Jan 08 2013
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What the students have to say

In the weeks leading up to the winter break I had the pleasure of spending time at our school in Hayward Impact Academy (fondly referred to as IA). These Algebra I students are in the unique situation of being co-enrolled in a second math class, a course we call Academic Numeracy or Ac-Num. The design of this course has been to support the learning in the Algebra I class by reviewing previously learned concepts, by allowing time for remedial and/or extension work, and by enhancing the instruction taking place. In years past the Ac-Num teacher was the only teacher who had a class set of computers, in this case netbooks. Last year the students used FlexMath to practice their basic numeracy skills and also participated in UpsideDown Academy (read previous posts for more information).

Because this year the program is structured do differently I wanted to take some time to hear from the experts about how these changes are impacting learning and classroom experiences. So who better to let me know than a student.

This student took Algebra I and Ac-Num last year and is taking these courses again this year, and here is his story:

My name is Benjamin B. and I am a student here at Impact Academy located in Hayward. Recently, this year, we were given a whole cart of Google Chromebooks that was received from google after a teacher wrote a grant for Impact, so that we could get some new computers. From my experience these Chromebooks are way better than the Dell computers we had last year. The Dells experienced major problems last year. There were many malfunctions, whether it was from not being able to connect to the internet or to shutting down by itself, and many of these unknown errors were really affecting my school work.
But this year all the students here at Impact are really happy that we received these new Chromebooks and it has really improved many of our learning experiences. Last year when we would go on FlexMath or Khan Academy on the Netbooks, it was a really slow experience for a lot of us because the Netbooks were so out of date. Sometimes we would even be late on our deadlines for projects, so it would bring down our grade. But with these new Chromebooks there are almost never any malfunctions when we are working. These computers are also very fast and effective whether it’s practicing math drills on Khan Academy, working at our own speed on problems, or just writing reports for other classes.
So I would like to thank Google and the teacher who wrote the grant for us. It has truly improved our learning experiences here at Impact and we are very grateful for this wonderful gift of Chromebooks that were given to us.

 

This student clearly has noticed a difference in how these tools allow his to progress through his material from a purely practical point of view. Pedagogically, this allows the teachers to plan for and implement lessons that take advantage of the technologies transparency and as such are less about the tools and more about the content.

Lastly, this student is thankful for the gift that has been given to his school and he sees how this increases his chances of success. Thanks for sharing Benjamin B.

Dec 07 2012
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Who Am I? and other essential questions

 

Envision Schools is committed to Project-Based Learning  (PBL) and interdisciplinary work. Please visit our website for a more in depth description of our pedagogical stance towards deeper learning, 21st Century skills, and our Exhibition projects. Last year Envision Schools partnered with Puzzle School to design a web-based platform called Upside Down Academy. Early posts on this blog, as well as a soon to be published article in Unboxed, describe in detail how this tool played a central roll in one of our first math-based Exhibitions. As well, this was our first exploration into bringing Blended Learning into a PBL environment.

Blended Learning is characterized as a student based approach to learning, in which the use of technology can support individual student’s learning path and pace. We usually see this implemented in such a way that it focuses on skill acquisition. This is great. Learning specific discreet skills is an essential part of the education process. PBL, on the other hand, aims to engage students such that these discreet skills work in consort and generalize across domains. This is what builds the much needed critical thinking and meta-cognition, skills that we know are essential for success in today’s work force. This is a long way of saying, envisioning how PBL and Blended Learning mate can be a challenge.

Rather than wax philosophic I think I would like to share one of the projects that is happening at METRO right now. The 9th and 10th graders are working on a project of self-exploration that is bleeding into almost all of their classes. In Digital Media Arts they are creating silhouettes of themselves, using photoshop, that incorporate images of different things that represent them. In History the students studied political, economic and social structures and systems. They are creating visual webs that represent which systems they would uphold and which ones they would rebel against. In Science they are studying their circulatory and respiratory systems and are grappling with the concept of Homeostasis. In Math they are designing and graphing their own personal symbol that represents their place in all of the above. The project’s Essential Question is “Who am I in a complex world.”

