UbD for Real People (Understanding by Design refresher)

This workshop was focused on reviewing the Understanding by Design framework and presented some strategies for application.  Our district has been using UbD for at least the last 5 years.  UbD is the brain child of Grant Wiggins and he has worked with Jay McTighe.  If you need a primer on UbD, try this link "UbD in a Nutshell."  We actually used this in the workshop (try to overlook all of the typos--I'm wondering who did the proofreading!).

Recently, we implemented PLCs, the next step once UbD has been adopted.  This makes perfect sense to me now, but I will admit that I did not see the direct connection until this workshop.  They are so closely aligned that the goals of PLCs actually are structured to follow the stages of UbD:

1.  What do we want students to understand?  (UbD Stage 1)
2.  How will we know they understand it?  (UbD Stage 2)
3.  What will we do when they don't understand? (UbD Stage 3)
4.  What will we do when they already understand? (UbD Stage 3)
5.  What are the best practices for teaching? (UbD Stage 3)

Again, this is so clear and obvious to me now, but I really did not see it before!  Everyone in the district still uses the language of UbD, and of course our lesson planning is rooted in the framework as individual teachers.  And I know inherently that is how we work in our PLCs (start with the end in mind and develop common assessments).  But I never saw the clear connection until now.  It was also a good clarification of what we have been coming to terms with as a PLC.  In Stage 1 of UbD, knowledge and skills are identified and we had a handout that specifically said "resist listing all the possible knowledge and skill goals that are in any way related to the unit topic.  Identify only those goals that you plan to directly assess in Stage 2 and explicitly address in Stage 3."  It was nice to have that idea supported in this context.

Throughout this workshop we got some tips for how to integrate the components of UbD (transfer goals, essential questions, enduring understandings, etc) into our lessons.  This is information I have received a lot over the years, but it always helps to have a refresher.  I am also glad to be getting it all down to go over again in the future, now that I am blogging about my learning experiences!

I have taken many workshops with our facilitator Liz and she always does a good job of modeling techniques to use.  Some of what she did was Cooperative Learning type structures and then others were classroom and time management structures.

General learning and class/time management strategies:

• Process as Given/Process as Understood--After you give instructions, have a student repeat them for the class and the teacher gives clarification as needed.
• Your Time/Our Time/My Time--"Your Time" is the amount of time given to the students initially for the task.  "My Time" is how much time the teacher knows we can spend on the task and decides the most amount of extra time that can be given, say 3 minutes.  "Our Time" comes in when the given time is up, the teacher asks how much time is needed as a show of fingers (ie 0 to 3 minutes) and then the teacher averages the needs of the class to come up with Our Time which will be the extra time given to complete the task.
• Elevator pitch--Create a 1-2 minute summary of a particular topic to share (a CL structure would be good to use for the sharing)
• Inner/outer circle--I think this is technically a CL structure (Liz also had us do round robin, timed pair shares, stand up-hand up-pair up, and quiz-quiz-trade.  See my Cooperative Learning methods post for details on these).  For inner/outer circle, half of the class creates the outer circle and then the other half creates the inner circle, paired with one from the outer circle.  Sharing happens and then the teacher instructs either circle to move so many places to the right or left to find a new partner.
• Card sorting using Fan and Pick--another CL structure.  We had a set of cards to sort into three categories.  There are two obvious roles; fanner and picker/reader, that would rotate.  The group would discuss which category the card belongs to, ideally coming to a consensus and sort them accordingly.  Any cards that couldn't be placed easily and required more processing could be saved to til the end.
• Reading with purpose--three examples were demonstrated with Cooperative Learning structures as well.  1.  Highlight three important ideas and write why they are important. (CL was a timed-pair-share) 2.  + if you already know it, - if you don't (I like to use a 0), and ? if you have a question.  (CL was a mix-pair-share) 3.  Identify most important point (CL was a single round robin)
• Fingers/Thumb ratings--for quick formative assessment AND student self assessment.  For fingers, students rate from fist to five how comfortable they are with the material.  For thumbs, thumbs are up, down, or sideways.  I personally have trouble with only three choices of the thumb so I usually wobble... but it is good to mix it up with students.

Now about the components of UbD--writing EU's, EQ's, and transfer goals can be daunting (knowledge and skills aren't so bad).  Here are some tips that were helpful to think about from the workshop:

• Transfer goals can be short term or long term.  We tend to think about transfer goals as being huge and overarching.  You will have a few overarching transfer goals for the semester or year.  But, to accomplish those transfer goals, you need to have smaller transfer goals along the way.  Skills from your Knowledge and Skills will feed into transfer goals.  
• Enduring Understandings are the "forever and always."  What do you expect the students to take when they leave your class?  These are written in teacher language.  Limit them to maybe 5 per semester.  There are the 6 Facets of Understanding that can guide what demonstrates "understanding."
• Essential Questions vs. Topical Questions--I had never heard about a distinction between essential and topical questions, so this was supremely useful.  You may have only 5 essential questions for the whole semester (say one or two per unit) but you could have topical questions every day.  All questions should be written in kid-friendly language, as they are meant to be shared with students.  Good essential questions we know don't have just one right answer.  But think of it in these terms; is it debatable?  Could people interpret the question differently and come to different conclusions?  And I'd like to add here; can the question be answered with a claim that is supported by evidence? 

Now that we have a better feel for the terminology, and have written TGs, EUs and EQs, and identified K&S, what do we do with them in the classroom?  We generally know that we should post the EQs and Liz suggests even posting your knowledge and skills for the unit.  Also, it is not enough just to post them.  Here are some ways that were suggested for students to interact with the framework of your lesson plan:

Have students talk about/answer the EQs at the beginning and end of the unit--question early and often.  These are perfect questions to use for a brainstorm rally robin to get students thinking.  I will admit I need to be better about using EQs.  Now that I am becoming more comfortable with Cooperative Learning, I think I will be more comfortable asking students such tough questions.  Liz had us write our thinking in response to one of her essential questions on a post-it and put it next to the question she had listed on chart paper at the beginning of the workshop, then again at the end of the knowledge acquisition component.  I think I would have them do a write-pair-share or something with the questions at the beginning of the unit and again at the end (on the same paper) so they could see their learning.

A follow up to the idea of working with your essential questions with the students is having them generate questions about the essential questions.  Like, what do you need to know in order to answer that question?  I imagine creating a document with the EQ in one column, and the next column would be for them to write whatever they are thinking and one more column for what questions they have about the EQ.  At the end of the unit I would have them reflect on whether their questions were answered (and what questions they may still have) and how they would answer the EQ at that time.  Of course I would incorporate CL structures along the way for this process to encourage engagement and thinking.

Have the students self assess their understanding of the knowledge and skills for a unit.  This required showing them the knowledge and skills you intend for them to acquire during the unit.  I have gotten slightly better at this.  My co-teacher and I developed a self assessment tool that worked really well this past year where we listed the learning targets, and for each target students had a bar with a continuum from "I have no clue" to "I can teach it."  At the beginning of a unit, we would have them shade where they were and date it.  Then, after a formative assessment we would have them re-evaluate the specific targets that were assessed.  Before the test we would have them do one more self assessment and set goals for preparing for the "summative" assessment (I put this in quotes because our unit test was really one more formative before the final which was the true summative).

After Liz taught us about some of the knowledge and skills she wanted us to acquire she said "now this is what I think I've taught you."  I love that quote and am totally going to steal it.  She had us write something about our learning of each.  I would use this idea when we revisit our targets and have them discuss in a CL structure what they have learned so far about a particular target.

After Liz's presentation we had break out groups that we could choose from.  She worked with newer teachers on unpacking standards.  There were three others to choose from; GRASPS, WHERETO, and High Level Questioning.  GRASPS is a way to write performance events and a colleague of mine went to that one and shared her info with me.  Here is the gist:

Goal:  Your task is... The goal is... The problem or challenge is... The obstacles to overcome are...
Role:  You have been asked to... You are... Your job is...
Audience:  Your clients are... The target audience is... You need to convince...
Situation:  The context you find yourself in... The challenge involves dealing with...
Product, performance and purpose:  You will create a... in order to..., You need to develop... so that...
Standards and criteria for success:  Your performance needs to... Your work will be judged by... Your product must meet all of the following standards... A successful result will...

