Assessments in the STEAM Classroom

Assessments, a term that I used to dread, especially when I would hear it as a student. As I have gained more information about assessments and moved past the typical paper-pencil tests, I have grown to love-okay maybe that is a strong word- cherish them. I'm not sure whether or not I have explained my background in education to you before, in case I haven't here you go. My undergraduate degree is in early childhood education with a 4-5 generalist endorsement. Therefore I am trained to be a general education teacher preschool-5th grade. Most of my classes taught me how to be a teacher to one, self-contained classroom of 20-30 students that I saw everyday, all year. All of my assessment classes also trained me, with a classroom described above in mind. So, when I ended up in a "specialist" position of teaching S.T.E.A.M. which means I see an average of 10 classes with 20-30 students a day, the idea of assessing over 900 students terrified me. As I am completing my second year of teaching S.T.E.A.M. I am still figuring out what style of assessment works best.

I agree with the statements of Amanda Ronan of Edudemic, who wrote in a blog post that the most important part of assessments is how they are used. Over the summer I took a course in assessments for my master's degree in art education. During the course I learned new techniques to build assessments and new ways to use them. After completing the class, I made my goal of the upcoming school year to increase meaningful assessments in my classroom. I evaluated the effectiveness of my SLO (Student Learning Objective) and edited the wording to eliminate confusion for my students. I also used various styles of questions, to help differentiate my assessment and meet the needs of all students. This was a much-needed evaluation, as a summative assessment like this, determines my effectiveness as a teacher. Well, at least in the eyes of the state.

An SLO is actually both formative and summative. At the beginning of the year, the original SLO is given to determine a baseline for each student. This data can be used to determine what the students already know and areas they have strengths. It is important to use formative data to develop lessons. If students are already masters in an area, yet you continue to teach the material, it is likely that students will no longer pay attention. This could increase behavior issues or distractions for struggling students, who need to learn the material. On the other-hand, moving on from material before the students fully understand it, can cause students to be discouraged in learning any lessons that build on that concept. Therefore, they would struggle in class. Although I am required to give an SLO test, the most common formative assessments I give are by observing and completing a check list. While observing, I can help students immediately if there are any misconceptions, whereas it takes me a day to go through a test. After I do get the opportunity to grade the test, I won't see that student again for a week. By then, the misconception is probably the students reality. That is why I believe observing, checklists and even classroom conversations are the most effective form of formative assessments in my classroom.

As for summative assessments, I feel that rubrics are the most effective. I give my students rubrics to evaluate their work before they turn their assignments in. This allows students to be in charge of their own learning. I will also give students worksheets that go along with their projects to help them get their ideas down on paper. It also gives me a physical sheet to evaluate the students knowledge. I also feel that it helps students stay organized, especially from week to week. I think it is important to look at summative assessments and evaluate whether or not the whole class understands the lesson, through a certain project. If they don't understand, I usually create a new project that touches the basic idea, but is in a different way. I continue the cycle by evaluating the assessments of that lesson and developing my next step again. I continue until I feel confident that the students have learned the concepts.

Overall, I think that it is important that we have formative and summative assessments just to inform our instruction as teachers. There is so much knowledge that can be obtained just through looking at how students have completed each assessment. What kinds of assessments are effective for you? Let me know through Twitter or a comment below.

Some tools I use for assessments:

• EDpuzzle (you can read my blog on it here)
• Google Forms

An example rubric:

Cool Tool #5: Pixlr

Today I am going to review one of my favorite free photo editors, Pixlr. I have been using Pixlr on my phone for years. It has been my go-to photo editing app, for a very long time. Most of my Instagram posts have gone through Pixlr before being posted. If you look around my blog, you may also notice some pictures have been edited, this has also been done using Pixlr. The picture above was a screenshot of the Pixlr website that I edited with the program. I changed the color to the negative option, added an overlay for the different shapes and then gave it a background. All of that took me about five minutes to complete.

I have tried other photo editing apps in the past, but none of them have made me this happy. I love that Pixlr has a very simple user interface, yet has an endless amount of options to add creative flair to pictures.There are backgrounds, borders, overlays, stickers, text boxes, and so much more that you can add to enhance a picture.

