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Don’t Be Afraid of Creativity!

2/25/2019

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Picture of man hiding. Text: Don't be afraid of creativity.
Gina: You know the feeling...the sweaty palms, the swampy armpits, the pit in your stomach that arises when someone says, “Just be creative.” I know that when someone tells me to be creative I think, “Great, I have to dust off the old markers and make a poster” or “Time to build that diorama”. But is that really all there is to creativity?

Amber: Mental Note: figure out a different way to encourage Gina to be creative.

Gina: Leave me alone - my creativity is expressed in the written word.

Amber: I see this a lot.  It’s very easy to say, “I’m not creative.” And then it’s an easy out to not engage with the creative process.  It is easy to fear creativity, but I encourage to lean away from that fear. When you are creative, it is hard to hide yourself.  But, just think of all the ways we are creative. Your prior knowledge, the ways to solve a problem are out there for the world to see within what you create.

Gina: And, it is super scary. When being creative there is always an end product, something that is on display. Whether it is the new gallery wall that you created in your dining room or the new workflow process that you created to encourage students to collaborate in your classroom, the end product is out there for everyone to see...and judge.

Amber: The judgment can be intimidating.  We live in a world of ‘likes’ and comments.  Sometimes comments can feel threatening. Yet, when we create, even simple things it helps to make you feel alive.  The reward of creating needs to be viewed as greater than the risk of sharing. Would you rather live in fear or feel alive?

Gina: Ok, there hyperbole pants. Let’s bring this back down to reality, like thinking about all the ways that we really are creative and we don’t even think about it as creativity.

Amber: Like creating interesting titles for people? Hyperbole Pants?  Yes, I agree you don’t have to be an artist or musician to be considered creative.  Think about all of the 4Cs that have been shared during Digital Learning Month. You can be creative with the way that you communicate with parents.

Gina: You can be creative in your approaches to connecting with students. You can be creative in finding options to learn and grow as an educator when budgets are tight. You can be creative in your solutioning when conflict arises in between students in your classroom.

Amber: Exactly! I think that another important way to think about creativity is to consider different options that you are offering your students to test their individual creativity.  Creativity is not something that can be used up. We need to think of it more as like a muscle that can be strengthened within our students. We can include simple techniques in our daily routines to encourage students to think of more than one solution to a problem through brainstorming or have them rework a story problem in a textbook.

Gina: So what’s our takeaway message here, Amber?

Amber: Fear of creativity is real, yet as educators we need to model and maintain environments of creativity in our classrooms.  Don’t feed the fear of creativity and pass that down to your students.

Gina: Acknowledge the wide range of creativity that you see in your classroom in your students. Praise their creative and unique thinking, along with the creative ways that they express themselves.

Amber: You got it!  The more we value creativity in our students the stronger they will become in their creative mindset.  I value your creativity in writing this blog post with me, Gina.

Gina: Thanks...I value all of your creativity, Amber!

Written By: Amber Bridge and Gina Roger
Digital Learning Consultants
​@abridgesmith and @grogers1010


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Questioning + Reflection + Goals = Critical Thinking

2/17/2019

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Using Questioning, Reflection, and Goal Setting as a means to Critical Thinking

Teachers often gravitate toward Project Based Learning (PBL) as the means to bring critical thinking into the classroom. While we think PBL is an amazing way to engage kids in authentic problem solving and critical thinking, making the instructional and pedagogical shifts to PBL can feel daunting.
So, how do we weave critical thinking into the fabric of our classrooms? How do we make critical thinking less of an event or initiative and more your standard mode of operating as an educator?
Think back to a time you’ve had a young child a car with you. Little kids ask lots of questions because they are curious about the world around them. What does that sign say? Why is there a speed limit? How do cars work? Are we there yet? We don’t know about you, but indulging kids in thinking is part of the fun of a road trip! Often questions lead to more questions and opportunities to have kids think and reason.
  • What does that sign say? leads to What letters do you see? What pictures do you see?
  • Why is there a speed limit? leads to What do you think? What might happen if people drove really fast or really slow?
  • How does a car work? leads to probing about different parts of the car such as How do you think the wheels work? The windows? The steering wheel? How do all those parts work together?
  • Are we there yet? leads to Think about the last time we made this trip. What did you see as we got closer to Grandma’s house? How do you know when we’re getting close?