I went to the breakout session on questioning.   As I mentioned before, I think higher level questioning will become easier through cooperative learning structures.  The biggest idea I took away from the questioning section was that low level (basement) questions reiterate the text or content, middle level (ground floor) questions require the text or content to create an answer, and high level (high rise or penthouse) questions are an extrapolation from the text.  You may use evidence from the text to support an answer but it requires a lot of your own thinking and ideas.

Finally, I also went to a breakout session about WHERETO.  WHERETO is an acronym like GRASPS but this is for unit design as opposed to assessment design.  This is what it stands for:

Where/Why:  these are your goals for learning which should be presented to students.  You should demystify the big ideas, EQs, evaluation criteria and discuss why we are learning it.
Hook:  the attention grabber.  Leads into lesson (ie an engaging story, analogy, connection to life, some fun media, etc)
Equip/Explore:  what the students need to learn--how you will teach it, being aware of lack of experience and making sure to include all necessary tools for learning.
Rethink/Revise:  students should make improvements based on self-assessment and feedback, sometimes posing a second essential question helps.
Evaluate:  student self-evaluation and reflection, allow students to process learning (I personally think this seems a bit out of order and should come before rethink and revise but ideally you would have them evaluate again after that process too)
Tailoring:  differentiation in content, process, and product.  Criteria for evaluation should be the same even if the process or product are different.
Organization:  sequence of learning to develop and deepen understanding.  Allow students to explore questions early and often.

I think this is supposed to be sequential but of course tailoring and organization would be part of your planning process, so I'm not sure... The main thing I took from this session (and kind of in conjunction with the rest of the workshop) is that I need to be more up front with our learning goals.  I need to give students a road map!

Collaborative Problem Solving 101

I mentioned in an earlier post that there are issues with PLC's.  The main issues that we have all boil down to human nature.  Teachers share a lot of common characteristics; we are very passionate people, we like to be the boss, and we tend to think we know what's best a lot of the time.  Put a bunch of these people in a room and ask them to work together and it is a recipe for conflict.  Working in groups as educators can be very frustrating, clashes inevitably arise, which derails us and wastes a lot of time.  This workshop was about how to try to overcome emotion and work collaboratively as a team.  It is a set of tools to use when we are acting too much from our hearts and need to act more from our heads.

The facilitators related problem solving in the Pareto Principle; 80% of our troubles come from 20% of our problems.  We can solve a lot of our problems fairly easily but there are those few that cause us so much trouble, and those are the ones that we work on in our PLCs!  We used the book "Got Data? Now What?" by Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman, focusing on Chapter 3 'Avoiding Reality Wars.'  There was a quote near the beginning of this chapter that I feel does a good job of summarizing what the problem solving process is getting at.  This quote is from Daniel Moynihan (former US Senator), "You're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts."  The problem solving model presented helps us focus on the facts and less on our feelings and opinions.

The model we were following is a cyclical model.  It is essentially what we all do naturally anyway, or at least what we think we do naturally.  I found the graphic below to illustrate the model.



As educators, we are also very solution-oriented.  A lot of the time, we tend to jump to solutions before really defining the problem and the cause.  We often jump from Step 1 right to Step 3.  In the framework presented, Step 1 is Problem identification, Step 2 is Root Cause Analysis, Step 3 is Action Plan, and Step 4 is Monitor Progress.

Problem Identification
This is a little harder than it seems.  The facilitators showed a great clip from Moneyball, where Brad Pitt is trying to get the scouts to get to the real problem.  A lot of times, we make generalizations without defining problems specifically and more often than not, we are focusing on symptoms instead of the true problem.  When teachers come together there is a lot of venting of frustrations.  Let's be honest, a lot of meetings diverge into complaining sessions (PG term for b*$!@ fests).  The "Got Data?" book says to "change complaints into problem statements."  There are examples of refining problems into better problem statements.  For example, instead of saying that the problem is 'kids don't turn in homework,' which is really more of a complaint, reframe it to "The problem is that some of our students do not see a connection between the homework we assign and successful learning."  The second statement is one you can really do something with, in particular start looking for a root cause.

Before moving on to the next step, though a problem statement needs to be written so that it includes the following components:  it is measurable, there is a current state and a desired state, and it is focused on student outcomes.  Also, there should be no "because."  Plus, it should be rooted in data--there should be evidence (not a huge surprise--we are all pretty used to this by now, I'm sure).  At this point it is really hard to not write a goal, or a reason, or what we're going to do about it.  I know this from personal experience because we actually went through this process with a set of data.  This is where the framework becomes important.  Our inclination is to just get to the solution, but we need to really figure out the problem before we move further.  Though I will say that since we were thinking about all of those other things at this point, it did make the subsequent steps a little bit easier!

Root Cause Analysis
Often, we jump to trying to figure out what to do about the problem instead of really trying to get at what is causing the problem.  In the "Got Data?" book, there was a section on crafting an inquiry.  The idea is to construct the concern as a question.  Essentially, you could state your problem as a question to start searching for causes.  Some suggested inquiries for the lack of homework completion are:  "What are some differences between students who complete homework and those who don't?"  and "How can we determine students' readiness for independent practice?"  One of the strategies for root cause analysis that our facilitators mentioned was an Assumptions wall.  Basically, list out all of the assumptions we have about the problem to get them out right off the bat.  Maybe we feel like material isn't being covered the way we want it to in a previous class or we think the textbook that we have is a piece of junk.  This is a way to avoid the elephant in the room, in particular if you are looking at problem solving for a specific student.  Maybe we know the student was arrested over the weekend or we suspect drug usage.  These are things that may not come up when we are trying to problem solve, but are the source of pent up frustration and getting them out up front could help productivity.  This kind of venting process might also help you to think outside the politically correct box and find a root cause that wouldn't have been easy to find without digging deeper.  Once you have a list of assumptions, sorting them into groups based on things we can't control, and things we can have an impact on will be a good place to start in identifying root cause and eventually developing an action plan.

Now it is time to write a goal!  Remember when I said how hard it was not to write the problem as a goal?  Due to the components required, writing the problem really It really lends itself to writing a SMART goal.  If your district is like mine, you are well versed in the identifiers of a SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound), since the PLC work is supposed to start with writing a SMART goal.  Now I understand that we want to start by identifying the problem and finding a root cause before we even think about writing a SMART goal.  It makes sense, doesn't it?  Really, if your problem is written well, it should just take a bit of tweaking to make it into a SMART goal, at least that was what we found!  And make sure to frame your goals in the positive (mention how much success in an area will improve instead of how much you will reduce negative issues).

Action Plan Development/Implementation
The next section in the "Got Data?" book is about generating a hypothesis.  Of course, as a science teacher this speaks to me!  But it does make a lot of sense.  The authors mention "those with the greatest passion or energy about an issue often impose solutions that not all group members may understand or own."  This is way to common, I experience this all the time and  oftentimes I am the passionate guilty party myself!  They suggest that "reframing solutions as hypotheses creates a path for shared exploration and converts a reality war into a data-team study."  The idea is to again remove emotion as much as possible from an emotionally charged situation, and frame passionate suggestions in a more productive way.  Some hypotheses related to the homework issue; "If we provided more guided practice and used formative assessment to determine readiness, then students would have the confidence to complete their homework assignments successfully" or "If we provided choice in assignments, such as how many or which examples to complete, then students would be more likely to complete their homework."

Once you have some ideas for possible solutions, you want to think about where you will get the most bang for your buck.  Some solutions could have a huge impact but require a lot of time and resources.  Other solutions may be quick and easy but without a lot of impact.  You can create an impact/effect matrix to evaluate how much effort is required compared to how much impact is attained.  Make sure you give yourself enough time to see progress, but keep it short.  You don't want to make a plan in August for which you aren't checking for progress until February.  It happens all the time that we get to the end of the year and we have run out of time, so try to make a time frame that reasonable.

