Week 12

What is brain-based learning and how can it inform problem based learning and differentation?

            Brain based learning is the “purposeful engagement of effective strategies derived from principles of neuroscience” (Moore and Sellers). It’s what keeps students engaged in the classroom. Every morning we start the day with a morning song. It gives the students a chance to get in the rhythm to learn and wake up their brain. It’s kind of funny, to think of waking up your brain, but it’s true. Students need breaks throughout their day. A classroom should not have students sitting for long periods of time. Students should only have “5-8 minutes of direction instruction” (Jensen) and many brain breaks throughout the day. One tool I like to use in my classroom is Gonoodle.com this site has many different videos you can play for your students. My students favorite is Zumba. I particularly like the Flow videos to have my students do before taking an assessment. It calms them down and gets them ready to do their best on the test.

         Students need to be active learners in the classroom. Teachers who “avoid active learning run the risk of having bored, fatigued learners.” (Jensen). We have all been there, asking ourselves “when is this class ever going to end!” The trick is to give the students a lot of movement throughout each lesson. It’s also important for students to build on their “prior knowledge” (Jensen). KWL charts are my favorite for this activity. You can do them as a whole class and in higher grade levels you can complete them independently and then pair and share with a partner. It really helps the teacher understand what the students know before the lesson, what they want to learn and a great reflection tool to use at the end of the lesson. 

         Constantly throughout out my lessons I have students working with partners and groups. They are problem solving with each other and collaborating to find a solution for a problem and also to check the other peers understanding and get different ideas on a vocabulary world, for example. “When students have to talk to others about information, they retain the information longer and more efficiently” (Moore and Sellers) they are able to build off of each other’s prior knowledge and provide a more in-depth understanding.

         Anytime I can, I have students move around the classroom. When they are reading with a partner, I have them sit anywhere of their choosing in the room. The only place they can’t sit is their desk. The quick few minutes of walking to a new area is a nice break for them. The other day we were doing a science activity on balancing. The students worked with partners to create their structures and practice balancing it. They were sitting for a while, so the next activity I wanted them to practice balancing after listening to a story of a gymnast. This next activity was not in the “teachers manual” but, I know my students and they learn a lot better by moving “kinesthetic activities in your classroom” (Willis) than auditory. So I took the beams we were given in the kit and created “balance beams” for the students. The students paired up and walked over to their “balance beam”. The students practiced walking on the beam and noticed the difference in their balance with their hands moving up and down. Not to go into the whole lesson, but this was an activity that I used to help them retain the information in their brain. After the activity we reflected, wrote and illustrated in our science journal. The students informed me a few days later, they remembered the activity and their favorite one was walking on the “balance beam.” If it’s engaging to the students they will enjoy it and retain it.

         Another activity you could do in the classroom is “put a number line down on the floor and have students walk on it when learning negative and positive numbers” (Willis) you could also do this when practicing skip counting. Think outside the box. Do whatever is going to keep students engaged and moving during the activity!

         The reading this week mentioned about how teachers need to “reduce homework stress by incorporating time for homework in class or right after class” (Jensen). I couldn’t agree more. I don’t believe in homework and I’m not sure if it’s because I had 3 hours ever night when I was in 5^th and 6^th grade or I think students are in school for a long time and need to be kids after. Whatever the reason is, the only homework I give is reading 20 minutes a night and any math concept they didn’t understand in class. The students are given an intervention technology program to complete at home. It is in the format of a game, which makes it not like “homework” to the students. I don’t believe in busy work. It’s such a waste a time and an overload on the students brain for no reason.

         I used to teach at a Title I school. When I read about it this week, there were a lot of ah ha moments. I had many behavioral issues teaching at that school, more than I have ever encountered in my life. While teaching at the school and after reading Jensen’s view on Title I students, you have to feel very sad for them. It’s out of their control. A lot of my students would go to an empty house after school or have an older sibling raise them. The parents either had two jobs morning to night or other stuff that kept them away. I won’t go into the details.

