Revamped Tech Infused Geography Unit

So I spent a great deal of my summer redesigning my dreaded geography unit. While the skills and objectives remained the same, the new and improved unit has more application practices. Having a set of 20 iPads living in my classroom has extended the possibilities as far as my creativity can run with it. I continue to use the five themes of geography as the framework for teaching geographical thinking. However, I felt I went much deeper this time around. In partnerships, the students worked on self selected landscape images from anywhere in the world. I partnered up with our school librarian in order to build copyright awareness. In the library classroom, students explored www.searchcreativecommons.org as a source for images. Most students found the most success using Wikimedia through the Creative Commons website.  

Students were also provided with the following rubric:

5 Themes of Geography Rubric Mini-Project - QUIZ GRADE

Criteria	Description	Points
Title	Must have location & each partner’s name.	5
Pins	* Each theme is represented by a different colored pin. * Must have at least one pin per geography theme. * Placement of the pins on image are related to labeled theme - with the exception of location, place, region.	20
Text	* Explanation of how the theme applies to the image must be accurate and clear. Do NOT just copy your notes or type the name of the theme. * Make sure to include how your theme is being applied to your image (ex. Movement: people, ideas, & good). * Need to include absolute & relative location.	30
Image	* Each pin must have a photo, with the exception of place. * Images for location and region themes must be maps. * Photos/maps add meaning or support to your text.	30
Sources	Include a pin different from the theme pins to represent your sources used (Wikimedia, Flickr, etc.)	10
Shared	Project is linked to edmodo group & labeled with location & each partner’s name.	5
	POINTS EARNED

Then off to the races we were, opening up Thinglink accounts, and crossing my fingers that the 5th graders would remember their passwords the next day. So much for crossing my fingers! Even having them use the same password/username as they had recently been assigned to sign into the school website proved not to be foolproof. Many of the students typed in their passwords/usernames incorrectly which led to the multiple requests to reset their accounts.

                                               

The project itself was wonderful! It will definitely be a repeat next year with a few tweaks. Thinglink was a terrific platform for the students to apply their knowledge of the five themes of geography. The Thinglink learning curve was minimal, very user friendly.  I then had them embed the link onto edmodo. A homework assignment was for the students to go into edmodo and provide meaningful comments to three of their peer's Thinglink projects. I then graded their projects right on edmodo. One bump I ran into was that embedding the link did not work for all students. The images would not completely load onto the site. Next year, I will have students simply link their project instead.

I was blown away by how must thought the students put into this project. We spend a total of three class periods working on this project, and it was totally worth it. Not only was I able to assess their geographical thinking, but I also evaluated how they worked collaboratively, their written expression and grammar skills along with how closely and accurately they followed a rubric. These were all great starting points for the new school year. Hoping our next geography U.S. states project using 30 Hands will be just as successful!

Here is one example of their work:

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/426744259429793792#tlsite

Summer Learning Reflection Game Changers

What a summer it has been, full of active learning - mostly self directed too. There was some traditional professional learning involved such as attending ISTE in San Antonio along with 10 other colleagues. This summer I experienced my first unconference, a PrincipalMeet and a TeachMeet. I also filled my learning time reading books such as "Essential Questions" by Grant Wiggins and "Design for How People Learn" by Julie Dirksen. However, most of my learning and collaborating was done virtually. I participated in book & weekly chats, listened to podcasts, watched webinars, collaborated with my PLN, and along the way made new Twitter connections. I was able to pick and chose areas that interested me the most, the ultimate DIY PD.

I spent a good amount of time learning and using new apps of which I plan to use with my students this year such as:

30 Hands

Aurasma

Thinglink

This summer has also been pivotal in shifting the way I design lessons. I actually spent a great deal of time revamping my most dreaded unit, geography. Paul Solarz (@PaulSolarz) played a big part in helping me rethink how and why I was teaching geography. It simply started with a tweet, and his comments on my Google document were extremely valuable. Just the spark I needed to take off with my planning. He is a wealth of knowledge and generously shares.

I also jumped in and started designing a class website using Google Sites. It is still a work in process, but I am feeling good about providing my students with a landing places to find resources, links, and information about my course/units. They too will be using Sites for their digital portfolios, another new experience for me. My students will continue to use Edmodo and Kidblog as collaboration platforms. I also started blogging myself. Which I find to be a powerful, reflection tool. It is so helpful to dump all of my thoughts and learning into a blog. I've also enjoyed reading other people's blogs. Now, I can share with my students my personal blogging experience, just as I expect them to be bloggers.

I also have more of an understanding of how the 20% Project concept works, and I connected with people on Twitter that I can rely on for support. I am so curious to see how the concept will work with my students.