Monitor Progress
Of course, to know if your plan is solving the problem, you need to continuously monitor progress via the measurement you chose to measure progress.  It helps to display the progress in visual ways, both for members of the problem solving group and for the students involved when appropriate.  Then, celebrate successes!  And when something isn't working, go back through the steps and see what needs to be changed--maybe you weren't focusing on the right problem, maybe the root cause was incorrect.  There are many times that what we try doesn't work, I mean that's the nature of teaching, isn't it?  And that is totally fine as long as you are willing to try something else.  This is instinctual for a lot of us, I think, but it is really easy to get discouraged and determine that a problem is not solvable.  You may have bitten off more than you can chew, so if you go back through the cycle you may find some aspect of it that you can address to mitigate the effects of the large problem.

We were given protocols to help with each of these steps.  The majority of them look like they come from the book "The Data Coach's Guide to Improving Learning for All Students" by a whole bunch of ladies (N. Love, K. Stiles, S. Mundry, and K. DiRanna) and The Handbook for SMART School Teams by A. Conzemius and J. O'Nei  Here is the list:
Problem ID protocols:  Stoplight Highlight; Data-Driven Dialogue; Here's What, So What, Now What?
Root Cause protocols:  RIOT and ICEL matrix, Why? Why? Why?, Fishbone Cause-and-Effect Analysis, Verify Causes Tree, Cause Cards, Assumptions Wall
Action Plan protocols:  Impact/Effort Matrix, Logic Model, Stages of Concern, Level of Intervention Guidelines, (www.interventioncentral.org), What works clearinghouse, Chart Dog
Progress Monitoring protocols:  Moving Picture tools, Run Chart, Control Chart

There were also a couple of teaching techniques that our facilitators used that I liked as well.  One was called red card/green card and the other was called "final word" and was for table sharing, kind of in a round robin format.  The colored cards were used for evaluating problem statements as good or not so good.  If it looked like a good one, we held up green and for not so good, we held up red.  The table sharing involved the "presenter" having 2 minutes to share (the quote we found most significant from a reading) and then each group member had some time to respond, and then the presenter got the final word.

Side note:  some awesome clips they showed us from Moneyball and Apollo 13 came from the website www.movieclips.com which looks like a super useful website, so I thought I'd share!

This workshop was really useful, but it really needs to be something that an entire group goes through together.  I worry that it will be difficult to pull off this system in a group that is used to the status quo unless they have had this training on problem solving as well.  I hope that it will help me as a contributor to problem solving, though!

The Mastery Classroom

This workshop was definitely interesting.  I felt super fortunate to be at this workshop because the facilitators were 8th grade science teachers at the middle school that feeds into my high school, and it really helps to get an idea of what they get before they come to me!  The idea of the Mastery classroom was presented, which is being used in the 8th grade science classes.  It was so interesting hearing about how the science classes in the 8th grade are run since I teach so many freshman and they are coming to me next!

The Mastery classroom is one in which each student works at their own pace.  There is very little common instruction.  Basically, the entire year is laid out in a series of learning experiences and formative and summative assessments.  The students work through learning targets, completing checklists of learning opportunites (in the science classroom it can be reading, practice, labs, etc) and then they take formative assessments along the way, which they can retake until they achieve mastery and do not move on until they have.  Then, once they have achieved mastery on all of the learning targets they take a summative asssessment.  Here are some resources that they gave us for info:

• Benjamin Bloom (kind of the father of the idea of Mastery)
• Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams--wrote a book "Flipping the Classroom" in which they talked about Mastery
• Kelly Morgan--wrote a book called "Mastery Learning in the Science Classroom"

Teaching in this model requires a TON of prep work.  I imagine it would be extremely difficult for a new teacher to do without a lot of support.  Here are some tips they gave for what has made their lives easier as they have been working through the process:

• Have checklists that match the colors of the assessments (or use a shape/design in the upper right corner)
• Keep bins with the learning opportunities organized
• Use naming that is consistent between the checklist and the learning opportunities
• Make videos of lessons (in a kind of a flipped model) to provide as learning opportunities
• Kids need to have headphones
• For students that fly through the material or if they can show on a pre-assessment that they already know it, have them work on an independent project that they present to the class
• Have a designated testing area in the room
• Provide answer keys for learning opportunities but keep them all in once place that students have to come to to use them and leave the keys there, this is also a no phone zone!
• Have students use peer checks of their notebooks to make sure they have completed the learning opportunities
• Provide "re-learning opportunities" sheets--checklists that list learning opportunities to revisit or other types of remedial learning opportunities for students to go through before they re-test
• Create a test corrections and reflection for students to complete before they re-test in which they list the question they missed, the correct answer, where they found the correct answer, and why they missed it.   Here is a list of the reflection choices they gave the students:  

1. I read the question incorrectly.
2. I misread the answer I selected.
3. I did not read all of the available choices.
4. I did not study this particular topic enough.
5. I need to put more detail into my answer.

6. I did not understand what the question was asking.
7. Other…(If you choose this selection, you must include a detailed written response explaining why you answered the question incorrectly.)

For videos, they mentioned that students prefer if it is your voice on the video and they also like to see your face.  The software they used is called Camtasia, but it apparently costs money!  There is free version called Camstudio.  Here are some other possibililtes:  Tiny Take, SnagIt, Jing, Screencast-o-matic.  They suggested recording a vocal track with each of your powerpoint slides and then making it into a video in Movie Maker, which I thought was pretty brilliant!

Digital Citizenship Resources

Today's workshop was resource share for teaching digital citizenship.   The website we were looking at for resources is Common Sense Media.

This Cyberwyze guide to digital citizenship video (below) gives a good overview of the resources that Common Sense Media has available.

This video is a good intro, but it does not give this site justice!  There is so so much there!  I cannot even begin to explain how thoughtful and robust and visually appealing the resources are.  You have to see it to believe it--so I recommend taking a look around.  Under "Digital Citizenship" you get a drop-down menu where all of the resources are housed.  I especially liked the posters available.  There are a couple of pretty good ones about oversharing and posting appropriate pictures.  When I clicked on this one about oversharing, I noticed it was produced in collaboration with Flocabulary, a site I had never heard of before.  Apparently, Flocabulary is a collection of educational raps (unfortunately it is not free).  The poster looked like it could be the lyrics of a rap, so I did a quick Google search and found the video below that goes along with the poster.

Along these same lines, the facilitator shared with us a simple checklist for students to go through to (hopefully) prevent sharing something they shouldn't:
1.  Would your mother approve?
2.  Could it embarass your grandmother?
3.  Could it hurt you from getting a job?

Just a couple of other tidbits, there is a book "Digital Citizenship in Schools" by Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey that looks like a good resource.  Also, there is a set of standards called the ISTE standards that have some references to digital citizenship.  I didn't even know there was a set of standards for technology!  Also, Google has a digital citizenship curriculum and a set of curriculum specific to YouTube.  A colleague also brought up an activity through the FBI on digital citizenship.  And finally, I stumbled across this website that has a list of resources.  The Common Sense Media website also has a lot of training on digital citizenship, and you can even become a Certified Educator.

Advanced Google Spreadsheets--Plus integration of Doctopus with Google Classroom

This workshop was highly technical, so I will do the best I can to share resources and techniques I learned!  Bear with me here, this is one that could be very confusing if you haven't spent much time working with Google Sheets, Classroom, and add ons like Doctopus.

Our awesome Google certified instructor Bill showed us an integration of Doctopus and Google spreadsheets.  Doctopus takes some getting used to and I mentioned it in my post on Google Classroom.  There is a video on that post that I think does an excellent job of walking you through how to get started with Doctopus (add on for Google sheets).

One really nice thing about Doctopus that sets it apart from Google Classroom is that Doctopus produces a spreadsheet for each assignment where you have a list of the students, the Google key for their assignment, and a clickable link to that assignment.  But I learned something awesome at this workshop!  You can do this with a Google Classroom assignment as well!  Once you have assigned on Google Classroom, you can go into Doctopus and choose the option "Ingest Google CR assignment."  Then you will be able to choose from a list of all of the assignments you have created in that class to create a spreadsheet for.  You essentially get a slicked up version of this spreadsheet through the interface on Google Classroom when you click on the assignment, but it actually takes two clicks for each assignment instead of the one when you are looking at it from the spreadsheet.  Also, you can use this spreadsheet for what the workshop was really all about--compiling data from student assignments (example used in this class was a rubric) into one neat easy-to-read spreadsheet.