Whether intentional or not, we’re engaging kids in the car with questioning and reflection strategies as a way to get them to think critically about the world around them. Engaging kids in the classroom doesn’t have to be the result of monumental changes in practice. We think it can be done with small changes to the way we use questioning, reflection, and goal setting.
​

Questioning
Beth recently saw the tweet below and we were reminded how important questions are in our classrooms. We also had the opportunity to learn from Weston Kieschnick recently and he shared that questioning has a 0.48 effect size in John Hattie’s meta analysis. (0.4 = 1 year’s academic growth)
Tweet from Jen Deibler





Learning Strategy  Interactive Video  (.60) Questioning (.48) Direct Instruction (.60), Peer Tutoring (.55), Concept Mapping (.64), Worked Examples (.48), Self-Assessment (1.44), Reciprocal Teaching (.74), Problem Solving Teaching (.63), Spaced Vs. Mass Practice (.60)
Weston Kieschnick presentation at Grant Wood Area Education Agency
But, how do you do it?
​Teachers need to let kids ask the questions!
Critical Thinking stems Who, what, where, when, why and how
Reflection

After students are comfortable with asking questions, you can also engage them in reflecting about their thinking (aka meta-cognition) and processes. As a college student, Corey had a professor that allowed students to resubmit one missed exam question with an explanation of the misconception at the time of the exam, the necessary adjustment in thinking to grasp the concept, and what students did to change their thinking. It was a powerful way to engage students in thinking about their learning, reflecting on their process, and better understanding how they can clarify their own misunderstandings. Whether intentional or not (we may never know) the professor was utilizing evaluation and reflection, which has a 0.75 effect size in Hattie’s meta analysis.

​Teachers in Grant Wood Area Education Agency school districts are also providing students with opportunities to engage in reflection and growth. A teacher at Tipton Middle School uses the daily reflection log below to help students reflect about both their engagement and understanding of concepts.
Daily Reflection from low to High How engaged was I on this lesson? How well do I understand the learning?
A secondary teacher at College Community Schools uses the reflection sheet (right) to help students keep track of their progress through blended learning stations and also reflect on their employability skills.​​
Picture


 


Both are great examples and provide the educators and students an opportunity to reflect on the learning, engagement, and processes within the classroom. You could even use a Google Form to quickly collect reflections and send a copy to the student. We wonder what the educator and student could uncover by looking for patterns in responses over time. Are you using this strategy in your classroom? We’d love to see more examples!
Goal Setting

We are a goal oriented society. And school is not different - or is it.
We know from Hattie’s research that goal setting has a high effect size - 0.68 effect size for Learning Goals vs. No Goals as listed in this Fisher & Frey Article  But, I wonder about the goals that we often talk about in the classroom.
  • # correct words on a spelling test
  • #  pages read over time
  • Increased quiz scores
Are these actually learning goals or are they process goals?

Beth has the privilege of visiting classrooms across Grant Wood in her role of supporting Blended Learning K-12 classrooms. One benefit of these visits is a wealth of pictures of classrooms examples .

This image, from a College Community teacher, stands out as a way of demonstrating learning goals. The teacher has set the standard for the day with "Today, we will.... "  Then the context is added to that standard with the  “So, we can…” language. And the 'Why" is established. With the “I’ve got it when…” language the teacher explains the criteria for students to know what is required to meet that standard.
Picture
Now, you could argue that these goals are set by the teacher, rather than the student. But, we feel that this type of clearly defined learning goals sets a strong foundation for students to be able to  answer these three important questions for themselves. 
Picture

​

And answering these questions throughout the day each and every day has the potential to transform student learning.  



