Word Clouds, With Style

I have a favourite poster in my classroom. It is a word cloud with “We are . . .” in the middle and various characteristics surrounding it, such as incredible, lively, caring, fantastic, talented, dependable, successful, and neighborly.  I love this word cloud: the design, the colours, the words, and what it represents. I was recently inspired by this poster and I wanted to give the opportunity for my students to create individual word clouds.

I had my students write their name on a piece of paper. They then passed it to the person to their right: each student wrote three positive characteristics that they liked about each other. Once they received their own paper (after writing on everyone’s page), they typed all of the words into a word document to double check the spelling, and created a word cloud using Wordle. Unfortunately, our school computers were having troubles accessing the website, so I created their word clouds using Tagxedo.

Students loved their word clouds. They loved the colours, designs, and enjoyed reading what their classmates thought of them. It created class community and boosted their self-esteem. It was also interesting for me as I also wrote my name on a piece of paper: it made me smile to read what my students thought of me as their teacher.

Here are some other ways to incorporate word clouds:

• 40 Interesting Ways to Use Word Clouds
• 108 Ways to Use Word Clouds in Education

Creating a Class Website

During the summer, I set up a classroom website for my grade six class. I wanted to create an online source that parents and students could access to increase and maintain the lines of communication between home and school. I used Weebly to host my website, a free interface that is very user friendly.

I use this website to post homework, calendar updates, websites for curriculum enrichment, and various subject specific files. I have organized it so that students can access content via subject:

I have had great success with my class website! Parents have been particularly using it to help their children make deadlines for assignments and to ensure they are updated with the latest class/school news. Students have been using the website to download assignment handouts. My students know my answer if they try to tell me they didn’t do their homework because they lost their handout or forgot to bring it home: “It was on my class website.”

Students in my leveled math class in particular have been faithful visitors to my website and are quite proud to tell me they have been playing math games at home to review concepts. I also have a laptop review day before the test where the students access my website to play math games:

Students have expressed their enjoyment of having a class website. For my Evidence and Investigations unit, I posted a link to a Learn Alberta game the night before so that I could introduce it to them the next day. When I showed it in class, a student said, “I played that already!” I asked her where she played it. She stared at me for a moment and said, “On your website!” It makes me happy to hear that my students, as well as parents, are enjoying this online interface.

As this is my first year teaching, I wanted to create a basic website that parents and students can access. In the future, I would like to make it a more personal experience: I want to create an updated blog section that informs students and parents what is happening in the classroom, as well as a classroom photo gallery. One example of a personable class website is by Genia Connell – I stumbled upon her website through her post on Scholastic, “Create an Impressive Class Website in Under an Hour”. Genia Connell’s Scholastic post and website are great to refer to if you are wanting to create your own class website. 🙂

I hope you had a restful Christmas holiday. May you have a successful and prosperous new year!

~Christel

Modern Day Superheroes

Last week, I lead prayer for our Catholic Learning Community (CLC) meeting. I created a short reflection from a new teacher’s point of view, about the awe on the amount work that educators are responsible for. Thought I would share!

Lately, I have really been feeling like a teacher. Being consistent with classroom expectations, planning, giving varied assessments, creating differentiated lessons, putting five band aids on children during one recess, attending meetings, responding to ten e-mails a day, making sub plans, motivating students to do their best work, dealing with student misbehavior and the list goes on and on.

When I sit back to think about all of the things that educators have to do in one day, I think to myself…wow.

It got me thinking….the people who work at schools are pretty much today’s super heroes. Those who work in the schools put in superhuman strength to ensure that these children are cared for, loved, and are getting the education that they need.

But, I also learned two important things this week that goes along with being a superhero teacher.

1. Super heroes may have amazing powers to help save the world, but they cannot do it alone. It is okay to ask for help, from mentors, colleagues, from God. Even Batman asks for help. Greater power comes from helping each other. Each educator has their own super power and with each of our different powers combined together = epicness or, in other words, maximized teaching effectiveness.
2. Super heroes aren’t super heroes 24-7 – they have personal lives, too. This one is a challenge for me right now, as I feel that most of my time is revolving around my students and the school, but it is also important to try and have a balanced super hero teaching life. We can mold children’s lives during the day, but also try to have some down time so that we can recharge for the next day.

In short, I just wanted to acknowledge that I think you are all doing an amazing job. I admire your individual super powers and I am looking forward to continue to work with you to combine our powers to serve God and our community.

