Tools for a Paperless Classroom

Over the summer vacation I have been having conversations with many of my teacher friends about their professional goals for the upcoming school year. I have been surprised by how many of them have set their sights on striving toward a paperless classroom. During my time in the classroom, I too tried to make my classroom as paperless as possible. Yet as any K-12 teacher knows, it is a hard feat to do away with all printed handouts and materials and the photocopier is often an educator’s best friend. However, as Ed tech keeps changing the face of the classroom, there are a variety of tools being built to help those teachers who are eager to go paperless. The following are a few exceptional resources to help manage and organize a paperless classroom:

Showbie            

Showbie is a platform that helps teachers assign, gather, grade and return assignments. Both tablet and web versions of Showbie are available to enable teachers to organize their workflow. During the grading process, teachers are able to add personalized annotations, corrections and voice notes. Similarly, when assignments are sent out using Showbie, the tool allows students to annotate on the handouts directly in the app. Showbie also has the capacity to sync with over 1000 different apps, allowing your students to submit their work from other tools such as Noteability. 

Vision ME
Vision ME is a classroom management app that allows teachers to manage the classroom workflow, from assigning activities to gathering and grading. Beyond materials management, Vision ME also allows students to chat with other students in real time in order to provide valuable feedback. Furthermore, Vision ME has embedded features like a blank attention screen to grab students’ focus and the ability to limit Internet access on student tablets. Another excellent feature of this particular tool is that it is not only available in English, but also in Spanish, French, Dutch, German and Japanese.

Google Classroom
We have written before about Google classroom, a space where teachers can organize their workflow by easily creating assignments, distributing materials, gathering completed work and tracking grades, all in one paperless space. On the assignments page, students are able to see what has been assigned and when it is due, which they can access from both home and school. In addition, teachers are able to monitor who has completed their assignment and provide feedback to any students who appear to be struggling. Google Classroom also has the capacity to enhance communication, as teachers are able to send announcements to students and parents or instigate class discussions through the tool. The really exciting aspect of using Google classroom is that is it constantly being developed, upgraded and improved. For example, in July 2015, Google expanded the tool to included mobile notifications. 

Babies’ Naps May be Key to Learning

To most people, the sight of a napping baby is a calm, peaceful one. But a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that there’s actually a lot going on beneath the surface.

In the study, researchers performed specific actions in front of babies 6 to 12 months old. Then some of the babies napped for varying times while others didn’t sleep at all. Four hours later, only the babies who had gotten the chance to sleep demonstrated that they remembered the actions. In fact, researchers discovered something even more interesting: The optimal duration of a nap for learning seemed to be 30 minutes or more. Babies who caught quick catnaps showed much poorer memories for what they’d seen than babies who slept for at least half an hour.

The researchers believe that naps shield babies’ brains from additional incoming stimuli, allowing them to fully process what they have seen and experienced. This study helps to explain why babies need so much sleep, so often; not only are their bodies growing, their brains are hard at work making sense of a world that is new to them.

photo credit: Bridget Coila via flickr cc.

Digital Assessment Tools

Assessment is a large, important, and oft-debated necessity in education. The traditional view of assessment hinged strongly on summative evaluations -  assessments after the fact, such as a comprehensive exam or final paper. However, the current best practice in evaluating learning is to deploy frequent and thoughtful formative assessments, where teachers build in "check-in points" during the learning process that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. The goal of this evaluation framework is to inform the educator of what specific needs are present in their students and whether they need to augment their future lessons in response to those needs. It is important to note that the post-evaluation reflection and intervention is the defining feature of a formative assessment. Measuring student performance or collecting data is not formative unless you use the information to help your students.

In today’s classrooms there are a variety of tools to help teachers integrate formative assessments into their curriculum, as well as to gather and organize the data these assessments generate. Some of my favorite tools are discussed below:

Socrative

Socrative describes itself as a digital assessment tool that uses "real time questioning, instant result aggregation and visualization, [so that] teachers can gauge the whole class’ current level of understanding." One strong merit of this application is its flexibility, in that it can be used on multiple platforms, including smartphones, tablets and computers. Furthermore, it allows for personalization and differentiation of the learning process by allowing teachers to create their own assessments based on the specific needs of their students.

Formative

Formative is an exceptional tool to help teachers devise and distribute engaging assessments. The evaluation process is simple with Formative. Within the app a teacher is able to create an assessment, distribute it to students and respond with real time feedback. Formative is also aligned with the principle of Universal Design for Learning that calls for students to be allowed to display their knowledge in multiple ways. Thus, formative allows students to respond to assessment prompts by writing, drawing, or by submitting pictures. Furthermore, Formative is aligned with Common Core and NGSS, and also helps teachers in their pursuit of a paperless classroom.


