From the Students' View

Parent/Teacher Conferences are around the corner!  As the first quarter wraps up, teachers are preparing an outline for the remainder of school.  The students are reflecting on what they've done so far in their classes and setting personal goals to extend their learning.

As humans, we naturally reflect on our environment and personal situations.  This is a meaningful piece of the learning process.  When teachers ask students to reflect on their personal learning, students recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, which leads to goal setting and also the ability to individually determine peer tutors.

All across the district, students are reflecting just like this as they prepare for student-led conferences.  Student-led conferences allow students to determine specific individual strengths and recognize areas in which they need to focus.  This allows students the opportunity to gauge their own learning process and also accept, or "own" the learning.

As our students grow up in the 21st Century, their needs and skills will certainly change from what we once needed to succeed in this world.  Demonstrating the ability to identify personal strengths and weaknesses, formulating plans and goals to make changes, and giving presentations are all 21st Century Skills.  Joplin students participating in Student-Led Conferences are well on their way to this approach in learning.

A Taste of Inquiry

Really great learning experiences can come in all shapes and sizes.  Usually they're hands-on, inquiry-based, and collaborative. This makes for an engaging lesson, but with technology, students have the opportunity to extend this learning experience to turn their ideas into visual representations.  This can make the difference between meaningful learning and simple understanding.

In Zach Holden's 4th grade eMINTS classroom, students used the eMINTS Instructional Model in an inquiry based lesson involving their taste buds.  Due to assistance from local fast food restaurants, Mr. Holden was able to acquire various hamburgers for his students to taste test.  Students made hypotheses and took a blind taste test with the hamburgers.  They collected data based on their five senses, polled the remainder of the students for their preferred hamburger, then charted and graphed the information using Excel.  Finally, the students used Word to write a persuasive business letter to their favorite restaurant, explaining why they liked their hamburger the best and what qualities the restaurants might consider using in their meals.

This lesson met all pieces of the eMINTS Instructional Model of inquiry, high quality lesson design, a classroom community, and technology, and was also interdisciplinary in that students met grade level expectations of mathematics, science, and communication arts.  In addition, by using Excel to create graphs and charts, students made visual representations that solidify connections made by visual learners.

Using Word as a scaffold for the students' first experience in writing business letters assisted with the format, spelling, grammar, and punctuation of their letter.  In addition, by using advanced settings, students can check the quality of their writing and compare it to grade level expectations.

One student said, "When I tried Hamburger A, it was delicious!  Now I know where I should eat!" 

All in all, this lesson left the students inspired to discuss the qualities of the hamburgers and hungry to explore even more.

Around the World in 5th Hour

Field trips can be difficult to arrange for any teacher.  Permission slips, lunches, buses, and coordinating times with the visiting site can be stressful enough.  But if your curriculum involves world cultures, taking a field trip is nearly impossible.

Jennifer Wallace, 6th grade teacher at East Middle School, found a way around the physical barriers of field trips.  In designing a unit on The Nile in Egypt, her goal was that students would recognize how the body of water affects life around it.  Using Google maps and 360 Cities, students compared The Nile to local creeks.  This led to discussions and activities to assist students in recognizing the plant and animal life in both areas.  Jennifer didn't stop there, however.  Through the United States Embassy in Cairo, she was put in touch with someone working in water conservation who agreed to hold a Skype conference with Jennifer's 5th hour social studies class.  Students created questions prior to the event and interviewed him about water conservation, how water affects various living creatures, and how humans interact with the environment in Egypt.

This transforming lesson directly met three pieces of the eMINTS Instructional Model.  Students were engaged in a quality, inquiry based lesson that was powered by technology.  Using the technology available to them, students experienced learning that would not have been possible otherwise.  In addition to this, the students were able to identify multiple viewpoints and perspectives.

21st Century Learning with the Middle Ages

While studying about the Middle Ages, Jason Weaver's seventh grade social studies class made learning authentic by focusing on an essential question, "What makes someone successful?"  As students studied the different peoples and events of the middle ages, they searched to find examples and information  that demonstrate what it takes to be a success.  This study was also tied with the counselor's visits to enroll for the next school year by practically looking at what it would take to succeed in 8th grade and why that was important.

Students applied what was learned about success in the culminating project - an interview with themselves.  The project titled "Interviews with Success" asked students to imagine themselves 15 years in the future and picture what it is they'd like to be successful at by then.  Then, drawing on the lessons learned from their study of the Middle Ages, students "interviewed" their future selves by reflecting on what things would have contributed to their success.  The final interviews were shared in newspaper article style or with radio interviews, which were saved as podcasts.

