I've accepted the fact that the "no homework" wave has swept through the popular modes of media and influenced the minds of the best and most influential people in education.  After all, if there is high quality instruction taking place during the course of the school day, do the kids really need to go home and spend dubious amounts of time practicing something that they already know.  If they don't know the material, is the homework going to make them understand it if there's another 6-10 problems that they still don't understand?  Homework has become a 4-letter word that we associate with poor teaching and lack of preparation.  If your students need to go home with an assignment, you just aren't planning right.

Maybe it's because I'm tainted/skewed/washed by the middle school math mentality, mainly California's version of Algebra 1.  Maybe it's because I have 51 minutes from the time the students sit down in their chairs for the day to the time that they leave my room.  Maybe it's because math is hard (no, that can't be it... could it?).  Maybe it's because I have 21 complex standards that are tested on the state exam in April.  Whatever my dramatic excuse is, I just can't get everything done in a single class period in time for them to move on, complete the short-cycle assessment required by the district, follow up with a re-teach and post-test, and follow that up with a district-issued benchmark exam, and prepare for the state test - unless there's some sort of homework.

As a proven example, we can look at the unit that my students are currently learning about - solving systems of linear equations (SOLE) using the elimination and substitution method.  To give you a peek into my classroom structure, we do a warm-up to get our minds into the proper frame for the day, go through the lesson, and get into about 3 problems. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, three whole problems from start to finish.  That may earn a "what in the world is he doing during the 51 minutes of class" type of reaction, but consider the learning that needs to take place.  In order for students to comprehend this brand new concept, they need a five-step process memorized and demonstrated slowly a number of times.  With that being said, there are a number of variations of those problems that the students will see.  Three is never enough.  Never.  Ever.  But we must keep calm and teach on.  District benchmarks are coming.  CST exams are coming.  Just keep going.

Unfortunately, to compensate for the fact that the students just don't have enough time to practice this new concept during class, they have something that we like to call "homework" that the progressive education minds tend to oppose.  I'm ok with their opinion, and will certainly listen to a rebuttal, but my students need time to practice what was learned.  Without the freedom to teach at a pace that my students would actually benefit from, homework is the only way that they can get any sort of routine memorized for the 5 steps used during the substitution or elimination methods for SOLE (or most of the California Algebra 1 standards, for that matter).

One of the major arguments against homework is that you send the student home without the expert.  The teacher is no longer in the student's environment to assist with the problems, thereby compounding and creating a phobia of the standard.  Introduce a little thing called technology and that issue is resolved immediately.  Recently, I gave the students a homework assignment (oops, sorry).  They struggled.  Here's how we helped each other:

Just in case you didn't believe me, here it is.  Above, you can see screenshots of interactions that are happening on Edmodo on a regular basis, as well as a student-created explanation for one of the... homework problems.  We are continuing the conversation past the 51 minutes allotted during class and deepening the understanding.  This is something we couldn't do otherwise.  We also have students helping each other that aren't necessarily BFF's during the school day.  We have created a culture in this class that we will do whatever we can to help each other out.  Yes, the students know that they can count on me for help.  However, it is also obvious that the students can count on each other as well.

This allows me to ask the next question - is this really homework in the traditional sense if I'm still available?  

The students know that they can do a number of things to ask for help:

Google Voice me
Get onto Edmodo and ask me there
Email
Go to my website for flip videos or further support

When it comes down to it, it is about removing the opportunities for objections.  Homework has been dubbed a teaching faux pas because of its very nature to send the students off into a disconnected realm while they mull their responses and curse their instructors.  With a connected classroom, there is no objection possible - I am as available as you want me to be.  If, for some reason I am not available, your classmates are.

I'm certainly not trying to sway the naysayers of homework distribution to my side of the spectrum, nor am I attempting to influence the assigning of more homework for the sake of more homework.  However, there is a place for extra practice, as long as there is support that is available.  As long as I am able to support my students outside of the classroom at the drop of a hat, I will assign homework to allow them the time to practice what they have learned.  Indeed, I will keep calm and teach on.

John Stevens
@appsintheclass
@jstevens009
[email protected]
mrstevens.weebly.com

I'll be the first one to admit that differentiating a lesson is my biggest challenge within a lesson.  Having a class of 39 students and planning for a smorgasbord of learning styles and readiness levels can be incredibly overwhelming.  It would be great to say that I have it all figured out and lessons are diversified to meet the specific needs of every type of learner.  In reality, things couldn't be further from the truth. 

Don't get me wrong - there are plenty of days where differentiation takes place in my algebra classroom and I walk away exhausted from stretching myself thin.  It's worth it because the students get a large chunk of their dedicated to their needs, whether it is remediation or extension.  Monitoring the students and checking for understanding are nearly impossible.

