KIVA For Financial Literacy, Global Citizenship, Geography and 21st Century Learning Skills

Kiva is an amazing organization working to make a difference in the lives of people living in poverty all over the world.  It is not a hand out but rather an hand up.  KIVA makes micro loans and recipients have to pay the money back over time.  Small loans change lives and move people and communities out of poverty!  We received a grant through Citibank and KIVA to enable our students to loan $25 to a recipient of their choice.

Our students worked in teams to choose loan recipients after working through the lesson plans and learning more about poverty and people in countries they are studying in Social Studies Classes.  They were assigned to create a presentation about their country and why they chose the person or group as their final grade for this unit.

KIVA Classroom Implementation Steps:
1.  Introduce with balloons and a big umbrella representing the Big 5 of poverty that is always hanging over people.  Job, Shelter, Education, Water, Medical, Food
2. Work through the KIVA Lesson Plans making sure to embed your standards in the lessons
3. Introduce the KIVA site to the students and show them how to look for the information they will need.



4.  Play the KIVA-U Global Impact Game to understand the loan process.
5. Share the Research for Entrepreneurs document with your partner and complete the research.
6. Complete the Persuasive Power-Point Planning Sheet with your partner.
7. Use the Student Presentation Template to create your finial presentation















A Few Hints:
Look for people who are 70% or lower to loan
Take screen shots immediately so you don't lose the loan as they turn over quickly
Use a Google Form to have students fill out to keep track of their information

8.  Create a Symbaloo for easy tracking of loans.  Students can return next Fall and will be able to easily see if their loans have been repaid or the progress that has been made.  Check out our Symbaloo:

You Might Be a Geeky Teacher if You Introduce Makey Makey to Your Students

Today I introduced Makey Makey from two M.I.T. graduate students to my students. The power of inquiry is amazing. I funded this project using Donorschoose.org and with matching contributions, I had 6 Makey Makey's within a few weeks!  We had a short lesson on what a Makey Makey is and how to basically hook it up and then they worked together in teams to make it work. All of the 4 C's of 21st Century Learning were covered today! Every time a student identified when we were doing one of the 4 C's, they raised their hand and said it out loud! "Collaborate!" or "Communicate" or "Critical Thinking" and finally "Creativity". This exercise covers all 4 and they could identify when it did. It was incredible. Here are some pictures, notice the joy on their faces. After the hour was over they didn't want to stop and asked to stay. I love those kinds of days!

Makey Makey

Standards:

Digital Literacy Skills:

• 5.1 Generates and revises inquiry questions or problems as needed to arrive at a manageable topic.
• 5.12 Uses keyboard efficiently including shortcuts, arrows, backspace, shift etc.
• 5.16 Applies knowledge of similar characteristics in various technologies to effectively use new tools.
• 5.19 Uses technology to work collaboratively with peers
• Define the tenets and processes of industrial design with an emphasis on ergonomics.
• Sketch and create video game controller prototypes.
• Assess the prototype designs through user testing (observation, survey, focus groups).
• Modify designs based on user testing.

Day 1:

1.  Show video to introduce what a Makey Makey is:http://youtu.be/1m2iQ4fws8Y

2.  Walk through the steps of What is a Makey Makey and what can I do. http://makeymakey.com/

3.  Create a piano keyboard using demonstration computer, Makey Makey, bananas, pennies and a person http://makeymakey.com/piano/

4.  Using table groups, divide the students up into 6 groups.  Together using a netbook, walk through hooking up the drums http://makeymakey.com/howto.php  Load this link into their edmodo accounts.  Have three things that conduct electricity on each table with the netbook.

5.  Formative assessment - class checklist of who was able to make all keys work and play all of the drums.

Day 2:

1.  Meet with your group and develop a plan to use Makey Makey in another way.  Watch some of the demonstration videos on this site:  http://makeymakey.com/gallery/  You can use either side of the Makey Makey to make your creation.  

2.You will determine and bring the supplies that your group needs.  

3. You will use iMovie to film your Makey Makey in action.  

4. The best Makey Makey inventions will be uploaded to the Makey Makey site!  Bring supplies to next class.

Day 3:  

1.  Using your supplies and plan, put your invention together and film it working.

2.  Export the movie to your email and turn in the link to edmodo.  

Resources:

http://educade.org/lesson_plans/use-makey-makey-to-design-a-videogame-controller

http://makeymakey.com/

A Primary Source Birthday Present to Celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Teacher Librarian Days (#TLD2014)

Geek 2 is an organization nut and sometimes a bookmark list is just too hard to handle and manipulate when looking for resources. So I have looked for alternate options for students and myself!

