How I Got Started Using Technology To Assess Student Learning

March 30, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Thank you Terry Heick for publishing this post today in TeachThought.

How I Got Started Using Technology To Assess Student Learning

by Rachelle Dene Poth

If you are looking for another way to integrate technology into your classroom, why not start with assessment?

In order to learn what our students need and how we can better design our lessons to prepare them, we use formative and summative assessments. Assessments are vital in for determining what learning has occurred, what areas need to be reinforced, and what our next steps must be. This kind of information helps to guide our instruction and provide additional opportunities for our students. Assessments give us the information we need to provide feedback to them, to guide their learning, and to set new goals.

(See ‘The Most Important Question Every Question Should Answer.’)

Providing timely, relevant learning feedback is essential to personal growth and reflection for student learning. So how can we make assessments more effective, informative and engaging too?

Why use technology for assessments?

Depending on the number of classes and students in each class, creating assessments in a variety of forms, grading them and providing feedback in a timely manner, can become quite time consuming. However, with the numerous digital tools available, teachers have many choices available for assessing students.

Options exist for using quick entrance and exit slips, surveys, having students interact in discussions both in and outside of the classroom, just for a few examples. There are so many possibilities, and what’s even better is how quickly results are obtained, can be evaluated and feedback provided to the students.

Teachers have choices in the types of feedback they receive. In addition to live results, teachers can save data in downloadable spreadsheets, receive emails with the results and some tools offer other formats as well. These all enhance the ability of teachers to further their understanding of where the students are in terms of their learning and what areas need a bit more focus and instruction.

What changes will you notice in your classroom?

As a foreign language teacher, I need to assess my students regularly because learning a foreign language, especially at the lower levels, requires an ongoing evaluation of the students’ understanding and ability to use the language. Providing regular feedback is critical for students to learn structure, build their vocabulary and enhance the four language skills.

Teachers with larger classes find that providing assessments and giving feedback to the students in a timely manner can be challenging and need a way to make this process easier. However, sometimes due to other time constraints, or the length of assessments, grading student work and returning it the next day, in spite of one’s best efforts, is not always possible, and for this there are solutions.

With the variety of digital tools available, many of these concerns have disappeared and make a tremendous difference in the efficiency of classrooms and teaching procedures, and the types of assessments that teachers can create for students to meet the diverse learning styles.

Where to begin: What are some tools to start with?

Using tools such as GoFormative, Kahoot!, Quizizz, Riddle, SurveyMonkey, and others like these, I have quickly created discussion questions, quizzes, reflection surveys, or combination of all of these. There are so many options for creating formative assessments by using any of these and other tools available today. As the students finish, teachers can see the live results or download the results directly to their computer, and can analyze the data in a variety of ways. It is a great way to focus on the needs of each individual student, but also for the class as a whole, to address what the areas are that the students need some help with.

Integrating tools for assessment such as these, makes the use of entrance and exit slips easier and quicker to use. Having students complete an entrance slip for example, using one of these tools at the beginning of a period, enables you to have the results within a few minutes and use this valuable feedback to help guide the lesson for the day and make changes as needed based on the data. The results can then provide valuable feedback to the students, one on one, and help them to work on their personal growth and reflection.

Teachers can refer back to the results to track student growth, to note patterns in certain classes or students, and to work with students on determining strengths and weaknesses. I have found it very beneficial to my professional growth and use these results to reflect on my instructional methods. Paper assessments get lost but assessments created using one of these tools are stored and can be referred to as often as needed.

Benefits of using digital tools for assessment

So many options are available for assessing students, giving them a way to express thoughts, learning and be involved in the classroom. These tools enable teachers to conduct this type of evaluative work faster, decreases the paperwork, and provides more time for working with the students using the data. Students benefit because they have this feedback when they need it most and also learn additional vital technology skills in the process.

Some quick examples: Use GoFormative to have students complete assessments in class, respond to them with feedback instantly and track their progress. They can draw, write, watch a video and much more. Kahoot! and Quizizz can be used in class as an engaging way to assess students and then use the information to focus on areas which need review. Quizizz can even be assigned as homework, which students actually ask for.

And taking it a step further, students can create their own games with either of these, further enhancing their learning and involvement in the course. Riddle and SurveyMonkey can be used for quizzes, reflective surveys, and more, it all depends on what your needs are.

These are just a few of many ways to use these tools. Each of the tools mentioned can be used in any grade level or subject area and they do not require students to create an account but can be shared simply through a shareable URL, posted on a class website or written on the board. The ability to design, share and evaluate students using these and other tools is remarkable.
So if you’re looking for better, more effective ways to provide feedback to your students, and to reduce the amount of paper used, I recommend trying out one of these tools.

There are many options available but these are just a few that I used when I started integrating more technology into my classroom and that have had a tremendous impact on the assessments I have created for students. My students have responded positively and truly enjoy having alternate ways to show what they know and can do with the material.

Using these tools really enables teachers to personalize instruction and help students to reach their fullest potential in the classroom.

Images from each website

Blendspace: How it can benefit your classroom

March 25, 2016March 25, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

What Is Blendspace?

Thanks to Terry Heick and TeachThought for publishing this today.