Exit Ticket

Exit Ticket is a tool that allows teachers to create formative assessment measures, administer them during class periods, and glean real time data about student performance. The types of evaluation tasks a teacher can create are organized into pre-assessments, checks for understanding, tasks to promote discussion, and mid-way checkpoints. Once a student completes an assessment, both the student and the teacher will receive real time data on the student’s understanding of the concepts being taught. Furthermore, Exit Ticket also allows teachers to differentiate their assessments to meet the diverse needs of their student population. For example, using the Groups add-on, teachers can provide special accommodations to sections of their class. When authoring a list of questions, the teacher is able to then customize what questions each group will see.

Developing Emotional Literacy

When it comes to developing literacy skills, practice makes perfect. The more time children spend recognizing letters, sounding out words, and using spelling patterns in their writing, the more accomplished they become. It seems obvious that time working to develop reading and writing is time well spent; after all, literacy skills are essential for academic success. Less time, however, is devoted to helping kids master the skills that some experts refer to as “emotional literacy.”

Nearly everyone has had encounters with people who seem to be born with exceptional emotional literacy, or the ability to “read” others. Someone with strong emotional literacy skills seems to know just what to say in a tense situation. She usually excels in professions that require her to interact with, persuade, and lead others, like politics or sales. Socially, she’s enjoyable to be around. Children with strong emotional literacy tend to get along with adults and other kids alike. They can detect subtle emotional nuances conveyed by a slight shift in tone of voice or a fleeting expression.

There is evidence to suggest that an increase in screen time leads to a decrease in emotional literacy.

For example, a study published in Computers in Human Behavior found that sixth graders who attended an outdoor camp from which electronics were banned were much better at reading human emotions than peers from the same school who did not give up their devices. The really fascinating part is that the experimental group was without computers, smartphones, and tablets for only five days!

Just like standard literacy skills, emotional literacy (for most of us) can be perfected only through practice. And it’s difficulty to get that practice when social interactions take place via screens and are stripped of the facial expressions and voice modulations that accompany face-to-face communication. For many kids, then, it is essential to have opportunities for explicit practice. Here are a few ideas:

An obvious idea is to limit the use of devices—and we’re not just talking about kids’ use of devices, since young people will view their parents’ habits as the norm. Rather than designating certain areas of the house as device-free, try establishing only one or two small zones where phones and tablets are allowed; the expectation (for everyone) could be that these tools are not to be used in the rest of the house. If you try this idea, think about how the spot you pick for phone use might affect your family’s choices. The living room couch, for example, might encourage lots of screen time because it’s easy to sit there comfortably for hours.

Parents should model in-person communication wherever possible. Simply saying things like, “I think I’ll call Aunt Linda to discuss this; some conversations shouldn’t take place through email,” helps kids start to realize that the medium they use for communication is a choice.

Encourage young people to read fiction. Studies have demonstrated a strong connection between a person’s reading habits and his levels of empathy. Researchers believe the connection may be due to readers’ tendency to experience a character’s feelings almost firsthand.

Watch a new movie on mute. Using only the characters’ facial expressions and body language as clues, talk about what you think is happening in a scene and guess the characters’ relationships to each other. Then watch the scene with the sound turned up to see if you were right.

Spend time with toddlers or animals. Because babies and pets can’t talk, kids will have to rely on other cues to guess at what they think, feel, and want.

Travel. Taking kids to a different state, country, or even neighborhood or exotic restaurant helps them to realize that other people’s lives are not necessarily like their own. Talk about what is valued by another culture and analyze the differences and similarities kids observe. If there is a language barrier, so much the better; young people will be forced to rely on nonverbal signals to build understanding.

A Treasure Trove of Resources

What if you could find the best educational resources, vetted by experts, and based on the latest research -- all free, in one place, and focused on the needs of students and families like yours? You can, right on our own Yellin Center website.

We've always offered a website section with links to Resources, but over the past few months, our team of learning specialists has spent some time expanding and updating our hundreds of listings and we want to shine a light on what we think is an excellent starting place for families seeking information.

Our offerings include educational games, reading, and fourteen other categories, with dozens of links in each. The best way to get a sense of the links and listings -- each of which has a brief review or description -- is to scroll through them. We think you'll find them helpful. And we hope you will let us know if you do.

