PBS Honors Maya Angelou

“Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes, into
Your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.”

 – “On the Pulse of Morning” by Maya Angelou On May 28, 2014,

Maya Angelou, Chwefror 2009

Renaissance woman and civil rights activist Maya Angelou passed away at the age of 86. She read one of her most famous poems, "On the Pulse of the Morning" at the inauguration of President Clinton in 1993.

Speaking at Bill Clinton's inauguration, 1993

Angelou’s talent was not defined by just one medium. Throughout her life, she was a poet, novelist, dancer, playwright, actor and educator. She has written autobiographies, poems, children’s books, essays, plays and screenplays. Angelou has been awarded more than 50 honorary degrees and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010 by President Barack Obama.

Maya Angelou speaking at a rally for Barack Obama, 2008

 In this lesson from PBS NewsHour Extra, students learn more about her extraordinary life. LESSON: http://to.pbs.org/1QqieWV


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PBS Teaches Us Symmetry

Tiger, Tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
                        --William Blake

Symmetry can be found all around us. You need only look in the mirror to find evidence that the human body is symmetrical. If you draw a line down the middle of your body, you will see that one side is the mirror image of the other side; this is called bilateral symmetry (a.k.a. reflection symmetry or mirror symmetry). 

This is EXACTLY what "fearful symmetry" looks like!

Another common type of symmetry is rotational symmetry. If a figure can be rotated a certain number of degrees about its center and look exactly the same, the figure is said to have rotational symmetry. 

You call this rotational symmetry.  I call it weird.

Plants and animals that exhibit symmetrical features are thought to be healthier than asymmetrical members of their species. In this video segment from Cyberchase, students will learn how symmetry reveals itself in nature. When Bianca wants to learn why her plants keep dying, she turns to a plant expert at the New York Botanical Garden for insight. The expert shows her some patterns in plants, including bilateral and rotational symmetry, before discovering the pattern that may be killing her plants. WATCH: http://to.pbs.org/1O7BVjg

My Day at the WVIZ Ideastream Conference

Tuesday, November 17, was an exciting day.  I battled morning traffic on 77 North to get to the PBS WVIZ Ideastream Conference, and I arrived early enough for a Starbucks treat. When I checked in at the registration table, the nice lady said, "Oh!  You're Stephani.  You need to go see that gentleman at the next table."  Worried that something was wrong, I introduced myself, and he told me to follow an intern.  Next thing I knew, I was in the television studio, the same television studio where I took my students to see Tom Hanks and John Lithgow.

The studio seats about 200 people.  Soon it would be packed!

This time, I would not only be lucky enough to sit in the front row, but I also was honored to present after the keynote speaker, Dr. Susan Finelli.  My name was on the web page and in the program!

There I am!

As I waited, a nice lady fitted me with a body microphone--how surreal is that?  Then we rehearsed until we broke the computer.  I blithely posted selfies while the tech people sweated bullets trying to figure out the problem.

Rehearsing for my PBS presentation. Computer already died. I swear it isn't my fault.

A photo posted by Stephani Itibrout (@itibrout) on Nov 17, 2015 at 5:36am PST

I took a selfie with Jay Wise, History teacher at Copley Middle School and fellow 2015 PBS Digital  Innovator.  The best part is that he is my daughter's teacher, so I texted the pic to her to freak her out.

Just 2 PBS Digital Innovators hanging out. You know. No biggie. #pbs @pbslearningmedia

A photo posted by Stephani Itibrout (@itibrout) on Nov 17, 2015 at 6:02am PST

 Then Jay and I received certificates for being 2015 PBS Digital Innovators, and I got a cool mini-guitar!





Let me say that it was difficult to follow such an interesting speaker (Dr. Finelli), but I breathed deeply and dove in.  Here is the link to my presentation on Community Service in Blended Learning.

I think it went well.

Later, Shannon Conley-Kurjian and I presented a session on using YouTube tools to explain complex concepts.

I attended some great sessions from Stephanie DeMichele, PBS' NewsDepth, and Ann Radefeld, who challenged us to beat some elementary school kids in a game of Mystery Hangout.  They kicked our butts.

