turdacot and a Friend

One of my assignments for my educational technology endorsement was to help a fellow teacher walk a lesson through the trudacot process.

trudacot is outlined beautifully here by one of it's creators:

http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2014/08/toward-better-technology-integration-introducing-trudacot.html

Using the trudacot work sheet I was able to sit down with a second grade teacher in my school to review her introductory lesson on geology.  Why this lesson?  Mainly because it was on her curriculum map for the following week and she would be able to use it right away.

My first thought was, geology should be hands on!  Bring in some rocks, dig in the dirt, play!  But as we reviewed her lesson we were able to find several places where we could integrate technology to improve and expand her lesson.  The trudacot model encourages you to change only a few things at a time.  We chose to focus on collaboration and authenticity/relevancy.

Here is a link to the model:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/147Pqvr32qwnPXUBmUM1r8p10unZ-pID_cgLjkGwwAus/edit

In order to improve in both collaboration and authenticity/relevancy we contacted a friend of mine who is a real live geologist!  He agreed to Skype with her class and show them his current projects and answer questions.  The cooler part?  He's on sabbatical in Russia somewhere.  The kids loved talking with him and asking him questions.  The kids were more fascinated that is was already the next day in Russia.  To culminate their experience we made a video of what we learned and sent it to him.  It was truly learning at it's best.

I love the trudacot model.  I love that the model is very specific in it's questioning and that you are encouraged to only change a few things at a time.  It's very doable process for someone who is just dipping their toes into the sea of technology.