8 Project-Based Learning Videos by Students

(Originally published at Gettingsmart.com on September 28, 2012)

I recently wrote about co-authoring and signing project/passion-based learning contracts with my American Literature students. Well, just a few days have passed since viewing the final presentation, and I must admit our experiment was an overall success. Although students in Studio 113 have engaged in this method of learning since opening our classroom doors five years ago, this particular assignment featured our most detailed and formal contract.
To say the least, I was eager to see the merging of the standards and the students’ talents and interests into cohesive and didactic team presentations. With the exceptions of only a couple of subpar presentations, all teams exhibited responsibility and efficiency when given class time for their projects, communicated outside of class to expedite their visions, worked from their contracts with the standards as the foundation, and had an absolute blast creating their 10-20 minute presentations.
With the help of a few tech-savvy students, I will surely have all recorded and successful presentations mashed-up and posted to our school’s newly established YouTube Viking Channel in the very near future. Please follow me @JohnHardison1 and our classroom @Studio113_EHHS for any updates.

A Few Tips for Projects & Presentations

I have made many mistakes over the years when facilitating a project-based learning environment. Here are just a few of my recommendations.

• Have all students complete a rubric/checklist for all presentations. At the end of each presentation, students are encouraged to offer constructive criticism, praise, and standards-based feedback. If certain objectives aren’t successfully covered, students are directed to question the misuse or absence. Presenters aren’t finished until they are given the “go ahead” by the entire class.
• Pick your most energetic student, one who can’t stand to sit still, and ask him/her to record the students’ presentations. To be fair to all the students, be sure to include the video recorder when critiquing and questioning the teams following their presentations.
• Have a spare camera battery fully charged at all times. I constantly rotate between two batteries and sometimes between two cameras.
• When necessary, use a tripod to record better quality videos.
• Ask for student volunteers to help mash-up the videos. Once completed the videos can be placed in a repository for future classes to study as exemplars.
• Allow the next presenting team to work out any kinks or nerves while “on deck.” We are blessed to have a second room of computers and a recording booth. However, I used the hallway as our “on deck circle” when I was located in another building my first nine years of teaching.
• Adopt an open-door policy to allow students to continually polish and perfect their presentations.
• Make rehearsals mandatory for any team planning a high-tech presentation. It is crucial to become familiar with any slates, projectors, volume controls, etc.
• When possible, encourage students to present even if a team member is absent. Since each student has his/her own responsibilities, there should rarely be any problems.

Below are a number of exemplary presentations from our recent American Literature Unit 1 PBL contracts. If you decide to “skip around” while viewing the video clips, please take note of the different components for most presentations.

“I’m on a Boat” Musical Parody

This team consisted of three, very busy softball players who effectively managed their extra-curricular responsibilities with their academic assignments. Their dedication and enthusiasm for their project was validated by their attendance in one of our afterschool, open-door sessions immediately following a two-hour practice. Imagine, if you will, three female students who shake off the diamond dirt from their softball pants only to step into a recording room and rock out their understanding of Olaudah Equiano’s slave narrative in a song on MixCraft 6 and MovieMaker Live.

“I’m on a Boat” Complete Presentation

Note the effective, standards-based delivery of their complete presentation. Very mature, responsible, and well planned.

A Diverse Presentation

What makes this presentation so impressive is understanding the amount of time it took to create the green-screen effect for the video parody that merges Anne Bradstreet’s “To My Dear and Loving Husband” with a scene from The Titanic. Using a few props, hidden scripts for the actors, a Sony Cybershot, a classroom wall painted Chroma-Key green, and MovieMaker Live and Pinnacle software, these students rocked out an interesting interpretation of this famous Puritan poem. As if that were not enough, this amazing team added another video examining Edward Taylor’s “Huswifery” and an originally written rap song covering the entire reading assignment.

A Punctual Presentation with a Virtual Professor

At first, this presentation may seem a bit dull. Give it time, and you will see the ingenuity behind it. These three students wrote a script demonstrating their mastery of the standards and two Puritan poems and represented this understanding in a live conversation with a virtual character named Samuel from GoAnimate. The effect is awesome. The writing, planning, and timed rehearsal required for this project are exhausting. With the omission of one minor speaking mishap, this presentation would have been nearly flawless.

An Original Rap Song

To jump into the mind of Olaudah Equiano requires a comprehensive understanding of a slave narrative. Read these lyrics, listen to this song, and ask yourself, “Did these students understand the writer’s purpose and use of rhetorical strategies?” Also, please remember these three students sacrificed their lunchtime and worked in our recording booth for approximately three total hours. Mixcraft 6 was their creative tool of choice.