What Is Blendspace? Using Blendspace In The Classroom

by Rachelle Dene Poth

In my prior two posts, I talked about the way I started to gradually work toward integrating more technology into my classroom.

I focused on what I thought was an area that could use some improvement, and found that there was a disconnect occurring. I needed a better way to communicate and collaborate with my students and for them to access help when they needed it and the resources that would help them to be successful. So for me I started with Celly (a messaging app) and once I felt comfortable, integrated Edmodo as our classroom LMS.

BLEND

Once I felt like these were having a positive impact on my classroom, which came in the form of solving problems of lost papers, forgotten assignments, and missed learning opportunities due to class absences. I began searching for another way to make some improvements and found a tool called Blendspace.

Change takes time, there is no doubt, but we must persist when we take on any new venture. Sometimes it can take longer than we like because we run into difficulties and roadblocks. In the search for answers to your initial questions, new questions arise, And that is the nature of the game. it becomes an ongoing cycle which helps in the promotion of goal setting and growth as teachers.

How Does Blendspace Fit?

Blendspace is a tool that provides many possibilities and initially I used it as a method of curating resources and flipping my classroom. There are similar tools available, and regardless of which you choose, having one place to keep your resources is a really great idea. So how do you make the decision of which to rely on?

Looking at sites such as Graphite or EdShelf can help. Reading blogs and participating in Twitter chats are also great ways to find out what others are using and their thoughts. For example, using something like Graphite or EdShelf, you can get a summary of the uses of a web tool, read the reviews and stories about user experiences. Hearing about how other educators are using tools like Blendspace is tremendously helpful when deciding on what tool to integrate into your classroom.

3 Ways To Use Blendspace In The Classroom

1. Flip Your Classroom

I like Blendspace because it really does provide a variety of benefits to me both personally and professionally. It can be used as a way to flip the classroom and to save that vital classroom time for student interactions, engaging activities, or having students work independently while teachers facilitate their activities and provide feedback one-on-one.

Blendspace can be used to create a lesson using the TES Resources tab, then shared with students through their class account or through a direct link. Regardless of how the lesson is shared, students have access to many resources and can learn asynchronously outside of the classroom, on their own schedule, using whatever device they choose.

This means that, in ideal circumstances, learning can take place anywhere at any time. The choice is the students’ and that’s the great thing about technology and the usefulness of tools like Blendspace. It can also be used to store favorite web tools, presentations, or one’s personal work. It makes it easier to share ideas with colleagues, and organized teaching and learning materials with students.

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2. Present Student Work In Class

Blendspace is a way to avoid fumbling with flash drives, losing valuable class time opening emails and attachments. All of the student projects can be added by their URL or uploaded into one lesson, given it a title, and in class, only one lesson has to be opened to display the student work for the class to enjoy.

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3. Build A Lesson

Building a lesson for any level or discipline is easy with Blendspace. Simply choose your topic and by using the TES Resource tools provided such as Google Search, Educreations, Google Drive, Dropbox, uploads from your computer, and more, you can quickly build a lesson. All it takes is finding the resource and dragging it into place in your lesson.

You can add boxes, move items around, and no matter what you do it is done quickly. It really is a great way to share information, keep track of projects, and so much more. These are just some of the reasons why I am really happy that I found Blendspace and how its use has benefited my classroom. I recommend checking it out if you have not, and letting me know in the comments below what your experience was!

BlendspaceLessonCreation

How to Use Multimedia Presentations in the Classroom

March 22, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Thanks to Nayomi and Visme for publishing my recent post on the use of VISME in the classroom for presentations and featuring some of the work of my students, infographics for Spanish III and Childhood Projects for Spanish II.

How to Use Multimedia Presentations in the Classroom

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/multimedia-presentations2-1024×590.jpg

Project-based learning is a great way for students to show what they know and can do with the material. It is a way for students to demonstrate this learning in a unique way that meets their own interests and skills. Through the numerous possibilities with technology, there are many options available for students to create dynamic displays of their learning.

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Vismeworking.jpg

Vismeworking Students searching for a unique way to create a project, full of a variety of themes, styles, and more, have found Visme to be exactly what they were searching for. By choosing Visme, students can design using a variety of fonts, backgrounds, images, icons, animations, plus have the possibilities for including audio or embedding video, and much more for their creation.

Digital Tools for Presentations

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/spanish4-copy.jpg

While the content and themes can stay relatively unchanged over the course of one’s teaching career, the variety of options for having one’s students show their learning have changed dramatically. Project based learning is a very authentic way to assess their learning and I have used project based learning for more assessments over the past few years. The reason is because of the great potential I see for offering students a choice in their work and the availability of so many digital tools for their projects, which engage and motivate them in their learning.

In my experience, I have changed the types of assessments I have my students do and offer more opportunities for students to have choices. I have always loved looking at student work, in the traditional format of paper and poster, and seeing their creativity come through in their projects.

With the use of digital tools like Visme, I have found it makes it more interesting and meaningful for them, they are more engaged in their learning, and they have fun trying out these new tools and doing something different than they had done in the past. Another positive effect is that teachers benefit as well by seeing the innovative work the students produce. The uniqueness of their work is inspiring and while it shows us what they have learned, it also teaches us more about who they are.

What Do Students Think?