         While I taught there, I made sure my students or any students I came across throughout the day had food and water with them. We would have constant breaks and if students were extra hungry after lunch I would open up a food drawer in my desk and they would be able to choose what they wanted to snack on. I like the idea of not disciplining on the behavior, but finding another opportunity for the students to do instead. For instance, if a student throws down a marker on the floor and interrupts the class, of course they need a warning, but make them have a job “marker passer” or something of that sort. I think it’s a great idea to have these resources available for the students: “a physician on-site once a week. Working with a local pharmacy to arrange for access to medications. Arranging for a dentist to make designated school visits. Educating students’ caregivers about school resources. Providing tutors to help students who miss classes to catch up. Improving awareness among staff about health-related issues”(Jensen).

         If we understand the students background and how their brain is designed created to learn this will help prevent behavior issues in the classroom and keep students engaged. We need to constantly assess students while we have them. Not give them tests, but check their understanding, find the areas “students need support in and the right intervention to give them” (Jensen). The Title I school I taught at had a tutoring program in the morning for students. We were able to implement interventions and help students who missed work or needed extra support Pre-school – 5^th grade. It was an amazing program we had at our school. Educators should remember that “students brains change and so do their levels of attention, learning and cognition” (Jensen). If we know how to keep our students brains a live and keep them engaged in the activity, we will have very small behavioral issues in our classroom. Students learn from modeling. If a student has an environment that causes them stress and is dysfunctional, they will have a difficult time learning and staying focused. Our goal as educators is to give them a safe learning environment where they feel relaxed and their brain is engaged. We also need to know what helps our students learn (specific manipulatives, strategies..etc) and how we can connect and help them understand the content we are teaching to them.  

Resources

Jensen, Eric. Teaching with the Brain in Mind (2nd Edition). Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD), 2005. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 5 April 2015. Retreived from: http://egandb.uas.alaska.edu:2081/lib/uasoutheast/reader.action?ppg=6&docID=10089220&tm=1428258945648

Jensen, Eric. Teaching with Poverty in Mind : What Being Poor Does to Kids’ Brains and What Schools Can Do About It. Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD), 2009. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 5 April 2015. Retrieved from: http://egandb.uas.alaska.edu:2081/lib/uasoutheast/reader.action?ppg=28&docID=10375878&tm=1428259489468

Willis, J. (2012, January 1). Brain-Based Learning Strategies: Hold Students' Attention With a Radish. Retrieved April 8, 2015, from http://www.teachhub.com/brain-based-learning-strategies-hold-students-attention-radish

https://www.gonoodle.com/

Moore, J., & Sellers, T. (n.d.). Practical Applications of Brain-based Strategies to Eh L i n hance Learn ing. Retrieved April 8, 2015, from http://www.polk-fl.net/staff/teachers/reading/documents/Read180Day2/Tuesday2/PracticalA _Moore/PracticalA _Moore [Compatibility Mode].pdf

Reflection week 11

This week was by far the most busiest. Every week is, but a lot of my time went to creating the online training for Oltak.  We designed a course that teachers can take asynchronously. I hope it works. For diffi this week, after reading my peers blogs, I was a lot of differentiation tools for more writing. There were ideas to have students make brochures, write a journal entry about their experience and complete a math activity taking stats on the number attempts it took to solve the other classrooms maze. I'm super excited about this experience. I can't wait to see what the students build. I'm a little worried, because some tools have not been created yet. Thomas had a great idea and thought that it would be best to team up with others. I think this is a good idea. If everyone creates a tool, it will be over load for the teachers. They will have a difficult time remembering which tool goes with which scenario or which tool to use...etc However, if everyone teams up, then there might not be enough tools created and students could lose their interest. I don't think this will happen. I think everyone has created some pretty great tools. Some that will involve the wiki and hopefully have more students use it. Ali, Andrea and I are teaming up again. We are going to create one house instead of three with a lot of chests in them. Last time for the Giver we created three houses, but one house was never used. So we decided to make it easier on the teachers, we're going to have only one house to receive all the tools and food students need to survive. The teachers will be given the Give setting to use in the teacher menu, but our tool should hopefully give them an easier way to give students supplies if they're getting frustrated. I hope our tool gets used. This week Ali, Andrea and I plan on meeting in the world to create the house and start filling the chests for the students to use. We have a lot of work to do and not very much time. It will be another busy week, but if we work as a team, I'm sure we will get it done in time for Survivalcraft to start.

