Student as Scribers

Scribing is a way for students to track their change over time.  

In the preschool classroom, my students scribe as drawing pictures of what they want in learning in journals.  
  

Let’s face it.  The amount of money I spend on portfolios each year is insane, but the end result is beautiful.  Here is an example of some of the pages from the binder I give at the end of the year.

I know parents will miss getting a binder like this at the end of the year, but realistically it was putting a dent in my wallet.

This brings me to an amazing app called 

DOJO

I have heard about the app before, but had never taken the chance to really dig into what it was all about until this year.  This app is amazing and a complete game changer.  It is easily accessible directly from the app on your phone or you can access it from a computer, tablet, or iPad, by entering https://www.classdojo.com. 

As a teacher, this has saved me so much money.  I no longer have to print pictures of the students working.  I don't have to save their work for portfolios at the end of the year (because we all know space in the classroom is limited).  And I save so much more time at the end of the year not having to put their work in binders and figuring out the order in which all of the printed pictures were taken to make sure the portfolios go from the beginning of the school year to the end.

As you can see in the photo below, each student has their own monster image.  When clicking on the child's name it will bring you up to their portfolio where you can add their pictures.

I also love that this app allows for us to upload videos.  This is a screenshot from a video of the students retelling the story of The Three Little Pigs.  At the preschool age, most likely the children can not write out what happens in the story.  What better way for them to retell the story by taking part in a play?  : )

Obviously we can not be texting our parents videos like this all the time, but this app allows us to upload videos directly from our phone.  If your child was taking part of a retelling experience from the story like the one above, I am sure you would want to see it and DoJo make that possible!

As a parent you get to feel like you are a part of the classroom by receiving posts of your child working hard in school.  

One of the things I really miss with my boys not being in my preschool any more is watching them go through these childhood years.  I was able to pop my head in and watch them interacting with their peers and working hard in the classroom.  This app would allow me to see what I am missing out on on days the teachers post.  Also it helps me keep my child’s work organized right in his folder in the app.  I was never really good with keeping my own portfolio of my kids work, but with this app I can see their progress through out the year and create a photo book at the end of the year of all of their work.

Another benefit of this app is that it allows for translation.  With the preschool I work at, many of the students are ELL and it makes communication difficult.

As long as a parent has access to a device, they can use this app!

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Another application I was introduced to during this course was Voicethread.  I feel that this is an awesome go to for helping students scribe.  Here, students can add a description to any image that they upload.  For instance, I can take a picture of their work and they can explain their work by using the voice thread app.

Different Education Models In The Classroom

“No Teachers, No Class, No Homework; Would You Send Your Kids Here?”

  As an elementary, middle school, or even high school self, I would be all for going to a type of school like the one talked about in this article.  As a mom of 3 boys, the title seems less appealing.  Let's first talk about what type of school this is.  A democratic school.  A school where the students basically can do whatever they want at their own time.  There are teachers, but the teachers are there for support, not to make the rules.  After reading this article, I wanted to see more about this type of school and found this video.  It is interesting to see really how much freedom there is at Sudbury  

School.  Is this the type of school I would send my kids too?  Probably not.  Why?  Because in my opinion, that video gave me anxiety just watching it.  I think schedule and structure is just a few of the important pieces to a successful future, and these types of schools are not my type.  I do though think that we can incorporate some of the features of these types of schools in the public school classrooms such as creating the rules as a whole..

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/12/no-teachers-no-class-no-homework-would-you-send-your-kids-here/265354/

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"Pedagogy of the Oppressed" 

The Wikipedia description of the Pedagogy of the Oppressed talks about classrooms where the students are co-creaters of the knowledge they learn.  This is a type of classroom that I can agree with because I feel the the children in my classroom need to feel like they are part of a community.  Knowing that they help set the rules of the classroom will hopefully inspire them to follow them, since they took part in making them.  Also the children need to take responsibility for themselves and for their classroom that they go to 180 days of the year.  When a strong community relationship is built within the classroom, classroom management, learning, and goals can hopefully be achieved.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy_of_the_Oppressed

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"Flipped Classroom"

This type of classroom is exactly what the title entails.  It is flipped.  The students basically do the homework in school, and the learning at home.  Instead of the teacher standing in front of the classroom lecturing about what is needed to be learned, the students will watch a video or tutorial at home, on their own time, at their own pace.  In the classroom the students take part in activities to help engage the students in the content they had learned at home.  I am the type of student that likes to ask a lot of questions the moment I do not understand something.  My worry about this type of classroom is that it lacks the interaction during the initial learning of the content.  Another worry is that not all students have access to the internet or a device that will allow them to take part in the online learning concept.  Let's take today for instance (October 17th, 2019).  Many communities are out of power.  If I were to have to watch a video for an interactive lesson tomorrow and I did not have power, I would not have the knowledge of the content that is needed for the next day.   Although I like the idea of being able to learn the information at my own pace, there are a lot of factors in life that could make this type of classroom a stressful experience for some.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom

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"Montessori Education"

The Montessori classroom is an intentional classroom where everything in the classroom is intentional.  From the materials, to the classroom set up, to the structure of the classroom.  The Montessori classroom allows the children to move freely within their "prepared environment".  With this type of structure, the learning is individualized.  I like the idea of the Montessori classroom, but I feel as though there has to be a significant amount of training to help make these classrooms successful. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education

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"Waldorf Education"

The Waldorf classroom is focused on the children using their imagination and creativity to activate their learning.  These types of classrooms use free play, artistic work, circle time, and practical tasks.  

