fills society to the brim, grabs the attention of your students, and spills into the classroom. Such was the case recently with the Mannequin Challenge. There were numerous times where I would walk in the classroom from the hallway from the back of the line, and my 4th graders would spontaneously freeze in place after someone had shouted “mannequin challenge!” This would only last a few seconds, and they would find great humor in the fact that their teacher would often participate and freeze in place, as well.

When there is a social phenomenon so engaging that students will voluntarily and spontaneously participate in it in class, it would behoove educators to ask how they can utilize this in their classroom. After some thinking, I came up with the Mannequin Book Challenge. This is a class-to-class partnership activity we did through Skype. Our partner class was Scott Bedley’s 5th grade class in California. My class came up with 10 books that were well known classics or currently popular, books that students in both classes would easily recognize. I shared that list with our Mr. Bedley. Each class then decided on a specific scene from one of the books on the list. We practiced acting, or freezing, out the scene and constructed any props or decorations needed to help set the stage for the activity.

My class acted out the chess scene from the first Harry Potter book. They assigned roles, measured and constructed the paper for transforming the floor into a chessboard, and gave constructive feedback to one another when practicing their parts. When the time came to do the activity, we Skyped with Mr. Bedley’s class and each class took turns freezing in their scene for about 20 seconds. I paused the video on Skype while my students got in and out of position. The other class then had to guess which book and scene we were depicting. It was a great way to pull in a culturally-relevant activity while giving students a creative way to share their knowledge of a book to a real-world audience!

Watch the Mannequin Book Challenge here.

 

Learning to Fail

Too often, teachers, myself included, are guilty of giving in to students’ struggles too early. When students are struggling to understand a concept or achieve a goal, the temptation is to help provide a solution too early. But, there is much to be gained from students continuing to wrestle with a problem for an extended period of time. Not only does it help them develop a sense of perseverance and determination, but it also helps students realize that they need to own their learning, that they will not be bailed-out by their teacher, but need to problem-solve.

Recently, I tasked my students with a problem that I hoped would help them achieve those realizations. I told my students that their task was to find a way to fit their whole bodies through a single sheet of paper with the borders still intact.  They could use as much paper for as many tries as they wanted, and use any other resources, including scissors. I didn’t give them any further explanation, and I let them go for it. Over the next 20 – 25 minutes, I watched my students struggle, fail, and try again, sometimes amid frustration. There were many different strategies being used. I had a specific strategy in mind for how to achieve the goal, but a few of my students were able to cut the middle out of the paper and leave just a sliver of a border and were able to squeeze their way through the paper. It was not the correct strategy I had in mind, and it wouldn’t work for all students, but for some it did.

They were able to defy even my expectations and find an alternative, correct method to solve the problem. After about 25 minutes of strategizing and trial-and-error, and some successes as I mentioned, I showed the students the method that I had learned. Through problem-solving, failure, and perseverance, my students were able to discover new strategies that made them successful and explored other possibilities that enabled them to get closer to achieving their goal. The method that I used and showed my students was this method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jBUwH-TfqQ

FETC 2017 Musings

This year’s trip to the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) was brief, but intense. I presented two poster sessions, as well as spoke at the Buncee booth and Kidblog booth. My first poster session was on Alternative Student Assessments and my class’ partnership with Wichita education nonprofit Teach for Life. Teach for Life is an online forum for teachers and students to share teaching strategies and content to others around the world, especially targeting teachers in developing countries who have little or no formal education training. At the Buncee booth, I also spoke on how my students use alternative assessments in lieu of standard paper and pencil tests to show what they know through creative tools.

My second poster session featured the use of Microsoft tools Sway and Skype to create collaborative global projects. Classes around the world can connect with each other via Skype, start a Sway and the teachers can share editing rights with one another. Through Skype, one teacher shares their screen and students can take turns sharing content with one another while other students from both classes collaboratively add content to the Sway. At the Kidblog booth, I shared with educators how my class uses global blogging partners to share about each other’s culture, school system, and class projects, all while building empathy and understanding of others around the world.

Skype Breakout EDU

It is always a special time as an educator when you can watch learning and discoveries happen before your eyes. When students are taking charge of their education, and you can simply help facilitate them during the process. That was the case last Wednesday, when my students took part in a Skype Breakout EDU all-day activity. I had wanted to create a Breakout Edu activity for my students that incorporated Skype, so that students could combine problem-solving and collaboration skills with global collaborative, cultural learning. With the help of Dyane Smokorowski, we developed clues for a Breakout EDU game that led to the students Skyping with a person or class in other countries. 

