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.

Wednesday's Team Tech Time (CMS, 2.10.16)

1. Take Attendance

Access your CMS Tech Training Attendance spreadsheet (this link, your Starred drive, searching in Google Drive) and mark your attendance

2. Our Objective

OUR OBJECTIVE today is to learn more about a specific site, app, or skill (depending upon our team's agenda) and how that app, site or skill will allow us to more effectively deliver content, engage our students, or assess their learning in the classroom. We will demonstrate our learning by applying it concretely to a new or existing lesson and sharing our learning with our colleagues.

PARTICIPANTS WILL DEMONSTRATE AN UNDERSTANDING OF _______ BY APPLYING IT TO A NEW OR EXISTING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY.

3. Team Agendas

• Bison
• Quizizz
• Electives
• Flipped/Blended, Part 2
• Bring your video idea & let's make videos!
• Sunflowers
• Plickers, Part 1
• Twisters
• Flipped/Blended, Part 1 
• Quizizz
• Honeybees
• Blogging (Weebly), Part 1
• 8th Grade
• FileMaker, Part 1

4. Our Challenge

As you work through this next week, apply what you've learned in team tech today. Use your new or tweaked lesson to see where it's effective and where the snags are. Come back to team tech on 2/17/16 ready to share with us. It's amazing what we learn from each other!!!

5. Feedback!

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

Tuesday's Team Tech Time (DCMS, 2.9.16)

1. Take Attendance

Access your DCMS Tech Training Attendance spreadsheet (this link, your Starred drive, searching in Google Drive) and mark your attendance

2. Our Objective

OUR OBJECTIVE today is to learn more about a specific site, app, or skill (depending upon our team's agenda) and how that app, site or skill will allow us to more effectively deliver content, engage our students, or assess their learning in the classroom. We will demonstrate our learning by applying it concretely to a new or existing lesson and sharing our learning with our colleagues.

PARTICIPANTS WILL DEMONSTRATE AN UNDERSTANDING OF _______ BY APPLYING IT TO A NEW OR EXISTING CLASSROOM ACTIVITY.

3. Team Agendas

• Odyssey
• Quizizz
• Nearpod
• Explorers
• Schoology
• Smart Boards
• Spartans
• (Work Time, Part 1)
• Quizizz
• TeleStory
• Showbie for Conferences
• Conferences
• Olympians/ESL
• ThingLink report from Lisa
• Showbie
• Blogging
• Conferences
• Voyagers
• QR Codes
• Defenders
• Quizizz
• All Stars
• iTunesU show & tell - Beth
• Quizizz
• Flipped/Blended Classroom (videoing yourself)

4. Our Challenge

As you work through these next 2 weeks, apply what you've learned in team tech today. Use your new or tweaked lesson to see where it's effective and where the snags are. Come back to team tech on 2/23/16 ready to share with us. It's amazing what we learn from each other!!!

5. Feedback!

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

Flipped/Blended Classrooms, Part 1 (CMS Electives, 2.3.16)

1. Take Attendance

Let Kara take care of this today. You go ahead and get started with the agenda. That's right. Don't wait for everyone to come in. Jump right in by yourself or with a partner. Proceed to Steps 2 & 3 now!

2. Our Objective

Our objective today is to demonstrate an understanding of how flipped/blended learning might be effective in our classrooms by discussing its advantages with team members.

3. Our Agenda

We are going to fully immerse ourselves in this flipped/blended environment by experiencing our team tech session today via flipped/blended learning!

Go to the Teachers Are Going to Lecture Google slides presentation by clicking on the link in this sentence. Complete the activities on each slide, and you may work with a partner if you'd like.

Troubleshooting: When I tested this link, my iPad opened the Google slide presentation in Safari in presentation mode, which is great because the links work in presentation mode only (not in editing mode). If for some reason your iPad opens the slide presentation in Google Slides in edit mode, look for presentation mode (upper right, maybe) and run the slide show there.

4. Our Challenge

As we move through this week and into the next week, challenge yourself to flip a few things here or there. Try flipping bellwork or a lecture activity. Just pick one area. How can you automate this one item to, in a sense, clone yourself and also allow for differentiation and student absences?