The reason that I'm chewing on this topic is because of the way that I've been using the iPad lately in my classroom.  For the most part, it has been used to replace the Interwrite/Mobii pad and interactive whiteboard.  The iPad has been used to have students explain their work to the class using Educreations and ShowMe, create step-by-step explanations on a Comic using Comic Life, and other standard classroom operations.

Recently, I had a student coming in to ask if there was anything he could do to bring up his grade.  I don't allow students to turn in late work and I don't allow students to make up any missing work from the month prior (mostly for organizational purposes, but there's a sense of urgency when there's a timeline), but they can come in and re-do any assignment within a given month.  Truth be told, I'm a softie when it comes to kids wanting to learn.  I end up bending my rules.  If they ask enough, I end up breaking my rules.  A student had a C+, wanted a B- (so he could get his iPod back), and needed to do anything to raise his grade.  The problem?  Everything from November has been turned in.

Rather than turning him away, I looked into his October grades.  Sure enough, he was missing an assignment gauging their knowledge of absolute value equations in one variable.  It's a tough standard and is very easy to make simple mistakes.  If a student wants to succeed, I want to give that student a chance.  Why have a kid go back and do 20 problems to prove that a standard has been mastered?  Nah.  Here's the iPad.  Here's a problem.  Solve the problem and, in detail, explain each step and your solution.  Oh yeah, he's an English Language Learner.  Check out his work:

Ok, so problem solved.  Not so fast, my friends!  The iPad has helped me with students who need a chance to probe that they understand a concept.  How about a pair of students who sit there bored during class and are waiting for a chance to do something unique?  It sure would be nice to let them take a project, run with it, and make it their own.  Hmmmmm....

This is less to do with ShowMe (although it's a really cool app) and it's more to do with the capabilities of a student if they are given a chance to express themselves.  Why on earth would I force a student to do 20 problems from a month and a half ago when he can clearly explain, using academic vocabulary, the steps in a video?  Why would I ever let a pair or small group of students sit through a class period full of review when they can be the ones teaching the class the next lesson through screen casting?  These are two questions that are being answered in a 1 iPad classroom.  It's possible.  It's real.  It's REALLY POSSIBLE.

How do you use ShowMe or other screen casting apps for differentiation?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

John Stevens
@appsintheclass
@jstevens009
[email protected]
mrstevens.weebly.com

"I can't do anything with just one iPad in my classroom"  - NOT ME

This quote can be heard on almost any campus from any teacher whose school is slowly being infused with technology.  The message is very clear- if I don't have a class set, there just isn't a very good reason for me to have any at all.  But wait- I could do something incredible with a set of 20 (in our district, that's a 2:1 student:iPad ration.  If we really start to boil it down to brass tacks, I might be able to make things work with a small set of 5-10 iPads and do my best to have my students use them at the end of a unit.

I seem to be the poor kid in the line to see Santa Claus on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, just wanting what everyone else has...

There are plenty of schools to drool over when reviewing how much technology is accessible to the students on a regular basis.  Envy, I tell you, envy.  I have certainly looked at the Fisler School, Scales Technology Academy, and Melrose Elementary to see just how much greener the other side of the fence is.  Yet, amongst all of the riches being poured down from the educational heavens, I sit alone in my classroom at the end of the day with one measly, lonely iPad 2, both of us exhausted.  

We are exhausted for a number of reasons, but none of them are remorse or envy.  My iPad and I have set out to prove the pundits and naysayers wrong.  "No, I tell you, I will NOT be a teacher's tool that the students never see", my iPad bellows out at the launch of a new day.  If anything, we have developed an incredible bond that you and your 40 iPads, iPod touches, Kindle Fire HD's, or Nexuses could never develop (although I'm sure your bond is pretty cool, too).  Because it is just the two of us, we are inseparable.

Twas' the night before class,
and all through the house,
not a creature was silent,
not even the two kids running around before bedtime...

Getting ready for the next day's lesson, my iPad is busy.  We are searching for YouTube videos, creating ShowMe lessons, or updating our Prezi for what is sure to be a knockout lesson.  We'll use Dropbox to upload the content in case anything crazy happens (just to be sure).  Diigo will allow us to save and sort all of the great web resources that we come across as we team up to plan for the next day.  The lesson is ready, and the iPad charges peacefully, knowing that tomorrow is going to be epic.

To give the parents and the students a heads up, I send out an email using TeacherKit to all of the parents and the students who have an email address.  For the students who don't have an email account, I quickly swipe over to Edmodo and send a message to the whole class so they can view the materials ahead of time (or to give them a quick heads up).

Completely rested and full of enthusiasm, my iPad and I embark on another day of a 1 iPad setting in my 8th grade algebra classroom.  We begin the lesson by having students complete a warm-up on Whiteboard Lite or the whiteboard screen of Educreations.  Then, still using Educreations, I dish off the iPad to a student as he explains the steps and solution to the warm-up problem given.

