Cadence+Spearman

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About Me
Cadence Spearman is a science instructor at Henry W. Grady High School in Atlanta, Georgia. She joined the Atlanta Public School district, twelve years ago as part of the first cohort of the APS initiative- APLUS (Atlanta Preparing Leaders for Urban Schools) program.

Tweet: @chspearman  Email: cspearman@atlanta.k12.ga.us

Takeaways / Big Ideas
1. **Talking**: Students do not learn much from sitting and listening. Talking internalizes what they've learned. Share-Pair time is when they discuss what they've learned. 2. **Emotions rule:** Strong memories are closely related to strong emotional experiences. Students love games. They are very competitive, and thrive on winning! Although more stressful, getting up in front of their classmates during oral presentations also brings out plenty of emotions. 3. **Visuals:** Vision is the strongest of the senses. Talking alone isn't enough. They have plenty to look at in addition to what I say.I use posters, drawings, videos, and pictures, to help them learn. 4. **Chunking:** The typical attention span is the child's age plus or minus a couple of minutes. So for my high school students, 15-20 minutes is the longests they can pay attention, therefore, the typical "lecture" type teaching just doesn't work. I need to chunk information, then give them opportunity to process that in some way. Students will talk with an elbow partner or have an opportunity to write, draw, or move around. 5. **Movement:** Combining movement with the learning almost guarantees stronger learning. I have the students moving several times throughout the lesson and I encourage them to make movements that can be tied to what they are learning...a form of charades. 6. **Shake it up:** If you do exactly the same thing, exactly the same way, it becomes boring and the brain tunes out. I change the seating arrangement often and try to do one part of the day completely different. 7. **The brain needs oxygen:** They say 20% of all the oxygen used in the body is used by the brain. That means I need to get the students up out of their seats regularly and moving. 8. **Make connections:** Connections are important for the brain. It can't hold random information, it needs to connect to something else that's already there. I encourage the students to make connections through their own experience and stories (3-2-1 exit ticket). 9. **Feedback is essential:** Practice doesn't make anything better unless the practice is accurate. My students need to hear they are on the right track. 10. **Music is magical:** There are many studies on music and learning. One way I use music is that I often play "upbeat music" when it's time to move or brain-based music when students are writing.. That way the the students create feelings to the music which brings us back to emotions.



My Action Research
[|Capstone Presentation]

AR Overview
Initial questions that led to my AR question: How do I help students grow into learning? How do I break the stereotypes of who a student is? How do I help students learn to love to learn; to stop waiting for the answer; to go find the answer? To understand, failure leads to success. That failure is an opportunity to start over, more intelligently That sometimes what we call "failure", is really just that necessary struggle called learning.

AR Question
How will the flipped classroom impact student learning?

AR Process
I created an Edmodo account to have a new fun interactive way to communicate with students (it's like Facebook). The in class lecture was converted into videos that student watch at home. I uploaded the videos to Edmodo. Students were asked to watch the videos and take notes before class in preparation for the in-class activities. Students can pause, stop, rewind the videos, as often as necessary. They videos are always available for review. Since, I was not spending class time for lecture, this allowed more time for students to practice with the content. Students worked in pairs or small groups on various activities based on interest and/or readiness. I was able to spend more time with small groups of students in this setting. Lots of talking, sharing, moving and hands-on.



AR Data Analysis
Over time, students voices were heard more often. They were answering more questions, asking each other more clarifying questions and more engaged in the daily activities. As a teacher, I asked more higher-order questions and created more authentic assessments which paralleled the level of rigor taking place in class. Students test scores increased and a sense of comfort was evident in the students when it came to presenting and defending information orally.

AR Conclusions
Participating in the action research gave me an opportunity to reflect on my teaching practices. I was charged with identifying an area for growth. During this past year, I was was invested in ensuring the best possible atmosphere for learning in my classroom. Music, movement, and collaboration became an everyday experience. One-on one, and small group interactions allowed my students and I to work collaboratively on meeting personal learning styles and best practices for success. Utilizing technology allowed for more creative expressions from the students and myself.

In order to help the students perform better, I must help them learn about their brain, how they learn, and practice with them strategies that can lead to maximum metacognition.

**Lit Review & Resources**
[|www.bozemanbiology.com] (Biology Videos) [|www.edmodo.com] (Facebook-like site for teachers) [|www.ibuildapp.com] (Build an app inminutes) [|www.polleverywhere.com] (Survey the class without response devices) [|www.prezi.com] (Snazzy presentations-like Power Point) [|www.remind101.com] (Send a text message to students and parents) [|www.screnncastomatic.com] (Speak over any screen image- great for making short videos) _ Failing Forward-John Maxwell http://www.frumi.com/images/uploads/failingforward.pdf

First Things First-Steve Covey https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit3.php

Flipped Learning Network Ning http://flippedclassroom.org/

How to do action research http://teachersnetwork.org/tnli/Action_Research_Booklet.pdf

Kevin Honeycutt http://kevin honeycutt.org

Reflections
During this year I have learned how students learn, how I can improve my instruction through application of brain-based strategies, how the infusion of technology in our world impacts the classroom, what students need to be successful, and how I can effectively adapt my teaching strategies to this generation of techno students.

My goal is to share these experiences with my peers and students with the hope of creating more authentic experiences for all students.