Textbooks Can't Do It

On the Leading Equity podcast "Cultural Relevance in Science with Chanel Johnson, STEMinist (love this!) Johnson was talking about highlighting famous scientists of color in the classrooms and making science and math relevant to our students. One statement that really stuck out was: "Textbooks aren't doing it."

And while her point about teachers needing to include a variety of voices was important on its own--and the discussion about respectfully incorporating culture in the classroom so that students "see themselves" in their learning is worth a listen--this also made me think about other conversations I've had with teachers about blended learning. 

Recently a teacher made a joke that  along the lines of, "If I keep making videos, I won't even have to come to school anymore." And while we all laughed, the serious side of me has been thinking that this idea needs to be addressed, in part because of the misconception that textbooks, technology, and/or blended learning minimizes the roles of teachers:  NOTHING can replace a good teacher in a classroom. 

A great video can't do it. 

A great online program can't do it. 

A great textbook can't do it.

Teachers are the people who get to know their students: what is important to them in school, at home, in society, and in their futures. It is by creating and drawing on these relationships that teachers can make education meaningful, respectful, and relevant to their learners. It is through these relationships that teachers can broach difficult topics and broaden student horizons.

Along those lines, one other useful idea from the podcast was about inviting students to share phenomena in science, via TicTok or Youtube videos that come their way, or via television and movies. One example given was from Black Panther, and Ms. Johnson talked about using a scene to discuss energy transfer! Not only does inviting students to contribute make the content relevant, but it opens the door to interdisciplinary practices such as evaluating the credibility of sources (i.e. media literacy) or making connections to current events or trends. A textbook just can't keep up with all that.

-Jessica Gillespie

Blended Learning: Start with a Video

I recently had a wonderfully productive work session with a teacher looking to start with blended learning in her classroom. She was already on her way, thinking about opportunities for students to control the pace, access different materials, and co-author goals for learning. But she was concerned about how to "make it work" for all her levels of learners. I shared with her the advice I've heard blended learning experts share repeatedly:

Start with a video.

Videos don't have to be big, fancy things to be of immense value. My first 'success' with blended learning came not from a fancy playlist, but from the feedback from my students that they LOVED having the assignment explained via video (as in this example). My special learners loved that they --and their parents and paraeducators -- could rewatch it as many times as needed, my absent learners didn't have to wait for me to be free to give them the explanation, and my ready learners loved that they didn't have to wait for classmates to ask 5,000,000 questions before they could get started.

Despite that, it has taken me a long time to embrace video. It is intimidating to watch YouTube teachers and producers like TED-Ed, Crash Course, and Math & Learning Videos for Kids create amazing content with great make-up, lighting, music, animation, etc. I didn't think I measured up. I thought it would take hours (as opposed to the 6 minutes it actually takes to record & post a 3 minute video).

But the positive feedback about "those little videos" reviewing directions kept coming. The positive feedback came from a variety of learners, including GHS students, graduate students, and teachers who are more than capable of reading directions. How could those little videos make such a big difference?

Why little videos make a big difference.

This all made sense as I read Chapter 5 of Dr. Catlin R. Tucker's new book Balance with Blended Learning: Partner with Your Students to Reimagine Learning and Reclaim Your Life. As we posted in "Who's doing the work?", the TLI department has been this book together, and we love Chapter 5, entitled, "Flip Learning With Videos." At the end of Chapter 5, Tucker asks the question, "How can video help teachers to create more time and space to work directly with students?" 

Tucker shares that when she first started teaching, she spent much of her time explaining directions, providing instruction, and repeating information in the front of the room. But as she shifted her practice to recording a video for planned explanations, she saw the value, both in terms of supporting students and class time saved:

"teachers who rely exclusively on whole-group, teacher-led instruction may still spend large chunks of class time presenting information in front of the room. Using video can allow teachers to spend less time talking at students and more time working with them" (57)

Additionally, there is a ton of research about how short videos benefit student cognition. Recording an explanation while using a mouse tool to highlight important directions on a screen, helps learners process the content in their working memory (Brame 2015). Multimedia accesses different parts of the brain and strengthens retention of information. And a lot of research (such as this study) also shows that students are more engaged with video when it is THEIR instructor sharing the information.