I would like to take this opportunity to dive deeper into the Math portion of this project. This project allows students to work at their own pace by only introducing the tools and then letting students define what their outcomes would be. Also, access to technology and web 2.0 tools made what is usually a tedious and inflexible process, more fluid, visual, and problematized. For the Math portion of the project

the students first drew their personal symbols using graph paper.

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While they were perfecting their personal symbol they got on Desmos and began manipulating and testing and playing. For homework they were given this:

Screen Shot 2012-12-07 at 12.03.39 PMScreen Shot 2012-12-07 at 12.03.47 PM

And had to start thinking about how to gather all the information from the graph to represent it mathematically. Then they did the same with their own symbols.

This project engaged students in multiple ways, mathematically, artistically, and rhetorically. They could use Desmos to manipulate and copy features from existing designs, but ultimately they needed to establish an understanding of how the formulas change the outcomes. Lastly, students needed to think about how their symbol is reflective of their character and who they are within systemic complexity.

Oct 09 2012
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Blended Learning, Chromebooks, Envision School, Impact Academy (IA), Khan Academy

Chromebook Roll-Out

 

Last week the students at Impact Academy were introduced to their Chromebooks.

The teacher put together a little prezi that ensured students were using them safely and that the routines for starting and ending class were crystal clear.

 

It is Friday

The time is 1:30 pm

The location is hot and sunny Hayward

I hear the soft beep that accompanies a gchat. It is Denise (algebra I teacher)

Imagine my surprise when I read the below message.

Apparently each block spent the day:

 

1. logging in to Chromebook,

2. getting on Khan Academy,

3. setting up their profile with their Algebra I teacher as their coach, and

4. Participating in a little friendly competition.

 

The Challenge:

Which block can get the most energy point!!! Nothing like a little competition between blocks to get students excited. Needless to say, I am excited that the students are happily working away on math problems late on a Friday afternoon, and this makes me hopeful for the success of our blended learning project.

 

 

 

 

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Sep 11 2012
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Blended Learning, Chromebooks, City Arts and Technology High School (CAT), Envision Academy (EA), Envision School, Impact Academy (IA), Individualized Learning, Khan Academy, Metropolitan Arts and Technology High School (Metro)

Kick off for 2012-2013 school year

The new school year is officially underway and, despite a delayed start, the Blended Learning programs and my coaching schedule is up and running. I spent the first two weeks of school helping our tech department get our Chromebook carts ready and in classrooms. Due to an overwhelming number of orders (note to self, order Chromebooks in February if possible) our order arrived on the first day of school. To make matters even more complicated they all arrived at our Support Office in Oakland in giant piles.

photo taken with photosynth

So I sifted through them all and organized them into piles for each site, arranged for their transportation, unpacked boxes, charged them, turned them on, enrolled them into our domain, tagged them, inventoried them, carted them etc… All this set up is nothing in comparison to that of a macbook cart, for example, but it is still a significant number of days work.

Envision School is embarking on two new ventures this year. We are expanding the use of Chromebooks in Algebra I classes to all four sites.

Metropolitan Arts and Technology High School – known as Metro, in San Francisco

City Arts and Technology High School - known as CAT, in San Francisco

Impact Academy - known as IA, in Hayward

Envision Academy - known as EA, in Oakland

We are using a Flexlab model at two of our schools (Metro and CAT) for language classes, credit recovery, and extension classes. We are also continuing to work with our highest need students individually to provide blended learning opportunities through integrating technology with the general education curriculum. My role as Blended Learning Coach is to support the teachers in implementing these programs, continue to monitor the effectiveness of the each program and, of course, write about it.

Our efforts are unified in that we are focused on individualized and differentiated pathways to success within the structure of A-G requirements and standards aligned courses. We strongly believe that all students will experiences success when given appropriate opportunities and tools. An important part of this equation is using technology as both a tool and thus an opportunity to access individualized and differentiated learning experiences. I look forward to sharing these experiences with you over the coming school year as I write about what is working and what is difficult. I always welcome suggestions, comments and feedback as I learn from active engagement with my audience.

