learning – Page 4 – iLearn Technology

Tagible-Create Customized Learning Video Channels

March 17, 2014Kelly Tenkely3 Comments34788 views

What it is: HOLY SMOKES! This is the coolest new tool! I’ve spent the morning building out our Anastasis Tagible page (link at the bottom of the post), and I feel like my head is spinning with possibilities.

Tagible is a brand new video manager site. It allows you to create a completely customized channel for all of your school/classroom videos. Videos can be imported directly from your YouTube or Vimeo channel. Once you set up the import feature, Tagible automatically imports any video that is added to your channel. Best of all, Tagible gives you the ability to tag videos with categories and then tags within that category; videos and customized channels are really easy to create. The channel that you create is easy to share with anyone through social media or it can be embedded directly on your school/classroom website.

Features:

Create a one-stop-shop for ALL of your videos that is completely customizable and branded just for your classroom or school.
Tag videos in new ways using categories and sub-tags, this makes it simpler than ever to find exactly the video that you are looking for.
Create customized channels based on categories and sub-tags. Each time a new video is added with a category/tag, it gets automatically added to the channel.
Embed channels on class or school websites. The embedded channel is ALWAYS up-to-date because all content tagged for that channel gets added automatically. (Set it up once and let Tagible do all the work!)
Tag videos under multiple categories and subcategories.
Connect your school/classroom YouTube or Vimeo channel to automatically populate your Tagible channel with content.
Customize your Tagible site with your own backgrounds, color schemes, and logos. (This is SO easy to use, you can even drag and drop images for your background onto the “upload here” buttons!)
Import any video from YouTube or Vimeo (not just your own). Curate video to create a customized channel just for you and your students!
Share your videos easily using Twitter, Facebook, and email.

How to use Tagible in your classroom or school: There are all kinds of video management tools, but Tagible is absolutely the most useable and useful for schools! Video is such a rich way to share learning. Our students are constantly uploading video projects. Tagible would make a fantastic video portfolio. Create a “Team” page for your classroom and then create a sub tag for each of your students. As your students upload video to your YouTube channel, tag it in Tagible with the student name. Now each student can have their own “channel” of their learning journey. This becomes a living portfolio that continually gets added to throughout the year (or years). Record student presentations, class participation, special events, etc. Whenever a video gets tagged with that student, it automatically gets added to their channel. You can share a student’s specific channel with their family, now they don’t have to wade through everyone’s video to find their child! If your students have their own blog or website (Weebly.com or Wix.com are awesome for this!) they can embed their channel directly on it. Now all written, photographed, and video work is accessible in one place.

Create learning channels for your students. Import the videos that your students can access to learn from, or be inspired by. Each video can be categorized according to unit and topic. Students can go through a units “channel” to access all learning videos that you recommended for the unit. This is definitely textbook of the future! I’m excited to utilize this idea for our inquiry units. As the students and I find video, we can add it to our own customized learning channel. This channel can then be embedded in student projects, websites, and shared through social media.

Set up a video learning station on classroom computers. As your students are rotating through learning centers, one of the centers can be video relevant to the learning. The great thing about using Tagible: you don’t have to be concerned about students clicking on “related videos” on YouTube that aren’t yours.

As a school, create a professional development tool for your teachers. Create a professional development category with sub tags like: assessment, technology, philosophy, teaching strategies, common core, etc. Add videos and create channels that teachers can access for on-demand professional development.

Keep your school or classroom websites up-to-date with the latest video content without contacting your web provider or logging in to add new video. Create a category called “Home Page” and create a channel based on the category. Any time you tag any video with the “Home Page” category, the channel will be updated to include the new video automatically. If you’ve embedded that channel on the homepage of your website, all of the video is automatically included, no need to edit the website.

Tagible is a great way to foster a home-school connection. Record student work and share via a unique channel with families. This would be an incredible look inside your classroom for families who don’t get the opportunity to volunteer at school often.

