The Saber Cybers: A Student Driven Tech Club

The Saber Cybers: A Student Driven Tech Club

Student engagement, success skills, authentic experiences, PBL, product ownership. These buzzwords are tossed around a lot lately, but what do they actually look like? The Saber Cyber Tech Club thinks we've found some of the answers!

You might be asking just who and what is this Saber Cyber Tech Club? We're a newly formed technology oriented club at Legacy High School that partners directly with the Legacy Learning Commons (library). We have one goal - empower students with the ability to choose a direction and run with it, all while providing valuable community services back to Legacy and providing real world experiences with technology to the students as well.

What exactly are these real world experiences though?

The Saber Cyber members are responsible for keeping the 1:1 Chromebooks at Legacy in working order. They perform all hardware repairs, warranty submissions, report any misuse they see and coach fellow students and teachers on useage, maintenance, best practices, etc. The real world experience connection doesn't just come from repairing devices; however, the true connection to real world experiences happens when students become responsible for the process and procedures. Where do you put repaired Chromebooks vs. damaged ones? Parts storage? Tracking progress and billing for damage? All of these questions and more have been worked through by the Saber Cyber students, but it hasn't all been perfect! Every step of the way has been fraught with success and failure points...however those are the experiences that we all learn from and what really matters!

Chromebook management is just the tip of the Saber's nose though. The Saber Cyber members manage the 3D printing process as well. They made a pricing model for the 3D printer which bills students and teachers based on grams of materials used plus a service fee to help fund the club. They handle the request queue, manipulate the print jobs and, ultimately, print the 3D object out.

The list of projects and ways the Saber Cybers are adding value to the community while practicing success skills is very long to say the least! Need an announcement slide made and put on the TVs? How about help using a device or resource? Need help setting up technology for presentations, community events, etc? The Saber Cybers are just a form submission away!

But we're not all about hard work! Teachers are always trying to make learning fun, interesting and engaging yet valuable at the same time. We're no different! We fully embrace and encourage the club members to explore technology and to create something fun and exciting. Take a couple of the latest projects from club members, The GRB and The Piano Stairs. Both were independent projects proposed by, built by, and implemented by the Saber Cyber students.

The GRB is a custom Raspberry PI computer where they coded the OS and drivers for the touch keyboard/trackpad, LCD touchscreen and external battery. The next step in the build is to finish the 3D printed case for the device so it can be carried and used everywhere.


The piano steps was proposed based on making a banana keyboard with the makey makey kits. "Why not make the piano steps from the movie Big" a few students in the club said. Well, why not? So it happened. After a couple weeks of trial and error with different materials, devices, and methods of playing the music they came up with a solution that worked. One evening a couple students ran wires, programmed makey makeys and arduinos, hooked up speakers and eventually walked away smiling. Not because it worked right away, but because of the journey, successes and failures, and ultimately the product they produced was something they could be proud of. The next day the Legacy populous couldn't quit talking about and using the steps!

The best part about all of this? It happened in one semester! The next best part? The second semester is shaping up to be better than the first! Five of our members are traveling to the TIES conference in Minneapolis to present on their unique experiences in the club. The club has recently been in contact with other districts like Grand Forks to give a collaborative presentation at the upcoming spring NDATL. We were also contacted by the girls basketball and volleyball booster clubs for Legacy. We signed a contract with to manage their website content, player introduction presentation and pump-up video. All of the incoming funds go directly to the club so we can buy more technology items, go on field trips, pay for guest speakers, etc. Our Legacy Saber Cyber podcast will also be going live in the second semester and will be used as a way to broadcast messages from the community, teachers, students, other clubs, etc. The students are also hoping to get an official website going where we can post news, events, projects, etc.

Check out the Saber Cyber blog on lhstoday.com -->Saber Cyber tab
Contact the Saber Cybers using our form: https://goo.gl/WAMkHk

Using Math Discussions and Collaboration to Engage Learners

        “Mrs. Mastel, we were so busy thinking about math we didn’t even realize we worked right through recess again!”  Powerful words in a 4th grade classroom.  Even more powerful when they are said with a smile and a shoulder shrug.

    How is an engaging mathematical classroom defined?  To answer this question, we need to ask ourselves three more - How does it sound? How does it look? How does it feel?

