February 2022 – Tschetter Teaches

The Good, The Bad, The Old Me

My Media Journey

The greatest reminder of my uncensored teenage digital identity is the dreaded Facebook Memories. I almost always see the “on this day” memories and immediately delete them or change the privacy settings. I don’t think that 13 year old me was considering my future at all, never mind a future as an educator. Many of these posts are photos/comments/status updates that I am tagged in, and I cannot control who views this. While not impossible to find, these posts are now 16+ years old. As Alec Curous and Katia Hildebrandt write in (Digital) Identity in a World that No Longer Forgets, “digital identity has, in effect become about gaming search results by flooding the Internet with the desired, palatable “self” so that this performance of identity overtakes all of the others”.

Meme Generator

I am sure I am not alone in cringing at my old posts. Throughout my post secondary career I have always been encouraged to have a positive social media presence as a living resume. I never really bought into it, instead opting for little, and very controlled, digital footprint. Partly because I taught on Hutterite colonies for 3 years where digital anything is unnecessary, and partly because I was afraid of criticism.

I actively engaged in creating my digital identity in 2020. I found that I had more time to create aesthetically pleasing materials and felt confident enough to put them online. I finally felt confident in my teaching abilities and the development of a stronger sense of my own identity.

Just as everyone had been telling me, it did help me create a living resume! The next year I advocated for virtual learning options for our elementary students and promoted the Prairie South Virtual School. This led to me teaching at the virtual school for one year, and then moving into a learning consultant position the next. Reframing my mindset from “I’m promoting myself” to “I’m promoting educational change” helped in this process for me. I am well aware of the mental health impact of teachers comparing ourselves to others in online communities, and don’t want to promote an unrealistic or inauthentic version of myself. Through these courses, I’ve come to learn about “Digital Dualism” and how my online and offline identities are not seperate, but one:

our reality is both technological and organic, both digital and physical, all at once. We are not crossing in and out of separate digital and physical realities, ala The Matrix, but instead live in one reality, one that is augmented by atoms and bits. And our selves are not separated across these two spheres as some dualistic “first” and “second” self, but is instead an augmented self. […] Our Facebook profiles reflect who we know and what we do offline, and our offline lives are impacted by what happens on Facebook (e.g., how we might change our behaviors in order to create a more ideal documentation).
Nathan Jurgenson- Digital Dualism versus Augmented Reality

I truly believe that creating my digital identity has allowed me to be successful in my school division. In the next 5 years my plan is to remodel my Teachers Pay Teachers store for Saskatchewan teachers, continue using #TeacherTok, use this blog to promote coding and STEM in elementary, and create my own teacher merchandise (think mugs, sweaters, t-shirts, planners, keychains). The way to do this is by promoting myself digitally and increasing my presence. The big problem is time. I will be completing my MEd in December 2022. I plan to take a year to revamp and brand my TPT products in 2023 while continuing my blog.

Students

Our school division has a guiding Media Policy where guardians can identify media comfort levels with the school and division posting images of their students. In the past I have also sent out information about our class webpage, accessing their students Google classroom, their comfort level with technology, and their preferred method of communications.

Questions from my beginning of the year survey for parents

We’ve practiced digital etiquette in controlled, closed settings, I have never given them the opportunity to try these skills in a real life setting such as blogging, social media, or open comments. Mrs. Cassidy’s class has an excellent example of how this can be done with six-year-olds! I feel more comfortable creating a space for students to do this now, but still fear parent permissions for posting. I would feel more comfortable if I did a parent’s night about digital literacy prior to introducing this to my students. I definitely want to challenge myself to this! It would be a great way for students to control their learning portfolios, and be able to share them at Student Led Conferences (SLCs). I’m excited to try.

Happy teaching,

Leah

Building up to Structures

Teacher Communication

I will be available to all students via Zoom from 9:00-3:30 for students to come in and ask questions. I have done this previously, and put myself and the student in the breakout room if they would rather speak privately. I also use the comment feature on Google Classroom, which sends an email automatically to alert me that a student has left a comment where I can respond. This typically takes a maximum of 5 minutes for me to be able to respond. For Grade 3, two points of communication are plenty for them to learn!