A Live Performance On-Stage

This team chose to show their understanding of two Puritan poems in a collaboratively written script performed in our theater. They did so quite fearlessly, if you ask me.

Courage on Display

Isn’t it amazing what talented, but terrified, students reveal when given the opportunities? Watch these students find the courage (with their peers’ eyes closed in a dark classroom) to triumph over fear and nervousness while allowing their true talents to speak so much louder. Please take note of the creative uses of WallWisher and GoAnimate also.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Want to make students think deeply and analytically? Simply have them write out thought-provoking questions and the corresponding, multiple-choice possibilities. These students did exactly just that, and they presented their understanding in “Game Show” fashion. Just to jazz it up, they even tossed in a quick commercial alluding to “A Journey Through Texas.”

Tune in two weeks from now to see the power of music within Studio 113. A dream team of talented writers, singers, and rappers is currently working on a song that highlights the necessities of a 21^st Century student. As a matter of fact, I better double-check their contract. As awesomely as their project is coming along, I should make sure they didn’t sneak in a compensation clause. After all, I can’t expect talent to sign for free too long. For now, we’ll just consider standards mastery and the promise of an engaging classroom to be payment in full.

Want Engaged Learners? Sign PBL Contracts

(Originally published at gettingsmart.com)

There was a time when my sole purpose for living and breathing, my ultimate dream, was to sign a contract — a contract to play professional baseball. I simply wanted the opportunity to work hard in order to create a better me for the entire team. “Give me that pen,” I remember thinking. “I’ll sign for a Coke and a smile,” I told anyone who would listen. That day never arrived.
Thanks to two amazing educators and baseball coaches, William Booth of Hartselle High School and Joe “Jabo” Jordan of Southern Union State Junior College, I learned the meaning and value of sacrifices and team rewards. These two, highly positive and tough teachers challenged me to surrender selfish goals in order to accomplish a larger vision, one that benefited the entire team.
Ironically, however, one of their shared techniques for molding a greenhorn baseball student into a selfless teammate was to set up a creative, engaging, and rigorous learning environment that highlighted my various strengths and weaknesses. It was not uncommon to complete a multi-hour practice only to wipe away the diamond dirt and grass and reveal a truer self. Afterwards, I knew what I could do. I knew my talents. I knew my faults. I knew my place on the team.
Although I often marvel at the fact that many of my greatest classes and lessons as a student were encompassed by chain link fences and boisterous team supporters whose loud cheers were muted only by the demands of two, farsighted leaders, I try my best to create a similar environment in our Language Arts classrooms. Only without the dirt, the grass and the fences. So far, the most masterful lesson I have to offer is one that is predicated on signing a contract — a problem/passion-based learning contract.
An American Literature Contract
Recently, our American Literature class began a contract-based, project-based learning (PBL) assignment by determining the required literature and accompanying standards, while offering all students a chance to demonstrate their mastery through any appropriate project of their choice.
It’s as simple as this: The standards and literature are mastered while students ultimately learn about their talents, interests, strengths and weaknesses through student-prescribed projects that challenge, engage and invigorate our team learning environment.
Students often choose to create songs, parodies, video mash-ups, green-screen newscasts, thematic websites, fictitious products, slideshow presentations, and live drama skits. For tech projects, our creative gallery of technology links is shared via a Symbaloo webmix on my teacher page. For any non-tech project, I revert to Coach Jordan’s simple, but powerful, field directive, “Find a way to make it happen.” We do just that. Whether raiding the drama department’s closet for character clothing or bringing in our own props, students in Studio 113 are encouraged to make no excuses while finding a way to make their vision a reality.
Co-Authoring the Contract
After introducing the literature sections, related standards and literary terms, students are encouraged to suggest the structure and guidelines of the project. The decision to include the students during the drafting of the contract is powerful. By giving students a creative voice throughout the entire process, the classroom-learning environment is shared. All present are stakeholders. With their priceless input, we agreed on the following sections for the contract:

1. An abbreviated list of the standards/literary terms
2. An assigned literature section with matching numbers for associated standards
3. The project and presentation grading criteria
4. A larger area for a handwritten project proposal
5. A contractual agreement that solidly sets a foundation for each team’s attitude, project appropriateness, responsibilities, and collaboration
6. Materials and/or additional help needed
7. Names of team members and their mutual responsibilities
8. The due date
9. A link to our Symbaloo webmix of technology resources
10. An area for the teacher’s and students’ signatures of agreement

