by Krissy.Venosdale | Nov 23, 2014 | Reflect
Confession: I used to think coding was boring. And confusing. And something I didn’t have time to learn about. I thought it was all about memorizing numbers, letters, characters. I remembered my early days of building a classroom website and playing with HTML, tinkering in Flash, and it all left a bad taste in my mouth about coding. Like spoiled milk.
But then I woke up. About a year and a half ago, that all started to change. I took a group of students to a BotBall class, and I realized, some kids are visual learners, some kids are auditory learners, and some kids speak in code. No, it’s not that easy to classify kids into categories, I’m not that naive. But coding? It offers something. Something special. Something for kids who think a bit differently. Kids who enjoy logic and puzzles and figuring things out.
Almost a year and a half later, I watched a PreK student program a BeeBot to zoom to a number they rolled with the dice. I watched him press the arrows carefully, inputting the sequence that would tell the BeeBot which way to go, and how many squares to cover. Then? I saw him hit “Go.” I saw his joy as the BeeBot drove it’s way to the letter. I tried and my BeeBot went off the mat. I was humbled– one of the benefits of working in education–it certainly keeps you humble. It takes practice. “Try again,” he said. “I’ll show you.” He wasn’t kidding. He wanted to help me. And clearly, I needed help. These skills are all new to me.
Around that same time, 3rd graders were working on Scratch projects. I remember trying Scratch before. I didn’t get it. The cat was cute, but what was the point? I didn’t have time to fit this into my already packed curriculum. I was wrong. I downloaded and printed the Scratch cards and got started. As I watched kids create, explore, test, rebuild, design, and make scripts, I realized the power. They were taking charge of their learning. Writing the program. Experiencing failures. Retrying. Reworking. Rewriting. Celebrating success, “It worked!”
And that’s when I realized that four year old and that 3rd grader were very similar. They were both engaged and immersed in a world that spoke to them. Writing code, but also exploring cause and effect, sequencing, inferring, summarizing, and so much more. I had been avoiding something because I didn’t fully understand it. It’s not another subject or another thing to learn. It’s a language. It’s a way of creating that is powerful and it will encourage some students to learn about new things in new ways.
So, I admitted it to myself. Understanding everything before you teach it is not only impossible, it’s inauthentic and overrated. I was sitting and learning from a four year old. And it was awesome. I had third graders figuring out things and teaching me. And I’ll never look back. If you are like I once was, and you just think “coding” is a thing you don’t have time for, think of the kids in your class. The ones who speak in code. They are waiting for you to open the door to a whole new world and help them uncover their passions.
All you have to do is be willing to learn from them. Sit next to them. Listen to them. And that? It’s something we are all willing to do. So you are ready to code after all.
In honor of #HourOfCode coming up, we’ve started a Google Doc of activities for Primary and Elementary aged learners. Try an app or an activity. Please don’t wait until it all makes sense. Don’t reserve coding for middle school or high schoolers. It offers something for every age… even us. Because we are all still learners. When you see the kids’ excitement, it WILL all make sense. Trust me on that. Just like I trusted the four year old who taught me how to drive the BeeBot.
by Krissy.Venosdale | Nov 22, 2014 | Reflect
There once was a teacher who always tried to find that balance between a house clean enough to live in and a classroom organized enough to learn in. She didn’t believe in teaching from the textbook. She believed the world was the textbook. Every year, when pacing guides would be created, page numbers detailed, and basal reading stories required, she cringed. It all reminded her of school as she knew it. Mundane routine and filling things out for gold stars. Goals? They were supposed to be real. Authentic. Character. Growth through struggle, not completion. Questions so big there weren’t answers. It was so much more than what it was.
She didn’t want her classroom to be THAT place. The place that ‘covers stuff’ over and over. So, she worked at it. Creating projects based on the kids interests. Feeling okay with not having the answers. Designing learning challenges to engage kids. Integrating technology to amplify the learning. But, the divide grew. The divide between traditional learning, what was expected as the norm, and what she believed in. It started out as a crack. It widened. Soon, it felt like a Grand Canyon apart.
But it didn’t matter. There were moments. Kids’ excitement. The sparkle in their eye. The collaboration and seeing them learn to rely on each other. Seeing them learn to rely on themselves. The joy in the moments when they could overcome struggle. Learning was coming back to life. It was like watching Spring bloom in the dead of Winter.
I won’t say that this teacher is me, because this teacher is many of us. Out there, doing the daily work, trying hard to change things. Doing a dance of careful footwork not to get drawn into the swirling vacuum of negativity that resides in the education today. Because we all know that vacuum is powerful and it leads no where but down. No where besides complaining, negativity, and everything that is the opposite of what learning is and what school should be.
