Can Your Students' Fingers Keep Up with Their Brains?

I’ve noticed is how terrible my penmanship has become in the last 15 years. What used to be legible writing has morphed into scribble that only I can read. Why is this? Laziness? Apathy? Or could it be that I simply don’t write often enough? Indeed, almost every thought I put to paper is composed with a keyboard, not a pen. So it makes sense that my penmanship has suffered. But, is this a bad thing?

The truth is our world has moved from a paper/pen to a keyboard/screen. Many of us lament this reality. No doubt there is certain romanticism for writing our thoughts on paper. This is similar to the preference of reading an actual book instead of using an electronic device. But, no matter our predilection, are we obligated to rethink the skills we teach our kids?

The average college student types 35 words/minute (wpm). Not bad, right? Well that depends on how we look at it. Typing at 35wpm, a five-page essay will take 50 minutes to simply transfer thoughts to paper. What if a student’s typing proficiency was double the average? At 70wpm, it would take only 25 minutes to type the same essay. This is considerable. And the real rub is our brains think even faster.

A low typing speed reduces our ability to communicate effectively. The benefit of typing faster is not just saved time, but the capability of our fingers to keep up with our brain. How many great ideas, or perfect wording is lost because our thoughts are two sentences ahead of our pen? Or in this case, keyboard.

To illustrate one final point, imagine if one day you woke up and could no longer write. Now imagine you had a high stakes test that morning that required a written response. How do you think you would do? For all of us, the physical act of writing is second nature. We don’t literally think about writing out the letter “A”. This allows us to focus on composing our thoughts only. However, if we forgot how to write, we would be forced to spend the test time composing letters and words, not our understandings.

This imaginary scenario will be the reality for many of our students on CMAS and PARCC if they are forced to “hunt and peck” on the keyboard. In order to ensure our kids’ knowledge is being tested and not their ability to accurately record it, we need to ensure that they know how to type proficiently. 

Toward this end, it is each of our responsibilities to incorporate Typing Agent into our daily instruction. Easier said than done, I know. Many of you are probably thinking, “Great. Just add an extra hour to every day.” I understand this frustration. It isn’t easy and quite frankly, it isn’t fair. But the reality is state mandated testing is moving online and we need to prepare our students to be as successful as possible. This includes keyboarding proficiency. To help you in this endeavor, the following pages of this newsletter include resources and ideas of how to incorporate Typing Agent into your classroom. Take a look and get your kids typing today!

Typing Agent Newsletter

Take the Pledge!

Help promote 21st century education by taking the pledge to participate in the national Digital

Learning Day. Join educators from around the world on February 5th to celebrate the power of

digital learning. The event sponsors created a library of lesson plans and activities as well as

toolkits to help teachers prepare for a day full of digital learning. So, what are you waiting for?

Take the pledge at www.digitallearningday.org today to be a digital teacher on Feb. 5th. Check

out the following links to plan what your digital learning day will look like in your classroom.

Digital Learning Toolkits: http://www.digitallearningday.org/learn-and-explore/digital-learningtools/

Digital Learning Lesson Plans: http://www.digitallearningday.org/learn-and-explore/lessonportals/

"Wait Time" in the Blended Learning Model

When questioning students, one easy way to increase student learning and promote higher order thinking is to increase wait time.  Studies repeatedly show the benefits of increasing wait time when asking students to do something as simple as recite sight words or as complex as evaluate the scientific processes used in an experiment.

Often after teachers ask questions, students are only given one second or less to formulate an answer before the answer is supplied--either by a student or the teacher.  The results of this questioning are low levels of thinking and engagement throughout the classroom.  However, when the teacher allows two to seven seconds--depending on the complexity of the question--before eliciting student answers, student thinking and engagement increase markedly:

1. More students answer or are prepared to answer the question
2. Students provide longer more thoughtful answers
3. Students ask more questions and more higher-order questions
4. Students provide more unsolicited responses
5. Student interaction increases
6. Students who process more slowly are more likely to respond

Many teachers have already seen the positive results in increasing classroom wait time when leading a class or a small group.  However, teachers may not have considered the importance of allowing for wait time in blended learning lessons, as well.  I have implemented multiple methods to accomplish wait time in my blended learning lessons, and I vary them depending on the type and purpose of the lesson.  