When first arriving at Pixlr.com, you will see three different web app options. They are:

Pixlr O Matic. This web app is a very simplified version of Pixlr Express. There are three steps and you move from one to the next using the next arrows. This app would probably work best with younger elementary students. It gives a taste of editing without being overwhelming.

Pixlr Editor. This web app is the most advanced of the three Pixlr web apps. It would be best suited for high school students or students who are skilled in Photoshop, when editing a picture. A way to use Pixlr Editor in an elementary classroom to start with a new image, which is a white page, and use the sketchy tool to free draw. With my T.A.B. transition, I have introduced a digital media center. In this center, we have been experimenting with Google Drawings. After researching Pixlr Editor, I think that it is easier to draw with, than Google Drawings. I also like that it looks more like an actual drawing than a digital one. There are also so many more authentic drawing options available than in Google Drawings.

Here's an example of a rose I drew, using multiple tools:

The final web app I am going to tell you about is Pixlr Express.

I am most familiar with this app. It is the same on an android device, as it is on the web app. It is very simple to use and like I mentioned above provides many different photo editing options. I think this app is great to make memes or posters for the classroom, if you are a teacher. Using Pixlr Express with students would be easily done. I think most students especially third grade and older would be able to understand the app's features. I can see this being a great way to encourage students to use creativity when they are creating presentations by transforming simple pictures into masterpieces.

I can also see Pixlr Express working with Pixlr Editor or another drawing program. A lesson could be that students draw in the Pixlr Editor, but take their drawings to a whole new level by editing their picture to make it more interesting. For example, take my rose above and look how I edited it in Pixlr Express:

I think that all of the Pixlr Apps have a place in the classroom. It can be used to illustrate a story for English or it can be used as a creative outlet or extension in the art room. I'm sure there are many other subject areas and ways it can be used in your classroom. I highly recommend it! Let me know what you have made or if you have already used it in your classroom. Comment below or tweet me @STEAMJames!

Let's Talk About Learning Spaces

If you haven't realized it yet, I love to try new things in my instruction and have a very unorthodox classroom. With that being said, my learning space is also very different from the ordinary classroom. Many of my colleagues are surprised to see how my students are working when they walk into my room during the day. Sometimes my students are sitting at tables, but that is on a very rare occasion, as you know from my "Dare to Un-chair" blog, I typically do not have chairs in my room. Most of the time when you walk in my room my students are either standing around the table, sprawled out on the floor or sitting somewhere else around the room. I have witnessed some interesting things happen in my classroom with the multiple learning spaces I have created.

Increased Engagement and Learning:

Ever since I have changed my room to no chairs, I have watched my students' work increase. Since the students are standing while I give lectures, I find that the students who usually fidget with things they are not supposed to be touching, are just moving their bodies instead. They are usually looking at me and listening while they are doing this. I have also noticed that their work quality has increased and their creativity has also made a significant jump as compared to my previous classroom setup. I don't know if it is the increase of blood flow to their brain or just the ability to get comfortable that has made these changes occur.

With my new TAB setup, the children loved the change. It seems that every time I change my room, the students get excited about it and seem to be on task for a longer period of time. With all the stations spreading my students all over the room, behavior issues have gone down. Students are no longer crammed into one uncomfortable learning space, instead they can go to a place of their choice and one that is comfortable for them. When students choose what they want to do, they are more likely to stay engaged with the activity longer.

Google Apps for Education and Learning Spaces:

I love Google Apps for Education. I am constantly using them with my upper elementary students and sometimes with my younger elementary students. One of my favorites is Google Classroom. When I start lessons with apps, I have my students go to my Google Classroom first, to get their assignment. With students scattered all over my room, having assignments in Google Classroom is so much more effective, than my old style of teaching. My old style was to write the assignment on the white board and have students at their seat working. When students are under tables, sprawled out on the floor or sitting at a station that has their back to the board, teaching this way is no longer logical. When a student goes into Google Classroom, they are able to see the assignment from the comfort of their new seat. I also like that an absent student can easily access what they have missed.