After lunch I listened to IdeaTalks from Morgan Kolis ("How to Start a Maker's Club in Ten Steps"), Stephanie DeMichele ("If You're Going to Fail, Make It Epic"), and Eric Curts ("The Big Blank Wall").  The speakers from all of my sessions were so dynamic and so full of information that I felt like I could go back to my school with takeaways I could use immediately.  That doesn't always happen at a conference.

Thank you so much for an amazing day, WVIZ and PBS.  Your conference has inspired me to strive to hone my craft.  I will be back.

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Hispanic Heritage Month at PBS

Who were the people that lived here before Europeans first explored America? In this episode of Crash Course, students get an enlightening U.S. history lesson presented by John Green, who talks about the Native Americans who lived in what is now the U.S. prior to European contact. Green starts the lesson by shedding light on the established way of life of American Indians prior to colonization, and later, discusses what life was like during the first sustained European settlement in North America by the Spaniards. As Green describes, the Spanish have a long history with the natives of the Americas, and not all of it was positive – they were not known to be peaceful colonizers. Green then teaches students about early Spanish explorers, settlements, and what happened when they didn't get along with the indigenous people. WATCH: http://to.pbs.org/1L3FclF

Antiques Roadshow Teaches Me History

I don't watch tv.  

Wait--that's not true.  I watch Dr. Who, and that's it.

This is my Doctor.

Wait--that's not true either. Sometimes I will pretend NOT to watch Antiques Roadshow when my husband is watching it, but we both know better.  I don't care about the ugly paintings people bought at garage sales, although I still catch myself exclaiming, "Ten thousand DOLLARS??? For that ? WHAT???" before going back to mindless clicking games on my computer.  What I do enjoy are the stories.  There are so many fascinating histories made personal with a trinket or a spoon or a chair.  Sometimes you catch a doozy of a story:

During the Civil War, Union soldier Fernando Robbins was captured by the Confederates and imprisoned. Robbins kept a diary while in prison, writing about the conditions he faced and the people he met. He collected numerous other artifacts during his time in the South, including a small Confederate flag, a stencil of his name, and several pieces that he carved while in prison. These items were passed down through the Robbins family, along with a photograph that shows him in uniform. 

Share this video from Antiques Roadshow with your class as they examine some of these artifacts alongside appraisers. This “unique archive” offers an illuminating historical glimpse into the experiences of a Union solder who served time as a prisoner of war. WATCH: http://to.pbs.org/1JBI2Hp

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I'm not a Biologist, but I Can Blog about Marine Biology and Ecosystems!

Whales fascinate me.  I've always thought about how graceful they are despite their size.  Ever since seeing the crew from Star Trek use George and Gracie, two humpback whales, to save Earth, I have yearned to see a whale in the ocean.

:

This summer my family visited Boston, and we booked a whale-watching trip.  It was incredible!  We found two humpback whales, and for at least half an hour we watched them blow water and air, fluke, and dive right next to the boat.  It was a very moving experience for me.  My kids thought I was insane when I brushed tears from my eyes.

On August 31, I was lucky enough to catch PBS's video of a blue whale returning to a part of the ocean where there hadn't been whales in many years.  I could explain what that was like for me to watch and for the host of the show to witness, but instead I'm just going to share the link with you.  See for yourself! 

Did you cry?

I loved how the host explained how the whales were just starting to come back because the ecosystem was healing.

In healthy island ecosystems, living things and the natural resources surrounding them are in balance. This balance creates resilience. A resilient island has a greater ability to bounce back when forces outside its control, including climate change, disturb it; however, if an island’s ecosystems have been weakened because of harmful human activities, the balance is lost, which has a negative effect on living things and makes it much more difficult for them to recover.

In this interactive activity, students explore Pacific high island and atoll ecosystems, learn about the threats to island resources and residents, and discover how communities are preserving their future. They also learn about the services these ecosystems provide and how they become compromised by change. EXPLORE: http://to.pbs.org/1L9Xlxm

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Failure is the Mother of Invention

My last post reflected on the importance of curiosity and risk-taking to creativity and invention.  I touched on failure as a risk, and it got me thinking: Why is failure a risk?