Week 11 Infographics and Diffi Tool

The diffi tool my team and I are going to create is a house with chests. The chests will be filled with weapons and food for students during survival mode. Like the Giver these houses will have tools and food inside of them instead of books. Our idea is for teachers to be able to give students resources during survival mode from both books; Lord of the Flies and Maze Runner. Also if students are getting frustrated with being killed from the monsters in the game, this tool will give them some reassurance and be able to participate. Teachers will have access to the Give setting in the teacher menu, however they might not understand how to use this tool correctly even after watching the training Oltak put together. Ali, Andrea and I are going to create a lot of chests in one house for the teachers. The teachers then can access the tools and food, place them in their inventory and give to the students or place them directly in the students chest. Either way, we hope this tool will help students when they are in survival mode.

Short description of Diffi tool being created 

In a secret location ONLY FOR TEACHERS there will be houses and chests filled with tools and food. If your student is having difficulty creating a tool or making food during Scenario 2 when the world is in Survival mode, you can give them a tool. There is a setting on the teacher menu to "give" tools to students. To make this easier on you, we have created houses and chests for you to teleport yourself to the location, place the tools in your inventory and give them to the student. If this is difficult, another option is to place the tool in your inventory and then place the tool into your students chest. Please do not teleport students to the secret location or let students get tools from the houses. This tool is only to be used for students who are having difficulty making there own tool or cooking food to survive.

Week 10 Reflection

This week we assessed the tool we created for Givercraft and to see how effective it was. I created a survey for my team. We heard from two teachers out of 5 from the experience. Both of the teachers said the tool was easy to access and find and their students appreciated being given memories during scenario 2. One teacher wrote out of 3 classes 75% of their students received memories from them. The other teacher explained how they changed the scenario and had their students create their own memory. The teachers used the tool and it shows through the students building structures. I couldn't find any evidence on the wiki page, except the quote I heard from Thomas. When reading my peers blogs this week, I noticed on Andrea's page she had a screenshot of the memory being used. She found the book, which appeared to be in the same voice as the ones we created and noticed the structure that went along with it. So, in our minds I think our tool was used and effective for Scenario 2. Thomas mentioned about assessments and how some teachers "have a bad taste in their mouth" after hearing this word. I think assessment is key to making sure your students are successful. I wrote to Thomas on his blog, that if a teacher doesn't know where their students are at, their strengths and weaknesses, they shouldn't be teaching. That's the whole point of teaching is to give students knowledge and teach them content, but make sure that they understood what they were taught. It doesn't mean to grade an excessive amount of papers after every activity. With our tool, we are assessing to make sure our tool was used and was effective and useful to the students. Some of my peers thought their tool was useful, but some of them didn't know if it was even used. One of the discussions was on badges. I'm wondering if students even like badges. I haven't really seen them use. They are fun to receive I think after a challenge, but not sure what the students think. Also do the teachers know how to distribute them to their students? Maybe for our upcoming teacher training, if this tool is going to be used in Survivalcraft we need to explain and show how to give the students a badge. For survivalcraft we were asked to create another tool or tweak the one we created for the next two books. We met on Wednesday for a twitter session and completely change our idea. We are now in teams and only creating a tool for one book instead of two. I think team work is important. I am on the team of Lord of the Flies. During our virtual training meeting we decided to change the scenarios for LOTF so it wouldn't be (school )inappropriate use (killing each other) during the scenarios. Thankfully the tool I created, will be helpful with the changed scenarios as well. I plan on creating chests with tools in them again for teachers to use and to give students who are having a difficult time to survive. I have been in survival mode. It's difficult and very frustrating at the same time, when you're dying all the time. I think with these chests the "non gamer" type will also enjoy being involved with the game and not get frustrated and want to quit. It will be interesting to see how Survivalcraft compares to Givercraft.

