My Head is Ready to Explode!!

The last four days have been so great, I had the opportunity to meet and interact with some truly amazing people that have taught me, challenged me and most of all inspired me. It all began on Saturday on when I attended DENappaloza Raleigh, sponsored by the WCPSS ITLMS dept. Saturday PD invokes dread in the minds of many teachers, but this is the second Discovery Education event I have attended on a Saturday, and again it did not disappoint. I met and attended sessions with educators who are doing exciting things and they are willing to share their resources plus they provide their contact info, so you can follow up and ask questions. Our day began with a keynote presentation by  Dr. Lodge McCammon a former WCPSS teacher, who is also a professional musician and guru on innovative teaching ideas. During his hour long presentation, we were on our feet for at least 40 minutes, singing, dancing, and creating, not once did I feel tired, bored or want to sit down. It has been a long time since I took Biology, but after singing 46 Pairs  a few times, I'm pretty sure I could explain the basis of mitosis to you if I needed to. His presentation was an excellent example of why our kids should not be expected to "sit and get" for an entire class period. We moved onto break out sessions and everyone of them provided at least one WOW moment for me.

So my brain was already pretty full of ideas and new information when I got home on Saturday, but I had little time to process and organize it, because Monday and Tuesday I had the pleasure to attend and present at the WCPSS Convergence Conference. The ITLMS department does this conference each Fall and Spring, and it is two days of non-stop learning. This year's theme was Wonder-Connect-Going Places, and it was the perfect description of what happened during my time with so many talented teachers, Media Specialists, ITF's and Administrators. Our opening session include a presentation by Peter and Paul Reynolds of Fablevision, "a company dedicated to helping all learners develop their true potential", and isn't that what we should all be striving to do everyday. I attended sessions on how to improve my collaboration with teachers, providing meaningful PD, Google tools (if you know me, you know I can NEVER get enough Google), and the Four C's, collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking, each presentation sent my brain into overdrive as I imagined ways I would use what I was learning. I love presenting at these conferences, because I share my knowledge, but I also gain so much from my audience as they share ways they can use the tools in the classroom, which allows me to add to my toolbox.

In addition to attending well prepared sessions, I also got to meet new colleagues, and reconnect with others, and best of all share what we are all doing in our schools. Someone recently shared with me the term "stealing awesomeness" and I love it. That is what I am doing when I attend these events, and I hope I am providing others with the some ideas they want to steal. There are innovative projects and lessons being carried out in classrooms all around Wake County, and beyond, and most of us love to share our ideas and see others replicate and improve them, we need to do more of that.

Needless to say my brain is now overflowing with new ideas, tools, information, and things I need to explore more, and that is why I feel like my head is about to explode. As I begin to process all that I learned I will be sharing it with you and I hope you will take what I provide and be inspired.

Update on my New Year's Challenge

It has been a few weeks since I posted my personal challenge for the rest of this school year. I have posted paper copies of  "21 Things Every 21st Century Teacher Should do This Year" where I see them everyday, and it has helped to keep me focused on my goal. I am very visual so this has been really helpful, I also highlight those that I complete, or outline those that I am working on. So far, to be honest, I have only completed 2 of the activities, but I am working on or exploring quite a few others. So while, I wish I was completing at least one a week, I am pretty happy that I am making progress in the right direction.

One I have completed is "Participate in a Twitter Chat". This was much easier than I expected and I learned some tips that will make future chats even better. I have a Twitter account and I generally follow teachers with a technology focus, many of the same people write my favorite blogs. I would be classified as a "lurker" on Twitter, but I recommend it as a great way to get familiar with this social media outlet. I was familiar with the concept of Twitter Chats, but wondered how I would keep up with the posts, and be able to pick them out from the all the other posts that would appear in my feed. What I decided to do was open a search for the hashtag we were using for the chat. In my search window I only had the posts related to the chat. I did have to refresh every so often because I found that sometimes the posts didn't come up automatically. I did admit it was my first chat and other participants were quick to share resources that make following a Twitter Chat easier, such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, which I will be checking out for my next chat. The chat follows a simple format, the moderator presents a question like this Q1......., and if you are responding you preface your answer with A1......, this made it easy to follow along. This format also means you don't have to rush to respond, and you always know what question others are responding to. Overall I really enjoyed the experience and I found some new people I want to follow, and I have even gained some new followers myself. I am slowly moving away from being a lurker which is another way I will build my personal PLN, and gain skills and knowledge that will help me complete more of the 21 activities.

Another activity I have worked on is Appsmashing, I am working with 4th and 5th grade teachers to create a literacy activity that combines QR codes (my personal favorite), Google Docs, and a variety of web based tools. I will share more about that soon. Have a great week and step out of your comfort zone and try something new, it's fun and will spark your imagination.

