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Searching for ways to incorporate 21 century skills in her art classes, Pikesville Middle School Art Teacher, Ms. Lynam, engaged her 7th grade students in applying their artistic skills to a problem they could relate to in their own world: homeless animals. The students partnered with the Baltimore Humane Society in Reisterstown, MD to bring attention to the animals that were in need of adoption. After they researched images of animals on their Revolves, the students practiced sketching the animals. Wendy Goldband, the head of PR at the Baltimore Humane Society, came to the school and talked with the students about the facility and their animal adoption process during which time the students presented her with donated pet treats and toys. After her visit, students searched the Humane Society webpage, chose an animal they wanted to sketch, and then designed adoption posters. Their fabulous designs, made from the heart, were displayed on the Baltimore Humane Society’s website, Facebook page, sent out across Twitter, and hung in the facility. Students celebrated when they checked the website and saw that their animals were adopted. The unit concluded with the students creating thank you letters reflecting on their experience of giving back to their community.
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I have taught kindergarten for 8 years at Church Lane Elementary Technology. Our Lighthouse Status and one-to-one devices have opened doors to new and exciting resources. During the 2015-2016 school year, our kindergartners received their devices. My teaching team headed full-force into small group instruction to implement them into the classroom. The students showed such amazing knowledge with computers and programs. Many students were able to teach me new things and, therefore, teach their peers. We call these geniuses, “Device Managers.” This enabled me to focus more on interventions and small group instruction. By the end of our school year, devices were being used in various ways across curriculum – with research, writing, publishing, learning activities, and, etc.
This school year, I moved to 1st grade; it has been a great transition due to several factors. First, I know where the students are coming from, the knowledge they have gained and the curriculum instruction they have received; they have also had an entire school year of learning how to use our devices and programs. This has made settling into our routines faster and easier. With little-to-no reminders, students are getting into programs on BCPS One and on their desktops with ease. Even our two new students are easing into use of devices and programs so much so that they are becoming Device Managers as well. This is enabling me to assess students, instruct in small groups and intervene for students who are approaching grade level. We have approached and tried new programs, like Classflow and Board Builder together. As we use these new programs, we discuss our successes, the best ways to use them and how to solve problems together. It seems as if our growth this year could be endless. Ms. Hahn’s math class was grappling with a welcomed problem. What purposeful ‘May Dos’ would further student learning and keep students engaged? Ms. Hahn and I devised options: coding math games and creating digital math journals. The students had other ideas—peer tutoring. The plan was music to my ears. Before coming to Windsor Mill Middle School, I was coordinator and elective teacher of a high-school AVID program, the core of which was the tutorial program. A group of five students and I developed a peer-tutoring system based on the AVID model that was grounded in students identifying a point of confusion and peer questioning. As part of the training, students practiced questioning a partner while the rest of the group provided effective feedback based on “I Can” statements. Discovery Ed Coach, Michael Capps pitched in by supporting students in learning the process of effective feedback. During the session, a practice tutor struggled to ask a question to move her partner’s learning forward. In true AVID fashion, an observer-student eagerly asked to join in. “I have a question!” he exclaimed. He posed his question. The group held its collective breath, and the hard-working student had an ‘aha’ moment and solved his math problem.
A cornerstone of Ms. Delenick’s teaching practice in 6th grade math at Windsor Mill Middle School is creating an environment where learning is personalized and responsive. Eager to re-invent her room from top to bottom as a place of inquiry, Ms. Delenick designed an Interactive Bulletin Board where students could create word problems for other students to solve. The activity is called “Draw a Story Problem.” Students select an operation, a set of numbers, and a setting from the pockets on the board, and create a word problem on a template. The student-generated word problem is then posted on the bulletin board for other students to solve. Ms. Delenick said of the activity, “Students have choice. One boy took the setting he selected—football—very seriously and researched the Carolina Panthers, so he could have an authentic reproduction of their logo in his problem.” Both the problems and the solutions give rise to vigorous debate and rivalries to create the toughest and most creative problems.
