#443Chat -- Summer Slide -- 5/15/18

#443Chat Summer Slide - Curated tweets by kdhuck

Increasing Student Engagement (CMS, 5/4/16)

1. Take Attendance

Use the CMS Tech Training Attendance spreadsheet in Google Drive to record your attendance.

2. Increasing Student Engagement via Quizlet Live or Quizlet.com

Keeping students focused and engaged becomes a challenge the farther we get into May. One tool to help with this challenge is Quizlet Live from Quizlet.com. Quizlet.com is an oldy but goody when it comes to student engagement, and its newest activity Quizlet Live has been a hit in USD 443 classrooms. Depending on your team's needs, we'll look at Quizlet Live and/or Quizlet.com to see if it's a tool you can utilize in the coming weeks!

Click here to view a tutorial video for Quizlet Live.

3. SAMR Level?

The SAMR model (substitution; augmentation; modification; redefinition) helps us talk about the levels of technology use during various activities. At what level are students working? How about teachers?

4. Our Challenge

As we begin to wind down this school year, we are challenged to use technology as a tool to help us be more efficient and effective in our classrooms. We can help students focus on review or new content by increasing their engagement via quiz tools; we can assess students' understanding of content with video and assessment tools, and we can automatize procedures and activities to free our time to facilitate more. 

Cardinal Team Tech (DCMS, 4.26.16)

1. Take Attendance

Mark your attendance on the DCMS Tech Training Attendance spreadsheet

2. Automatically Backing Up Photos into Google Drive

Our photos and projects on our iPad camera rolls are important to us and to our students; yet, they take up most of our storage space. Deleting these items off of our camera rolls frees up space, but we risk getting rid of something we need later. What to do?

Google Drive addresses this issue now by automatically backing up our camera roll projects into our Google accounts. Very handy!

3. Other Stuff

In addition to Google Photos, teams are looking at a few other items, as well: dealing with student videos, dealing with student absences, Quizlet Live, Zoom or Skype in the Classroom, and the DCMS Staff DubSmash!

 In addition to team agendas, we'll also be looking at the summer professional development offerings: USD 443 Summer PD and #EdCampSWKS.

4. Our Challenge

As we begin to wind down this school year, we are challenged to use technology as a tool to help us be more efficient and effective in our classrooms. We can help students focus on review or new content by increasing their engagement via quiz tools; we can assess students' understanding of content with video and assessment tools, and we can automatize procedures and activities to free our time to facilitate more. 

5. Feedback

I'd love to hear your feedback. Click this link and let me know what you think!

Coyotes Team Tech/PD (4.20.16)

1. Take Attendance

Use the CMS Tech Training Attendance sheet to mark your attendance today

2. Tech Show & Tell

One of the perks from attending a conference is learning about new tech tools, especially when the conference is ESStech at ESSDACK!

One session I attended was "If You Like This, Then You'll Love This!, led by Ginger Lewman. Ginger put together a spreadsheet of "old" tech tools (they're not really that old - keep on using them if they're truly your favorites) and collected suggestions for newer versions of those tools. I've made a copy of her spreadsheet for us to use here. It is editable, so feel free to add your own suggestions!

Two tools I'd like to look at more closely are Quizlet Live and Dotstorming.com! Here's a Quizlet Live tutorial for more infomation on setting up this review game.

Let's reflect on Quizlet Live using this Dotstorming board!

3. Our Challenge

As we start to wrap up this school year, it's important to keep providing our students with structure and closure. Matt Miller of ditchthattextbook.com writes here of ending his year with Epic Olympics. He uses tech and non-tech tools to review the most important concepts from the year. Maybe activities like Quizlet Live can help with this type of activity!

4. Feedback

As always, leave anonymous feedback here!

Cardinal Team Tech (DCMS, 4.12.16)

Take Attendance

Use the DCMS Tech Training Attendance sheet to mark your attendance today.

Team Agendas

Odyssey

Electives

Schoology, Part 4 - Work Time & SMART Board Review

Bring your laptops to Mrs. Royle's room. We'll combine some Schoology review/work time with some SMART board review!

Spartans

Class Blogs - A Conversation

Let's talk about blogs - their functions, the choices - and make a plan that works for you! Bring either device; chances are we'll talk more than work.

I'm linking to this very helpful article about how to set up student blogs in Blogger (Google's blogging tool) in case we decide we need it.

Olympians

Class Blogs - A Conversation

Let's talk about blogs - their functions, the choices - and make a plan that works for you! Bring either device; chances are we'll talk more than work.

I'm linking to this very helpful article about how to set up student blogs in Blogger (Google's blogging tool) in case we decide we need it.

Voyagers

Introduction to Plickers

Bring your laptops. We'll demo Plickers and give you time to set up a class. Bring your iPad, as well, if you're a quick learner. You set up Plickers on a computer and run the session via the iPad.