I have found @Symbaloo to be a great visual reminder and bookmarking tool  to share with fellow colleagues AND with students. The design features and layout are easy to make your own, and can give visual clues to students when accessing preselected sites for research and online discovery.

As part of the Teaching With Primary Sources Teacher Librarian Days 2014, @TwoGeekyTeachers would like to share a primary source Symbaloo created in the last year to assist students with accessing quality primary sources and exemplary research materials and websites with our fellow learners young and more wise. Enjoy!

Primary Source Symbaloo

And PS.... Happy 10th Birthday #TLD2014!

Social Studies and Technology: Get a Little Geeky With State History and Use Five Quick Tools to Extend Learning in the Four Core Areas

What happens when you brainstorm with teachers on HOW to use a tool with Social Studies? You gain a list of useful ideas from the basics of Blooms right up the latter to higher level thinking. Take a look at what Colorado teachers accessed during a recent workshop at History Colorado, our state history museum. (E: Economics, C: Civics, G: Geography, H: History )

Tool 1: Check out a simple newspaper template for online content creation.

Link: http://newspapertemplate.net/

E: Create a business or money section of the newspaper to encourage students to look beyond the front page and learn about the economics of their state.

C: How about creating an editorial page to debate a question and publish opinions and polls?

G: Think about a small town newspaper and have students research the different types of newspapers in our 

      communities in the state, and then create several types based on region and place.

H: Dig into the Colorado Online Historic Newspaper Collections and have students create their own based on an event in Colorado history.

Tool 2: Collect and annotate resources from the web and share the collection as an inquiry starting point for students.

Link: Been: https://edshelf.com/tool/been

E: Pull articles and links from key areas in the world that illuminate a shared economic challenge and annotate them online.

C: Collect resources and annotate with essential questions to start the inquiry process.

G: Annotate maps from global sources online so students can evaluate point of view and perspective.

H: Collect primary sources on a topic and have students annotate them with questions as the beginning of a lesson.

Tool 3: Have students create a visual collection of resources for each other to support their inquiry activities.

Link: InstaGrok: https://edshelf.com/tool/instagrok

E: Give students a collection of resources and have them sort, review, and connect them to each other and a topic of study.

C: Have students use this visual tool to track the process of a bill becoming a law connecting resources from the web to the visual resource.

G: Have students create a visual map with this tool to understand human interaction with a region.

H: Have students use this tool as a base for collecting research and connecting thematic ideas to a larger thesis.

Tool 4: Have students create an image that talks to give a twist to a presentation.

Links: Chatterbox Kids:  http://tinyurl.com/p772xet  Blabberize:http://blabberize.com/

E: Have students create a speech about the state of the economy and their solutions to the challenges we face as a citizenry.

C: Have students create position statements for a debate on a key topic and record their statement for review/use in the classroom.

G: Have a country “talk” about its view for the future of the environmental challenges it faces.

H: Have students bring a textual primary source alive through an audio narrative.

Tool 5: Have students create a timeline of activities/primary sources for research and presentations.

Links:  Timetoast: www.timetoast.com

E: Students can use Timetoast to trace a stock/company activity.

C: Students can use this tool to share the history of a bill or law.

G: Using Timetoast students can show the changes in a regional landscape/cultural landscape.

H: Using this tool,  students can collect and annotate primary sources to support a research paper or thesis. 

You Might Be a Geeky Teacher if You've Been Having Conversations about Education Reform

I am on my annual girls weekend with four friends who raised our kids together and help each other survive!  We go somewhere different in the Colorado Mountains every fall.  This year we are in Carbondale, halfway between Glenwood Springs and Aspen.  I  opened up the Sopris Sun Newspaper today and found an article on a fascinating conversation they are having in Carbondale.  They are organizing Our Children, Our Schools (OCOS) events throughout the community to have conversations around dreaming and envisioning new schools.  They  have a website and even give the community some homework videos to watch before they come to the meetings.

Much of their conversation revolves around Sir Ken Robinson's contention that we are anaesthetizing our children and the example of what is happening in Finland.   "There is a country where students start school at a later age...spend less time in school per day... have barely any homework...are rarely tested " So begins a video showcasing Finland the country whose education system consistently ranks at the top of the world by almost every measure.

