A new age of education rested at the fingertips of over 1,800 educators from all over the world at this year’s annual International Society for Technology in Education conference (ISTE) in San Antonio, Texas, from June 25 to 28. Amongst the many educators attending were some of Yavneh Academy’s very own teachers.
The teachers attended a multitude of workshops to learn how to use technology to further enhance the classroom experience for their students.
Students have grown comfortable using different devices, such as iPads and laptops, every day in the classroom.
“Computers are really just a tool like a paper and pencil,” Yavneh Academy teacher Mrs. Alison Landau said. As a literacy coach and fourth grade general studies teacher, Mrs. Landau is always thinking of new ways to encourage her students to enjoy reading.
While at the conference, she was introduced to the concept of “book snaps” as a way of helping students learn new vocabulary words.
While reading their books, students take pictures of different lines of text that contain a word they are unfamiliar with, or a new word they learned the meaning of through context clues. As a sort of educational form of Snapchat, students can then send the picture to their teacher or friends with an explanation of the word they found.
“They’ll find it more engaging than me saying ‘tell me the words you found challenging,’” Mrs. Landau said. “It changes the nature of the classroom.”
Mrs. Landau has always tried to incorporate as much STEM as she can into the classroom, and a workshop at ISTE suggested that teachers begin to teach students computer coding jargon—words such as “debugging,” “sequence” and “algorithm” will soon become a part of students’ regular vocabulary as technology becomes more omnipresent in the classroom.
Mrs. Landau plans on teaching those new words conversationally instead of listing them out or running vocabulary drills. Students will be asked to “debug,” not “edit,” their first drafts of any errors.
“It builds logical thinking,” she said. “Having these terms as a part of their regular vocabulary will really help to make it their own.”
Mrs. Ricklis, a fourth grade and middle school general studies teacher, uses an “interactive notebook” with her students to help them take structured notes. Students are given notebooks where they write and paste diagrams and other notes that go along with worksheets the teacher hands out.
At ISTE, Mrs. Ricklis learned the benefits of making that notebook digital.
Turning the notebook into a Google slide gives the students, teachers and parents access to their work from any device at any time. Instead of a paper notebook, students create PowerPoints online with notes provided by the teacher, and their own bullet points and graphics.
“They can collaborate with each other,” Mrs. Ricklis said. Another plus for her was that her students still won’t have to miss out on the cutting and gluing, and other hands-on aspects of the interactive notebook, even if it is online. Students can take a picture of their work and include it in their PowerPoint slides. “They’re still doing all the physical work they would in a classroom.”
At the conference, both Mrs. Landau and Mrs. Ricklis learned of more ways to take advantage of Google Classroom, which students access individually on their iPads and laptops in order to complete both classwork and homework.
Google Classroom, similar to Google Docs, allows teachers and students to post, grade and complete assignments digitally.
Teachers can also send reminders or assignments to certain students who are more or less academically advanced than others, which plays a part in individualizing education for each student.
Mrs. Landau also learned to use Google Forms as a way of differentiating her students’ assessments. Instead of handing out a worksheet with 30 problems that might be too difficult for some students, Google Forms produces new questions based on the accuracy of the previous answer. If a student gets one question wrong, the next question will be easier, so that the student can build up their knowledge of the topic as the questions continue.
While the conference was tailored towards improving general studies, Mrs. Golbari, a davening teacher and Judaic Studies associate teacher, will still be able to share some of the presenter’s creative projects for her fellow teachers at Yavneh.
While one presenter at ISTE was teaching participants how to make red light sabers, Mrs. Golbari had the idea to use the red light saber to represent the red string Rachav hung out her window to signal the spies and help save the Jews from the king of Yericho during the story in Navi of Rachav.
“When you have that mindset,” Mrs. Golbari said of thinking more outside the box during the workshops, “you could do anything with Judaic studies.”
Ultimately, the goal of infusing technology into daily classroom activities is to make learning more student centered.
Mrs. Ricklis sees the benefit that the interactive notebook and other online projects, both hands-on and online, have in her classroom.
“The most valuable feedback is from the students,” she said. When she sees her students are expressing curiosity, or are doing independent research on the topic discussed in class, she knows that they’re really learning for the sake of learning.
A quote Mrs. Landau heard at the conference reminds her of the importance of keeping students engaged.
“‘A project is not a recipe,’” she said. Her student’s work should reflect their own creativity, and using programs online that allow students to collaborate with each other at any time helps accomplish that goal.
Mrs. Landau learned about “passion-based projects” at ISTE. Students can research any topic they are passionate about, but instead of just presenting what they learned to the class, who might not share the same interest as the student, they can also present what inspired that passion and how they channeled it into a project. Other students may be more interested in learning how their peers’ ideas form and may share more similar experiences, explained Mrs. Landau.
Mrs. Landau and her colleagues are eager to incorporate what they’ve learned into their curriculums next semester.
“The more I let students take the lead and have their voices heard, the more they want to go on and research further at home,” Mrs. Landau said, “and to me that’s a home run.”
By Elizabeth Zakaim
Elizabeth Zakaim is a student at The College of New Jersey and a Jewish Link contributor.
