Experimenting with FlipGrid

Our district is pushing FlipGrid as a tool for kids to use to demonstrate their learning. A few weeks ago, I went to a technology workshop and the app was featured. I saw a lot of potential there. It is something that kids would like, I thought. When I got back to class, I had two of my students, Brandon and CJ, play around with the app and record a "How-To" video showing the other kids how to use the app. It took a couple of days but they became familiar enough with the app that they could make a pretty good video.

On Monday, I introduced the app to the rest of the kiddos. We saw the website, took a look at how it worked, and watched the video that Brandon and CJ made. The kids were hooked. After forming small groups, making sure that each group had a device, I gave the class twenty minutes to play around with the app. I wanted them to make some sort of video even if it was just introducing themselves. For the next twenty minutes, chaos ensued. Kids were experimenting, asking questions, sharing information, discovering tricks and hacks, and having a good time learning. While some kids stuck to the basics, some groups got a little creative. It is that space where kids have some freedom to make learning choices that we often see them shine.

What will we do with FlipGrid? Well, I can see a lot of uses for it in our current classroom configuration. I have also put the word out to the kids that if they see a use for FlipGrid that we can incorporate into our class work, I want to know about it. After all, 24 heads are better than one. The first thing they will do with FlipGrid is create a 60-90 second "How-To" video like the one Brandon and CJ created. The video will be an instructional video demonstrating how to do something at which each student excels. This assignment is a chance for the kids to show some of their expertise and also is a precursor to our Genius Hour program that we will launch in January.

The idea that our class values each child's talent and genius is beginning to sink in for them. They have more choice and voice than they have ever been given before. I know from the past that when kids embrace the idea that they are an active learner, they will initiate learning and problem solving on their own. That is what we want to see. I want kids to find problems to solve and work on the solution. I want kids to make their own reading choices according to what they love. I want kids to see school as a way for their own personal learning goals to be met. After all, what else should our schools be doing if not that?

Instruction Through Digital Innovation

This week I participated in a professional development program called Instruction Through Digital Innovation. It is a technology program recognizing the good work that teachers were doing with technology in the district while helping teachers learn more, network and brainstorm with other like-minded teachers. The day included the presenters showing some benefits of technology in the classroom, the group of teachers identifying how technology could be integrated effectively in classrooms, classroom visits, and lesson development.

I love workshops like this one. I love learning about new tech. Many times I see immediate applications of the tools in my class but I am always surprised by the ideas of others. I don't know how many times a teacher suggested something and I thought to myself, "Why didn't I think of that?" When you get some creative, tech-savvy teachers in a room, they will astound you with what they know. While we received many handouts, it was the suggestions of teachers during conversation times that I noted. Now, I will go back to my classroom and investigate the ideas of these creative teachers and see how they apply to my own situation. Like any good ideas, I'll tweak them to make them work for me, but the ideas are the important currency.

One of the tools that we used was the TIM chart. It helped the teachers in the room come to agreement on where tech integration fell on the spectrum. For the most part, teachers agreed on more effective and less effective uses of technology. In our own lessons, we are trying to seamlessly use technology to further learning, not just substitute one tool for another. The key to technology is that is should do something that other tools cannot do to enhance learning. 

When it came time to create my lesson for reflection, I chose to have kids make "How-to" videos using FlipGrid. FlipGrid is an app that our district is pushing. It is a short video app with which kids can create video responses. It looks really cool and I can find dozens of uses for it in my room. The problem is that I don't know how to use it. I subscribed to the teacher kit, read enough to get me going, and pulled two kids from class, and had them download the app to their phone. They will be responsible for learning how to use it. They will make an introductory "How-to" video about using FlipGrid which I will show my classes. They will then be the experts in the room. To say that they are excited is an understatement. I am happy because I can leverage the interest of these kids in order to get all of the students using FlipGrid. We are a community of teachers and learners. 

I am really looking forward to what comes next during our time in the IDI program. I feel that I have a lot of growing to do this year. Last year, I integrated some tech into my classroom but not nearly as much as years previous. Part of that problem was because I was in a new situation (new state, district, and school) and part of it was getting a handle on what resources our school had. Now that I am one year in, I feel that I can make better decisions and get these kids up to speed in their use of technology. They need to learn and I need to give them the room, time, and resources so that they can learn.

