Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Visits Holy Family Academy

Bringing classical music into our midst, we were honored to welcome the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to perform in our chapel. It was a spectacular day for a performance--quite a treat for our high school students.

The music speaks for itself:

Hoe Down (Aaron Copland)

Remember that 1990s beef advertisement???

Theme from Ken Burns' The Civil War

Theme from Star Wars

To bring classical music into our midst was an absolute treat. The visit coincides with the symphony's 120th anniversary. Truly our school and our city are privileged to have such an organization that we can claim our own.

Tech Tips: Update - Class Dojo REALLY Works in Learning Hub

Nearly one month has passed since we introduced Class Dojo to shape-up our morning routines. I'm pleased to announce the success of our venture! Initially greeted with suspicion, our sophomores took less than a week to buy-in.

Now, Class Dojo has become part of our morning routine. Students are rewarded for being prompt, productive, and positive. 

The introduction of these videos helped, too:

Growth mindset: training your brain!

Our learning hub students connected with the cartoon avitars introducing us to class dojo. This includes Mojo, the adorable little guy orbiting the earth, pictured above.

Growth mindset: the magic of making mistakes

The intro videos teach lessons on how to develop a growth mindset. This includes forming the habits, skills, and dispositions necessary to be successful in school and in life.

To incentivize the process, as our students earn dojo points, they qualify for small rewards--cheese sticks, juice boxes, and little healthy snacks.

Contrary to their latest protest, I don't think offering potato chips will get them into Learning Hub faster...

Here's to your health, kids!

-j

Lesson: The American Dream Deferred - The 1950s African American Experience

Digital media and primary sources from the Montgomery Bus Boycott introduce our students to the civil rights movement in America. As historical problem solvers, we joined the ranks of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks--as well as Claudette Colvin, Bayard Rustin, Jo Ann Robinson, and Virginia Foster Durr... Names we may not (yet) know, but probably should.

We began our inquiry (historical problem solving) with two pivotal questions:

1) "What might this poster suggest about the people and organizations behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott?"

2) "How might an act of civil disobedience, like breaking an unjust law, spark a nationwide movement?"

A demanding challenge and a hard-fought victory:

The students' responses were thought-provoking and very well reasoned. Their ability to cite specific evidence is emerging, and as our exercise continued, they confidently referenced details from both the bus boycott flier as well as Rosa Parks' booking photo and accompanying question.

It gave me such pride to share this experience with our students' corporate work study supervisors--approximately twelve visitors happened to be on tour while we were discussing the warm-up questions and image above.

The ensuing scene was inspiring, magical, and reminiscent of a Morgan Freeman movie about a school "turning lives around and opening hearts in the process". The students and their supervisors took turns playing off of each other, bringing up points about the style of the poster, the size of the font, the homemade details... Truly, it was one of those moments that make you feel the electricity that comes from engaging in the learning process. 

Our students collaborated in groups of up to three people, working through a textbook entry (A) and four additional primary sources (B-E). 

In each round, they constructed a claim addressing the question "Why was the Montgomery Bus Boycott successful?"

To answer this, our students needed to cultivate reasons that the artifact used to suggest that the protesters would prevail and specific evidence that they could cite in support of their claim.

Again, working with primary sources poses a far greater challenge than textbook entries, as students must construct meaning and place the ideas within a historical context. It's a sophisticated task that requires patience, skill, and above all else, practice.

I'm incredibly proud of our students and the work that they have accomplished. It gives me joy to share this lesson with you in the hopes that you may find the inspiration to work with primary sources and integrate this Monthomery Bus Boycott playlist into your class, too.

Digital media: 

- Montgomery Bus Boycott Playlist

- Archives: Civil Rights Digital Library - The Montgomery Bus Boycott

- Archives: National Civil Rights Museum - The Year They Walked

- Archives: Amistad Digital Resources - The Montgomery Bus Boycott

Curriculum & teacher resources:

- Stanford History Education Group: Reading Like a Historian MBB Lesson

- Google HyperDoc: MBB Notes

(links to primary and secondary sources)

On the horizon:

Our students will begin production of YouTube videos about 1950s American life. We are collaboratively constructing claims, sourcing the best digital media and primary source evidence to support the assertions, and we will roll out our first iterations in the week to follow. It's incredible to witness how far we have come in this short amount of time together.

Invaluable resources:

@SHEG_Stanford

@PSNTPS

@TeachingLC

@librarycongress

@pbsteachers

Turning Up the Volume on Student Voice & Choice: Social Justice & MediaProduction

The media is the message & the signal is coming in loud and clear. Our teens are responding. They are the voice of a new generation. Theirs is a world where critical thinking and 21st century citizenship are valued.

