Standards-based Grading

Here is a VoiceThread narrated presentation I created about Standards-based grading. It describes the history and definition of it, what it looks like compared to traditional grading practices, the arguments for and against it, and how to implement it in your classroom.


Here is my recorded interview with an expert of Standards-based grading, Matt Townsley.

Here is a link to my Diigo shared bookmarks outliner for the most helpful and informative resources I found on Standards-based grading.

Gaming in the Classroom? Why?

Conker's Bad Day Fur. (2012). Nintendo Entertainment System. Wikia. Retrieved from http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_systems?file=Nintendo_Entertainment_System_Model.png

I grew up on Nintendo, GameBoy, and any computer game I could get my hands on. Yes, I loved playing sports outside, and did a lot of that too, but gaming was probably my most time-consuming hobby. Why? Well, after taking some time this week to read about gaming in the classroom and analyzing my own experience with gaming, I came up with a list of reasons:

1. It was FUN!
2. It was challenging.
3. It gave me a sense of accomplishment when I overcame an obstacle, solved a mystery, mastered a move, or beat an adversary.
4. It was competitive when playing other real people or comparing scores with them.
5. It was addicting because I wanted to discover what was 'around the corner,' get to the next level, or find the next clue.
6. It connected with my interests. (Because of my fascination with Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and various Disney movies, I played many games based on those. I also liked to race anything in real life, so I enjoyed any good racing game too.)
7. It connected me with my friends. (I played some games just because that's what my friends invited me to play on a network, which was fun - whether in the same room on multiple computers, across the internet, or on the same gaming station).
8. It gave me a sense of control. I controlled the pace, the path, and who I played with.

I didn't grow out of gaming until mid-college, although at that point I actually made a conscious decision to stop gaming so that I could devote my time to my studies, friends, and outdoor activities. If I didn't have a family, self-discipline or goals in life, I could easily get back into my gaming habits - because it was FUN! 

But now as a teacher, I am starting to see how other teachers are successfully using gaming in the classroom to increase student achievement, engage kids, and better differentiate for each individual learner! A great example is my friend and vice principal of the school I'm at, Mark Janke. He has created his own game environment for high school and jr high history classes. You can hear him talk about gamification and how he runs his class game here. 

Going back to the 'list of reasons' above, an author and keynote speaker on gamification, Yu-kai Chou, actually created a similar list of 'core drives' that motivate people to do what they do. He calls his gamification framework, "Octalysis," seen below.

I watched his TEDx talk about it, which made a lot of sense! Here are my notes that I took from it, which are a much more research-based, intellectual 'list of reasons' for why gaming is FUN:

1. Epic Meaning & Calling – being part of something bigger than yourself
2. Development & Accomplishment – leveling up & achieving mastery
1. Short term goals being accomplished
3. Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback – building LEGOs
4. Ownership & Possession – desire to protect & build up/collect/improve
5. Social Influence & Relatedness – action based on what others do or say
6. Scarcity & Impatience – wanting something just because you can’t quite reach it!
1. Sense of urgency
7. Unpredictability & Curiosity – because you don’t know what’s happening next, you want to know! / lottery effect
8. Loss & Avoidance – doing something to avoid bad consequences

So all of this leads to the question of, is gaming in the classroom good for student learning? Yu-kai Chou would be quick to say, "YES!" He even lists 10 prime examples of gamification in the classroom, which he says produce "more effective educational environments." 

Screenshot taken at Duolingo.com

The first one happens to be Duolingo, which I have personal experience with. In fact, my wife, who is a stay-at-home mom, just started using (playing) it last week and uses it every spare moment she has! Why? For a couple reasons. 