The Sacrifices with PBL Contracts
Anyone who says project time for students affords teachers time to catch up on grading must be a superhero. Maybe it’s my inquisitive nature, but I continually found myself involved in riveting discussions with individual teams about their shared vision for the original project.
It seems with each new seat I took, I was allowed to share in the excitement and strategic planning of a new rap song, a dramatic rendition of a Puritan love poem, or a silent film set to colorful placards. Simply put, I witnessed the inner workings of creativity. But to be perfectly honest, I would be misleading you if I didn’t list my sacrifices, all of which I will gladly relinquish for a classroom of ecstatic learners:

1. The illusion of classroom control: On any given day, I would rather manage students’ creative energy that originates from an engaging assignment than to discipline minor classroom infractions that stem from boredom.
2. The pressure to be the creative leader: Need a spark for a new lesson plan? Take a look at your students. They will provide the ignition for a real-world project. Just ask them.
3. The door lock: I quickly realized last week the classroom doors were going to be virtually invisible during our project. The day after announcing the assignment, students were beating down the doors before, during, and after school. To my amazement, we had a team of three come to an afterschool help session immediately after a two-hour softball practice. How could I lock the door on such dedication?
4. Time: Whether eating a five-minute lunch, staying after work a few hours to help students, or communicating with parents to invite them to the upcoming presentations, your time will be affected by a challenging PBL assignment.
5. Inflexibility: Yeah, you read that one correctly. However, let’s drop it like it’s hot. Isn’t it quite challenging to work so hard on developing a golden lesson plan for several years only to have it challenged by students’ creative directions? Well, don’t hold on too long lest you get dragged. Besides, the students’ end result will be better than you could ever imagine.

As I ponder the above sacrifices, I am again reminded of my two, kick-butt, hard-nosed teachers who taught me the values of maintaining a selfless attitude in hopes of success for all. When presentation week begins, there will surely be technology glitches, unfulfilled responsibilities, and clarification of the assigned standards. In a nutshell, there will be problems. I am not worried. I’ll coach them through it.
I’m just pumped I finally got to sign the contracts, and I can’t wait to see what our team produces.

5 Apps to Lower Teacher Anxiety & Raise Student Voices

Originally published at gettingsmart.com on August 30th, 2012.

The art of teaching sure has changed since I nervously stepped into my first class of thirty-two, energetic students fourteen years ago. I remember feeling pressure from the prescribed sage-on-the-stage pedagogy. Fortunately, I soon discovered that not only was I far from an academic scholar, but I also wasn’t the most important factor. The students demanded they be a vital part of the classroom and curriculum creation. That was okay with me. Opening up the pressure valve a tad never hurt anyone.
Now, as an experienced educator concerned with implementing the new Common Core Standards, differentiating and blending instruction, collecting standards-based data, growing as a professional alongside the new TKES model, and with balancing my family life amidst the rigorous requirements of a successful classroom, my blood pressure can climb to a level that potentially mutes the very reason I chose to teach: listening to the students’ voices.
In a nutshell, leading six, fifty-minute, high school Language Arts classes (four of which are Honors or Advanced Placement) is a daunting task, especially with one, fifty-minute planning period. It is the type of scenario that has many educators feeling like they are required to be superheroes in the classroom. There is no need to worry, though. All educators have access to a superhero’s toolbelt of time-saving gadgets that lower teacher anxiety while elevating students’ voices. I like to think of them as technology sedatives.

Relax and Let Google Drive Work for You

Although I arrived a bit late to the party, I recognized the power of Google Docs (now called Google Drive) two years ago when a tech-savvy colleague persuaded me to let Google Drive collect any information I deemed important. This media center specialist walked me through the power of this free web resource and showed me how a simple shared survey would morph into an organized spreadsheet of invaluable data and information while I went about my normal day.
Her most influential, persuasive line? She said, “Create the form or document, share the link, and let Google Drive work while you go about your daily duties or while relaxing. Heck, even while you sleep.” And out of that ten-minute tutorial, I hired my trusty assistant, Google Drive, free-of-charge. Here are a few uses.

1. Create a survey asking students to list problematic standards while offering possible learning alternatives and strategies to master those very same objectives.
2. Embed a form on a teacher page requiring students to locate and curate content for a list of study terms.
3. Share a slideshow presentation with students while giving them access to add/edit multimedia examples that augment the lesson plan.
4. E-mail or share a spreadsheet link asking students pertinent questions that relate to project/passion-based learning. (i.e. students’ talents and interests, access to technology at home, ownership of smartphones, favorite technology tools, project ideas, etc.)
5. Share a link via Twitter that “kicks” students to a webpage that allows them to rate/score their peers’ performances in real time during classroom presentations.
6. Post a QR code that sends students to a list of writing prompts. After students have submitted their responses via smartphones or other mobile devices, go to Google Drive, print out the spreadsheet or simply use the Google Drive App on your smartphone or tablet to walk around the classroom while discussing the students’ replies as they work on other class assignments. Believe me when I say, “Google Drive really makes it too simple.”