Our social justice and media production club met to plan our next project. To gear-up for production, we studied "game film" as pro athletes would. 

National Treasure: 

@youthradio

#TheFix

Local Icons:

@pghyouthexpress
youthexpress.org
https://soundcloud.com/youthexpress

#CatchTheFuture

Saturday Light Brigade
@slbradio

A Pittsburgh staple, broadcasting for as long as I can remember... Still as relevant and important as ever!

A brainstorming session followed the debut of Youth Radio's program on "White Privilege". Our students had passionate viewpoints to share with one another. Our goal is to work our way up to the production quality of an organization like Youth Radio.

In the near future, we are taking a tour of the Pittsburgh Children 's Museum and laying down tracks in the Youth Express recording studio. This is a big deal for our students--many of whom are amateur musicians, rappers, and spoken word performers. To get an opportunity like this is a tremendous boost of confidence and motivation to keep at it.

Mason edits a shared Google doc while Destiny updates her spoken word performance on her cellphone.

I have a lot to learn when it comes to media production. But, when I look around my classroom, I have a huge incentive to put extra time into discovering emerging forms of media and learning how to get the most from existing platforms, like Soundcloud and YouTube.

Small School, Big Heart: Our First Pep Rally & School Spirit

An innovative school for families of any means, welcoming students from every neighborhood in Pittsburgh's metropolitan area... We are a diverse community of learners. We are proud. We are just getting started.

We celebrated the coming of the final game of the season by hosting a pep rally.

Students and teachers competed in various athletic and academic events--all in the name of fun. Winner takes bragging rights, and a few incentives:

-Dress down day

-Pajama day

-Sports team jersey day

-Pizza party 

The best part about these incentives, other than the fact that they won't break the bank, is that the students came up with the prizes themselves. They made this day a success!

Students emceed the event, coordinated schedules, and ran the sound system. The amount of elbow grease that went into this event was a sight to see. It was a celebration of our school community. Mrs. Alvarez (seated to the right) organized the event as part of Integrated Studies' team 3 project to increase school spirit.

Our administrators got in on the action and battled for a hard fought victory against our students. Knock-out is a serious sport!

The three-legged-relay provided awkward fun for participants and a spectacle for spectators, alike. Finding and hitting your stride are two distinct things...

Volleyball provided some tense moments and spirited debate between the students and faculty. It was a close match, but in the end the teachers squeaked out a victory.

Final thoughts:

We are a small school with limited resources, but the imagination that went into making our first pep rally a success came from a limitless supply of inspiration. It's the desire to be one--to bring our community together and celebrate that which makes us unique, extraordinary... 

We are Holy Family Academy: a start-up school educating teens to be contributors to the world in which they live, work, and play. I'm proud to be a part of this community.

Tech Tips: Advanced Search Techniques Help Students to Get the Most from Googling

Advanced search techniques are yet another #AwesomePossum way that Google helps teachers and students find and curate content.

A few years back, we used Google Image look-up to track down the artist behind the Possum with Ukulele. The artist gave us permission to use the design for our high school's anti-bullying assembly, and the little guy has been either ever since. I'm a big fan of AwesomePossums.

A few ways that advanced search techniques can be used include placing restrictions on an active search. These restrictions can be a variety of factors used to distill the best results for whatever the circumstance dictates.

-Date

-File type

-Region

-Creative Commons and other copyright licenses

Here are some helpful links to get started 

Advanced search for websites & images:

http://www.google.com/advanced_search

Tips on filtering search results:

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/142143?hl=en&ref_topic=3081620

Finding "free-to-use" images:

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/29508?hl=en&ref_topic=3081620

Next week, I will update this post with a YouTube tutorial using some of the advanced search techniques listed above.

-

I'm looking forward to teaching our students how to use the filters to curate images for their 1950s American Life YouTube video project. Cultural Literacy students will begin making annotated YouTube videos about the different themes that we have explored:

-The Cold War & The Red Scare

-American Consumerism & Women in the 1950s

-The American Dream Deferred: Segregation & The Start of the Civil Rights Movement

-j

Find Your Tribe: Celebrating Digital Learning Day - #DLDay

To mark #DLDay 2016 I'm sharing "super" Twitter chats. Far from a definitive list--Think of this as a PLN on-demand: no superhero costume necessary.

Spider-Man, Sprout, & Lanas... Now there's a formidable crew! Holy dangling modifier, Batman! We rapidly prototype our way to justice and stop to SketchNote the bad guys for the real crime fighters.

