written by Kristen Harms// posted by Elegan Kramer
Mindframes for Students
Students’ mindframe is their ability to control and direct their behavior, emotions, and thoughts. It is important that students are able to do this while working towards long term goals. These are habits that need to be supported and practiced.
The authors of The Distance Learning Playbook for Parents organized the learning sciences into six statements.
Know their current level of understanding. Students are aware of their performance and understand that their current level of understanding can change.
Know where they’re going and are confident to take on the challenge. Students understand that there is more to learn and they are willing to take risks to get there.
Select tools to guide their learning. Students understand the ways learning tools work and they use them as needed.
Seed feedback and recognize that errors are opportunities to learn. Students seek out feedback. They also learn from mistakes.
Monitor their progress and adjust their learning. Students recognize that their learning is a marathon and not a spring.
Recognize their learning and teach others. Student know when they learn something new and are willing to share that information with others.
It is imperative that students learning virtually develop and practice mindframe skills. Situations where you can support students’ growth mindset:
When your child does not know an answer
When your child makes and error
When your child experiences failure
When your child is anxious
Helpful Hints:
Do not tell your child that you were bad at math, writing, art, or anything they are trying to learn. Students need to have the foundation that they can learn anything and are not predisposed to struggle with a subject.
Focus more on the process rather than the final product or grade. What are the next steps of learning?
Icebergs float because they are less dense than water. But how much of the iceberg floats?
10% (very little floats)
50% (about half of it floats)
90% (most of it floats)
Depends on the size and shape of the iceberg
Have your students predict the answer above and then test their predictions with this Iceberger simulation. Students can share their iceberg creations with others. After sharing, students can find patterns with their creations in order to justify the answer to the question above. This would be a great community-building activity while learning about density (sinking and floating), patterns, shapes, geometry, percentages, and more! So how do you think the iceberg (letter ‘E’) above will float? Test it to find out!
Thisissand.com
Thisissand is a unique playground for creating and sharing amazing sandscapes on your computer or mobile device. It’s free and easily accessible online, just click ‘Play Now.’ You do not need to create an account or sign in with Google or Clever. This could be a good community-building activity, having students share their creations with others and notice different patterns that can be made with falling sand. Or do it yourself and make it as your new Zoom background. Start pouring away to experience this special sand piling on your screen!
Get students engaged with the Zoom chat by using the waterfall response strategy. Here are the directions:
Split your class into 2 groups.
Read the question or prompt. Students in Group 1 type an individual response into the chat, BUT DO NOT SEND.
Group 1 students release his/her response when instructed by the teacher. (“on the count of 3.”)
You will see a waterfall of chat where everyone’s responses come in at the same time. Allow time to read.
Now ask Group 2 to review the responses and publicly comment, BUT DO NOT SEND until the teacher says so. (“on the count of 3.”)
Allow time to read the waterfall.
Debrief. Follow-up if necessary and as appropriate.
Switch roles with a different question or prompt.
Benefits to this strategy: By delaying when students release their responses, all students can participate during Zoom and not feel pressured to follow-up on the latest comment or remark in the Zoom chat. Even if students have similar remarks or comments, the individual students still have ownership of his or her response and he or she feels engaged in the class.
Be sure to ask questions that foster conversation as opposed to questions that kill conversations (e.g., Should the US have entered into World War 2? vs. When did the US enter World War 2?)
Here is a Google Slides view-onlywaterfall template to help you get started. The first slide has directions for the waterfall strategy with space for students' names. The following slides have space to insert a question and sentence starters to help students get started with the conversations. If you are interested in using this template, please go to File and Make a Copy.
Extra tip: If you’re monitoring and reviewing participation later, quickly save the Zoom chat by clicking on the ellipsis button in the Zoom chat and select Save Chat. This will save as a text document file, most likely under Documents > Zoom > folder of meeting date.
Digital Self, ISTE Standard for Educators Citizen 3D
Assignment: Investigate the privacy policies and terms of use of 3-5 web tools that you or your students use. (Hint: look for the site's "Terms of Service" or "Legal.")
Write and publish a blog post about what you learned about how your data might be used. Discuss: the age restrictions, if any, on the use of the website; what surprised you or concerned you; what changes you might need to make in your decision-making about the use of apps and websites in your classroom, school, or district.
The 3 web tools I choose to investigate are EdPuzzle, YouTube, and Kami.
I’ve used EdPuzzle extensively and have copied Jonathon’s EdPuzzle lessons for my class. I appreciated the EdPuzzles greatly, especially for ‘flipping’ my lessons! But when a highly respected educator in the physics education field requested this and then took down his EdPuzzle lessons, I became curious about the EdPuzzle platform itself.
EdPuzzle is consistent with the requirements of COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Policy) and its service is not intended for students under the age of 13. If students are under the age of 13, the school needs to obtain parental consent to use the platform. Teachers and schools in our district have ‘COPPA letters’ requesting consent from parents and informing them of how the digital tools are used. It is upon researching EdPuzzle that I also learned about the Student Privacy Pledge 2020. EdPuzzle committed to this pledge, along with another web tool I researched, Kami.
