Auras in the Classroom

My students have been creating a game to address some areas of school culture that give them cause for concern. Code Cobra challenges students to become top agents by completing missions that are designed to help students develop a greater understanding and appreciation for each other, the environment and education.

I am really impressed with the level of commitment shown by my core team of designers and I’m really excited about their product. Always their own greatest critics they wanted a bit more pizazz for their game, something that would get other students really excited. That’s when we discovered Aurasma, which overlays video onto any image. My students have plans to take photos all over the building then hide missions in them using the Aurasma application. This will add a whole new level of mystery to the game and hopefully ensure a higher level of engagement from the wider school population. 

But I am discovering that this app has so many more possibilities. In science class my students made their own body system books with third and fourth graders as their target audience. In the event that some students may struggle with the reading or the language, we used Aurasma to overlay them with movies explaining how each of the body systems work.

The display boards in my classroom can now spring to life as students can add commentaries to their own work, I can add directions or explanations to enhance informational displays and we can engage a wider audience by adding auras to hallway pin boards and exhibits. I am planning to utilize this app at different centers in my classroom for group work. I can overlay any page or worksheet with specific instructions, making the students more independent and enabling me to work more closely with individuals or teams.

To get a better idea of how Aurasma works I invite you to open an account and follow me at pr05bps. Hover over the image below and you should be able to enjoy a movie of my students sharing their favorite inspirational Dr. Seuss quotes.

How would you add auras to your classroom?

Recovering

It’s been a week since I returned from the Microsoft Partners in Learning Forum in Redmond and I’m still recovering from a PiLUS hangover: Recovering from the jetlag, from the time difference, from the shock of winning, from over indulgence in innovation, camaraderie, and inspiration!

My teaching partner and I were fortunate to gain first place in the Extended Learning Beyond the Classroom category with our project Doing Businessin Birmingham. I say fortunate because the caliber of the projects presented was astounding. The judges, including winners from the 2011 Global Forum Lou Zulli and Doug Bergman, must have spent hours wrestling over their decisions. Rick and I are truly humbled by the honor and look forward to participating in this year’s global forum in Prague, along with the other US winners.

It’s difficult to explain the impact this experience has on teachers and convey how truly uplifting it is. To be surrounded by teachers who are taking risks and pushing the boundaries in their classrooms every day is like being plugged into the ultimate energy source. While the forum is technically a competition it is so much more than that. It’s an opportunity to connect with other educators, share ideas and build relationships that last well beyond the forum itself. It’s a place where teachers get to meet and learn from educational leaders like Alan November, Vicki Davis and Kari Stubbs. It’s a showcase for new technology tools and a cradle of creative thinking. For the most part it is a celebration and appreciation of pioneering teaching and learning practices.

Lou Zulli asked us all to “pay it forward” and I know won’t be alone in sharing my learning with my peers, encouraging them to take risks and to get more connected with other innovative educators .My first advice will be to have them join the Partners in Learning Network , where they can become involved in  a global community of educators, driven by passion and committed to providing a quality education for all students.

I met many amazing teachers in Redmond who were recovering themselves: Recovering bankers, recovering lawyers, and recovering fashion designers who have chosen to enter the world of education to recapture a sense of significance and to make a positive difference in the world. That they certainly do! I am thankful for my PiLUS hangover. Because of it, I am more acutely aware of my responsibilities, I am inspired to do better and I am reminded that teaching is indeed a noble profession.Thank you Microsoft!

Thinking Inside The Box

I foolishly attempted to clean up my classroom during my lunch break last week and time ran away from me. I dug out five huge washing machines boxes that I had been hoarding  for months, sure they had some useful purpose .They were scattered around my room for me to ponder upon that purpose when my fifth grade math class arrived, and that’s when a possible purpose became apparent.

The students immediately asked what they were for, thinking I had some cool activity planned for them and rather than being disappointed when I explained I didn’t, several of them excitedly asked if they could work inside the boxes! Curious, I agreed and watched as the kids organized time allocations and order of rotation. Within minutes I had a room full of boxes of kids! Some students paired up while others climbed in alone with cushions and stools. Some boxes had legs hanging out, some had heads sticking out some were completely closed in. I was fascinated and interested to see whether kids would be productive or merely amused and distracted by the novelty of it. Sure enough, the majority of students who opted to work inside the boxes were highly productive.

