Category Archives: teaching

Can you teach students to be less distracted on computers? We tried! And it worked!

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I teach at a one-to-one school. When you look around my classroom you will see various laptops–Surfaces, MacBooks, Dells, and many others. I love that my students have computers! And, they present a whole new level of distraction into the classroom. Email, iMessage, and Buzzfeed fill the screens, sometimes it seems just as often as OneNote, where we have our course information. So this year, my teaching team and I tried out a new way to teach about technology distractions in class.

Distracted on Purpose

At the beginning of the lesson, I handed out a slip of paper to each student and told them to follow the directions for the next 10 minutes. After a few students asked if I really wanted them to follow these directions, the lesson continued as normal. There was some direct instruction then time to look over a page in the textbook and answer questions that were posted on the SmartBoard. During this time, students followed their card.

Half of the cards said: “Pay attention and take notes in the next 10 minutes. There will be a quiz at the end of this activity on the following four terms…” and listed out the specific terms.

The other half of the cards had various directions that would force them to be off task. I had brainstormed and chosen things I know my students do in class at times. Some examples were:

  • Send three emails to classmates in this class telling them a funny joke you find online. Don’t let your teacher see you do this.
  • Find two lists on Buzzfeed about celebrities. In your notes, write who is #4 in each of these lists and what the list is about. Don’t let your teacher see you do this.
  • Send three texts from your phone. Don’t let your teacher see you using your phone.
  • Work on homework or classwork for another class for a few minutes during this activity. This can be in OneNote. Don’t let your teacher see you do this.
  • In the next few minutes go to the bathroom on another floor of the building then come back to class. No hurry.

The Quiz

After 10 minutes, I told all my students to close their computers and to take out a pen for a quiz. Immediately, the room was quiet. I reassured them the quiz would not count for a grade, but we would score it to see how everyone did. I told students to answer the questions on the quiz then turn over the quiz and answer “How did the directions on your slip help or hurt how you did on this quiz?”

As they began, the students who knew the quiz was coming answered the questions quickly and correctly. The students with the other directions, were predictably, not as confident. Many could not answer any of the four questions.

Reflections

The students totally got it. Their reflections after this short activity were clear. When they were distracted on their devices or phones they did not pay as close attention to the lesson. Knowing what will be on a quiz helps, so maybe it is worth it to look at the study guides we provide. In each class, the person who had gone to the bathroom shared they “had no idea what was going on” once they returned.

I was reminded at how impactful a short, engaging activity can be for students. I could tell them that technology distracts them from being present to the learning in class, which I do, and it would likely not sink in. This activity helped them to get to the same point on their own, in 10 minutes. It was definitely worth the time! I was also amazed at how much I did not see–selfies, Buzzfeed, emails, phones–for the most part they did a great job hiding it all from me.

An unexpected reflection came a few weeks later at a technology committee meeting. An English teacher who had heard about our lesson shared that she noticed a difference in her sophomore classes after we did this activity in Religion. The French teacher asked when we had done it, because she, too, had noticed a change.

This short activity led to big gains for my students. I know the teaching on distractions and devices is not complete, but it was a memorable and impactful start!

Fun and Tiring: Reflection on the First Three Weeks

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It’s hard to believe there have been three weeks of teaching already! It both feels like we just started and that we have been back for months. On the first day of school I saw a colleague in the hall and we both commented that it feels so great to be back in the classroom. As my students would say, teaching is my jam. It felt great to be back! The two words that come to mind about the first three weeks are: fun and tiring.

This year I am teaching a course I haven’t taught in 5 years. In that time, there was a significant revision of the scope and sequence. Teaching a new course is absolutely a combination of fun and tiring. It is great to be back with sophomores and it’s fun to look at lesson plans and assessments with a fresh perspective. I’m not as efficient at the grading or lesson planning as I learn the layout of the new curriculum. It has taken me much longer to have my lessons ready to go than it did last year. I also find myself having many more questions for the teachers on my team. Thankfully they are wonderful and very willing to help–even when I texted on the weekend to make sure I had the right answers on a reading quiz!

