The Dream of the 1890's is Alive @ iTech... Continued

     During the weeks before and right after winter break, my students were studying the concept of westward expansion in the United States.  One of the parts to the Westward Bound! project was to have the students learn and explore what it was like back in the 1890's.  We did this by using a copy of the Sears Catalog from 1897.  Using this primary source, along with their research, they wrote about traveling back in time and buying gifts for each of their family members.  For more info on this essay assignment, see my earlier post; The Dream of the 1890's is Alive @ iTech.  

     Overall, I was pleased with the results.  I believe that there was some very authentic learning that took place.  I enjoy this style of student inquiry, here are some of the student examples from the project.  Enjoy!

-   Student 1   -   Student 2   -   Student 3   -   Student 4   -

Baroque Music & GarageBand

     Over the last couple of months my students have been in a unit called Revolutions! There were many different topics that the students studied over the course of the unit. We began with the Scientific Revolution and progressed all the way to suffrage in the Progressive Era. One of the assignments that the students had to do was a teach-a-class. In this assignment the students needed to teach their classmates about a topic that they were interested in. The lesson had to be 20 minutes long and needed to have some sort of activity in it.

     Two students sent me a proposal stating that they wanted to do their teach-a-class on Baroque music. They said that they wanted to do a PowerPoint presentation, play a piece of music on their violins, and the have a quiz at the end. While this wasn't a terrible idea for such a short lesson, I asked them how they could make it more interactive for their classmates. While they were starting to think about my question, I asked them if they had thought about having their classmates play the piece of music with them. They looked back at me like I was crazy, and asked, "How can that happen? Not everyone knows how to play an instrument."

     I opened up my iPad and went to my GarageBand app. I showed them the smart strings part of the app, and how they could play an instrument just by tapping a chord on the screen. Their eyes lit up and I could see their minds racing about the possibilities. They loved the idea and grabbed a school iPad to play around and explore the possibilities for their lesson. After a day or so, they came back to me and said that they were going to try and use the app in their presentation.

     A couple of weeks later it was time for them to do their lesson. I was extremely excited to see what exactly they had come up with. They came in early to rearrange the tables in the room into two rows, set up their slides, got out their instruments, and then passed out iPads to the class. As they went through their slide show, they gave lots of great information and played different parts from some Baroque composers. When it came time for the class to use the iPads, there was a lot of excitement in the room. The girls had written out the notes that each row needed to play. The first row of seats were the 1st violins, and the second row were 2nd violins. The students placed the transcribed notes for the class on the screen, and went over the instructions. What happened next was a little bit of chaos and a tremendous amount of magic.

     The class began playing their iPads on their desks, laps, and some were even pretending that they are actual violins. The level of student engagement in this activity was sky high. Several of the students wanted to keep playing the piece after the presentation was finished. The students were talking about it for the rest of the day, and other students from other classes were jealous that they didn't get that same teach-a-class. As a teacher we all want to encourage students to think outside the box, engage the multiple intelligences, and remember what they learned. I can honestly say that all students involved in this lesson accomplished those goals. I am amazed everyday at the power of student centered learning, and what a little encouragement and scaffolding can do.

Teaching with Nearpod

     Nearpod is a fantastic app for the iPad, and other iOS devices.  And, it is now available for Android devices, if you sign up for the school edition.  I have been using it in my student teaching at two different schools here in Portland, Oregon.  While at Roosevelt High School, I integrated it into everyday lessons.  The amount of student engagement during presentations was off the charts.  The students became very familiar with the process, and started class everyday by entering the pin # to download the presentation without hesitation.  Even after I had moved onto my new student teaching placement, the students remembered the process.  When I came back for a visit, they asked me if I had another Nearpod lesson for them.


     Now, I am currently student teaching at Catlin Gabel Middle School.  During the students' current unit they are required to do a teach-a-class presentation for the rest of their classmates.  I had used Nearpod in the beginning of the unit for a lesson on the Scientific Revolution.  This created a lasting impression on the students and many of them have start to use the app for when they are teaching.  So far there have been several different lessons that the students created and taught using Nearpod.  Some of the topics include:  James Watt and the steam engine, John D. Rockefeller, and the 13th Amendment.

Here is an example of what the students drew to explain how
Nicholas Copernicus' theory of the solar system works.

     To watch the class interact with the iPad, is truly amazing.  The students love being able to have the presentation right there in front of them.  They can take notes while watching a video at their own pace, explore lots of different information and control their own learning with the slide show function, and demonstrate their learning in the draw and quiz function.  The students favorite parts to the app are the draw  and video functions.  And, the best part for me, is the fact that the app records all of their answers and allows me to view them later and analyze what learning took place.  I highly recommend this app to any teacher that had the capability to use it in the classroom.