Day 110 - Senora Hoerle, Burlington High School Italian Teacher

The iPad in Italia: Signora Hoerle’s students  have been creating some great productions using the iPad in her Italian classes. Her projects and assessments have students creating and demonstrating their understanding of the Italian language by creating vignettes that tell a story, reflect on a theme or share a poem. Below are a few of her student projects that incorporate the iPad and several apps. Italian IV Honors Project by John Chellali, Danny Federico, and Gilad Oved Students used Puppet Pals to create stories that utilized relative pronouns. The song you hear during the recording is sung by John. Italian V Honors Project by Katya Becker This is a project I will not do this year, but it is a very interesting example of how to employ iMovie to record and illustrate a book (a much longer text than a poem or most videos). The student who did this project was exceptionally talented so her pronunciation is almost perfect. Italian V Honors Project by Billy Restivo Used iMovie to record and illustrate with images an original poem modeled after Giuseppe Ungaretti’s Sereno. Italian V Honors Project by Tom Rose Like Billy, Tom wrote a poem modeled after Giuseppe Ungaretti’s Sereno, but decided to use music instead of his own voice to illustrate the poem. Kristen is in the same class as Billy and Tom. Her poem is modeled after Josue` Carducci’s San Martino.

Day 53 - Hannah Lienhard, Burlington High School Senior

Teacher Profile: Ms. Abbott

Ms. Abbott

By: Hannah Lienhard

Ms. Abbott is a spanish teacher here at Burlington High School. Educated at Duke University, she has been teaching Spanish in Burlington for the past twelve years. Ms. Abbott was kind enough to sit down and talk to me about the many aspects of teaching at a “connected” (1:1) high school.
As a student in Ms. Abbott’s period two Spanish class, I have the opportunity to experience first – hand her innovative teaching style. Her willingness to adopt and incorporate technology in the classroom in a breath of fresh air to a student accustomed to more traditional teaching methods.

When / what made you want to abandon the textbook?
As soon as Ms. Abbott heard about the introduction of the iPad at Burlington High School, she sought a way to rid herself, and her students, of the textbook. She says that there are more natural ways to teach and to learn than from a textbook.

“The primary goal of everything I do is to help my students learn. If on a scale of one to ten the usefulness of the textbook is a three, then with the iPad I can hopefully put together something that is more on a seven or eight.” 

Also, textbooks don’t update while the world around them is constantly changing. “The nature of our textbook is very different. With a history textbook, though you are learning broad topics, there are lots of facts and information.” She relates our Spanish textbook to a math textbook in and that  “math is skill based”. There is a similarity between how to “differentiate an equation” and “how to read how to speak a foreign language”.

How do you go about finding credible information?


“I find credible information the same way I find it in my real life.” As for the students, she deals with the issue of finding credible sources by teaching her students to develop their skills in the same way and with the same mindset.


Doe this style of teaching take more time to set up and execute?


In an activity based classroom, it’s her responsibility to design and administer the tasks that will keep the students engaged, its an equal responsibility for the teacher as well as the students. The activities we do in class rely on the hope that the students did the work the night before. That work is all about them learning the concepts they will get to work with in class the following day.
“Its a learning curve for both teachers and students.”



Though the things that Ms. Abbott grades are involving, she maintains “it’s more about what the students do when they get out of the classroom and less about the grades they get assigned”. That said, the actual grades received have not fluctuated much.


How do you deal with the distractions the iPad presents in class?


“Adults are in meetings everywhere checking Facebook. Checking recipes. It’s a distraction across the board. People need to learn to handle the technology that they carry with themselves everyday. Once it becomes a normal part of life, people will learn how.”

She reminds us that with anything new, “There is always a pendulum swing. We are at an extreme right now – things will even out.”

Has the way you grade changed? If so, how?


It has “totally changed”’. The assignments she grades are more involved than before. Because it takes longer to prepare lessons, everything changes in a way. Even though this requires a bit more work, she says: “I like doing the work because I am interested in becoming a better teacher. If it helps me to become a better teacher, then it is worth the work”

Ms. Abbott rarely assigns worksheets now. “I always want homework to mean something”. She reminds us that worksheets aren’t the only way to evaluate a student’s progress in a class and beyond the class for homework.

Very much a two sided affair, grading has become more convenient in some aspects. When she has to grade something from Studyspanish.com, it is easier because the site does so for her. When she gives the students notes to take, she doesn’t have to grade anything at all.

How has using Edmodo benefitted your classroom experience? 

When using Edmodo as a classroom learning management platform, kids are better off in two ways:



For one, they have all of the materials they need at their fingertips.
Secondly, they no longer miss class lectures. With the use of “Showmes”, they have the same access to the lectures that everyone else does. “Learning takes place everywhere” and now you can bring it with you wherever your feet take you.