Here's a quick tutorial we can look at.

Defenders

Work Time

We've been working independently on quizizz.com and other projects. Bring whichever device you need!

All Stars

DubSmash/Flipping & Blending

We'll pick up where we left off (we were playing with DubSmash!). Bring your iPad. Here are Kristin's directions.

"Create a Condition for Invention!" - DCMS/CMS, 3/29/2016

1. Take Attendance

Use the DCMS Tech Training Attendance spreadsheet or the CMS Tech Training Attendance spreadsheet to mark your attendance.

2. "Create a Condition for Invention!"

As you know, I've been reading and studying about the science behind learning, about what happens in the brain when we learn. I ran across MIT professor Seymour Papert's remark in an article, and it really resonated with the idea of retrieval, elaboration, and the power of emotion - how they all work together in the brain to create strong neural pathways. Papert says, "The role of the teacher is to create a condition for invention rather than provide readymade knowledge." 

When we review the big ideas from Make It Stick (Brown, et al), we learn that retrieval practice and elaboration are two strategies for learning, for mastery versus fluency, that carry a large whollup. If you want to review these ideas, watch Brian Johnson's synopsis of Make It Stick on YouTube.

3. Our Challenge

From Johnson's synopsis, we know that we need to provide students with the opportunity to practice retrieving information and explaining it in their own words. A fun, low-risk way to do this is with apps that provide students with disguises or scenarios. The disguises increase the fun factor, and anytime we can attach a positive emotion to learning, according to James E. Zull in The Art of Changing the Brain, we automatically increase the activity and energy the brain dedicates to mastering a concept.

Fun apps to work with in the classroom would include Telestory and MSQRD. Play around with one or both of these apps and decide which concept in an upcoming unit with work especially well with this idea of elaboration.

4. An Adult Challenge

Along this same vein, Kristen Herndon is working on a faculty/staff project to air at the DCMS talent show this spring. She wants to put together a montage of Dubsmash videos that you create because she knows the students will enjoy seeing faculty and staff "perform," and the Dubsmash app allows you to "perform" without actually getting up on stage. It's a win/win!

Here's a link to the Dubsmash app, and here are Kristin's easy-to-follow instructions!

5. Feedback

Let me know how team tech can work better for you. Leave your anonymous feedback here.

Crafting Solutions (DCMS, 2.23.16; CMS, 2.24.16)

1. Take Attendance

Use the DCMS Tech Training Attendance spreadsheet or the CMS Tech Training Attendance spreadsheet to mark your attendance.

2. Identifying Needs and Creating Solutions

No matter how many years we've taught and how well we've planned our units, there are always weak spots, spots where students' attention wains or where students just don't grasp the content as well as we'd like.

Think of one of these areas now. Identify a need in one of your units and brainstorm possible solutions - do you need a quiz? a video? an activity? a puzzle? Is there an app or activity that will help fill this need?

OUR OBJECTIVE is to demonstrate an understanding of increasing student engagement in our classrooms by identifying a weak spot in a unit and creating an activity to address this weakness.

3. Breaking It Down By Team

Which device do you need? It mostly depends on what your team is doing and, more specifically, what you will be doing during this time. Bring the device you think you need to work best (probably laptop in most cases), but it never hurts to bring both!

DCMS

• Odyssey 
• Work Time - Solutions to Problems (Quizizz, Nearpod, etc)
• Explorers
• Schoology, Part 3 - Time to set up and get started, as well as SMART board tips
• Spartans
• Work Time, Part 2 - Solutions to Problems (Quizizz, TeleStory, Showbie, Conferences)
• Olympians/ESL
• Showbie, Part 2 - follow up; time to get set up; Blogging
• Voyagers
• Work Time - Solutions to Problems (Quizizz, Nearpod, etc)
• Defenders
• Work Time - Solutions to Problems (Quizizz, Nearpod, etc)
• All Stars
• Flipped Classrooms, Part 2 - Quizizz & videoing yourself

CMS

• Bison
• ?
• Electives
• Flipped/Blended, Part 3 - Video Show & Tell!!
• Sunflowers
• Plickers, Part 2 - Update on Plickers and work time
• Twisters
• Flipped/Blended, Part 2
• Honeybees
• Blogging, Part 2 - Making decisions about class blogs & starting to set up
• Angelopes/Jayhawkers
• Twitter 101 - Bring your iPads!

4. The Challenge

Challenge yourself to implement at least a small part of your project in your classroom so you can start to see where the bugs are. Remember that introducing a new activity, especially one technology related, takes time - a lot of time the first time you do it. It WILL get faster!!!!

5. Feedback

Let me know how team tech can work better for you. Leave your anonymous feedback here.