Creating an Open Resource for Grade Teams with Google Drive

In September, I will be teaching grade six for one year with three other teachers. In our team meeting last week, we all agreed that we wanted to be open in sharing our resources throughout the year. What is the easiest way to share our resources? One colleague suggested Google Drive.

Essentially, Google Drive is a safe resource to store and share files online. Some examples of files that can be uploaded are: Word documents, Power Point presentations, Excel spreadsheets, videos, photos, and more.

The great concept about this Internet resource is that with our grade level Google account, we can all open the files regardless of what device we use. Personally, I am ecstatic of uploading my files on our team Google Drive account. I will be able to get feedback from my colleagues and be inspired by the content that they will share. We will also be able to collaboratively edit documents together as a team. I am looking forward to enhancing my learning and teaching with Google Drive. 🙂

Using Clock Partners to Enhance Student Learning

Recently, I have been reading “Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning” by Dr. John Hattie (2011). This book, recommended by my PSIII University Consultant, Dr. Carmen Momborquette, has encouraged me to continue to reflect on how and if my teaching practices result in visible learning.

In other words:

• Does learning for the student and teacher contain core attributes of lifelong learning? (1)
• As a teacher, am I an effective activator of learning? (18)
• Am I able to evaluate the impact that I have on students based on what I see in the classroom? (86)

These are only a few examples of questions to consider when it comes to visible learning. While reading Hattie’s book, I came across a particular passage that particularly impacted me:

An art in teaching is seeing the commonality in diversity, in having peers work together, especially when they bring different talents, error, interests, and disposition to the situation, and understanding that differentiation relates more to the phases of learning (97).

I paused to reflect on this passage because of the current work environment that I am in. I am substitute teaching for an elementary and secondary school in Brooks, Alberta. For those that are unfamiliar with this small city, it is very diverse in terms of its population. Last year, a vice-principal from an elementary school notified me that their school population was 50% English Language Learners (I have also been hearing that this percentage number is continuing to increase!) Hattie’s topic reminded me of the challenge that teachers have of creating an inclusive classroom environment by accommodating the diverse learning needs of students. One way in which Hattie encourages visible learning in diverse classrooms is by providing students with opportunities to collaborate with each other.

“3D Full Spectrum Unity Holding Hands” credit lumaxart  via Photo Pin cc

What kind of strategies can be used to encourage collaboration in a diverse classroom? One that came to mind is “Clock Partners”, a classroom strategy that I utilized with my grade eight English Language Arts class in PSIII.

I created a Clock Partners sheet and copied one for each student. I gave them five minutes to fill each clock number blank with another person in the classroom. To ensure that they wouldn’t pick twelve students of the same gender, I asked them to try and find six boys and six girls (another alternative is to create the pairs/small groups yourselves; I recently found that clockpartners.com can automatically do this for you). During the five minute time frame, students filled in each others names for each number. If a student found someone to put for three o’clock for example, the other person had to write the partner’s name as well. Essentially, when I wanted students to discuss collaboratively, I would call out a Clock Partner number (i.e. please go with your five o’clock partner to discuss the three questions on the SMART Board).

There were many positive results with Clock Partners:

• The classroom confidence of my ELL students grew because they had chances to be paired with classmates with different strengths. Although it was difficult at first, I found that it was very positive because the ELL learners were learning the English language through the social context of their peers. Because of this, the language and understanding was more meaningful as the students were taking the time to teach and learn with each other.

• There were times when I used “Strategic Clock Partners”. Through observations of who was paired with who, I would occasionally call out a specific clock number so that some students can benefit from pairs of particular students with certain strengths. This differentiation helped students who were at different levels of learning (as discussed by Hattie 97).
  

  “Working Together Teamwork Puzzle Concept” credit lumaxart via Photo Pin cc

• Clock Partners helped initiate conversation. In class, there were times when I asked a question to the students and all I received was blank stares. During these moments, I asked students to get into Clock Partners to discuss their thoughts, then we talked about it as a class. This worked to great success in opening class discussion and learning from different perspectives.

• Clock Partners is a great transition strategy and assessment for students. For example, if there is a work period and students are struggling, calling a clock number can provide the opportunity for students to discuss with a classmate their progress, struggles, etc. (assessment as learning). This is also assessment for learning because it provides me with the opportunity to work with students to see what adjustments I need to make to support their learning (an example of visible learning).