Week 10

Essential question: What was the impact of my diffi-tool on Givercraft students & teachers; what should I change for Survivorcraft to ensure the my intervention is effective?

Givercraft has finally come to an end. I really wasn't sure how much of an impact the diffi-tool my team and I created would be for the students and teachers when we first started. I now understand after being in the world and noticing the tool being used, it was a huge impact. Here are some screen shots I took of the chests from the memories released station. 

I'm using the assessment of observation to notice that the diffi-tool was a success. I also noticed that we didn't need to build three houses full of memories. One chest was never even used. I looked through the student wiki page, but couldn't tell which memories were given to them. I know that  I made a wedding memory, so maybe this student that Thomas found wrote about their wedding memory on the wiki page " Yesterday the memory of a wedding popped into my head and it filled me with so much warmth and joy I knew I had to recreate one for myself. Today, I built my own wedding isle, and got married to BarboElla. It was wonderful! It was in the perfect location; by the auditorium. The entire community came which made it feel just like the memory. I don't understand why the community never had weddings. There is no harm in it and it fills everyone who attends with joy.
   A wedding is the celebration of when two people decide to spend the rest of their life together with the promise of a ring. Typically, a woman, the bride, dresses up in a fancy dress and walks down the isle to the gazebo or alter. The man, the groom, waits until the bride reaches the alter/gazebo. Then a person called the priest reads the vows and the couple says, "I do". Also a tradition is that the bride and groom choose their best friends to stand by their side when they say their vows. These people are called Bridesmaids and Groomsmen . Finally when they are finished saying their vows, they put their rings on each other and the priest says, "You may kiss the Bride." and they kiss" was given to them by their teacher, or they thought of creating a wedding memory. I did notice in the chest, that the wedding memory is gone, so it was used by the students. Where the diffi-tool can be assessed the best by observation and how well it was used. I also will send out a survey to the teachers and see how easy it was to access the tool. Did students appreciate having the tool? Also, how many students in their class were given a memory from the teacher and how often did the teachers have to use the tool.  Here is the link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8YQ6PWH My only hesitation  with a survey is from my other class, we sent a survey to the teachers before creating our training... and only heard from two teachers. We sent another survey out at the end to assess our training and only heard back from one. So i'm not sure how this assessment will actually be a good tool to use. 

Assessment is key to a successful PBL. If you don't assess your students, you will never know if they understood the content, learned from the unit and retained the information.  Keeping data throughout a unit is important as well. The "use of data affects the work of all professionals involved in education" (Ontario). If the data collected provides a positive outcome for student learning, guaranteed others will want to do the same project. It's important during any project to observe and keep data on your students success. "In effective schools, teachers monitor student progress on a regular and ongoing basis in order to provide both differentiated learning experiences and appropriate support to meet the needs of students" (Lian and Chan). One best way to assess students is by self reflection. Self reflection "reports the students daily progress and development of the project" (Lian and Chan). When you read the students wiki pages that were completed during each scenario, students are reflecting on their learning and what they created. The wiki page is a great tool to use for assessments. "Assessments can take place wherever the student is learning" (Macdonald) and also be done  as a "group or individually" (Macdonald). It's mentioned in the Google Hangout Video that assessment can be completed by observing the whole group product as well as individual student goals. It's important for students to write out their goals and reflect on how they achieved those goals. Students can use wiki pages "blogs and online communities to reflect on their practice" (Boss) and show what they learned. If you have thirty minutes, the google hangout video is a very eye opening discussion on assessment with PBL. Throughout out Givercraft while I was in the world and giving Mr. William's class support, I was constantly assessing the students learning. I observed them directly talking with each other in the chat, reading the tasks and objectives over again until they understood, worked in groups to build structures, observed the buildings and read their reflections on the wiki pages. I know the diffi-tool was used. For survival craft, memories are not required. I would like to keep using the houses I built with the chests. My idea for survival craft, is to take the books out of the chest and replace them with building and survival tools. Students who have a difficult time staying alive can have the option of asking their teacher for support. Teachers will be able to give them supplies from the chest. For the maze runner, creative mode is enabled so, I think supplies are not going to be necessary. Another idea is to put hints on how to build the "escape" of their maze, if they can't think of one or need extra support. Teachers can give the students a hint from the "chest" and help them create their maze. If you have any other ideas, i'm open to suggestion. 

