What KHAN be done with it!

Last night we received an e-mail from our Head of School inviting us to read this posting by Aaron Saenz: Yes, the Khan Academy IS the Future of Education.

He asked for creative ideas of how to leverage the power of Khan Academy in our school.

I believe that Khan Academy can be integrated in our school in two major ways: asynchronous and synchronous. Here are my ideas of what KHAN be done with it:

ASYNCHRONOUS USE

Asynchronous learning is a student-centered teaching method that uses online learning resources to facilitate information sharing outside the constraints of time and place.

Students access Khan Academy outside of the classroom:

1. Khan Academy as a Digital Textbook

The Khan Academy videos contain background information, problems and examples clearly explained with simple but neatly done illustrations. The videos can be used by Middle School and Upper School students.

The Academy covers almost every single topic for each of the following subjects:

Mathematics: Arithmetic, Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Statistics, Pre-Calculus, Calculus

Science: Biology, Chemistry and Physics

Selected topics in European History

2. Khan Academy as a Virtual Tutor

Students can watch the videos anytime, anywhere. This includes mobile devices that can access YouTube or directly with this I-Phone app: Khan Academy: A Classroom in your Pocket

3. Khan Academy as a repository of Review Materials

a. To review for topics, access additional problems and exercises and get another explanation for a particular concept.

b. To prepare for quizzes or tests.

c. To prepare for the AP Exams: Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Calculus.

4. Khan Academy for Reverse Instruction

Flip the classroom by having students use Khan Academy to study the content at home then use face to face instruction for deepening into topics, allowing for more practice time, classroom discussion, additional hands-on activities and problem-based learning.

Excellent resources:

Reverse Instruction: Dan Pink and Karl’s “Fisch Flip”

Advancing the Flip: Developments in Reverse Instruction

Reverse Instruction in the English Classroom

5. Khan Academy as a Summer Academy
A course can be structured having the students access the selected topics to learn the content and go through the Exercises section.
The Khan Academy Exercise Software is a powerful learning platform that allows students and teachers to track their progress through the Profiles. Students complete Challenges and can earn Energy Points and various levels of Badges. It offers an amazing variety of interactive visualizations (knowledge maps, timelines, focus charts, exercise progress reports, etc.)

A Summer Academy can also be part of a Blended-Learning school component where a teacher acts as a facilitator setting goals and expectations and tracking the students’ progress through the Exercise Software.

6. Khan Academy for Enrichment Courses in Blended-Learning:

Students can have access to courses not offered in traditional core curricula:

- Organic Chemistry

- Cosmology and Astronomy

- Differential Equations

- Linear Algebra

- Finances

Students can study the material at their own pace using the Khan Academy Exercise Software.

7. Khan Academy for Math Remediation
Students that are transferring from other schools and need to acquire or refine their math skills can work through a set of exercises until they demonstrate the level of mastery required.

The students can be motivated by completing the challenges and earning a series of badges.

(Suggested by @mmmcewen)

SYNCHRONOUS USE

Synchronous learning refers to a group of people learning the same things at the same time in the same place.

Students access Khan Academy in the classroom:

1. Khan Academy for Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated Instruction is a teaching strategy based on the premise that instructional approaches should vary and be adapted in relation to different readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles of students in the classrooms.

The three key elements of differentiated instruction are content, process and product.

The Content refers to the curricular materials to be learned by the students. The Process consists of the activities through which students develop their knowledge and the Product refers to the array of options through which students can demonstrate what they have learned.

Using Khan Academy for differentiation:

a. Teachers can facilitate differentiated learning by Content and Process having the students use a laptop in class to learn or review the material at their own pace.

b. Teachers can facilitate differentiated learning by Product having the students research a topic and creating a reflecting artifact such as a blog posting, a digital presentation (Glogster, Prezi, video).

2. Khan Academy as Teaching Assistant

Teachers can divide class time into three activities as follows:

I. Using laptops or the computer lab the students access Khan Academy to work through the material and practice problems and exercises.

II. Students present a quick wrap-up of the topic.

III. The topic can be used for a deeper classroom discussion or students can work individually or in groups on new problems and exercises.