New Semester - New Challenge

It has been quite a while since I posted here, which means I failed miserable at my goal for 2014. This is not to say I did not have some great topics to post about. While I was out running my mind would be full of great ideas and I could practically write a whole post in my head, the same thing would happen when I'd wake up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. Unfortunately, in the light of day those ideas would never make it into print. I have not given up, I am going to try harder and plan at least one specific time each week to post.

I love what I do as a Technology Facilitator, and in the past year I have learned and shared so much with my colleagues. Each time I work with a teacher I always walk away feeling that I have learned more than I taught. I also have found that for every new technology I discover, there are 3-4 more that I need to explore. I love how quickly the field of education is evolving with new technology, and learning from colleagues both locally and virtually is exciting and fun for me. The challenge I face every week is how to bring all these great ideas to life in the classrooms. A few months ago I came across this graphic 21 Things Every 21st Century Teacher Should do this Year, it was created by Sean Junkins, and based on an article by Carl Hooker at HookED on INNOVATION.

Looking at my calendar today I realized I have 21 weeks until the end of the school year, (including Spring Break), perfect for challenging myself to completing all the activities on the list. Some of them I know will be easier than others, but my goal is to make a true effort to attempt all 21 activities. Since I do not have my own classroom, I may have to modify some activities to work for me, but I plan to do the majority of them in classrooms of my colleagues. The best part of this challenge is that, as I grow and try new things, the teachers I work with will be growing and trying new things with my support and encouragement, which is what I want to do everyday.

As I review the list I know some activities will be much easier for me to complete than others, and some will take me way out of my comfort zone. The article by Carl Hooker includes great ideas for each activity and I will be referring back to it often. Most of the activities and technologies I am familiar with, and some I have been wanting to try, so this will push me to actually do it.

I know that as excited as I am to get started on this challenge, I will inevitably start procrastinating, and get caught up in deciding where I should start. For me the first step is always the hardest. So I have printed out the list to post on my desk, tape to the front of my agenda book, and post at home near my calendar, I may even make it the lock screen on my iPad. With all the constant reminders, I hope I can stay focused and meet my goal by June 11th. In addition my adventures should give me plenty of new ideas and topics to post about.

Plickers - The EASY alternative to Clickers

Last week I came across a blog post over at Who's Who and Who's News, about Plickers, an iPad app that gives you the immediate results we love with clickers, (or student response system), without all the front-end planning. I was so excited after doing some research, that I could not wait to try it out, which I did  before the week was over, and it worked great. One of the things I like best about Plickers is that only the teacher needs a device, the app is available for andriod phones or the iphone (the iOS app also works on the iPad.) The plickers are actually a type of barcode that you print out for each student at the Plickers website. At the site you create a class and assign a numbered Plicker to each student, each side of the figure is labeled with A, B,C, or D.  There are 40 unique plickers, and you can reuse the same sheets with multiple classes, because you will assign them to students in each class separately.

This is a plicker

When you open the app you chose your class and add questions and the correct answer. This is what I found easiest, since students are not answering questions within the app, you do not have to add the whole question, you could just put the number or maybe the objective that it addresses. You can provide students with the multiple choice questions in the same way you normally would, on paper, as a PowerPoint, or even projecting them using a document camera. Students will answer by holding up their Plicker with the correct answer choice on top of the figure. Then you simply scan the room as if you were taking a video with your Smartphone or iPad, Plickers will record each student's answer and show you a graph of how many gave the right (and wrong) answers.

This is what you see on your device

 It also provides you with exactly how many answers are recorded and which students, so you can quickly catch any you might have missed on the first scan. When I demonstrated it in a 4th grade class, it took only 2-3 questions before we were able to record most of the students' answers on the first pass. The teacher loved being able to quickly assess who understood the concepts so she could move on and which ones she would need to go back and review again. You can see the results in the app or at the website on your computer. The video below shows you how you would scan and the device will record the answers.

As the school year is quickly coming to an end and many of you are preparing students for end of year tests, this is a quick and fun way to see what students know without having to pull out the red pen and check all those practice tests. You and your students will get immediate feedback with little hassle. I know at this point in the year it is hard to get excited about adding one more thing to your bag of tricks, but I really think Plickers is worth checking out.

Augmented Reality Made Elementary

Last year at the NCTIES Conference I learned about Aurasma, an Augmented Reality App. It is an application that allows you to make any image or object your target and then use your mobile device to bring that target to life. Similar to QR Codes, you can link any video or webpage to the target, but with Aurasma the target is more meaningful to the message. The application was created for business , and lends itself to advertising quite well, but at the conference they presented some great ways to use it in education also. This app has been floating around in the back of my mind for a year, and while I have thought of some cool ideas, I haven't yet found an opportunity to use it in the classroom. I think the whole idea of Augmented Reality is great, and I really want to use with students. Well this week, while reading the A Meaningful Mess, a really great blog that you should check out, I found out about an augmented reality app that I can use with elementary students. ColAR App lets you print out coloring pages, for students to color how ever they want and then using a mobile device you can bring the picture to life. Check out the demo video below to see how it works.

