Maker Education and the Common Core: Closer Than You Might Think

With Common Core State Standards being the driving force in education in The United States over the past several years, much attention has been paid to the subject of teaching and assessing our students based upon CCSS.

Due directly to both Federal and state mandates, our nation's education system has been bombarded with resources, curriculums, and programs designed to better teach Common Core and prepare our students for a new battery of standardized testing "options" designed to measure growth towards nationwide proficiency.

The added stress (to an already taxing field of work) has resulted in teachers and students alike growing tired and more disillusioned to the concepts of school, education, and learning - especially considering the following:

• In 2015, an estimated $950 billion of Federal, state, and local money was spent on education in the United States (according to usgovernmentspending.com). That number is expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2017.
• On average, US students are required to take 112 standardized assessments throughout their K-12 years, ranging from nearly 5 hours of testing per year for Kindergarteners to over 25 hours for our nation's 8th graders (see article about Council of Great City Schools study here).
• Despite large sums of money being appropriated to schools - and an emphasis on assessments to measure growth and school/teacher effectiveness - longitudinal test scores have remained largely flat (see Politifact Virginia article here).

In other words...water is wet.

At the same time, educators have seen major moves towards gamification in the classroom, project or passion-based learning, STEM and STEAM Maker education, computer coding and many, many other non-traditional approaches to teaching and learning.

The desire to engage students in educational material, creativity, and collaboration (among other learning facets) seems, in some circles anyway, to overshadow the mandates of state and federal monitoring of student achievement.

The cry?

"While students are having fun making rockets and visiting zoos and playing Minecraft," critics claim, "they are not learning anything. And the test scores prove it. Our time, and the students' time, is better spent on covering meaningful content and prepping them for measurable assessments. We have the Common Core and we need to focus on student achievement and progress towards meeting those standards. Etc. Etc."

Stop me if you've heard that argument before.

_______________________________________________

For a dissenting (in a good way) voice I give you Sylvia Martinez and her stance on CCSS and the "Deeper" Learning:

"I get asked a lot about how making and tinkering can be integrated into classes in light of the Common Core. I think there are good answers to this, but it involves seeing the Common Core as something more than it is being portrayed in the media and in schools. 

"Simply, there are three parts to the Common Core – the overarching goals, the standards, and the assessments. I’m not going to go into great detail about each of these, but here is what I see happening in a lot of schools in each of these areas. 

"Assessment – Tremendous effort is being put into getting students ready to take the assessments and preparing the technology infrastructure to administer the tests. 

"Standards – New standards are driving changes to curriculum, but mostly in a rearrangement or rebranding of existing curriculum and classes. 

"Overarching goals – Very little is being done to address the goals of changing how and what we teach students by making it more relevant, more experiential, and requiring deeper dives instead of “covering” too many topics. 

"This is the problem I’m seeing – that assessment is the tail wagging the dog and taking the focus (not to mention money and time) away from changing classrooms for the better. So when we talk about how “making” can align with Common Core, it requires schools and districts to refocus on those overarching goals, and away from how many computers you need to run the tests.  Unfortunately this is a conversation that is not taking place in many educational organizations."

In short, Martinez is claiming that school systems are so entrenched in testing their kids that they forget to educate them. But again, stop me if you've heard this one.

If we are to teach/students to learn the necessary standards to the necessary depths, I contend that more must be done than simply offering up a common assessment every now and then or administering a bevy of benchmark exams at semester's end.

What follows is a short but poignant snippet of a recent Twitter chat, from our friends in Montana and #MTedchat

The question was this:

Q4: What higher-order thinking skills will students need to use to move beyond basic understanding of content text? #MTedchat

— Crista Anderson (@cristama) January 20, 2016

To help further Martinez's stance on teaching beyond the exact wording of the standards, this was my response:

Look at all the verbs in standards. THAT is what kids need to be able to do. #mtedchat #Imnotastalker https://t.co/F0ZZJSazYr

— Darin Anderson (@coachdarin22) January 20, 2016

 Here are a few responses Tweeted out during the discussion:

#mtedchat A4 - Ss need curiosity! Are we stimulating that through inquiry?