The only dilemma with using Google Drive is how students will access and record the information. Whether choosing to e-mail a link, embedding a form on a teacher page, directing students to the shared document via Twitter, or by simply writing the address on the board and allowing students to take a cell phone picture, allowing Google Drive to work for you takes hardly no time to set up and share. See how easy it is here.

Use Socrative for Easy Standards-Based Assessment and Feedback

Socrative is a website that allows students to complete assessments via any internet-connected devices. Of course, the main catch with students is their ability to complete a class assignment from their smartphones. It is especially easy with the Socrative teacher and student apps.
While I am still exploring the burgeoning creative ways to use Socrative, one rock solid purpose is the traditional assessment. By taking advantage of the Socrative template to transfer a pre-made quiz from a Word document into an Excel spreadsheet, Socrative is immediately programmed with the testing prompts and answers. Students are given instant feedback when they take the quiz.
Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of this powerful and free website is the feedback. Socrative provides teachers with an Excel spreadsheet that color codes all correct and incorrect responses. By manipulating the columns, teachers get a glaringly obvious representation of the students’ learning and the effectiveness of the lesson. This makes it an efficient tool for formative assessments.
For example, after learning the vast majority of my AP Language students failed the “chiasmus parallelism” question on a recent quiz, a revamping of that particular lesson was much needed. The time spent determining students’ knowledge and my teaching effectiveness in the years past would have taken two or three hours. With Socrative, improving the classroom learning environment is just a downloadable, color-coded spreadsheet away. See it in action here.

Use Polleverywhere to Elevate Students’ Voices

My most valuable uses:

1. Use as a backchannel during a class discussion. This elevates all students’ voices, even those reluctant to speak out loud.
2. Use as real-time criticism for project presentations. Students rate classmates’ performances according to grading criteria. This real-world criticism is visible via a projected screen and encourages standards reinforcement from the audience. I promise your final presentations will be better than your first, especially if presented on different dates.
3. Have students vote for collaborative projects and class direction. Why not encourage students’ input when planning the next unit?
4. Analyze the writing process by posting students’ samples.

Polleverywhere is downloadable as a PowerPoint slideshow and as a .CSV file for Excel spreadsheets.

Increase Your Audience with Voicethread

Students don’t get too excited about expressing themselves to an audience of one. By sharing a Voicethread link, invite other classes from wherever to contribute to the discussion prompt. Parents and students from other classes and schools can contribute to the shared content. Before you know it, your assignment has grown into a viral lesson, but you only need to score your students. To do so, click on their profile pictures and listen. (Click here and let’s talk possibilities.)

Screencast to Teach Colleagues…Just Once

If you have a tech skill to share, whether it is tracking changes in Word or teaching colleagues how to create their own Voki class avatars, use screencast-o-matic to record your tutorial and share with interested co-workers. Teachers can click “play” as many times as it takes to understand, while you relax and let the technology sedatives work for you. All of these free gadgets should allow you to concentrate on hearing what matters most—the students’ voices.

"11 Steps to Gamify Your Next Lesson"

"11 Steps to Gamify Your Next Lesson"

(Originally published at gettingsmart.com)

With so many educators today discussing the possibilities and promises of online learning, one key aspect of education often forgotten in the quest to tear down these learning walls is the ability to create classroom magic within those very same walls. Along with blended learning, flipped classrooms, gamification and many other new instructional buzz words, virtual classrooms are unquestionably valuable educational instruments in a teacher’s pedagogical toolbox.
However, let’s remember the power of an engaging, all-inclusive, in-class learning structure within a traditional classroom. To witness one of these environments where teachers and students interact in a challenging, accountable, spontaneous, and creative atmosphere is to witness a work of art—or classroom magic.

The Game: A “Voting Chips Structure”

One game guaranteed to produce the excitement needed to engage students and achieve the assigned standards is what I call the “Voting Chips Structure,” a learning game that asks students to represent their understanding of an assigned prompt with colored poker chips. Although many of our learning models do not include competition, “Voting Chips Structure” is definitely a competitive game.
Oddly enough, the foundation of this structure in Studio 113 does not originate from the standards. The success is predicated on the students’ choice of final rewards and/or consequences for all participants. Whether it be lip-syncing to Justin Beiber’s “Baby,” performing a version of an arthritic T-Rex dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” or receiving an ice-cold Coke and fresh Milky Way from a classmate, students energetically embrace the consequences and rewards system before diving head first into creating classroom magic.