    In my classroom, it was what I heard students say about the mathematical ideas we were studying, the way they interacted with each other and the math tasks at hand, and the energy generated during the lessons that defined engagement.  My goal was the same every year - to create an environment that allowed my students to become a community of mathematical thinkers and collaborative learners.     

            

To help meet this goal, I kept these synonyms for engagement in mind – involve, engross, enthrall, fascinate, immerse, interest, intrigue.  It was seldom enough for students to look engaged, as in “just being busy with completing a task.”  I wanted to know what they were thinking about the math, what questions they had, and how they approached problem solving.

    In order to build a mathematical community, my students needed time – time to investigate mathematical concepts and ideas; time to organize their thoughts about math; time to think through their strategies; time to share their thoughts in a safe environment; time to listen and consider the thinking of others; time to reflect on mistakes and adjust their thinking; time to agree, disagree, and justify conclusions; time to feel safe to share and that their ideas would be encouraged and respected.  Any teacher knows, time is a commodity within a classroom.  Taking the time to provide my students these opportunities proved to be priceless as we became a learning community connected by our understandings and intrigued by the ideas of others.

    Math discussions (math talk) became an integral part of helping my students grow into a community of engaged learners. Using communication in the classroom to represent, explain, justify, agree, and disagree shaped the way we learned mathematics. Providing frequent opportunities for classroom dialogue engaged my students in critical thinking and collaboration, encouraged them to learn more, and allowed for deeper exploration of the mathematical ideas, strategies, and generalizations I needed them to understand.  

                          

    As a result of the collaborative explorations, I witnessed my students become confident and competent in their understandings about math.  So much so that during a demonstration of a math talk about multiplication strategies during a Grandparents’ Day celebration, one of my students boldly acknowledged he knew his solution was incorrect but wanted the opportunity to explain where his mistake in thinking was.  The fact that this student had not been willing to share his thinking the previous year added to the significance of this moment.  His grandparents were not in the classroom that day, but his actions certainly impressed another grandfather.  I still remember his strong stature and pristine cowboy hat as he began to speak when we had concluded our math talk.  (It’s amazing how being a little nervous can burn images into your mind.  After all, this definitely was not what these grandparents experienced in grade school).  I still hear his words as if it was yesterday.

    “When I was a student, I did not let my teacher know what I was thinking.  I certainly would never admit my answer was wrong and then have the confidence to correct my mistake in front of everyone.  Whatever you are doing, it is definitely working.”

    This, along with a few other key moments I experienced as both a learner of math and a teacher, cemented my convictions about the definition of engagement in a math classroom.  Learning mathematics cannot be a passive activity for students. Learning mathematics is a process of making sense and establishing meaning, both individually and collectively. Collaboration and communication are critical elements in establishing an environment that engages students in mathematical thinking - engagement that leads to deeper understanding, productive discourse, and creative problem solving within our classrooms. 

 

      

  

Stone Soup for BPS

While the American dream can be achieved through a college education, the PK-12 education often lays the first blocks of a pathway for success in life. We must not only applaud the student who chooses the traditional four-year college education, but we must also do the same for those who earn an associate’s degree, attend vocational training, enter the workforce, or serve in the armed forces. I too stand with the district’s collective commitment to ensure students are “choice-ready” upon graduation. So, this sounds great in “theory” – but, how do we structure our system to get there?

Professional development & learning communities.  Professional development is best served when it is intentional, ongoing and systematic, and these principles are manifested in effective Professional Learning Communities (PLC) (DuFour & Eaker, 1998; Guskey, 2000).

To that end, Bismarck Public Schools has committed to building a system working to ensure that students are college, career, and citizen ready. As a result we have been on a journey and continue our work towards being purposeful in constructing an integrated approach to meeting students’ academic and behavioral (social and emotional) needs where they are and set growth goals in order to personalize learning. Built upon a solid foundation of the five “rocks” - Professional Learning Communities (PLC), we are committed to a Standards Based Education (SBE), wrapped in a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) as well as an infusion of Project Based Learning (PBL) within a culture that values Data Driven Decision Making (DDDM). (Cue the Alphabet soup song for educators…)

Professional Learning Communities (PLC). I see great power in reflecting upon DuFour’s (2004) framework for professional learning communities (PLCs) to frame our collective work for ensuring students understanding: 1) What do we want our students to learn? (SBE) 2) How will we know when they have learned it? (SBE & MTSS) 3) How will we respond when some students don’t learn? (MTSS) 4) How will we enrich and extend the learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency? (MTSS) Often I have heard these four questions accompanies by a “plus one” - How do we want to structure learning experiences? (PBL and good instructional strategies)

