Flipgrid - Reflection on @EdCampMadWI

I attended an Ed Camp today in Madison, Wisconsin and had the opportunity to go to four awesome sessions. One session focused on Flipgrid.

I've been hearing about Flipgrid (@Flipgrid) for a while now, but I hadn't quite caught #FlipgridFever. I just wasn't sure how the platform worked, so I was grateful for the opportunity to learn firsthand at EdCamp in a session proposed and facilitated by Katie Copley (@mrs_copley_pvms).

Instead of writing here about how Flipgrid works, I'm going to use this space to create a list of ways that I am considering using Flipgrid in my classroom. Feel free to use and adapt!

• Record answers to questions that the judges might ask during our National History Day Contest
• Ask each other questions about their NHD projects
• Critique each other's NHD projects
• Side Quest Challenges (for gamification purposes)
• Post trivia questions or riddles and students could gain XP for answering them correctly
• Summarize a concept we are discussing in class
• Summarize a reading
• Explain a current event that they heard about this week
• Get to know each other at the beginning of a new class
• Reflect on a finished project/assessment
• Reflect on process
• Reflect on progress
• Teach each other how to use a tool or skill
• How to format their annotated bibliography
• How to cite a source
• How they determined meaning in a text
• Ask questions about assignments
• Debates/discussions on controversial topics
• Interpretation of a primary source
• Describe a modern analogy of a historical concept/event
• Historical "interviews"
• Job interviews (Homeroom Academic and Career Planning)
• Practice for Student Led Conferences

Civil War Battle Stations - ENGAGING History card game!

Sorry for the broken images. I am going to fix that as soon as I have an opportunity to take new screenshots. I'm not sure what happened there.

This year I began to gamify my classes. I have been taking it slow, but recently I decided to really jump in, and I am so glad that I did!

My big success this week was creating a Civil War card game that greatly engaged my students in learning about the battles of the Civil War using about 60 minutes of class time. I had so much fun creating the game, and my students had a lot of fun playing it!

Here is how I developed the game...

I had a dilemma. We were nearing the end of the semester, and I needed to fit my Civil War unit in before the first semester was over, but that meant that the unit could only be two weeks long.

I had no idea where to start! What to focus on, what to skip... I knew that I had a great activity in mind with History Blueprint's "Civil War Battle Stations" activity, but in prior years it had taken three or four class periods for students to slooowwwwly navigate through the 12 battles in the activity. That was way too long. My students simply weren't engaged in the activity all by itself.

I really liked the activity, but I wanted to add some game mechanics in there to motivate my students. We've been using Classcraft, so I decided that XP would be an excellent reward for my students.

But how would I grant XP? Correct answers? That didn't seem motivating enough. The first group done? That wouldn't guarantee that students would try to get the correct information.

Instead, I decided to make a card game that would extend upon the activity.
I had so much fun putting the game together and coming up with the random events! Here is how the lesson played out:
Students would still have to navigate the battle stations (posted around the room) and fill out the chart (battle name, victor, location, and how the battle affected the outcome of the war), but there was an additional element.

Since the beginning of the unit, my students were organized into teams that were nicknamed with state names. Certain states, like South Carolina, were Confederate states. Others, like New York, were Union states. I also had groups that were the border states, which were the states that remained in the Union but still had slaves. I made it clear that the teams were named as such just to help students remember the two sides in the Civil War, and that I didn't believe that students had one perspective over the other.

We began navigating the "battle stations" yesterday. When students visited a "battle station," they would record the information from the battle on the chart and then come see me. I would check for accuracy, and if all was correct, they would get to choose one of the cards that I made.




If the student was part of a "Union" state, and if the Union won the battle that they had just recorded, the student would get a green-colored card (printed on green paper). The green cards were items or good events. The same goes for if the student was part of a "Confederate" state, and if the Confederacy won the battle.

