X EXAMPLES OF CURRICULAR INNOVATION ..................... 2
Nov. 11, 2008
h X BRIGETTE LESCHHORN USES WIKIS TO BRING LORD OF THE FLIES TO LIFE WHILE MATT HIXENBAUGH AND JOHN OLESKI TEACH COLLABORATION AS THEY EXPLORE ANCIENT AFRICA . ..3
X AMY SCHEER PROVES THE WORLD IS FLAT IN A PROJECT WITH 8 OTHER COUNTRIES . 4
MICDS
Innovation
IT ISN’T ABOUT THE TABLETS, IT’S ABOUT THE LEARNING THEY ENHANCE AND THE POSSIBILITIES THEY PROVIDE. IT’S ABOUT USING TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE OPPORTUNITY. IT’S ABOUT MAKING INNOVATION TRADITION.
Update
The MICDS Upper School Curriculum has been and will continue to be the driver in our use of technology. Technology allows us to build an innovative curriculum that teaches the core curriculum AND 21st century literacies. It encourages global collaboration in an increasingly flat world. .
Shifting Gears Smooth Driving This year MICDS launched a 1:1 tablet program in grades 7, 9 and 10; believing that the curriculum had evolved to a point that ubiquitous access to technology was needed to allow us to build the type of innovative curriculum that today’s students need, a curriculum that retains the fundamentals but acknowledges emerging literacies. We were excited about giving our students not a laptop but a personal learning environment, a tool that paired with the right curriculum could help us all become a community of learners. Our goal was to move from imagining
possibilities to fulfilling them. It was “GO Time!” and we had all cylinders firing for what was sure to be an interesting ride.
The ride was framed by a statement
from the Upper School Head, Louise Morgan "MICDS has all the resources to set the pace and the tone for 21st century education. That is my intent, to make the MICDS Upper School one that is known for its innovative, exciting curricular program that truly educates and energizes students to be their own teachers for the future."
This newsletter is designed to serve as an update on our progress in becoming the school that our students deserve.
Cool Course The interdisciplinary Sudan Course allows students to work with video footage collected by a National geographic photographer to create a documentary video about the crisis. The course includes seminars with speakers like John Danforth and a “Lost Boy.” It is team taught by an English and History teacher and includes
literature about the crisis as well as a history of Africa. Students learn about videography, bias in journalism, activism, and the art of creating a documentary. The class collaborates with other schools and universities on an international level.
More Bits and Bytes on the Tablet The tablet is simply a tool, but it is a powerful one because of the opportunities it affords students and teachers. At MICDS, we view the tablet as the students Personal Learning Environment. It can be customized to aid in their learning and to make them efficient at the job as student. It contains textbooks and software that allow learning to continue outside of the lab. It possesses
The tablet is simply a tool that allows us to be creative in the ways in which we engage students in learning. It is a learning environment that allows us to extend the classroom beyond physical boundaries.My students can work with students in other countries and that is extremely powerful. MICDS History Teacher
the power to allow us to build an innovative curriculum that extends the classroom walls by allowing students to interact with experts and students in other geographic locations and to continue to do software intensive projects outside of the school day. The
Likewise, it would not be fair to my students to teach them about World History the way I was taught years ago if I want them to be competitive in today's game of life. Matt Hixenbaugh
opportunities that this opens for learning are limitless and powerful. The curriculum at MICDS is evolving to leverage this power, keeping what is necessary in core foundation and adding a richness that surpasses traditional learning and prepares out students for lives as global citizens in the 21st century.
Curriculum Role Call English Students produced graphic novels to help them understand Antigone. Students studied Frederick Douglas and then delivered their own persuasive speech in the Presentation room. Speeches were broadcast and recorded using ustream.tv so parents could watch from home and students could evaluate and learn from their own performance. Science For the Atomic Scientist Project students did research on a historical personality in science and created a wiki book of information. Math Scribe Blogs-Students take turns posting the days notes with a reflection of the material. They are creating a companion website for their course while learning to think critically and reflectively about their own learning. Math Research Project- Each student is gearing up to select a social justice or
environmental topic to research and study from a quantitative point of view. They will use software to analyze their data they find and will present their findings electronically to their peers World Languages Students used Photoshop and InkArt on their tablets to created children’s books written in Spanish to share with lower school Spanish students. Students use browser based and locally hosted software to engage in conversations in the target language outside of class, extending the time spent on oral practice History Students interact in a Ning social network to continue discussions, share their ideas and questions, and deepen their thinking outside of class. Facebook 1800 uses Ning to place students in an 18th century facebook situation in which they research their character, an 18th century reformer, and interact in the network accordingly.
SITE WATCH Quizlet (http://quizlet.com) is a flashcard site that was started in 2005 by a 15 year old student and his father. It is a site that the MICDS students view as valuable for learning recall information like vocabulary words or science facts. Students can collaborate on the creation of a flashcard deck. Students can practice a deck of flashcards and quizlet tracks their progress. Quizlet also monitors overall statistics for the deck of flashcards. It records the most missed cards and the user with the most views for a given deck.