Tip on this:  I was not getting the "Ingest Google CR assignment" option on Doctopus so I did a quick Google search and found this awesome Google+ community for Doctopus.  I was super excited when I saw the blurb from the page below--this just further confirms my theory that if I am having a problem with something, there is probably someone else who has had the same problem and blogged about it.  Now I can be contributing to this wealth of knowledge!  You just have to know how to search (which students need sooo much help with, let me just say).  Just a side note here, look how awesome Google is at recognizing synonyms to search terms.

So anyway, the solution was that your Google Classroom folder has to be named as the default, which is "Classroom."  I had changed the name of the folder to make it faster to find.  But, it looks like Doctopus can still find it if you have the "Classroom" folder nested in another folder.  This is how I got around the naming issue.  I have a folder that I named with asterisks at the beginning so it would be at the top of my list of folders in Drive and put the officially named "Classroom" folder inside that folder.

Now, what Bill was showing us is a project he worked on with the elementary level teachers to create a rubric that the teacher could fill out for each student to grade assignments throughout the semester.  This rubric was shared with the students, distributed through Doctopus, though you could do this with Google Classroom as well (but you CANNOT set permissions for view only--Google classroom will make a copy for each student that they have editing rights to and you would have to manually change the editing rights for each rubric, so Doctopus is a slightly better option at this point for this type of situation).  Each student has their own rubric that they can see and so as you add grades to it, the student is able to see those grades.  Now the really awesome thing is that you can import that data onto a dashboard spreadsheet and see all of the grades at once in one place!  That is the really tricky part.  It involves spreadsheet equations that can seem a little daunting.  Here is the link that Bill created as a quick reference guide, and here is a video tutorial he made for how he set it up in case you want to see the details.  I am going to give you a few notes on the equations that I learned that are good overall notes for using spreadsheet equations when importing data from other spreadsheets.  Here is a sample web address for a Google sheet for reference:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cLlGCD0HTnuDNgvoUAwPqQKr2nhaudXh7_qRDtkG0Ao/edit

The part highlighted in red is the unique key that is tied to this particular sheet (there is a key for any Google product you have in your drive).  When I list "key" from now on, this is what I am talking about.  You can just copy the key from your address bar when you are in the sheet and paste it into the equation, replacing the word "key" that you see in the equation below.  The key is the way to reference the spreadsheet you want to pull data from into your new dashboard spreadsheet.  Here is the equation for importing.  (For the parts underlined, you enter your own info):

=IMPORTRANGE("key","tab name!firstcell:lastcell")

So if I wanted to import data from the sheet link above, and the information was on the tab labeled "New Roster" and the information started in cell A2 and ended in cell B19, the equation would look like this:

=IMPORTRANGE("1cLlGCD0HTnuDNgvoUAwPqQKr2nhaudXh7_qRDtkG0Ao","New Roster!A2:B19")

Note that for these equations, you will get a REF error and you will need to click the cell and click "Allow Access" before the data will be imported.  To establish your dashboard spreadsheet in the first place, this info would be taken from the assignment spreadsheet that Doctopus produced or that you ingested from Google Classroom.  You would want to start with importing the students' first and last names and they key for each of their assignments.  Once you have this imported, you can use the assignment key as a reference for each student, so just use the cell that holds the key in your formula.  If I wanted to pull data for student Susie Q.'s rubric (let's say her rubric key is listed in cell C2) from the tab we called "Writing" for the average grades (listed in the 7th row on the sheet) for all assignments listed across many columns (ie D-P), my formula would look like this:

=IMPORTRANGE("C2","Writing!D7:P7")

If you are going to do this type of import, it is important that the criteria for the rubric is listed vertically while the part that is filled out is listed horizantally.

Once you have your dashboard set up, you can do conditional formatting to see certain grades as a certain color which is helpful for getting info at a glance.  Bill also showed us how to use Data Validation to get a drop down menu of options for a cell so that filling out the rubric is fast and easy.  (Right click on a cell to get the Data Validation option).  You could have options be 1, 2, 3 and write a note about what the numbers mean (see below).  Or you could have words, but you would need to use some fancy "if, then" equations to do the conversions to numbers if you wanted to get averages.

Now when I hover over the cell, I get the descriptions of the options (top pic below) and when I click on the cell, I get that list of choices (bottom pic below).

That's about it!  I will definitely need some practice with all of this, but there were little tidbits here and there that I can start using right away to make grading more efficient!  My biggest concern is that using both Doctopus and Google classroom will result in the students having multiple folders to try to figure out how to deal with.  As long as you are really clear about where you want students to find what you are pushing out to them, this shouldn't be a problem, and as they get used to the process it will become easier.  I like having the option on Doctopus to choose more permissions for the assignments AND by the way, Doctopus has a differentiation option which allows you to send different assignments to different students, Classroom does not have that option (yet).  

Also don't forget about Goobric.  The Goobric rubrics are not speadsheets and could not be used for integration this way (I don't think... I will have to play around with it) but Goobric is a really awesome way to attach rubrics to student work.  It is an extension for Chrome and is available in the Chrome store.  As I was going back over my notes and working though this post, I came across this video, Google Classroom, Doctopus, Goobric, and Docappender for Self, Peer, and Teacher Assessment.  I haven't watched it yet, but I am going to leave it here to take a look at later!

Google Earth

This workshop was actually specifically about Google Tour Builder, which uses Google Earth.  But, I learned so much about Google Earth in general, this post will be cover ways to use Google Earth in your classroom (including Tour Builder).

If you want to know about all things Googly (as our certified Google instructor Bill puts it) you can follow the Google Educator group in Missouri on Google+.  Bill let us in on this awesome way to keep your finger on the Google pulse.  Bill got to visit Google HQ last summer, and he always knows the latest and greatest things that are happening in the world of Google.  I love his workshops because I always learn about something super new and cool.  In this workshop, it was Google Cardboard.  This is a new virtual reality interface that uses cardboard goggles.  You place a phone in the goggles and through integration with Google Earth, you can go on expeditions.  This is the next up-and-coming thing in Google for Education.  But before we all have access to the goggles... Here is how Google Earth is awesome and can potentially be used in your classroom:

First things first:  probably the most important thing I learned in this workshop is that Google Earth (and therefore Google Tour Builder) works best in Mozilla Firefox.  Umm wut?  I know, it's super weird.  It has to do with the fact that Google updates Chrome so frequently that it can't keep up with itself...  or Earth can't keep up with Chrome... or something like that.  Anyway, just know that even though virtually every other Google process (drive, in particular) works much better in Chrome, Google Earth does not.  So go on and open your dusty old Firefox browser.  And then make sure you have the Google Earth plugin.  And then you will be golden.
~Side note here; I was attempting to download Google Earth to my computer (in order to open KMZ files, I'll get to that in a minute) and had an error with the installation.  After a Google search of the error code, I found that windows has an install/uninstall fixer and it totally works, so try it.~
~Another side note; Because Chrome does not play nicely with Google Earth, Chromebooks are not the best choice.  This would be a good time to use desktops or laptops if you have access to them.  However, Google Earth and Tour Builder WILL work in Chrome.  The visual experience is just much much better in Firefox with the Google Earth plugin.~

Now, a little about Google Earth.  I had no idea all the cool stuff you could find on Google Earth.  We all know about the little cars with the cameras that go around documenting our world for street view.  But there are people with Google camera backpacks hiking, diving into oceans, and walking through museums (just to name a few) getting awesome images for us and they are all just sitting there waiting for us to find them!  Did you know that Google Earth also has maps of the moon and Mars?  One of the first things we did was go to the Google Tour Builder website, and take a look at some samples in the gallery.  This is the one that really amazed me (remember you want to view in Firefox with the Google Earth plugin to get the best experience).  There are pictures in this tour that capture underwater life off the coast of an island.  We are so used to the idea of Google Earth having street view pictures of roads and buildings, but I had no idea that these images were here for us to see.  So I thought--what if I went and looked at the Galapagos Islands?  Would I see wildlife?  No such luck, it hasn't been photographed yet.  But Bill told us you can apply to be a photographer for Google Earth.  If you are going on a trip, you can take a Google camera and document these amazing landscapes and seascapes for them.  This set me on a hunt for other cool things to see.  Really the only good example I found beyond the under water images from the tour I linked to above was one of a herd of elephants that was captured in Chad (coordinates 10.903497 N,19.93229 E).  You can see it at VirtualGlobetrotting, among other things like the inside of the Lourve Museum (well, hey there Mona Lisa)!