• This collaboration technique also helped students to learn how to work together to understand the curriculum knowledge and in learning from the perspectives of their peers. I believe that Clock Partners helped in enhancing the community in the classroom because of this.

To put it simply, Clock Partners is fun and engaging for students and their learning is enhanced by the opportunities to learn from their peers. Although students were spread out throughout my classroom with their partners, they were engaged. There was “good noise” in the room. Based on feedback from the students, they wanted more opportunities to have Clock Partners in class so that they could collaborate and discuss with different classmates.

For me, Clock Partners is an example that demonstrates visible learning that Dr. Hattie discusses in his book, “Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning”. I am excited to continue to learn about more collaborative strategies to add to my “Teaching Toolkit” that will help me to support the diverse learners in the classroom. Although it can be a challenge to maximize student learning due to many factors that may affect teaching and learning, as a teacher, it is important to be open minded in continually self-assessing the teaching and learning that occurs in the classroom in order to effectively support our learners. ^_^

Using the Video Game Portal 2 in the ELA Classroom

In creating my grade eight short story unit for my PSIII practicum, I wanted to give students the opportunity to analyze various literary genres. In the planning process, I initially picked three short stories from their textbooks, as well as a short film called “The Porcelain Unicorn.”Although I had chosen two forms of literary genres, I wanted to add something different.

Upon browsing my Twitter feed one day, I came across a post that discussed how the PS3 video game “Portal 2” was used in the ELA classroom. I have to admit, when I read this post my heart started pounding in excitement as I thought of the possibility of integrating this game into my short story unit.  The post led me to a website called “Teach with Portals“, a resource website for educators who want to integrate the game into the classroom. There are blog posts, lesson plans, a forum and wiki that all discuss the educational value of using Portal.

I downloaded a Language Arts file from their website called “Influence of Setting on Characters in Portal 2“. This resource, created by David Hunter, included lesson plans and rubrics that associate with ELA SLO 2.2.11 (identify ways that characters can be developed, and discuss how character, plot and setting are interconnected and mutually supportive) and 2.2.12 (identify and discuss how word choice and order, figurative language, plot, setting and character work together to create mood and tone). Because of this curriculum tie to the Program of Studies, as well as the engagement factor in incorporating this game into the classroom, I wanted to try it out with my grade eight students.

I was very surprised – and excited – to find out that my PS3 connects into the SMART Board. As a gamer, I thought this was awesome (I wish I had a big screen like that to play my video games!) I tested the game and found that the audio and video quality were great.

I could feel the excitement in the air once students started to walk into the classroom. Students were inquisitive, asking why there was a PS3 in the classroom. Once I got students settled, I asked students the following questions:

• Do stories have to be written?
• Can video games tell stories?
• Have you ever played a video game that also tells a good story?

Students discussed these questions with their desk partner; I also picked name sticks to ask individuals what their response was to these questions. After this discussion, I told students about the importance of analyzing various forms of stories and how we were going to analyze the story in a particular video game called Portal 2.

After giving students the worksheets, I played the video game while walking around and monitoring the class (thank you cordless controller!) I asked students the worksheet questions while playing. We discussed them as a class and students wrote down their answer to the questions. Here are some sample questions from the handout:

• Are the characters in conflict from the setting? Does the setting keep them from getting what they want?
• Write about all the ways that you think the setting influences the characters. What things do the characters do because of the setting they are in?

Overall, students were engaged during the lesson and based on formative assessment, they learned how story elements are mutually supportive. I was also pleased to read in the metacognitive reflections at the end of the unit that many of the students’ highlights was the Portal 2 activity.

Although I found success in using this game for ELA, there are a few points to consider using this in the classroom. One is that many students wanted to play. My heart went out to those who wanted to have turns in playing this game. However, I found that by letting a student play, the focus went to how to play the game instead of focusing on the learning objective of the lesson. One solution is by downloading Steam for schools (Steam is a gaming platform distributed by the creator, Valve). On the “Teach with Portals” website, Valve shows their understanding of the value of including game-based learning in the classroom by giving schools the opportunity to download Portal for their school computers for free. I think the Portal 2 lesson would have been even more effective if the students had the opportunity to play the game with the Steam software on the computers. I think this initiative by Valve is great – all students can then play. I also think it is smart on Valve’s part in the way that they are promoting this game. Only a couple of my grade eight students knew of the game Portal; however, by the end of that class, many of them were asking me how much it was and where they can buy it.

