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A message from Kid President

I couldn't have said it any better!!

Myths of Alternative Education

After teaching in alternative education for eleven years, I am very used to the mixed responses I get when I tell people that I am an alternative teacher.  There are usually looks of concern, surprise or understanding (if they were shocked that I was a teacher, judging from my appearance).  I guess teachers are not allowed to be creative with their appearance, but that is for another post.  Obviously, I am speaking very generally, not all people give me these reactions and not all people believe the myths of alternative education.  However, many do and I have spent my whole career debunking these myths and standing up for my students.

The first myth I hear the most often is--"Oh, you teach the bad kids."  Yes, some of the students I work with have been in trouble, but not most of them.  There are just as many kids in the traditional building that have been in trouble and continue to get in trouble.  Most of our students come to us beaten down by an education system that they did not fit into.  Some have unknown learning disabilities that were labeled "lazy" or "stupid."  Then, instead of standing up for themselves, they believe what they are told and give up.  Others have been through very traumatic experiences that make it very difficult to attend school and need support to work through those experiences.

The second myth involves the level of academics--"Classes are much easier there."  One of the best compliments I ever received from a student (that wasn't meant to be a compliment) happened when I was teaching night school.  I had a government student, very angrily, tell me that my government class was much harder than any he had taken at the traditional school and was surprised when I said "thank you!"  Since we have small classes, average 14 students, I get to know all my students and am able to individually support them as they learn.  Students cannot pass a class unless they get a C or better.  I also do not allow them to take zero's on assignments or let them turn in incomplete or sub par assignments.

The final myth is about the teachers--"You teach differently than you would at a 'normal' school."  I have the same teaching philosophy and would teach the same way no matter where I am teaching.  I choose to teach at the alternative school because I am supported in my teaching philosophies instead of misunderstood.  I have a great group of co-workers that share my philosophy and care about the students just as deeply as I do.

For more information on alternative education, see Iowa Association of Alternative Education's website.  I am always available for a chat as well, I love to brag about my awesome students!

Summer: Unplugged

After two years of intensive work in the University of Northern Iowa's Instructional Technology master's program, I decided to take myself off the grid, shut off the computer and spend some much needed time on my house, with my kids and in nature.  I found it difficult to completely disconnect with the Facebook app so readily available on my cell phone, but still did not turn on my laptop, visit Twitter, blog, work on my wikis or watch any YouTube or Ted videos. In retrospect, looking at my whole family, I think my kids struggled just as much if not more with not being connected, especially when we went without electricity and I took away the electronic devices for a week of vacation.  Difficult, yes, but very much needed!!

I started out my summer completing some long over due landscaping around our house.  I took the kids to a dried up creek bed on my parent's farm land to collect rocks and then used the rocks in our landscaping project, setting up a garden around the house.  The kids planted flowers in their garden and then learned the impact of water, or the lack thereof as a drought settled on the Midwest and all their flowers died.  We built a playground and put in a pool, creating a perfect backyard for my kids.  And, my kids helped, they did not sit and watch us or watch TV while I did the work.  They got involved in the project, made decisions about where things would go, and celebrated the beautiful end results.

Then in preparation for our vacation to Hannibal, Missouri, we started reading Tom Sawyer and had some wonderful discussions about history, slavery, words, a life without running water and electricity, and the meaning of specific words that are no longer used today.  My eight year old son, quickly related to Tom and his shenanigans.  The book then came alive for them as we toured the caves and the city of Hannibal.  We are now reading Huck Finn and they are picturing all the places we visited as they come up in the story.

We then went to Wyoming for our last big adventure of the summer.  I let my kids have their electronic devices, the DS, Kindle, iPod, etc. as we traveled down the interstate, but the moment we entered Yellowstone I took the devices away and they did not get them back until we left the mountains.  There were moments of grumbling, but when the first elk walked right by our camper as we were setting up our site, they no longer cared about them. We spent four glorious days in Yellowstone with no electricity, just interacting with nature.  My children marveled at the geysers and the stink pots, visualized the volcano, and spotted wildlife everywhere.  My son questioned everything and soaked in all the knowledge that each visual display offered.  After Yellowstone we spent a couple days in the mountains at a friend's cabin that was built in the mid-1800's.  The kids had to use a real outhouse for the first time....hilarious!  We rode four-wheelers around the mountain and collected more rocks to finally complete the landscaping project.  The kids climbed the mountains around the cabin and played in the creek next to the cabin.  My son was beyond delirious when he found fossilized bones.  They were not ready to leave and both decided we needed to move to the mountains.

In my psychology class, I instruct a unit on Environmental Psychology.  Basically, the study of the impact of nature on human behavior and vice versa.  This summer, I recorded much qualitative data, proving that time spent in nature is very beneficial to the human psyche.  We have to force ourselves to shut it down and disappear off the grid for a while to decompress and relax.  Now that I have returned to school, getting my classroom set up and getting ready for the upcoming school year I find myself better composed, less edgy and ready for the rat race.  Even if you just take an hour, a day or a weekend, I recommend finding a park, going on a walk or a hike.

Putting it altogether...

Throughout my Selection and Integration of Technology graduate course I have been asked to learn about various teaching methods that involve integrating the use of technology into my classroom. It has been a very exciting ride, filled with dread, doubt, excitement, validation and fun. I have enjoyed seeing the impact that the teaching methods have had on my students, especially as I embarked on the landscape of online learning. For my final project, we were asked to create a unit that included all the teaching methods we learned: 21st Century Teaching, Gradual Release of Responsibility, Technology Integration Matrix, and Universal Design for Learning. I have posted a link to my full unit below.