Some tips for working with Google Earth; if you are dragging the little man to get street view, go for something highlighted in blue.  These areas are documented so you can actually get a good picture at that level.  Everything else will be zoomed in satellite images.  Use the advanced search settings to look for KML and KMZ files.  You can open these in Google Earth and find some pretty cool stuff that people have created.  There is a way to link them into the Tour Builder, but I was having a bit of trouble with that!  Bill recommended saving the file to your drive and then using the drive link in Tour Builder, but I haven't tried it yet.

In Google Tour Builder, there is a nice feature that you can look at historical images of a location.  Some areas have more historical images than others.  I zeroed in on Greenland, hoping to see an evolution of ice there.  The images went back to the 1930s but I didn't have a lot of luck seeing a drastic difference at the level I was looking.  As I zoomed in, the images available did not go back as far.  When students turn in a Google Tour, they will be essentially sharing it with you through a link.  Bill gave a great tip for students turning in a link--create a form with their name and a box to paste their link.  Then, you will have all of the links together in a spreadsheet.  So smart!  I can definitely use this for other turn-ins when Google Classroom isn't really the best mode.

Here are a few ideas of ways to use Google Tour Builder that my colleague and I came up with:

• Timeline of atomic history
• Timeline of astronomers
• Map locations of nuclear power plants or other types of power plants
• Plot the path of migration of finches from the mainland through the Galapagos Islands
• Map the path of a historically significant group or event (for example, Freedom Riders)
• Show the locations of scenes in a book (for example, all of the stops in Around the World in 80 Days)--there is actually a whole website devoted to this kind of thing, see Google Lit Trips
• Have students map the path they take to get to school and have determine things like distance/displacement, speed/velocity, gas consumption, etc.  Then map everyone in Tour with school as a Hub.  (This one we came up with during a culturally responsive teaching workshop later in the week)

Here are some other links to check out for Google Earth/maps stuff:
Bill's link for our workshop
Google treks
Smarty pins
Geoguesser
Geosettr (create your own Geoguesser game)
Google maps education
Map lessons at Real World Math

Have fun getting Googly!

Google Classroom

I have been using Google Classroom a bit but I haven't used it a ton.  I plan to make a tutorial for getting started with Google Classroom one of these days for any newbies out there, but I will tell you that your school needs to have a Google school account and you need to request access from your administrator for your teacher account before you can even get started.  This post will be more useful for you if you are already using Google Classroom, as I will cover some tips and tricks that I learned for using it.  These are things I learned in the workshop that I did not stumble across on my own while working what little I have with Google Classroom.

First of all, you can look at students' work while they are in progress before they turn it in.  Once the student has created a doc, pres, etc within the assignment you created, a folder will be created in your class folder for that assignment.  All of the files that students have created will be in that folder while they are working and you will have access to them from that folder before they even turn them in.  This is a handy tool to give feedback while students are working.

A follow up to stalking students while they are working... If you have used Doctopus with Goobric before, now they are fully integrated with classroom!  I never used them before because it seemed so complicated to create rosters and assignments.  Classroom makes the process much more streamlined.  This video does a great job of explaining the process:

The video above is extremely helpful in breaking down the process of integrating Goobric (and therefore also Doctopus) with Google Classroom.  Lots of good info and tips in there, so I will not reiterate them here.  Here is one more video with some tips for Google Classroom that are helpful for beginners and one more here that is superr long but probably very informational!

For those of you that are familiar with Flubaroo, it is supposed to work pretty seamlessly with Google Classroom as well.  It is one of those things that I am hoping to start using in the future, but don't know too much about yet.  Basically, it is a way to automate grading for multiple choice questions you create in a Google Form format.

Now, speaking of Google Forms, one of my colleagues had been running into trouble with assigning a Google Form to his students and not getting them to appear as "Done" in Classroom once they have submitted the form.  Forms doesn't really play well with Classroom yet, although they are updating all the time so hopefully this will be fixed in a future update.  One really useful thing that we did at this workshop was join each other's classes as a student so that we could see the student view as well.  This was extremely beneficial and I highly recommend it if you have a colleague that wouldn't mind being a guinea pig for you.  So we played around with forms and it turns out, in order for you as the teacher to see that a student has completed the form through Classroom, the student would have to click the "Mark as done" button.  It sounds simple enough, but to rely on a student remembering to click it once they have completed a form and clicked submit on the form is a losing prospect, if you ask me.  So for now, we will just have to track completion on the report that you get from form submissions, as you have outside of Classroom.

Another application within chrome/drive that is supposed to play nicely with Classroom is called Autocrat, which is an add on for Google Sheets.  This was just mentioned as something to look at, which I haven't really done yet.

One kind of sidestep--have you noticed that Classroom now allows you to save drafts of announcements and assignments?  I love this because it allows me to create something but not "post" it until I am ready.  I didn't really like that I couldn't plan in advance without Classroom pushing out whatever I was working on to students before I was ready.  This is especially annoying when Classroom emails students notifications about anything you post.  It is an awesome feature normally, but becomes frustrating when you get questions from students like "were we supposed to do that assignment for today?" when really you didn't even want them to see it until a certain point during class.  So this issue is no longer an issue!

Here are a couple of features that were mentioned, I stumbled across, etc that were not specifically related to Google Classroom:  First, the facilitator mentioned Read&Write, which is an extension for Google Chrome.  R&W will read text in Google docs and other supported pages aloud.  And it is pretty cool.  Only problem is she told us after we installed it that we only get a 30 day trial.  The cost for an individual license is $100 a year.  BUT guess what!  If you read the info when you install the extension, it mentions that teachers get a free premium account.  Here is the website to register.  We will have to get creative if we want to use it for students who have tests read, etc in their IEPs, if we only have it available on our computers, but it is pretty awesome that they let us have a free account.

Next, I have a colleague who has been using a flipped classroom model for the last school year and has yet to find a system that will allow her to verify that students have watched a video.  We went to a standards based grading workshop last summer where we learned about Blendspace as a way to incorporate interventions within your own classroom (because we got to do what we got to do until there is a systemic change in our building!  See my post on PLC's where I mentioned the way interventions are "supposed" to happen).  With Blendspace, you can create lessons for a group of students to work through independently  while you are working on remediation with others.  On Blendspace, you are supposed to be able to confirm whether students have watched a video.  But, wouldn't it be nice if you could link to a video on Classroom and it were able to track if they actually watched it?  Sure, they can click "Mark as done" but that wouldn't really tell you what you wanted to know.  Let's hassle Google about this feature!  But in the meantime, it got me thinking about a post I had read about a website called Edpuzzle.  It looks like it is an app you can add to Chrome too.  With Edpuzzle, you can use any Youtube video (either your own or someone else's)--you can crop videos, add voice messages at various points, embed questions, and best of all, see which students have watched the videos and even which sections they may have had to re-watch.  It looks pretty awesome, I'm excited to try it!  Here is an overview of its capabilities:

I also got some other ideas for my transition from Moodle to using more of Google Classroom and Sites.  I got to meet a while back with one of our technology specialists for a one on one development about Moodle backup that was really useful  Keep a look out for a post about it in the future and I will include some of my other ideas there.

Kagan Cooperative Learning Institute Part 2 (down to the nitty gritty)

I suggest reading my previous post on the Kagan Cooperative Learning institute-Part 1 if you haven't already.  In that post, I go over some pedagogy and tips for integrating CL into your classroom.  I also wrote a previous post about a CL workshop last summer, which includes more structures.  Also, full disclosure: the Kagan group is a company and they do sell a lot of materials that can be used for a lot of these structures.  But, it is totally possible (and easy!) to integrate these structures without spending any money.

In order to determine whether what you are having students do is truly Cooperative Learning, it needs to meet all of the qualities of CL, as outlined by the acronym PIES.  If it doesn't, it is either independent work or group work, but not true Cooperative Learning.  The aim of hitting all of these points is to increase engagement from all students and helping to prevent "hiding" or opting out by some students.

