Video Games in the Classroom: The Future of Learning?

With summer upon us, droves of students will hit the beaches, streets, and game rooms to pass the time until they come back to school for another year.  While I will probably force my 5-year old to go hiking with me or to ride her Frozen adorned bike, many students will take up the game controller and spend hours traversing fictional worlds.  But, is that a bad thing?  The common assumption that video games remove children from valuable learning and create students who can’t concentrate on meaningful school work may be, after all, a myth! According to Freeman A. Hrabowski III, the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, “Too many young people are bored at every level of education.” He suggests that games may be an answer to improving teaching and learning.

“Digital environments are second nature to today's young people. Playing well-designed games, as well as creating them, can pack an educational punch,” explains Hrabowski. At UMBC, student game developers put hundreds of hours into game development because they are engaged. Using a “STEAM” approach (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, combined with Art and Design), Team Huebotics created the game HueBots which “features friendly-faced, rainbow-hued robots.”

But the work team Huebotics has done is not only a reflection of their engagement on this game, it is a reflection on how the education system must change with the generation of students it is educating. Hrabowski suggests, “American education, from pre-K to college, must find ways to inspire similar dedication and to bring content to life.”

While I occasionally enjoy a good video game, I too wonder if creating games around content area topics may be a way to illicit critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and/or communication.  I also wonder if designing classroom lessons around popular video games is a great way to engage students in what might be mundane instruction. 

To address counter points on this topic, Hrabowski explains, “Since Oregon Trail made its way into elementary-school classrooms across the country, this approach has drawn skeptics who question whether students are learning or simply being entertained. To address such concerns, we must ensure that sound pedagogy forms the foundation of any gaming experience.”

I offer these quick suggestions to bring game concepts into the classroom:

1. Apply a “leveling up” concept familiar to video game players to your classroom management plan. 
(classroom management)

2.Write an essay that takes a stance on this topic: Which is better PS4 or Xbox1? 
(Language Arts)

3.Calculate/Analyze the yearly earnings of game franchises like Call of Duty or Madden over the last decade. 
(Math)

4.Evaluate how laws of motion affect game play in racing games. 
(Science)

5.Create a new “Oregon Trail” game that represents travel through a different historical time period. 
(Social Studies)

To read the article “Video Games in the Classroom? Welcome to the Future of Learning” go to http://www.cnbc.com/id/102550028.

STEM Education with a Narrative Edge

In recent months, I’ve read a lot of articles outlining the positive impact of STEM education on student learning.  While some articles discuss variations on the STEM approach by adding in the Arts, a recent article from the KQED MindShift blog, highlights and interesting approach to the standard STEM formula by asking the question Could Storytelling Be the Secret Sauce to STEM Education?    

Katrina Schwartz, a journalist and staff writer for KQED’s education blog MindShift, shares the story of New York City public school teacher Lev Fruchter and his novel approach to teaching STEM education.  “[Fruchter] is convinced," according to Schwartz, that “literature is a great way to excite learners about STEM.”

Fruchter, having taught English and Math, realized that “stories are a great way to make science, technology, engineering and math ideas accessible and concrete to learners who might not think those kind of technical studies are for them.” Highlighting Fruchter’s use of stories like “The Lady, or the Tiger,” Schwartz explains that while Fruchter is able to help students interpret and write about literature, he is also able to provide students with options to “interpret a math problem in multiple ways, showing solutions in various ways, using functions and factoring.”  The story is the lens through which the students view the complex math and engineering problems that are customary in STEM education. 

As a former English teacher, I’m hopeful that I will someday step into a classroom and see students reading Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains.” This is certainly one of my favorite short stories and full of options to explore, especially with a project based STEM approach.   

To read more of Schwartz’s article and to see examples of texts used by Fruchter, go to http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/06/05/could-storytelling-be-the-secret-sauce-to-stem-education/ or click on the title in the first paragraph of this post. 

Leave a comment and let me know the texts you use in your classroom and how they could be used as a lens for the STEM approach to teaching and learning. 

Defining Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated instruction has been and most likely will always be a crucial component of our discussions in TBT and BLT meetings when we discuss strategies to address student learning in our classrooms. In the article “Defining Differentiated Instruction,” Rebecca Alber, Contributing Editor for edutopia.com, explains some key points in defining differentiation as it looks when put into practice.

Alber explains, “We have to start where each child is in his learning process in order to authentically meet his academic needs and help him grow.” While this statement is true, it can sometimes be difficult to put this statement into practice. Albert suggests starting with the student. Examine student records like IEPs to determine accommodations or modifications that need to be made for the student while in your classroom. 

“Making an assignment, task, or objective different for one student than the rest of the class is meeting that child where they are in their learning journey,” Alber expresses. Using an example from Of Mice and M en, Alber provides an excellent example to illustrate how to modify an assignment to allow a student in her classroom to feel successful. Most importantly, though, Alber recognized that success for this student would look differently than the other students for this assignment.

Finally, differentiated instruction “may mean providing extra time to complete an assignment, giving directions again, reducing the length of an assignment, or offering alternate assignments or projects altogether.” Albert continues to provide classroom ready examples of differentiation but also strengthens her primary point that differentiation is about fairness. While some teachers may believe that “making an assignment less difficult for one student is not fair to the others,” Alber believes that teachers need to evaluate what is fair for every student in their classroom. Some students just don’t learn the same way as others and may need differentiated instruction to access the content of the class.

Put it into practice!  

Differentiation can come in many forms. Try one of these strategies to differentiate instruction in your classroom.
1. Cloze notes or guided notes
to help students focus on quality of content rather quantity of writing.
2. Sentence Starters to help struggling writers develop ideas for writing
3. Graphic organizers to help students organize complex thoughts and ideas
4. Assessment choices provide options for students to show mastery of a skill or concept 

Visit http://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-
definition-strategies-alber to read the entire article and to follow links to ready-to-use strategies to differentiate instruction in your classroom.

In the iTunes store, look up The Whole Child Podcast and search “Differentiated Instruction Works” to hear educators discuss how they put differentiation into practice.

The School-to-Prison Pipeline

The “School-to-Prison Pipeline” is the practice of removing students from the school setting and pushing them towards the juvenile and criminal justice systems.  In the recent article “The School-to-Prison Pipeline: Time to Shut it Down,” Mary Ellen Flannery discusses how ineffective zero tolerance policies and overzealous suspension and expulsion practices can be when addressing discipline issues in schools. 

Encouraged by disturbing trends like zero-tolerance policies, police officers in schools, and “made worse by school funding cuts that overburden counselors and high-stakes tests that stress teachers,” NEA members agreed in 2013 to stop the unnecessary school-to-prison pipeline.  

NEA executive committee member Kevin Gilbert says, “‘With education resources being cut nationwide, many educators are so caught up in trying to do more with less and many are not aware that when they remove a student from the classroom, they may be unknowingly feeding the school-to-prison pipeline.  We’ve got to make more educators aware and we’ve got to give them better tools and skills.”  

While no one expects that suspensions and/or expulsions should just disappear, Charlotte Hayer offers the advice that “you need to teach teachers how to build relationships with students who might not be like them.”  “Restorative Practices” is becoming a popular strategy to help educators “get to the root of disciplinary issues.”  In this strategy, teachers engage in crucial conversations with the students to teach empathy and responsibility, and to encourage the students to identify how their actions affect others around them.  

Sarah Biehl, of the Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio explains, “Suspending a kid or sending them to the office is easy and quick. The things we’re asking schools to do in place of those things are not easy and quick…The answers are complicated and I understand teacher need resources and tools to make these changes.”  

To read the entire article: http://neatoday.org/2015/01/05/school-prison-pipeline-time-shut/   

Connecting the Dots: Matching Rigor and Instruction

The January 2015 issue of Principal Leadership, highlights some interesting ideas on matching instruction to the rigor-level of learning targets.   According to Rosemarye Taylor and Mark Shanoff, authors of “Hitting the Learning Target: How to Facilitate Student Motivation and Resilience,” teachers at Ocoee Middle School in central Florida were concerned that “many students were not proficient in reading or mathematics because the teachers misunderstood the language of learning goals” (28).  Administration at the school was also concerned because “student achievement was not improving continuously” (28).  

Teachers and administration decided to take three key steps to improve student achievement in their school: 

Focus on learning targets - Teachers must have clear intentions for student learning.  Teachers should fully “understand the academic language of their learning targets and how student work might look and sound at those specific levels of rigor” (29).  

Scaffold instruction - Beginning with direct instruction that includes teacher modeling expectations, teachers should scaffold instruction that begins “with high teacher support, then decrease gradually until students could independently demonstrate mastery with low teacher support” (29).  

Systems Development - Administrators adjusted the systems in the school to allow for more collaborative planning time and allocated other resources to follow through with monitoring teacher and student success. 

Teachers and administrators at Ocoee Middle School now feel that “Through carefully scaffolded instruction; heightened, clear expectations; self-monitoring; and quality feedback, students’ self-esteem grew, as did teachers’ beliefs that they could impact all students’ learning, including those who had previously underperformed” (30).   

Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School - Chapter 2 Review

Chapter 2 of Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School lays out a different thesis than chapter 1; in this chapter the authors begin their examination of who teachers are, what they deal with every day, and the competing views of teachers in general.

 

Hargreaves and Fullan go to great lengths to describe the problems that teachers face in their profession  Low support, technology inequity, and performance based pay are just a few of the major issues that the authors highlight.  The authors also go on to describe "flaws" in the U.S. educational strategy that create a culture for educational ineffectiveness.  Overwhelming compliance issues, merit based pay, and school environment are highlighted at great length.   

It is all of these issues, however, that I believe Hargreaves and Fullan highlight to prepare the reader to understand that in the midst of the myriad struggles facing the teaching profession, teachers are still important.  And to sustain their importance, we must understand a few key tenants:

• Good teaching is technically sophisticated and difficult
• Good teaching requires high levels of education and long periods of training
• Good teaching is perfected through continuous improvement
• Good teaching involves wise judgments informed by evidence and experience
• Good teaching is a collective accomplishment and responsibility   

In the end, Hargreaves and Fullan begin to lay the groundwork to argue their points to transform teaching in every school.  The authors admit that "to change anything, we must first know what it is that we are changing" (23).  In chapter three, they will go deeper into the nature of teaching in an attempt to know what we attempting to change. 

OTES Changes!

On June 4, some important changes were made to OTES; understanding these changes will be important for implementation of OTES in school districts.  The changes are listed below.  Go to http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Teaching/News/Changes-to-Ohio-Teacher-Evaluation-System-for-2014 to read more about the changes. 


Changes to Ohio Revised Code (ORC) 3319.111


TEACHERS RATED ACCOMPLISHED OR SKILLED BEGINNING IN 2014-2015
A board of education may elect to evaluate a teacher receiving a rating of accomplished every threeyears as long as the teacher’s student academic growth measure for the most recent school year forwhich data is available is average or higher.

A board of education may elect to evaluate a teacher receiving a rating of skilled every two years aslong as the teacher’s student academic growth measure for the most recent school year for which datais available is average or higher.

In any year in which a teacher who has not been formally evaluated as a result of having previouslyreceived a rating of accomplished or skilled, a credentialed evaluator shall conduct at least oneobservation of the teacher and hold at least one conference with the teacher. This also applies toteachers who received an accomplished rating in 2013-2014.

TEACHERS ON LEAVE OR RETIRING
A board of education may elect not to conduct an evaluation of a teacher who: (1) was on leave for 50percent or more of the school year; or (2) has submitted notice of retirement on or before Dec. 1 of theschool year.


Changes to ORC 3319.112 and New ORC 3319.114
OPTION TO USE ALTERNATIVE FRAMEWORK
For the 2014-2015 school year, a district or school may choose to use either the 50 percent teacherperformance and 50 percent student growth measure framework (ORC 3319.112) or the followingalternative framework (ORC 3319.114):

oTeacher performance measure shall be 42.5 percent

oStudent academic growth measure shall be 42.5 percent

oOne of the following components shall be 15 percent:

Student surveys;

Teacher self-evaluations;

Peer review evaluations;

Student portfolios.

Beginning with the 2015-2016 school year and any school year thereafter, a district or school maychoose to use either the 50 percent teacher performance and 50 percent student growth measureframework (ORC 3319.112) or the following alternative framework (ORC 3319.114):

• Teacher performance measure shall account for 42.5 to 50 percent

• Student academic growth measure shall account for 42.5 to 50 percent

• Remainder shall be one of the following components:

Student surveys;
Teacher self-evaluations;
Peer review evaluations;
Student portfolios.

• If a district or school chooses to use the alternative framework, the teacher performancemeasure and the student academic growth measure shall account for equal percentages ofeach rating.

ODE-APPROVED INSTRUMENTS

The Ohio Department of Education must compile a list of approved instruments for districts and schoolsto use when evaluating teachers using student surveys, teacher self-evaluations, peer reviewevaluations and student portfolios.

Districts and schools must choose one of the ODE-approved instruments if they are using thealternative framework.

 

Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School - Chapter 1 Review

This time I'm serious!  I've been picking away at this book all year, but now I'm committing to reviewing it on TeachingtoLead.  Stay tuned for more.  (The following is a re-post from May 13, 2014)

To begin my summer book review series, I’ve decided to read an intriguing book called Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School by Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan.  I’ll dedicate a new post to my reactions on each chapter.  Feel free to comment and join in the conversation. 