I have started to incorporate a digital media station in my TAB Classroom setup. With this in mind I have been teaching more Google Apps and other creative education apps, to my students. I want my students to know how to use the apps correctly before I set them free to use them on their own.

Take the risk:

I think sometimes as teachers we get stuck doing what is comfortable or easy, instead of taking risks. I know that many of my colleagues are intimidated by the noise and what looks to be chaos in my room. From an "outside-looking-in" perspective, I'm sure it looks pretty crazy. What I know, though, is that every one of my students is working and doing so in a way that best suites their needs.

Have you already taken the risk or do you have suggestions on other learning spaces? Let me know!

Turning My STEAM Classroom into a TAB Classroom: An Online Journey

Hello and welcome to my TAB classroom journey. The next couple of weeks you will get to experience my classroom's transformation. I will try my best to share my experiences and ideas as I go along. I hope you enjoy and maybe even find some inspiration to try something new, too! If you do, I would love to hear about it! Please leave a comment below or contact me through one of my various social media sources.

Introduction:

In order for me to properly take you on the journey with me, you need to know how and why I have decided to go towards the TAB classroom idea. So let's start at the beginning. In my district we have the opportunity to turn two of our professional development days into "trade days". A trade day is just what it sounds like, we get to trade a typical professional development day into a day off if we complete a class with other teachers throughout a three month period. For my April trade day, I joined the art teachers in our district to go over the Art of Ed's Winter Conference. While choosing our conference sessions, I came across one called "Infusing STEAM concepts into a TAB Classroom" by Kelly Phillips. Since my education license and background is not actually in art, I had no idea what a TAB classroom was. It was originally the STEAM acronym that caught my eye. So I asked the seasoned art teachers what it meant. The high school teacher, Sara, explained to me that it stood for teaching artistic behaviors or choice-based-curriculum. This idea intrigued me so I decided to research it on my own. I found a lot of information from the website, TAB Teaching for Artistic Behavior. Here is what I discovered:

Dare to Un-Chair: Challenge Accepted

In October I received an email about a new blog post from my favorite website, "The Art of Education". This blog post was titled, " 5 Compelling Reasons to Get Rid of Chairs in Your Room". This title really intrigued me, so I decided to check it out. After reading the 5 reasons that removing chairs from the art room, I decided to give it a try with my next fifth grade class. At first, the older students complained about having to stand but then they began to really enjoy not having chairs. My younger students immediately liked it because they are able to reach their projects much better than when using tables and chairs that are big enough for the upper-grade-level students but not small enough for them. 

After four months of having a chair-less classroom this is what I have noticed:

1. Behavior problems have decreased, attention during lessons has increased. 
• Many of my students are paying better attention by standing and listening to me because they are able to move and stand comfortably in awhile that best suites them. This limits student distractions. I have watched some of my more difficult students strive in my class ever since I have taken away the chairs.
2. Project quality has increased.
• Since the removal of chairs, I have found that the quality of work students turn in has dramatically increased. I don't really have an explanation for this. Maybe they are getting more blood flow to their brain or able to work at an angle that is better, I'm really not sure. All I know is that the work has been so much more creative and at a higher quality. Which at an elementary level, is hard to achieve. 
3. Your colleagues will either walk into your room and think you're a genius or walk in and think you are crazy. 
• Whenever someone who doesn't know that I have decided to remove the chairs from my room walks into my room, one of two reactions occur. They are either horrified and worried that someone must have taken my chairs and I should try to get them back, or they think its a really cool idea. When my principal walked in the first time without students I think he was skeptical, he did the infamous, "mm hmm" and walked out. Now that he has watched the students in progress and has realized a set-up like this is the pure definition of differentiation, he is a believer and supporter of the idea.  

It was definitely a risk to remove chairs from my classroom, but I am definitely glad that I did it. Now, I let the students have a choice. Some students will grab a chair but usually they prefer to work without one. I have enjoyed the creativity that has come from my students in this classroom setup. I'm looking forward to what's to come. I encourage you to take a risk in your classroom, you never know what may happen.