Ross Cooper

Meet the Teacher Night and The Wizard of Oz

http://youtu.be/zbb_m2FgQh4&w=550&h=332

As has become the norm, this year my school began Back to School Night with each teacher showing the same informational school video in their classrooms. Using a video avoids everyone having to gather in the multi-purpose room for a “boring” session, and it ensures that everyone hears identical information. Also, videos are entertaining, and they are posted to the school website for possible viewing at later points in time. My principal and I came up with this idea about six years ago, and for five out of the last six years, this is how our school has run Back to School Night. (A few years back we were working at a brand new school, and it was decided that face-to-face would be more appropriate when meeting many of the parents for the very first time.)

Above is this year’s video, which was created in Final Cut Pro X, along with some assistance from Photoshop, Illustrator (Adobe’s graphic design software), GarageBand (Apple’s music recording program), and HandBrake (which allows users to transform DVDs into digital files that can then be edited).

How We Start the School Year!

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About two weeks prior to the start of the school I mail my new students and parents a welcome letter and a supply list. This year, I decided to throw in a bit of flare by enclosing the content in a “candy bar wrapper,” which I modeled after the Wonka Bar from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. My wrapper was created in Adobe Illustrator with the help of the Willy Wonka font, which I was able to find and download for free after a quick Google Search. For the sake of authenticity, I tried to make my chocolate bar look as close to the Wonka Bar as possible. Also, the back (not pictured) contains a QR code that connects to my classroom website.

Along with the two papers, the wrapper also included a golden ticket, which invited new students to a classroom technology day, approximately ten days prior to the start of the school year. (Once again, the golden ticket mimics the “real” golden ticket as closely as possible.) Due to the heavy emphasis that is placed on technology in my classroom, I like to get students started with certain tools as soon as possible. Also, I can take this time to proactively establish rapport with my students, which pays off later on when certain learning obstacles may occur.

So, towards the middle of this past August, 20 out of my 28 new students entered into my classroom for the very first time. More or less, the day was split into four parts:

Edcamp Willow Lane

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Since arriving home from Edcamp New Jersey, I have been contemplating the ways in which its structure could be used as part of the professional development model at Willow Lane Elementary School. Soon after the Edcamp, I met with my building principal and Instructional Support Teacher (IST) in order to discuss the possibilities.

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Reflection From My First Edcamp

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Yesterday, my principal and I attended Edcamp New Jersey at Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick. This was my first ever Edcamp, and I was anxious to see firsthand what all of the excitement has been about. Edcamps are categorized as educational technology unconferences, because they are participant-driven and with no top-down organization. According to the official Edcamp website, an Edcamp has the following features: it is free; it is non-commercial and with a vendor free presence; it can be hosted by any organization or anyone; it is made up of sessions that are determined on the day of the event; anyone can be a presenter; and it is reliant on the law of two feet. (Edcampers are encouraged to get on their feet and leave sessions that do not meet their needs.) While headed to New Jersey, I was just as interested in the format of the unconference as I was in the content that I would be learning from its actual sessions.

Creativity in the Classroom

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Currently, I am a student at Lehigh University, where I am in the process of earning my K-12 Principal Certification. For the current class that I am attending, one of my assignments was to lead the class “in a brief (no more than 20-minute) professional dialogue regarding a topic of [my] choice that relates to the principalship or to instructional areas within K-12 schools.” My presentation took place last Wednesday night, and it focused on creativity in the classroom.

Edscape 2012

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About two weeks ago, my principal, another teacher in my building, and I attended the Edscape 2012 Conference at New Milford High School in New Milford, New Jersey. “Edscape is the innovative learning conference designed to transform your teaching and learning practices… Edscape’s goal is to explore how learning environments can be established to promote critical though, inquiry, problem, solving, and creativity.” I heard of the conference through tweets from the high school’s principal, Eric Sheninger (who is known to the education world as “Principal Twitter” or @NMHS_Principal), and through tweets from Vicki Davis (@coolcateacher), the keynote speaker for the event. During the conference, I attended Vicki’s keynote and four different sessions.

[Read more…] about Edscape 2012

Math Common Core Presentation

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For about the past three years I have served as one of the fourth grade representatives on my school district’s Math Curriculum Committee. The committee initially assembled in order to assist in the selection and implementation of a new math series that would be used across the district. However, we had a curveball thrown our way when Pennsylvania adopted the Common Core State Standards. It was at this point in time that the committee turned its attention to this drastic change, and the way in which we would utilize professional development to familiarize all teachers with these new standards and practices.

As part of the professional development process, I recently presented on Common Core Mathematics to all of the fourth grade teachers in my district. The presentation lasted for approximately 2.5 hours, and it took place on my district’s fall in service day. The majority of the content focused on how inquiry-based mathematics could be taught, and not so much the new fourth grade documents (pacing guide, curriculum, etc.) that will be rolled out within the next year or so. Presenting all of the information in one session would have been overwhelming for all parties involved. Also, in order to truly emphasize the pedagogical shift that must take place, I strongly felt that it was best to first focus on how to teach before reviewing what to teach.

Here is a brief outline of what took place over the 2.5 hours:

Faculty Meeting and The Marshmallow Challenge

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I was originally introduced to The Marshmallow Challenge when I was in Scottsdale, Arizona for the Apple Distinguished Educator 2011 Summer Institute. My team emerged the victors, not because of me, but due to a certain physics teacher who also happened to be a former graduate student of Harvard University. Since this time, I have performed the Marshmallow Challenge with all of my fourth grade classes, both at the beginning of the school year and again at the end of the year.

Last week, my principal asked me to conduct the Marshmallow Challenge with the entire staff at a faculty meeting. First, the teachers were divided into groups of six, according to where they were sitting. Each group was given a yard of masking tape and a paper bag that contained: 20 sticks of spaghetti, 1 yard of string, 1 marshmallow, and 1 pair of scissors. Then, with their materials, the groups were given 18 minutes in order to build the tallest freestanding structure possible, and the marshmallow needed to be at the top. Some more specific rules included:

Student Guest Post: Technology Day and The Marshmallow Challenge

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The week before school started Mr. Cooper had a technology day for his students. Some of the fun things we learned about are how to make an iMovie on our iPods and transfer it to the MacBooks at school. He had us go into groups and come up with our own ideas for the movie. Most of the movies turned out to be very funny. My group’s movie was called “The Splinter”. The movie was about a girl who got a splinter and was very sad about this splinter. In the background there is a girl who keeps really getting hurt (fake of course) and has to keep going to the nurse. Creating an iMovie is fun and teaches us a lot of things such as, adding music and sound effects, adding titles and different backgrounds for titles. On technology day we enjoyed ourselves and made new friends.

Project-Based Learning Professional Development

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A handful of years ago, my school district began a project based learning (PBL) initiative and has since continued these efforts in the form of an initiative on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. As a result of the district placing their stamp of approval on these approaches to teaching and learning, I have witnessed a noticeable increase in the number of teachers who are promoting classroom projects, inquiry-based learning, and collaborative education.

This year, my school’s professional development committee decided to make PBL one of the main focuses of teacher learning, and I could not be happier. This is an initiative that I am helping to lead, along with one of the fifth grade teachers in my school. My colleague and I are teaching three sessions on PBL (two of which have already taken place). All sessions are exactly the same (more or less), and each teacher is required to attend one of the three sessions.