Ready for a new school year? Your child probably spent the summer learning new skills or leveling up existing ones, be it coding, painting, swimming or music. When kids build skills, they acquire a greater sense of confidence and curiosity that will make them hungry for even more accomplishments. So with that said, we should be asking, is the school ready for your child?
Like any organization, schools should be constantly looking to be more efficient and innovative because we want our children in a school that thrives, not just survives. Thus as I did last year, I have outlined some clues to help us spot the kind of school that thrives. If you see this in your child's school, do not be passive. Make sure you voice your admiration and support those persons or initiatives further. To me, that is an essential part of "parent participation," a term that is widely overused but seldom understood.
Clue 1: The teachers are resourceful and creative. They can turn anything into a tool for teaching. The most creative teachers wouldn't last long in the one-size-fits-all type of school. Thus if you meet such a teacher, make sure you support her as much as you can. That said, if you meet a teacher enthusiastically using any of these three tools in your child's classroom, chances are your child is going to have an awesome year of learning.
Minecraft: What? No, not Minecraft! Actually yes, yes Minecraft. The game that makes parents crazy and leads my children to outsmart all of my internet locks to binge watch Minecraft tutorial videos is still just a small movement in schools. However, it is possibly our best bet for the kind of change in education for which we've all been waiting. Microsoft, who now owns Minecraft has made a grand gesture by creating a free portal for teachers so that they may be able to share their resources in creating their lesson plans. To be sure, the game has proved itself useful in lessons in all subject areas including history and math. Of key significance is how Minecraft can be an alternative but equally effective way to demonstrate knowledge instead of a tri-fold poster or essay. Would a child rather build the Roman Empire in Minecraft that shows what life was like back then or would she rather write a term paper about it? I know what my child would say. What about yours?
Sphero SPRK Edition: The days of press-this-to-do-that are over for robot toys. With Sphero SPRK Edition, robots have taken a giant leap closer to meeting the expectations of digital natives whose fickle toy tastes have long been frustrating parents everywhere. Sphero has accomplished this by encasing bot in a crystal clear exterior, a new package design and most importantly, creating a new awesome app: SPRK (Schools, Parents, Robots, Kids) which makes creating (aka programming) with Sphero so much easier than ever before. With SPRK, the ball, the universal symbol of play, will hopefully be rolling about in your child's school this year. They can be used to learn programming but frankly, I think that is a narrow view of what teachers and kids can do with a ball. Hint: think solar system
The transparent exterior shows students just how the robotic ball follows conditional commands set... [+]
Makey Makey: If your child's teacher was using the Makey Makey in her classroom, consider yourself unbelievably lucky. Because Makey Makey has limitless possibilities, any teacher who has found a way to use them is likely a teacher who really knows what she's doing. What is it? Simply put, Makey Makey is used to turn almost anything into a key on a computer keyboard, even a banana. If you think that is not impressive, it's just because you, like most of us, do not look at a keyboard as something "fun." But think about how fun it would be to have children to play classical music together with buckets of water. Could there be a better way to get them excited not just about technology but making something with technology? That's the goal: to feel like anything is possible.
Clue 2: The school invests in effective delivery, not just quality content. How you learn is just as important as what you learn.
Voice Dream Reader and Voice Dream Writer: This $10 app is one of the best educational finds of my entire career. Simply put, Voice Dream brings speech-to-text and text-to-speech technology to such a premium level, even children can use it to do their work. It also allows easy access to their excellent human-like and wide variety of voice technology to millions of users worldwide including Bookshare subscribers (over 350,000 titles free for students K-12 with print disabilities such as blindness and dyslexia. Even Go Set a Watchman is free and available to students now). Another important distinction to make with the Voice Dream apps is how this app can literally level the playing field for so many children. Smart children who happen to struggle in receiving information in written format or whose brains lack the wiring to put their thoughts down in letters on paper as neatly and as quickly as they are thinking them will love this. They can use this app to open doors that were either closed or needed a tremendous amount of effort to open. Any school that makes this tech available to kids is a forward-moving school in my book.
Newsela: There is nothing more humbling than when your child comes home from school and says to you, "Gaming is better for children's brains, Mom! Even Minecraft!" When I asked for his sources, he told me he learned this at school, namely from Newsela, a company that takes a single story and rewrites it to fit into five different reading levels so that an entire class or grade or possibly even an entire school can read the same story at the same time in the same place. Isn't that what classroom learning is supposed to be? Differentiation is great but we need to give teachers a tool to do it without having to split themselves into multiple people. Newsela, with its partnership with The Washington Post, is making this a reality in many classrooms today.
LEGO Education MoretoMath: I find that some students who are quite excellent at math have an incredibly difficult time with math word problems. It's as if math word problems should be taught during reading class. Some kids hate it. In fact, for some, the competency difference between basic calculations (no words, just numbers) and math word problems for the same grade level is so great, that kids who could be accelerated will be held back just because the word problems are still challenging for them. What is the end result? You get a kid who loves math but ends up hating school math because half of it is boring (calculations part) and the other half is too hard (word problems). What could be worse than boring and hard, at school? This is unacceptable but thank goodness LEGO Education created MoretoMath, a new curriculum that shows a systemic hands-on way of teaching math word problems. It's the missing brick that is an important part of building math competency.
