Using Symbaloo to Share Resources & Differentiate Instruction

This post is shared with you by John Cochrane, 6th grade Social Studies teacher at Grover Middle School

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Symbaloo describes itself as a “visual bookmarking tool,” with the accent on visual. So why do you need another bookmarking tool when you already have one? Part of the answer is the visual component and the other major component for me is the shareable nature of Symbaloo. My use of Symbaloo as described here does not take full advantage of Symbaloo’s functionality, but I use it for a very specific purpose that it accomplishes quite nicely. If my brief description arouses interest, go to the Symbaloo website http://en.support.symbaloo.com/knowledgebase/articles/229587-why-use-symbaloo for a more in depth view.

Symbaloo is perhaps the major resource for my sixth grade curriculum. Given the limited usefulness and quality of our textbook and the disappearance of the Calliope database, we need to use outside sources to make the ancient world come alive. Just as importantly, we need a portal to this information that can be easily built, shared and updated. Symbaloo makes all this happen in a simple, efficient and reliable manner. Since most material on the ancient world is written at a level far beyond most sixth graders, Symbaloo also provides a connection to material that hits the students “between-the-eyes.” No more searching for that needle in a haystack.

Symbaloo is also a big contributor to my differentiation methods. There is space to combine a variety of topics, both text and video, while targeting learners at various interest and reading levels. Students can often use the posted websites (i.e. the British Museum) to branch off from the specific topic and go where their curiosity leads them.

The “tile” portals can be colored coded or use the source logos (or a combination of the two) to make the various topics and media immediately recognizable. The students like Symbaloo so much that they often recommend sites they have discovered to be added. I’ve never experienced this phenomenon before, and the Symbaloo’s ease of use makes updating a disseminating a revised version a really quick fix. These collections are especially useful for creating standard and enrichment “matrix” type assignments that students can really enjoy.

Posted below is a recent version of one of my Mesopotamia oriented screens

You can view this Symbaloo here: http://edu.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAAAYS8W7AAA41-4T_A5g==

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If you would like to explore using Symbaloo in your classroom, reach out to the Teacher Resource Specialist for Technology in your building.

CMS Take Apart Day 2015

On Friday, December 4th, students in the PRISM Program had a 'Take Apart Day'.  They brought in items to explore by deconstructing them to see what makes them tick, so to say.  As they take the items apart, not through destructive means (even though that was tempting), they arranged all the pieces for a photo.  That photo became the background of a ThingLink image which then included text, images, videos, &/or websites.  Below are a couple photos from the event as well as one team's ThingLink.  If you would like to view more, check out their blog post: Room 814. Makers. Movers. Shakers.

Students taking apart a camera

Students taking apart a digital watch

Students' ThingLink for taken apart motorized truck: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/731869658864418817

Google Classroom's Integration with Calendar

How Google Classroom Enhanced a Math Lesson

This past week I had the opportunity to participate in a 6th grade math lesson.  Both Linda Scanlan & Taylor Sternotti planned and carried out the lesson via Google Classroom.  All three of the 'create' functions on the classroom's Stream were utilized.  They first 'announced' the lesson by posting an invitation.

During the lesson, they posted an 'assignment' using Google Presentation for the students to plan out and solve the questions of date, place, and host.

Finally, the lesson utilized the 'create question' function by having the students submit their answers to the invite.

Here's what Linda & Taylor said about their lesson:

"Lesson title: Math Mystery Ball

First, we sent an invitation prior to the lesson to all students by sending an 'announcement' through Google Classroom with the invitation attached. Students were intrigued by the invitation. We sent a Google slide presentation with information students needed to complete the activity. The learning objective was for students to be able to reason, abstractly and quantitatively, to solve real world problems using the strategy 'Use Logical Reasoning'. Students needed to solve three logic problems to correctly solve the mystery of when, where and who was hosting the party. Google Classroom provided students with the file on the Chromebook, therefore, they were able to work at their own pace and provided diagrams for visual learners. We sent a question to all students, through Google Classroom, that asked the three details of the Math Mystery Ball. When students solved all three logic problems, they then submitted answers to the question. As a formative assessment, the teachers were able to see students’ responses and comment on each student response in real time. This provided immediate feedback for students to move on to the next activity in the classroom or revise incorrect answers. Students were actively engaged in the lesson and had felt a need to solve the problem correctly. Thanks to Liz Keller for providing the activity."

An Issue w/ Google Classroom's 'Turn In' Feature - FIX

I had a couple of teachers, recently, bring an issue to my attention about the 'Turn In' feature for assignments in Google Classroom.  The student would try to 'Turn In' an assignment and they would get an error message:

Here is a resource I put together to assist them on how to fix this issue themselves:

View 'Turn In' Fix full version on Tackk
Create your own customized Tackk page

A Day in the Life of 6th Grade Social Studies (Week of 2/2/15)

In 6th grade social studies classes at GMS, today's technology helps students learn about ancient civilizations.

Engaging Videos: 

To augment and enhance information learned through reading materials and photographs, 6th grade social studies teachers use sources like YouTube and Discovery Education to locate and stream videos for their students. Students benefit from the added multi-sensory dimension, of seeing and hearing the concepts through live action, that the videos provide.

Whether the videos are stories narrated by experts and referring to primary sources, reenactments, or a combination, they help students reinforce understandings of what life was like in the ancient civilization as well as how actual archaeologists and historians have preserved and restored the civilizations.

