Sunday, September 27, 2015
We Are EPIC!
Check out our introduction video to get to know the members of Team Epic.
In order to create this video we used a green screen, an iPad and then a computer to put everything together. Each learner decided on a word that they felt described themselves. We then took a video using the iPad camera, a green screen, a microphone, and an additional iPad as a 'chalkboard.' We created these videos while all 45 of our kiddos were in the room so there was a lot of background noise. We were able to use a microphone which helped and with future videos we will use the new iMovie update which has an option to reduce background noise. The video was produced by using iMovie. Using Google Drawing we created a black background with both our school logo and our team logo. I love using the green screen effect in iMovie, if is very simple! All we did was add our Google Drawing image and then when we added each child's video we just dropped it on top of the drawing background and iMovie gives an option to chose a green screen effect, easy peasy!
Sunday, September 13, 2015
How to Survive Week 1. . .
Well the first week finally arrived and do I dare say it was the best first week ever?! The title of my post is deceiving but I usually look at the first week as surviving because there is so much going on and after being off for so long the end of the week is always very welcome. That was not the case this year with Team Epic, I heard many staff and kiddos looking forward to the weekend after the long and draining week but, I couldn't believe it was Friday already!
After a summer full of classroom renovations and planning the kiddos finally arrived with their families on Monday night for our open house. We had great responses! I couldn't even count the number of times I heard, "wow, I wish I had this when I was in school!" Last year we tried to educate families throughout the year about personalized learning and what multi-age means at our school, so luckily for us most of our families knew what their child was going to be a part of. For our 4th and 5th graders we only had a few families that were new to the school who were completely blown away by the classroom and multi-age. Hannah and I had decided to create stations for the families to take part in and therefore we were able to meet with each family as they came into the room and were able to explain our room and personalized learning, we were also able to answer any questions they might have. The first family that I talked to who did not know that their daughter was a part of a multi-age class had many questions. My immediate thought was oh no, how are they going to respond. By the end of our little mini question and answer session they were one of those many families that said, "wow, thats cool, I wish I would have had this." Overall it was a great night and we were even more excited to start our year on Tuesday morning!
For the first week we decided our most important task was building our relationships as a team. We did a lot of getting to know and understand you activities along with team building activities. We decided as a group on a team name, EPIC, and then had our kiddos design a logo.
Our learners created learner profiles and then linked them to their individual Google site which they will use to better understand themselves and how they learn best. This coming week we will have our first goal setting conferences where we will meet with each individual learner to discuss their goals for the year and then to set their first goals we will be working toward.
Our week was full of many other activities but what stands out most to me is the reactions and interactions we had. As an educator my goal is always to make learning exciting and to create an environment where each child feels safe, important, and successful. This week was so rewarding as I continuously saw and heard kids and parents excited for school. I saw our 4th and 5th graders working together, encouraging others, and working out conflicts together. I am not saying that we didn't have our fair share of challenges, but what I am saying is that each day at least 5 times a day we looked at each other and said, "this is amazing!"
So if you are on a personalized learning journey, or would like to be and have no idea where to start, (we've been there!) here are a few take aways or pointers for that first week.
-Open House Night Stations: These stations provided us the opportunity to meet with each family and interact with them. It also spread the families our so our room of 47 kids and families was not so crowded. Our stations were, canvas painting, green screen photo booth, writing a goal with their learner, explore the room, and get to know our worms :)
-Send a letter home to all families when they register: we did not do this and I wish we would have. Families that registered online did not know that their learner was going to be in the multi-age classroom. For next year I would like to send a welcome letter for them to receive before open house.
-Team Building, Team Building, Team Building! This was our focus for week one, and I couldn't be happier. Our kiddos might not all be best friends but they have a mutual respect and understanding of each other. I think it is the very most important part of creating the environment necessary for a successful personalized learning classroom. We just Googled team building activities or used ones we have used in the past and did a couple at the end of the day. It will be interesting to see when we do the same activities again, how their teamwork skills have grown.
