A couple of weeks ago, I read a blog post about using short Pixar animated videos to teach problem solving written by Speech Pathologist, Sarah Wu. The idea intrigued me because this type of activity forces students to use their own language in order to answer questions and retell events. Summarization is a skill needed in all content areas, not just Language Arts. I think that by not providing a word bank or piece of text that they can refer back to increases the level of critical thinking on the part of the student. You can also take this opportunity to teach them about utilizing online tools such as a thesaurus. KidThesaurus.com is kid friendly and doesn’t fill the screen with a whole bunch of adds.
Click here if you would like to make a copy of the lesson.
One of my summer projects was to take about a billion Go Slow Workshops facilitated by Alice Keeler. I can honestly say I have learned more over the past few months than I have in my 12 years of being an Instructional Technology Specialist. Some of my classes included Google Classroom, Google Scripts, Google Sheets, DOK and Working Collaboratively with Google Apps. It’s perfect timing because one of our district initiatives this year is to provide students with more opportunities to incorporate the 4Cs within curriculum objectives. I’ve taken the knowledge I’ve learned from Alice and applied it to, what I think, is the best PD I’ve ever offered. It can probably be completed in a 3 hour face to face training, however, it’s really meant to be an asynchronous and self-paced exploration. The curated resources allow for differentiation, so if you are comfortable using G Suite then you can skip over the parts that deal with functionality and navigation. The “meat” of the training is embedded within a Google Classroom so teachers can see the workflow and digital discussions that are such a huge part of a student-centered environment. Unfortunately, our district does not allow people from outside of the NEISD domain to join our classrooms. I decided to wrap it all up in a HyperDoc so you can get a basic idea of how the class works. Many of the resources in the Google Classroom come from Alice Keeler, Eric Curts, Christine Pinto, and Nadine Gilkinson. I’ve been Twitter stalking these 4 for quite some time. Click here if you would like a copy of the HyperDoc.
Something I noticed this summer in the Twitterverse was the abundant sharing of thoughts, ideas, reflections, and connections made by teachers to many popular books on the subject of educational pedagogy. In fact, most of my personal book choices actually came from #booksnaps or #sketchnotes posted in my Twitter feed. I started doing some research to find engaging ways for readers to use technology during a book study. I found this one resource from FLDOE (Florida Department of Education) that serves as a handy guide for staff book studies. The first paragraph states:
“Book studies can be powerful tools for developing the teacher expertise necessary for improving performance and enhancing student learning through deliberate practice. What sets an effective book study apart from an ineffective one lies in both the initial planning of the book study itself and the utilization of the knowledge, skills and practices acquired.”
Staff book studies are a great way to introduce the use of digital tools to teachers. Once they become proficient users themselves, they can then start using those tools to support classroom instruction. Nadine Gilkison, author of Franklin Township Tech Tips, recently shared this Google Presentation with 5 suggestions to offer participants. If you are an administrator who wants to kick your book studies up a notch, check out the presentation below:
Last week, I finished reading The Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros and started on Cultivating Communication in the Classroom by Lisa Johnson. Her first chapter discusses email etiquette. As I was reading, I started making connections to Couros’s book and remembered this tweet with the subsequent response from Matthew Haley (read his blog post here):
IMO email is a tool. Being able to effectively communicate in a variety of arenas are the basics now.
Because of the ability to search the Internet for almost any answer to most test questions, I tend to agree that the new basics are more about the 4 Cs (communication, critical thinking, creativity and collaboration.) All of these skills should be spiraled within the core subject areas. The problem I find, especially for elementary, is coming up with ways to teach email as a form of writing. In our district, students don’t have email accounts in grades K-5. If teachers expect to use this form of communication as a part of the student/teacher workflow process, then students need authentic exposure at a much earlier age.
This is why Lisa’s first chapter grabbed my attention. Even though her book focuses on future-ready skills for secondary students, her observations completely apply at the elementary level. So, the question I’m now asking myself is what tools do we have at our disposal if email is not an option? Lisa gives several examples in her book that provide curricular connections such as emailing an expert or having students maintain the classroom newsletter. Another option would be to build this communication piece through consistent feedback loops via Google Classroom. Alice Keeler describes here how she uses private comments as actual assignments. This allows students to replicate a digital conversation in a meaningful way that is centered around their own learning. Modeling this type of digital interaction will definitely prepare our students for what lies ahead in the secondary classroom as well as the workplace.