The “Voting Chips Structure” Procedures

1. Set up the structure. Assign each student a teammate and organize the partnerships in a circle with one student as the front channel representative and the other as the back channel representative.
2. Assign the prompt. The students and I created the “Voting Chips Structure” to apply pressure and prepare our Advanced Placement Language class for the timed, rigorous, multiple-choice section of the College Board exam. However, one excellent feature of this learning model is its “plug-and-play” flexibility. Simply plug in the standard, the algebraic problem, the science experiment, the historical fact, the literary excerpt, the conjugation of a second-language’s verb, the skills needed to perform a physical activity, or anything deemed important by the classroom’s learning family. A teacher should simply ask, “What do I want my students to learn with this activity?” Then, simply plug-in the prompts each round and witness the students play with the learning objectives.
3. Allow thinking time. The amount of thinking time for each round should be determined by the complexity of the prompt. Since we utilized this structure in conjunction with AP Language multiple-choice questions, one-two minutes were given for each team to discuss its answer, and a digital timer was posted on the screen to keep the structure running smoothly and fairly. This may not seem like enough time, but please remember we began this structure the day after each student individually completed the very same questions as a mock portion of the exam.
4. Poll the back channel. When the thinking time expires, the back channel students are asked to indicate their initial answers by raising their hands. If the assigned prompts are not of the multiple-choice nature, students can voice their answers by verbalizing their responses, by posting to Polleverywhere.com, by tweeting with a pre-determined hashtag, or by any other creative measure established by the learning family. The purpose of polling the back channel is to clarify the majority answer within the classroom. This usually entices all students to reconsider their previous answer.
5. Allow limited time to change answers. Giving thirty seconds for students to re-challenge their interpretation of the prompt and their initial responses is a powerful technique that causes them to dive even deeper into the unknowns of the learning cue. Oftentimes, students resurface from the deep with a solid understanding of the assigned task.
6. Ask front channel to announce final answer. After the final deliberation, only the students on the front channel have the authority to announce their final answers. Again, various tech resources may be used to disseminate these answers, however, the old-school method of voicing the answers one-at-a-time is the most efficient method.
7. Ask students to vote their confidence with chips. Using a set of colored poker chips ranging in value from 1, 3, 5, 10, and 25, students match their partnership’s overall confidence of their final answer with a value determined by the offered chips stacked in front of the front channel members. The starting number of chips should be discussed prior to beginning the model. Our teams agreed upon a starting amount of one hundred.
8. Announce/discuss the correct answer. The excitement derived from announcing the final answer is awesome. Be creative and have some fun with it.
9. Ask students to make corrections and re-calculate. After making any needed corrections, front channel students re-calculate their chips by either adding to or subtracting from the trays of organized chips in the center of the circle. If needed, students may use their smartphones or calculators to accurately score themselves. The longer the structure is used, the more complex the numbers may be.
10. Add any necessary clarifications. If further elaboration or clarification is needed to extend the learning moment, either the teacher or the students may be asked to validate the answer with more detail.
11. Reset. An optional announcement of each team’s score is harmless and actually adds to the competitive atmosphere. Periodically rotating the front and back channels is also recommended. All that is left to do now is reset and move to round two.

Take a quick look at the “Voting Chips Structure” in action here.

Simply Plug-in the Standards and Play to Learn Flexibility

Whether it is Math, History, Language Arts, Health & P.E., Computer Basics, Chemistry, Webpage Design, Band, Art, or any class at all, I honestly cannot think of any limitations to implementing this structure. Sure, certain learning environments and disciplines will need to take advantage of the flexibility of this structure in order to create one that better serves them. That is the beauty of this “plug-and-play” design.
Simply determine the standards of focus, give the students a voice in creating the procedures for the “Voting Chips Structure,” and simply plug-and-play to create classroom magic. You may not pull a rabbit out of a hat, make a card “jump” from the middle of the stack to the top like David Blaine, or manipulate a Frisbee with no hands like Chris Angel. Heck, I’m quite sure you won’t solve all the educational problems in our country, but you will wipe out students’ lethargy and boredom by creating an engaging classroom full of magic. You can do it, and I’m betting your class will go “all-in” with the voting chips.
Experience “Voting Chips” and many other learning structures from John Hardison & Studio 113 at Georgia’s Educational Technology Conference in November. Please also add your comments by joining the #votingchips discussion on Twitter.

Life Is Writing: Two Apps for the Reluctant Writer

"Life Is Writing: Two Apps for the Reluctant Writer" (originally published at Gettingsmart.com)

I can’t even begin to quantify how many times I have been blessed with the challenge of working with a reluctant writer. During 14 years in the Language Arts classroom, I have heard “I hate writing” a thousand times. Sure, everybody loves those students who scan the writing prompt a couple of times just before their minds and hearts connect with the pens and bleed ink onto the paper in an effortless representation of creativity and mastery of rhetorical strategies. Taking natural writers to the next level is also a daunting task, but I will forever be grateful for those who stare at the paper with confusion and anxiety while hoping words will magically fill up the empty lines. Their apathy for writing shakes me to the core in such a way that leaves me scratching my hairless head and searching for any angle to prove how essential self-expression is to living. To me, life is writing.