3. Khan Academy as Substitute Teacher

Teachers can create a generic lesson plan that involves students using Khan Academy for a lesson and then completing the Exercises section. The work of the students is recorded for teacher verification.

4. Khan Academy for Snow Days

For the winter months: January or February, teachers can create and post a list of potential videos that can be used in case of school closings.

5. Khan Academy as a Motivational Tool

Teachers can get inspired to create their own screencasts and introduce reverse instruction in their courses. (Suggested by @Deacs84)

I bet there are countless other ways to use Khan Academy. Would love to hear What you KHAN do with it!

Educon: Power in Connection

Helpful, productive connections with my PLN happen anytime and almost anywhere, if you include the ability to access the internet while flying across the country!

But how is the quality of this connection enhanced when it happens face-to-face?  When after seeing the familiar faces we are greeted with a smile and a hug and when the interaction is followed by an exciting and engaging conversation?

Therein lies the power of Educon!

Powerful connections happen during coffee breaks, going up and down the stairs of the Science Leadership Academy, and over lunch and dinner. Most importantly connections get strengthened during the scheduled conversations where leader educators share, discuss, question, strategize, and dream.

What is my biggest takeaway from participating in my second Educon?
Without a doubt, that the experience of those connections has re-energized and  reaffirmed my core values about education:

- The challenging and worthy undertaking of schools is preparing young people to take part in a world that is becoming at once smaller and more complex and to take part with both an awareness of inherent responsibilities as well as the confidence to come to grips with constantly changing local and global realities.

 
- The task of the school's leadership, in partnership with faculty, students, parents, and the community at large is to create and develop an environment in which this challenging process can best occur.

 
- Teachers, administrators, and other members of staff are partners as leaders and members of teams with valuable voices in articulating and putting into action the mission of the school and the vision for its future. Their professionalism is vital to learning. The best teachers and administrators, just as the best in any profession, have a desire to grow in their practice. Just as students require an environment conducive to learning, teachers require an environment conducive to teaching.

- As Director of Instructional Technology I will continue to partner with our academic and technology teams to support teachers and administrators in their path to accomplish their individual plans for 21st century (IP21). 

- We will continue to collaborate as a community that has an interest in the well-being of students to collectively make the school's vision a reality. 

Certainly I have more questions than answers but I know that I can tap into my PLN anytime, anywhere!

Word cloud created with Tagxedo
All Twitter IDs belong to educators that I met at Educon. I am grateful to ALL of you for sharing your passion and knowledge.
Picture taken at Educon by @scmorgan. Left to right: @charrod, @dgende, @steelepierce
Thank you for your friendship and support!

Making Science Relevant using the 5E's

How can a science lesson be made more student-centered?

What strategies can be used to help students be more engaged in their learning?

How can technology play a role as an important tool in the learning process?

A valuable pedagogical approach is the 5E Instructional Model.

In this posting I will explain each of the components of the 5E model along with recommendations of digital and non-digital tools that can be incorporated at each stage.

The last section includes four lesson plans that incorporates the 5E model for each of the major sciences: Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science and Physics.

The five phases of the Learning Cycle as proposed by the National Science Education Standards can be integrated into the '5E' Instructional model as follows:

ENGAGE

Students become engaged in the process of scientific inquiry. The teacher can ask questions to find out what students already know, or think they know, about the topic and concepts to be covered. These questions typically start with "how" instead of with "why.”
Digital Tools:
Exploratree: Interactive Thinking Guides
Non-Digital Tools:
Graphic Organizers

EXPLORE

Students decide what makes questions scientifically testable. Students gain a common set of experiences upon which to begin building their understanding.
Digital Tools:
PhET Simulations
Virtual Dissections, Labs, and Field Trips

Non-Digital Tools
Hands-On Labs:

Physics and Physical Science Labs

Biology Labs

Chemistry Labs

Environmental Science Labs

EXPLAIN

Students acquire opportunities to connect their previous experiences with current learning and to make conceptual sense of the main ideas of the topic being studied. This stage also allows for the introduction of formal language, scientific terms, and content information that might make students’ previous experiences easier to describe. The teacher acts as a facilitator that explains concepts and addresses misconceptions.
Online Tutorials
Hippocampus: Biology, Physics, Environmental Science
Chemistry Tutorials

ELABORATE

Students apply or extend previously introduced concepts and experiences to new situations.