Would you ever try solving a jigsaw puzzle without touching it? No? Then why would we ask young... [+]
Clue 3: Technology is purchased wisely and used efficiently. What would you think of a person who uses an iPhone 6 Plus only for making phone calls? You'd probably shake your head. Thus, imagine what a digital native would think of a teacher or school who is underutilizing sophisticated tools or is still using antiquated materials when better and affordable alternatives exist. Would you, the student, be confident that you are getting a great education?
In this year's Technology Counts report, Education Week deftly captured how technology has not transformed the way lessons are taught in schools. One of the report's authors, Benjamin Herold wrote, "The student-centered, hands-on, personalized instruction envisioned by ed-tech proponents remains the exception to the rule." With the constant cries of shrinking school budgets, we need to applaud school systems that use tech budgets wisely and advocate for more training and support for teachers.
IPEVO Wireless Interactive Whiteboard System: Eight years ago, researcher Johnny Lee posted a video on YouTube demonstrating how he could take a forty dollar Nintendo Wii remote and a $5 dollar pen hack and use it to make an interactive whiteboard. Such interactive whiteboards then cost thousands of dollars and many still do today. Thankfully, some smaller companies have taken this idea and created a neatly packaged product ready for use straight out of the box in any classroom. The IPEVO wand can literally be used like a mouse or stylus pen on a TV screen or whiteboard using a projector for just a tiny fraction of the cost. That is pretty smart and would likely earn some credibility with the digital natives.
I saw this beautiful interactive board at International Society for Technology in Education... [+]
Equil Smartmarker: Are you a good notetaker? I am definitely not but I use technology to make up for that with cameras, recorders, and digital pens. However, many kids are not allowed to use their cellphones or other tech in class. Heaven forbid a camera! Even if they have trouble writing down the homework assignment off the board, they are still not allowed to take a picture of it. This makes no sense to me but neither does not having access to what your teacher wrote on the board just because you were sick that day. This is why I love the Equil Smartmarker, it makes recording whatever you wrote on your whiteboard extremely easy. You can't help but wonder what this can do for a student who has to spend time in the hospital for a while. With Equil, no student would ever fear that they missed something the teacher wrote on the board. Best of all, just in case class had to take place somewhere else, there would be no loss as there is nothing to permanently mount on any wall or ceiling. The Equil is completely portable. Watch this video. I find it incredibly uplifting.
Whisperphone Element: Why is listening to yourself through a tube good for learning to read or for any person learning a new language? If you think about why we wear noise-canceling headphones, the answer silences any critic. We live in an age where technology brings us exactly what we need in exactly the way we need it. Thus, we are becoming confident enough to know when we actually don't need sophisticated technology. The Whisperphone is a simple contraption that allows a reader to hone in on his own voice as he reads and easily tune out background noise. I liken the experience of reading with Whisperphones to having to fill a tank with two pipes. Basically, the Whisperphone expands one of pipes so much that more water flows in faster and less of it spills off to the side. Think about that when trying to keep all the information you've read. Who wouldn't want that for a student? Information is precious. Kids should be given the means to gather and retain as much as possible.
Clue 4: You see kids actually playing at school because the school understands that play is not a treat. Rather, play is an avenue for learning virtually any subject worth learning. It also helps kids satisfy very important mental and physical needs which when deprived, limits learning potential at school. Here's an example: Johnny is a mover. He can't stay still and be quiet in class because that is the way he is built. Unfortunately, Johnny loses playground time so that he may "reflect" on his disruptive behavior. This commonly used tactic is unhelpful and is a perfect example of how play is not optional especially for kids like Johnny, who really really needs to play.
Green Toys Pizza Set: Imagine having pizza, a cutter, multiple toppings and even a pizza box. Could anything be more social and creative? Kids will pretend to be adults as they are ordering their favorite toppings and have tons of fun practicing speech and language skills. Experts will tell you that this activity can flex social cognition skills which are critical to building good reading and writing skills later. Yes, social savvy helps with writing. It really is true. Moreover, Green Toys also offers other social play toys such as tea sets and dish sets so that children can imagine and act out their visions of what adult life must be like. In short, these tools support pretend play, an essential step in the process of growing up.
Never underestimate the educational power of pizza. Skills to build include speech, language,... [+]
Gonge Carousel: A school that invests in Gonge products is a school that wants its tools to be effective and to last a long long time. Everything that I have seen from American Educational Products has been nothing short of fascinating especially the Gonge line from Denmark. The Carousel is no exception. Placed on an angle in a curved ovular seat, a child who is sitting or lying on it can manipulate their spinning speed just by shifting their center of gravity. It's a science experiment, toy, exercise machine, and self-regulator all in one. The Carousel makes every kid (and adult) want to go for a spin.
Imagination Playground: Whenever I play with my children, they look at me as if I am the best mother in the world. Humans need to play, especially children. When children are given tools such as Imagination Playground's big blue blocks, there is no telling what they will do. That is the beauty of it. Everything is a surprise. Everything is authentic. Everything is derived from a collaborative process. It's not only the blocks, it's the children and their ideas who make it fun. Kids have fun when they are learning even the toughest of lessons that adults still tackle at work today such as how to get someone to see your point of view or allow your project to be improved with someone else's ideas. Play allows for that to be an enjoyable experience and the laughter that results is the sealant that prevents the kids from forgetting these important lessons.
Note: Every product has been personally tested by Toys Are Tools’ testers. Products were submitted to facilitate a review. Some were also purchased by the writer. Reviews are never promised.
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