A Definitive List of Twitter Education Chats & Days/Times:

https://sites.google.com/site/twittereducationchats/education-chat-calendar

Some of my favorites:

#bfc530 - A Daily Dose of PD & Inspiration

#dtk12chat - Design Thinking in Education

#2pencilchat - Innovative Ideas, Analog Tools = Celebration of Creativity

#tlap - Teach Like A Pirate 

#totallyrossome - Off the Wall Communal Celebration of Learning

#sschat - Social Studies Chat

*#sstlap - Social Studies Teach Like a Pirate... I just learned about this today via reading last night's archived #totallyrossome

#libchat - Librarians & Information Science for the Digital Age

#edtechbridge - Bringing Ed Tech Developers & Teachers Together

#badgechatk12 - Digital Badges in Education

#sunchat - Sunday AM PD

#ditchbook - Toss Out Your Expensive Textbook & Opt For Digital Media & Tools 

#aplangchat - AP English Language & Composition

#aussieed - Aussie Ed Chat

Some of these chats occur way too late (or early, mates!) for a high school teacher sleeping/waking on Eastern Standard Time...

But that's the beauty of Twitter: Conversations are archived using the hashtag. So, I'm more likely to participate in #bfc530 or #2pencilchat... But I find myself reading the highlights from the previous night's #tlap or #drk12chat the very next day.

The key is to find your tribe!

Lesson: 1950s American Life & The Happy Housewife Archetype (+YouTube Playlist)

The past is a foreign country--historical inquiry requires a passport unlike any other: stamped with empathy, understanding, the willingness to believe that many actions were guided by well-meaning intentions, and some decisions are shrouded in ignorance. 

It is what it is. And in the study of Cultural Literacy, the past comes to life as we devour novels, primary sources, and historical accounts from experts in the field.

This past week, we continued our investigation of 1950s American life and focused on "The American Dream". Our inquiry centered upon American consumerism and the role of women in the 1950s.

Our sophomores responded to this lively discussion. It was another impressive display of teenagers grappling with the foreign-nature of historical inquiry. On more than one occasion, debate turned to pondering the legitimacy of gender stereotypes of the time and the silent dissatisfaction among many in the 1950s. 

One of our awesome sophomores, Leah, sent me a music video from the band the Neighbourhood. Her observations, that the dissatisfaction and turmoil of the homemaker in the video, resembles the discontent voiced in the Feminine Mystique and other primary sources that we examined.

Classroom Resources:
Stanford History Education Group: Reading Like A Historian
Primary Source Readings: Women in the 1950s

Videos:
Cultural Literacy Class Playlist - 1950s American Life: American Consumerism & Women
Makers: Women Who Make America (PBS) - 1950s Housewives

Collaborative HyperDoc: 

-"Women in the 1950s" notes sheet

Two primary sources:

-A) Harper's Weekly daily household routines

-B) Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique

Two secondary sources:

-C) Women & political participation

-D) Consumerism & the rise of double incomes

Additional Video Resources:

USA Economy in the 1950s

The Feminine Mystique via PBS Makers: Women Who Make America

The Levittown Story - America's First Working Class Suburb

Crisis in Levittown - Segregation and Discrimination

The hyperdoc and resources from Reading Like a Historian are great for collaborative learning across the spectrum... appropriate for learners of varying reading levels.
-j

A Quick Video Pick: Brené Brown & RSA Animate's Empathy Bear

Developing an empathic capacity for understanding is one of our greatest challenges and most urgent needs. To cultivate this disposition is critical to solving the big issues facing humanity in today's society and in the future.

Brené Brown's TED Talk has been transformed into an enchanting animated short, courtesy of the RSA.

Following the trials and tribulations of a little fox, a nosey deer, and our new friend, empathy bear, Brown's insights are accessible for a younger teenage audience and delightful for audiences of all ages.

Brown does not shy away from taboo topics such as profound loss and depression. She uses characters such as the little fox and empathy bear to plumb to the depths of sadness and show how it is often reliance on each other that ameliorates a wounded heart and spirit. 

Her words are simple, yet speak a profound truth--"I know what it's like down here. And you're not alone." This is a delightful three minute video that can be used in class, as a springboard in a social-emotional learning program, or as an inducement to warm fuzzies any day of the week.

Enjoy!

-j

Mindfulness: A Meditation On Self-Care & The Perogi Race Of Life

Kindness, a form of weakness; Rest, a sign of laziness: An intolerant worldview as unhealthy and fraught with misunderstanding as I've ever heard. As commonplace as sliced bread. Modern life may be hazardous to your health!

