#edim516

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Here is my final submission for EDIM 516: Digital Literacy. The video is about Learning Management Systems and their use in the classroom. Enjoy!

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Here is my expert interview with Dr. Boehning, my Principal. The interview is about using Learning Management Systems, Moodle in particular. I hope you find this helpful and enjoy :)

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The Fuss about Phones

Technology in the classroom can be quite controversial. Deciding what, when, where are important considerations for the classroom. One such dispute is about the use of phones in the classroom. In this post I will highlight the arguments from chalk beat and UT News. With a few minutes of research you can easily find research supporting and opposing the use of phones in school.

According to UT News the benefits of cellphone banning far outweigh their use. The impact of banning phones is equivalent to increasing the school year by five days.  Allowing phones is most damaging to low-achieving and low-income students. By banning cell phones schools would reduce educational inequality without high cost programs. According to research students will be able to concentrate better without the distraction of their devices.

Chalkbeat takes a different stand on cell phones. Mr. Giambalvo says that it’s common for educators to steer clear of new technologies when they are first presented. “He says that allowing students to use cell phones in the classroom in the classroom for specific, academic purposes has the power to increase student engagement and allow teachers to more effectively assess learning on a daily basis.” Students can use cellphones for exit tickets, assessments, writing, note-taking, review, etc.

I have seen both sides in my classroom. There is a time and place for cell phones.  I have found that if I integrate technology into my classroom and show students how to use technology they are more responsible with it. The questions is not IF I will allow students to use their phones but WHEN. Mr. Giambalvo and I will conclude by saying, “Several years from now, the questions won’t center around whether we should use these tools in the learning process, but how we can use them best.”  

What do you think about using cellphones in your classroom?

Chalkbeat- http://bit.ly/2fFQliv

UT News- http://bit.ly/1IBJzOn

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Watch me flip, watch them...learning?

Bad puns aside, flipped learning has a lot of potential for increasing student motivation, engagement, and learning.  I played around with flipping my class a few years ago and learned a lot of lessons.  I found that I was not able to make it out of, what Todd Nesloney called, Flipped Class 101.  I created the videos, the students watched them at home, and we did activities the next day in class.  I also struggled with creating the videos and trying to stay ahead of my students.  Between moving schools and then staying home when my daughters were born I did not have an opportunity to try again and go to another level.  However, I definitely had ideas about what I wanted to do differently and where I wanted to go next.

The two biggest changes I wanted to make was improving my videos and improving the activities we did in the classroom.  As a beginner, most of my videos were VERY boring.  I created powerpoint presentations and then narrated my way through them.  I would want to make videos that are more interactive and include opportunities for students to try and solve example problems on their own.  I found that when they just had to listen or write down sample problems, miraculously they had no questions the next day.  I know that if they had to try and solve a problem and come in the next day with the answer, I’d have a lot more actually asking about questions they might have had.

The other biggest issue I had was what we did in class.  While we did a lot of practice, application, and I was able to work with a lot more small groups, the activities were not very sophisticated and did not really require a lot of critical thinking.  In the future I would want to incorporate more inquiry and PBL into the classroom time.  I also would want to open up my timeline so that students are able to progress through the content as they mastered it, rather than on my schedule.

I used LearnZillion when I was not able to make my own videos.  I liked that their videos are Common Core aligned already.  For example, this video on dividing fractions.

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1:1 Chromebooks could be THE answer

Of course the answer I’m referring to is that of the age old question, “how do we improve student engagement and learning?”  Well, 1:1 Chromebooks might not provide the ultimate answer (nothing by itself really will), but it certainly seems to be a huge step in the right direction.

I am in a school based position and therefore have very little to do with the decisions made at the (bloated) county level.  However, we do have some decisions open to us at our school.  We can decide what types of technology and hardware we can purchase for our school.  Because we have become a GAFE district, I am beginning to wonder if the Chromebook is the way we need to go when considering new technology.  My biggest fear is what happened with our SmartBoards.  We have spent tens of thousands of dollars on putting a SmartBoard in every room and I’m sad to admit that they have become fancy white boards.  I don’t want whatever technology we purchase in the future to have a huge learning curve in terms of implementation (one of the biggest complaints about our SmartBoards is teachers don’t feel like they received enough training to use them effectively) or to become quickly obsolete.

After reading some others experiences with Chromebooks, it seems there are a lot of advantages.  One of the biggest advantages that struck me was the comment from a teacher in the Leyden district who said that because of the functionalities of the Google suite, they have moved from a mindset of “turning in” work to “sharing” work. This is a huge nod towards the idea of collaboration, one of the 4 Cs on which our district is focusing.  The other huge advantages seem to be time and money.  Some of the statistics are staggering.  I reached out so some people from the Leyden district and asked whether they had done any implementations at the elementary level and if so how it was working out.

There do seem to be quite a few logistics involved when implementing a 1:1 Chromebook initiative.  Many of which, I will admit, are extremely overwhelming.  Like I said, I am a school based position, so if our district went this route, I would not be involved in many of these logistics.  However, I would be an integral part of the team if our school went with this option.  My strength is not the technical/hardware aspect of technology and so considerations regarding bandwidth, operating systems, etc are a little scary.  I would definitely need to put a lot of time in to learning and training of these aspects.