5. Feedback!

As always, leave your anonymous feedback here. 

Getting Personal! - Adding Email Signature Lines to Our Email (DCMS 1.26.16; CMS 1.27.16)

1. Take Attendance

Use this link to access the DCMS Tech Training Attendance spreadsheet. Use this link to access the CMS Tech Training Attendance spreadsheet.

2. Updating our Email Signatures

OUR OBJECTIVE: Participants will demonstrate an understanding of accessing email signatures on their various school devices by updating their email signatures to include the non-discrimination statement provided by our building leaders.

Whether we already have an email signature or not on our various devices, we now NEED to have at least the statement of non-discrimination for an upcoming Office of Civil Rights audit. Here are instructions for almost any device you might be using. Please ignore any situations that do not pertain to how you use email!

Adding Non-Discriminatory Statement to School Email on Laptop (video):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3pXd2GN7Bi5VTJ0VDRfSzFnOW8/view?usp=sharing

If You Use the EXCHANGE WEB MAIL LINK ON THE INTRANET PAGE to Access School Email Inside or Outside of School –

Copy the Non-Discriminatory Statement from an email (or copy your entire signature, including the statement from one of your own emails)

Click on the link and log in

Click on Options in the upper right

Paste in the statement

Click on Save in the upper left

Adding Non-Discriminatory Statement on iPad or iPhone –

Copy the disclaimer from Ms. Feist's email on your iPad

Go to Settings (grey gear)

Go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars

Scroll down to Signature (about 3/4 way down)

Might need to click Per Account here to get all your email signature lines to open

Paste disclaimer into appropriate box for school email and school gmail

Adding Non-Discriminatory Statement on School Gmail on Laptop (do this in Chrome or Internet Explorer, not Firefox) –

Open up Gmail on your laptop

Click on the small grey gear icon in the upper right of the screen

Click on Settings

Scroll down this screen until you see Signature on the left. Unclick No Signature & paste in the Non-Discrimination statement in the box

Scroll to bottom of page and click Save Changes

IF YOU USE THE GMAIL APP ON YOUR IPAD OR IPHONE (in addition to the regular email app or instead of the regular email app) –

Your iPad is PROBABLY set to use your desktop Gmail signature by default, but YOU CAN’T SEE THIS AT ALL IN THE APP! To test this, send an email from your Gmail app on your iPad or iPhone to your school email account. Open the email to see if the signature line is in place.

If the signature line doesn’t show up as it should, click on the 3 horizontal lines in the upper left in the app, and then click on the gear icon beside your name. On this popup, check to see that mobile signature is turned off.

If the mobile signature is turned off, and you STILL can’t see your desktop signature when you send an email (in the opened, sent email; you WILL NOT see it on the Gmail app screen at all), then you may need to go out of the app and come back in to refresh it, or sign out with your school gmail account and sign back in to refresh it.

Adding the Non-Discrimination Statement to Replies & Forwarded Emails in School Email (Yellow Microsoft Outlook icon) – this is OPTIONAL! –

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3pXd2GN7Bi5UFBXZkx1Q3BCWm8/view?usp=sharing

3. As Always, Record Any Anonymous Feedback HERE! 

Registering for Inservice & Everything Else (CMS 1.13.16)

 

1. Take Attendance

Use this link to get to the attendance sheet in Google Drive, or find the attendance sheet however you like to.

2. January 18 Inservice Registration

Next Monday is our K-8 district inservice. I'm really excited about the sessions we're able to offer, and I personally wish I could attend almost all of them!

OUR OBJECTIVE today is to make sure you fully understand the schedule and your session options for Monday's inservice. We will do this by using the Smore flyer and registering in My Learning Plan.

The Smore flyer contains all the information we need for the day. You might want to save it to your home screen for easy reference. The first blue button contains session information. You CAN print this up. If you do, be sure you are using the Landscape setting to get a file that's easier to read.

The second blue button takes you to My Learning Plan. Most teachers log in using your school email address (lastname.firstname@usd443.org). Click on District Catalog on the left, and then click on January.

Look up sessions by name. Click on the session title, and then click on Sign Up Here. Most of the session information is already complete. Scroll down to the Goals section and click on the goal(s) that best fits this session. Click the box that verifies that you have selected a goal.