At Anastasis, I’ve created categories for Field Trips, Special Events, Teams (classrooms), Inquiry Blocks, Explore (videos we like), Crave classes, School year, and Student Created. The great thing about the categories is that you can use them to quickly narrow down videos for a channel. For example, we could create a channel just for “Inquiry Blocks” in “2013-2014” school year. Students and families can find exactly the videos that they are looking for all the time!

Are you an educational speaker? Create a channel of your presentations to share with others, and create a channel of videos that you used during your presentation. These can easily be shared at the end of a conference.

If you “flip” your classroom using video, Tagible is ideal. Make it easy for students to access video based on your own customized categories. Your flipped channel can be embedded directly on your blog/website and update automatically every time that you add a video. Create “review” channels that automatically collect videos from a unit or topic so that students can go through the channel to review and study. Invite your students to come up with categories that they would like to be able to search by.

Tips: Tagible is a brand new startup company. They are still working some bugs out of the system, and are regularly adding new features. In the bottom, right corner of the site you have the option to “Send Feedback” click on the portion of the site that you want to send feedback about and let them know about any bugs you find or features you would like to see. You can try Tagible for free, they do have advanced features with monthly subscriptions. Be sure to mention Kelly Tenkely, they may be able to help you out with premium features. Tagible was started by one of Anastasis Academy’s board members and founding families. It has been incredible to watch this thing take shape! Just like the school, it started around this family’s kitchen table.

Want to see what a customized Tagible site looks like? Check out Team Anastasis here.

Stormboard: Beautiful virtual brainstorming and collaboration

March 12, 2014March 12, 2014Kelly Tenkely5 Comments6824 views

What it is: Stormboard is a super beautiful virtual sticky note brainstorming and collaboration application that lets classrooms or teams share online whiteboard space. In addition to virtual sticky notes, Stormboard makes it simple to add quality and usefulness to your shared space with photos and video. Each idea that gets added to a Stormboard has a comment thread attached to it, this ensures that everyone’s voice gets heard and conversations about specific ideas don’t get lost. Users can also vote on ideas, this is a quick way to get feedback. Stormboard lets you instantly generate “innovation” reports so that all ideas can be easily captured and saved as a spreadsheet or pdf. Shared space is flexible, you can share both synchronously or asynchronously. Stormboard works on any internet connected device making it ideal for a BYOD (bring your own device) classroom, and seamless regardless of what platforms your school uses.

How to use Stormboard in your classroom: I’ve seen lots of sticky note type applications over the years. Stormboard is hands down the most flexible and the most aesthetically pleasing. It gets all of that without being difficult to learn, it has a really great intuitive interface. Stormboard is a great way to capture learning that happens. In an inquiry classroom, we are regularly brainstorming, asking questions, following bunny trails of important thoughts and ideas, and sharing photos and video. Stormboard would be such an ideal place to capture all of this thought during an inquiry unit. I love the way that it threads conversations so that everyone’s voice gets heard and captured as it relates to an idea.

At Anastasis, our kids are constantly discussing big ideas. Stormboard would be a great way for the students to take notes and capture those ideas all together. As they go through literature, research, current events, science experiments, etc. they can capture all of their ideas, quotes, related images and videos in one place. When it comes time to write a report, reflection, summary or do some design thinking with their learning, students will have all relevant information in one place that THEY created together. This could be huge! Our Jr. High has been going through a book chapter by chapter throughout the year. So many of the discussions they have should be captured, the deep thinking is truly awesome! Stormboard would be a great place for this to happen. Learning and thinking process recorded.

Stormboard would also be perfect when you are implementing design thinking in the classroom. It is the perfect place for the ideation and research phases of the project to be captured.

Students can use Stormboard to work collaboratively with others in their class or with other classes in their school. It would also be a great tool to use with a collaborating school. Because it has options for sharing synchronously or asynchronously, it can be used with schools in different time zones around the world for collaborative projects.

Teachers can use Stormboard to collaborate on units or lessons with other teachers, make plans for new team undertakings, or just as a place to share or capture ideas.