If the student's side (Union or Confederate) lost the battle, they would have to pick a red-colored card. The red cards were negative events.







There were some cards that negated each other.

Here is one example:

The goal of the game was to survive the Civil War. Two-thirds of my students made it through the war alive. Even when students "die" in the war, they continue to play the game and visit the battle stations, as each card was worth a random number of XP. I had the cards' values written down on my master copy of the cards, so I knew how much each card was worth, but my students did not. This provided a little bit of mystery!

Once the game was over, students that survived the Civil War earned 500 bonus XP. Students also gained XP for each card. They earned XP for both good and bad cards, as there were more Union victories and I wanted everyone to have an equal chance of gaining XP.

Instead of taking four class periods, the activity took one and a half. Instead of students wanting to sit out, all students were engaged, even those who generally try to avoid classwork. The key is that it didn't seem like classwork. In fact, it wasn't classwork. It was a game! And through the game, my students learned how each "battle station" event affected the outcome of the Civil War. They were able to see how the war played out, and they had fun doing so!

Here is the "Civil War Battle Stations Card Game" document with the cards that I created. Feel free to make a copy and make the cards your own!

"Civil War Battle Stations Card Game" Document

My plan is to spruce up the cards a bit and adding more as time goes on, but I'm excited to get these out there! Enjoy!

Ditch Summit: "Where Technology and Pedagogy Collide" Reflection

I have been voraciously seeking professional development opportunities of late, as I have just this year become involved in Twitter, using it as an avenue to grow my Professional Learning Network.

Since joining Twitter, I have begun to listen to podcasts (which really make my one-hour drive to work bearable!) and have begun to follow the blogs of major inspirations such as Kasey Bell (Shake Up Learning), Matt Miller (Ditch That Textbook), Eric Curts (Control, Alt, Achieve), and Michael Matera (Explore Like a Pirate).

My passions in Social Studies, technology, and making learning fun have given me the motivation to keep seeking opportunities to learn.

One particular professional development opportunity that I was happy to be a part of is Matt Miller's Ditch Summit, which I am going to take the opportunity to reflect upon throughout the next few days.

Today I will start with the big question that popped up while I was watching "Where Technology and Pedagogy Collide" by Tanya Avrith and Holly Clark.

Question: Does posting the standard kill curiosity?

In my district, we are required to post our learning targets for the day. I have them posted on my website, on my daily agenda on Google Classroom, and even on assignments or class activities that my students complete during class time.

But am I killing my students' curiosity by doing this? If I tell students where we are going, am I destroying their desire to create and reach for their own learning targets?

Tanya and Holly's session have me thinking a lot about this.

I understand the reasoning behind posting the learning targets, and I think it's awesome for a couple of reasons.

1. Students know the end-goal. They understand where we are going with the information and concepts that we are discussing in class and they can prove that they know it when they have mastered the concepts.
2. It keeps me accountable as their teacher. I make sure that I teach the standards, but posting the learning targets makes me doubly responsible to make sure that I address the entire target and not steer off course too far.
3. The learning targets are in kid-friendly language, so they can understand what the goal is.

On the other hand, there are questions that make it seem like a better idea to not post learning targets.

1. If students are given a learning target, do they master the target and then stop there? Will they refuse to learn beyond the target? Will they care to think beyond the target?
2. Do posted learning targets stop students from creating their own questions? I want my students to not only learn important concepts, but to be able to create their own inquiry. Will posting an end-goal essentially kill that drive to know more?
3. If we are shackled by a learning target, will that stop us from discussing important topics that aren't in the standards? Topics such as this do exist. If I post the learning target, does that mean that we can't create a new learning target for the day?

All in all, this is a question I am continually struggling with.

I'm wondering if there is a way to create a learning target that does not kill curiosity? Hold up... I need to stop myself there. I read in Teach Like a Pirate that instead of asking "Is there a way?" I should instead be asking "How can I make a way?"