In the fall of this school year, Fort Garrison generously opened its door to Windsor Mill for a day of learning walks. Hanging in the front lobby to welcome guests was a large lighthouse decorated with brightly colored bottle caps. The icon of welcome and learning inspired faculty at WMMS to create a piece of art of their own. Art teacher Nancy Fishel took the helm and designed a Service-Learning Project for her 7th grade classes. Work began with a 4x8 foot piece of plywood that Fishel cut into the shape of a lighthouse. Students, faculty, and staff brought in found objects that 7th graders sorted into categories that would form the stripes on the body of the lighthouse. For the ensuing two weeks, students diligently glued shells, toys, iridescent paper, pencil shards, and old cell phone parts in colorful and creative combinations. At the top of the lighthouse, students stacked layers of CDs to mimic the spotlight and surrounded the shape in yellow and blue plastic gems. The final work of art was signed, dated, and hung in the front lobby as Windsor Mill Middle School’s own sign of welcome. Following a Lighthouse Middle School day of learning at Sparrow’s Point, STAT Teacher Niamh McQuillan rushed back to teachers at Windsor Mill Middle School to share a simple and ingenious tool for responsive teaching: the Painter’s Bucket. Three weeks later, thanks to local hardware and paint stores, over 90 buckets found their way into the nooks and crannies of Windsor Mill classrooms and hallways. Students took to the new furniture option on day one, plopping colorful cushions on overturned buckets to personalize their learning space and process.
Google Expeditions brought the world to Windsor Mill using only cardboard glasses and a phone. Google and its Expeditions program, a virtual reality platform, travel the globe visiting classrooms and allowing students to immerse themselves in panoramic journeys from the bottom of the ocean to Curiosity’s trek across Mars. Students at Windsor Mill spent the day traversing continents to ancient monuments, diving into kelp forests, and flying to the dark side of the moon. Every student had his or her own favorite journey, but without a doubt, the question on everyone’s lips at the end of the day was, can we do this again tomorrow?
The Mobile Mining Experience came to Sparrows Point Middle School on March 22nd and 23rd to show students The Rock Cycle, which ties directly into the 7th grade unit “Digging into the Earth’s Past.” In this unit, students have been learning about fossils and the rock cycle. The Mobile Mining Experience brought all types of rocks and petrified wood to show students. During the presentation, the presenter stopped for questions where students had a chance to win different rock prizes. After the presentation, students got a chance to crack their own Trancas Geodes from Chihuahua, Mexico. Students were so excited about their geodes that they were taking selfies with them! At the end, if the students could answer a question from the presentation, they earned a piece of petrified wood. It was an exciting experience for all involved. Andrew Funari said, “It was a cool way to see the rock cycle, and I enjoyed how they were interactive with our class.” Haillie Browne added, “I thought the Mobile Mining Experience was really interesting because I got to learn while having fun.” With the new and reinforced knowledge from the speakers, students went outside and explored what types of rocks were most common at SPMS based on the geographical location. Students worked together to make predictions, search for evidence, and reevaluate their predictions to collaboratively come up with the correct answer. Teaching social studies is an ever-changing adventure and requires a classroom that is flexible. At the beginning of the year I was struggling with making the room cohesive with responsive lessons. There were many times when students needed to work together in small or large groups. Other times required more direct instruction. The solution for me was to create a more fluid room arrangement. In this type of classroom, the students create the type of arrangements that fit the lesson. Sometimes the students work independently or with a partner. Other times they need to work in small, or even large groups of 6-8. By making a few quick and easy transitions, the desks can be moved and partners can now join up with other to create groups. In this, lessons can flow from group instruction, to research with a partner for reinforcement to group projects and then back again to accommodate the next class.
My Lighthouse journey reached new heights when I combined flipped learning, formative assessment, and small group instruction to move students towards a summative assessment on identifying direct objects. Yes, the lesson took time to plan, but once in the classroom, activities flowed seamlessly and students’ reflections noted how “awesome” and “helpful” they found the aforementioned methods in helping them meet the lesson’s objective. The night prior to this lesson, students watched an Office Mix I created reviewing subjects, verbs, and prepositional phrases and introducing direct objects. Students’ learning took place in the individual space, so students were ready to apply direct objects the next day. When students entered the classroom the next day, they engaged in a Kahoot so I could formatively assess who was ready to move on and who still needed my help with direct objects. Kahoot then made it quick and easy to group students; I downloaded the results and created groups in the time it took students to put away their devices. As the period progressed, students’ who grasped the grammar concepts followed step-by-step instructions in small groups and applied the “ask three before me” procedure to complete their task in labeling sentences and then composing their own sentences that included direct objects. While some students worked in small groups, I was able to target students who were struggling with identifying direct objects. Eventually all students met at the end of the lesson and were summatively assessed on the same objective, but their methods of reaching that goal differed. As one student stated, “I liked that the people who knew what they were doing weren’t bored waiting for the others to catch up!”
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June 2018
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