— Marla Unruh (@bookwormmarla) January 20, 2016

@coachdarin22 I was once told that the standards are the floor, not the ceiling #mtedchat

— Bethany Gochnour (@GochnourBethany) January 20, 2016

In order to reach that ceiling, there is much construction we must do on the open floor space below.

@GochnourBethany @coachdarin22 A great opportunity with #PBL #STEM #makered #deeperlearning to build on that floor. #mtedchat

— Colet Bartow (@cbartow) January 20, 2016

While few educators disagree with the notion of Project-Based Learning, STEM, Maker Ed and the like, their implementation has been much more difficult to bring to pass - mainly because of the over-emphasis on rote testing at local, state and Federal levels. The message has been, "If your pet projects do not address the standards, you will have to give them up."

As a result, many teachers have burned bridges on building bridges, and fill their time instead on bubble sheets and #2 pencils.

However, here is some good news. As it turns out, there is a fairly logical way to bridge the gap between accountability towards Common Core (plus other standards) and "non-traditional" educational ventures.

The connection is best illustrated by using an example of a stalwart activity that has been popular amongst teachers and summer camp counselors across the world - The Tennis Ball Tower Challenge.

Often used as a teambuilder or icebreaker, the Tower Challenge may give surface appeal as a fun yet shallow activity. However, with some careful implementation, it can indeed unfold into a full blown, Common Core, #DeeperLearning, Maker Education crowd pleaser.

Follow the link to the right for access
to a Maker/CCSS example project.

Take a look at this link for a spreadsheet that shows the correlation between steps of the Engineering Design Process (used for the tower building protocol) and Common Core ELA Standards. (Similar outcomes are possible, of course, with Math and Science Standards as well.)

The ultimate outcome of any lesson, activity, or project that teachers have students complete must be related to student achievement and academic and/or personal growth. Maker Education teaches and hones success skills.

Beyond simply having fun with school projects, our students deserve so much more. Maker Education - connected purposefully to Common Core Standards - is just what the doctor ordered.

Happy making, everyone!

Follow me on Twitter for more EdTech, MakerEd, and EdReform dialogue.

10 YouTubing Uses that Align with Common Core Part 1: Speaking and Listening

By EdTechManiac, Blair Einfeldt
*update* For anyone interested, our family YouTube Channel can be found here.

For the first time in quite a while, I have had an abundance of time to spend with my children at home. Chalk that up for my first true teacher summer or living substantially closer to the high school where I teach. Regardless, upon spending this time with my kids I have learned one very important thing:

MY KIDS LOVE YOUTUBE!

Like Lays potato chips, it's impossible

They watch YouTube non stop. They watch gaming videos, they watch cat videos, they even watch videos of people watching videos. You read that correct. I observed my children watching a man who was making a video of himself watching a TV show. And they aren't alone. Sixty thousand other people have watched that same person watching that same video.

I pulled out my phone for quick research (there is extreme value to this which I will discuss later) to see how much this man, who watched a TV show, mad for watching said TV show. It was a bit vague but I came to a general consensus that through ad placement, YouTube pays out around about $1.50 per thousand views. So looking at that, I realized that this man made about $90 to sit and watch a 20 minute video of Steven Universe. While that is not a ton of money, if I made $90 for every Steven Universe episode I watched...OH GEEZ!

Anyway, in an offhanded comment I mentioned to my children that they could do something like that and probably even better. I did not realize that I had opened up Pandora's Box. I could not unsay that statement. My children went crazy, jumping around at the possibilities of being YouTube famous. So I, being that Arms-Race-Parent, followed by upping the ante with "Of course, let's do this, and we are going to be the best YouTubers EVAH!" I tend to fall into the world of Hyperbole. 

We soon found ourselves purchasing microphone headsets, video cards, digital film editing programs. I'm a bit ashamed at the amount of time and money that followed that first statement, however there have been some awesome things that come about and while I am an educator, I gave reflection to how YouTube and our current foray into viral video distribution has many parallels and uses in the world of education and especially Common Core. And yes...you should have a class YouTube Channel.