Here's the link to access the results from the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-YKQSJGH7/

Resources

Using Data: Transforming Potential into Practice. (2013, December 1). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/leadership/IdeasIntoActionBulletin5.pdf

Gillian Xiao - Lian, T., & May - Chan, Y. (207, January 1). Authentic assessment strategies in problem based learning. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/tai.pdf

Macdonald, R. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.nuigalway.ie/celt/pblbook/chapter9.pdf

Larmer, J., Stevenson, I., & Jordan, E. (2014, April 2). Assessment in Project Based Learning. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYRNWumyy4w#t=335

Boss, S. (n.d.). TEN TIPS FOR ASSESSING PROJECT-BASED LEARNING. Retrieved March 25, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/guides/edutopia-10tips-assessing-project-based-learning.pdf

Reflection

This reflection is quite late, due to being stuck out of state for four days (cancelled flight) and not having access to internet.... As I recall the thoughts from this week, I keep thinking about my project that I am going to do for my students. Mia mentioned it's important for students to know deadlines and activities in advance. I think it's important students understand the expectations of their activity and can plan ahead. Thomas mentioned in his blog that, we need to step away from the "traditional" teaching strategies and think outside the box. Where this is a fantastic idea, it's also the idea that usually gets pushed to the side or looked down upon by other colleagues. To get everyone on board, their needs to be evidence of growth with students completing the activity in PBL design. I think students are going to be interested in anything we have them do, if we can find things they can relate too, reflect on how they can use it in an every day life situation and give them quick feedback. Students can do the work, but don't get the recognition if we don't tell them how they did or what they could do to improve.

With the insect project I do with my students. I always tell them way in advance what the project goal is, why were doing it and most of the activities we will be doing. The largest part of the project is comparing the different species of insects found in a certain area of Ecuador compared to Alaska in the month of May. It usually turns out that there's a huge difference, but due to the climate changing and our seasons becoming more warmer, the results have changed dramatically. The first time I did the project, my student only found maybe 2-3 different species of insects. Last year, we found over 20. It's still a small amount compared to Ecuador, but I can show my students this information through the PBL design. They can't get this information from a textbook. I think it's important to design PBL in the classroom, when it can be integrated into what the students are learning about. Not every content material taught will be done in a PBL based design. It's not necessary. Students will be able to work with groups and socialize. They will also work independently for completing a class goal. I think to have a successful PBL students should be given immediate feedback, objectives should be stated in advance, activities and deadlines should be available for students to look at before and students should have the opportunity to reflect on their own learning.

Week 9

Essential question: What practical structures could we use to implement PBL in our classrooms?

