Empowered+Students+Rule

September 12, 2011 -- Empower your students to be learners in your classroom by making them the focus of instruction. Learn to use Web 2.0 tools for backchannel note taking/ class discussions, project based learning assignments, and collaborative learning projects to have your students generate their own learning materials and resources. Move from a "sage on the stage" to a co-investigator. There is a second two-hour session offered as a follow up to this session. [|Monday, September 12th, 4 - 6 p.m., NPHS room K-024]
 * Flex Session - K-12 Staff - Empowered Students Rule**

=A note of introduction...= By participating in this afternoon's flex session, you are joining an ongoing discussion and sharing of ideas. In most of the training sessions I facilitate for the district, I prepare the topics covered in the agenda, and share what I have researched and learned about each topic. This is often means I am showing teachers how to use programs, applications, web sites, or other tools in a step-by-step approach. Today's session is different. Most of the ideas shared on this page are not my own, but come from previous meetings of this session. Some of these links and ideas are things I have not tried, or might never use in my own classroom. While we will look at many of the links on this page, we will not explore all of them together. Please feel free to follow the links and participate in the activities that most appeal to you for use in your own classroom. Spend time to follow the paths that intrigue you, and use your time to create a project that empowers your students to do the same. The idea here is to empower students to learn, and today we are all the students. ~Scott

=Topics= 1. Video - Alan November Video from Educator's PLN media type="custom" key="7703185" > Fill in the blanks: In my classroom every day, I want my students to be ___ and____.
 * Backchannel Discussion While Watching the Video, and for the rest of today's session -- Today's Meet
 * Periodic pause to discuss in Today's Meet
 * ANOTHER OPTION: www.coveritlive.com
 * Poll (Poll Everywhere) - CLICK HERE TO ANSWER
 * Make sure you have unlimited text messaging on your phone. If not, try answering from the web link.
 * What they said last year

2. Project-based Learning (links to pages below need content/tasks)
 * Choose which area is the most interesting to you - Make Your Choices Here
 * Student Collaboration
 * Student-Centered Classrooms
 * Student Roles in the Classroom
 * 5 minute mini-lesson
 * Group by your interest to work on the area you've chosen
 * One person is the note-taker (on the wiki) for each group

3. Authentic Learning - are your students leaving a legacy? are they making an impact?
 * The Wikipedia Assignment
 * Create a textbook (using Wikispaces) - see elementary example or Jason's Class Wiki - building their online textbook
 * Hamlet - Find movies, TV shows, songs that are derived from the story of Hamlet
 * So it's more than just a Google search for "Hamlet"
 * Now they need to decide what's good and not good
 * Grass vs Corn-fed Beef

4. Details and Ideas to Discuss
 * Move your teacher area to the back
 * Get rid of your desks or seating chart 21 Things That Will be Obsolete by 2020
 * Let them all do something different every day (the 5 minute mini-lesson)
 * Standards/Skills Based Grading
 * Walk around and have conversations

5. Make and Take Time: take an idea you may have from this session and run with it
 * Use the plethora of links provided to you today to plan the "student takeover" of your classroom?
 * Well, at least plan one project/assignment
 * Develop a project for your classroom using one of the tools/ideas below
 * Non-linear Powerpoint
 * [[file:burlesque.pptx]]
 * [[file:English 10 Literary Analysis.ppt]]
 * Video or Digital Story
 * Wiki or Moodle
 * Something completely different (make sure you share with the group)

6. Links and Resources
 * Lots of Web 2.0 ideas here: Beginner Technology Integration
 * You can find different websites and programs with examples here
 * Get started with one today for an upcoming classroom project?
 * Student-Centered Classrooms
 * The Legacy of Traditional Education
 * Assessing the Empowered Student
 * Project Based Learning
 * Science Project example for Middle School>
 * Choose a famous Pennsylvanian and write a blog/create a Facebook profile as that person
 * Core Curriculum Projects - use pages 5, 6, 7 to get ideas - you will need to zoom)
 * Glogster EDU
 * Collaborative Learning
 * Math Ideas - Dan Meyer's Blog (must read)
 * The Slow Runner
 * The Burning Man Festival
 * Standards Based Grading
 * SBG Beginners Wiki (to get you started)
 * Student Input In Their Grade?
 * Misc
 * http://elemcollaborativeprojects.wikispaces.com/
 * http://60in60.wikispaces.com/60+web+2.0
 * http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Basic_Algebra
 * http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/
 * http://digitaltools.wmwikis.net/
 * http://theinteractiveplace.pbworks.com/w/page/22080566/FrontPage


 * Please share anything you can below this line.**

=Other resources / Ideas / Links=


 * The Idea of Empowered Students: Get them to CREATE their own learning experience using the following...**

Education is not something done to students anymore(passive), but something that students create(active) The Legacy of Traditional Education Assessing the Empowered Student

Project-based Learning Collaborative Learning
 * Assessment becomes creating some type of finished product as a project
 * More of a Big Ideas project than focusing on just one skill
 * Makes an impact on the surrounding community
 * Students create the project because they care about it and it's interesting, not for a grade
 * Authenticity
 * Differentiation with Choices
 * Science Project example for Middle School>
 * Create your own project - have a student "make one up and do it"
 * Choose a famous Pennsylvanian and write a blog as that person
 * Or create a social networking profile for them
 * Google Docs - shared files/assessment
 * A student can share project ideas and receive feedback (from teacher and other students)
 * A trip through Jason's Google Docs that students have shared with him
 * Assessed constantly, not necessarily for any type of grade
 * Constant improvement
 * Ideas for collaborative learning - generating questions together (in a backchannel perhaps?)
 * Math Idea - The Burning Man Festival
 * The Slow Runner
 * The rest of his awesome ideas

Assigned Roles are the new seating chart
 * Resource gatherer
 * Note-taker
 * Project generator
 * Investigator
 * Data collector
 * Discussion Groups
 * Not every student needs a role..

Authentic Assignments Standards-Based Grading
 * The English Assignment - make a movie...
 * [[file:ENG 10 Sign-ups for Julius Caesar roles 2008.doc]]
 * SBG Beginners Wiki (to get you started)
 * Student Input In Their Grade?

Move your desk to the back/middle of the room Desks in groups Let students choose their seats Need to have some structure to maintain student responsibility - plan your student turnover Yes, 4.0 kids would do well with this, it's something they WANT to do
 * Other ideas/suggestions...**