Recently, the DLC team facilitated the “Thinking Critically Through Bulb” webinar. Through participation and conversations with others, our CISD learners will be lead to deeper learning and understanding of digital portfolios.
Below are resources that were included in the webinar, along with the recording of the webinar itself. If you would like support in implementing digital portfolios with your learners, please do not hesitate to reach out to your campus DLC! We would love to partner with you!
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Looking for a way to help your learners bring stories to life? Check out the Video Storytellers Contest & Conference information below to learn more about this Region 10 event.
I am happy to partner with you in designing an experience to support your learners through the storytelling and video creation process! Computer Science Education Week and #HourOfCode are right around the corner! This year we will be celebrating the week of December 3rd. If you would like your learners to join in this district-wide coding challenge, you will find all of the resources you need for a stress-free Hour of Code on this CISD Hour of Code website that our Digital Learning Coach team has worked to create. Your learners can complete a self-directed Hour of Code with Learner Choice Menus. On the choice menus, learners may select any of the four topics. Each topic has a learn, do, and reflect portion to complete. Learners may dive deep into one topic, or explore all four. The reflection piece will be done district-wide through Flipgrid! Once your learners have participated in the Hour of Code, we encourage you to celebrate and award them their Hour of Code Certificate of Completion. A digital version of this certificate is available through the Flipgrid reflection topics. These can be easily added as a celebration to each learner's Bulb digital portfolio. We also want to encourage you to participate and reflect in the Hour of Code along with your learners! Please use #HourOfCode #CISDCode2Learn & #CISDOurStory in your Tweets! Want to extend your learning during Computer Science Education Week? Join our Twitter Chat, Critical Thinking for 21st Century Learners! I know what you're thinking: Sam, you taught English for 8 years, and yet you still managed to spell SOULmates incorrectly. Au, contraire. Today I want to talk to you about Self Organized Learning Environments (SOLE for short) in your classroom, and how utilizing this structure and resource bank is an easy way to teach your learners the content they need to succeed in your course while also making way for them to develop the 21st Century skills they need to succeed in our evolving world. StartSOLE is an organization whose goal is to further the work of Dr. Sugata Mitra, who used to research to conceptualize SOLES, "which draw on children's natural curiosity to create a dynamic space for students to learn, interact and develop critical problem-solving skills" (StartSOLE). The Goal of a SOLE While the goal or goals of a SOLE in your classroom will vary depending on your needs, a SOLE is an opportunity for learners to work together to answer a complex question. The size and number of groups will vary depending on your class. A SOLE happens in three phases: The Big Question, Investigation, and Review. Phase 1: The Big Question Pose a "big question" to your learners that cannot be answered in a simple Google search. The question could be about content you have just finished covering, content you are about to cover, or could require learners to synthesize multiple topics you have explored in your class. Big questions should be designed to provoke curiosity and lead to more questions. The Big Question phases takes about two minutes of your class time: Show your learners the Big Question, set any learning constraints (my favorite is to limit each team to one device), and answer any clarifying questions your learners have. This can also be the time when you establish your groups; you might assign groups, or you might tell your learners that they need to form a certain number of groups and they can choose with whom they work from there. Phase 2: Investigation During the Investigation, learners work together in order to research and answer the Big Question. The beauty of a SOLE is that the learners get to decide how this is accomplished. They can stay with their original groups, or they may choose to share their findings with other groups in the class. They can divide the roles of each team member and conquer the work that needs to be done, or they can all work together on each task they must accomplish. While you may decide to constrain each group to one device, learners can also access printed material to aid in their investigation. Learners may choose how to develop their presentation artifact: their artifact could be digital or created on paper. During the Investigation phase, the educator's role is to step back and let the learners work through the Big Question, as well as any time management or group dynamic issues that arise. The StartSOLE app allows you tools to provide feedback to learners by projecting on your screen so that you do not have to stop the whole class in order to communicate suggestions or redirection. The app also saves any images or feedback you create during the Investigation to help you reflect on the experience. (Bonus: These artifacts could easily be transferred to your professional portfolio or shared with learners to add to their digital portfolios!) Phase 3: Review The Review phase is when learners share their findings with the class. While each group presents, you can use the StartSOLE app to record images and feedback. StartSOLE.org also has a bank of resources such as learner feedback forms so that the audience can act as critical friends for their peers as well. The Review phase is a wonderful opportunity to cultivate a classroom culture of growth and risk-taking. After each group presents, you can open up the floor for the audience to share things they liked about the presentation as well as areas where the group can grow. Learners can identify for themselves what skills they need to develop and hone in order to collaborate, research, and present more effectively. Why SOLE? Planning a SOLE may be the quickest lesson I've ever created. Truly. You can use the StartSOLE tools to plan an entire learning experience in under 2 minutes, and you will receive an email with a downloadable lesson plan that includes your standards. The app also empowers you to easily record evidence of the experience while you facilitate. The true magic of a SOLE, however, isn't in the easy-to-use tools or the quick lesson plan, but in the incredible learning that happens as students explore how to organize themselves. Will they make mistakes? Absolutely. But because the mistakes are happening inside of a safe, powerful, and engaging experience, the learners will self-correct. The next time they participate in a SOLE, they won't make the same mistakes - they'll make new ones, and they'll learn from those, too. As we head into these last few weeks before semester exams, I challenge you to think about how a SOLE can be used to reinforce and deepen this semester's learning. I'd love to be a thought partner and support throughout the design and facilitation process!
Did you know that Apple's native app Pages provides tools to not only create a professional, polished flyer- or newsletter-style publication, but that your Apple Pencil works seamlessly with Pages to take your creations to the next level of creativity?
Use the resources below to unlock your creativity in Pages! Does November have you working up an appetite... to learn? The Digital Learning Coaches are excited to share upcoming opportunities we will be offering for the months of November and December. Please let me know if you have any questions about these opportunities. I am here to support you and your learners!
Coppell ISD is continuing its partnership with BrightBytes, an educational research organization. The purpose of the Clarity survey is to learn more about CISD’s technology use for teaching and learning. Your participation is essential in helping us form a more complete picture of technology use in our district, and informs professional learning plans. Surveys are conducted each year in the fall and spring. Educator Clarity Survey The educator survey is located in the Cowboy Cache, or at the link below. In addition to the survey, you will find the list of staff members who will need to complete the survey. Please check for your name. If you are on this list, you will complete the survey during the Clarity survey window: October 22 - November 2. When you are ready to complete the survey, please:
Learner Clarity Survey: Wednesday, October 24th During Advisory All advisory period educators will provide learners with access and time (10-15 minutes) to complete the Clarity survey on Wednesday, October 24 during Advisory. Utilize the following slides in order to facilitate the Clarity Survey: Your time and effort in helping the district gather this information is greatly appreciated. Flipgrid is a platform I love because learners can showcase their creativity and connect with learners in their classroom, across the school, and (my favorite) across the world. That being said, Flipgrid did make some changes this school year that change the way we set up our grids and topics. I wanted to share a quick video created by my teammate, Megan Kozar, that highlights the changes Flipgrid has made this school year. Do you have #flipgridfever? How do you use it to connect your classroom? Share in the comments! |