The Staircase Effect

Wow! I'm celebrating an amazing first week of school with my fifth and sixth grade writers! I just couldn't believe how much we accomplished in our four days together (which was really, when you break it down, only 180 minutes). In just 180 minutes, my incredible students were able to read and dissect two mentor texts AND try out their noticings in their own writing. They also got some practice with PQS (Praise, Question, Suggest) with their new Writing Partners and did some whole group sharing from the Author's Chair. In 180 minutes! These kids are giving me happiness overload.

My absolute favorite example is from Chris. He noticed that Sandra Cisneros, in her beautifully written piece, Eleven, used the phrase "...days, weeks, and even months...". Chris really liked that phrase and decided to call the technique "The Staircase Effect" because, in his words, "It goes up and up." He tried it out in his own story about Zombies and Skeletons and then shared it with the class. Here is a transcript of his story:

Skeleton's Point of View: I come from the Caribbean and my name is Blackbeard. Who are you? And just so you know, I got sent an invitation to a Lean Cuisine Restaurant in the dungeon. It is basically impossible to get in. It takes days, weeks, months, even years to get in, and I got sent a secret invitation.

Chris' Original Draft

To celebrate, The Staircase Effect will get its very own anchor chart on our wall. Hooray!

Build-Your-Own PD

In the past few years, I've participated in discussions with educators around the world on gamification, movement in the classroom, best middle school practices, motivating reluctant readers, and creating meaningful PD.  I've discovered new resources and collected great teaching tips.  And I've done it all from my living room couch.  How? Twitter!

If you are new to Twitter or Twitter chats, don't be intimidated.  You can create an account and follow others without tweeting anything yourself.  You can also lurk in a chat until you feel comfortable participating (no one will even know you're there!. There are education chats every day of the week. Wondering how to find a chat?  Cybrary Man has an extensive Twitter chat directory.  Some of my favorites are #miched and #mschat, but you can find a chat for just about every subject area and grade level.

 Most organized chats meet weekly or bi-weekly and have a moderator and specific discussion topic.  The typical chat format goes like this:

• Moderator greets participants 
• Participants introduce themselves by name, location, and sometimes grade level or subject area
• Moderator poses a question by typing something like: Q1: Describe your ideal PD #miched  
• Participants respond with: A1: I love when I get to choose #miched

You should use the chat's official hashtag so that everyone in the chat can see your responses.

In order to successfully navigate a Twitter chat without losing your mind, I suggest you use a chat platform that helps organize tweets by hashtag.  It also filters out the rest of your twitter feed so you only see the chat.  I use TweetChat, but there are others, such as TweetDeck and Nurph, that work just as well.

Moderators often archive the chat using a service called Storify, which aggregates all the tweets using that particular hashtag within a given time frame.  That way you can review the chat later, since the tweets sometimes come so fast and furious that it's difficult to read them all.

I highly recommend this as a great way to engage with educators from around the world in personalized professional development.  Participating in a focused Twitter chat can be an exciting, validating experience.  Look for me on Twitter @teacherA5.

How to Scan from the Copier

You can now scan from the copier!  Here's a quick how-to:

Place the document you want to scan in the copier as you normally would:

Push the Fax/Email button on the left hand side.

Select your name from the list (if your name doesn't appear, see a tech coach).

Push the green Start button.

You should see an image of paper flying through the atmosphere.

You're all set!  Open your email and use your document.

Make the most of Edmodo

Since we're already using Edmodo, I thought I would share some of the things you may not have realized you can do with it.

App Store
On the right hand side of your screen, find the app store icon.  It looks like a cute little fruit stand.  The wrench is for managing apps and the four squares are for "launching" them.

Once you are in the app store, you can search for specific apps, browse for apps by subject area, and refine your search by grade level.  You can also browse in paid or free apps. 

Once you have selected an app, you can assign it to a specific class.  Then students will be able to access the app from their Edmodo app launcher.  If you looked at the app store last year and decided there wasn't anything there for you, it might be worth revisiting.  Lots of apps have recently been added, and the quality of many previous apps has improved.  Be aware that paid apps are by group or unlimited, and most expire after a year, so they can get expensive quickly!