Classrooms can use Stormboard on classroom computers OR on an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer to capture learning each day. This would make a cool living “textbook” where students could gather materials, resources, share ideas and conversations. Each day assign a different set of students to be in charge of the record. If you have a one to one device situation, each student can collaborate in this process together. At the end of the day, download the PDF or innovation report and save it. What a cool yearbook of learning and insight into your classroom.

As a school, plan new initiatives with your administrative team. We are currently dreaming of our own building (right now we lease space). This is the perfect place to share that dreaming with all stakeholders and capture conversations and thinking along the way.

I think it is awesome that Stormboard works on all devices, but also provides the option of downloading your work. This way you aren’t SO reliant on a tool that if it disappeared, all would be lost.

Tips: Stormboard is free to use. However, the free account is limited to 5 collaborators at a time. I’ve got my fingers crossed that when they see the awesome way that educators are using Stormboard, they will consider offering a free education account with enough for a class or two to collaborate. For $5/month/user you can add as many as you want. For $10/user/month you get unlimited users and unlimited administrators.

EDpuzzle: Like Video in the Classroom 2.0

February 6, 2014February 10, 2014Kelly Tenkely4 Comments9676 views

What it is: EDpuzzle is a neat new educational site to help you better utilize video in your classroom for learning. You can find and crop video to use only what you need, add audio notes within the video or do some voice over work for a video, and you can embed questions throughout the video to track student understanding. EDpuzzle collects data as students watch and interact with the video. You can see if and when a student watched the video, and see the progress of all students through the answers to embedded questions.

How to use EDpuzzle in your classroom: What makes EDpuzzle great is the level of freedom given in cropping, sharing, and tracking video use in the classroom. EDpuzzle enhances the “flipped” classroom by allowing you to embed formative assessment directly into your videos. As students watch, you can check understanding and ensure active watching vs. passive watching. In a flipped scenario, this gives you the ability to completely tailor a lesson the next day based on the formative assessment results you get from homework. This is truly utilizing assessment to inform instruction (which is the point of assessment!).

EDpuzzle can be used in conjunction with videos that you have made for your students, or with videos that you find. I like using video to introduce students to a brand new topic or idea. Well-created video has the ability to quickly and succinctly help students dive into new learning and formulate new questions and lines of inquiry. For example, when Anastasis Jr. High started our last inquiry block about “How the World Works” and explored the topic of food and farming, they started by watching the documentary Food, Inc. This was a great way to launch their thinking and lines of questioning about where our food comes from. Out of that video, students chose different lines of inquiry to explore and research. EDpuzzle would be a good way for students to help others see where their line of inquiry started from. Students could grab the clip of the documentary that intrigued them, and embed audio to show their thought process as they watched. Sort of a Saved-by-the-Bell Zack Morris “Time out” moment where they can describe their line of thinking.

For primary teachers, EDpuzzle could be used as part of a guided reading center. YouTube has lots of great read-along videos. (You can also create your own based on class reading!) Use these videos along with EDpuzzle to check for comprehension. As the video plays, embed questions to check for understanding. Students can independently go through the guided reading (or Close reading) activity, while you work one-on-one with other reading groups. Rotate the reading groups throughout the week so that each student gets the opportunity to go through the EDpuzzle guided reading activity, and each group gets one-on-one time with you. This is a fantastic way to maximize your time and get valuable feedback from all student learning. EDpuzzle could also be used in this way as a science center (with a video pertaining to an experiment or new learning), a math center, etc. I love using center rotations because it ensures that I have time to work closely with each group.

For secondary students, use EDpuzzle is a great way to check for understanding. It is also a wonderful way for students to create and demonstrate understanding. EDpuzzle would be ideal for sub days. I always dreaded being away from the classroom because it was essentially a lost day. Even if the substitute did EXACTLY what I asked, I missed the opportunity to see my students work and think. EDpuzzle would give you the ability to “teach” remotely and embed the same questions and promptings you would give if you were live in the classroom. While you won’t get to hear all of the discussion, you will have some feedback to better understand how your students were thinking.