Overall, the students and I had a great experience in using the video game Portal 2 in the ELA classroom. I look forward to finding more ways in integrate various other technologies in the classroom.

Using the DS Game “Scribblenauts” to Build Vocabulary with ELL Students

In my PSIII practicum, I have learned that it is important to help English Language Learners (ELL) build their vocabulary. Usually, I would support the grade eight students in adapting English Languge Arts (ELA) curriculum by providing them with worksheets that scaffold their learning; however, I wanted to try something different. After rifting through my Nintendo DS games last week, I realized that I have a game that can help build vocabulary for my ELL students: Scribblenauts.

Scribblenauts is a puzzle game where you can “write anything, solve anything.” The goal of the game is to collect “starlites” by completing objectives in each level. To complete each level, you must use nouns by typing them in the touchscreen.

Here is an example of a level that my two lower-level ELL students and I did together. In this level, they had to “refresh” the man.

I tried to explain with gestures and descriptions to the ELL students that the man was too hot and needed something to cool him down. I suggested a pool. I asked how to spell the word pool. The student typed in “pol” until the other ELL student said, “No, there are two o’s!”

The student typed in the word “pool”.  A pool appeared, as well as a starlite. They had won the level because they refreshed the man by providing him with a pool.

A smile appeared on both of their faces after completing the level.

I enjoyed using this game with my two ELL students for several reasons.

1. The Visuals – Scribblenauts is fantastic in that it provides visuals for each word you type in (according to Scribblenauts, they have created visuals for tens of thousands of nouns!) Visuals are especially important for ELL students in order to reinforce the vocabulary that is being learned.
2. Engagement – Both students were engaged in playing this game. They were very focused on the objective they had to do and enjoyed completing each level. I asked the one student if she had fun. She smiled and said, “yes”.
3. Collaboration – What I  enjoyed seeing most was how well they worked together in completing the levels. I also liked seeing how they took turns passing the DS to each other after each level and how the stronger ELL student was teaching her classmate how to spell certain words. I think this is great and important because according to research, there is a higher retention of knowledge when students teach each other.

Considerations

I have one main consideration that has to be made when using this in the classroom, and that is in regards to classroom teaching and assessment. I had the two ELL students play the DS game while the other students were working on an assignment. Often, I was tied up with answering questions with the other students. When I did go to check-in on the two that were playing the game, they had already passed several levels. Because of that, I had a hard time assessing which student completed the level, who typed in the vocabulary words correctly and whether or not they fully understood the context of each word. If possible, I think having an Educational Assistant playing this game with the ELL students on a one-on-one basis would help improve this situation. Another option is to have the Educational Assistant guide the students in the class while I work one-on-one with the ELL students. Or, the Educational Assistant and I could take turns assisting the ELL students and the other students in the classroom.

Conclusion

I was excited to have the chance to bring in a video game in the classroom. I think the Nintendo DS game, Scribblenauts, provides students with many educational opportunities and is especially advantageous for English Language Learners.

I am looking forward to the Scribblenauts Unlimited game for the Wii U which comes out November 18th – it has features that improve from the DS game. I can see that there are even more educational opportunities presented if the Wii U game is brought into the classroom. It has features that the DS game does not have: it is two-player, there is a wider vocabulary database and you can create your own objects, like a dog on wheels.

Truly, Scribblenauts can help students have fun with words as well as provide them with a tool to use their imagination.

Cellphone Parking Lot

At my PSIII practicum placement school, students are required to give their cellphones to the teachers before writing a test, attending an assembly and going to school mass. Instead of using a bucket to collect cellphones, I created a “Cellphone Parking Lot” (another idea inspired by my PSII Teacher Mentor).

I bought this sewing accessory kit in the craft section at WalMart. With this kit, I was able to create 24 slots – the slots are big enough so that students can place their cellphones in diagonally.

When I first used this with the grade eights, they were excited. Many said it was a great idea. Much to my surprise, students had fun placing their cellphones in the slots. They liked “parking” their cellphone next to a friends and even put their iPods into the slots just because they wanted to “park” it (I am very amused as to what excites grade eights).

This is one alternative to collecting mobile devices in the classroom. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to let me know!