We need collaboration. Ideas need to be molded and kneaded, and the more hands the better. Thoughts need a space to bounce, evolve, and be discussed. Joining together keeps us from being drawn into the vacuum. Better together. It keeps us going. It’s not a competition, it’s about connections. It’s about my bad day is your good day and I see hope in it. It’s about the chocolate I leave for you on your bad day. We need each other. Across the Grand Canyon wide divide, there are people creating tests, arguing about Common Core, complaining about standards, and doing things that ultimately get in the way of learning. But over here? It’s about learning. Kids. Joy. Hands on. Resources shared freely. Not if you’ll pay me or give me something in return. Because I want you to be your best because it will help me be my best. People that will energize you. People that will support you. People here because their heart beats for learning the way yours does.
Some of us are lucky enough to have those kind of people and connections where we work. Lucky is an understatement. It’s more than luck, it’s like some kind of blessing you can’t even describe. I know I am. I’m surrounded by it every single day. But it wasn’t always this way. Some of us, any of us, we may feel alone. I’ve felt that way before. I’ve been the one doing things differently. It’s hard. Sometimes, it’s easier just to conform. After all, we used to get gold stars for fitting in as kids. But that’s not what you believe in. It’s a daily challenge. It can be exhausting. It can push you to the edge, but your passion? It can keep you going.
Many years ago, that’s when I found them. Others who had been left behind in their schools, organizations, and classrooms as the crack formed. They were the ones who teach differently. Who wanted more. Who wouldn’t sleep at night until every kid, in every school, in every city could experience the kind of education they believed it could be. They wanted to share, discuss, and grow together. They pushed my thinking. They lit a match that reignited my passion and I vowed to keep it burning. For myself. For my daughter. For every single kid in school. And for those I found. These people? They were always just a hashtag away. Down the hall, across the state, around the world.
That match that lit my passion? It was Edcamp. It’s not an exclusive club. Everyone is invited. you just have to be willing to take that risk. Make that change. Go spend a Saturday connecting. Step outside the box. Look hard at what you do. Blog honestly. Share relentlessly. Join in the battle, because what we all have to fight for is so important none of us can look away. Admit where you can change, then make it happen. If you are somewhere you can’t change, go find someplace that you can. Be there for others when they need it most. That make it happen part? It’s the part that matters most. Because I promise you that on the other side of the divide, far away from the vacuum that will try to suck the joy of learning from your soul, it’s that place you wanted to find when you decided you wanted to teach in the first place. It’s empowering. Its invigorating. It’s real.
There are people building something better. Not just reforming, but reimagining. There’s no bridge to get here, but there are people who will take your hand. They are waiting. And to think, all you have to do is sign up, and get started. And go.
by Krissy.Venosdale | Nov 19, 2014 | Reflect
That place in your head. It’s that place where it always feels a little insane, a little impossible, a little overpowering, yet you are completely unable to ignore it. It’s like a little boat on the top of a powerful wave. It’s teetering there… yet enjoying the ride. The things that keep you awake at night are the same things that get you out of bed in the morning.
That place in your head.
The excitement can energize you and the intensity can leave you exhausted.
It’s passion. And it’s not waiting for an invitation, a reason, or permission. It’s just waiting for you to recognize it. Because when you find it, you know. And then? Your life is not about a job that you have to do, it’s about a life that you live. It’s about being truly alive. Not just a heartbeat, but the reason your heart beats.
And every kid who passes through the halls of our schools deserves to find that place in their head. Because living begins at the edge of passion. And school should be all about providing the pathways to a great life. The journeys are theirs, and we carry the torches to light the way. We just need to be ready to help them adjust their sails. And that means we have to always be ready to adjust ours. Change might be hard, but the alternative is not changing. And passion won’t survive on stagnation.
So dive in. Embrace what’s difficult. Adjust your sails. And someday? You’ll look back and realize that it was passion that got you through. And your heart is still beating.
by Krissy.Venosdale | Nov 17, 2014 | Reflect
Yes, I’m still excited about going to Google Teacher Academy in just a few weeks. But while I wait for the learning ahead, I’m totally excited about working in a Google Apps for Education School. Why? Because. Google is awesome. It’s like the convenient mart on the long road trip. Everything you need is right there. Well, okay, you can’t store chocolate in Google Drive… but maybe one day. 😉
So, as long as I’ve loved iPads, I’ve also been aware of the challenges of providing students an easy way to share their work. I’ve been searching the Earth for the easiest way go about this. You know how it is, a sweet little kid finishes an amazing drawing in Drawing Pad and saves it to the camera roll. It lives there. Forever. Or at least until the end of the school year. But that work? It’s valuable. It’s meant to be shared. It’s a piece of the thinking. So, you *could* stay afterschool and hook all 25 of your classroom iPads to your computer, one by one, and save the work. Or you could eat fried worms for lunch. None of those are a good idea.
