Where to start?

Next semester starts Monday. I have so many awesome ideas spinning in my head. Where do I start???? 

At first the plan was a whole class Nearpod lesson I created with a Google Slide Presentation and added some Nearpod acticites such as a poll and draw it (meme the theme!).  Then I decided I wanted to make sure that the students who finished the different activities before their peers still had something to work on. 

So, I can't start with whole class. How about giving each student a Sheet with their NWEA MAP scores, goals, and focus. Then the early birds could work on the Quizlet flash cards or games while waiting for their peers to finish their drawings or quiz. 

The third option is a multi level fix to the midterm constructed response question that about killed me to grade. I am glad my creative brain kicked in gear before I threw in the towel of getting evidence based complete sentence responses. 

Here is the low down on this assignment. 

I will have an actual piece of paper to give the students. It will actually be a note taking work on sheet. First the students will cut and glue their actual response from the midterm to this "worksheet." Then they will go through a Nearpod lesson on editing and revising with CUPS and ARMS. 

Students will work through the presentation and their sheet to create a much better constructed response answer. They will CUP, ARM, and CUP again. 

To turn in the assignment the students will make a Google Slide Presentation to show the life cycle of a constructed response answer. 

So after this therapeutic typing/ blogging I am thinking Monday will be constructed response while I meet with students in small groups or individual to review their NWEA MAP goals and show them the Quizlet. They will be getting other lessons to work on their level throughout the semester as well, but I can be overwhelming...KISS (keep it simple (for the ) students!) 

Suggestions please!! 

Discussions with Tech

Sometimes technical errors or glitches lead to better solutions...

My last post was about setting up Google Sheets as whole class discussions. It went great on day one back from break. 

I started off with the question 'what did you do on break?' I couldn't get the students off the Sheet, but they got the concept of answering in the cells and replying with comments right away. 

However, the next day we were back in the classroom on iPads. Sheets was only working on about 50% of them. So, I looked to do the discussion starters on Forms. 

It was great. I love the new Google Forms. Students were able to answer as individuals and then gather in the Board Room (area of meeting tables around the SMART Board as we discussed the anonymous answers. Although the answers on the SMART Board were anonymous I was still able to open the spreadsheet and link students with their responses.

I am continuing to use Sheets as whole class resources where all students can edit one Sheet. For example I am doing small group research on a Sheet that is editable to all. From this research sheet students will complete individual writing reflections on a Doc. 

This is a project where students will connect the book NightJohn by Gary Paulson to MLK, Ghandi, and Mandela. I am excited for this project on so many levels. The tech, sharing, small groups, connections, discussions and the content - I could not ask for more!!! The crazy part is now that the students are comfortable with the technology they will be able to focus on the tasks, content, and learning. 

Students need PD too! 

Now Sheets has been updated on all the iPads but Chrome is glitching...

Sunday Setup

After spending Saturday night with my daughter's gymnastics team on their holiday sleepover I decided to spend all day Sunday setting up my week with all of the technology I learned over break.

It took about two pots of coffee but I am happy to say that I was able to set up lots and lots of neat stuff. I hope I remember it all come Monday.

I set up daily do now questions in a Sheets Discussions. The Discussions Tab from Alice Keeler was great for this. I am nervous to have all my classes on 1 spreadsheet so it was still tedious to create the same sheets for my 4 8th grade classes and then having to go back and update the sheets 4 times each of need be. Plus I have a 7th grade class that is on a completely separate Sheet as well. So I will just have to figure out a system as I go. 

I was also able to make a deeper discussion Sheet where the students would be reading a doc, answering questions, and copy and pasting their evidence. I have not made a copy for each class yet as my brain is technically throbbing. 

In between the discussion Sheets (hehe) I also created an interactive Form where I was able to insert a video and a diagram where the students could learn/review Point of View. The resources were followed up with excerpts from books where they had to choose the POV. At first I created this as a Doc, but thought it would be much easier to check as in Sheets. I will make charts of the results for the students to review thier answers. 

Links to all this stuff coming soon! 

Happy returns!! 

