Hello, colleagues! Sorry that time has gotten away from me, and it has been a few weeks - I meant to blog last week, but was not feeling well. I'm back to normal, and I'm back on my game! This week was a good week in the middle school world. I did a four-day lesson over the Constitution with some activities that I am excited to share with you.

As someone to teaches middle school American history, it is only fair that I present lessons with a neutral political discourse. My students do not need to know my political leanings, so I present both sides of the story. We are currently studying the Constitution, and in today's political climate, it is incredibly important for students to know what their rights are. They know that they have freedom of speech and the right to bear arms... and that's about it. I know that going through the Constitution bit by bit is incredibly annoying. What I did, instead, was utilize three different programs: Actively Learn, Socrative space race, and Adobe Spark Page.

I wanted the students to study the first three Articles of the Constitution, so I uploaded the Articles to Actively Learn with highlighted portions and questions built in (if you have an Actively Learn account, e-mail me at rbails@d49.org if you want a copy). It was my first time using Actively Learn, and I am now a fan. I've been asking myself why I haven't been using this earlier, especially considering other teachers have been touting how amazing it is. Using Actively Learn isn't any different than having the students read and answer questions, but it's just different. My students were incredibly engaged with the text and were focused during class. The students could not move on to the next question until they answered the previous question, and the students knew that the answer to the question was right above the question. I felt like Actively Learn is a great tool when it comes to primary documents or readings that may be difficult to understand or digest.

I'm not a teacher that needs silence in my classroom, but during Actively Learn, you could hear a pin drop.

The next part of the lesson was to have the students do a "space race" on Socrative. I have done these in the past, and have found that they are better than Kahoot. I would not say the students are more or less excited or engaged, but Socrative forces the students to get the answers correct instead of racing to respond to the question the quickest. I gave the students describing statements about the twenty-seven Amendments of the Constitution, and they had to figure out which Amendment was being described. Again, not a new or super interesting lesson, but the students were figuring out what the Constitution says. The students were engaged with the text and filled out a handout in Notability as they quizzed through Socrative.

The last part of the lesson was to have the students design a Spark Page (my example) about what IS in the Constitution. They took their learning from the previous two lessons and developed a "website" that is visual and compelling. I feel like the students are walking away from this week knowing more about the Constitution than they ever knew previously.

To culminate the Constitution lesson, next week, the students will be accessing the DBQ Project's document-based question "How did the Constitution guard against tyranny?" I have done this DBQ the past three years, and it is one of the toughest DBQs for the students to comprehend. It will be interesting to see if the students better grasp the essential question because of greater prior knowledge.

I have struggled with the Constitution unit every year that I have taught at Skyview. It just never turns out quite like I want. I feel like what I created this year was strong, and I will keep most of the lessons for next year. I think the students comprehended the ideas that I wanted, and I know that they were engaged with the ideas. I'm not sure I could ask more of teenagers learning about an 18th-century primary document.

Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :) 

- Rachel
@historicalipad
My Teacherspayteachers website

1:1 iPad Classroom Observations

Good morning colleagues!

This past week I was fortunate to visit three middle schools in the St. Vrain Valley School District. Almost the entire district has 1:1 devices (except for class sets in the elementary), encompassing 55 schools with about 32,000 students. All secondary students use iPad minis. I am lucky regardless as I have been a 1:1 iPad teacher for the last five years. The reason why I visited these schools is to see how the devices are utilized in an entire 1:1 school.

What I saw was eye-opening.

1. The district has their act together.  Because they are such a large community, they had to plan for the implementation well before they purchased or even decided what devices to use. The teachers had time to use the devices before they used them in the classroom. The teachers get training from instructional technology coordinators and learning technology coaches. There is a common language among the district, so while visiting three different schools, the teachers and students said very similar things. Posters across the schools were also similar. Most importantly, they have a shared vision. As we visited classrooms, it seemed like every teacher was on board with the vision. It made me realize that District 49 needs to find a cohesive vision that does not change every year. And as we continue to use 1:1 devices, we need to be transparent and get the community on board. I do not feel like there is enough communication about why there are iPad teams at Skyview and how learning with the iPads is supposed to be purposeful and meaningful for the students' current and future education and future occupations. 

2. The three schools were not any more advanced than my classroom. Most of the classrooms that we visited were simple substitution (on the SAMR model). I was disappointed that I did not see "more" - more student choice, more collaboration, more critical thinking. To be fair, we all have days where we have those typical, boring traditional lessons. But it was hard to see so many students listening to a teacher talk when they all have an iPad Mini in front of them. To be fair, I saw limited student disengagement which was exciting. And I think every student that we talked to was excited to have that device in front of them at all times.