Just do it!

The TLI department is happy to help teachers apply new learning about video as part of instruction, but if you aren't ready for one of us in your room, then just get started! We all have premium access to Screencastify, which allows us to edit (if needed) and save videos to Google Drive for easy sharing.

Sarah D.A. has made videos to help you get started in 10 minutes or less! Screencastify Video 1 shows you how to record. Screencastify Video 2 shows you how to post this video to a Google Classroom (or you click the blue button to "Get Sharable Link" and add to writing like I am here).

Just make a video! Record yourself giving instructions and share with your students. You'll be surprised how much of a difference it makes.

-Jessica Gillespie

Google Forms Automatic Save Update: What if I don't want it?

Google Forms was recently updated with a feature that many teachers have wanted... allowing students to save their work in progress! What if they need to finish a survey later? A self-assessment? This AUTOMATICALLY allows them to save (provided they are signed into their Google account). 

But Alice Keeler, edtech and "teaching math with technology" expert, recently shared this situation:

But what if you do NOT want to have this feature? You do not want students to be able to pull up the answers they put into their Google Form first period to show a student in 2nd period?

 Check out the full blog post for how to turn this off on a form and how to do a quick audit and fix any "old forms" you want to disable this feature for.

The Science of Reading

This week, we met with several grade level teams to discuss our Language Arts Curriculum.  Throughout these conversations, the topic Science of Reading continued to come up.  This reminded us of an excellent article that explains, not only the research regarding how children learn to read, but also what skills need to be taught and when.  

Research emphasizes an approach that is explicit, systematic, engaging and intensive and one that addresses phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension, aka the five key components of reading.  

Here's the link to The Science of Reading: Evidence for a New Era in Reading Instruction. 

The Heart of Blended Learning

As we've been assembling resources for blended learning (check out our TLI Blended Learning page) and working on creating a simple, visual definition for blended learning in the TLI department, we've also talked a lot about what blended learning IS and what blended learning ISN'T.

The number one misconception we've heard about blended learning is that is "has to have" something, most commonly a playlist. Other misconceptions are that it is a lesson bursting with technology in which all students are working on individualized tasks. Blended learning should not be isolating.

Blended learning does not have to be "personalized" learning, though it is all about creating the space and opportunities to make learning more personally meaningful. If student learning isn't at the center of plans for blended learning, then the learning is merely "technology rich."

Catlin Tucker, THE blended learning guru, posted recently about "Blended Learning: What It Is and What It Is Not," and I love how she clarifies:

I’ve also heard the phrases blended learning and personalized learning used synonymously, yet they are not the same thing. Blended learning creates exciting pathways toward personalization, but personalization requires a partnership between the teacher and the learner. This partnership is easier to achieve in a blended learning environment where teachers have the time and space to work directly with students, providing individualized instruction, support, and feedback. 

Student need and student agency (i.e. choice and voice) are at the heart of blended learning; when we use technology to empower learners and facilitate great instructional practices in our face-to-face learning environment, we create space for powerful learning to occur.

Infinite Campus: Gradebook Groups

Has anyone been using "Student Groups" in the gradebook to support their differentiation? 

As we look to harness the full capability of this tool, we noted that "teachers can set up Student Groups, or teams, and create different assignments for each group. This allows teachers to differentiate instruction and graded work for a group of students in the same class." 

It is hard to try out tools when you don't have a gradebook, so if you are a teaching member of our staff, let us know if you are trying this (or are interested in trying this).

Time-Saving Tip: Bookmarking TLI

 As we await the addition of our internal TLI website link to the GPS staff resources page, it occurred to us that it might be helpful for people to have it bookmarked too. 