In all, my students connected with people in five continents, having to discover each location once they had solved a clue. Students all worked on the same clue at the same time, but worked together in small groups at their tables. For the first clue, students looked at a slideshow with different animals and tried to match the animal with the clue that I had written. Once they found the correct animal, they then had to match that animal with the country where it was the national animal. That box used the key lock. Once they were ready to guess the country, I called my pre-scheduled contact via Skype, and the students guessed what country he was located in. My contact confirmed his location, gave a few fun facts about his country, and then read a clue I had written for him to read that pointed the students in the direction for our next clue. In each box my students unlocked for each clue, they received a piece of a Rebus Puzzle that they would solve and put together at the end to give them their final Skype destination.

Aside from the animal riddle and slide, clues involved unscrambling words of countries and moving on a map to track directions, a picture coded message, and a South American video with questions on Edpuzzle. My students visited Nigeria, Philadelphia, Ireland, Uruguay, and Tasmania. When we were Skyping with the teacher in Ireland, he was working a few evening hours at a radio station. My students were able to see and hear inside an Irish radio station, complete with the teacher briefly pausing his conversation with us to jump on the air to transition between songs. During our Skype clue with Uruguay, the teacher was holding an after-school cooking class with several students. We were able to see the ingredients on the table for zucchini muffins with parmesan cheese and discuss the process by which it is made. With each clue solved and Skype connection, students were gaining a better understanding of the world and other cultures, while working collaboratively together for a common purpose.

Skype Collaborations

Years from now, when my students look back on their 4th grade year, I want them to remember connections that helped them grow, learn, and be inspired. Using Skype in the Classroom for global collaboration projects helps sow the seeds of being life-long learners and a feeling of interconnectedness with the surrounding world.

Participating in global collaboration projects helps students to be authentic learners, doing first-hand research instead of simply looking up information in a book or online.

Connecting with others through Skype helps my students become emotionally engaged in the academic material. They are much more interested in learning and better able to retain the information if they are able to have real-world, authentic experiences.

Collaborating with peers in different parts of the world teaches my students to be creative problem-solvers, using communication and critical thinking skills to tackle real-world problems, and empowering them to know that they can change the world.

One of our classroom themes last year was learning about global education access and educational systems. We made several connections to explore this issue. During a Skype call to a class in Guinea in West Africa, my students witnessed first-hand the stark contrast in educational resources, as they saw peers an ocean away huddled around one computer in a room with crumbling walls.

On a call to a school in Nigeria where many students’ families were directly affected by terrorist activity and kidnapping, my students heard testimonials of students risking everything for an opportunity to get an education.

During a Skype call for a writing exchange project with a class in the United Kingdom, one of my shy students was pulled out of his shell by a total stranger who looked and sounded different than he did by a simple compliment on his writing in front of the entire class.

A cultural exchange with a class in Turkey gave rise to two groups of students a world apart sharing traditional songs and dances with one another.

And a Skype Around the World Day, with my class globetrotting to every continent on Earth until midnight, allowed my students to see how students in other countries learn. They saw traditional dresses and games in action from students in India, took a sneak-peak into an after-school cooking class in Uruguay, learnt how to play rock-paper-scissors in Japanese, learnt the rules of cricket from an Australian student, saw first-hand the harsh Antarctic landscape, and learnt how to say “hello” in a dozen different languages.

All of these experiences give my students a glimpse of the world around them, a world that they are a part of and will help shape. We do our students a disservice if all we teach them as educators is what to learn instead of how to learn. By connecting with classes and peers from around the world, students gain a better understanding of our common humanity and realize that information is at their fingertips, just waiting to be seized.

As an educator teaching 21st century learning skills, it is my duty to teach my students to become global citizens. As technology advances, the world is becoming smaller and our students will have greater access than anyone before them to connect with others around the world. By exposing students to other cultures and viewpoints, we are helping to make the world safer by breaking down the barriers of ignorance, fear, and the unknown.

Students learn that there is no “us and them,” but only other peers who have the same hopes and dreams, interests and values as they have; that there is far more that binds us together than keeps us apart. Skype in the Classroom helps to bridge the physical divide of oceans and continents by allowing students to connect on a personal level, developing empathy and learning to recognize a person for the character of their heart.