Among the many contrasts between schools in Finland and the US is their approach to the teaching profession.  Whereas U.S. teachers today must comply with an onslaught of accountability measures, Finland's teachers are trusted to work as professionals.  "If people are trusted then they want to be worth that trust."  In Finland, "people perform better when they are trusted....They are not controlled."
Roaring Forks Schools are inviting people to "Think outside the box, explore what's possible and participate actively in the district's visioning process."  Check out their website for more information!  Kuddos Roaring Forks!  We should all be having these community events!  http://www.carbondaleconversation.org/

You Might Be a Geeky Teacher if Your Classroom or School is Going BYOD or 1:1

Our school has started down the yellow brick road toward BYOD.  We have found some interesting resources along the way and are working to have engaging training with our staff and convincing conversations with our parents.  We started with a flipped classroom model and sent information in the form of a Google Presentation to our staff before a whole staff vote about whether or not we should go BYOD.  This helped our staff to have time to review resources, think about pros and cons and to be ready to ask questions and finally to vote!  It is important to use professional development and meeting times to model good instruction and transformative practices.  Have you thought about flipping your professional development or faculty meetings?  

We created a student use agreement and had district IT and the Legal department finalize it.  We want to have parents and students take ownership of the security and set up of their devices to make sure that they stay up-to-date and ready for school.  Liability, insurance and security issues are addressed in this agreement.  We voted as a staff and the majority voted to move forward.  We are now working to design professional development and convince our parents that this is the best move for our kids.  We sent out a survey asking for information from our parents.   Our next steps involve informing out parents and then presenting at a PTA meeting.  We are going to flip our presentation to PTA by sending out this presentation before the meeting and then demonstrating a lesson at the PTA meeting using devices that parents bring to the meeting.  One of the most convincing stories about how BYOD looks in and transforms a classroom comes from my home state of Idaho.  CBS showed a documentary entitled TEACH that included a class in Kuna, Idaho that received a grant to convert the classroom to a BYOD and work with KHAN Academy.  The teacher was reluctant but as the year went on, she realized that this model transformed her teaching.  She was worried about being replaced but found that this teaching style is how teaching should look.  Take a look at her story.  

BYOD in Idaho

You Might Be a Geeky Teacher if You Have Used Gaming in Your Classroom

I've had several requests and experiences around gaming in education this week. 1.  The first was reviewing 50+ video submissions from students applying to be a PBS Super School News Anchor or Reporter.  One student submitted a video story about Mine Craft.  I have to admit that I am surprised at how many kids play and work in this 2 dimensional world for hours at a time and beg to code and build here when they have free time.  Check out this news story! 

2. The second occurred as I was considering that all I needed to know about the future of education may be learned from science fiction! We are starting a One Book Four Grades program at my school around Ender's Game which will culminate in attending the movie in November with a compare and contrast follow up!  Consider this section of Ender's Game (published in 1985) and the vision of tablet computing:

Personal Tablet Computing – Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1985) 

"Ender doodled on his desk, drawing contour maps of mountainous islands and then telling his desk to display them in three dimensions from every angle...

The bell rang. Everyone signed off their desks or hurriedly typed in reminders to themselves. Some were dumping lessons or data into their computers at home. A few gathered at the printers... Ender spread his hands over the keyboard near the edge of the desk and wondered what it would feel like to have hands as large as a grown-up's... Of course, they had bigger keyboards - but how could their thick fingers draw a fine line, the way Ender could..."

Game-Based Learning – Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1985)

Consider the Battle School from Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. Through rigorous game-based simulations, students in Card’s world learned standard curricula as well as military strategy.  Schools around the world are starting to pay attention to video games and how they can be effective tools for teaching. 

3.  Gamification came up several times today, once with a student who is applying for a specialized high school program and wants help submitting an application that includes information about gaming in education and then some of my own research and attendance on a gaming webinar.  What questions come to your mind as you watch these slides?  Can we use gaming to engage our students in the classroom?   

WoWinSchool: How to Use WoW and MMORPGs to Engage Students - GSummit 2013 from Lucas Gillispie

Listen to this TED talk about the short history of gamification beginning with Where in the World is Carmen San Diego (1987 - can you believe it?)    

I am interested now in joining this 3-D classroom and training for teachers where I can even earn badges! I am considering the possibilities of this for my classroom.  
 Here is more information on their site! 3D Game Lab 

You May Be a Geeky Teacher If… You Are Also a Junior Ranger And Use This Program in Your Classroom!

Do you love your national parks? Are you drawn to the beauty and history they hold within their boundaries? So are we! 