Google Classroom Discussions and Playsheets

Tonight is NYE and I completely teched out for the night. I just couldn't put my iPad down. No matter how many football games, kids screaming or dogs barking around, nothing could break my excitement. I found http://www.alicekeeler.com/teachertech/   Thank you Alice Keeler...you rock!!

Keeler's blog was a one-stop-shop for removing my roadblocks. Most of my Google Classroom questions were answered. Those that weren't answered I learned alternative ways to get it done.  For example I have way too much in the students' stream and I needed to clean it up. One thing that was cluttering it up was the daily objectives/do nows where I asked questions to start class discussions. The discussions were not as good as I would have liked and the posts had too much real estate in the stream. Starting after break I am now going to use a Google Sheet equipped with Scripts by Keeler to have class discussions. I will blog about set up and implantation over the next week or two.

I am also now looking for Playsheets. Playsheets is a term I learned tonight. Playsheets are interactive worksheets/activities that grade the work and offer students instant feedback.  I once again miss teaching science. There are so many interactive games and Playsheets out there for the Sciences and Math, but I have not really found English Language Arts for Middle School students. However, I only spent a little time on Quia.com. I was able to find a quiz for The Giver. I may try this out with my 30 day free trial next week. I'll let you know how that goes too.

I wrote down my list for everything I wanted to get done during Media Monday, right when we return from break and I am now up to 5 things; start Class Discussions on Spreadsheets, set up writing journals on Google Classroom/Docs, ThinkMarks (continued assignment), PBS Storyboard learning lesson, join Quizlet classrooms (I just upgraded to teacher!).  I know I should set the bar high, but I am also dealing with a tooth ache and no dentist until 4:30 on Monday. So, the next 3 days I need to widdle things down and make a schedule I will survive.

Happy New Year!

PBS Storyboard

Today I was able to play around with the PBS Storyboard. I have to admit that when I first began to explore the PBS Learning Media I was really missing my science classes. This is my first year not teaching science. I am all ELA now. 

I quickly searched for some content on adding detail to writing for our department's PLT lesson and I was a bit bummed at the lack of stuff I found. My frown quickly turned upside down when I found Lesson Builder and Storyboard. I only spent a brief moment on Lesson Builder just to see how it worked.  I will definitely be revisiting it especially after working with the Storyboard feature. 

Storyboard is just an awesome interactive multi-media poster where students can get their learning on! In the current 8th grade ELA Narrative Reading unit we are focusing on historical fiction with the book Nightjohn by Gary Paulson. I quickly created a Storyboard with a video of the Nightjohn movie trailer, links to PBS's amazing Slavery, The Making of America, other video clips from PBS, and a video I downloaded from YouTube.  I have placed some basic captions and instruction so far, but I plan on adding more once I work out the whole plan. 

Putting the board together was easy and fun. I love the concept, the ease of use, and I am excited that the students can obtain and retain the information on their own at their own pace. There are no lost papers or lack of resources. My students will be able to see the Storyboard if they are on iPads in the classroom, on PCs in the labs, or at home. 

I will publish the Storyboard and blog more about the lessons that accompany it as well. 

Please let me know if you have used Storyboard or any other questions or thoughts. Thank you! 

Check it out:

http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/tools/

Welcome

In my many Twitter quick research reads I learned that in order to really emerge into the education technology world I would need to narrow my focus and dive deep. I figured this was not possible because my brain is just not wired for a narrow focus. After a bunch of research, playing, and planning I think I have a good starting point...

I will be mainly focusing on using technology to allow for differentiated instruction. My goal is to have the students working and learning non-stop as individual learners while allowing for small group or one-on-one instruction. The students will continue to use iPads in the classroom and weekly use of PCs in the Media Center. 

I will be blogging about setting up, classroom use, and ideas for improvement. One of my classes is co-taught with a special education teacher. I will compare and contrast the use of technology as a single taught and co-taught classroom. 

I have been using Google Classroom and I plan on continuing to use Google products (Docs, Sheets, Drive, Slides...) for ease of classroom structure.  I have also found PBS Learning Media. After winter break I will work with PBS LM to link historical facts to historical fiction. I will blog about the set up of My PBS Storyboard and Lessons with the Literary Reading Unit. 

Please join me on this journey!