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ClassroomPresentation.jpg

Because technology changes and trying something new can be scary at times, it is not uncommon to hear pleas from students who would rather complete their project using paper or PowerPoint. Teaching foreign languages, I often want them to add their voice to some of their projects or embed a video, and so having choices available which enable students to use one tool for creating their project makes it much easier for them and for the teacher as well.

With Visme, students have so many choices in their hands that are adaptable to any content, in any course, and in any area of society. But for students creating presentations with tools like Visme, it also enables them to learn a lot about the language by adding in various elements from the resources, and also helps them to further develop technology skills and create a visually engaging and fun product by taking advantage of all of the tools and animations that are available.

How Can Students Use This?

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Spanishpresentation-1024×590.jpg

Some of the examples that students have used this for, are in Spanish I, students created projects to describe their families and were able to upload their own photos, have the images appear on the screen by setting the timers with descriptions to make an entrance on the screen.

They could use some of the icons available by searching within the Images tab and they also can change the color, size, and appearance of each of these, and they really enjoy working on the project. And create a very dynamic, visually engaging presentation that they are proud of. They also develop other skills such as learning about design, artistic layouts, and more when they create a presentation.

In Spanish II, students have created projects to talk about their childhood and schooling experiences, as well as their community. There are so many options available within the resources for building their presentations and for really creating a dynamic visualization of their childhood, school, community and more. It also enables them to present their project to their classmates and design a vibrant project that they will definitely remember the content cover and enjoy working with the tool.

When the Students Become the Teachers

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/spanish3-copy.jpg

In addition to the Spanish courses, I have taken students to technology conferences where they participate in the student showcase and demonstrate how they use technology in our classroom. One particular student who was really resistant to trying any type of new technology, had seen one of my presentations and decided to give it a try. For her individual project for the conference, she decided to create a presentation using Visme, and use it to inform those attending the conference about how we use Edmodo, our learning management system.

She created a vibrant presentation showing the uses of Edmodo and at the showcase she engaged all of those that came to the table and was able to tell them so much about the presentation, her experience and what she learned from it. I could see how proud she was of her work and how comfortable she was sharing it with everyone there. Using Visme enabled her to take a risk with something new, develop her skills, and reflect on her growth in the process. It also developed her leadership and advocacy skills and led her to teach others.

In each of these situations, the students were able to use Visme for each task and they now have another tool they can use in another class or recommend to a friend or family member that could be used for any other type of purpose.

So the result is that while students have used this in my foreign language classroom to create projects which are for describing their life, their family, talking about food or any content that we are covering, they are learning about a presentation tool that they can take and use later on, that they can share with others, and they also build their confidence skills in the process.

Promote Student Expression through Storytelling

March 19, 2016March 19, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth 1 Comment

Published on March 17, 2016 by Kidblog. Thankful for the opportunity to be a Blogger for Kidblog.

Promote Student Expression through Storytelling

MARCH 17, 2016 • RACHELLE DENE POTH

Depending on particular class content, concepts, or topics, blogging can have a strong, positive impact on several aspects of the learning process. Recently, I have found that providing students with a short prompt and having them create or tell a story has been extremely beneficial. In doing this, they not only build knowledge and skills in the relevant academic area, but also improve their writing, literacy, and critical thinking skills. In addition to these learning opportunities, blogging also gives students a means to build skills in technology and become reflective writers in the process.

One way to guide students in writing successful stories is to provide them with writing prompts. Typically, I aim to supply a writing prompt focused on a certain theme we have been covering in class. This assignment enables me to provide differentiation in their learning and lends itself to more student creativity and choice. I post a writing prompt related to a recent class lesson or theme and ask the students to be creative with their responses. Being a foreign language teacher, I often provide my students with a few specific elements that I would like the responses to contain. Depending on the content area, these elements range from the use of a specific verb or verb tense, a focus on grammar usage, topic of discussion, specific style of narration, or a method of debating an issue.

One example in a foreign language class may be discussing one’s childhood. By providing a prompt which asks for students to discuss their childhood, they are focused on narrating in the past tense and using specific themed vocabulary. By requiring students to use a few specific verbs in the blog, it helps to guide their practice with an area in which students may be having some difficulty.

Using blogging in this way has helped promote student discussion and creativity and has served as an alternate means for student assessment. It enables teachers to provide reinforcement of specific content in an individualized way that promotes more authentic learning. For students, it provides a unique way to complete a homework assignment, share ideas, and develop critical thinking skills and learning in multiple areas.

Kidblog has been an awesome medium to get students creating and writing in class. One feature of Kidblog that has helped increase engagement for students in any writing prompt and, in some cases, may also be used as a prompt itself, is the ability to add a photo to your post. Using the photo as a focus helps promote discussion and increase curiosity. Kidblog provides students with the option to enhance creativity through the diverse images and formatting choices. Images and customized formatting brings students’ writing to life and provides a way for instruction to be personalized for each student.

Giving students options empowers them in their choice for writing, and leads to a more engaging and fun learning experience.

Putting All Your Teaching In One Place With An LMS

March 4, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Thanks again to Terry Heick for the opportunity! Originally published in TeachThought on February 10, 2016

Putting All Your Teaching In One Place With An LMS

by Rachelle Dene Poth

If you are starting to integrate technology into your classroom, it is easy to feel overwhelmed with so many options available.