Your national parks are one of the best teaching tools available for learning inside and outside the classroom, and over the next several months Two Geeky Teachers will dive into some of the many print and digital resources that are available from the National Park Service through this blog. To launch this discovery series we start with the Junior Ranger Program (which evidenced by the photo below is not just for students anymore!) We have been involved with them from coast to coast and in between!

Accessing the Junior Ranger program is easy peasy, and you can  find information about your national parks and those that offer the Junior Ranger program right here: http://www.nps.gov/learn/juniorranger.cfm. Although NOTHING can truly replace being in your national park to experience the actual environment and history of the place, accessing the WebRanger program can help students explore wider themes in our national parks online and is a cinch to access through this link: http://www.nps.gov/webrangers/

If you are lucky enough to visit a park you can get these patches and badges!

Or you can complete some programs online and still receive a Junior Ranger pin via mail or a Web Ranger patch.

Here are five ways you can use the Junior Ranger program in the classroom along with some highlights from the program included in the links below. Regardless of being in a park—teachers will find the information contained in the Junior Ranger program books a huge score for teaching history, science, geography, and other subjects.  We love our national parks…we are betting your students will too. Here we go… Ready? Enjoy!

Five Ways to Use the Junior Ranger Program in the Classroom

5) Engage students in using the Junior Ranger program as a means to research an important location, which holds information on a topic of study and could have been a turning point in the course of American History.

Did You Know About the Junior Ranger Program At: Fort Sumter National Monument?

http://www.nps.gov/fosu/forkids/beajuniorranger.htm

Tech Connection: Use a technology tool such as SpicyNodes (www.spicynodes.org) to help students organize their research around an essential question(s).

4) Use the Junior Ranger program to research a historical figure and bring to light little known information on that person, or sites that are unknown or out of the limelight, which could give more information about his/her life.

Did You Know About the Junior Ranger Program At: Abraham Lincoln Birthplace?  http://www.nps.gov/abli/forkids/beajuniorranger.htm

Tech Connection: Use the information from the Junior Ranger Program to create a Blabberize (www.blabberize.com) biography of young Abe Lincoln

3) Use the Junior Ranger Program as a means to explore literature and place in their humanities studies! The National Park Service has many locations that highlight significant authors and their works. Broaden your social studies content to humanities content by including literature and written works in your online or personal quest for understanding America.

Did You Know About the Junior Ranger Program At: The Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site? http://www.nps.gov/edal/forkids/beajuniorranger.htm

Tech Connection: Use the information from the Junior Ranger Program to create a found poetry poster presentation in Glogster (http://edu.glogster.com/)

2) Use the Junior Ranger Program to explore science and the environment, and create an appreciation for our natural landscapes. Connect social studies and science together through an educational lesson on a scientist.

Did You Know About the Junior Ranger Program At: The Thomas Edison National Historic Site?  http://www.nps.gov/edis/forkids/beajuniorranger.htm

Tech Connection: Use the information from the Junior Ranger Program and connect it to primary sources from your national library, the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress houses Edison films and recordings, drawings, and papers from the famous scientist. Use clips from an Edison film to create a presentation on a famous event or person in iMovie to share with your class.

(http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edsndhm.html)

1) Encourage students and their families to get outdoors and explore their world together. Learning together, sharing together, and enjoying our National Parks can be a family event! You are never too old to be a Junior Ranger, and you can always start early too even if it is just wearing a “flat hat” and knowing that our park rangers are pretty special! It is these  rangers that help make our National Parks a special place to visit. In honor of our First National Park we will embarrass the geeks in our house with a picture of their very first Junior Ranger badge at Old Faithful Lodge/Visitors Center in Yellowstone (And yes this is the same kiddo in the picture at Mount Rainier below. Imagine that-- 12 years of Junior Rangers and 35 patches and pins later...) :

Did You Know About the Junior Ranger Program At: Yellowstone National Park

http://www.nps.gov/yell/forkids/beajuniorranger.htm

Tech Connection: Use the information from the Junior Ranger program to help differentiate content in the classroom setting though activities at different levels of complexity. Use a tool such as Animoto (http://animoto.com/) or Prezi (http://prezi.com/)

 to have students create a collaborative presentation on what they have learned to share with an authentic audience. 


And to prove that we have used them from coast to coast heres the photo evidence as our geeks would call it!

Fort Clatsop- Lewis and Clark National Historic Park

Fort Clatsop- Lewis and Clark National Historic Park

Ellis Island National Historic Park

Yellowstone National Park

Minuteman National Historical Park

Mount Rainier National Park

Yellowstone National Park