Now I know what you're going to say! And no, I'm not crazy or going against my anti-homework opinions. My 3rd graders have been chosen to pilot a "take-your-school-computer-home" program for the past 3 weeks. And it as worked out really nicely for the most part, but I'll save that for another post.
So for the past three weeks my students have been able to take their school computers home Monday through Thursday and then the computers stay locked up in the classroom for the weekends. Well, my students have been pestering me to let them take their computers home over the weekends and I just haven't been able to get myself to say "yes" until yesterday. I finally gave in, but I told them that if they took their computers home over the weekend, they will have to do something REALLY spiffy with them!
I made a very simple assignment in Google Classroom for them. It took maybe 5 minutes for me to post, here it is:
So for the past three weeks my students have been able to take their school computers home Monday through Thursday and then the computers stay locked up in the classroom for the weekends. Well, my students have been pestering me to let them take their computers home over the weekends and I just haven't been able to get myself to say "yes" until yesterday. I finally gave in, but I told them that if they took their computers home over the weekend, they will have to do something REALLY spiffy with them!
I made a very simple assignment in Google Classroom for them. It took maybe 5 minutes for me to post, here it is:
It basically says; "here's a couple of videos about the Solar System. Watch them. Make something. Be creative. Have fun." I told the kids that the assignment was optional, that they didn't HAVE to do it.
This afternoon (it's Saturday), I got an email notification that one of my students shared a Google Presentation with me. The title of the presentation was "The Solar System by Dana and Vanessa". I was curious, "...by Dana AND Vanessa" it said. So I opened the presentation and was VERY pleasantly surprised! It was indeed done by BOTH girls. I know this because I checked to Revision History and it was clearly worked on by both girls at the same time! So, my next thought was, "ok, these girls are good friends, maybe one girl went to the other girl's house". Nope, I know Dana's mom well enough that I texted her and asked about how the girls did their work. She told me that they were both in their own houses and they worked on the presentation for most of the afternoon today!
How Cool Is This?
Let me point out a few things so you can fully appreciate the awesome cool-ness of this!
- It's SATURDAY! These girls chose to work/learn on their own time! Seriously? Remember, I told the kids that they did not HAVE to complete this assignment...it was just for fun.
- They chose to collaborate on this presentation! They were in their own houses and decided to do this project together AT THE SAME TIME!. They communicated through the chat feature and they also FaceTimed each other while they were working. Like I said earlier, they really did work on this together. By looking at the Revision History, I can see what TIME changes were made, WHAT changes were made and I can see WHO made those changes.
Now, scroll back up to the presentation and check out the 2nd to the last slide; the girls cited the source where they found most of their information. I didn't tell them they had to do that. Yes, we've been working on that; but I didn't even mentioned it in this assignment. They just did it...all on their own! Don't forget, they are 3rd graders! The source where they found their information was NOT one of the links I included in the assignment. So these girls searched for their own information!
Now, I also have to say that these two girls are my "middle-of-the-road" students. They are good solid AVERAGE students, not my GATE students! So needless to say, I am beyond impressed! These two definitely did something SPIFFY with their computers this weekend!
Who says kids have to be in classrooms to learn? Not me!
Now, I also have to say that these two girls are my "middle-of-the-road" students. They are good solid AVERAGE students, not my GATE students! So needless to say, I am beyond impressed! These two definitely did something SPIFFY with their computers this weekend!
Who says kids have to be in classrooms to learn? Not me!