Serious gaming

When I first heard the term "serious gaming", I thought of men sitting in their pajamas, without a job, playing video games all day with other online players.  I had no idea that it was geared toward educational settings.  I have incorporated many online games into my classroom.  This is definitely a way to engage students.  I was blessed to be at a school that purchased Study Island for the past two years.  The students loved playing the games and the teacher was able to assign the games according to the skills the students were currently working on.  The teacher had access to all the data and reports of how the students were doing and how much time they were spending on these games.  I found a lot of value in this program. 
This coming year, my new district has not purchased Study Island.  I am going to have to find alternate ways to obtain the data and discover educational games that work with the skill set my students are working on.  I think I have found a good alternative in this website.  It is called Arcademic Skill Builders. 

I can select games by skill, subject, grade level and I am able to set up students accounts all for free. Students will be able to play these games from school or home.

 This is a blessing because Study Island can be cost prohibitive for teachers or districts.  For a single classroom, Study Island is $308 and for a building it can run over $2000.  This is a heavy cost for many districts that are striving to stay ahead with all of the changing technology. 
I believe serious gaming is an easy way to engage students in something educational and fun that most students do everyday - play video games.  I think when we see students that excel in this area, we should introduce them to other sites where the student can create their own games.  Keeping students engaged is essential to learning and today's generation of students is geared toward technology.  They grew up with Wii, Xbox, iPads, and computers all around them.  It makes sense to teach them with these tools.

Flipping in 2nd grade

I had never heard about flipping before this week.  My initial thought was this is great for high school and maybe can be introduced in middle school, but it is not for elementary school AT ALL.  But the more I researched, the more benefits I can see.  In an article from eSchool, I found a quote that permeates teaching.  Flipping is about "flipping the attention away from the teacher and toward the learner."  How can you argue with this? 
Well, I am a list oriented kind of person, so I thought I would weigh the options
Cons
*The digital divide is huge.  KC Star has an article from today's paper about our digital divide in this area.  25% of KC does not have high speed internet access.  I wouldn't accept 1/4 of my students not being able to do their work!
* They are only 7 years old in 2nd grade. The students are confident how to maneuver a computer.  (This one doesn't hold a lot of weight for me because it is my job to teach students how to maneuver many new things to mastery.  Why can't computer skills be one of them?)
* They don't have much homework now.  If I flipped, the homework would only overwhelm many parents and students. ( In this video, the principal talks about how much the parents like it. )
* Time - how long will it take to create all the videos I need or to find ones already created?  If they are already created, how do I know they have watched them and understood them?  ( Ted Ed helps to solve this problem)

Pros
+ All ability levels can benefit.  The students each work at their own ability level.  If they only need 2 math problems to reach mastery, then they can move on.  If they need extra support, they are able to get it from tutors and the teacher.
+ The teacher is freed up to spend more one on one time with the students. 
+ The students attain mastery by teaching other students topics they understand clearly.  Those peer tutors gain mastery by teaching and applying.  The students receiving the tutoring are able to hear a concept in a different way and multiple times until they do attain mastery.
+Promotes problem solving and questioning skills.
+ Students able to ask the questions in class they don't understand and the teacher doesn't waste time with concepts the students already understand.
+ Parents get to watch the videos with their child. Here is a teacher introducing this concept to the parents of her students. Here is the same teacher with a podcast for her students.   With the graduation rate in Missouri being 74% of all high school students graduate in 4 years with a traditional diploma, many parents don't know how to help their child with their homework.  With flipping, parents can learn beside their child and the teacher helps them apply their learning.
+ If students are sick or miss due to vacation, they can make up the mini lesson.  This has been a constant problem for me.  Parents ask for missing work and often I have to tell them, there isn't a way to make up the in class time. 

As I step back to reflect, I know that not all subjects can be flipped in 2nd grade.  I see tremendous value in math and reading. This year, I am piloting two new programs in our district.  Math in Focus, the Singapore approach and Reader's Workshop.  Both of these have components that will be new for students and parents.  What a wonderful tool to have these lessons recorded for those that might need to hear it again or who missed it in the first place.  In math, having the videos online for students that need the extra help would be a possible solution.  Some parents that won't be able to explain the math to their child, can pull up a video that would explain it for them.  The parent and child would be able to pause it and rewind when necessary.  In reading, we learn specific skills for our CAFE board.  I could teach each lesson and put a vodcast online for them to review.  I think if I do the vodcast, it gives me a chance to really focus on the learning target and will improve my teaching as a whole.