Introductory Lesson: Newspaper Building Challenge

Examples to share with learners

To engage learners into our material and build community for the unit we will be completing the classic newspaper challenge synchronously as a class. Students with low bandwidth are welcome to complete the challenge asynchronously, but are encouraged to come to class for this community building activity. Over Zoom we will complete this challenge with this routine:

10 minutes to draw plans/design
10 minutes to share design in breakout rooms and get feedback from peers
30 minutes to create newspaper tower
Whole group sharing and testing of towers (volunteers only)

The purpose of this activity is to model the design process that students will be using for their projects for this unit. Students will be using this to design a playground and a structure of their choice throughout this unit. This introduction is a low stakes opportunity to practice the process and for me to notice what skills they will need to complete this process so I can better support students throughout their design process.

The Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (GRR) will help students to be familiar with the design process by the three stages: “show me” (Newspaper Towers), “help me” (Design a Playground), and “let me” (Designing a Structure).

Formative Assessment: Design a Playground- Community Project

For this midway project, I want to see students apply the design process in a familiar way. Students will be designing a playground with at least two accessible structures for playgrounds to think about the function of structures without having to create their own and enter the “help me” stage of the GRR. Students can use existing examples from in their communities and from their experiences to create their ideal playground while practicing the design process.

We will develop a modelled comment formula for the upcoming Flipgrid in class by creating feedback on the teacher example in breakout rooms (low risk), then sharing their feedback as a large group. I will document their comments by sharing the screen with them, and ask for any patterns they see in good feedback, guiding them to giving a suggestion and something they liked about it.

Students will then design their playground, record their explanation on Flipgrid and practice writing moderated comments on at least 3 other student’s videos. This will allow me to identify students struggling to give feedback to their peers and address these skills in subsequent lessons if needed. This is formative practice for their cumulative project, Designing a Structure.

A previous students example of a dog park

Summative Assessment: Designing a Structure–Cumulative Project

For this final assessment of the unit, students will be completely creating their own structure in the “let me” stage of GRR. It can have any function, structure type, and materials. Students will answer guided questions that address learning outcomes to formulate their design plan. Next, they will be planning and designing by drawing and labelling their structure.

Students will then post a Flipgrid video explaining their responses to the questions and showing their structure design. Once their Flipgrid is uploaded, their job is to watch at least 5 other videos and provide unmoderated feedback on each others structures using the same format as in Design a Playground. They have now practiced this twice, and can hopefully do this independently and unmoderated. Students will self assess their comments, but I will not assign a grade to their participation.

Their next task is to review their comments and make any changes they want to make to their structure before completing a self-assessment and submitting their final project. I have done this assignment in person before, so I thought I’d leave you all with the most unexpected project I’ve had turned in.

The Party Boat 2000 from a previous student of mine

Happy Teaching,

Leah

Gizmos

I was really excited to try this website! I fully bought into Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies and had inflated expectations.

However, it fell flat for a serious gaming experience. As Bates wrote, there are 4 essential game elements:

Learning
Storytelling
Gameplay
User experience

I feel like Gizmos is lacking quality that improves user experience, and would disengage learners. It is missing several aspects of effective game design such as realism, feedback, and surprises. I feel like game-based learning is still missing the quality and realism that makes games fun. As Bates mentioned there is some debate about game-based learning and the impact on learning outcomes, and it is mostly studied to improve the affective domain. The Gizmos lessons I explored did nothing to engage me. I am a recreational gamer, and I think the biggest limitation is that these lessons are in isolation without a backstory and do not have high production.

Another factor is the alignment of Saskatchewan curriculum. Gizmos, like most educational sites, are aligned to United States curriculum. It can be hard to align these concepts by grade level and topic. If there was an option to select and deselect sections in Gizmos, it would be easier to align to the curriculum, but as it exists, it doesn’t match curricular outcomes. You can watch my walk through below and hear my disappointment as I continue exploring.

Gizmos Walk Through

I think there are better options available, and that this hasn’t been engaging enough for me to try it out in my classroom. I could see using it as a quick demo for my students for us to manipulate and discuss as a class, but I do not see the added value of elementary students manipulating these ‘serious games’. If anyone loves Gizmos, please change my mind!

Time for TikTok – Update (Part 2)

In this post I am applying Dr. Mike Ribble’s 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship to my personal application of TikTok and Flipgrid in the classroom. To keep things organized for my final project I’m going to investigate the themes I feel most relatable to each platform separately. Even though they are both video based platforms, I think there are different applications, audiences, and considerations that are unique to each platform which will affect my final project for EC&I 832.

TikTok

Element 3: Digital Etiquette

When copying someone’s content, it is expected that you tag the original creator when replicating. There is a history of Black creator content being replicated by white creators without crediting the original poster. While scrolling TikTok there are many fantastic lesson ideas and resources that teachers have created videos for. While I am still finding my own style, I will need to be cognizant of where I am getting my inspiration from and making sure I credit those creators using appropriate “netiquette”.