With documentary-type videos, EDpuzzle can be used to embed writing prompts. Record a prompt throughout the video so that students can pause and write out their reflections and thoughts. I find that good documentaries are often SO packed full of good things that by the end of the video, only the last 10 minutes get well-reflected on. The documentary Baraka would be an incredible video to do this with!

Have you seen Vi Hart’s YouTube channel? I am obsessed! I love the way that she goes through math in a casual stream-of-conscious type approach. Embed related practice math problems based on the topics that Vi is sharing in her videos. As students get those light-bulb moments of, “oh, that is how that works!” capitalize on the new understanding by giving them a place to put it into practice and try it out.

Do you record your students learning? EDpuzzle could be a fantastic way to record audio feedback to the videos that they upload. These can then be shared with parents and students for review.

Tips: Don’t have access to YouTube at school? No worries! You can still use EDpuzzle with your students. EDpuzzle lets you search for video by topic, or pull video from Khan Academy, Learn Zillion, National Geographic, TED, Veritasium, and Numberphile as well. LOTS of incredible learning just waiting to happen!

Eliademy: Democratizing education with technology

November 19, 2013November 16, 2013Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3884 views

What it is: Eliademy has a wonderful mission of democratizing education with technology. The tool makes it easy for anyone to create an online classroom, for free! Eliademy makes it easy for educators to create, share and manage courses. Eliademy is a free learning management system and course content created by you. Educators can engage students through discussion boards, videos, images, news feeds, visual notifications and calendar with a fast and easy to use interface. Eliademy is available everywhere: Mac, PC, tablet, smart phone. Very handy! Even better, you can create a course from your tablet (not available in a lot of LMS/online classroom options).

How to integrate Eliademy into your classroom: Eliademy isn’t just for offering distance-learning. It is a great way to connect your students in new and awesome ways in a blended-learning environment. Keep all of your digital classroom resources in one, easy-to access place. Make sure that your students can always be connected to what is happening in class with a shared calendar. Extend classroom discussions with discussion boards, video, and news feeds.

I’ve long been a fan of blending online experiences with offline. Students begin to see that learning can happen anywhere, not just in your classroom. They also connect in different ways online. I’ve found that kids are willing to have deeper, more vulnerable conversations in an online environment. This is especially true when the relationships are established first in the classroom.

Host your “flipped” materials using Eliademy. Not only can students access video, they can extend the experience with access to additional classroom materials, the ability to discuss and share resources online, etc.

Challenge students to create their own course to share. What are they passionate about? What can they offer to teach others?

Tips: Eliademy makes the promise that it will always be secure, without advertisements, and free. Outstanding.

What do you think of Eliademy? How do you plan to use it in your classroom?

Apprenticing students in the art of learning

October 31, 2013Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3626 views

I’m of the opinion that the apprenticeship model should be the basis for education. This is one of the cornerstones of Anastasis philosophy, that we apprentice students in the art of learning. The goal then, is to teach students how to be learners by modelling what it means to be a learner. I’m not sure how one can be a teacher and not be a learner.

As a young child, I was apprenticed as a learner. My parents were masters at encouraging curiosity. They themselves are inquirers. They showed me what it meant to passionately pursue understanding of the world around me. It never felt like school. As long as I can remember, my parents have owned their own businesses. When I was growing up, they owned and operated a kitchen remodel business. I spent summers “playing” at work. This was my first interaction with using a computer. I spent hours pretending to talk on the phone to a client and then designing their kitchen using the office Apple IIe. It was really exciting when I got to use the blue print machine in the insanely scary basement of the office. Later, my dad started a model rocket company. He made model rocket kits completely out of wood. This led to an excitement about physics, making, and entrepreneurship. My parents involved my brother and I in each part of the process. I spent many hours sewing bags for the rockets to be packaged in. When my brother decided that skateboarding was life, my parents started a skateboard company. This time I learned about screen printing, graphic design, and skate culture. My families most recent pursuit of passion is at Koostik. My dad started this company after discovering that he could amplify sound by putting his iPhone in a Styrofoam cup. He immediately began to tinker in the garage, using his passion for woodworking to create speakers for the iPhone that worked 100% through acoustics.

