Providing HANDS ON Learning

At Rockhurst we walk the talk. Not only do we discuss the importance of hands on learning with our students regarding teacher preparation, we provide it. Below you can view a series of pictures expressing exactly how we do this. In my course, Technology in the Classroom, I teach my students the pedagogy and technical skills associated with selecting and using technology in their future classrooms. This technology needs to ENHANCE not hinder student achievement. Thus, it is critical my students have the experience of holding, using, troubleshooting and becoming comfortable with a variety of technology tools.

Showing them the elements of tweaking the SMARTboard Notebook Activity and how to manipulate the images.

 Now they take over and are involved in teaching the lesson to the class.

One student uses the wireless tablet, the Airliner with the SMARTboard to provide instruction on a particular communication arts lesson. We also discussed this type of lesson, is grammar in isolation (DOL) the most effective way for continous and seamless grammar usage?

All students receive an iPad for the semester! They learn how and WHY to use this tool in the classroom. Much reflection occurs through research, readings, discussions and writing about the impact these type of devices have on diverse learners and teachers.  They are involved in lesson planning and evaluating the apps and other uses for the iPads. Then they will go out to our community partnering schools and use what they have learned throughout the semester to teach students and provide professional development to teachers.

Watch more about the new iPads at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNGK6mfALp0&feature=share

Summertime

What an eventful and exciting summer of learning!

• I had the opportunity to grow and learn at the International Society of Technology Education ( ISTE )conference in San Diego along with 18,000 others. I presented my research on iPads and attended a variety of workshops.

• Received three grants for my research and iPad integration with my Service Learning Projects. The Presidential Grant, the Thomas More Grant for Catholic Studies and a donation from a RU Alumni to purchase iPads 2's for students taking the course I teach: Technology in the Classroom.

• I ran a Tech Camp at Visitiation School where K-5 graders learned all about iPads, Cybersafety/Cyberbullying and a variety of desktop programs. We all had the best time creating videos (one example a student made from the program Animoto), learning how to stay safe online, playing games and following the Olympics. See the graphic designers in the picture above with their Tech Club Tshirts on. They created their own graphics!

• Had the opportunity to help pass out new iPads to students at Cristo Rey High School. All students and teachers now each have their own iPad 2 to enhance teaching and learning! I am on their technology committee and partner with them for Service Learning Projects which provide free educational technology professional development.

I'm thankful to be part of the Rockhurst University institution as they encourage and support my continued growth of learning, leadership, and service.

All Students Shine at Tech Club!

Principal Beck Akright from St Ann's takes time to join in on the iPad activity at Tech Club!

For five weeks this spring, 45 first and second graders embarked on a new adventure: Tech Club! Eleven undergraduate education students and I created a new after-school class at Visitation and St. Ann's Catholic Schools. These brave souls faithfully joined us after school once a week for almost an hour to conquer the world using the iPad and desktop computers. The Tech Club students created robots, paperless signs to 'go green', digital presentations about who they are and what they want to be, polled their class to see how everyone was different, yet alike.

Geeky, I THINK NOT.

The elementary students came skipping in each week and gave us their all. They discussed how to stay safe on the internet, respect the right to use technology and the importance of NOT using technology at all times.
 

The Tech Club 'teachers', my undergraduate education students had to write weekly lessons and were responsible for 5 students each week. Tech Club classes were in connection to the students "Service Learning Projects"  for my course, ED 4030: Technology in the Classroom. 

It was our goal to give the elementary children individual attention each week and help them see how educational AND fun technology can be. As the five weeks came to a close, my undergraduate education students expressed the amount of learning which they benefitted from as well.
 

Here are a few of students' quotes from the post project reflections:

· I enjoyed it when the students finished a project that I could tell they were proud of. I hope that I have made a difference for these students by teaching them to be more proficient with the programs we worked with.  It will make their school careers run much smoother once they get into the upper grades and college. 
 

·  Prior to this experience, I believed I would be frightened of making a mistake and feel slightly uncomfortable using the technology. Yet, after the first visit I began to feel comfortable with the students and prepared to answer any questions they asked. I knew I would love spending time with the students and getting to know them, but it is always much more personal than one would imagine. I love hearing about each student and looked forward to seeing them each week even more than I expected to. The experience was even more rewarding than I had hoped because I truly felt the students learned valuable skills throughout the duration of tech club. My expectations were very much exceeded when participating in this project. I look forward to using technology in my own classroom now much more than previously! 