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Aug 08 2012
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Blended Learning, Digital Learning

Summer situation update

There are many great things about being a teacher. We all go into the field for different reasons and have different high points and challenges. However, one things that many of us can agree on is the importance of summer vacation. Its our time to relax, read a novel, prepare our curriculum and revitalize. Being that I am both a teacher and a student, summer vacation is a chance for me to rest, relax with a novel and do research. Yes, research.

Supported by the Graduate Schools of Education at UC Berkeley and a generous gift from Google I had the pleasure of spending the summer delving into the literature and research in the field of technology and teacher practice. It is difficult to ignore the presence of technology both in our everyday lives and in the work-force. As we prepare students to be educated in and work in this technology rich environment, we must teach in new ways. One of my driving questions was to better understand the skills that teachers need inorder to skillfully integrate technology into their teaching practice and how teacher preparation programs either do or do not teach these skills.

In hopes of gaining clarity I need to gather the perspectives of teachers. To this end, I have developed a short questionnaire that I hope you will find time to complete, and please pass along to all your teacher friends. find it here: http://tinyurl.com/9xwobgl

Stay tuned for my findings and recommendations.

 

 

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Jun 22 2012
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Blended Learning, Individualized Learning, Upside Down Academy

Wrapping up the year.

The end of the school year has come and gone and in the calm after the storm I find myself reflecting upon how our projects have faired. I also realized that in the frenzy of the last weeks of school I failed to post my final thoughts about Upside Down Exhibition at Impact Academy. As the student were rapidly prototyping on their lessons and the teachers were prepping for final reflections, I was working on finding funding for next year. The Gates Foundation has kindly extended its interest in Blended Learning and is continuing to support brick and mortar schools, like Envision, find innovative ways to bring Blended Learning into more traditional models. The process of preparing and revising a grant is something that is new to me and I am so grateful to our superintendent and our head of development for the collaboration and persistence that they both displayed. This was by no means an isolated or individual effort. And it is certainly a testament to the power of bringing the different expertise of an organization together in pursuit of one goal.

Thank you Gates for the opportunity to continue what we believe to be transformative work; both for us organizationally and for the students we serve.

And speaking of those student… I went to Impact academy in the last week of school. I was actually there on the day of graduation and saw many of my previous students walk. That is always a tear jerker.

The 9th grade students were busily finishing up their video reflections so they could make it to the hall on time. In conversations with a few of the students and the teacher I could clearly see that the impact of providing and receiving structured peer feedback was turning out to be very positive. The teacher had led the whole class through the process of determining feedback, and then emphasized the difference and importance of warm and cool feedback. These distinctions are ones that the adults at Envision Schools use frequently in our protocols for working on a variety of projects. It is amazing to see how this skill has now been introduced at all levels and connects staff and students as humans and agents of teaching and learning.

After engaging in this process in groups, and filling out rubrics on each others work, the students logged on to Upside Down Academy and publicly reviewed their peers lessons, the evidence of this is something I encourage the readers to check out for themselves.

The project iterations has convinced me that this process is one that provides multiple layers of learning. Students clearly explore their own strengths and challenges as teachers and learners, this process provides new ways to practice and prepare material, and its an authentic avenue for students to practice their multi-media talents. My hope is that next years Algebra I teachers will draw on this years tutorials as part of their instructional tool kits, and that students will continue to share their learnings with each other and the world.

In closing, please stay tuned for our final posts about using ipads. The two week end of year project was exciting and gave us a glimpse of how this tool can change the learning space. And lastly, have a wonderful summer.