This was learning at its absolute best. It gave purpose to all of the things that I learned in school. My parents taught me how to pursue curiosity, passion and crazy ideas. They showed me that learning is a life long adventure.

I often get dropped-jaw stares when I tell people that I started a school. The immediate follow-up questions begin: how did you do it, what classes did you take to prepare you, what professional development on starting a school did you get, where did you find the money? My answer is always the same, I was raised to do this. My parents taught me how to do this by demonstrating what it means to be a learner. They taught me how to do this by showing me how passions and ideas are pursued. Many that I talk to consider starting a school risky or scary. For me the scarier thing would be to sit by and watch kids go through an education system that isn’t in their best interest. The scarier thing is to do what every one else is doing.

I was raised to do this.

My hope for students everywhere: that they would have teachers in their lives who would apprentice them in the art of learning.

Thank you mom and dad for showing me what passionate learning looks like!

P.S. If you haven’t seen the gorgeous work that my dad does, check out Koostik. Each of the products is made by hand. My dad is constantly sending me photos of new ideas he is tinkering with. LOVE that! Koostik has a contest that ends TONIGHT where you can enter to win product. I saw the prize pack in person today. The photos don’t do it justice. Everything is gorgeous! My dad is pretty much the master at choosing just the right piece of wood and working with the grain to really make each piece stand out as a masterpiece. It is truly (functional) art. Details for how to enter here.

The Very Best Use of a Weekend: #RSCON4

October 10, 2013October 10, 2013Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2205 views

I am SO excited for this weekend. It is the Reform Symposium Conference!!! Seriously, I feel a little bit giddy. Like a child on Christmas morning. As an adult, RSCON is one of the things that can bring back the same feelings of anticipation and eagerness. So much learning is about to happen this weekend! Best of all, it is INSPIRED learning. What could be better than surrounding yourself with a weekend packed full of inspiration, learning, hope, edu-friends and encouragement? Nothing, that’s what.

In case you’ve been out of the loop in the world of social media lately, this is BIG! You will not want to miss this FREE worldwide virtual conference. It doesn’t matter where in the world you are, what you are wearing, how disastrous (or epic) your week was, because RSCON4 is available to everyone. Please look at the schedule (conveniently made available in your preferred timezone) and plan to join us for as much of the conference as you can. I’m overjoyed that I get to be a part of this incredible conference again. Although I’ve been the very WORST organizer, I’m truly so honored to be a part of something so important.

I’ll be presenting on Sunday with @michellek107 and @nancybabbitt, we will share a little bit of the “secret” sauce that makes Anastasis so awesome. Drop in and join the conversation. Better yet: drop in to several sessions and join the conversation! Looking forward to learning with all of you!

Host an RSCON4 Meetup Party- Introduce Colleagues to Your PLN!

October 1, 2013Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2599 views

If you have never attended an online conference, you should definitely take the opportunity to try one out on October 11-13 for the Reform Symposium Conference. The line up of keynote speakers, presenters, and panel discussions is FANTASTIC. It is like traveling around the world for inspiration from the comfort of your living room. I really can’t say enough about how excited I am for this awesome weekend of learning! Please join us for as much as you can, you will not be disappointed! Plus, what could be better than learning with a bunch of friends from your living room? You don’t even have to worry about what attire you should wear (I’ll be in PJs for sure!).

Be sure to join @michellek, @nancybabbitt and me for our session Connections Through Inquiry on Sunday! We’ll be talking up strategies that we use at Anastasis Academy as teachers and learners. Check out the online schedule in your timezone and plan to join us!

If you are an online conference regular who is constantly working to get other teachers at your school to attend (with no luck), why not consider hosting a Reform Symposium Conference meetup party? If they won’t engage in online community on their own, bring the community to them! This would be a great way to help those who are less tech savvy get involved in some professional development in a way that feels ‘safe.’ Choose a location with good wifi (this could be a room at school, your living room, a local coffee shop), load up on fun snacks, invite some friends and learn together! I have done this in the past with great success! It is all kinds of fun and adds a level of safety for first timers. Use this event as an opportunity to introduce your offline colleagues to your online PLN (personal learning network). I find that people are more likely to engage online for learning when they feel like they have a connection to others going in. When they start a great conversation during a session, help them continue it by signing up for Twitter.