What we need is a reminder that life is a marathon and not a sprint. That the perogi race is more than just a single inter-innings break in a Pirate game, but rather culminates in an entire season of home games at PNC Park...

We need to take time to breathe, to follow our curiosity, to unplug and pursue our passions--if we are lucky enough to have found them.

I'm guilty of ignoring my body's signals to slow down--to administer self-care and to just observe. Certainly as a teacher, I'm not alone in neglecting these important things that we sometimes feel are impossible to find time for... My goodness: Have you seen the size of my to-do list?

Meanwhile, the evidence is overwhelming that a little mindfulness goes a long way. Whether it is incorporating a meditative breathing exercise like anapana respiration--not altering ones breath, but just observing the natural flow of respiration, or practicing a few minutes of gentle stretching and restorative yoga, finding time for self care can be a difference maker.

Lately, my morning routine is supplemented by a light YouTube yoga session and a #bfc530 chat. I feel these two additions to the start of the day make a tremendous difference in my mindset throughout the day. 

Not as often as I would like, I try to wrap up my day with a short meditation session--an almost impossible feat. Aside from not budgeting my time as well as I would like and almost always running a deficit at the end of a long day, I am human. I would rather read a little while longer, or try to squeeze "just one more thing" into an already full evening, just for the sake of crossing it off of that all-consuming to-do list.

However, on nights that I meditate, I find myself drifting off to sleep faster, waking with clarity, and finding calm at the bookends of my dreams.

I wonder if this is something that I could teach to others--a way of gaining perspective by pulling the plug. A way of approaching everything differently, not by doing anything. 

When we just observe, we learn so much about ourselves and the world in which we live.

Let us be mindful that we need to set aside time for self-care. When our batteries are recharged, we can better serve our students and inspire creativity and imagination.

HyperDocs Connect Students to Expertly Curated Content & InspireCollaboration

Once upon a time, Chromebooks & Gogle Docs were Google certified laptops and word processors... But that was not collaborative and did not advance our mission of providing authenticically engaging and meaningful instruction. How might we get our students to share ideas, incorporate evidence, and even play off of each others insights in a way that promotes deeper learning and activating critical thinking?

The hyper doc is a steep in the right direction... It is more than a study guide--more than a worksheet. It is a repository of curriculum resources and student and insights.

Connecting hyperlinks to warm-up graphics help to extend the original lesson throughout the class period and into the next session.

In its simplest form, HyperDocs are Google Docs with connected hyperlinks that we may use to base our inquiry upon. These hyperlinks connect students to resources--such as primary sources and thought-provoking discussion topics in our learning module and links to digital media resources. There are very few limitations when it comes to using HyperDocs. You cannot embed a YouTube video in the document, but you can easily link to a playlist, video, or other expert sources.

A screenshot of a HyperDoc created to correspond with a look at the image of the happy housewife of the 1950s.

When a student selects the hyperlink writhin the document, it automatically loads the accompanying source: PDFs, digital media resources, additional Google Apps, etc. This makes it user friendly and saves time by pairing online resources in a way that students can use, access, and review. The onus is on the student, yes... And it is just good practice! If we want to help our students to succeed, we can equip them with smartly designed organizers and guides such as HyperDocs.

Once a student opens a HyperDoc, s/he can make a copy of it and share it with partners.

I like to organize the written content using tables: this is especially convenient for students working on their phones, as tables slide from left-to-right. This helps to preserve the integrity of the document while improving the functionality of the text box when working on a small screen. Perfect for working on the bus or in an environment where you don't want others to know that you are doing your schoolwork.

Shocked by this??? To some teens, taking free time to work on your school laptop is a pathway toward being a social pariah. "Playing on your cellphone", though, is perfectly acceptable. Don't judge... We were all teenagers once upon a time and we had formal and informal codes of conduct that we had to abide by.

A few thoughts on how interconnected learning helps us to stop sweating the small stuff:

Far too often, it's matters of organization that hold teens back from reaching their innate potential and keep them from finding academic recognition. Full disclosure-- I do not subscribe to the, "Well, these kids have to learn to take responsibility for organizing their materials..." lecture series. 

Please know that although organization is one of many skills that are prized among students, it does not necessarily translate into an accurate measure of a student's learning or capacity for understanding... 

Deductions on the basis of organization and an acute lack thereof do have a way of severely hampering students' overall scores, affect students' perception of themselves, and don't always build character in the desired way that a well-meaning teacher intends. I'm not saying that students do not need to work on this among many skills--but I would rather give students digital access to everything on demand and spend more time and energy on critical thinking and creative problem solving.

