Flippity

Have you been inspired to use random groupings of students and want an easy way to create various configurations of random groupings? If so, I have just the tool for you! Flippity, found on the websiteflippity.net is a web based app that ties to a Google spreadsheet. All you have to do is have your student list in a spreadsheet and with the click of a button, it can create all kinds of random groups for you. 

But there is more! The Random Groupings is just one of many tools on Flippity.net.  Other tools you can use with that same spreadsheet list include: flashcards, quiz show boards, BINGO cards, a Memory Game and Tournament Brackets.

Check out the website, flippity.net and get in touch with Mike if you want to learn to use it. We will do a live demo at the next Technophiles meeting.

Here is a link to one that I created today and a sample image below. Feel free to play around with the one I created today.

Mike

Email Searching

Where is that email message!!!!!

If you sometimes have problems finding messages in your inbox, take a look at this quick tip video from Mike on searching your gmail box.

Watch this video https://youtu.be/mAvPvNFk8mE and then follow up with more details in this link, https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7190?hl=en

MOOC for You

Let’s drop in to the middle of a MOOC!

A MOOC is a Massive Online Open Course. There are a lot of different MOOCs out there, some better than others. This is a link to a one hour video from a MOOC centered around a book called “The Innovator’s Mindset”. During this one hour video, they talk to an innovative teacher/author of another book called “Ditch that Homework”. Whether you agree or disagree with her ideas around homework, this video also touches on so many concepts we have been discussing lately. They discuss student choice, quality feedback, the importance or reading, spreadsheets, and the 5 E’s education model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, Evaluate).

If you find it interesting, it is one video of a group of videos in this MOOC all available on youtube.  https://youtu.be/zyanhqEzbIY

RenWeb Grade Books

 

Things look a little different for teachers setting up their grade books on RenWeb this year.

For those who don’t want to spend quality time with Mike learning how to use the new Gradebook in RenWeb, here is a link to a 10 minute video (https://youtu.be/LmTcmxkccLI) explaining how to get setup.

Let Mike know if you have any questions.

ISTE – Creative Communicator

Last week we introduced you to the ISTE standards that Mike and I are using as a framework for our Tech Tuesday tips and discussions. This week, we want to dig into the Creative Communicator standard:

Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

What might that look like in your classroom? 

• Flipgrid and Padlet can both be used to have students answering questions or sharing their ideas about a topic. Careful implementation can allow the class to hear from all voices, not just the students usually comfortable with speaking up to share.
• Animoto, a video software, is currently used in 8th grade short story projects. Using Animoto gives students the ability to choose images, text and sound to discuss a short story. The time limit of the segments require them to make careful decisions about what to include to express themselves fully.

What Tech Tips might apply directly to this standard?

• Students creating Little Bird Tales to share their knowledge
• Many ways of using Google Slides that can include images, videos & graphs
• Creating a website (Google Sites are very accessible to students used to working on the Google platform) to demonstrate knowledge (student portfolio, NHD projects)
• Writing, recording and editing a podcast for National Poetry Month
• Using LucidPress to create compelling fliers and posters

What would you add?

Welcome Back!

As we look forward to our year of learning and innovation, Mike and I will be working to share tech tips that will support your efforts. “Innovation” does not automatically entail the introduction or use of technology, but we hope you will consider exploring tools we share to help transform a project or unit in your class.

Many questions came up in our opening meetings about how to evaluate innovation, and we don’t have answers for you on that! However, we have been thinking about and looking for ways to help evaluate technology you might consider using. There are a number of standards-making organizations with a technology focus, but the newly released ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) standards seemed to mirror many of the 21st century skills discussed in meetings and found in our Core Competencies.

The standards outlined below (I am a Digital Age Learner) provide an interesting framework to decide what value the technology might add. For instance, how might the addition of a class Padlet help students enhance their skills as Global Collaborators or Creative Communicators?

What do you think of this vision of students and technology?

These standards have evolved over time. Where do you think technology use is right now at Applewild? In your classroom?

Faculty Spotlight: Karen Flanagan & Mike Grant

Teacher(s) name(s):Karen Flanagan and Mike Grant

Subject: 6th Grade Math

Specific topic being taught:  Decimal Math

Learning Goal: Students should learn the basic concepts of decimal arithmetic before coming to class.

