Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Google Classroom Review

In May,  Google announced a new tool coming to Google Apps for Education. Google Classroom aims to make teachers' lives a little easier and more organized. With the Classroom teachers can digitally assign work to students, share them with students, either a common file to all students or separate assignment file to each student, collect completed assignments, and also provide feedback – all via the Google Classroom.


Google Classroom is not an Learning Management System, a Student Information System, or a gradebook. Classroom is a centralized place for teachers and students to communicate, work on assignments and have discussions.
Although Google Classroom is scheduled for release in September 2014, teachers can request early access. Last week I received an invite to the BETA version of Google Classroom and have been testing it as well as learning as much as I can from other teachers who have been using it. I am excited about the opportunities that Google Classroom might provide for teachers and students. Below is a summary of what I have learned so far.
Features
Announcements
  • Simple Announcement feature that allows teachers to leave notes and reminders to all students in the class
  • Students can reply to the announcement
  • Messaging tool can include links, attachments, and videos.
  • Students can respond and also communicate with each other
  • If you have students who are very shy in class, Classroom enables them to speak their mind and voice out their questions online
Assignments
  • The purpose of classroom is to make distributing assignments to students easier
  • Can include due date and time
  • Link, video, or attachment
  • Dashboard shows pending assignments
  • Students receive email notifications for all announcements and assignments
  • Teachers can send assignment as view only, edit, or make a copy for each student
  • It automatically creates a Drive folder for each assignment and students
  • Students can see what's due on their assignments page.
Grades
  • Can add comment and feedback through Classroom
  • After grading, teacher can Return Assignment for student review or revision
  • Students can ask questions and respond to teacher feedback
  • Can download CSV of grades
  • Can add comments and feedback within the document or through Classroom
Adding Students
Can add students via email or
Students can add join the class with a code teachers give them


Strengths
  • Helps teachers become more efficient in their workflows
  • Helps students become more organized with their assignments and projects
  • Students can easily keep track of their deadlines and submit their work easily
  • Helps teachers effectively manage document sharing and providing feedback to students
  • Integrates Gmail, Google Docs and Drive, communication and organization becomes very easy.
  • Helps teachers communicate with students
  • Streamline the sharing of documents to your students
  • Streamline the receipt of work from your students
  • Helps teachers provide personal, timely feedback to individual students
  • Teacher can also see who have completed the assignment and who hasn’t within the Classroom
  • All feedbacks can be seen in a single view, allowing teachers to easily gauge the learning of the student in return makes grading faster.
  • Classroom is also free of ads
  • Google won't use your content or student data for advertising purposes.
  • Students can switch easily between classes
  • Has student dashboard with multi-class view


Challenges:
  • Limited assignment options (points, rubric, no due date, complete/incomplete)
  • Teachers do not have access to student work until it is submitted (turned in); however, students can manually share files if desired
  • Does not Integrate with Google Calendar, Sites, or Blogger
  • Not ideal for large projects (sharing multiple docs and templates with varied sharing rights)
  • All student comments are put in a single continuous line with no organization, but it should be improved come release date.
  • Does not allow students from multiple domains or allow for multiple teachers


Not all of the details are out there yet as Google is still making changes before making Classroom available to everyone in the fall.


Additional Information:
Classroom will require the Chrome browser to run
Teacher and students must be in the same domain
Google Classroom creates a folder structure in the students’ drive account with a Classroom Folder and Individual class folders within


Access to Classroom:
If you are interested in signing up, please do so here: https://classroom.google.com/signup
If you are an APS teacher and would like to join a class to Google Classroom for a student’s view, email me at jrsloan@aps.k12.co.us and I will share the login information.


Additional Resources:

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Using Blogger for Audience and Purpose in Writing

I was fortunate enough to attend the Adams-12 Highway 21 Technology Conference last week. One of the great sessions I attended was Audience and Purpose for All: Writing in a 1:1 Classroom” presented by Chris Moore, a 5th grade teacher in Littleton. Attending this session (almost) made me wish it was not summer time so I could immediately start sharing his ideas with the teachers I support.

From the time Chris started talking, I could feel his enthusiasm for teaching and his  passion about the benefits of having students blog. He said a teacher can change a student’s life with these kinds of tools. Students can excel and teach each other, become experts, and build their own learning network. The culture of the classroom shifts when blogging  and technology are a common elements in the classroom. Since students have an audience including teachers, classmates, parents, and blog viewers from around the world, they embrace and honor the writing that they post.


They have a class blog (East Dragon Den Classroom Blog) that they use as the main hub, and students link their individual blogs to the class blog. They can also add comments to the class blog. The students know that they can only submit their best work, and other work will be rejected. Chris said some of his best teaching of writing happens as students post. They can talk about if it really is the student’s best work and if not, why.


Although Chris and his students use Blogger, the tool is not the important thing. Providing an audience and purpose for writing is the key.