·  Anytime I get to work with kids, I feel rewarded, but specifically, what made this most meaningful for me was being able to see how my students improved. Even if it was just something little, like remembering where certain letters were on the keyboard or how to change the font of words, it showed me that my being there was beneficial to them. Besides helping them learn a little more about technology, I made a difference by being a positive example of a teacher who is excited to be there with them, which I think is sometimes worth more.

 Who learned more, the Tech Club students or Education students? I think the technical term would be... BOTH!

TECH CAMP will be offered twice this summer! To find out more email: mandi.sonnenberg@rockhurst.edu

No Wait Time!

"Welcome to the place where imagination is the destination. For young and old, big and small — it's the happiest place on earth!"

True, our kids were pretty persuaded by this repeated anthem as seen through the countless Disney Movies and commercials they've watched, but we wanted to ensure our experience was going to be happy as well.  Trying to be the devoted parent and a planner by nature, I reached out to some friends who had taken their children to Disneyland and Disneyworld. I'll be honest, I  instantly become overwhelmed. The character dining, the right height for rollercoasters, the meal plans, lodging, activities, fast passes....the list went on. The Disneyland website and others we saw were saturated with information as well. I acknowledge seeking out information is imperative when planning an important day, but we were initially thinking of being a little bit more low key. So, my husband and I decided to be prepared for being unprepared. Our plan consisted of one goal: walk around and guide the kids to the appropriate areas for them and see what happens.

Well, it certainly left quite a bit to the imagination! I gave in (a little bit) and found the "Disneylad MouseWait" app and "Free Disneyland Maps" app. Both of which I downloaded to my phone on the trip there to research (no I was not driving). These were exactly what we needed and very simple to use with brief tips.  It was wonderful because these apps were constantly  updated  every few minutes to reflect if wait times increased, or there was an area which closed, where to find the characters and when. Very similar to having Mickey Mouse himself walking around telling you where to head to next! It helped us plan what we wanted to do on the spot. This was great for our two oldest children (who are still young: 5 and 6), as they changed their minds as fast as you can say "It's a Small World".

This also got me thinking about how wonderful these types of apps can be for teaching. Using these simple informational apps for field trips: whether teachers or students want to research about a museum or other site before heading out there. Also, having an app at your fingertips that can alert if you if an area of the field trip is new, has been closed or not accessible.

I did some digging and this is what I found related to typical field trip educational outings such as museums:

• NY Times did a special feature on museum apps, you can view the different resources for planning and prepping for a more engaging experience: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/arts/design/apps-give-museum-visitors-multimedia-access.html
• Another great website with app resources: Museums2go: has android, iPad, iPhone and web based apps: http://www.museums2go.com/iphone-apps/
• Appolicious is also another great website, you can just type in "travel" then search for specific areas or places: http://www.appolicious.com/categorized-curated-apps/15-travel you can even create your own list to share!

I hope wherever you travel ends up being the happiest place on earth as well. Go ahead and download a useful app, WHY WAIT?

What Do We Learn From Our Students?

Last Friday, March 31st, over 60 students from Center High School visited Rockhurst Campus through a program called PREP-KC. PREP-KC was organized in 2005 to promote college readiness with high school students from surrounding urban school districts. The RU Department of Education was one of many departments who had the pleasure of meeting and talking with students from Center HS. I was humbled by the fact the students came in and were genuinely engaged and interested in what we were presenting and asking them to share. It made me miss teaching in K-12 schools!

During a six short 30 minutes sessions, we had about 10-12 students in each group who wanted to learn more about the career of teaching and our Department. Being true to our philosophy of modeling the teaching practices we wish for our education students to implement, we started with a 'Think, Pair Share'. Students were placed in small groups and we asked them "What characteristics make a good teacher? What about about the opposite?". We learned that many students want what would seem like basic qualities in a teacher: compassionate, understanding, caring, not too friendly, but not rude, good listeners, and so on.

One of the more interesting activities we then proceeded to engage them with was a cooperative learning exercise. Each student has a role: Leader, Recorder, Presenter. We explained effective teaching happens when learning occurs. Then, we asked THEM, to finish the statements: Learning occurs when....Learning is not occurring when.... They were asked to discuss first, then write down the main learning activities they experience or do not experience in the classroom. We asked them to focus on, how do THEY learn best.

From the photo above you can see one a few group's feedback. Again, this is exactly what the DOE at RU teaches our pre-service teachers. We instill and educate our future educators on these very practices which K-12 students want to feel and see in the classroom.

Here is a list of their answers in their own words from the question: Learning occurs when...