Many of you know this, but Core Standards build upon each other. With that said, I intend to focus on the 11th/12th grade standards as our end goal. If you would like to downgrade the standard to fit your particular grade level, have at it.

Let's Start with Speaking and Listening:

Standard:
Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

The traditional way of hitting this standard is a typical class discussion. However, the standard talks about having the students come prepared to the discussion. Class discussions do not generally create that need of preparation as it should.

Try this:

Google has an app called Hangouts. It is essentially Skype for Google. Google, which owns,YouTube, automatically saves a Google Hangout sessions as a video on the YouTube accounts of the people within the Hangout. Put your students in small groups, give them a topic to discuss, but make the discussion a Google Hangout. Give them a 10 minute limit. Spend some time prior and have the students create an outline or even rudimentary script for their hangout.

Being that it will be posted on YouTube, watch the level of quality drastically increase as they are held accountable to the internet (trolls and non-trolls alike).

My children are a perfect example of this. They have created their own standard of creation based on the videos they watch. We have had to create intros, channel art, written scripts, added effects and editing because they were afraid to put poor quality out in the event that the YouTubers that they admire were to watch. They are 5, 7 and 9 years old. Imagine how a 11th grader would improve their quality with that type of internet positive peer pressure.

Standards 2 and 3:
(2) Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.

(3) Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.

Many of the YouTube videos my pre-double digit aged children watch are Theory Channels. The Gamer Theorists, Cartoon Theory, Film Theorists, Cartoon Conspiracy channels, to name a few, put different ideas and hypotheses in place about relevant (to them) topics. Today, my children are being tasked to take a particular theory and evaluate it for accuracy. This is forcing self driven inquiry and research and will culminate in a 7 year old response video disputing or supporting the thesis of someone else. Again, my 7 and 9 year olds are doing this.

Have your students create a response video to another popular video and provide links to their sources in the description. Or provide your students a debated topic like the validity of the moon landing and have them create a YouTube video breaking down their opinion with sources.

On presentation days, rather than your typical stand-in-front-of-the-class presentations, provide your students links or even QR codes to scan with their iPods or personal devices to watch the videos of their choice. Have your students comment on the video for feedback.

Using YouTube in this way will provide the following things for your classroom:

1. Real-world audience

2. Real-world accountability

3. Engagement

4. Transparency

5. Evidence of Use and Implementation of Standards

6. Evidence of Integration of Technology

7. Self Driven Activity

8. Peer review

9. Possibility of Immediate Feedback

10. Increased Level of Ease in Assessment

What's the Difference Between a Smartphone and a Piece of Paper?

Earlier this summer, I sat through consecutive days of eight-hour long professional development training. It was beautiful outside, but I was stuck in a board room with no windows at a sterile table and sitting on stiff plastic chairs. What's worse, the district failed to provide snacks or drinks.

Given my torturous circumstances, throughout most of the sessions, I alternated between texting (my wife and my realtor) and doodling on the training handouts. Honestly, I devoted very little time to listening to the actual presenter.

Keep that short anecdote in mind as you glance through this story about Pablo Sandoval, a Boston Red Sox third baseman who missed playing time because he "liked" a few photos on Instagram...during the game.

Not to blow up the dude's spot, but uh...is Pablo Sandoval on Instagram during the game? pic.twitter.com/q8X4HoFDOT

— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) June 18, 2015

What do these two stories have in common?

One might say that society's blatant addiction to both mobile devices and social media is the root cause of such behavior.

Conversely, others might claim that these instances are just innocent means of relieving boredom and that there is no harm done in the long run. (At least Panda was in the bathroom when his discretion took place.)

Photo: SunJournal.com

What I believe is true in both cases is that the allure of retreating into the realm of texting and social media overpowers the content and context of our respective moments. While Sandoval was taking a short "pit stop" during his team's half inning at the plate (it was far from his turn to bat), mine was a means of escaping the drudgery of "Grading Strategies in the K-12 classroom" in a room with no AC.

The crux of the issue falls under these two categories:

Relevance & Accountability

In Sandoval's case he was not immediately needed at the on-deck circle. And, well, nature called apparently. He saw neither the relevancy of his presence in the dugout at that particular time, nor was he held to any kind of accountability to be anywhere or complete any certain task. By all accounts, he grabbed his phone on his way to the latrine and browsed pics of pretty girls while doing his duty.