The number of choices available for each area of integration are tremendous. The best advice I can give is to start with one thing at a time. Find an area that could use some enhancement, and work on it for a while. Learn about it, reflect on it, figure out if it truly is of benefit to your students and your classroom. The key words being you and your. It has to be something that will benefit your environment and your students.

Once you feel comfortable with what you have been using and your students are comfortable as well, then it is time to start thinking about something else that could help to improve the opportunities and learning in your classroom. There are many options, and I will share with you what my next step was, but it may not be the exact thing that you need. As a suggestion, perhaps the next step is to find a way to create more organization for your class materials.

How can your students access extra copies of their papers or review the requirements for a project that’s due the next day? Is there a way you have to share some web tools or review activities with them that is easily located? If not, this would be another great step. If this sounds like something that would be helpful, then what you might consider an LMS (Learning Management System).

Making The Choice

For myself, searching for a way to do all of these things was another way to solve the “disconnect” I felt was happening initially. So after doing some research, I came across Edmodo and decided to try it out for a while. Although I found and still use Edmodo, I will also say that there are many wonderful learning management systems available and depending on where and what you teach, Edmodo may or may not be the best choice for you.

But I believe that each classroom should have a common site. A place where teachers and students can access course materials, communicate and collaborate on assignments. A place where students can interact with their classmates and more importantly, receive help when needed.

For my classroom Edmodo is a great choice. I have spent time using and learning about several other LMS and I can tell you about them, because I think it is important to know the options. I have continued to use Edmodo because my students stay with me throughout their Spanish studies, and it makes sense to keep them in the system, so they can see their growth, so I can track their progress and have access to the materials which then become a part of their digital portfolio.

Maybe an LMS is not what you want but instead you choose to create a website, for example through edublogs, Google, Weebly, Wix or even use Wikispaces as a way to post resources and links. No matter what you choose you can’t go wrong. Centralizing your materials for your class and your students is a great idea and both you and them will benefit from it.

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What were the effects?

Going back for a moment to my initial word of “disconnect,” perhaps it is clearer now how these two tools really help to solve that problem. Individually either one would work in my favor to promote the communication and collaboration with the students and to make class materials and resources available.

However, the combination of them builds even more into what I can offer because the students can be assessed, they can have their voice expressed in many ways using Edmodo or Celly. Then, each year we can track their progress through tools like Edmodo. It took some time to learn how each of these could be used, but it was well worth it and I am still learning. And more importantly, the students are benefiting tremendously.

So again I ask you, what would help you the most? If you were asked to name one more thing that you could change, determine what that is, investigate and try something new. Take that first step, work with it and then continue to add more. Again, you may find that your choice is not the best but give it some time before making a final decision. There is always a risk involved, but as educators we are role models for our students.

Being a role model means taking a risk, confronting any roadblocks, and setting new goals after reflecting. All of these lead us to learning and growth and isn’t that what we want for our students?

Formative: How to make instruction individualized without making yourself crazy

February 14, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Thank you David Kwan for the opportunity to share this in the community and be a part of the Dream Team.

How to make instruction individualized without making yourself crazy

Rachelle Dene Poth

Having students complete different assessments or take the same assessment and trying to come to an understanding of the needs of the class as a whole as well as the individual student needs, is a very intricate part of what we as educators must do. As an educator, it is very important to be able to monitor the progress of and provide meaningful feedback for each of our students.The students rely on us for this feedback and guidance in order to help them learn the material, improve their skills and grow as a learner.This feedback is critical for their success and should be provided as frequently and timely as possible. Depending on the subject matter and the grade level that you teach, individualized instruction can prove to be quite time consuming and requires a lot of multitasking. For teachers, time management and keen observational skills are key.

It is so important that we provide learning experiences which are personalized to meet their needs and lead to mastery of the content material. So how do we do this? And how do we do this without driving ourselves crazy in the process and spending so much time on it that it takes away from our time to work with and support all of our students? Without the use of ed tech tools to help us create these assessments and provide learning opportunities and support for our students, we would end up only meeting the needs of a few students. So what can we do?

Edtech: Resource for tools to provide individualized instruction quickly

The answer quite simply is to turn to any of the wide variety of digital assessment tools that are now available. Through the numerous digital tools readily accessible to educators and learners, it is so much easier to provide individualized instruction and assess student needs. We can give students options in how they are assessed and learn from their responses, exactly what their needs are, instantly. Through these tools, we can analyze student data and provide feedback quickly, without the loss of valuable instructional time and lesson preparation time. And because these digital tools enable every action to be expedited, we used less time and keep ourselves sane in the process. Students need this feedback so it can help them develop their skills.

Edtech: Promotes student driven learning

Using some of the tools available also provides tremendous options for student assessment and also for student driven learning. Students can be assigned to create something to use as part of their learning process. The students have the opportunity to lead by designing practice assessments and sharing them with their class. They can then use the data from prior assessments to reflect and come up with a plan for their own learning goals, creating their personalized learning path through collaboration with the teacher. Working in this way helps students to become more empowered and have choices in their learning experiences;allows the teacher to facilitate the learning in the process. This is also great for working on those important relationships that help to build a solid foundation in the classroom environment.