If you want to get really fancy, share my Twitter posters as a party gift. Help those who haven’t signed up to sign up and connect to those they met during the conference. Following the conference, send others at your school a “Learning Moment of the Day” along with a link to the community (member) that shared it with you.

Sometimes all it takes to connect people is a new approach to the invitation delivery. 🙂

We are still looking for volunteers to help with the conference!

Volunteer to Moderate Sessions for the Reform Symposium E-Conference (RSCON4)

RSCON would not be so inspiring without a highly devoted group of volunteer moderators to keep the conference running with as few hiccups as possible. Moderators play one of the most important roles by jumping into various sessions and helping presenters and participants have a great experience. Additionally, volunteers get to meet our inspiring presenters and introduce them to the audience. To become part of this super amazing team, sign up at http://www.futureofeducation.com/group/2013-rscon-volunteers and use the booking calendar to schedule volunteer time, http://rsconvolunteers.youcanbook.me

Also, attend one of our Blackboard Collaborate training sessions so you are familiar with the platform, http://bit.ly/rscon4trainingpg

Thank you for helping us inspire educators worldwide!

If you have questions about volunteering for the conference, one of our volunteer organizers would be happy to help! Tweet your questions to one of the awesome organizers listed below!
Peggy George (@Pgeorge), Marcia Lima (@Bamarcia), Chiew Pang (@AClilToClimb), Jo Hart (@JoHart), Phil Hart (@PhilHart)

24 of Our Favorite Apps at Anastasis Academy!

September 12, 2013September 12, 2013Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2507 views

Recently, Kelly Hodgkins from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) interviewed me for a back to school piece on apps that teachers use in the classroom. I not only shared our favorite apps, I also shared some iPad accessories that keep us happy.

Click here for 24 of our favorite apps at Anastasis Academy. What are your favorite apps?

Chalkstar to Rockstar: Revolutionary Ideas in Learning

September 5, 2013Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2375 views

Holy. Cow. School has started in full force! I absolutely love having kids back in the building. It feels alive again, kids bring an energy that can’t be matched. If you are a teacher, you know that there is an enormous amount of work that goes into starting a year. It’s a good thing that the kids bring energy, because mine is depleted! I blame it on the constant stream of school related dreams that happen at the beginning of the school year. It’s like I never leave that place! I hope that those of you who are beginning a new year are off to a great start.

I get a lot of questions about Anastasis Academy. People usually start off with jaws dropped and some disbelief in their eyes, “wait a minute, YOU started a school?” After some convincing that this AMAZINGNESS really does exist, the litany of questions begin. How did you do it? Where did the money come from? What is different about your school? In less than 6 months you started the school, seriously? Recently @michellek107 and I shared the story of Anastasis Academy with @bennettscience on a brand new show called Chalkstar to Rockstar. Check out this great new show here!

Detox: the most important event of the school year

August 13, 2013July 27, 2015Kelly Tenkely3 Comments8896 views

Anastasis is in the midst of gearing up for the start of a new school year. It is year number 3! In some ways, we are still very much a start-up (I think this will always be the case in some respect, it’s part of our philosophy to keep innovating!). We are also beginning to establish some nice traditions and events that we look forward to each year at the start of school.