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Jun 05 2012
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Blended Learning, Upside Down Academy

A student reflects on upside down academy

Last week I had the opportunity to spend some time at Impact Academy. The students were deeply engrossed in their second round of video productions and their final lessons. The students had the opportunity to do their first video on an Algebra I concept of their choice. This was their chance to play around with the filming and editing techniques. Their teacher, Ms. Sudow reflected that in many cases the final products were well made videos that were lacking in math rigor. In some cases the math was even incorrect. This first round of reflection allowed the students to think about how to balance the draw of making an engaging video with the importance of focusing on actual teaching and learning, and not being seduced by an over emphasis on fun.

The students took this learning into their second round of video production, in which they focused on Functions. Here is an exemplary video:

 

This video demonstrates the students ability to create engaging material, supports a unique way of remembering the definition of a function, and provides examples.

In my visit to Impact Academy I had the opportunity to speak with the student about the process.

student interview

Tomorrow is the last day of the project. I will going to Impact to participate in the round of scoring and reviewing student work. The teachers have invited community members and stakeholders, and along with fellow classmates we will be providing students with feedback on their lessons. Visit UpsideDownAcademy to share your thoughts with the students.

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May 29 2012
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Blended Learning, Individualized Learning

ipads in math class!

Last week the 9th grade students at City Arts and Technology (fondly known as CAT), which is one of the two Envision Schools in San Francisco, were able to use ipads in their last math classes of the year. Due to the tireless work of our Senior Director of Technology we were able to benefit from  a loan program that Apple has. Their rep just dropped them off and our math teacher was able to start right away (well it was almost that simple). Luckily the math teacher at CAT has been working hard all year to incorporate technology in his teaching practice and was ready to take full advantage of the loan.

When I went to visit the students were working on graphing and exploring how all of the elements of the equation impact the end result. Their first task was to create graphs that looked the same as the samples provided. Once they had visually matched the graphs they then noted the different values for x, y, and a. For this they were using an online graphing calculator called Desmos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this they were asked to use at least three different equations at once. This prompted many of the students creativity and ingenuity. A couple of students used simple line and circle equations to create a picture. ” its a plate, some chopsticks and a…meatball” she exclaimed. I think this got other students thinking outside of the box, I saw kites, flowers, and a baseball. Some students went to the samples to see how other shapes are made, and even copied or changed these equations to better understand how they changed the image. One pair of students wanted to have a filled shape and did so by making multiple lines that seemed to blend together. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This website offered students a more hands on opportunity to engage with the graph, by allowing them to adjust all aspects, by making it possible for them to play and move and experiment. One student called me over because he, and I will use his words ” am lost in my graph”. He had gotten so deep into the manipulation and moving that he could not locate where x and y intersect. Luckily there is a button to bring you home. I asked him what he was working on and he said that he was following the two lines he had created, “they just kept going”. I flippantly said they would keep going forever and never touch, and he looked at me in a way that I am having a hard time describing. I realized that even though he knew this (someone told him, his teacher taught him, he memorized it) he had not experienced it until now. It was made real for him in that moment.

So, apart from testing the ipads in algebra I, we are going to be using them for the next two weeks in what we refer to as “workshops.” This is a time when each teacher creates a larger project that the students can engage with, and students select which project they want to work on. So stay tuned for more exciting stories and more learning.

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May 23 2012
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Blended Learning, Digital Learning, Khan Academy, Upside Down Academy

Project update

A few days ago I had the pleasure of going to Impact Academy and spending the day with the 9th grade team, students and teachers alike. The project is well under way. The students had spent time reviewing and critiquing other online instructional tutorials, whether on Khan Academy, on UpsideDownAcademy or other web-based lessons. They used cleverly designed graphic organizers to detail their thoughts and keep track of this learning. On the day of my visit they were in the middle of finishing up their scripts and filming their first lessons. These lessons were created in pairs, they also got to choose which Algebra concept they wanted to focus on. Naturally, the outcomes were varied. Students chose very different concepts and different approaches.

In my discussions with students they all seemed interested in the project but not entirely enthusiastic. They were apprehensive about what was being perceived as a lot of work. They did express excitement about uploading their video tutorials and the idea that people all over the world could see them and comment on them.

