Digital Passport: Technology Plan

We created a digital technology plan that goes along specifically with the nonprofit organization, CommonSense, and specifically the Digital Passport learning tool. Teaching digital citizenship using a common curriculum is something that our district is lacking. We decided to use Digital Passport because it has a lot of tools to use with students that are interactive and student-friendly. According to CommonSense, “Digital Passport is an interactive learning tool for grades 3-5 that teaches the basics of digital safety, etiquette & citizenship. Students learn foundational skills from online games & videos [...]”.

We have created a presentation that showcases our technology plan on how to best implement this curriculum across the district. Since the state mandates that we teach Digital Citizenship in grades 3 and up, we feel that CommonSense Media is the most trusted organization, and we are confident in using this resource to meet the needs of our learners.

Creating a 21st Century Learning Space

Matching my students' learning space with 21st Century learning styles and standards is something that I feel very strongly about! I am on year 4 of a flexible seating learning environment, and each year I learn something new that will help benefit my students, as well as what I can improve on. In an ideal world with an unlimited budget, there are so many ideas I would address, and tools/resources/spaces that I would add into my room. Here is a list of things to consider when putting together a 21st century learning space, and what you can do!

1. Accessibility- students can move about the room freely.
2. Electrical access- there are 3 outlets along each wall, as well as multiple chargers at the iPad Charging Station.
3. Private and collaborative space- Flexible seating allows students to move tables, seats, working stations in different spaces of the room depending on the given activity. Tables will be set up to support Kagan Strategies for collaborative tasks, too.
4. Display/work surfaces- There is wall space to display student work, along with learning targets for the day/week, anchor charts, etc. One wall would be painted green for green screen opportunities and recordings. 
5. Connectivity options- Personal Wi-Fi for the classroom is a must! There will also be an Apple TV, document camera,  
6. Classroom technology- All students will have individual iPads and headphones. To share out there is a document camera, audio system, and Apple TV projector.  In the makerspace, there is a black & white/color printer and 3D printer.
7. Classroom environment- Lamps will be placed around the room for a dimmer light option. The room will be painted in neutral colors so that student work stands out. There will be a variety of flexible seating: scoop chairs, wobble chairs, rolling chairs, office chairs, ball chairs, rockers,  will be available. Standing desks, movable and adjustable tables, traditional desks, low and high top tables are also part of the seating options. There is a reading corner with couch and reading chairs, and a kidney bean table that I will use as my small group table.
8. Support for active learning - Active learning will naturally occur through all of the flexible seating options, and learning  spaces. 
9. Learning styles- This environment is meant to have a little something for every type of learning style. Students will learn what works well for them, and areas that work better for different activities.
10. Goals for teaching and learning- This classroom will be an environment meant for innovation, collaboration, high engagement, and creativity. 
11. Student engagement - The layout really supports student engagement. All listed in #10 really provides an engaging environment and experience for students.

Here is an updated version of my ideal 21st century learning space, and how it would look:

Course Reflection - 21st Century Educational Leadership

This was a fun course because we were able to create different professional development activities, and take on that leadership role for our colleagues. One activity that I found very beneficial was creating a Walk-Through Form. I think that it is important to be able to go into our colleagues classrooms, and learn from them! I love the #observeme movement, and I think it is important to spread this idea out to other educators. My Learning Walk-Through Form focuses on the H.E.A.T. observation rubric that is used to evaluate the level of engagement within a lesson, as well as incorporation of technology. I loved this rubric, and think that it narrows down the focus for the walk-through.

Another assignment that I was asked to complete, was a 4 Day Summer Institute Workshop.  The purpose of my institute workshop is to learn about a variety of ways to integrate technology into the classroom, that match the 4Cs model- collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity.

 

*Image downloaded from David Lee EdTech

I used a TON of activities and ideas that I have learned throughout this entire cohort to plan the 4 days. It was actually a great time for me to reflect on all of the amazing tools, apps, websites, brain breaks, activities, that we have learned during our time in this cohort. I would definitely love to share out some of these ideas with other colleagues that are not getting their technology endorsement with us!