How to Ignite Passion Into Reluctant Writers

Some of my attempts to ignite a passion for writing in my students have failed, and no doubt various students have left my class on the last day of school still detesting the writing process. Any teacher faces this reality at times. However, the one bona fide solution that continues to yield excellent results in our classroom is one rooted in common sense. When prompted by a student’s unintended verbal challenge in the form of “I hate writing,” I smile, take a deep breath, pull out a chair and give it my best shot.
“So, you hate writing, huh?” I ask. After hearing a courageous and honest, “yes,” I continue. “I want you to pretend you’re sitting on a front porch somewhere absolutely beautiful – near a beach watching the sunset, up in the mountains hearing rain tickle a tin roof, wherever.” I pause just before finishing the final touches on a canvas colored with Southern scenery, “And the one person you trust more than anyone in the world, a person who is a solid rock, a person you can tell anything to, is sitting right next to you on the front porch swing. You’re sipping on that ice cold glass of sweet tea, and you begin to talk about anything, whatever is on your mind. You don’t stop and wonder if your grammar is correct. You don’t stop and check your spelling. You just open up the tap and let it flow.” Usually by this time, I sense if my strategy is working, and whether it is or not, I still end with my best writing advice. “Simply talk to the paper,” I say.

How to Leverage the Dragon Dictation App for Reluctant Writers

Where students see empty lines on a paper, I want them to hear a voice – their own voice. This is exactly why the Dragon Dictation App works perfectly. Some students fight the physical part of writing but can’t seem to slow down when allowed to talk about the exact same topic. Think about it. Have you ever had a student in class who was always more than willing to give his impressive insight or opinion on any given topic only to clam up when you offered a silent writing session to the class? This need not be a problem with Dragon. Simply open the app on a tablet or smartphone and ask the student to talk. This technique serves as a kick-starter for the writing process, and a student’s confidence immediately soars once he copies and pastes his text into a writing app and views multiple paragraphs of a rough draft. The editing comes later.

Use the Tripline App to Write Everywhere & Anywhere

As my family so often points out, I am a nerd. I always want to put myself in my students’ shoes, so when possible I test all my theories before implementing them in class. Whether I am grilling burgers on the back porch, spending some quality time with my family, or riding a road bike in the North Georgia mountains, I feel like I am swimming in a sea of imagery. Every sight, every sound, every smell, every sensation is an invitation to fully participate in life and express one’s self. With this foundational belief in mind, I decided to experiment once again. I figured if students could see every present moment as an opportunity to express themselves, their love of writing would grow even greater. If they could “check-in” to the moment wherever they were and simply write about their experience, I knew they would believe in the power of self-expression.
To test my theory, I took my eight year-old daughter, my thirteen year-old son and his out-of-state friend to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. I politely informed them that at each stop I would complete the following steps:

1. Take pictures with my iPhone of any interesting sights
2. Use the Dragon Dictation App to talk about our experience
3. Copy the unedited text from Dragon and paste into the “story” section in the Tripline App; and
4. Send pictures and writing by selecting “check-in” via the Tripline App.

Each time I selected “check-in,” the Tripline website created an interactive, GPS-located map of our travels. Just like the diver we witnessed in the Ocean Voyager tank at the aquarium who was surrounded by whale sharks, manta rays, and other aquatic life, I felt immersed again in a sea of imagery, and I could capture each moment in words and pictures. By showing the pictures, writing and exact location, viewers get a sincere account of our travels. To make my experiment as realistic as possible, I assigned myself the following writing standards during our Georgia Aquarium trip: technical, narrative, persuasive, expository, and descriptive. Furthermore, I chose to keep our trip “private” until I returned home, logged in to Tripline, and edited my writing.
Our trip, and my experiment, was a resounding success. We had an absolute blast. Not only am I excited to jump back in the classroom and offer these tech writing tools to my students, but I am eager to create more opportunities that foster students’ passion for writing. One thing hasn’t changed, however. When I hear on the first day of school, “I hate writing,” I will be prepared.
I will smile, take a deep breath, pull up a chair, and say, “Want to talk instead?” Click here to join the discussion on Voicethread or comment below.