Each year, we take a few days to meet with each student individually to build a Learning Profile. Teachers sit down with each student and go through a survey that helps them better understand a student’s interests and passions as well as gain a glimpse at multiple intelligence strengths, learning style preferences, and brain dominance. These Learning Profile days give students a chance to meet their new teacher in a safe space, help the teacher to learn about the student, and ultimately are used to help Team Anastasis individualize instruction for each learner. I’ve played around with different ways to gather this information: Google forms that the teacher fills in during an interview, Bento for gathering information in one place, an interactive PDF. This year I took a different approach, I am hopeful that it will be more fun for the students. I created a set of cards to sort of gamify the process, giving students a tangible and visual way to think through each statement as it relates to them. Teachers will record this process and then hand the data collected off to me for future planning. I used my new favorite find http://thenounproject.com to help me illustrate these cards. Fun fact: I have an ACTUAL artist working on the next version of these cards that I will be able to share with the world! @mdusing is creating illustrations for each card to help students better understand what each card represents, some of the concepts can be pretty abstract (empathy is always a tough one for kids to connect with…even when they are VERY empathetic!). This version will be available for all of you as a download; it will also be woven into The Learning Genome Project.

Learning Profile Interests/passion survey

Learning style preference cards

Multiple intelligence cards

Brain Dominance cards

Because our philosophy and model are so different, we start each year with a week of detox (fitting since our initials are AA) ;). During this week, we help students “stand up again” in who they are as learners, as creators, as individuals. We undo some of the messages they have learned about learning: that it happens in specific ways and at specific times, that the goal is answers, that the teacher knows it all, that a test is the only way to measure success, that they are bad at learning certain things, that they can’t be friends with kids who are a different age than they are, that only some people are creative…the list could go on and on!

Our detox week is a time for students to remember that they matter. It is an opportunity for them to re-frame the ways that they think about learning. It is a time for them to share their passions with each other. It is a chance to realize the working together is more productive than competing in learning. It is a safe time to explore creativity. It is also the week that new students start to discover that the relationship with their teacher is different here. That the goal of coming to school isn’t an “A” at the end of the semester.

I love this week! We see kids who begin to come back to life. The spark in their eye that can only come through discovering something new. For some kids, this week is life changing. Others are a little more hesitant, they don’t trust the freedom that we offer. They wonder when the “real work” will start and they will settle back into mediocrity. For these students, the detox week is a glimpse of things to come that they aren’t sure if they can trust. It usually takes about a month to really settle in and see that we really do mean what we say.

Individual classes explore what it means to be vulnerable. How to be proud of the individual talents and gifts that make up a class. How to work together to do hard things. We also bring the whole Anastasis community together for some activities. Our first year, students worked together to create iPad styluses out of sponge and wire for less than 10 cents. Last year we held an all-school day of play (highly recommend that!) and marshmallow/spaghetti tower challenge. This year we have some fun group art projects and challenges planned.

At the end of second week, we will hold our third annual identity day. This is an opportunity for students to share an area of passion with the school community. Students can choose to share anything they want to in a way that they want to. We hold a school-wide fair and invite families to attend. The set up almost looks like a science fair when all is said and done. We spend the day getting to know each other- apart from classroom constraints. We take a moment to see the world from another point of view. It is a spectacular day of honoring each child for who they are (teachers participate, too!). After a half day of sharing ourselves, we spend the rest of the day building community at a local park where we go ice-blocking. For those who have never had the privilege of ice-blocking, it involves purchasing a block of ice from a grocery store, finding a large grassy hill, sitting on the block of ice, and sledding down the hill in the sunshine. We have a blast! Parents, teachers, and students get involved in the fun. Barriers are broken down, friendships forged and a community bound together for a year of life and learning together.

Our detox week may be the single most important week of the entire year. It sets the tone, letting students know that this is a safe place to be who they are. That this is a place where learning looks like life. That the questions this year will be as important as the answers. I’m not sure Anastasis would be the incredible place of learning it is without our detox week.

I collect ideas for inquiry units and our detox week on Pinterest. If you are interested in hosting your own “detox,” check out the ideas saved here!

Of course, you can always follow all of my boards on Pinterest here.

Also random side note, I’m trying to convince Anastasis staff that it is a good idea for us to start an Extreme Combat Juggling team. It’s a real thing, which is awesome. Feel free to help me in this encouragement, on Twitter they are: @michellek107, @dweissmo, @bestmscott, @nancybabbitt, @matthewquigley, @lancefinkbeiner. 🙂

Detox concept via Monika Hardy http://redefineschool.com/detox/ adapted by Team Anastasis