My classroom will also be different this year. I've gotten rid of my teacher desk, my room instantly became larger. Instead of desk, I will have a rolling podium that will house my teacher laptop and iPad. Twenty iPads will be living in my room, no more anxiety as to whether I will have access to technology. This will be a game changer for sure!
                              

With all of my learning experiences in hand, I am so excited for the first day of school. When people ask me if am ready for school to begin, I immediately answer "YES!" I usually get a surprised "Really?" response. I can't wait to take my new learning and ideas out for a test drive. Hoping for smooth sailing, but I realize not everything will work as planned. I will embrace and learn from the failures and relish from each successful learning experiences. It's is going to be a great year!

TeachMeet KY Learning Takeaways

Finally the day came yesterday for me, the opportunity to experience my first unconference type gathering. Will King (@wkingbg) and Allen Martin (@AlsTechTime), both whom I met at ISTE, invited me to crash their Bowling Green school district Teach Meet. As I followed their keynote speaker, Adam Taylor (@2footgiraffe), from Nashville, TN to Bowling Green, KY, I wondered if the event would seem awkward given that I was not a Bowling Green public school teacher. However when I walked into the Bowling Green High School, I was pleasantly surprised not to experience a moment of awkwardness. Actually quite the opposite happened, the teachers were so kind and welcoming. Our shared passion for learning and teaching completely blurred the fact that I was not a teacher in their district.

The Newscasts for Any Classroom was a wonderful session. Janet Martin walked us through the steps of setting up and implementing the project. Working in groups, students would learn how to plan and write/storyboard a segment of a newscast. The newscast would include a lead story, other stories, weather, commercials, traffic, etc. The integrated tech piece involved using iMovie to film and edit their production. I am going to attempt to use this idea with my explorer unit. So instead of individually presenting one by one about their explorers, groups of explorers will create one newscast. I can only imagine the creative student productions that will transpire!  Janet's SlideRocket presentation can be found at www.tinyurl.com/TMnewscast. As part of her resources, Janet also shared this great clip on storyboarding to show students.

As I walked out of the newscast session, Kim Calhoun (@CalhounDOwork), a 9th grade history teacher, approached me about some cool ideas she had in her classroom.  In her classroom, she began pulling amazing student projects out of a box. At the moment, the cardboard boxes seemed more like treasure boxes to me. Kim had her students create War World II poster foldables. I immediately started to think of the different ways I could use her ideas with my own students. She generously gave me a sample to take with me. I now plan on using foldables with my American Revolution unit. I keep hearing and reading that "learning should be a hot mess." Well, nothing screams "hot mess" more than a classroom full of students with paper, scissors and glue!

          

Infographics is a tool I have not yet used, but I totally see the platform as an opportunity for students to effectively show their understanding. So, I was pleased to learn the basics from Will King's session on how to help kids sort and organize data. I loved the simplicity and visually appealing graphics of this image Will shared with us.

I plan to use this tool early on in the school year as a culminating geography unit project. I am leaning toward using http://www.easel.ly/ which is still on my summer learning "to do" list.

Adam Taylor's session on engaging students with technology was full of practical and easy to use tools. I was particularly glad to get a Socrative overview since I plan on using this assessment tool with my students this year.

As I left the session of how to embed Web 2.0 tools into a web page, Ms. McCoy, took me to a back room to show me their green screen. I was amazed, I wish we had this set up at our school. I was completely impressed by how cleverly an iPad box, an 8 x 10 frame glass, and velcro became a stand/holder for an iPad to film productions.

Overall, my first Teach Meet was a day full of learning, a total success. I can't wait for my next unconference. Now I understand the excitement that runs through Twitter as people tweet about the unconference craze.

Learner's High, Who Knew!

After spending a year on Twitter reading posts and blogs, I am finally ready to join the blogger world. It is not that I don't appreciate the power of reflection and sharing, I just felt like blogging would be yet another "to do" item on my ever growing list. I also thought I really did not have much to say that has not already been or would be said through my remarkable PLN's blogs. However, I've come to realize that blogging needs to be more about my own reflections as an evolving educator. It's a personal journey, but if I can contribute or inspire others to try something new, it's an added bonus!

This is such an exciting time in education. In the past year, there has not been a day I have not learned something new or have been willing to jump outside of my comfort zone. As I take more risks, it seems like I crave more challenges. I use to be an avid runner and would push myself until I experienced a 'runner's high.' Honestly, I felt like I could run forever. Well since having my third child and years of wear and tear on my body, I can no longer run. I never thought I would be able to reach the incredible 'runner's high' feeling until I jumped on the tech ed learning wave. There is something about being totally consumed with learning and reaching that 'eureka moment' that sends me into a superhero mode and fuels my motivation for the next challenge.  Who knew that there was such a thing as a 'learner's high!'  Yes, I've become a learner junkie. My hope is to lead my students in a couple of weeks on discovering their own 'learner's high' experiences.