This is one way for a teacher to
alleviate inflation and the high cost
of insurance.

In my situation, I was part of a stand-and-deliver PD that was at once interesting and mind-numbingly boring. When I was not engaged in "meaningful table discussion" I was busy texting, Tweeting, and Facebooking with 90% of my attention. To maintain my "interest level" in the session content, I reserved a healthy 10% devotion to laughing at his jokes and chiming in with well-timed commentary. In short, I exhibited a faux engagement that allowed me to fly just under the called-to-the-principal's-office radar.

But now, let's get back to the original question about how smartphones and paper are the same. (Stick with me and you'll see my connection.)

While I am busy tapping out messages on my Android during a PD day, the presenter might see my actions and interpret them as either offensive disinterest (at best) or blatant insubordination (at worst). But what if he glances over and sees me frantically scribbling on the handouts of his PowerPoint slides? Will he automatically assume that I am jotting down salient information about his content or reminders of action steps that I can take to ensure fair grading in my classroom?

In fact, when I was not texting, I was turning his bullet points (not the points he was making, but the actual icon he used as bullets) into a variety of faces showcasing different emotions. A worthwhile pursuit indeed, but it had nothing to do with giving grades from inaccurate forms of assessment.

It comes down to this...teachers get upset if a kid zips out a quick text message or two, but has no problem if the same kid is seen doodling all over his paper while daydreaming about hitting the winning shot at the game that night.

#whatsensedoesthatmake

Key Points:

#1) If your content (no matter how important it is) and delivery methods too often result in students drooling on desks, staring aimlessly out the window, or escaping into cyberspace, the problem may not be them. Remember that relevance is vital to engagement and learning.

#2) The definition of irony: A training on student engagement that is delivered in a sage-on-the-stage format, complete with presentation slideshow and handouts and lots and lots of lecture. Educators speak about ensuring that lessons are interactive and full of student voice and choice...but rarely do they practice what they preach. If the operational theory is that adults can handle the drudgery of sit-n-get, well, they are wrong. PD participants and students alike must be held accountable to the content of trainings and lessons respectively. Give them a job, specific or general, and they are more likely to do it. Let them to that job in a way that is engaging for them??? That is educational gold!

#3) Digital note-taking and reflection is allowed and even encouraged at tech conferences across the world. Why should a classroom setting be any different? Honestly speaking, kids should be Tweeting and posting and messaging to the whole world about the ideas and concepts they are learning in school. The difference between digital tools and paper is that there is ongoing evidence of activity in the cyber world. Tweets and posts are out there for all to see, while writing on paper can more easily be altered or destroyed and never make it beyond the walls of a classroom. Consider it an opportunity for students (and teachers) to learn and practice digital citizenship instead of just assuming that kids are always taking notes properly.

#4) Whereas paper products end up in one of three places (garbage can, bottom of the backpack, or, if they are lucky, stuck to the fridge) digital products have the capability to continue on. That, along with the widely-accepted notion that technology increases student engagement, ensures that students are both paying attention to delivery and acting on what they have learned. Can you say the same thing, Mr. I-was-a-teacher-but-found-I-could-make-more-money-in-conducting-PD-across-the-country?

#5) By encouraging students to explore and share their thoughts on social media (Twitter hashtag chats, for example) or via a variety of other digital means (Today's Meet is phenomenal), we are, in my opinion, meeting students in their arena, but causing them to play our game, so to speak. That, my friends, is the ultimate goal of today's educators.

Now, put your phone down and get back to your training about "Common Core Math Strategies that Grow Kids."

After all, there will be a paper survey to fill out and leave on your table at the end. You don't want to let anyone down, do you?

Show Me the CCSS Part V: YouTube as an Assessment Tool

When YouTube first launched in 2005, the idea of "normal people" being able to broadcast their own videos to a mass audience was a completely irrational and unbelievable idea.

In fact the first video posted to YouTube hardly begs the *adoring public to tune in. See for yourself:

*My sincere apologies to elephantophiles everywhere.