As I read EdPuzzle’s privacy policies and terms of use, EdPuzzle seems to collect data in order to enhance the EdPuzzle user experience and tools. The data is also shared between the teacher and student (such as grades and viewing of video), but not between students. As far as I can tell, they do not give out personal information to other companies. (Although they do make a point that if a teacher is to integrate EdPuzzle with a third-party service, the information collected by this third-party service is on the third-party service and not on EdPuzzle.)
One of the conditions I found interesting was that EdPuzzle will delete an account if the account has been inactive (not accessed) for 18 months or more. While I think this is great in terms of privacy, I wonder if it is also due to the storage of data on their end.
After researching EdPuzzle’s privacy policies and terms of use, I’ve concluded that I will continue to recommend EdPuzzle to teachers, especially to those who are interested in flipping their instruction. While I understand Jonathan’s point of view, and any aspiring influencers for that matter (especially since a lot of kids wanting to be YouTube stars), EdPuzzle and Jonathan have different end goals and thus, can’t be truly compared. While EdPuzzle does not meet Jonathan’s goal, I do think EdPuzzle provides a safe, digital environment for students to learn and for teachers to monitor feedback. I do appreciate how others have found a workaround/compromise to this problem, by making Google Forms with Jonathan’s physics videos.
YouTube
Naturally, after Jonathan’s plea to use YouTube as opposed to EdPuzzle and then after reading about EdPuzzle’s privacy policies and terms itself, I had to learn about YouTube’s privacy policies and terms. Although I’ve always been aware of YouTube’s collection of personal data, to actually read and see it in print kind of punched me in the stomach, realizing how much data they actually collect and ‘control’ what I see.
YouTube (Google-owned, so it follows Google’s Privacy and Terms) collects some information about your activity. Activity information they may collect include: terms you search for, videos you watch, view and interactions with content and ads, voice and audio information when you use the audio feature, and people with whom you communicate or share content with. A user can control some of the data YouTube collects by managing his/her settings.
Some of this data is used to improve user experience with YouTube. And some of this data can provide specific services to the user, such as recommending the next YouTube video the user might like. While YouTube highlights this as ‘personalized services to you,’ I do fear about ‘pigeon-holing’ a person into similar, limited views instead of broadening their views. While I, as an adult, am conscious of this possibility and intentionally seek out different points of view and think critically about the media in front of me, I wonder if a young student would do this. It’s much easier to click next or to let it autoplay, rather than to search for something else. I do think Google’s digital citizenship program (Be Internet Awesome) addresses this and therefore is proactive about this. But I wonder if parents and families are aware.
Regarding age usage, YouTube states:
“You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service; however, children of all ages may use the Service and YouTube Kids (where available) if enabled by a parent or legal guardian.
Permission by Parent or Guardian
If you are under 18, you represent that you have your parent or guardian’s permission to use the Service. … If you are a parent or legal guardian of a user under the age of 18, by allowing your child to use the Service, you are subject to the terms of this Agreement and responsible for your child’s activity on the Service.”
I find it interesting that of the 3 web tools I researched, YouTube is the only one to mention about kids being over 13, but under the age 18 - how it is the still parent’s or guardian’s responsibility for their child’s activity on YouTube.
Currently, our district does not block YouTube, but if a student uses YouTube inappropriately and not for school, he/she can be banned from YouTube. Parents can also request their child to be blocked from YouTube. While I worry about certain terms and conditions and privacy settings with YouTube, I do not think that YouTube should be blocked. There are a lot of great educational videos on YouTube, such as Jonathan's Flipping Physics videos. Blocking a web tool does not help the learning process because kids will just learn how to get around that firewall. (Similar to how prohibition did not work.) Blocking YouTube also goes against the new age of digital citizenship. When using YouTube, I think it’s important to teach kids about their digital safety and citizenship. To do this, I will recommend to teachers to use Google’s Be Internet Awesome digital citizenship curriculum.
Kami
Our district bought Kami this year for students and teachers to annotate a PDF document. This helps Virtual Campus students to not require a printer at home. I have used Kami before and found it helpful for physics and chemistry worksheets, especially with word problems. I did not and have not had the opportunity to use it to its full potential because I only used the free version. Nevertheless, some teachers in our district rave about it. The reason for wanting to learn more about Kami’s privacy policy and terms and conditions is because some districts have not bought Kami for their teachers due to privacy concerns. So, I wanted to learn more about it and investigate that claim.
Similar to EdPuzzle, Kami is only intended for use of people over the age of 13, except for educational use which comes with an appropriate COIPPA & FERPA-complaint student data privacy policy. Kami has also committed to Student Privacy Pledge 2020. Kami also collects and analyzes data on how the service is used in order to improve and enhance its service.