What is a great idea? Kwikkel. It’s an app in the Chrome Web Store. It allows you to create an email address that will send items directly to a specified folder on your Google Drive. And? It works. Like a charm. Now, that student is able to email that Drawing Pad work of art right to your folder. Or, if you create an address for each student, you can have them send the work to your drive, right to a folder that bears their own name.
You could even make this easier by adding the email address to your Contacts on your ipad. This would allow students to find your name and send it. Create. Click. Share. It’s that easy. The drive folder can be shared with parents so they can see that great iPad work, too.
So, you might be asking, how is this better than Evernote, or easier than DropBox? Well, if your school is already using Google Apps for Education, then why not streamline your workflow? All Google, all one place. Except for the chocolate. You still have to go to the school vending machine or your colleague’s desk drawer for that. At least, for now. I’m sure someone at Google is working on that whole food-sharing in drive thing.
by Krissy.Venosdale | Nov 12, 2014 | Reflect
Everytime I think about the best learning experiences that have happened within the four walls of my classroom, or within a hands-on experience at the school, there is always something they have in common. They are real. Those moments when kids are thinking, digging deeping, reaching new levels of thinking. You listen as you watch them climb ladders of thought on each others questions. You ask questions you don’t know the answers to and you willingly learn from your kids. It’s the best kind of learning. The real learning. And Project Based Learning? It gets us there, in an authentic way with meaningful connections.
I’ve written about PBL, or project-based learning, plenty of times. PBL involves “learning experiences framed around answering questions, addressing challenges, or solving problems.” PBL engages students, actively involving them to solve problems through research and critical thinking, just like real scientists. Project-Based Learning STEAM education is especially important for developing an understanding and aptitude for STEAM topics, knowledge that lasts beyond the test.
It’s like that old Chinese proverb,
Tell me, I’ll forget
Show me, I’ll remember
Involve me, I’ll understand
This month’s #STEMchat sponsor, IT’S ABOUT TIME® does more than rely on ancient wisdom; it relies on current scientific research and standards. Founded in 1996, It’s About Time (IAT) is the leading provider of NSF-backed, project-based STEM curricula and edtech for K-12 and college students across the country.
Join in Thursday night, 11/13 from 9-10 EST to talk PBL in STEM Education
Recent NSF research based on IAT’s Project-Based Inquiry Science (PBIS) indicates that PBL levels the playing field for minorities and low-income students, both groups that are under-represented in STEM careers. After one year, students showed improved overall test scores and engagement. This research made a big splash because it was the first of its kind. Read more about the promise of Project-Based Learning to close gaps in science Education on KQED’s Mind/Shift blog.
In the Beginning…
Looking for background? Read about Janet Kolodner, one of the early architects of project-based curricula. She’s an awesome STEM Girl, a cognitive scientist and a mom, who discusses why she created PBIS. (Hint: it had to do with her kids’ lack of enthusiasm about science at school.) Her research became the basis for PBL.
And on November 13, 2014…
Were thrilled to partner with a leader in Project Based and STEM Learning for what promises to be a great discussion!
Join #STEMChat to explore Project-Based Learning and share your top tips and resources for PBL and I’ll be sharing along with these fantastic panelists I’m honored to be included with!
Meet the #STEMchat Panelists
- @JanelleWilson, Janelle Wilson, is passionate about STEM, space, learning, and making all of which she shares with her chemistry and engineering students at Lanier High School in Sugar Hill, GA in a PBL-focused STEM-certified program. Read more about her at Stretching Forward.
- @BetaMiller, Andrew Miller, is an educational consultant with ASCD and the Buck Institute for Education as well as a regular blogger for Edutopia.
- @SaraFHawkins, Sara Hawkins, is an attorney, robotics coach, and mom to a STEM Girl. She blogs at Saving for Someday.
- @LaurieEDU, Laurie Kreindler, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of IT’S ABOUT TIME®. You can read her writings at Education Insider™.
- @ItsAboutTimeEDU, IT’S ABOUT TIME®, is the leading provider of SF-backed, project-based STEM curricula and edtech for K-12 and college students across the country.
- @KimMoldofsky, also known as The Maker Mom and founder of #STEMchat. You can also follow me at @STEMchat, which is my default account if I land in Twitter “jail.”
