FACILITATOR
Teachers evolve into facilitators of learning who empower their students and apply the 2016 ISTE Standards for Students in their practice.
a. Foster a culture of student agency where learners are empowered to take ownership over their learning goals and outcomes.
20% Time - the concept originated by Google that allows employees (or students!) to use up to 20 % of their working time to pursue independent passions - is the most successful program I have ever implemented as an educator. Each student has complete control over the topic, learning process, and final product that they present to classmates at the culmination of each semester. While the artifact below may look like a simple slide deck, it represents four months of research, planning, and rehearsal on the part of an 8th grade student. This slide deck accompanied a TED Talk, expertly delivered by a student who had a simple interest in planes and their design changes over the years.
ARTIFACT: NOAH'S AIRPLANE TED TALK DECK
Even in more structured activities with more concrete goals, I strive to give my students as much room as possible to explore their own interests and passions. The interactive timeline below was created by a 7th grade student as a part of a project-based learning unit on copyright and fair use. Scrolling through the timeline on cameras, you'll notice that her sources are linked and her images are credited to their individual sources!
ARTIFACT: BELLA'S TIMELINE
ARTIFACT: NOAH'S AIRPLANE TED TALK DECK
Even in more structured activities with more concrete goals, I strive to give my students as much room as possible to explore their own interests and passions. The interactive timeline below was created by a 7th grade student as a part of a project-based learning unit on copyright and fair use. Scrolling through the timeline on cameras, you'll notice that her sources are linked and her images are credited to their individual sources!
ARTIFACT: BELLA'S TIMELINE
b. Design and manage technology use and student learning strategies in a variety of environments, including hands-on, digital and virtual environments
Sometimes when teaching technology classes, it can be difficult to remember that many students learn best with a hands-on approach. The activity below was created for my after-school programming club at Ladue Middle School. After a lot of experimentation and explanation with HTML, the students were shown a completed web page and given an envelope full of puzzle pieces. The students' objective was to "code" the website shown by putting the tags and content pieces in the correct order, then testing the finished site using a text editor and a browser. This was an extremely difficult challenge, which required a lot of problem-solving and attention to detail on my students' part, but the triumph they felt and the understanding they gained was incalculable.
ARTIFACT: HTML PUZZLE
This simple poster was created by a 6th grade student using the Mozilla Thimble platform. I believe that in the middle grades, the most important job a STEM teacher has is to build excitement and passion within students. Often, the most fun way to learn something is to try to break it! This student was given a traditional, "Keep Calm and Carry On" page created with HTML and CSS, and got into the nuts and bolts of the code to make her own masterpiece.
ARTIFACT: AMBER'S KEEP CALM
ARTIFACT: HTML PUZZLE
This simple poster was created by a 6th grade student using the Mozilla Thimble platform. I believe that in the middle grades, the most important job a STEM teacher has is to build excitement and passion within students. Often, the most fun way to learn something is to try to break it! This student was given a traditional, "Keep Calm and Carry On" page created with HTML and CSS, and got into the nuts and bolts of the code to make her own masterpiece.
ARTIFACT: AMBER'S KEEP CALM
c. Build learning opportunities that challenge students to use a design process and/or computational thinking to solve problems or innovate solutions.
The bedrock of the design process is empathy for the end user. To introduce this concept in my 7th grade technology classes, we start with a seemingly simple project - writing storybooks for young children. We look at several examples, and talk about what preschoolers need in a good book: simple language, a relatable problem, readable illustrations, and a little humor. This project has led to a partnership with our ELL program in the district's elementary schools - who better to test storybooks than students who are learning to read English for the first time?
ARTIFACT: GATHER 'ROUND CHILDREN RUBRIC
As students' empathy develops, they are introduced to more challenging (and, admittedly, somewhat absurd) design problems. The artifact below shows the final grading rubric for the 8th grade design challenge, "School For..." In this project, students use SketchUp Pro to design a school for a non-human creature from mythology or folklore. But before the building can begin, they must consider the unique needs of the user and what universal design features can help meet those needs. A school for mermaids, for example, might have canals and grottoes rather than hallways and classrooms. Students can build any fantasy world they like with this project, with a solid foundation in design thinking.