Capstone Project

For our capstone project, we have been given the task to create a professional development opportunity for all of our District 181 colleagues. We are working together with our entire cohort to divvy up the tasks, and create an amazing experience for all. First, we met together and brainstormed our ideas, then narrowed it down to providing a professional development for colleagues to dive into technology within their classrooms. 

One struggle about designing something district-wide, is participation. We have come up with a number of ways to get people involved like stickers and incentives for participating in our challenge, but also recognition via social media and our district newsletter. Another challenge that I think we are all facing right now, is working with such a large group. We all trust each other in this cohort, and know that we will get the job down, however it is hard to all meet, share ideas, etc. due to the size of our group. We have a Google Doc with all of our committees, jobs/tasks, and ideas, but getting everyone to sit down in person will be the challenge. I am hoping we will be able to use more of our class meetings to work on this project.

I have personally been assigned to work with the incentives group! We are going to keep track of the points people earn, and providing the incentives for each step. We will be working together to order stickers, creating digital badges, gift cards, etc. to share out with our colleagues once they reach a certain point in their technology journey. We will also create a Digital Leaderboard, and keep that current. We will be in charge, along with the Promotion Group, in sharing out results along the way!

Using Technology for Assessments

I learned a lot this course, on how to create or use a variety of digital assessments in the classroom that are beneficial for both students and teachers. 

One important component of classroom instruction is formative assessments. If teachers use formative assessments properly, these assessments can guide small group instruction and differentiation to meet the needs of each student. Online assessment tools can help teachers and students receive feedback quickly, all while making it more meaningful to each individual. I decided to dive deeper into NearPod versus Pear Deck. Here is an infographic I made that shows the similarities and differences of these two tools. Overall, I am in favor of NearPod, as they have more to offer to both teachers and student.  

Another important assessment to use within the classroom is self-assessments. It is so important for students to take ownership in their learning, and assess how they think they are doing. Here is a Goal Setting Sheet: Weekly Goal Work that I created for my students to use when setting goals in reading, math, and vocabulary. I realized that there are so many ways for students to self-assess, and that a lot of technology tools out there can help students self-check, like Google Forms.

Overall, this is was a great course, and pushed me to create a lot of different assessment pieces that I can use with my class next year!

Effective Technology Integration Reflection

This course was really insightful. I learned a ton about what a true essential question is, and how to focus on creating a PBL that match a strong essential question. I thought it was really important to find an essential question that I could revisit in multiple content areas.

I also really loved when we created the Device Management slides when in class. I am going to use a lot of your creative slides in my classroom. I am always looking for easy ways to manage all of the 1:1 iPads in the classroom, and after that class together, I am definitely going to run a tighter ship with their iPads! 'Apple Up' is my new favorite phrase :)

Finally, I loved working on Screencastify, and just how easy it is to use. I think that I am going to try out the flipped classroom for certain units in my math class, and see how it goes. I honestly would have never dabbled in screen casting if I wasn't in this cohort, and I am so glad that I did!

Mastery Learning

I had the opportunity to watch a Talk Talk from Sal Kahn, creator of Kahn Acadamy, and listened to his view on Mastery Learning. He started his talk by discussing how gaps in a student’s learning can cause them to eventually believe that they are not capable of reaching a higher level in whatever academic area their gaps were located. Kahn then talked about being in a position where at the end of a unit, a student’s assessment should that they did not master 25% of the foundational skills, yet they are still expected to move on to the next unit, that ends up being more advanced. This type of non-mastery framework will just continue to widen the gaps, and eventually, there will be a moment where learners will hit a wall, and disengage. This really got me thinking. How are we expecting students to continue to learn more advanced material if they were not able to master foundational skills that they will need to master the advanced material? I think that Mastery Learning is really important, and it is something I would like to focus on, particularly in math. I teach the on-level math class, and students really struggle with foundational skills that they should have mastered years prior. I believe if I can slow down, and allow them to master some of those foundational skills, they will feel more confident, and find greater success once we continue to move on. 