1. She has always wanted to learn Spanish, especially living in CA. And now that we just moved into an apartment right above a Hispanic family in which the parents don't speak English, she has great motivation to do so because she wants to communicate with them! (intrinsic motivation)

2. Duolingo is fun and addicting because of its levels and badges you can achieve and earn! (extrinsic motivation)

For the past couple years I have actually had my students use Duolingo in class as a sponge activity to do for fun when they were done with all their work. And they loved it! I noticed that the badges and ability to level-up were motivating, but the most motivating factor seemed to be comparing scores and levels with each other. There is even an aspect within the game that allows people to see where they stack up to each other, which gives them a competitive reason to keep progressing. This may not be the best motivation, but according to Eric Anderson, a self-taught gamification educator, it works, and ultimately leads to students learning the required material. He has flipped and gamified his classroom, which is described in his TEDx talk. In this video he brings out some other great benefits in gamifying his classroom: 

• Students really liked being able to work at their own pace, and be challenged at the same time. (In other words, gamifying his class was a very effective way to differentiate instruction.)
• Having conditional assignments ("If you do/learn this, then you get...") help students take gradual steps in their learning.
• Students learn to learn. Instead of just doing what the teacher tells them to or hearing the teacher tell what the teacher read, students take more ownership of their learning and do more of the research themselves because they want to. The teacher becomes more of a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage.
• Since trying, failing, and repeating are inherent in video games, gamification in the classroom creates an environment in which students become more comfortable with learning from their mistakes. 

James Paul Gee, a psychologist, educator, and author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, said something in a video that really hit home with the value of gamification in the classroom. He said that "We [schools] have handed [students] the manuals without the games/[activities] to go with them." That really made me think of the traditional classroom that I grew up in versus the idea of using gamification in my current classroom. If I want to cause my students to be more motivated, learn better and at their own pace, and have FUN learning at school, I need to take gaming seriously!

For further info on gaming in the classroom, check out my Diigo "Education Gamification" Outliner, which has a bunch of great resources in addition to the above mentioned ones.

#flipclass = Flipped Classroom Resources on Twitter

Strayer, J. (2011). The Flipped Classroom. Knewton. Retrieved from https://www.knewton.com/infographics/flipped-classroom/

When I looked up the #flipclass hashtag in Twitter, I found a never ending list of ideas, resources, and passionate teachers implementing a flipped learning experience in their classrooms! It was hard to stop clicking, reading, and getting inspired! That is sort of the way Twitter is like (similar to Facebook), so a bit of self-control needs to be exercised to maintain a balanced life.

Using Diigo, I bookmarked all the resources I found most useful for defining, showcasing, and defending a flipped classroom learning experience. Below are those bookmarks, which I organized within Diigo's Outliner tool. You can also view my Flipped Classroom bookmarks within Diigo here.

Flipped Classroom Bookmarks

• Flipping the Elementary Classroom – Flipped Learning Simplified
  Flipping expert Jon Bergmann lists some tips for first-time flippers
  • Five Reasons Why Elementary Teachers Should Flip Math First – Flipped Learning Simplified
    Why Math is a great subject to flip
• What Is This Flipping Method? - FLIPPING AWESOME TEACHING
  Helpful look 'inside' a flipped learning classroom
  • So ... let's talk about the in-class flip - FLIPPING AWESOME TEACHING
    Expresses disagreement with using in-class flipped videos Explains his intentions for using flipped learning.
• Flipping Your Class is Not About The Video - Lindsay Stephenson
  Purpose of Flipping a Class What it is and isn't Flipped Learning Definition & Outcomes
• Mark Janke - Flipping My Classroom Experiment
  How flipping his Geometry class improved student learning
  • Flipped Classroom - MarkGeekTeach
    Mark Janke's Flipped Classroom Playlist (tips for successfully implementing a flipped or blended learning environment)
• 54 Flipped Classroom Tools For Teachers And Students -
  • I used #46, Doceri, to flip my 5th-8th grade math lessons

I stumbled across the flipped clasroom idea a few years ago, and was very intrigued by it. But I didn't know how or if I should implement it in my 5th-8th multi-grade classroom in a small private school. First of all, most of the community didn't exactly like the idea of adding 'homework' to a student's workload. As their teacher, I agreed with them because some students already had the normal math work they didn't complete at school, as well as the monthly book reports I assigned. Plus, after 6.5 hours of learning and 'working' at school, I like the idea of parents being able to spend quality time with their kids doing non-school activities.