Educating Self and Others

Element 4: Digital Literacy

Something I feel can be overlooked in education is the purpose of the technology. We need to be explicit about what platform we are creating and sharing content on. For TikTok, I think it is a great format to share resources, strategies, and teaching comedy. It would be important to communicate the importance of voiceovers, selecting appropriate sounds, and captions as each communicating meaning and intent. The way I’ve been approaching sound selection is by finding a sound and exploring TikToks that use that sound to make sure I am using it appropriately. This has been working, although I haven’t mastered the video and sound synch yet. I can see the potential to teaching students the importance of author’s craft in multimedia literacies.

Element 5: Communication

Author’s craft definitely applies to Dr. Ribble’s fifth element, Communication, which is using the right technology to communicate, for what purpose and to whom. I think this is the real importance of teaching students how to use authors craft to boost engagement on a platform (hey, influencing is a real profession!). This applies to many Saskatchewan Curriculum outcomes such as CR3.2, CC3.3 CR5.2, and so many more! Teachers need to realize that to assess these outcomes it doesn’t have to be a written text, there are professions where sound and art are their primary focus in graphic design, advertising, video game production, T.V., the list goes on. I have dabbled in creating content for entertainment, resources, and a unit introduction, but I still haven’t decided on a “brand identity” for my account.

@leahtschetter
introduction to plant adaptations! #grade4science #eci834 #eci833
♬ original sound – Squirrel the Cat

My first attempt at a content TikTok

Element 9: Health and Wellness

This is probably the biggest concern I had for myself when downloading TikTok, just how much time was I going to spend on TikTok mindlessly scrolling? TBH, it has increased my phone time, although that is part of this project so I really want to look at how it may affect my mental health. It is easy for teachers to compare these “learning snapshots” that TikTok offers, the cute classroom décor, the engaging lesson plans and feel like a complete failure. It is important to remind yourself and others that this is a highlight reel, since we control what we post we are going to put ourselves in the best light we can. I appreciate that in TikTok’s settings there is a “Digital Wellbeing” category where you can set time management and restricted content.

Screenshot of TikTok App Screen Time Management

I haven’t engaged with the platform enough to understand my own boundaries with TikTok, so these settings are currently off for my profile. I have noticed that because I haven’t given much personal information to TikTok yet, the algorithm for my “For You” page is not yet tailored to my interests and can often frustrate me with TikTok’s initial algorithm. I’m interested to see how this changes as I engage further with the platform with likes and follows.

Flipgrid

Element 1: Law

The first thing I will need to do in my division for Flipgrid is look at students’ Media Release forms. While this form doesn’t apply to limited access platforms such as Flipgrid, it is still important to model respect for privacy and offer choices such as audio recordings or filters to build a community of trust within your school families. In this I believe it is important to be transparent with parents about the access to student work, moderation of comments, and their right to deny use. While I don’t want to disadvantage students by omitting technology or being afraid of it, there is a different comfort level among families that needs to be respected. Teachers and families are a team, not opponents.

Element 3: Digital Etiqutte

The next step to implementing Flipgrid in the classroom will be to determine digital etiquette when interacting with other’s posts. This includes likes, reactions, and comments. It will be important to teach students that what we write is stored, and has serious effects. In the day of screenshots, it is also important to have a conversation of respecting other’s privacy by not distributing or editing images of other people without their consent. This also ties to the next element I’d like to address.

Element 8: Rights and Responsibilities

This element includes modelling our responsibility to report other’s misuse of a platform and maintaining digital equipment (including school provided resources). I’d like to have students create their responsibility list as a class and agree to these conditions, as well as the consequences of not following these conditions. This puts ownership to them in creating a safe digital community. I’d like to scaffold and practice this by first having students upload their videos with a moderated topic, then progressing towards unmoderated topics. This will allow me to have one-on-one conversations with students who are not complying with these responsibilities.

I’m looking forward to testing and comparing these two video platforms. Now, I’m off to make more embarrassing TikToks!

Happy teaching,

Leah

“Structures” in Online Learning

Grade 3 Structures and Materials Virtual Experience

One of the major disappointments for myself and students when we were switched to online learning was the removal of courses that were not considered “core subject areas”. This included Science, Art, Health, Physical Education, and Social Studies. I have previously mentioned how I believe that skills are the essence of learning and using technology responsively. Science in particular focuses on inquiry, scientific methods, and resiliency.