SO what are the tools available to help us keep sane in this individualization process?

One example is using Go Formative. Students can engage in activities which enable teachers to see the live responses appear instantly and provide immediate written feedback to each student, when it is needed the most. Teachers see the responses as they are being entered and for some assessments in which students are “showing their work”, this is very valuable. For students, the ability to receive this immediate feedback leads to more engagement, increases instructional time and allows both the teacher and students to really focus on the needs and to plan next steps or provide extra practice as needed.

With Go Formative, teachers can set up class accounts, which will enable the teacher to fully monitor the work and provide ongoing feedback for the students with accounts. Activities can also be shared with students who do not have accounts yet by simply sharing the URL.

Other tools for individualization

Some other tools that I have found useful for some quick assessments and for having students complete activities are Kahoot, Quizizz, Riddle, Responster and Socrative. The type of information I want to get from my students, drives the decision for which of these I ultimately decide to use with my classes.

Possible uses for these tools: For student reflection

If you are looking for ways to find out if students have needs or concerns, or to have students reflect after an assessment or other activity,these tools provide options for question formats and do not require students to have an account. For example, for a general reflection, perhaps after midterm exams, I tend to create something using tools such as Responster or Socrative because of the data that is compiled and quickly available, and students can easily access the survey. The results from their responses can be accessed and analyzed live and saved for future reference. Being able to look at the student responses enables the teacher to really focus on their needs and also better understand the students, their backgrounds and make important connections.

For entrance and exit slips

If I want to assess my students on content or design something for use as a quick entrance or exit slip, I will use Kahoot, Quizizz or Riddle which provide engaging themes and lots of options for question choices and including images and other add-ins. Each of these also provide the ability for the teacher to see individual student responses and to save the results in various formats to use for providing feedback and also for helping students to see the areas they need to work on.

Overall benefits of edtech tools and how they improve individualized instruction

By using edtech tools, students can create their own assessments and activities, which can be used for their practice, geared toward their individual needs for the material. An additional benefit of this is that these student created assessments can be shared with the class, therefore providing more resources for everyone to use, enjoy and learn from. Another added benefit is that the teacher has the ability to see the needs of each individual student and also in the process of having students create these assessments and games, continues to provide the individualized instruction and practice they need and stays sane in the process.

So it really comes down to finding a resource that will help to provide enhanced learning opportunities for the students, better and faster ways to assess students and have that immediate feedback, and staying sane through it all. Digital tools like Go Formative are of tremendous benefit to teachers and students and facilitate the delivery of individualized instruction in many ways. And they help to make differentiation possible without going crazy while doing so.

Recent Blog posted on VISME: Visual Storytelling in the Classroom

February 4, 2016February 5, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Thanks again to Payman Taei and Nayomi for publishing my recent post.

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Posted on January 29, 2016 by Rachelle Poth

How to Use Visual Storytelling in the Classroom

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/visual-storytelling-in-the-classroom-1024×590.jpg

Everybody loves a good story. Whether it is a story you are reading in print, hearing firsthand or retold by another, each unfolds in creative and engaging ways. What all of these have in common is that they are created and presented in a way that is unique and meant to engage the audience.

By infusing one’s personality, individuality and creativity into the story being told, the story takes on a new life. Everyone can have similar experiences; our interpretations of them, however, are unique. Through digital tools, we have numerous possibilities for bringing these interpretations to life.

In the classroom, storytelling occurs on a daily basis. The content delivered to and interpreted by the students is a story. How teachers choose to deliver the content, their presentation style and tools used, can make all the difference in the learning that occurs in the classroom.

The way that students interpret the instruction and show their understanding can be accomplished in so many unique ways. It can come in the form of assessments, the sharing of experiences that spontaneously arise during the lesson or through interpretation of a class discussion or sharing of projects.

These are the same possibilities that can occur in any area of life, stemming from our interactions with one another and our efforts to express a thought, feeling or experience.

Designing your story

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/16.jpg

In years past, these stories, essays, reflections and authentic creations were shared using paper and other supplies to create a visual representation.

Today, these options still exist and lead to enhanced student engagement and encourage their creativity. But we now have an abundance of digital tools that can provide these same benefits and also help develop vital technology skills required in today’s world.

Having been on both sides, a teacher and a student, I find that I like working with new presentation creation tools. They give me a greater variety of options and, more importantly, the choice of how to best express my thoughts. I appreciate the variety of choices these tools afford to individuals like me, who are not very artistic, and how they enable us to breathe life into our stories.

Project possibilities

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/32.jpg

I have always liked having possibilities and the freedom to search for tools that meet my needs and interests. I value this freedom of choice greatly for my students as well. Deciding to move toward more personalized instructional opportunities was one of the greatest changes in my classroom that has led to truly amazing benefits for my students as well as for my own professional growth.

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/21.jpg

One of the reasons I look forward to students’ projects is that by giving them a choice in the type of tool to use, I learn a lot about their interests. They have the freedom to find something that engages them and lets them be creative in their own way. They can express their individuality and in the process of learning and showing what they know and can do, they have fun.

Great examples for storytelling

There are so many choices available for students to create a digital story. For example, as a foreign language teacher, we cover a lot of themes in our courses. I enjoy having my students complete projects to show what they have learned, but I prefer they select their own method of presentation.