Then I got an iPad for my classroom and discovered that I could screencast my math teaching lessons. So, using an app called Doceri, I screencasted most of my math lessons for all 4 levels of math I taught. What's different about my process is that I recorded the videos with my students as they sat at the group table with me. I didn't do this because I thought it was better than the more common method of a teacher recording their video lessons alone, but because it was a convenient way to archive all my lessons that I was going to be teaching anyways. The only difference from the past was that instead of writing the math steps on whiteboards or papers and throwing them away, I was documenting all the lessons. Plus, the iPad (with Doceri), has some very helpful backgrounds, like graphs, to help produce neat, organized lessons. I also required my students to write in their math journals the same thing that I wrote/drew on the iPad.

Here is one of those lessons that I screencasted with my 5th graders from a Saxon Intermediate 5 math book. The topic was "Fractions and Mixed Numbers on a Number Line."

Several benefits came from screencasting my math lessons, which I made accessible to students and their parents.

• Sick/absent students could watch my math lesson, work on their math at home, and not get behind. 
• Parents could watch my teaching video to better understand and help their child with math homework or studying for a test.
• Students could review past lessons by watching the video and reviewing their notes they took in their math journals. 
• Substitute teachers could simply play my teaching videos for my students during math class (especially if they were uncomfortable with teaching the concepts).

During the following year when I had all the videos already created, some students enjoyed the freedom to watch lessons ahead of time, so that when they came to the math table to be taught, they already had an idea of the concept.

As a 4th grade teacher in a new school, I'm not sure if or how I will use any elements of the flipped classroom, but will definitely keep it in mind!

Chromebooks and/or iPads in the Classroom?

Fernando. (2014). iPad vs chromebook. [Graphic]. Retrieved from http://fernandotech.com/?p=42

Students need to be taught to confidently use technology to create, share, buy/sell communicate, and safely & respectfully participate in our global, online world. Having a 1:1 ratio of devices to students in a classroom is an efficient, if not obligatory duty, to help them achieve the above skills. The main question to ask yourself when heading towards a 1:1 digital environment is what device to get.

Chris Casal, a very qualified & experienced technology director, does a great job of approaching this debate from a non-biased perspective where his goal is to help educators make decisions based on what their goals are for using the technology, not what's "better" or "cheaper." He appreciates the benefits of using each one, and continually experiments with what accomplishes his school's learning outcomes best:

Chromebook vs iPads: What's best for your school or classroom needs? from Christopher Casal

I reached out to Mr. Casal and emailed him the following message. I am hoping to hear back from him soon:

"Mr. Casal,

I just looked through your  Chromebook vs iPads: What's best for your school or classroom needs?

presentation and thought it was very insightful. Thanks so much for sharing it! 

I am a 4th grade teacher that currently has access to a mobile cart of chromebooks shared with the 5th & 6th grade classrooms. There are enough for each of my students to use one. I plan on scheduling time for them to use them each day for typing, spellingcity, and ALEKS math facts. I haven't thought beyond that for how to use them, since I will be sharing them and don't know how much or how often the other classrooms will be using them. If they were permanently in my classroom though, I would suspect that I would utilize them for more activities such as research, typing writing assignments with GAFE, coding, designing stuff for our 3D printer, and creating original music, videos, and presentations. I also want to create a makerspace focused on STEAM activities. So my question for you is, if I had enough money to get enough iPads or chromebooks for all of my students to permanently stay in the classroom, what would you recommend and why?

Sincerely,

Chris Duckett

4th Grade Teacher (newly hired)

Sacramento Adventist Academy"

I sent the same message to two other prominent technology educators, and look forward to receiving their responses to it. 