The first, and most disconcerting method I use mirrors the instructional wait time I use in the classroom.  That is, in the middle of a recorded lesson, I pose a question to the students.  Then comes the disturbing part:  I wait.  Three seconds.  Dead air.  That is really tough, especially when listening to the playback.  Nobody likes to hear dead air.  The glorious part, though, comes when I hear the students responding during the lesson.  No teacher is standing in front of them to smile or offer encouragement, yet they all respond.  Seeing this in action reinforces to me that I need to remember to add clarifying thoughts and specific praise to my recorded lessons as well.  I try to anticipate or take note of specific errors in student thinking that I notice while students are working with me and include specific teaching in my recorded lessons.  Vice versa, I take note of what I overhear when students are working with recorded lessons and incorporate needed teaching or re-teaching into my classroom lessons.  

Think (wait...time...)

Speak

Another method I use during timed PowerPoint presentations is the use of icons at the bottom of the page. For example, if there is a sight word the students are to recite, or a question is posed about a shape or a character in a book, I will use a thinking icon to prompt students to think silently--this takes some teaching.  Then, when the time is up, the slide will automatically change, and a speaking icon or a "hands up" icon will present itself where the thinking icon used to be.  I often change the color of the slide as another indicator that the students are now free to answer.  

The pause button is the final method I have used for allowing students increased wait time.  For example, I may ask the students, in the middle of a recorded guided-reading lesson on a book about fruits and vegetables, to hit pause and draw a picture of their favorite fruit.  However, the ultimate in using the pause button to improve learning is when a student recognizes his own need for wait time and pauses the lesson in order to improve his own thinking and learning.  I believe that it is when we teach students to do this, and they internalize the control they have over their own learning, that the true power of blended learning is harnessed.

Journal of Teacher Education Wait time: Slowing down may be a way of speeding up http://bit.ly/1cmdZXP 

Wait Time http://bit.ly/19csoBj

View my blog: http://bit.ly/1cefapY

Holiday Ed Tech Learning Activities

As we get ready to depart for a much needed and deserved holiday break, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you some Holiday Ed Tech sites for your kids to explore while they are away from the classroom. 

1) Snow-Line www.miniclip.com/games/snow-line/en/‎

This is a popular game where the mission is to help Santa collect presents and get them ready for his Christmas Eve trip around the world.  Students have to consider paths of least resistance, gravity and other physics concepts.  

2) Nothpole.com www.northpole.com

This website has many great holiday activities for kids.  Students can write letters to Santa, read holiday stories, and even has a library, called the Elf Pal Academy of Google Docs for primary students and English language learners.

3) Ultimate Winter Resources for Teachers www.teachingheart.net/xmas.html

A great collection of winter lesson plans and classroom ideas.  Many of them are focused on the holiday season, however there are also many activities that surround the theme of winter, so this site can be used well into the spring.

4) Winter Mad Libs http://www.classroomjr.com/winter-mad-libs/ 

Who doesn’t love some good ‘ol fashioned Mad Libs?  How about encouraging your students to complete some Winter Mad Libs over the break?  Check out this website for Mad Libs galore.  Christmas mad libs…check!  Winter mad libs…check!  They even have Valentine’s Day mad libs and winter word puzzles too. 

5) Tracking Santa www.noradsanta.org

Each year the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) tracks Santa by radar, satellite, Santa Cams, and even fighter jets as he flies around the world.  On Christmas Eve, students can track his flight live in Google Earth.  In addition to being a lot of fun, students can also learn about geography, distance and speed, and maybe even come up with their own creative narrative of Santa’s flight

3 Tips to Promoting Internet Safety

The Internet contains an infinite number of resources and possibilities. This connectivity creates many wonderful opportunities for kids to explore the world, but unfortunately there is also a darker side to the Internet.  Many kids are confronted with content and people they might not otherwise be exposed to.  This can be scary.  With this in mind, often times parents and schools prefer to lock-down their kids' internet access.  Clearly websites exist that should never be accessible by children.  However, are we truly preparing our kids to successfully navigate the 21st century if our only reaction to online danger is to shield them from it?

