Final Reflection

Final Reflection:

1) I have learned quite a bit with the Cool Tools PD.  I know that I am a much bigger fan of Google than I previously thought.  It was intimidating, there is so much that can be done and learning to use it all seems impossible.  It still seems impossible, but now seems more manageable.  Computers make me nervous and I resisted them as much as possible.  One of the biggest things I learned from going through these different tools is that playing with them is the key to learning how they work and what they can actually do. 

I have not implemented the student safety portion that I learned about, but I do plan (and I have a note in google keep) to roll something out to my school based planning team to do so for next fall.  Something more in depth than a paper with a internet use agreement on it.

The kids are working more with slides and less with power point.  It seems that it has become enjoyable for them because there are more tools for them to create with.  This project of making a timeline with their DBQ has been great.  It takes a relatively mundane assignment and adds tech, creativity and collaboration to it.

2) I am excited to contact parents about the sharing notes.  It will save phone calls and keep them more in the loop.  I already have notes with important upcoming dates and assignments that I am looking forward to sharing.  Not only will it be less work than making copies and sending them home, but it should be more efficient as well. 

As for the other items I looked at I will continue to build on the implementation that I started.  It is awesome that google is so interactive.  It makes collaboration so much easier and efficient.

3) I was horrible with procrastinating on this session.  I got involved with a book reading PD and it is taking forever because I am not overly interested in the book.  I have to read and re-read over and over to get the authors message and it is overwhelming me.

This PD was great. I like that it is on my time and is flexible.  For instance not having to cover all the aspects of each tool and spending time with what interested me kept me engaged.  Also, I am computer illiterate and have a bit of tech-phobia, Cool Tools has opened me up to playing with technology and exploring what can be done.

I hope I can do next years because I did two sessions this year.  And I have many colleagues that I recommended it to and they are enjoying this as well.

For the future I would ask, can I do the same tool again and look at other things that I didn’t have time for this time through?

Thing 27

Thing 27:

My current note taking system is paper and pencil.  I keep a running to do list in a note book.  My school/professional things go in the front, and my home/personal items go in the back. The more urgent things get a star and the date they need to be done, while less urgent items get a due date but no other markings.  For PDs and courses I have another notebook designated.  I keep the name and date of the event on the inside cover with what page the notes are on for each, like a table of contents.  It is messy and hard to manage but it works for me.  Now that I am becoming busier and things are piling up it is not convenient.  I wanted to explore a new way to do things and I came across google keep in this section; so I gave it a whirl.

So I started out reading the tutorial about Keep and it was interesting.  All the things that I am doing with my many notebooks and slips of paper I could be keeping on lists in my pocket on my phone.  So that is where I am converting things over to.  I like it because I have access to it on my lap top or my phone.  The lists or notes are easy to organize and easy to find.  The video was also pretty helpful.  Something that struck me when the person said you can add collaborators was the fact that we work in so many committees and teams.  Currently one group I am in is working on a slide presentation and we have meetings that get moved around.  This allows us to share ideas in a easier format and we can adjust times with reminders so you aren’t left out if you don’t check your email.  I have invited a few co-workers in to try keep in order to organize a project that will have a few steps.

I envision that we make a list of what needs to be done and assign jobs to each other.  Using Keep we can go in and add to the list, or mark things that have been completed.  It is easy to convert it into docs for people who are more comfortable with that format as well. 

Lastly for students, I know the video spoke to research and writing papers.  I think I could see it as more of a tool for organizing assignments for class.  It could work as a virtual agenda.  If the students keep homework assignments, projects or upcoming events in notes and share with their parents it would be an easy way to get the info home so kids wouldn’t forget.  I also thought that if parents were interested I could share my notes with them in case their kids did not. 

Very cool tool.