As a district, we use Google Workspace for Education and Kami works seamlessly with Google Drive. Teachers and students use Google Single-sign-on to access their Kami account. I can see why some school districts may not want to use Kami because when Kami is used with Google Drive, Kami can access the documents in Google Drive. But it does state:
“Documents may be uploaded to Kami by users in order to share them with other users for collaborative processing. Kami does not store these files once the sharing process is completed. Annotations made by users are stored on the site in order to display them to other users viewing a shared document, and to display them to the user if the same file is later re-opened.”
To me, it seems that only the annotations are stored with the document, and Kami does not store the actual document itself. It also says:
“Your data is also encrypted at rest on the servers hosted by our services partner Google Cloud Platform, which we selected because of their compliance with COPPA, and their stringent security measures.” And “none of the annotations is shared with any third parties without the teacher or school’s consent.”
In addition to annotating, Kami can be used as a collaborative whiteboard, although in my experience is slower compared to Google Jamboard. This means that it has more sharing capabilities compared to EdPuzzle, in which case the student can share information with another student if they have the same Kami whiteboard or document. A teacher can also share information with the students. Kami mentions in its privacy policy that this sharing exists only if the link is shared. Kami does not intentionally share the shared links with others.
Unlike EdPuzzle, Kami does not actively delete inactive accounts. You can request your Kami account to be deleted by contacting them directly and they will respond to that request within 30 days. I do wonder if that’s another reason why some districts are hesitant to use Kami - because Kami does not actively delete accounts and therefore, store all annotations. I also wonder how much space it takes up on a server. (Although probably not as much as EdPuzzle videos, which may be why Kami is not actively deleting them to make room.)
I did not find any alarming terms and privacy policies with Kami. I will continue to recommend Kami to teachers and encourage our district to continue paying this tool for students and staff on Virtual Campus. Kami encourages a paperless classroom and also has some great accessibility features, such as the dictionary feature and text-to-speech (reading the text out loud to the students and auto-typing the students' audio response).
Comparable to Kahoot, students interact with the quiz on their own device. Students see the questions on their screens to help them stay engaged virtually.
A Quizizz can also be assigned for asynchronous or self-paced work. This option can be used for review outside of class.
Quizizz offers a library of teacher created quizzes.
Quizizz grades and provides feedback to the student.
Spring Break starts next week and you truly deserve a break. Feel free to automate an out-of-office Gmail response during Spring Break. To do this:
Go to the gear at the top right hand corner of Gmail
Select ‘See all settings’
Scroll all the way to the bottom to Vacation Responder
Check Vacation Responder On
First Day: March 19, 2021
Check the box Last Day
Last Day: March 28, 2021
Subject: out of office reply - Spring Break
Compose a response. Here is a sample response you can use:
Hi! I hope that you are having a wonderful Spring Break. I will be out of the classroom from March 19, 2021 to March 28, 2021 and will have limited access to my email. I will respond to any questions or concerns when I return.
Take up bedtime studyingRather than catching up Netflix or Tiktok, take time to review your notes. You will better retain information practiced just before resting.
Break up marathon study sessions
Mental energy needs to be protected. Spread out your learning to avoid a marathon cram session.
Create a study schedule
Create a study routine and practice discipline in following your schedule.
Connect with other focused students Sharing a common work ethic with a classmate will help boost both your focus and productivity.
Clear your space
Take the time to remove distractions and other coursework from your study space. Give yourself the greatest opportunity to focus on your review.
Shut off technology
When you sit down to study, put your phone on silent and set ‘do not disturb’ messages on any online messaging services. This will help keep you from getting sidetracked.
Ask for help
If you’re studying and realize you don’t understand a concept or theory, reach out to your teacher or classmates as soon as possible for clarification.
Take advantage of online resources
In your Virtual Campus course, you have received many resources and apps to help prepare you for the unit. Use these resources when reviewing the information.
Stay mentally and physically healthy
As a Virtual Campus student, you are likely to spend more time at your computers than traditional learners, making it imperative to take breaks, go on walks, get the recommended amount of sleep, and eat foods that nourish your body.
There are things we can control and there are things we cannot. There are almost no circumstances in which you can’t control your health and fitness. Of course, there will always be something that can potentially get in the way, but you can accept, maneuver, and adapt.
This week, I challenge you to think of a few things you control. Then, think of a few things you can’t control. Share your list with the community or with a friend. Every day this week, remind yourself of those things at least three times.
For example, “I cannot control how busy and chaotic my day gets but I can control if I choose to turn it off at the end of the day and spend quality time with my family and less time zoning out on my phone.” or “I cannot control what people say to me or how they judge me, but I can control how I respond to them and if I choose to engage.”
If we get into the habit of always being aware of what we are and are not in control of, many excuses and obstacles disappear!
The 3 parts of this task are:
List 1-3 things you CAN control today and 1-3 things that are beyond your control.
Share with the community or a friend.
And finally, to really support the internal practice of mindfulness: Repeat to yourself at least 3 times a day what you can control and what you can’t.