Snapshot

This is an assessment tool linked to the Common Core.  You create a Snapshot just like you create a quiz, except that you don't have to come up with the questions.  Simply select the standard you want to assess and assign it to your class.  Here is a tutorial.  Again, if you used this last year and found it frustrating (like I did!) give it another try.  It comes with some nice analytics for you and your students.

Library
The library icon is located on the left side of your screen and looks like an open book.

You can upload files, add web links, and connect to your Google Drive.  To organize all your files, create folders in your library.  Then you can share an entire folder with your class.  Click HERE for more information on sharing folders.

We sometimes spend a lot of time searching for something new and different and don't realize that what we're already using has some great features that we just weren't utilizing.  Take a closer look at Edmodo and see what you think.

Virtual Teacher

While I am home recuperating from foot surgery, I find that I have to spend most of my day elevating and icing my foot.   Just as I was starting to feel really isolated and cursing being dependent on everyone rather than enjoying being waited on, in came my husband to the rescue.  Jeff is also an English teacher and he was trying to figure out how to get another adult to help him conference with his students.  "Too bad I can't help," I told him, in my 'don't you feel sorry for me' voice.  (He doesn't feel sorry for me, reading books and watching movies all day!)  "Well," he said, "maybe you can help."

The next morning, we connected via Google Hangouts and he set "virtual me" up on a desk in his classroom.  As students needed help with their writing, they could go to him or come to me.  Some of them had handwritten drafts that they read to me and then we discussed them.  Others shared their writing in Google Docs, which interfaces easily in Hangouts, so I was able to see them and have a conversation while also editing and commenting on their papers in real time.

Today, I met with my own students, whom I have been missing.  While a virtual teacher can never take the place of a person in the same room as her students, (won't people in the future laugh at that statement?) being able to converse face-to-face over the computer is a great alternative in situations like mine.

Elise and I discussed her paper using Google Docs and Hangout.

I think (hope!) the activity was useful to the students.  They seemed to appreciate the opportunity to discuss their writing, and not have to wait so long for a teacher to be available for feedback.  It was definitely useful to me.  I feel like I accomplished something and really enjoyed talking to the kids about their writing.

Primary Sources

Are you looking for a way to incorporate primary sources in your classroom in a meaningful way?  Check out the Newseum Digital Classroom, a free resource from Newseum Education.   There's lots to love about Digital Classroom, including three full learning modules:

•      Decision 2012 explores elections and the news media
•      Making a Change examines how the first amendment shaped the civil rights movement
•      Women: Their Rights and Nothing Less investigates the women's suffrage movement 

There are comprehensive lesson plans in each module as well as information related to Historical Connections, Media Literacy, and Civics and Citizenship.  In addition, you can find video lessons on a variety of topics.

My favorite part, though, is the Primary Sources collection.  There are front pages from both northern and southern newspapers in the Civil War era, open letters between President Lincoln and abolitionist Horace Greeley, and an outstanding collection of more than 150 artifacts related to Women's Suffrage, many of which you can download as a PDF.

There are a multitude of ways to use these resources, and the Newseum has already created great lesson plans aligned to NCTE and NCSS standards.  You can use them as-is, or pick and choose the materials that best fit your grade level and curriculum.  I have found the materials to be perfect for my middle school ELA and journalism classes, and I think they would be great in history or humanities classes as well.

How to Use a Tech Coach

Now that you've got a brand-new tech coach, how do you utilize her?

1. Team Teaching/Facilitating: 
     Invite a tech coach into your classroom to team teach a lesson.  Another great use of a tech coach is as a facilitator.  She can roam around the room, helping students who get stuck or lost while you teach the lesson.  This can be especially useful on days that you introduce new apps or websites, or when you are working on a project that makes heavy use of technology.

2. Creating
     Your tech coach can create items for you to use with your classes.  This might be an iBook, a video tutorial, a newsletter, or even a class website.  Maybe you need help setting up a system for sharing documents with your students or creating assessments in Edmodo or Socrative.  Whatever it is, your tech coach is ready to help!

3. Researching
     Have you ever thought, "There should be a way to do X"? Are you overwhelmed by the sheer number of apps and websites that all claim to be the "best"?  Your tech coach can research the options and report back to you, so you get a short list of recommendations rather than sifting through thousands of possibilities.

Take a moment to consider how you might use your tech coach to your best advantage, then contact her by phone, email, or in person.