HyperDocs help to encourage meaningful collaboration--a free exchange of ideas and a way to free up students' time so they may devote more energy to building, making, and creating... It is a win-win!

Speech & Debate: A Resolution To Transform Lives & Provide LimitlessOpportunities

I pace the halls, talk to walls & resolve to make 3/15 National Speech & Debate Education Day!

I have so much to be grateful for...

My first flight as a high school student... 

My first "real job" as a college student... 

I owe my life, my career to the National Forensic League and the world of speech and debate.

Thank you to every coach, every judge, every bus driver and to all of those who watched us grow up pacing the halls and talking to walls.

When I learned that the National Forensic League (@SpeechAndDebate) started a campaign to have the US Senate name March 15, 2016 National Speech and Debate Education Day, I had to do something. I am an educator because I found my teaching vocation through speech and debate. 

Here we are, the 2008 Wildcat Debaters at the Grand Canyon! (Me, Spencer, Marla, BS, and state champ LT!)

Q: What's crazier than hosting the national championship tournament in the summertime desert heat?

A: Inviting thousands of high school students to Las Vegas for a week: yikes!

It was working with the Greater Latrobe High School Speech Team throughout college that helped me to discover my vocation. I discovered that I enjoyed coaching young people and that I had a knack for breaking down complex processes and arguments. Moreover, I was a better coach than I was a competitor--as athletes describe the oddest of sensations, things just seemed to slow down and I was able to see the nuances of arguments and issues in a way that I couldn't once before. This was my path--and I relished every bus trip, tournament, and stale cup of coffee in the judges' lounge.

In fact, as a competitor one of my chief rivals happened to be my dear friend Alan--a Latrobe debater himself!

Fun fact: Just as I found my first taste of gainful employment of the non-work-study-service-industry variety via speech and debate, Alan did too!

I worked for Latrobe for four years, coaching with my friend and Nat Boards juggernaut teaching role mode, Lisa BS. The job helped me to survive my lean undergrad years at St Vincent and ever-challenging years of grad school and student teaching. 

When I landed my full time teaching position in February '08, it was the week before the state qualifying tournament. Wouldn't you know that my classroom was the staging ground for the final round of expository speaking. 

LT delivered her state champion caliber speech on "dumpster diving" in room 171. I finished the year as Latrobe's assistant coach and passed the torch to another former extemper who recently wrapped up his undergrad and was returning to school to pursue his vocation as a minister--Alan, the young man pictured above.

We prefer the term "power suit" more than "pantsuit", FYI.

Life is funny. And beautiful. And short. I hope the US Senate acts fast to pass this resolution--a resolution to transform the lives of young people... Just as it did for every single person pictured in the photos above. 

Thanks for the RT @speechanddebate. I meant all 140 characters.

Seriously--thank you and the many, many people who volunteered evenings and weekends to provide opportunities for ragamuffins Iike me.

-Jennifer Sylves Lanas

Lesson: Sketchnoting The Cold War & An Introduction To Audience Awareness

Recently I was overjoyed to share with my students a mutual affection for sketchnotes and Soviet era art and propaganda. I should preface this post by sharing that once upon a time, I felt the wrath of a a handful teachers growing frustrated with my unorthodox style of note taking... 

I'm not claiming that kids like me were persecuted for busting-out the multi-colored pens to take notes, draw pictures and charts, and jazz-up an extra few sheets of wide-rule filler-paper. We were just misunderstood... And, what we once referred to as doodling in our notebooks has now found legitimacy in today's classroom: Awesome Possum! 

A student's sketchnote of Churchill's "Iron Curtain Speech".

I like to read speeches aloud--they are meant to be savored by the ear. I really like coupling this delivery method with the processing that sketchnotes afford. Think about it: the act of slowing down to incorporate both words and images helps students to personalize the lesson and make the take-away a very unique experience for every learner in the classroom. 

The materials for this lesson came from the unit "Cold War Culture" via Stanford History Education Group's Reading Like a Historian series. I will dedicate a future post to singing their praises--the resources are spectacular.

Above, we used an excerpt from Churchill's speech. The full text is available online--just register for a free account on the Stanford History Education Group's site. The readings come with accompanying guides, too. I incorporated the questions from the guides and used them to supplement class discussion. 

I especially liked the way that the questions prepared by SHEG focused upon audience-awareness. This is a sophisticated step for students to make--the jump from "What is Churchill saying?" to "Why is he saying it this way?" or "Why is Churchill addressing an American audience in the first place?"