ARTIFACT: SCHOOL FOR... RUBRIC
ARTIFACT: GATHER 'ROUND CHILDREN RUBRIC
As students' empathy develops, they are introduced to more challenging (and, admittedly, somewhat absurd) design problems. The artifact below shows the final grading rubric for the 8th grade design challenge, "School For..." In this project, students use SketchUp Pro to design a school for a non-human creature from mythology or folklore. But before the building can begin, they must consider the unique needs of the user and what universal design features can help meet those needs. A school for mermaids, for example, might have canals and grottoes rather than hallways and classrooms. Students can build any fantasy world they like with this project, with a solid foundation in design thinking.
ARTIFACT: SCHOOL FOR... RUBRIC
d. Cultivate student expression and knowledge construction in choosing and using digital tools, platforms and resources to create, communicate, curate, and publish original works.
Many times, teachers get stuck on the idea that for whatever reason (ease of grading, classroom management, etc.), students must work on the same thing in the same way to demonstrate that they've learned the same material. I've found that by loosening the reigns and allowing students to explore different ways to engage with content, students will often surprise us with their results. We frequently talk about the difference between "list thinkers" and "spiderweb thinkers," and what tools are optimal for each brain. The student below, a decided spiderweb thinker, created this incredible mind map for her culminating 20% presentation on the brain and memory.
ARTIFACT: SHRIYA'S NEUROLOGY MIND MAP
While the brain of the creator is one important consideration in sharing learning, the needs of the audience are equally important. The student below wanted to learn how to make towel animals for her 20% project, after seeing interesting towel creations on a cruise. She knew that a visual topic would need a visual presentation, and chose to create a video showing off her skills.
ARTIFACT: MEGAN'S 20% VIDEO
ARTIFACT: SHRIYA'S NEUROLOGY MIND MAP
While the brain of the creator is one important consideration in sharing learning, the needs of the audience are equally important. The student below wanted to learn how to make towel animals for her 20% project, after seeing interesting towel creations on a cruise. She knew that a visual topic would need a visual presentation, and chose to create a video showing off her skills.
ARTIFACT: MEGAN'S 20% VIDEO
e. Cultivate and employ deliberate, collaborative student groups that are personally responsible for the success of the group as a whole.
Ruchi Sanghvi, the first female engineer at Facebook, says that, "All great things are built in teams." The computer engineering concept of paired programming plays a large part in our computer science activities in class. With one student as the driver and the other as the navigator, this pair created a Graffiti simulator that adds elements of the game Pictionary.
ARTIFACT: PAIRED PROGRAMMING PROJECT
The concept of collaboration with defined jobs is easily implemented within core classes as well, if the teacher is willing to let students explore and find their own best role. As a 7th grade pre-algebra teacher, we investigated algebraic expressions by creating formulas that would show the amount of exercise time needed to work off a given fast food item. With one researcher, one recorder, and (as needed) one organizer in each group, students came up with their own questions that they wanted to answer about exercise and fast food. After a bit of independent research, they soon found out that the answer depends on several factors!
ARTIFACT: FAST FOOD MATH EXTENSION QUESTIONS
ARTIFACT: PAIRED PROGRAMMING PROJECT
The concept of collaboration with defined jobs is easily implemented within core classes as well, if the teacher is willing to let students explore and find their own best role. As a 7th grade pre-algebra teacher, we investigated algebraic expressions by creating formulas that would show the amount of exercise time needed to work off a given fast food item. With one researcher, one recorder, and (as needed) one organizer in each group, students came up with their own questions that they wanted to answer about exercise and fast food. After a bit of independent research, they soon found out that the answer depends on several factors!
ARTIFACT: FAST FOOD MATH EXTENSION QUESTIONS