Chapter 1: A Capital Idea

Hargreaves and Fullan do a great job in chapter 1 to establish the groundwork for their ultimate thesis: to change education through “professional capital” and “articulate an inspiring vision of the future for the teaching profession, along with a coherent set of actions to get there” (9). 

To establish an understanding of professional capital, the authors mention several different types of capital: financial capital, business capital, cultural capital, spiritual capital, and “natural” capital (1).  However, to better understand the types of capital that make up professional capital, the authors’ definitions are as follows:

1.       Human Capital – the “talent” of the individual and his ability to use his talent to be a great classroom teacher (3)

2.       Social Capital – the relationships and interactions among teachers and between teachers and administrators (3)

3.       Decisional Capital – exercising judgments and decisions with collective responsibility, openness to feedback, and willing transparency (5)

These three types of capital, according to the authors, make up professional capital. 

In the long run, the author’s argue, that cultivating human capital (talents) and relying only on human capital to sustain education will ultimately fail.  Programs like Teach for America rely on human capital and take advantage of highly talented individuals to step into schools and teach.  However, these “teachers” cannot sustain a school and leave after several short years because they are overworked, burned out, and underpaid. 

The only real way to sustain a high standard of education is to invest in social capital.  According to the authors, investing in a school’s social capital will also increase the human capital of the school; this idea will not work in reverse order, by the way. 

In the end, the authors state that 40% of teachers in the United States are ‘disheartened’ with their jobs (6) and the only way to create dedicated, creative, and dynamic teachers is to invest in the social capital of the school.  While professional capital is comprised of human, social, and decisional capital, the relationships and interactions among teachers and between teachers and administrators is a key component to creating a healthy school. 

Making Peace with the Common Core

It was not surprising to see several articles in the June 2014 edition of OhioSchools magazine that highlighted the mounting concerns with the implementation of the more rigorous Common Core standards and the increase in high-stakes standardized testing.  As these articles simply mirror the voices of teachers and administrators across our state, I fear that after several years of aligning assessments and courses of study to the Common Core, we have still not made peace with the changes that are immediately in front of us. 

In my own experiences, I've talked with teachers who are comfortable with these changes and are at the forefront of experimenting with performance based assessments and more diverse digital resources that increase the rigor and relevance of the content in their classrooms, but I've also met with many teachers who are not ready to face the changes that the Common Core and new testing have brought forth.

So the challenge that we face as administrators is: How do we make peace with the Common Core?

I offer a few ideas here to perhaps assuage the fears of our staff members who need the most support, but I also hope these suggestions compliment the strengths of our best teachers. 

• Professional Development - While this is a no-brainer, it must be mentioned.  Listen to the voices of those teachers who need support and provide a variety of professional development opportunities for all teachers to access.  
• Mentorship - Listen to the voices of those teachers who are leading the change process.  Create mentorship opportunities for these teachers to meet with other teachers and discuss the changes they've made in their classrooms.  Create time for struggling teachers to observe and emulate those teachers in your schools who are tackling the challenges of the Common Core head on.  
• Utilize technology - I'm not talking about teaching here!  I'm talking about using technology as a means of engaging stakeholders in discussion about the Common Core and spreading the word about what your school and district are doing to prepare teachers, educate students, and inform parents about the new standards.  Administrators should be using Twitter, blogs, district websites, etc. to extend the message outside the walls of their schools. 
• Focus on the big picture - There is certainly a place for compliance, but with so many initiatives been created to combat the myriad issues facing schools today, it may be important to examine the non-negotiable initiatives already in place and determine if there are some processes that do not compliment the Common Core vision of your schools.  

In the end, there is no silver bullet.  Change is an arduous process; it leaves many people frustrated, angry, and dismissive.  If we focus on developing the relationships between our best teachers and those teachers who need the most support, and focus less on compliance and more on vision, I think there is a chance to make peace with the Common Core. 

Video Games Engage Children with Disabilities

As a teacher, I spent countless hours adjusting lesson plans and activities or modifying the content of my lessons to make literature accessible to every student in my classroom.  As an administrator, I've worked with teachers and students to continue that work.  However, it is not only the educational world who is making changes to reach everyone. 

In the most recent issue of Game Informer Magazine (#254), Kyle Hilliard's story "Creating Controllers For All Disabilities" briefly follows the life of Lee Knight and his experiences with spinal muscular atrophy.  When Knight reached 11 years old, he began to experience the debilitating effects of spinal muscular atrophy and was wheelchair bound by age 12.  What Hilliard highlights in this story, however, is that Knight was an avid video game player and with the help of organizations like Special Effect, a charity organization that makes video games accessible to disabled gamers, Knight is able to continue to enjoy playing video games. 