Students apply their knowledge to real world applications.
Project-Based Learning
Exemplary Projects for Project-Based Learning (PBL)
Scitable
How Stuff Works
Problem-Based learning in Biology: 20 Case Examples

EVALUATE

Students, with their teachers, review and assess what they have learned and how they have learned it. Students can be given a summative assessment to demonstrate what they know and can do.
Digital and Non-Digital Resources

Demonstrating Understanding and Skill
Checking for Understanding and Encouraging Metacognition
Scientific Abilities Rubrics

MODELING THE 5E INSTRUCTIONAL PROCESS

BIOLOGY
Topic: Osmosis

Learning Objectives:
Students will understand the role of cell organelles in homeostasis and will be able to measure the rate of osmosis in cells.

CHEMISTRY
Topic: Solubility

Learning Objectives:
Students will understand that there is a dependence of solubility with temperature and will be able to design an experiment showing how the solubility of several substances depend on temperature.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Topic: Hydrological Cycle

Learning Objectives:
Students will understand the factors affecting domestic water use, and will be able to design a system for collecting data and calculating individual, group, state and national domestic water use.

Link for the: Virtual House

PHYSICS
Topic: Refraction

Learning Objectives:
Students will understand that light refracts as it passes from air into a more dense medium such as glass, and will be able to use a convex lens, light source, and a screen to form real images.

For more information the 5E Instructional model and sample lessons visit the sites below:

http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/fellows/ullrich/webquest/ScienceLesson.html

http://goo.gl/7C5Dk

The World Café in a School Meeting

One of our school's principles is to: "Offer Definitive Preparation for College and Life".

Faculty and administrators are expected to provide a learning environment that allows students to:

Think Critically

Communicate cogently

Collaborate purposefully and

Create meaningfully

We refer to these skills as the four Cs.

Our Upper School faculty and administrators have been divided into four groups under each of the Cs. Each team is to develop and present a session at a faculty meeting.

I was assigned as the team leader of the ‘Creativity’ strand. The group was composed by 10 faculty members representing all subject areas and administration. We met three times prior to our presentation to brainstorm the protocol and expected outcomes of our session.

I learned about the World Café from Susie Demarest our Head of Upper Elementary and I presented it to the team as a creative way to facilitate conversations. This is how we implemented the Café Design Principles:

Set the Context
The objective of our meeting was to use the World Café process to enable conversations among faculty that related to projects and activities that demonstrate Creativity and Innovation in the classroom. 

Create a Hospitable Space

We created a Café ambiance by setting up the space with round tables. Each table was covered by a colorful plastic tablecloth and a simple but nice flower arrangement at the center.

Since we divided our faculty and administration into six interdisciplinary groups we printed place cards with their names for each table. We also designated a facilitator for each group.

Our Head of Upper School provided cake, iced tea, lemonade and coffee. As faculty arrived, they were invited to get their cake and beverage before entering the meeting room. They all smiled when they discovered that the impersonal room was transformed into a lively Café with samba music playing in the background!

 Explore Questions That Matter
Our team came up with two questions for our session:
1. What activity or project have you done in your class that has some of the attributes of creativity?

2. Is there a project that you want to implement in your class about which you would like to receive feedback from others?

Prior to the meeting we had sent an e-mail with the following information so that we all had a common ground when defining a ‘creative project’.

Attributes of a Creative Project or Activity

New or original

Stimulates curiosity

Challenging and engaging

Promotes divergence

Interdisciplinary

 

Key Terms of Creative Activities or Projects

Designing

Constructing

Planning

Producing

Inventing

Devising

Making

Encourage Everyone's Contribution
At each table a member of the team was designated as a facilitator. They were in charge of engaging everybody in the conversation. 

Connect Diverse Perspectives

Listen Together and Notice Patterns

We had a laptop available for each of the teams. We created separate pages for each team on a wiki and each facilitator entered the contributions from the members of their table.

An online timer was set up on the screen with a 20 minute countdown for each question.