The videos lend themselves well to the work the students are doing, such as identifying themes in the disappearances of some ancient civilizations. After watching video clips, students work in partnerships to collaborate and apply their understanding of cause and effect to the information they learn in the videos.

The sixth graders discuss and debate the negative consequences that the various individual events could have had on the ancient civilizations, such as how a river changing course could impact water supply and the ability to grow crops.


BrainPOP:


With each student having his or her own Chromebook in class, BrainPOP is an excellent resource for students to review and reinforce material at their own pace.

These 6th graders can log into BrainPOP and locate videos related to the topics they are studying.

Additionally, the teachers utilize the resources provided through the site to give students ideas for taking notes and comprehension questions to ensure they understand the concepts.


QR Codes:

Using the camera on the Chromebooks, 6th graders can access QR codes in the classroom.  With a QR code reader installed, students can scan a QR code so that thedigital resource associated with it will pop up on their screen immediately.

Using QR codes in this way is helpful for keeping students curious about what they will encounter next during self-guided work, and gives them practice with the important digital skill that they will encounter outside of school as well.

QR codes can be generated and assigned to documents, presentations, websites, videos, and audio files.

If you'd like more information about QR codes in the classroom, check out these resources from Kathy Schrock:  http://www.schrockguide.net/qr-codes-in-the-classroom.html or these from Richard Byrne: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/search/label/qr%20codes#.VM-m9GjF-So.


Electronic Resources with GAFE and SMARTBoards: 


Only five months into the school year and these 6th graders are pros at navigating Google Apps for Education (GAFE).  Teachers share out electronic resources in the form of Google Documents or Presentations, and students organize and refer to them in their Drive.  To record homework and other reminders, students also utilize the Google Calendar.

Students are using GAFE to design and create their own projects like Facebook-inspired profile pages to further understand Chinese philosophers and text spreads like those found in National Geographic. Templates for these projects are shared with students by their teacher in either Docs or Slides.  

These projects give students the opportunity to learn about the ancient civilizations and transfer learning while also exploring the creation and layout of authentic nonfiction genres.

Having a SMARTBoard in the classroom also makes it possible to create digital charts (like a KWL) during class discussions or mini-lessons which can immediately be shared with students.  6th graders eagerly volunteer to write the notes on the SMARTBoard, while the teacher circulates around the room and facilitates the discussion.

After the discussion, the teacher saves the image in the SMART Notebook software, which can be incorporated into future lessons and can be shared directly with students.







Virtual Egypt:
As 6th grade students study the culture of ancient Egypt, modern technology helps bring the ideas to life.

Kinesthetic learning activities combined with the technology are great ways to make long ago and faraway concepts come alive. Students create projects, such as Egyptian cartouches, or wrapping a doll mummy after reviewing the process of mummification, that help them better understand the art and religion of the ancient civilizations they study and express their unique personalities.  

Sites like Virtual Egypt make it possible for students to "take a journey back in time" through viewing maps and exploring ancient civilization ruins in 360 degree video tours.  

Creating displays of student projects in the classroom and in the digital environment not only keeps these concepts familiar, but helps students to study history in terms of causes and effects.

A Day in the Life of 6th Grade Science (Week of 1/26/15)

Here’s a little look at some of the awesome things going on in the 6th grade science classes at GMS.  

Team 6T

Students on 6T are studying the characteristic properties of matter.  In partnerships and small groups, students travel throughout the classroom to a variety of inquiry stations.

At each station, students discuss and answer questions in order to develop theories about what they see.  As they explore the properties of matter, they apply their own understanding of volume and density to each investigation  

As true scientists do, these 6th graders also share their results and compare them with the work of others.  After each of the inquiries are completed, the partnerships and small groups enter their results in a collaborative Google Doc.  Through this shared resource, students benefit from seeing not only their own results, but the results of others as well.  This collaborative learning experience helps the students identify trends and also determine the validity of their own findings.

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Team 6G and Team 6S

Students on 6G and 6S are currently learning about the plant life cycle.  

Starting with seeds, students are working in groups and growing Wisconsin Fast Plants.  Each day of the cycle is observed and data is recorded by the group. To record the data, students are using a combination of digital resources.  

Students work together using the camera feature in the Chromebooks to take photographs of the plants and work in collaborative documents to record other data.  For example, within their Google accounts, students create and share data tables in Google Docs and slideshow presentations to showcase the plants' growth in Google Presentations.

Students on 6G are also dissecting plants.  They are taking the plants apart to get closer looks at the individual parts of a flower.  Tactile,  hands-on manipulation of the plant parts coupled with the digital note-taking in Google Drive on the Chromebooks allow for students to employ a variety of learning styles during this lesson and really understand the intricacies of the plants they are studying.

Additionally, through Google Drive the teachers share copies of notes pertaining to the parts and functions of the plant parts.  

Students can access these shared resources in Drive to later compare them with their own notes, and to use as study aides as they progress through the unit.  

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Team 6M

Using the workshop model of instruction, students on 6M are studying pure and composite substances.  

After a whole group mini lesson, students have the opportunity to take a closer look at actual examples of various substances that are on display in the classroom.

Through Google Drive, the teacher has shared resources for students to access, while they work independently, on explaining the process through with a pure substance is converted or manufactured into a composite substance.  As the students work, the teacher holds brief individual conferences with each student to keep track of their progress with their respective inquiries and provide them with guidance as needed.

Reflection and self-assessment through the 3-2-1 exit ticket also help students take ownership of their learning and provides valuable formative assessment that shapes the teacher's future plans.