So many times my students see their writing as a "final project."  They put something down on paper (or on a screen), and they call it a finished project. There are two sayings that students often hear in my classroom: 1.  You can't just vomit your thoughts on paper, say it's done, and then expect me to admire it.  I don't admire vomit.  2.  There is never a finished project in writing.

My intent is to make writing, all writing, continuous.  I want students to constantly reflect on their writing, their learning, and their processes for that writing and learning.  My role is to help that reflection by providing formative feedback, and I do.  A LOT.  The problem is that students (and parents) are so used to seeing feedback as a final decision, a grade, that they are devastated if that grade is lower than an A.  Why should it be an A?  I have never done something right the first time (including writing these blog posts).  I am used to failure because I fail every day.  This doesn't mean that failure is final.  Failure is a step in my growth.  Why did I fail?  How can I fix it?  How can the next attempt be better?

Last year, I had an incredibly bright student--let's call him Joe--who was working on a digital storytelling project in my AP Literature and Composition class (click here for a link to the description of the project).  I had given guidelines and rubrics for the outcomes, but the instructions on how to achieve those outcomes were purposely loose.  I wanted the students to have freedom of creativity; I didn't want to keep them on a leash.  Joe worked happily in his group on the project, but the submitted "final" result did not meet the requirements of the rubric.  I used the rubric for my feedback, and Joe was upset with himself and his group because they didn't pay enough attention to the rubric.  I told him not to be upset; just fix the project and resubmit.  His face lit up, and he said, "You mean I can redo it and make it better?"  Of course; that's the point.  Learn from your failure and make it better the next time.  Joe's next product was MUCH better because he analyzed his mistakes from his first attempt (based on my formative feedback) and corrected them.

Now, I've been writing about, well, writing, but this can apply to anything. Ask a mechanical engineer to describe his or her career path, and you’re likely to hear something along these lines: I built this cool thing, but it didn't work, so I had to take it apart and try again.  And again.  And again. Failure is tool for learning; no inventor gets it right on the first try.

In this video profile, students meet mechanical engineer and inventor Nate Ball, who explains his big invention – a rope-climbing device named the Atlas Power Ascender that is employed in search-and-rescue operations. He describes the process used to design, build and test the Ascender and discusses the role of failure, which is not only common in engineering but teaches valuable lessons. WATCH: http://to.pbs.org/1ea3ScA

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Teaching Healthy Food Choices in School

As a runner, I'm pretty aware of what I eat and drink.  I try to include as many fruits and vegetables as possible in my diet, and I do track my nutrition on myfitnesspal.com.  

My children at home and my students at school are aware of my eating choices; discussing food and exercise is just a way of life to me.  I try to show them that moderation is the key to healthy eating, and I try to demonstrate eating to fuel my body rather than bingeing to compensate for an emotional need.  

One thing I do with my Blended Rhetoric and Composition class is food blogs.  I demonstrate with my post about making butternut squash quesadillas, and then I bring in the quesadillas to share with the class.  In my blog post, I write about taste, texture, and nutrition.  Sometimes this hits home with the students when it is their turn to write posts and share food, but more often than not, it just gives our class an excuse to eat brownies.

Healthy

Not healthy, but oh, so good!

Different foods provide different kinds of nutrients, and some foods are more nutritious than others. That is the basis of this multi-media lesson from WGBH that teaches your students the fundamentals of nutrition and how essential it is to our health! 

The lesson begins with an activity in which students consider two plates of food – one composed of healthy choices and one composed of “less healthy” choices. Students then watch a video about healthy eating habits, and discuss the role of fruits and vegetables in a wholesome diet. Your class will also investigate snacks and learn about the difference between "everyday" and "sometimes" foods. 

Everyday food

Sometimes food

Finally, they’ll participate in a hands-on activity that challenges them to make healthy choices while preparing a plate of food for a friend. EXPLORE: http://to.pbs.org/1H4azqZ

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Love from PBS LearningMedia

As a PBS LearningMedia Digital Innovator, I get really cool stuff to share with you each week.  This week the theme is "Backyard Summer."  Each week I will share links and material with you to help you in your lesson planning.  Here is the video for the week of July 6:

Do you like slugs, spiders and beetles? In this video from Wild TV, students learn about many different kinds of insects, and gain a healthy reverence for them. They’ll see that some insects crawl like spiders and centipedes, while others fly, walk on water and even flip and “click.” 