In the article, Mastery, from Instructional Design, it states that “Mastery Learning suggests that the focus on instruction should be the time required for different students to learn the same material.”  We have so many tools readily available to us in order to help students reach mastery like on-demand video explanations, adaptive exercises available for students. I think that because we are in a world with technology at our fingertips, helping students reach their full potential and mastering concepts is possible and should be something we focus on. It is especially possible to differentiate when we have 1:1 iPads, and lots of apps and resources to help students practice concepts to mastery.

Mastery Learning will not only benefit students knowledge on particular topics, but when holding students to mastery learning, they really have ownership in the process, it develops grit and perseverance, and lots can come out of this for the child. Students can interact with each other, dive deeper on concepts, project-based learning, the list goes on. Mastery framework teaches students to embrace what they don’t know, and focus on it, so that they can grow in that area.

“If you let people tap into their potential by mastering concepts, and by being able to exercise agency over their learning, that they can get there.” - Sal Kahn

Penny Rayhill's 10 Tips for Awesome Digital Citizenship!

I listened to Penny Rayhill share her 10 tips on digital citizenship called 10 Tips for Awesome Digital Citizenship. She shared a ton of great apps and websites that you can use with your students and parents that connects to technology and digital citizenship. Here are a few of my favorites she talked about. The first one is commonsensemedia.org. This website provides articles/lessons that focus on positive digital footprints, siting sources, ways to balance technology and other activities, etc. It also is a great place for parent resources to use at home. 

Two other websites, netsmartz.org and ikeepsafe.org are websites that provide videos for students that teach about internet safety, using cartoon characters. In ikeepsafe.org, the main character is a techno cat that a techno cat, that goes through some mistakes while using the internet, and kids an learn from his mistakes. 

Rayhill also mentioned her favorite things to share with students to use on their own. One is called photosforclass.com. This is a site that, when you save a picture, it has image attributes on the photo itself, so you can have conversations with kids that they didn’t take the picture, but you still have to tell others how you got the picture and who took the picture. An app that she uses a lot with her students is called Shadow Puppets EDU, which is a video creation app. This app has image credits built in it’s search engine, so that when students use photos in their video, it provides a photo credits page for kids to use. 

I would love to investigate more of these websites and apps, and begin to try them out with my class. I think the only way to really get a feel for sites like these sites is to use them with the students. I would love to do a lot of digital citizenship lessons at the beginning of the year, even more than I do now, and am looking forward to using these tools to help!

Audio Recording and Screencasting

I loved this course and learned a lot from it! Audio recordings can be so powerful in the classroom, and I just never took the time to realize and research all that you can do with it! The screencast option on our iPads is SUCH an easy way to create a screencast because you can walk students through tasks on your iPad, which will mimic their iPads as well. You just swipe from the top right corner, and the big circle towards the bottom is a screencast recorder! Only suggestion I would make is to make sure you hold down that button and turn the microphone on! Happy screen casting :)

Refugee by Alan Gratz Book Trailer

My students and I read the book Refugee by Alan Gratz, along with Global Read Aloud. One way to inspire them, was sharing a book trailer that I made! Not only is this something you could use to kick off a novel that you will read with the kids, but also as an example of how to create book trailers! I showed this one to my students, and now they create a book trailer every time they finish a book, share it on Seesaw, and now they have a place to go book shopping :)

Screencast on Flipgrid

Using Flipgrid can be intimidating for teachers if they have never done it before! The first step would be create a free account, and explore a bit! Once you create an assignment, then you are ready to go. Below, I have created a screencast that shows students how to walk through Flipgrid, and create their first video! I never realized screen casting was so easy! With one quick swipe on the iPad, you are given a screencast recording that allows you record your voice over a video of you controlling your iPad. This screencast below will show you all about it!

Flexible Seating - My Classroom Story

Well, we are on year 3 of flexible seating, and boy, I have learned so much from these students!

By providing students with the flexibility to sit and work in a manner that best fits their needs, this gives students ownership of their learning. Research states that students work best when they are given the opportunity to pick their ideal work environment. Not only does it meet the needs of students with special needs, but the overall student population within the general education classroom.

Flexible classroom seating allows students to sit or stand in a way that best suits their body. Some students have a tendency to move, wiggle, bounce, sway, and/or sit with perfect posture and flexible seating provides an environment for each one of these students. Flexible seating allows each individual to take ownership of how they want to learn, and are given the freedom to be as comfortable as they can while they are learning. 

