10.29.2013

How I leverage Prezi in the classroom

A lot of teachers have hailed Prezi as a revolutionary presentation tool, but I’m convinced the vast majority of them aren’t using it correctly. When amateurs use Prezi, it’s no better than a powerpoint that makes you dizzy. For this reason, I only use (and allow my students to use) Prezi if the presentation benefits from a background image or an organizational tool onto which I build my presentation. There’s no better way to use this than in the history classroom with a map and events placed on top of the map where they occurred. The path provides the information about when and where each event occurred, and the finished product provides the study guide for the next assessment.



This exercise encompasses all three of the major 21st century skills: creativity, collaboration, and innovation. The students have to be creative in how they include and present their information to the class; in this task, they exercise their critical thinking and concision skills. They have to collaborate to produce the best study guide possible (not to mention they have to help each other work through Prezi). And finally, we, as a class, are innovating in how we produce a study guide, use class time differently, and move our study guide to students studying the same topic all over the globe.

Example:
This week, I put a blank map of the 13 colonies down and had students each look up the major Revolutionary War battles. They compiled their information in a google document with all the battles for homework. When they arrived for class, I taught the ins and outs of prezi. I left generic red and blue explosions next to the map for them to place where their battle occurred and to indicate who won. Then I had them zoom in on their explosion and create the equivalent of a slide (or slides) about their battle. They had to portray who won the battle, what tactics were used, and the casualty numbers. When they had included the information, I taught them framing and path. In just thirty minutes, we had a beautiful study guide of all the Revolutionary War battles.


For visual learners, I can’t imagine a better study guide. For back to school night, I can’t think of a better way to dazzle their parents, And, most importantly, they then taught each other the battles of the Revolutionary War one by one so all I had to do was fill in the gaps and ask a few pointed discussion questions. I did not lecture; students presented and taught each other the Revolutionary War. More importantly, they learned a new skill they will use again in their academic and professional careers--Prezi. Finally, since we are doing it in class, if they get stuck or frustrated, I’m right there to help.

I’ve done the same thing in the past with the Civil War, Westward Expansion and WWI. If you have any questions about this lesson, leave me a comment.

10.24.2013

Government Shutdown, Classroom Shutdown

The shutdown is disrupting my American History classrooms. Oh, the horror...

Until the government shut down, I was not aware how frequently I rely on government websites to teach American History. It just so happens that I’m teaching the Revolutionary War to my 10th graders, and the Civil War to my 11th graders (I love teaching history). There have been three occasions where I opened up a map online to show my students about a battle or campaign, and the map doesn't open. Twice, students have come up to me at the beginning of class to tell me they had a similar experience. I’m tired of running into this, when I’m trying to educate:

Come on, Congress! Reopen the government so I can run my classroom with the resources I need to teach students the finer points of American History. If not, when I foray into contemporary politics (which I do frequently), my civics lessons will highlight (and maybe contribute to) your dismal approval rating, which, on October 9th, was polled at 5% according to the AP-GfK.

10.21.2013

Teaching Beyond the Final Exam

The greatest thing about teaching in the 21st century is a teacher’s ability to teach beyond the allotted class time traditionally given to teachers. Over the past few years, I have extended my teaching platform and not just with things like project based learning and flipped classroom (that are all the rave these days), but with digital exchanges with my students after they’ve moved on from my class. There’s something about social media that just makes it so easy to keep teaching. Student’s have no qualms about scratching a quick Facebook message (mostly because formality doesn’t exist on the “book”). Because of this, my role as a teacher has evolved to more of that of an academic mentor.

I write to encourage teachers to share your passions with your students. By energetically sharing my passions with my students they know exactly when to get back in touch for information that I have.

When the government shutdown last week I received a message that morning via facebook and an email that afternoon, both from previous students. One of whom was only in my class for six months and left the school, the other I had for one year. Neither go to my school or are even in the same state as me anymore. These messages arrived shortly after a separate facebook message exchange I had with a former student after the chemical weapons controversy

They asked for my perspective because they know I’m passionate about politics and will give them a straight answer. It saves them the boredom of reading an article from a website that they don’t fully understand, and it gives them a human interaction with an old teacher. From this interaction, they are ready to engage in an academic conversation about this topic. And, if they’re really interested, they can use this knowledge as a foundation to go looking for more.

I don’t write this post to pat myself on the back about my students contacting me to continue learning, I write it to implore teachers everywhere to convey their passions to their students. And, in doing so, don’t talk down to students, meet them where they are and be objective. This has led me to better, deeper teaching that goes beyond the school year. And, judging from the messages I have received, these students desperately need some guidance on these topics about which they asked... But, alas, that’s a story for another post about civics and informed citizens.