Last week I led our sophomore retreat, which too was fun and tiring. It is outside for most of the day. The week leading up to the retreat it said rain and possibly thunderstorms. We have never had to create such specific back up plans in case of rain. People joke that in Seattle it rains all the time, but in the 12 years I’ve been at the school we have never had rain on this retreat! It took a lot of extra planning, more coordinating with other adults, and lots of flexibility from people all around the school. The day of the retreat, my boss and I talked at 6:00 am to make the call–we had the retreat outside because the forecast kept pushing the rain back later in the afternoon. The retreat was one of the best we’ve had and the weather was great!! We even got hot chocolate for the kids in the morning which was a big hit! The whole day, and days leading up to it, were so fun, and tiring!

It is definitely nice to feel like I’m getting into more of a grove. And falling asleep at 8:30 pm on Friday night felt great too! Ahhhhh, back to teacher life!

First Week Flipgrid

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My selfie (with stickers) I posted at the end of my video. Students loved adding stickers to theirs

The first week back with students was so fun and so tiring! It’s amazing that even as I start year 14 of teaching, I still forget just how tiring that first week back is until I’m in the thick of it. Then I remember, very quickly.

One highlight of the week was the first assignment my students completed. Each student recorded a video introducing themselves on Flipgrid. Flipgrid is a website that students log into and submit a video of themselves answering a question or sharing insights. Earlier this year Microsoft purchased Flipgrid and made it free for all educators! The questions I had my students answer were: (1) What is your first and last name and what do you like to be called in class? (2) What is one thing you love? and (3) What are three words you would use to describe yourself? I was blown away by how awesome this assignment turned out!

A few highlights

  • The biggest benefit was that in these 15-30
    second videos, I got to know my students more than I have ever been able to do in the first days of school. Their personalities shined through both in their answers and how they recorded the video. There were lots of cameos by pets, siblings, and friends, which were so fun. The words my students chose to describe themselves gave me a lot of insight into their personality and interests. Watching the videos was so fun, and it was evident my students had fun making them! Also, many students watched their classmates’ videos (which was not a requirement) and in doing so were also getting to know each other more.
  • It was so helpful to hear students saying their own name. Now that these videos are done, I can use them to help me learn names this week and I can go back to them later in the year when I need a reminder on the pronunciation of a last name.
  • The videos were easy to make for students. The code to access the assignment made it easy for students to find it. Students can log in with a Microsoft or Google account, or with an email address, which means I could make my assignments only visible if you had the code and logged in with an account from my school.

I am excited to use Flipgrid again for other assignments! It’s a powerful tool to bring student voice into assessments and reflections, especially for those students who may not always want to share out loud in class. I also think it could be a good tool to use with teachers, possibly sharing insights gained from a professional development opportunity.

What are ways you could use Flipgrid with students or teachers?

Who ever is doing the talking is doing the learning

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When talking with a third-year teacher a while back, we were talking about the difference between a student-centered class and a teacher-centered class. I made the comment that I think whoever is doing the talking is doing the learning. She sat back and thought for a minute, then said, “my first year teaching I did so much talking, and I learned so much!” She wasn’t so sure the same was true for her students.

This idea of considering who is doing the most talking has helped me many times over the years. It is even a line in my Manifesto on Teaching.

It is easy to talk a lot as teachers. We have a built in audience. We (hopefully) have interesting things to share. We have objectives to teach.

And it can happen to all of us. In our first years we are working so hard to get by, that it can be easy to default to teacher-centered practices such as a lecture with a PowerPoint. As experienced teachers, we can fall behind and want to “get through” material that we may opt for the efficiency of teacher-centered practices.

However, if we are always the one doing the talking what does that mean for our students?

Ya, but…

You’re probably there are many ways to be an active learner besides talking. And we all know that just because someone is talking does not necessarily mean they are learning.