Students will also learn the names of some interesting-looking insects, like the dobsonfly. They will discover how to be safe around dangerous spiders and how some use escape reflexes, like the click beetle. As they listen and watch closely, students will observe how the speakers in the video feel about the various insects by the way they react to and talk about them. WATCH: http://to.pbs.org/1ICx6Jr

Like what you read?  Follow me on Twitter @itibrout.  I will share a new link each day.  Some will be useful for elementary school teachers, some for higher levels.  Enjoy!

I'll Meet You There.

Sometimes teachers who incorporate technology into their teaching can't understand teachers who don't (or administrators who don't encourage technology use in the classroom).  I hear the frustration from teachers who say, "It's a new era of teaching.  Why won't people just give it a try?"  I get it.  We have discovered a new world, one that is both stimulating and frightening, and we want everyone to get on the roller coaster.

But.

Roller coasters can be more than scary; they can be dangerous.  They can make you sick, or at the very least give you a headache.  The key is knowing what you can handle and taking one. tiny. step. beyond that.  Unless you are like me, and you just jump in the front seat and strap yourself in with that flimsy lap belt.  Jump first; panic later--that's my motto.

This is what ed. tech. looks like.  Does it frighten you?

There are times when I talk to my colleagues, and I mention projects I'm doing in my classes, and they are horrified.

"You let the students USE THEIR PHONES?  All the time?  Why would you do that?  They are just texting."

"I couldn't spend all that time putting notes and lessons on Blackboard.  If the students want the notes, they have to pay attention when I present."

"Why should I spend all that time creating an online quiz/game when we all know the site will go down as soon as I need it?"

"What do you mean, you let your students re-do assignments until they have 'mastered' them?  How much grading do you do?  How do you keep students accountable?"

I get it.  I do.  Sometimes I say the same things.

But.

I think those people secretly want to get on the roller coaster.  I think they are afraid of failure, that failure of a lesson means they are failures.  I know this feeling, and my goal is to help my colleagues overcome it.  The question is. . . how?

This month PBS Learning Media informed me that I am a 2015 Lead PBS Digital Innovator.

STEPHANI ITIBROUT

2015 LEAD PBS DIGITAL INNOVATOR

WVIZ/PBS IDEASTREAM
MEDINA HIGH SCHOOL
MEDINA, OHIO

Read the Full Bio

Stephani is an English teacher and blended learning teacher at Medina High School in Medina, Ohio. Stephani knows that learning is messy, and Blended Learning is especially messy. She loves seeing the light bulbs illuminate above her students' heads when a seemingly chaotic project suddenly clicks into place.

Favorite PBS LearningMedia resource: Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure: Paris

This means that I am lucky enough to join twenty-nine colleagues who are committed to learning more about effective integration of ed tech in the classroom.

It also means I get to attend the first day of ISTE!

Because I am sure I have impostor syndrome, I have been asking myself why I have the honor of receiving this award.  I went over and over my video and essay submissions, and this is what I have decided:  I am a 2015 PBS Learning Media Lead Digital Innovator not just because I want to share my digital learning discoveries with my students, but also because I desperately want to share the roller coaster fun with my colleagues.  I've figured it out: one tiny step beyond your safety line, that's all it takes to hook you.

I'm going to try to hook you by meeting you where you are, just like I do with my students.  You like to lecture?  Ok, let me show how to backchannel using  Today's Meet, a great way to collect students' questions and reactions during your lesson.  You can archive the whole thing--no risk.  If it doesn't work, dump it.

 Do you like bell work?  Let's talk about Answer Garden; you can poll students online before class and discuss their answers as soon as the bell rings.

My point is this: we "digital innovators" need to realize that baby steps are necessary.  Offer one thing only, and if that one thing works. . .offer another.  Years ago, my very wise department head told me, "Students can only really process one lesson at a time.  Teach them ONE THING.  When they have mastered it, move on."  And so it is with teachers.

Where are you on the path of digital innovation?   I'll meet you there.

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