It was last year that I discovered the wonders of Google Forms. I had used it off and on from time to time, but after attending ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) and was able to squeeze into the room dubbed the "Google Classroom", I learned about all the updates Google had made to their forms feature. They introduced Google Forms - Quizzes, and t was amazing. It was one of the things that really pushed me toward a paperless classroom. Google Forms is a MUCH more efficient way to assess your students, and to provide them with meaningful feed back quickly. I loved how quickly I could type a response to my students with detailed information on how they could make their responses even stronger. I loved that I could return their results within seconds, or if needed hold those results until every section of my class has completed a quiz or a test. I use Google Forms regularly in my class. In my reading class, my students take their weekly (curriculum) required vocabulary tests. I can embed pictures that help them remember the word meanings, and even include video clips of someone signing in ASL which is one way that I teach them meaning. It is so powerful to be able to support them with context clues, so that my students could be successful. I also use Google Quizzes for our weekly comprehension assessments. Here are some of my favorite features:
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A.
I am a huge fan of using social media to fuel your personal learning network (PLN). I began utilizing Twitter nearly two years ago, but really embracing it as a PLN support system, a year ago. I have made connections with fellow educators around the United States, and connected to resources that have transformed not only my classroom, but the classrooms of my coworkers. I have spent a great deal of time sharing the power of social media with my coworkers and have even set up smaller twitter chats to help them see how they can connect with other educators. One of my most powerful connections involves a teacher who lives in Tennessee. We met in a twitter chat and discovered the following: we both teach technology, we both teach at a Title 1 school, we both teach students who have little to no WiFi access outside of school. It is so powerful to share ideas, tips, and plans with someone who has a similar teaching position. It is so rare, particularly when you are a specialist, to find someone who is doing just what you do, and I only found her because of social media. It is important to remember, however, that my twitter account is a professional one -- it isn't appropriate for me to retweet news from my favorite film actor or musical group. As a professional, I must make sure that my twitter account is professional too. This caused me to create two twitter accounts - one is personal and one is professional. Thoughtfully and carefully tweeting, retweeting and responding is important as I maintain a professional social media footprint. B. I do not follow any students on social media. I do follow several former students, but did not start following them until they were 18 years old. Having taught high school for nearly a decade, I found this a necessary and essential policy. I do NOT want access to my students social media accounts, and have made my personal social media accounts private. According to district policy, teachers must not be social media friends with students. However, I do occasionally accidentally stumble across a student social media account, or have researched a student's social media in order to solve a problem, or research issues of bullying. One extreme case occurred when I was teaching high school, and one of my freshman girls was suicidal because of them rumors a boy was spreading about her through social media. I contacted my principal and showed him the posts that had written about her, and her own posts about her personal despair. We met with her and her parents, and were able to get her the help she needed. While, I disagreed with some of the responses my principal made (the boy suffered NO consequences for his actions), I am grateful that I took the time to listen to my student, and had the technical savvy to research the situation. Today that young lady is twenty-five years old, and a crisis counselor. Social media was a powerful tool in this situation, and gave me the evidence I need to force the principal to take this issue seriously. I do not have a class Instagram account or class Facebook account. Having spent a year being filmed for a documentary, I am VERY aware of the necessity of waivers and student's privacy rights. I have seen some fantastic examples of using a class Instagram, and am not necessarily opposed to its use but would NEVER include pictures of my students faces without permission, and would endeavor to use pictures of projects and work, rather than people. It is ESSENTIAL to be familiar with your district guidelines, your school's guidelines, and which students have opted out of your school's media release. I've included a link to the document we created regarding creating social media guidelines because I'm really proud of the document we created, and also because I think it is important and useful information to consider. I have recently become VERY addicted to screen casting and have been using ScreenCast-O-Matic. I have even taught my students how to use it, requiring them to create a screencast of a slide deck as the last assignment of the year. I really appreciated how easily it synced with Google Classroom. All my students had to do when they had completed their assignment was click a button and add it to their assignment!
Last week, however, I discovered Soapbox which is a free Chrome extension! It has some amazing aspects that other free screencasting programs lack -- the ability to edit! Soapbox not only allows you to edit your material, but even edit the view. You can start out with a shot that includes your screen, and a small webcam window in the corner, but then you can switch and have the web cam go full screen. You can also have the computer go full screen, and can even add an action statement at the end of your video. This is a tool that would be awesome for classroom instruction, and to introduce to students who in my classroom are working with Chromebooks. I love finding useful extensions that work well with what we already have. I tend to use Safari at home, as I have a MAC All in One, but have added Chrome as a choice so that I can play around with Soapbox this summer. I am really looking forward to working with it next week during curriculum development -- my favorite week to gear up for the next school year. I've seen it used and used it on a very limited basis to date, but loved its sophisticated look and ease of use. I think my students will be really excited about it. You can find it in the chrome extensions. My foray into a digital classroom experience, stemmed from necessity. That's the way these things usually go, isn't it? I had just been hired at my current site as an ELD instructor, and I would have 8 different classes coming to see me each day. It was a complicated schedule that left me with trying to figure out how to manage so many classes. I also had to update my credential — as I had earned my teaching credential in the DARK AGES, and needed to add some certifications. In the process of taking a class online, I was assigned looking at some online resources. IN the process of doing this homework, I saw a blurb about Class Dojo. The rest is history, as they would say.
