Category Archives: Christina Ditzel

“I love myself, my dog, and coding”

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So, I must confess that I don’t remember a time in my teaching career when the bell has rung and my students consistently groan and mumble out of displeasure.  Well, that’s exactly what’s happening in our new AP Computer Science Principles class!

These past few weeks, we’ve been working in a visual coding program called Scratch and the students LOVE it!  As a matter of fact, one of my students completed her profile in Scratch and wrote “I love myself, my dog, and coding”.  This is the same student who decided to make a Scratch project for her mom’s birthday (project below).  She was eager to share the project with me – even though it was not worth a grade or any points.

The excitement over Scratch and AP Computer Science Principles is not limited to this one student; rather, I have students chatting with me outside of class on a daily basis and asking “did you see my last project?”  Their excitement is infectious and I am impressed by their creativity and problem solving skills.

Time & Space & Georgia on My Mind

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Last week, I had the opportunity to travel to Atlanta, Georgia and visit Westminster School and Woodward Academy which were two schools mentioned in Grant Lichtman’s #EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education.  From reading Lichtman’s book, I was eager to see these two schools in person, Westminster School with their “Synergy 8” program that is a “transdisciplinary, community issues, problem-solving class” (Lichtman 150) and Woodward Academy with their “‘beta version design lab,’ … and student-teacher paired design teams (who) worked on issues related to ‘building a stronger school community'” (158).






From the moment I drove onto campus, both of these schools had me in awe.  Their sprawling campuses and red brick buildings made me feel as if I was on a college campus.  Both schools are K-12 with 1,850 students (Westminster) and 2,700 students (Woodward).


So what did I learn in my 2-3 hour visit at each school?  What are they doing that we are not?  What can we learn from them?


Time and Space. 


Time – both schools had a block schedule with time in their daily schedule for tutoring, activities, advisement, etc.

Westminster
Woodward
Schedule Type
Rotating Block
Rotating Block
Details
7-day rotation (each class meets 4x)
three 70-min classed and one 90-min class per day
10-day rotation (each class meets 7x)
Day 1-8 is 4 classes/day
Day 9 is 3 classes
Day 10 is all classes
Free/Tutorial/etc.
time
30 – 100 minutes daily
30 – 90 minutes daily
Class start time
(earlies)
8:30 a.m.
8:20 a.m. 
Class end time
(latest)
3:00 p.m.
3:15 p.m.
See Schedule


Having time in the daily schedule for students to connect with teachers, collaborate with peers, or just chill was something that both schools felt was important (which is reflected in their daily schedules).  Not only is this important time for students, but also for teachers so that lunches remain as a time to chat with colleagues and decompress.  


Aside from tutoring and advisory time being planned into the daily schedule, both schools also used a rotating block schedule with longer class periods that allows for students to get more in-depth into their projects (and also makes it easier for teachers to plan project based learning lessons). 


Not only was time a big factor in creating a more innovative learning environment, but so was — Space.  


In order for teachers to implement more of an innovative/design think approach to teaching and learning, there has to be the right space.  At Woodward, not only did every teacher have his/her own classroom (with furniture that he/she picked out), but there was also a design lab that teachers could bring their classes to for weeks on end.  This room had raised desks (which allowed for students to sit or stand), walls covered with whiteboards, and shelves of supplies for students to use for prototyping.  


At Westminster (lower grades), two of their computer labs had been converted into maker spaces with shelves and shelves of materials ranging from straws to sheets of colored foam and a wall with tiny-sized hand tools for the children.  Here, STEM and design thinking was at the heart of their curriculum for the lower grades.  


Although I have more to share, I am going to end this post here.  I realize we have some limitations at Carondelet in terms of time and space, but what can we do with where we are now?

100 Years and an Unchanged System

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A lot has changed over the last 100 years (here are some interesting facts). “We’ve gone from a typewriter to a touch screen. From a switchboard to a smartphone. From silent film to virtual reality. But American high schools have remained frozen in time” (USA Today).


Think about it…  


Cars 

Telephones


However, not much has changed in the classroom 

I’ve been following XQ Super School and loved this short video clip that was part of their XQ Live event on September 8, 2017.  If you haven’t head of the XQ Super School Project, they are a “community of people mobilizing America to reimagine high school” and preparing students for success in college, career, and life (XQ Super School).  

Check out the Knowledge Modules from XQ Super School – lots of good info here! I’m still working my way through the pdfs. 

“Where I’m From” Reflection

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About a year ago my enthusiastic friend Ellen introduced me to the “Where I’m From” phenomenon that has spread across academia over the last several years. “Where I’m From” is a poem written by Ms. George Ella Lyon, a celebrated writer and educator. This is her poem, the original “Where I’m From” poem:

While Ellen and I had a robust and fulfilling conversation about using the “Where I’m From” poem as a community building activity in the classroom, I set this conversation and idea aside, because I didn’t have time to do it. 
I spent a lot of time last year thinking about what is the most important thing I do in the classroom. And, I came to the conclusion that, at least at the beginning of the year, my most important job is making sure the students feel connected to Carondelet. Remember that I teach all freshmen and that these girls come from 50 different feeder schools. I believe that their ability to feel a part of this community as quickly as possible directly affects their success at CHS, thus the success of Carondelet in general.
So, in late July when Tiz and I were collaborating and discussing community building activities, I remembered my conversation with Ellen and proposed having students create their own “Where I’m From” poems, while teaching the writing process (two for one). The result has been wonderful. The students who really worked the writing process and spent time on their poems love their work. They’ve been invited to read the poems out loud, and while only a few girls from each class take advantage of sharing their poems, when they do, I’m deeply moved.  
The following poem is an original “Where I’m From” poem written and shared with permission by freshman, Gabriella Pattillo:

Cryptology and Encryption

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This week’s activity had students exploring cryptology with an activity to encode and decode messages using the Caesar cipher and Vignenère cipher.  Although our computers don’t use a Caesar or Vignenère cipher, this activity helped students to start thinking about security and encryption.  


Can YOU crack this ciphertext? 


Fdurqghohw


What is Caesar cipher? 


One of the earliest and simplest attempts at encryption is the Caesar cipher, employed by Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC. This schema is known as a substitution cipher because it substitutes each letter of the original, unencrypted message (called the plaintext) with a corresponding letter in the final, encrypted message (called the ciphertext).
The Caesar cipher works by aligning two alphabets against one another and offsetting them by a number of positions. Caesar, himself, used a “left rotation” of three spaces, causing an a of the plaintext to align with an x in the ciphertext. (Edhesive.com)



Using Blocks to Learn about Computers

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This past week, as part of the AP Computer Science Principals class, I had my students playing with wooden blocks.  What do wooden blocks have to do with technology and computer science?  Well, the activity was designed to give students hands-on experience giving directions and acting like a computer.  


In this group exercise, students wrote and executed their first “program.”  Since most students haven’t already learned any programming languages, we used English.  And instead of executing the programs on an actual computer (which wouldn’t understand English as well as people do), the groups role-played the parts of a simulated computer as they attempted to execute the program in much the same way a real computer would run a real program.