3. There is inconsistency in every school. Some classrooms were better than others. At Trail Ridge Middle School, we saw two math classes that collaborate every day during Science class. It was fascinating as the two classes worked together to use both Math and Science concepts to create space shuttles for their space unit. Those students were so engaged that they did not even notice when we walked into the classroom. Then there were classes where the teacher lectured in the front of the room with the lesson on the front screen. The students were "grouped," but there was no discussion between them. There were some lost opportunities in a few rooms.

4. It's important for a student to explain what they know, but... there still has to be a point to what they are learning. I watched some students sit through classes that were not engaging, and when I asked them a question, they would dive into a spiel about their objective and what they were studying (but totally not answering my question). It felt like they had been coached and were not demonstrating learned knowledge and skills.

In the end, I was grateful to visit these classrooms and would love to do more observations in the future. I may also need to be a slight stalker and contact some of these teachers to potentially collaborate. There are exciting prospects on the horizon!

Some other things I pulled from observations:

 I loved this poster from a teacher's classroom. It's letting Ss and Ts know that phones are a part of students' world, and as a teacher, you respect that.

 I thought this was a great checklist handout. I know it's traditional and simple, but I think this would be beneficial for goal setting for the class AND staying on task throughout an extended project. I use checkpoints to keep Ss focused, but this would take it to another level.

 I loved at this 1:1 school that ALL posters in the hallway used QR codes. It's not anything groundbreaking, but it makes it clear to the Ss that the devices will be used. All QR codes let to Google Forms for the students to fill out. Many teachers also had #observeme posters, but they also included a QR code that let to a Google Form for an observer to lead feedback. Brilliant!

 In another classroom, the teacher had the students use post-it notes to put down goals for the day. It was simple but effective. The teacher kept asking the students about their goal and what they still had to do. The Ss had to reflect throughout class which was impressive.

 I loved that a teacher used risers to make one table a standing table. I've been reading about teachers getting rid of their teacher desk, and after seeing this, I think I am going to get rid of mine. My desk is literally full of crap that I rarely use, so why do I have it?! I have been looking at a table from Ikea that I could raise with bed risers. My plan is to use the table as both my teacher desk AND as a great place to converse with Ss. 

Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel
@historicalipad
My Teacherspayteachers website

#gafesummit recap

Hey guys: I want to be honest with you. I'm scared to death about this upcoming school year. To be even more honest, I have not been looking forward to going back. There are going to be some changes around me that I am not ready for, and because I am the eternal pessimist, I wasn't happy about it either.

But this past Tuesday, I was at a GAFE summit hosted by our own district! Holly Clark was there, and I have been in awe of this lady for awhile. Not only is she an amazing and engaging speaker, she always says it like it is (but really nicely), and her teaching ideas are phenomenal. Her presentation was called The Right Question (with ideas from the Right Question Institute), what I consider an innovative way to add student choice to your classroom.

Holly mentioned that it would be beneficial to read Make Just One Change in order to fully understand how to incorporate the QFT (Question Formulation Technique) into the classroom. I am glad that I did. I finished the book last night, and in order to help myself incorporate this into my class, I created a sketchnote.

 

(link to full size image)

When Holly presented on this topic, she modeled the six components of QFT for us. While it was incredibly valuable to see in action, at the time, I struggled to see how to incorporate the ideas in into my class. Reading the book helped me think through the entire process. I am excited to use these ideas in my class, and I hope that they work with my students. 

Step 1: come up with a QFocus. Instead of asking your students questions/prompts to get them excited about learning, you give them a focus that will have the students generate questions. For my American Indian unit, I ask the students How did American Indians change the history of the United States? Now, for my QFocus, I will tell the students American Indians changed the history of the United States. 

Step 2: produce questions. I will then have the students work in groups of three to generate questions. They generate questions based on the QFocus. They may come up with questions such as the actual essential question (How did American Indians change the history of the United States? or Who were the American Indians?) The students have 5-8 minutes to write down as many questions as they can. They cannot discuss the questions, judge them, nor answer them. They must write all questions exactly as they say them. If they make statements, they must change them into questions. 

Step 3: assign questions as closed or open-ended. The students look at the questions and determine if the questions are close-ended (have a one word answer) or open-ended (needs further explanation). They should also change three questions from open to closed, and from closed to open. 

Step 4: prioritize questions. There are options, for this step, to have students work individually or in their small group (or both). They have to decide on the top 3 questions, depending on the focus of their QFocus. In my case, for the American Indian unit, I am thinking I will have the students prioritize the order of the questions based on which questions need to be answered first. I am using these questions to help the students research and gain interest in American Indians. Once the students have prioritized, they have to justify their order to the entire class. 

