Beyond Integration

I struggle every time it’s my turn to write a blog post because I guess I feel like everything I have to say has already been said.  So in my struggle to write this week’s blog, which is already a week late, I decided to look for something from the conference I just attended. I just got back from FETC 2020, in Miami, Florida.  The conference was good and often I find some quality piece of information to bring back and share.  Well, at this conference I attended a session presented by Rushton Hurley. Rushton Hurley is the founder and executive director of Next Vista for Learning, which houses a free library of videos by and for teachers and students at NextVista.org.  He is the author of a few books and believes anyone has the power to change the world.   Rushton’s session started out rocky, he unintentionally interrupted the speaker before him and had to apologize for the mistake. The session was titled “Much Better Staff and Team Meetings”. I t...

Teaching in a 1:1 environment is truly a great opportunity for both you and your students. It allows for immediate access to the most recent information, endless opportunities for students to create and demonstrate their understanding of the concepts, as well as personalizing the learning for your students. However, I am often hearing that the devices are becoming a distraction. Students become off task and are on websites or apps that are either inappropriate or unwanted at the time. The first instinct for the teacher is to take the device away. However, it is a learning tool, just as a paper, pencil, and book are learning tools. We certainly do not take those away from our students. We deal with the behavior, redirect students to get back on task and reinforce to use the device appropriately. So, over the break, I took an opportunity to read a book called Classroom Management in the Digital Age: Effective Practices for Technology-Rich Learning Spaces by Heather Dowd and Pat Green. I...

       When you hear the 4 C’s, you may naturally think of creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication. With a focus on creativity, WeVideo, an online video editing site, has developed the 4 C’s of Planning for Creativity. The idea is to help students narrow down their thoughts and choices by scaffolding them throughout the video creation process. Let’s take a look at what these 4 C’s are, and how they impact the creativity of the students that sit in our classrooms every day.  Care Why are we doing this? Students ask this quite frequently as we live in a world where students are often questioning the relatedness of classroom content to their reality. In preparing to create videos using WeVideo, students should first begin with the purpose of their creation. Is there a problem to solve? A personal story to tell? What emotion should the viewers feel when they press play? The use of a storyboard where students can lay out their thoughts and i...

“The 'Hour of Code™' is a nationwide initiative by Computer Science Education Week [ csedweek.org ] and Code.org [ code.org ] to introduce millions of students to one hour of computer science and comp uter programming.” During the week of December 9-15 , schools all over the world will be devoting at least 1 hour for students to problem solve, critically think and use their creative skills...building 21st Century foundational skills.  Here is a great graphic telling WHY coding is important for every student, Kindergarten through 12th grade. We recently worked with elementary level principals introducing them to Scratch  -  and Ozobots . We chose the activity "Code with Anna and Elsa" to explore the concept of angles in math. We designed a storytelling literacy activity with the Ozobots. Debriefing after the activity, Principals' conversations revolved around almost every single one of these reasons coding is critical for our students that are listed in...

I love❤ these two new features in Google Drive, the new Priority homepage and Workspaces. Google is always adding things to increase your productivity.  I am always accessing the same files over and over again, so much so, I have bookmarked them. Unfortunately, the more I bookmark file the less screen real-estate I have in my Bookmark bar.  In swoops Google Priority homepage and Workspaces to the rescue. Through machine learning, Google will list files on a new Priority homepage.  The files listed are presented in a carousel and the files presented here on the Priority homepage are files that have been recently edited, commented on or have had a share request.  You will see a preview of the file and what action has taken place on that file. This saves time on searching and locating files that are used by you in your My Drive or a Shared Drive you are a member of for quick access. Google Priority is great but Workspaces is even better.  Drive will autom...

How do you introduce a new unit or any lesson to capture the attention of your students? Do you pose a question? Was it creative and unexpected? Maybe it was a simple review of what they learned in the previous lesson. There is a purpose of hooking your students for that fresh learning and setting the objective for each lesson. It can help activate prior knowledge, set the learning expectations and allow students to make connections between the content and real world. The use of images can be that creative and unexpected way to capture your student’s attention with the anticipation of new learning. Strategy 1 - Half the picture Locate an image that shows a big idea of the unit or lesson. Make a copy of the image in order to edit using a photo editing tool to cover half of the picture. Display the image that only shows ½ of the picture. Using the 3-2-1 strategy, a great AVID strategy, have students organize their thoughts about what they think is happening in the picture. ...

Where are the good digital citizens? They show up to our classrooms everyday! This affords us the opportunity to develop positive digital characteristics that will follow our students beyond the classroom. As we recognize Digital Citizenship Week on October 14-18, 2019, think of some ways that the conversation can go beyond the week. Below, we have shared some ways that teachers can naturally implement digital citizenship so that it becomes a part of the everyday classroom. Exploring Citations Media Literacy is a major part of digital citizenship in regard to resources provided by others. When conducting online searches, encourage students to use the Explore tool to search the web within Google Docs and Google Slides. This feature generates a citation in the footnote on the page. There is also an option to change the format of the citation to MLA, APA, or Chicago. Guiding students to utilize this tool shows them that a good digital citizen gives credit for others' work...