DE Digital Board

A Screenshot of my DE Digital Board

Link To My Digital Board 

Link : https://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/51FA2F17-9454-3BA9-18CC-44FC644DE34D

     This week, I was given a task to complete a Digital Board using Discovery Education. This was my very first experience using this tool, and I must say that it was a positive experience, indeed. Digital boards are a new concept to me, and I think what made me immediately love them was that everything is in one place! Videos, pictures, etc. were all in the same place, and there was no toggling back and forth. We are currently working in a "small moment" activity in writing that includes our real life experience of visiting the MHS Apple Orchard. Students will use their expeieroncs to author a small moment, or one specific part of the story that was significant to them. I thought that having access to links, videos, clips, and other media sources all in one place was absolutely fantastic. 

    I think that I could easily integrate the use of the DE Board Builder tool into my classroom this year. I think that it would serve the best in the Writing curriculum area(s), because students would be able to craft their own board and would be able to express their opinions, and what is important to their six year old minds. I would especially find this helpful when we are working on our opinion writing unit. Students will be able to use the Board Builder to help express their opinions that will be covered in the six week unit. Students will be able to take ownership and represent their thinking to other classmates. 

   Board Builder in my opinion, is another great tool that will help students understand that we all have different opinions, and express them in different ways. What one student may choose for his Board, another may not choose. This will only help students understand that differences are ok and accepted, which directly ties into our Gardner discussions of respectful and ethical minds.  Exposure for young minds is key to developing correct responses to differing work and opinions. the more exposure our children have to things that aren't within their ways of thinking, the easier it is to understand and embrace them. 

Video Blog- 5 Minds

Below is the link that you will need to view my blog entry for this week:

http://ge.tt/271E0if2

References:

Howard Gardner. Five Minds for the Future. 2007. Harvard Business School Press, Boston MA.

Respectful & Ethical Minds

Respectful & Ethical Minds

Milton Hershey School instills four sacred value into their employees and students, and one of those is "respect."  Students are taught to respect other classmates, houseparents, and teachers on a daily basis with the hope that it becomes intrinsically instilled in them. I am sure that you can imagine how tough this is for  six year old to constantly remember, because for the most part, they are only focused on what is important to them at the current moment. Throughout the discussion  between Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis, the theme of respect continually came up. Ownership of respect, giving respect, and understanding what respect is in a digital world were all major thinking points for us listeners. In my opinion, respect is a major part of the digital world. We are often times viewing others work, sharing, commenting, editing, etc. The previously mentioned digital practice are also something that we see happening in the classroom. Students are often viewing others work, providing feedback, and seeking to understand more. 

In my first grade classroom, we are LOVERS of the app Seesaw. Students are able to create a digital portfolio which can be shared with parents, houseparents, teachers, and other students. One of the things that we are beginning to work on within the app is posting comments. Students are able to "like" another students post by pressing the heart, or they can voice record a comment/type a comment for the student to see. This has provided to be an excellent way to build community in the classroom, understand how to take criticism, and really embrace the growth mindset. We have set up "posting" rules in our classroom, and they are as follows:

1. If you record a comment, it must start off being positive. 

2. If you see a mistake that was made or feel that the student could have done something differently, you can only post it after your positive comment. 

3. You must give suggestions in a kind way, and may not say things such as "not a good job". If something could be better, students must say "next time, why don't you try" or "have you thought of."

I have found that these guidelines help students receive feedback that produces growth as well as understand how to be a kind classmate. As we all know, kindness matters. :)  A sample is attached below (I modeled the comment for the class):

(Photo Credit: SeeSaw: Paid Version via MHS).

My favorite take away thought from  the video was: The aim of global collaboration in education is to improve learning, break down classroom walls, and develop authentic audiences. I feel that our system of commenting in SeeSaw is just one subtle way that we are achieving the above!

SMORE...and Lips The Fish :)

Link to SMORE

What instructional goal/challenge does your SOS address? What additional value does the integration of digital media bring to your idea in terms of students’ understanding of the concept or topic?

SMORE was a very interesting way to access digital media and incorporate learning strategies as well. Reading instruction comes with many challenges and hurdles to overcome. It is such a complex thing to teach students to do, because there are so many different components to teach, along with the "why". Students often discover that reading is a major struggle and also find that it is HARD to keep all of the reading strategies that we learn readily accessible. Applying the knowledge learned is even harder for our younger minds. This year, in my class we have adopted a set of fun reading strategies to help students work through the struggles of reading, and overcoming the hurdles that prevent them from being fluent, successful readers. Since we have just adopted these strategies this year, it is hard to understand the positive or negative impact that they are having on students reading. I can tell you that reading is more fun, exciting, and engaging for students when using these strategies, which in my opinion leads to more engaged and dedicated readers. 

I think that the integration of digital media will not only make reading and using it's strategies more appealing for students, but will also help them establish more of a purpose for what they are doing. We have all agreed that technology and digital media only enhance and increase student engagement as well as promote ownership and understanding of the content being taught. I think that using the SMORE strategy checks all of the boxes above and gives an extra edge to to content being presented to students and other educators. 

Link: https://www.smore.com/udstv

Creativity Conversation

Creativity Conversations...With a six year old!

This week in first grade, I had the pleasure of engaging in conversation regarding creativity with Olivia. Olivia is a lovely six year old girl with beautiful freckles and red hair. She is spunky, sweet, and FULL of things to say! I asked Olivia a few questions regarding creativity in the classroom and she had wonderful answers to share with me! A few things about Olivia: Art class is her favorite, and she loves reading and having her nails done! What's not to love about Olivia?  See below for our conversation:

1. What does creativity mean to you? Creativity means that I get to use my brain to make things. 

2. Are you creative? Yes! I love to go to Art, I love to color and I love to draw. 

3. Why or why not? I always try my best and I love to use different colors, AND I color inside the lines. 

4. What helps you be creative at Milton Hershey School? Well, I-pads help me draw on SeeSaw and paint helps me make cute photos. Is it snack time yet?

5. Do you like using the computer or i-pad to be creative? Yes! I think that drawing and recording on the I-pad helps me be creative. Easy bake oven is fun too because we can bake things. 

6. What apps do you think help you be creative? Ms. Book! I just told you! SeeSaw and Easy Bake Oven. 

7. What else do you think we need in our classroom to be creative? More i-pads, new markers, and maybe some glitter. 

I am sure that you can tell that Olivia is a funny little girl. She has wonderful responses to think and is very much a girls girl. I found that her responses were very typical to what a child would say to such questions. I found it interesting that she equates creativity to coloring, art, designing, and creating. I think that for children, creativity is seen more as using colors, working hard, and expressing yourself. I really enjoyed my time with Olivia and laughed quite a bit at her answers. I hope that you enjoyed reading it, too!