At this point, the iPad is stretched out, confident, and ready for a period of full integration.  We open up the Prezi viewer to deliver today's lesson, remotely controlling the Prezi because of our other friend, the AppleTV.  The students ask engaging and higher order questions because of the amazingness of the Prezi, so it's sure to be a good lesson.

The poor iPad just got an intense workout.  To give it a break, I put a few problems up on the whiteboard using Educreations and have students work in small groups to solve together.  Once the problems have been written down into students' notebooks, the iPad is rested enough to hand it to a small group of advanced students to they can create a comic about the steps for solving the problems using ComicLife, ELL students to verbalize their steps using Dragon Dictation, or intervention students who can walk me through their steps through ShowMe.  Students can save their work to the Camera Roll, email me their results, or upload them to Dropbox in some cases.  We can go back on Edmodo, have further conversation, and post our pictures so the entire class can see our incredible products!

At the end of the school day, my iPad and I are truly exhausted.  I'm tired because I teach with everything I have.  The iPad is tired because it has spent the entire day directly assisting and enhancing the learning of more than just the instructor.  While we would certainly welcome the opportunity to share our experiences with more iPads, we are making the most of the opportunity that we have been given.  I take care of the iPad and the iPad takes care or my students through an amazing transformation of instruction.

Do I want more technology in my classroom?  Of course!  What 21st century teacher wouldn't?!  However, given the opportunity to reflect on what has been presented to me, I'm going to have to say that my students are getting the most out of it.  Between enhanced instruction, immediate intervention, unique differentiation, and dynamic extension, "my buddy and me" are having the time of our lives.

John Stevens
@jstevens009
@appsintheclass
[email protected]
mrstevens.weebly.com

This Veteran's Day weekend in America, it is important to remember the people who have served in the military as well as the individuals who have made this country an incredible place to live.  Being in education, we also have theorists, sociologists, and researchers who have paved the way for the current model of teaching and, more importantly, learning.  

As a student in my credential program, I was introduced to the Mount Rushmore of educational theory.

“Let’s Give ‘Em Something to Talk About”

The art of classroom discussion is nebulous at best.  Sometimes profound, other times a total loss in terms of student participation or the quality of input, whole-class discussions can make or break a lesson.  In short, sometimes as a teacher you end up feeling like this guy:

"I felt so good, like anything was possible.  Hit cruise control, then rubbed my eyes..." -- Tom Petty

This quote is the way that life has been the past few months.  The opportunities being presented in educational technology are beyond impressive.  Being in a district that promotes the progressive mindset of promoting the proper and faithful use of technology has been a blessing that is certainly not taken for granted by anyone on our incredible team.  We have worked very hard to get where we are today, making it all the more worthwhile when opportunities present themselves.  

Going fishing is all about having the right gear.  You need to do your homework, understanding what kind of fish are biting and what they like to eat.  Is it the sardine?  Could it be the anchovie?  For all you know, it might just be the yo-yo jig.  You get out into the open ocean with all of your research and the proper gear for the trip.  At this point, you have invested so much time, money, and effort into this trip that it would be a shame if you didn't have a great story to tell at the end.  Little did you know, this was about to be the biggest "hookup" of your life!

When I was a kid, I wanted to be just like Bill and Ted…you know, those guys who had a totally gnarly, totally Excellent Adventure?  Here’s a video clip to refresh your memory:

This time of year, spooky things happen.  Some can be explained, but many others can't.  Maybe it's the full moon, the change of the seasons, the weather, or the flu season to blame.  Or maybe, just maybe, it's the student buy-in piece that all of a sudden creates an incredible desire to create incredible products using the tools that they have.  We may never be able to explain the transition as we watch our little Frankensteins become the Mozarts of Multimedia.  In all honesty, we don't really need to.

This time of year, students are becoming increasingly comfortable with the technology and tools that they have at their disposal in the classroom and outside of it.  They have had more than 2 months to get comfortable in their new setting and are ready for a challenge.  Now is the time to challenge our students and make them use process-based learning to create a truly incredible product.  For example, check out the video of this haunted classroom:

As election season creeps up on us like a herd of thundering rhinoceroses, I am constantly reminded by CTA that I should vote to support education (no kidding?), reminded by the district that our situation will become dire unless much needed fiscal relief arrives in the form of propositions passed (is this how Marie Antoinette felt pre-guillotine slice?), and reminded by my wallet that I really need a bigger classroom budget if I’m going to pull off the 2012-2013 school year.  As the budget gap widens in the state of California, educators are getting more and more creative about how they get things done.  I’m pretty sure I’ve even seen this guy wandering in and out of the staff room at my school site: