A Visit From Laura McBain - The Kailua Catholic Community of ...

Volume One Issue Three

KCCL

Kailua Catholic Community of Learners

Continuing to transform our teaching and learning practices with a vision emphasizing 21st Century skills and Catholic values, including social justice and community service.

Questions or submissions? Email Elizabeth Garrison at [email protected] All articles and photos by Elizabeth Garrison unless otherwise noted.

A Visit From Laura McBain

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n Saturday March 5th Laura McBain led our KCCL group in a meeting focused on project based learning. Laura is the Director of Policy and Research from High Tech High in San Diego, www.hightechhigh.org. The meeting was held at St. Anthony School and there was a reception with light refreshments at the end of the meeting. Carol Mau catered the event and like always it was delicious. The session began with a hands on activity called Lego Man. This game is designed to help teachers understand communication within groups. Laura then presented examples of work from High Tech High and gave the audience a jump-start on ideas. At one point she had the groups write down fifty projects they wanted to explore. There were many of the same projects repeated throughout the groups. Among them were robotics, plays, and gardens. She also led us through a fast paced fine tuning project protocol session where everyone was able to participate. Laura created a web site for our group with her slides and handouts. You can access the site at https://sites.google.com/a/hightechhigh.org/kcclpbl-workshop/

Top: Caryn DeMello shares her memorable school experience on her iPad! Middle: Protocol sessions at work. Bottom: Laura McBain (right) helps a group through their protocol session. Page 1 Volume One Issue Three

Working Together: KCCL Collaborative Projects The collaborative projects between St. Anthony and St. John Vianney Schools have been progressing. The experience has given us the opportunity to come together and work as a team. Many of the teachers that represent KCCL are alone in their departments and the opportunity to converse with other colleagues has been a great use of time. The KCCL group has made strong professional connections that will continue beyond this school year. It will be exciting to see all of the projects once documented on the KCCL website showcase. The KCCL showcase has the most updated information on these projects. Please send links to any web sites created for your project if it is not included. If your group does not have a web presence then please send any pictures with descriptions, reflections, dates of events etc. As much information needs to be included about all ongoing projects that are occurring even if your project has not been completed. This web site link will be included with our grant report on March 31st. Also, if you have anything to share about individual projects that are connected to the SOTF grant, please send information on that as well. Check out the KCCL Showcase at www.kccl-kailua.weebly.com Any feedback is welcomed!

Project Based Learning Explained I recently posted this video on the SOTF NING and shared it with my 7th and 8th grade students. http://www.bie.org/tools/video/project_based_learning_explained I asked them if they felt that their classes are engaged in PBL. I received great responses that were truthful and insightful. One characteristic that was repeated by the students was that PBL allowed them to really understand the subject rather than memorize facts. One student mentioned Mrs. Stewart’s fairy tale court cases, “We had to really think. I still remember everything I learned about court cases.” Make sure you check out the web site, too. It has wonderful information on PBL. http://www.bie.org/. Page 2 Volume One Issue Three

Project Based Learning Spotlight: Projects with a Purpose This project was created by Jennifer Major, Social Studies teacher at St. John Vianney. The following was written by Vivien V., an 8th grade student

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he 8th grade class of St. John Vianney 2011 has been wanting to help solve problems all around the world. Our teacher, Ms. Major, has been wanting to help all people around the world who are less fortunate than we. When our teacher was browsing the Internet, she found an event at the Honolulu capital. The event was to protest against human trafficking. When she told us it was on a school day, we all wanted to come with her. We chose three other topics that we felt strongly about; drug use in Hawaii, child abuse, and the mistreatment of dolphins. We planned many things for this event. We made shirts. The whole class painted on shirts saying, “Stop Human Trafficking” or a slogan that represented our topic. Some topics also correspond to the research papers we are writing in English. We would be wearing these shirts for the event. We also planned to make speeches. We worked together in groups and we researched about human trafficking, drugs, child abuse, and

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dolphin abuse. We made speeches about this, and we planned to speak to the representatives or be interviewed on television. On the day of the event we took the public bus. The people on the bus were wondering where we were going because we were just kids. We told them we were going to the capitol to protest; they were impressed. When we arrived at the capitol, we saw many people there. They were playing music and holding up posters. There were people being interviewed. We were the youngest class at the capitol. Some of the people in our class made posters, so we held up a bunch of posters. Many people were very impressed that we went to this event. We were interviewed. Some people even took photos of us. Many people were there, and we were all there to protest against human trafficking with them. We are proud to help these people, and we hope that some day we will make a difference.