         As I read through the reading this week and did my own research, I thought of the project based learning unit I plan on creating. I want to create a program that will help my students with reading comprehension. It’s difficult content to actually teach to a student. I think through a project based learning unit, it will be more efficient. The first item I wanted to find was a tool to use in my classroom. I have actually already started to use this online tool, to see if my students would be able to use this on their own, in small groups and give me the opportunity to observe student learning or work with students individually. With project based learning, the “teacher monitors and guides students’ progress by overseeing the management of small student groups, keeping students focused on important content, and providing ongoing formative feedback” (Ertmer and Simons). I think this is the most important part to PBL. Ongoing assessments are very important. Teachers need to know if their students are understanding the content, before moving on to the next part of the project. In Project Based Learning the teacher’s role is to “guide and advise, rather than to direct and manage, student work”( Solomon).

         With my unit, students will have different leveled of books to read with their group. Students will read their books and then take a quick assessment (questions) on the text they read. The online tool we will use, will give them quick feedback on their understanding. Students will record their score and allow them to “observe their ongoing progress” (Ertmer and Simons). Students will also be able to apply their “new knowledge to the problem and reflect on what they learned and the effectiveness of the strategies employed” (Hmelo-Silver). I will observe their fluency and scores on a daily basis and work with students individually. I will also have a certain group of students who work with me each day of the week. I will assess their understanding of a higher level text by asking them essential questions of the book we are reading together.

         My goal is to make sure the project runs smooth and students stay engaged. Students “particularly can become disoriented or frustrated if they do not receive the support or guidance needed to be successful” (Ertmer and Simons). I think one challenge I will have is making sure students understand the process and being able to complete the online tool on their own. The other part is working together in a group. While students “typically enjoy group work,

group time is not always used productively, and teachers need to enlist strategies to ensure that relevant content is being addressed” (Ertmer and Simons). It depends on the students, but if I see that the small reading groups are not working correctly, then I will be flexible and change the groups or make it into a whole group discussion. I think being flexible throughout this process is important to having a successful Project Based Learning experience for your students.

            This week I watched a video on Edutopia, it explained the five important parts to having a successful PBL. After watching this video I was able to think of how I was going to set up my classroom and what on going assessments and activities I would have with my students. The five important parts to PBL from Edutopia is;

1. Real - World Connection

2. Core to Learning

3. Structured Collaboration

4. Student Driven

5. Multifaceted Assessment

         It’s also important when thinking of designing a PBL unit for your students to think of these parts too “begin with the end in mind and plan for the end result. Craft the driving question; select and refine a central question. Plan the assessment and define outcomes and assessment criteria. Map the project and decide how to structure the project and manage the process: Find tools and strategies for successful projects” Coffey).  The video from Edutopia showed students taking assessments, teachers observing their work and also having the students give their own assessment on their project. One classroom showed students putting colored stickers underneath the part they felt they did the best. With my unit, I will use an exit ticket to assess how the students thought they did and how well they worked with their group. I think having the teacher assessment is one, but also having the time for the students to reflect on their own learning is a key part into having a successful unit.

Resources

Ertmer, P. A., & Simons, K. D. (2006). Jumping the PBL implementation hurdle: Supporting the efforts of K–12 teachers. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, 1(1), 5. Retrieved from: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=ijpbl&seiredir=1&referer=https%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com%2Fscholar%3Fstart%3D10%26q%3Dimplementing%2BPBL%26hl%3Den%26as_sdt%3D0%2C2#search=%22implementing%20PBL%22 on March 10, 2015.

Hmelo-Silver, Cindy E. “Problem-based learning: What and how do students learn?.”Educational psychology review 16.3 (2004): 235-266. Retrieved from: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=13682403&site=ehost-live on March 10, 2015

Solomon, G. (2003). Project-based learning: A primer. TECHNOLOGY AND LEARNING-DAYTON-, 23(6), 20-20. Retrieved from: http://pennstate.swsd.wikispaces.net/file/view/pbl-primer-www_techlearning_com.pdf on March 10, 2015.

Coffey, H. (2008, November 12). Project-based learning. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4753

Edutopia. (2014, June 26). Five Keys to Rigorous Project-Based Learning. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzCGNnU_WM&t=290