I believe it is important to teach kids how to be safe Internet users.  Does this mean we remove all safeguards and webpage filters?  Of course not.  But it does require us (the adults) to acknowledge there is an online world that our children are already, or soon will become, members of.  Toward this end, we need to teach kids how to be safe Internet users.  Below are 3 tips to promote Internet safety that were taken from a larger article.  Much like we teach our kids "stranger danger" when walking home from school, we too must begin to teach our kids about the risks of the online world and how to be safe in it.  I encourage you to think about how you can incorporate Internet safety in your classroom, and also how you can bring parents into this education process as well.

3 Tips to Promoting Internet Safety

1) Get Parents Involved

This should not be surprising.  When parents are actively talking with their children about online safety, students are less apt to partake in risky virtual behavior.  The real challenge for educators is ensuring that all parents know how to have these conversations with their kids.  Some tips for parents can include:

                                             i.     Determine an appropriate age to let children have an online identity.  Should a 13 year old have a Facebook account?  This is clearly a judgment call that different parents will evaluate differently.  However, educators can “prime the pump” to get parents to start thinking about what boundaries they want to set for their household.

                                            ii.     Parents can help their children identify proper online chat boundaries.  What type of information should kids share virtually?  Who should they be talking to?  What levels of privacy can kids expect and protect while interacting online?  Once again, these answers will vary from parent to parent, but educators can help start the conversation.

                                          iii.     Set an “Online Curfew” for kids.  What time of night should kids no longer be connected to social media conversing with friends.  Parents often times limit telephone talk, why not extend this to online use too?

                                          iv.     Monitor kids online activity.  Some parents ask that their children “friend” them on Facebook so that they can see the type of people and interactions their children are having.  Another tactic can be to check the computer’s internet browsing history or cookies. 

                                            v.     Finally, and most importantly, encourage parents to talk to their children about their online behavior.  What do they feel is appropriate? Why?  Are there some assumptions made by child or adult that are not accurate?  Open dialogue can help establish trust and hopefully eliminate potential problems before they even exist.

2) Find alternate ways to engage students with Internet Safety

Unfortunately for parents and teachers alike, students often times “zone out” anytime an adult starts to talk about something that isn’t necessarily interesting.  Insert the incessant blabbering of Charlie Brown’s teacher “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah”.  No matter the good intentions, the fact is kids don’t always listen.  To help counter this find resources that allow students to explore online safety without adults.  The easiest way is to find some quick YouTube videos.  There are a plethora out there, but here a few to get you started:

Video 1: Internet Safety for Kids K-3

Video 2: Playing and Staying Safe Online

Video 3: Safe Web Surfing: Top Tips for Kids and Teens Online

Video 4: Protect Kids in Chat Rooms, IM's, & Emails 

3) Role play! 

Create real life scenarios, or in text-speak IRL (In Real Life), that allow kids to explore possibilities they might be confronted with while online.   Let kids work out the situations on their own and see what kind of solutions they come up with.  Often times the findings might be surprising!  Here is a generic scenario to use as an example, but be creative and come up with some on your own too.

Elaine and her best friend Tina share everything.  They swap lunch treats, share clothes, and even deep secrets.  While most of their sharing is perfectly acceptable, one secret they also shared with one another was their Facebook passwords.  One day, Elaine and Tina had an argument and when Elaine got home she noticed her status updates had some less than flattering comments.  She knew she didn’t say these things but everyone else thinks so.  What can Elaine do?  What should she have done differently do prevent this kind of “identity theft”?  How important are usernames and passwords and why should we not share them with anyone, even our best friends?