The benefit of introducing a sophisticated notion such as audience awareness in tandem with a seemingly juvenile technique as sketchnoting is that the student drawn images can help to articulate this difficult concept--that the substance of a speech is only part of the equation... It's the audience's ability to receive that message that is telling.

A thoughtful illustration can bring that concept to light in a way that a developing writers' voice is still sounding-out.

To complete the analysis, I created a Google Doc note taking sheet... Because sketchnoting all four primary sources would be just too much of a good thing.

The sheet above is appropriate for individual efforts and collaborative endeavors, as with all GAFE resources. If you plan to have your students work in cooperative learning groups, dividing the readings is a must:
-Documents A & B suggest that the Soviets are primarily responsible for starting the Cold War
-Documents C & D suggest that the US shoulders the burden for starting the Cold War


Hope you check out both sketchnotes & Stanford History Education Group's resources!

-Jennifer Sylves Lanas

Note:
In hindsight, my doodles were not taboo in every single subject when I was in school. I recall making a cartoon series in high school starring my AP Bio teacher as a studio wrestler our entire class named "The (protein) Inhibitor, and his collection of side-kicks from the lab--including a cameo appearance by the fabled Three Little Pigs... And who could forget the comics I drew and posted in the Saint Vincent College Philosophy Tutor's office--Philososaurus Rex...

Lesson: Be kind to those students who color outside the lines.
You might end up reading their blog one day...

Tech Tips: Embed Google Drawings for Instant Updates to Websites & Assignments

We begin each class with a warm-up activity--students write discussion board posts, reflections, or submit questions. Our learning management system, Canvas, makes it pretty easy to set-up...

But what happens if you need to make a quick change? Do you really need to update the assignment for every class?

No... And that is one of the big advantages of using and embedding Google Drawings in your online assignments and websites.

Google Drawings can be used to combine images and text in a variety of ways. In the example above, our students used primary sources--a Cold War propaganda poster (left) and a "Duck and Cover" photograph from the 1950s (right) to write a discussion board post about "The Red Scare".

Designing engaging graphics in Google Drawings is easy--think of it as the "best-of" Paint and PowerPoint with the best image and clip art database on planet Earth. I like to create a basic template with which to work and then "make a copy". This way, I can replicate ideas and plug-in new question prompts and images. 

See previous posts tagged GAFE to see examples: the PEEL paragraphs on writing about primary sources is an great starting point. I used one template to make a half dozen unique writing prompts, and posting a "view only" template enables students to take the idea and customize it with their own visual.

To help you to get started, I've posted a few how-to tutorials below. Using Google Drawings and the publishing tool is a true time-saver that enables revisions to be made and updated with no effort at all.

Check out this quick video on publishing a Google Drawing and embedding it on a discussion board or website.

Check out this video showing you how changes are automatically updated once a Google Drawing is embedded. No matter how many times you paste the code on a number of sites and assignments, you will never have to update the post. Any revision made to the Google Drawing is automatically recorded.

Think about all of the times that you "finish" a document, only to revise it thirteen times after "you're already done"... Okay--maybe that is my own personal OCD, but I can't be alone here!

At any rate, this makes it that much easier to make changes in one place and have the updates materialize everywhere. Now that's how we rapidly prototype in style!

Because It Is The Right Thing To Do, Right Now: #CSforAllStudents & #PDforAll Educators

The White House's #CSforAll initiative is a forward-thinking call to action. It extends across the aisle and can easily be championed by all political parties.

I'm especially fortified in making this claim, seeing the recent push to democratize the STEM field and to tear down the bro-culture of silicone valley's coding world. Whether it's featuring Lego kits with female scientists or Hollywood making a commitment to showcase STEM roles for actors and actresses from underrepresented minority groups, we are moving in the right direction. Couple this with grassroots efforts by groups like Black Girls Code and we have the inspiration for the next generation of problem solvers.

A snapshot with the ladies during Hour of Code. They made unbeatable versions of Flappybird & Star Wars games.

HFA students participated in Hour of Code in December. Witnessing exponential growth in only its third year, this global movement highlights access to CS initiatives. Schools need not have a mega lab to join in--just a willingness to try to code. Our students made games and even crafted binary code bracelets--mine being green and yellow, go SVC Bearcats!

Checking Out Game Design

Today I joined the sophomore Game Design students in Dr. Brandaõ's class. The students began the year modifying games, or creating mods. Already halfway through the course, their growth is impressive. I checked out the video games that they designed for the arcade-a-thon. Similar to the Mario of my youth, the game design students used Floors to create six level games that can be designed and played via the Floors app. There is even an option to design it on-paper, then snap a pic and upload your creation. Pretty groovy if you ask me!

