Standard 1.4
Students use technology resources to conduct research, demonstrate creative and critical thinking, and communicate and work collaboratively.
Standard 1.4 Narrative
Strength
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Instruction at Fayetteville School is specifically designed to increase engagement and challenge students to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways. All students, from kindergarten through senior year, have 1:1 devices that enable them to have more creative learning environments and greater opportunities to collaborate with others. By exposing them at an early age, students are fluent with the use of technology. Younger grades begin posting their best work samples to websites like Seesaw, allowing their peers and parents to share in their learning. Middle and high school students use Digital Portfolios beyond just the school day to showcase their best work. Students are able to use Chromebooks, 3D printers, green screens, Spheros, and other types of technology with ease as they progress through the grade levels, allowing teachers to provide voice and choice to assignments. For instance, with Spheros, students were able to demonstrate the layers of the atmosphere, creating a more complex way of displaying learning.
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Use of these technologies feel authentic as teachers design lessons starting with the standards, utilizing technology as a tool to infuse more in-depth learning experiences. For example, partnerships with Level Up Village allow students to collaborate and communicate with students from other countries on real-world problems. Middle school students were able to produce working instruments with Makey Makeys. On many occasions, students are so familiar with the technology that they are able to help one another, as well as teachers, troubleshoot problems and suggest ways to better utilize resources.
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Professional development opportunities are provided frequently for teachers. Staff development days are dedicated to learning new programs and sharing ways to enhance instruction with new tools and strategies. Twitter feeds from across the district allow teachers to see what others are doing and share ideas. Dynamic Learning Project (DLP) coaches give support and guidance to lesson planning and student work. The environment of the school is one of learning and encouragement to make strides toward the best learning opportunities for students
Sustain
Fayetteville School will continue to provide real-world opportunities for students. Through PBL cross-curricular planning and professional development for teachers, meaningful connections to the outside world will be made. Students can stay in the safe environment of the school while experiencing other cultures, collaborating with experts, and gaining exposure to what the world has to offer. Students will be able to spread their ideas and network with others. Teachers will stay on top of current trends in technology through professional development opportunities and collaboration with one another.
The faculty will continue to work collaboratively on continuity of technology usage and skills. Pacing guides on computational thinking from the district level will be utilized. For example, students will see the same illustration of the Engineering Design Process, ensuring all steps and vocabulary are taught the same. This continuum will strengthen student understanding of the process and enable them to easily apply learning no matter what curriculum they are learning.
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Area of Focus
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The best teachers are the best learners. There is always room to improve and make learning more engaging and authentic for students. The faculty at Fayetteville School will continue to be open to new strategies and technologies that would improve the learning experiences for students.Each student equipped with a digital device has created many resources for learning in the classroom. However, it presents challenges as well. As we reflect on our utilization of technology in the classroom, a need for blended learning arises. We believe teachers need additional professional development on how to differentiate the use of technology to meet the individual learning styles and needs of students. We also plan to extend our knowledge of the SAMR model. The SAMR model will be used to evaluate lessons, ensuring the best opportunities are provided for students. For example, the SAMR model is used in PBL planning to determine the purpose of each tool chosen and if it is the best way possible for students to demonstrate learning and gain understanding of content. Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels of assessments will be looked at to determine complexity of assignments.
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Plans to Improve Area of Need
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Work will continue on allowing students to communicate their learning verbally to an audience. More opportunities will be provided for students to share presentations digitally as well as in person. Teachers will use rubrics to guide students on how to be confident and clear when presenting ideas.
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Professional development for teachers will continue to provide teachers with current information on strategies and technologies. Teachers will strive to keep a balance in this blended learning environment.
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Key Exemplars
Elementary
Solar System
First grade partnered with the McSTEAM lab during their PBL project, “Sun, Moon and Stars”. The students used Ozobots to create a diagram of the solar system on chart paper. The lesson began with students learning/reviewing the order of the planets in the solar system by watching a music video in which each planet states their place in the solar system and one important fact about themselves (i.e Mercury-smallest planet; closest to the sun, Venus-hottest planet). Students then used what they learned in the video to create a paper mobile of our solar system. Students were expected to have all the planets in the correct order. These mobiles were displayed in the McSTEAM lab windows. The following day, students were introduced to Ozobots. Students learned how the Ozobots worked as well as how to calibrate and clear the minds of the Ozobots. Students then worked in cooperative groups to create their diagram of the solar system on chart paper. Each group used eight Ozobots to act as the planets and orbit the sun in the solar system.
