How I Used... Today's Meet

There are a number of tools out there to engage students, foster collaboration, and help them show their thinking - Socrative, InfuseLearning, etc...

Throughout the year, I'll take a quick moment to let y'all know how I've used different Web 2.0 resources in my day-to-day classwork. Hopefully these will give you quick ideas that you can easily translate into your own classes right away!

This morning, I had a seventh grade class that was really struggling with group work. They were tasked with examining different elements of Chuck Berry's music and create a digital display/museum exhibit to teach users about his music. However, most of the groups were off-task, interruptive, and some were being downright rude to or dismissive of their group members by the end of yesterday's class period.

In order to move on and work past a pretty discouraging day, I started class by launching a TodaysMeet room, posting a QR code for the room on my screen, and asking the students to brainstorm on the site...

• What are characteristics of good groupwork?
• What does good groupwork look like?
• What does good groupwork sound like?
• What should your teacher see in a hard-working group?

Some of the answers were funny ("I'm hungry... good groupwork includes snacks.") but rather than get upset with those entries, I let them go because the class on the whole was laughing and having fun with it. If I had chosen to express frustration, it would have squashed any future sharing from that particular student. Instead, it became a common thread, and interspersed with really constructive comments were more takes on that joke from a variety of students ("Group members provide twinkies.")

Once they were done and I set them off to finish their projects, I left their brainstorm on the screen and a few times I did remind them of their OWN groupwork expectations. This was so much more effective than using my own words. To take it a step further, I isolated the action/description words and created a word cloud using Word It Out**. 

Now we have a visual reminder of the class' expecations for groupwork as we move past a bad day and look forward to better days of collaboration.

** Word it out does NOT require Java, so its a great option for Mac users!

What's the Big Idea?

Over the last two years, there have been lots of changes in my school district and there's been lots of learning, both by teachers and students. Here are my six big ideas to keep in mind as you read my blog and approach your own implementation:

• Remember your Acceptable Use Policy and common sense
• “Lurk and Learn”
• Try one thing at a time and introduce one thing at a time
• Digital Native ≠ Digitally Literate
• Age and number of years teaching cannot be sources for excuses or expectations
• Be open to new ideas and changing plans