 

September Strategies: Pokéball Assessment

I have learned from the University of Lethbridge about the importance of checking students’ understanding of the concepts learned during each lesson. I have been using one particular strategy adapted from my Teacher Mentor in PSII. I like to call it Pokéball Assessment, and I have been using it often with my grade eight classes in my PSIII practicum. During some of the closures after lessons, I check for students’ understanding by asking them a variety of questions (I also use it at the beginning and middle of lessons). They can tell me the answer by catching the Pokéball thrown by me (I purchased the Pokéball from Toys R Us). I have had great results with this. Students are engaged – many students literally jump up and down with their hands raised, wanting to tell me what they have learned. It also encouraged students who don’t usually participate in class to answer my questions. Using a Pokéball also shows students that I share a common interest that many of them have: a love for Pokemon. I had a few students who simply wanted to catch the ball without thinking of an answer, but this isn’t often a problem if I set my expectations before I do the activity. The students and I have fun using Pokéball Assessment. Since I have been using it often, all I have to do is hold up the Pokéball in the air and students are ready and eager for question time. 🙂

September Classroom Strategies

Wow, it is already the end of September! Although I have been a student intern in a grade eight ELA class for three full weeks, I have learned a lot – one of which is that grade eights have an interesting sense of humor. I am enjoying learning about the students and I look forward to the many learning experiences that are to come.

Since it is the end of the month, I thought I would take the time to share and reflect on a few of the strategies that I have been using so far in my PSIII practicum.

Red Light Green Light Circles

During the summer, I created “red light green light circles” to help with classroom management. After hearing how my PSII Teacher Mentor observed a grade eight teacher using this in her classroom to great success, I thought I would try it for the grade eight classes at my internship.

During my lessons, I would give each student a circle while they are working on assignments. If students are cruising along and doing just fine, they can leave the green side up. If they need help or assistance, they flip the circle to red.

Creating these red light green light circles is not arduous. I purchased construction paper from Dollarama, traced a red and green circle with a small dish, cut them out and laminated the two circles together.

Personally, I have been enjoying using these. They are a great visual assessment of who needs help. My grade 8 students enjoy using them as well. When I didn’t use it for one class, one student raised his hand and said to me with a smile: “You know, I wouldn’t have to raise my hand if I had one of those circles.” Although I had the fleeting thought that perhaps some students are now too lazy to raise their hands, I know based on feedback from them that using the red light green light circles is simply more “fun”.

Benefits

• Assessment FOR and AS Learning It is easy to see how many students need assistance by glancing at the circles on their desks. One class, I noticed many students had flipped their circles to red at one time. What this told me is that I either did not take enough time to explain the worksheet assignment or students need more instructional support with the concepts. In this way, the simple “red” and “green” is helpful information for both the student and teacher.

• Students can help each other if they see a red light I encourage my students to help each other if they notice a red light on another student’s desk. I think that peer-to-peer instruction is beneficial in helping retain information. I’ll admit that right now, my students are only relying on me for information; however, I am going to continue to work on encouraging students to help each other if they see a “red light”.
• Helps students become more comfortable asking questions One student said that she liked the circles because it helped her to become more comfortable in asking for help. She said it wasn’t as embarrassing to raise her hand and preferred using the red light when she needed assistance. I think this using the circles particularly helped the students who did not want to “stand out” when asking for assistance.

Considerations

• Wait time when a student flips to a red light Sometimes, I have to spend more time doing one-on-one instruction with certain students. When this happens during class, there may be a couple of students with “red lights” who sit and wait for me to finish with the other student. One solution is to encourage students to help each other if they see “red lights” – as I mentioned earlier, this is something I am working on with them.

• Class size I am teaching in a large classroom: half of the room is designated for band class and the other half is filled with desks for ELA. On top of this, I have large class sizes – the largest I have is 32 students. The amount of students and the size of the classroom sometimes makes it hard for me to see the “red light green light circles”. What I have been doing to accommodate to this when using the circles is by monitoring progress by walking around the classroom.

• Making sure that students hand them back. Sometimes is hard to double-check to make sure that all students hand in their circles. Right now, there are no problems with students keeping the circles in their binders since they know that they are being used for the other two grade eight ELA classes.

Overall, using these “red light green light circles” have been going well so far. If there are any other teachers who have used this strategy and have any other experiences, please let me know. 🙂

Later on this week in my next post, I will be talking about how I use a Pokeball to enhance student engagement during questioning.

Till then,
Christel