I captured a small bit of footage that demonstrates a taste of the productive flavor. Students are collaborating, discussing strategies, being creative, and iterating as they go.

In the next few days the fruits of their labor will be uploaded to upsidedownacademy.org, and I hope that you will view them and provide the students with feedback. This will help them immensely as they delve in to their final project of the year, video tutorials about functions.

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May 18 2012
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Blended Learning, Digital Learning

Blended learning reaches all student

In thinking about how the landscape of blended learning has progressed in the past years there seem to be several themes that drive the innovation and change. While there are many physical manifestations of blended learning, i.e. flex models, learning Labs, cyber schools, and all other verbage that goes along with it (remixing, flipping, video tutorials, data analytics, personalized learning), the conceptual foundations seem less disparate. Reach all students!

As a teacher who has spent many years working with atypically developing students, this premise resonates loud and prominent, like the tremors I feel in the Berkeley hills from the Hayward fault. Reach All Students!!!

Early pioneers in the blended learning space, as described in tech& learning, were curiousabout the potential gains that could be made by flipping how and when the direct instruction was delivered. Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, authors of  Flip Your Classroom, started creating vodcasts of their lessons in 2006-2007. This instigated alternative approaches to instruction that they felt allowed the in-class activities to “transition [ing] from the old industrial model of education to the learner centered, active class of the future.”

We know that inquiry and authentic learning opportunities, and critical thinking, and group work are all approaches that support learning and prepare students for college and beyond. We want our students to develop 21st century leadership skills and Project-Based Learning is one way that we achieve this goal. In addition, Flip Your Classroom states

“Flipping helps students of all abilities to excel. Our special education teachers love this model. Because all the direct instruction is recorded, students with special needs can watch the videos as many times as they need to learn the material.” This establishes skill development as an essential component of a students education and at the same time emphasizes individual pathways to skill mastery.

At Envision Schools we have been exploring these concepts in a couple of ways. One of our math teachers has begun to test the power of having students watch and rewatch instructional tutorials for key algorithms in mathematics. Struggling students in his classroom spend time reviewing the days lesson on educreations while others are working in small groups, and others are doing extension or reach problems. Embracing not only the technique of flipping but reintroducing a station approach has allowed the students and teacher in this algebra I class to have multiple and personalized pathways to success. Stay tuned for more exciting new from this classroom!!!

The other way that we are building our competencies in technology integration in the service of individualized learning is the work that I am doing with Learning Center staff and specific students. Leslie Wilson recently wrote a blog post about the significant role that technology can now play in the educational experience for students with Individualized Education Plans. We have learned that there are many free web-based tools that provide scaffolding to our students so that they can become more independent and successful. There are also a couple of programs that we have invested in that are worth the money we spent.

I will start by describing the tools we paid for. Each Learning Center has what we call the “Assistive Tech” laptop that the Learning Specialists can use with students. These are equipt with Co:writer, Write:Outloud, and Dragon Dictate, among all the other programs that the schools computers have. My favorite is Co:Writer by far. This program has a predictive text feature that supports students with dyslexia or low literacy skills by offering them options based on phonetic spelling information. It also reads the complete sentence back to the writer. Its great. It really helps students engage in writing as though they are having a conversation, and hear when their writing is not what they want it to sound like.

I will now mention a few of the free tools that have been successful and why we like them.

  1. http://freesummarizer.com/. Allows students to summarize readings so that they can ensure comprehension.
  2. Dragon Dictate app. This allows students to access the tool on the go without the laborious set up.
  3. Khan Academy. Students get to work on skills that they may not have mastered.
  4. Bookshare. Free audio books and reader. Allows students to access text.
  5. http://www.paperrater.com/. Allows students to do paper corrections and learn at the same time.

Looking ahead to next year I am certain that we will continue to find innovative ways to meet the learning needs of the diverse student body we serve. I am sure that there are many more tools that others have used, and that students access on their own. I welcome any suggestions and recommendations.

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