Why Skype in the Classroom?

I use Skype in the Classroom to bring the world to my students. We can connect with peers across the globe, talk with experts in the content area we are studying, and take virtual field trips to all corners of the Earth. Students can be authentic learners, doing first-hand research instead of simply looking up information in a book or online. Connecting with others through Skype helps my students to become emotionally engaged in the academic material. They are much more interested in learning and better able to retain the information if they are able to have real-world, authentic experiences. Collaborating with peers in different parts of the world teaches my students to be creative problem-solvers, using communication and critical thinking skills to tackle real-world problems, and empowering them to know that they can change the world.

As an educator teaching 21st century learning skills, it is my duty to teach my students to become global citizens. As technology advances, the world is becoming smaller and our students will have greater access than anyone before them to connect with others around the world. By exposing students to other cultures and viewpoints, we are helping to make the world safer by breaking down the barriers of ignorance, fear, and the unknown. Students learn that there is no “us and them,” but only other peers who have the same hopes and dreams, interests and values as they have; that there is far more that binds us together than keeps us apart. Skype in the Classroom helps to bridge the physical divide of oceans and continents by allowing students to connect on a personal level, developing empathy and learning to recognize a person for the character of their heart.

Student-led Edcamp

Students learn best when they can apply and teach their knowledge to others in real-world situations. Edcamps are becoming a popular form of professional development for educators. Edcamps are participant-driven experiences where educators can network, share ideas, and learn from one another in an informal, organic manner. This sharing and teaching model is ripe for implementing with students in an organized, educational setting.

Recently, my 4th grade colleagues and I implemented a student-led edcamp at our school. As we wanted to find a good mix of student choice and project structure, we decided on thirteen topics from which the students would present. The topics were a combination of academic content we had learned over the course of the year, such as equivalent fractions and the three branches of government, to technology and presentation formats, such as Genius Hour, Google tools, Microsoft Sway, Buncee, and code.org. Every 4th grade student worked with a partner in another class to construct a short 15-minute informal presentation on at least one topic to present to a small group of their peers. The students indicated which topic they wanted to present on and what topics they were interested in attending. With that input, the teachers put together a master schedule of all the students consisting of six 15-minute blocks of time and whether each student was presenting or attending an edcamp session during one of those time slots.

After a minute or two of finding their location and getting settled, the students took off. Student presenters took charge of their topic, showcasing their own student-created examples of work, and student participants were active listeners, paying attention and asking appropriate, content-driven questions. During the transition time between sessions, many students asked if we could do this again soon. Students were engaged in purposeful learning and owning their own education. Even though the students were familiar with all the topics to varying degrees, each learned something new from their peers. Because students from three fourth-grade classes were participating simultaneously in one edcamp, students learned new specific strategies about academic content and technology tools that may have been featured more prevalently in one classroom than another.

When students are charged with explaining their thinking and relying on student-created examples, the academic content becomes more concrete in their minds; they begin to better internalize the material. They begin to own their own learning. Students also must adapt to being the “teachers” and conveying the material in a clear, concise message. Students are practicing their speaking and listening skills in a small group setting that feels safe and comfortable. As teachers, we were able to walk around the room and observe the handful of small groups conducting lessons at one time. This was our first attempt at a student-led edcamp, but it will not be our last. Student-led edcamps are a powerful way for students to own their learning and use creativity and student-choice to share, teach, learn, and grow.

Skype Around the World

Each spring my class does a Skype Around the World Day, where we devote the entire day to connecting with individuals and classes all around the world. This past spring, we held our Skype Around the World Day from the start of school until midnight. Students took notes on each country’s culture, economy, and geography, and shared things that we had learned about Kansas, as well.

In all, we virtually visited classes and individuals in all seven continents, and 18 total countries. We learned new words in a handful of different languages, saw traditional clothing, and learned new games. We even participated in a class-to-class rock, paper, scissors challenge with a class from Japan.

Later in the week, the students took the notes in their “passports” and created a Sway either comparing Kansas to one of the countries we had visited, or creating a travel brochure about one of the places we Skyped with and persuading others to visit that country. Students became exposed to many new cultures and virtually visited places that they may not have the opportunity to visit in person.