The rationale for choosing to move to a flexible seating classroom is because I have been exposed to the traditional classroom seating for years, and although this is not a negative way to learn, it is not as powerful as the flexible classroom. All of the current research supports this new way of learning. There is motivation through the gift of choice, it is meeting the needs of all students, allows opportunities for students to learn (on their own) how they learn best.

We were able to spread the word on an ABC news segment, which was very powerful to share with parents and/or students that might be hesitant to support this progressive classroom set up! 

Graphic Design in Education

I think that incorporating graphic design in the classroom is crucial to reach the needs of our learners. Students now learn differently than we did when we were kids. The world of technology continues to grow and take our learners with it!  Social media, video games, texting, all of these every day activities that children take part in really change the way they absorb information. When scrolling through social media, for example, students look for different graphics to grab their attention. Once their attention has been grabbed, you have a greater chance of them reading and internalizing the material. I think we need to use this idea in our classrooms. A wonderful way to do this is to incorporate graphics when you can. 

I love quick, go to anchor charts or bookmarks that have graphic designs on it that students can refer to as a step-by-step guide. For example, we use an acronym called RACES for our reading responses. My teammates and I found some great graphic designs from Sweet Tooth Teaching that has book marks and posters to help students remember what they need to include in a reading response. 

It is really wonderful when teachers create graphics to use in their classrooms, and it can be even more powerful when students create them, too! One Google Drawing and Canva are two places students can go to create their own graphic designs. This App-Chat poster is one I created on Canva to use in my 1:1 classroom. 

Another place students can use graphic designs to help them is within Google Slides. Students can use this example slide below to create their own slides of whatever vocabulary words they are to be reviewing in class. One of the sections of this slide is to create their own example of the vocabulary word with a graphic design! I am such a visual learner, and kids are becoming more visual with the growth in technology use, that this is a great way to help them review vocabulary words!

Wish for a Well

I never thought in a million years that I would be part of a team that is so willing to support student dreams and passions. Last year, my 5th grade teammates, students, and I read the book, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. Together, we were so moved by this story, that we decided to raise awareness on the lack of water that the people of South Sudan suffer each and every day. Our goal of simply raising awareness turned into raising enough money to build an entire well for the village of Abyei-Cok in Makuac-Rual, Tonu, South Sudan. What people may not realize is that building a well not only brings fresh water to the people in that village, but provides an opportunity for an entire town to develop around that well. Schools, homes, shops all begin to circle that precious gift of fresh water. This is one of the most proud moments I have had in my life time, and I am so grateful to be part of this movement!

If-Then Adventure Stories

As I am in the middle of teaching all about literary story elements, this gem falls into my lap! This is a step-by-step lesson on how to create a collaborative if-then story with a group of students. If you go to this If-Then Adventure Series, it will walk your students through easy to follow instructions on how to create a story with classmates! This is something that I did in my Technology course that I am taking, that I am dying to bring in to the classroom as we approach the end of our fiction unit. It is a healthy balance of fiction meets creativity meets collaboration that is perfect for any classroom of eager learners.

#flipgrid #mysterygridpals

Wow! I cannot believe how much I have been missing out on! Flipgrid is one of the easiest ways to connect with other classrooms across the globe. Recently, I was asked by my favorite instructor, Kim Darche, to find a class to connect to, and create a collaborative activity to use as the base of our connection. I started to dabble in the world of collaboration outside of my district, and started to realize that there are so many ways to connect to others. Flipgrid in particular, had a feature that made it quite easy! They have a recently new feature called, Gridpals, that offers up an easy way to find other educators that want to connect. I used this feature to connect with a class in Alaska. We did a Mystery Gridpals activity where each student had to create a video introducing themselves, and share 2-3 facts about the place they live. Then, each student needed to respond to another student from the connecting class, possibly asking a question. Once each student received a question, they answered without completely giving away their location! Once the whole class has looked through the videos and come up with a final guess, they sent over a final guess video! It was so much fun connecting with other across our country.