Thing 11

Thing 11:

I chose this lesson for both professional and personal reasons.  Having young kids at home we have run into problems of online awkwardness.  My family has worked together to be sure we are making safe and conscientious decisions online.  I wish I had some of the evidence and examples when we first encountered the issue that I do now.  My daughter was snap chatting with someone she knew only through a friend.  He fortunately enough is an acquaintance and contacted us to let us know what was happening.  We were lucky that there was nothing inappropriate shared.

Currently my position is in a middle school, and we have lots of drama.  At the beginning of the year our students sign an agreement for internet use.  This is fine for the school day when the usage is monitored, but what about when they get home.  Many of the problems we see during our day stems from social media activity from the weekend/evening before.  For this reason, I am planning to work on setting something up with our teachers to present the Be Awesome Online presentation from Google.  The ideas are well organized and covers a great deal of the basics of online responsibility.  This is something that would preface sometime working with the UBC Digital Tattoo Project (Protect).  The videos detail the concerns that all people should have online.  It brings a real life exemplar that the kids may listen to more closely because there are known sources such as the FBI giving the info.

Thing 7:

I have been a Microsoft user since college.  Even though I am going through these tech PD’s I still am not comfortable with most of what I am seeing.  For Thing 7 I decided to work in a power point I created earlier in the year.  It was a very bland item with no bells and whistles.  I used the record slide show with narrations to try and make it more interesting and interactive.  I found that I do not like the Microsoft program as much as I used to.  I was able to add animation and make it look nice, but it was hard to get it out for my kids because we use google.

I am in the process of redoing the presentation in google slides.  I like the program better.  The kids seem to think it is easier to navigate.  So for the DBQ I decided to go a different way.  I was scrolling through the timeline section of thing 7 and went into the screencast.  It had a cool explanation of timelines.  I had the students begin exploring ways to develop a timeline in google slides with the documents from the DBQ.  I had them scrambled in a slide show and the kids had to analyze them to figure out where each should go.  It is a work in progress, but they are analyzing, restating and organizing all at one time. 

I am excited to get into different areas of thing 7.

Thing 5

Thing 5: Audio Tools

This has been something we have used throughout the year in math classes I work in. Each lesson is recorded and shared with students in their google classroom. The note sheets are preprinted and left blank for students to fill in.  We started at the same point unit 1 lesson 1.  We have worked our way through the year and the students are at various stages.  We have an advanced group that is starting in unit 6 and some lower level groups that are finishing up unit 4.  The students are required to go through a note section, practice problems that are recorded and then a you try section.  We encourage the kids to go back to the videos before asking teachers for assistance.  Until they receive an acceptable score on an exit ticket then continue with practice problems before moving on.

This has helped the students with pacing themselves.  We have discovered that self-pacing has been beneficial to a majority of the students by causing “competition”.  The students recognize where their peers are and most want to at least keep up, but many want to go ahead.

Reading through the articles I was looking for an audio app where the students could interact with the video when outside of class.  We have some that wanted to get ahead or missed some days so they needed to catch up.  I think it would be helpful if they could post a video question right in their lesson.  Looking through the different audio tools it appears google keep would be the best program in order to take their pic and add a audio question for the teacher. 

I also enjoy chatterpix.  I have never heard of that until I was going through thing 5.  When I need to send a message I would like to use this app with my kids.  I made a pic of our dog saying “please feed me” and showed my daughter one day.  She thought it was hilarious.  Now I want to learn how to send it to her when so the kids have a new fun way to get messages from us.

Thing 16

Glossary of Education Reform: Portfolio

I love the idea of keeping e-portfolios.  As teachers we are required to keep portfolios of student work anyhow.  This allows to keep more work and is much easier to manage.  Instead of keeping folders, which is a waste of valuable space, everything can be kept in an e-file.  This allows for more articles to be retained and provides easier access.  Another pro for me is papers can be soiled, torn or worse lost.  In an e-file it is nice and safe and can be backed up so there can be no accidental deletions. 