Since then, we know that YouTube has literally blown up the Internet landscape. As of this date, the site is arguably the most popular in the world with over 1 billion viewers and an average of 300 hours uploaded every minute. Some even say that it is going to eventually cause the information highway to come to a screeching halt at the dirt road of despair and empty hours at work. (Not that any of us ever wastes time at our desks watching YouTube videos of Jimmy Fallon, right?)

Once YouTube gained LeBron James-type momentum on a worldwide scale, there was no avoiding an obvious conclusion...the site must be blocked at school because kids would spend more time watching Vin Diesel videos than filling out their Venn Diagrams.

However, as is the case with most steamrolling technology, educators and school officials finally caved in and said:

In most schools today, YouTube is not only unblocked but has also become an unfettered resource for teachers at all levels and for all content areas from math to marriage and relations.

Consider the following as proof:

In search of a video on volcanoes to show to your students in Wyoming? (True story, actually) Find all you want on YouTube.

Need a tutorial on how to change a set of spark plugs in an '97 Ford F150? Somebody, somewhere has posted one on YouTube.

Do you want to show your math class the scene in Dumb and Dumber that talks about probabilities?

You get the idea.

The beauty (and the curse, certainly) of YouTube is that anyone can post (nearly) any video and have it immediately available to the entire mass of Wi-Fi'ed humanity.

But how can we rein in that power so it can be used for good and not evil in classroom settings? The answers are really quite simple.

http://thepalettemuse.com/fun-
easy-fridge-magnet-project/

YouTube is widely considered a source for finished products ready to showcase to the public. Use that to your advantage. Educator and speaker Dr. Wesley Fryer stated that students have a desire to have their work published and seen outside of their classroom walls.

Indeed, think about the typical methods of "publishing" in schools: Bulletin Boards, Cork-board Hallway Runners, School Newspaper Articles, and Family Refrigerators all over the globe. Or worse, lining the bottom of backpacks or filling garbage cans at the end of a grading period.

Posting students' work to YouTube opens up the doors for it to be seen not only by Aunt Irma in Rexburg, Idaho but by Yushiko in Fujiyoshida, Japan and Silvio in Madrid, Spain.

Now, now. I hear what you are saying. "Most of what my students produce is not in video format, so this is impossible for me."

The response to that concern is that nearly everything from traditional worksheets (not that you'd ever assign one of those, right?) to PowerPoints can be converted to a video format suitable for uploading to YouTube. Sometimes it is as easy as taking screenshots and adding those to a ppt that is the converted to a mp4. But that method, while a good start, is in reality - So Yesterday.

Most of us in EdTech land are well versed in having students show what they know via tech creations of all kinds. Publishing to YouTube is simply a step further towards greater visibility. Heck, even this guy became a worldwide sensation because of his video posts.

If the Biebs can do it, we all can do it, right?

Wait, I also hear your concern of student privacy. A way around that is to create a closed YouTube Channel that only your students and parents have access to. (Of course content has a way of leaking out to a public audience, but that is a lesson is responsible use of technology and content.)

Private YouTube channels also allow classes to engage in two important aspects of learning. First, students can show what they know using any of the creation tools discussed in this blog and many, many others. YT simply becomes a reasonable, vastly popular, and completely free housing source for all of your student work, flipped lessons, and more.

In addition, students can collaborate, share ideas, and provide feedback via the comments function on every YT page. A teacher I work with uses his private classroom channel to house his student work (which he can grade from anywhere at anytime from his phone) while requiring his students to make comments and feedback on the uploads on his channel.

In this way he can get valuable formative evidence about how well his students are grasping a certain concept or skill. Since he has gone to this format, neither he or his students would return to more traditional means.

Private YT Channels for Assessment is an idea that manifests its usefulness and relevance with products like the following:

A series of videos explaining the steps in solving an equation in Algebra class.

Mock news reports informing viewers that Caesar has just been "accidentally" stabbed 87 times by his best friends and to soon expect some rioting in the streets of Rome. "Friends, Romans, Countrymen. Lend me your bandwidth."

