Lollipop Moments

#edtech #edchat #vitalcpd Since starting to write for the Instructional Technology blog in Poudre School District, it seems that I’ve neglected my own. It’s time to rectify the situation! 

As the school year comes to a close, many of us are looking forward to summer vacation, and some of us are starting to think about next year.  I’d like to share with you an activity that would be a great way to start off the school year and can help establish a caring classroom environment.

My colleagues and I were recently invited to host a workshop at the 2012 IB Arms MYP Student Summit.

Inspired by the book Iqbal, the theme this year was Global Citizenship, with the guiding question: How will the choices I make affect the world. Our team was asked to create a workshop utilizing technology to fit the theme of the summit. We created a 50 minute presentation and activity that asked the students to think of ways that people’s actions have changed their lives or ways that they may have impacted other people. 

To begin the lesson, we showed Drew Dudley’s TED Talk called “Leading with Lollipops.” This is a very powerful talk in which Drew discusses the concept of leadership through an experience he had while in college, which he later realized had made a life-changing impact on a fellow student. He goes on to discuss how these little moments in our lives (which he calls Lollipop Moments, referring to his own experience), can seem insignificant to us but can make a major difference in someone else’s life and make us all potential leaders.

After this video, we discussed Drew’s talk with students and invited them to share their thoughts on the idea of Lollipop Moments and any they may have experienced. During the Summit, we also had students relate this concept of leadership to the book Iqbal. 

After the discussion, we asked students participate in a VoiceThread on the topic. VoiceThread is an online multimedia slide show that can include images, documents, and videos. Students can collaborate on a VoiceThread with their voices (microphone or telephone), text, video (webcam), or audio file. VoiceThreads can be shared with anyone in the world so that they can add comments as well. You can even doodle on the slide show during your comment to highlight something that you’re talking about. When users play your comment, your doodle will appear with the recording. As the teacher, you can moderate the VoiceThread to choose which comments will appear. The final VoiceThread can be embedded on other websites and exported as well.

For the Summit, we placed a photo of Iqbal into the slide show, along with a series of prompts. Students were asked to choose 2 or more prompts and add their thoughts to the associated slide.

Here is the result:

By beginning the school year with this activity, students can start to really think about their actions and the positive or negative impact they may have on other people without even knowing it. Hopefully, the realization that even a small gesture can make a big difference will help students consider the things they do and say to one another.