I think though that there are many considerations beyond just logistics.  I appreciated this principal’s reflections because they were more about the “real world” implementation than the “figuring it out” part.  He addressed ideas such as setting SMART goals to measure success and justify their decisions and the idea that kids CAN be responsible with these devices.  However, what I really liked is he talked about the fact that these tools don’t replace good teachers.  They also don’t automatically elevate a teacher’s abilities.  They are a tool that can enhance instruction, but teachers need time to become comfortable with them and can learn from each other how to best implement them in their classrooms. Arthur C. Clarke said it best, “Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer should be!”

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Learning Scoop.It for curation

Since starting as an Instructional Technology Facilitator there have been many paths I have taken to help my teachers integrate more technology in their classrooms.  By far the biggest request has been how to use Google products, especially Google Classroom.  While I have certainly learned a lot on how to use basic features, I would like to learn more to help my teachers get the most out of the suite.

GAFE & Classroom on Scoop.It

I chose to use Scoop.It as my curation tool as I wanted to challenge myself to learn a tool that I am not very familiar with.  I had to read a few get started articles but was able to begin curating content pretty quickly.  I also installed the Chrome extension to be able to quickly snag resources in the future.  I will admit the “tile/picture card” of the layout is a little overwhelming for me.  I normally use Diigo and appreciate the simplicity of text and list views of my links.

Many of the sources I found were basic ideas and how to get started with Google apps and Classroom.  This is helpful because many of the teachers I work with have not used Google Classroom and are only superficially familiar with Google products like Docs, Sheets, etc.  The 5th grade team at my school has been using Classroom since ~Oct when our BYOD program rolled out (only 5th grade this year, we open it to 3rd & 4th next year).  I would like to work on finding some more advanced ideas for them.

I definitely have a lot to learn in terms of the functionality of Scoop.It.  I can curate content all day long, but using it to connect and share with others is the next step for me.  I often feel like because I am new to this type of position that I don’t have much to offer.  Someone has already done it and probably done it better than I could.  So I need to work on finding my voice and a network that fits for me.

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Civil Discourse: a lost cause?

This year is an election year and so it’s to be expected that some harsh words will be exchanged on both sides.  However, this year our society is getting an up close and personal view of what happens when civil discourse is flung out the window.  Whatever your political stance, most can agree that Donald Trump has said some inflammatory things.  His platform of “telling it like it is” has pushed his fans into believing that not only should we get to say whatever we want, but we should shut down those we disagree with.

As educators we need to take these experiences to heart.  I have always firmly believed that our duty is to make an impact on the next generation.  There is no better place to start in my mind, than teaching the lessons of civil discourse and communication to our students.  

Children from a very young age are taught (for the most part) how to say please, thank you, and down where I live yes and no ma’am.  We try to teach them how to use I-Messages when their feelings are hurt or if they’re in a fight, but these feel as false as the forced apologies so many adults require of children.  What we need to do is no different than what we do for their academics.  We need to provide them authentic experiences to practice discussion and communication.  Elementary students can start small.  They can discuss books and classes in a classroom discussion post or a blog.  Linda Yollis is exactly right in that teaching students how to write comments on other’s work is a critical skill.  It’s easy enough to write an opinion post, even for children.  But disagreeing with someone constructively is a learned skill.

I know teachers are pressed for time.  The first thing they might say is they don’t have time to do those things with all the content they have to cover, especially when students are assessed on that content.  I have two responses to this.  The first is that it is possible to do both!  There are a myriad of content topics in many subjects, but especially in social studies, that lend themselves to debate and discussion.  For example allow children to learn the content in the course of preparing for a debate.  Visit blogs on scientific topics and interact with the authors.  

The second response is one that is probably not popular when our very jobs are on the line.  At some point we need to stand up for what’s right for our students, our society, and our integrity.  We all know that it’s more important a person can converse respectfully and productively than if they can recite the Periodic Table.  So at some point, as educators, we will need to do what’s right in our classroom despite what the politicians require.

I have to hope that we have not lost all ability to converse in a civilized manner.  Every year we take baby steps towards reducing societal ills.  And a big part of that reduction are the teachers who keep in the back of their mind that they are impacting the future every day.

 And because I need to laugh so I don’t cry:

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Where do you find the majority of your teaching resources? When I was a teacher, most of my resources came from my grade level team or searching lesson plans online.  Unfortunately I no longer have a school based team to share resources with since I am the only ITF at my school.  I’m finding that I have to reach out to people at other schools and even in other cities to discuss what we are doing and what has been working for us.  Professional conferences, district meetings, and online connections (especially through Twitter) are becoming more and more valuable as sources of information and ideas.

Who do you look to for support and research for new ideas? The main people who support me when it comes to new ideas are the other members of the curriculum support staff at my school, especially the librarian/media specialist and the instructional resource teacher.  Both of them have similar roles in that they are there to help staff improve their instruction and they are also very committed to moving towards more innovative instructional practices.  When it comes to new ideas, trends, research, etc I definitely turn to my virtual PLN, namely Twitter.  I have found if I am looking for the latest research or ideas this is where to find it.

What challenges do you face as you try to incorporate new ideas and research with your students? My challenge isn’t so much incorporating new ideas with students (since I don’t teach students), it’s getting my staff to incorporate new ideas.  Unfortunately we do not have a culture of forward thinking and innovation at my school.  So many of the staff are resistant to change and letting go of control.  Trying to get buy in for professional development or new ideas is something I struggle with every day.  It’s hard to change a culture if admin isn’t on board.  Fortunately there are a few in the building who are excited about new ideas and I am using them to get my foot in the door with the rest of their teams.