-Getting to know yourself: We focused on each learner as an individual and then how the learner can contribute to the team. Each of our kiddos created a learner profile by answering some questions about themselves, taking the Multiple Intelligences Self-Assessment, and taking the What's Your Learning Style? questionnaire. We will use these learner profiles to guide learning experiences throughout the year.
-Shifting Mindset: In order to be successful in this environment each learner needs to understand how they learn and they need to be independent in their learning. One struggle with introducing personalized learning in an older grade is getting learners back to this mindset. As a kindergarten teacher my kids were already there, they had no problem showing me what they knew in their own way but, this year our kiddos are used to being told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. This first week we had a lot of discussions about what this will look like and then we provided activities for them to be creative and produce whatever they wanted to meet a goal. One example of how we did this is our Kid President project. We watched my favorite YouTube star and his Pep Talk for Teachers and Students. Kid President asks us, What are you teaching the world? We asked our learners the same question and had them produce something that shows how they are making the world AWESOME! This first introduction was a bit of a struggle but we noticed the fourth graders being leaders and setting examples which the fifth graders picked up on. Most of our 4th graders have experience with personalized learning as they had Hannah last year, while most of our 5th graders have little to no experience with personalized learning. Later in the week we introduced the sustainability project and all the different ideas and directions our team went with this was amazing! In just a couple days they truly embraced what we were asking of them and have started to create some wonderful projects that I cannot wait to share!
After a summer full of classroom renovations and planning the kiddos finally arrived with their families on Monday night for our open house. We had great responses! I couldn't even count the number of times I heard, "wow, I wish I had this when I was in school!" Last year we tried to educate families throughout the year about personalized learning and what multi-age means at our school, so luckily for us most of our families knew what their child was going to be a part of. For our 4th and 5th graders we only had a few families that were new to the school who were completely blown away by the classroom and multi-age. Hannah and I had decided to create stations for the families to take part in and therefore we were able to meet with each family as they came into the room and were able to explain our room and personalized learning, we were also able to answer any questions they might have. The first family that I talked to who did not know that their daughter was a part of a multi-age class had many questions. My immediate thought was oh no, how are they going to respond. By the end of our little mini question and answer session they were one of those many families that said, "wow, thats cool, I wish I would have had this." Overall it was a great night and we were even more excited to start our year on Tuesday morning!
For the first week we decided our most important task was building our relationships as a team. We did a lot of getting to know and understand you activities along with team building activities. We decided as a group on a team name, EPIC, and then had our kiddos design a logo.
Our week was full of many other activities but what stands out most to me is the reactions and interactions we had. As an educator my goal is always to make learning exciting and to create an environment where each child feels safe, important, and successful. This week was so rewarding as I continuously saw and heard kids and parents excited for school. I saw our 4th and 5th graders working together, encouraging others, and working out conflicts together. I am not saying that we didn't have our fair share of challenges, but what I am saying is that each day at least 5 times a day we looked at each other and said, "this is amazing!"
So if you are on a personalized learning journey, or would like to be and have no idea where to start, (we've been there!) here are a few take aways or pointers for that first week.
-Open House Night Stations: These stations provided us the opportunity to meet with each family and interact with them. It also spread the families our so our room of 47 kids and families was not so crowded. Our stations were, canvas painting, green screen photo booth, writing a goal with their learner, explore the room, and get to know our worms :)
-Send a letter home to all families when they register: we did not do this and I wish we would have. Families that registered online did not know that their learner was going to be in the multi-age classroom. For next year I would like to send a welcome letter for them to receive before open house.
-Team Building, Team Building, Team Building! This was our focus for week one, and I couldn't be happier. Our kiddos might not all be best friends but they have a mutual respect and understanding of each other. I think it is the very most important part of creating the environment necessary for a successful personalized learning classroom. We just Googled team building activities or used ones we have used in the past and did a couple at the end of the day. It will be interesting to see when we do the same activities again, how their teamwork skills have grown.
