Mary Wever graciously took time from her Spring Break to show me some of the cool things that are happening in her classroom. Mary teaches 4th grade at Red Cedar Elementary School in East Lansing, which is the same district I teach in (though, as often is the case, what other teachers in my district are doing is a mystery to me since we don’t visit each other practically ever). She maintains a weebly page as her class page; much of what we discussed can be further explored on that site.

I liked how she included google translate as a widget on her class page…so I added it to mine. A simple option that could help students and parents better understand what I’m talking about and what I’m expecting.

She has her students using google drive in a much more organized way than I am. I liked how she has students make a folder at the beginning of the year and share that folder with her. Then, they save all of their documents in that folder, so she just has to check each student’s folder. Without that organizational step, using google drive can be very haphazard and unclear for students and teachers.

She suggested surveying my students about their access to the internet, noting that I may be surprised by how many students ‘could’ access from home and do some work at home. Along those lines, she has her Math curriculum almost entirely on her class website. She expects students to watch a short video the night before (because 100% have access) and then has them self-sort into different groups based on how well they understood the concept: understood it well enough to teach it to someone; understood it somewhat; didn’t watch it or need help understanding it. She has the group that thinks they understood it, teach it to the group that needs the help (and the ones who didn’t watch it, watch it on iPads). She works with the group that understood it somewhat and any others that seem to need help. That “teaching” group ends up making short tutorials for the website, too. It seems like an empowering, supportive structure and she reports having success with it.

Mary referred me to several people and potentially useful technologies:
* Erin Klein’s Kleinspiration page — includes a wealth of information on how to teach using technology creatively and thoughtfully.

* She showed me how she uses google calendar and makes a class calendar which appears on her class webpage; maybe some people in my building are doing this, but no one has shown me how to do it before.

* She’s used several different Augmented Reality (AR) applications. Her class is quite interactive and spills out into the hallway with students adding AR dimensions to their lockers and the walls. Brad and Drew have a website called 2 Guys and some iPads that offers many tutorials on how to use the following apps:
– ColAr mix brings students’ color drawings to life in some mind altering ways
– Aurasma involves connecting an initial image that you hold your phone over (the trigger image) with another whole set of information (images, music, designs, text…) called an aura.
– DAQRI is another Augmented Reality provider that basically makes the lesson jump off the page for students.
– NASA’s Spacecraft 3D that lets students learn about and interact with several spacecraft that are used explore planets and the universe.

These all look amazing (did you know that the back of our paper money has AR capabilities?), but I haven’t really had time to think about how they may fit with what I’m doing in my class. I do plan to share them with the other teachers in my building; I can imagine that several content-area teachers, especially, will be excited to learn about them.

I’m sure Mary said more than I was able to write down. She’s a whirlwind of enthusiasm, which I’m sure her students enjoy. She assured me that her students are not in front of computers all the time. She believes in moderation and paper-and-pencil learning, not to worry. All of which is to say I was very impressed with her and her approach to teaching. She works hard at engaging the students and making learning fun and collaborative.

Mary reminded me that next year she will be teaching a different grade in a different building. Red Cedar Elementary is closing. The wonderful community they have built will be dispersed around the district. She’s already working with other teachers who teach the same grade level as she will be teaching; while I’m sure she’ll use many of these same methods next year, I know that teaching a different grade is almost like starting over. Her attitude about the whole thing was very positive, though. She seems ready to jump into the next challenge. I left her class a bit overwhelmed, but my main impressions were awe and wonder: awe at her ability to keep it all organized and to essentially teach as much in the future as is humanly possible; and I wondered what it would be like if more teachers took the time to sit down with each other and share ideas. It seems like there has to be a way to encourage this more (district PD days?). The potential upside for our students seems exponentially limitless.