One was Pamela Jimison, M.Ed., who has 25+ years of experience in the K-12 classroom and has been a technology coordinator and principal. She wrote a great article for ISTE in 2014 titled, Are tablets better than laptops for 1:1? You should read it to find out her recommendations! The neat thing about her is that I realized that she lives only 30min from me, so it might be possible to go learn from her in person at some point!

Pamela actually responded to my email within minutes! Here is her response:

The other person I sent the message to was Eric Fulkert, a technical CEO. Although he is not a teacher in a 1:1 environment, he gives some helpful information on the topic from his unique perspective as a business leader. After reading his article, Ipad vs Chromebook in the classroom is only part of the debate, I commented below the article.

In continuing my quest to figure out which device would be best for my classroom, I came across this informative chart. Although this infographic is from 2013, the comparisons are still relatively similar and relevant.

Rao, A. (2013). iPad vs. Chromebook: A Comparison of Key Features. [Infographic]. Retrieved from https://teachbytes.com/category/11/

After becoming more informed on the pros and cons of each type of device, I figured that in order to make a decision (were I the one to even make it), I would need to know several important things:

1. What technology do I already have, and how will this new purchase complement that as far a student learning outcomes?
2. What can my school afford? (Or should I propose a fundraising campaign?)
3. What specific activities and learning outcomes do I want my students to accomplish with the device?
1. In other words, do I want a device more as a supplemental, artistic (A/V), interactive, hands-on, offline or online, creative tool with tons of apps to choose from (iPad), or do I want more of an all-purpose, research-friendly, typing, online dependent, collaborative, creating, and standard workhorse tool (chromebook)?
4. Do I care about battery life or physical space it takes up?
5. Will students need to input various media into it?

In conclusion, since I already have access to a 1:1 chromebook environment for part of the day, I think that my classroom would most benefit from more chromebooks that could be permanently housed in our classroom AS WELL AS some iPads. 

Yes, you read correctly....I would like BOTH! :) Why enjoy the benefits of just one type of device when we might be able to benefit from both! I'm not a teacher dedicated to using only products from one type of organization, I'm a use-what-would-be-most-beneficial-when-possible type of teacher!

Introduction to Standards-Based Grading & Diigo

Jung, L.A. (2016, June 13). Standards, grades, and feedback can be a powerful GPS for student success. #sblchat @CorwinPress. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/leeannjung

Since my new teaching job is in a school whose administration is advocating for a more standards-based learning and grading approach, I thought that it would be a great controversial topic to study for my Sustaining Digital Literacy master's class this summer. As I have researched the SBG topic, I have been able to find great articles, resources, and experts on the subject - both for and against it.

I am using Diigo to keep track of my online research. Diigo is a "social bookmarking website that allows signed-up users to bookmark and tag Web pages. Additionally, it allows users to highlight any part of a webpage and attach sticky notes to specific highlights or to a whole page. These annotations can be kept private, shared with a group within Diigo, or be forwarded to someone else via a special link. The name "Diigo" is an acronym from "Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff" (Wikipedia, 2016). 
The main reason I have chosen Diigo to do this is because I already have an account and have used it for sharing bookmarks with colleagues before. I'm not crazy about the aesthetics of it, but can't find another social bookmarking tool with all the convenient features that Diigo has. What attracts me most to it is the 'bookmarklet' extension that works within the Chrome browser. At the click of a button I can bookmark, annotate, screenshot, save for later, and share a page. And then within Diigo I can sort and organize the bookmarks with tags or in the Outliner mode. Here is a screenshot of the Outline I have created of all the SBG sources I have found thus far with my description of each. Click here to go to the live version of it.


As time progresses, I will be adding more sources to this list, especially those opposed to SBG. In googling "standards based grading" I have mostly found very positive, popular references to SBG. To find the opposite I added the word "cons" or "disadvantages" and found mostly parent groups or individual teachers opposed to it, or at the least vocal about the challenges or failures associated with its implementation.

