11 Ways to Make an Inquiry based Classroom

You became a teacher not to pontificate to trusting minds, but to teach children how to succeed as adults. That idealism infused every class in your credential program and only took a slight bump during your student teacher days. That educator, you figured, was a dinosaur. You’d never teach to the test or lecture for forty minutes of a forty-five minute class.

Then you got a job and reality struck. You had lesson plans to get through, standards to assess, and state-wide tests that students must do well on or you’d get the blame. A glance in the mirror said you were becoming that teacher you hated in school. You considered leaving the profession.

Until the inquiry-based classroom arrived where teaching’s goal was not the solution to a problem, but the path followed. It’s what you’d hoped to do long ago when you started–but how do you turn a traditional entrenched classroom into one that’s inquiry-based?

15 Great Simulations to Gamify Your Class

I’ve been spending every spare moment editing the upcoming 7th Grade Technology Curriculum Textbook (click to be notified when it’s available–projected: June 2013). One unit I’ve fallen in love with is ‘Gamification of Education’. I haven’t spent a lot of time on that topic and am now over-the-top about its possibilities.

If you’re into gamifying your classes, you understand.

Here are 15 websites I’ve found that do an excellent job of using games to promote critical thinking, problem solving skills, and learning:

14 Factors to Consider for Tech Report Cards

It used to be simple to post grades. Add up test scores and see what the student earned. Very defensible. Everyone understood.

It’s not that way anymore. Here are the factors I consider when I’m posting grades:

• Does s/he remember skills from prior lessons as they complete current lessons?
• Does s/he show evidence of learning by using tech class knowledge in classroom or home?
• Does s/he participate in class discussions?
• Does s/he complete daily goals (a project, visit a website, watch a tutorial, etc.)?
• Does s/he save to their network folder?

Weekend Website #115: Minecraft

Every week, I share a website that inspired my students. This one is a blockbuster as far as student interest, risk-taking, enthusiasm.

Click to visit website and play movie about Minecraft

Age:

Tech Tip #107: Got a Tech Problem? Google It!

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: Sometimes, I just can’t remember how to accomplish a task. Often, I know it’s simple. Maybe I’ve done it before–or even learned it before–and it’s lost in my brain. What do I do?

A: One of the best gifts I have for students and colleagues alike is how to solve this sort of problem. Before you call your IT guy, or the tech teacher, or dig through those emails where someone sent you the directions, here’s what you do:

Google it.

When is Typing Faster Than Handwriting?

Most elementary-age students struggle with typing. This doesn’t surprise me. They’ve been handwriting since kindergarten. They’re proud of their new cursive skills. It’s easy to grab and pencil and write. Typing, though requires setting up their posture, hand position, trying to remember where all those pesky keys are (why aren’t they just alphabetized? It’s a good point. Discuss that with students).

In third grade, I gather the students and we chat about it. Why do they have to learn to keyboard? It’s more than a skill they trot out for the keyboarding software and then forget. Discuss the idea of sharing ideas–the Gutenberg Press, when writing began with scrolls and rocks, why was it important to save ideas in perpetuity? Why is it important to students?

The discussion should come around to the idea that putting ideas in some sort of permanent fashion is important to the history of mankind. The question is how, and the ‘how’ that’s relevant to the students is a comparison of handwriting and keyboarding. Here’s where we go from there:

Circle back on science in technology

• Discuss whether students handwrite faster/slower than they type. Ask students to share thoughts on why their opinion is true. You are likely to get opinions on both sides of this discussion. If not, prod students with logic for both.
• When it’s clear the class is divided on this subject (or not–that’s fine too), suggest running an experiment to see which is faster—handwriting or typing.
• Circle back to science class and engage in a discussion on the Scientific Method. Develop a hypothesis for this class research, something like: Third grade students in Mr. X’s class can handwrite faster than they type (this is the most common opinion in my classes).
• Have students hand-copy the typing quiz they took earlier in the trimester for 3 minutes.
• Analyze the results: Compare their handwriting speed to their typing speed. I encourage an individual comparison as well as a class average comparison to help with understanding the conclusion.
• Discuss results: Why do students think some students typed faster and others typed slower?  (In my classes, third graders typed approx. 10 wpm and handwrote approx. 15 wpm. Discussion was heated and enthusiastic on reasons. Especially valuable were the thoughts of those rare students who typed faster).
• Students will offer lots of reasons for slower typing (they’re new to typing, don’t do it much in class, their hands got off on the keyboard). In truth, the logistics of typing make it the hands-down winner once key placement is secured. Fingers on a keyboard are significantly faster than the moving pencil.
• One reason students suggest is that they don’t usually type from copy. Key in on this reason (quite valid, I think—don’t you?) and revise the experiment to have students type and handwrite from a prompt.
• What is the final conclusion?
• If possible, share results from 4-8^th. What grade level do students consistently type faster than they handwrite? Why? Are students surprised by the answer?
• Post a list on the wall of students who type faster than they handwrite. This surprises everyone.

Weekend Website #103: Screenbird

Every Friday, I share a website (or app) that I’ve heard about, checked into, gotten excited to use.

Need to teach step-by-step lessons? Try Screenbird

Weekend Website #102: Interactive Simulations

Every Friday, I share a website (or app) that I’ve heard about, checked into, gotten excited to use.

Simulations for elementary/middle school math and science

Age:

Weekend Website #101: Electrocity

Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.

Balance the need for power with protecting the environment

 

Communicate the Web 2.0 Way

My school is an IB school. We follow the philosophy that to educate students requires an

international understanding of the world, people and ideas. Part of the curriculum requires fifth graders to participate in an Exhibition where they use knowledge accumulated over six years of education to communicate their ideas on a global issue such as displacement, global warming, lack of education, pollution, world hunger, and limited access to fresh, clean water.

Last year, the fifth grade team asked me to brush students up on Publisher/PowerPoint/Word skills so they could construct their presentation. This year, I’m taking a different approach by encouraging students to think of other ways than these traditional ways to communicate their ideas. We’re spending six weeks studying and teaching each other some of the amazing online communication tools that offer motivating and inspirational ways to share thoughts.

Here’s how we’re doing that:

• I reviewed with students the concepts of communicating ideas, the shortfall of confining themselves to tools such as MS Office, and then gave a quick overview of seventeen Web 2.0 Communication Tools. All are free and as many as possible require no log-in
• Students broke into three-person teams and selected a Web 2.0 tool from the list (note to self: let students create the list next year).
• All students joined the class wiki and created their own page (using only first names). On this page, they will share the tool they’re teaching as well as those learned through classmates
• I demo’d how a presentation would work using the wonderful online program called Tagxedo.
  • I reviewed the tool and everyone created a Tagxedo
  • I showed them how to incorporate the Exhibition theme into the Tagxedo. This will be expected of all tools they teach
  • I showed them where to find Tagxedo’s embed tools so it could be added to their wiki page. All students did this and they loved it. To see that image animate is an epiphany in communication
• I reviewed the rubric that I would use in grading. It includes four broad areas:
  • knowledge of the tool
  • ability to teach students
  • reflection on the lesson
  • group work
• In their preparation, I encouraged students to embrace mistakes, problem-solve, be curious, as this will help them help classmates during the presentation
• Each week, a different team of students taught the class. One team member provided instruction while the other two roamed the classroom helping where classmates got stuck. Estimated time of presentation: 20 minutes (though longer is OK)
• In the presentation, students modeled how to incorporate this tool into an Exhibition