Resources Shared:


Thanks +ChrisMoore for all the information.
#hwy21

Friday, May 23, 2014

South Middle School Chromebook Cohort Group is Great!

I have had the pleasure of working with a great group of teachers this year at South Middle School. When we learned that South was going to receive sets of Chromebooks, the following teachers volunteered to be part of the Cohort Group: Mary Ann Botte, Kurt Melvin, Ezana Negash, Cassie O'Connor, Sharon Sanita, Chris Welch, and Shayna Wood.

These teachers agreed to attend training in order to be able to prepare for using Chromebooks with their students. We started meeting weekly before school in order to learn more about the functions of the Chromebooks and using Google Apps.

The Chromebooks were delivered to the classrooms in early March. The teachers started using them right away with the students who had returned their Chromebook Contracts. The students were engaged in the work and enjoyed having digital devices. For the classrooms that had previously had netbooks, the teachers and students found the Chromebooks to be much faster.

Intro to Chromebooks Google Presentation

We continued to meet some as a group and some individually. It was great for me to see the work and engagement that taking place in the classrooms. These teachers have done a fantastic job, and I wanted to share some of their work.

Samples of Work

Shayna Wood - 7th Grade Literacy

Chris Welch - 8th Grade Social Studies

Sharon Sanita - 8th Grade Math

Cassie O'Connor - 7th Grade Science

Ezana Negash - 8th Grade Literacy

Kurt Melvin - 8th Grade Science

Mary Ann Botte - 7th Grade Social Studies


Click on the site link to view more work completed by the SMS Chromebook Cohort Group.






Monday, April 7, 2014

First Year Teacher Great at Integrating Technology into Social Studies Classroom

Although Emily Lavery is a first year teacher, I have had several opportunities to work with her on tech integration in her 6th grade Social Studies class at North Middle School Health Sciences & Technology Campus. Ms. Lavery completed her student teaching at North last year, so I knew she was very tech savvy. However, I have been amazed at the ease in which she integrates technology in her classroom.

From the start of class, Ms. Lavery established rituals for using the netbooks in her classroom. Students use Google Docs on a regular basis and share their work with Ms. Lavery. She is then able to give regular feedback to her students using the Comments feature. Ms. Lavery created this screencast to instruct her students on how to use the comments feature. How to: Comment on Document.

Student Completing a Learning Check 



One of the areas that Ms. Lavery has focused on this year is Checking For Understanding. She has created weekly Learning Checks for her students to complete as formative assessments. The students can complete a Learning Check by filling in a Google Form. Then Ms. Lavery can check the form and send the results using Flubaroo script. Again, she created screencasts to assist her students with these.  How To: Learning Check and How To: Flubaroo



Ms. Lavery also set up gClassFolders for her students. The students have an Assignment Folder that is shared with her. The students add their assignments to that folder so Ms. Lavery can collaborate with them. These screencasts are resources for students on using the folders. How to: Creating a Document in Your Assignment folder and How to: Move Documents in Google.

The students also have a View folder that was created with gClassFolders. Ms. Lavery uses the View folder to share assignments, resources, and links with her students. In this screencast Ms. Lavery explains how she uses the View folders in her classroom: APS Google: Digital Space in Progress.

Another Google tool that Ms. Lavery is using with her students is the Doctopus script. This script allows her to automatically create copies of a doc (or docs) she selects, name it as she chooses, and share that doc (or those docs) with the students she chooses. This has helped her streamline her grading and feedback. This screencast demonstrates how Ms. Lavery uses it along with the Goobric extension: Sample: Doctopus and Goobric.



During the school year, Ms. Lavery completed a proposal and was awarded a teacher iPad to use in her class. She uses this iPad as a remote to her desktop so she can move around the room to check on student progress and still control her computer and projector. She uses Splashtop Personal for this purpose. In addition, she uses her iPad to help monitor student attendance, behavior and progress. She uses the Chartkeeper app for this.  Ms. Lavery can also change the student seat assignments and display her Chartkeeper so they know where to sit.


Ms. Lavery is always looking for ways to actively engage her students while they are learning the content. One of the tools she has used for this purpose is iCivics. This site provides many digital resources for Social Studies classrooms that are linked to standards. Students are able to play educational games in order to learn more about governments. Here are the screencasts for iCivics: How to: Log into iCivics,  How To: Play "Crisis of Nations" and How To: Strategy: Crisis of a Nation

One of the projects Ms. Lavery's students completed this year was creating their own government. This screencast explains the project:  How To: Design Govt Assignment. As she usually does, Ms. Lavery gave the students different options for creating their governments. If they wanted to choose a differnt option, they had to submit a proposal and show how they would still meet the purpose of the project and complete all the criteria of the rubric. A group of her Aurora Lights students proposed using Minecraft to build their government. Instead of say no to the students because she had not used Minecraft, Ms. Lavery researched Minecraft and asked for support from the Ed Tech team. In addition, she had the students submit approvals from their parents before starting this project. This really demonstrated her willingness to keep learning and be flexible in order to increase student engagement.