Hour of Code
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As part of participating in an Hour of Code, students demonstrated their creativity by programming an Ozobot to dance to a song of their choice. To complete this task students collaborated with peers to create an algorithm that would have their bot dance. This task required students to think critically by requiring them to plan, think computationally, and debug their program all while utilizing the engineering design process. Hour of Code gave us the opportunity to raise the bar even further by inspiring students to discover new ways of thinking and expressing themselves through technology.
“Lincoln Log Cabins”
After completing a lesson on the study of Abraham Lincoln, students researched details about his log cabin home. From this research students planned and designed their own log cabin. After planning and designing, students worked collaboratively to create a stable structure similar to Abe Lincoln’s childhood home. Students used their chromebooks to take photos of their cabin. Photos were uploaded to Seesaw, along with a copy of their “plan”. Students described their plan and cabins on Seesaw before posting to their student portfolio.
Middle School
"A Wrinkle in Time"
Middle school teachers know the value of STEAM in language arts instruction. After students read A Wrinkle in Time, they collaborated to choose a theme song for the main character, critically thinking about evidence for their choice of song. Creativity was encouraged in videos as each slide related to character traits. Students learned the importance of being able to communicate their ideas through different mediums and connect to characters in different texts. Teachers enable students to be well-rounded as they increase the expectations of STEAM in all subject areas.
Creative Topic Sentences
Seventh grade students read the poem “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allen Poe. They annotated the poem for diction, imagery, and figurative language. After reading a possible thesis statement for an essay, students collaborated in groups, using FlipGrid, to create effective topic sentences. After the groups shared their possible topic sentence, they had to explain why it was effective. Last, students had to watch other groups’ videos and leave video critiques of those possible topic sentences. By using FlipGrid students were able to use technology to collaborate, show creative and critical thinking skills, and communicate with peers.
“Jamestown Lifescape” Extension Project
Middle school English students completed a visual analysis of the painting “Jamestown Lifescape”. They worked collaboratively to analyze the painting for imagery. Once they analyzed the painting they used evidence to determine the theme. Working together, groups of students created an original symbol using Tinkercad to represent the theme of the painting. After the symbol was created the cooperative groups made a WeVideo to explain how the symbol they created represents the theme of the painting.
High School
Cross-Curricular PBL
In a cross curricular PBL activity, students in Environmental Science and those in Algebra 2 with Trig worked collaboratively to determine the effects of climate change on sea ice levels. To discover the effects, statistics and data on the changes in sea ice, students conducted research, collected data/statistics by researching sea ice extent in the Arctic and Antarctic for different months and years in order to develop an opinion on climate change, and then graphing their findings in mathematics class. Students in Environmental Science, researched the factors that contribute to sea ice level change and then when in Algebra 2 with Trig, students analyzed their findings to create comparisons of their graphs on sea ice and the graphs of quadratics that they had completed earlier in math were discussed. requiring critical thinking in many areas of STEAM learning. When back in the Environmental Science class, students communicate their findings by justifying their opinions on climate change in a student created class debate discussing the effect and if indeed climate change was the main factor to sea ice extent. The skills students mastered for this PBL are critical thinking in many areas of STEAM learning, collaboration and communication with others.
Makey Makey
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Teachers representing all areas of Fayetteville School focus on including STEM into their curriculum. The music teacher worked alongside the special education teacher to develop lessons that incorporated computational thinking and the Engineering Design Process. Students collaborated to make functional musical instruments by completing circuits with Makey Makey kits. They were able to create any instrument of their choice, with no bounds to their creativity. Precision was needed to ensure that codes worked while playing the instruments. Teachers worked as facilitators as students guided their own learning.
Students used Makey Makeys to complete their project and create functional instruments.
A student here at Fayetteville School was interested in implementing a gaming club. He and a classmate used their Chromebooks to research the benefits of video games. Working collaboratively, they created a video proposal for our principal to persuade her that a gaming club was necessary.
Public Student Announcement
Journalism students at Fayetteville School used technology resources to conduct research and find statistics on under age drinking and driving. They took this information and worked collaboratively to create a public service announcement bout the consequences of drinking and driving. This creative, production was shared on YouTube, during the height of prom season, to raise awareness and reach a larger audience. This public service announcement impacted a greater number of students because it was created and published by adolescents.