What middle school student doesn't like to talk??...Even the ones you think are quiet.
The absolute best way for them to learn how to use their tablet, involves just some honest to goodness "play". There must be time to explore and this helps students become independent learners in the process. So which feature did they zero in on first..... the class discussion feature that allows the students to talk to one another, as well as with the classroom teacher.
If you are a middle school teacher and you are in tune with your students, you would already have a feeling about how this would go down. First of all, they love to talk. Second of all, they have no idea what to say to one another. We just kind of sat back to see what they would do with this feature. And I have to say; not surprised, somewhat impressed, and highly amused.
Conversations went a little like this..... hey..... hello......wuz up......hey..........hi.........hiya.....what's for homework......bananas.......Monkey, I want Batmonkey........I love waffles and bacon.......does anyone have a mustache.... (Yeah, now that's some quality conversation.)
The weekend after tablet distribution, I sat back and watched two of my students have a very lengthy conversation about their ongoing video game experience, in which they detailed each level of play. (150 + comments)
I also had two of my special needs students connect on a discussion thread by watching one compliment the other. Beautiful, heartwarming, and precious.
I noticed one discussion where they were telling an absent student, who was at home sick, that he had a ton of homework to make up and that it was "really hard". Poor guy! I told my students they were going to worry him even more sick. Of course he did not believe them, and they discovered in the process that there is an open line of communication even when at home, sick.
My teammate had even more fun with his as the highlight of one discussion went something like this...
Student A......"Do you think Mr. Shuping knows we are going out?"
Student B (obviously going out with student A)......"IDK"
Student C......."You do realize that Mr. Shuping can see this?"
Classic!
And, yes, they knew we could see the discussion threads, but not sure if they actually believed it. Being the fun-loving, understanding teachers we are, we didn't make a huge deal about these conversations as to not embarrass any of the students. They needed to "play" with this feature, and trying to be all reprimanding and harsh is not the way to reach middle school students. But we did begin setting some ground rules helping them understand that this kind of interaction would "bog down" the class feed.
Just a quick mention and a few reminders is all it took. The discussion feature was to be used only to discuss your academic questions and your work. Now, does that mean, that every once in a while, it can't be used for silly, sarcastic banter; absolutely not, but we didn't tell them that. To model a correct use of the feature, we used a discussion thread in Language Arts to make peer evaluation comments on a recently completed vocabulary product. It was both meaningful and effective.
As I look back on it now, they needed this time. The time to connect with one another as friends and as a community and the trust given to them by their teachers to do so. You would be surprised how many kids will show character and integrity when simply trusted to rise to those high levels of behavior expectation.
And they listened to us; now using the discussion feature to talk about classwork and homework and opening up lines of communication that were once out of reach.
What this feature has done is create and strengthen a community of learners; connecting them anywhere at anytime. There are so many other creative ways still left to explore using this feature in the classroom for activities, lessons, and to encourage analytic thinking. And we will eventually get to all that.
The absolute best way for them to learn how to use their tablet, involves just some honest to goodness "play". There must be time to explore and this helps students become independent learners in the process. So which feature did they zero in on first..... the class discussion feature that allows the students to talk to one another, as well as with the classroom teacher.
If you are a middle school teacher and you are in tune with your students, you would already have a feeling about how this would go down. First of all, they love to talk. Second of all, they have no idea what to say to one another. We just kind of sat back to see what they would do with this feature. And I have to say; not surprised, somewhat impressed, and highly amused.
Conversations went a little like this..... hey..... hello......wuz up......hey..........hi.........hiya.....what's for homework......bananas.......Monkey, I want Batmonkey........I love waffles and bacon.......does anyone have a mustache.... (Yeah, now that's some quality conversation.)
The weekend after tablet distribution, I sat back and watched two of my students have a very lengthy conversation about their ongoing video game experience, in which they detailed each level of play. (150 + comments)
I also had two of my special needs students connect on a discussion thread by watching one compliment the other. Beautiful, heartwarming, and precious.
I noticed one discussion where they were telling an absent student, who was at home sick, that he had a ton of homework to make up and that it was "really hard". Poor guy! I told my students they were going to worry him even more sick. Of course he did not believe them, and they discovered in the process that there is an open line of communication even when at home, sick.
My teammate had even more fun with his as the highlight of one discussion went something like this...
Student A......"Do you think Mr. Shuping knows we are going out?"
Student B (obviously going out with student A)......"IDK"
Student C......."You do realize that Mr. Shuping can see this?"
Classic!
And, yes, they knew we could see the discussion threads, but not sure if they actually believed it. Being the fun-loving, understanding teachers we are, we didn't make a huge deal about these conversations as to not embarrass any of the students. They needed to "play" with this feature, and trying to be all reprimanding and harsh is not the way to reach middle school students. But we did begin setting some ground rules helping them understand that this kind of interaction would "bog down" the class feed.
Just a quick mention and a few reminders is all it took. The discussion feature was to be used only to discuss your academic questions and your work. Now, does that mean, that every once in a while, it can't be used for silly, sarcastic banter; absolutely not, but we didn't tell them that. To model a correct use of the feature, we used a discussion thread in Language Arts to make peer evaluation comments on a recently completed vocabulary product. It was both meaningful and effective.
As I look back on it now, they needed this time. The time to connect with one another as friends and as a community and the trust given to them by their teachers to do so. You would be surprised how many kids will show character and integrity when simply trusted to rise to those high levels of behavior expectation.
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| The Circle of Trust |
What this feature has done is create and strengthen a community of learners; connecting them anywhere at anytime. There are so many other creative ways still left to explore using this feature in the classroom for activities, lessons, and to encourage analytic thinking. And we will eventually get to all that.
I will always believe that the greatest benefit of using the discussion feature is creating a classroom environment based on community, friendship, and trust.
When you have this, learning flourishes and creativity thrives.
Here are some other great ideas on how teachers plan to integrate tablets this school year.
http://www.amplify.com/viewpoints/new-school-year-new-technology
Here are some other great ideas on how teachers plan to integrate tablets this school year.
http://www.amplify.com/viewpoints/new-school-year-new-technology
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