Take a bit of time this week to think about critical thinking in a new way.  Start your deeper journey toward critical thinking by using questioning, reflecting and goals in your classrooms. 

Follow us on social media all week for a series of challenges, to get you thinking and sharing about critical thinking.  We look forward to learning from you!
​
Corey Rogers and Beth Swantz
@corey_rogers      @betswan

Digital Learning Consultants, Grant Wood Area Education Agency
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Guest Blog: Sharing the Story of #SpartanShare

2/15/2019

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Miranda Kral profile picture
As part of our continued celebration leading to Digital Learning Day on February 28, the Digital Learning team is encouraging our Grant Wood AEA educators to join in the celebration and to share their digital learning stories. Read below as guest blogger Miranda Kral, Solon Community School District teacher librarian, shares the story behind Solon's collaboration for #SpartanShare.

Sharing the Story of #SpartanShare
Blog written by Miranda Kral, Solon Community School District teacher librarian

As a teacher librarian for my district, my presence and time in each building is limited. One challenge I have faced in my role is having time to interact and collaborate with all staff. As a way to overcome this challenge, the instructional coach at Lakeview Elementary, Maria Schroeder, and I started a video series called #SpartanShare.

​This has become an exciting collaborative effort with the Instructional Coaches throughout my district! The name of the series came from an idea that was shared by a teacher at our elementary, Jan Johnson, who wanted a space (through Twitter) to share the fantastic instructional practices and ideas taking place in classrooms throughout our district.  


The purpose of our video series is to provide educators in our district insight into tools, resources, and instructional practices, as well as highlight the amazing things that happen in our schools' classrooms. Our approach is light-hearted, somewhat humorous, and time conscious (we know how valuable time is so we keep our videos fairly short). Breakout EDU, student response tools (such as FlipGrid & Padlet), and digital citizenship are a few of the ideas we have focused on throughout the series.

​#SpartanShare has been well received by our staff and we continue to promote the use of the Twitter hashtag, #SpartanShare, throughout our district and video series.

To see examples of the collaborative videos, explore the #SpartanShare hashtag and our #SpartanShare YouTube channel.

Miranda Kral, Solon Community School District teacher library
@MirandaKral
@SolonMedia

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Collaboration is KEY!

2/11/2019

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Week 2 of our month-long Digital Learning celebration is upon us! This week the focus is on collaboration. As a kickoff to this week’s sharing, Maggie and Lynn share their reflections of what collaboration means to them in a fast-paced vlog! Check it out!
Lynn Kleinmeyer, Digital Learning Consultant
@THLibrariZen

Maggie Pickett, Digital Learning Consultant
​@MaggieP_AT

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Above All Things, Communicate.

2/4/2019

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4 people holding speech bubble cutouts above their heads

Communication could be one of the most important skills a teacher utilizes. Communication welcomes and encourages outsiders to peek inside that magical world of a classroom. I don’t think I truly understood how utterly important this was until I became a parent of a kindergarten student.

Although I had ‘gone to school’ for 30 years and was a kindergarten teacher myself once, I still wanted to be a part of my child’s day and know what he was doing. We were lucky to have a kindergarten teacher that also believed in the power of communication (insert Seesaw). Seeing what my little one was doing and hearing his young voice explaining a math problem or reading a book was more compelling than reading a newsletter emailed on Friday afternoon.