For 10 years I have been an Instructional Technology Specialist. INSTRUCTIONAL. A word I kept emphasising over and over to my campuses. I think every tech coach has this battle with curriculum vs. wires and pliers. You arrive on a campus with a specific agenda in mind and then you get hit with a multitude of technical issues. Next thing you know, 80% of your day has been spent unplugging and plugging SMARTboards, fixing Outlook issues and trying to figure out why an iPad is no longer connecting to the network. “What Did the Help Desk Say?” was actually our mantra one year.
Empathy is a word you hear over and over again in The Innovator’s Mindset. I have to remember that technology is my specialty. It’s what I do every single day. Troubleshooting to me is very easy because that’s what my day is filled with. Teachers, on the other hand, juggle 10 things at one time. They don’t have the luxury of perfecting the art of troubleshooting like I do. Once I read page 85 (and highlighted every sentence) a lightbulb went off in my head. Where has my empathy been?
” The educators we serve need the tools and resources to work if we truly want to create a culture of innovation. They also need to feel our support in creating an environment that we would truly want to be in as learners ourselves.” ~ George Couros
You’ll notice there is a new page in the main navigation menu on this blog. Tech Tips will be a new section dedicated to empowering teachers with the basic skills needed to navigate these treacherous technology waters in which we expect them to swim. I will provide quick tutorials and fixes for specific issues I observe in the classroom environment on a daily basis. My new mantra?
I enabled a new plugin and wanted to try it out. That is the actual purpose of this blog post. It’s called Live Shortcodes and has probably been in my dashboard for a while; I just didn’t notice. Last week I saw that ISTE published this really cool accordion style interactive page describing the new ISTE Standards for Educators. I was trying to figure out how to embed this in my blog post and stumbled upon several new plugins that I hadn’t yet activated. Needless to say, my morning has been filled with pure joy and giddiness. It’s not as cool as ITSE’s, but I’m pretty happy. Click on each standard to reveal the indicators.
Learner
Educators continually improve their practice by learning from and with others and exploring proven and promising practices that leverage technology to improve student learning. Educators:
1a Set professional learning goals to explore and apply pedagogical approaches made possible by technology and reflect on their effectiveness.
1b Pursue professional interests by creating and actively participating in local and global learning networks.
1c Stay current with research that supports improved student learning outcomes, including findings from the learning sciences.
Leader
Educators seek out opportunities for leadership to support student empowerment and success and to improve teaching and learning. Educators:
2a Shape, advance and accelerate a shared vision for empowered learning with technology by engaging with education stakeholders.
2b Advocate for equitable access to educational technology, digital content and learning opportunities to meet the diverse needs of all students.
2c Model for colleagues the identification, exploration, evaluation, curation and adoption of new digital resources and tools for learning.
Citizen
Educators inspire students to positively contribute to and responsibly participate in the digital world. Educators:
3a Create experiences for learners to make positive, socially responsible contributions and exhibit empathetic behavior online that build relationships and community.
3b Establish a learning culture that promotes curiosity and critical examination of online resources and fosters digital literacy and media fluency.
3c Mentor students in safe, legal and ethical practices with digital tools and the protection of intellectual rights and property. 3d Model and promote management of personal data and digital identity and protect student data privacy.
Collaborator
Educators dedicate time to collaborate with both colleagues and students to improve practice, discover and share resources and ideas, and solve problems. Educators:
4a Dedicate planning time to collaborate with colleagues to create authentic learning experiences that leverage technology.
4b Collaborate and co-learn with students to discover and use new digital resources and diagnose and troubleshoot technology issues.
4c Use collaborative tools to expand students' authentic, real-world learning experiences by engaging virtually with experts, teams and students, locally and globally.
4d Demonstrate cultural competency when communicating with students, parents and colleagues and interact with them as co-collaborators in student learning.
Designer
Educators design authentic, learner-driven activities and environments that recognize and accommodate learner variability. Educators:
5a Use technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs.
5bDesign authentic learning activities that align with content area standards and use digital tools and resources to maximize active, deep learning.