For my Course Profile, I wanted to challenge the view of virtual learning as “supplementary” and “passive”. I want to show that active learning happens in all settings if a teacher is creating activities beyond the screen and having student be engaged citizens in their communities. The same (modified) strategies are essential for student success. Community building and relationships, scaffolding, and inquiry learning are all vital to student engagement and success.

The one hour Zoom time is not to be used for lectures, but to build classroom community, get active, activate background knowledge, and engage students! I love to start my classes (and allow students to trickle in) with the “Chase Series” from Coach Corey Martin. Try one for yourself below.

When we did this as a class, I may have dressed as Mario, but I will not be providing evidence of this.

After 2 years of helping my district by teaching JH, this one hits home. Glad to be back to all HS! | Fishbowl — Image from Fishbowl

These activities improve student learning by getting students moving, and build relationships by allowing time to be silly! Another popular with students relationship building activity was one I dubbed, “emoji faces”. All we did was make a shared slideshow of emojis and we tried to mimic them. Of course my dog, Mia, had to participate.

Activating background knowledge can be done using break out rooms, Quizziz, Google Jamboard, word webs, Zoom chat, and anything else you’d use in the classroom. I find it best to keep my direct instruction time to 10 minutes, complete some guided practice as a group, reflect, and then bring them back for another movement activity to ease them into their asynchronous work time.

Below I’ve outlined my ambitious plan for the Grade 3 Science Unit: Structures and Materials. I can’t wait to begin creating!

Course Profile

Student Profile

There are sixteen remote students learning across Prairie South School Division in Grade 3. Two students are accessing content on their farm, and have occasional connection issues. All students have access to a tablet or laptop through the division, and have been given student emails to log into their devices and LMS. I have three students reading well-below grade level and require additional support in reading and writing. There are 4 students who do not have access to additional supplies for projects in their home. All students are required to have an adult at home while in the Prairie South Virtual School.

Course Format

All learning will be online with a blend of synchronous lessons and a choice of synchronous or asynchronous project work time. Students will be attending synchronous lessons on Zoom from 9:00-10:00 AM and from 1:00-2:00 PM daily. These science lessons will take place from 1:00-2:00 PM daily and will be recorded and posted for asynchronous student access. Students will be using Google Classroom to access asynchronous assignments, where Google Slides assignments will be posted. Assignments will offer a quick (<5 minute) introductory video including a walkthrough of assignment instructions and examples.

Course Objectives

These lessons will cover the Physical Science outcome strand in Grade 3 Science. The outcomes are:

*SM3.1 Investigate properties of materials and methods of joinery used in structures.

*SM3.2 Assess the function and characteristics of strong, stable, and balanced natural and human-built structures.

I will also be focusing on Science Foundation 3: Scientific and Technological Skills and Processes through assessment of inquiry projects throughout this unit.

Course Tools

Student Materials

Laptop or tablet
Google Read and Write
Student email
Access to Google Classroom
Epic Books
6 pieces of paper (can be newspaper or recyclables)
Tape or glue
Picture books (or magazines, newspapers, flyers etc.)
Newspaper/scrap paper

Assessments

Formative	Structure Scavenger HuntStructure SortsMaterial ChoicesJoining Materials Scavenger HuntColumn Strength TestRecyclable, Renewable, Reusable SortQuizzizClass discussions
Summative	Choice Structure Research- Brochure RubricNewspaper Challenge-Plan and Test Self EvaluationDesign a Playground-RubricPlan and Label a Unique Structure- Rubric and Self-Assessment

Teacher Materials/Tools

iPad for drawing/virtual whiteboard
Student materials printed by request
My School Sask for attendance/grade input
Google Classroom Rubrics
Sample work creations

Considerations/Planning for Student Success

Students reading below grade level (and all students) will have access to Google Read and Write to assist with speech-to-text and text-to-speech.
Students with low bandwidth (and all students) will have access to lessons asynchronously if they cannot commit to Zoom times.
Access to the Zoom room for help will be provided from 9:00-3:30 daily.
Audio/video files on each slide will assist with reading and vocabulary.
Google Chat and/or comments on assignments can be used to contact me at anytime throughout the day and I will respond in the order I receive them.
Students without materials can request a material package for the unit, which I will mail out or deliver.
Weekly schedule sent out to all parents with assignment names.
Removal of additional practice for students with IIP goals.
All assignments have one week to complete an assignment, with the possibility of extensions when required.

If you stuck around through this long post, please leave any suggestions and comments below!

Happy Teaching,

Leah