Hurricane Irma

On September 10, Naples, FL took a direct hit from Hurricane Irma. During the week prior, we saw the weather models that showed how Irma may skirt up the east coast of Florida and avoid the west coast altogether. Three days before Irma hit, those models shifted. Irma was headed directly toward Naples. Our superintendent wisely cancelled school for the two days before the hurricane made landfall. That gave our students and staff a chance to evacuate to safety if they chose. Many of my kiddos' families evacuated. Since Irma was going to tear up the entire state, many of the kids' families fled to Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Alabama. Our school district used 29 schools as shelters and thousands and thousands of Naples residents used those shelters. It was going to be ugly.

When Irma hit, she hit hard. Irma made landfall in Naples as a Category 4 hurricane with winds up to 142 miles per hour. The storm lasted for hours with the most intense part of the storm, the eye wall, lasting for 2-3 hours. Since the eye of the storm was passing directly over Naples, many took the opportunity to go outside in the eye of the hurricane. I know I did. How many people can say that they have experienced the eye of a hurricane? Winds and rain pummeled us through the night as Irma made her way up the Florida peninsula.

On the morning of September 11, we woke to see the devastation that Irma left behind. Much of Naples was flooded, streets were impassable, trees and power lines were down, buildings were destroyed, there was no power or cell service and the water system was tainted. People who had prepared to live off the grid for awhile would be fine. Those who did not prepare were in trouble. I learned that the two most important commodities after a hurricane are water and gas. Since no stores or gas stations would open for a few days, the lines for those items, when they became available, were tremendous. Some waited up to seven hours in line for gas.

Now we were ready for recovery. People tried as best they could to check on their loved ones. Orders from the County Sheriff's Department stated that people should not drive the roads until officials could check them out to make sure they were safe. Most people were stranded in their homes with no power or communications. I myself was without power for eleven days. Slowly, over the next couple of weeks, things would get back to normal. School in Collier County was cancelled for the two weeks following Hurricane Irma. There was no way that the schools could open. Most were without power, 29 had been used as shelters, and many of our kids were not even in the state. No, we would have to wait for Naples to recover more before schools could open.

During the two weeks of recovery before schools opened, we all worked on restoring our properties. Residents placed as much debris as possible by the streets so that FEMA trucks could take it away in the next few months. Driving around, there were two sounds that we heard constantly: the hum of generators and the roar of chainsaws. These two things are essential in any disaster. Our power company promised that nearly all power would be restored to residents by September 22, nearly two weeks after the hurricane. On that day, teachers would return to schools. It took a herculean effort to make the schools whole again, but they were.

When we returned, we learned about the massive amount of resources that our school district, in partnership with the business community, had assembled to help the kids and their families. Our school communities are indeed communities. When kids returned to school on Monday, September 25, we were ready. Our counselors gathered information about what kids' families needed and the all-call went out to get those items. All kids would have free breakfast and lunch through the month of October. For some of our kiddos, these are the only meals that they get daily. Kids who needed clothes got clothes. Bags of food went home to families in need. When a community pitches in, there is nothing it can't accomplish.

In class, we debriefed. Kids told their stories about leaving or staying. They talked about the fear of the storm and the difficulty of recovery. Kids who evacuated talked about what they returned to. It will take months for Naples to get back to normal. We see evidence, debris piles, everyday that remind us of Hurricane Irma. These kids are resilient. They returned a bit battered but ready to get back into the routine. The normalcy that school provides is something that they latched onto immediately. There were brighter days ahead.

Irma will be with us all year long. It is a shared experience that will bond many of us. In a few months, we will look back and realize that we got through it together. Irma brought out the best of Naples residents. For a few weeks, people checked in on each other, lent a hand, donated, were kinder, visited, and solidified the community that is Naples. In the couple of weeks that we have been back to school, I see the same thing happening among our kids. They are kinder and a bit more empathetic, maybe because they know that we're all in this together.