Describe your experiences using the Show Me App in your class? 

Ms. Abbott started using ShowMe as a tool about a year ago. She uses these “Showmes” to accomplish two major tasks. One thing she uses these showmes for are flipped lessons. She liked the idea that you could just record the audio, but more importantly she “really liked the idea of people being able to control the lectures”. Students can go over the material or the lectures as many times as you want. On top of that, the writing plus the audio works for both auditory learners as well as visual learners.
The second way she uses Showme is for students to create “oral” presentations for the class.
An example of one of Ms. Abbotts Showme lectures for the class

What did you discover you could do in your class with the Showme app?


Ms. Abbott found the use of Showme as a tool for something other than lectures: presentations. She found that using Showme was a way to ease the nerves of presenting students. If you can record the project ahead of time, there is no need to stand in front of you peers.
Another advantage she found is that the presentations are more interesting to watch as the teacher, even though assessing it is about the same as assessing a powerpoint presentation. Now, it is a more of an oral presentation,  and less of just reading the bullet points off a slide show.

How has the iPad and the use of these apps helped your students when you are absent? 

“It’s a drag calling in sick – it was almost a fifty percent possibility that the lesson plans would even reach the students.” Now with all of her worksheets being available online, “the responsibility is being placed more in the hands of the students: what they learn as well as the way that they learn it”

Talk about your experience using the Dragon Dictation app?

The goal of using Dragon Dictation is pronunciation. As a student in her Spanish class, I must agree with her sentiment that “it will lend you no favors”.
“I can tell you over and over that you are pronouncing the word incorrectly” but with Dragon dictation the feedback is immediate and honest.
The effect of Dragon Dictation is great – the pronunciation of her students has improved
Some of Ms. Abbott’s Favorite Apps and Online Resources:
- notesinspanish.com
- study spanish.com
- edmodo
- dragon dictation
- showme
- spanish newspaper websites



 

Day 11 - Andrew Dexter, Marshall Simonds Library/Media Specialist

The year has certainly started off with a bang. Marshall Simonds Middle School has nearly completed a massive renovation / addition project. It has also taken huge strides in educational technology, providing students with a richer, more engaging kind of education. As the Library Media Specialist, I have an important interpersonal position. It is my role to pair the teaching challenges with the resources and technology that could aid in the learning, by both teachers and students.

As with any group of professionals (and students), I assist a diverse set of learners. Trying to understand personalities and learning styles is critical (and often times fun). I have always been a creative person. I was always the student who would think of all of the obscure answers to problems and then finally arrive at the obvious ones last. It is wonderful to use my creativity and sometimes "obscure answers" to assist the full-spectrum of learners that I have before me every day.

Day 10 - Andrew Marcinek, BHS Help Desk

This past Friday, the Burlington High School help desk had the opportunity to present at the ACTEM 2012 conference in Maine. Initially we had planned on attending in person, however; schedule conflicts prevented us from attending. Alice Barr, an Instructional Technology Coordinator from Yarmouth, ME, offered to help us setup a Google Hangout and present virtually.

Our session was in the form of a panel discussion with our student run help desk. We shared our story along with first hand accounts of the course from the students who make it up. The talk started at 11am and we presented an overview of our school and the course. We then took questions from the audience. Without any hesitation, the students on our panel, which consisted of Hannah Lienhard, Yash Kamani, Michael Lockney, and Andrew Abou-Rjaily, began to field and answer questions from the audience. One question asked students, “How do you deal with your peers if you find them breaking your AUP policy?” Michael and Andrew relayed how it presents an awkward situation to confront your peers, however; they stressed why it is important to follow our AUP and how if we don’t, it could affect the availability of technology resources and privileges in the future.

The next question asked the students, “What is it like to share something new with a teacher or administrator and how is your idea or suggestion received?” Hannah Lienhard shared her experience working at our three day Burlington Public Schools Professional Development Conference held the week before classes resume. She shared how most of her suggestions and ideas were “well received by faculty and administration who sought out her help”. And she added, “working with teachers in this capacity, outside of the normal structure of school, is like being at Disney when all the characters take off their masks and reveal themselves. It was great to see and experience first hand teachers and students learning together.”

The help desk students did a great job sharing their learning and experiences with the audience at the ACTEM conference and continue to share their expertise and talents through the BHS Student Help Desk website on a daily basis.

This course, to some, may seem thin on content and experiences, but I, along with my colleague Tim Calvin, see great things from the help desk students. We see an energy and passion to create, learn, take risks, and share what we are learning. We see students excited to learn new concepts and share it with a larger audience. We see students driven to innovate and invariably curious. It is a course where we don’t always know the right answers, but we know how and where to find them by asking the right questions. And above all, we are always ready to listen and share. 