When integrating Kagan structures, you will obviously be asking a lot of content related questions.  But don't forget to weave in a lot of "fun" type questions that will help with teambuilding in your classroom.  Remember F^3 from my part 1 post:  Fun-first and frequent!  It won't take a ton of time but it will go a long way to build good connections in students' brains and help students get to know each other and feel like a valued member of your classroom.

Now, without further ado, here are some of the Kagan structures that were presented (and used! at the workshop)--

Rally Robin: probably the most basic and easiest to use quickly on the spot.  It is a variation of what has been called "turn and talk" but actually follows the CL model.  Basically, you give a prompt and two students take turns responding to the prompt.  This is ideal for a prompt that could have many short answers, like a list.  Remember, fun first!  Try "what are some of your favorite ice cream flavors?" or "what are some places you have always wanted to visit?" Jeff mentioned that it can cause a brain conflict for students to make a single choice of a "favorite" so it helps to use the language "one of your favorites" which I totally get because I have a hard time making a decision myself!  It also helps for the idea of Rally Robin where you want them to generate a long list.  Some content area questions could include "what comes to mind when you think of science?" or "what are the steps to solve this problem or process?" which is a good one to use as a quick review/processing of a procedure just after you have presented it, especially if they still have access to notes to reference.

Timed Pair Share:  like a Rally Robin, but each member of the pair has a certain amount of time to share.  This is used for a prompt that requires a longer response, usually each partner shares once and they are given maybe 30 sec to a minute to share depending on the topic.  The tip to remember this one is "Topic-Time-Think-Share-Respond-Share-Respond."  The teacher gives the topic and how much time they will have to share.  Then, give them 10 sec of think time (or more if the topic requires it).  Sometimes you may even want to have them write their thoughts since they will be talking a bit longer.  Then one partner shares, the other partner gives praise, and they switch.  You can give the students some ideas for responses like "Thanks for sharing!" or "One thing I learned listening to you was..."  The topics for a timed pair share are more open ended like (teambuilding) "if you could speak to famous person, what would you ask? and why?"  or (content) "why study the universe?"  When we were brainstorming ideas for a timed pair share, my group members came up with the awesome idea to do a check in for a long term assignment.  Have the students respond to "what is your progress?  what are your accomplishments, obstacles, goals plans, etc?"  I thought about some of my Do Now questions that would work so much better in this format; "using any materials necessary, how would you measure an elephant?" (as intro into the measurement unit), "how do you know if something is alive?" (for intro to characteristics of life in biology), and "what is the smallest thing in the universe?" (for the beginning of learning about the atom in chemistry or the cell in biology).  I know that using CL structures for my Do Now time will make our discussions so much more productive!  One thing to note--if a student runs out of things to say before their time is up, the partner should ask them questions to get them talking more about their ideas.

Round Robin:  same idea as Rally Robin but on a team instead of a pair.  Robin=talk, rally=to or two, round=team.  For both Rally or Round Robins, you could always end up with a triangle, which is okay too.  There are variety of versions of the Round Robin:

Types of Round Robins

• Single Round Robin: once around
• Continuous Round Robin: keep going until teacher stops the discussion
• Think Write Round Robin:  students think of their own answer and write it down, then Round Robin to share what they wrote
• All Record Round Robin:  everyone writes down everyone else's comment.  This could be after a brainstorm where a student makes a list.  Then, when someone says something they already wrote, they check it.  If they hear something new, they write it.  
• All Record Consensus:  like an All Record Round Robin, but the group has to come to a consensus before they write their answer.  Usually used for a set of questions/problems with a "correct answer" that the students take turns answering.
• Timed Round Robin:  each member has a certain amount of time to share.  This is structured a bit like a Timed Pair Share, so see my notes above.  An awesome tool to use with this structure is a turn timer.  The timer will time periods for however many turns you set (ie 1 minute for 4 turns).  The Kagan people are not paying me to mention this, but they sell one and my awesome science coordinator bought it for us!  Of all of the things available for purchase from Kagan, this is the one I would recommend.  I think I heard that it is about $30 and it can be loaded on up to four computers FYI.

Team Stand and Share (can also be Pair or Individual Stand and Share): this is a variation of the All Record Round Robin where the groups are sharing with the entire class.  A group maybe did an All Record Round Robin in their team and then each group shares one and the other groups check or write, then once a group has said or heard all of their ideas they sit down, but continue to write new ones.  Within a group, one person will share and then pass the list to the next person for the next time their group is up.

Fan N Pick:  For this structure, you will need to have a set of cards prepared.  They could be review questions, inquiry questions, team building questions, etc.  Each group will have a set of cards and there are four student roles; student 1 fans the card and says "Pick a card, any card,"  student 2 picks a card and reads it aloud, shows it to student 3 and allows some think time, student 3 answers the question, and student 4 responds.  For questions with a correct answer, student 4 will look for the correct answer (student 2 would hand them the card) and praises or coaches.  For open ended questions with no "right" answer, student 4 will praise and paraphrase.  It helps to have a mat labeled with the roles each student will have.  This will help them keep straight until they get the hang of it.  Also, they will be rotating after each set, and a mat will help remind them of their new roles.  Really, it is helpful to assign roles any time students will be doing a complex task with a lot of moving parts.  This makes a huge difference for labs and help with that idea of simultaneous interaction/no opt-out.  I modified this to do an assignment in which students were working through problems on a large white board.  Kagan sells a mat to use for Fan-N-Pick, but you can make a piece of paper with the roles listed to hand out for any assignment you want to use this structure for, whether Fan-N-Pick roles or otherwise.

Rally Coach:  This structure is great for a process or procedure.  Students work in pairs and will get one copy of the problems and should only have one pencil.  Student A has the role of problem solver and Student B has the role of coach.  The coach holds the pencil.  Student A solves the problem and explains how they solved it.  Student B listens, checks, coaches if necessary, and praises (giving the pencil to A once they agree that the answer is correct and A records the answer).  Roles are flipped for the next problem.  You may want to have this pair compare their answers with a nearby pair once they have completed a few problems.

All of the structures I have presented so far are in a stationary group.  The idea is for a group to work together for a certain period of time to bond but you want to mix it up every once in a while.  I try to change groups completely at about the end of every unit (about 4-5 different group arrangements within a semester).  Jeff recommended about every 6 weeks.  I have found that sometimes you get a feeling that it is time to mix it up, so play it by ear!  For times you want to mix up the kids for just a portion of class time, here are some good ways to do it.

Structures for mixing it up

• Mix Pair Share: super simple--have students get up and walk around and you tell them when to stop and pair up with the person nearest them.  In another workshop I participated in, the facilitator had us mix and then stop and give someone a high five (this was our high five partner) then mix and give a different person a fist bump (this was our fist bump partner) then mix and come up with a secret handshake (you get the idea).  Then he had us mix and find our partners, he would call out "high five partner!" for instance, so that we could remember who we found before.  Then, throughout the workshop, he would say "get up and find your ____ partner" and then we would do a pair share.  Mixing works really well with music--just have them stop mixing when the music stops.  Jeff said that music that is 60-80 beats per minute is the best for productivity in the classroom.  Make sure to remind them--greet, praise, part.  Practice greeting your partner in a way that makes them happy and proud to be here today, praise them, and always leave them with parting words.
• Stand up Hand up Pair up:  This is a super quick way to have them find a new partner.  They stand up and put their hand up, find someone and high five.  The hand up is a great tool because students can find someone who still needs a partner fast and easily.  If you want a group of four, you can always have them find another pair nearby to join.  
• Quiz Quiz Trade:  I am a huge fan of quiz quiz trade! It is so simple; have students quiz each other with flash cards and then trade cards and go find another partner.  Even just using it at face value it is an amazing tool.  I talked a lot about it in my very first  CL post and I have some tips of ways I like to use it to take it even a little farther.  And I learned even more awesome strategies from Jeff.  First of all, use stand up, hand up, pair up to have them find their first partner.  Have them hold up the card to find a partner at the beginning and then whenever they need a new partner.  This is so so super helpful when a pair of students are finished quizzing and need to find a new person.  I know from experience because we did this in the workshop--it makes the process so much more efficient, I don't know why I didn't think of this before!  Remind students to read the card AND show the card (but not the answer side of course!)  When students get their first card, tell them to make sure that they are prepared to coach it before they get up.  Have them practice asking the question in a complete sentence and responding in a complete sentence.  When students need to coach, have them follow this procedure:  tip, tip, teach, try again.  If their partner isn't getting it, they should give a tip.  If they still can't get it, give one more tip.  If they still cant after two tips, tell them the answer.  But (and this is important) start the quiz process again.  Student holding the card asks the question, other student responds (and should know it this time).  This is another thing that I can't believe I didn't think of.  It is so simple and obvious.  Jeff even says that if you have to be taught it, you should repeat it three times.  This makes sense, but if you have few enough cards in the mix, they will see it a couple of more times anyway.  Here's my tip:  have duplicates of the cards and fewer questions/vocab words.  This ensures that students will see the questions/words more than once and reduces the chance that they will miss some entirely.  Also, this is a structure for which it is essential to have an attention getting signal, so make sure you have one that you have rehearsed with them ahead of time.  Jeff recommends not participating in the structures, but this is one I like to participate in when doing a review because I get a good feel for where the class is.