A few great ways to incorporate visuals through web tools are to have students design a brochure advertising a store or another similar concept covered in class. With so many add-ons available in the template choices, students can create almost anything. I have had students describe their daily routine using visuals, ranging from infographics with a timeline to comics, animated cartoons and much more.

How can students tell their story?

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/42.jpg

In my classroom, students often complete a variety of themed projects. Some examples include creating a restaurant scene, a menu, a self-description, a narrative about one’s daily routine and preparing for a special event.

There are so many possibilities for students to create a visual representation of these topics. In addition to working individually, students can work collaboratively on things like the creation of a travel agency or on a food and recipe project; or they can create websites, videos, animated presentations and more.

While the instructions and the rubric for each of these projects are always the same and have the same requirements, it does not make a difference to me how the students choose to convey their information. There are times when I may give them a choice between four or five specific tools for creating an infographic because that is the format that I prefer and a skill I would like them to be able to have.

However, there are also many times when I will give them 20 or more choices–ranging from infographics to cartoons, comics, videos and more–because I want them to feel free to express themselves in a way that meets their needs and interests.

Examples from my classroom

To give a few examples, in Spanish I, students created infographics to talk about their school schedule and were able to use the various icons, font styles and templates to bring their schedule presentation to life. They also created their own menu for a restaurant and had the same capabilities, regardless of which tool they chose to use.

In Spanish II, where the presentations take on more of a narrative and a lengthier description, some of their work includes describing a daily routine or shopping excursion, and with the newer digital tools available, they can add audio, video and choose from a range of icons and other art that is included; they do not have to worry as much about citing their images because it is an all-inclusive tool.

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/visme-interface-screenshot.jpg

visme interface screenshot Students have also described their city or a city they would like to live in using a cartoon character or an animated comic strip. They have also created videos using their camera and a tool that helps them edit and combine it into a finished product.

In the upper level Spanish courses, where we focus more on communication and collaboration, students have worked together on telling a story using Wikispaces and Kidblog and shared accounts with something like GoAnimate to create videos. It really does help to engage them, and it definitely makes the learning experience more meaningful because they can recall how they chose to portray the information in their own personalized way.

How can this benefit your classroom?

So, if you have a project in mind, think about what the requirements are and how have you assigned the project in the past. What really matters is, “what do you want the students to show you that they know and can do with material that has been covered.” Then think about what has been your traditional way of having the students create something. Do you feel, when you look at their final product, that they are mostly all the same? If so, then using one of the digital tools available is your answer.

image: http://blog.visme.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/5.jpg

Try this: Keep the same requirements but give the students some choices by offering a variety a presentation tools and let them teach you some new things about technology. Also, let them drive their learning, become more engaged and as a result inspire others to do the same.

One thing I have noticed when projects are shared is that in each of the classes, students enjoy seeing each other’s work and having a choice. Another benefit is the relationships that form. Of course, they can go to their teacher, but they can also go to their peers and receive guidance when trying some new presentation tool.

Sometimes students fear new things and are afraid of taking a risk, but experiences that are diverse like this truly help to support students. Digital storytelling encourages creativity; having that choice inspires curiosity and will help to diminish the fear of trying something new.

And finally, it brings a lot of extra diversity and excitement into the classroom. As teachers, we benefit from the extra learning opportunities provided by these tools as well.

Foreign Language Blogging: The Way to Express Yourself Freely

January 27, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Excited to start my blogging for Kidblog. Here is a link to my first post about Foreign Language Classrooms and the benefits of Student Blogging. http://kidblog.org/home/foreign-language-blogging-the-way-to-express-yourself-freely/

Throughout the twenty-some years I have been teaching, I have continued to seek new, engaging ways for my students to practice their foreign language skills. I want students to work on their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills and develop confidence using the language in the process. When learning a new language, an issue that often arises for students is the fear of making mistakes. As a result of this fear, they tend to shy away from participating in our class activities. They will note on their homework and tests that they are “probably wrong” or a some other general comment showing a lack of confidence in their work. Other times, before they provide a response in class comes a statement of self-doubt such as, “I’m sure I am wrong” or a request to not have to respond, “Can you please call on someone else?”

Students in general are afraid to be wrong. In the foreign language classroom, I have noticed this is a recurrent theme among my students.

Hearing students exhibit these feelings drove me to look for ways to help them become comfortable in expressing themselves. Students need to practice language skills, so I focused on finding methods to encourage students to cast aside doubt and find confidence in expressing themselves through the language. Initially, I started each class by reminding students to “just go with it,” to simply read their answer, write their response, and not worry about being wrong, just participate. I tried to help them understand that it is normal to make mistakes – that is how we learn. I even shared stories of my own mistakes to emphasize this point.

I chose to integrate blogging as a way to encourage my students to take a chance with writing and to be more creative with the language. I started having my students write blogs for a few homework assignments. I encouraged them to share their thoughts, write freely, and not worry so much about grammar and being right, but to focus on expressing their ideas and using the language.

I had done some blogging with students in Spanish many years ago, although at that time it was called “our daily journal writing.” I set aside 10 minutes in class a few days each week, created a prompt, and encouraged them to write. I asked them to write without worrying so much about grammatical accuracy, but rather focus on expressing their ideas. I also took the time to write alongside them because I found it was important to be involved in the process. The prompts I provided were fun to write about.