Step 5: next steps. In the case of my American Indian unit, the students will continue to research and create new questions based on their research. They will be working in their groups of three on a unit project, so their research will support them in answering the essential question and making the video project. The nice thing about this is that students get to focus on their own interest with American Indians (i.e. student choice). It is almost like independent research, but with much more support from me. 

Step 6: reflection. I still have to think through exactly what this looks like, but I know that the focus will be how the QFT led to deeper learning, developing confidence, and applying new skills. I will likely have the students vlog using the app Recap and posting their reflection and unit project on their digital portfolio. 

I know that this is a lot, but I am envisioning (however scary it is), that I will film myself facilitating the QFT in class in order to a) personally reflect and b) give you guys a visual of what this looks like in action. QFT is making me excited for next year (which I was not at the beginning of this week), so at least year 11 won't start off as a bust.

Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel
@historicalipad
My Teacherspayteachers website
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Welcome to my blog!

I've been fighting blogging for the past few years. I always made excuses about how I never had time, it would take too much out of me, and that no one wanted to hear what I had to say. Turns out, not one of those things are true - so here we are.

To introduce myself, my name is Rachel Jeffrey. I am about to start my eleventh year teaching. I am originally from Iowa where I graduated from Luther College. My now husband and I first moved to Kingman, Arizona where I taught high school world and US history for three years. The recession hit Arizona hard, so we packed up and moved again to Colorado Springs. The last seven years I've taught 8th grade US history at Skyview Middle School, and the last four years I've been lucky enough to teach on a 1:1 iPad team. My curriculum has essentially been developed by me with a lot of help from online sources and material. I believe in having students answering open-ended essential questions through projects and document-based questions. My curriculum is challenging, but the information and projects are engaging. I am a "pusher"; I push kids to what I think is their best potential.

Because I am new to blogging, I am not entirely sure what I will blog about per my classroom. I know that I have a goal of blogging once a week, hence "Sat. Chat". I do a lot of work and grading over the weekend, so it just makes sense that I blog at the same time! I want to talk about what I am doing in my classroom, what I've learned on Twitter, and other educational topics that I want to talk about. I sincerely hope that my voice can be heard, and I hope that people WANT to listen to what I have to say! It is scary to put oneself out there, especially when the internet can be scary and cruel.

Even though it is not Saturday, I do want to blog about my experience at ISTE 2016. Wow - what an overwhelming, informative conference. For me, the biggest takeaway from this conference is that there are a lot of like-minded teachers like me. Even though I have times where I feel very isolated at school, I am not alone. I have to remember to reach out to other teachers, whether in Colorado Springs, or around the state, the US, or the world. Even though I am a self-proclaimed "black sheep" at Skyview, I am just a normal, typical sheep all around.

I went to some amazing sessions

• The keynotes from Michio Kaku and Ruha Benjamin were absolutely inspirational! Mr. Kaku talked about what technology will look like in the future and how we have to prepare students to live in that world. Ms. Benjamin talked about designing schools as laboratories of democratic participation instead of reproducing inequality. Ms. Benjamin's keynote was eye-opening and challenging. It made me think about inequalities in my own classroom. Powerful, powerful stuff!

Transform education - how do you use this information instead of memorizing --> time to stress concepts and principles #ISTE2016

— Rachel Jeffrey (@historicalipad) June 27, 2016

We can’t force our Ss to turn off culture in order to learn #ISTE2016

— Rachel Jeffrey (@historicalipad) June 28, 2016

•  I also enjoyed the flipped learning session with Aaron Sams and Jon Bergmann, web tools with Monica Martinez, the Google infused classroom with Holly Clark, and sketchnoting with Sylvia Duckworth and Kathy Schrock. Needless to say, I was FANGIRLING when I met all of these people. They were amazing and motivational! I aspire to be like these presenters someday!

I definitely have a lot to think about with my classroom for this year. Step one for me, this summer, was to finally create my Teachers Pay Teachers account. I don't know if my curriculum is worth anything, but it doesn't hurt to find out! Step two is to clean up my curriculum. As a Marzano district, I need to make sure my unit scales are in order. This will then tie in to some sort of standards-based grading (classroom only - the district has not moved this way... yet... hopefully). I also want to use the Knoster Model to outline my unit projects.

Sorry this was such a lengthy post! I hope that I said something of some interest to you so that you will keep reading! Have a happy Fourth of July on Monday, and be on the lookout for a new blog post on Saturday, July 9th.

 - Rachel

@historicalipad

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