But I do think that if we step back and consider who is doing the talking in our classes it can give us insight about who is learning and what they are learning. It can help us to see if students are at the center of the learning. It can help us to consider how we are making space for students to share their knowledge, experience, and learning. It can remind us to step back and listen a bit more.

In your class, who does most of the talking? What does this mean for the learning and the environment?

Productivity Pro Tip: Plan Your Planning Period

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A reoccurring topic on this blog will be productivity. I love talking about productivity, efficiency, organizing, and using technology to help with all three. It is a favorite topic of mine to read about or listen to podcasts on! Today’s productivity pro tip is to plan your planning periods. Planning your planning period means to literally sit down and make a plan for your time that is your own. This also can include time before or after school (when you are not in meetings…).

To consider how to plan your planning period, two suggestions:

1.       Take time to think about what the most important tasks are for you to complete. Spending a couple minutes at the beginning of your day or planning period to focus on what is most important, can help you get more done in the end. Not only will this help you be productive, it will help you to prioritize and focus on what is most helpful and important. I make a list, separate from my to do list, of the 2-3 tasks that are most important for me to complete in my planning period.

two of my planning period priority lists from today

2.       Group together like tasks. If you have a couple different times in the day that are open for you to work, group together tasks that make sense to go together. For example, if you have to grade a few homework assignments, grade them during the same planning period so you can get into a rhythm. If you need to deliver various paperwork to others in your building, gather it all together and deliver it to various offices all on the same trip around the building. Ultimately this can help you to get more time back in your day.

Your job is more than email

When we don’t plan out our planning time, we can get sucked into email. We may just want to decompress, so we open our computer not knowing what we will do and end up lost in email. We may not know exactly what tasks need to be done, so we refer to our inbox as a to do list. The issue is that often our inbox does not list out the most important tasks for us to complete. It has the tasks (sometimes important, sometimes not) other people are asking of us.

Rather than checking my email at the beginning of my planning period, I tend to check it in the last 5 minutes or so. This gives me enough time to respond to quick emails and to make notes on my to do list if there is something I need to return to.

Do you plan your planning period? How does this help you to be more intentional about how you spend your time?

 

Start with a Question

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How many times do I need to learn this lesson? How many times have I left a meeting wondering where I went wrong, only to realize if I would have started with a question I would have been much better off? Too many. That is the answer.

My wise colleague, Julie, taught me this phrase. She always considers how she can start with a question, whether in conversations with students, colleagues, or parents. As Julie and I have discussed this idea over the years, we have come to recognize that starting with a question creates an inviting atmosphere and an opportunity for dialogue. I believe in this idea so much, it is the first line in my Manifesto on Teaching. Starting with a genuine, thoughtful question can help you to not get too stuck in your assumptions. As the stoic philosopher Epictetus said, “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” Listening is key, and starting with a question can help.

Last school year, I left a meeting feeling like I had been harsh and not understanding of a colleague. I was retracing the conversation to figure out what went wrong. As I remembered how the meeting started, I realized that I had started by jumping in with my own idea. I came across as not recognizing the good work my colleague was already doing. Instead of being helpful, I came across as a know-it-all. Needless to say, the tone I had then set for the meeting was less than ideal. As I reflected, I realized that if I would have started with a question the entire conversation would have felt differently.

Even starting class with a question can help draw students in. My classes start each day with Bell Work. I have a question posted on the board and the students respond to it for the first few minutes of class. At its best bell work can draw students in, help ensure a smooth transition to class, and provide a jumping off point for the lesson. (At its worst, bell work can be a wasted of time that feels like a busy work task that students despise. More on that in a future post!) Starting with a question honors our students perspectives and gives a space for student voice.

I have a feeling this lesson is one I will continue to learn. It can be hard to not jump right in with your own voice. But, over and over I remember, starting with a question is a great plan. When do you need to remember to start with a question?