National Geographic Magazine Ad from 1994

As I visited classrooms this week, I happened to walk into an ELA room that was starting class with 10 minutes of silent reading for both students and the teacher.  I did not want to disturb the flow of the classroom, so I sat down and grabbed a magazine to read.  It happened to be a National Geographic from 1994.  What I found interesting was the Microsoft technology advertisement pictured to the right.  It was student perspective on taking a field trip through the Human Body with Mrs. Frizzle and her Magic School Bus.  As I read this ad, I spent some time reflecting on how much technology for our students has changed in the 25 years since this innovative technology from Microsoft.  Our students are no longer engaged clicking through the slides or just watching the videos from Magic School Bus, but instead want to immerse themselves in VR and AR activities to decode the wonders of their education or question their world at a global level.  Think about that when planning quality lessons involving technology.

This week, our sixth grade students reviewed important concepts about ELA using Kahoot.  The students could work independently or in partners during the activity.  After the students had time to answer their question, Mrs. Herrington would discuss and review any misconceptions that the students had about the material, such as the difference between compare and contrast.

In Ms. Baker’s class, students used the VR viewers to visit the Taj Mahal and learn more about India.  Students were given time to explore and ask questions about what they could see in the viewers.  If you would like to check out the viewers, check them out in the SSO (Single Sign On).

Coach Pope and I had a great meeting about using Flipgrid for student responses to open ended questions.  He wants to have his students record their answers to questions and make connections to prior knowledge of Texas History.  We discussed how to implement Flipgrid this year and how he might considered using it next school year with his students.

Our 8th graders are gearing up for STAAR testing in reading and math.  Mrs. Gilliland used Google Classroom to engage her students with some high interest reading passages.  She preassigned her classes in Google Classroom and gave them one of two passages to read.  She gave them a copy of the reading selection and open ended questions to answer and return digitally.  Students worked in partners or small groups to discuss the questions and make inferences.  Towards the end of class, Mrs. Gilliland had students pick one of their questions and write four multiple choice answers focusing on one being the distractor.

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For T3 this week, we focused on some quick and easy activities to use with students to keep them engaged.  A few of the things we discussed included Poll Everywhere, Mentimeter, and Plickers.  One of the favorites from T3 was Bingo Baker, which was shared with me by Shae Robinson.  Every teacher at the training was encouraged to pick one of the ideas shared and use it with their students in the two weeks before our follow up T3 on April 16th.  If you did not attend the first T3, you are still welcome to join us on the 16th.