Question 1 + 1: 1) What do we want our students to learn? (SBE) How do we want to structure learning experiences? (PBL and good instructional strategies)

As we are well along our way with the implementation of a Standards Based Education we must continually focus our learning upon the type of learning activities and instructional strategies we desire students to be experiencing in order to meet the academic standards. To that end, I am excited at the emergence of the district’s vision to have a commitment to the centered on Project Based Learning that is fused integration of technology as the cornerstone for studies and authentic work that prepares students to enter the workforce of the 21st Century with the skill-set and proclivity for creativity. Some of our faculty have begun work with Project Based Learning (PBL) where there realization of the power that exists in forming partnerships with the community and local businesses for authentic application of academic work to questions, problems, and issues that occur in students’ lives beyond school. 

Question 2: How will we know when they have learned it? (SBE & MTSS)

 Multi-Tiered System of Support clearly outlines the needed focus upon measure the student achievement progress toward the clear learning targets (Standards Based Education) necessary for success on the culminating summative assessments (DuFour, 2004). In turn, formative assessments utilized in the classroom have the potential to be used by teachers, teams, and students as assessment FOR learning. These assessments should inform and influence the sequencing of instruction, modifications of the curriculum, differentiation of instruction, provide clear feedback in relation to the established standards and outcomes of the course, and students’ must self-assess and set goals for their learning (Hattie, 2011).

Question 3 & 4: How will we respond when some students don’t learn? (MTSS) How will we enrich and extend the learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency? (MTSS)

Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS). Many groups across grade levels have embarked upon training or attended several conferences and researching Multi – Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). Within a Multi – Tiered System of Support a proactive framework based upon continuous improvement is provided that schools can utilize in order to help students in remediating skills and provide stretch learning opportunities for all students. There is CORE instruction for all, Targeted interventions for some, and Intensive tiered support for those that need it. A school structured around the MTSS framework works to provide a CORE learning for academic and/or behavior where at least 80 percent of students are being successful toward those learning targets (SBE). The CORE is comprised of the Curriculum (Question 1- What Standards we need students to learn), Instruction (Plus 1 - How we will structure learning and teaching), and Assessment (Question 2 – How will we know they learned it?).  In addition to a robust CORE instruction, the MTSS Framework includes Universal Screeners, Evidence Based Instructional Interventions, Progress Monitoring, and Data-Based Decision Making.

Building upon our Professional Learning Communities we are helping our system capitalize upon effective practices and refine “how” we utilize teaming of faculty across the district. As we learn forward, we must not only structure the adults to function in teams, but we will continue to manipulate and allocate “TIME” as a resource to students “as they need it.” To clarify, DuFour (2004) makes it very clear that not only is it important to manipulate the adult time to dive into the data and establish the Tiered interventions, but some students need to be back-scheduled into a small group setting to have teachers remediate (or enrich) skills – not merely provide homework completion or tutorial services (MTSS). To be effective, this time must be driven by the data and will require additional attention from administrators and teacher leaders to operate within the PLC framework in light of MTSS to match interventions or extensions to identified needs.

One may have already seen many of these existing and overlapping connections between concepts from the various initiatives – and likely many other synergetic relationships.  This is purposeful, as we are laying the background for the work necessary to prepare us with the knowledge and skill-set for teachers to integrate essential concepts and skills into student learning opportunities. This professional development must transcend from a series of professional development events to a systematic and job-embedded professional development process. We will use the PLC framework and various initiatives to be the vehicles to ensure the proper commitment for implementation of the instructional practices intended under the academic standards. Since education is not a cookie-cutter, and we must preserve our effective programs, as well as further harness our partnerships, community relationships, and innovations to prepare the next generation for the jobs and challenges of the future. Upon the solid foundation of these five “rocks” we are truly and intentionally building a system aimed to provide a “World Class Education” for all students.