CS for All Students - PD for All Teachers

Computational Thinking for Educators

(I sketched this note upon completing my Google class... As a child after a hard-fought victory on the softball diamond, I hopped on my bicycle and grabbed a celebratory ice cream cone.)

I'm serious about this initiative--as I believe that the White House and other vested stakeholders are. If we want it to happen, for real, we need to get more teachers on board. The best way to do this is to open up quality, free PD. 

For example, I took a free Google class over the summer--Computational Thinking for Educators. It was awesome: at its completion, I felt proud, knowledgeable, and empowered. I even designed my own CS project that can be used to track the frequency of word use across decades. This will be incredibly useful as we begin to study the rhetoric of the Civil Rights era.

Teachers will buy-in when they see the opportunities presented before them--the world that our students are entering is vastly different than the one that we stepped into upon graduating from high school. We need to equip our teens to meet these diverse challenges.

Looking Toward the Future

I'm proud to work at a school that prioritizes professional development. I'm optimistic that there are districts that feel the same way. Perhaps, while the house and congress wrangle over the dollars and cents behind making this CS for All initiative a reality, companies like Google, Microsoft, Intel, and others will continue to offer high quality PD. 

More than that--lets advocate that they open these PD sessions to educators and other stakeholders with a vested interest in our children's futures. That these corporations see that this is critical is a no-brainrd... But will they finance the PD for the teachers shaping and molding the next generation of innovators, that remains to be seen.

Final thoughts: as I listened-in on the #CSforAll teleconference earlier this week, I was delighted to hear the questions about adaptive technologies for the visually impaired and others living with disabilities. We need to be mindful that the progress that we make in STEM fields acknowledges the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities.  As our nation marked 25 years since the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we need to make strides to incorporate better design and accommodations for the disabled. Furthermore, we must ensure that individuals with disabilities make up the diverse workforce of highly sought-after careers in STEM fields.  

Equity and access is key.

#CSforALL students

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Student Showcase: WWII Animoto Videos on Cultural Literacy YouTube Channel

We now have a YouTube playlist dedicated exclusively to our WWII Media and Makerspace projects in Cultural Literacy. Below is a sampling of some of the Awesome Possum Animoto videos that our sophomores produced.

African American Women in WWII - Lakin & Destiny

Dr. Seuss and WWII Political Cartoons - Destiny, Haylee & London

The Holocaust (music video set to "This is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars) - Amanda

D-Day Invasion - Leah & Derek

Pearl Harbor - Shauna & Marquise

WWII Lego Kits - Frank

Music Boosts Morale On the Battlefield & On the Homefront - Alex

What Are Victory Gardens? - Tyera

This would not have been possible without the generous resources available from the National WWII Museum's digital archives of primary and secondary sources. I cannot say enough good things...
I will need to begin a "spare change jar" dedicated to making a pilgrimage to the museum in New Orleans. If there's a will, there's a way!

In Search of Human Origins: How A Middle School Librarian Made Me Who I Am Today

If I were judged by "the person I was as a kid", I would likely not be a teacher... And had an adolescent version of me gazed into a crystal ball, she would be surprised to find her calling as an educator.

"A Tale of Two Jennys" 

- Above, reading Dr. Seuss stories to my Pound Puppies...

-Below, celebrating the "catch of the day" along Ten Mile Creek in Amity, PA

This photo was taken when I was in first grade... Notice the frilly purple jacket, camouflage hat, and stringer of rainbow trout: An average childhood snapshot, growing up in Western Pennsylvania...

Teachers have the privilege of numbering their years upon this planet by their number of years in school--as students, as undergrads, as professionals... Each passing year, an opportunity to connect with yet another group of young minds. Impressionable youth, with malleable ideas and enthusiasm... Dreamers and doers, each writing their own drama of existence. And remember--to a teenager, the drama is oh so real.

As I am rereading Tony Wagner's MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED, I noticed something that I must have glossed over in my first read. Both Wagner and Dintersmith take a moment to thank a very special teacher--someone who made school a place where each student felt welcome, felt like they belonged, felt like they mattered.

For me, that could be so many people who have touched my life. However, I am thinking in particular of a librarian that took me under her wing when I was an awkward middle schooler.

Her name was Mrs.Hackett--and she saved my life.

Okay, that might be a bit dramatic. But I believe it with all sincerity. 

I just love this photo--I'm in fifth grade basking in college life with my oldest brother, on campus at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. My right arm is in my coat because I recently saw a painting of Napoleon and it just seemed like the most logical pose to strike.