• No distractions
• Interactions with each student
• Different types of teaching
• Using information in real world connections
• Challenge each other
• Peer teaching
• Repetition
• Rewards
• Ask questions
• Give specific details
• Stands ground, good classroom management
• Smaller lectures
• Hands on work
• Students being more involved in the discussion

Learning is not occurring when...

• Students take over
• Overloading homework
• When teachers only give negative feedback on returned work
• Yells
• Embarrasses student
• Only does lectures
• Don't make personalized contact with student

Again, these are practices many teachers do on a daily basis (both sides). But if we continue to ask our students how THEY learn, we will confirm the best teaching practices we as teachers know how to do. Teaching can be challenging, but what an incredibly rewarding profession for those who care about the students FIRST.

I applaud many of you out there who love and respect your students on a daily basis. Because as true educators know: we learn from our students just as much as they learn from us.

Learn more about PREP-KC at: http://www.prepkc.org/

Freebies for Readers

I keep getting requests for apps which will support literacy for school age children. Here is a short and quality list (10) of apps for teachers and/or parents to use to motivate their budding readers. These apps will not teach the content but reinforce the effective teaching occurring in the classroom. :)  It is best practice for the adult to preview and play/use the app prior to sharing/implementing.

Elementary

LAZ-leveled reading libraries. If you type in LAZ, then wait to see what pops up, you actually don't download a LAZ app but search through some lists of leveled readers. My son loves the "Discovering Dinosaurs", the girls are enjoying the "Three Little Pigs".

Mad Libs: Who doesn't enjoy Mad Libs! There is also a Goofy Libs (etc) but that comes with a prices. This will broaden children's vocabulary and inspire creativity, plus laughter!

Puppet Pals HD: Contains one sample pack, which is great for kids to start using then you can upgrade to other packs. Your student/child can create their own skit and produce a theater presentation with very little direction. What a great way to promote plots and cause/effect writing.

USA Today: No need to buy a set for your classroom or home. Students can read it like the traditional version.

Shake and Spell:  Remember Boggle? Same concept and it has built in differentiation for various levels of learners. yes!

Spell It 2-3-4-5: (Lite): This encourages kids to spell 2-5 letter words. There is a practice mode and a quiz mode. Hours of fun.

Middle School/High School

Constitution and Declaration of iPad:  Tired of  hearing about or reading one more blog or article how  students today do not know or understand the basics of our Constitution...here's the answer! There are actually two different apps. They are very basic and information, no interactive characters or frills, but very important for our future leaders to read and have access to these primary source documents

Shakespeare: No Shakespeare is not dead, he's free!  You can search for terms from his complete masterpieces. The 'pro' version is pricey but has a glossary and portrait gallery. The free version is perfect if you need multiple copies of each play.

Goodreads: Let your students be the critics of the books they read. This is a great social networking site, they can rate the books, get suggestions and form book groups online. NOTE: students must be 13 to set up an account.

Spell It 6, 7, 8, 9: (Lite): Keep those students increasing their vocabulary and spelling more challenging words. It has a practice mode and a quiz mode. Addicting like scrabble.


Hope these will get you started...come back for more. Remember: reinforcement and reviewing of knowledge helps students rise to achievement!

Spring Break?

It IS Spring Break at Rockhurst, but that doesn't necessarily mean there is a break from learning!  This week I have been meeting, reading and talking with community members, teachers, students about new technology in the classroom. Don't feel so sorry for me yet, it has been over coffee, email, or phone...so I am enjoying the relaxing aspect of a week away from campus. 

This week has shown me how exciting learning can be with technology as I could be just pushing this all aside until next week. But, what I have been discussing with others has been extremely interesting!  Many exciting opportunities are coming to our students in the KC area in the next few weeks-next few years. There are several schools in our area going to 1:1 devices, mainly iPads. Undergraduate students in my course: Technology in the Classroom will be sponsoring Tech Clubs in two of our local Catholic Schools once a week for free.  Several teachers I have talked with this week have shared articles, workshops, blogs they have learned from on how to further improve their use of technology in their own classrooms. Out of all these  conversations, one theme is apparent: selective use of technology tools for learning. More and more educators are realizing the importance of taking the technology integration into the the classroom with ease and purpose. No longer can we afford to take a 'break' from questioning the specific purchase and use of technology with our students.  I applaud those educators who would rather research, reflect and THEN integrate the technology found to be the best supporting material for students and themselves rather than jumping on the next fast bandwagon to the latest and greatest gadget.

To all of you who are on spring break or have spring break coming up...learning comes in all shapes, sizes, and situations. Don't take a break from learning!