Day 7 - Keith Mistler, Burlington High Art Department

This year I am teaching a Fashion Design course at Burlington High School. There was a demand for the discipline and students wanted a course that could prepare them for an arts career in fashion. With fashion saturating the media with shows like Project Runway and everything on MTV, we decided in the art department that it was a good time for the course. And I volunteered to teach it. Studying the topic, I was surprised at how much I didn't know about fashion design. When I was in high school, my clothing choices were extremely questionable. I once sliced a pair of jeans so much that my physics teacher asked me if I was attacked by a flock of birds. What was I thinking? Although the illustration aspect is similar to other art disciplines, I still had a lot to learn. Thankfully I knew how to sew (thank you Mom for teaching me to mend those holes in my shirts!), but I wanted to learn more, to be better.

So today I am still learning. Still experiencing. And most importantly, still making mistakes. This fall I decided to take a course in clothing construction at Mass College of Art + Design. It is difficult, and there are times when I'm pulling my hair out because I can't understand clothing patterns (what do all of those geometric shapes mean?!), but I always pull through because I know that I can do it. I feel at ease with technology, but this craft that has fallen to the wayside is so new to me. We all need some incentive to keep going and I don't think I could have learned so much without the wonderful support system from our faculty. I often get support and encouragement from our faculty, staff, and even students. I do struggle, and I will continue to struggle with finding the solutions. Learning isn't easy but it's worth it. It helps me to understand and appreciate what my students go through on a daily basis. It teaches me patience and I hope to continue to find new things to learn about in my teaching career.

Day 6 - Adam Chiocca, BHS and MSMS ELL Teacher

Last night, in my graduate course, on "Data-Informed Decision Making," I learned about topics related to how schools and districts can better make decisions, with the help of data.  I learned about different kinds of information systems such as MMS, PowerSchool, x2 (Aspen), iPASS, PLATO, CCC, and SOCRATES.  It is interesting how school districts have lots of data but it is all over the place, and there is often not much integration.  Some programs do integrate all systems, as well as data from sources like enrollment data, SIMS, Curriculum and Instructional data, Finance and Personnel Management, library cataloging and check-outs, standardized test scores, and other testing (like Dibels).  Socrates and COGNOS are examples of such integration programs, but they are very expensive and require a high skill level to fully integrate and use.  What am I talking about?  Basically, I'm talking about integration across data sources.

Okay, well, enough of the data talk; let me introduce myself.  My name is Adam Chiocca, and I'm the ELL Teacher for Burlington High School and the Marshall Simonds Middle School.  This is my 9th year in education, teaching ELL students and I really like my job!  In Burlington, most of our new ELL students come from either India, Brazil, or Uganda, but we also get new ELL students from a wide variety of other nations.

In our ELL classes, language skills are of the utmost importance.  Knowledge gained is evident in the increased vocabulary students enjoy; as well as new knowledge in grammar, written conventions, reading comprehension and academic content.  Most of the content in ELL is relevant to real life situations, such as: finding a job; describing people, places and things; getting around town; buying food; shopping for clothes; expressing past, present and future events; and describing plans and intentions.  Other topics include: expressing time, duration and opinions; describing accomplishments; reporting household repair problems; reassuring someone; describing actions that have occurred and actions that haven’t yet occurred; career advancement; asking for and giving advice; medical symptoms and problems, as well as many other topics.

Nice to meet you!

Mr. Chiocca

ELL Teacher, grades 6-12

Burlington High School

Marshall Simonds Middle School

Day 4 - Susan Price, BHS Foreign Language Dept.

Bonjour! í Hola! I’m Susan La Raia Price and currently teach French and Spanish at
BHS. I’m also the Advisor to the French Club. I’ve been teaching foreign languages for
over 30 years. I’ve taught at both the middle school and high school levels in both the
public and private sectors, but I must say that BHS is the best place in which to teach.
The last three years have been a pivotal point in my pedagogy. I’m still the passionate,
caring and enthusiastic teacher who inspires students in acquiring skills to learn a
foreign language, and I’m always willing to help my students succeed. I particularly love
communicating with students and parents beyond the high school walls. Working with
both students and their families is one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching at
BHS.

Three years ago, I was very reluctant to integrate technology into my pedagogy
because frankly, I was intimidated by it. If it weren’t for Principal Patrick Larkin to
encourage me, I would not be using it today. Mr. Larkin believed in my ability to
succeed. He was a true motivator and coach challenging me to broaden my horizons.
He has been that impetus in my success. Mr. Dennis Villano, Mr. Andrew Marcinek,
and Mr. Timothy Calvin have also been wonderful mentors to me.  I felt so accomplished 
when one of my classroom projects got featured last Spring in Edutopia.
My interest in technology has heightened as I’m now working with Mr. Andrew
Cunningham, a consultant from Net-Texts to put my French III class on line.

That’s a big step for this Boomer!! I’m a lifelong learner!