Mrs. Hackett knew that my oldest brother was away at school, and I missed my hero and friend. My other brother (who would later join the ranks of hero/friend--but just not at this age... we still fought like close siblings tend to do) was in high school and was too busy learning to play the guitar to pay very much attention to me. 

Mrs. Hackett lured me to the library with the siren song of books--all the books that I could get my hands on. She even Interlibrary-Loaned a few books from college and university collections: I had a fascination with the Nova series In Search of Human Origins and I wanted to read everything that was published in English. If a hominid was involved, I was up for the challenge.

So, there I was--in sixth and seventh grade--carrying college texts on paleoanthropology, writing faux newspaper articles about epic discoveries in Olduvai Gorge by Don Johansen, and dreaming of working in the Institute of Human Origins in Berkley, CA. I rode that momentum through middle school. It carried me into high school and college--where I no longer envisioned myself a budding paleoanthropologist, but definitely had an affinity for biology.

It all began with Mrs. Hackett...

This is an awkward Middle School Math Counts team photo, taken in eighth grade. My friend Tina still looks exactly the same, by the way. Lucky lady.

It should be noted that Mrs. Hackett tricked me. Seriously, it was for my own good--here's the story:

As a sixth grader, wasting away in an end of the day study hall, a totally unproductive exercise in futility--it was nap time for exhausted girls going through growth spurts--I received a message to go to the library. That was the day that Mrs. Hackett introduced me to a new student who just moved to the US from Poland. I was appointed to be his chemistry tutor.

"But, I don't have chemistry--I don't know how to do this?" I said as I looked up from the table, sitting alongside the smiling newcomer, happy to have escaped his study hall, too.

"Well, I guess you will have to learn it in order to teach it..." Oh--she was crafty, the old girl! So, that's what I did...

My goodness, as a teacher, that's what I do. Isn't that what we all strive to do? To be the lead learners in our classrooms and beyond? To plant the seeds of imagination and creativity into fertile minds--so they may grow into curious, lifelong learners.

It took a few twists and turns for me to find the path that lead to obtaining my masters and teaching certificate... But when I did find myself right where I always belonged, I applied for a graduate work study position in the place where I felt most at home:

I was a "Book Fairy" in the Interlibrary Loan Department and it paid for my tuition. Aside from what I do today, it was the greatest job a ragamuffin like me could ever have.

Mrs. Hackett was definitely on to something...

Lesson: Students Take Over & Teach WWII History Using Digital Media & Maker-Ed

Students whom create and present media & makerspace projects before an audience are empowered with the creative confidence to make, build, and tell a story that goes far beyond the covers of a dusty history book.

We began with the expertly curated resources available on the National WWII Museum's website. It's loaded with a myriad of primary sources and easy to access and understand secondary sources. I do not have a lexile-level for their PDFs, but I will say that everyone in our learning community used these resources with relative ease, especially when chunking and conducting pair-share check ins.

Our Learning Goal: 

-To make something that would teach an audience, between the ages of 10-110, about WWII - It's was an ambitious, personalized approach that paid off in a big way. The agency the students developed in the making of this project took our classroom to a new level.

-Students browsed the digital archives and used the resources labeled "WWII at a Glance".

-The four topics branch out into mini lessons on more specific events--slices of time that give our students access to the past in a way that they have never been exposed to: to be living participants in WWII history.

Students were encouraged to use the WWII Museum's online collection. However, for special-focus topics, we accessed materials from other institutions, including the Holocaust Museum and the Smithsonian, both in Washington DC.

The most critical part was guiding students to tell the story of how this event or movement might be historically significant. It's tempting, as a teacher, to want to step in... Ample feedback from peers helped to reinforce the message that the WWII Media & Makerspace project was an opportunity for students to "take over and teach". I took notes on the feedback that students received, and passed them along so groups could get started on the next iteration.

The use of templates and agile resources that get students to reflect upon the process of storyboarding and pacing their research and curated content... This is an area that I would like to improve upon in my next iteration. I realized at this phase that I did not establish a set guide or a few options for students to use for this phase of the project. 

My fear was that if I did, it would feel overly scripted--as a worksheet. However, I think that students would have benefitted from seeing the thinking process made visible via agile resources that make us slow down and take pause to reflect and take purposeful action.

I love exercising student voice and choice. The students were free to select their groups, topics, and learning object that they would create. The majority elected to use digital media to make Animoto videos. A handful opted for a more maker-centered approach and crafted memory boxes, scrapbooks, and mobiles. One student even used Tinker CAD to design 3-D printed WWII style propaganda empowering modern women.

It's amazing to see what our students come up with when we get out of the way and equip them with the agency to take over and teach.