We know it can be tricky to keep that straight on the Google Chrome, so we're including Google's step-by-step directions for "Organizing Your Bookmarks." It's really simple though: click the three dots in the top right corner to select the bookmark manager. You can drag and drop to prioritize your most frequently visited sites. Here is an example toolbar:

You can also create folders, so if you have "Intervention" resources that you use regularly, you can have that as a featured bookmark on your Chrome browser. This will show a drop down with your folder contents! 

Another trick that saves time is to adjust Chrome settings for "On Startup" to automatically open certain pages. You could use this to go right to Google Classroom or to the morning announcements page to save you time in the morning.

Make sure you login to Chrome and sync your "data" to have the same set-up on any computer you use. Enjoy your time saved!

What other time-saving tips do you have? What can we help you with? Visit our TLI Website (always evolving) for ideas and to make an appointment to work with us!

Who is doing the work?

As a TLI department, we've been reading blended learning expert Dr. Catlin R. Tucker's new book Balance with Blended Learning: Partner with Your Students to Reimagine Learning and Reclaim Your Life. Chapter 3 is entitled, "Who is Doing the Work in Your Classroom?" I love this question.

Tucker shares that teachers often shy away from jumping into blended learning because "they are not sure where they will find the time to try anything new" (29). And she gets it. She shares:

"For years, I was trying to stay above the tidal wave of work that threatened to drown me."

And then, about 5 years ago, she made the decision to pass as much of the work on to her students as possible.

Her argument is that if we design the whole project, from process to product to rubric, we rob the students of the opportunity to think critically and creatively about the standards, plan for success, troubleshoot problems, and determine what makes it a success. When they do the work, they own it.

It is easy to think, "What about the kids who..." but every time I've given up control and had students do the work or given students the tools to lead, I've been pleasantly surprised by their engagement, even if more scaffolding was needed to support them through the struggle. 

On a smaller scale, I thought about planning for a reading assignment for a class. It can seem easier to provided reading questions to guide them through a text, but then I am telling them what is important, as I did the hard work of reading. If I spent my energy teaching a reading strategy that helps students to identify what is important or drafting their own questions before reading, the student-led workflow frees me to coach their original thinking and not exhaust myself creating and grading a worksheet.

Not only that, but this made me connect back to one of my favorite Cult of Pedagogy posts entitled "To Learn, Students Need to DO Something" (Gonzalez, 2018). In it, she points out that if the teacher is doing all the work, students probably aren't doing much learning.

I can see how making students do this work will take more time, but I liked Tucker's answer to that concern: "If we are worried about asking too much of our students, then I would argue that we need to be more judicious about the tasks we require students to complete' (32). 

I guess even before we ask "Who is doing the work?", we should ask "Do we really need to do this?"

-Jessica Gillespie

Google Forms for Parents (New School Year Ideas)

I have followed Kasey Bell's Shake Up Learning blog for years, and just started listening to her podcast. One of her latest, 30 Ways to Use Google Forms in the Classroom, reminded me of just how many ways there are to use this great Google tool. I particularly liked two for the start of the year:

#10 Parent Information. Once I went paperless for my high school syllabus, I began asking for electronic acknowledgement from parents. Normally parents return a sheet at the end of a big packet of paper with a signature, but students were always losing these AND I seldom got them all back. By emailing all parents the form with the syllabus link embedded on top, I saved paper and had more parents engaged with the syllabi than before because they could access it from their phone. Click here to view (and here to make a copy of) my template if it helps!

A great idea from the podcast for those working on GRADE LEVEL TEAMS was to send one form with a parent questionnaire for the group and share the spreadsheet, saving parents from having to fill out the same information multiple times.

#23 The Parent/Guardian Communication Log. While I used a spreadsheet for this, not everyone is proficient in Google sheets, making this a great "access anywhere" alternative. I also like that it can automatically collect the date, remind me to include parent information (i.e. was it Mom or Dad!), and lots of open space to summarize our communication. I also like that in the results, I can print each "individual response" sheet to share with administration if needed for an office referral.

There are so many great ideas... let us know which one is your favorite in the comments!😁

-Jessica Gillespie