Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners

Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners

How in the world....did people make this 4+ minutes....

How to Search - For Students

Things to do.....model and promote digital citizenship and responsibility....check!

Being a good citizen, both in real time and digitally,  is one area where teachers are being asked to be role models and leaders for students. In many cases, educators need to learn what it means to be a digital citizen and to be digitally literate so that we can pass that information onto the students we work with. This week we were asked to do just that....learn it and then show what we know and how we will teach it. It is challenging to pick ONE area to focus on, but we are lucky that we work in a community of collaborative educators, so what we could not or did not pick, was picked by someone else and can be shared. 

The International Society for Technology in Education has developed standards for teachers to use in this digital age (ISTE - Standards for Teachers). One of those standards asks us to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility.

Standard 4.a requires that we model and teach ethical use of digital information. I would like to help my teachers with this important standard by creating a presentation, or finding ready to use resources that they can use with students about documenting sources found on the internet. 

Standard 4.b asks that we address the needs of all learners. Some of the educators that I work with are reluctant users of technology. My goal is to mentor two such teachers and model one way that even limited technology can be easily used to address technology teaching in their rooms.

Standard 4.c implores us to promote and use digital etiquette and responsibility in our own use of technology and information. I would like to share my blog with several educators and post an etiquette strategy or "nugget" they can use with their classes weekly. 

Standard 4.d encourages us to collaborate and become more globally aware. I know that many districts have people in my position. I would like to find a "coach" from another area and become "pen pals" as a way to share information and ideas. 

I really like that these standards exist and that we can find ways to use them!

TPACK and SAMR and Digital Classroom....Oh my!

As I started planning this lesson I knew I wanted to combine my goal of increasing use of Google apps with increasing best practice in classrooms. And, to be fair, there may be a lot of people who are already doing this, but I know that many teachers still struggle with how to quickly and easily use the apps with students. I think that knowing what my purpose was made it easier to choose a format that I thought would be accessible to teachers and students.

I thought that using Google forms to create quick exit tickets, formative assessments, surveys or check-ins with students would increase student engagement, ramp up teacher use of technology, and provide invaluable, immediate feedback to drive instruction. While researching I found the add-on called Flubaroo which takes using Google forms up a notch by enabling teachers to grade quizzes and give feedback to students. I am excited to start using these strategies with my teachers. I feel that this in its basic form is augmentation, but realistically, as we teach students to use forms, share results with others, and embed reteaching into feedback we can move it to modification. 

And the goals are.....

For all of the categories on the Technology Integration Matrix I fell within the adoption level. I know that I have dabbled in technology use in the classroom, but I have fallen short on using it in creative and student directed ways. As a PLC Data Coach, my students are actually teachers in fourth and fifth grade. I believe that as I learn new and exciting things, I can help them use more technology in the classroom. It is my hope that by the end of this class I will have done these three things:

First, I want to create professional development opportunities that help teachers be more digitally communicative with parents in their classrooms and at their schools. Using Google Classroom and classroom web pages can help teachers communicate with parents about big and small things that are happening. I know that a teacher's job is HUGE and learning and doing one more thing can be daunting. I will need to give teachers several options to choose from and then clear and easy to follow directions about setting up whatever THEY choose to use. I believe that this goal falls within the Active domain of the matrix. In order to accomplish this goal, I will first need to find willing victims,...ahem...teachers, that want to either try or hone this valuable undertaking. I will do research and practice with several programs and then provide training and support. There are teachers within the district that are successfully using tools like these and I will search them out and question them endlessly...

Secondly, many of the teachers at my grade level have limited technology for student use. I want to find creative ways for students to collaborate in the classroom with only one or two iPads. This goal becomes two fold...because many of those classrooms also have teachers who struggle with technology integration. My plan is to create some curriculum centered projects for students to work on and then model those lessons in classrooms. I know that I will need to see some of this "creating" in progress and many of the teachers taking this course are already doing these things. My hope is to see a few classrooms and then move forward with planning and modeling. There are many useful blogs, articles,  and websites regarding this topic and I have already started doing research on this goal. I think that this will help improve my practice in the collaboration and goal oriented domains.

My last goal seems like it should be a no brainer...especially since we are a Google district...but I really, really want my fourth and fifth grade teachers to ALL be using Drive and Google Apps to communicate with each other, share lessons and ideas, and collect/monitor student work. I know I will have to use baby steps, but I think I can begin addressing this through our work in our PLC's. I can increase my own skills in this and then push out some of our work in this format. I can also model. There are many teachers in our district who already use Google to do a lot of work in their classrooms. I will ask them to help show the others the value of this by arranging peer observations and other opportunities for collaboration.

I know that there are many, many tools and apps and such out there. I know that I have a lot to learn. I know that when it comes to technology usage some teachers are leery and reluctant. I know that I will need to be flexible and adjust these goals. I know that I can become a more digitally savvy educator!

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

Try and try and try again....

I am a learner...an adept learner at most things, but training my brain to "think digitally" is providing innumerable challenges. My brain does not move fast enough, it cannot go in many directions at once, just when I start to master something....that something is replaced with a better tool. 

In the past I have given up when things get hard. I refuse to do that with learning and teaching in the digital age. It is not fair to me and it is not fair to the students and teachers that I work with. So...even if it takes many hours, many questions, much frustration, and endless tries (and maybe some tears), I will persevere.