Technology used: edpuzzle.com website

Description: We worked on an action research project investigating the use of the Flipped Classroom model. One aspect of the Flipped Classroom model is the use of videos for homework to introduce topics to students so they are ready to get right to work in the classroom. We used edpuzzle.com for this purpose. Edpuzzle allowed us to use pre-existing videos from YouTube, trim the start and stop times, and add questions throughout the video to make sure the students were paying attention. The software has a class management aspect that allowed us to see if students watched the videos, how many times they watched them, and how they answered the questions.

Pros: Can Check homework status before the students even get to class and see what questions they got wrong.

Frontloading students with basic instruction helped the class time go smoothly with less repeated instruction.

Cons: It does take some time find quality videos or make your own.

It can be tough to manage when students don’t do their homework and aren’t as well prepared. They may have to watch the videos during class and miss out on in-class work.

Would you use this technology tool again? Yes, maybe weekly rather than every night.

Is there anything you would do differently next time?

Make more time to find the videos and formulate the assessment questions.

Flipgrid.com

Are you looking for a new way to assess your students, allow them to express themselves, and generate discussion? Take a look at flipgrid.com. It allows you to use simple video recordings to ask questions and collect answers. It is very popular among foreign language teachers.

Here is a quick video introducing Flipgrid! Let Mike and Molly know if you want to try it out!

Think like a computer?

It’s not new, but lately Computational Thinking (CT) is cropping up in every education publication and on ed blogs all over. This New York Times article from today looks at where the movement started and where it is today.

In thinking about how to teach computational thinking, it’s important to go beyond “approaching problems the way a programmer would” as described in the article. For a better understanding, please check out this  practical definition of computational thinking created by the team at Harvard University that brought us Scratch programming (the language used by our fourth graders with Mr. Grant).

Below are some examples of lessons teachers in all disciplines are using to incorporate computational thinking into their classrooms:

1. Sample lesson on drawing monsters from code.org
2. Sample lesson including “decomposing steps,” abstraction and algorithms from code.org
3. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) maintains a project page with their own definition and presentations for teachers of all grade levels to add computational thinking to their lessons.
4. Another ISTE blog post on 3 easy lessons

Are you still with me? Feel free to start a conversation by answering any of these questions in the comments section.

Where do you see computational thinking at work in our current curriculum? (i.e. the steps in a shop project)

Did you see any lessons or ideas that would be easy to incorporate into an existing project?

 

Listenwise: Harness the Power of Listening

Wish there was an easy way to search for short NPR segments to use in class? It turns out, there is a program for that – Listenwise! The founder of Listenwise is Monica Brady-Myeroff (25-year public radio journalist at WBUR) and she started this company to help make it easy for teachers to use NPR materials in middle and high school classrooms.

I will be talking to a sales representative regarding the cost of the premium version. It would be very helpful for me to hear your impressions of the resource and whether or not you might use it in the future.

Here is just a teaser of some of the segments available:

Calculating a carbon footprint

Fidel Castro’s long legacy

Lessons from Hadrian

How sugar changes the brain

“Listenwise is an award-winning listening skills platform. We harness the power of listening to advance literacy and learning in all students. Our collection of podcasts and public radio keeps teaching connected to the real world and builds student listening skills at the same time.”

Why try this?

• Good listeners become good readers. Improve listening comprehension skills.
• The power of current events to start discussions about topics being studied
• Real voices for real issues
• In addition to larger collection, daily current events and questions

How does it work?

    Free version

• Visit the site using any common browser (Chrome, Safari or Firefox)
• Search for topics & choose a segment.
• Subject streams for browsing include social studies, science & ELA
• Stream the audio in class or use the link to assign it for homework
• Each segment includes listening comprehension questions and listening organizers that can be printed and turned in.

   Premium version

The premium version is where some nice bells and whistles come in, especially for differentiating instruction and ELL support. Some features include interactive transcripts, auto-corrected comprehension quizzes and ELL supports.

Watch the tour via the link below to learn more.

Tour of the premium benefits

• Interactive transcripts
• Auto-corrected comprehension quizzes
• ELL supports (speed, vocabulary, transcripts, etc.)

Thank you!

Molly