"The Talent & the Agent: My Desired Class"

"The Talent & the Agent: My Desired Class"
(originally published at gettingsmart.com)


The students and the teacher, the audience and the speaker, the players and the coach, the learners and the sage: I could go on forever with the many ascribed labels attached to the occupants of a classroom, and depending on the structure, purpose, and direction of the class, these tags can be negative or positive in nature. Leaning on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s famous “frightening conclusion” quotation, I am Zen-like in my focus on the classroom atmosphere and I intend to create – the talent and the agent this upcoming school year. By developing flexible lesson plans, implementing interactive learning structures, and engaging the customers with passion-based projects, the class of my dreams will be a reality.

Skeletal Lesson Plans

Lesson plans should be skeletal in nature. The assigned curriculum and all its supporting standards and literature act as a strong but flexible framework for the students to continually add muscle and flesh by challenging, playing, and wrestling with the daily tasks. With a supple but fluid approach for each unit, students sense the freedom to suggest further exploration while dropping creative hints for engaging classroom activities. Some of the best lessons I have ever witnessed were ignited by students’ original questions and ideas. Who knows how many times I was too focused on one of my golden lesson plans to hear the heartbeat of the class. Maybe if I slow down enough to learn the likes and dislikes of each student, I will keep a steady finger on the pulse of the class.

Interactive Learning Structures

Drawing from authentic learning structures such as “Doorball,” “Cell Phone and Literary Seismograph,” “Bullet Train,” “The Chosen Ones,” “Voting Chips,” and “Wax Museum,” students participate in interactive classroom designs that foster responsibility, creativity, spontaneity, and collaboration. These learning activities offer an organized but unscripted atmosphere for students to work with the assigned standards in individual and team settings. The energy and level of engagement is quite contagious, and the students oftentimes enter class asking to continue a certain structure from a previous lesson.

Passion-Based Projects

As all educators know, balance can sometimes be a four-letter word. How much time should be given for projects? How many traditional settings are effective? How can interactive learning styles develop mastery of the assigned standards? The questions keep coming and are sometimes collectively answered only after subjecting any teaching theories to experimentation in the actual classroom. One such experiment that continues to yield excellent results is the passion-based project. Whether drawing from our shared Symbaloo webmix or from creative ideas that involve little or no technology, passion-based projects where students merge their personal interests with the assigned standards are a lock. They simply work. I witnessed this truth firsthand this summer when my eighth grade, suburbanite son asked me to help him construct a basic chicken coop with the ultimate conclusion of owning several Silky chickens. The result was more than I could imagine. Not only did we construct a very cool enclosure for a few furry hens, but an engaged middle-school learner and his sister realized the world is the true classroom.

For the last four years in our class, Studio 113, students have blown us away with original paintings illustrating an in-depth understanding of symbolism, with painstaking lyrics for a new thematic song covering Dark Romanticism (scroll down to second song), and with action-packed videos featuring zip-lining superheroes who speak using examples from AP Language literary terms. To drop it like it’s hot, students have talent. They can even take something as mundane as discussing strategies for multiple-choice questions and transform it into a multi-camera movie trailer that has the audience looking for the ticket booth.
Maybe students just want to have fun with the assignments. Maybe it is how they learn best – by creating. Maybe they subscribe to Will Smith’s quotation: “The greatest dreams are always unrealistic.” Whatever it is, students can consistently create original music videos or literary remakes that not only master the standards but also bend and shape the lessons into something new, something that resembles art. Ah, but that would label the students as artists. Fine with me. I will gladly stand back and admire the talent as long as students do not believe the only things they create are the illusions that their level of engaged learning can be qualitatively and quantitatively measured by standardized test scores. As for the talent and the agent, I simply hope my skills match the students’ potential aptitude. After all, who wants to be “fired” by a class of bored students who are hungry to unveil their personal interests and abilities? That would be mismanagement of talent.

"An Energetic Classroom through Interactive Structures"

"An Energetic Classroom through Interactive Structures" by John Hardison (@JohnHardison1 & @Studio113_EHHS)

(This post was originally published at Richard Byrne's website: freetech4teachers.com)

Surely any passionate educator would say the teaching practice is one of trial and error, success and failure. I am no different. Whatever hasn’t worked in our classroom, the students and I have simply altered, enhanced, or sometimes completely overhauled. Quitting is not an option. We collectively supply the energy needed to create a collaborative and engaging atmosphere of shared knowledge. To allude to a favorite baseball great, we “Pete Rose” any challenges in our AP Language or American Literature classes by diving in headfirst and supplying a zest for learning that is clearly palpable in our classroom. The great Ralph Waldo Emerson, who once stated “The world belongs to the energetic,” would surely agree. In essence, our students transcend selfishness, boredom, narrow-mindedness, and unoriginality by embracing an academic setting that demands participation.

