Shake Up Learning: Ch. 16: Purposeful Planning

My district is blessed to have 1:1 iPads. I would prefer that my student have the opportunity to type on a keyboard, but we do have access to Chromebook carts and a lab, plus we have attachable keyboards for the students.

As I am in a new district, I’m not yet sure what the policy is about publishing online. I am definitely going to find out if this is possible, and I can have students use pseudonyms if necessary. I hope that it is alright for us to publish, as my students need to be the ones to tell their story and to begin building their online portfolios
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Plan A works out about half of the time, but that’s what happens when you take risks in the classroom! My students still learn what they need to learn and meet the goals that they have to meet, but I often find myself switching up a lesson or a small part of a lesson to inject some enthusiasm into the class, or to fix a small issue or glitch in our activity.

I have a website where I post everything. I am beginning a new one this year (again, new school district), but students know they can go there to find links to assignments. (My Website: http://tinyurl.com/Baurichter) In order to find more specific information, we use Google Classroom. This is the first place I want my students to visit; the one-stop-shop. If they need to get to my website to find something from a particular unit, the link to the website is in the “About” tab on Google Classroom.

I package not only assignments, but lesson plans for the day. Every day I post an agenda of what we are doing in class. It includes the following:

• Learning Targets
• Assignments that are Due Today (if anything)
• Steps in the Lesson
• Starter Question
• Mini-Lecture (5 min)
• Activity
• Assignment (due date, with a link to the assignment details)
• Assignments are posted separately, though I do link to the assignment details in the daily agenda. For assignments, I post the task, expectations/rubric, due date, and pertinent links that can help the student complete the assignment.

Read more about packaging assignments: How to Package Your Online Assignments

Examples:

When it comes to using digital tools, I like to try out what is new. If we do this, I have plan B ready to go, and I start with a disclaimer. I tell my students that we’re trying something new, so just have fun with it! I never grade anything that is connected to something we are trying for the first time. Overall though, I know that I need to focus more on the learning target than the tool. Often I think that a tool is pretty awesome and try to use it without considering what I want my students to learn first.

Once we tried out a new review game app and it didn’t work at all. The kids understood, and asked when they could try it again. They know that glitches happen, and it’s nothing to be upset about! I used to get visibly frustrated because I thought it made me look unprepared, but the students understand. It also eases their discomfort when it comes time for them to present something. They know that if it doesn’t work, they can try out their plan B and not get frustrated about it. Teachers need to model many things, but one that all students notice is when you model the proper way to respond when things don’t go as planned.

The most difficult of technology integration is when a student does not want to try a new tool. I had one student who despised technology and never wanted to participate if we were using the computers. It turned out that he just had no experience with computers and did not understand how to use it. When we would try out a new app or website, I would be there to help him launch it. Soon a friend of his picked up on this and was there to help him. Once he saw how it was done a few times, he was able to do it on his own. By the end of the school year he loved going on the Chromebook and was talking about wanting to get one so he could go online over the summer, though he said he would still spend almost all of his time fishing instead. It helps to discover why a student isn’t interested and solve that problem in order to make it easier or more entertaining for them in the future.