Scroll on down to Documentation and type in "sign-in sheet" here. Scroll down to Comments and write a sentence or two that explains what you will learn (key words from what the session is about).

Depending on the type of sessions you choose, you could have from 4-6 sessions for the day. Don't forget to register for the Keynote session and the Final Session.

 

3. Bison Team - A New Quiz Site

Our OBJECTIVE today is to understand quizizz.com and the role it can play in our classrooms. We will accomplish this by comparing Quizizz to Kahoot, a quiz platform we are already familiar with.

Step 1: Let's play Kahoot. Go to kahoot.it in your internet browser. Most of us are familiar with Kahoot, so let's play a short quiz together to remind ourselves the role this familiar quiz platform can play or does play in our classrooms.

How is Kahoot best used in your classroom? What are its pros? Its cons?

Step 2: Now let's look at a new quiz platform. Go to quizizz.com and click on Join a Game in the upper right. Follow the instructions projected on the white board to play this Christmas quiz.

How is Quizizz similar to Kahoot? How is it different? What are Quizizz's strengths and weaknesses, and what role might it have in your classroom?

4. Electives - Getting Organized for Quarter 3

Resetting Google Classroom classes or re-loading student Gmail contact groups (screenshots here).

5. Sunflowers - Polyvision Boards

We'll look at turning them on, calibrating them, and moving between the computer and the writing function. Let's also figure out what else we need to know or learn.

6. Twisters - Google Classroom and Sheets

How much do we already know? What additional information do we need?

7. Honeybees - MDPT

We'll review the MDPT in general and then specifically look at helping students unpack prompts.

8. 8th Grade Teams - Skyward

We'll quickly review the tips we've learned and then have time to implement them.

9. Leave Your Anonymous Feedback Here!

Prepping for Our Inservice (DCMS 1.12.16)

Conference Room
Bring either your laptop or your iPad

 

 1. Mark Your Attendance

Mark your attendance on the DCMS Tech Training Attendance spreadsheet.

2. January 18 Inservice Registration

Next Monday is our K-8 district inservice. I'm really excited about the sessions we're able to offer, and I personally wish I could attend almost all of them!

OUR OBJECTIVE today is to make sure you fully understand the schedule and your session options for Monday's inservice. We will do this by using the Smore flyer and registering in My Learning Plan.

The Smore flyer contains all the information we need for the day. You might want to save it to your home screen for easy reference. The first blue button contains session information. You CAN print this up. If you do, be sure you are using the Landscape setting to get a file that's easier to read.

The second blue button takes you to My Learning Plan. Most teachers log in using your school email address (lastname.firstname@usd443.org). Click on District Catalog on the left, and then click on January.

Look up sessions by name. Click on the session title, and then click on Sign Up Here. Most of the session information is already complete. Scroll down to the Goals section and click on the goal(s) that best fits this session. Click the box that verifies that you have selected a goal.

Scroll on down to Documentation and type in "sign-in sheet" here. Scroll down to Comments and write a sentence or two that explains what you will learn (key words from what the session is about).

Depending on the type of sessions you choose, you could have from 4-6 sessions for the day. Don't forget to register for the Keynote session and the Final Session.

3. Twitter Basics

Believe it or not, teachers are one of the most effective Twitter users on the planet. Let's review how to connect with other educators teaching our same content or those who are exploring the same ideas we are.

Once you're set up, use the search bar in Twitter to explore some of these basic hashtags: #ipaded, #mathed, #socialstudies, #sschat, #mdpt, #physed, #tlap, #ela, and #edchat. Select All Tweets at the top once the page loads on your iPad (if you're on your laptop, click on Live at the top). Usually, these are all good people to follow. Also, don't forget to search #443chat and follow these tweeters, as well!

Here are some screenshots to walk you through the process on the iPad.

We'll use #443Tomorrows to create a back channel for Monday's inservice, so be sure and tweet out some of your "aha" moments!

4. The Challenge

Of course you want to get properly registered for Monday's inservice, so our CHALLENGE to you this week is to report some of the ideas you're most excited about via Twitter using the #443Tomorrows hashtag! Don't forget to add a picture or two.

5. Record Anonymouse Feedback Here