A - the nature of the case:
Supporting students by using technology to boost their engagement.
B - descriptive details:
This video talked about using google hangouts to foster student confidence/engagement. Johanna Paraiso showcased her google hangouts study groups for students. One key element was that the groups were always small, since the activity was optional it kept numbers down, but also ensures that all participants are invested. Paraiso went on to say that using the technology and being able to review the session gave her students a confidence boost.
C - New and useful info:
I hadn't thought to use google hangouts as an outside of classroom time tool.
D - Can I use this lesson:
I want to try. I think that it would probably be more successful with High school students, but I'm wondering if I might be able to offer google hangout study sessions to support students with their AR reading as part of my research, perhaps google hangouts will be the tool that I can focus on. I could totally see using it the same way that Paraiso used it as a discussion board to support homework reading. Or perhaps to study before a test.
E - Rate the video experience:
5, I am totally looking forward to trying this when I get back to school in the fall. Maybe I can even use it in my AVID classroom! It seems like the perfect way to help students get their TRFs ready.
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Mark Morrison's presentation:
I was a little bit intimidated by the way he was phrasing, "Obvious evidence of [various requirements]." This freaks me out a bit about the idea of my own practice. When I take the time to think about it I almost always find that I'm asking my students to participate in rigorous 4C type instruction, but I struggle with breaking it down. It seems that I tend to do those things holistically because instinctively it seems right to me, but I often struggle to articulate it to others.
I also really connected with when he said that it was one of the biggest struggles for teachers to place students in effective group learning environments. I struggled with this a lot, as did many other teachers (even veteran ones) at my school site.
When he spoke about team sports I was reminded of a case study video I watched where students were looked at through the lens of the 'gamer mindset.' These seem like the same kind of idea to me.
I had to snicker when he was talking about the 4C presentations that students were building at Silverado. Teachers at Silverado are talking about scraping that project (it's the structure for student lead conferences) because by and large the work the students produce on them is very poor. It's the kind of thing that looks/sounds great in theory, but isn't great in practice. The students are not good self-evaluators, and they have trouble understanding the 4C concepts as well as articulating their progress with regards to them.
Tags: 701, HW, case study