Top Five Resources for Special Education Teachers

There is an abundance of exceptional, well researched literature out there for teachers who work with diverse students to draw from. However, I find that there are a select few texts that I refer back to regularly for clarification, insight or strategies. I have culled and whittled down my bookshelf to my top five picks, and described the merits of each text:

1. Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today's Schools (7th Edition) by Ann Turnbull, Rud Turnbull, Michael L. Wehmeyer and Karrie A. Shogren

Exceptional Lives provides a detailed, robust description of the different disability categories and federal special education laws. This excellent text is a foundational "read and return to" resource for any teacher working with diverse learners. Throughout the text, the authors use the framework of three guiding themes: Inclusion, Partnerships, and Universal Design for Progress.

2. Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with Disabilities by Amy G. Dell, Deborah Newton and Jerry G. Petroff

This text discusses how assistive technology can be used to achieve the ideals of universal design for learning and differentiated instruction. The authors do not focus on disability categories; they reject one-sized fits all approaches by focusing on providing strategies and tools for specific needs. However, technology is changing rapidly and any book written about technology can become obsolete quickly. Thus, one of the merits of this resource is that the text comes with an accompanying website that the authors update with new tools and advancements in the latest research. 

3. Universal Design for Learning in the Classroom: Practical Applications (What Works for Special-Needs Learners) by Tracey E. Hall, PhD, Anne Meyer, EdD, and David H. Rose, EdD

This practical text describes the underlying principles of universal design for learning (UDL), and details tangible ways to use UDL to meet the needs of diverse students across age levels. This book has the power to equip teachers with the skills required to develop classroom goals, assessments and learning materials that use UDL. The book is cross curricular and provides examples and strategies for reading, writing, science, mathematics, history, and the arts. 

4. The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind by Daniel J. Siegel, MD and Tina Payne Bryson, PhD

Although traditionally a parenting book, the principles of The Whole Brain Child are equally as valuable for teachers working with diverse learners. The book is a simple, practical resource that features twelve strategies for helping kids thrive in the face of common childhood challenges. The text hinges on the current medical and psychological understanding of child cognitive development and describes how a child’s brain is wired. The book explains how to use the understanding of a child’s brain to promote pro-social behavior in children. Drs. Siegel and Bryson also publish the The Whole-Brain Child Workbook: Practical Exercises, Worksheets and Activities to Nurture Developing Minds to help educators and parents deploy the twelve strategies.

5. Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary "Executive Skills" Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential by Peg Dawson, EdD and Richard Guare, PhD

Often learners with special needs struggle with the important executive functioning skills required to sustain focus, follow directions, complete tasks and regulate their impulses. Smart but Scattered is a great resource for both parents and teachers to help children learn the important skills of organization, time management, problem solving and coping with their emotions. The book provides simple assessment tools to help evaluate your students' strengths and challenges accompanied by activities and strategies to help build their deficient skills.

Happy 25th Anniversary to the ADA

We realized we have been blogging for a long time when we sat down to write about the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) upcoming on Sunday, July 26th – and found our post from five years ago, on the occasion of the ADA’s 20th Anniversary. As we noted then, the ADA was signed into law by President George H. Bush on July 26, 1990, as a latecomer to the legislative initiatives that grew out of the civil rights laws of the 1960’s. For example, the predecessor legislation to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (which took the name we now shorten to IDEA in 1991) first became law 40 years ago as the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Likewise, Section 504, the law that families of school age children may encounter because it also provides services and plans for students with disabilities, is part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The ADA is a much broader law than IDEA or Section 504, but does not provide the depth of services on which school aged students and their parents rely.  For example: The ADA applies to all individuals, not just school-aged students, as does the IDEA.  The ADA applies to all kinds of settings – workplace, transportation, and all kinds of schools. Section 504 only applies to businesses and other entities that take federal funds and thus generally does not apply to private schools.  Unlike the IDEA (but just like Section 504), the ADA applies to a very broad array of disabilities. The IDEA requires that a student fit within a specified list of disabilities.  However, the ADA only requires accommodations. It does not provide for services or require that students get “FAPE” – a Free, Appropriate, Public Education – as do the IDEA and the parts of Section 504 that apply to school age children.  It is important to keep in mind that even students who receive services or accommodations under the IDEA or Section 504 are also covered by the ADA. But, because the accommodations it requires are not sufficient for most students, it is generally not used when providing educational or other supports for students with disabilities up through 12th grade. Testing organizations, such as the College Board and the ACT, are covered by the ADA, as are colleges. Students transitioning from high school to higher education or the workplace – where the IDEA and the student-specific sections of 504 no longer apply – should become familiar with the ADA, since that will determine the accommodations to which they may be entitled. As President Obama noted in remarks earlier this week, “Thanks to the ADA, the places that comprise our shared American life — schools, workplaces, movie theaters, courthouses, buses, baseball stadiums, national parks — they truly belong to everyone.” It's something to be celebrated.