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Karen Borenius
Brookside Upper Elementary School
Westwood, NJ
Karen is a 5th Grade Social Studies and Language Arts teacher at Brookside Upper Elementary School. The Brookside School was awarded NJ Star School status for its work in promoting the workplace readiness standards through the the learner-active, technology-infused classroo m.
In 1997, she began teaching at Zion Lutheran School in Westwood, NJ as a 4th-8th grade Social Studies Teacher. After 2 years, Karen began a long- term substitute position at Brookside Upper Elementary School, in what is fondly referred to as "The Big Room" - three physical classrooms with no internal walls that runs as a large learner-active, technology-infused classroom.
On being a long-term sub in "The Big Room". . .
When I entered the big room, my first thought was "College did not inform me about this!" However, after being in the big room for the day, I decided that this was truly an amazing approach to reach the needs of all students. I was so impressed how the stude nts were so responsible in scheduling their time and how motivated they were to accomplish a problem-based learning task. It was no longer a teacher lecturing to the students for the whole day; it was a facilitator guiding students through challenging PBL tasks. From that day on, I wanted to learn everything there was to a Learner-Active Classroom. With the help of outstanding teammates, I was able to take the learner-active approach step by step and apply it to my own "smaller" classroom.
Recent reflections on running a Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom . . .
This year I have experimented with different ways of holding mini-lessons and benchmarks.
STUDENT MINI-LESSONS -
Every student has an area of "expertise," therefore I encourage any student to teach a mini-lesson. For example, I have some students that are very organized and have managed their time well, therefore I want them to share their successful ways with other students. In the picture, this is an actual sign-up mini-lesson board held by one of my students. Student mini-lessons have been so successful that I will continue to use next year. |
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REQUEST A MINI-LESSON -
At the end of the week, I always ask students if they need a mini-lesson on any particular activity that they did not understand. It is amazing how many requests I receive. I find that students are not intimidated to ask for help anymore since I instituted mini-lessons. I always have students on all different levels sign up for help. |
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MINI-BENCHMARKS -
In Social Studies, we have five major PBL tasks. I assign groups for every major project in which each group has a "captain". Sometimes instead of having a whole class benchmark, I will have a mini-benchmark with the captains. The captains are then in charge of transferring the information back to their group. I have found that this makes the students more responsible and accountable! |
CHECKPOINTS -
In Social Studies and Language Arts, there are PBL tasks that are very involved and have many different components. In order to make sure students are on a successful track, I have CHECK POINTS in which I pass out a checklist which is basically a simplified list of the expert column of the rubric. The students are required to check off what they have done and what they still need to do. See an example!
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Thoughts on the role of technology in the classroom . . .
Technology brings students to a whole new level of learning. Students are now able to go almost anywhere in the world and retrieve information without ever leaving the classroom. Computers have transformed classrooms into "Futuristic Information Centers" where every student has access to unlimited information. Technology allows all students on any level to achieve challenging tasks such as creating a Hyperlinking Narrative, PowerPoint Presentations, Inspiration Character Webs and more.
On looking forward to using technology in the future . . .
In Language Arts, my students are learning Greek Mythology. The PBL task is creating a Greek Mythology iMovie. This is a picture of the actual rubric. The iMovie is a class project in which they need to really work together. The students will work in groups and create a skit that will be combined into a Mythology Movie! The students and myself are really looking forward to use the iMac and digital video camera. I will be learning with my students in creating this "Mythcademy" Movie.
Materials to Share . . .
Below is a copy of the Language Arts Schedule.
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