Monday Freebies #37: Use Oregon Trail to Teach Westward Expansion

This year more than any before, classroom budgets have been cut making it more difficult than ever to equip the education of our children with quality teaching materials. I understand that. I teach K-8. Because of that, I’ve decided to give the lesson plans my publisher sells in the Technology Toolkit (110 Lesson Plans that I use in my classroom to integrate technology into core units of inquiry while insuring a fun, age-appropriate, developmentally-appropriate experience for students) for FREE. To be sure you don’t miss any of these:

• Subscribe to Ask a Tech Teacher by Email
• Sign up to the RSS feed

…and start each week off with a fully-adaptable K-8 lesson that includes step-by-step directions as well as relevant ISTE national standards, tie-ins, extensions, troubleshooting and more. Eventually, you’ll get the entire Technology Toolkit book. If you can’t wait, you can purchase the curriculum here.

I love giving my material away for free. Thankfully, I have a publisher who supports that. If everyone did, we would reach true equity in international education.

Oregon Trail to Teach Problem Solving Skills

Show students how to get the most out of Oregon trail by reading the headings on each screen, thinking about problem solving skills and applying the simulation to their classroom discussion on westward expansion. I include a worksheet of questions they can answer as well as additional websites to extend their education.

Where Tech Can Take Students

One of my students did an MS commercial. I taught him K-5 and now in 8th grade. I’d like to take credit for his tech brain, but I think it’s just him.

Watch this:

Tech Tip #90: Don’t Be Afraid of Mulligans

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q:Some kids are hard workers, but they just don’t get computers. Their effort deserves a good grade, but their product is nowhere near class requirements. What can I do?

A: Don’t be afraid to give students a do-over. Some students don’t perform well under the pressure of a deadline. Some are so sure they’re no good at technology, that becomes their reality. Offer students a do-over if they’ll work with you after school. I have had countless students over twelve years take advantage of this and come out after a few of those sessions as strong, confident students in class. All they had to see was that they could do it. Maybe some simple phrasing confused them and you can clear that up. Maybe the noise of a full class distracted them. Whatever it is, if you can show them how to find alternatives, solve their problems, they can apply that to technology class and other classes. Most of the students I help 1:1 only need a few projects and then I never see them again for help. In fact, their confidence is so improved, they often are the kids who come in during lunch to offer assistance to other struggling students.

#81: Problem Solving Board

Have students teach each other the 28 most common techie problems. They learn how to solve the problem and teach the class as a presentation, then answer questions. They will feel accomplished and tech savvy.

If the lesson plans are blurry, click on them for a full size alternative.

–from 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom. Preview available on Amazon.com and Scribd.com

Book Review: Disrupt Class–Yes, That’s What I Said

Schools believe that throwing technology at education problems will fix them. Every technology teacher I know understands this is flawed  and will end up frustrating both students and teachers. Technology is a tool, to be wielded with a skilled hand.

Disrupt class–that’s the theory of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, by Clayton Christensen. Shake it up! See what’s going on. (for my complete review of Christensen’s book, visit Amazon)

Here are some great lines from his 2008 educational innovation book:

• If the addition of computers to  classrooms were a cure, there would be evidence of it by now. There is not. Test scores have barely budged.
• There has to be a better explanation than simply blaming students
• So if too little money, too few computers, uninterested or unprepared students, parents, a broken teaching paradigm, and strong unions individually are not the root cause of the US public schools’ struggles, might it be that they all are conspiring collectively to constrain the US? Of course but all … are at work in other nations’ schools as well… and many of them obtain better results…
• Every student learns in a different way
• Disruption is a positive force

Are you as Tech-Smart as a Fifth Grader?

I’ve been teaching technology to kindergarten through eighth graders for almost fifteen years. Parents and colleagues are constantly amazed that I can get the

Are you puzzling how to teach problem solving to students? Read on

littlest learners to pay attention, remember, and have fun with the skills that are required to grow into competent, enthusiastic examples of the Web 2.0 generation.