Final Project: Online United States History

Universal Design for Learning

Using iPad Apps in an Alternative School

Teaching at an alternative school is a very unique experience and something that I was not taught how to do in my pre-service teaching classes. As an alternative school teacher, we create our classroom curriculum and environment using the UDL model, I just never realized there was an actual model...it was just how we all chose to teach. As we plan our curriculum, we constantly focus on the "what, why and how" of learning, making sure we offer as many options as possible. There is a common misconception that alternative means easier, but I believe that it is actually harder because there is no easy way out. Students are not allowed to slide by with the bare minimum requirements, passing with a D- and taking zeroes on missing assignments. They are required to obtain at least a C and are not allowed to settle for a zero on any assignment. Since we have smaller classes, we get to take the time to learn how our students learn and individualize each assignment to fit their learning style, so it seems easier to the student. They do not realize that they are learning the same information that they failed in with the traditional model because it is taught tailored to them. Technology makes this individualized curriculum goal even easier to obtain, especially with the availability of iPads in the classroom. The following apps seem like they would be useful in an alternative environment:

Soulver for iPad

Calculator that allows the user to see their calculations line by line. They can see a mistake and change that one line, rather than having to start over. Allows for learners that struggle to follow step by step directions to see the steps rather than just in their head. This will also help a learner that struggles with math concepts. They get very frustrated when they do not get the right answer and have to start the whole problem over again. With this app, they can see the problem and redo from that point, learning from their mistakes rather than just seeing it as wrong.

Frog Dissection

The requirement to dissect animals in Biology caused my grade to drop from an A to a C in high school and from talking to our students, they had the same experiences. For me, it had nothing to do with morals, but more about not wanting to touch the inside of anything living. This iPad app levels that playing field. Students get the same learning experience without having to physically smell the formaldehyde and touch the organs. Students that like to do the dissections can still complete the actual task but this could be an option.

AudioNote--Notepad and Voice Recorder

App with the ability to record drawing or handwritten notes, along with audio recording. User can export their notes to email. This could be a very helpful app for students that need the kinestethic process of writing or drawing to take their notes or an audio student that needs to say/hear the information as they study.

Pearltrees

Social bookmarking app that allows users to collect, organize, store and share information from the Internet as a graphic web organizer. Would work best with visual learners that get lost in all the words on their bookmarks lists and help students research, save and share information in a group project.

Book Creator for iPad

An option for students as an assessment piece, project, etc. Students can upload their own pictures or pictures from the web, edit text, and publish in iBooks. Books can be emailed, published to iTunes, or saved in Dropbox.

Show Me Interactive Whiteboard

Teachers can record voice-over interactive whiteboard tutorials and share them online. This would be optimal for students that struggle with health issues and miss a lot of class. The teacher can email their saved tutorials and students can watch them on their own time, rather than taking the teachers time outside or inside the classroom. Students can also use the tutorials in the flipped classroom model.

SpeakText

Students can touch any word on web pages or documents or copy and paste it into the app and it will speak or translate the words. It will translate/read whole web pages. Helpful for students that struggle to read long texts and need it read out loud to fully comprehend. Takes the stigmata away from reading out loud.

Knowtes

Digital notebook, that includes a web browser with a reading list, translator and drawing tool. Students can keep notes from the web, draw pictures, store their notes, blog, etc. then can save their work and share to dropbox, twitter, tumblr, facebook, etc.

National Archives--Today's Document

One critical aspect of teaching social studies is to teach primary versus secondary sources. The National Archives has an extensive number of sources available online for students to use, the problem is they do not realize the importance of those documents or their impact to history. This app gives the student a quick look at a primary document and the tools to analyze that document. This would be helpful in any social studies classroom as an extension to the textbook.

Strip Designer

Students can create their own graphic novel from provided templates. They can upload their own photos, add word balloons, and fun effect symbols. When the story is complete, they can be emailed to teacher/friends and uploaded to various social networking sites. This would be another took for a visual learner that struggles to put complex sentences together. They can graphically create the sentence and then use their novel as a guide for their writing.

Cybercitizenship

This year our social studies department decided offer an online option to the four core social studies classes: United States History I & II, Government and Economics. Being a social studies department of two, this was an easy transition for us. Normally, I teach all the social studies, technology and art electives for the school, but with the increased amount of required credits the need for elective courses has decreased. Transitioning to a fully online credit option requires more thinking than just pedagogy. I must protect my students privacy, individually and collectively. They also need to learn how to be a good online citizen. My students have a basic understanding of the risks that are involved in social networking, but still do not fully comprehend the risks they are taking by what they are choosing to post online and how their words might impact others reading their posts. Parents also seem to be in the dark about what their students are doing and saying online and need extra support to learn how to monitor their child’s online presence. My students will be working in other teacher’s classrooms and with the success of my online classes, my colleagues have started to discuss offering online options in science and math.

Using resources from www.commonsense.com, I have created an instructional program that will instruct my students and their parents about two aspects of digital citizenship: social networking and cyberbullying. These seem to be the most relevant to my high school student’s experiences and the most needed aspects of the common sense curriculum. As for my colleagues, it is more relevant to sell the common sense curriculum to them and help them to adapt it into their online lessons, especially as they prepare to delve into the world of online education. I will offer the lessons that I create for the parents and students as a resource and will do all I can to support them as they construct their own lessons. Please click here to view the full lesson plan schedule.