Share Collective Discoveries

Because of the limited amount of time we were not able to create posters and do a Gallery Walk. However, we briefly showcased a couple of pages on the screen.  Faculty and administrators were excited to see how they could access the conversations by visiting the wiki at their own pace anytime.

Wrapping Things Up

By the end of the session we showed the video Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson.

Did it Work?

Our team felt that the session went really well!

We heard positive feedback from our colleagues and administrators about how everybody enjoyed the opportunity to share, listen and collaborate with each other.


CREATIVITY RESOURCES
This is our wiki page with the links to Creativity Resources for the classroom.

Images: Café Image Bank

The Edublog Awards

My nominations for the 2010 Edublog Awards:

Best student blog

Christopher Ponners

Chemistry and Physics Blogs

Best individual blog

Silvia Tolisano

Langwitches Blog

Best group blog

Connected Principals

Best resource sharing blog

Richard M. Byrne

Free Technology 4 Teachers

Best librarian / library blog

Buffy Hamilton

The unquiet librarian

Best school administrator blog

Jonathan E. Martin

21K12

Most influential blog post

ILLEGITIMI NON CARBORUNDUM

By Tom Withby

Best individual tweeter

Nancy Rubin

Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion

#edchat

Best educational tech support blog

Wesley Fryer

Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Best educational use of video / visual

Tony Vincent

Learning in Hand

Best educational webinar series

Steve Hargadon

Lifetime achievement

Will Richardson

Weblogg-ed

IP21: Taking Ownership of Professional Development

How can a Standards-based Professional Development program using and implementing 21st Century skills have an impact on teaching and learning at our school?

Most schools require that their faculty create personal and/or professional goals for the school year. Our faculty and administration used the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) NETS-T and NETS-A as a basis to select their goals. We called these goals our IP21 (Individual Plan for 21st Century).

At the beginning of the school-year, during our staff development days we held sessions to review the IP21 PD model and to allow faculty to create their own pages on their respective Division Sites.

The IP21 faculty pages are used to document:

• Plan(s) for integration of content into standards
• Pedagogical strategies
• Request for instructional technology support as needed
• Evidence: description and link(s) to activity that demonstrate standard

I have set up notifications on each of the sites so that I get an e-mail when one of my colleagues posts something on their pages. This gives me an opportunity to give them suggestions and/or arrange for sessions as needed. Moreover, since all the IP21 sites are wikis, teachers and administrators can easily collaborate with each other not only within their own department but also across divisions.

Our faculty has been very receptive to this model. They like having ownership of their professional development.

Being able to decide what they want to do based on their own subject, grade level and technology proficiency makes all the difference!

IP21 logo: I created the logo with LogoSnap. The logo represents 'student and teacher', 'faculty and administration' and 'teaching and learning'.

Leaders Among Equals

Administrators are Leaders among Equals. As teachers, educational administrators share the same goals about the students they serve: to provide the best learning environment that will allow students to grow as informed, creative and responsible adults.

How do administrators as Leaders among Equals model themselves to enrich the lives of other educational professionals in a collaborative environment?

It's all about the BE's:

1. Be Available

Leaders are available to listen and to help solve problems. Using multiple channels of communication through a blog, twitter or a social network platform makes administrators available anytime to faculty, students and parents.

2. Be Enthusiastic

Teachers will get onboard if leaders demonstrate excitement and expertise in the use of digital tools. Teachers should look up to administrators to reignite their passion for a subject and the possibilities that technology offers to facilitate teaching and learning.

3. Be Supportive

Administrators demonstrate their priorities by providing a variety of opportunities for professional growth. As leaders, they tap into resources to provide time and funds that allow their faculty to participate in educational conferences.

4. Be Gracious

Leaders do not expect instant success. They celebrate small gains and demonstrate that failure is not the end but just another opportunity for growth.

5. Be Creative

Leaders are aware that creativity is at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy. They foster and model creative thought and innovation.

6. Be Yourself

Leaders are true to their identity as educators and don't make excuses as having to wear too many hats.

Our administrators are demonstrating being Leaders among Equals at my school by joining faculty in the creation of their Individual Plans for 21st Century using the NETS for Administrators. 

It is by being a community of Leaders among Equals that we will succeed!

Scott McLeod (Call to bloggers to participate.)