I have a confession to make: It’s not as hard as it looks. Sure, those first few kindergarten months, when they don’t know what the words enter and backspace mean, nor the difference between the keyboard and headphones, and don’t understand why they can’t grab their neighbor’s headphones or bang on their keyboard, I do rethink my chosen field. But that passes. By January, every parent tour that passes through my classroom thinks I’m a magician.

What’s my secret? I teach every child to be a problem solver. If their computer doesn’t work, I have them fix it (what’s wrong with it? What did you do last time? Have you tried…?) If they can’t remember how to do something, I prod them (Think back to the instructions. What did you do last week? See that tool—does that look like it would help?) I insist they learn those geek words that are tech terminology (There’s no such thing as earphones. Do you mean headphones? I don’t understand when you point. Do you mean the cursor?) No matter how many hands are waving in my face, I do not take a student’s mouse in my hand and do for them, nor will I allow parent helpers to do this (that is a bigger challenge than the students. Parents are used to doing-for. They think I’m mean when I won’t—until they’ve spent a class period walking my floorboards.). I guide students to an answer. I am patient even when I don’t feel it inside. My goal is process, not product.

Five Great Summer Websites Your Kids Don’t Want to Miss

It’s summer. Kids can’t play outside all the time, so here are some fun online activities that will keep their attention while feeding their brains. These are all tested on my classes throughout the school year. When my students are done with the day’s planned projects, I let them pick a website or software of their choice to fill the last five or ten minutes before the bell rings. These five, I’ve found to be favorites”

Book Review: Digital Forensics With Open Source Tools

Digital Forensics with Open Source Tools

by Cory Altheide

Note: This review written as part of my Amazon Vine Voice series

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I write techno-thrillers, so I’m always looking for new ways to crack the tangled online lives of popular fictional characters, a blueprint for the next Digital Fortress. In the case of Altheide and Carvey’s Digital Forensics with Open Source Tools (Elsevier, 2011), I’ll have to keep looking, but I wasn’t disappointed. It delves into the equally obfuscated world of computer malfunctions. In plain English (as opposed to the acronyms more rampant in the geek world than the government), it details how to investigate a variety of problems on a variety of systems to find out what went wrong and how to fix it–using open source tools. The ‘fix it’ part is the digital forensics which the authors define as “the use of scientifically derived and proven methods toward the preservation, collection, validation, identification, analysis, interpretation, documentation and presentation of digital evidence derived from digital sources for the purpose of …reconstruction of events found to be criminal…”

How to Teach Problem-solving With Oregon Trail and Win7

My students love Oregon Trail (check out my lesson plan). It fits nicely with a unit of inquiry in both 3rd and 4th grade so

Oregon Trail doesn't play well with Win 7

students learns the history of settlers moving west the first year and reinforce the second year.

Oregon Trail makes it easy to catch the important concepts because it puts them right at the top of the screen–You die of malaria, You reach the Blue River. I ask questions of students like What were problems faced by settlers along the trail (they caught diseases)? What natural landmarks did they cross (the Blue River). I have 3rd graders fill out a questionnaire and I have 4th graders complete an expanded version digitally. They bring a Word doc up electronically and fill it out on the computer as they play the game.

Besides the obvious learning experience about the Oregon Trail, students cover valuable computer skills:

3 Ways Twitter Makes You a Better Writer

Twitter will make you a better writer

A few months ago, I wrote a post on how Blogs and Wikis make students better writers–teachers too for that matter–and wanted to follow it up with how tweeting improves writing. In the interest of brevity, here are three quick ways:

You learn to be concise.

Twitter gives you only 140 characters to get the entire message across. Letters, numbers, symbols, punctuation and spaces all count as characters on Twitter. Wordiness doesn’t work. Twitter counts every keystroke and won’t publish anything with a minus in front of the word count.