What if an Automotive teacher asked his students to document how to...oh, I don't know...change the spark plugs in a '97 F150?

And instead of only assessing a student's final project in Industrial Arts (a birdhouse, for example), how nice would it be to a have a video taking the teacher (and the rest of the world, ultimately) through the process from beginning to end? The answer:

The same concept applies in all content and at most levels of education.

Give it a whirl. Meet the kids where they are and take away a little bit of the stuffiness of formal public education. They will be impressed, no doubt.


Even More Ideas:

+Visit Ed.Ted.com and turn any YouTube video out there into an online quiz and discussion.
+There are any number of YouTube downloader add-ons available on Firefox, Chrome, etc that allow you to save videos to your hard drive for use in PPTs and such.
+Video editing functions (like "Trim" in Quicktime) make it easy to cut out or shorten material to have it just like you want it.
+Embedding YT videos into PowerPoint, Prezi, etc. make presentations go more smoothly and look more professional. No more broken links or buffering with slow Internet connections.

What are your ideas and successes with using YouTube in your classroom? Please comment below, or better yet, give us a shoutout on Twitter (because comment boxes are sooooo yesterday).

Tweeps, hit us up at @coachdarin22 @blaireinfeldt @edtechmaniacs

Show Me the CCSS Part IV: Explain (Almost) Everything

Riddle me this, Batman:

Why is it that I can give an"explanation" but I cannot "explan" my reasoning?  Or vice versa?

Okay, so perhaps you cannot explain everything to your students.

But with an amazing app called Explain Everything, you can have your students come as close as possible to explaining what they know about any given topic.

Those of you who have 1:1 or a classroom set of tablets can certainly take advantage of the app that is in every way worthy of the $2.99 price tag.

With EE, students have the capacity to create high quality slideshows complete with videos, pictures, and annotation tools including text, drawing, and scribble features. What's more, your students can create, edit, and upload their finished video products directly to the device picture roll or any number of cloud storage sites including Google Drive. It is even compatible with YouTube and features easy uploading to a public or private channel.

EE also allows students to record themselves talking about any kind of classroom content, from describing the literary elements of "The Most Dangerous Game" to explaining (there's that word again) why the area of this irregular object is approximately ___ cm.

The best part of Explain Everything?

Unlike several other whiteboard apps, EE lets students record, edit, and save presentations for use from day to day, or even week to week. Such a feature makes the app perfect for quick formative assessment or for formal summative presentations. EE can either augment or take the place of classroom speeches.

It is widely accepted that having students talk their way through solutions and reasoning yields higher achievement. Additionally, many kids find it much easier to explain their thinking verbally than they do trying to make sense of it in writing. (Nationally-renowned educator and speaker Dr. Wesley Fryer said it this way: How much more could students accomplish if writing skills were not holding them back?)

Indeed, do a quick Web search of business presentations. You will be inundated with sites touting "10 Tips for a Killer Presentation" but would be hard-pressed to find the same advice for writing a top business essay. While quality writing skills are and always will be an integral part of success, the truth is most of what is defined as victory in the world of business centers around the ability to master the spoken word.

Finally, one of the biggest advantages of EE is that it saves valuable grading time. Instead of dragging an entire ream of papers to your son's soccer practice, you can simply open up YouTube on your phone and assess an entire class set of presentations while also working on your tan. Try catching some rays with 50 or so loose sheets of paper flying around.

Need more evidence? Consider these hints and ideas:

+ Use EE to flip your classroom - in conjunction with a YouTube channel or Google Drive account

+ Do a YouTube search for Explain Everything videos - see what other schools are doing with it

+ For those students with device access outside of school, make homework come alive with EE assignments

+ Use looped EE presentations to showcase student work at parent/teacher conferences or school open houses

+ Download a free e-book with several lesson ideas for students through junior high school

+ This website offers an informative tutorial along with some teaching ideas

+ EE offers the capacity to annotate videos (John Madden, anyone?)

How have you used EE in your classrooms? Please comment below. Or better yet, share your creations with us on Twitter: @EdTechManiacs @coachdarin22 @blaireinfeldt

Go ahead. Pony up the $2.99 and download Explain Everything. You will not be sorry.