With a small team, Special Effect modifies controllers according to a person's disability to allow them the ability to play video games.  In Knight's story, Special Effect created a controller the utilized his chin to manipulate the control sticks and placed the buttons of the Xbox 360 game controller underneath his fingers.  Additionally, they included a special device that allows Knight to control buttons on the game pad using voice commands. 

In the educational world, teachers and administrators work very hard to make curriculum accessible to students with disabilities.  While our modifications make look different, they don't differ much from the kinds of changes that Special Effect makes.  In the end, we both take on the task of looking at each individual person to make appropriate modifications and we both have a goal of making life for the person with the disability more enjoyable. 

Knight, in response to Special Effect's help in creating the modified controller said, 'All my life I've played games and [Special Effect] have bridged the gap between what I can and can't do.'  As a school administrator, I certainly hope our students will someday utter those same words as they progress in their own academic careers. 

**To read Kyle Hilliard's article "Creating Controllers For All Disabilities" go to your nearest GameStop retailer and politely ask for issue 254. 

**To learn more about Special Effect visit http://www.specialeffect.org.uk/.

Is Spaceteam Educational?

The Spaceteam Question…

Spaceteam is a cooperative mobile game that allows small groups of players to work together to pilot a space craft.  At first blush, it seems to be just a fun game that brings friends together.  However, are there broader applications for this game in the classroom? 

 

I was introduced to Spacteam by several colleagues and took some time out of my busy schedule to play.  What I noticed first is that cooperation and clear communication are at the core of its gameplay.  While many console and mobile games are heavily single player experiences, Spaceteam insists on cooperation and collaboration. 

Additionally, I couldn’t help but wonder if the functions applied in the game are similar to piloting a space craft.  Imagining what an astronaut actually goes through was intriguing and peaked my interest enough to do some quick Google searches.    

But the big question remains: Could I use Spaceteam in my classroom? 

Go play the game and respond in the comments below and let me know.  Enjoy!

Can Video Games Make Dyslexic Children Read Better?

Much of my writing for this blog discusses the impact that video games and media have on education, so this post is not different!  I recently came across an article from IGN.com that presents an interesting topic: Can Video Games Make Dyslexic Children Read Better?

http://m.ign.com/articles/2013/05/29/can-video-games-make-dyslexic-children-read-better

Take a look!  Feel free to comment below.

Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School - Chapter 1 Review

This time I'm serious!  I've been picking away at this book all year, but now I'm committing to reviewing it on TeachingtoLead.  Stay tuned for more.  (The following is a re-post from May 13, 2014)

To begin my summer book review series, I’ve decided to read an intriguing book called Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School by Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan.  I’ll dedicate a new post to my reactions on each chapter.  Feel free to comment and join in the conversation. 

Chapter 1: A Capital Idea

Hargreaves and Fullan do a great job in chapter 1 to establish the groundwork for their ultimate thesis: to change education through “professional capital” and “articulate an inspiring vision of the future for the teaching profession, along with a coherent set of actions to get there” (9). 

To establish an understanding of professional capital, the authors mention several different types of capital: financial capital, business capital, cultural capital, spiritual capital, and “natural” capital (1).  However, to better understand the types of capital that make up professional capital, the authors’ definitions are as follows:

1.       Human Capital – the “talent” of the individual and his ability to use his talent to be a great classroom teacher (3)

2.       Social Capital – the relationships and interactions among teachers and between teachers and administrators (3)

3.       Decisional Capital – exercising judgments and decisions with collective responsibility, openness to feedback, and willing transparency (5)

These three types of capital, according to the authors, make up professional capital. 

In the long run, the author’s argue, that cultivating human capital (talents) and relying only on human capital to sustain education will ultimately fail.  Programs like Teach for America rely on human capital and take advantage of highly talented individuals to step into schools and teach.  However, these “teachers” cannot sustain a school and leave after several short years because they are overworked, burned out, and underpaid. 

The only real way to sustain a high standard of education is to invest in social capital.  According to the authors, investing in a school’s social capital will also increase the human capital of the school; this idea will not work in reverse order, by the way. 

In the end, the authors state that 40% of teachers in the United States are ‘disheartened’ with their jobs (6) and the only way to create dedicated, creative, and dynamic teachers is to invest in the social capital of the school.  While professional capital is comprised of human, social, and decisional capital, the relationships and interactions among teachers and between teachers and administrators is a key component to creating a healthy school.