How fun for students to see the picture of the Hot Air Balloon, Bird, Dragon, or Butterfly come to life. I couldn't wait to download the app and try it out, (I still love to color, especially with a brand new box of crayons.) Andi McNair at A Meaningful Mess, had a great plan for using as an introduction to a creative writing lesson with her students. I showed it to our Art teacher and she immediately got excited about the possibilities of using it in a lesson to compare and contrast 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional objects. I can't wait to get started planning and co-teaching a lesson with her. Technology and Art what a fun combination - I am in heaven!

The app is free to download in the Apple Store or Google Store, and at the website you can print out the coloring pages. There are nine coloring pages that are free, and two other picture packs that cost $2.99 each (purchase through the app.) I think there are so many ways that this could be used to help students express their creativity, and each picture they create can be the beginning of a wonderful new adventure. I hope you will try it out and leave me a message how you could use it in your classroom.

It has been awhile since I have posted and I regret that. Over the last few weeks I have found a number of great apps that I want to share but I never seem to get around to actually posting the information. I am not doing so well on my New Years Resolution!!! Well, it is starting to feel like Spring is on the way here in North Carolina, so I am going to start over and with the dawn of a new season, find the time each week to share a new technology tool or resource with you. The days are getting longer, so I should be able to find the time now, right?

Since it is Mondays and my goal was to have Math Mondays, I want to share  a great program I found called Thinking Blocks.

This program allows students to solve math word problems by first modeling the problem and then actually solving it. The program is set up in way that they must complete each step correctly before moving on. There are four categories of problems a; Addition/Subtraction, Multiplication/Division, Fractions, and Ratios/Proportions. Each category has six different levels, and then a random problem generator. Students can keep track of their progress to see how many problem sets they have completed in each level. Since this is free game that is part of Math Playground, students do not log in, so progress is not tracked for individual students. Instead it is logged on the computer, so if different students use the same computer it will keep track as if it one student, this is the only drawback. As each student begins a session they can reset the progress, and you could have them keep track of their individual progress in their notebook.

With the new Common Core Standards, students are expected to have a deeper understanding of the material and be able to explain how they solve problems. Thinking Blocks provides manipulatives that allow students to visualize the problem and how to solve it. Each set of problems also includes a tutorial of how to solve the problems. This program is recommended for elementary and middle school students, but I could see it being used with Algebra I/Common Core I students, who are struggling. There are two step equations and equations with multiple operations. There is also a grid with all the elements so that students could solve problems from a workbook.  I think the program would also lend itself nicely to be used in whole group instruction with an interactive white board.

In addition, there are free Thinking Blocks apps for the IPad that work really well. Each category of problems is a separate app, so you only need to download what you are focusing on. I hope you enjoy exploring Thinking Blocks and please let me know if you use it with your class how it works out.

Happy New Year

January always brings the promise of new opportunities and adventures, although I always feel a bit of a let down after the fun and excitement of the Holidays, I try to focus on things I  want to accomplish in the new year. I am not good at resolutions, well I take that back, I am great at making them but not so good at following through. This blog is part of what I am looking forward to accomplishing this year. I want to add new content on a regular basis, but it is so easy to get caught up in other activities and forget. So for now I am going to focus on one new post per week and see how that goes. I have also decided to try to stick to a theme because I need to have a focus for my posts. So I am going with Math Mondays and Fun Fridays! I may not post every Monday and Friday but I will do my best to alternate and provide a wide range of resources.

Since today is Friday I will start the new year off with a fun site I found called Game Goo, (even the name sounds kinda fun.) Game Goo has a variety of educational games that build literacy skills for elementary students. The games are broken down into beginner, intermediate and  advanced levels, instead of by grade levels. Scrolling over the name or icon for the game will show what skill it targets. The games are colorful and fast paced with crazy characters and lots of sound effects. Each game begins with an introduction that demonstrates how to play, but is not too long, so students get into the action quickly. On the home page teachers and parents will find a description of each game along with  a the Standards it addresses and the grade levels it targets.

While students are enjoying the silly characters and the challenge of successfully completing each level, they also build early reading and listening skills which are essential building block of literacy. The games can be used to help students learn or reinforce skills, and since the instructions are easy to follow, once students have reached the site they can work independently. Each level is short so the games are engaging and maintain the students interest. Try it out yourself and see if it something that you can use in your classroom.

My challenge to you as we begin the new year, is to try one new activity each month with your students. I know how hard that can be, especially with all the mandates we are trying to meet every day in our classrooms, but this is your opportunity to have some fun and spice up your lessons. Just remember the kids love to try new things so let them be your guide, they will surprise you with how much they know.