At first I found random articles that were quite informative about SBG, but didn't know who or what authoritative sources to depend on for researched-based information. As I read more and more, I came across certain names and institutions repeatedly, which I decided to look into. Eventually I was led to multiple experts on Twitter, who have published (formally and informally) plenty of SBG related material that will greatly help my understanding and mastery of this topic.

Here are the experts I found online, with their Twitter handles:

Baltimore County Public Schools (@GradeSmarter)
Rick Wormeli (@rickwormeli2)
Thomas Guskey (@tguskey)
Lee Ann Jung (@leeannjung)
Marzano Research Laboratory (@MarzanoResearch)
Ken O'Connor (@kenoc7)
Matt Townsley (@mctownsley)

Most of these teachers and educational consultants have written multiple books and articles on SBG, and regularly travel the globe giving professional development seminars on the topic. I am excited and optimistic to connect with one of them for a future interview about SBG.

Sources:
Diigo. (2016, June 5). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:48, July 7, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diigo&oldid=723878341

The Effect of Mobile Devices on Young Learners

Children Interacting With Tablet Technology. [Photography]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. 
http://quest.eb.com/search/115_3921293/1/115_3921293/cite

Are mobile devices helpful or detrimental for young children? 

This is a hot topic right now for multiple reasons. Firstly, we all care about our children and want to do what's best for them. Secondly, mobile devices are definitely biased towards receiving good reviews (and profit) for their 'educational' apps; while many parents & professionals unsure of the effects these devices have on their kids can all-too-soon deny any benefits the devices may produce. Thirdly, "research regarding the impact of this portable and instantly accessible source of screen time on learning, behavior, and family dynamics has lagged considerably behind its rate of adoption" (Radesky, Schumacher & Zuckerman, 2015). In other words, there is not sufficient research from this new technology to confidently state the positive and/or negative effects mobile devices on young learners.

I recently read two seemingly opposing articles on this topic:

1. Researchers: Using an iPad or smartphone can harm a toddler’s learning and social skills
2. No, research does not say that ‘iPads and smartphones may damage toddlers’ brains’

Here is a summary of the first article (from The Washington Post): 
Mobile devices are becoming more commonly used by young children, which begs the question of whether or not this is a good thing for healthy development. Current information from the journal Pediatrics, shows that although there is little research that has been done related to this topic, there are indeed some negative effects, as well as some positive, that mobile devices can have on the development of children. Mobile devices cannot replace (and may even impede) the skills children develop through real life activities like face-to-face interaction and unstructured playtime.

Here is a summary of the second article (from The Guardian):
The above article is an unprofessional, exaggerated account of the Pediatric journal's information. The Pediatric journal in fact is quite neutral, showing some positive and negative effects mobile devices can have on children, but emphasizing the lack of research to make any conclusive statements on the topic. The above article is just the tip of the iceberg of the kind of "scaremongering" that journalists do with information. There are multiple professional sources that say the opposite as the above article. And finally, more research needs to be done in this area so that opinions can be replaced with research data.

After reading these two articles, I made sure to go to the source of their conflict and read the Pediatric journal site myself. It was quite neutral, stating the little amount of research data that has been conducted, and what can result from certain uses and amounts of mobile devices - positive and negative. The author takes a mostly unbiased perspective, but in conclusion has some recommendations to help families avoid the possible negative effects of their children's use of mobile devices.

Both of the above articles were correct, and used the same primary source, but just had different slants. The first one appeared to be more biased and emphasized the negative effects of mobile devices with children, which could be clearly understood from the title. The second article was more concerned about clearly and objectively articulating information from a primary source than anything else.