I had been overwhelmed with trying to keep track of classroom management with 8 different classes, and Class Dojo was the perfect solution. This was in the early days with their own digital experience, and it was pretty much simply a class management app. They have made quite a journey in the last three years, and so have I! We have both come to see the digital experience as one that can really add to the classroom, not just logistically but in the areas of collaboration, community, creativity and even mental health. Their emphasis on building a positive classroom community that supports the learners fits beautifully with my own. I plan to continue to use this app as I have for the past three years. Looking at my classroom and determining "how I am going to incorporate teaching digital literacy" is pretty much what my class is all about. I begin the first project each school year focused on making sure that my students are safe and competent on the internet. Many people tend to focus on cyber bullying and the largest aspects of safety (not giving out personal information), but I am trying to fine-tune these lessons, especially because I teach the same students for four years. I want my program to progress, as they progress. Common Sense Media has the best material I've seen, and I use it in conjunction with Near Pod to build lessons where students look at things like digitally enhanced use in advertisement, and gender roles. Understanding the world of digital media is a new aspect of reading comprehension. Students must be taught how to interpret this new vast world. The other aspect that I consider part of digital literacy involves the how of digital life. I spend a good portion of my early classes — especially with my 2nd and 3rd graders teaching them all about Google docs, slides, sheets, forms, email, etc. I also spend a small portion of each class with my 2nd and 3rd graders teaching them keyboarding — however, I do not simply let them play keyboarding games, but rather teach them correct hand position and help them with drills. I would love for our school to be able to purchase and use Keyboarding without Tears which is a phenomenal program that supports reading skills, while practicing typing. Tragically, it is VERY expensive. For now, I direct them while using Typing Web -- requiring them to work on the lessons — not just play the games. Our school is in a fortunate position, in that we have a credentialed teacher in the computer lab (technology design lab). This is not something most schools have, and computer time become less digital instruction, and more completion of various computer programs/games (FAST Math, Gigi Math, Read180, iRead, etc). I am hoping that our model becomes the norm because asking teachers to add true digital instruction into an already packed schedule is an awful lot to ask. Competency-Based Classrooms
I spent two years teaching in a school that embraced competency-based learning, as discussed in the article by Katie Varatta. Students were given an assessment of math and reading skills, and then scheduled a plan based on that information. As a result I had students of all ages learning to master fractions, or a multi-grade level group sitting and discussing a book they'd all been reading together. My favorite story from this time, involved a student who had failed algebra three times. He felt completely helpless when tackling it, and was defeated. His parents were determined to try a new approach and enrolled him in our school. During his intial assessment, we discovered that he had no understanding of fractions. He could not even correctly identify 1/2. He then set about to mastering this missing skill which he rapidly did. He then went on to successfully complete algebra - earning high marks on his exams. The contrast between this students past school experiences, and the success he found in a competency-based program highlight what works well when students are allowed to master skills before moving on. This student had been advanced year after year and always struggling because of this one glaring gap in his math education. Once this gap was addressed and master, he was able to move forward with success. Simply moving him along, and even hiring tutors to help him with his algebra were useless because he had not mastered a previous and neccessary skill. I've also had experience with this, using Khan Academy with my students. My 5th and 6th graders worked their way through a series of lessons teaching JavaScript, Html/CSS and SQL. Students moved at their own pace, and some raced quickly through the early lessons. The best experiences from this activity was the community of learners created in this environment. Students helped each other, and cheered each other on. Best of all, because I was also completing the same lessons, students would teach me and help me through lessons that they had already completed. There was a corporate recognition that some students found certain lessons easier than others and could help those who struggled, but later those same "experts" might need help on a different lesson. It was a beautiful environment where everyone - student and teacher were learners. Which is not to say that the complications addressed in the article aren't real. Managing a large group of people working on different levels and on different skills can be very complicated. Utilizing students and working with small groups who are struggling with the same skill are the best ways to manage such a diverse learning environment. |
AuthorJen has been teaching school for awhile now. She's learned some stuff, but she's got tons more to learn. Archives
October 2017
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