So here I restate my question: How can I create a learning target that does not kill curiosity?

Maybe this could work as an example learning target: "I can create questions that help me to analyze how physical geography influences the economy of a region."

Or, my students can work together at the beginning of a unit to create their own learning targets. As their teacher, I could facilitate and steer them to be sure that we meet the required standards as well as satiate their curiosity.

This way, learning targets would change year to year... but that is not a bad thing. Some classes will already have met a target that I have set, and it makes sense for different groups of learners to have different goals.

Perhaps it be acceptable to provide learning targets but allow students to come up with one learning target of their own for the unit. This learning target could be unique to each student, or we could come up with a few learning targets as a class. This hybrid of teacher-led and student-centered learning targets would be the perfect place to start for me, while I try something new. I will keep you posted!

Student Projects on the NEW Google Sites - Learn from my mistakes!

I love using GSuite with my classes because the ability to collaborate is phenomenal.

This year I wanted to try a little something new, so I decided to use the new Google Sites. I use it for my own website to post assignments and I am quite familiar with it, so I figured it would be no problem getting my students started using it.

I was wrong.

Not because my students couldn't handle it... They did awesome! There were just a few snags along the way.

I want to give you the opportunity to learn from my mistakes and try it for yourself, without all of the headaches! (Examples included.)

Here are the things that I have learned in assigning a website project to my students...

1. Be careful sharing a site with the whole class

I created the site and shared it with twenty students. They were great and did not mess with each other's pages... on purpose. Just be sure that you can trust that your students will respect each other's pages.

2. Tell students not to change the theme

The theme is connected to each page, so if one student changes the theme, it changes all of the pages. A simple solution is to have all students leave the theme alone!

3. Show students how to switch between the "insert" and "pages" options

My students were doing a webpage with some subpages, but it was confusing for some how to switch between different pages and how to insert text boxes, images, videos, etc. Just show them the tabs on the right side of the screen, and they figure it out pretty quickly!

4. Instead of having students add a ton of pages, have one page per student

If time is of the essence or if students only need to add one page, only having one page per student could save some headaches that happen when students have to switch between multiple pages. A website with many pages could be amazing, or cumbersome, depending on the task you are assigning. The websites that I have linked at the bottom of this post provide examples of both sites with many pages or only one page per student. I'd recommend starting with one page per student for beginners.

5. Show students how to add a text box

In order to type in Google Sites, students first have to add a text box. Walk them through that tool and the other tools on the "insert" tab so students can create a dynamic webpage!

6. Show students how to search for images directly in Google Sites

Images can be added directly from Google on Google Sites. This is so much simpler than searching for an image, saving it, and uploading it to Google Sites. Show students this helpful shortcut!

7. Publish often! This saves progress. Auto-save is not foolproof...

The auto-save feature on Google Sites isn't fool-proof, but it has only happened a couple times that a small amount of progress was lost. Remember to publish the site often, just in case something happens to student work!

8. There is no way to bring back a deleted page... yet.

Be careful with this! If a page is deleted, it is gone forever unless it is restored immediately. This could really ruin a kid's day. This is why I suggest publishing often and making sure that students only touch their own pages!

9. There is no way to see the revision history in Google Sites... yet.

This is a biggie. Without the option to see revisions, changes can become permanent. Deleted images or text boxes cannot be recovered if the "undo" button isn't pressed pretty quickly after something is deleted. Deleted pages cannot be recovered at all. Another down side to the lack of revision history is that when students work in groups, the teacher cannot be sure who completes which work on the page.

10. Trying out the new Google Sites was absolutely worth it!

I love assigning web sites. My students like how quick and easy it is to make a site on the new Google Sites... once they got the hang of it, that is! Try it out for yourself, and let your students be creative! It's amazing what they create for the world to see.

Websites created by my 7th and 8th grade students:

Central American Nations

European Nations

Violations of Rights (6th Hour)

Violations of Rights (7th Hour)