Shields teacher wins PBS award for classroom innovation
After a morning of multiplication lessons in Jennifer Guido's classroom at Richard A. Shields Elementary School, the third grade teacher had one last task for her 24 students: describe how they were feeling about multiplication in one emoji and explain why.
It was a question her students took with serious contemplation.
"There's a lot of different types of them," said 9-year-old Evan Burris.
"Yeah, and they're so fun," said 8-year-old Keenan Williams, sitting next to him.
Williams, feeling confident in the skill, went through a few options. A brain, a lightbulb, an ATM — "I feel like some type of machine right now," he said. — before settling on a detective.
"I feel like a detective," he said out loud as he wrote the sentence on an iPad. Once they made their decisions, they used an app to send their responses to Guido, who got them in a matter of moments.
Burris thought about a thumbs up or a generic smiley face, before settling on a devil smiley face.
"It's not hard for me," he said. "But I know I still have to keep practicing."
Guido uses the emoji exercise as an "exit ticket" to check in on her students' progress. With emoji constantly being talked about in her classroom, she wanted to find an academic purpose for them.
"It's a great tool," she said. "They're able to reflect on their own learning and where they are and then go forward from there."
Guido's passion for and use of digital media in the classroom have recently been recognized on a national level, as she was recently named Delaware's 2016 PBS LearningMedia Digital Innovator.
As Delaware's designee, she'll head to Colorado in June for training on new ways to use technology in her classroom, along with online professional development through PBS for a year.
Prior to the emoji exercise, her students went through a series of rotating centers to learn multiplications through different methods.
At one station, Guido sat at a table with a small group of students to deliver math problems from her iPad to those of her students. They then shared their work back to her and got feedback.
At another station, students used their iPads to watch a video on a concept, then perform a task based on it, followed by answering additional practice questions, so Guido could give more feedback.
Students sitting at their desks used an app to develop questions that Guido will use with her entire class for an upcoming review session. The exercise allows her to have an idea as to how they're progressing on a given topic.
Shields principal Jenny Nauman is not only excited for Guido to have the opportunity, but she's eager to see what lessons she can bring back to her fellow Shields teachers.
This is Guido's first year at the school, after teaching for four years in the Woodbridge School District. When Shields Assistant Principal Kim Corbidge met Guido last year at a conference, she told Nauman that Guido was "perfect Shields material."
Nauman found Guido on Twitter and was quickly impressed. She invited her to Lewes to talk, and when she had an opening, she was able to hire her.
She describes Guido as a silent leader who has embraced technology in the classroom and engages with her students.
"She's the one that takes the risks," Nauman said. "She's willing to try anything. At Shields we posses a growth mindset and she really epitomizes that."
As a teacher, Guido feels responsible for making her students good digital citizens.
"The skills they need are so drastically different and changing than what they've been in the past," she said. "Everything we do is on the Internet, so I think it's important for them to be able to navigate the Internet and know how to use it appropriately, effectively and purposefully for everything that they need."
Even at such a young age.
"Why not start now," she said. "It enhances instruction. The world is literally at their fingertips."