This project incorporates all four pieces of the eMINTS Instructional Model of High Quality Lesson Design, Inquiry Based Learning, Classroom Community, and Technology.  Research shows that designing instruction with thinking skills intertwined with traditional core subjects allows the students to learn more than with a content-only curriculum.  In addition to this, when students see the connection between what they are learning and the real world, both their motivation and learning soar.

Click here to see an example of student projects.

Cooperative Learning

Today's learning experiences differ greatly for our students when compared to the past.  Today's work environments require employees to not only utilize critical thinking skills and innovation, but to work as a team.  This means that our students need to be self-directed and demonstrate social skills that are appropriate for the workplace, such as recognizing when to speak, to value others' ideas, and to conduct their learning in a professional, respectable manner.

Social skills such as these are being taught in eMINTS classrooms right along with content information.  The eMINTS Instructional Model consists of four areas:

1. High quality lesson design
2. Inquiry based learning
3. Classroom Community
4. Powered by Technology

For these four aspects to gel together into one, enriching learning experience for all students, cooperative learning must take place.  Cooperative learning is not just group work.  When utilized appropriately, cooperative learning demonstrates positive interdependence, individual accountability, and group processing to work towards one end goal.  Students need to accept the idea that one student's success is not a classroom success. Instead, a classroom success is shared by all.  Reflection after cooperative group activities is key to ensure students recognize the bonds and connections that each student contributes to the whole group.

As any facilitator in any classroom knows, setting up cooperative learning is not any small task.  Before utilizing cooperative learning in a classroom setting, teachers might need to teach collaborative skills such as leadership, trust-building, decision-making, and communication. All this effort is worth it, though, as research shows that students learning in a cooperative environment outperform others learning in a traditional environment. 

As eMINTS teachers, cooperative learning is used within a variety of strategies.  Some of these strategies include using jigsaws, paired sharings, and numbered heads together.  Integration of cooperative learning in the core curriculum can encourage student engagement and also allow for students to take leadership roles.  On her website, Laura Candler lists many cooperative learning structures and provides several resources for teachers interested in using cooperative learning.

Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec have found that cooperative learning, when compared to individual and competitive learning, results in greater effort to achieve by all students and more positive relationships between classmates.  In a classroom designed around constructivist teaching practices, teachers begin to realize how much socialization occurs in the learning process.  This socialization is not necessarily "off task."  Students are typically discussing ideas, defending hypotheses, and collaborating about alternative solutions.  Cooperative structures are critical in these environments to ensure students contribute appropriately and value others' ideas.

Using cooperative learning strategies is perhaps the first step in developing a generation ready for today's workplace.  It creates the structure needed for equality and engagement.  For more resources on cooperative learning strategies to implement in classrooms, visit eMINTS eThemes:
General resources
Secondary resources

Show Me TechKnowledge

As our world and society changes, real life and practical skills are being integrated into the classroom.  Now the "what" we teach includes collaboration with others, flexibility, information literacy, and even time management. Part of what Joplin teachers learn in Technology Leadership Academy incorporates lifelong skills such as these in conjunction with Knowledge standards.

Jordan Lofting, seventh grade communication arts teacher at South Middle School, recognizes and  utilizes these 21st Century Learning Skills with her students. As students research critical issues in her class, her objectives are not only that they will recognize how to effectively communicate on paper, but that they will learn to work together, compromise on issues they care deeply about, and determine what influences people. As students complete this research project, they use iMovie software to create a public service announcements that will be showcased on Mrs. Lofting's website.

Mrs. Lofting's website is not the only avenue in which these students have the chance to show their technology skills, however. On January 19th, four students had the opportunity to exhibit their public service announcements at the Third Floor Rotunda of the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City. This exhibit was part of Show Me TechKnowledge Day, which provides schools with the opportunity to  demonstrate to legislators, educators, students, and others statewide how technology is currently being used in Missouri schools to enhance learning and improve student achievement. Teachers are selected  through a competitive application process and can bring a select number of  students with them to the exhibit. Students that represented Joplin were Alyssa Brown, Holly Hughes, Madi Frost, and Darian Parker. They were greeted by Senator Gary Nodler and were introduced to the Senate as the session was called to order.
Please join us in congratulating these students, their teacher, and their administrators for the commitment they have made and dedication they have shown to our schools!