Marty Cryer
Videos for Parents
Project Description:
We all know that math is not taught the same way it was 30 or even 20 years ago. For parents this can be very perplexing and frustrating because they don't really know how to help their child even though they want to.
The math curriculum in our district is defintely different than anything most parents have seen before. We are taking the lecture part away from much of our instruction instead, coaching students to problem-solve and make connections between concepts.
So, when we began talking about area and connected it to the arrays we used in multpilication instead of teaching students a formula, parents got really confused.
To help the parents I created a video using Knowmia to explain how their children were learning the concept of area. The response from parents was extremely positive, so I knew I had to be ready to create additional videos.
Later in the year I wanted to experiment with flipping my classroom. I needed to explain the thinking behind this project in order to get their support. A video proved to be very helpful.
Objectives:
My objectives for these videos were simple, to educate parents in the learning their children are doing in class. The importance for this is primarily because parents want to help their children, but with teaching strategies changing regularly, they often do not know how.
I also needed a simple, quick way to create the videos. Using Knowmia and ShowMe tare both great resources. In Knowmia it is just a matter of creating a PowerPoint -like presentation and recording your explanation over it. Show me is like using a whiteboard and explaining what your are doing as you go.
Future changes and improvements:
I am very excited about the response to these videos. I created them for math concepts, but am contemplating ways to create them for literacy. It is a bit harder for this subject since it would be difficult to show parents text and how students are thinking.
Connection to ISTE Standard 3B: Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.
Donors Choose
Project Description:
Last year I had six laptops and three desktop computers in my classroom. The problem is that none of them worked with any regularity. Sometimes they would turn on and sometimes they would connect to the internet. We could never know for sure, which made it very hard to plan anything using technology.
Donors Choose is a non-profit organization that connects teachers to individuals and companies wanting to help teachers and school get the supplies and equipment they need. Donations range from a few dollars to thousands of dollars.
Teachers explain what they want, why they want it and how it will help, they spread the word about their project and donations, hopefully, come in and fund the project.
I quickly became frustrated with the computers in my classroom and looked to Donors Choose. The timing was fortunate because the organization was offering Chromebook laptops for $99 each. There were a limited number available and would be reserved on a first come, first served basis.
After creating my project I needed a way to get the word out. I let parents know and contacted an aquaintenace who worked at Kennebunk Savings bank and another at a local insurance agency and a realtor. I was asking these people not for donations, but for help getting the word out.
A few days later I received a call from my Kennebunk Savings Bank connection. She asked me about the project stating the bank wanted to support my quest.They donated $1,000, which, along with donations from two parents, a student (he donated his allowance and his parents matched it) and two other donors, allowed me to purchase seven Chromebooks and a Snowball microphone.
The Chromebooks allowed me to begin integrating technology in a much broader way.
Toward the end of the year I invited the bank to my classroom to show them what we had done with the laptops. My students created a list of all the technology projects we had completed and chose eight of them to demonstrate. Students worked in pairs answering questions and explaining their learning.
At the end of the tour, the two visitor said, "It was so much more than we thought it would be." The branch manager stated she was especially impressed with the concept mapping students had done. She explained her recent work with several employees had involved creating a concept map and a number of them were having diffculty with it. Seeing 9-year-old children doing what adult businesspeople could not was very interesting.
Connection to ISTE Standard 3B: Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.
Using Donors Choose to update the technology in my classroom was simply the avenue towards getting the equipment. It was when I connected with the bank, parents and other business owners that the project became a reality. This was not the first time I have reached out to the community for help. Other Donors Choose projects have been funded to help secure books for a reading project and a tablet.