GAFE

I am currently preparing to propose the switch to Google Apps For Education (GAFE) for my school.  There are so many benefits to students and teachers alike!  The collaboration piece is what students seem to enjoy the most.  To be able to work on a project with other students in real time, whether at home or at school, enables them to get the job done when it works for them!  I also think that students who are not as likely to participate verbally in a group, can be completely comfortable sharing ideas while collaborating on a document or slide show.

We will be working on curriculum mapping at our school this year, and the ability for teachers to collaborate in this same way, when convenient for them, will facilitate the building of the maps.

One other feature that I find helpful is the ability to share your Google calendar with students and colleagues.  This allows students and teachers alike to plan ahead and finish whatever they are working on in a timely fashion.

Does anyone else have any favorite features they would like to share?

Our Final Week

So much information squeezed into 3 weeks!  I have come across many valuable ideas, I especially like the lesson plans and how they are constructed.  I think in the 2 years that I have taught Technology, I have been on the right track but now I have some clear direction.  I always struggled with teaching Digital Citizenship AND making it interesting to students.  I now have a large bag of tricks to go to and some directions as far as what to teach at each grade level.

My project for last week was to use some tech tools and share what I had created.  Most valuable to me was using Screencast-O-Matic to create a "how-to" lesson in another tool I thought was great - Canva.  If I were being evaluated in using these tools, I think the problem solving involved helped me to think about allowing more time in my classes for students to use this valuable skill!  Through trial and error, searching our wiki's videos and searching YouTube for tutorials, I was able to complete the screencast and get it embedded into my blog without asking for help directly.

I worked in Thinglink, always trying to think of how I could use it with my students.  I was not happy with my finished product, feeling it was not really finished nor a fair representation of what Thinglink could be used for.  I will continue to work on this project as I think it is a great September project to use with students.  I am still problem solving that one...when I finally finish it, I will post!

I absolutely loved Padlet and immediately put it onto my Summer Internet Start Page.  No responses there yet, but I think this will work wonderfully as a backchannel device for my littler students.  As far as assessment goes, I am working hard to transfer knowledge learned immediately into what I will use in my classroom.  This assignment gave me practice in using these tools, ideas about how to incorporate these tools into my curriculum, and help in evaluating how I have been teaching Technology up until this point.

They say it takes 2 weeks to build a habit.  I have been starting each weekday with the Summer PD work for about 2 and a half weeks now!  My goal is to review the curriculum materials and begin building a curriculum for my classroom.  I am going to try to continue to work for a couple of hours each weekday morning.  Our coursework has motivated me to get this going!

Creating in Canva

I was just checking out the fun things that students could do on Canva.  Having them create their own unique blog title for a blog post would be a fun way to introduce them to this tech tool.  I am now going to attempt to create a screencast to show them how to use Canva!

Using Prezi with Students

Every year at our graduation dinner, the eighth graders put together a slide show to present to parents and teachers.  In the past, parents or the technology teacher created the show for the students.  When I became tech teacher, I wanted students to create the slide show.  They created it in Windows Movie Maker, but only one person could work on the presentation at a time.  It was also a challenge to get students to "remember" to bring in photos to be used in the slide show, even when I made it a part of their grade.  It was a long process and I ended up doing a large portion of the work: transitions, putting in the music, etc - this was not my plan, but we were running out of time!

This year, my very creative group of eighth graders decided they would like to use Prezi, an online presentation software tool, to create their slide show.  There were several benefits to this idea:

• students could work on it at home, at school, anywhere!
• it was their idea
• they all knew how to use Prezi
• most students found it easier to access their photos at home

That being said, the slide show was finished and I did not have any hand in the creation - this was my dream!  A project totally created by the students.  Although it took time to load it worked wonderfully and parents were impressed!  Wanted to post the finished product, but would need to get lots of permission first......

Blogging as an icebreaker in September

I was really inspired by the idea in the "8 Tech Tools" article to use a blog as an icebreaker.  I am exploring the image editing websites to incorporate this into a first class project to be embedded into a class blog.  I wanted to introduce blogging this coming year and this seems to be a great activity to do it!

Helping Students Become Problem-Solvers

Some thoughts inspired by readings/lesson plans/videos from my Summer PD

It has always been so much easier for adults to simply solve a student's problem rather than encouraging them to take the steps to solve the problem themselves.  We need to move away from this practice in order for our students to be successful in the 21st century.  Some things to consider for your classroom:

• No negative self-talk!  Students and teacher should encourage each other to find positive steps towards a solution
• Modeling  Always talk students through your thought process when you encounter a problem while teaching
• Class participation  Always allow students to chime in about their idea on how to solve a problem
• Knowledge transfer  Prompt students to consider similar problems experienced previously and how they solved these problems to help in a current situation