podcasting

Pod casting is part of my everyday life.  My daughters go to Youtube to learn how to French braid their hair in a fishtail.  I go there to figure out how to insert a strange tack to hold the mirror on the frame of my daughter's dresser. I miss the sermon at church on Sunday, I download the file to listen to on my way to work.  In the classroom, I will pull up a color word song to sing with the students to bring them quietly to the carpet.  All of these things were made possible because someone else created a podcast and posted it for me to hear.  The options for using this in my classroom are endless.  We can take virtual fieldtrips, watch a teacher in another part of the world teach a lesson, or learn about a person from the past.  As a teacher, I can grow professionally by sitting in the comfort of my living room and watching someone show me examples of what they are doing in their classroom.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZxeCm-SdNU This is a great source of information for the person that has never done Reader's Workshop before.  I can watch another teacher and learn from their example without ever leaving my house.  http://www.edutopia.org/blog/new-teacher-building-relationships-lisa-dabbs. If I go to this site, I can get a refresher on the beginning of the year.  The opportunities are endless.
This is all about me using someone else's work.  I really never thought about how I could use podcasting to help or engage my students.  I have recorded my students performing reader's theater in the classroom.  Later we would watch it with popcorn and celebrate our hard work.  Here is an example of a video we uploaded. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhGM6LeAYZE&feature=youtu.be This was a lot of fun for the kids and they worked really hard on improving their fluency without realizing they were working.  So, I guess I have created my own podcast, I just never labeled it that way. 
Doing this research for class made me start realizing something big. After talking about mobile technologies last week, I was so excited to find a way to record students reading during reader's workshop.  I have already started trying to discover ways to get iPod touches in my classroom so I could encourage students to begin a digital diary.  But stop.  I don't need iPods. Don't get me wrong, it would be nice and there are a ton of activities I would use them for.  But could I get started with digital diaries this year or at least recording students reading their book?  Absolutely.  I could use Audacity or something similar to begin hearing my students read.   http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ If I just bought 4 or 5 headset microphones (costing from $4-$80 each), I could use the computers in my classroom to begin immediately.  YEAH! Pod casting isn't just for me to learn something new.  I can actually create my own and so can my students.  How powerful would it be for a second grader to hear themselves read a book at the beginning of the school year and again at the middle.  They could hear for themselves just how much they have grown.  What an amazing tool that will empower them to continue to monitor their own learning and growth!
I will still be looking for a grant for the iPod touches though.  There is still so much that can be done in the palm of a child's hand!

Integrating mobile technology

I am overwhelmed by the amount of technology that is available.  I think many teachers are also.  New apps come out daily and there are 1000s to choose from.  Which one should you use?  What will help you the most and not take up all of your time?  How will students use it?  How do you get it into their hands?  10 years ago we wanted computers for our classrooms.  Now we want iPads, CPS clickers, iPods, Kindles, and the list goes on and on.  Where do you begin?
I spent hours looking at ideas, trying to decide where to start.  I have an iPod touch at my home and I have to ask my kids how to use it.  How am I going to teach my students how to use one?  After watching the video on PBL - project based learning, from Learning at Hand http://learninginhand.com/ , I realized what my students are missing because I am overwhelmed by the questions.  I need to find the answers. I think back to my classroom and how and where I need to motivate students to create the biggest impact.  Where do students checkout because they are bored or simply don't show as much interest as I would like?  Reading  fluency, especially for low readers, and writing immediately came to my mind.
I Googled iPods and fluency and came up with a great article http://www.eusd4kids.org/edtech/pdf/iREAD_CUE2008.pdf . It talks about how iPod touches could be used to help improve fluency.  This is definitely a challenge in 2nd grade.  Students have a great idea of how to read the words, but they don't hear how they read.  They need to hear themselves read.  If students were given a tool that is exciting, they would be willing to read out loud.  I would be able to listen to their recording any time.  This is fabulous since Reader's workshop is centered on being able to listen to each student at least once per week.  This isn't always possible, but with the help of iPods, maybe it can be.  This would give me the chance to know what I needed to talk to the student about before meeting at the conference.  They would be self motivated to improve their fluency and I would get an extra chance to ensure I am able to listen to every student every week.  This could also guide my instruction.  If several students had trouble with oi/oy words, I could integrate this lesson into my mini lessons that week. This would still be a significant cost to the district at $100-$300 each, however there are many grant options available if we only know where to look.
iPads became the second focus I searched trying to find the best mobile technology to use in the classroom.  After watching several videos about iPads, one thing became clear, no one knows what you are reading.  This is so very important in a second grade classroom.  What I mean is the all important question - are you reading chapter books or are you still reading those baby books?  I can't tell you how many students carry around a big chapter book in 2nd grade and they can't even read the title.  It is a status symbol.  Well, if they were carrying around an iPad, no one would have to know or be able to judge them.  While I realize I am dreaming that every child in my second grade class is carrying around their iPad due to the cost ($300-$800 each), I can also see utilizing them on a smaller scale.  If I had 5 in my class, I could use them as centers or rewards to use.  I can have them for checkout, for students to take them home and work on reading projects.  I could use them for a weekly checkout where each child would bring it back and forth to school each day and be able to read or play games at home.  If they were reading, they wouldn't even need to have internet connection if it was a book we had already downloaded.  The possibilities are endless.
Another interesting way to use iPads is in writing.  Students can create their own storybook with apps like this books creator -  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/book-creator-for-ipad/id442378070?mt=8 . Students tend to need extra motivation to write stories - if they could be creative and see their story come to life, I feel we would see amazing results in their motivation.