Even with the success of our project-based assignments and some traditional teaching methods, the most tested and highly effective solution for creating this active environment is our implementation of learning structures. The students and I totally create them ourselves. With names like “Stage Fright,” “Recording Artists,” “Force Field,” and “Six-Shooter Firing Squad,” these organized but spontaneous designs have been the foundation of our success in Studio 113, an interactive Language Arts classroom that houses a basic recording studio, a hexagonal, raised stage, green screens, a smartboard, and a secondary room for digital production.

One of our top ten structures is one verbosely named “Flip Forum, Unaware Speaker, and Silent Discussion.”At first, it may not appear overly exciting, but the students’ feedback reveals a clearer vision. Actually a conglomeration of three mini-structures, the design is highly effective. First off, the students are placed in one of four teams that will eventually rotate through four structured areas. Stations A & B, circled around our stage in the middle of the room, constitute the “Flip Forum” discussion, where students analyze and discuss the assigned literature by sharing their original ideas, flipping over their assigned numbers located in front of them on stage, and then calling on classmates to continue the thread. A continual backchannel via Polleverywhere is viewable on a drop-down screen, and students are also encouraged to enlarge the discussion audience by using Apple’s Facetime or by simply switching to “speaker” on their cell phones. There is nothing quite like having a student’s mother offer her opinion in real time. Obviously, I remind the students a few days before to prepare any outside audience members with a tentative schedule for our “Flip Forum” discussion. If communication on the assigned prompts needs to be extended, Voicethread is embedded on my webpage for afterschool continuation, or students can use Posterous to send in their video-recorded opinions to our class blog.

Station C, “Unaware Speaker,” invites the students to record a team member to speak to the assigned prompt while pretending to be oblivious to the symbolic and silent acting performed behind him. One particular student, acting as the camera man, will frame the video with the acting appearing directly over the speaker’s shoulder. Students can choose to share camera, speaking, and acting responsibilities in this station. All videos may be later mashed-up into an original video in a style determined by the class after completing all rotations. Ideas range from movie trailers to newscasts to music videos to any original and appropriate student proposals.

Finally, Station D is one that adds a bit of serenity to the bustling learning environment. The “Silent Discussion” asks students to explore the prompt by contributing in a TodaysMeet chatroom or by using a Twitter hashtag. Of course, I follow along on my iPad or laptop as I stroll through the stations and observe the students sharing knowledge in a variety of ways.

A few educators in my PLN question the effectiveness of the “Flip Forum, Unaware Speaker, and Silent Discussion” in their classrooms due to a perceived lack of technology. That may very well be the case. As I have witnessed so many times, students are eager to share tech gadgets, knowledge, and ideas to circumvent any problem caused by technology or the lack thereof. However, no worries. I have used this exact same structure with Post-It notes, dry-erase boards, rolls of bulletin board paper, rotational manila folders, etc. Whether it’s old school or tech-integrated, the students are encouraged to express their original ideas.

But the next structure I want to share with you is way too simple, yet it’s extremely effective. In fact, the “Wax Museum” structure comes with a warning. Although no technology is required, the energy level in the class will skyrocket the moment the students understand the level of freedom allowed to create a motionless, symbolic “wax” statue that successfully addresses the assigned prompt. Here’s how it goes. 1. Students are instructed to use any appropriate items in their possession and any within the classroom (or my storage closet of tech gadgets and props for that matter) 2. While focusing on the prompt at hand, students should plan a “wax” statue that will be held without movement for up to five minutes or more. 3. Students are given roughly 15-20 minutes to discuss and prepare the assignment. 4. Once all teams are ready, students are instructed to hold their positions quietly and as perfectly still as possible while I record their creations with a video camera. 5. Lastly, the students continue to hold their positions while one or more team members explain their rationale while only moving their lips. Simply put…students love it.

Honestly, I am not sure if Mr. Emerson’s quotation stands true for our class. After all, our energetic students in Studio 113 may not actually own the world after an invigorating class, but there is one certainty: I can guarantee you they will share their classroom of knowledge and creativity through engaging structures, project-based learning, and forward thinking. That’s all I ask.


John Hardison is a facilitator of learning in an interactive classroom called Studio 113 at East High School in Gainesville, GA where literature creatively comes to life on a stage with students as the stars. In the past 14 years at East Hall High School, Hardison has taught AP Language, American Literature, World Literature, and Applied Communications. Through original learning structures and a shared classroom concept, students are inspired to connect literature with their own talents and interests. Follow John on Twitter @JohnHardison1 and his class @Studio113_EHHS. Hardison blogs monthly for GettingSmart.com and shares his interactive structures in workshops at local technology conferences.
Blogs from GettingSmart.com
The Structure Factory Blog
John Hardison’s Studio 113 Webpage