5c Explore and apply instructional design principles to create innovative digital learning environments that engage and support learning.
Facilitator
Educators facilitate learning with technology to support student achievement of the ISTE Standards for Students. Educators:
6a Foster a culture where students take ownership of their learning goals and outcomes in both independent and group settings.
6bManage the use of technology and student learning strategies in digital platforms, virtual environments, hands-on makerspaces or in the field.
6c Create learning opportunities that challenge students to use a design process and computational thinking to innovate and solve problems.
6dModel and nurture creativity and creative expression to communicate ideas, knowledge or connections.
Analyst
Educators understand and use data to drive their instruction and support students in achieving their learning goals. Educators:
7aProvide alternative ways for students to demonstrate competency and reflect on their learning using technology.
7bUse technology to design and implement a variety of formative and summative assessments that accommodate learner needs, provide timely feedback to students and inform instruction.
7c Use assessment data to guide progress and communicate with students, parents and education stakeholders to build student self-direction.
About the Standards
A roadmap for transforming education, the ISTE Standards help innovative educators like you re-engineer and reimagine their classrooms and schools for digital age learning. They are a guide for amplifying and empowering learning, no matter where you are on the journey to the effective and meaningful integration of ed tech. Source
Graphite App Flows (Now called Lesson Flows from Common Sense Media) were something I discovered a couple of years ago. A Lesson Flow is a lesson planning framework that helps you integrate digital tools with pedagogical insight. They helped teachers in my district move away from unstructured “skill and drill” use of the iPad to a purposeful lesson that made students accountable for their time spent on the device.
Since then, app developers have realized that districts purchase multiple types devices, not just iPads. Many popular productivity iPad apps now have an online alternative. This allows for more flexibility when teachers are planning and checking out iPad, Chromebook, laptop carts or scheduling time in the computer labs. Here is a list of some of my favorite apps that now have a web based counterpart.
In my district, elementary teachers usually have about 3-4 iPads per classroom. That’s all fine and dandy if your lesson is designed to be in a workstation or center. It’s also difficult to manage multiple users logging into different accounts on 1 device. That may be a simple task for secondary, but try that with a kindergartener. Turning your App Flow into a Web/App Flow may be your solution. It’s the same lesson using the same resources, but now you have a choice of which device you would like your students to use. I just finished this one to support 4th grade Equivalent Fractions. Here is the link if you would like to use or modify it to fit your needs: https://goo.gl/t5devp
For the past 5 summers I’ve been the tech troubleshooter for my district’s summer school campuses. This year I decided to take a break from everything, including blogging, Twitter and Facebook. I picked up several books (real honest to goodness books made from paper) that I had been meaning to read for a while and got busy. The first was The Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros. I didn’t even get past chapter 1 without reactivating my Twitter account to reengage in my PLN. It was that inspiring. Then on page 6, George recommends viewing a commercial from O2 titled “Be More Dog”. Let me save you the trouble of looking it up.
This video resonated with me in so many ways. It made me think about the reaction of other cats had they been in this video as well. What would they have been thinking, saying, or doing in response to this one particular cat who wants to “be more dog”? Then I thought about the metaphor it represents. When you have one teacher on a campus that is looking at educating students from an entirely different perspective, how do the other teachers on that campus react? Do they embrace this change of mindset and try to emulate the behavior, or do they snub their noses at the thought and “remain a cat”? (Don’t get me wrong, I love cats)
This is where I find the whole educational system so frustrating. On page 5, George writes,
“Compliance does not foster innovation. In fact, demanding conformity does quite the opposite.” ~ The Innovator’s Mindset, George Couros
This quote, I think, was aimed toward students. However, I’m looking at it from the perspective of the district/teacher relationship. I see districts demanding conformity from educators and almost punishing those that strive to grow and try new tools, strategies, or techniques that don’t come from central office. Now, I must confess that I have not finished the book because I felt so compelled to get back on the Internet to begin this discussion. I’m sure he goes into great detail about how to accomplish this paradigm shift, but I still want to ask these questions: How does a school or district move towards an innovator’s mindset when faced with opposition? What has worked for you in your school or district? I would love to get honest feedback in the comments section because I honestly don’t know the answer.
