Making Reflection Part of What We Do

“The more reflective we are, the more effective we are.”

                                                                                      

                                                                                                   ~Pete Hall

Linn-Mar Teacher Leaders had the opportunity to ZOOM with Pete Hall at a recent teacher leadership meeting.  The focus of the learning was centered on his work in the book:  Teach Reflect Learn. 

The ideas discussed were as coaches, our job is to influence or mediate the thinking of teachers.  This change in thinking will increase reflection, and then influence teacher practice to impact students. This work pairs nicely with Cognitive Coaching and has been the topic of discussion over the past couple of years.

This year with Linn-Mar teachers completing coaching cycles with our Mentor Coaches, Technology Integration Coaches, and Instructional Coaches we see movement toward a more reflective practice.  Pete Hall has found that teachers really fall into various stages of reflection.  He has broken them down to the Unaware Stage, Conscious Stage, Action Stage, and Refinement Stage.  The idea is for coaches and teachers to work collaboratively on a goal to build the reflective capacity he or she is working toward.  The question we need to be exploring is:  "How do teachers think?" And the next question after that is:  "What can we do to support teacher's thinking?"

For so long in education, teachers have been isolated from collaborative opportunities, and time to reflect, discuss, and think.  There just has not been adequate time in the day.  Pete Hall was quick to share how reflection is a skill that should be part of what we are already doing.  Weaving reflection time into our professional conversations, PLC meetings, and other district initiatives will help us embed this skill into our relevant work.  It’s not one more thing; it’s a vehicle to drive our work.  Just like coaching.  Coaching is another professional conversation that helps teachers think, reflect, and improve instructional practice.  While some teachers may think a coaching cycle has to be a one and done event, it doesn’t have to be, nor should it be.  Coaching cycles should move fluidly from one goal to the next.  The more coaching cycles teachers are entering into, the more opportunity for new thinking.

Art meets Technology

A kindergarten student learns to paint by driving a Sphero with an iPad.

Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist.”  I wonder what Picasso would think if he stepped into Tiffany Boyle’s art room at Linn-Grove Elementary.  He might find every child using something different than a paintbrush.

Students watch a short video about painting and coding on the left.
On the right Tiffany Boyle gets a students ready to paint with an iPad and a Sphero ball.

This week art teacher, Tiffany Boyle, found a fresh way to help her students create art.  She met with her Technology Integration Coach, Jessica Zimmerman and discussed ways to integrate technology into her art room.  Jessica had recently seen the use of Spheros in Art from Twitter posts and hoped to find a teacher willing to jump on board.

Technology Integration Coach, Jessica Zimmerman, gets ready for second graders and painting with Spheros.

Jessica and Tiffany met, collaborated, and planned to test this concept with a first grade classroom, but quickly found that all students craved the opportunity to learn about coding and Spheros.  They decided to punt and try it with all classes in all grade levels.  Tiffany teaches nearly 578 students PK-5^th grade.  This goal was ambitious, but the two agreed to tackle it together.

A Sphero moves around the tray painting a student drives the ball with an iPad.

Jessica and Tiffany had some hunches about how the project might go.  After the first day they found they needed to make some adjustments.  The discovered which paint and materials worked best, how to incorporate the right painting project into the curriculum at each grade level, the number of Spheros they could manage during class, and how best to keep the equipment clean. After reflecting and more planning, Jessica and Tiffany found day two to be more manageable, and successful.  Students thrived with the technology.  Tiffany has quickly caught on with Jessica’s coaching and support and the students have had several opportunities to be self-directed learners.  

Second grade students paint with Spheros with the help of older students and Tiffany Boyle- Linn Grove art teacher.

Coding and art truly is for everyone.  Tiffany and Jessica have big ideas for future work and they will share their project and learning with the Linn-Mar School Board at an upcoming visit.

Coding: More than a Game

Coding, computer science, and STEM learning have become hot topics in education.  These learning opportunities provide more than fun and frolic for our students.  They provide necessary, meaningful, 21 century skills centered around the 4 C's: Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Critical Thinking.

In an effort to promote instruction that focuses on the 4C's Technology Integration Coaches have been using Spheros with 3rd-5th grade LEO students at Linn-Mar.  Working in pairs the students learn to program the Sphero ball.  One of them programs the Sphero with the iPad and the other is the "passenger" and gives suggestions and feedback like a back seat driver helping the "driver" make decisions.  Students utilize math and creative thinking skills, but also communication, collaboration, and perseverance.

Now the TICS are beginning to work with other classes.  They have found that having the students work in coding partners has been extremely beneficial.  Even if students do not have a strong coding background they can be successful with coding if they work well and collaborate with others and have good communication skills.  The students have even programmed the Spheros to move through mazes created by the Technology Integration Coaches, or some students create their own mazes. 

At a recent meeting, the Technology Integration Coaches shared the Spheros with other teacher leaders.  In pairs the teacher leaders also had opportunities to program the Sphero with the iPad and work on the 4 C's: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Crititcal thinking.