Helpful Resources from Dr. Philip J. Bossert

Schools of the Future Program Manager, Hawaii Association of Independent Schools

PUBLICATIONS Here are several recent publications that discuss what is or soon will be happening with respect to various aspects of 21st Century learning environments: A Guide to Becoming a School of the Future A 21st Century Imperative By Robert Witt & Jean Orvis http://www.nais.org/files/html/NAIS_COA_Schools.html The NAIS Commission on Accreditation has just published this resource guide for schools seeking to transform themselves into 21st Century learning environments. 2011 Horizon Report http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2011/ This annual projection and discussion of which technologies are most likely to impact learning environments during the next one to five years is very valuable because of the excellent advisory board involved in putting it together. The Ghost in the Machine http://learning.media.mit.edu/publications_papert.html In this 1999 interview, Dr. Seymour Paper - who helped found the MIT Media Lab and develop

the Logo programming language – explains how technology vendors and school systems conspired to neutralize the powerful transformative effects that digital technologies might have had on teaching and learning. His 1980 book, Mindstorms, had predicted that computers would change learning forever. It turns out that he was right and the way children learn today has been transformed by their understanding and use of digital technologies. But tech vendors worked with teachers and administrators to make sure nothing changed in the schools. The Backwards Class http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/02/02/thebackwards-class.aspx In his remarks at the Dec. 10 CoL Workshop, Pat Bassett mentioned the newly evolving idea of “flip teaching” - i.e., having the students listen to or watch the course lectures at home in the evening and then do their “homework” with the teacher in the classroom. This article from The Journal discusses how Stacey Roshan has implemented this practice in her math classes at Bullis High School in Potomac, MD.

Websites Here are web sites Philip Bossert has shared. I stumbled upon the BIE website at the same time he sent these over. There is so much information out there and it is helpful when someone finds the great ones! Please post your favorites on our KCCL NING. Project Based Learning for the 21st Century http://www.bie.org/ The Buck Institute for Education has recently redone its web site and loaded it with PBL resources that they usually offer up only in their seminars and workshops.


What is 21st Century Education www.21stcenturyschools.com/What_is_21st_ Century_Education.htm An interesting discussion of what this over-used term might actually mean – from a website devoted just to this topic. The Future of Communication http://www.virtualprofessors.com/the-future-ofcommunication-michael-wesch A cultural anthropologist’s view of the transformation of communication that the Internet and social media are causing.

l a t i Dig g n i l l e t y r o t

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A digital story is typically created using computer tools to present the story. The stories usually contain images, text, narration, video clips and music. A digital story runs from about two to ten minutes. There is an enormous amount of information on the internet about digital stories. Lisa Mirales’ web site has great information about digital stories, http://lisamireles.wordpress. com/digital-storytelling/. You might have seen her digital story link when you visited her sight to take her dissertation survey. Also, The University of Houston has an excellent section about this topic, http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/. Another source of information is The Center for Digital Storytelling, an international nonprofit training, project development, and research organization that assists youth and adults around the world in using digital media. www.storycenter.org/ index1.html

Third grade teacher, Alana Busekrus and I just finished an exciting digital story project. Alana came up with the idea of creating videos about Kagan cooperative learning structures. These videos would help teach the school community about Kagan structures. Alana and several other KCCL members attended the Kagan Cooperative Learning seminar last August. Alana’s class engages in these structures on a daily basis. The students were perfect representatives to share their knowledge. The students formed groups of two and then decided what structure they would present. Page 5 Volume One Issue Three

Alana and the students took pictures of props and of students participating in the structures. In digital technology class, the students were taught how to use a storyboard template in order to plan their movie. Alana helped the students with their scripts during language arts. The students chose photographs taken in class to include in the digital story. Then in iMovie, the groups added voice overs, music, transitions, titles, and even video to describe their assigned Kagan structure. To see all of the digital stories go to http://mrsgarrison. weebly.com/kagan-structures.html Another successful project was with Mr. Tano’s 5th grade Science classes. The students studied biomes in Science class and created a digital story about an assigned biome in a group of two. Mr. Tano explained to the students what was required and the students enthusiastically began. The students started with a storyboard with narratives and media instructions. After the storyboard was complete, the groups created their digital stories in iMovie. The digital stories were like infomercials about their biome. They turned out excellent. The videos are found at http:// mrsgarrison.weebly.com/biomes.html With both projects the students were completely engaged. Their love for learning was apparent. Also, the students worked in groups well and were proud of their accomplishments. I look forward to trying these projects again. Working with another teacher was beneficial and added to the success of the project. The experience was challenging and helped me stretch as a teacher.

Nano Teaching During a High Tech High protocol session a technique of sharing ideas was introduced to the participants. It is called nano teaching. At the end of the protocol session the moderator asks several of us to share something we are doing in the classroom that is exciting to us. We only had two minutes. I was picked first and presented the “how to videos” I was posting for my students. I got great feedback and was told there was a name for that, flip teaching. This is where the students learn the concepts on their own at home with online resources and use class time for the “homework”. Since then, my students are creating their own how to videos. http://mrsgarrison.weebly.com/videos.html At the most recent SOTF CoL at Tokai, I participated in a nano teaching session led by Mark Hines from MidPacific. I shared with the group the “how to” videos my students have been creating in digital tech class. The projects have been very exciting and inspirational and it was great to share my experiences with my colleagues. Nano teaching is a great way to hear about other teacher’s creative ideas in a short time. Maybe during your next lanai or group meeting you could try a nano teaching session!