Just Another Day In Computer Lab

Today, my guest blogger is Kristi Richard of South Bend, IN (Go Notre Dame!) She’s a web designer, owns her own freelance business called Studio 545, and

Where's the blue one go?

volunteers one day a week to teach computer basics to grades six , seven and eight at Our Lady of Hungary Catholic School. In her words, “Our Lady of Hungary … received a nice donation of computers and internet service to get a computer lab up and running.  I was asked to teach basic computer skills to the kids, and have enjoyed working with them for about four months now.  I only work one day at week with the kids, but I have developed quite an appreciation for what teachers go through nine months out of the year!”

Weekend Website #38: DSpace@MIT

Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours, too.

Weekend Website #25: Online Schooling

Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.

Weekend Website #30: Breathing Earth

Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.

#33: Grow Your Story

Use a first-grade or second-grade story. Show students how to add description to it, setting details, sensory details, characterization, so it sounds more mature and interesting. I use thought bubbles to make it more fun.
Click on lessons for a full size alternative.

Weekend Website #28: Bing Maps

Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.

Weekend Website #22: Webspiration

Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.

Just like Inspiration, but FREE

Weekend Website #12: Wacky Faces

Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.

Is Technology Good for Our Younger Children?

Technology is exciting for kids and opens the world up in a way they can experience it.  I see that every day I teach my students (kindergarten-fifth grade). My problem for those as young as the ones discussed in the article below is two fold.

First, I fear parents give them the iPhone or handheld computers as babysitters, Instead of talking with their kids, parents facilitate a family where everyone’s in their own disconnected world. I don’t even like TV’s in cars. Driving time used to be when parents had their kids as a captive audience, a chance to find out what was really going on with their children. Now, everyone’s listening to ipods or playing video games or watching a movie. When do families get to know each other, develop those critical lifetime bonds?

Tech Tip #28: 5 Ways to Fix a No-Sound Problem–For Free

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Weekend Website #8: Virtual Surgery

Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.

Tech Ten Commandments–the Christian Version

I posted this list of tech ten commandments. It’s a great list, a way to generally address how to make friends with your computer and the geeks who take care of it for you.

Here’s another list, focused on Lutheran principles. Just as good with a few changes.

The 10 Lutheran Tech Commandments (in new standard version)

#43: How to Teach Geography with KidPix II

Before you start this project, be sure to go through How to KidPix I and How to KidPix II as well as How to Teach Geography with KidPix I.

#44: How to Teach Geography with KidPix I

Get as creative as you want with the pictures that go at the four points of the compass rose–let the kids be creative!

Before you start this project, be sure to go through How to KidPix I and How to KidPix II.

#34: How to Teach Dolch Words with KidPix

Reinforce Dolch words and sentence structure with KidPix text tool and drawing options.

Before you start this project, be sure to go through How to KidPix I and How to KidPix II.

Weekend Website #4: Hangman

Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.

Weekend Website #2: Zoopz

Every Friday I’ll send you a wonderful website that my classes and my parents love. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of your students as they are of mine.

How to Use Second Life for Teaching

A growing method of teaching is via simulation, and the leader in that area is Second Life. No longer the life-away-from-your-life it used to be, now it’s the training school of choice for our military, universities and hordes of established businesses. Read more about that here:

• The (Virtual) Reality of Education’s Future
• Is the Virtual World More Real than Life?

Using it for education intrigues me. I’m still researching, trying to figure out if I should take the plunge. Did you know:

Tech Support and Teachers: Like Two Foreign Languages

Click for source

I’m both teacher and tech support, so I’m split on these two lists. I understand where teachers want clear, non-techie explanations (just as parents want school help without all the education jargon like ‘automaticity’ and ‘authentic assessment’). On the other hand, I see tech’s side when they wish teachers would learn enough about their computers and internet to get through a day. Isn’t that what we preach to students–take responsibility, be empowered? Yes, tech should test a fix before declaring the computer fixed, but teachers should try to fix their computer before calling tech (i.e., check the power, check the plugs, reboot–these are standard problem solvers)

The ten commandments of school tech support

1. Thou shalt test the fix.

End of the Week Laugher #3