STUDENT SALUTE:
BIG RIVER RUNNING POETRY CONTEST WINNER Porsche Poole, Class of ’09 submitted an original poem to Big River Running. She took 4th place. He poem can be read in its entirety at http://www.bigriverrunning.c om/Poetry%20Contest.htm. An excerpt is below: I Run by How Can I run When my heart pounds Like the furious stranger Behind the front door How Can I run When my breath Comes harder than Asphalt-covered roads Packed-dirt trails And any other track Unbeaten Unbested ‘till now How Can my legs pump With more energy More vigor than The parched journeyman Desperately trying to draw out a drink Traveling through the unforgiving desert How Can I stay sane Focused Determined ….Continued
Wonderful Wikis What exactly is a wiki? A wiki is a website where users can add, remove, and edit every page using a web browser with ease. Wikis requires no technical knowledge and work much like word processing software. The wiki software keeps a log of every change that has been made, when it was made, and who made the change. More importantly, a wiki is a great
Students in Matt Hixenbaugh and John Oleski’s classes explored the civilizations of Ancient Africa to develop research skills. that kingdom. In 9th grade tool for teaching true English, students were put in collaboration. We use groups, given basic parameters technology to enhance similar to the situations learning and skill acquisition encountered in Lord of the not for technology’s sake. Flies and wikis were used to play a survivor island game Students in World History II that forced them to think Classes were put in groups critically about decisions being and given an Ancient African made. The wiki format kingdom to research and encourages equal participation create a wiki page that would and a true sense of allow their peers to learn about collaboration. Brigette Leschhorn used a wiki to teach students Lord of the Flies and the life skills of negotiation, collaboration, and creativity
EMERGING LITERACIES : st 21 Century Skills
The Skills of a Life Long Learner (L3) Visual/Media Literacy Information Literacy Global/Cultural Awareness Digital Citizenship Network Literacy Basic Literacy Flexibility/Adaptabilty Learn More:
Must Read Faculty Grade Report Wow! It has been an exciting and fun quarter and we have accomplished so much! This quarter we implemented a tablet program in grades 9 and 10. Our focus has been on revising curriculum to leverage the power of this program as well as on supporting students as they learn to take notes and live in an electronic environment. We have concentrated on opportunities to formalize research and citation and have attempted to provide students greater opportunities to present and create because we have tools that give us the ability to do so. Your work with the integrated units that started the year provided a firm foundation on which to build. I am proud of the work you did with creating graphic novels, researching and discussing in ning networks, producing political commercials, and teaching collaboration with wikis and google docs. You have done a nice job helping students begin to develop understandings of creative commons and visual literacy as evidenced in the geometry blog project. In order to reflect on what we are learning, you have participated on Elgg. You have shared information using delicious accounts. In short, you have started to build your own Personal Learning Networks. We’ve talked about a framework for learning previously and we will now begin to give greater meaning to that concept as we develop and refine our concept of 21st century learning. We have much to accomplish in the next three quarters and I know you are up to the tasks. There are so many opportunities and learning experiences before us! CONTINUED HEREhttp://www 21centuryconnections com/node/631
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (http://www.21stcenturyskil ls.org/) NCREL/Metiri Group 21st Century Skills
FACULTY NOTES: Professional Development
FlatClassroom: 8Countries – 1 Collaboration It is important for students to view Math as a part of life, to see its relevance outside the classroom, to use it in real ways. The flatclassroom project forces students to identify and work with real numbers while putting students in the position of global citizen...... Amy Scheer (AP STAT teacher
Learning is not limited to our students. Faculty members are always Portia and her poetry looking for ways to or a behind the scenes art guy or improve their teaching. Recently, astutech unique conference was offered, free of charge and from the convienince of your own home. The k12 online conference featured over 40 sesssions given by distinguished faculty from all over the world. Sessions contain ideas and information on engaging students in deep learning experiences as well as information on the ways in which education is changing and how to be responsive to that change. MICDS faculty spent time listening and discussing a number of sessions. Additionally, MICDS has a team of faculty involved in a learning cohort comprised of teams from 20 schools. The teams come from New Zealand, Australia, Spain, and the USA. These educators are involved in ongoing discussions about the most effective methods to use, the emerging skillset students need, and the most important content that must be taught. This interaction generates original ideas for creating innovative content and helps our teachers
The FlatClassroom Project is a collaborative project between 10 classrooms from 7 different countries. It uses Web 2.0 tools to make communication and interaction between students and teachers from all participating classrooms easier. The topics studied and discussed are real-world
Cool Tool
scenarios based on 'The World is Flat' by Thomas Friedman. The Flat Classroom Project is featured in the latest edition of Friedman's book in Chapter 13, 'If it's not happening it's because you're not doing it', page 501-503. Students in AP Statistics participate in this project. The project begins with students from the different schools and countries introducing themselves to each other. They begin to interact and learn about each other and the countries that they are from. Students are then put into teams with students from
other countries and each team is asked to research a portion of the overall project. They organize their findings on a collaborative wiki. They must make decisions about what version of English they will use and be consistent with the ir spelling Our students find it interesting that there are differences in the spelling and proper use of English and struggle somewhat when they must use British spellings. Once research is complete, students move to the creation phase and work together to create videos to demonstrate what they have learned. There are several opportunities for students to interact in real time with each other. Students collaborate as global citizens of an
DyKnow allows us to convert traditional lectures into interactive two-way dialogues between teacher and student. It provides a mechanism for increasing student assessment and providing feedback about student performance. DyKnow allows the teacher to manage the lecture, to actually write on the students tablet and to send notes to the student freeing the learner to concentrate on learning. DyKnow also allows the instructor to control student access to applications and websites so distractions can be minimized when needed. After class, DyKnow notebooks can be replayed allowing students to see the steps in a math problem or to hear the audio in a World Languages class. If a student is sick and can’t be on campus, they can still sign into DyKnow and take part in the lesson. More information on DyKnow can be found at http://dyknow.com. Today’s PowerPoint on Technology can be seen at http://www.slideshare.net/ehelfant/botpresentation/