I always look forward to working with Emily Lavery. She recently emailed me some ideas of some things she wants to explore in her classroom. We will be meeting to determine which ones best enhance was she is currently doing in the classroom. I am sure I will also learn something new that I can share with other teachers.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Using Online Porftolios...More Than Digital Scrapbooks

Last week I attended a "How to make Online Portfolios more than Digital Scrapbooks" Roundtable hosted by Ben Wilkoff. I am very glad I had this opportunity to hear what others had to say about Online Portfolios because this is one of my passions. I was also able to make connections with some great educators who share this passion.


As an Ed Tech Coach for Aurora Public Schools, one of my goals is to assist more teachers in helping their students create online portfolios. As a teacher, I had my students create online portfolios. Since I taught in a Career and Technical Education program, our focus was using the online portfolios for finding employment or applying for college. However, I see many additional uses for online portfolios.

The main takeaway from this roundtable for me was the importance of making the online portfolio reflective. To be effective, online portfolios must be reflective and get feedback from others. The teacher should not be the only audience of the online portfolio. The audience should also include other students, teachers, and parents. One of the quotes from the roundtable that I liked best is "Portfolios should be a bridge to content; not just a storage place."

I believe when I first started with online portfolios, I really did use them as a storage place. I have started changing that practice. However, after being part of this roundtable, I will put more of an emphasis on making portfolios more collaborate and reflective for teachers and students.

Another great quote from the roundtable was from Mike Muir, guest speaker. He stated "What is the evidence of your learning vs. what is the evidence of your completing the project?" This really stood out to me because I feel we often put more emphasis on the end product then we do on the learning that took place. Instead of creating a final product and moving on, the reflection should be built into the unit. I plan to explore the resources provided by members of the roundtable in order to be able to make this concept clearer for teachers and students.

Next week I am going to start an online portfolio project with an 8th grade Literacy class at South Middle School. They are using this as their final project. When collaborating with the teacher and introducing the project to the students, we will discuss that students will only include their best work in the online portfolio. In addition, we will discuss sharing and setting up comments. Another requirement will be for the students to write a reflection for each piece. I will work with the teacher to determine what she feels is important to include in the reflections. Some examples shared during the roundtable were:  
  • What do you know? What can you do? So What?  
  • What did we just learn, and why did we learn it?
  • 3-2-1: 3 things you learned, 2 things to share with someone else, 1 thing you still want to learn


One of my goals is to work with teachers at the beginning of the school year to start online portfolios with students. The students can then add evidence of learning throughout the school year. This will with help students show growth over time, especially students with special needs and English Language Learners. I would also like to see student sharing these online portfolios with their parents throughout the year, especially at parent-teacher conference.





In a future blog, I hope to share some awesome online portfolios created by students at the schools I support.

If you are interested in watching the session click on the link below:
Link to Session











Some resources shared during the roundtable:


 



Thursday, March 13, 2014

Chromebook Deployment at South Middle School a Success


210 Chromebooks arrived at South Middle School. Debbie Renaud, Tech EA, and I were excited and ready to get them out to students

boxes 2.jpgphoto 1[1].JPG



unpacking.jpgWe decided to unpack one set of 30 at a time. photo 4.JPG



Steps:
Unpack
Insert battery
Open and login to check
Exit Session
Record Number on back
Add Label on front





Inventory Tips:
  • If you have a barcode scanner, you can use it
  • Can contact Wendy in purchasing to receive a spreadsheet with the APS tags


Carts Arrivedcart.jpg


Cart tips
  • Number the slots
  • Add Chromebooks into slots
  • Works best to have two people working on cords--one front of cart, one back of cart
  • Add cords to bottom first place cords
  • cart 2.jpgWhen attaching cords to top level, we discovered we could wrap two cords on one and connect those cords with the velcro

back of cart.jpg




cart 1.jpg



cart plugged.jpg

Make sure all four power poles are set to on
Turn off the main power switch on the outside of the cart before plugging in
Turn on the main power switch
Only two power poles are charge at a time. 
It rotates from bank A to bank B every fifteen minutes



Chromebook Carts were then delivered to classes

The teachers receiving the Chromebooks have been meeting with me (Ed Tech Coach)  in order to prepare for using the Chromebooks with students


The teachers then introduced the Chromebook to the students and explained the expectations for using the Chromebook. Previously the students had received Chromebook contract that required a student signature.



We also had the students complete a Student Roster form in order to collect gmail addresses and other information to use with gClassFolders.



students 4.jpgstudents 2.jpgstudents 1.jpg


Teachers and students will continue to use Chromebooks to enhance their classroom assignments.