The author makes a few other points that are very important.  One is that you shouldn’t be keeping the best work, but rather an array of student progress.  I would see this as keeping multiple drafts of the same project.  I like to this with my students now.  If they only remember the final product than they forget all the hard work it took them to get to it.  This causes a headache every time we start a new project.  We go through their drafts, remember how horrible it was when we started, then we edited, revised and look at the finished product.  This also gives the kids a sense of accomplishment and pride.  Having these things electronically at your fingertips would be great, especially for us teachers that travel and do not teach in the same room all day.  I could have all of my kid’s portfolios on my computer and access them at the push of a button.  If the file could be like a google file that would be even better.  That way it could be shared with the student and they could access it as well.  One more thing the author talks about is parent connection.  The files could be shared with parents, or if the parent happens to stop in or be in for a conference you could easily bring up work samples to share.

The power of digital student portfolios

I would never have thought to use photographs of students and student work to enhance their portfolio.  But as I reflect on this it makes sense.  I think the portfolio should be more than just a teaching tool, but maybe a story to bring back memories.  I remember having a file folder given to me when I graduated high school.  There were a few work samples from every grade, things that brought back memories that I hadn’t thought about in years if ever.  Photos would enhance that type of experience.

After reading this article I went and explored the evernote app.  It is an amazing tool.  I was thrown aback with how much stuff is available to the user.  Although it was a great tool the down side to me was the lack of teacher control of the record keeping.  As an educator I would not be willing to hand over complete control of decision making on what to archive to the kids.  I understand sharing the control, but not having physical control would drive me crazy.  What if they do not archive something that I need them to have.  I will continue to look through other options.

After looking at a couple other tools, I think I am going to try and set up a few portfolios for my resource room kids.  This will allow me to get my feet wet with the app, and allow the kids to archive their work.  I like the bulb app because it is teacher controlled, but the students still have some power over what goes into it and who can see it.  I like the security of the tool as well as the compatibility.  It seems to be able to work in any operating system that we have access to.  So the kids that want to use Microsoft products can and those that want to work in google can.  It also allows for audio, video, type, photo and many other files.  EXCITING

Thing 14

Why and how I Bitmoji in my classroom?

Well this was interesting.  I liked how she included the use for the stickers and all of the ideas.  She said she uses these in 6^th grade and it keeps the kids attention and helps them to regain focus.  I cannot think of a time when I would use this as a physical thing with my eighth graders.  And to be honest, the idea of formatting and fitting templates on the printers is way outside of my technology skill set.

A place I could envision adding these Bitmoji would be in video lessons.  My math teacher uses video lessons for the student’s math curriculum.  In the lesson the kids watch the teacher’s notes on the screen and hear her voice.  They follow along and keep their notes in a packet.  Some of the kids get frustrated at some of the topics, this would be a great time for an inspirational Bitmoji.

Bitmoji in Your Classroom

I love the idea of a letter of introduction for the incoming group using Bitmoji.  It seems like a fun light hearted way to introduce yourself to the kids and parents that you will be interacting with. 

The writing prompts idea seems interesting.  I have more questions having not used Bitmoji.  If you could customize the image to fit the writing it seems like it would be a fun idea.  For instance if you were writing about George Washington and you could get the Bitmoji into Washington uniform or something like that.  Another idea would be paragraph set up.  My students struggle with writing stamina.  Maybe a few Bitmoji as prompts, one to say start you intro here, then one to remind them what body paragraph one is about, then paragraph 2and one saying something like here’s the conclusion don’t give up.

The signature posters would work great in my math classes.  The students in these classes are self-paced so they are all in different places.  Keeping track of where the students are has been our biggest challenge.  Using these posters would help us keep track of the kids pacing, and also act as a tool to put onus on the kids.  When they come to ask us what to do next we could direct them back to the assignment sign in poster.

I enjoyed reading this article, but many of the ideas seemed to be geared more towards a younger age group.  I did like these few that I picked out and will continue to contemplate how to incorporate the others.

And after a ridiculous amount of work TA DA my bitmoji