The set up of this classroom at the preschool level is made to feel as if the students were at home.  A warm environment with natural materials to help foster ones imagination.  As you can see in the photo below, the classroom looks as though it is in someone's home.  Rugs, big windows, plants, and natural wooden materials. 

The Waldorf education discourages the use of electronic media as they believe that such devices conflict with the developmental needs of the children.   The curriculum is based on art, music, gardening and mythology.  Much different than the schools in my community.  

I really love the environmental feel of this classroom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education

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"Glen Urquhart School"

This type of education is geared toward the curiosity of the children.  Looking at the Glen Urquart's Pre-K classroom, the students are able to direct their own learning through the guidance of the teachers.  There are teacher-led small-group and whole-group lessons that are geared toward certain skills and concepts such as: social emotional, physical, artistic, scientific, language, and math.

This would most pertaining be a school that I would send my boys to because I feel like the curriculum is very similar to what I teach.  But for the yearly tuition to attend GUS Pre-k school at $15,750 a year, I like my options at Passos Avante Preschool in Peabody (nearly half the price of GUS). 

https://www.gus.org/prek-faqs

Student Tutorial Designers

What is a better way to teach a child how to put their coat on than to watch a video of a classmate doing it?  

Students learn so much when they are taught by their peers.  In this blog I had my son demonstrate how to put his jacket on.  My 5 year old took the video and my 7 year old was the one demonstrating how to put his jacket on and then how to zipper it up.

As we know, children love technology.  Some children also love seeing themselves on a screen.  So I thought it would be a great idea to have the children record their friends using a phone or iPad.  This can be beneficial when a student is struggling with a certain task and can not figure out what they are doing wrong.  If they see themselves making a mistake through their video, they can see what they need to change to make it better. Also using video tutorials can help ELL students.  I know with this video my son is telling the steps of putting on his coat, but just having the visual can help.  

For the video application I used an app called Magisto.

This app allowed me to add multiple clips into one video.  For $29.99 a month I wouldn't recommend using it as there are most likely other apps that can accomplish the same look, but it worked for the 7 day trial for this assignment : ).  If you decide to try it out and don't like it, remember too UNSUBSCRIBE or they will automatically bill you. 

Tech for Admin

Google Calendar (after one week of switching from apple calendar)

Eye Catching

I have been in search for a calendar that works for me for a long time now.  I have always used the apple calendar that comes with the apple products because I own many apple devices.  I am also old school and love to write everything down. I would have a large paper desk calendar that was too big to take on the go.  I found myself texting my husband to send me a picture of my October and November schedules.  

  I never took the time to really venture out from the apple calendar until this class.  Simply because I never really had the “extra” time to research it.  As a mom of 3 boys, an owner of a photography company, a teacher, and a grad student, scheduling can get tough.  

Although I loved the apple calendar because it linked between all of my devices, there was something that was missing.  I wanted something where I could just look quickly to see if the boys had a sport, if I had a photoshoot, if there was no school or no day care, a doctors apt, etc.  With the apple calendar I was not getting that.  I couldn’t seem to figure out how to color coordinate everything as simple as I was able to do with the google calendar.  

One thing that I found interesting was after I had realized how much I liked the look of the google calendar, I never went back to the apple calendar.  I switched over all my information and never looked back, until I wanted to get pictures to include in this blog.  I never expected for all of the information that I put into the google calendar to sync with the apple calendar, but it did.  This actually was great for the comparing and contrasting looks of each calendar and made me realize that I like the google calendar that much more.

Google Calendar 

Apple Calendar

As you can see the google calendar is much easier to distinguish between events for the kids, photo sessions, no school, etc.

Event and Calendar Sharing

This part of the google calendar app was my favorite.  It makes sharing events with others simple.  I was able to share my google calendar with my husband where he is able to add or edit any events as needed.  

Apple calendar only allows sharing with people that are in your contact list.  If they are not in your contact list, you are unable to share.   

Notifications 

One thing I loved about the apple calendar app was that I would get notifications on my phone and my Apple Watch.  I wasn't sure if I would be able to have the google calendar application sync because it was not an apple application, but I was wrong.  If your information wasn't already synced with your apple calendar you can go to your Apple Watch app on your iPhone check the settings under watch.  Click calendar and have it show to mirror the iPhone.

  Overall, I would recommend google calendar over apple calendar if you are looking for a calendar that is easy to navigate through.  I will come back in a few weeks and let you know if I am still using the google calendar over the apple calendar.

12/18/19
Review from over two months later-  This app is amazing.  It has kept me organized, on task, and has been a life changer for me!