Upcoming Dates: 03/31/11 Year Three Grant Deadline 04/07/11 3:00 Project Tuning Protocol on Elluminate 04/19/11 3:15-5:00 Tech Tuesday at SAS 04/29/11 12:30 KCCL Meeting at SAS Ongoing summer classes, see page 7

ACCE Conference On February 4th the Annual Conference of Catholic Educators was held at the Ko’olau Ballroom in Kailua. Just like in 2010 the guest speaker was perfect for our KCCL group. Marie Alcock delivered an informative lecture on Curriculum 21. Last year, Dr. Sameer Hinduja, Co-Director of the Cyber bullying Research Center spoke at the conference. Two years in a row the subject has focused on a strand of 21st century learning. Marie Alcock has posted her materials with the links mentioned at the ning sight listed below. Some of the tools she mentioned were www.wordle.net, www.wolfram.com, and www.xtranormal.com. Also, the initiation of the NING group was a great idea to help the Catholic community of educators stay connected. The Hawaii Catholic NING link on Curriculum 21 is http://curriculum21.ning.com/group/ archdioceseofhawaii. Be sure to explore Curriculum 21. It is a great online community of educators with many different interest groups. I was so proud when I saw so many KCCL members join the Hawaii Catholic Schools NING group. Our SOTF experience is helping lead others in our Catholic community. I feel that our group is a great model for other Catholic Schools trying to adopt 21st century learning. Keep up the great work and continue to make those connections through communities of learners found on the internet and in person. Page 6 Volume One Issue Three

Summer Conferences and Classes

Go to the SOTF NING for additional information. Multisensory Math Literacy Instruction July 25, 2011 to July 26, 2011 Assets School Cost: $45 Sacred Hearts Academy Summer Institute This workshop, based on the work of Jerry June 13, 2011 to June 24, 2011 Cost: $500, $450 for teachers working on a Mortensen, introduces basic math concepts using collaborative project (Fee covers workshop, base ten and other manipulatives. Content includes reference materials, CoL resources and snacks). an overview of numeration, place value, and Sacred Hearts is implementing their third summer basic operations. References are made to whole institute on Project Based Learning and Protocols. numbers, fractions, decimals, and pre- algebra. Their session runs afternoons (1 pm - 4 pm) over Representation of math concepts is a process that a two week period and their invited presenter is starts by having participants build (manipulatives), then draw (bridging step), and finally translate Laura McBain, from High Tech High. into notation (symbols). This interactive module is meant to enhance understanding of math Slingerland® Multisensory Structured principles by encouraging visualization. It features Language Approach themes which are repeated over and over again June 16, 2011 to July 13, 2011 and applied to different types of math problems. Cost: $1,525 (includes materials & text) Assets School is sponsoring a comprehensive four week teacher training session by Beth Slingerland The Key Three Routine - Comprehension to teach handwriting, decoding, spelling, reading Strategy Instruction comprehension and written expression. It is August 1-2, 2011 Assets School specifically designed for those children needing the Cost: $85 (includes text) fundamentals of language taught systematically The Key 3 Routine Comprehension Strategy through the integrated simultaneous visual, Instruction is based on Joan Sedita’s published auditory, kinesthetic association of sensory curriculum. Each of the three keys (main idea, note taking, and summarizing) can be applied channels using a structured, explicit approach. individually, yet they are much more effective when strategically integrated together. Thematic Units: A Design for 21st Century The Key Three Routine is a combination of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment reading comprehension, writing, and study skills July 5, 2011 to July 15, 2011 Hanahau’oli School strategies that help students understand and learn Cost: $1,250 (includes materials) A two-week seminar and practicum experience content information. The routine helps provide in the design of thematic units with an emphasis comprehension strategy instruction using existing upon engaging children in project-based learning. content material. Through direct instruction, Workshops will be taught by experienced modeling, and classroom practice, the goal of the classroom teachers from Hanahau‘oli along with Key Three Routine is independent application of comprehension strategies. the Head of School, Dr. Robert Peters. Project101: A PBL ‘Play’shop for Teachers July 18, 2011 to July 22, 2011 Weinberg Technology Plaza on the campus of Mid-Pacific Institute A week long workshop dedicated to help teachers understand, develop and implement project based learning strategies in their classroom. Featuring Barbara Bray: Learning Strategist and President of my-ecoach


Project Read: Framing Your Thoughts (Multisensory Writing) August 3 (full day) & August 4 (half-day) Assets School Cost: $40 A Multisensory Writing Program conceived by Tori Greene and Mary Lee Enfield This 1-1/2 day module begins with building a “bare bones” sentence consisting of a single subject and predicate and progresses to more complex sentence structures leading to paragraph writing.