-Getting to know yourself: We focused on each learner as an individual and then how the learner can contribute to the team. Each of our kiddos created a learner profile by answering some questions about themselves, taking the Multiple Intelligences Self-Assessment, and taking the What's Your Learning Style? questionnaire. We will use these learner profiles to guide learning experiences throughout the year.
-Shifting Mindset: In order to be successful in this environment each learner needs to understand how they learn and they need to be independent in their learning. One struggle with introducing personalized learning in an older grade is getting learners back to this mindset. As a kindergarten teacher my kids were already there, they had no problem showing me what they knew in their own way but, this year our kiddos are used to being told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. This first week we had a lot of discussions about what this will look like and then we provided activities for them to be creative and produce whatever they wanted to meet a goal. One example of how we did this is our Kid President project. We watched my favorite YouTube star and his Pep Talk for Teachers and Students. Kid President asks us, What are you teaching the world? We asked our learners the same question and had them produce something that shows how they are making the world AWESOME! This first introduction was a bit of a struggle but we noticed the fourth graders being leaders and setting examples which the fifth graders picked up on. Most of our 4th graders have experience with personalized learning as they had Hannah last year, while most of our 5th graders have little to no experience with personalized learning. Later in the week we introduced the sustainability project and all the different ideas and directions our team went with this was amazing! In just a couple days they truly embraced what we were asking of them and have started to create some wonderful projects that I cannot wait to share!
Alli's Journey to 4/5
For the last 3 years I have been teaching kindergarten here at Lincoln Elementary. I love the kindergarten kiddos but ever since my fifth grade student teaching experience, I have wanted to go back to teaching fifth grade. After implementing personalized learning in my kindergarten classroom last year the opportunity to apply for a multi-age personalized learning classroom presented itself and I applied. In order to apply for these positions we had to create an artifact and then we had to interview. Then we waited, and waited, and waited! Our administration had a lot to figure out in order to release our personalized learning implementation plan so, while all that work was happening I thought I would go and rupture my achilles tendon. The only thing I remember from my post-op room was constantly asking when I could go home, and then receiving a letter. I seriously have no idea what the letter said but I do know that somewhere on that piece of paper I saw the two numbers I was waiting for, ⅘. I’m not quite sure how I got my phone or how I found her number but I do know I called Hannah immediately because I remember fighting very hard to stay awake and focus while I asked her what she was. Again, not quite sure what happened in that very brief conversation but she assured me she was ⅘ as well, we were a team!
So in my dazed state I had gained a new position as a fourth and fifth grade teacher and a new “work-wife.” We were anxious to get started as we were both extremely excited at the possibilities before us. As the 2014-15 school year ended we had big plans and throughout the summer we worked hard to refine and implement those plans. I was constantly receiving and sending messages to Hannah most along the lines of, “hey look what I found,” with a response along the lines of, “awesome, we’re doing it!” This could have been anything from simple Google sheets, to a full year sustainability program. We have been very fortunate to be on the same page at every turn (I was a little hesitant about the slimy worms but even they have wriggled their way into my heart). Luckily for us, so far, the struggles of implementing a multi-age personalized learning classroom have all been structural things that we have to work out together. Through this blog we will, as our principal encouraged us to do, “share our story” as we figure out how to work together, build a team, and be a part of the educational shift to personalized learning!
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Who We Are
We are a team of teachers who have decided to take on personalized learning in a 4/5 multi-age classroom at Lincoln Elementary in Janesville, WI. Last year, Alli taught kindergarten and Hannah taught third grade, and both implemented personalized learning into our respective classes. We were both blown away with the results of personlizing our learners' education and were eager to continue to grow in our personalized learning journey. When the opportunity came for us to implement personalized learning with a multi age classroom we were so excited. What was even more exciting was that we would be able to team teach the class together! Our class name is "Epic." There are 47 learners who are a part of team Epic. We both strive to have our learners become critical thinkers, and encourage them to think outside the box using their strengths and interests in their learning. We have a passion for teaching and infusing technology into education, follow our trials and triumphs on our journey to greatness.
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