What I learned from reading these two articles is that a reader should never take a news article at face value without checking its sources. Titles can and are usually emotionally charged to catch the reader's eye, but can be quite biased or misleading, which I discovered from reading these articles.
The farther information strays from a primary source, the more opinionated and subjective it tends to become. 

So to answer the original question I asked at the beginning of this post - "Are mobile devices helpful or detrimental for young children?" My opinion is that a parent should use common sense, do their homework and research primary data sources on the topic, and then come up with a plan that they feel is a healthy, balanced approach that is best for their child.

Sources

Etchells, P. (2015). No, research does not say that 'iPads and smartphones may damage toddlers' brains. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2015/feb/02/no-research-does-not-say-that-ipads-and-smartphones-may-damage-toddlers-brains

McCoy, T. (2015). Researchers: Using an iPad or smartphone can harm a toddler's learning and social skills. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/02/using-an-ipad-or-smartphone-can-harm-a-toddlers-brain-researchers-says/

Radesky, J. S., Schumacher, J., & Zuckerman, B. (2015). Mobile and Interactive Media Use by Young Children: The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown. Pediatrics, 135(1). Retrieved from

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/135/1/1

Sustaining Digital Literacy Introduction

Teaching is a challenging and rewarding profession. I'm so grateful that I have been able to do it for 9 years now, but not without considerable effort and help. In addition to all the teachers, mentors, parents, students and supervisors that have shaped and supported my educational journey, I have learned a lot from professional growth seminars, websites, and social media.

Here are the organizations that I have found to share valuable content in seminars:

• Bureau of Education & Research (BER)
• Every seminar I've attended from BER is packed with great ideas & resources.
• Adventist Education
• As my employer, they have always had very relevant information for me to learn.
• Imagine Easy Solutions
• They have an excellent set of free professional development videos online.

Besides just searching for what I need on Google, here are the websites that I have used the most for teaching resources:

• Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything
• She has links to a LOT of useful educational tools!
• Discovery Education
• I mostly use the science & social studies videos w/handouts for my class.
• Google Apps for Education
• My students and I use these everyday!
• Common Sense Media
• This is a great resource site for online media, tools, games & digital citizenship.
• ETA Hand 2 Mind
• They have great math manipulatives.
• Evan-Moor
• They have daily language workbooks.
• Teacher Created Resources
• I really like their Writing Workshop book.
• Khan Academy
• My students enjoy the math activities and coding tutorials.

As far as specific people that I look to for support, that would be, first and foremost, my wife. She is a high school math teacher, so we have a lot of great educational conversations. She is a great sounding board, helps me tackle issues from a broader perspective, and affirms my decisions. Without her, I would probably need to see a counselor regularly! :)

Other priceless souls who have supported me over the years have been my direct supervisors, board chairmen, mentor teachers, and pastor. 

When I want to learn more about an up-and-coming idea, I have a couple friends that always seem on top of the latest educational & technological trends. The first is @AaronNKoleda. In working side by side with him (and online) on the NAD Elementary Technology Standards, we became friends and explored new tech ideas together. He specifically helped me start implementing a makerspace & genius hour environment in my classroom. I also consider my mother-in-law, Jeane Lutz, a wise mentor. Having taught multi-grades and most subjects for 25+ years, she knows a lot and always has neat ideas with math, language arts, and technology in the classroom.

Besides the above two people, I've made a lot of great contacts through Twitter and Google+ that have given me great ideas and advice. The e-Nable Google+ Community has specifically helped me learn a lot about 3D printing, especially about constructing body-powered hand prostheses.

As I have experimented in the classroom with new ideas or technologies, I have faced the most common challenge of finding time to first learn about the idea or tool, then decide and figure out how it might help my students learn, plan how to use it in class, and last of all, evaluate its effectiveness. With all those time-consuming factors, searching for or hearing about a new idea or tool can be pretty daunting. But as my mentor teachers always told me, I try to improve just one subject each school year, and make only 1 lesson during the day special. Otherwise, I would have burned out long ago.