To continue the conversation join me @dr_ben_johnson and #learnbps on 11/17/15 at 8:30pm CST

Growth Mindset = Change Happens

We have heard the characteristic of growth mindset a lot in education lately, in fact it is one of the top ten characteristics chosen by BPS instructional coaches that a good coach should demonstrate.  Sometimes it can seem like a term used to ease the pain of the rate of change that education is experiencing lately.  I was talking to a teacher the other day who told me it is hard to keep up when standards are changing every five years.  Believe me I get it, change is hard and asking someone to have a growth mindset may seem more tolerable than “look here is another new thing for you to try”

Take a look around, what industry is not changing at the pace of education if not faster?  Do you remember when the fist iPad came out?  It was six short years ago look at how the market on mobile devices has changed in just six years.  I was talking to a family member who owns an engineering firm in Chicago and he told me kids enrolled in masters programs for petroleum engineering will learn software and procedures that will be obsolete when they graduate in two years.  The pace of everything has quickened and it is not the time for education to slow down.  I have told this story before but I remember my mom driving me to my grandma’s house because she owned a set of encyclopedias I could use for a report I was working on in social studies.  Fast forward to my nine year old daughter eating cereal at the table while on YouTube learning to make a rubber band bracelet from a woman in Japan who does not speak English.  Our students have unprecedented and instant access to information like never before.  We did not choose the career of education to remain stagnant and become irrelevant.  We chose education to prepare young people to be productive and upstanding citizens of the world they will inherit.   

Last Wednesday I saw many of our staff demonstrating a growth mindset.  I saw teachers in our middle schools discussing communication strategies that went beyond Powerschool.  I saw staff discussing PLC norms and helping to build effective practice.  I heard high school teachers discussing what it is that students should know and be able to do in their classes.  I talked to teachers who were eager to use the new proficiency scales they were developing to redesign assessments.  I listened as teachers asked questions about where our district was headed and how they could be assured their input would be heard. I watched as elementary teachers worked to map their curriculum to guarantee students would experience all the necessary learning.  I listened as teachers gave their answers to "why" we teach and work so hard.  I was so impressed by the work and learning that was experienced and shared last Wednesday.  

Nothing about a growth mindset says that what we were or are doing is wrong it simply means we will continue to try and get better.  It doesn’t say that we won’t get some things wrong.  It does say that when we are wrong we will work to make it better.  It says we will make mistakes and learn from them.  We will get better every time we try.  

In the end we are still hiring highly qualified and effective teachers.  We are still asking students to learn their grade level and content standards.  Teaching, learning, and assessing are and will be the foundations of education.  The what and how of teaching will continue to change and evolve as we push new boundaries of what we and our students are capable of.  I for one know that my daughter and sons will need a growth mindset as the world around them continues to change and I appreciate all that our staff are doing to model and encourage that in my children.

Technology Pit Crew - Ready...Set...GO!

Were you in a hurry to set up your classroom for the year and need your computers or cables organized? Do you have a technology question that you have been meaning to ask but did not have the time contact our help desk? Is your projector, interactive board or classroom audio system making weird noises? Is your classroom technology just not running like it used too? WE CAN HELP!

New this year, we have formed a “technology pit crew” team. That’s right, many of our experts will visit one of your buildings every Tuesday and Thursday! We will complete a multi-point classroom pit stop to ensure that your classroom is operating like a well-oiled machine!

This event will give technology staff members a unique opportunity to discuss technology equipment and practices while providing a service to the building. The Tech Pit Crew will cover a multi-point inspection that will allow pit crew teams to make immediate classroom tune-ups and fixes. The technology department will have a variety of technology support members on site.

Many classrooms have already seen results!

"Thank you for sending your tech. team down to Moses yesterday. They were amazing. I learned a great deal."

“Just to let everyone know, Nicole and I had the tech team in our room and it was awesome!  There were so many little things that we had put on the back burner in terms of technology and they came in and helped resolve so many issues!”

I would like to extend a sincere thank you to all of the wonderful members of the tech crew that came to our school yesterday to provide their expertise and assistance. It was a generous act on your part because it is so hard for myself and my colleagues to find the time to leave school and go get tech help, so by having YOU come to US during OUR schedule was so fantastic. I had technology problems solved that I didn’t even know I had (!). This is one of the most helpful services that has ever been provided by our district! I have renewed respect for our “tech pit crew.”

“Technology Pit Crew” Classroom Multi-Point checklist! We want to keep your classrooms running smooth!

Let your building tech, library media specialist or principal know that you would like the “pit crew” to visit your classroom today!