Category Archives: Think Make Share

“Ask the expert”

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I love the ideas that come from a great conversation with a colleague! 


The other day I was chatting with Christina Ditzel and we found ourselves discussing the best ways to help students who need more guidance when learning specific techniques and skills in a studio-like setting without overly “hand holding.” 


While I would love to sit down and give all my students one-on-one lessons, that’s just not possible (nor would it be healthy.) So, what can you do when multiple students need a bit more assistance? Well, I’m trying something new…it’s called “ask the expert.” 


Here’s how it works: 

  • I identify a student(s) who is doing something really well in class, and have them write their name on the board as an expert for that particular technique or skill.
  • When a student is struggling, instead of asking me for help they call on the help of the expert.
  • When that student has mastered the technique or skill, they become the new expert.
  • The cycle continues…
I just started this in my Frosh Creation: Think, Make, Share course and it is working well! 

Also, a note: Christina just posted an awesome blog about the benefits of Screencasting which is also a great suggestion!

A lesson from the flu

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This past February, I missed three days of school because of the flu.  During this time, I used Screencastify to go over instructions for a new lesson for my 4th period Frosh Creation class.  Thinking about how the lesson had gone with 3rd period, I was pretty nervous since so many students needed individual help.  However, much to my surprise, the projects created by my 4th period class were right on track and quite impressive.  To be honest, I think the projects from my 4th period class were, as a whole, better than 3rd period.  I learned a few things from this experience:

  • My class will be ok without me (I have a really hard time being absent because I worry so much).
  • Sometimes not being there to help, and hand-hold, students will learn more because they are forced to think, try things out, ask other classmates, or Google it.  
  • I am sometimes too nice.  I want to help my students and feel bad turning them away.  However, I can’t sit with every student and walk them through the lesson (even if I’m making sure not to do the work for them).
  • Creating screencasts are an easy way to save time – especially when many students are absent for the original lesson.  
  • Screencasts allow students to watch, pause, or replay the video as many times as they need and whenever they need. 
  • Students see a step-by-step through a simulation.
  • Screencasting allows me to “be there” without really being there.  This is especially helpful on days when I am absent.  
  • Screencastify is a great app, but you can’t download your screencast in a file format that is easily used (or accepted by the College Board for the AP test 😕).  Other alternatives that allow you to save the file in an mp4 format would be screencast-o-matic and Loom. 
Here is an example of one of the animation projects created in the class. (I can’t embed the project because Scratch 3.0 doesn’t support that feature at the moment.)