I can’t stress enough how important it is for teachers to tell the story of their classroom. Technology allows us to share all types of evidence of learning and excitement with parents beyond a classroom newsletter. Seesaw allows teachers and students to share all types of media and learning artifacts instantly with parents. Not into Seesaw? Social media is popular with parents too! Read about how to create a classroom Instagram account that captures your classroom throughout the day. Let your students caption it. Thinking outside the box? Listen about ways to record a short podcast, either solo or with your students, to share weekly classroom highlights.
​

As a teacher, communication doesn’t stop there. Connecting with other educators was a career changing event for me. When I first started using Twitter, I was shocked at all of the other educators that were thinking and discussing the same things that were swirling around in my mind. Once I joined Twitter chats, I couldn’t stop. There were so many ideas that I discovered while communicating with others that I had never met but found inspiring. Not only was I collecting new ideas, but sharing things I was doing. And even though I didn’t find my everyday classroom all that unique, people found my ideas inspiring as well.  And all of a sudden, I didn’t feel alone and isolated. I felt connected and validated.

Although you might not find me on Twitter quite like you used to, I feel very strongly about how important it is to continue to share ideas with other educators, which led Jonathan and I down the road to podcasting. It allows us to share all of the great things Grant Wood AEA school districts are doing to provide the best learning environment for our students. Because of this experience, we’ve been able to meet and chat with so many amazing educators that also share new ideas with us, which we then pass onto you.
​
Technology has truly changed the way we communicate with one another. And although there’s nothing that trumps a face-to-face chat, our conversations can expand around the world with the tap of a button.

We would like to challenge you to take this month to try something new. Perhaps connect with someone outside your inner circle or share something a little differently with the parents of your students. We would love to hear about it!

~Mindy Cairney
Digital Learning Consultant
​GWAEA

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4Cs: Communication in Today's Classrooms

2/1/2019

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boy shouting into a microphone
Communication is increasingly important in education. It’s one of those crucial life skills that students will use long after they have finished with school. Yet, communication isn’t a new idea in education. We’ve been teaching this for years, but as Jeff Utecht noted, technology has changed how we communicate, and it will continue to do so as it evolves. The tools, etiquette and means we use to communicate today are a lot different from those that we used even 10 years ago. In this blog post I am going to take a look at some ideas to help you explore the notion of communication in the classroom and what that looks like for today’s students.

The P21 framework suggests students need to be communicating to inform, instruct, motivate and persuade, and that they should this using oral, written and non-verbal mediums. So what does that look like in the age of technology that we live in? Here are some ideas for the kinds of mediums you could explore. It’s not an exhaustive list, but I think it includes some of the more popular communication channels that students are engaging in today. They include:
  • Email or texting
  • Blogging, journalling, and online writing
  • Podcasting
  • Video production, video conferencing, or vlogging
  • Social Media
  • Graphic design
  • Multiplayer games

This inevitably raises the question, how can we help model and give students a safe environment to explore these kinds of experiences? Step one could be to practice with peers. When you are introducing one of these mediums to students, let them practice on each other before you go public on the web. Have a conversation about what is appropriate to be shared privately, versus what should be shared publicly, and if you need ideas for what that looks like, check out some of the modules from Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship Curriculum because if you haven't considered this before, communication has strong ties to digital citizenship.

There are lots of great edtech tools to support communication in these kinds of mediums. In fact, many of the best communication tools are actually creative tools, because when we create something, more often than not, it is to communicate a message, tell our story, or share our thinking in a new way. Blogging, podcasting, video production, and graphic design are all creative endeavours, but they are also almost exclusively about communicating an idea or a message.

So, if you find a great creative communication platform to use with students, (e.g. Flipgrid, Twitter, Anchor, Canva, YouTube, Adobe Spark, etc.), then by all means use it, but don’t get too attached. Anyone who has been a teacher for any length of time is well aware that tools come and go. In fact, the way we communicate with each other today has changed over the years precisely because tools have come and gone.

Instead, teach the skill of communication. Teach students the value of communicating effectively, clearly, concisely, accurately, and politely. Teach them how to be empathetic, to be culturally aware, and to communicate with a purpose. If you teach communication in this way, the tool you use is just the vehicle that helps students share their story. If you teach communication, and not the tools, your students will become esteemed global citizens who are better prepared to succeed in a technology infused global workplace.

Jonathan Wylie | Digital Learning Consultant | Grant Wood AEA | @jonathanwylie
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