When using Kagan strucures, make sure that you use the tips I gave in my Part 1 post.  I mentioned there that the CL time should be used to practice social skills.  Give students examples of meeting and parting greetings, both verbal and nonverbal.  You can have them mix silently, making sure to greet everyone they pass with a high five, a head nod, or a even just a smile.  And when they are not mixing silently, give them suggestions of greeting words; hi, hello, good day, howdy, etc.  Tell them to tell their partner "You are awesome" or "I am in awe of your brilliance," have them fist bump and high five or come up with a secret handshake, and always remind them to thank their partner when they have finished their time together.  My favorite one that Jeff used was the Wayne's World admiration where you do the hand fan/bow and say "We're not worthy, we're not worthy."  All of this stuff is really hokey and you can find your own way to do it, but don't avoid it.  I have found that some students are uncomfortable giving each other compliments (!) but if you tell them to say something it helps with that (because they can think that they are doing it "because the teacher said so") but as the recipient it still feels good.  And I have also found that once you get them in the habit of giving support to their peers, a lot of them start doing it without prompting.

All of these structures are set up for pairs or groups of four.  Almost all of them can be easily adapted as a "triangle."  If you have a class that is not divisible by four and you have one straggler, you can assign the floater.  Jeff recommended rotating who the "floater" or the "triangle" will be each day--they will just know to join a pair that has already been assembled.  By the teacher directing who is the odd man out and making sure to change that student on a regular basis, you avoid the same student always seeming to be left out once partners are established.  This is crucially important for self-mixing structures.  Remember that you are attempting to build a sense of community in your classroom so you also want to keep an eye out for the students that always try to get together.

You will need to let students know who goes first a lot of the time.  Jeff recommended keeping a list of ideas handy so you don't always have to think on the fly or you don't end up always using the same one.  Of course we have the tried and true "whoever's birthday is closest to today" but you can also use "whoever's head is closest to the ceiling" or "whoever's first name has the most syllables."  In a workshop a long time ago I loved when a teacher used:  pick a statement like "whoever was at school the longest yesterday" then "...will point to who they choose to go first!"  I love to throw this or a variation of it in every once in a while.

In my Part 1 post, I talked about having an attention getting signal.  When you have a structure that gets a little chaotic, it will be helpful to have a way that everyone knows you are ready to talk again.  At this workshop, I began to think it could also be useful to have a "start" word.  When I am explaining instructions for something that students will be getting out of their seat for, it is hard to communicate that I am done giving them the instructions and am ready for them to get going.  I remember I had a biology teacher who would say "Have at it!" when he was ready for us to get moving on a lab.  I am going to try that this year to help smooth my transitions.  I am thinking just the word "Go!" would work as long as I have communicated my expectations in advance.

There are times when you feel you are losing the class--it happens to all of us--and at those times, it would be really helpful to get students off of their feet or just thinking about something else for a minute or two.  Here are some ideas for those times.

Brain breaks
Take off/touchdown:  Mostly used for a quick fun brain break but there are probably questions you could ask that are content related.  You might say "if you love chocolate, take off." Whoever likes chocolate stands up.  And then tell every one to "touch down" (they sit down).  Next question, "if you are looking forward to spring break, take off."  Keep going until you think they have become a bit more attentive.  If you have some stubborn students that aren't playing along, try "if you are alive, take off" and if anyone is still sitting down, "check and see if the people sitting around you are breathing!"
Everyone's it:  Students move around the room and tag each other.  Once tagged you freeze.  Then periodically yell out "everyone's it!" and everyone unfreezes.  Then, add a twist:  when someone is frozen, they hold out their arms and say "help me, help me, help me" until someone else walks under their arm, which unfreezes them (no fair if you tag the person who just saved you!)  This makes the game completely self sustaining.
Finger math:  In groups, students stand up.  The teacher calls out a number.  Students do a kind of rock, paper, scissors motion but instead of the regular motions for ro-sham-bo,  hold out a certain number of fingers.  Count how many fingers you have all together; they keep re-trying until they get the correct number of fingers.  When they get the number, one person in the group chooses the next number (make sure to specify who goes first at the beginning of the game) and continues.  As the group get numbers correct, the number chooser rotates.  Remember not to choose numbers greater than 20!

My main for this year is to never ask a question out to the class.  I have all of the usual problems; sometimes I hear crickets, sometimes I have the same students answering every time, sometimes I want everyone to say the answer and I only hear like 3 and a half students participating.  Jeff mentioned that even a simple question with a single simple answer can be tweaked to get engagement from much more of the class. If you asked "who can tell me who the first president of the United States was?" for example, you would have maybe a few students that would raise their hands and then you would call on one to answer.  But you could have much more participation if you said "A's tell B's how was the first president of the United States?"  Then, "did A say George Washington?  if they did, give them a fist bump! if not give them a fist bump tell them "you better study it!"

I will leave you with something that Jeff had us do that I thought was super cute:  a group handshake.  Every one puts their right hand into the circle (thumb pointing up) with fingertips outstretched and touching in the center.  Then, curl your fingers to swirl your hands together and shake up and down.  You can do a double group handshake by doing the same thing with the left hand above your right handshake.  This was so cheesy but so adorable!  I found the picture below to show you because it is so hard to explain!  It is a bit messy with this many people but doable with just four.

Kagan Cooperative Learning Institute Part 1

Oh my was this some good PD!!  You may have read my earlier post on the cooperative learning workshop that I attended last year.  I really liked most of what I learned, and have integrated some of it into my teaching.  BUT now I am ready to jump in.  This workshop was conducted by the Kagan company and our facilitator, Jeff, was incredible.  He did a great job of integrating cooperative learning into his presentation, which made it really easy to see where the different CL structures could fit.  Through the course of the workshop, I saw where I was falling down with CL.  I will get into some of the new structures I learned in my next post, but before I get to that, here is a list of ways to make the most of CL in your classroom:

1.  All day, erry day!  Cooperative learning is not just a lesson you plan for one day, it is a lifeblood that should run through everything you do.  Jeff recommended to build in some type of CL structure or brain break every 5 minutes or so!  Basically, you want to break what would be a 20 minute leasson into four 5 minute sets.  I plan to stop notes every so often and use a CL structure for processing.  I am thinking about going over lab instructions with a CL structure.  I even plan to fill time at the end of class with CL structures!  You can pull them out at the spur of the moment for many different purposes.
2.  Pretty much every question you ask can be made more effective with CL.  I do a "Do Now" question at the beginning of every class.  I was having so much trouble getting participation during do nows toward the end of last semester and was getting soooo frustrated!  I am thinking of all of the times I could have used a CL structure to get so much more engagement.  If you find yourself standing in front of a room of crickets OR you have the same student answering every time, that is the perfect time to use a CL structure.
3.  They should be working hard, you should not be!  The structures should be such that the work load is on them.  CL structures should make your life easier, not harder.  You should try to set them up so they are self sustaining and require no additional input from you.
4.  Fun-first and frequent.  This is what Jeff called F^3.   Every structure should start with a fun brain break or team building type question.  Then, use the structure for what you really want them to think about.  He showed us some games to play with students to get the blood pumping and get them up and moving.  I feel like he gave us "permission" to have fun with our students.  A lot of times we think doing these kinds of things are a waste of time, but he really hit home how important it is for engagement.
5.  Cooperative learning should be used to build a sense of community and accountability in your classroom.  Use it to teach social skills and set it up in a true CL style so that no students have an opportunity to opt-out; more on this in the next post.
6.  Procedures should not be punished or praised, but rehearsed.  If students aren't doing it the way you want them to, stop them and rehearse, then continue.  Don't get on their case about doing it wrong, just show them what they ought to be doing instead.
7.  Have an attention getting signal.  No REALLY have one and USE IT.  I am guilty of starting the year with, "okay now when I want your attention I'm going to raise my hand blah blah blah..." but within a few weeks I have fallen back into repeating "may I have your attention please" over and over (a student once played "The Real Slim Shady" in my class because they said it always made them think of me).  Jeff talked about the fact that it is not about compliance (you don't necessarily have to wait until every single hand is up) but refocusing attention.  So, when you have everyone's attention again, go ahead and proceed.  He used the phrase "Freeze please" which I liked because it is so short (much easier and faster to say than my old standard!)
8.  Think time.  Always always ALWAYS give students time to think before they have to share.  Jeff recommended 10 s.  I actually have been doing pretty well at integrating this into my teaching, I believe I learned about it at either my CL or culturally responsive teaching training last summer.  Basically, never put a student on the spot or catch them off guard on purpose.  They need to feel a sense of safety in your classroom if they are going to (willingly) participate.

One of the best parts of this workshop was getting to work with a variety of teachers around the district.  Jeff's procedures definitely helped foster a sense of community in us.  I got to work with teachers that I haven't seen since last summer (Amy from Global Ed!) and I met some teachers that I otherwise would probably never have the chance to meet.  If it happened with us, it will happen with our students too.  I had discussions with other teachers about how this mixing via CL or any other mechanism should be a part of every PD we do.  Within my own building I don't know many of the teachers.  We stay in our little bubbles.  Even we as adults are missing some of the social skills that are so important to make life, work, and learning more rewarding!

Jeff had so many great quotes and ideas, and modeled so many awesome teaching strategies.  I will never be able to remember them all.  I took so many notes at this workshop! Here are a few good ones (note, I am paraphrasing on pretty much all of these):

• "How are you smart today?"
• "We use our words and actions to lift each other up, not knock each other down"
• "Successful people work with a person even on days they don't like them"
• "He who aims at nothing hits it every time" (importance of defining a target for students--essentially what they should be doing at any given time)
• "Verbalization increases internalization"
• "What is the reason that shouldn't have occurred?" (Instead of "What were you thinking?" because well, they weren't)
• "Vacation precedes negative consequences" (for a student who needs a "vacation" from their group--or really, when the group needs a vacation from that student!)
• "When my kids mess up, I don't send them to the neighbor's house, we work through it together"
• "My job is to put a fence around you--as a result of your choices and actions, I can make it bigger or smaller.  Our goal is for it to grow--because I want you to grow."
• "Recovery is as important as the exercise"
• "Greet-praise-part"  (greet your partner, praise them, leave them with parting words)
• "Feedback should be both immediate and specific to be effective"
• "Greet each other in a way that makes them proud and happy to be here today"

There are so many others I can't remember but several of these were ones I want to use in class so I wanted to make sure to record all of them that I could!  One thing that I picked up on that he modeled was teaching while we were standing.  So, we would do a structure that left us standing up.  Before having us return to our seats, he would usually talk for a bit (often for a tad too long, really) but it always felt like what he was saying was very important.  I am hoping to do a little of this.  He also suggested giving students a target for returning back to their seats like--high five 5 people as you come back to your seat or think of 5 polygons as you come back to your seat (he was a math teacher, but you get the idea!).  This gives them more of a sense of purpose, which he says will help them get back to their seat without as much dilly dallying.

These are some of the main ideas and take-aways from the Cooperative Learning workshop.  In the next post, I will cover CL structures, brain breaks, and strategies/techniques for integrating CL into the classroom.

Professional Learning Communities Institute 2015

This was the first workshop I attended this summer after a whopping 4 day break!  It was structured in a way that included two guest speakers via video conference and time to discuss within our school groups.  The speakers were first Ken Williams and then the DuFours (Richard and Rebecca).  The discussion time within our school groups was incredibly valuable.  I guess I'll start by going a little bit into what these PLC's are for those of you who have not adopted them in your schools.  The way that PLC's are defined in my school are small collaborative groups of teachers that share common goals.  Time is set aside for us to work together within a very specific framework.  The framework involves identifying shared targets among a group of teachers (in my case, freshman science), creating common assessments, collecting performance data, and using interventions to help when students are not mastering the targets.

In theory, PLCs sound great.  In practice, PLCs are very frustrating.  All we really want as teachers is to have time to collaborate by sharing ideas for teaching.  When you do run a PLC the "right" way, there really isn't much time for that.  There seems to be a consensus among most teachers I encounter that PLC time is not enough to accomplish what we are tasked with and a lot of times we feel like we are just spinning our wheels and have no idea what we are doing.  It tends to feel like a waste of time.  I know that all of this will get better as we figure out the way it works and get into a groove.  And the PLC I work in is getting closer.

The timing of this workshop was perfect as my PLC is planning to meet just next week to talk about the first semester of science that we all teach.  And I did get some useful tidbits from the guest speakers.  The principles I am outlining here I feel will go a long way to help mitigate some of our frustrating road blocks.

1.  Your targets should be non-negotiable.  Your PLC should agree on shared standards that are essential.  In other words, what do the students need in order to be successful--in the next unit, the next class, their future?  This was reinforcing the idea that we have been struggling with that there should only be a handful of targets that your PLC is assessing. We have bogged ourselves down with way too many targets and it is just overwhelming.
2.  The bar should be the same for all.  No really, ALL students.  When setting standards, you are expecting all students to meet or exceed the bar.  This hit home with me because I teach classes with a lot of the struggling students.  I need to be thinking about what they absolutely need to get out of the class and we cannot write targets that can't apply to all students.  That doesn't mean we should teach less or teach down, but we shouldn't expect every student to accomplish work at the highest possible level (though they should be working at their highest possible level).  Over the last year, I have come to the realization that a good portion of what we do in class could be classified as an "expert" level if you are talking about a standards-based model.  This material should be the enrichment for the students who meet the bar of mastering all of the essentials, but not expected out of students who are still struggling to reach the bar.
3.  If you can get your stuff done with or without the people in your group, you are not a team.  If your group members are essential to your success, however, you are a team.  You need to find a shared goal that is so important and impactful that you cannot accomplish it without all of your team members working together.  For example, all of our students will learn these essential targets.  To ensure that happens, we will cover material in this time frame, test at these specific times, review the data on this day and work together to implement interventions.
4.  Now about those interventions, no single teacher can possibly have all of the ability and expertise to re-mediate and accelerate all while continuing at to move forward at still another pace with everyone else within the confines of their own classroom, nor should they be expected to.  This was probably the most important thing I heard all day.  The DuFours kept reiterating that there needs to be a school-wide systemic change in order for the PLC cycle to work.  They emphasized that interventions should take place outside of the classroom.  This was such a novel idea, and I think we were all a bit taken aback by the notion.  It is completely overwhelming to figure out how to handle interventions in the classroom.  I am extremely lucky to have a few sections of class that are co-taught with a special education teacher, so interventions are a bit easier to integrate.  But, I absolutely could not do it effectively otherwise.  Some students see me outside of class for help but really that is not enough either.  The DuFours say that there needs to be specific time set aside during the normal school schedule specifically for students who require interventions.  Not during your personal class schedule, that is within the school wide schedule.  And without that, interventions will not be effective.

After this workshop, I feel a little bit better about the idea of working with the PLC on Monday.  If we can figure out our non-negotiable targets, I think the daunting task of collecting and analyzing data will be much simpler and we will hopefully have less to argue about! (*fingers crossed*)