At the end of each week I would collect their notebooks and read their responses. I chose not to grade their entries based on correctness, but rather provide feedback where needed. I also used it as a way to learn about the students themselves. Building relationships is such an important part of what we do as teachers and, for me, this was a great way to learn more about the interests of my students and to build their language skills in the process.

The students would read my responses and as part of the following week’s writing, try to implement some of the corrections or feedback that I had provided into their work.

Blogging has proved to be a tremendous way to encourage students to be creative and express themselves without worrying so much about being right. They are now focusing on talking about things that matter to them and, therefore, creating with the language.

Photo Credit: WELCOME by prayitnophotography; CC BY 2.0 license via flickr

The First Step In EdTech Integration? Connecting With Students

January 23, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Thanks again to Terry Heick and Teach Thought for sharing my blog post. Very appreciative and thankful for the opportunity.

Here is the link to the post: http://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/technology/the-first-step-in-edtech-integration-connecting-with-students/

The First Step In EdTech Integration? Connecting With Students

by Rachelle Dene Poth

You can always find a lot of discussion about the best ways, tools, and ideas for integrating technology in the classroom.

Educating yourself about the tools available and best strategies for integrating technology into the classroom is important to stay up to date with your profession. But where do you start? What’s the first step?

Teachers may find themselves on varying ends of the spectrum of being technology savvy. Teachers who have taught years (or were 80s children like myself), have seen many changes in the world of technology from the entrance of Apple computers and programming in the early 1980s, to the start of the internet in the nineties, to cloud computing and other emerging technologies today. There will be more changes on the horizon.

I have grown up in the age of computing, and as a result, incorporating technology into my classroom was not something I was afraid to do–nor was it a seamless process either. Risks are always involved when using powerful tools. With the new venture come many questions such as where to begin, how to begin, and best practices to support learning.

So where to begin? How comfortable are you with computers and web 2.0 tools? For several years, I had been using some language learning games and activities, and had students complete projects using word processing and other presentation software. Other than audio and video resources for my course, the technology use in my classroom was limited. I had attended a conference and realized that there were so many possibilities out there for enhancing learning experiences and new ways to engage students, so I reflected a bit to figure out what I could add to my classroom that would benefit my students and bring about positive changes.

For my classroom, it came down to what I have referred to as a “disconnect” between my students, our class and their access to vital resources. I focused on finding something that could make a difference. I decided to start with finding a way to facilitate communication.

“Edtech integration,” I wondered to myself “has to start there.”

The Need For Communication Resources

There have been many times that students have come to me after a long weekend with questions about the homework that they did not complete because they did not understand it.

And there were times when students missed class and appeared in front of me at the start of class, wondering what they missed in their absence. These situations led me to find Celly. Celly is a messaging tool. When I started, it enabled me to send reminders to students, to receive their questions, to share resources, and to be available when the students needed (which often was later in the evening or during the weekend when their questions appeared).

So how did this impact my classroom? It began to eliminate the problem of the “disconnect.” Perfect! Integrating this tool into my classroom was the first step in a series of changes that I made that, it seemed to me, improved the learning of the students. That this began simply by creating a persistent connect made me feel better about my hunch. My students, at least most of the time, were getting help when they needed it.

If this sounds like something that could benefit your classroom, try one of the many great messaging tools available: Celly, Voxer, twitter, or any of the dozens of apps that make this possible. Once you feel comfortable with your choice, then start thinking about another way that you can add to the learning experience in your classroom.

Think connections. Who am I connecting to whom or what, and why?

Another way to think about it is to start with a problem–time, organization, content delivery, etc.–and work backwards from there. Then find a tool to use, and start by taking that first step. Work with it a while and see the effects it makes in your classroom. If it is beneficial, then start to think about other connections to make and problems to solve. You may find that your first choice is not the best, but you have to try it out; follow through and reflect.

This means you’ll need to give it some time first. Any time we try something new, it can be a challenge and it can also be a risk. Sometimes we are successful and sometimes we are not, but as educators we should also actively be take risks, face challenges, show the students that failure happens sometimes. Set a goal and work on it, and then take time reflect on the process. Keep wondering and continue seeking more information. Be curious. Be persistent–and model these behaviors for your students!

If you stay connected with them, and connect them to one another, it will be difficult to “fail.” Better news? Your teaching is now on display and amplified. This can sound daunting, but transparency is a straight pathway to collaboration and improvement.

The First Step In EdTech Integration? Connecting With Students; image attribution flickr user vancouverfilmschool

What Are The Benefits Of Student Blogging?

January 16, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Thank you to Terry Heick and TeachThought for this tremendous opportunity to write and share information about the benefits of student blogging recently. I enjoy reading TeachThought and am thrilled to have been included.

Here is the post:

What Are The Benefits Of Student Blogging?

by Rachelle Dene Poth

What are some ideas of alternate methods of assessing students and engaging them more in conversation? Good question.