Intrigued, I asked the kids why they liked being inside the boxes and answers included being able to close out distractions, getting comfortable and being in a darker environment. I thought for sure this must be a fifth grade thing but was amazed when my sixth grade math class did the exact same thing. I knew there was something more to this when a sixth grade student clambered out of the box to check if he had completed a problem correctly. I constantly have to remind this child to show his work and when I asked him where it was he told me it was in the box. I asked him to go get it and he explained that it was in and on the box. He had scribbled his work on the inside of the box!

I flattened the boxes when the kids went home but the next day they ran in asking if they could work in the “learning pods” and the “think tanks” again!!And it certainly made me stop and think. We increasingly ask our students to be creative and innovative, to dream, discover, and design. As I reflect on my own creative process the physical space I inhabit plays an important role. Here I am typing behind closed doors in a quiet space. I frequently get ideas when I’m walking or swinging on my patio chair or reading. I find I’m at my most creative when I’m alone, and once I’ve had time to formulate my own thoughts I feel confident to share them  articulately with colleagues to facilitate a more meaningful discussion.

As we rethink and redesign teaching and learning to meet the needs of the 21^st century student, we also need to rethink what a classroom looks like. Technology has enabled us to provide students many choices in how they learn and how they demonstrate their learning. Our classrooms also need to provide choices in terms of “learning spaces”. Sitting on stools under harsh fluorescent light may work sometimes for some kids but I’m now convinced that I need to provide some alternatives. I’ve always had floor cushions and carpet space but I’d like to provide more options to help create an environment where creative juices can flow freely. I asked the kids what environment they would like and it certainly got those juices moving. They dreamed of spaces that offer solitude and spaces that facilitate collaboration, indoors spaces, outdoor spaces, bright colorful spaces and darker muted spaces, quiet spaces, lively spaces; spaces that allow movement, spaces that allow stillness.

When we talk about 21^st century tools a big old empty box isn’t the first thing that comes to mind but the boxes themselves have inspired a torrent of creative thinking in my room. Students have asked to paint them and install them as permanent features. Who knows where this will take us, hopefully to the creation of a workplace that inspires imagination and the discovery of new ideas.

Stuff

Okay, it's official, I'm done! I've shopped, packed, wrapped and stacked and I'm ready to kick back and enjoy this holiday. But I can't savor the satisfaction for long. As I sit and look at the fruits of my labor I'm suddenly overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that I've managed to acquire over the last few weeks. Stuff to fill stockings and stuff to fill stomachs. Shiny stuff and smelly stuff, stuff to play with, stuff to make, stuff to share and stuff to wear. And the acquisition of it all has sure taken the stuffing out of me over the last few weeks. Is all this stuff really important?

That's a thought I have many times each day while sat at my desk in school. It's constantly cluttered with stuff to grade and stuff to return. Stuff to sign, stuff to read, stuff to apply for and stuff to complete. Stuff for field trips, stuff for P.D., stuff for the office and stuff I need to see. Then there's the technology stuff! The interactive whiteboard, the Doc cam and flips, the laptops ,the netbooks and the PicoCricket kits. There's Evernote and One Note, Kodu and Scratch, voicemails and emails with all sorts attached. There's wikis and Moodle, Prezis and Blogs. There's movies and Bing maps, Google and Glogs. Then there's the new iPad that I've just received , I'm excited about it, but it means I've got to read. I'll be reading a lot of stuff to learn what stuff I need to get the most out of my new classroom toy.

I'll step into my Twitter stream for a quick paddle and before I know it I'll be sucked into a torrent of ...guess what? Really cool stuff! The blog posts, the best apps, the links and the chats, the messages and retweets, the quotes and hashtags. I'll follow more people then make some more lists, favorite a few tweets and look for good tweets I missed. Before I know it, hours will have passed and my head will be buzzing with the stuff I've amassed. And how much of it will enhance my teaching and how much of all this stuff will get in the way of my teaching?

And how much stuff gets in the way of learning? I read a great post by Josh Stumpenhorst about the stuff that some students will have to endure this holiday: fighting, yelling, domestic unrest, caring for younger siblings while parents work, working themselves to support the family, cold, hunger... the list goes on. How much of this sort of stuff do our students have to put aside each day to open up their hearts and minds in order to learn and grow?

Wow! Did I really just use the word stuff thirty times in one post? Well for the next few days the phone goes off, the iPad goes to sleep and the laptop lid goes down. I'm pushing to one side all of the stuff (31) that occupies space in my head so that I can enjoy family, friends and food. You know-the really good stuff (32)

Happy Holidays Everyone!