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In order to prepare students to apply rigorous learning to new and real-world situations, educators must provide opportunities that foster critical and creative thinking, communication and collaboration. Importance of Global Collaborations Common Core State Standards demand students to collaborate with diverse partners , thereby expanding students' global awareness . Some of the benefits of collaboration might include: Developing interpersonal skills of working together as a team. Fostering critical thinking skills while working towards a collaborative goal. Increasing comprehension while partaking in conversations and exploring ideas from different perspectives. "Collaborative learning promotes communication among students; it is particularly beneficial for English Learners (ELs) because peer interaction contributes to the development of language," ( CA ELA ELD Framework, Chapter 2 ). New 2016 ISTE Standards for Students I recently attended th...

Mystery State Skype isn't a new idea, it's basically taking learning geography and placing it in a game format like Twenty Questions via Skype, by asking questions to guess the location of the other classroom. Not only does this connect students from across the country (or globe), but it also gives a context for students to apply geography with critical reasoning, collaboration, communication, digital citizenship, and information fluency -- 21st century skills . Skype in the classroom Learning standards What should your students research? I recommend looking at your standards to know what is expected of your students as a starting place. Geography standards --  History-Social Science Content Standards   Consider the research writing standards (see CCSS ELA Writing Standards #7 - 9 ) Converse and collaborate with diverse partners -- CCSS ELA Speaking and Listening #1 21st Century Skills -- ISTE Standards for Students Note that your students will read information...

Technology has changed how we do things in our daily lives such as shopping, banking, communicating, and it has changed how we should do school. Photo Credit: Reeding Lessons via Compfight cc When I was a child, I remember spending so much time going through microfiche to find just the right bit of information to share with the teacher. In those days, finding the right information and recollecting that information was the mark of a good student. Today, knowledge and information is at our fingertips. In fact, there is so much information that it's tough to know where to start and what's the best source to use. Therefore, accessing the right information at the right time is more important than just finding information. Focusing on skills rather than knowledge is a shift in how we do school. It changes what students are taught and how they are taught. What do these shifts look like in the classroom? This type of learning is easy to capture because there are ...

Digital storytelling is an art form conveying a message. It uses images and voice narration to convey emotion with the message, and to ignite empathy from the audience. It incorporates storyboarding and writing a script. It is created with digital tools and published on the Internet. I often think of digital storytelling as something done in first person because it creates that personal connection. Whereas, I think of a digital story as an anecdote or story typed or narrated in third person. Overview Click here to view the cube above on RVLIO. The art of digital storytelling I recently participated in an outstanding webinar by ISTE's Special Interest Group for Digital Storytelling , where Bernajean Porter shared about the " Art and Soul of Digital Storytelling ." After being inspired by the webinar, I created the following page summarizing some of my key take-aways: Click here to download PDF Explanations, prompts, and examples Click here to op...

What is effective learning? Having a common understanding of effective learning is key. The research done by the Peer-Ed Team shows that “school-wide improvement in student achievement occurs only in schools where teachers and administrators have explicitly created a shared norm about effective learning." Effective student learning includes: critical and creative thinking; a student-centered task , that is clearly aligned with the objectives and a matching assessment that looks for evidence of learning from the task; communication of learning; collaboration (this does not need to be the entire time); an authentic, engaging problem; empowering and engaging students in their learning , thereby enabling them to own their learning; technology integration that enhances learning ( and teaching ) throughout the lesson ; creating meaning by connecting to what they already know (a constructivist approach ); receiving feedback; and, reflection . Some questions and disc...

What had the most impact on me this past week, and what memories will be most prominent from this week? What new goals will I set as a result of this week? Here they are, not in any particular order. Linda Yollis & Kathleen Morris 1. Educational Blogging: Flattening Classroom Walls by Linda Yollis and Kathleen Morris I am always inspired and in awe of these two women. They have made such an impact on me, so to see them present together live was absolutely incredible, especially since this week was the first time they had met face to face! Their stellar session was filled with powerful tips, incredible resources , while providing powerful examples of what can evolve out of blogging. To highlight a few tips: Linda , Kath , Sue Wyatt , Sue Waters , me , Ronnie , Julie , Anne , John Start small. Blogging is a journey. Use your content objectives to focus your posts. This way blogging doesn't become an add-on to try to fit in, but rather part of your literacy bloc...

Yesterday I had the privilege of facilitating a Common Core and Project Based Learning professional development class for 7th-12th grade teachers. Prior to my training, they had two days of ELA Common Core and one day of deconstructing performance assessments for ELA Common Core. Meeting their needs through professional development While I had a rather large group (over 40 and had to turn people away to go to another class since all of the computers and chairs were taken), over half of them had taken a PBL class with me before and were implementing it in their classrooms, yet only one had ever tried service learning . I knew that what I had prepared for them would not meet their needs since I had created it as an introduction to PBL. Service learning was the direction I took them in because it addressed their needs the best, we'd get great cross-curricular discussions, and time to reflect and process the past three days of Common Core training . Build background knowl...

I've been involved in several discussions about leading change , which started with  vision and urgency. Everyone needed to be on the same page about the vision (the what), have a sense of urgency (the why), and know how we'd measure progress towards our goal. Having the vision relevant, tangible with benchmarks, and feedback reminded me of successful classroom practices. In the classroom, I made sure my students knew what we were learning, how it was relevant to them, how we'd measure progress towards our goal (the what, why, and how), and involved them in the process. I realized leading change had some of the same foundations, such as starting with the vision. Vision In order to be purposeful about change, the vision for what is wanted must be clear by everyone. If I asked, "What does it mean to be a 21st century, student-centered school district?" the answer must be clear in the minds of everyone. It must be clear to the administration , the teachers, ...

Teching it Up K-12 -- Success Stories, Part 3 In Part 2 of "Teching it Up K-12 -- Success Stories," originally presented at the Arizona CIO/CTO Forum 2011 , we focused on developing a learning culture through peer coaching .  In Part 3, we focus on 21st century learning, blogging, and PLN. Pedagogical Shift There is a pedagogy shift happening in our district. Teachers are focusing on their learners . They are connecting beyond the four walls of their classrooms for an authentic purpose , relevant to their learners. Students are creating products as part of their learning, rather than it being just another hoop to jump through. As our teachers become 21st century learners , they push themselves to the next step. For us, the Edublogs Teacher Challenges and Student Challenges have been catalysts in this process. Edublogs Teacher Challenge Image attributed to Edublogs The Edublogs Teacher Challenges build teachers' skills in web ...

Several mentioned that even though they knew Bloom's Taxonomy , they hadn't put a Bloom's microscope to their lessons until designing PBL. Once they designed a PBL, they realized a rigor boost in Bloom's Taxonomy was needed. Some rights reserved by Mantid Man Bloom's Taxonomy and a Praying Mantis About ten years ago, I had a third grade student bring a praying mantis to our class, and we placed it in a terrarium. The students were fascinated with it. To capitalize on their interest, I introduced Bloom's Taxonomy for writing research questions about our praying mantis. I gave a simple explanation, then they worked together in small groups to write questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy . They also had some great insight about each level: Knowledge : These are facts that we could just look up and memorize. They used the least amount of "brain-power" on Bloom's Taxonomy.   What is a praying mantis? What does a praying mantis look...