I’ve been talking a lot about some of the first steps that I took when I began integrating technology into my classroom. Like I said before, when I started, it’s not that I really had a clear direction of where to begin, or exactly what I felt was missing in my classroom. I just tried to think about an area that maybe could benefit by bringing about some sort of change, and would most benefit my students and myself. And looking back, I still feel confident that the first step I took was the right step: Finding a way to bridge the “disconnect” between the students and myself.

For my students, choosing and continuing to use Celly and Edmodo, really have helped to resolve this “disconnect” and enable me to differentiate and personalize my instruction and also to empower students to take responsibility for their learning and have an opportunity to express themselves more.

There are so many options available for teachers looking to add something involving technology into the classroom, and it all depends on what your needs are. Maybe there is only one area that you feel like you could add something to, just figure out with that one area is. My new addition last year with my students was blogging. I had read blogs for several years and enjoyed the fact that there were so many available, on so many topics and that it gave the reader an opportunity to learn about a lot of different information in short passages.

While tremendously beneficial for the reader, it also seemed like a great way for the author to share ideas and pass along helpful hints to anybody who wanted to learn just a little bit more about a topic. Blogs are great for those who do not have time to read a book and want to follow or learn about specific topics. It is also a great way to express oneself. With this in mind, I started having my students write blogs in Spanish and I chose Kidblog.

Choosing A Blogging Platform

Now there are many blogging platforms available which offer a lot of benefits. On a personal level, I have used Blogger, Word Press and Edublogs. These are great options and there are many other ways to share a blog, and depending on what your personal needs are and how you would like to incorporate blogging into your classroom, you may decide to use any one of these. But for my students when I started, I began with Kidblog in my Spanish III and IV courses.

I will say that at first the students for the most part were quite apprehensive about writing and worried who would be reading their work and probably more than anything it was the fear of writing it correctly and making mistakes. And these are all natural concerns for anybody when confronting something that’s new and different than what has been the traditional way of doing things, especially when it comes to the classroom setting.

I had never written a blog myself until I was asked to write one for a few Edtech companies and share how I was using the tools in my classroom. I was apprehensive at first, having no experience writing a blog at that time. I was not sure where to begin. However, it’s true what they say, once you take that first step you can keep moving. It’s just that getting started is the most difficult part, finding the right words, learning about your writing style, it’s all part of the process. But the overall benefit is that regardless of what your purpose is for blogging the benefits are tremendous for both the author and the reader.

What Are The Benefits Of Student Blogging?

The blogger has the benefit of improving writing skills whether it be just basic grammar in English or learning foreign language skills as is the case for my Spanish students, or for other courses, learning to write in a specific way whether it be persuasive text or narrative for example. And the theme can be relevant to any course or personal interest topic. An additional benefit is the ability to share ideas and experiences, enabling people to learn from each other.

Blogging enables you to write freely about your ideas and thoughts, and you can choose to share them or you can keep them private, but the end result is that you have a way to express yourself, be creative and can then use it as a means for personal growth and reflection.

All of my students in Spanish II, III and IV have accounts for blogging and sometimes I will give them a prompt and other times I leave it up to them to write about whatever they feel like writing about. I do set guidelines for the blog to be a certain length, number of words, specific verb tenses, but I really want it to be a way for them to express themselves, be creative and have it be more personalized.

Getting Started

Before we begin blogging and throughout the year, I continue to emphasize that it’s really important to remember a couple of things. The purpose of the blog is to work on writing skills and that means their own skills and not those enhanced by trying to use a translator. They need to put forth the effort and try to write in Spanish, in my case, while keeping in mind some of the grammar, vocabulary and verbs that we have learned in class. And finally, they need read the feedback from me, or if they are paired with a classmate, peer-review and not worry about any errors. I reinforce that we’re all in this together to help each other learn and grow and that it’s okay to make a mistake. While my experience is with students studying a foreign language, you can apply these same parameters to any course.

I use the blogs as a way to have them work with a new vocabulary unit on their own, I let them get into small groups and take turns writing and then commenting on blogs, but either way I read them all and I learn more about what their needs are as far as the language skills go, but I also learn more about them as a person and it helps to build relationships with them as well.

Final Thoughts

So those are just some thoughts about how you could use blogging in your classroom, maybe it’s something that you would do occasionally or on a weekly basis, depending on your class it could be a great way for students to write their interpretation of something they read in English or in a history course for example. I myself have written blogs for graduate coursework and at times, I am still apprehensive because I am putting my ideas out there for somebody else to read and I think it’s natural to feel a little bit afraid of expressing yourself openly, but that’s what the purpose is, to feel free to share your thoughts, to learn to communicate with others, and to build connections. These are all important parts of the learning process.

So think about blogging. Whether it means you find a blog to read, start to write your own blog once a week, once a month or try it out in one of your classes. I will say it can amount to a lot of reading when you have your students do it, but it’s completely worth it for you and for them. And don’t be afraid to take a chance with it, we learn from our experiences and we reflect and continue to grow.

Among the benefits of students blogging?

Student autonomy and student engagement–without these, the blogging isn’t possible.
The natural “cognitive load” of the writing process–writing is hard; writing that will actually be read by someone outside the classroom is another thing altogether.
21st century skills, including publishing ideas with authentic audiences (see above).
Opportunities to practice digital literacy and citizenship

If you have any questions or comments I’d love to hear from you, happy blogging!